The rapid development of new technologies and how these are affecting school age children is in this day and age an area of growing importance. In the context of second language (L2) acquisition, it has been noted that spare time activities of a digital nature impact those pupils who spend more time on activities such as online gaming in the target language than average (Sundqvist 2019, 95-103). The aim of the current study was to investigate the possible effect three different digital spare time activities (computer and video games, movies and music) have on listening comprehension. This when English is the dominant language in the activities, and the focus is on 6th grade children. The method used was a comparison made between a language diary homework, consisting of the participants’ estimated number of hours spent on digital spare time activities, and the results of a listening exercise. The results show that there is a positive correlation between the results of the listening comprehension test and the number of hours spent on digital spare time activities. Also, repeated exposure to the target language in a digital spare time context does, therefore, affect second language acquisition to a limited extent. The conclusion was that in order to come to a more conclusive answer regarding the correlation between digital spare time activities and English listening comprehension, more research is needed. / I samband med andraspråksinlärning har det noterats att digitala fritidsaktiviteter påverkar de elever som spenderar mer tid på denna sorts aktiviteter (Sundqvist 2019, 95–103). Syftet med den aktuella undersökningen blev således att undersöka den möjliga effekt digitala fritidsaktiviteter, på engelska, har på just engelsk hörförståelse. De tre utvalda aktiviteterna är här digitala spel, film och musik. Engelska är alltså målspråket och fokusgruppen är sjätteklassare. Metoden som användes var en jämförelse mellan resultaten av en språkdagbok, bestående av det antal timmar som deltagarna angett att de spenderar på digitala fritidsaktiviteter under en genomsnittlig vecka, samt resultat inhämtade från en hörövning. Resultatet visar att det finns en positiv korrelation mellan resultaten på hörförståelsetestet och antalet timmar som spenderas på digitala fritidsaktiviteter. Vidare visade det sig att upprepad exponering för målspråket i ett digitalt sammanhang påverkar andraspråksinlärning i en begränsad utsträckning. Slutsatsen blev därmed att det krävs mer forskning för att komma fram till ett definitivt svar angående sambandet mellan digitala fritidsaktiviteter och engelsk hörförståelse.

Submitted by Caroline Xavier (caroline.xavier@pucrs.br) on 2017-06-30T18:45:11Z No. of bitstreams: 1 DIS_RENATO_AUGUSTO_VORTMANN_DE_BARBA_COMPLETO.pdf: 961856 bytes, checksum: 3bc19ee0642b80af8997a18416275a99 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-06-30T18:45:11Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 DIS_RENATO_AUGUSTO_VORTMANN_DE_BARBA_COMPLETO.pdf: 961856 bytes, checksum: 3bc19ee0642b80af8997a18416275a99 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017-01-19 / Coordena??o de Aperfei?oamento de Pessoal de N?vel Superior - CAPES / Dentro da teoria gerativa dos princ?pios e par?metros (Chomsky, 1981), categorias vazias s?o entidades utilizadas nas an?lises sint?ticas para que certas estruturas lingu?sticas n?o violem princ?pios universais (Mioto, 2007). O portugu?s brasileiro (PB) faz uso de v?rias dessas categorias em diferentes estruturas, e uma das estruturas permitidas pela l?ngua ? o fen?meno conhecido como object drop, ou objeto foneticamente nulo. Em estudos de Aquisi??o de Segunda L?ngua (SLA, no original), a teoria de Transfer?ncia Total / Acesso Total (Schwartz & Sprouse, 1996) postula que o est?gio inicial do L2 ? o est?gio final do L1, mas ao encontrar estruturas que n?o s?o permitidas pela sintaxe da L1, os aprendizes acessam a GU para redefinir par?metros relacionados ?s estruturas. Considerando que o PB ? frequentemente aprendido ap?s outra l?ngua adicional, sendo assim uma L3, o Modelo da Supremacia Tipol?gica (TPM, no original) proposto por Rothman (2010) afirma que a transfer?ncia ocorrer? a partir da gram?tica da l?ngua percebida como a mais semelhante, mesmo se a transfer?ncia de outra l?ngua fosse mais facilitadora. O presente estudo aplicou uma tarefa de julgamento de aceitabilidade com diferentes estruturas em PB tanto para os falantes nativos (n = 27) quanto para os aprendizes de PB (L1 espanhol, L2 ingl?s) (n = 15) para poder comparar sua avalia??o dessas estruturas. Esperava-se que, como PB e espanhol s?o percebidos como tipologicamente mais pr?ximos, os aprendizes de PB transfeririam seus conhecimentos da L1 ao avaliar as frases em PB. Os resultados demonstram que os falantes nativos t?m avalia??es diferentes dependendo da estrutura que est? sendo testada, com objetos nulos sendo preferidos em ora??es