Üldteema

Kas kriisid ühendavad või lahutavad inimesi ja/või kultuure?

Eesmärk

Äratada õpilastes huvi Suurbritannia, Ameerika Ühendriikide ja teiste inglise keelt kõnelevate maade ühiskonna ja kultuuri vastu.
Arendada õpilaste oskust tähele panna erinevaid kultuuriilminguid ning kultuuridevahelisi mõjusid, st vaadelda, milline on inglise keelt kõnelevate mõtteline asend tänapäeva maailmas, seda nii ühiskondlik-poliitilises, majanduslikus kui ka kultuurilises mõttes. Kitsamaks eesmärgiks on panna õpilasi mõtlema tänaste kriiside (majanduslikud, kultuurilised, poliitilised, ökoloogilised) laiema mõju üle kultuuride sees ja vahel üleilmastuvas maailmas, seda eriti Eesti  ja inglise keelt kõnelevate maade kontekstis.  Üldeesmärgiks on innustada uurimustööst huvitatud õpilasi nende esimestes teaduslikes püüdlustes, pakkuda võimekatele noortele eneseteostusvõimalust ja ärgitada neid oma teadmisi ja oskusi täiustama.

Oodatakse

Õpilase iseseisvat uurimustööd (10-15 kahese reavahega lehekülge) mistahes ühiskondlikus või kultuurivaldkonnas, kus võib vaadelda mingit konkreetset kriisiilmingut, järelkajasid ja selle laiemat mõju.  Oodatud on kõik uuenduslikud lähenemised, oma seisukohtade avaldamine ning analüüs.

Soovitusi

Õpilase uurimus peaks keskenduma ühele valdkonnale, milleks võib olla näiteks praegune poliitiline või majanduslik olukord, keskkond ja taaskasutus, sotsiaalsfäär ja rahvusküsimus, üleilmastumine, igapäevaelu, muusika, noorsoo-, subkultuurid, film, kirjandus, kunst, jne (vt Soovitusi kitsama teema valikuks). Töö peaks keskenduma mingile inglise keelt kõnelevale maale või võrdlema seda Eestiga. Uurimuse etteantud pikkust arvestades peaks töö keskenduma suhteliselt kitsale teemale, et käsitletavat nähtust oleks võimalik süvitsi analüüsida. Olgu veel öeldud, et teemade nimekiri pole kaugeltki täielik, vaid pigem suunav ning õpilase kujutlusvõimet ja loovust käivitav. Täpsem teema valib ja sõnastab õpilane ise vastavalt tema huvidele ja soovidele.

Tähtis

Õpilase töös peaks ilmnema tema oskus leida sobiv valdkond, määratleda teema, seda iseseisvalt kirjeldada ja oma vaatenurgast analüüsida ning teha sellest üldistusi ja järeldusi.

Hinnatakse

Projekte hinnatakse olümpiaadi žürii poolt ühes voorus ja kahes etapis. Esimeses etapis hinnatakse kirjaliku uurimuse sisu ja selle vastavust uurimustöö kirjaliku vormistamise nõuetele (vt How to Write the Research Project), kusjuures väljapaistev analüüs annab õpilasele lisapunkte. Kuni 15 paremat tööd lähevad hindamisele teises etapis. Olümpiaadi teine etapp Tartu Ülikoolis, mis toimub minikonverentsi vormis, kus kõik teisele etapile kutsutud tööde autorid saavad soovi korral kaasõpilaste ettekandeid kuulata, annab õpilastele ka võimaluse kogeda akadeemilist õhustikku. Teises etapis hinnatakse lisaks eelpoolmainitud kriteeriumidele ka oskust oma uurimust suulise ettekande vormis hästi esitada, küsimustele vastata ja projekti teemal vestelda. Kolme parima projekti kokkuvõtted ilmuvad Inglise Keele Õpetajate Seltsi ajakirjas „Open“.

Keskkond

Ajalugu

Kriis meie suhetes loodusega, liigtarbimise mõju looduskeskkonnale (prügi, reostus), ökokatastroof ja globaalne soojenemine, üleilmastumise vastane protest, konfliktid keskkonnakaitse ja riigi või korporatsioonide vahel, keskkonnaaktivism kui ühendav jõud, säästlik elustiil

Kontaktid ja konfliktid erinevate kultuuripiirkondade vahel, rahvusvahelised liidud ja organisatsioonid, humanitaarmissioonid, ühiskondlikud muutused ja revolutsioonid (sh. tehniline revolutsioon), omad ja võõrad sõjad, sisse- ja väljaränne minevikus ja tänapäeval.

