To ensure smooth communication and collaboration, here are some troubleshooting tips to address common issues:
Check Internet Connection: Verify that you have a stable and reliable internet connection. Use a wired connection when possible, as it tends to be more stable than Wi-Fi. If using Wi-Fi, make sure you have a strong signal.
Update the Browser or App: Ensure that you are using the latest version of the web browser. Developers frequently release updates to address bugs and improve performance.
Clear Browser Cache: Sometimes, cached data can cause conflicts or issues. Clear the browser cache and cookies before joining the meeting.
Test Audio and Video: Before the meeting, check your microphone and camera to ensure they are working correctly. If you are a speaker, you can click on "Start Practice Session" button test to ensure audio and video devices are functioning.
Close Other Applications: Running multiple applications in the background can consume system resources and lead to performance issues. Close unnecessary apps to free up resources for the Dryfta meeting platform.
Restart Your Device: If you encounter persistent issues, try restarting your computer or mobile device. This can help resolve various software-related problems.
Use Supported Browsers: Ensure you are using a browser supported by the meeting platform. Recommended browsers: Chrome, Firefox, Edge, and Brave.
Allow Necessary Permissions: Make sure the Dryfta meeting platform has the required permissions to access your microphone, camera, and other necessary features.
Disable VPN or Firewall: Sometimes, VPNs or firewalls can interfere with the connection to the meeting platform. Temporarily disable them and see if the issue persists.
Switch Devices: If possible, try joining the meeting from a different device to see if the problem is specific to one device.
Reduce Bandwidth Usage: In cases of slow or unstable internet connections, ask participants to disable video or share video selectively to reduce bandwidth consumption.
Update Drivers and Software: Ensure your operating system, audio drivers, and video drivers are up to date. Outdated drivers can cause compatibility issues with the Dryfta meeting platform.
Contact Support: If none of the above steps resolve the issue, reach out to the platform's support team. They can provide personalized assistance and troubleshoot specific problems.
By following these troubleshooting tips, you can tackle many common problems encountered on Dryfta meeting platform and have a more productive and seamless meeting experience.
A Dialectical Approach to Intercultural Communication in Virtual Exchange
Oral Presentation[SYMP18] AILA Europe Junior Researcher Meeting (JRM)01:15 PM - 04:15 PM (Europe/Amsterdam) 2023/07/20 11:15:00 UTC - 2024/07/20 14:15:00 UTC
IntroductionIn this research, I seek to explore how the similarities-differences and privilege-disadvantage dialectics inform the dynamics of teamwork and collaboration in a virtual exchange (VE) with university-level participants from Finland and Iran. The results of this study will add to the knowledge on the VE experiences of university students, in particular English language majors, and inform about how interculturality develops through the negotiation of identity and discourse in VEs. DialecticsMartin and Nakayama (1999) have proposed six dialectics that coexist in intercultural encounters, two of which are similarities-differences and privilege-disadvantage. The former dialectic runs counter to the traditional intercultural communication research, which overemphasizes differences, and acknowledges the coexistence of similarities and differences, and the latter indicates that an individual can be privileged and disadvantaged depending on the context (Martin, 2017). 1.2 Virtual exchange as a context for intercultural contact Virtual exchange is a pedagogical method and learning arrangement used to provide a platform for developing linguistic and intercultural competencies (O'Dowd, 2018). Research Questions 1. How do the similarities-differences and privilege-disadvantage dialectics become visible in the dynamics of teamwork and collaboration in a virtual exchange program using English as a lingua franca?
2. Methods 2.1 Participants This study will be performed among participants from Finland and Iran. Specifically, 14-17 undergraduate students of English Literature/Teaching English as a Foreign Language from Ferdowsi University of Mashhad (FUM), Iran, and 14-17 undergraduate students of English from the University of Jyväskylä will be recruited. The project will be run from 20 October to 20 December 2022 with recruitment facilitated by teachers from both universities. 2.2 Procedure I will design the VE tasks on the general themes of equity, the role of media in creating representations of countries, and how identity is constructed. The VE will be run for eight weeks, and the tasks will be completed in small groups comprising students from Finland and Iran. At the end of the program, semi-structured interviews will be conducted with six students separately. 2.3 Data analysis To understand the role of the similarities-differences and privilege-disadvantage dialectics in the dynamics of teamwork and collaboration in the VE, I will leverage the data obtained from participants' learning diaries and semi-structured interviews. Data analysis will be based on thematic analysis, which involves data familiarization, data coding, theme development, and revision (Clarke & Braun, 2014). Significance of the Study The research fills an important gap because there are scarce opportunities for intercultural teaching projects through virtual exchange between the Nordics and the Middle East.