simples, mas nenhuma prefer?ncia clara em estruturas com ilhas sint?ticas fortes. Os aprendizes de PB n?o demonstraram qualquer prefer?ncia por objetos nulos ou abertamente realizados em estruturas com ilhas sint?ticas fortes, mas mostraram prefer?ncia por objetos nulos em ora??es simples com referentes [?definido]. Assumindo FT/FA e TPM, parece que os aprendizes de PB continuam utilizando a gram?tica de sua L1 na avalia??o de algumas das estruturas, enquanto que em outras estruturas parece haver alguma converg?ncia na gram?tica alvo, o que sugere poss?vel acesso ? GU. / Within the generative theory of principles and parameters (Chomsky, 1981), empty categories are entities used in syntactic analyses so that certain language structures do not violate universal principles (Mioto, 2007). Brazilian Portuguese (BP) makes use of several of these categories in different structures, and one of the structures allowed by the language is the phenomenon known as object drop, or phonetically null objects. In studies of Second Language Acquisition (SLA), the theory of Full Transfer / Full Access (Schwartz & Sprouse, 1996) posits that the initial stage of the L2 is the final stage of the L1, but in finding structures that are not allowed by the L1 syntax, learners access the UG to reset parameters related to these structures. Considering BP is often learned after another additional language, hence being an L3, the Typological Primacy Model (TPM) proposed by Rothman (2010) claims that transfer will occur from the grammar of the language perceived as the most similar, even if transfer from another language would be more facilitative. The present study contains results of an acceptability judgment task with different structures in BP given to both Native speakers (n = 27) and BP learners (L1 Spanish, L2 English)(n = 15). It was expected that, because BP and Spanish are perceived as typologically closer, BP learners would transfer their knowledge from the L1 while evaluating the sentences in BP. The results show that Native speakers have different evaluations depending on the structure being tested, with null objects being preferred in Simple clauses, but no clear preference in structures with strong syntactic islands. The BP learners did not show any clear preference for null or overt objects in structures with strong syntactic islands, but showed preference for null objects in Simple clauses with [? definite] referents. Assuming FT/FA and the TPM, it seems that BP learners kept using the grammar from their L1 in evaluating some of the structures, while in other structures there seems to be some convergence on the target grammar, hinting at some level of access to UG.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-03-22T17:26:10Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 ZIMMER CHAGAS.pdf: 539724 bytes, checksum: 65a542236921405361c8bea7e90202d1 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2008-10-28 / One of the main questions towards the second language acquisition theories by the late learners is about how the process of language is done. Some researchers say that in one hand, the L1 learning is implicit, as in automatic, and on the other hand, L2 learning is characterized for being explicit and the learner develops their own strategies in order to solve problems. This thesis does a systematic review of some original studies results which relates implicit and explicit knowledge during the process of a second language acquisition. The objectives of this study are to analyze classic theories as well as the literature of this area of thought and the implicit-explicit work. The methodology used for those studies are also analyzed. The review of classic theories and learning models also figures in this work in the last part of it, but this time within the implicit-explicit view by using the HipCort Model and the connectionist model / Uma das principais questões no que concerne às teorias de aquisição de uma segunda língua pelo adulto diz respeito à maneira pela qual se dá seu o processamento. Existem teóricos que propõem que enquanto o aprendizado de L1 é implícito, automático, a aprendizagem de L2 por adultos se caracteriza por ser explícita e pelo desenvolvimento de estratégias para a resolução de problemas. O presente trabalho aborda a relação entre os conhecimentos implícito e explícito durante a aprendizagem de uma segunda língua, em particular a língua inglesa. Para isso, os seguintes passos são seguidos: 1) são apresentados alguns temas clássicos nos estudos da aprendizagem da L2, como o papel do input, a interlíngua, o input e a fossilização; 2) a literatura e os principais estudos envolvendo a interação entre conhecimento, aprendizagem e instrução implícitos e explícitos são revisados; 3) questões metodológicas e modelos de bilingüismo são problematizados; e 4) os temas clássicos são revisitados à luz dos temas implícito e explícito. Por fim, algumas considerações finais são feitas

