Magister Artium - MA / In the majority of the schools in South Africa (SA), learners commence education in English. This English milieu poses a considerable challenge for English second-language speakers. In an attempt to bridge the gap between English as the main medium of instruction and the nine indigenous languages of the country and assist with the implementation of mother-tongue based bilingual education, this study focuses on the cross-validation of a monolingual English test used in the assessment of multilingual or bilingual learners in the South African context. This test, namely the Woodcock Muñoz Language Survey (WMLS), is extensively used in the United States in Additive Bilingual Education in the country. The present study is a substudy of a broader study, in which the original WMLS (American-English version) was adapted into SA English and Xhosa. For this specific sub-study, the researcher was interested in investigating the scalar equivalence of the adapted English version of the Verbal Analogies (VA) subscale of the WMLS across English first-language speakers and Xhosa first-language speakers. This was achieved by utilising differential item functioning (DIF) and construct bias statistical techniques. The Mantel-Haenszel DIF detection method was employed to detect DIF, while construct equivalence was examined by means of exploratory factor analysis (EFA) utilising an a priori two-factor structure. The Tucker's phi coefficient was used to assess the congruence of the construct across the two language groups / South Africa

Orientador: Renato Eugênio da Silva Diniz / Resumo: As analogias são recursos que auxiliam o ensino de conceitos científicos, pois facilitam a transferência de significados de um conceito conhecido para um conceito desconhecido. No entanto, diversos obstáculos para a aprendizagem surgem quando são pronunciadas espontaneamente pelos professores. Assim, o planejamento para o seu uso é essencial, sendo estimulado quando os professores refletem sobre a sua prática em contextos formativos colaborativos. A temática da pesquisa envolveu a formação continuada de professores como práticos-reflexivos e a formação colaborativa. Buscou-se compreender e discutir os desafios e as possibilidades de inserção das analogias no planejamento de ensino de professores de Ciências e Biologia, quando eles refletem e planejam usá-las em um contexto de formação continuada. A abordagem da pesquisa foi qualitativa e as participantes três professoras das disciplinas supracitadas. A coleta de dados foi dividida em cinco etapas: 1) desenvolvimento de um curso sobre o uso de analogias; 2) planejamento de uma aula com o uso desse recurso; 3) implementação da aula; 4) entrevista semiestruturada e 5) discussão em grupo. Todas as etapas foram gravadas em áudio. As fases 1 e 5 foram realizadas com todas as participantes reunidas, e as fases 2, 3 e 4 realizadas individualmente com cada professora e a presença do pesquisador. O referencial analítico adotado foi a análise textual discursiva. Para a 1ª etapa foram geradas oito categorias acerca dos significados que a... (Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo) / Abstract: Analogies are resources that assist the teaching of scientific concepts, since they facilitate the transfer of meanings from a known concept to an unknown concept. However, several obstacles to learning arise when analogies are pronounced spontaneously by teachers. Therefore, the planning for its use is essential, and it is encouraged when teachers reflect on their practice in collaborative formative contexts. The theme of the research involved the continued teacher training as practical-reflective agents and the collaborative training. We sought to understand and discuss the challenges and possibilities of the insertion of analogies in the didactic planning of Science and Biology teachers, when they reflect and plan to use them in a continuing teacher training context. The research approach was qualitative, and the participants were three female teachers of the abovementioned subjects. Data gathering was divided into five stages: 1) development of a training course on the use of analogies; 2) planning of a class using this resource; 3) application of the planned class; 4) semi-structured interview and 5) group discussion. All stages were recorded in audio. Stages 1 and 5 were executed with all participants gathered, and phases 2, 3 and 4 were executed with each participant individually with the presence of the researcher. The adopted analytical framework was the discursive textual analysis. For the 1st stage, eight categories were generated on the meanings that the participa... (Complete abstract click electronic access below) / Doutor

