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The current study builds upon previous UK EAL research by i. sampling EAL children who do not struggle with reading comprehension and ii. investigating participants’ semantic ability at the word, sentence and discourse levels. Four groups of 9-10 year old children were recruited: EAL Average Readers; EL1 Average Readers; EAL Above Average Readers; EL1 Above Average Readers. At the word level, EL1 participants significantly outperformed EAL participants on 2 out of 6 vocabulary measures administered (TOWK Expressive Vocabulary and Multiple Contexts). The results of an idiom comprehension measure (ICM) showed that EAL and EL1 participants did not differ in their ability to engage in semantic analysis or in inference from context (semantic ability at the sentence and at the discourse levels respectively). The EL1 Above Average group alone were able to use prior experience with English language idioms to their advantage when answering the ICM. For the EAL participants, relationships between performance on the TOWK Expressive Vocabulary and Multiple Contexts and on the ICM are stronger than for the EL1 participants. The relationships between performance on the ICM and on a measure of reading comprehension are also stronger for EAL than for EL1 participants. These results suggest the following: i. it is important to develop the vocabulary abilities of EAL children, as the relationships between word-level semantic skills and sentence/discourse level semantic skills are stronger for EAL children than for their EL1 peers; ii. the relationships between the knowledge and skills measured by the ICM (i.e. prior knowledge of English language idioms; semantic analysis; inference from context) and reading comprehension are stronger for EAL than for EL1 children, suggesting the importance of a comprehensive approach to the semantic development of EAL children.

The purpose of this dissertation was to investigate teachers’ beliefs about a fundamental aspect of foreign language teaching: grammar. Whilst progressively reinstated in the national curriculum and consistently sustained by foreign languages teachers’ practices, grammar’s perceived irrelevance for assessment criteria of the nationally adopted method of assessment - the General Certificate of Secondary Education – kept it caught in conflicting discourses of policy, linguistic research and teaching practices. Whilst foreign languages policy and practice kept converging towards increasing focus on forms in language education along correspondences with linguistic research, the assessment has remained focused on generic communicative, skill-focused criteria. My small-scale research aimed to find how foreign languages teachers translated grammar teaching policy and possible theoretical guidelines in their teaching practices, by collecting data through interviews, observations and think-alouds. The findings revealed disparate educational contexts, approaches, as well as interpretations of grammar teaching. It led me to realise the necessity to probe further into a much more thorough theoretical and methodological underpinning of foreign languages education. As this study concludes, the secondary foreign languages curriculum has become disapplied, and schools and teachers have been left to devise their idiosyncratic foreign language learning strategies and rationales. As foreign languages teaching becomes anchored in the primary education curricular provision, this research hopes to document the need to frame theoretical and methodological guidelines, a consistent foreign languages education rationale, leading to a consistent and convincing education and provision of future foreign language teachers.

Dissertation Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for a M Ed Degree in the School of Education Faculty of Humanities, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2016 / South African Sign Language (SASL) is officially recognised as a formal Home Language school subject within the National Curriculum Statement Policy of South Africa. However, this long awaited roll-out of the CAPS SASL raises a number of issues within the context of each school for the Deaf regarding implementation and school leadership. Hence, a case study was undertaken at a public school for the Deaf located within Johannesburg District to draw attention to these issues. Using Freire’s concepts of Dialogue, Conscientization and Praxis (Freire, 1972) as a means to bring about transformational changes within the school for the implementation year of SASL, 2015, the study explored the dialogue between School Management Team (SMT) and staff members who teach the Deaf learners. The models of school leadership investigated were: transactional, transformational and transformative leadership (Shields, 2010) as a framework for the changing roles as demonstrated by the SMT and the said staff members. Qualitative data provided insight into different strategies employed by them as well as class assistants to implement SASL; and further revealed the changes experienced within the school and by several staff members, where members were becoming more aware of their SASL abilities and how they would want to improve. Emergent themes included the ‘SASL curriculum’, ‘leadership and change’, ‘bilingual education and quality of education’ for Deaf learners. Change was evident between the positional authority of SMT members and the language authority of the Deaf staff members and revealed how this transformation in respect for different roles of the SMT assisted the SASL implementation. Findings revealed that SMT members and Deaf staff need to engage in extensive dialogue and implement strategies to facilitate the SASL implementation if there is to be meaningful transformation within the school / XL2018

