As a result of globalisation, the number of companies working globally is increasing at an unprecedented pace. Consequently, the need to communicate with people from other countries is getting bigger. In such intercultural communication, a common language must be used to interact. The language of choice is most often English, which is the business lingua franca (BELF) today. Furthermore, email has become the obvious choice of medium when interacting with foreign business associates. The present study was conducted through intensive and extensive analyses, investigating BELF emails written by 21 individuals with 14 different native languages. The data consists of 209 emails. The study follows Bjørge’s (2007) work on formality in emails written in academic settings. The aim of the study was to determine how formal the participants were in greetings and closings and whether they accommodated their language to the respondent. The results suggest that the level of formality mainly depends on the purpose of the email and, to some extent, how formal the correspondent is. The accommodation to the correspondent seems to be individual. The present study wishes to extend knowledge on email communication in BELF settings. The results are likely to be relevant for teachers and students of Business Communication and English as a Second or Foreign Language along with managers in internationally functioning companies, especially as regards what should be considered in BELF communication.

In the field of second language acquisition (SLA), the study abroad context (SA) has gained attention as a site that offers the potential of significant second language (L2) development due to high amounts of input and interaction opportunities compared to at home foreign language (AH) and domestic immersion (IM) contexts (Pérez-Vidal, 2014). In previous research, the SA context has been a country where the L2 is the local language (e.g., English in the United Kingdom). However, with the increase of student mobility programs across Europe, such as ERASMUS, and the status of English as an International Language, another study abroad context is available, one where students can take English-medium classes and use English as a lingua franca in a country where English is not the local language (e.g., Germany, Poland, Spain). In the current study, this new context is operationalized as English as a lingua franca study abroad (ELFSA), the effects of which have received very little attention in SLA to date. By providing an alternative SA context through English medium of instruction on-campus, and English as an international language through off-campus interactions, this new context might bring further insights into the SA phenomenon. Motivated by this gap in the literature, the current longitudinal study aims to investigate the differentiated effects of the SA, ELFSA, and AH contexts on the linguistic development of Turkish undergraduates whose L2 is English. Given the multilingual nature of the ERASMUS context, this study also examines the contextual influences on participants’ perceptions towards multilingualism from a Perceived Positive Language Interaction (PPLI) perspective (Thompson, 2013). The participants of the study were 50 third year Turkish undergraduates, 33 of whom undertook a 16-week ERASMUS exchange semester in Spring 2016. Following a quasi-experimental mixed-methods pretest-posttest design, data were collected via a one-minute spoken and 15-minute written production test to determine linguistic complexity, accuracy, and fluency gains; an Elicited Oral Imitation Test (EIT, Ortega et al., 1999) to measure pre-departure proficiency; a monthly online Language Interaction Questionnaire to investigate the type and amount of language contact; and a dichotomous questionnaire to learn about participants’ perceptions towards multilingualism within PPLI. For triangulation purposes, qualitative data were collected via several open-ended items in the questionnaires and semi-structured interviews. The results of the quantitative and qualitative analysis indicated that the SA and ELFSA contexts were beneficial for English development on most of the measures, yet the former had certain issues for the participants pertaining to the dominant variety and features of spoken English (e.g., weak forms, connected speech, speech rate). The ELFSA was reported to be more multilingual as compared to the SA, also paving the way for seeing further Perceived Positive Language Interaction (Thompson, 2013) among the additional languages that their participants knew. The major difference between the two was described to be the ELFSA participants’ developing an ELF identity towards using English as an L2, as they tended to prioritize fluency over accuracy throughout their exchange semester. The results of the quantitative analysis indicated that the AH group had significantly more gains on written fluency than the two abroad groups. Also, time was found to be a significant factor for lexical development regardless of group differences. In terms of oral gains, main effects of time indicated that the participants as a whole group had significantly different means over time on speech rate and breakdown fluency, the inspection of which showed that the ELFSA had the highest mean differences. As for oral accuracy and lexical complexity, an interaction effect between time and context group was found to approach significance, indicating that both sojourn groups had mean gains on the former, while only the ELFSA had higher mean scores in the posttest for the latter measure. Finally, the data from the semi-structured interviews provided a holistic picture of the interplay between context and development in English. The major finding of the study, thus, indicated that the SA may not be the sole provider for intense L2 input to improve English during a semester abroad; the ELFSA appeared to be equally as beneficial as the SA in terms of linguistic development with a bonus of creating a linguistic identity of an ELF speaker for language learners. The study also provided several empirical and pedagogical implications for those interested in the stay abroad and its influences on L2 development.

