Orientador: Ucy Soto / Banca: Isadora Valencise Gregolin / Banca: Antônio Suárez Abreu / Resumo: Esta pesquisa investiga a construção textual do chat educacional - uma conversação síncrona por escrito mediada por computador voltada para a esfera educacional - a partir de análises de sessões de chat de duas turmas de um curso de espanhol com fins específicos para estudantes brasileiros, intitulado "Español para Turismo", ministrado a distância. Este trabalho teve como objetivos i) descrever o gênero digital chat educacional a partir da análise da construção composicional, dos conteúdos temáticos e da função de acordo com a teoria bakhtiniana de gêneros discursivos (Bakhtin (2003), Marcuschi (2005; 2008), Fiorin (2006); ii) descrever, com base nos postulados teórico-metodológicos da perspectiva textual-interativa (JUBRAN, 2006a, 2007), as estratégias de construção textual que se inscrevem na materialidade linguística do texto, a partir das regularidades dos procedimentos de construção textual (Koch (2006), Marcuschi (2006a, 2006b), Jubran (2006a, 2006b), Fávero, Andrade & Aquino (2006a, 2006b), Travaglia (2006), Risso, Oliveira & Urbano (2006) e Urbano (2006)). Com este fim, foram analisadas as seguintes estratégias: repetição lexical, frasal e de letras, correção, parentetização, hesitação, pontuação (reticências, pontos de exclamação e de interrogação), maiúscula, onomatopéia, turnos, fragmentação da linguagem, vocativos, marcadores discursivos, emoticons, abreviações, segmentação de palavras e par dialógico (pergunta-resposta). A descrição das estratégias de construção textual dos chats educacionais permitiu identificar que há estratégias que atendem à adequação à norma padrão (escrita) da língua espanhola; outras que reproduzem as características da fala; e ainda outras que reelaboram o sentido ortográfico convencional de recursos típicos da escrita. Além do uso da variante padrão e da reelaboração... (Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo) / Abstract: This research investigates the textual construction in educational chat - a synchronous written conversation mediated by computer, with the focus on education - based on the analysis of chat sessions of two classes of Spanish for Specific Purposes course, taught to Brazilian students. It was an online course entitled "Español for Tourism". This study aimed at i) describing the digital gender of educational chat based on the compositional construction analysis, on the theme content and on its function, according to the Bakhtinian theory for speech genre (Bakhtin (2003), Marcuschi (2005, 2008), Fiorin (2006), ii) describing, based on the theory and methodology of textual-interactive perspective (JUBRAN, 2006a, 2007), the textual-construction strategies that fall under the linguistic materiality of the text, based on the regularities of textual construction procedures (Koch (2006), Marcuschi (2006a, 2006b), Jubran (2006a, 2006b), Fávero, Andrade and Aquino (2006a, 2006b), Travaglia (2006), Risso, Oliveira & Urban (2006) and Urban (2006)). Based on these theories, we analyzed the following strategies: lexical, sentence and letter repetition, correction, bracketing, hesitation, punctuation (ellipses, exclamation points and question marks), capitalization, onomatopoeia, shifts, language fragmentation, vocative, discourse markers, emoticons, abbreviations, word segmentation and dialogic pair. The description of the textual construction strategies of educational chats enabled us to identify that there are strategies that meet the adequacy of standard (written) Spanish, as well as others, which reproduce the characteristics of speech, and a third kind, that reelaborates the conventional sense of spelling of typical written resources. Besides the use of standard and variant features of redevelopment of writing, there was also the use of strategies for textual construction which... (Complete abstract click electronic access below) / Mestre

In the 21st century, the UK government, through its immigration policy, has linked the English language proficiency of immigrants with their social integration thus, following an assimilative framework (Blackledge, 2005; Blommaert & Verschueren, 1998). This seven months mixed methods study investigates whether the goal of social integration of immigrants can be achieved through the ESOL for citizenship course and the ways in which this course can affect their identity. It also investigates the effects of the government’s policy on classroom pedagogy. The data was collected in Manchester and Lancashire county using semi-structured interviews with eight participants of Pakistani and Indian origin who were studying ESOL for citizenship courses, and questionnaires from seventy-four learners who had already gained nationality. Thirty-two questionnaires were also distributed among ESOL for citizenship teachers to investigate the effects on classroom pedagogy. A thematic analysis was then conducted on the data. The findings showed that the course does not ensure social integration of immigrants as it depends on various social factors: language use, length of stay in the UK, type of neighbourhood, extended family in the UK, and decisions made by the family. The course does not help in changing the identity of the immigrants as the participants still wanted to identify themselves with their native country and only considered British nationality as a status. The political purpose this provision is serving has negatively affected ESOL teachers and their classroom pedagogy. The limitations of this study are that it was unable to observe the migrants getting involved in the community as well as to conduct interviews with the teachers. Future studies with learners of other nationalities can be conducted using ethnographically informed methods. This study refuted the claims made by the UK government related to immigrants’ social integration thus the need is to separate this provision from immigration and to provide support to teachers and learners.

