This study aimed at discovering the role of lexical cohesive links in L2 reading comprehension. For this purpose, the researcher carried out lexical cohesion analysis of two TOEFL reading tests consisting of six texts. First, prior to the reading comprehension tests, the students were administered &ldquo / a vocabulary familiarity task&rdquo / . Second, the TOEFL reading tests were administered to fifty upper-intermediate and advanced level EFL students at Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey. Third, after each test, a post-reading &ldquo / Lexical links recognition task&rdquo / was given. Finally, the data were analyzed comparing reader performance on each item, both within and across the groups. The researcher analyzed the reading test results besides the results of the accompanying lexical cohesive links tasks to see if there is a &ldquo / significant relationship&rdquo / between the three factors: vocabulary knowledge, reading comprehension level and recognition of lexical cohesive links. The results have indicated that awareness of lexical cohesive links noticeably contributes to reading test scores in L2 and that recognition-level vocabulary knowledge alone may not guarantee better reading comprehension scores. Finally, it is suggested that reading and writing teachers can develop some pedagogic exercises to teach lexical cohesive devices and in this way improve students&rsquo / knowledge of lexical cohesive sub-types, thus enhancing their reading performance.

Mémoire numérisé par la Division de la gestion de documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal

In natural languages, words can occur in single units called simplex words or in a group of simplex words that function as a single unit, called multiword expressions (MWEs). Although MWEs are similar to simplex words in their syntax and semantics, they pose their own sets of challenges (Sag et al. 2002). MWEs are arguably one of the biggest roadblocks in computational linguistics due to the bewildering range of syntactic, semantic, pragmatic and statistical idiomaticity they are associated with, and their high productivity. In addition, the large numbers in which they occur demand specialized handling. Moreover, dealing with MWEs has a broad range of applications, from syntactic disambiguation to semantic analysis in natural language processing (NLP) (Wacholder and Song 2003; Piao et al. 2003; Baldwin et al. 2004; Venkatapathy and Joshi 2006). / Our goals in this research are: to use computational techniques to shed light on the underlying linguistic processes giving rise to MWEs across constructions and languages; to generalize existing techniques by abstracting away from individual MWE types; and finally to exemplify the utility of MWE interpretation within general NLP tasks. / In this thesis, we target English MWEs due to resource availability. In particular, we focus on noun compounds (NCs) and verb-particle constructions (VPCs) due to their high productivity and frequency. / Challenges in processing noun compounds are: (1) interpreting the semantic relation (SR) that represents the underlying connection between the head noun and modifier(s); (2) resolving syntactic ambiguity in NCs comprising three or more terms; and (3) analyzing the impact of word sense on noun compound interpretation. Our basic approach to interpreting NCs relies on the semantic similarity of the NC components using firstly a nearest-neighbor method (Chapter 5), then verb semantics based on the observation that it is often an underlying verb that relates the nouns in NCs (Chapter 6), and finally semantic variation within NC sense collocations, in combination with bootstrapping (Chapter 7). / Challenges in dealing with verb-particle constructions are: (1) identifying VPCs in raw text data (Chapter 8); and (2) modeling the semantic compositionality of VPCs (Chapter 5). We place particular focus on identifying VPCs in context, and measuring the compositionality of unseen VPCs in order to predict their meaning. Our primary approach to the identification task is to adapt localized context information derived from linguistic features of VPCs to distinguish between VPCs and simple verb-PP combinations. To measure the compositionality of VPCs, we use semantic similarity among VPCs by testing the semantic contribution of each component. / Finally, we conclude the thesis with a chapter-by-chapter summary and outline of the findings of our work, suggestions of potential NLP applications, and a presentation of further research directions (Chapter 9).

