Volume 14, issue 2

Introduction

This volume of in esse: English Studies in Albania collects papers from four different subject areas, grouped into three sections in this issue: British Literature, Applied Linguistics, and Education and Sociolinguistics. 

The first section contains one contribution, “Death, art and nature: Performatism and romantic desire in Sara Baume’s A Line Made by Walking,” by Soňa Šnircová, Pavol Jozef Šafárik University in Košice. Sara Baume’s novel A Line Made by Walking (2017) follows Frankie, a young artist who escapes urban life by returning to her grandmother's rural environment. Overwhelmed by the presence of death, she seeks spiritual revival through art and nature. The novel's structure, featuring ten inner scenes with a photo of a dead animal, corresponds with the performatist aesthetic device of “double framing.” The novel participates in a metamodern sensibility, replacing postmodern nihilism with enthusiasm and hope.

The second section, Applied Linguistics, has two articles that focus on two different aspects of scholarly work, a re-evaluation of the role of the supervisor in undergraduate thesis writing and a critical literature review. 

The first article, “A supervisor’s role in a student’s advancement: Assessing undergraduate thesis writing in applied linguistics,” written by Alena Kačmárová, Magdaléna Bilá, and Ingrida Vaňková from the University of Prešov, emphasises that undergraduate thesis writing is both a product and a process, and that both should be represented in the final assessment. The supervisor’s role should be expanded, and the criteria should reflect disciplinary values. The article defines value schemes for applied linguistics and supervisory assessment criteria through descriptors.

Karin Sabolíková and Adriana Saboviková from Pavol Jozef Šafárik University in Košice, in their paper “Critical literature review on selected aspects of British studies as an academic subject,” present a standalone literature review on British studies, focusing on political and social institutions, particularly after 2000. The review aims to assist scholars by summarising, synthesising, and analysing current research on a specific topic. The review looks into relevant secondary sources from reputable publishers, focusing on government, political parties, and migration issues.

In the third section, Education and Sociolinguistics, two articles are included. The first focuses on aspects related to stress in the teaching profession and its impact upon teachers, whereas the second is a kind of mapping of second languages spoken in Kosovo. 

In “Impact of stress on teachers’ job satisfaction,” Petrit Taraj, University of Vlora “Ismail Qemali,” examines the impact of stress factors on secondary school teachers’ stress levels and job satisfaction in Albanian pre-university education. Findings show a significant correlation between factors and stress levels, with a positive correlation between classroom level and stress. The study emphasises the importance of effective strategies to support teachers and encourages future research to improve the environment in which teachers perform their job-related activities.

Adelajda Baftiu from the University of Prishtina, in her article “Second languages spoken in Kosovo: An analysis,” seeks to identify the second languages most spoken in Kosovo, focusing on English, Serbian, and German. A corpus-based approach was used, followed by a survey with participants providing data on their birthplace, residence, and profession. The results showed that, after Albanian, the most spoken languages were English, followed by Serbian and German. Other languages spoken included Slovenian, Russian, Bosnian, Macedonian, Polish, Bulgarian, Turkish, French, Arabic, Spanish, Italian, Swedish, Latin, Dutch, Norwegian, Romanian, Hungarian, Romani, and Greek.

We express our gratitude to all of the contributors for sharing their ideas and perspectives with us in this edition of in esse. We would especially like to thank our reviewers for their tremendously laborious selection and evaluation of the papers included in this collection.

  Armela Panajoti, general editor

Death, art and nature: Performatism and romantic desire in Sara Baume’s A Line Made by Walking  

Soňa ŠNIRCOVÁ, Pavol Jozef Šafárik University in Košice

email: sona.snircova@upjs.sk

Abstract 

Sara Baume’s novel A Line Made by Walking (2017) focuses on a young female artist, Frankie, who escapes from the pressures of a globalized urban society by returning to the rural environment of her late grandmother’s house. Overwhelmed by the looming presence of death—from the “deadness” of her depressed mind to the frequent encounters with dead animals that disturb the pastoral idyll of her retreat—Frankie turns both to art and nature in an effort to achieve a spiritual revival and a return to normality. This paper draws on the theoretical works of Eshelman (2008), Vermeleun and van den Akker (2010), and de Mul (1999) to argue that Frankie represents an example of a performatist subject: opaque, deeply separated from the external world, trapped within a confined space (both in terms of her depressed mind and her mortal existence). She strives for a sense of transcendence that relies on the Romantic aesthetization of reality, such as in her photography project which aims to transform dead animals into artwork. The paper shows that the striving for transcendence is realized in the “escaping from a frame” plot pattern and that the structure of the novel, with its ten “inner scenes” each featuring an “ostensive sign” (a photo of a dead animal), corresponds with the performatist aesthetic device of “double framing” (Eshelman 2008). Finally, the paper posits that the novel participates in a “metamodern (neoromantic) sensibility” (Vermeleun and van den Akker 2010) that replaces postmodern nihilism with enthusiasm, hope, and the desire to turn the finite into the infinite.        

