The primary aim of this study is to determine whether it is possible to standardize written feedback on L2 student writing for use in a computerised marking environment. It forms part of a bigger project aimed at enhancing the feedback process as a whole The study attempts to establish "best practice" with regards to feedback on writing, by establishing from the literature what works and what should be avoided. Also, an empirical study was launched to establish what lecturers focus on and what marking techniques they use. A set of randomly selected essays from the Tswana Learner English Corpus and the Afrikaans Learner English Corpus were sent to the English departments of different tertiary institutions across the country. The essays were marked by the English lecturers at the relevant institutions. The conclusion was that lecturers typically focus on surface structures, and use ineffective marking techniques. The best practice (and data from the empirical study) was then used to create a set of standardised feedback comments (tag set) that can be used in a specially programmed software package in which students submit their texts electronically. Lecturers can then mark the student essays on the computer, hopefully speeding up the process, while at the same time giving much more detailed feedback. In later stages of the bigger project, students will get individualized exercises based on the feedback, and there are experiments currently being run to try and automate certain pans of the marking process in order to take some strain off the lecturers when marking. The immense archiving abilities of the computer will also be utilized in order to create opportunities for longitudinal studies. The effectiveness of the feedback tag set was tested in comparison to the marking techniques used by the lecturers in the empirical study and a self-correcting exercise. The conclusion was that the feedback tag set is more effective than the other two techniques. but students seem to perform weak overall when it gets to the revision of cohesive devices and supporting arguments. I argue that students are not used to revising these features, since lecturers seldom (if ever) comment on the structural elements of texts. However, the experiment proves that standardization of written feedback is possible to an extent. The implications of the findings are discussed, and recommendations for further research are made. / Thesis (M.A. (English))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2006

Drawing upon the writing literature and the task-based language teaching literature, the study examined two cognitive complexity dimensions of L2 writing tasks: rhetorical task varying in reasoning demand and topic familiarity varying in the amount of direct knowledge of topics. Four rhetorical tasks were studied: narrative, expository, expo-argumentative, and argumentative tasks. Three topic familiarity tasks were investigated: personal-familiar, impersonal-familiar, and impersonal-less familiar tasks. Specifically, the study looked into the effects of these two cognitive complexity dimensions on L2 writing quality scores, their effects on complexity, accuracy, and fluency (CAF) of L2 production, and the predictive power of the CAF features on L2 writing scores for each task. Three hundred and seventy five Chinese university EFL students participated in the study, and each student wrote on one of the six writing tasks used to study the cognitive complexity dimensions. The essays were rated by trained raters using a holistic scale. Thirteen CAF measures were used, and the measures were all automated through computer tools. One-way ANOVA tests revealed that neither rhetorical task nor topic familiarity had an effect on the L2 writing scores. One-way MANOVA tests showed that neither rhetorical task nor topic familiarity had an effect on accuracy and fluency of the L2 writing, but that the argumentative essays were significantly more complex in global syntactic complexity features than the essays on the other rhetorical tasks, and the essays on the less familiar topic were significantly less complex in lexical features than the essays on the more familiar topics. All-possible subsets regression analyses revealed that the CAF features explained approximately half of the variance in the writing scores across the tasks and that writing fluency was the most important CAF predictor for five tasks. Lexical sophistication was however the most important CAF predictor for the argumentative task. The regression analyses further showed that the best regression models for the narrative task were distinct from the ones for the expository and argumentative types of tasks, and the best models for the personal-familiar task were distinct from the ones for the impersonal tasks.