Submitted by Diego dos Santos Borba (dborba@uffs.edu.br) on 2017-04-13T18:44:46Z No. of bitstreams: 1 CARVALHO.pdf: 1916843 bytes, checksum: 38aca00db274fad45ede65edff7c79a7 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-04-13T18:44:46Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 CARVALHO.pdf: 1916843 bytes, checksum: 38aca00db274fad45ede65edff7c79a7 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-06-30 / A leitura ? reconhecidamente um processo complexo que envolve aspectos psicol?gicos (cognitivos e metacognitivos), biol?gicos e sociais. O processo de leitura pode ser subdividido, facilitando os estudos e a busca de solu??es para os problemas na forma??o do leitor proficiente. Dentre os subprocessos que envolvem a compreens?o leitora est? a compet?ncia lexical; um dos fatores determinantes na forma??o de um leitor estrat?gico e cr?tico (FINGER-KRATOCHVIL, 2009, 2010). Nos ?ltimos anos, a leitura tem sido tema de in?meros debates e reflex?es, pois testes apontam que muitos brasileiros adultos t?m um limitado desempenho nessa tarefa. Considerando as exig?ncias postas pelas tecnologias digitais aos leitores nos anos 2000, outro tema que tamb?m tem se destacado s?o as m?dias virtuais, que ganham espa?o devido ? expans?o do acesso ? internet nos ?ltimos anos (COLL, MONEREO e cols., 2010). Pesquisadores t?m investigado como as m?dias virtuais podem auxiliar no processo de letramento, tendo em vista seus novos recursos e interfaces, que permitem uma leitura a partir de novos modelos (COSCARELLI, 1999; LEFFA, 2006; MARCUSCHI, 2010). A fim de colaborar com as investiga??es sobre a profici?ncia em leitura, pelo vi?s da Psicolingu?stica, e sua rela??o com as Tecnologias da Informa??o e da Comunica??o, a pesquisa tem como objetivo geral verificar poss?veis contribui??es do blog no processo de constru??o da compet?ncia leitora a partir do desenvolvimento da estrat?gia do uso do dicion?rio para aquisi??o do conhecimento lexical, considerando-se sua recursividade e acessibilidade caracter?sticas. Para isso, objetiva-se especificamente: observar quais estrat?gias de aquisi??o do conhecimento lexical os leitores tendem a utilizar com maior frequ?ncia; verificar em qual das m?dias (blog ou papel) os leitores fazem uso do(s) dicion?rio(s) com maior frequ?ncia; constatar em qual das m?dias h? mais interrup??es no fluxo da leitura e de maior dura??o; averiguar o n?vel de compreens?o leitora dos participantes ao utilizarem-se do blog e do material impresso para a leitura. A pesquisa foi realizada na UFFS, com cinco participantes, educadores de escolas p?blicas de Educa??o B?sica, da zona urbana do munic?pio de Chapec?, adotando-se a abordagem experimental, qualiquantitativa. Por meio desta pesquisa e de seu design metodol?gico, buscamos confirmar a hip?tese de que a recursividade e a facilidade de acesso ?s consultas oferecidas pela interface do blog, como m?dia virtual, favorece a constru??o do conhecimento lexical nas tarefas de leitura, diminuindo o tempo de quebra do fluxo de leitura, melhorando o processo de compreens?o leitora em rela??o ? leitura na m?dia impressa. Os resultados sugerem algumas dificuldades com o manuseio do texto e com o aumento da carga cognitiva dispensada entre o ir e vir da rolagem das p?ginas e a manuten??o do texto na mem?ria de trabalho, conforme W?stlund (2007), na m?dia virtual; o que inibiu o uso dos dicion?rios online dispon?veis no blog. Por?m, o fator principal parece ser a falta de algumas habilidades necess?rias para movimentar-se no ambiente virtual, com a mesma naturalidade com que se movimentam no folhear das p?ginas de papel e na consulta a um dicion?rio impresso. / Reading is admittedly a complex process that involves psychological aspects (cognitive and metacognitive), biological and social. The reading process can be subdivided, facilitating studies and the search for solutions to problems in forming the proficient reader. Among the sub-processes that involve reading comprehension, there is the lexical competence; one of the determining factors in the formation of a (FINGER- KRATOCHVIL, 2009, 2010) strategic and critic reader. In recent years, reading has been the subject of numerous discussions and reflections, because tests show that many Brazilian adults have limited performance in this task. Given the requirements posed by digital technologies for readers in the 2000s, another issue that has also been noted are the virtual medias, which are gaining ground due to the expansion of the internet in recent years (COLL, Monereo et al., 2010). Researchers have investigated how virtual media can assist in the literacy process, in view of its new features and interfaces that allow a reading from new models (COSCARELLI, 1999; Leffa, 2006; Marcuschi, 2010). In order to cooperate with investigations into the reading proficiency at the Psycholinguistics bias, and its relationship with the Information Technology and Communication, this research has as main objective to investigate the contribution of the blog in the building process of reading competence from the development of the strategy of using the dictionary for the acquisition of lexical knowledge, considering their recursion and accessibility features. For this, we aim specifically: observe what strategies for acquiring lexical knowledge readers tend to use most often; check in which supports (paper or blog) readers do use dictionary more frequently; indicate in which brackets the interrupts of the flow of reading are more frequent and of longer duration; ascertain the level of reading comprehension of the participants when using the blog and printed materials as supports for reading. The research was conducted at Universidade Federal da Fronteira Sul (UFFS), with five educators from public schools (of basic education), from the urban area of Chapec?, adopting the experimental, qualitative and quantitative approach. Through this research and its methodological design, we seek to confirm the hypothesis that recursion and easy access to consultations offered by the blog interface (virtual media), favors the construction of lexical knowledge in reading tasks, reducing the breaking time of the reading flow, improving the process of reading comprehension compared to the reading on paper support. The results suggest some difficulties with the handling of text and with increasing cognitive load dispensed between the coming and going of scrolling of pages and text in the maintenance of working memory, as W?stlund (2007), the virtual media; which inhibited the use of online dictionaries available on the blog. However, the main factor seems to be the lack of some necessary skills to move around in the virtual environment, with the same ease with which they move in flip through pages of paper and consultation with a printed dictionary.

