The Boggart

The boggart was a much-feared, little-studied supernatural being from the north of England. Against the odds, it survives today, whether in place-names or in works of fantasy literature – not least Harry Potter. Centring on this mercurial and mysterious figure, The Boggart pioneers two methods for collecting folklore: first, the use of hundreds of thousands of words on the boggart from digitised ephemera; second, about 1,100 contemporary boggart memories that derive from social media surveys and personal interviews relating to the interwar and postwar years. Through a radical combination of this new information and an interdisciplinary approach – involving dialectology, folklore, Victorian history, supernatural history, oral history, place-name studies, sociology and more – it is possible to reconstruct boggart beliefs, experiences and tales. The boggart was not, as we have been led to believe, a ‘goblin’. Rather, this was a much more general term encompassing all solitary, and often ambivalent, supernatural beings, from killer mermaids to headless phantoms to shape-changing ghouls. In the same period that boggart beliefs were dying, folklorists continuously misrepresented the boggart and how the modern fantasy version was born of these misunderstandings. As well as offering a fresh reading of a deep seam of folklore, this book showcases some of the ways in which harnessing recent advances in digitization can offer rich and compelling rewards.

¿Harry Potter en Educación Deportiva? Percepciones del profesor, estudiantes y familias

The goal of this study was to examine teacher, students and parents’ perceptions of a quidditch-muggle Sport Education season at a primary school. Fifty-two sixth-grade students from one primary school participated in the study. A case study research design was followed. One Physical Education specialist with expertise in the Sport Education Model agreed to participate and conducted a season based on the quidditch-muggle sport (17 sessions; 60 minutes/each, two days/week). Finally, forty-five parents, 86.52% of the total sample, agreed to provide their insights on their children’s Harry Potter experience. Several instruments were used to collect qualitative data: teacher’s diary, students’ open-ended question, parents’ open-ended question and students’ discussion groups. From the analysis of all data obtained, four positive categories emerged: enjoyment, novelty, learning and self-construction and one negative: competitiveness. Teacher, students and parents highlighted the usefulness of the SEM despite of the overemphasis on the competition. El objetivo de este estudio fue examinar las percepciones del profesor, estudiantes y familias de una temporada de Educación Deportiva de quidditch-muggle. 52 estudiantes de 6º de Educación Primaria de un colegio participaron en la investigación. Se llevó a cabo un estudio de caso. Un profesor de Educación Física experto en el modelo de Educación Deportiva participó en el estudio y dirigió la temporada de quidditch-muggle (17 sesiones; 60 minutos por sesión, dos días a la semana). Finalmente, 45 familias, esto es un 86,52% del total de la muestra, aceptaron participar y proporcionar sus puntos de vista acerca de la experiencia de Harry Potter de sus hijos. Se utilizaron diferentes instrumentos de recogida de datos: diario del profesor, preguntas abiertas del alumnado, preguntas abierta de las familias y grupos de discusión del alumnado. Del análisis de datos se extrajeron cuatro categorías positivas: diversión, novedad, aprendizaje y autoconstrucción y una negativa: competitividad. El profesor, el alumnado y las familias destacaron la utilidad del modelo a pesar de la competitividad presente.

A Literary Analysis of Teaching and Learning at Hogwarts

The Harry Potter Series has found a place in the hearts of millions of children as well as adults across the globe. Hogwarts is the traditional boarding school which is situated in the faerie green countryside that is well beyond London. Though Hogwarts is a school in the fictional world, there are many people across the globe who have a relationship with it. We have developed a close affinity with Harry Potter, his friends as well as the teachers who are associated with the school. Students at the school learn to perfect the arts of witchcraft through a fixed curriculum. The school setting plays a significant role in the stories. The Harry Potter series persistently revolve around the protagonist’s heart rending and shocking adventures and experiences in school. The cornerstone for analysis is J.K Rowling’s portrayal of the teachers at Hogwarts. This leads to an emphasis on the teaching methods of the teachers. This paper has explored the pedagogy and different approaches of certain professors at Hogwarts. This study has demonstrated that students at Hogwarts do learn but their learning can be termed as wholesome only when teachers adopt the pedagogical approach that involves the concept of active learning integrated into a pleasant environment that not only boasts of cooperative learning, continuous support, but encourages and awards analytical thinking and risk taking. Keywords: Harry Potter series, Traditional, Curriculum, Pedagogical theories

