The paper presents an overview of analytical philosophy in Lithuania. It is observed that analytical philosophy had not been studied or developed in Lithuania before the 1970s, when Evaldas Nekrasas and Rolandas Pavilionis began their work in philosophy of science and philosophy of language, rooted in analytical tradition. The article discusses the works of Nekrasas and Pavilionis, as well as those of others (e.g., Degutis and Plesnys). It notes that analytical philosophy was the first non-Marxist trend of philosophy to be developed in post-war Lithuania, and thus it was of considerable influence at the time when the Marxist methodology had to be overthrown. Although the influence of analytical philosophy in Lithuania has diminished during later years in favour of postmodern trends, it is still evident in some recent works on philosophy of mind, philosophy of causation, and methodology of the humanities and social sciences. It has also made a strong impact upon the development of political philosophy and research in the history of positivism.
The paper presents an overview of analytical philosophy in Lithuania. It is observed that analytical philosophy had not been studied or developed in Lithuania before the 1970s, when Evaldas Nekrasas and Rolandas Pavilionis began their work in philosophy of science and philosophy of language, rooted in analytical tradition. The article discusses the works of Nekrasas and Pavilionis, as well as those of others (e.g., Degutis and Plesnys). It notes that analytical philosophy was the first non-Marxist trend of philosophy to be developed in post-war Lithuania, and thus it was of considerable influence at the time when the Marxist methodology had to be overthrown. Although the influence of analytical philosophy in Lithuania has diminished during later years in favour of postmodern trends, it is still evident in some recent works on philosophy of mind, philosophy of causation, and methodology of the humanities and social sciences. It has also made a strong impact upon the development of political philosophy and research in the history of positivism.
The paper presents an overview of analytical philosophy in Lithuania. It is observed that analytical philosophy had not been studied or developed in Lithuania before the 1970s, when Evaldas Nekrasas and Rolandas Pavilionis began their work in philosophy of science and philosophy of language, rooted in analytical tradition. The article discusses the works of Nekrasas and Pavilionis, as well as those of others (e.g., Degutis and Plesnys). It notes that analytical philosophy was the first non-Marxist trend of philosophy to be developed in post-war Lithuania, and thus it was of considerable influence at the time when the Marxist methodology had to be overthrown. Although the influence of analytical philosophy in Lithuania has diminished during later years in favour of postmodern trends, it is still evident in some recent works on philosophy of mind, philosophy of causation, and methodology of the humanities and social sciences. It has also made a strong impact upon the development of political philosophy and research in the history of positivism.
National minority language policy is an object of this master thesis. It aims at analyzing how minority language policy is being formed in Lithuania and Romania. Goals of the thesis are: to analyze types of language policy and models of language planning; concept of national minority in social sciences, international law and European countries – Lithuania and Romania; development and regulations of European minorities' linguistic rights as well as language policy of the European Union; to research minority language policy in Lithuania and Romania as well as reception of minority language policy in Lithuania and Romania and to compare implementation of minority language policy in these two countries. There is no single description neither for national minority nor for language policy. However, national minority is often understood as a group of people, who historically live in the territory of another country, and have unique linguistic, cultural, sometimes – religious identity. Therefore, language is a part and parcel of minority's identity. So, it is very important that language policy would ensure rights of minority language's users and help to preserve minority's linguistic identity. Language policies in Lithuania and Romania can be described as combining types of official language valuation policy and different judicial status policy. Romanian language policy also meets definition of bilingualism (territorialized personal rights), because it allows usage of minority language in local public administration and public inscriptions. In Lithuania main laws regulating minority language policy are law of national minorities (expired in 2010) and law of education. Current law of education will be replaced by new one in July, 2011. This law, which strengthens education of minorities in the State language, caused lots of discussions in the society and pretty negative evaluation of the biggest national minorities, especially Polish. Meanwhile Romania recently directed its minority language policy in different way. Here new law of education was also accepted in the beginning of 2011. It ensured teaching of all subjects in the language of national minority. The law was followed by various reactions and critics in society. However, it can be considered as a victory of national minorities. Another law, important for Romania's minorities, is law of local public administration, which grants right to regional bilingualism. Focus group research as well as content analysis in Lithuania and Romania helped to investigate reception of minority language policy in the society. It may be described as quite positive, especially in Lithuania. Even if in both countries respondents admitted that they didn't look for information about minority language policy on purpose, they were interested and sensitive towards focus groups' topics, especially regarding education and integration of national minorities. Respondents critically valued aims of biggest minorities (Polish and Hungarians) to gain more rights. However, at the moment of the research they didn't feel threat for the State language. Content analysis revealed that recently Lithuanian media allotted more attention to minority language policy than Romanian media. However, the most popular minority language policy issue in both countries' was education and new law of education. Variety of opinions and arguments (of both national majority and minorities) was presented here. At the moment main aim for Lithuanian legislators while forming minority language policy is to solve coalition between laws' regulations regarding bilingual inscriptions and approve new law of national minorities. Meanwhile Romania should approve one single law, dedicated to minorities and foreseeing their rights. Both countries should keep on improving minority language policy's legislation in order to satisfy interests and ensure rights of both state and minority languages users.
