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Foreign language teachers, experts of pedagogy, and textbook publishers often cite frequency as an important tool in the creation of textbooks, as well as in teaching students a foreign language. These same figures, however, rarely question the application of frequency in these works. This thesis examines the application of frequency over a range of first-year German textbooks compared to a textbook that is explicitly based on a particular frequency dictionary. These textbooks are compared to each other and to the Jones and Tschirner Frequency Dictionary of German and Pfeffer’s Grunddeutsch: Basic (Spoken) German Word List, Grundstufe.

Foreign language teachers, experts of pedagogy, and textbook publishers often cite frequency as an important tool in the creation of textbooks, as well as in teaching students a foreign language. These same figures, however, rarely question the application of frequency in these works. This thesis examines the application of frequency over a range of first-year German textbooks compared to a textbook that is explicitly based on a particular frequency dictionary. These textbooks are compared to each other and to the Jones and Tschirner Frequency Dictionary of German and Pfeffer’s Grunddeutsch: Basic (Spoken) German Word List, Grundstufe.

Comprised of four essays, this collection of creative nonfiction focuses on facets of daily life and culture in Germany. The author recounts her experiences as she and her family assimilate into a foreign culture and adapt to using its language. The first essay tells of the family’s unexpected but rewarding sojourn in Germany after losing everything to Hurricane Katrina. The subsequent essays display a broader range of experiences and cultural observations upon the family’s return to Germany four years later. These include a narrative of the family’s move to a small town in central Germany, an interview with a local asparagus farmer and an account of the author’s children’s efforts to learn German.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-03-22T17:26:50Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 TESE Magliane de Marco.pdf: 5172520 bytes, checksum: c9780d056dae1f60dbf6e6027c1ea4fa (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012-12-20 / The aim of this research was to investigate the acquisition of syllable structure of English as a foreign language (FL), focusing specifically on the English initial /s/ clusters. This research is a case study and the data analyzed was from the linguistic production of a child who was acquiring English as foreign language and Portuguese as mother tongue. The corpora were collected when the subject was 3:5 and 13:4 (years:months). The data was submitted to acoustic analysis and also analyzed by means of a phonological approach, beneath the assumptions of the Syllable Theory (SELKIRK, 1982) and the Sonority Cycle (CLEMENTS, 1990). It could be verified that not only were the complex onsets acquired very early by the subject child, comparing to children who are native English speakers, but also initial /s/ cluster simplification strategies were applied. The results reveal that there are similarities and differences between studies with adults and this research data. As similarity, both apply epenthesis process to simplify the onset sequence, although adults showed greater use. As difference the subject voiced the fricative /s/ without applying epenthesis, a strategy that does not often arise in adult data. The results obtained show strict relation with sonority scale and with sonority distance between the onset members. Onset can be reversal or not, it depends if it violates or not the sonority sequencing principle, however the minimum distance of two sonority degrees between onset elements seems to be respected. The theoretical contributions in this study allowed generalizations about the acquisition of initial /s/ complex onsets in English by a native speaker of Brazilian Portuguese / O objetivo desta pesquisa foi investigar o processo de aquisição da estrutura silábica do inglês como língua estrangeira (LE), focalizando especificamente o encontro consonantal do inglês iniciado por /s/. A presente pesquisa constituiu-se em um estudo de caso e, para a sua realização, foram analisados os dados da língua inglesa na produção linguística de uma criança em desenvolvimento fonológico normal, que está adquirindo o inglês como LE e o português brasileiro como língua materna (LM), nas faixas etárias de 3:5 e de 13:4 (anos: meses). Os dados foram submetidos a uma análise acústica e, também, a uma abordagem de cunho fonológico, à luz dos pressupostos da Teoria da Sílaba (SELKIRK, 1982) e do Ciclo de Sonoridade (CLEMENTS, 1990). Na perspectiva do desenvolvimento linguístico, pôde-se verificar não apenas que a informante desta pesquisa incorporou os onsets complexos muito precocemente à sua fonologia, em se comparando com o que a literatura relata sobre a emergência destes constituintes silábicos em crianças falantes nativas de inglês, mas também que foram usadas estratégias de simplificação em suas produções de onset complexo iniciado por /s/, como ocorre com os falantes adultos do PB em processo de aquisição do inglês como LE. Ainda em relação aos dados de aquisição do onset iniciado por /s/ por criança, em comparação com os dados de aprendizes adultos, houve semelhança e diferença: como semelhança, o emprego do processo de epêntese para desfazer a sequência consonantal, porém com uso maior pelos adultos; como diferença, a sonorização da fricativa /s/ sem o emprego de epêntese; essa estratégia não aparece em dados de adultos com frequência. Na perspectiva da análise de natureza fonético-fonológica, os dados analisados mostraram que o comportamento das sequências consonantais iniciadas por /s/, constituindo onset complexo, no inglês, mostra relação direta com a escala de sonoridade e com a distância de sonoridade entre os segmentos que as constituem. Essas sequências podem ser reversas ou não, ou seja, podem violar ou não o principio de sequência de sonoridade, porém tendem a respeitar a distância mínima de dois graus de sonoridade entre os elementos que as formam. Com o aporte teórico utilizado no presente estudo, foi possível estabelecer generalizações sobre o funcionamento das sequências consonantais iniciadas por /s/ no processo de aquisição do inglês como LE por falante nativa de PB

