Proposal-paper

XXXIV Aedean Conference (Almería 2010)

PANEL: NEW TECHNOLOGIES (Coordinator: Alejandro Alcaraz Sintes)

SESSION 1

The Use of ICTs for Competence Teaching: A Practical Experience at the University of Valencia
Begoña Clavel Arroitia and Sergio Maruenda Bataller (University of Valencia-IULMA)

A Computational Analysis of Poe's Tales from a Clinical Perspective
Aquilino Sánchez Pérez, Pascual Cantos, Raquel Criado (LACELL Research Group, University of Murcia)

J. K. Rowling’s Characterization versus Burrows’ Delta Character Discrimination: An Empirical Approach to Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
Pascual Cantos, Aquilino Sánchez, Raquel Criado and Moisés Almela (University of Murcia)

NEW TECHNOLOGIES
ABSTRACTS

The Use of ICTs for Competence Teaching: A Practical Experience at the University of Valencia
Begoña Clavel Arroitia and Sergio Maruenda Bataller (University of Valencia-IULMA)

As language learning theory and practice has shifted from a highly guided to a more open learning process mainly due to the incorporation of former degree structures into the European Space for Higher Education consolidation process, the aim of this paper is to describe our experience as English Language lecturers, in the use of blended-learning methodology and explain how the use of new technologies can improve the quality of the teaching and learning processes. In our talk we will outline the main theories on which we base our methodology and offer a review of current literature on blended-learning. We will also describe a series of ICT tools and the way in which they have been used in different modules in the Degree of English Studies at the Facultat de Filologia at the Universitat de València, namely the use of corpora and concordance tools, the introduction of digital presentations (Digital Storytelling and Cuadernia) and the implementation of podcasting and videocasting. We intend to show the advantages and drawbacks of the implementation of the ICTs employed in our degree though the description of our own experience and will also try to demonstrate how their implementation has improved teaching and learning and how it has acted as a powerful catalyst for higher achievement. After that, we give a brief overview of the topic of competence assessment and show an example of its adaptation in order to evaluate one of the tools described previously. Finally, we will offer some suggestions on the use of ICTs and map out some future directions for research.
Keywords: competence teaching, ICTs, blended-learning, English Studies and new curriculum.

A Computational Analysis of Poe's Tales from a Clinical Perspective
Aquilino Sánchez Pérez, Pascual Cantos, Raquel Criado (LACELL Research Group University of Murcia)

Language, a reflex of thought and ideas in the mind, and a vehicle for communication among human beings is an excellent expression of potential mental disorders. In this paper it is hypothesized that Poe’s literary production might reflect bipolar disorders. The research is based on the analysis of the lexical profile obtained from 42 tales by Poe. For that purpose, standard lexical variables, common in many corpus-based lexical studies were selected. Specifically, eight lexical variables were selected, grouped into three categories, namely (i) Lexical richness variables (standardized type-token ratio, content word ratio). (ii) Lexical features of the mental lexicon (mean word length, long words, hapax legomena, exclusive hapax legomena). (iii) Lexico-semantic text difficulty (mean sentence length, automated readability index). The results reveal significant linguistic abnormalities, very much in concordance with cyclothymic fluctuations in Poe’s mood. With the evidence in Poe’s tales, the hypothesis was accepted and it is therefore possible to state with some confidence that the standard corpus-based lexical measures used seem to be potential variables for language disturbance diagnosis and for modelling Poe’s mental state by means of his tales.
Keywords: corpus-based research, literary computing, bipolar disorders, mania, euphoria, clinical linguistics.

This corpus-based approach attempts to analyse how and to what degree J. K. Rowling, the authoress of the Harry Potter saga, succeeds in depicting the various characters of one of her novels, namely: Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. With this purpose in mind the analysis was based on the study and categorization of the lexis used by the authoress.
Methodologically, we applied the statistical technique proposed by J. F. Burrows: Burrows’ Delta (2002). This statistical procedure is a measure of authorial difference based on the number of the most frequent words. We consider that though the technique has been applied to authorship attribution, it can also be useful in the analysis of character typification. It is reasonable to assume that each author keeps his/her personal style, throughout their life and novel(s). At the same time, authors must face the challenge of differentiating the characters they have created. Different characters or personalities need the activation of special markers in the use of language for transmitting those differences to the reader.
In this study, Burrows’ Delta was applied to character difference. This implied two adjustments: (1) customising the amount of the most frequent words under analysis, depending on text sizes; and (2) in order to obtain statistical differentiation, we applied (i) the non-parametric Friedman Test; this technique indicated the plausibility of whether all the characters analysed are “sufficiently” apart or not; and (ii) paired-testing by means of the Wilcoxon Rank Sum Test; this test revealed potential differences between individual character-pairs.
Succinctly, the data revealed that in the first novel of the Harry Potter series the individual characterization is rather discreetly elaborated, while the group characterization is clearly defined.
Keywords: authorship attribution, Burrow’s Delta, character typification, characterization, literary computing, corpus linguistics, Harry Potter