Thesis (Ed.D.)--Boston University / PLEASE NOTE: Boston University Libraries did not receive an Authorization To Manage form for this thesis or dissertation. It is therefore not openly accessible, though it may be available by request. If you are the author or principal advisor of this work and would like to request open access for it, please contact us at open-help@bu.edu. Thank you. / The purpose of the dissertation was to investigate English as a foreign language (EFL) students' use of their first language (L1) in composing English texts. The first study focused on factors associated with students' spontaneous use of L1 in EFL writing. The research questions of this study concerned how spontaneous L1 use in EFL writing may interact with cognitive demands of writing tasks, learners' English proficiency, and writing quality. Thirty Taiwanese college students from different disciplines participated. Writing tasks included the issue analysis and argument analysis tasks, both derived from GRE and GMAT writing. Students' percentage of L1 use in think-aloud protocols was calculated within each phase of the composing process and compared to the cognitive demands of writing tasks, students' English proficiency, and writing scores. EFL students' percentage of L1 use was found to vary not only by cognitive demands of writing tasks but also by types of writing tasks. Total quantity of L1 use of EFL students was not related to their English proficiency. Further, EFL students' spontaneous use of L1 was found to be associated with better writing quality when used in activities such as making logical transitions, posing questions about logic and content development, or summarizing long chunks of reasoning. The second study, concerning the advantage of L1 used as the only composing language in EFL writing, looked in detail at four cases to examine factors such as the cognitive demands of writing tasks, students' English proficiency, and students' ability to use L1 strategically. The choice of composing language was found to be associated with English writing quality only in cognitively demanding writing tasks, such as argumentation. In argumentation, the advantages of composing in L1 depended on the interaction of students' English proficiency and students' ability to use L 1 strategically. Compared to English, L1 Chinese as a composing language was advantageous to writing quality when students had either the ability to use L1 strategically or high English proficiency. On the other hand, L1 as a composing language was disadvantageous to English writing scores when the student had neither the ability to use L1 strategically nor high English proficiency. Pedagogical implications are discussed. / 2031-01-02

<p> This research study was conducted with the intention of determining the most common errors that occur in the development of Italian oral language skills among 102 students participating in a 90/10 (90% in Italian/10% in English) dual language program offered at a California public elementary school. The 90/10 program breaks down instruction as follows: Kfirst grade 90% instruction in the target language/10% in English; in second grade 80/20; in third grade, 70/30; in fourth, 60/40, and in fifth, 50/50. Although the ratios change, the program is officially known as 90/10. The students in this study, a mixed group ranging from first to fifth grade, observed a series of pictures representing a story, which they then had to orally tell in their own words. The oral presentations were recorded and then transcribed word by word, including pauses and hesitations. The productions were then analyzed in depth, with special attention given to hesitations, the insertion of phrases and/or words in English, errors with lexical choice and grammatical errors (auxiliary verb choice, as well as the usage of subjects, verbs, and pronouns). The results from this study demonstrate that the age of the student influences second language oral fluency. In general, students with more schooling tended to commit fewer errors in their oral production. However, some categories of errors did not seem to be affected by the length of time students had been enrolled in the program. It is hypothesized that some errors persist due to the decreased amount of Italian instruction that characterizes the upper years in the program.</p><p>