Idiomatic Expressions in J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and The Prisoner of Azkaban

The paper argues that the quality of idiom translations depends on the appropriate strategy used while translating them because idiomatic expressions cannot be translated from their words. This study was carried out to describe the meaning of the idiomatic expression and the application of Chesterman's strategies in translating idioms and identify the speech acts of the utterances conveyed by the speaker in the data. This research used a descriptive qualitative method. The data were gathered from J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. The study also used their Indonesian version to find out the translation of the idiomatic expressions. One hundred five quotes were taken from the novels. As a result, Unit Shift appears more frequently in the novel as a syntactic strategy followed by Scheme Change. Furthermore, in terms of semantic approach, distribution Change is the most common strategy that emerges from the novels, followed by Trope Change. The Assertive Act is the most dominant act delivered by the speaker behind the utterances in speech acts.

Loss and gain in the Vietnamese translational equivalents of English idioms used in the 4th volume of the novel series “Harry Potter” by J.K. Rowling

Owning to their unique semantic and structural features, idioms contribute to the richness of language, enabling language users to express their ideas in concise and sophisticated ways. This study is aimed at identifying and analyzing loss and gain in the Vietnamese translational equivalents of the English idioms used in the 4th volume of the Harry Potter novel serial by J.K. Rowling. The translation shift theory of Catford [1], [2] was employed to clarify the fundamental aspects of loss and gain phenomena. The study reveals that loss and gain in lexis or structure occur frequently in translations of idioms, assisting in preserving the idioms’ figurative meanings. It is hoped that the research results can be of some help for teaching, learning and English – Vietnamese translation of idioms.

Signs and meanings of sacrifice in J. K. Rowling’s “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone”

The article discusses symbolic means that express different meanings of the victim concept and the idea of sacrifice in J. K. Rowlings novel Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone. The books title refers to the alchemical understanding of a philosophers stone as a means of immortality. Since the main purpose of the sacrifice rite is the magic of the appropriate death and rebirth essence, i.e. immortality, the philosophers stone can be interpreted as a symbol of sacrifice, and the stages of obtaining it as the rite stages of selection and preparation of the future victim for her / his sacralization or sanctification. There are at least two criteria for a typical victim, and they are the ones that determine the purity of a soul: the degree of innocence and the severity of the suffering. On a symbolic level the novel describes the transformation of a victim into sacrifice the essence of which is the soul purification. Only innocent victims, who have suffered personally but at the same time did not make other people suffer intentionally, may become a sacrifice. The main characteristic feature of Harry Potter as the novels protagonist is his readiness for self-sacrifice, which consists of such components as absence of greed and desire for power, as well as the ability to love, to overcome suffering and fear, to take risks and pose a challenge to prohibitions in the name of love, accepting both victories and defeats.

Propuesta de intervención de gamificación en educación física basada en el universo de Harry Potter

En el presente trabajo se elabora y desarrolla una propuesta de innovación docente en el área de Educación Física para el primer curso de Educación Secundaria Obligatoria en la que se utilizó la metodología de gamificación para trabajar los deportes alternativos. La gamificación es una metodología que consigue aumentar uno de los aspectos más relevantes para el aprendizaje del alumnado, como es la motivación. A través de esta intervención se pretende, ofrecer un recurso educativo que ayude a mejorar la motivación e implicación del alumnado en las clases de Educación Física de acuerdo con los antecedentes de investigación existentes sobre la gamificación. En esta propuesta se trabajaron los deportes alternativos “Juego de Palas” y “Ultimabola” a través de una unidad didáctica gamificada basada en el universo de Harry Potter, con los objetivos de mejorar los elementos técnico-tácticos propios de estos deportes y mostrar habilidades y actitudes de respeto, trabajo en equipo y deportividad. La propuesta fue dividida metodológicamente en cuatro partes interconectadas que incluyen, a su vez, los instrumentos necesarios para evaluar al alumnado acerca de los contenidos trabajados, siendo estas partes el desempeño mágico individual, el desempeño mágico colectivo, la actitud mágica y el diario mágico. Los resultados indican que se produce buenos resultados de aprendizaje así como una gran implicación de los estudiantes tanto en los desempeños individuales como colectivos.