Gegenstand der Dissertation ist die Untersuchung interlingualer lexikalischer Prozesse von Worterkennung und-zugriff bei ungarndeutschen Bilingualen, die Englisch als Fremdsprache erlernen, unter besonderer Berücksichtigung der Rolle von Kognaten. Ziel der Studie ist es, die Prozesse lexikalischer Aktivierung in einem polyglotten System zu beschreiben und sowohl die mentalen Lexika, als auch die Verknüpfung und gegenseitige Aktivierung (z. B. durch 'direct word association' oder durch 'concept mediation') zu modellieren. Drei abhängige Variablen werden in einer quantitativen und qualitativen Analyse empirischer Daten untersucht: Genauigkeit, Antwortzeitlatenzen und phonologische Interferenz. Die Resultate der Experimente werden im Rahmen eines multilingualen Netzwerkmodells interpretiert. / The dissertation examines aspects of the interlingual lexical processes of word recognition and word retrieval in Hungarian-German bilinguals learning English as a foreign language, with particular respect to the role of cognates. The purpose of the study is to describe the process of lexical activaton in a polyglot system and to model the mental lexicons and the ways entries in the lexicons are connected and activated (e.g. activation through direct word association or through concept mediation). Three dependent variables are studied in quantitative and qualitative analysis of empirical data taken from experiments: rate of accurate responses, response latencies and phonological interference. The results of the experiments are interpreted in the framework of a multiple language network model.

Thesis (M.A.)--Miami University, Dept. of Spanish and Portuguese, 2007. / Title from first page of PDF document. Includes bibliographical references (p. 65-70).