Submitted by Maicon Juliano Schmidt (maicons) on 2015-07-08T17:52:56Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Josimar Viana Silva.pdf: 3468744 bytes, checksum: ef783c7080497f21342c0d482ae53427 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2015-07-08T17:52:56Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Josimar Viana Silva.pdf: 3468744 bytes, checksum: ef783c7080497f21342c0d482ae53427 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013-08-07 / Nenhuma / Computação em nuvem tem se tornado mais popular. Porém, apesar das facilidades e vantagens oferecidas pela computação em nuvem, ainda há obstáculos à sua adoção por parte dos usuários e limitações na prestação dos serviços por parte dos provedores. Para que as nuvens computacionais possam ser utilizadas e ser cruciais para as operações de negócios dos usuários é essencial que estes recebam garantias dos fornecedores na entrega dos serviços. Normalmente, estas garantias são fornecidos através de SLAs (Service Level Agreements ou Acordos de Níveis de Serviço) entre os provedores e consumidores. Os atuais acordos de nível de serviço (SLAs) oferecidos por provedores de computação em nuvem são simples, estáticos e prédefinidos pelos provedores. Estes SLAs não apresentam dinamicidade na negociação e portanto não acompanham o comportamento elástico da nuvem. Serviços em nuvem estão sujeitos à flutuações de carga e violações de SLA são mais propensos a acontecer durante estas flutuações. A natureza destas flutuações são imprevisíveis e, portanto, um SLA estático para suportar essas condições não será eficiente. Neste sentido, o presente trabalho tem como objetivo apresentar um sistema de SLA para computação em nuvem, denominado SLAd@Cloud. Este sistema trata as complexidades inerentes as características da nuvem permitindo a negociação e renegociação dinâmica do SLA baseada nos requisitos de qualidade da aplicação e o monitoramento de métricas específicas e de forma ativa e integrada ao SLA para garantir a qualidade dos serviços prestados nas nuvens computacionais. O sistema trabalha com múltiplas métricas e utilizando um sistema de qualificação baseado na metodologia de comparação par a par de Saaty realiza a priorização de ações quando ocorrem violações de métricas específicas em função dos pesos destas métricas. A avaliação se deu através de implementação de um protótipo em Java que interagiu com o framework Cloudsim, provendo interface de definição e contratação do SLA e o gerenciamento do seu ciclo de vida, mesmo após sua contratação em diferentes modelos de nuvem. Os resultados demonstraram ganhos no tempo de execução, nos custos financeiros e na taxa de sucesso de cumprimento das tarefas, superando o modelo tradicional ou que não trabalha com múltiplas métricas. / Cloud computing has become more popular. However, though the facilities and advantages offered by cloud computing, there are still obstacles to its adoption by users and limitations in the provision of services by providers. For the cloud computing can be used and be crucial to business operations of the users it is essential that they receive guarantees from suppliers in the delivery of services. Usually, these guarantees are provided through SLAs (Service Level Agreements) between providers and consumers. The current service level agreements (SLAs) offered by cloud computing providers are simple, static and predefined by providers. These SLAs have no dynamic negotiation and does not follow the elastic behavior of the cloud. Cloud services are subject to fluctuations in load and SLA violations are more likely to happen during these fluctuations. The nature of these variations are unpredictable and therefore a static SLA to withstand these conditions will not be efficient. In this sense, this work aims to present a model SLA for cloud computing called SLAd@Cloud. This model treats the complexities inherent characteristics of the cloud allowing the dynamic negotiation and renegotiation of the SLA based on the quality requirements of the application and monitoring of specific metrics and an active and integrated into the SLA to ensure the quality of services provided in the cloud computing. The model works with multiple metrics and using a system of qualification based on the methodology of pairwise comparison of Saaty, it can perform the prioritization of actions to prevent violations of specific metrics depending on the weights of these metrics. The evaluation was made through implementation of a Java prototype that interacted with the framework Cloudsim, providing interface definition and SLA hiring and managing its life cycle, even after their employment in different cloud models. The results showed gains in runtime, the financial cost and success rate of completion of the tasks, overcoming the traditional model or the model does not work with multiple metrics.