Poliitika

Poliitilised reaktsioonid majanduslikele ja muudele kriisidele, riik kui kriiside tekitaja ja lahendaja, erinevad poliitilised ideed (liberalism, keskkonnateadlikkus, jne) ja nende lahendused erinevatele probleemidele; üksikisiku roll poliitilise muutuse tekitajana; kriis kui võimalus muutusteks, kodanikualgatus ja vabatahtlik tegevus, poliitika ja meedia, näiteks valimiskampaaniate muutuv nägu.

Keel

Muutuv keel (laenud, keelte segunemine), internetis (ajaveebid, võrgukogukonnad, jne) kasutatav keel ja kirjakeel, släng ja kõnekeel, tõlge kui kultuurikontakt või –konflikt, keelte kadumine.

Film

Kriiside (sõjad, majanduskriis, tulnukate rünnak, ökokatastroof) kujutamine filmis minevikus ja tänapäeval (nii lahutava kui ühendava jõuna), isiklikud ja ühiskondlikud kriisid, loomingulised kriisid ja nende kujutamine, kriis kui võimalus muutusteks.

Kirjandus

Kriiside (sõjad, majanduskriis, tulnukate rünnak, ökokatastroof) kujutamine kirjandusteostes minevikus ja tänapäeval (nii lahutava kui ühendava jõuna), isiklikud ja ühiskondlikud kriisid, loomingulised kriisid ja nende kujutamine, kriis kui võimalus muutusteks, erinevate kirjandusvoolude ja –koolkondade areng ja kriisid ning nende retseptsioon.

Kunst

Kriiside (sõjad, majanduskriis, ökokatastroof) kujutamine kunstis minevikus ja tänapäeval (nii lahutava kui ühendava jõuna), isiklikud ja ühiskondlikud kriisid, loomingulised kriisid ja nende kujutamine, erinevate kunstivoolude ja väljendusvahendite areng ja kriisid ning nende retseptsioon.

Muusika

Kriiside (sõjad, majanduskriis, ökokatastroof) kujutamine muusikas minevikus ja tänapäeval (nii lahutava kui ühendava jõuna), isiklikud ja ühiskondlikud kriisid, loomingulised kriisid ja nende kujutamine, erinevate muusikastiilide areng ja kriisid ning nende retseptsioon.

Noorsookultuurid

Kriiside mõju noorsookultuurile, protestiliikumised (hipid, sõjavastased liikumised, keskkonnakaitsegrupid, punk, hip-hop) ja nende areng, isiklikud kriisid (enesessetõmbumine, koolivägivald, jne), netikultuur kui ühendaja ja lahutaja.

Igapäevaelu

Kriiside mõju igapäevaelule (toimetulek, töötus, vaesus), kriiside mõju pereelule ja inimestevahelistele suhetele.

Majandus

Majanduskriis ja selle erinevad ilmingud täna ja minevikus, majanduskriisi rahvusvaheline olemus, majanduskriis kui eetika ja väärtuste kriis, tarbimisühiskonna kriis.

General Topic

Do crises unite or separate people(s) and/or cultures?

Aims

Arouse pupils’ interest in the culture(s) of Great Britain, the United States and other English-speaking countries. Develop pupils’ ability to notice various manifestations of culture and inter-cultural influences, i.e., observe the cultural and socio-political role of English- speaking countries in today’s world, especially in Estonia. The narrower aim is to draw attention to the wider impact of today’s crises (economic, cultural, political, ecological) inside and between cultures in the globalising world, especially in the context of Estonia and the English-speaking countries.  The goal is to inspire pupils interested in research in their first scholarly endeavours, offer able pupils an opportunity to fulfil themselves and spur them to improve their knowledge and skills.

We expect

We expect pupils’ independent research papers (10-15 double-spaced pages) in any field of socio-political life or culture where one can notice some specific elements, repercussions or wider impact of crises in the English- speaking countries and Estonia. We look for an innovative approach and a personal point of view as well as well-argued analysis.

