La presente tesis doctoral intenta acercar al lector a la realidad de la educación de personas adultas en el ámbito del aprendizaje de las lenguas, en este caso el catalán, a través de en estudio cualitativo, desarrollado a lo largo de tres años lectivos escolar: 2003-2004, 2004-2005, 2005-2006, en un Centro de formación dedicado a la enseñanza del catalán, en una ciudad cercana a Barcelona ciudad. Se analiza las estrategias didácticas utilizadas por la docente como así también los saberes que surgían mientras el alumnado, en su mayoría mujeres, se relacionaba. Los tiempos y espacios institucionalizados para las relaciones, son tiempos y espacios limitados por un período cuya duración está determinada administrativamente. Cronología que organiza la institución alrededor de los conocimientos y las habilidades que el alumnado tiene que adquirir. En cambio, los momentos de viva relación que se desarrollaba entre las mujeres del grupo clase no tenían un tiempo estipulado dentro del aula, sino en otros espacios, en otros momentos, con otras características y de otra manera: momentos de relación, de diálogo distendido, de acercamientos personales, de descubrimiento del otro y otra. La propuesta pedagógica-didáctica en la educación de personas adultas cuesta ser reconocida desde su singularidad y particularidad. Encierra en sí misma, aspectos y significados que reproducen la organización institucional y áulica de otros niveles del Sistema Educativo. De allí es que, en algunos casos, el planteamiento docente no varíe, enseñándose casi de la misma manera como si de niños o adolescentes se tratara. No se incorporan (la mayoría de las veces) elementos nuevos, distintivos teniendo en cuenta la franja etárea del alumnado, sus experiencias y vivencias como elemento factible de ser aportado en y al proceso. El cómo es o debe ser una institución educativa y el proceso de enseñanza y aprendizaje está tan interiorizado y naturalizado, que el alumnado a pesar de ser adulto y con experiencias de aprendizajes en contextos diferentes, reproduce dentro del aula ese imaginario escolar que a lo largo de sus vidas fueron viviendo y experimentando. En las aulas e instituciones las emociones, tanto del alumnado como del profesorado han sido a veces subestimadas y hasta silenciadas, como si las mismas no contaran a la hora de la estructuración de la identidad personal, social y profesional de unos y otros. (Bolívar, 1998) En horas de catalán, junto al saber académico, eran las emociones y sensaciones “disfrazadas” en historias, narraciones y conocimientos las que fluían y se desenvolvían. En este compartir experiencias, estas personas adultas no solo exteriorizaban lo que sentían, vivían o vivieron, estaban (quizás sin advertirlo) re-socializándose junto a otros y otras que en iguales condiciones (de desconocimiento de muchas situaciones) buscaban espacios y tiempos de conocimiento e integración a una nueva realidad. Muchos de los estudios actuales se están inclinando hacia investigaciones reflexivas dado que abordan el conocimiento a partir de la experiencia, de la textualidad del significado y del valor de la singularidad de las vivencias personales. (van Manen, 2003) Captar la compleja trama de saberes, afectos, sentimientos y emociones que se entretejían entre las mujeres inmigrantes, requirió desplegar una metodología de investigación que permitiera la comprensión e interpretación de lo que allí sucedía, sin condicionar ni limitar los aconteceres. La fenomenología, la hermenéutica y el abordaje etnográfico me brindó la posibilidad de desplegar una serie de estrategias para que los saberes qué antes, durante y después de las clases de catalán salían fueran factibles de ser teorizados. / “Catalan classes for adult people. Source of knowledge and relationships. Case study in immigrant women” TEXT: The aim of this doctoral thesis is to bring the reader closer to the reality of adult education in the scope of Catalan language learning, through a qualitative study developed throughout three school years in a Catalan teaching center near Barcelona. Here, the teacher’s didactic strategies are analyzed as well as the knowledge that came up when the students, most of them women, socialized with each other. Time and space institutionalized for the relationships are limited by an administratively fixed period. This chronology is set by the institution around the knowledge and skills that the students are required to acquire. Conversely, the moments of lively relationship developed in the classroom between the women in the class did not have a stipulated time in the classroom but in other spaces, with other characteristics and in a different way: relaxed moments for relationship, conversation, and closeness. The pedagogical-didactical approach in adult education is hardly considered from its singularity and characteristic. It includes aspects that reproduce the institutional organization of other parts of the Education System. For this reason, in some cases the teaching approach is the same as if it were aimed to children. How it is, or should be, an educational institution and the learning-teaching process is so internalized that the students, in spite of being adults, reproduce in the classroom the school baggage they have experimented all their life. In classrooms, emotions, form the teachers and students, have been many times underestimated and even silenced, as if they were not important when defining the personal, social and professional identity of all of them. (Bolívar, 1998). In the Catalan classes, along with academic knowledge, it was the emotions and sensations “disguised” as stories, narrations and tales that flowed and were developed. In this sharing of experiences, those adults were not only externalizing their feelings and experiences but they were (maybe inadvertently) re-socializing with others in the same situation as they were, looking for spaces and times of learning and integrating into a new reality.

