Made available in DSpace on 2016-06-02T20:25:00Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 1626.pdf: 5300118 bytes, checksum: 85ee4253033f0747e3815619bae91c43 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2007-09-12 / Financiadora de Estudos e Projetos / The aim of this work is to verify the motivation of students to study English in the beginning of their first year right after primary school (5Th grade in Brazil), as well as to analyze the influence of teaching materials adopted in the students motivational disposition. We have confirmed, through our analyses, the hypothesis that students are motivated in the beginning of the foreign language teaching and learning process and, based on authors such as Augusto-Navarro (2007), Barbirato (2005), Stipek (2002), Dörnyei (2001), Peacock (1997), Pintrich e Schunk (1996), Almeida Filho (1994), Viana (1990), Krashen e Terrell (1983), and others, we discuss some characteristics, which if guaranteed in the teaching material, may help the teacher to maintain students motivation. This study may contribute for a better comprehension of the frequent demotivation process observed among English language students in Brazilian public schools. It also presents the characteristics of highly motivating, as well as demotivating, EFL teaching activities. / Este estudo objetiva verificar a motivação apresentada por alunos ingressantes na quinta série do ensino fundamental para o estudo de inglês, bem como analisar a influência exercida pelo material didático adotado na disposição motivacional dos mesmos. Confirmamos, através das análises, a hipótese de que os alunos são motivados no início do processo de ensino-aprendizagem da língua estrangeira e, com base em autores como Augusto-Navarro (2007), Barbirato (2005), Stipek (2002), Dörnyei (2001), Peacock (1997), Pintrich e Schunk (1996), Almeida Filho (1994), Viana (1990), Krashen e Terrell (1983), entre outros, discutimos algumas características que, garantidas no material didático, podem auxiliar o professor na manutenção da motivação. Este trabalho pode contribuir para a melhor compreensão do processo de desmotivação para o estudo da língua inglesa, freqüentemente observado na escola pública. Nesta dissertação apresentamos as características de atividades didáticas com alto e baixo potencial motivacional.

[pt] O presente trabalho analisa como os impactos da implementação de um modelo de cultura empresarial nos cursos de ensino de inglês incidem na (re)construção da identidade dos professores e, conseqüentemente, no seu sentimento de afiliação àquelas instituições. À luz de conceitos como identidade, contrato psicológico e comodificação e com base em entrevistas de pesquisa feitas com professoras de duas instituições, procuramos investigar como esta mudança vem afetando o sentimento de continuidade biográfica das professoras como indivíduos, profissionais e membros daquelas organizações. Os resultados sugerem que tal mudança faz emergir conflitos de representação em relação à tarefa de ensinar, ao papel do professor e à imagem da instituição, com conseqüências no sentimento de maior ou menor pertencimento à organização e no processo de construção de uma narrativa pessoal coerente. / [en] The implementation of an enterprise culture model in EFL schools has an impact on the (re)construction of teachers identities and, therefore, on their feelings of affiliation to those institutions. On the basis of such concepts as identity, psychological contract and commodification and on interviews with teachers from two different institutions, we have tried to investigate how this change has been affecting the feeling of biographical continuity of teachers as individuals, professionals and members of those organizations. The results suggest that the implementation of an enterprise culture model has aroused conflicts of representation on teaching practice, on the teacher s role and on the image of the institution, leading to changes in the degree of the teachers sense of belonging to the organization and in the process of the construction of a coherent personal narrative.

This thesis aims to explore whether some Swedish teachers and students feel that they are helped by ICT tools in their classrooms or not. It is vital for this thesis to find out whether or not teachers experience that their students are positively stimulated by the use of ICT when learning English. Ascertaining whether teachers find that ICT tools make it easier for them to teach or not is also of particular interest. Students’ answers to questions regarding the perceived benefits of technology and what they think about their teachers’ technology usage are also important. In order to accomplish this aim, four teachers were interviewed about their opinions on this matter and one English class per teacher, totaling 70 students, answered questionnaires regarding their opinions on the matter. The results reveal that teachers believe that while ICT offers some great tools to create variation in the classroom and that it might increase student motivation, opinions on whether or not technology also helps students to produce better results differ. The students’ results on the other hand clearly show that most students believe that they learn better when using computers, they would like to use computers more during class, and they prefer to write using a computer rather than pen and paper. Overall, the students have a more positive attitude to ICT tools than the teachers.

