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14th INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON Health, Wellness & Society

The Democracy crisis

By Dr. Rosa Hilda Lora M. Advisor at AIU | [email protected]

We are living in a world in which there is a lot of talk about production, the wealth of certain groups, migration in Europe, migration on the southern border of the United States -USA- and representative systems changed by military systems. It seems that freedom and what it is, democracy, are becoming absent from our beloved planet, which we are also seeing suffer from everything that many humans are doing. Its our knowledge that the United Nations Organization holds its General Assembly every year where it reviews already proposed objectives and structures new ways to achieve them. This year 2023, the General Assembly was held from September 18 to 23 at its headquarters in New York City, USA. “World leaders gathered in New York to participate in the annual high-level General Debate under the theme “Rebuilding trust and reviving global solidarity: Accelerating actions within the 2030 Agenda and its Sustainable Development Goals towards achieving of peace, prosperity, progress and sustainability for all”. United Nations - UN. General assembly. High level week 2023. September 2023. https:// www.un.org/es/high-levelweek- 2023#:~:text=Los%20 Jefes%20de%20Estado%20 y%20de%20Gobierno%20se%20 reunir%C3%A1n%20en,nivel%20 sobre%20acciones%20 transformadoras%20y With the afore mentioned objective, the commissions worked on the review of the Sustainable Development Goals with the aim of ensuring that they are met by the date that has already been previously proposed, which is 2030. The basis for these objectives to be achieved is the peace and organization of the States: with freedom to structure education, with production so that human beings can achieve their goals of personal development. The freedom is called democracy.

The UN assigned UNESCO —United Nations Education, Science and Culture Organization— the work of the 17 sustainable development goals where objective 4 determines that there must be Quality Education and also throughout of the life. It has, to be throughout life because knowledge grows rapidly and otherwise many human beings would be left out of the context of production. It also happens that if it is not studied throughout life, people remain outside the world in which we live. We must always study because knowledge is useful for all the decisions we make in life. If you don’t do it, life becomes very sad because many mistakes are made due to lack of knowledge.

“The head of the UN urged the people or organizations participating in the event to present credible, serious and innovative climate measures, as well as nature-based solutions that represent significant advances and respond to the urgency of the climate crisis.” United Nations -UN. General assembly high level week 2023. September 2023. https:// www.un.org/es/high-levelweek- 2023#:~:text=Los%20 Jefes%20de%20Estado%20 y%20de%20Gobierno%20se%20 reunir%C3%A1n%20en,nivel%20 sobre%20acciones%20 transformadoras%20y Talking about Climate Change is obvious: droughts, floods and very high temperatures. If there are no governments that seek the well-being of their citizens, it is impossible to achieve the necessary development. If the well-being of citizens is called democracy and it is freedom, we are witnessing the path that it is taking.

Regarding the work proposed in this last Assembly, the UN has greatly outlined what is necessary to achieve Democracy. In addition to the work carried out in the General Assembly, the UN had declared September 15 as international day of democracy, the work was, therefore, very precise for this September. In accordance with the current situation, the UN considered that the main objective to achieve the necessary democracy at this time is: empower young people in it.

“Youth must navigate a world where democracies are threatened by factors ranging from the proliferation of misinformation and disinformation online to rising populism and the destabilizing effects of the climate crisis. “It’s important that everyone can participate meaningfully in the decisions that affect their lives now, and in the years to come”. United Nations - UN. International Day of Democracy - September 15. September 2023. https://www.un.org/es/ observances/democracy-day We are living in a world where the organization and pursuit of the production of goods is marked by groups that think that only they exist. The United Nations seeks a way to empower young people to assume leadership positions in matters of utmost importance so that the changes that today’s world needs to strengthen democracy can be made.

“On the International Day of Democracy, we celebrate the promise that democracy represents for societies, and we recognize the many threats it faces in times as tense and turbulent as those we live in”. —Guterres, A. Secretary General of the United Nations. United Nations - UN. International Day of Democracy - September 15. September 2023. https:// www.un.org/es/observances/ democracy-day Democracy is a process and an objective and can only be achieved with the support of civil society, governments and the international community. Democracy means freedom of expression and it’s enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in its article 19, which says: “Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes the right not to be disturbed because of his or her opinions, to seek, receive and disseminate information and opinions, regardless of frontiers, through any media. expression”. United Nations - UN. International Day of Democracy - September 15. September 2023. https://www.un.org/ es/observances/democracy-day There are groups that look for all ways to violate this right. It’s the world we are living in: the strongest groups intend to stay in power by obtaining the benefits they want without caring about the human beings they leave without a decent life. The UN not only guides on issues that have to do with democracy, also has a background: “The United Nations Democracy Fund (UNDEF) funds projects that empower civil society, promote human rights and encourage the participation of all groups in democratic processes, including young people.” United Nations - UN. International Day of Democracy - September 15. September 2023. https://www.un.org/ es/observances/democracy-day Empowering young people means giving them quality and lifelong education so they can build a satisfying life.

