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English Intonation and its Prominent Role in Teaching Communication
Lucia S Valls
Lucia S Valls

speaker and listener’s shared knowledge becomes cumulative as they speak. In 1981, Brazil et. al. proposed the notion of common ground.
“Common ground is intended to encompass the knowledge speakers (think they) share about the world, about each other experiences, attitudes and emotions. Common ground is not restricted to shared experience of a particular linguistic interaction up to the moment of utterance; rather, it is a product
of the interacting biographies of the participants.”
(Brazil et. al. 1981) According to this notion, speaker and listener share an interactional history that will define their intonational choices during their interactions as a result of the knowledge they both share. At the moment of interaction, we may propose that
speaker and listener’s knowledge can be represented as follows.
Common ground refers to the assumptions speakers make about their listeners according to the knowledge shared by them at the time and place of their interaction. This knowledge is defined by the situational and physical contexts and cultural background shared by the participants. As a consequence, the context is crucial when dealing with intonation due to the fact that this aspect of the language is determined by speakers' assumptions, common ground as well as by the context in which interaction occurs. 2.1. The Main Components of Intonation: Tonality, Tonicity and Tone It is relevant to point out that intonation is made up of basically three components. The first one is referred to as Tonality. It is defined as the distribution into tone groups-the number and location of the tone group boundaries. This aspect of intonation describes the division of speech into meaningful segments we will call tone units. Each COMMON GROUND SPEAKER LISTENER

tone unit has a particular intonation construction with a purpose attached to it by a speaker. The second component is called
Tonicity, which is connected to the syllables within a word speakers choose to highlight over others, according to the meaning or message they intend to convey. Tonicity is defined as the placing of the tonic syllable-the location in each tone group of the pre-tonic (prominent syllables) and tonic sections (Tonic syllable).
According to Brazil et. al. (1981), “Prominence is a property associated with a word by virtue of its function as a constituent of a tone unit. Making any word prominent constitutes a meaningful choice.”

Tone is the pitch movement of the utterance. It is relevant to highlight that there is only one tone per tone unit. English has five basic tones proposed by Brazil et. al. (1981):

Fall or Proclaiming tone:
p


Rise-fall or Proclaiming plus (+) tone:
p+


Rise or Referring plus (+) tone:
r+


Fall-rise of Referring tone:
r


Level or 0 tone:
0
These three components of intonation work together to convey meaning. Speakers break their speech into pieces called tone units. In each tone unit, there are syllables which are more noticeable than others. These are called prominent syllables. The last prominent syllable in each tone unit is called tonic syllable, in which a movement in pitch occurs. Each tonic syllable signals the beginning of a tone which can be of the five types listed above. In order to see this intonation system in action, let us analyse some utterances by applying changes to its intonation pattern to see that we may mean different things if we highlight some words and
not others. In order to show intonation, Brazil’s notation
will be adopted for the purposes of this paper. Thus, division into tone units will be shown with double slashes (//), prominent syllables will be CApitalised and the tonic syllable will be underLINED.

If we take the following utterance in isolation, it is hard to predict its intonation pattern. However, assuming everything is new information we may propose the following intonation pattern. (1) //
p
the QUEEN of HEARTS // Now, adding context to this same utterance, we may have three possible variations. (2) Q: What card did you play? R: //
p
the QUEEN of HEARTS // (3) Q: What heart did you play? R: //
p
the QUEEN of hearts // (4) Q: What queen did you play? R: //
p
the queen of HEARTS // In these examples, intonation changes have to do with prominence. But there are other aspects of a tone unit that may change for the same utterance to mean different things. (5) // i shall GO to COllege // when i FInish SCHOOL // (6) Q: What will you do in the future? R: //
p
i shall GO to COllege //
p
when i FInish SCHOOL // (7) Q: What will you do when you finish school? R: //
p
i shall GO to COllege //
r
when i FInish SCHOOL // (

Q: When will you go to college? R: //
r
i shall GO to COllege //
p
when i FInish SCHOOL // As it can be observed in examples (7) and (

, changes occur in tone to show the different meanings implied in each utterance. English tones are argued to carry meaning by themselves. The five tones listed earlier are characterised as having the following functions.

The
proclaiming tone
is used in utterances that inform or
“proclaim” new
information in both declarative and interrogative form. (9) Q: //
p
WHAT HAPpened ? // R: //
p
i CAME across PEter this morning //
1
The
proclaiming plus tone
is used to proclaim something that can also be said to be new information but with the extra intention of expressing surprise. (10) R: //
p
P
Eter’s always in a GOOD
MOOD //
p+
but toDAY he was CRYing // The
referring
and
referring plus

tones
are both used to express the same thing: that the tone unit refers to a part of the message both speaker and listener already know about. The referring tone is more specifically used in utterances that communicate messages already present in the common ground; it is used to express old information. It is employed when giving vague answers, agreeing partially, introducing a topic and expressing uncertainty. The
referring plus

tone
is chosen by speakers to reactivate previously shared knowledge (reactivation of the common ground) as well as to take a dominant position in the conversation and to give instructions and advice. Both referring tones are used in yes-no questions meaning to check whether something is already in the common ground or not. (11) //
r
in the CUPboard //
p

you’ll FIND the
SUgar // (old information: in the cupboard where it always is) (12) Q: //
p
HOW did the INterview go? // R: //
p
ALL RIGHT //
r
i THINK // (uncertainty) (13) Q: // r

do you LIKE my new SWEAter? // (checking) R: //
r

i THINK it’s
NICE //
p
but i prefer the GREEN one // (parcial agreement)
1
Examples 1 to 9 have been adapted from Brazil, D. 1997 and Brazil, D., Coulthard, M. and Johns, C. 1981.