Orientador: Maria Angélica Deângeli / Banca: Érica Lima / Banca: Cristina Carneiro Rodrigues / Resumo: Objetivamos mostrar neste trabalho como a problemática da pluralidade identitária revela-se sintomática para aqueles que vivem entre línguas e entre culturas. Considerando que a identidade e a diferença se constituem na e pela linguagem e "não podem ser compreendidas, pois, fora dos sistemas de significação nos quais adquirem sentido" (SILVA, 2000, p. 78), o processo de identificação para aqueles que transitam entre dois ou mais sistemas de significação torna-se ainda mais complexo. Com o intuito de elaborar uma reflexão nos e para os estudos da linguagem em um viés que destaca e questiona, sobretudo, a noção de identidade e de língua, este trabalho se propõe a investigar, a partir dos estudos de Coracini (2007a), de Deângeli (2012a, 2012b), de Derrida (1991a, 1991b, 1998, 2003), entre outros, uma obra que problematiza a situação do sujeito bilíngue a partir de sua condição de exílio (geográfico). Trata-se da obra Lettres parisiennes: histoires d'exil (1986), composta por cartas trocadas entre as escritoras de expressão francesa Nancy Huston e Leïla Sebbar. De modo específico, pretende-se, seguindo os rastros das línguas na escrita desses sujeitos "bilíngues", elaborar uma reflexão sobre a noção de "bilinguismo" e seus possíveis deslocamentos e evidenciar as particularidades de um bilinguismo de escrita. O bilinguismo é aqui entendido não como fenômeno restrito aos que convivem com duas línguas desde a primeira infância, mas como acontecimento que atravessa a subjetividade daqueles que por diversas razões e em diferentes etapas da vida passaram a viver entre línguas e entre culturas. Esperamos contribuir com os estudos sobre as questões identitárias vinculadas à problemática da língua, mais especificamente aos fenômenos ligados ao bilinguismo, assim como divulgar os escritos de Nancy Huston e Leïla Sebbar / Abstract: This work pretends to show how the problem about the identity plurality reveals itself symptomatic for those that live between languages and between cultures. Whereas that the identity and the difference are constituted in and for the language and they "cannot be understood, so, out of the systems of signification in which they acquire meaning" (SILVA, 2000, p. 78), the identification process for those that transit between two or more systems of signification became even more complicated. In order to develop a reflection in and for the language studies in a bias that highlights and questions, mainly, the notion of identity and language, this work aims to investigate, starting from the studies from Coracini (2007a), de Deângeli (2012a, 2012b), de Derrida (1991a, 1991b, 1998, 2003), among others, a composition that problematize the situation of the bilingual subject from his/her exile (geographic) condition. It is the work Lettres parisiennes: histoires d'exil (1986), composed for letters exchanged between the writes of French expression Nancy Huston e Leïla Sebbar. Specifically, it is intended, following the traces of languages in the writing of this "bilingual" subjects, to elaborate a reflection about the notion of "bilingualism" and its possible displacement and to evidence the particularity of a bilingualism of writing. The bilingualism is understood here not as a restricted event to those that live with two idioms since first childhood, but as a happening that crosses the subjectivity of those for several reason and in different moments of life they began to live between languages and cultures. We hope to contribute with the studies about the identity questions bound to the language problem, more specifically to the events linked to bilingualism, as well propagate the writing of Nancy Huston and Leïla Sebbar / Résumé: This work pretends to show how the problem about the identity plurality reveals itself symptomatic for those that live between languages and between cultures. Whereas that the identity and the difference are constituted in and for the language and they "cannot be understood, so, out of the systems of signification in which they acquire meaning" (SILVA, 2000, p. 78), the identification process for those that transit between two or more systems of signification became even more complicated. In order to develop a reflection in and for the language studies in a bias that highlights and questions, mainly, the notion of identity and language, this work aims to investigate, starting from the studies from Coracini (2007a), de Deângeli (2012a, 2012b), de Derrida (1991a, 1991b, 1998, 2003), among others, a composition that problematize the situation of the bilingual subject from his/her exile (geographic) condition. It is the work Lettres parisiennes: histoires d'exil (1986), composed for letters exchanged between the writes of French expression Nancy Huston e Leïla Sebbar. Specifically, it is intended, following the traces of languages in the writing of this "bilingual" subjects, to elaborate a reflection about the notion of "bilingualism" and its possible displacement and to evidence the particularity of a bilingualism of writing. The bilingualism is understood here not as a restricted event to those that live with two idioms since first childhood, but as a happening that crosses the subjectivity of those for several reason and in different moments of life they began to live between languages and cultures. We hope to contribute with the studies about the identity questions bound to the language problem, more specifically to the events linked to bilingualism, as well propagate the writing of Nancy Huston and Leïla Sebbar / Mestre