By empowering young people, it prevents them from being convinced of positions that only lead to objectives that go against a dignified life. You have to study now and throughout your life. You are taking a program at Atlantic International University (AIU): study, learn so that you can build a decent life and can work to forge the democracy that we need. The social world and our planet Earth will give us a dignified life if we work for the good of all: democracy.

BIBLIOGRAPHY. NACIONES UNIDAS - ONU. Asamblea general. Semana de alto nivel 2023. Septiembre 2023. https://www.un.org/es/high-levelweek- 2023#:~:text=Los%20Jefes%20de%20Estado%20y%20de%20Gobierno%20se%20 reunir%C3%A1n%20en,nivel%20sobre%20acciones%20transformadoras%20y | NACIONES UNIDAS - ONU. Contrarrestar la desinformación. Septiembre 2023. https://www.un.org/es/countering-disinformation/ | NACIONES UNIDAS - ONU. Día International de la Democracia - 15 de septiembre. Septiembre 2023. https://www.un.org/es/observances/democracy-day

Successful communication and communicative competence in language teaching/learning

William Nzitubundi Sendihe | Doctor of Education in Applied Linguistics | Part 1/2

Abstract
This article discusses the importance of successful communication between people in the use of language, especially those learning a given foreign language. As a language teaching professional, I believe that a good usage of the language is what leads to successful communication. By “good usage”, here we mean some degree of communicative competence in the practice of a foreign language, with some coherence in order to be understood by your interlocutor, i.e. your hearer or reader. Foreign language learners who practice the language through different interactions, as encouraged by good models from teachers/ facilitators, are the ones that are likely to achieve successful communication, which implies communicative competence through communicative approach in the learning process. Good interaction between the two parties in communication, i.e. the speaker and the hearer, the writer and the reader, or between those using sign language, implies successful communication as long as the message passes from the source to the receiver, despite some language errors that may occur therein.

1. Introduction
Communicative competence and communicative approach are two paramount elements which are connected to successful language teaching/ learning process. These are also connected to educational linguistics on the issue of the ultimate attempt of language teaching which must enable learners to communicate successfully in the target language they are learning, since “Speaking without communicating is a tale told by an idiot.” (Savignon, 1973). In order to achieve this, it is not sufficient to have a wide-ranging understanding of language forms and functions; what is additionally needed is exchange of meanings in actual interaction.

2. Sociolinguistics and language variation
Sociolinguistics covers a wide range of studies of how language is used in its social context, but all the studies have one thing in common: they deal with language variation. They emphasize how malleable language is and how its form and function change across different cultures and across different social situations within one culture. Various social factors determine the individual speaker’s use of language. All speakers, in this context, adapt their style of speaking to suit the social situation in which they find themselves. Such a styleshifting demands constant judgements, yet speakers are not normally conscious of making such judgements until they find themselves in a problematic situation for which they do not know the conventions, or for which the criteria for speaking in a certain way clash. On the other hand, it is intuitively clear that a teacher, for example, does not speak in the same way to his wife, his mother-in-law, his colleagues in the staffroom, his pupils, his headmaster, etc. His way of talking to them will change according to the context, social considerations (formal or informal), and relationships. People therefore adapt their speech according to the person they are talking to and the point behind the talk. These are social rather than linguistic constraints.

3. Interactionist Theory
Stubb (1983), quoted by Kambale, M. B. (1996), gives the following ideas about the importance of language interaction (interactionist theory) toward the emphasis of successful communication: In parallel with communicative approach, the interactionist theory also puts emphasis on the effect of social environment in which linguistic competence can be turned out to be communicative competence through interaction and by the help of non-verbal components; much more meaningful language learning can be achieved, as proposed by educational linguists. It is worth noting that “classroom interaction” is the core of educational linguistics research…it is obvious that communicative language teaching, silent way, suggestopedia, TPR and other methods such as task-based and competency-based language teaching can also be linked to educational linguistics.

4. Language functions
One way of analyzing such variations in language behaviour is to isolate various factors in the social situations which influence or interact with the kind of language used, and to discuss associated functions which language fills in different situations. Language does not play a constant role across different social situations, yet many people still assume that language mainly has two general functions as it refers to the external world and interactive clear messages (a referential-cognitive function), and of expressing feelings (an emotive function). This distinction may hold as an initial classification, but it is quite inadequate as a detailed analysis. It is not something ordinary in sociolinguistics to say that language can have many functions. Language may have as its primary function the task of getting a message across and of persuading the addressee to a certain point of view. However, greetings for example may have the primary function of establishing or maintaining social relationships and solidarity: very little new propositional information may be communicated. Other functions of language simply serve to fill embarrassing silence. In the same way, short statements in lengthier speeches may also not have the same key functions. It is significant to understand that the function of a statement may be relatively different than its traditional grammatical description. For instance, a teacher may say: John, come down to the front. This is a clear imperative, but he may also say: John, I don’t think it is a good idea for you to sit at the back of the class. Although this does not have imperative syntax, it the clear function of getting the student to move: surface syntactic forms must be distinguished from speech act functions, such as request or order. The type of functional approach to language which is proposed here derives largely from Hymes’ work on the ethnography of communication. Hymes (1962), following Jacobson (1960), paraphrased by Kambale (1996), propose the following seven broad types of function which language in use serves:

(1) Expressive/emotive
(2) Directive/persuasive
(3) Poetic
(4) Contact (physical or psychological)
(5) Metalinguistic (focusing on meaning)
(6) Referential
(7) Contextual/situational.