National minority language policy is an object of this master thesis. It aims at analyzing how minority language policy is being formed in Lithuania and Romania. Goals of the thesis are: to analyze types of language policy and models of language planning; concept of national minority in social sciences, international law and European countries – Lithuania and Romania; development and regulations of European minorities' linguistic rights as well as language policy of the European Union; to research minority language policy in Lithuania and Romania as well as reception of minority language policy in Lithuania and Romania and to compare implementation of minority language policy in these two countries. There is no single description neither for national minority nor for language policy. However, national minority is often understood as a group of people, who historically live in the territory of another country, and have unique linguistic, cultural, sometimes – religious identity. Therefore, language is a part and parcel of minority's identity. So, it is very important that language policy would ensure rights of minority language's users and help to preserve minority's linguistic identity. Language policies in Lithuania and Romania can be described as combining types of official language valuation policy and different judicial status policy. Romanian language policy also meets definition of bilingualism (territorialized personal rights), because it allows usage of minority language in local public administration and public inscriptions. In Lithuania main laws regulating minority language policy are law of national minorities (expired in 2010) and law of education. Current law of education will be replaced by new one in July, 2011. This law, which strengthens education of minorities in the State language, caused lots of discussions in the society and pretty negative evaluation of the biggest national minorities, especially Polish. Meanwhile Romania recently directed its minority language policy in different way. Here new law of education was also accepted in the beginning of 2011. It ensured teaching of all subjects in the language of national minority. The law was followed by various reactions and critics in society. However, it can be considered as a victory of national minorities. Another law, important for Romania's minorities, is law of local public administration, which grants right to regional bilingualism. Focus group research as well as content analysis in Lithuania and Romania helped to investigate reception of minority language policy in the society. It may be described as quite positive, especially in Lithuania. Even if in both countries respondents admitted that they didn't look for information about minority language policy on purpose, they were interested and sensitive towards focus groups' topics, especially regarding education and integration of national minorities. Respondents critically valued aims of biggest minorities (Polish and Hungarians) to gain more rights. However, at the moment of the research they didn't feel threat for the State language. Content analysis revealed that recently Lithuanian media allotted more attention to minority language policy than Romanian media. However, the most popular minority language policy issue in both countries' was education and new law of education. Variety of opinions and arguments (of both national majority and minorities) was presented here. At the moment main aim for Lithuanian legislators while forming minority language policy is to solve coalition between laws' regulations regarding bilingual inscriptions and approve new law of national minorities. Meanwhile Romania should approve one single law, dedicated to minorities and foreseeing their rights. Both countries should keep on improving minority language policy's legislation in order to satisfy interests and ensure rights of both state and minority languages users.