Orientador: Jose Carlos Paes de Almeida Filho / Tese (doutorado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Estudos da Linguagem / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-04T18:35:00Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Barbirato_RitadeCassia_D.pdf: 1482450 bytes, checksum: eec0d6a19a0589f36420f5f340199ec6 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2005 / Resumo: Esta pesquisa tem por objetivo investigar a construção do processo de aquisição de uma LE (inglês) por alunos de nível iniciante de um curso de Letras, dentro de um contexto bastante adverso, processo esse criado a partir de um planejamento temático com foco prioritário no sentido e baseado em tarefas comunicativas. Foi elaborado um material didático que teve como tema um pequeno recorte da história da Inglaterra. O material foi implementado na forma de um curso experimental com a carga horária de 40 horas/aulas e a duração de um semestre letivo (primeiro semestre de 2003) em uma Faculdade Particular do período noturno do interior do estado de São Paulo. Como suporte teórico nos apoiamos nos estudos interacionais de sala de aula (Cazden, 1992; Ellis, 1996), estudos sobre a aquisição de L2 (Ellis, 1992) e em investigações conduzidas sobre as características e potencial das tarefas realizadas por Prabhu, 1987 e Skehan, 1992, entre outros. Do ponto de vista metodológico, nossa pesquisa se pauta pelos parâmetros da pesquisa qualitativa, mais precisamente, da etnografia de sala de aula. Para a coleta de dados utilizamos a gravação em áudio e posterior transcrição de aulas, entrevistas e diários dialogados reflexivos. Os resultados demonstraram que o uso de um planejamento temático como o utilizado e que deu origem a um material e a aulas metodologicamente temáticas e amplamente interativas, produziu ambientes de estudo que favoreceram, no curto espaço de tempo que durou a experiência, um desenvolvimento promissor da competência lingüístico-comunicativa mesmo ocorrendo num ambiente bastante adverso, quando esperaríamos muito pouco, menos do que obtivemos ou demoraria muito para atingir tal competência. Além disso, observamos que maiores oportunidades de interações foram criadas, sendo essas interações mais significativas e relevantes para os alunos e tomando o sentido ao invés da forma como ponto de partida. Os dados mostraram ainda que, o uso de tal planejamento trouxe além dos ganhos de aprendizagem evidenciados, uma configuração positiva do filtro afetivo do alunado participante / Abstract: This research aims at investigating the process of acquiring a foreign language (English) by students from beginner levels from a course of Letters, in a rather difficult context. This process was created based in a thematic syllabus with a main focus on the meaning and based on communicative tasks. A teaching material was elaborated about a short sketch of the history of Britain. An experimental course was carried out during the first semester of 2003 with 40 hours/lessons in a private college in an evening course. The theoretical framework of this research is based on Cazden's (1992) and Ellis's (1996) studies about classroom interaction, Ellis's (1996) studies about second language acquisition and Prabhu's (1987) and Skehan's (1992) studies about the features and potential of tasks. The present research, characterized as qualitative research, was based on the principles of the classroom etnography. The interactions were tape recorded, transcribed and analysed. A questionnaire, tape recorded interviews and dialogued diaries were used as well. The results suggest that the use of a thematic syllabus as the one used in this research and which originated a coursebook and lessons metodologically more thematic and providing, in a short period of time, a development of the linguistic- communicative competence even in a such difficult context, when we could expect very little. In addition, we observed that more oportunities of interaction were created, being these interactions more meaningful and relevant for the students and having the meaning instead of the form as focus. Moreover, the data suggested that the use of such syllabus contributed for a positive configuration of the students's afective filter / Doutorado / Ensino-Aprendizagem de Segunda Lingua e Lingua Estrangeira / Doutor em Linguística Aplicada

The purpose of this study was to investigate four Swedish upper secondary teachers' reasoning about their own corrective feedback strategies in oral EFL learning environments, and how their reasoning correlated to previous research in the subject.The research was carried out by using the qualitative method of interviewing aselection of teachers. Four teachers of English as a foreign language from one Swedish upper secondary school participated in semi-structured pair-interviews.The study found that the participating teachers’ perceptions and use of corrective feedback corresponds to a large extent with the findings of previous research, saying that teachers in various contexts prefer more implicit means of corrective feedback,but that they would adapt their strategies depending on the learner, error type, and the focus of the lesson. The result also suggested that although the teachersreportedly make conscious choices when selecting a corrective feedback strategy, they sometimes have to choose between using a strategy that promotes learning orusing a strategy that will cause the least amount of inconvenience for the learner.The conclusion was made that the teachers of the study are aware of their own corrective feedback strategies to some extent, which also corresponds with the results of previous research, but that their awareness is not always sufficient, and their strategies might not be as effective as the teachers think.

While online activity is increasing among young Swedish students, motivation to learn English in school is decreasing (Skolverket, 2011). While many studies confirm the positive effect that leisure gaming can have on language acquisition (Atma, Azmi & Hassan, 2020; Ferdig & Pytash, 2014; Li, 2020; Rudis & Poštić, 2017), how students’ motivation is affected is far less researched. In this paper, we aimed to investigate the effects on language learning motivation that extracurricular video games might have and what external factors surrounding gaming that modulate students’ motivation to learn English in school. We examined nine studies related to these topics and used multiple theories about motivation to analyze our findings. The results of our research review indicate that playing video games at home can be generally seen to increase students’ motivation to learn English in school. Studies also demonstrate that factors such as age, culture and student-beliefs could modulate the motivation affected by extra-curricular video gaming. Finally, research suggests that the greater the distance is between a student's current language proficiency and the desired proficiency, the greater the motivation appeared to be.