Friday, August 31, 2012

Fall 2012 Foreign Film Series


All films are scheduled for 6:30 pm in Hearnes Hall 102 (Little Theater in the lower floor of the MWSU Library) 
Sponsored by English, Foreign Languages and Journalism Department

Wednesday Sept. O5 La piel que habito / The skin I live in  (In Spanish with English subtitles) presented by Castilla Ortiz
Tuesday Sept. 11 To Live /  ( Chinese Film with English subtitles) presented by Juan Wang
Wednesday  Sept 19 Der Baader-Meinhof Komplex / The Baader Meinhof Complex  (in German with English subtitles) presented by Dominic Heres
Sept 28 Eva Peron  (1996) (In Spanish with English subtitles) presented by Ana Bausset
Oct 02  Paris (in French with English subtitles), presented by Claudine Evans

Oct 18 L'Arnacoeur"  (Heartbreaker) (In French with English subtitles) presented by Susie Hennessy
Oct 10 Los lunes al sol / Mondays under the sun  (In Spanish with English subtitles) presented by Victoria Perez Calzadilla

Oct 26  (In German with English subtitles) presented by Dominic Heres
All performances are open to the public and free of charge!
Nov08  "Postmen in the Mountains" (那人那山那狗)( Chinese Film with English subtitles) presented by Juan Wang  
Nov13 Soul Kitchen (2009)Director: Fatih Akin(in German with English subtitles) presented by Dominic Heres
November 29   TBA ?
        

Friday, August 24, 2012

Rosenauer Publishes Another Book


 “The Journalist’s Handbook for Online Editing” will be published Sept. 1 with the Penguin Academics label — a division of Pearson. Ken’s co-author is Dr. Vince Filak, a journalism professor at the University of Wisconsin – Oshkosh. The book has 17 chapters and runs about 400 pages. It covers everything as it relates to online: storytelling, editors, audience, convergent packages, photography, graphics, audio, video, editing copy, punctuation, style, headlines, social media, Web design, marketing, media law, and ethics.

While it will be primarily an e-book — a new approach that Pearson says will become their standard very soon, the book also is available in print, at a significantly higher price, of course.

When Ken first considered writing this textbook, he surveyed the market to see what was out there and how well those books were handling what students need in the classroom. No question that there were many good traditional editing texts on the market — traditional meaning that they were published when journalism was just newspapers, radio, and television and they still gave primary emphasis to those media.

In the relatively short time that the Web has been around, though, it has had an impact on almost everything in journalism. Yet, most of the top traditional editing texts just gave lip service to editing in a convergent setting and editing online media. He wanted to change that.
 
As they write in the Preface for the book: “When we first approached this book, we knew there were plenty of good ‘traditional-media-first’ texts that added a little Web information and considered their focus convergent. We decided to turn the model on its head. ‘The Journalist’s Handbook for Online Editing’ starts with ‘Web-first’ ideology, privileging the Web as the primary medium. Certainly, we relate key concepts and ideas to traditional media, but we do this only to draw parallels and show similarities.

“You have in your hands a textbook that delivers on the promise of its title. It’s a handbook for journalists who understand the power of the Web and who seek to deliver content there worthy of this rich new medium.”

He and Vince have worked on the book since March 2010.

Tuesday, August 14, 2012

EFLJ Welcomes Juan Wang

From left to right: Leo, Juan, and Simon
Xidian University professor Juan Wang introduces herself to the EFLJ community. Professor Wang is with us for the 2012-2013 academic year as part of an exchange agreement with Xidian.She will teach introductory and intermediate Chinese:

It is my great pleasure to have this opportunity to be at MWSU for the academic year. I have been teaching engineering students English at Xidian in my home country for 16 years. In the last 8 years, my research and teaching have mainly focused on helping students acquire the English language to communicate rather than simply know about the language.
Ms. Tiantian Zou was among the first teachers who had the opportunity to go abroad in our department. (It is interesting that young teachers in other departments at Xidian have a lot more opportunities to be visiting scholars abroad than language teachers.) She shared a lot of her experience in America with our faculty members, which inspired me to shake up my comforting routines for a change. Besides, an increasing number of students are interested in American culture and are motivated to learn English to communicate. Many students consulted me about life and study in America, and always what I shared with them is from books and the internet. Experience in America will help me get a better perspective in seeing how living in America may look and feel. I will be flexible enough with open eyes, an open mind and an open heart to gain an insight here.