A Zona Franca de Manaus (ZFM), criada em 1967 pela ditadura militar, termina em 2023, mas ha uma proposta de modificacao da Constituicao Federal do Brasil para que ela dure ate 2073. A partir da compreensao do discurso enquanto pratica social (Focault, 1987, 2002, 2005; Hajer, 1995, 2005, 2006) e da categorizacao dos discursos ambientais (Dryzek, 2005), foram analisados 265 pronunciamentos dos parlamentares do Amazonas, 19 edicoes de uma revista institucional e 626 materias do mais importante jornal local, tudo publicado entre 2007 e 2010. Eles revelam um deslocamento do discurso de legitimacao da ZFM do ideario do progresso ao do desenvolvimento sustentavel, guiado pela modernizacao ecologica. As industrias passaram a ser apresentadas como responsaveis pela conservacao das florestas, gracas a geracao de empregos urbanos: afirma-se que se os incentivos fiscais acabarem, havera desemprego e desmatamento. Esse roteiro fatalista, autoritario, nao reconhece o papel dos povos e comunidades tradicionais na conservacao da floresta nem esta aberto ao debate publico sobre outros modelos de desenvolvimento para a regiao amazonica. / The Manaus Free Trade Zone (ZFM) will end in 2023, but there is a proposal to amend the Brazilian Federal Constitution so that it lasts until 2073. From the understanding of discourse as a social practice (Foucault, 1987, 2002, 2005; Hajer, 1995, 2005, 2006), this paper is based on the critical analysis of 265 parliamentary pronouncements, 19 editions of a institutional magazine and 626 news from the most important local newspaper, all published between 2007 and 2010. It reveals a shift in the discourse about the ZFM, guided by ecological modernization. The industries are now presented as responsible for protecting the rainforest: it is said that if the tax incentives stop, there will be unemployment and deforestation. This fatalistic story line does not recognize the role of traditional peoples and communities in forest conservation and neither is open to the public debate about other models of development for the Amazon.

Orientador: Alexandre Marques Mendes / Banca: João Luiz Passador / Banca: Lilian Rodrigues de Oliveira Rosa / Resumo: A presente dissertação analisa as políticas culturais no município de Franca, cidade do interior do Estado de São Paulo, com ênfase nas medidas e práticas discursivas do poder público municipal dirigida para o desenvolvimento cultural local. Esses discursos estão expressos antes e durante o tempo de gestão e são constituídos em formas de leis que normatiza e delimita a ação no campo da cultura, nos Planos Plurianuais (PPAS) e que vão aos poucos tomando forma de modo que são empiricamente notados pelos atores socioculturais que direta ou indiretamente se envolvem em programas ou projetos culturais. Buscamos compreender que os grupos políticos das sucessivas gestões têm do campo da cultura, no momento em que respondem institucionalmente na formulação e implementação dessas políticas de cultura, o nosso objeto de pesquisa. Neste sentido o estudo aborda também o momento de criação do primeiro órgão oficial de gestão da cultura em fins da década de 1970, a Fundação Municipal "Mário de Andrade". O período pós-redemocratização do país toma como ponto de partida as gestões públicas de 1993-1996; 2001-2004 e de 2005-2016, com a institucionalização do Programa de Incentivo a Arte e a Cultura. Em termos teórico-metodológicos, pautou-se em referenciais dos conceitos - cultura e políticas culturais, revisão de bibliografia, análise documental, sendo complementada por entrevistas semiestruturas com ex-gestores e os agentes culturais. / Abstract: This dissertation analyzes cultural policies in the municipality of Franca, in the interior of the State of São Paulo, with emphasis on the discursive measures and practices of municipal public power directed to local cultural development. These discourses are expressed before and during the time of management and are constituted in forms of laws that regulate and delimit the action in the field of the culture, in Plans Plurianuais (PPAS) and that they are gradually taking shape so that they are empirically noticed by the actors sociocultural societies that directly or indirectly engage in cultural programs or projects. We seek to understand that the political groups of the successive administrations have the field of culture, the moment they respond institutionally in the formulation and implementation of these culture policies, our object of research. In this sense the study also addresses the moment of creation of the first official organ of management of the culture in ends of the decade of 1970, the Municipal Foundation "Mário de Andrade". The post-re-democratization period of the country takes as its starting point the public administrations of 1993-1996; 2001-2004 and 2005-2016, with the institutionalization of the Program of Incentive to Art and Culture. In theoretical-methodological terms, it was based on concepts - culture and cultural policies, literature review, documentary analysis, and complemented by semi-structured interviews with former managers and cultural ... (Complete abstract click electronic access below) / Mestre

