O presente estudo objetivou analisar a legitimação do poder entre franqueados da rede CCAA na região de Passo Fundo/RS; trata-se de um processo pelo qual esses pequenos empreendedores buscam consolidar suas relações de trabalho para exercerem suas funções de direção com autoconfiança. Para tanto, foi realizada uma pesquisa qualitativa descritiva que usou como método de coleta de dados a entrevista semi-estruturada aliada a observações do ambiente. Quatro diretores de escolas de idiomas da rede CCAA na região norte do estado do Rio Grande do Sul participaram da pesquisa. Os dados coletados foram submetidos a uma análise interpretativa feita a luz do referencial teórico que resgatou a conceituação do poder, bem como seu papel na sociedade, antes de abordar o poder (e suas fontes) no contexto das organizações empresariais. O manual de gestão de pessoas da rede CCAA permitiu que uma análise documental complementasse o estudo, cujos resultados ratificaram a difícil mensuração da legitimação do poder, mas foram positivos, no sentido de que o fenômeno foi investigado dos mais diversos ângulos e identificou-se de forma não-planejada uma série de fatores correlatos, provocando, assim, uma evolução no seu entendimento, pois percebeu-se que diferentes estratégias de legitimação do poder foram adotadas variando conforme a história de vida e o estilo de liderança de cada um dos empreendedores e que essas estratégias geraram resultados semelhantes a curto prazo, mas no longo prazo, tendem a distanciar as empresas em quesitos como grau de profissionalização e capacidade de expansão, por exemplo. / The current study had the purpose of analyzing the legitimation of power among directors of CCAA chain units in the region of Passo Fundo/RS, it´s a process in which these small business people try to make working relationships solid to perform their functions of direction with self-confidence. For so, it was done a descriptive qualitative research that used as method of data collection a semi-structured interview together with observations of the environment. Four directors of foreign languages schools of CCAA chain in the northern region of the state of Rio Grande do Sul took part in the research. The collected data were submitted to an interpretative analysis made under the light of the academic frame that rescued the conception of power, as well as its role in the society, before approaching the power (and its fountains) in the context of business organizations. The guidebook of people management of CCAA chain allowed a documental analysis to complement the study, which results reinforced the difficulties in measuring the legitimation of power, but were good after all, since the phenomena was investigated from an array of angles and a series of related factors were identified in a non-planned way, provoking, thus, an evolution on its understanding, since it was realized that different strategies of legitimation of the power were adopted according to the history of life and leadership style of each of the directors and that these strategies may create similar results in short term, but in long term tend to increase the distance between the companies in matters such as professionalization level or capacity for expansion, for instance.

This study introduces themes and trends apparent from notable research and literature regarding the value and usefulness of bilingual teaching methods in the ESOL classroom, and the perceptions of ESOL managers and teachers regarding these, both from an international and a New Zealand perspective. From this, a shortage of awareness and research in the New Zealand context was identified, which created an opportunity for further research. The study aimed specifically to investigate the knowledge and perceptions of Auckland based ESOL-school professionals regarding the value of teacher bilingualism and the use of other languages in the ESOL classroom. The basic method employed was a survey involving the distribution of questionnaires to 60 Auckland language school teachers and 20 Auckland language school managers, and included both qualitative and quantitative type questions. The study probed the foreign language skills and overseas work experience of the managers and teachers, and investigated whether these factors had influenced their perceptions regarding the value of teacher bilingualism and the use of other languages as an ESOL teaching tool. The study identifies the perceptions of Auckland ESOL professionals regarding these issues and analyses further differentiating factors likely to have influenced these perceptions. It identifies differences of opinion between managers and teachers and investigates reasons for these. The study analyses the linguistic composition of the Auckland language school clientele and considers implications for the industry resulting from the identified perceptions of ESOL professionals. Finally, the study offers suggestions for further future research, in the interest of improvement and enhancement of the industry.