(14) //
r+
GO along this ROAD //
r+
on the LEFT //
p
TURN RIGHT // (giving instructions) (15) //
r
BOdy language //
p
is a VEry COMplex pheNOmenon // (introducing a topic) Finally, the level or
0 tone
is used for incomplete utterances which show that speakers are trying to find the right words to continue the conversation. It carries the idea of incompletion. (15) //
r
BOdy language //
p
is a VEry COMplex pheNOmenon //
0
WELL //
0
i MEAN //
r+
we SHOULD TAKE it //
p
VEry SEriously //(thinking what to say next) As we have seen, English intonation has various features that help speakers of a language convey and decode meanings that go beyond the words spoken. For this reason, intonation should be one of the features of any language that should be taught and practised in the TEFL class. In this respect, various teaching materials have been designed to be used in the classroom to teach this feature of the language. However, these materials can be argued to fail to address the needs of the majority of foreign English language students: young learners and adolescents. We have looked at the communicative choices of tones. The primary choice is between referring and proclaiming and then, within these two categories, the marked versions of these (r+ and p+). 2.2. Key Apart from the three main components of intonation aforementioned, each speaker of a language has a characteristic pitch range in which variations occur. It is believed that speakers distinguish between three pitch levels within their characteristic pitch range, and every tone unit is uttered in one of these three levels or keys.
INTONATION

R P
r
tone
r+
tone
p
tone
p+
tone
0
tone

Key is determined by the pitch level of the first prominent syllable of a tone unit compared to the prominence of the preceding tone unit. This means that a tone unit is in a higher or lower key in relation to the tone unit uttered before. If a tone unit is in a mid key, this means that its preceding unit and the one in question are at the same pitch level. Therefore, three keys can be identified, each of which signals a unique communicative intention when used.
High key
is said to be contrastive in the sense that tone units in a high key contain information which contrasts with what speaker and/or hearer might expect. This type of key is also used to express strong agreement between speakers. (16) Q: //
p
i think the FILM was QUITE GOOD //
r
did you LIKE the film ? // R: //
p
it was
HORRible! //
(contrary to expectation) (17) Q: //
p
i think the FILM was VEry GOOD // R: //
p
it was
FANTAStic
// (strong agreement)
Mid key
is said to have an additive function, which is neither contrastive nor emphatic. This means that the information given by the tone unit is additional to what has been said before.
Low key
is equative. This means that the information in the tone unit has no new impact on what has been said before. Low key can be said to be used in asides or comments. (18) //
p
the FILM was VEry GOOD //
p
it was
EXCelllent, in fact
// 2.3. Rhythm Apart from the previously described features of the English spoken language,
rhythm shouldn’t be left aside.
English and German are examples of stress-timed languages, while Spanish and Japanese are syllable-timed. A visual way of showing the difference between the two types of rhythm is the following.

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Writing Skill / Peer Correction- an useful alternative feedback tool

« on: March 02, 2020, 11:13:13 AM »

http://dspace.bracu.ac.bd/xmlui/bitstream/handle/10361/450/Asifa.Sultana.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y

Reading Skill / Reading comprehension and strategy awareness of Grade 11 English second language

« on: March 02, 2020, 11:04:43 AM »

https://rw.org.za/index.php/rw/article/view/23/31
How readers extract meaning from a text has long been a focus of attention because the process of extracting meaning gives learners invaluable information about readers’ cognitive processes during reading (Salataci & Akyel 2002). In addition, studies conducted on reading instruction and reading strategies indicate that strategy instruction with a focus on comprehension monitoring can help less skilled readers overcome their difficulties in reading (Franco-Fuenmayor, Kandel-Cisco & Padron 2008; Salataci & Akyel 2002; Pretorius 2002; Grabe & Stoller 2002; Granville 2001; Anderson 1999). In addition, Oxford (1990) points out that it appears that successful language students have the ability to orchestrate and combine particular types of strategies in effective ways according to their own learning needs. Thus, strategy teaching is an important part of teaching a second language and constructing meaning is the goal of comprehension (Dalton & Proctor 2007). In addition, McKeown, Beck and Blake (2009:28) point out that recent research on comprehension has certainly provided increased understanding of the comprehension process and broad and general knowledge of what makes for effective instructional practice. According to Antoniou and Souvignier (2007), the main aims of strategy training are monitoring understanding, enhancing understanding, acquiring and actively using knowledge, and developing insights. In addition, Cubukcu (2007) points out that to be effective, students must have a wide array of reading strategies at their disposal and know where, when and how to use these strategies.
The literature on strategy instruction has shown that there are two different approaches to teaching reading strategies. These are explicit instruction and implicit instruction. According to Hall (2009), explicit instruction is a systematic instructional approach that includes a set of delivery and design procedures derived from effective schools research merged with behaviour analysis. Hall further points out that there are two essential components to well-designed explicit instruction:

1. Visible delivery features are group instruction with a high level of teacher and student interactions.
2. This concerns the less observable, instructional design principles and assumptions that make up the content and strategies to be taught. According to Van Keer (2004), explicit reading strategies instruction and engaging learners in interaction with the text promotes learners’ reading comprehension ability.