The first purpose of this case study was to understand the course development experiences of Grade 10 French Immersion (FI) Science teachers in Manitoba. The second purpose was to develop an online instructional resources database model based on an understanding of these teachers’ course development experiences that holds promise in supporting Grade 10 FI Science teachers in Manitoba. Results of this study revealed that teachers’ experiences are negatively impacted by equity issues, such as a lack of resources in French designed to address the Manitoba curriculum. These equity issues negatively impact teachers’ well-being. In turn, these equity issues for teachers, as well as the impacts of these issues on teachers’ well-being, have negative impacts on the quality of FI education in Manitoba. An online instructional resources database model, entitled the Living Curriculum model, was developed. / May 2017

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Teaching speaking is an area of language education which is frequently neglected in English classes in Turkey. This dissertation reports on an action research study designed to address this problem. The study involved data collection through interviews, questionnaires, and observations, as a way of eliciting students’ views as a means to improve speaking classes and to outline the impact of student negotiation on students’ classroom participation and performance. The research, conducted in the ELT Department at a university in Turkey, comprised three different stages. In the first reconnaissance phase, initial data were collected to understand the classroom context. This informed the second stage, comprising eight weekly-based interventions that involved planning, action, observation and reflection, in which students were given a voice and classroom activities were designed accordingly. In the third stage, the final data were collected to understand the effectiveness of student negotiation. According to the findings, students wanted more opportunities to practise spoken language in class. Student negotiation allowed for the design of classes according to students’ needs and wants, with students becoming more motivated to engage in classroom activities. This led to the development of more positive attitudes towards speaking classes, and more positive perceptions of their speaking ability were reported at the end of the term, together with increased classroom participation, greater willingness to communicate, higher self-esteem, and lower levels of anxiety. The findings also suggested that student negotiation is likely to impact on students’ and teachers’ professional development. The study has a number of implications for both the teaching of speaking and for research: it demonstrates the significance of student engagement in classroom activities, made possible through designing activities which take into account students’ views and perceptions. Student negotiation and attention to students’ needs and wants would appear to promote a high level of student participation, increased motivation and more positive attitudes towards speaking classes. Further research studies, and specifically, more action research, should be conducted in Turkey to generate practical implications to improve classroom practice.

The thesis is concerned with the role of the target language in foreign language teaching. The objective of the thesis is to discuss the influence of teaching English by means of the target language on communicative competence of young learners. The theoretical part elaborates the theoretical principles that concern employment of the target language in teaching. Futhermore, it analyses the factors influencing foreign language learning, discusses the possibility of language acquisition in the classroom and studies the influence of using the target language as the language of communication and instruction. Subsequently, it provides synchronic and diachronic analysis of L2 and L1 use in English language teaching methodology. In conclusion, the theoretical part evaluates the benefits of teaching by means of the target language, anticipates some risks and problems concerned with teaching exclusively by means of the target language and proposes techniques for maximization of the target language use. The semi-quantitative research studies the issue of the role of the target language in the classroom on the basis of monitoring a sample of teachers of Czech primary schools. Primarily, it investigates the amount of comprehensible input that young learners are provided with and means that teachers employ in...

This thesis is concerned with phraseology and its intertwining with didactics of foreign languages. The practical part consists of the analysis of a contemporary situation in didactics of foreign languages, particularly the utilization of idioms. Further, the frequency of using proverbs and other set phrases in modern textbooks for teaching foreign languages (namely German and Russian) is analysed. The aim of this thesis is to suggest an effective way of including and handling idioms in modern education. KEYWORDS: phraseology, phrase, foreign language teaching, proverbs

Common mistakes Czech students make in English represent the main topic of the presented master thesis. The theoretical part mainly deals with the presentation of various TEFL (Teaching English as Foreign Language) methods. Moreover, they are discussed from several perspectives, including techniques, strategies and principles while using the particular method, the role of the teacher, his or her relationship with students, and especially the response to errors within each of the methods. The purpose of presenting TEFL methods is to show also the connection between mistakes and methods themselves. Concerning the area of mistakes and their corrections, we focus on the classification of mistakes and their division. The practical part is based on various illustrations of mistakes from students' writing assignments. These mistakes are divided into four major classes, including grammar, spelling, wrong word and word order. The thesis also deals with the remedial treatment which may hopefully reduce the number of possible mistakes. The aim of the thesis is to compare the level of students' English language knowledge at the Secondary School of Tourism in Prague where the author works as an English teacher.