In recent years, English has become a compulsory subject in schools and many tertiary institutions of Vietnam. The need to train teachers of English is greater than ever before. However, in the Hanoi Foreign Languages Teachers Training College (HFLTTC), English language teaching in general and the teaching of oral skills in particular leave much room for improvement. The students' oral proficiency is far from satisfactory. This problem has inspired the writing of this study report as an attempt to search for an appropriate method to improve the students' communicative competence. The study consists of four chapters. Chapter one will overview some English Language Teaching (ELT) methods in relation to teaching spoken English and their application in Vietnam. Chapter two will consider the context of the HFLTTC where teaching and learning are carried out with a view to identifying an appropriate approach to the problem. Chapter three will outline communicative competence as an objective of the ELT and discuss principles of the communicative approach to attain the objective, and suggest teaching material through which the principles can be applied. Chapter four will recommend the classroom techniques which may improve the students' oral proficiency. This study report should be regarded as an attempt to apply the communicative approach to teaching oral skills to students in the context of Vietnam.

English has been taught in Vietnam for about forty years and the number of English learners increases every year. Whatever the course of teaching English may be, the teaching of pronunciation is always a beginning part of it. The materials used in teaching pronunciation vary from schools to colleges, but the way of teaching is always the same. It means that students have to imitate what the teachers have pronounced with a very simple explanation of how to pronounce it. This causes great problems, because not all teachers have correct pronunciation and not all students can imitate the teachers in the right way. At the Hanoi Foreign Languages College, students are trained to be teachers of English. They not only need to have correct pronunciation, but also need to know how to pronounce sounds. In order to teach pronunciation effectively, they need to have a certain knowledge of phonetics and know the difference and similarity between the sound systems of English and Vietnamese. To help awareness of the necessity of good pronunciation and the present problems associated with teaching it, this report: a/ points out the importance of teaching English pronunciation in teaching English; b/ gives an overview of English teaching in general and the teaching of pronunciation in particular. To improve the teaching of pronunciation at the Hanoi Foreign Languages College, this report: c/ makes a comparison between sound systems of English and Vietnamese; d/ proposes material for the teaching of pronunciation for the Vietnamese students of the Hanoi Foreign Languages College, bearing in mind the context of the Vietnamese teaching and learning situation. It is hoped that this report will be of practical use: for teachers and students in the Hanoi Foreign Languages College.

With the increasing contact between Vietnam and English speaking countries and the growing demand for foreign language professionals in the last decades, the teaching of foreign languages, especially English, has gained considerable prominence in Vietnamese education. However, English has been taught in Vietnam for a relatively short time, there are significant deficiencies in this area. If these deficiencies are to be addressed then methodology is a crucial variable worthy of examination. Many of the EFL teaching (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) methods developed in the last twenty years are unfamiliar to a great number of the Vietnamese teachers, although they may be introduced to Vietnam in the near future. In this study a historical overview of language teaching development is provided. Since language teaching methods are products of Western experience, a scrutiny of their relevance to the Vietnamese teaching situation is necessary. In particular it is important to focus on the psychological and cultural appropriateness of different methods to the Vietnamese settings. A number of most crucial psychological issues such as the learner's motivation, aptitude, personality and learning style are discussed together with some social and cultural influences which may affect the learner's psychological attributes, The study also provides a specific investigation of the psychological attributes of Vietnamese students and a number of cultural problems faced by this type of learners in their English learning process. Finally some practical, though tentative, suggestions are made in the hops that more and more Vietnamese teachers of English will respond to the problem of teaching methodology and search for ways to bring about effective learning.

This study examines the problems of constructing and administering a test of spoken English for Vietnamese EFL teacher-trainees. In an attempt to standardize the assessment, a planned oral interview was pilottested with a group of ten Vietnamese EFL teachers currently enrolled in a Graduate Diploma Course in TESOL at the Canberra College of Advanced Education, Australia. Results of the study indicate that the validity and reliability of such measurement can be achieved if certain carefully outlined procedures in planning the test and training the testers are carefully followed. Given the close relationship between testing and teaching, it is suggested in this study that there could be an improvement in the teaching of spoken English to Vietnamese EFL teacher-trainees if (i) the amount of time allocated to testing oral proficiency in the curriculum was increased, (ii) Vietnamese EFL teachers were provided with formal training in language test construction, and (iii) research on EFL oral testing was encouraged. Further, this study recommends co-operation between TEFL institutions in Vietnam to develop standard instruments for the assessment of spoken English of EFL teacher-trainees on a national level.