In addition, Van Keer states that even when children do not use effective comprehension strategies on their own, explicit reading strategies instruction is a feasible tool for teaching learners to apply them successfully. The current study has been triggered by this view because it seeks to improve the reading comprehension and strategy use of disadvantaged learners. The literature reveals that explicit instruction in reading comprehension is the widely recommended method of improving learners’ reading comprehension and strategy use (Franco-Fuenmayor, Kandel-Cisco & Padron 2008).

On the other hand, the US Department of Education (2008) points out that implicit learning is acquisition of knowledge about the underlying structure of a complex stimulus environment by a process which takes place naturally, simply and without conscious operations. In addition, Dalton and Proctor (2007) point out that implicit reading strategy instruction refers to a reading environment that provides the learner with a variety of embedded features that are designed to support individual learning needs whilst being sensitive to the interactive nature of the reading process. Dalton and Proctor further point out that those learners who struggle with creating meaning are supported in an apprentice model of reading strategy instruction where scaffolds decrease as learners’ understanding and self- regulation improves.

Departments / Identity formation in adolescence and young adulthood

« on: March 02, 2020, 10:50:15 AM »

Identity formation in adolescence and young adulthood
Theo A. Klimstra, Lotte van Doeselaar, in Personality Development Across the Lifespan, 2017

Academic functioning
Identity formation processes are not only associated with psychosocial functioning but also impact what is arguably the most important objective indicator of adolescent successful functioning: academic success. A meta-analysis (Robbins et al., 2004) and several subsequent studies (Germeijs & Verschueren, 2007; Klimstra, Luyckx, Germeijs, Meeus, & Goossens, 2012) showed that individuals with higher levels of educational commitment are more likely to move through college without study delays. In fact, educational commitment even buffered the adverse effects that living in a disadvantaged neighborhood had on educational attainment (Nieuwenhuis, Hooimeijer, & Meeus, 2015). Collectively, these studies show the importance of identity formation in the early stages of career development.

Identity
M.S. Merry, in International Encyclopedia of Education (Third Edition), 2010

Identity Formation
Identity formation has been studied from a number of perspectives. For example, there are models of racial identity formation (Cross, 1971), sexual identity formation (Cass, 1979), and minority identity formation (Atkinson et al., 1983). Whatever the case, identity formation describes the conscious process of (re)examining one's feelings, thoughts, behaviors, and ways of relating to others who may or may not share similar commitments and habits. It is to reflect upon “our place in the universe, the meaning of life and death, and our purpose for being here” (Chickering and Reisser, 1993: 207). Identity formation also describes the way in which individuals deal with uncertainty and ambiguity.

Notwithstanding a variety of disciplinary approaches, contemporary studies on identity formation continue to assume a psychological cast, and none has towered over the field like Erik Erikson. Identity formation, for Erikson, names a process at the core of the individual and at the core of her communal culture, a process which establishes a single identity that links them together. “Identity grows and is nurtured or frustrated in a complex bonding of self and society” (Hoover et al., 1997: 21). The formation of identity involves both competence and integrity. Competence is achieved by one's efforts and is validated by the recognition of others, while integrity is a state of mind about who one is in relation to oneself and others.

Identity for Erikson is both a personal and social construction, for there is a strong interplay between the psychic self and the social self. It is personal inasmuch as identity is developed through the integration of various identifications with significant others and reference groups, and it is social inasmuch as it is developed through the internalized roles and appraisals of others. Central components of identity include: (1) a sense of personal continuity over time and across situations; (2) a sense of inner agency; (3) a commitment to certain self-representations as self-defining; (4) a commitment to certain roles as self-defining; (5) an acknowledgment of one's role commitments and views of self by significant others; (6) a commitment to a set of core values and ideal self-standards, and (7) a commitment to a worldview that gives life meaning (Erikson, 1959, 1968).

For Erikson, identity begins long before there is self-awareness, for it is in the nascent bonds of intimate relations (primarily with one's parents) that identity assumes its earliest expression. Intimate relationships, particularly the maternal bond with children, supply the mutual trust and recognition necessary for security and trust. Over time, and with consistent care and attention, it is within these trusting bonds that one comes to identify in a particular way with a set of attachments, habits, and thought patterns. This also describes the manner in which persons are enculturated, which is to say that most persons gradually come to identify with a way-of-being as natural, self-evident, and correct. The foundations of trust give rise to greater possibilities for personal well-being; well-being in this sense describes the experience of being accepted by others as well as a sense of security, satisfaction, and confidence about one's being-in-the-world. A healthy self-concept describes those who are comfortable with their self-image, with how others see them, with the roles they have chosen for themselves, or even which others have chosen for them. (Erikson's notions also supply the foundations for many sociological and anthropological understandings of what makes groups of individuals cohere.)