Critical networked services established between service provider and customers are expected to operate respecting Service Level Agreements (SLAs). An interesting possibility to monitor such SLAs is using active measurement mechanisms. However, these mechanisms are expensive in terms of network devices resource consumption and also increase the network load because of the injected traffic. In addition, if the number of SLA violations in a given time is higher than the number of available measurement sessions (common place in large and complex network infrastructures), certainly some violations will be missed. The current best practice, the observation of just a subset of network destinations driven by human administrators expertise, is error prone, does not scale well, and is ineffective on dynamic network conditions. This practice can lead to SLA violations being missed, which invariably affect the performance of several applications. In the present thesis, we advocated the use of Peer-to-Peer (P2P) technology to improve the detection of SLA violations. Such use is described using principles to control active measurement mechanisms. These principles are accomplished through strategies to activate measurement sessions. In this context, the major contributions of this thesis are: i) An approach to improve the detection of SLA violations through the steering of the activation of active measurement sessions using local and remote past service level measurement results and resource utilization constraints; ii) The concept of destination rank as an approach to autonomically prioritize destinations for the activation of active measurement sessions using destination scores; iii) The concept of correlated peers to enable the autonomic provisioning of a P2P measurement overlay for the exchange of relevant active measurement results; iv) The concept of virtual measurement sessions to enable the sharing of measurement results among correlated peers in order to save network devices resources and to improve SLA monitoring coverage; v) The definition of decentralized strategies to steer the activation of active measurement sessions using P2P principles. The method used on the investigation started with the execution of literature reviews on the networkwide control of measurement mechanisms and the employment of P2P technology on network management. After that, the proposed principles to control active measurement mechanisms and the strategies to activate measurement sessions were described. Finally, experiments were performed to evaluate the performance as well as to highlight properties of such principles and strategies. The findings showed properties which improve the detection of SLA violations in terms of the number of detected violations and the adaptivity to network dynamics. We expect that such findings can lead to better SLA monitoring tools and methods.

<p>This thesis investigates the use of word order variation, in particular the variable use of subject-verb inversion and non-inversion in main declarative clauses, among adolescents in contemporary multilingual settings in Sweden. The use of non-inversion in contexts that in standard Swedish require inversion is sometimes claimed to be characteristic of varieties of Swedish spoken among adolescents in multilingual urban areas. The present study includes a wide range of data, both spontaneous and elicited, and explores how common the use of non-inversion is among a relatively large group of participants in different contexts, and how the use of non-inversion is influenced by different demographic, linguistic and socio-pragmatic factors.</p><p>The results show that non-inversions are used to a limited extent in all types of data in the studied population. Only certain individuals frequently employ non-inversions in some contexts. Further, no direct link is found between second language acquisition and the use of non-inversion in this study. Factors related to the issue of nativeness, for example participants’ reported age of onset of Swedish acquisition, only marginally explain the results. In general, examples of non-inversion are employed more extensively, and by more participants, in peer-peer interaction than with adults. The use of non-inversion appears to be part of some adolescents’ spontaneous language use in certain contexts. More importantly, however, the results suggest that some adolescents employ non-inversions as an active linguistic resource to express their identification with the multilingual environment and the different varieties of Swedish spoken there, to show solidarity with peers, to contest official school discourses, and to play around with linguistic stereotypes.</p>

<p>This study attempts to look into and discuss if there are motivation factors involved when</p><p>trying to achieve a seeond language, which might effect the acquisition in any direction. The</p><p>education provided in Halmstad in Swedish as a seeond language is also studied on bases of</p><p>the IDs (Individual Differences) that might occur. The study is carried out by interviews with</p><p>eight informants. The interviews are analyzed and the results, which support previous research</p><p>in the area, are presented; and finally, in the conclusion part, suggestions for future research</p><p>are given, along with propos als on how to expand a study in this area.</p>