<p>Med anledning av att allt färre elever väljer språk som tillval på gymnasiet så är syftet med detta examensarbete att ta reda på vad som påverkar gymnasieelever att välja, respektive välja bort, språk som tillval. Det jag främst vill undersöka är ifall det finns skillnader i motivation, attityder och nöjdhet/missnöje med undervisningen mellan de som har valt språk och de som har valt bort språk som tillval. Vidare syftar undersökningen till att ta reda på vilka förbättringar både elever och lärare tycker vore nödvändiga. Metoden som användes var både kvalitativ och kvantitativ i form av intervjuer och två olika enkäter. Fyra elever och två lärare intervjuades och enkäterna besvarades av 34 elever med språk som tillval och av 40 elever med andra tillval. Resultatet visar inte på några specifika skillnader förutom motivation mellan grupperna, däremot fann jag flera möjliga orsaker till bortval; bland annat ointresse, taktikval och tråkig undervisning. De förbättringar som efterfrågades var till viss del organisatoriska, men till största delen handlade de om själva undervisningen. Det jag kom fram till är att undervisningen på högstadiet troligen påverkar bortvalen i hög grad och att det är förbättringar där, samt ett nytt skolsystem som premierar språk, som är de viktigaste faktorerna för att få fler elever att välja språk som tillval.</p> / <p>The purpose with this degree thesis is to find out why pupils choose, or do not choose, language as an optional subject. Mainly I want to see if there are any differences in motivation, attitudes and satisfaction/dissatisfaction with language teaching between the pupils who have chosen language and the pupils who have chosen another optional subject. Furthermore the investigation aims at finding out what improvements teachers and pupils find necessary. The method being used was both qualitative and quantitative in the form of interviews and two different questionnaires. Four pupils and two teachers were interviewed and the questionnaires were answered by 34 pupils with a language choice and 40 pupils with other choices. The result shows no specific differences except motivation between the two groups, however I found several possible reasons to why pupils tend to choose some other subject than language: lack of interest, tactical choices and an unsatisfying language teaching. The suggestions of improvements concerned to an extent organizational aspects, but mainly the actual teaching. The teaching in the upper level of compulsory school probably affects the fewer choices of language and we need to improve this teaching and introduce a new school system that rewards language choices to make more pupils choose language as an optional subject.</p>

The purpose of this study was to investigate the performances on speaking assessments in a first semester Spanish course to determine if there are differences among four sections based on required speaking tasks and mode of class delivery. Two of the classes were conducted online in a distance education delivery mode and two of the classes were conducted in the classroom. One section of delivery mode was required to fulfill speaking tasks throughout the semester while the alternate sections were offered the same speaking tasks as optional activities. Furthermore, the study investigated testing items repeated prompts versus new prompts to determine if there were differences in performance. Finally, the study investigated student performance confidence and beliefs about course materials. The data were collected through quantitative methods (oral rubric scores) and qualitative methods (open-ended questions). A total of 64 students participated in the study. Eight students completed the distance education course with optional speaking tasks. Thirteen students completed the distance education course with required speaking. Eighteen students completed the classroom course with optional speaking, and 24 students completed the classroom course with required speaking. In general, all classes made improvement between the first assessment and the second assessment. However, the mean performance scores for three of the four speaking prompts did not show significant difference among the four classes. In addition, there were no significant differences in mean scores of performances at the introduction of the two new speaking tasks on the final assessment. Only with one speaking repeated measure was there a significant difference. The significant difference was between the classroom with required speaking section and the distance education with optional speaking section. With an analysis of the Target Language Use, it was determined that the differences were due to lexical complexity and morphological complexity. In general, the self-report of confidence levels on the final oral assessment showed no significant differences among the four classes. There was a significant drop in confidence on one of the two new assessment prompts for all classes. Student comments indicated that there were frustrations with cognitive overload and dealing with ambiguity. / text