Yet an absence, or shattering, of foundational trust, for Erikson, portends a looming identity crisis. This crisis (which in late adolescence he describes as identity diffusion) frequently results from persistent doubts about one's ethnic, gender, religious, sexual, or racial identity, and describes the inability to resolve a profound personal challenge when faced with it. On the other hand, another type of crisis known as moratorium, is one that persons must navigate in order to achieve identity at each stage of development. Either way, identity crises arise when the acceptance of one's identity is questioned or rejected by oneself or others. Young persons are particularly susceptible to peer pressure; anxious to be accepted as a group member, intolerance may be expressed towards non-members, that is, outsiders. In Erikson's words:

It is difficult to be tolerant if deep down you are not quite sure that you are a man (or a woman), that you will ever [be] attractive, that you will be able to master your drives, that you really know who you are, that you know what you want to be, that you know what you look like to others, and that you will know how to make the right decisions without, once for all, committing yourself to the wrong friend, sexual partner, leader, or career (Erikson, 1959: 93).

If the crisis proves too difficult to overcome, some kind of identity pathology may set in (e.g., narcissistic personality disorder), these normally being the “result of impaired ego functioning caused by a functional or organic disorder” (Côté and Levine, 2002: 154). The result, for psychoanalysts, is that a failure to thrive at any level represents a failure to successfully navigate a much earlier conflict (e.g., trust vs. mistrust, autonomy vs. doubt) so that a personality disorder is the result of a more primary problem with attachment that is manifested in that period when intimacy is the primary demand for growth, that is, adolescence and early adulthood.

Marcia (1966) extended the work of Erikson by examining the various ways in which identity formation occurred in adolescence. Marcia, however, was less certain that identities were either resolved or confused. The crisis that Erikson described was not, for Marcia, an emergency but rather a stimulus for overcoming challenges and therefore leading to growth. The result would be greater individualization and differentiation. Marcia also concurred with most psychologists on this point: identity arises from any number of competing – and not necessarily conflicting – influences. Though not an exhaustive list of identity-forming effects, birth order, peer group, gender assignment, sexual orientation, religion, occupation, and culture all influence, to one degree or another, how one comes to understand her relationship to others, including the way in which one shares a set of communally based commitments or practices.

Needless to say, identities will not arise within, or map onto, neatly prescribed categories. Côté and Levine (2002: 46) observe:

[In] order to understand an individual's personal identity, one needs to know more about a person than his or her ego constructions and sociohistoric location and opportunities – one needs to know about the emergent interpersonal circumstances affecting his or her behavior, including others' perceptions of past personal-identity displays, labels that might have been affixed to him or her by others, prejudices faced, gossip relevant to the person, multiple and contradictory pressures to conform, and so forth.

Perhaps one truism seldom noted by psychological identity theorists is that many identities also are formed in resistance to peer or parental expectations, as well as to one's inherited group identity or membership. Further, preferring an interdependent and relational model of identity formation, some feminist critics (Gilligan, 1982) of Erikson – and moral development theorist Lawrence Kohlberg – have objected to their purported androcentric preference for autonomy and independence as signs of identity achievement.

Friendship During Adolescence and Cultural Variations
Hildegunn Fandrem, in International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences (Second Edition), 2015

The Role of Culture in Formation of Identity in Adolescence
All over the world identity formation may be defined as a lifelong process characterized by cycles of exploration and consolidation, as well as experiences of competence and vulnerability (Grotevant and Cooper, 1998). Although the process is lifelong, it takes new dimensions during years of youth because of the confluence of physical, cognitive, and relational changes during this period. Thus, there are reasons to believe that adolescence, especially early adolescence, may be a turbulent period (Chen and Ferruggia, 2002). However, the time of adolescence is not necessarily a period of ‘storm and stress,’ as claimed by Western developmental and clinical psychologists throughout most of the twentieth century (Hall, 1904). Berry et al. (2002) claims that the time of adolescence is most of all a time for learning new social roles, with attendant psychological tensions. However, deciding who one wants to be may not necessarily be an easy task, and difficulties in identity development have been associated with serious problematic behavior, as e.g., substance abuse (Jones et al., 1989). Generally, adolescence may be said to be the most difficult time of life. This claim is supported by research, which generally finds depression to be rare among children (Kessler et al., 2001) while among adolescents depressive mood is found to be higher than among their parents (Kandel and Davies, 1982).

Descriptively, a range of aspects is traditionally held to concern identity, independent of where one is from. Dimensions like nationality, ethnicity, gender, social memberships and group characteristics, individual character, personality, and social preferences are all part of the identity (Verkuyten, 2005). Hence, identity consists of both collectivistic (e.g., ethnic) and personal (e.g., individual characteristics) dimensions. Ethnic identity may be said to refer to the idea of common origin (Kanstad, 1994) as it comprises identification with one's ethnic group or culture of origin. This dimension is, furthermore, an example of a stable dimension. The national identity, on the other hand, refers to the country or nation, in which one lives. Hence, it comprises identification with the larger society surrounding the person and thus it changes with resettlements. The concept of cultural identity covers both the ethnic and national dimensions. Triandis et al. (1990) define culture as those constructs shared by speakers of a particular dialect, living in a proximal location, during the same historical period. Thus, culture may not necessarily refer to only a country. Important in this sense is, however, that cultural identity refers to more than the group category that one chooses, it involves a sense of belonging to one or more cultural groups and the feelings associated with a group membership (Phinney, 1990). If culture refers to countries it is important to have in mind, regarding adolescents that have migrated, that national and ethnic identity differ for the same individual. Furthermore, the relationship between the two dimensions needs to be in focus as it might have an influence on psychological and sociocultural adaptation, and the possibility for friendship formation for this group of adolescents. Social identity may also be said to occur when one discover that one have something in common to someone, at the same time as one discover that there are people one have little in common with. This type of collectivistic identity comprises the notion of a social group (e.g., gender, status, age). Thus it is also less stable. Friendships play an important role in the formation of especially social identity. At the end all the collectivistic dimensions of the identity (ethnic, national cultural, and social) are given a personal expression through the personal identity. The personal dimension of the identity is established on the basis of each individual's personal experiences. Thus, personal identity is never the same among different individuals. It is also claimed that because of increased global and social mobility the personal, or subjective, aspect of the identity becomes more and more important (Fandrem, 1996).