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La question maîtresse de nos investigations était: Comment les modulations des signaux excitateurs et inhibiteurs mènent à des changements d’état de conscience dans le cerveau – est-ce que l’éveil, le sommeil et le coma sont simplement des points repères dans un continuum allant de la prédominance de l’excitation (pendant l’éveil) à une prévalence ultime de l’inhibition (pendant le coma)? Nous avons tenté de répondre à cette question par une approche à plusieurs niveaux, incluants a) la modulation sub-cellulaire des concentrations ioniques, b) la réactivité intracellulaire à des stimuli externes, et c) des mesures de l’activité globale du cerveau par électroencéphalogramme (EEG). Nos études ont porté exclusivement sur des expériences réalisées in vivo en aigu sur des rats et des chats profondément anesthésiés. Sachant que l’un des facteurs dans la modulation de l’inhibition est la régulation des entrées et sorties du chlore dans les cellules nerveuses, nos investigations ont débuté en questionnant l’influence que cet ion pourrait avoir sur les réponses inhibitrices du réseau. La signalisation inhibitrice basée sur le chlore a pour pré-requis un certain gradient électrochimique entre le cytoplasme et l’espace extracellulaire. Jusqu’à maintenant, il a été largement admis que la diffusion fournissait la force nécessaire à une égale distribution du Cl- dans l’espace extracellulaire et qu’une petite redistribution prenait place après de fortes activités dans le réseau, incluant la signalisation inhibitrice. Par opposition, nous avons montré une différence significative entre les niveaux de Cl- extracellulaire disponibles dans une même région au sein de notre structure cible, la formation hippocampique. Ces résultats suggèrent que le cerveau pourrait employer des mécanismes pour contrer le processus de diffusion et ainsi créer des accumulations spécifiquement régionales d’ions – le plus probablement pour supporter les besoins en approvisionnement. Dans notre modèle, les états de conscience étaient contrôlés par l’induction d’une anesthésie générale; nous avons donc éteint intentionnellement la balance excitation-inhibition des mécanismes de signalisation du cerveau. Des recherches précédentes ont montré que l’anesthésie avec de l’isoflurane amenait l’inconscience par la modulation des neurones thalamocorticaux. Ces neurones agissent en tant que relai pour les signaux sensoriels afférents en route vers le cortex. L’isoflurane hyperpolarise la membrane cellulaire de ces neurones et réduit donc leur réactivité aux signaux synaptiques externes. Il semblerait que la plupart des neurones corticaux ne soient pas soumis à la modulation de l’isoflurane de la même façon. Au contraire, nous avons observé une diminution des réponses inhibitrices aux stimuli afférents dans les neurones corticaux sous l’augmentation des niveaux d’isoflurane, plus spécifiquement pendant les conditions produisant le coma induit par l’anesthésie. En complément à ces micro-mécanismes dynamiques, nous avons aussi investigué les processus globaux au niveau du cerveau entier qui se rapportent à l’inhibition. Nous avons observé 2 nouveaux phénomènes sous ces conditions d’anesthésie : Premièrement, nous avons démontré que même pendant les états comateux, des stimulations sous-liminales pouvaient induire des réponses cérébrales en bouffées, i.e. des bursts. Cependant, cela n’est observé que pendant une certaine fenêtre temporelle de l’anesthésie; lors du passage d’un état similaire au sommeil à l’état de coma. Donc, des réponses synaptiques peuvent en effet être induites même pendant des états comateux. Cette découverte pourrait constituer une pièce vitale du casse-tête pour les cliniciens travaillant avec les patients comateux et tentant de revitaliser leurs circuits cérébraux. En second lieu, nous avons observé un nouveau patron d’activité cérébrale émergeant d’une anesthésie à forte dose d’isoflurane – au-delà des niveaux requis pour l’induction d’une ligne d’EEG isoélectrique. Cette découverte surprenante démontre l’importance de la balance, au niveau d’un circuit, entre l’excitation et l’inhibition, car bien que la ligne isoélectrique semble signifier l’ultime domination de l’inhibition, une forme d’activité excitatrice