Review of English as a lingua franca: Perspectives and prospects. Contributions in honour of Barbara Seidlhofer; Editors: Marie-Luise Pitzl, Ruth Osimk-Teasdale; Publisher: Mouton de Gruyter, 2016; ISBN: 9781501511226; Pages: 294

Book revie

Learning and Teaching English: Insight From Research, Editors: Luciana Pedrazzini, Andrea Nava, Publisher: Polimetrica, 2012, ISBN: 978-88-7699-231-5, Pages: 354

Book Revie

The topological glass in ring polymers

We study the dynamics of concentrated, long, semi-flexible, unknotted and unlinked ring polymers embedded in a gel by Monte Carlo simulation of a coarse-grained model. This involves the ansatz that the rings compactify into a duplex structure where they can be modelled as linear polymers. The classical polymer glass transition involves a rapid loss of microscopic freedom within the polymer molecule as the temperature is reduced toward Tg. Here we are interested in temperatures well above Tg where the polymers retain high microscopic mobility. We analyse the slowing of stress relaxation originating from inter-ring penetrations (threadings). For long polymers an extended network of quasi-topological penetrations forms. The longest relaxation time appears to depend exponentially on the ring polymer contour length, reminiscent of the usual exponential slowing (e.g., with temperature) in classical glasses. Finally, we discuss how this represents a universality class for glassy dynamics

Static Rouse Modes and Related Quantities: Corrections to Chain Ideality in Polymer Melts

Following the Flory ideality hypothesis intrachain and interchain excluded volume interactions are supposed to compensate each other in dense polymer systems. Multi-chain effects should thus be neglected and polymer conformations may be understood from simple phantom chain models. Here we provide evidence against this phantom chain, mean-field picture. We analyze numerically and theoretically the static correlation function of the Rouse modes. Our numerical results are obtained from computer simulations of two coarse-grained polymer models for which the strength of the monomer repulsion can be varied, from full excluded volume (`hard monomers') to no excluded volume (`phantom chains'). For nonvanishing excluded volume we find the simulated correlation function of the Rouse modes to deviate markedly from the predictions of phantom chain models. This demonstrates that there are nonnegligible correlations along the chains in a melt. These correlations can be taken into account by perturbation theory. Our simulation results are in good agreement with these new theoretical predictions.Comment: 9 pages, 7 figures, accepted for publication in EPJ

Topological effects in the thermal properties of knotted polymer rings

The topological effects on the thermal properties of several knot configurations are investigated using Monte Carlo simulations. In order to check if the topology of the knots is preserved during the thermal fluctuations we propose a method that allows very fast calculations and can be easily applied to arbitrarily complex knots. As an application, the specific energy and heat capacity of the trefoil, the figure-eight and the $8_1$ knots are calculated at different temperatures and for different lengths. Short-range repulsive interactions between the monomers are assumed. The knots configurations are generated on a three-dimensional cubic lattice and sampled by means of the Wang-Landau algorithm and of the pivot method. The obtained results show that the topological effects play a key role for short-length polymers. Three temperature regimes of the growth rate of the internal energy of the system are distinguished.Comment: 7 pages, 12 figures, LaTeX + RevTeX. With respect to the first version, in the second version the text has been improved and all figures are now in black and whit

The plurality of English and ELF in teacher education. Raising awareness of the \u2018feasibility\u2019 of a WE- and ELF-aware approach in classroom practices

The plurality into which English has developed, and its extended lingua franca role, have significant implications for ELT. Besides being taught as a foreign / second language, English increasingly constitutes a consistent presence in the \u2018outside-school\u2019 world, and encounters with (linguistic) otherness can be experienced daily, from the multicultural and multilingual school environments to mobility and digital communication. Raising awareness of the multifaceted sociolinguistic realities of Englishes and ELF in teacher education constitutes a first and fundamental step towards a more \u2018inclusive\u2019 and \u2018realistic\u2019 approach in ELT. If language educators are familiarised with the complex reality of English, and critical reflection on its implications in ELT is actively promoted in teacher education, teachers can not only realize the \u2018feasibility\u2019 of a WE- and ELF-aware approach in classroom practices, but also its \u2018suitability\u2019 to prepare learners to communicate through English in its current plural and lingua franca dimensions. An example comes from the pre-service TFA (Tirocinio Formativo Attivo) and PAS (Percorso Abilitante Speciale) teacher education courses held at the University of Verona, where part of the English Language Module focused on issues related to WE, ELF and their pedagogical implications. The Module aimed at fostering awareness of WE- and ELF-related issues, as well as critical reflection on beliefs deriving from traditional Anglocentric approaches. This, together with the WE- and ELF-aware material evaluation and the design of activities and lesson plans, that were also part of the Module, can be seen as a starting point to encourage and support a WE- and ELF-aware pedagogic perspective, one that sees communicative \u2018capability\u2019 (Widdowson 2003, 2012, 2015; Seidlhofer 2011, 2015) as an important aim to prepare learners to become effective and competent ELF users in today\u2019s world