From this we may claim that identity is constructed and maintained through social interactions, it changes over time and context, and across generations. It is, however, through the time of adolescents that the formation of the identity is an especially critical developmental task (Marcia, 2002; Phinney et al., 2006). How the identity process develops is highly dependent on the peers, the family, the community, and the context to which the adolescent is exposed. As mentioned earlier, independent of culture, parents (vertical relations) are the most significant others to the individual in the earliest years of life. With increasing age, especially during years of youth, peers (horizontal relationships), however, become increasingly significant. Research have shown that during years of youth, peers become more important to the individual, and the amount of time spent with family members decreases (Laible et al., 2000; Larson et al., 1996).

Considering that cultural variation in this article also includes variations regarding individuals belonging to more than one culture, immigrant adolescents should be left a comment. In immigrant families, especially the mother is the one who represents the culture of origin. In addition to generally being more interested in keeping traditions, mothers often spend more time with people from the same origin as themselves, especially if they are not employed and thus through work gain social relationships with people from the dominant culture. Adolescents, on the other side, gain social relationships with peers from the dominant culture at school. Thus, for immigrant adolescents, parents and peers may represent more distinct values, compared to what is the case for native adolescents. Consequently, immigrant adolescents may struggle more than natives during development of their identity. For adolescents in immigrant families, formation of ethnic identity involves examining also the ethnic attitude, values, and practices learned at home from their immigrant parents and considering them in relation to those of their peers (Phinney, 1989).

Regarding the different dimensions of the identity, for adolescents with immigrant background also the concept of ethnic minority identity (Phinney, 1990) may be used, besides majority identity or host national identity, which refers to the individual's identification with the majority or host society. It has been suggested that it is possible to have high or low identification on both constructs, or a high identification on one construct, and a low one on the other (Phinney, 1990; Sanchez and Fernandez, 1993). Furthermore, a strong sense of ethnic identity devoid of positive identification with the larger society may aggravate psychological conflicts; this may in turn influence the opportunity to establish friendships for this group.

Ethnic Identity, Psychology of
J.S. Phinney, in International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences, 2001

1.3 The Achievement and Internalization of Ethnic Identity
The optimal outcome of the ethnic identity formation process is the achievement of a secure and confident sense of one's ethnicity. This mature sense of self as an ethnic group member is assumed to include positive feelings about one's group and to be a source of personal strength and positive self-evaluation (Phinney 1989, Tajfel and Turner 1986). Feeling secure about one's own ethnic identity is also assumed to be associated with more positive attitudes toward other groups. An achieved ethnic identity may be related to the ability to assume the perspective of other groups, to adopt a multicultural perspective, and to see the place of one's own group in a larger perspective.

Western European Studies: Gender and History
K. Crawford, in International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences, 2001

2.4 Gender Roles as Performance
Recent efforts to explore the history of identity formation have incorporated post-structuralist theories to tease out how the self was defined in gendered terms and how the gendered self related to others and to entities such as the state. Continental post-structuralist feminism has largely followed Jacques Lacan's psychoanalytic theory, developing the analysis of discourse in a mode which remains highly attenuated from material concerns. Lacanian psychoanalysis feminists, led by Julia Kristeva (1980), have re-interpreted the mirror stage of development to emphasize the abjection of the female subject. If the unspoken male subject in Lacan's formulation comes to his identity through engagement with the mirror image of the self, for the female subject, this experience is violent and alienating.

Judith Butler's articulation of gender as performance captures a number of elements of post-structuralist theory which have then been utilized to examine identity formation in the past. Butler (1990) argues that gender is best understood as a performance in which the subject is constituted in relation to the regulatory practices of society. The norms of these practices are themselves culturally constructed around heterosexuality defined by masculine and feminine binaries. Gender is actually wholly performative around those binaries such that it exists only in constituting a particular identity. While some historians expressed concern with the postmodern tendency to deconstruct without offering positive constructions, notions of identity as performative have helped recuperate historically specific moments of identity formation. Understanding gender as a signifying practice helps reveal how it is integral to other expressions of identity in specific historical settings.

Affect in Online Discourse
Scott J. Warren, Jenny S. Wakefield, in Emotions, Technology, and Learning, 2016

Although we encourage our students as instructors to enter into identity formation, to think and discover nature and meaning, and to arrive at knowledge, the central message the system influences—framed by political and economic powers—is one that views students not as individual humans, but as Foucault (1976/1981) called them, individual objects or cases. This generates quiet and attentive students. Viewed from this perspective, the way we determine future success is by testing, because it “is the technique by which power … holds [learners] in a mechanism of objectification … the examination is, as it were, the ceremony of this objectification” (p. 199). It is this objective that, as Freire (1970) correspondingly stated, “attempts to control thinking and action, leads men and women to adjust to the world, and inhibits their creative power” (p. 77).