This study aims to explore teacher beliefs on accents in the classroom and how they affect classroom practices as well as the teachers views on the LFC approach. Furthermore, the study investigates whether there exists a possible disconnect between teachers and the Swedish National Agency for Education when it comes to deciding what approach to take when teaching English pronunciation. The study is based on semi-structured interviews with five Secondary school and Upper Secondary School English teachers in Sweden, whose work experience ranged from six months to 22 years. The study found that the teachers with more experience were more likely to prefer the inner circle English accents and use them as a benchmark for correctness. Phenomena like the native-speaker ideal, which means to idealize native speakers and view them as better speakers of English, can be linked to the teachers age and experience. Moreover, some teachers expressed feeling pressure from students to sound native-like and felt disfavored as some schools showed a preference for hiring native speakers as English teachers. Thus, a haloeffect for teachers speaking with an inner-circle English accent was identified, which affects students’ and employers’ perception of non-native EFL-teachers. The study also found that while some of the teachers were familiar with the Lingua Franca Core model, none of them had taught it. The study concludes that there is a disconnect between the teachers and Skolverket’s steering documents, as most of the teachers felt that Skolverket does not explicitly call for pronunciation teaching and were unsure of the demands. Furthermore, this calls for clearer demands from Skolverket as well as re-formation programs for experienced teacher to change their beliefs on non-native accents.

[pt] Desde o início do século XX, os países da União Europeia tem sido o destino de milhares de crianças e adolescentes que chegam desacompanhados, isto é, sem a proteção de um adulto responsável por elas. Eles vêm prioritariamente da África e do Oriente Médio, através de três rotas principais, que levam à Espanha, através do Estreito de Gibraltar (Mediterrânea Ocidental), à Itália (Mediterrânea Oriental), e à Grécia e Bálcãs (Fronteira Ocidental). O principal objetivo do presente estudo é analisar as políticas públicas de acolhimento e proteção de menores migrantes que chegam desacompanhados à Espanha e à França e sua conformidade com os principais instrumentos internacionais e europeus de proteção às crianças e aos imigrantes. Também é analisado o papel da sociedade civil tanto no suporte ao acolhimento e integração de menores imigrantes desacompanhados, como na defesa seus direitos através de campanhas de advocacy. / [en] Since the beginning of the 20th century, European Union countries have been the destination of thousands of children and adolescents who arrive unaccompanied without the protection of an adult. They come primarily from Africa and the Middle East through three main routes, which lead to Spain, across the Straits of Gibraltar (Western Mediterranean), Italy (Eastern Mediterranean), and Greece and the Balkans (Western Border). This study aims to analyse public policies for the reception and protection of migrant minors who arrive unaccompanied in Spain and France and their compliance with international and European principles for protecting children and immigrants. The role of civil society in supporting unaccompanied minors reception and integration and defending their rights through advocacy campaigns is also explored.

English is used as a lingua franca to communicate when interlocutors' do not share a first language (DeBartolo, 2014). This is prominent in academia, where teachers and students in international exchange programs communicate daily in English as a lingua franca (ELF). Previous research suggests that ELF speakers in this context use discourse markers (DM) as a pragmatic strategy to support their output and maintain a comprehensible discourse. However, most previous studies only used small corpora for qualitative analysis. This thesis adds to preceding research by combining qualitative and quantitative analysis of new data from an ELF corpus previously not used from this perspective. The context of the study is ELF spoken between students and teachers during academic consultation hours and possible pragmatic strategies in their use of the DMs yeah, okay and so. The analysis shows frequent use of DMs for both groups, but, perhaps due to the speaker roles, they favour different ones. For example, teachers use the function to explain and elaborate fourfold to students, this supports the nature of teacher exposition. Conversely, students' most frequently used functions indicate an active listener role, such as signalling receipt of messages. The results from this study indicate that, in an academic ELF context, teachers and students frequently use these DMs as pragmatic strategies to support their output and indicate attentiveness.