This thesis investigates the use of word order variation, in particular the variable use of subject-verb inversion and non-inversion in main declarative clauses, among adolescents in contemporary multilingual settings in Sweden. The use of non-inversion in contexts that in standard Swedish require inversion is sometimes claimed to be characteristic of varieties of Swedish spoken among adolescents in multilingual urban areas. The present study includes a wide range of data, both spontaneous and elicited, and explores how common the use of non-inversion is among a relatively large group of participants in different contexts, and how the use of non-inversion is influenced by different demographic, linguistic and socio-pragmatic factors. The results show that non-inversions are used to a limited extent in all types of data in the studied population. Only certain individuals frequently employ non-inversions in some contexts. Further, no direct link is found between second language acquisition and the use of non-inversion in this study. Factors related to the issue of nativeness, for example participants’ reported age of onset of Swedish acquisition, only marginally explain the results. In general, examples of non-inversion are employed more extensively, and by more participants, in peer-peer interaction than with adults. The use of non-inversion appears to be part of some adolescents’ spontaneous language use in certain contexts. More importantly, however, the results suggest that some adolescents employ non-inversions as an active linguistic resource to express their identification with the multilingual environment and the different varieties of Swedish spoken there, to show solidarity with peers, to contest official school discourses, and to play around with linguistic stereotypes.

This study attempts to look into and discuss if there are motivation factors involved when trying to achieve a seeond language, which might effect the acquisition in any direction. The education provided in Halmstad in Swedish as a seeond language is also studied on bases of the IDs (Individual Differences) that might occur. The study is carried out by interviews with eight informants. The interviews are analyzed and the results, which support previous research in the area, are presented; and finally, in the conclusion part, suggestions for future research are given, along with propos als on how to expand a study in this area.

This research is an empirical multiple-case study that is designed to explore adult individual learners’ vocabulary learning processes, and to examine their use of vocabulary learning strategies. It investigates the following key questions: (1) What vocabulary learning strategies do the individual learners usually use to find the meaning of unknown words? (2) What vocabulary learning strategies do the individual learners usually use to consolidate the words? (3) How do the individual learners apply the vocabulary learning strategies for the purposes mentioned above? (4) What are the differences between the learners’ use of vocabulary learning strategies? By using multiple data collection methods – questionnaires, interviews, and think-aloud protocols – I not only investigate what strategies the individual research participants use to study vocabulary, but also look at how they actually employ the strategies while completing a series of vocabulary activities. Finally, I also compare the patterns in the use of strategies between the participants. After the introduction, Chapter Two begins with the clarification of basic terms: “word,” “word knowledge,” and “strategy.” In Chapter Three, studies in the fields of vocabulary learning strategies are reviewed. Chapter Four deals with mental processes involved in vocabulary learning. Chapter Five focuses on the empirical study. I describe briefly the German language course (GER 101) and the language textbook, Vorsprung (2nd edition, 2002), and illustrate in depth the methodology used for data collection and data analysis. The results of the study are presented in Chapter Six. Chapter Seven summarizes the study results, followed by suggestions for foreign vocabulary instruction and for future research. The study illustrates that participants used a variety of vocabulary learning strategies to learn vocabulary. In total, 49 individual vocabulary learning strategies are identified and classified. Further, the differences between the learners are shown to be not only in what strategies they use but also in how they employ them. Finally, the study shows that well-organized and planned learning strategy training should be provided to language learners in order to make sure that they can use the strategies effectively, and that language instructors and the language textbook should play an active role in strategy training.