The relevance of the topic nowadays. Knowledge of the foreign languages is a relevant and an important factor, which lets for people to take part in European education, economic, social and cultural expansion. It encourages us to find out the problems of learning English language and to find the ways, which ensure possibilities of successful English language learning. So it is very important to find out the factors, which influence quality of the learning. Relevant factors are: psychological, pedagogical and social. These factors influence not only learning at school, but learning at home too. Pupil's ability to learn determines personal characteristic, surroundings (of school and home), student's, his parents' and teacher's attitude to the learning. Seeking of good education results is concerned with combine of democracy and formal education. Then it can be achieved good education results and acquired fully-fledged, well-rounded, manifold personality. That's why in this work it is written about child's education in democracy culture, about education based on love and goodness, about experiential learning; traditional English teaching and teaching based on child's experience is compared. According A. Lepeskiene (1996), child, who is open to new experience, learns mostly. The problem. Teaching is based on a subject at school, not on child's experience. Formal education nor always is concerned with child's experience, so children are lack of informal learning experience, the knowledge which is acquired in informal surrounding is not applied at school. According R. Weskamp (1999), in these latter years, in didactics of foreign language marked change happened – from scientific- technological teaching moved up to learning based on child's experience. However the question appears – is really teaching based on experienced learning and practically applied in processes of teaching, education and training? And how to do it? That's why it is very important to encourage teachers to wonder about informal, based on child's experience teaching. It is very important to research and analyse the combination conditions of formal and informal learning, and in this way to manage the quality of foreign language learning. The purpose of the research. To explore factors affecting quality management of early English language learning in primary school ( in formal and informal teaching). The goals of the research: 1. To study and to research pedagogical, social and psychological literature and validate the relevance of children's from primary school learning in formal and informal surrounding. 2. Research empirically and establish factors, which affect the quality of English language learning in primary school. 3. Provide with references how to improve early English language teaching, how to combine formal and informal learning in primary school. The research methods: 1. The analysis of pedagogical, social and psychological literature. 2. The anonymous written questionnaires used in order to research the attitude of teachers, students, parents to factors affecting early English language teaching in primary school 3. The data of the research is analyzed both quantitatively and qualitatively. For the analysis of data is used the SSPS program (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences). For the arrangement, systematization and graphic design of the researched data are used Windows Microsoft Word and Windows Microsoft Excel programs. The scope of the research. 107 pupils, 74 parents, 12 teachers from Šilalė's district (Šilalė, Pajūris, Laukuva) participated in the questionnaire. In total 193 people took part in this questionnaire. The conclusions. • On parents opinion, factors affecting the quality of English language are: the English language knowledge of family members (79.5%), and watching English TV programmes (70.8%). • The results of the research shows that children from primary school rapidly learn English language. As parents say, it is associated with using of active learning methods in the lessons (84.5%) and using of dialogs with situations from children's life and experience (77.2%) • Parents agree that their children learn English language on their own playing English games on the internet (74%), watching English films and TV programmes (75%) and reading English books (54%) • According teachers, the quality of learning is affected by students motivation and when in the learning process the student is activated (100%). • Factors affecting learning in the informal surrounding are: reading of English books (100%) and watching of English TV programmes (100%). • Parents (79.5%) and teachers (100%) agree that very important factor affecting the quality of English learning is family and English language knowledge of family members. • It is very important to know, what teachers know about factors that affect learning. The analysis of the research and of academic literature shows that teachers not only know about these factors, but also they use them practically. • Types of children's informal learning were represented in the research. Children agree that it is easier for them to learn English because they watch English films (82.2%), listen to English songs (88.7%), play English games (79.3%) and watch English TV programmes. • To children's opinion, they can use their English knowledge ( that they gain in the informal surrounding) in the English lessons. 70% of children say that they have possibilities to use more English words in the lessons. 62% agree that they can easily talk in pairs, because they know more English phrases and sentences. 80.3% say that they can easily use English dictionary on the internet.