Personality development in adolescence
Patrick L. Hill, Grant W. Edmonds, in Personality Development Across the Lifespan, 2017

Identity development as a catalyst for personality change
Classically, adolescence was defined as a period during which individuals achieve identity formation and consolidation, or are mired in a state of identity confusion and profuse exploration (Erikson, 1959; Marcia, 1980). Additional work in this handbook describes identity development in greater detail (Klimstra & van Doeselar, Chapter 18), and thus we focus our attention here to its role specific to the Big Five. First, researchers have considered identity aspects, or subcomponents of feeling a consolidated sense of identity, in line with definitions of Erikson (1959) and others. For instance, Hill et al. (2013) examined whether adolescents perceived a sense of personal authenticity, control over their environments, as well as whether they were facing similar or inconsistent expectations across social roles. Each of the Big Five traits was initially related to at least one identity aspect, suggesting a relationship between personality and identity during adolescence. Moreover, over the span of a year, all traits with the exception of openness evidenced correlated changes with the identity aspects. For instance, adolescents who reported higher levels of conscientiousness over the year tended also to report higher authenticity and environmental control. Increases on emotional stability coincided with reports of greater environmental control and more consistency in expectations across social roles. Accordingly, it appears that the process of navigating identity formation may coincide with developments with respect to the Big Five personality traits.

Second, research has demonstrated the importance of considering how individuals process information relevant for self-knowledge. Specifically, Berzonsky (1990, 1992) has suggested that individuals tend to adopt one of three methods for processing identity-relevant information: (1) an informational approach, marked by deliberation and more active knowledge-seeking, (2) a normative approach, defined by a tendency to follow norms and the information provided by close associates, and (3) a diffuse style, in which the individual is uninterested in thinking about one’s identity. Work with late adolescents suggests that openness to experience appears highly related to informational processing, while conscientiousness is associated with a more normative style (Duriez & Soenens, 2006; Duriez, Soenens, & Beyers, 2004). In addition, this work demonstrates that a more diffuse approach appears to coincide with a maladaptive personality profile, insofar that diffusion scores correlated with lower levels on agreeableness, conscientiousness, and openness to experience. As such, at least in cross-sectional data, research exists to suggest that the linkages between personality and identity development are even found with respect to the social-cognitive mechanisms underlying identity formation.

Third, research has targeted two processes central to identity development: (1) commitment to an identity and (2) exploration of identity options. Work with adolescents suggests that openness is linked to greater exploration, while neuroticism is negatively associated with commitment but positively with exploration (Klimstra, Luyckx, Goossens, Teppers, & De Fruyt, 2013). Though longitudinal work is needed with adolescents, work with emerging adults suggests that identity exploration and commitment do appear to change in tandem with the Big Five traits (Luyckx, Soenens, & Goossens, 2006). Support for personality and identity co-development has also been found with respect to the domain of educational identity development (Klimstra, Luyckx, Germeijs, Meeus, & Goossens, 2012). Across the three years of assessment, college students who increased their commitment to an educational identity (a sense that one is certain and confident in the educational path chosen) tended also to increase on extraversion, agreeableness, and conscientiousness. This work also points to the potential for commitments to societally prescribed roles, such as identifying as a student, to play a role in personality development, a central tenet of maturation theories.

The Economics of Cultural Transmission and Socialization
Alberto Bisin, Thierry Verdier, in Handbook of Social Economics, 2011

3.4.7 Cultural distinction
Bisin, Patacchini, Verdier, and Zenou (2010) study instead identity formation, aiming at distinguishing cultural conformity from cultural distinction.61 They exploit the Fourth National Survey of Ethnic Minorities (FNSEM) of the U.K. The dataset oversamples Caribbean, Indian, Pakistani, African-Asian, Bangladeshi, and Chinese and contains a direct survey question about respondents' identification with their own ethnic group and additional (indirect) information about different dimensions of identity (e.g., attitudes towards inter marriage, importance of religion and other aspects of individuals' ethnic preferences).

To better address the possible endogeneity of residential decisions Bisin, Patacchini, Verdier, and Zenou (2010) proceeds in steps, from a non-structural probit analysis of identity and homogamy in terms of ethnic composition to fully structural models of ethnic integration. The probit displays a negative relationship between ethnic identity and the share of the ethnic group in the neighborhood, for those neighborhoods in which the share is above 20%, a result consistent with cultural distinction, see Figure 20.62

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Figure 20. Non linear effect of neighborhood ethnic composition on identity and homogamy.

Source: Bisin, Patacchini, Verdier, and Zenou (2010).
The structural analysis of identity formation exploits the identity formation choice model (extended to jointly determine identity and homogamy in marriage) outlined in Section 2.2.5. The model produces a map between identity vi and the psychological costs of interacting with the majority c(qi). A non-parametric estimate of c(qi) under the restrictions of the model is also consistent with ethnic identity being formed as a cultural distinction mechanism, and so is a structural estimate of the model parameterized to formally nest distinction and conformity and to allow individuals to choose the neighborhood where to reside depending on its ethnic composition.63

The speed of integration predicted by the structural model at the estimated parameter values can be gauged upon from Figures 21 and 22, reporting predicted identity and homogamy, respectively, as a function of time spent in the U.K. The ethnic homogamy rate, for instance, is predicted to decline less than 10% between first and second immigration immigrants.