We suggest

Pupils’ projects should be focussed on one field, for example current political or economic situation, environment and recycling, social sphere and ethnic identities, globalisation, everyday life, music, film, literature, art, youth cultures, etc. (see Suggestions Concerning the Narrower Topics of the Project). The paper should focus on an English-speaking country or compare it to Estonia. Considering the suggested length of the research paper (10-15 double-spaced pages), the project should focus on a rather narrow theme so that the issue to be addressed could be analysed in detail. It should be noted that the list of the topics is by no means exhaustive but serves to guide and trigger students’ imagination and creativity. The exact formulation of the topic as well as its wording will be up to the pupils according to their interests and wishes.

Important

The project should demonstrate pupils’ ability to identify a certain field, word a topic and aspect, describe it independently and analyse it as well as make generalisations and draw conclusions from the findings.

We assess

We will assess the project in two stages. In the first stage the contents of the research paper as well as its correspondence with the requirements for the research paper (see How to Write the Research Project) are assessed. Extra points can be earned for an outstanding analysis. Up to 15 best projects will be selected to the second stage.
The second stage of the Olympiad at the University of Tartu, which will be held in the format of a mini-conference, where all those invited to the second stage can listen to the presentations of their fellow pupils if they wish to do so, will also give pupils an opportunity to immerse themselves in an academic atmosphere. In the second stage, in addition to the criteria mentioned above, we assess the pupils’ ability to introduce their projects in the form of an oral presentation and answer questions as well as hold a conversation on the topic of their projects.
The authors of 3 best projects are invited to submit a summary of their paper for publication in the newsletter “Open” of the Estonian Association of Teachers of English.

Environment

History

Crisis in our relationship with nature, impact of excessive consumption on natural environment (rubbish, pollution), ecological disaster and global warming, anti-globalisation movement, conflicts between environmentalists and the state or corporations, environmental activism as a unifying power, sustainable lifestyle (e.g., carbon footprint).

Contacts and conflicts between different cultures, international alliances and organisations, humanitarian missions, social revolutions (incl. technological revolution), local and global wars, emigration and immigration in the past and today.

Politics

Political reactions to economic and other crises, state as the initiator and solver or crises, different political ideas (liberalism, environmentalism, etc) and their solutions to various problems, the role of the individual as a catalyst of change, crisis as  an opportunity for change, civic initiative and volunteer activity, politics and the media, e.g. the changing face of election campaigns.

Language

Changing language (loans, blending languages), language of the net (blogs, net communities, etc) and literary language, slang and colloquial language, translation as cultural contact or conflict, language death.

Film

Representation of crises (wars, economic crises, alien attacks, ecological disaster, etc) in film today and in the past (as a separating or uniting force), personal and social crises, creative crises and their representation, crisis as an opportunity for change.

Literature

Representation of crises (wars, economic crises, alien attacks, ecological disaster, etc) in literature today and in the past (as a separating or uniting force), personal and social crises, creative crises and their representation, crisis as an opportunity for change, development and crises of different literary trends and schools, and their representation.

Art

Representation of crises (wars, economic crises, alien attacks, ecological disaster, etc) in art today and in the past (as a separating or uniting force), personal and social crises, creative crises and their representation, crisis as an opportunity for change, development and crises of different trends and means in art and their representation.

Music

Representation of crises (wars, economic crises, alien attacks, ecological disaster, etc) in music today and in the past (as a separating or uniting force), personal and social crises, creative crises and their representation, crisis as an opportunity for change, development and crises of different music styles and their representation.

Youth Cultures

Influence of crises on youth culture, protest movements (hippies, anti-war movements, environmentalists, punk, hip-hop) and their development, personal crises (withdrawal, school violence, bullying), net culture as uniter and isolator.

Everyday life

Influence of crises o everyday life (coping, unemployment, poverty), influence of crises on family life and interpersonal relationships.

Business

Economic crisis and its different manifestations today and in the past, international character of economic crisis, economic crisis as a crisis of ethics and values, crisis of the consumer society. 

Research question

You should narrow down your topic area and concentrate on a specific issue. You should treat a clearly defined topic thoroughly, not provide a superficial treatment of a wide scope of material. You should start your work from formulating a research question, that is, what you will try to analyse or prove in your paper and why you are doing it. ("I will study … because I want to find out how/why…. in order to understand/explain how/why/what …") You should keep your research question in mind all through the reading and writing process.