Research shows that oral proficiency is a big part of communicative competence, and therefore highly relevant for EFL teachers in today’s society. This study aims to investigate what types of activities four EFL teachers in secondary school in Sweden prefer to use in order to practice and assess their students’ oral proficiency. This study further seeks to give an insight in what the four teachers focus on when assessing their students’ oral proficiency. The method used for this study was qualitative, semi- structured interviews with four EFL teachers of different secondary schools in south of Sweden. Furthermore, the data was later coded and analysed with inspiration of the Grounded theory methodology. The results of this study showed that the four teachers used different oral activities very often in their teaching, especially different kinds of discussions. The oral activities were often connected to other projects and assignments that included other skills such as reading and writing. Therefore, the oral proficiency activities were only said to be clearly planned and assessed once or twice per term. Moreover, the four teachers main focus when assessing the students’ oral proficiency seemed to be phenomena like fluency, clearness, adaption to purpose and strategy- usage.

This study explores teacher student and in-service teacher beliefs about using code-switching in the English language classroom. Language classrooms have long adopted amonolingual approach. However, nowadays many classrooms are multilingual and a shifttowards using multilingual strategies to accommodate multilingual pupils can be seen inboth research and steering documents. Plurilingualism is promoted by the EuropeanCouncil and the Swedish syllabus for English, and research shows that code-switchingcan be one method for pupils to draw from all their language skills. Although amonolingual approach is still considered ideal, in research about teacher and teacherstudent beliefs about code-switching most participants use code-switching. This papertherefore investigates teacher student and in-service teacher beliefs in order to explorehow teachers use code-switching. Using the qualitative method of semi-structuredinterviews and analysing our data with the help of a coding scheme, we found that thoughall participants agree that a monolingual standard is ideal, they believe that it is importantto acknowledge pupils’ multilingual backgrounds and that code-switching can be one wayof doing that while still facilitating learning. We also found that the participants’ use ofcode-switching depends on their pupils’ proficiency, that they mainly use code-switchingfor communicative purposes, and that the participants’ own lingual backgrounds affectedtheir beliefs about code-switching. The result of this paper shows that in-service teachersneed to reflect on how and why they use code-switching while teacher educationprogrammes need to acknowledge multilingual strategies and make students aware ofwhen such strategies are beneficial to learning, and when they are not.

This essay aims to examine the applicability and relevance of subjective reader response in relation to second language (L2) motivation within literature education in the classroom of English as a Foreign Language (EFL). With support from previous research within the field of reader response theory (RRT), this essay argues that a subjective reader response approach contributes to increasing students’ motivation in relation to literature education Thus, this essay answers the following questions: 1) Does subjective reader response contribute to creating motivation among students in EFL (literature) teaching, and if so, how can this theory be implemented? 2) Does subjective reader response support students’ construction of what Zoltán Dörnyei refers to as “Ideal L2 self”? 3) What are the main benefits of using a reader response approach? The results support the hypothesis that a subjective reader response approach contributes to increasing students’ motivation in relation to literature education. Additionally, the study shows that the self-explorative nature of subjective reader response enables students to construct their “Ideal L2 self”.

No description available.