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Figure 21. Predicted identity as a function of time in the U.K.

Source: Bisin, Patacchini, Verdier, and Zenou (2010).

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Figure 22. Predicted homogamy as a function of time in the U.K.

Source: Bisin, Patachini, Verdier, and Zenou (2009).
Finally, cultural distinction is also consistent with the literature on participation in social activities as a function of segregation and fractionalization, as in Alesina and La Ferrara (2000), Putnam (2007), Letki (2008), and Fumagalli and Fumagalli (2010).

Conflict: Education and Youth
Sarah Dryden-Peterson, ... Vidur Chopra, in International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences (Second Edition), 2015

Youth and Conflict: Challenging Assumptions
One of the defining developmental experiences of youth is the transition from childhood to adulthood and the identity formation processes that accompany this critical developmental stage (Johnson et al., 2011). Due to the relative lack of tailored services for youth, young people are caught between programming designed for children or for adults, leaving them either excluded and ‘on the margins’ (Sommers, 2007) or funneled into programs that are mismatched for their developmental stage. Further complicating youth as a target population, legal definitions and culturally specific roles for youth shift (see, Clark-Kazak, 2009), more so in conflict settings than otherwise. In times of conflict, youth do not experience typical childhoods but prematurely enter adult worlds; conversely, conflicts can delay traditional rites of passage and hinder access to markers of adulthood, so that youth cannot become socially recognized adults (Sommers, 2012).

What is the relationship between youth populations and propensity for conflict? There are competing theories. Noncausal empirical research demonstrates that countries with youth bulges and poor economic performance are more susceptible to domestic armed conflict (Urdal, 2006) and democratic instability (Weber, 2013). Two dominant theoretical perspectives have attempted to explain this hypothesis. The first is an economic or opportunity theory approach, where a sudden supply of youth labor in an economic system unable to generate enough jobs and absorb a surge of youth labor supply will render many unemployed. As a consequence, armed groups tend to fill this vacuum by providing alternate income generating opportunities (Brown, 2010; Collier, 2007; Collier and Hoeffler, 2004). The second is a sociobiological approach, where young men (15–29 years), given their developmental stage, are considered to have higher propensities for extremist attitudes and intergroup hate and violence (Weber, 2013). Collier states that “eing young, being uneducated, and being without dependents” may make one more likely to engage in political violence (2007). For some time, these two theories have dominated much of the discourse on youth in conflict, even though researchers have attempted to nuance them, as we discuss below (Beber and Blattman, 2013; Cincotta, 2008; Sommers, 2012; Urdal, 2006).

These theories do not account for three important dimensions of youth in conflict settings. First, they do not account for the agency and resilience that youth exhibit in shaping their life choices even under severe structural constraints and stressful situations (Blum and Blum, 2009). Second, they do not sufficiently illuminate the various ways that education systems interact with youth experience and thus reproduce and/or interrupt conflict. Finally, these theories do not account adequately for the interactions of various social, political, and historical circumstances. For example, in both stable Botswana and conflict-affected Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), 22% of the population is between the ages of 15 and 24 (Central Intelligence Agency, 2013). Yet these oversized youth populations have not erupted into conflict in both places; while DRC has been engulfed in conflict for more than two decades, Botswana has been stable. A ‘youth bulge’ combined, as in DRC, with well-established armed groups and a lack of education and employment possibilities can shift the opportunity structure in favor of participating in conflict, over prosocial choices. Similarly, the ‘Arab Spring’ cannot be considered only a function of a youth bulge but is also associated with stagnating economies as well as corruption and poor governance in many of the countries that experienced these widespread protests (Pollack, 2011). These contexts demonstrate how conflict is embedded in particular sociopolitical contexts and historical moments.

Further theories circulate around youth vulnerability and susceptibility to joining armed groups based on adolescent desires to consolidate their social identity during a critical identity formation stage. Identity threat is among the many drivers of conflict (Novelli and Lopes Cardozo, 2008). Relying on developmental explanations, some argue that in an attempt to explore and assert their identities, youth are easily influenced and conformist in their attitudes, thereby exhibiting greater tendencies toward extremism and recruitment by armed rebel groups (Blattman and Annan, 2010). However, mounting evidence from the field of adolescent and youth development indicates that identity development is progressive and continues even in adulthood. Conceptions of ourselves ‘vary along a continuum’ (Davies, 2008: p. 187) such that different aspects of identity emerge and change over time along this developmental continuum (Meeus, 2011). This calls into question the sociobiological mechanisms that underpin the ‘youth bulge’ hypothesis. If identity statuses progress over adolescence and well into adulthood, there is little support for the argument that identity-driven attitudes of inter- and intragroup hatred and violence are not malleable among youth.

Erik Erikson
Frederick Walborn, in Religion in Personality Theory, 2014

Marcia’s Four Identity Statuses
In 1966, Marcia published his first article on identity development. He classified people’s identity formation into one of four categories based on whether a person had gone through a crisis and whether the person had made a commitment in an important area of life. One of these important areas of life concerns religious issues. The four identity statuses are achieved, moratorium, foreclosed, and diffused.