Os documentos oficiais e a concretização das propostas no livro didático analisado abordam a ambiguidade lexical como algo a ser evitado e corrigido através de estratégias de desambiguação, ignorando a importância da natureza polissêmica da língua como recurso expressivo na comunicação cotidiana e como instrumento fundamental do humor, especialmente as variantes de humor popular e infantil. O presente trabalho busca abordar a ambiguidade lexical, polissemia e homonímia, no gênero tirinha cômica, texto multimodal e humorístico, visando observar a eficácia da proposta de leitura e produção como exercício de contextualização, levando os alunos a observarem, explicarem e produzirem texto, utilizando-se dos diversos significados possíveis das palavras em uso, em situação concreta de enunciação. A proposta se dá dentro do conceito de multimodalidade, trabalhando a ambiguidade lexical e o letramento visual, objetivando que o aluno não apenas observe e compreenda as tirinhas apresentadas, mas também que produza a sua própria, compondo o texto com os elementos verbal e visual. As atividades foram divididas em dez passos: pesquisa e compartilhamento de HQs, atividade diagnóstica, análise da ambiguidade lexical em tirinha cômica no livro didático, jogo digital Quem ri seus males espanta Piadas, consulta às diferentes acepções no dicionário, escrita do glossário de unidades lexicais polissêmicas ou homônimas, elaboração do roteiro da tirinha, autoavaliação, produção final de uma tirinha cômica e apreciação dos trabalhos das turmas. / The analised official papers and textbook proposals approach lexical ambiguity as something to be avoided and correct through desambiguation strategies, ignoring the importance of the polissemic nature of language as an expressive resource of the language in daily communication and as a fundamental tool of comedy and humor, especially popular and childrens jokes and puns. This paper aims to approach lexical ambiguity, polissemy and homonyms, within the comic strip genre, which is a multimodal and comic text genre, with the objetive of observing how effective this proposal of reading and writing can be to help students comprehend, learn and explain lexical ambiguity, by using a word in multiple possible meanings in the comic strip, in concrete enunciation. This proposal uses multimodality, by combining lexical ambiguity and visual litteracy, aiming to enable the student not only to observe and understand the comic strips presented, but also to produce their own by using verbal and visual components. The sequence is divided in ten steps: research and sharing comics, diagnostic evaluation, lexical ambiguity in the textbook, digital game Quem ri seus males espanta Piadas, searching for different meanings of words in the dictionary, writing a glossary of polissemic unities, production of a scratch comic, self evaluation, final production and appreciation of the classes works.

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