Orientador: Suzi Marques Spatti Cavalari / Resumo: Este estudo tem por objetivo investigar o que dizem os professores de inglês a respeito da utilização de tecnologias nas escolas públicas de uma cidade do interior de São Paulo. A discussão teórica se embasa nos pressupostos da Teoria da Atividade (ENGESTRÖM, 1999; 2001), nos documentos oficiais que orientam a educação básica no Brasil (PCN, PCNEM, LDB, OCEM, BNCC, PME), nas Diretrizes Curriculares Nacionais para Formação Inicial e Continuada em Nível Superior de Profissionais do Magistério para a Educação Básica (BRASIL, 2002; 2015) e nos fatores que influenciam a utilização de tecnologias no contexto escolar (RODRIGUES, 2010; ALVARENGA; AZZI, 2013; ROSA; AZENHA, 2015; MAYRINK; COSTA, 2017). Trata-se de um estudo misto (quantitativo e qualitativo) do tipo survey cujos dados foram gerados por meio de um questionário composto por questões abertas e fechadas realizado com 16 professores de inglês atuantes nas escolas públicas da cidade focal. Além disso, adotou-se como fonte de dados complementar a tomada de notas feita pelo pesquisador em visita a cada uma instituições pesquisadas, totalizando dez escolas estaduais e uma municipal. Os dados apontaram que há utilização de tecnologias, contudo, apenas em alguns momentos da prática pedagógica dos docentes, conforme afirmaram os professores. Os tipos de atividade predominantes foram de pesquisa, escuta, pronúncia e vocabulário e as mídias mais utilizadas foram músicas, filmes, vídeos e jogos. Em relação aos objetivos, os docentes ... (Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo) / Abstract: This study aims at researching what English teachers say about the use of technologies in classroom in the context of public schools in a city in the countryside of São Paulo State. The theoretical discussion sets its bases on the principles of the Activity Theory (ENGESTRÖM, 1999; 2001), on the official documents which orient the Brazilian basic education (PCN, PCNEM, LDB, BNCC, PME), on the National Curricular Guidelines to Higher and In-service education for basic education teaching professionals (BRASIL, 2002; 2015) and on the factors that influence the use of technologies in a public school context (RODRIGUES, 2010; ALVARENGA; AZZI, 2013; ROSA; AZENHA, 2015; MAYRINK; COSTA, 2017). This study employs quantitative and qualitative approaches and it is characterized as a survey type work. A questionnaire composed by closed and open-ended questions and answered by 16 public school English teachers is adopted as the main source of data. As a secondary data collection instrument, the researcher employed note taking about the schools’ infrastructure while visiting them. In total, ten state schools and one municipal school were visited. The data pointed out that the use of technology in this context exists, however, only in some moments of the teachers’ pedagogical practice. The predominant kinds of activity were research, listening, pronunciation, and vocabulary exercises done through songs, movies, videos, and games. Concerning the objectives, the teachers claimed to use the te... (Complete abstract click electronic access below) / Mestre