Research

After deciding on your topic and research question, you should start with research. You should consult some background material in the chosen field: books, encyclopaedias, dictionaries, magazines, journals, internet resources, etc. You will need both primary sources or the "raw materials" of your research (e.g., a film, TV programme or song) and secondary sources or the things other people have written about the issues you are studying. Primary sources are the texts (e.g., songs, advertisements) you will analyse in your work. Secondary sources will help support your ideas and should be cited selectively.

Plagiarism

You should make a clear distinction between your ideas and those of other authors. Plagiarism, that is "borrowing" other people’s ideas and/or words without referring to them, is a serious problem and any student caught plagiarising will be automatically excluded from the competition. Keep in mind that internet sources are also intellectual property and have to be referenced in the same way as printed materials. Do not be afraid to cite other people. It shows the thoroughness of your research and special credit will be given for a wide scope of background materials.

Sources

You should try to look for up-to-date materials. Materials about societies and cultures date. When reading and doing research, look at the time when the book/article was published. We do not recommend materials that are more than 10 years old. You should have at least 5 different sources (books, articles, internet resources).You should keep your research question in mind when you do reading so as to not get carried away. It is impossible to read everything that has been written about a topic. Therefore you should focus on your narrow topic area. You should take careful notes while you read and carefully record bibliographical data.

Drafting

You should start writing and drafting early on to avoid last-minute rush. You should be prepared to write several drafts and correct your thinking as well as language. Do not formulate the title before you have finished or are absolutely sure you are not going to change anything essential. Incompatibility between the title and the paper itself is one of the greatest shortcomings of a research paper.

Structure

You should structure your paper clearly. You should state you research question or hypothesis in the introduction, proceed with analysing the topic and proving your point in the body paragraphs and sum up you views in the conclusion. You may but do not have to use subheadings.

Revision

You should revise carefully. The first draft is never perfect and you should be ready to make corrections in the content, structure and the layout. It makes sense to leave at least a day between writing and revising—distance will allow you to see your own work more objectively. You should start revising from the level of arguments: make sure your arguments are logical and supported by facts. Then you should proceed to the organisation of your paper and, finally, language. You should make sure you use either British or American spelling and do not mix the two. You should also check the printed version of your paper to make sure everything is OK—you will never get a second chance to make a first impression.

No research paper can consist of the writer’s own ideas only. One of the aims of a paper is to demonstrate the author’s familiarity with background material and research done in the field. Another author’s ideas and words that are quoted, paraphrased or summarised should always be fully documented. You should refer to all sources—films, music albums, internet discussion lists, interviews. The fact that a work has not been published in the conventional manner does not give you the right to use it as your own.

Quoting

Quoting means reporting someone else’s thoughts word by word. Shorter quotations are given in regular font and enclosed in quotation marks, followed by the name of the author and the page number where you found the quotation (e.g., It has been said that "it is not easy to treat either American popular culture or British society as monoliths which are uniform in their structures, behaviours, and effects" (Strinati 76)). See appendix for more details. Longer quotations (four lines and more) should be set apart from the body of the text as block quotations, that is as a separate paragraph that is single spaced and given in a smaller font (point size 10). For example:
Either Americanizaton is unthinkingly and cynically celebrated as another way of making money, Americanism representing the true spirit of capitalism, ‘real capitalism’ or, with more credibility and integrity, the values associated with it by the elite critics are adopted and endorsed precisely because of their clash with domestic elite cultural values (Strinati 52).
All direct quotations should be followed by an in-text reference. You should use quotations sparingly. A text containing very many quotations is difficult to read and leaves the impression that the author cannot think for himself or herself. Quotations should be used when the author has worded something exceptionally well or when you want to analyse a specific sentence.

Paraphrase and summary

In other cases, use paraphrasing or summary instead. In case of paraphrasing you should use your own words to express other people’s ideas. In a summary you compress the original text considerably, using your own words. Although you are not using the words of another author, you should still cite your source! The list of all works cited should be added to the end of the paper under the title References (see appendix for full details).

Length

The research paper is ten to fifteen pages long, double-spaced.

Font

The text should be computer-processed, using Times New Roman font, point size 12. You may use larger point size for the title. Avoid artistic or flashy styles.

Layout

Paragraphs should be indented and text justified. Block style should not be used.

Title page

The research paper should have a title page that includes the title of your paper, your name, the name of your supervisor and school and the year.