Orientador(a): Marina Célia Mendonça / Banca: Jauranice Rodrigues Cavalcanti / Banca: Renata Maria Facuri Coelho Marchezan / Resumo: O objetivo desta investigação é compreender, a partir de uma perspectiva bakhtiniana, a produção do discurso polêmico na esfera jornalística. Mais especificamente, observaram-se os sentidos em circulação na polêmica da maconha, tal como ela se manifesta no gênero discursivo capa de revista. O corpus é constituído por seis capas de publicações semanais brasileiras (Veja, Carta Capital, Isto É e Época), veiculadas entre 2012 e 2016. A análise desse material foi baseada no aporte teórico-metodológico do chamado Círculo de Bakhtin, Medviédev e Volochínov, que propõe uma abordagem dialógica do discurso. As reflexões se organizaram, principalmente, em torno dos conceitos de dialogia, signo ideológico, enunciado concreto, gênero discursivo, esfera de atividade humana e polêmica. Tal interpretação dialógica do discurso consiste em entender a linguagem enquanto produto da interação entre sujeitos históricos e socialmente organizados. Esse ponto de vista permitiu compreender o diálogo sobre a maconha na imprensa para além da polêmica aberta, geralmente reduzida a oposições como proibir/legalizar. A partir dessa perspectiva, verificou-se a existência de uma disputa velada pela legitimidade de enunciar sentidos para o signo "maconha" - em sua relação indissociável com outros signos, como "legalização", "drogas" e "descriminalização". As análises levaram, portanto, à identificação de um espaço de instabilidades na imprensa brasileira. Nesse campo, a polêmica insinuada se materializa sutil... (Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo) / Abstract: The purpose of this investigation is to understand, from a Bakhtinian perspective, the polemical discourse produced within the journalistic sphere. More specifically, we observe the meanings that have been negotiated inside the dispute over marihuana manifested on the cover of magazines, seen as a discourse genre. The corpus is composed by six covers of Brazilian weekly magazines (Veja, Carta Capital, Isto É and Época), published between 2012 and 2016. Its analysis was based on the theoretical and methodological approach proposed by the group of intellectuals known as the "Bakhtin, Medvedev and Voloshinov Circle", who developed a dialogical approach to the discourse. Reflections were mainly centered on the notions of dialogue, ideological sign, concrete utterance, discourse genre, sphere of human activity and polemic. This dialogical interpretation of the discourse proposed by the Circle consists of understanding language as a product of the interaction between historical and socially organized subjects. That viewpoint allowed us to comprehend the dialogue about marihuana on the press beyond the explicit polemic, usually reduced to oppositions such as prohibit it /legalize it. From this perspective, we verified the existence of a latent dispute for the legitimate power of enunciating meanings for the sign "marihuana" in its unbreakable relation with other signs as "legalization", "drugs" and "decriminalization". Therefore, the analyses led us to the identification of a space ... (Complete abstract click electronic access below) / Mestre

The field of Teaching Arabic as a Foreign Language (TAFL) has seen in recent decades a growing interest in portraying and teaching one of the most salient and intrinsic features of Arabic: language variation. This thesis takes a position in contrast to approaches that portray the two varieties as being distinct and well-defined dichotomic units, in favour of an approach that interprets them as two heterogeneous language varieties within one singular linguistic system. The two language varieties are embodied by Standard and Colloquial Arabic and it is argued here for the teaching of both varieties to students of Arabic as a foreign language. In this light, this thesis sets out to investigate the development of two language skills, vocabulary knowledge and language awareness, in a diglossic learning environment. Moreover, it explores the attitudes and perceptions of the students towards Arabic variation. Two experimental methods based on focus-on-form instruction are used in this research to teach Colloquial Arabic to students of Arabic as a foreign language at higher-education level, and the empirical research is conducted within a semi-embedded research design in which qualitative and quantitative data are collected. Students from three universities participate in this research: the Universities of Exeter, Genoa and Milan. This allows for the comparison of results from students of different mother tongues. The main research question that this thesis sets out to answer is: does focus-on-form instruction lead to vocabulary development in two diglossic varieties, namely Standard and Colloquial Arabic, more effectively when it focuses on the two varieties separately or when it links their forms? Two sub-questions investigate which of the two methods of focus-on-form instruction lead more efficiently to the development of language awareness, and the impact they have on students’ attitudes towards Arabic variation. The last sub-question asks to what extent the development of the diglossic language skills and attitudes is a consequence of the method of instruction received. The results of this study suggest that the answer lies in focusing predominantly on one variety at a time with additional consolidation exercises that compare the forms of the two varieties. The main contributions of this thesis are both theoretical, to the literature of TAFL, and empirical, regarding the development of the language skills and attitudes measured.