Key words: didactics - German as a foreign language - communicative competence - free writing Abstract: The aim of the presented master's thesis is to point out the role of free writing in German as a foreign language. The thesis is divided into two parts: theoretical and practical. The theoretical part summarizes elemental knowledge of writing skills, its classification and evaluation. Special attention is given to the concept of free writing. The practical part compares theoretical knowledge with realized research. The research analyses the attitude of the target group to free writing and its correction.

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This study examined the relationship of managers' relational messages with employees' communication satisfaction, as well as compliance-gaining requests and participants gender in superior-subordinate communication.

Includes bibliographical references. / An hypothesised relationship between levels of proficiency in English of ESL (English as a Second Language) students and the approaches to learning which they adopt, in situations in which English is the language of instruction, is the focus of this study. An attempt was made to identify the extent to which students, who are required to learn in a second language, adopt undesirable approaches to learning as a consequence of linguistic or cultural factors. Such students appear to adopt reproductive strategies to pass examinations and retain only isolated pieces of information for practical application. In a sense, they graduate but remain unqualified. Quantitative responses of 307 students, relating to their contextualised perceptions of the demands of the learning situation, were gathered and analysed using a learning approach categorisation procedure. Qualitative responses of 120 students, relating to their descriptions of the context and content of learning, were gathered in semi-structured interviews to supplement and enrich the quantitive data collected. Levels of proficiency in the language of instruction were measured using integrative tests of comprehension of spoken discourse and written texts presented in actual lecture situations. Students were given the opportunity to rate the lectures and reading material from which they were expected to learn and self-esteem was measured as a construct considered likely to affect perceptions of the demands of the learning situation. Concurrently with the above, a group of students from each of 3 year groups was taught a new topic over a short series of lectures and tested for understanding in the language of instruction. Balanced groups, from each of the 3 year groups, were taught the same topic and tested for understanding in the mother-tongue. This procedure was subsequently replicated with a second topic of similar complexity, across all three year groups, with languages switched. Critical aspects of the teaching/learning situation were kept constant. These procedures provided compelling evidence, after analysis of quantitative and qualitative data, of a relationship between proficiency in the language of instruction and the ways in which students engage in learning tasks. Difficulty with the language of instruction appears to increase the demands of the learning situation and the likelihood of adopting reproducing strategies, which are not normally associated with success in terms of learning outcomes.

This thesis is a two-pronged analysis of the cultural content in two instructional materials series presently meant for use in the English language instruction in Swedish secondary education, and it integrates an examination of surface and deep cultural content with an ideology analysis focused on the representation of nations and the international world. The driving impetus of this thesis is an interest in the representation of culture meeting the students in their instruction. A theoretical framework has been used with perspectives on surface and deep culture, intercultural communicative competence, and theories of nationalism as an ideology. The study shows that the Swedish materials promote the development of communication skills across cultural boundaries to a greater extent than some international research would suggest, but confirms results from other related studies. The majority of the cultural content was found to be surface-level and is best understood as objective or static topics of culture which do little to prepare the readers to be critical, intercultural citizens. The materials were found to be strongly structured around the nation-state, and the argument is made that the materials feature international content with a national-perspective. The materials were also found to reproduce ethno- national sentiment when representing specifically the United States and Britain, where a great deal of the content is focused. This study shows that a combination of these two approaches provides a more complete consideration of the materials and produces important results, not only for the scholarly community, but for teachers and instructional material design.