The relevance of the topic nowadays. Knowledge of the foreign languages is a relevant and an important factor, which lets for people to take part in European education, economic, social and cultural expansion. It encourages us to find out the problems of learning English language and to find the ways, which ensure possibilities of successful English language learning. So it is very important to find out the factors, which influence quality of the learning. Relevant factors are: psychological, pedagogical and social. These factors influence not only learning at school, but learning at home too. Pupil's ability to learn determines personal characteristic, surroundings (of school and home), student's, his parents' and teacher's attitude to the learning. Seeking of good education results is concerned with combine of democracy and formal education. Then it can be achieved good education results and acquired fully-fledged, well-rounded, manifold personality. That's why in this work it is written about child's education in democracy culture, about education based on love and goodness, about experiential learning; traditional English teaching and teaching based on child's experience is compared. According A. Lepeskiene (1996), child, who is open to new experience, learns mostly. The problem. Teaching is based on a subject at school, not on child's experience. Formal education nor always is concerned with child's experience, so children are lack of informal learning experience, the knowledge which is acquired in informal surrounding is not applied at school. According R. Weskamp (1999), in these latter years, in didactics of foreign language marked change happened – from scientific- technological teaching moved up to learning based on child's experience. However the question appears – is really teaching based on experienced learning and practically applied in processes of teaching, education and training? And how to do it? That's why it is very important to encourage teachers to wonder about informal, based on child's experience teaching. It is very important to research and analyse the combination conditions of formal and informal learning, and in this way to manage the quality of foreign language learning. The purpose of the research. To explore factors affecting quality management of early English language learning in primary school ( in formal and informal teaching). The goals of the research: 1. To study and to research pedagogical, social and psychological literature and validate the relevance of children's from primary school learning in formal and informal surrounding. 2. Research empirically and establish factors, which affect the quality of English language learning in primary school. 3. Provide with references how to improve early English language teaching, how to combine formal and informal learning in primary school. The research methods: 1. The analysis of pedagogical, social and psychological literature. 2. The anonymous written questionnaires used in order to research the attitude of teachers, students, parents to factors affecting early English language teaching in primary school 3. The data of the research is analyzed both quantitatively and qualitatively. For the analysis of data is used the SSPS program (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences). For the arrangement, systematization and graphic design of the researched data are used Windows Microsoft Word and Windows Microsoft Excel programs. The scope of the research. 107 pupils, 74 parents, 12 teachers from Šilalė's district (Šilalė, Pajūris, Laukuva) participated in the questionnaire. In total 193 people took part in this questionnaire. The conclusions. • On parents opinion, factors affecting the quality of English language are: the English language knowledge of family members (79.5%), and watching English TV programmes (70.8%). • The results of the research shows that children from primary school rapidly learn English language. As parents say, it is associated with using of active learning methods in the lessons (84.5%) and using of dialogs with situations from children's life and experience (77.2%) • Parents agree that their children learn English language on their own playing English games on the internet (74%), watching English films and TV programmes (75%) and reading English books (54%) • According teachers, the quality of learning is affected by students motivation and when in the learning process the student is activated (100%). • Factors affecting learning in the informal surrounding are: reading of English books (100%) and watching of English TV programmes (100%). • Parents (79.5%) and teachers (100%) agree that very important factor affecting the quality of English learning is family and English language knowledge of family members. • It is very important to know, what teachers know about factors that affect learning. The analysis of the research and of academic literature shows that teachers not only know about these factors, but also they use them practically. • Types of children's informal learning were represented in the research. Children agree that it is easier for them to learn English because they watch English films (82.2%), listen to English songs (88.7%), play English games (79.3%) and watch English TV programmes. • To children's opinion, they can use their English knowledge ( that they gain in the informal surrounding) in the English lessons. 70% of children say that they have possibilities to use more English words in the lessons. 62% agree that they can easily talk in pairs, because they know more English phrases and sentences. 80.3% say that they can easily use English dictionary on the internet.
The language of men and women in media texts is analysed in this master thesis. The two created corpora include texts since 2002 to 2009 and they have 3 177 706 words. The aim of the thesis is to investigate the language of men and women in media texts. The following tasks were raised to achieve this aim: to collect men and women articles and create corpora, to find out what specific features of both spoken and written language of men and women are, to analyze the specific features of men and women language, to examine gender differences in language developed on the basis of corpus data and find out whether it is possible to understand the author's gender from the identified text features. Men and women media texts were investigated under 10 features of formal language, grammatical and lexical attributes: vocabulary and words longitude, commonly used words and part of speech, themes, uncertainty and doubts expression, feelings of resolution, colors expression, negatives, usage of diminutives and citations of other people. After analysis of men and women articles, it was identified that men use slightly longer words and men's articles are longer texts. Although the average length of words in articles by women is lower, they use more very long tokens (19−25 characters). Thus they use more complex structure of words in shorter texts. Women also use richer vocabulary as their type-token ratio index is higher. Women write more emotional articles and they use more interjections and onomatopoeic interjections, diminutives, exclamatory and exclamatory-interrogative sentences and their language is softer. It is very important for women, that text would be imaginative, so they use more color specifications, names of feelings and describe all in more detail. It was found that lexical differences in articles are related to the article's topic. Women write articles mostly about children, home, family, health, social issues and culture, while men − about politics, business and economy. People attribute all these topics to the stereotypes of men and women language, but it appears that such stereotypes reveal the real situation. In conclusion it can be said that there are many differences in men and women texts. Of course, some features are also influenced by an individual author's style, but if given a text of an unknown author it is possible to name the author's gender based on the language feature of men and women.