Communication Strategies, ELF and ELT materials

This paper discusses how Communication Strategies are dealt with in a set of ELT course-books addressed at Italian secondary school students, published by local and international publishers between 1990 and 2015. After presenting CSs as a field of research, their relevance in English as a Lingua Franca communication is illustrated with reference to existing research in the field. The research design and findings from the study are then presented, and examples from the data are provided. It is shown how, apart from a few cases, CSs are not dealt with consistently in the ELT course-books under examination, and the current lingua franca role English increasingly retains not represented. Recommendations for future research and implications for pedagogic practices are also set forward

Coarse-graining strategies in polymer solutions

We review a coarse-graining strategy (multiblob approach) for polymer solutions in which groups of monomers are mapped onto a single atom (a blob) and effective blob-blob interactions are obtained by requiring the coarse-grained model to reproduce some coarse-grained features of the zero-density isolated-chain structure. By tuning the level of coarse graining, i.e. the number of monomers to be mapped onto a single blob, the model should be adequate to explore the semidilute regime above the collapse transition, since in this case the monomer density is very small if chains are long enough. The implementation of these ideas has been previously based on a transferability hypothesis, which was not completely tested against full-monomer results (Pierleoni et al., J. Chem. Phys, 127, 171102 (2007)). We study different models proposed in the past and we compare their predictions to full-monomer results for the chain structure and the thermodynamics in the range of polymer volume fractions \Phi between 0 and 8. We find that the transferability assumption has a limited predictive power if a thermodynamically consistent model is required. We introduce a new tetramer model parametrized in such a way to reproduce not only zero-density intramolecular and intermolecular two-body probabilities, but also some intramolecular three-body and four-body distributions. We find that such a model correctly predicts three-chain effects, the structure and the thermodynamics up to \Phi ~ 2, a range considerably larger than that obtained with previous simpler models using zero-density potentials. Our results show the correctness of the ideas behind the multiblob approach but also that more work is needed to understand how to develop models with more effective monomers which would allow us to explore the semidilute regime at larger chain volume fractions.Comment: 33 pages, 19 figures, submitted to Soft Matte

Fostering awareness of the pedagogical implications of World Englishes and ELF in teacher education in Italy.

Teacher education represents an essential step to raise awareness of the sociolinguistic changes brought about by the current pluralization of English and by its lingua franca role. Within the pre-service teacher education programs run at the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures, University of Verona, Italy, part of the English language course focused on issues related to World Englishes (WE) and English as a lingua franca (ELF), aiming at fostering awareness of and active reflection upon their pedagogical implications. After taking into consideration recent developments in WE- and ELF-aware teacher education, we will report on findings from a research study involving trainee teachers attending the aforementioned courses for English in academic years 2012-13 to 2014-15. The main aim of the study has been to investigate whether, how and to what extent trainee teachers' pedagogical knowledge and reasoning about a WE and ELF-informed perspective in teaching practices may undergo a change after attending these courses. Drawing upon different sets of data (questionnaires, reflections in e-learning discussion forums, interviews and final reports), the trainees' increased awareness of and readiness to include a WE- and ELF-informed didactic approach after attending the course will be discussed, together with implications for foreign language teacher education

Fostering awareness of the pedagogical implications of World Englishes and ELF in teacher education in Italy.

Teacher education represents an essential step to raise awareness of the sociolinguistic changes brought about by the current pluralization of English and by its lingua franca role. Within the pre-service teacher education programs run at the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures, University of Verona, Italy, part of the English language course focused on issues related to World Englishes (WE) and English as a lingua franca (ELF), aiming at fostering awareness of and active reflection upon their pedagogical implications. After taking into consideration recent developments in WE- and ELF-aware teacher education, we will report on findings from a research study involving trainee teachers attending the aforementioned courses for English in academic years 2012-13 to 2014-15. The main aim of the study has been to investigate whether, how and to what extent trainee teachers\u2019 pedagogical knowledge and reasoning about a WE and ELF-informed perspective in teaching practices may undergo a change after attending these courses. Drawing upon different sets of data (questionnaires, reflections in e-learning discussion forums, interviews and final reports), the trainees\u2019 increased awareness of and readiness to include a WE- and ELF-informed didactic approach after attending the course will be discussed, together with implications for foreign language teacher education