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-11T19:26:50Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2010-08-12Bitstream added on 2014-06-13T18:55:17Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 paiva_clb_me_arafcl.pdf: 1108146 bytes, checksum: f3b2431f89cd0cd5a63911859f334564 (MD5) / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) / Esta pesquisa investiga a construção textual do chat educacional – uma conversação síncrona por escrito mediada por computador voltada para a esfera educacional – a partir de análises de sessões de chat de duas turmas de um curso de espanhol com fins específicos para estudantes brasileiros, intitulado “Español para Turismo”, ministrado a distância. Este trabalho teve como objetivos i) descrever o gênero digital chat educacional a partir da análise da construção composicional, dos conteúdos temáticos e da função de acordo com a teoria bakhtiniana de gêneros discursivos (Bakhtin (2003), Marcuschi (2005; 2008), Fiorin (2006); ii) descrever, com base nos postulados teórico-metodológicos da perspectiva textual-interativa (JUBRAN, 2006a, 2007), as estratégias de construção textual que se inscrevem na materialidade linguística do texto, a partir das regularidades dos procedimentos de construção textual (Koch (2006), Marcuschi (2006a, 2006b), Jubran (2006a, 2006b), Fávero, Andrade & Aquino (2006a, 2006b), Travaglia (2006), Risso, Oliveira & Urbano (2006) e Urbano (2006)). Com este fim, foram analisadas as seguintes estratégias: repetição lexical, frasal e de letras, correção, parentetização, hesitação, pontuação (reticências, pontos de exclamação e de interrogação), maiúscula, onomatopéia, turnos, fragmentação da linguagem, vocativos, marcadores discursivos, emoticons, abreviações, segmentação de palavras e par dialógico (pergunta-resposta). A descrição das estratégias de construção textual dos chats educacionais permitiu identificar que há estratégias que atendem à adequação à norma padrão (escrita) da língua espanhola; outras que reproduzem as características da fala; e ainda outras que reelaboram o sentido ortográfico convencional de recursos típicos da escrita. Além do uso da variante padrão e da reelaboração... / This research investigates the textual construction in educational chat – a synchronous written conversation mediated by computer, with the focus on education – based on the analysis of chat sessions of two classes of Spanish for Specific Purposes course, taught to Brazilian students. It was an online course entitled “Español for Tourism”. This study aimed at i) describing the digital gender of educational chat based on the compositional construction analysis, on the theme content and on its function, according to the Bakhtinian theory for speech genre (Bakhtin (2003), Marcuschi (2005, 2008), Fiorin (2006), ii) describing, based on the theory and methodology of textual-interactive perspective (JUBRAN, 2006a, 2007), the textual-construction strategies that fall under the linguistic materiality of the text, based on the regularities of textual construction procedures (Koch (2006), Marcuschi (2006a, 2006b), Jubran (2006a, 2006b), Fávero, Andrade and Aquino (2006a, 2006b), Travaglia (2006), Risso, Oliveira & Urban (2006) and Urban (2006)). Based on these theories, we analyzed the following strategies: lexical, sentence and letter repetition, correction, bracketing, hesitation, punctuation (ellipses, exclamation points and question marks), capitalization, onomatopoeia, shifts, language fragmentation, vocative, discourse markers, emoticons, abbreviations, word segmentation and dialogic pair. The description of the textual construction strategies of educational chats enabled us to identify that there are strategies that meet the adequacy of standard (written) Spanish, as well as others, which reproduce the characteristics of speech, and a third kind, that reelaborates the conventional sense of spelling of typical written resources. Besides the use of standard and variant features of redevelopment of writing, there was also the use of strategies for textual construction which... (Complete abstract click electronic access below)

This thesis examinest he use of silence by Japanese learners of English in cross-cultural communication. It also considers how cross-cultural misunderstandings can be avoided in a pedagogic context. To this end, an analysis is made of a contrastive study of the use of silence by Japanese students learning English, and by Western students learning Japanese. The study draws on insights from the ethnographic approach. The study consists of three parts. The first part, Chapters 1-4, investigates the theoretical background to the study. Chapter 1 examines various definitions of the word 'culture' and investigates the role of Pragmatics in cross-cultural communication. Chapter 2 surveys studies of silence in various socio-cultural contexts. Chapter 3 more specifically explores the use of silence in the Japanese context and its relation to Japanese cultural values and sociocultural norms. Then, Chapter 4 shifts attention to examine differences of communicative styles between Japanese and Westerners, and several important features in interaction. In part two, Chapters 5-8, the ethnographic approach takes the lead in the interpretation of the interview and observational material. Chapter 5 offers an overview of the study and carefully considers the principles of ethnography guiding this investigation. Chapter 6 considers the research design in relation to the context and purposes of the investigation. The data is analysed in Chapters 7 and 8 interpreting the use of silence from a socio-cultural perspective. Chapter 7 discusses the results of the questionnaires. Chapter 8 concentrates on the analysis of the video-recorded data. The last Chapter, Chapter 9, concludes with suggestions of possible pedagogic approaches tackling cross-cultural misunderstanding in foreign language learning.

The thesis Problems of Pronunciation Practice When Teaching Czech as a Foreign Language to German Speakers characterizes the phonetic systems of the Czech and German languages. The work establishes the mutual and distinguishing features in the pronunciation of both languages and on their basis defines the main problematic aspects, their cause and ways to rectify them. It deals with the differences between graphic and phonological attributes. Furthermore, it focuses on the methodology of pronunciation practice in Czech as a foreign language. In the practical part there are work sheets targeting the problematic aspects established in the theoretical part.