peut émerger et revitaliser les circuits cérébraux. Nous concluons que l’excitation et l’inhibition pourraient ne pas se balancer dans un mode de tout ou rien et qu’une augmentation de l’inhibition ne cause pas automatiquement le sommeil et/ou le coma. Plutôt, l’excitation et l’inhibition devraient être comprises en tant que processus très localisés pendant lesquels l’activité de quelques neurones peut faire pencher la balance entre les états de conscience. / The guiding question for our investigations was: How do modulations in excitatory and inhibitory signaling lead to changes in the state of consciousness in the brain - are wakefulness, sleep and coma only landmarks on a continuum ranging from predominance of excitation (during wakefulness) to an ultimate prevalence of inhibition (during coma)? We addressed this question by a multilayered approach including a) sub-cellular investigations of modulations of ionic concentrations, b) intracellular responsiveness to excitatory stimuli, and c) EEG measures of whole-brain activity. Our studies were carried out exclusively in acute in vivo experiments on deeply anesthetized rats and cats. Since one of the factors in modulating inhibition is the accessibility of chloride inside- and outside of nerve cells, we began our investigations by asking which influence the availability of this ion might have on inhibitory network responses. Chloride-based inhibitory signaling requires a certain electrochemical gradient between the cytoplasm and the extracellular space as a permissive prerequisite. Thus far, it is widely assumed that diffusion provides a sufficient driving force to evenly distribute Cl- within the extracellular space and that a small re-distribution takes place after strong network activity including inhibitory signaling. In contrast we show a significant difference in regional levels of available extracellular Cl- within our target structure, the hippocampal formation. These findings suggest that the brain might employ mechanisms to counteract diffusion processes and thus create region-specific accumulations of ions - most likely to support needs of supply and demand. In our model, the states of vigilance and consciousness were controlled by application of general anesthesia and by doing so we intentionally offset the balance of excitatory and inhibitory brain signaling mechanisms. Previous research has shown that isoflurane anesthesia induces unconsciousness by modulating thalamocortical neurons. These neurons act as a relay for afferent sensory signals en route to the cortex. Isoflurane hyperpolarizes the cell membrane of these neurons and thus reduces their responsiveness to excitatory synaptic signaling. At the same time it appears that most cortical neurons are not subjected to isoflurane modulation in the same way. On the contrary, we observed diminishing inhibitory responses to afferent stimuli in cortical neurons under increasing levels of isoflurane, especially during conditions producing anesthesia-induced coma. In addition to these micro dynamic mechanisms we also investigated global whole-brain processes pertaining to inhibition. Under conditions of deep anesthesia, we observed two novel phenomena: Firstly, we demonstrated that even during comatose states, subliminal stimulations can elicit brain bursting responses - however only during a certain window during the anesthesia-induced passage from sleep-like behaviors to coma. Therefore, synaptic responses can indeed be elicited even during comatose states. This finding may constitute a vital piece of the puzzle for clinicians working with comatose patients and trying to re-vitalize brain circuits. Secondly, we observed a novel brain activity pattern which emerges under extremely high applications of isoflurane anesthesia – beyond the levels required for induction of a continuously flat (isoelectric) EEG line. This surprising finding demonstrates the importance of the circuit-level balance between excitation and inhibition, as even though the isoelectric line might appear to pose the ultimate dominance of inhibition, some form of excitatory activity can emerge and re-vitalize brain circuits. We conclude that excitation and inhibition might not balance in an all-or-none fashion and that an increase in inhibition does not automatically cause sleep and/or coma. Rather, excitation and inhibition should be understood as very localized processes during which the activity of a few neurons can tip the balance between the states of consciousness.