The issues on adults‘ motivation discussed in scientific discource are not prolific. They and related problems have been studied by Viliūnas (1990), Boshier (1971), Hatter (1990), Entwistle (1998), Taylor (1982). However, there is a lack of research of adults‘ motivation for learning foreign languages in an informal educational organization. This is the foundation of the research of the master‘s thesis which enables to formulate the problem of the research, emphasizing the search for peculiarities of adults‘ motivation for learning foreign languages, highlighting prevailing motifs, their relations to some demographical sharacteristics of adults when teaching and learning is performed in an informal educational organization. Object of the research – Adults‘ motivation for learning foreign languages. Aim of the research – to analyse the peculiarities of adults‘ motivation for learning foreign languages in an informal educationa organization. Tasks of the research: 1. To carry out a theoretical analysis of learning motivation in order to find out the understanding of learning motivation, types of motivation. 2. To analyse the features of an adult‘s foreign languages learning motivation, pointing out possible learning barriers related with age, education, social status, etc., and highlighting some aspects of adults‘motivation for learning foreign languages (dominant learning motifs, tendencies, difficulties). 3. To study an informal educational organization as one of adults‘... [to full text]

The concept of plurilingual competence that enables the members of different cultures to perform in multilingual and multicultural environment is on the top of political agenda nowadays, as acquisition of two or more languages has become a necessity in the knowledge society. Therefore, the lack of works on the subject in Lithuania is a relevant reason to carry out a research on the language education through the prism of ‘mediation’ and ‘code switching’ as activities becoming widely acknowledged and practiced among language teachers. The study aims to survey the functions of mediation and code switching in teaching foreign languages. The objectives of the thesis are: • to overview the material on plurilingualism as giving reasons for the rise of wide discussions about reorganization of language education system, the changing attitude towards teaching languages, namely, a newly emerging approach of translation and later apply it to the empirical research;. • to investigate the approach of teachers and students towards the use of native language in the classroom; • to identify the patterns within switching of the first and the second languages and define the role they serve for the language acquisition. Research methods are literature analysis, quantitative and qualitative research (two types of questionnaire forms and analysis of recorded excerpts of lessons). The results indicate that the educators support the approach promoting better awareness of the native language... [to full text] / Daugiakalbės visuomenės formavimo politika, pradėta Europos Sąjungos institucijų, susilaukė didžiulio šalių narių susidomėjimo. ES iškėlė kalbinės kompetencijos lavinimą vienu pagrindinių savo tikslų. Pabrėžiama, jog kelias kalbas mokantys asmenys turi daugiau galimybių integruotis europinėje visuomenėje, taip pat minima profesionalių vertėjų paklausa ES institucijose. Šios politikos įgyvendinimo esminių centru tapo valstybių švietimo sistemos tobulinimas siekiant įdiegti naują požiūrį į kalbų mokymą. Tai paskatina šalis nares imtis veiksmų švietimo sistemos srityje. Rašomi straipsniai apie mokymo metodus akcentuojančius gimtosios kalbos svarbą užsienio kalbų pamokose, konkrečiai pabrėžiama kodų kaitos ir mediacijos (vertimo raštu, žodžiu) įtaka užsienio kalbos išmokimui. Atsižvelgiant į tai, jog Lietuvoje šios srities tyrimų stokojama, tampa įdomu bent jau dalinai pasigilinti į situaciją šalyje. Darbo tikslas – nustatyti, kokią funkciją atlieka gimtoji kalba užsienio kalbų pamokose ir kaip tai įtakoją kalbos išmokimą. Tyrimų objektas – gimtosios kalbos panaudojimas užsienio kalbos mokymo ir mokymosi procese. Tyrimo subjektais pasirinkti mokytojai bei mokiniai, kurie turėjo išreikšti požiūrį į daugiakalbės visuomenės formavimą ir gimtosios kalbos (mediacijos) naudojimą pamokose. Taip pat analizuojami dviejų užsienio kalbų pamokų įrašai, kuriose ieškoma konkrečių kodų kaitos pavyzdžių ir siekiama išsiaiškinti, kokios gimtosios kalbos situacijos kartojasi dažniausiai, kokios... [toliau žr. visą tekstą]