CALL FOR PAPERS: Ways of Communication: From Reception to Use

[بنعيسى زغبوش]

Groupe de recherches Langue et formes culturelles
CALL FOR PAPERS
Second International Colloquium
“Ways of Communication: From Reception to Use”
November 22, 23, 24 2012
Institut Supérieur des Langues de Tunis

It is clear that communication, in its varied verbal and non-verbal forms, was and remains a primordial need and objective of mankind, since Man, according to IbnKhaldun, is “a social being by nature”. Could the author of “Al-Muqaddima”, through this simple observation, have foreseen the plethora of 20thc implications and theories in sociolinguistics, psycholinguistics, and social psychology? Research in these disciplines continues to investigate Man’s ways of communication and his innate capacity to understand and make himself understood. Rhodolphe Ghilione’s (1986) phrase, and title of his book, “the communicating Man” is pertinent in this context. So what can be concluded from defining this century’s Man as the communicating being?
Human communication has evolved through different phases and witnessed important landmark stages (oral, written, and visual) in resonance with the evolution of human cultures and the recent rapid development in modern communication technologies, so much so that we are now living in virtual worlds. It is within this general framework that we propose to hold a multi-disciplinary international colloquium on “Ways of Communication: from Reception to Use”.
We suggest to look at the issues related to means of communication on two levels:

1/ Aspects of learning/acquiring the modern means of communication, and
2/ Aspects of their use and manipulation.
• Aspects of learning:
How do we learn to master these communication instruments? Does this learning take place in or outside educational institutions? Is it through direct tutorship or through distance learning? To what extent have modern means of communication been incorporated in the learning-teaching process? Have the teaching materials and the educational framework in general kept up with the communication revolution of the past century? Can we say in this context that the reins of the educational experience have slipped from the hands of the teacher to those of the learner? Are we witnessing a reversal of roles or would this new state of affairs reinforce the teacher-learner relation?
• Aspects of use and manipulation:
How have these new ways of communication been used at the levels of the individual and the group? What are their social and cultural dimensions? Have they been restricted to theirprimary function of fulfilling the quotidian need of communication between people or have they been manipulated for the purpose of spreading genuine and false information without
supervision? Perhaps the best example of this use and manipulation is the electronic social networks and their role in triggering the Tunisian revolution and other Arab and non-Arab revolutions and protests.
One of the consequences of the political use of modern means of communication by the elite and youth is the spectacular fall of the wall of fear and dictatorship in parts of the Arab world. The time has now come to reassess the position of Arab societies as far as the creation of knowledge is concerned and the extent to which they have evolved from being mere consumers of information to being effective users of information and communication

technologies. Looking into this aspect necessarily raises the question of whether or not it would be possible for us to make reasonable use of the modern means of communication in the modernization of our societies and the dissemination of our cultural values to counteract the spread of western values and the domination of Globalization which, through the use of the same means, has the world in its grip, and thus reverse the charm.
Suggested topics for discussion:
1- Means of communication through time and space
- Old and modern means of communication: continuity and rupture
- History of ways of communication
- Education and the new technology.
- Aspects of contrast and standardization in the means of communication
- 2- Perspectives of the modern means of communication in education
* Communication and information technologies inside educational institutions: realities and perspectives.
* Conventional and distance education: opposition or complementarity?
* Communication and information technologies and generations: acceptance or rupture?
* The influence of the modern means of communication on the various cultural forms.
- Assessment of the experience of virtual education in Tunisia.
3- Ways of communication between the local and the universal
- The relationship of the Arab world with science and technology: issues of consumerism vs. production, creativity vs. reproduction.
* Censorship vs. freedom and the means of communication
* Ways of communication and popular revolutions at the national and international levels.
4- Means of communication and society:
* The role of modern means of communication in promoting citizenship awareness.
* The role of modern means of communication in promoting democratic societal values
* The role of modern means of communication in promoting artistic expression.
Deadlines:
* The deadline for submitting abstracts: may 15th, 2012.
* The deadline for submitting the full text: september 15th, 2012.

Please contact us in these addresses
- Postal address : 19, Ibn Maja street, 1003, cité El Khadra, Tunisia
- Email : langue.formcult@yahoo.fr
- Tél : (216) 71 799 660 - (216) 97 55 23 22
- Fax : (216) 71 770 334
Coordinator: Mongia Arfa Mensia