According to the same above mentioned linguists, in a speech situation, appropriate language may depend on different combinations of:

(a) Sender
(b) Receiver
(c) Message form
(d) Channel (e.g. speech versus writing)
(e) Code (e.g. dialect, language or jargon)
(f) Topic
(g) Setting or situation.

Some of Hymes’ ideas on the ethnography of communication are used in classroom contexts. The speech functions that Hymes calls metalinguistic, contact and poetic are predominantly pertinent to an instructor’s communicative anxiety in the classroom. Hymes shows that among the several functions that language may have through various contexts; it may do the work of concentrating on language itself, on its forms, or on some aspects of the communicational situation. According to Hymes’ analysis, language with a metalinguistic function focuses on the underlying look. So, an utterer may concentrate on the meaning of the language used by saying for instance the following statement: Go and look it up in the dictionary! Language with a contact function focuses on the channels of communication, as when we say: Can you hear me? And language with a poetic function focuses on the message form.

5. Semantics and pragmatics
Semantics and pragmatics are branches of linguistics concerned with meaning. These subfields have traditionally been divided according to aspects of meaning thought to arise from the grammar versus linguistic and social context. Semantics in this conception is concerned with grammatical and lexical meanings and pragmatics concerned with meaning in context. Lyons (1977) suggests the meaning of “meaning” as: ‘That which something signifies and the value or significance of what is signified.’ But he acknowledged the weakness of his definition and said a little later: ‘but the fact remains that the meaning of words and sentences is learnt and maintained by the use to which language is put in communicative situations. There is therefore meaning in the abstract and meaning in use; the former being only a subset or part of the latter.’ The study of meaning in use; known as pragmatics, and the study of meaning in abstraction; known as semantics, are two of the branches of Semiotics or the study of signs By definition, semantics is the study of meaning in its entirety. For this reason, one may find it hard to establish a clear-cut boundary between semantics and pragmatics as these two disciplines are complementary (they work hand in hand) in the modern analysis of language meaning. However, for the sake of clarity, some details about each discipline may be necessary. As far as pragmatics is concerned, it is the study of signs to interpreters or the study of language usage. Pragmatists study meaning at concrete level; they see language as means to convey meaning in use rather than in the abstract. Leech, G. (1983:6) states the difference between pragmatics and semantics in the following terms: Meaning in pragmatics is defined as relative to speaker or user of the language, whereas meaning in semantics is defined purely as a property of expression in a given language in abstraction from particular situations, speakers or hearers.

In fact, it has been said that meaning is not only a matter of intention to state something, but it is also a matter of convention. Implicit in the world, convention is the idea that there is an active participation of both the speaker and the hearer in the use of language to mean; i.e. in the negotiation of meaning. Since pragmatics deals with language user’s meaning, it is in relationship with sociolinguistics, psycholinguistics, semantics (in its narrow sense) and other mechanisms of human communication (for example, gestures, facial expressions, sign language, etc.). As a way of illustration, let’s examine the understanding of the following utterances: Husband: I ate up all the food. Wife: Oh, thanks.

Semantic approach: The food is completely finished. The food is all in my stomach. Pragmatically: There is a compliment being made at on the food: The food was so nice/ delicious that I couldn’t help putting it all in my stomach. In other words, this is a compliment to the person who cooked or bought the food. Pragmatics accounts for mechanisms by which language users communicate beyond the mere use of linguistic devices. We now know that much of the information people convey or transmit in everyday interactions is implied rather than asserted. Semantics deals with the relations of signs with the objects to which the signs are applicable. When we teach meaning, we teach the following three things: the concept (thought), the symbol (sign, spelling, phonetic symbols), and the referent (signified). Here, we also study the way in which the signs are related to one another and deal with the changes of the meanings of words. It is worth acknowledging however that the following are some issues semanticists are concerned with: ambiguity, hyponymy, contradiction, implication.

The three elements we teach through meaning indicate that the 3 terms are different in meanings and that there is no direct relationship between them. Sometimes you may have a relationship between the symbol and the referent, but this case is not a universal one. Then between thought and referent there is a direct relationship. A word has 2 parts: form and content. The form relates to the symbolic function of the word. Example: Good /g d/ (spelling and pronunciation). The content relates to the thought or reference which is printed in mind. Pragmatics is known as the area of language study to which any logical approach in linguistics involving contextual considerations belongs. Here, context is understood as the environment or circumstance in which language is used. Pragmatics experts and discourse analysts are the ones who carry out professional investigations on how a language is used in a certain context, the connection between the speaker and his/her statement, rather than investigating on the specific time of use and the potential connection between a statement and another. This means that in using terms like reference, assumption, implicature, implication, pragmatics experts and discourse analysts have described what speakers and hearers do in the actual sense, and not the relationship which exists between one statement and another, one word and another, etc. TO BE CONTINUED

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