Cette étude lexicologique prospective s'inscrit dans la didactique des L3. L’objectif est d’élaborer un interlexique anglais-espagnol-français-italien-portugais composé des adjectifs, noms et verbes anglais fréquents dans les écrits scientifiques de la santé, et de leurs équivalents de traduction analogues en espagnol, français, italien et portugais. Deux mots sont analogues s’ils ont le même sens et une forme similaire.Les rapports entre les concepts d'analogie, de similarité et d'identité sont examinés, les types d'analogies intralinguistiques et interlinguistiques illustrés et les principales analogies et dissemblances entre l’anglais, le français et les langues romanes exposées. L'existence de celles-ci est justifiée par les origines indoeuropéennes et surtout d'intenses contacts de langues. Après avoir rappelé l’importance de l’analogie dans l’apprentissage, nous montrons le lien entre notre recherche et deux types d’approches didactiques des langues : l'intercompréhension, qui développe la compréhension de langues voisines, et les approches sur corpus qui permettent de mieux connaitre et faire connaitre la phraséologie scientifique.Les 2000 lemmes anglais les plus fréquents ont été extraits du corpus scientifique anglais de ScienText, leurs 2208 acceptions fréquentes délimitées sur la base du profil combinatoire et triées en deux catégories sémantiques : lexique de spécialité et lexique scientifique transdisciplinaire. Les lemmes anglais ont été traduits dans les quatre langues romanes, et la similarité mesurée en fonction de la sous-chaine maximale commune (SMC).L’interlexique contient 47 % des acceptions fréquentes. Par couples de langues, l’analogie est encore plus élevée : anglais – français, 66 %, anglais-italien, 65 %, anglais-espagnol, 63 %, anglais-portugais, 58 %. Ce lexique analogue pourrait donc servir comme base de transfert dans des activités de FLE L3 pour des professionnels de la santé, et l’anglais L2 semble être une passerelle possible vers les langues romanes. Des activités plurilingues sont construites sur des concordances extraites des corpus multilingues alignés EMEA et Europarl. Un questionnement métalinguistique en anglais sensibilise à des traits (morpho)syntaxiques du français ; les analogies des deux langues sont systématiquement mises en relief, et dans les cas d'opacité, celles des autres langues romanes avec l’anglais. / This prospective lexicological investigation belongs to the field of L3 French didactics. The purpose is to elaborate a French-Italian-Portuguese-Spanish interlexicon out of the frequent adjectives, nouns and verbs of the healthcare scientific writings, and their analogue translation equivalents in French, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish. Two words are analogue if they have the same meaning and a similar form.Related concepts of analogy, similarity and identity are discussed, types of intralinguistic and cross-linguistic analogies reviewed, and the main analogies and differences between English, French and Romance languages detailed. Their many analogies are justified by Indo-European origins and mostly by intense language contacts. Once the importance of analogy in learning procedures has been highlighted, we show how this research and two types of didactic approaches connect together: intercomprehension, which develops comprehension skills in neighbor languages, and corpus approaches which enable to get a closer insight into scientific phraseology.The 2000 most frequent English lemmas were extracted from the ScienText English scientific corpus, their 2208 frequent acceptions explored from their combinatory profile and sorted out in two semantic categories: healthcare subject-specific vocabulary and science specific trans-disciplinary vocabulary. The English lemmas were translated into the four Romance languages, and similarity measurements were carried out with the longest common substring method.The interlexicon contains 47% of the frequent acceptions. Analogy is even higher by language pairs: English – French, 66%, English – Italian, 65%, English - Spanish, 63%, English – Portuguese, 58%. Consequently, this analogue vocabulary could form a transfer basis in learning activities of L3 French for health care providers, and L2 English seems to be a possible bridge language toward Romance languages. Plurilingual activities are built on concordances extracted from multilingual aligned corpora (EMEA, Europarl). Metalinguistic questions in English point out (morpho)syntactic features of French; the analogies between both languages are systematically enhanced, and in case of lexical opacity, those between English and the other Romance languages.

No description available.