The language of men and women in media texts is analysed in this master thesis. The two created corpora include texts since 2002 to 2009 and they have 3 177 706 words. The aim of the thesis is to investigate the language of men and women in media texts. The following tasks were raised to achieve this aim: to collect men and women articles and create corpora, to find out what specific features of both spoken and written language of men and women are, to analyze the specific features of men and women language, to examine gender differences in language developed on the basis of corpus data and find out whether it is possible to understand the author's gender from the identified text features. Men and women media texts were investigated under 10 features of formal language, grammatical and lexical attributes: vocabulary and words longitude, commonly used words and part of speech, themes, uncertainty and doubts expression, feelings of resolution, colors expression, negatives, usage of diminutives and citations of other people. After analysis of men and women articles, it was identified that men use slightly longer words and men's articles are longer texts. Although the average length of words in articles by women is lower, they use more very long tokens (19−25 characters). Thus they use more complex structure of words in shorter texts. Women also use richer vocabulary as their type-token ratio index is higher. Women write more emotional articles and they use more interjections and onomatopoeic interjections, diminutives, exclamatory and exclamatory-interrogative sentences and their language is softer. It is very important for women, that text would be imaginative, so they use more color specifications, names of feelings and describe all in more detail. It was found that lexical differences in articles are related to the article's topic. Women write articles mostly about children, home, family, health, social issues and culture, while men − about politics, business and economy. People attribute all these topics to the stereotypes of men and women language, but it appears that such stereotypes reveal the real situation. In conclusion it can be said that there are many differences in men and women texts. Of course, some features are also influenced by an individual author's style, but if given a text of an unknown author it is possible to name the author's gender based on the language feature of men and women.
The language of men and women in media texts is analysed in this master thesis. The two created corpora include texts since 2002 to 2009 and they have 3 177 706 words. The aim of the thesis is to investigate the language of men and women in media texts. The following tasks were raised to achieve this aim: to collect men and women articles and create corpora, to find out what specific features of both spoken and written language of men and women are, to analyze the specific features of men and women language, to examine gender differences in language developed on the basis of corpus data and find out whether it is possible to understand the author's gender from the identified text features. Men and women media texts were investigated under 10 features of formal language, grammatical and lexical attributes: vocabulary and words longitude, commonly used words and part of speech, themes, uncertainty and doubts expression, feelings of resolution, colors expression, negatives, usage of diminutives and citations of other people. After analysis of men and women articles, it was identified that men use slightly longer words and men's articles are longer texts. Although the average length of words in articles by women is lower, they use more very long tokens (19−25 characters). Thus they use more complex structure of words in shorter texts. Women also use richer vocabulary as their type-token ratio index is higher. Women write more emotional articles and they use more interjections and onomatopoeic interjections, diminutives, exclamatory and exclamatory-interrogative sentences and their language is softer. It is very important for women, that text would be imaginative, so they use more color specifications, names of feelings and describe all in more detail. It was found that lexical differences in articles are related to the article's topic. Women write articles mostly about children, home, family, health, social issues and culture, while men − about politics, business and economy. People attribute all these topics to the stereotypes of men and women language, but it appears that such stereotypes reveal the real situation. In conclusion it can be said that there are many differences in men and women texts. Of course, some features are also influenced by an individual author's style, but if given a text of an unknown author it is possible to name the author's gender based on the language feature of men and women.
The object of the present article is the implementation of collaborative learning during English classes. The aim of the study was to determine the effectiveness of implementing collaborative learning strategies during English classes of second-year cadets at General Jonas Žemaitis Military Academy of Lithuania in 2017-2018. The results of the research demonstrate that the greater majority of the cadets successfully achieved level 2 based on the achievement test. The collaborative learning method was integrated into the learning process in the two, out of five, groups as well as into the course description. It was pivotal to organize the study according to the paradigm of free education which is closely connected to the theory of constructivism. The latter, based on the assumption that knowledge is a construct, accentuates the active involvement of the learner whose learning paradigm should become multifunctional and multifaceted. It is the area of foreign language education that becomes the meeting point of collaborative learning and the constructivist theory. Thus, the study was organized in the way to enable the implementation of the collaborative learning strategies in the form of questions and either written or oral answers, different reading strategies, public speaking, discussion and argumentation as being crucial in writing and speaking; as well as through inducing creativity and critical thinking, communication, information collecting, selecting and systematizing skills. The project method was pointed out as a universal method that both requires self-regulation and responsibility for the results of one's individual assignment and simultaneously diversifies the learning process.