Considering the vital role teachers play in language teaching, the frequency of, and motivation behind L1 usage in L2 teaching is a very interesting and current area of research. Despite this, there does not seem to be a lot of research done in this area in the context of the Swedish EFL classroom for young learners. The aim of the current study was therefore to contribute to this area of research first, by investigating teachers’ use of Swedish when talking during their English teaching and their rationale for using Swedish instead of English, and second, by determining if there is a difference in the teachers’ use of Swedish depending on the learning objective of the lesson. This was done by using a mixed-method approach, where four English teachers in Sweden, all teaching grades 4-6, were observed in two lessons each, followed by semi-structured interviews. The results showed that Instructions, Asking questions, Praise and Translation were the most used L1 functions, while Evaluation, Classroom equipment and Humor were not employed by any of the teachers. Furthermore, the study demonstrated that the factors for L1 usage were the students’ age, support for the students’ understanding, efficiency and making the students feel comfortable in the learning environment, corresponding with previous research to a great extent. Additionally, it was also found that there was indeed a difference depending on the learning objective. Based on the findings in the study, it is suggested that teachers should be encouraged to assume a mindful approach to their L1 usage.

Globalisation and technological advancements actualize the necessity for comprehensive English language proficiency. This highlights the importance of an effective English as a foreign language (EFL) education in order to meet this demand. Despite the broad scope of research in multimodal methods as an aid in a reading comprehension context, there is a significant gap, which is particularly evident in addressing students in grades four to six and especially from a Scandinavian perspective. This study employed a quasi-experimental design to investigate the impact of integrating dual multimodal methods (visual aid + text) on the acquisition of receptive vocabulary and reading comprehension proficiency of EFL students in Swedish compulsory school year six. The study also aimed to explore which proficiency levels among students benefit from the incorporation of visual aids. Forty-eight participants from two urban schools in Stockholm, Sweden, were divided into an intervention group (visuals + text) and a control group (text) before subsequently undergoing a pretest, posttest, and delayed posttest focused on receptive vocabulary acquisition. A reading comprehension assignment was carried out with the aim of evaluating participants' reading comprehension proficiency. The treatment was completed by the control and intervention group with the difference being that the latter received the assignment with visual aids. The results illustrate that the use of multimodal methods improved participants' reading comprehension proficiency and short-term vocabulary recall. However, in the long term, reliance on visual aids led to a decline in scores, while traditional text-based instruction showed further improvement. The results suggest that less proficient learners were aided to a greater extent by visual aids than highly proficient learners. These results shed light on the benefits and limitations of multimodal methods, emphasising the need for further research to assess their long-term effects and to further decide who they may aid or harm.