The foundational premise of communicatively-based foreign language teaching approaches is that the activities used in the classroom are 'communicative'; that the language learned is being used to 'communicate'. Genuine communication however is difficult to establish in a traditional classroom setting consisting of desks, chairs and textbooks. This project examines how a specific form of Drama in Education - process drama - can be used to create more authentic communicative situations and learning experiences in the foreign language classroom; experiences that are both intellectually and affectively engaging. It begins with a review of the literature pertaining to the three main areas that provide the backdrop to the project's central research proposition, namely second language acquisition, second language methodology and aesthetic education. The three main protagonists are then introduced, namely social interactionist theories of language acquisition, communicative language teaching approaches (the main focus being on task-based methodology), and process drama. The two supporting characters, change and motivation, also make their entrance. The curtain is then raised to reveal a performance of various teaching and learning experiences of the use of process drama in first and second language settings. This illustrates how process drama operates on a practical level and explores the offered potential for more authentic communication when this approach comes into contact with second language task-based methodology. Literature surrounding unit and lesson planning frameworks from the fields of both second language acquisition and process drama is then examined before the spotlight falls on the proposed 'Foreign language and Process drama' Unit and Lesson planning Framework. Illustrative models of the innovative framework together with concrete examples of its use are provided to represent more clearly how it can facilitate the creation of characters and contexts through which to communicate more authentically in the FL classroom. The closing curtain falls on a reflection of the entire project, which includes recommendations and possibilities for further research.

In 2003 the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) unveiled their new junior high school (JHS) English as a Foreign Language (EFL) policy, which focused strongly on oral communication. Although there is evidence of policy noncompliance in schools until now there has been no English language research on the attitudes or practices of Japanese teachers of English (JTEs), or the views of the students, and their parents in regards to teaching/learning English speaking skills. The research, based on JHSs in a mid-sized Japanese city (pop. 475,000 approx.), focused predominantly on JTEs, but also included students, and their parents. Focus group sessions, questionnaires, and one-on-one interviews were used to collect data. The study reveals that learning English speaking skills is considered important, but passing the senior high school (SHS) entrance examination is the main concern and so, test impact from the SHS entrance examination exerts the greatest pressure on JHS JTEs. The JTEs also perceive themselves as facing other issues such as student motivation, JTE speaking proficiency, and large class sizes. Another finding is that JTEs appear to receive inadequate training– pre- and inservice– resulting in issues, such as a reliance on traditional methods (yakudoku), which are not in accordance with MEXT’s intentions, and JTE proficiency test achievement levels lower than those desired by MEXT. As a result of these issues gaps exist between MEXT JHS EFL policies and actual teaching practices, and have unfortunately led to a situation where JTEs believe that MEXT does not care about or understand the teaching environment. The study concludes that implementation of MEXT’s policy require a better match between the SHS entrance examination and JHS EFL policy, a decrease in class sizes, and JTEs receiving more adequate training. A more positive relationship between MEXT and JTEs would result from these two groups working collaboratively when designing JHS EFL policies and could better achieve a match between the SHS entrance examination and JHS EFL policy.