References Clarke, V., & Braun, V. (2014). Thematic analysis. In Encyclopedia of critical psychology (pp. 1947-1952). Springer, New York, NY. Martin, J. N. (2017). Dialectics of culture and communication. The International Encyclopedia of Intercultural Communication, 1-6. Martin, J. N., & Nakayama, T. K. (1999). Thinking dialectically about culture and communication. Communication theory, 9(1), 1-25. O'Dowd, R. (2018). From telecollaboration to virtual exchange: State-of-the-art and the role of UNICollaboration in moving forward. Research-publishing. net, 1, 1-23.
Il y a plus de joggeuses parmi les joggeur·euses que parmi les joggeurs : Formes inclusives et proportions de femmes perçues dans des groupes sociaux
Oral Presentation[SYMP18] AILA Europe Junior Researcher Meeting (JRM)01:15 PM - 04:15 PM (Europe/Amsterdam) 2023/07/20 11:15:00 UTC - 2024/07/20 14:15:00 UTC
In French, psycholinguistic studies have shown that the generic use of the masculine gender results in a male bias in mental representations of gender. To counteract this effect, French speakers have begun using various gender-fair forms like joggeur·euses, joggeuses et joggeurs or un groupe de jogging. To investigate the influence of four different gender-fair forms, as compared to the masculine one, on perceived gender proportions of a role noun, we analysed 1018 native French-speakers' estimated percentage of women in 22 role nouns. The results showed that all four gender-fair forms significantly increased the percentage of women in comparison to the masculine form. We also found that the more positive a participant's attitudes towards gender-fair language were, the lower was their estimated percentage of women. We believe that participants who estimated lower percentages of women are the ones who believe gender-fair language is necessary, and therefore hold more positive attitudes. Thus, the lower estimated percentages would be the cause of the positive attitudes rather than an effect of them. In sum, the results indicate that gender-fair forms are an efficient tool in increasing representation of women in French.
En français, le genre masculin est utilisé pour désigner un groupe consistant soit uniquement d'hommes, soit de femmes et d'hommes. Cependant, cette ambigüité ne se retrouve pas chez le féminin : si la forme féminine est utilisée, il est certain que l'on ne parle que de femmes. Depuis deux décennies, des études en psycholinguistique (Brauer and Landry, 2008 ; Gygax et al., 2019) ont examiné les effets de l'usage générique du genre masculin sur les représentations de genre et ont démontré que cet usage entraîne un biais masculin. En d'autres mots, utiliser la forme masculine en parlant de femmes et d'hommes rend les représentations mentales de femmes plus difficiles. Pour contrer cet effet, certains et certaines francophones ont commencé à utiliser de différentes formes inclusives. L'objectif de la présente étude était d'examiner l'influence de différentes formes inclusives (joggeurs et joggeuses ; joggeuses et joggeurs ; joggeur·euses ; un groupe de jogging), par rapport à la forme masculine, sur les proportions de femmes et d'hommes perçues dans un nom commun de personne (NCP). Avec cet objectif, nous avons analysé les pourcentages de femmes représentées dans 22 NCPs donnés par 1018 francophones. Les NCPs étaient sans stéréotype de genre afin de se focaliser uniquement sur l'effet de la forme grammaticale. Les participantes et participants lisaient tous les NCPs dans la même forme et devaient estimer le pourcentage de femmes représentées dans chaque NCP sur une échelle allant de 100% à 0% femmes ou de 100% à 0% hommes. L'étude a rendu trois résultats principaux. Premièrement, toutes les formes inclusives ont augmenté de façon significative le pourcentage de femmes comparées à la forme masculine, et aucune forme inclusive n'était plus efficace qu'une autre. Deuxièmement, la direction de l'échelle influençait les estimations de sorte que lorsque l'échelle commençait avec l'étiquette 100% femmes, le pourcentage de femmes était plus élevé. Finalement, et quelque peu étonnamment, des attitudes positives envers le langage inclusif chez une personne prédisaient un pourcentage de femmes plus bas. En d'autres mots, plus les attitudes envers le langage inclusif d'une personne étaient positives, plus bas étaient ses pourcentages estimés de femmes. Pendant que les deux premiers résultats étaient en accord avec les études antérieures et ont confirmé nos hypothèses, le dernier nécessite un peu de réflexion. Notre interprétation est que les participantes et participants ayant estimé des pourcentages de femmes plus bas seraient celles et ceux qui estiment que le langage inclusif est nécessaire, et qui par conséquent tiennent des attitudes plus positives. Ainsi, les bas pourcentages estimés seraient la cause des attitudes positives plutôt que leur effet. Pour conclure, les résultats de notre étude suggèrent que le langage inclusif est un moyen efficace pour augmenter la représentation des femmes en français. Brauer, M., and Landry, M. (2008). Un ministre peut-il tomber enceinte? L'impact du générique masculin sur les représentations mentales. L'année psychologique, 108(22), 243–272. Gygax, P., Gabriel, U., and Zufferey, S. (2019). Le masculin et ses multiples sens: Un problème pour notre cerveau... Et notre société. Savoirs en Prisme, 10(e-publication), 24.