<p>This study formed part of a larger project that is concerned with the adaptation of a test of cognitive academic language proficiency, the Woodcock Mu&ntilde / oz Language Survey (WMLS). The WMLS has been adapted from English into isiXhosa and the present study is located within the broader study that is concerned with establishing overall equivalence between the two language versions of the WMLS. It was primarily concerned with the Verbal Analogies (VA) scale. Previous research on this scale has demonstrated promising results, but continues to find evidence of some inequivalence. This study aimed to cross-validate previous research on the two language versions of the WMLS and improve on methodological issues by employing matched groups. It drew upon an existing dataset from the larger research project. The study employed a monolingual matched two-group design consisting of 150 mainly English speaking and 149 mainly isiXhosa learners in grades 6 and 7. This study had two sub aims. The first was to investigate item bias by identifying DIF items in the VA scale across the isiXhosa and English by conducting a logistic regression and Mantel-Haenszel procedure. Five items were identified by both techniques as DIF. The second sub aim was to evaluate construct equivalence between the isiXhosa and English versions of the WMLS on the VA scale by conducting a factor analysis on the tests after removal of DIF items. Two factors were requested during the factor analysis. The first factor displayed significant loadings across both language versions and was identified as a stable factor. This was confirmed by the Tucker&rsquo / s Phi and scatter plot. The second factor was stable for the English version but not for the isiXhosa version. The Tucker&rsquo / s phi and scatter plot indicated that this factor is not structurally equivalent across the two language versions</p>

<p>In the majority of the schools in South Africa (SA), learners commence education in English. This English milieu poses a considerable challenge for English second-language speakers. In an attempt to bridge the gap between English as the main medium of instruction and the nine indigenous languages of the country and assist with the implementation of mother-tongue based bilingual education, this study focuses on the cross-validation of a monolingual English test used in the assessment of multilingual or bilingual learners in the South African context. This test, namely the Woodcock Mu&ntilde / oz Language Survey (WMLS), is extensively used in the United States in Additive Bilingual Education in the country. The present study is a substudy of a broader study, in which the original WMLS (American-English version) was adapted into SA English and Xhosa. For this specific sub-study, the researcher was interested in investigating the scalar equivalence of the adapted English version of the Verbal Analogies (VA) subscale of the WMLS across English first-language speakers and Xhosa first-language speakers. This was achieved by utilising differential item functioning (DIF) and construct bias statistical techniques. The Mantel-Haenszel DIF detection method was employed to detect DIF, while construct equivalence was examined by means of exploratory factor analysis (EFA) utilising an a priori two-factor structure. The Tucker&rsquo / s phi coefficient was used to assess the congruence of the construct across the two language groups</p>

<p>This study formed part of a larger project that is concerned with the adaptation of a test of cognitive academic language proficiency, the Woodcock Mu&ntilde / oz Language Survey (WMLS). The WMLS has been adapted from English into isiXhosa and the present study is located within the broader study that is concerned with establishing overall equivalence between the two language versions of the WMLS. It was primarily concerned with the Verbal Analogies (VA) scale. Previous research on this scale has demonstrated promising results, but continues to find evidence of some inequivalence. This study aimed to cross-validate previous research on the two language versions of the WMLS and improve on methodological issues by employing matched groups. It drew upon an existing dataset from the larger research project. The study employed a monolingual matched two-group design consisting of 150 mainly English speaking and 149 mainly isiXhosa learners in grades 6 and 7. This study had two sub aims. The first was to investigate item bias by identifying DIF items in the VA scale across the isiXhosa and English by conducting a logistic regression and Mantel-Haenszel procedure. Five items were identified by both techniques as DIF. The second sub aim was to evaluate construct equivalence between the isiXhosa and English versions of the WMLS on the VA scale by conducting a factor analysis on the tests after removal of DIF items. Two factors were requested during the factor analysis. The first factor displayed significant loadings across both language versions and was identified as a stable factor. This was confirmed by the Tucker&rsquo / s Phi and scatter plot. The second factor was stable for the English version but not for the isiXhosa version. The Tucker&rsquo / s phi and scatter plot indicated that this factor is not structurally equivalent across the two language versions</p>

<p>In the majority of the schools in South Africa (SA), learners commence education in English. This English milieu poses a considerable challenge for English second-language speakers. In an attempt to bridge the gap between English as the main medium of instruction and the nine indigenous languages of the country and assist with the implementation of mother-tongue based bilingual education, this study focuses on the cross-validation of a monolingual English test used in the assessment of multilingual or bilingual learners in the South African context. This test, namely the Woodcock Mu&ntilde / oz Language Survey (WMLS), is extensively used in the United States in Additive Bilingual Education in the country. The present study is a substudy of a broader study, in which the original WMLS (American-English version) was adapted into SA English and Xhosa. For this specific sub-study, the researcher was interested in investigating the scalar equivalence of the adapted English version of the Verbal Analogies (VA) subscale of the WMLS across English first-language speakers and Xhosa first-language speakers. This was achieved by utilising differential item functioning (DIF) and construct bias statistical techniques. The Mantel-Haenszel DIF detection method was employed to detect DIF, while construct equivalence was examined by means of exploratory factor analysis (EFA) utilising an a priori two-factor structure. The Tucker&rsquo / s phi coefficient was used to assess the congruence of the construct across the two language groups</p>