In 2003 the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) unveiled their new junior high school (JHS) English as a Foreign Language (EFL) policy, which focused strongly on oral communication. Although there is evidence of policy noncompliance in schools until now there has been no English language research on the attitudes or practices of Japanese teachers of English (JTEs), or the views of the students, and their parents in regards to teaching/learning English speaking skills. The research, based on JHSs in a mid-sized Japanese city (pop. 475,000 approx.), focused predominantly on JTEs, but also included students, and their parents. Focus group sessions, questionnaires, and one-on-one interviews were used to collect data. The study reveals that learning English speaking skills is considered important, but passing the senior high school (SHS) entrance examination is the main concern and so, test impact from the SHS entrance examination exerts the greatest pressure on JHS JTEs. The JTEs also perceive themselves as facing other issues such as student motivation, JTE speaking proficiency, and large class sizes. Another finding is that JTEs appear to receive inadequate training– pre- and inservice– resulting in issues, such as a reliance on traditional methods (yakudoku), which are not in accordance with MEXT’s intentions, and JTE proficiency test achievement levels lower than those desired by MEXT. As a result of these issues gaps exist between MEXT JHS EFL policies and actual teaching practices, and have unfortunately led to a situation where JTEs believe that MEXT does not care about or understand the teaching environment. The study concludes that implementation of MEXT’s policy require a better match between the SHS entrance examination and JHS EFL policy, a decrease in class sizes, and JTEs receiving more adequate training. A more positive relationship between MEXT and JTEs would result from these two groups working collaboratively when designing JHS EFL policies and could better achieve a match between the SHS entrance examination and JHS EFL policy.

In 2003 the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) unveiled their new junior high school (JHS) English as a Foreign Language (EFL) policy, which focused strongly on oral communication. Although there is evidence of policy noncompliance in schools until now there has been no English language research on the attitudes or practices of Japanese teachers of English (JTEs), or the views of the students, and their parents in regards to teaching/learning English speaking skills. The research, based on JHSs in a mid-sized Japanese city (pop. 475,000 approx.), focused predominantly on JTEs, but also included students, and their parents. Focus group sessions, questionnaires, and one-on-one interviews were used to collect data. The study reveals that learning English speaking skills is considered important, but passing the senior high school (SHS) entrance examination is the main concern and so, test impact from the SHS entrance examination exerts the greatest pressure on JHS JTEs. The JTEs also perceive themselves as facing other issues such as student motivation, JTE speaking proficiency, and large class sizes. Another finding is that JTEs appear to receive inadequate training– pre- and inservice– resulting in issues, such as a reliance on traditional methods (yakudoku), which are not in accordance with MEXT’s intentions, and JTE proficiency test achievement levels lower than those desired by MEXT. As a result of these issues gaps exist between MEXT JHS EFL policies and actual teaching practices, and have unfortunately led to a situation where JTEs believe that MEXT does not care about or understand the teaching environment. The study concludes that implementation of MEXT’s policy require a better match between the SHS entrance examination and JHS EFL policy, a decrease in class sizes, and JTEs receiving more adequate training. A more positive relationship between MEXT and JTEs would result from these two groups working collaboratively when designing JHS EFL policies and could better achieve a match between the SHS entrance examination and JHS EFL policy.

In 2003 the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) unveiled their new junior high school (JHS) English as a Foreign Language (EFL) policy, which focused strongly on oral communication. Although there is evidence of policy noncompliance in schools until now there has been no English language research on the attitudes or practices of Japanese teachers of English (JTEs), or the views of the students, and their parents in regards to teaching/learning English speaking skills. The research, based on JHSs in a mid-sized Japanese city (pop. 475,000 approx.), focused predominantly on JTEs, but also included students, and their parents. Focus group sessions, questionnaires, and one-on-one interviews were used to collect data. The study reveals that learning English speaking skills is considered important, but passing the senior high school (SHS) entrance examination is the main concern and so, test impact from the SHS entrance examination exerts the greatest pressure on JHS JTEs. The JTEs also perceive themselves as facing other issues such as student motivation, JTE speaking proficiency, and large class sizes. Another finding is that JTEs appear to receive inadequate training– pre- and inservice– resulting in issues, such as a reliance on traditional methods (yakudoku), which are not in accordance with MEXT’s intentions, and JTE proficiency test achievement levels lower than those desired by MEXT. As a result of these issues gaps exist between MEXT JHS EFL policies and actual teaching practices, and have unfortunately led to a situation where JTEs believe that MEXT does not care about or understand the teaching environment. The study concludes that implementation of MEXT’s policy require a better match between the SHS entrance examination and JHS EFL policy, a decrease in class sizes, and JTEs receiving more adequate training. A more positive relationship between MEXT and JTEs would result from these two groups working collaboratively when designing JHS EFL policies and could better achieve a match between the SHS entrance examination and JHS EFL policy.