Presenters Julia Tibblin PhD Student, Lund University Co-authors
The Burkini in German Legal Discourse: Individualized Integration, Belonging, and the Role of State
Oral Presentation[SYMP18] AILA Europe Junior Researcher Meeting (JRM)01:15 PM - 04:15 PM (Europe/Amsterdam) 2023/07/20 11:15:00 UTC - 2024/07/20 14:15:00 UTC
Using critical discourse analysis, this paper examines the foremost German case on the right to freedom of conscience, state control of education, and Islamic dress. The research is based on a corpus consisting of the case's four judicial rulings; it represents the German court system from the court of first jurisdiction to the country's supreme court. It asks: How do the judiciary's decisions construct, maintain, or reproduce the notion of what it means to belong in Germany and, by extension, how is integration marked through individual participation in activities that are defined as culturally significant? Three sub-themes emerged from the main theme of integration: individualized integration, belonging, and the role of the state. The analysis suggests that the concept of integration is applied to individual bodily practices in educational contexts and burkini-wearing, in particular, as a way of validating a gendered form of sociopolitical belonging and inclusion. The findings show how a garment designed to meet the needs of Muslim women is recontextualized by the courts as a physical expression of German liberalism and tolerance even as the guidelines for when and how it is worn remain at the direction of the state and thus, limit individual agency.
While gender has long played a key role in the politics of belonging (Yuval-Davis 2011), research indicates that nationalistic body politics increasingly require Muslims and those with non-Western backgrounds to signify individual integration through cultural participation (De Waal 2021; Wodak 2021), particularly regarding veiling in Europe (Hadj Abdou 2017, Sauer 2016). This paper shows how judicial rulings frame coeducational swimming lessons in public schools as a site where such cultural participation is required of school-aged Muslim children. Specifically, through a critical discourse analysis of the foremost German case on a student's right to freedom of conscience, state control of education, and Islamic dress, it reveals how the judiciary validates a form of sociopolitical belonging in which the concept of integration is applied to bodily practices in an educational context. The research is based on a corpus consisting of the case's four judicial rulings; it represents the German court system from the court of first instance for administrative justice for the city in which the case originated (i.e., Frankfurt am Main) to the country's highest judicial authority, the Federal Constitutional Court. It is guided by the following research questions: How do judicial rulings construct, maintain, or reproduce the notion of what it means to belong and, by extension, how is integration marked through individual participation in activities that are defined as culturally significant? Three sub-themes emerged from the main theme of integration: individualized integration, belonging, and the role of the state. The findings show how a garment designed to meet the needs of Muslim women is recontextualized by the courts as a physical expression of German liberalism and tolerance even as the guidelines for when and how it is worn remain at the direction of the state and thus, limit individual agency. As research on the burkini is limited compared to other Muslim head and body coverings, this paper contributes not only to how legal discourse delineates and manages difference within society, but also adds to scholarship on how the veil is framed and regulated in nation-specific narratives (Korteweg and Yurdakul 2014; Rosenberger and Sauer 2012).
Bibliography: De Waal, Tamar. 2021. Integration Requirements for Immigrants in Europe: A Legal-philosophical Inquiry. Oxford: Hart. Hadj Abdou, Leila. 2017. "'Gender nationalism': The New (Old) Politics of Belonging." Österreichische Zeitschrift für Politikwissenschaft 46(1): 83-88. Korteweg, Anna C., and Gökçe Yurdakul. 2014. The Headscarf Debates: Conflicts of National Belonging. Stanford: Stanford University Press. Rosenberger, Sieglinde, and Birgit Sauer, eds. 2012. Politics, Religion and Gender: Framing and Regulating the Veil. London: Routledge. Sauer, Birgit. 2016. "Gender and Citizenship: Governing Muslim Body Covering in Europe." In Contemporary Encounters in Gender and Religion: European Perspectives, edited by Lena Gemzöe, Marja-Liisa Keinänen, and Avril Maddrell, 105-129. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan. Wodak, Ruth. 2021. "Re/nationalising EU-rope National Identities, Right-Wing Populism, and Border- and Body-Politics." In National Stereotyping, Identity Politics, European Crises, edited by Jürgen Barkhoff and Joep Leerssen, 95-121. Leiden: Brill. Yuval-Davis, Nira. 2011. The Politics of Belonging. Intersectional Contestations. Los Angeles: SAGE.
Presenters Emily Davis Ph.D. Candidate And Lecturer, University Of Groningen
Julia Tibblin
Emily Davis