The object of the present article is the implementation of collaborative learning during English classes. The aim of the study was to determine the effectiveness of implementing collaborative learning strategies during English classes of second-year cadets at General Jonas Žemaitis Military Academy of Lithuania in 2017-2018. The results of the research demonstrate that the greater majority of the cadets successfully achieved level 2 based on the achievement test. The collaborative learning method was integrated into the learning process in the two, out of five, groups as well as into the course description. It was pivotal to organize the study according to the paradigm of free education which is closely connected to the theory of constructivism. The latter, based on the assumption that knowledge is a construct, accentuates the active involvement of the learner whose learning paradigm should become multifunctional and multifaceted. It is the area of foreign language education that becomes the meeting point of collaborative learning and the constructivist theory. Thus, the study was organized in the way to enable the implementation of the collaborative learning strategies in the form of questions and either written or oral answers, different reading strategies, public speaking, discussion and argumentation as being crucial in writing and speaking; as well as through inducing creativity and critical thinking, communication, information collecting, selecting and systematizing skills. The project method was pointed out as a universal method that both requires self-regulation and responsibility for the results of one's individual assignment and simultaneously diversifies the learning process.
Foreign language competences for the military personnel of Lithuania and NATO are essential in sustaining National Security of the alliance especially by effectively performing their military duties that include not only specific military art but also administrative and managemental. The Military Academy of Lithuania is a unique higher educational institution that prepares specialists in administration, management, and other fields. Therefore, being a cadet of the Academy, he/she acquires all the necessary competences to obtain proficiency in these fields. However, the cadets of the Academy considerably need foreign language competences so that they could actively, successfully, and professionally conduct their duties not only locally but also participating internationally in various military organizations and missions. Thus, in many cases military's success in multinational operations very often depends on soldiers' ability to communicate and express themselves in English or any other foreign language. In this "global village" it is practically inconceivable to make career without the knowledge of the English or any other foreign language. Thus, the aim of the research is to analyze the role of foreign language competencies acquired at the Lithuanian Military Academy where cadets obtain qualifications and foreign language competences needed for successful career making, National and International security. Therefore, the objective of the research is how theoretically and practically resolve the issue of developing new linguistic competences in foreign languages necessary for MAL cadets through analyses of the results of the questionnaire.
Foreign language competences for the military personnel of Lithuania and NATO are essential in sustaining National Security of the alliance especially by effectively performing their military duties that include not only specific military art but also administrative and managemental. The Military Academy of Lithuania is a unique higher educational institution that prepares specialists in administration, management, and other fields. Therefore, being a cadet of the Academy, he/she acquires all the necessary competences to obtain proficiency in these fields. However, the cadets of the Academy considerably need foreign language competences so that they could actively, successfully, and professionally conduct their duties not only locally but also participating internationally in various military organizations and missions. Thus, in many cases military's success in multinational operations very often depends on soldiers' ability to communicate and express themselves in English or any other foreign language. In this "global village" it is practically inconceivable to make career without the knowledge of the English or any other foreign language. Thus, the aim of the research is to analyze the role of foreign language competencies acquired at the Lithuanian Military Academy where cadets obtain qualifications and foreign language competences needed for successful career making, National and International security. Therefore, the objective of the research is how theoretically and practically resolve the issue of developing new linguistic competences in foreign languages necessary for MAL cadets through analyses of the results of the questionnaire.
The scientific cluster 'Research in Multilingualism and Language Development in a Context of Globalisation' is an interdisciplinary group of linguists, psycholinguists, sociolinguists, and political scientists who share an interest in language and culture studies. Our research focuses on language and culture sciences from a diverse set of perspectives. These include: first language acquisition; typical and atypical language development; developmental psycholinguistics; language and culture studies; language politics. Using sophisticated (psycho-) linguistic and social sciences' methods such as longitudinal observation, experimental studies, corpus linguistics, etc., members of the Cluster seek to learn about the language acquisition, development and change in the multicultural and multilingual settings. Cross-cultural and cross-linguistic studies also should be noted. Our many national and international collaborations with higher educational institutions, schools, trade communities and organizations provide opportunities for our members and students to gain valuable research experience and to share it among researchers and practitioners.