In 2003 the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) unveiled their new junior high school (JHS) English as a Foreign Language (EFL) policy, which focused strongly on oral communication. Although there is evidence of policy noncompliance in schools until now there has been no English language research on the attitudes or practices of Japanese teachers of English (JTEs), or the views of the students, and their parents in regards to teaching/learning English speaking skills. The research, based on JHSs in a mid-sized Japanese city (pop. 475,000 approx.), focused predominantly on JTEs, but also included students, and their parents. Focus group sessions, questionnaires, and one-on-one interviews were used to collect data. The study reveals that learning English speaking skills is considered important, but passing the senior high school (SHS) entrance examination is the main concern and so, test impact from the SHS entrance examination exerts the greatest pressure on JHS JTEs. The JTEs also perceive themselves as facing other issues such as student motivation, JTE speaking proficiency, and large class sizes. Another finding is that JTEs appear to receive inadequate training– pre- and inservice– resulting in issues, such as a reliance on traditional methods (yakudoku), which are not in accordance with MEXT’s intentions, and JTE proficiency test achievement levels lower than those desired by MEXT. As a result of these issues gaps exist between MEXT JHS EFL policies and actual teaching practices, and have unfortunately led to a situation where JTEs believe that MEXT does not care about or understand the teaching environment. The study concludes that implementation of MEXT’s policy require a better match between the SHS entrance examination and JHS EFL policy, a decrease in class sizes, and JTEs receiving more adequate training. A more positive relationship between MEXT and JTEs would result from these two groups working collaboratively when designing JHS EFL policies and could better achieve a match between the SHS entrance examination and JHS EFL policy.

In 2003 the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) unveiled their new junior high school (JHS) English as a Foreign Language (EFL) policy, which focused strongly on oral communication. Although there is evidence of policy noncompliance in schools until now there has been no English language research on the attitudes or practices of Japanese teachers of English (JTEs), or the views of the students, and their parents in regards to teaching/learning English speaking skills. The research, based on JHSs in a mid-sized Japanese city (pop. 475,000 approx.), focused predominantly on JTEs, but also included students, and their parents. Focus group sessions, questionnaires, and one-on-one interviews were used to collect data. The study reveals that learning English speaking skills is considered important, but passing the senior high school (SHS) entrance examination is the main concern and so, test impact from the SHS entrance examination exerts the greatest pressure on JHS JTEs. The JTEs also perceive themselves as facing other issues such as student motivation, JTE speaking proficiency, and large class sizes. Another finding is that JTEs appear to receive inadequate training– pre- and inservice– resulting in issues, such as a reliance on traditional methods (yakudoku), which are not in accordance with MEXT’s intentions, and JTE proficiency test achievement levels lower than those desired by MEXT. As a result of these issues gaps exist between MEXT JHS EFL policies and actual teaching practices, and have unfortunately led to a situation where JTEs believe that MEXT does not care about or understand the teaching environment. The study concludes that implementation of MEXT’s policy require a better match between the SHS entrance examination and JHS EFL policy, a decrease in class sizes, and JTEs receiving more adequate training. A more positive relationship between MEXT and JTEs would result from these two groups working collaboratively when designing JHS EFL policies and could better achieve a match between the SHS entrance examination and JHS EFL policy.

Thesis (M.A.) - Carleton University, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 169-173). Also available in electronic format on the Internet.

Thesis (M. Ed.)--University of Hong Kong, 1981. / Includes bibliographical references (leaf 137-143).