I prefer the term questioning rather than crisis, because many people question their religious/spiritual beliefs, but do not have to go through a major crisis similar to Luther’s fit in the choir. However, I use the term crisis because this is the term used in the literature.

The achieved and foreclosed statuses have made a commitment. The difference is that achieved people have gone through a crisis, or time of questioning their faith or spirituality. Foreclosed people, however, have strong beliefs and have made a commitment, but they have not gone through a crisis. That is, they just go along with whatever faith they were raised with and do not question that faith. Research does support that religiously committed people are more likely to be of the identity achievement and foreclosure statuses, compared to the less religiously inclined (Markstrom-Adams, Hofstra, & Dougher, 1994; Hunsberger, Pratt, & Pancer, 2001; Tzuriel, 1984).

Fulton (1997) found identity achievement (crisis and commitment) people are more likely to have an intrinsic religious orientation. That is, their practices of their faith are based on internal reasons and they are genuinely committed to their faith (Allport, 1950). Whereas foreclosed identities (no crisis, but makes a commitment) are more likely to exhibit an extrinsic religious orientation. That is, extrinsically motivated people are more motivated by external reasons, such as appearing to be a good person; going to church or the temple is what they should do. With Mormon and Jewish participants, identity diffusion (no crisis and no commitment) are also more likely to be associated with an extrinsic religious orientation (Markstrom-Adams & Smith, 1996).

The moratorium identity status (crisis but no commitment) is frequently considered to be the status of many adolescents and young adults in various areas of life. For example, it is common for college students not to have made a commitment to a career; yet they are questioning or struggling, as apparent by the number of times that they change their majors. Research does support that people with moratorium identities (crisis, but no commitment) are more religiously doubting or questioning (Hunsberger, Pratt, and Pancer, 2001).

When religious people are in a crisis, or a time of doubting, do they seek people and literature that would support their beliefs (belief-confirming consultation), or do they seek a balance and seek friends with no religious preference or even literature that is against their beliefs (belief-threatening consultation)? People who scored higher on identity achievement (crisis and commitment) tend to seek out belief-confirming and belief-threatening consultations (Hunsberger, Pratt, & Pancer, 2001). The identity foreclosed group (no crisis, but commitment) significantly sought less threatening consultation. They did not want to hear information that challenged their beliefs. The diffused group (no crisis and no commitment) did not seek out consultation.

Marcia’s nomenclature of the four identity categories is promising for future research. Even though identity achievement and identity foreclosed have strong beliefs, their cognitive rationales for their faith are substantially different. The identity achievement, after going through a time of questioning and crisis, has affirmed their beliefs. Whereas the identity foreclosed, also testifying to strong commitment, have never questioned their religion. It will be exciting to see what develops from future research.

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Research Ideas / How can I choose a good topic for my research paper?

« on: March 01, 2020, 09:46:49 AM »

How do you decide what to write about when confronted with a research paper? You want a focused topic!

Here are some things to consider:

Make sure your topic meets the assignment requirements. Ask your professor for feedback if you are unsure.
Choose a topic that is interesting to you. It may seem obvious, but this will make the research process more fun and engaging for you.
Consider the scope of your topic. If your topic is too broad it may be hard to find information that is focused and relevant; if your topic is too narrow it may be hard to find any information at all.

Here's one strategy for developing a research topic once you have a broad topic in mind:

Background research will help you develop your topic and hone or change it in more appropriate ways. Knowing more about your topic's background can only help you develop a more effective topic, and therefore, research paper.
Brainstorm concepts. Once you think of a broad topic that interests you, try to brainstorm all of the words or concepts you can that might be related to that topic (and write them down!). For example, if your topic is "polar bears," you might think of the following words and topics in association: ice, cubs, pollution, hunting, diet, climate change, and environmental icon.
Develop a research question. Once you have come up with a broad topic and done some background research, you may want to develop a research question, or a question you're going to answer in your paper by doing more, in-depth research.
What's your general approach to the topic? Think about some general approaches that may help you further develop your topic: use a historical angle by focusing on a particular time period; a geographical angle, focusing on a particular part of the world; or a sociological angle, focusing on a particular group of people.
Start doing some exploratory, in-depth research. As you do more in-depth research, like looking for scholarly articles, books, and other sources to include in your paper, you can and probably will modify or refine your topic based on what you find.
Research is a dynamic process. Don't be afraid to discover new things and modify or refine your topic.
The topic development process will help you to develop your thesis, which is essentially your proposed answer to your research question. You will then be ready to use the sources you've found, and find more sources in order to support that thesis, or to answer your research question.

Here's an example of how the topic development process above can lead you to a thesis:

Resources that can help you develop your topic:

Your instructor, course readings, class notes, Wikipedia, and Google can all be helpful in terms of getting ideas for broad topics.
A Research Guide for a particular subject created by a subject librarian is great for helping you choose where to begin your research. These online guides will identify encyclopedias, books, databases, and other materials to help you get started with research. You can also ask a librarian at the Library Service Desk.
Library resources like Credo Reference Unlimited, Gale Virtual Reference Library, CQ Researcher and subject-specific encyclopedias can help you come up with topic ideas because they provide great overviews and introductions to topics. You can find links to these kinds of resources in the Research Guides mentioned above. These will probably not be scholarly sources you can use in your paper, but they may lead you to more in-depth, scholarly resources that you will want to use in your paper.

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