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| Subject: final text, ok now for me | |
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Author: Mariana |
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Date Posted: 10:50:49 08/16/10 Mon REFERRED JOURNAL AS A SOURCE OF RESEARCHING IN THE ACADEMY A referred journal is a collection of scientific papers which have been thoroughly analyzed by a group of experts in the same field of knowledge and recognized background, before being published and distributed. These groups of experts are called a peer group and are of extreme importance for this kind of journal once they analyze and give an assessment of the work which is being published. Most of the time, this process of reviewing is a blind one, as it states on the following definition of Cabell's Directory of Publishing Opportunities. “The use of a blind review process means that the author of the manuscript is not made known to the reviewers. With the large number of reviewers and journals, it is also likely that the name of the reviewers for a particular manuscript is not made known to the author. Thus, creating a double blind review process.” (http://www.unf.edu/library/guides/refereedarticle.html) This procedure prevents the editor from publishing a work with no credibility and it is also a mechanism that foresees the relevance of the work presented. Refereed journals are also considered scholarly because their articles are usually written by and addressed to experts in a discipline. There are many differences between journals and other sources of media such as newspapers, newsletters and magazines. Being the main difference credibility, as mentioned above, refereed journals are submitted to several other experts for reviewing and commenting. They must agree on the article and testify that it is reliable and relevant to the academic field. Referred Journals usually have a serious look and present graphs and charts, typical of a research. They also refer their source on footnotes or bibliographies.“Citations may appear as footnotes or at the end of the article as “bibliography”, “works cited” or “references”. http://www.redwoods.edu/eureka/library/pdf/journalsmagazines.pdf The authors´ affiliations are always listed, the language used is more formal and assume certain knowledge on the part of the reader .The main purpose of the refereed journal is to report original and valuable researches to the scholarly world, which is the target audience. On the other hand, the common written media focus on specific interests and their target audience is the general public. For that, the choice of language is generally simple to understand, the articles are short and at certain times are not entirely trustful, rarely citing their sources . Most of times, they have an attractive look and are heavily illustrated. The articles may be written by a member of the editorial staff, a scholar or even a free-lance writer. Being popular, their interest is to entertain the reader and sell products with a lot of ads; being sensational, their main goal is to arouse curiosity among the readers and satisfy popular beliefs (common sense). Concerning the media proposed for discussion “The Reading Matrix” (http://www.readingmatrix.com/journal.html), after having checked some essential points, we came to the conclusion that it is indeed a good example of peer-reviewed journal. It seems to us that the subject of the journal is relevant since it is related to the researches done in the field of second language acquisition and applied linguistics. The editorial board is listed on the front page as a reference. It is also meant to be disseminated worldwide giving support to educators on L2 reading, L2 literacy and other subjects related to L2 learning and teaching. It has a board of academics (experts) with a vast knowledge and background on the subject presented. They work together in order to review the articles before being released and supplying the readers with a reliable work. It also provides a forum in order to get opinions and critics from all over the world. The articles are also lengthy, and cover details of a new practical application or a research in the field .It does not allow articles which have been published before. Its layout looks serious and the language used is technical. Finally, the sources are fully listed, giving more credibility to the media. Researchers interested in publishing in any referred journal should first learn about the submission guidelines of the journal of their interest. In general, a submission guideline has all information and rules to publish articles. The common rules demanded by these journals usually are: to be unpublished manuscripts; to be relevant topic related to the subject and issues in the field of the journal; to be focused and written clearly to make it accessible to a large audience, including those who are not familiar with the particular subject matter and vocabulary addressed in the article; and also, to obey the minimum and maximum length for the article and the abstract, sending it in electronic format with hyperlinks and hypermedia if it is possible. To publish in the specific journal "Reading Matrix" any author who has an unpublished work concerning the subject: “Second Language Acquisition and Applied Linguistics”, may send it to the editorial board of the journal, so it can be evaluated by these peers. If the article is considered as being a relevant one, it must be clear and well written; the vocabulary should be intended to reach an audience of reading and language educators as well and it must be original, connected with previous research, educational theory and teaching practices. A topic which we could verify that researches are concerned about and that is covered frequently in this journal is how new technologies are influencing not only language itself but its use and learning. For example there is a research that analyzes how frequently symbolic expressions (e.g., “BTW,” “LOL,” “UR”) in an SMS text messaging are used and how they are utilized in terms of the language functions they signal. A corpus of messages was selected to be analyzed. They were students messages and messages found in the Yahoo’s SMS chat website. Through these means, the research concludes that it has also produced a new language form - its own language culture - in which abbreviated spellings, acronyms, and other shorthand notations are almost universally employed by its users. Text messaging symbols are most frequently used to identify people and their relationships to other things and people. This suggests that the text messaging community has developed its own language culture in which closing expressions, long-form dialogues, and correct spelling and grammar are viewed as inefficient and impractical. Finally, the results suggest that text messaging symbols are often used to signal descriptions of things that are important to the message sender. ( http://www.readingmatrix.com/articles/sept_2009/beasley.pdf ) There is another article about an action research concerning the use of technology in language teaching and learning. It tries to explore the effectiveness of blogs to promote frequent extra reading practice in a freshman EFL science and technology reading program at a public university. ( http://www.readingmatrix.com/archives/archives_vol9_no2.html ), and it is so helpful for us as teachers. According to it, sociocultural theory and the revival of Vygostkys constructivism have made us rethink how to approach the learning-teaching process in the twenty-first century. The questions are: "Are we really helping our students acquire skills that will be crucial in their future? Are we using learning resources that will make them connect socioculturally and learn from the interactions among themselves and others?" It remarks that the use of ICTs (Information and Communications Technology) has become increasingly important in our classrooms as part of the English Language Teaching practice. But some difficulties are faced: - Little access to the Internet for those students who did not have this service at home. Or have not worked with blogs before. Researchers suggest a solution for this specific problem: "… teachers had several consultation hours so students could come to their offices to read the blog and write the corresponding comments. Online assignments also created additional pressure on students since there were extra tasks that limited their time to dedicate to other subjects." - Another problem is that the lack of knowledge about these tools causes initial fear to use them, and some students take longer to learn how to handle them, others are cautious or shy when writing comments as these would be read by their classmates. -Another limitation is the dedication and time teachers are required to devote to the blog, not only finding materials that will be interesting and motivating for the students, but also giving continuous feedback to students comments in order to maintain their attention, curiosity and willingness to participate in the blog. Results show that these online social environments are accepted by most students and that they are quite effective as a new way of learning outside the traditional classroom. So, the research points out the positive points of the use of blogs: - According to Grewling (2004) the biggest reason for using blogs in language teaching is the way they are set up, because they invite participation and have the potential to democratize the classroom since each student is given the chance to participate equally. - Grewling (2004) also brings up the fact that issues like shyness becomes less relevant in a blog than in a face to face situation and furthermore, that quieter students participation increases in online environments. Blogs can also be accessed practically anytime and anywhere so contributors can post and comment at their own convenience and determine their own pace and level of contribution. [ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ] |
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