<p>Ciljevi nastave engleskog kao stranog jezika u Japanu prolaze kroz velike promene dolaskom globalizacije i informacionih tehnologija, a jedna takva promena jeste uvođenje engleskog jezika na osnovno&scaron;kolskom nivou. Engleski kao strani jezik postaje obavezan u japanskom obrazovnom sistemu. Prema japanskoj obrazovnoj politici učenici počinju da uče engleski jezik u 5. razredu. U Srbiji situacija je drugačija u tom smislu da je engleski jezik obavezan predmet od 1. razreda osnovne &scaron;kole.<br />U ovoj doktorskoj disertaciji poku&scaron;aćemo da saznamo koje su to metode i tehnike u upotrebi u nastavi engleskog jezika u osnovnim &scaron;kolama u Japanu, kao i u Srbiji. Isto tako, poku&scaron;ačemo da utvrdimo njihovu adekvatnost u smislu postizanja zadatih ciljeva, a samim tim i zaključaka u vezi sa ispunjeno&scaron;ću ciljeva nastave stranih jezika &ndash; plana i programa propisanih od strane Ministrastva prosvete u obe države.<br />Cilj ovog istraživanja jeste definisanje aktivnosti koje se koriste na časovima, interakcije između učenika i nastavnika, upotreba maternjeg jezika na času, kao i komunikacije na osnovu savremenih metodolo&scaron;kih težnji u nastavi engleskog jezika Na osnovu teorijsko-metodolo&scaron;kog okvira, ova studija ima za poku&scaron;aj da defini&scaron;e i uporedi način na koji nastavnici uvode aktivnosti na časovima engleskog, a koje se u smislu komunikacije odnose na osnovno&scaron;kolske politike u Japanu i Srbiji. Relevantno istraživanju, kori&scaron;ćen je metod triangulacije, te su podaci sakupljani putem opservacije časova, intevjua i ankete za nastavnike u elektronskom obliku. Takođe, izvr&scaron;ena je i komparativna analiza udžbenika odobrenih od strane oba ministarstva, a koji su u upotrebi u obe države.</p><p>Opservacije časova engleskog jezika u osnovnim &scaron;kolama u Japanu, kao i anonimno anketiranje nastavnika i intervjui pokazali su kod učenika motivaciju za učenje na visokom nivou, ali metode i aktivnosti kori&scaron;ćene na časovima zajedno sa visokim procentom upotrebe maternjeg jezika (japanskog) dovode do nedostatka komunikacije na času, a samim tim i nedostatka prave komunikacije na engleskom jeziku. Istim istraživanjem u Srbiji do&scaron;lo se do zaključka da je motivacija učenika za učenje engleskog jezika na visokom nivou, kao i da nastavnici teže &scaron;to manjoj upotrebi maternjeg jezika na času, osim kada je to zaista neophodno, kao &scaron;to su obrade gramatičkih jedinica i njihova obja&scaron;njenja, te da se u &scaron;kolama u Srbiji na časovima engleskog jezika teži animaciji učenika, podizanjem motivacije na najvi&scaron;i nivo.<br />Na osnovu dobijenih podataka izneti su zaključci i sugestije kako bi se pomoglo nastavnicima engleskog jezika, kao i implikacije za dalja istraživanja.</p> / <p>The goals of EFL teaching in Japan have<br />recently undergone drastic change, with<br />globalization and information technology&rsquo;s<br />arrival, one such change being the introduction<br />of English at the elementary-school level.<br />English as a foreign language (EFL) in Japan is<br />becoming a mandatory subject in compulsory<br />educational system. According to Japanese<br />educational policy, students are required to start<br />learning the English language in the fifth grade.<br />In Serbia, the situation is different, meaning that<br />EFL has been introduced as a mandatory subject<br />from the first grade of elementary school.<br />In this doctoral thesis we are primarily<br />interested in discovering the methods and<br />techniques used in English language teaching in<br />elementary schools in Japan, as well as in<br />Serbia, and their adequacy in terms of achieving<br />the aims, and therefore fulfillment of the<br />curricula and syllabi regulated by Ministries of<br />education in both countries.<br />The aim of this study is to define the<br />activities used in the classes, interaction<br />between students and teachers, the use of the<br />mother tongue in class, as well as<br />communication on the basis of contemporary<br />methodological aspirations in EFL Teaching.<br />Based on the theoretical-methodological<br />framework, this study attempts to define and<br />compare the ways teachers introduce classroom<br />activities in English that are communicative in<br />their given policy contexts in elementary<br />schools in Japan and Serbia. Using a qualitative<br />descriptive &ndash; triangulation method, relevant to<br />this study, data were gathered by classroom observations, interviews and also a survey for</p><p>teachers in electronic form were conducted. In<br />addition, comparative analysis of textbooks<br />approved by the Ministries and in use in both<br />countries, was conducted.<br />Observations of English lessons in<br />primary schools in Japan, as well as an<br />anonymous survey of EFL teachers revealed the<br />students&rsquo; motivation to learn English is at high<br />level, but the methods and activities used in<br />classes with a high percentage of use of the<br />mother tongue (Japanese) lead to the lack of real<br />English communication in the classroom. Other<br />findings in Serbia revealed the students&rsquo; high<br />motivation for learning English and teachers<br />tending to reduce the use of the mother tongue<br />in class, except when necessary, for presenting<br />and explaining grammar, thereof, English<br />classes in Serbian schools tend to animate<br />students, raising their motivation to the highest<br />level.<br />According to the data obtained,<br />conclusions and suggestions were made in order<br />to help EFL teachers, and recommendations for<br />future research and practice in both countries<br />were also given.</p>