This project is a proof-of-concept. It aims to demonstrate the feasibility of an approach to Computer-Assisted Assessment of free-text material in the domain of Computer-Assisted Language Learning (CALL). The underlying theory places the project within given pedagogic constraints, just as a Language Tutoring System should. The constraints call for the project to be addressed to the intermediate-advanced student of French-as-a-Second-Language, and be oriented toward the autonomous enhancement of text comprehension skills, following a previous project in CALL at the University of Ottawa, DidaLect. This type of learning activity requires a student to answer questions related to informative texts. The goal of this work has been to build a framework to assess the correctness of the student's sentence' s grammar on the one hand, and on the other hand to ensure that the answer's content matches the reference. In order to achieve this, the research has gone in two different directions. First, we used Natural-Language-Processing (NLP) to find means of language error detection and correction (form), as well as means for semantic comparison (content). Content comparison amounts to performing deep analysis of the student's answer in order to guarantee that no material in the student's answer is irrelevant to the actual answer. We used a symbolic approach to the problem, because statistical methods can only provide approximations of content similarity, which is dangerous in a CALL context because the student can be error-prone. The fact that this work is the first of its kind, at least in what concerns Text Comprehension and French-as-a-Second-Language, has been another reason to opt for symbolic processing: in the absence of any comparable system, a symbolic approach might constitute a better baseline, to be challenged in the future by statistical methods. Finally, error detection is syntax-based in language technologies. As well, a symbolic approach permits to use the same structure for the assessment of form and content. Second, we worked in the direction of didactics to frame the work within relevant theoretical grounds in terms of the relation from questions to text, especially in order to limit the impact of the knowledge gap between machine and humans (students) -- a general consequence of the work-in-progress state of semantic analysis in NLP. The questions are controlled through a formal categorization that restricts the scope of the questions to answering material actually present in the text -- no world-knowledge is a priori needed. The system has been tested on a set of 273 student's answers gathered in class. The evaluation gave a result of 62% of answers correctly assessed as correct or incorrect. Due to the conservativeness of the system, precision on the assessment of correct answers is 100%, which satisfies the requirements of Second-Language Learning and CALL. The implemented program is a contribution in itself because no comparable system exists, while there is a real demand from the world of CALL for such a tool. The project also makes a contribution to NLP through a new approach to paraphrase recognition. This uses previous work in computational linguistics (the Meaning-Text Theory) to provide a rule-based model of syntactic paraphrase which, although limited to syntax, actually constitutes the only generic model of paraphrase to our knowledge, and should be easily adapted to other languages.

Framed within a Sociocultural Theory of Mind (SCT) in the field of Second Language Acquisition (Lantolf & Thorne, 2006), this dissertation explores the role of verbalizing in the internalization of grammatical categories through the use of Concept-based Instruction (henceforth CBI) in the second language (L2) classroom. Using Vygotsky's (1986) distinction between scientific and spontaneous or everyday concepts applied to L2 development (Negueruela, 2008), this study focuses on the teaching and potential development of the grammatical concept of aspect in the Spanish L2 classroom, and the role of verbalizing in its internalization. It is proposed that verbalizing mediates between the learners' initial understandings of the grammatical concept of aspect, the development of conscious conceptualizations, and students' written and oral production of preterite and imperfect grammatical forms. This study presents and analyzes data from one of the thirty-two adult college students enrolled in an advanced Spanish conversation course. Data is analyzed through a clinical analytic approach, which has its roots in Vygotsky's (1978) genetic method of analysis. The study was carried out over a 12-week period and collected multiple sets of developmental data, including learners' definition of the grammatical concept of aspect, written performance protocols, and verbalization data recorded during two oral interviews. The study interprets learner performance in these three complementary, and dialectically connected types of L2 conceptual data. A close analysis of this participant's data provides critical insights to understand the role of verbalizing in L2 conceptual development. Findings confirm that learners' verbalizations are key factors to ascertain L2 conceptual development, as well as a mediational tool that fosters learners' internalization of the grammatical concept of aspect. It is proposed that verbalizing notably contributes to research on L2 development. Not only does it allow the researcher to have a more comprehensive picture of L2 development, but it also helps learners develop a more sophisticated semantic understanding of the grammatical concept of aspect and fosters their ability to understand and control relevant grammatical features in L2 communication.

The study applied behavior analytic principles to foreign language instruction in a college classroom. Two study methods, vocabulary banks and scripts, were compared by assessing the effects on Italian language acquisition, retention, and generalization. Results indicate that students without prior exposure to Italian engaged in more exchanges and emitted more words in script tests compared to vocabulary bank tests. Participants with at least two classes in Italian prior to the study engaged in more exchanges and emitted more words during vocabulary bank tests. Data suggest that different teaching strategies may work for different learners. More research is needed to determine efficient teaching methods and how to ascertain which approaches work best for learners with different histories.