A mini-thesis submitted in fulfillrnent ofthereqnirements for the degree of Master of Arts in the Department of Linguistics, University of Zululand, 2003. / The new political dispensation in South Africa has given "equal" status to eleven languages, practically English still enjoys special rights it used to enjoy in the old order, prior to 1994. To cite but a few examples, English is still the official medium of instruction in many South African schools, private or public. Huge knowledge of information is inaccessible to many South Africans unless they are competent in English. Job applications and interviews are carried out in this language. When dealing with issues of national interest, government officials use this language. They will argue that many South Africans and ethnic groups can comprehend English. Thus, it is an "unbiased", "neutral", "standard" and a unifying", etc. language. It is, therefore, very much unlikely that the South African president could one day deliver the State of the nation Address in isiXhosa, seSotho or isiZulu. Media institutions would rarely employ a person who cannot comprehend English. Many of them - printing, radio stations and television channels -have English as their main language. One may cite commercials and interviews with the president on a national TV as examples. Even those media institutions that use other languages (not English), very often find themselves compromising their standards because of the influence of English. What is discussed above is the undeniable situation of the country. Whether one views it as good or otherwise, the truth is, this is the status quo at the present moment. English has not only established itself as a national lingua franca, but it is also taking control globally, both in politics, economy and other social affairs. The whole research in this study was based on the premise that, "with English you stand, and without English you fail", particularly in South Africa. Hence the utmost aim of this research work has been to come up with a teaching technique that would avert any "fall" of any South African. The researcher was convinced that there was something wrong with the main existing teaching technique, the Communicative Language Teaching approach (CLT) for failing to yield desired results after so many years it has been in place. Moreover, the time that the learners expend in learning the language (from grade one to grade twelve) is sufficient for them to have grasped and internalised a considerable knowledge and command of English, particularly at matric level. Consequently, the study had to examine the CLT approach thoroughly, before anything could be recommenced. The researcher is of the conviction that, although English was sometimes referred to as a "neutral"' language, it is not always so with Black South African learners, especially in Black rural schools. In some instances English has been seen as a barrier to some learners' possible success. The Black High schools where this research was conducted have attested to this statement. Considering the magnitudirial role of English already discussed, one could not dispute the fact that learners to whom English is a second language (ESL) are not competing from an equal footing with their English native speaking counterparts. The former are usually held back whilst the latter are put a step ahead by the status of the language. All the above mentioned facts should lay a profound reason for the introduction of the best possible ever teaching technique. One could only hope that this piece of work will make a positive difference for the disadvantaged learners to be assisted.

The purpose of this study was basically twofold: 1) to develop an evaluative instrument to measure interpersonal communicative competence, and 2) to determine its relationship to three other supervisory variables—demographic characteristics, self-actualization, and leader behavior. Hypotheses testing, via the Pearson correlation coefficient, indicated the following relationships between interpersonal communicative competence (as measured by the IICC) and supervisory demographics, self-actualization (as measured by the POI), and leader behavior (as measured by the SBDQ): 1) The age of the supervisor was negatively related to the IICC at the .001 level of statistical significance. 2) Years of formal education was positively related to the IICC at the .001 level. 3) The sex of the supervisor (females scoring higher) was related to the IICC at the .01 level. 4) No significant relationship existed between years of supervisory experience and the IICC. 5) Six scales of the POI (I, Ex, Fr, S, A, C) were related to the IICC at the .001 level of statistical significance, one scale (Sy) at the .01 level and two scales (Tc, Sa) at the .05 level. Three scales (SAV, Sr, Nc) were not significantly related to the IICC. 6) No significant relationship existed between the IICC and the two dimensions of leader behavior—structure and consideration.

With this survey paper we have contrasted and summarized research on digital games and language learning in order to investigate whether digital games can be used to instil communicative competence in students. In addition, we have examined what kinds of considerations that need to be made by teachers when applying digital games in educational settings. In order to acquire an indication of whether games were being used as a language-learning tool in schools today, we conducted a small pilot study in the region of Skåne. In this pilot study, we asked 10 language teachers whether they had ever used videogames in their language teaching. The pilot study suggested that digital games were not being used as a teaching aid. However, the research examined in this survey paper suggests that videogames can be used to instil dimensions of communicative competence. Research also suggested that digital games only inherently supported one or two dimensions of communicative competence. With regard to this, we argued that all four dimensions of communicative competence can be supported through the use of different pedagogical strategies in combination with other approaches. Furthermore, research suggested that there are necessary precautions for teachers to consider before implementing digital games in teaching (e.g. having sufficient knowledge of the games to be used in order to be able to scaffold them according to students’ needs). Since the research explored in this paper suggest that videogames can be used to instil communicative competence in students, we argued that digital games might be an overlooked asset in language learning.

The purpose of this paper was to review research within the field of digital games and language learning to explore whether gaming can facilitate communicative competence and foster motivation for language learning. To answer my questions I conducted a research synthesis, compiling a variety of research over the last decade to answer my questions as effectively as possible. Results showed that digital games do in fact facilitate language development and induce motivation. Research also showed that different games provide different opportunities and activities, resulting in some games fostering language competence more than others. For instance, World of Warcraft provided social situations where conversations were erratic, spontaneous, contextual and driven by small events in the game, while The Sims focused more on strategic and creative activities. Additionally, research suggested that digital games motivated learners to develop their L2 language in hope of achieving more goals together within a variety games and game types.

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