Keywords: Sara Baume, performatism, metamodernism, neoromanticism, transcendence

A supervisor’s role in a student’s advancement: Assessing undergraduate thesis writing in applied linguistics

Alena KAČMÁROVÁ, Magdaléna BILÁ, Ingrida VAŇKOVÁ, University of Prešov, Slovakia

email: alena.kacmarova@unipo.sk 

Abstract

The present article builds upon the premise that undergraduate thesis writing represents both a product and a process. The authors’ approach is that both (what was acquired during studies and during the writing process) deserve to be represented in the final assessment. During thesis writing, a supervisor exercises several roles, which should be expanded by that of the assessor. This role should become visible in the assessment criteria in that it should be different from that of the critical reviewer. At the same time, the criteria should observe disciplinary values. The article first specifies what can be considered a value in disciplinary writing. Secondly, the identified value scheme is defined for applied linguistics, whereby assessment criteria are designed. Thirdly, the supervisory assessment criteria are proposed and defined through descriptors.  

Keywords: applied linguistics, approach, assessment, composition, content, disciplinary values, examiner role, methodology, student’s attitude, supervisory report, text structure, value scheme

Critical literature review on selected aspects of British studies as an academic subject

Karin SABOLÍKOVÁ, Adriana SABOVIKOVÁ, Pavol Jozef Šafárik University in Košice

email: adriana.sabovikova@upjs.sk

Abstract

The literature review offered in this paper is not undertaken as a stepping stone for a piece of primary research but is instead a self-contained form of review known as a standalone literature review. This type of review is intended to help other scholars—especially students and scholars encountering a new research area—by collecting, summarizing, synthesizing and analysing research conducted to date on a specific topic. The following contribution will provide a standalone critical review of literature on British studies, or, more specifically, studies relating to British political institutions and British social institutions, with an emphasis on the period after 2000. In the texts addressing British political institutions, the focus is placed on those examining government and political parties, while books covering the issues of migration were the primary focus among works addressing British social institutions. The review provides a critical review of selected relevant published secondary sources available via selected reputable publishers.

Keywords: British studies, British political institutions, British government, British social institutions, migration, literature review

Impact of stress on teachers’ job satisfaction

Petrit TARAJ, University of Vlora “Ismail Qemali”, Albania

email: ptaraj2@gmail.com

This study aims to assess the impact of stress factors on the stress levels of secondary school teachers[ The term is used rather broadly to refer to the 9-grade school system that includes primary education and lower secondary education in Albanian pre-university education (ages from 6 to 16).] in the educational setting, as well as the influence of stress on job satisfaction among teachers. For this study, we have employed the probability sampling method with simple random selection. Findings reveal that the factors extracted from factor analysis in this study significantly influence the teacher’s stress level. The Pearson correlation coefficient for F1 (CLS) resulted in (.630), and F2 (ED) resulted in (-.380). The findings indicated a positive correlation between (WLB) and (CLS), (r = .543) (moderated). Results show that the mean of (WLB) is μ = (58.1200), derived from an overall score of 70. The study highlighted that the classroom level impacts teachers’ stress levels, emphasising the importance of identifying effective strategies to support teachers. This study encourages researchers to replicate the findings, and future studies should yield results, focusing on improving the environment in which teachers carry out their job-related activities.

Keywords: stress, stress level, stressor, job satisfaction

Second languages spoken in Kosovo: An analysis

Adelajda BAFTIU,  University of Prishtina

Abstract

The object of this study is to identify the second languages that are mostly spoken in Kosovo. This study draws on the hypothesis that the second most spoken languages in Kosovo are English, Serbian, and German. We have tried to prove this hypothesis through the statistical method. The study herein presented is part of a larger study that uses a corpus-based approach. The corpus contains only spoken texts, but in addition to this, the subjects involved, after being interviewed, also completed a survey about the second language(s) they spoke.  In the survey, they provided the following data: place of birth, place of residence, age, gender, profession, education, mother tongue, and foreign languages. For data analysis and interpretation, we have used this survey to extract statistics for the second languages they speak and other data such as their profession and age group. We have also extracted statistics about the second languages spoken in each municipality in Kosovo. From these statistics, we came to the conclusion that most subjects speak Albanian as their mother tongue, while the second languages mostly used are English, Serbian, and German. Other spoken second languages include Slovenian, Russian, Bosnian, Macedonian, Polish, Bulgarian, Turkish, French, Arabic, Spanish, Italian, Swedish, Latin, Dutch, Norwegian, Romanian, Hungarian, Romani, and Greek.

Keywords: spoken corpus, Albanian varieties, Kosovo municipalities, sociolinguistics, survey