The family experiences 1950s Americana
My decision to come to MWSU is partially influenced by my son. I am a devoted mother and enjoy time with my son. I rediscovered the wisdom of many classical Chinese literature for kids such as “Sanzi Jing”, which is usually translated as the Three-Character Classic. ( The "poem" consists of a series of couplets of three characters. The complete text is less than 1200 characters but in that limited space it manages to enumerate all of the salient features of the Confucian tradition, to list the dynastic history of China, to provide a roadmap to the Confucian Classics and to state the basic belief in the inherent goodness of mankind, the importance of education, filial piety and family and social relationships.) Also as an English teacher, I have been teaching my son English at home, which allowed me the possibility to observe and gradually understand the learning process of a foreign language as a beginner. This led to my interest in teaching Chinese to beginners of different cultures. Personally I feel I am more prepared for teaching Chinese and Chinese culture since I collected and learned so many materials in the past years with my son.

I worked a lot on learning strategy research in China. Having worked with a team in learning strategies and learning styles heightened my sensitivity towards diversity and made my work within the curriculum and classroom more inclusive. I believe my experience in the past years and my passion in teaching can help me create an environment that promotes students' learning of Chinese and Chinese culture at MWSU even though it may be very challenging. I am learning English and American culture here and teaching Chinese and Chinese culture. This in fact is a win-win experience.
China is developing and changing rapidly. I would like to introduce modern China to the community. I believe in the future more of our faculty members from Xidian and students at MWSU can benefit from the exchange program.
I love cooking, traveling and reading. I also have great interest in child education.


Simon has his first bison encounter
I love my country and would like to introduce Chinese culture to the students and the community. Chinese people love to eat, and this is especially true for me. I love cooking and can cook a lot of different Chinese foods. I would like to introduce and share some of the traditional food with my students and even the community, especially on Chinese festivals.
My family has travelled to different parts of China and has enjoyed different Chinese cuisines. In fact, we can understand the culture and customs of a country from their traditional food. A new television program this year (2012) in China entitled “A Bite of China” (舌尖上的中国) has broken all audience records which highlights the geographical, historical and cultural dimensions of what Chinese eat and why. I will also introduce many other aspects of Chinese culture to our students here.
I grew up in Shaanxi with 3 siblings (two elder brothers and a younger sister). This is the first time for me to be so far away from home. And my mom cried when we left. There is a saying in Chinese “儿行千里母担忧” which means “when the child is away, the mother will pray.”

I met my husband while we were college students. It has been 14 years since we got married and we have never gone more than ten days at a time without seeing each other. Our son is turning 10 years old this December. As a family we enjoy traveling, reading and spending time outdoors climbing mountains. We have explored around the campus and love it very much.
All the faculty members and people here are so nice, offering a lot of help to make us feel at home here. I believe this year will be most rewarding and I am glad that I am here.
--Juan Wang

Friday, August 10, 2012

Sue Ferguson Hired by Diné College

Though too few job-seekers have said this in the current economic climate, "It's about time!" says Sue Ferguson (BA, English, 1985; MA, English, Northern Arizona U., 2008). Sue has been hired to teach developmental and academic-level English composition, First-Year College Success Skills, and Literature of the Southwest at Diné College on the Navajo reservation in Tsaile, Arizona, for the 2012-2013 school year.

Sue will relocate to the reservation on August 16, where she will live on campus in a hogan just a short walk away from the Ned Hatathli Cultural Center, the college's main building. Tsaile is located in a rather remote area not too many miles from the Canyon de Chelly National Monument. Sue's new address is 1 Circle Drive, H3 Hogan Housing, Diné College, Tsaile, AZ 86556. 

Good luck, Sue!