O presente trabalho tem como objeto o ensino do italiano jurídico para estudantes brasileiros, propriamente o papel do léxico específico na área do direito para o desenvolvimento de competências orais e escritas. A fundamentação teórica desta pesquisa concentra-se nos estudos realizados por Saussure (2006) em relação ao uso da linguagem e por Orlandi (2002) para a Análise do Discurso. No que tange aos gêneros textuais e aos gêneros do discurso, baseamo-nos principalmente nos pressupostos de Bakhtin (2003) e Marcuschi (2008), além de outros autores (HILA, 2009; BHATIA, 2009; MOTTAROTH, 2008). No que diz respeito à análise dos textos jurídicos, fundamentamo-nos em DellAnna (2017) e Tullio (2012). Para a escolha da didática a ser aplicada nos cursos e na produção dos materiais, nossos referenciais foram os trabalhos de Ortale (2016), Vieira (2012, 2017) e Souza (2018). Com relação às estratégias de leitura, os escritos de Dota (1994) e Solé (1998) nos guiaram. A metodologia deste estudo é baseada na pesquisa-ação (THIOLLENT, 2009) e a coleta de dados se dividiu em duas partes: na primeira, preparamos e ministramos um curso no qual utilizamos videoaulas de direito italiano material autêntico (VIEIRA, 2012, 2017) , além de prepararmos algumas videoaulas de italiano para iniciantes. Esse curso foi planejado segundo a abordagem comunicativa (ALMEIDA FILHO, 1998, 2005, LEFFA, 1088,1996, 2008a, 2008b), sendo priorizadas as habilidades de compreensão oral e escrita e, em segundo plano, a produção oral e a produção escrita. No segundo curso que ministramos, decidimos utilizar os parâmetros da pedagogia do pós-método e empregar as macro e as microestratégias (KUMARAVADIVELU, 1994, 2001, 2003, 2006a, 2006b, 2012). As macroestratégias foram concretizadas por meio das microestratégias de leitura que elaboramos especialmente para a leitura dos textos jurídicos (DOTA, 1994; SOLÉ, 1998) e que nos conduziram na realização do segundo curso sobre compreensão de textos jurídicos em italiano. Ao final, avaliamos os resultados dos dois cursos e chegamos a algumas conclusões sobre o ensino do italiano jurídico, tanto em relação ao uso da abordagem comunicativa como em relação ao emprego da pedagogia pósmétodo. Consideramos a utilização de materiais próprios para estudantes brasileiros de relevante importância para o ensino do italiano jurídico e esperamos que esta pesquisa contribua para a área de italiano com fins específicos. / The present work has as its target the teaching of juridical Italian for Brazilian students, specifically, the role of lexicon specificity for development of oral and written skills in law field. The theoretical basis of this research spotlights the studies carried out by Saussure (2006) regarding the use of language and Orlandi (2002), for Discourse Analysis. In terms of textual and discourse genres, we were mainly substantiated on the assumptions of Bakhtin (2003) and Marcuschi (2008), besides other authors (HILA, 2009, BHATIA, 2009 and MOTTA-ROTH, 2008). Concerning the analysis of legal documents, we focused on Dell\'Anna (2017) and Tullio (2012). For the didactics technique choice to be applied to the courses and production of materials, our references were Ortale (2016), Vieira (2012, 2017) and Souza (2018) works. With regard to reading strategies, writings of Dota (1994) and Solé (1998) guided us. The methodology of this study was based on action research (THIOLLENT, 2009) and the data collection was divided into two parts: First, we prepared and gave a course in which we use video classes of Italian law - authentic material (VIEIRA, 2012, 2017) - as well as prepared Italian video classes for beginners. This course was designed according to the communicative approach (ALMEIDA FILHO, 1998, 2005, LEFFA, 1088, 1996, 2008a, 2008b), in which oral and written comprehension skills were priority, being followed by oral and written production. The second part was composed by a course in which it was settled the use the parameters present on the post method pedagogy and use of macro and microstrategies (KUMARAVADIVELU, 1994, 2001, 2003, 2006a, 2006b, 2012). The macrostrategies were carried out through the microstrategies of reading that we elaborated specifically for the reading of legal documents (DOTA, 1994; SOLÉ, 1998) and guided us to the second course on understanding legal documents in Italian. In the end, obtained results of the courses were evaluated and conclusions about the teaching of legal Italian were drawn, both in relation to the use of the communicative approach and in relation to the use of post-method pedagogy. We considered pertinent for the juridical Italian teaching the use of material made specifically for Brazilian students and expects that this research contributes to the area of Italian for specific purposes.