This thesis examines public relations (PR) communications that use English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) from leading Finnish companies. It analyses a corpus of 90 press releases from 15 export-active companies for linguistic usage, drawing on elements of linguistic theory. In addition, a limited narrative is based on personal interviews to determine typical procedures that are involved in PR content creation. It should have relevance to all who use ELF in a business context, but be of special interest to those involved with PR and marketing. It may also have some relevance to internal international business communications and linguistics.The study was motivated by three factors: how English is a dominant global language that is being used by companies in other countries as an intermediary language, prior research of how Finnish companies use PR and communications within their export activities, and extensive observation obtained whilst working as a journalist, dealing with companies from all around the world.It is believed that many companies may not be communicating efficiently and effectively when using ELF. Even when they do communicate and content may appear to be grammatically correct, its efficacy may be muted, inhibiting audience comprehension and other consequential actions. The research noted that certain linguistic elements were over-represented, which could potentially inhibit communication and comprehension. The resolution is not necessarily drastic and could only deliver wider benefits where implemented.Recommendations include closer attention is made concerning linguistic construction, broader additional research is conducted into the global phenomena and the possible creation of an operational framework to assist deployment of ELF-friendly textual communications, especially within the PR/marketing field.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-26T20:24:57Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 CLARISSA FERREIRA MACEDO D ISEP.pdf: 5141865 bytes, checksum: 08f7cca1dca3725e47fe0c1923bc3e44 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2006-11-27 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / Water is an element multiple functions, different manifestations and plural titles which, added up to its current state of penury, make it a scare resource, soon lacking economic value. The eminence of hydro-conflicts, due to the hydric penury, has caused the uprising of the universal right to water, which has echoed into the juridical nature of common patrimony of Mankind, reflecting its unitary character testified in the hydrologic cycle. This patrimonialization of water declared by the Law has revealed the embryonic manifestation of the juridical-economic value of water. Hydric pollution leads to the application of the pollutant-payer, a negative manifestation of the economic value of water, which has in the user-payer principle and in the principle of sustainable developement, determined its management in a sustainable, balanced, participative and integrated form. To make it possible it is necessary to have premises, values and instruments. The economic value is a fundament of the water policies both in France and in Brazil, being instrumented into the charge for water taxes. The hydro-juridical-economic relation of this charge is provided by juridical peculiarities which must be better put into effect by means of the Law. The application of charges requires the observation of the fundamental right to water and of the principles of the management of water in the price formation, which must be done faithfully. The economic methodology is put into the service of this formation which lends some of its instruments, in the aim of accomplishing the price composition, through the ethical and solidary cooperation of its users and the application of the principle of subsidiarity which has an important subject in the local community and the Judiciary Power to fiscalize and punish its disobedience, thus assuring the legality of the juridical application of the water charge taxes / A água é um elemento dotada de múltiplas funções, diferentes manifestações e de titularidades plurais que, somadas ao seu atual estado de penúria, a tornam um recurso escasso, logo provida de valor econômico. A eminência de hidroconflitos, em face da penúria hídrica, ocasionou o surgimento do direito universal à água, que ecoou na sua natureza jurídica de patrimônio comum, refletindo o seu caráter unitário, constatado no ciclo hidrológico. Essa patrimonialização da água, declarada por lei, revelou a manifestação embrionária do seu valor jurídico-econômico. A poluição hídrica leva à aplicação do princípio do poluidor-pagador, manifestação negativa do valor econômico da água, que tem, no princípio do usuário-pagador e no princípio do desenvolvimento sustentável, determinada a sua gestão de forma sustentável, equilibrada, participativa e integrada e, para tanto, apresentam-se premissas, valores, instrumentos e mecanismos. O valor econômico é fundamento da política das águas na França e no Brasil , instrumentalizada na cobrança da água. A relação hidrojurídico-econômica da cobrança é provida de peculiaridades jurídicas, que devem ser efetivadas melhor pelo direito. A aplicação da cobrança requer a observância do direito fundamental à água e dos princípios da gestão das águas na formação do preço. A metodologia econômica é colocada a serviço dessa formação, que empresta alguns de seus instrumentos no fito de concretizar a composição do preço, por meio da cooperação ética e solidária de seus usuários e da aplicação do princípio da subsidiariedade, que tem, na coletividade local, um importante sujeito, e do Poder Público para fiscalizar e punir o seu descumprimento, assegurando a legalidade da aplicação jurídica da cobrança da água

This paper was aimed at researching the use of English as a lingua franca (ELF) in a business context by the use of linguistic ethnography (LE). Previous research has been primarily either survey- or interview-based or strictly qualitative in its investigation. Using shadowing observations of three employees at a Swedish multinational company and subsequently interviewing the participants about their use of Business English as a lingua franca (BELF), the present study set out to investigate for what kinds of functions and how often these employees use English on an everyday basis. English was shown to be the default language of the multinational company and the findings suggest that employees’ use of language is not only determined by the nature of their work and the business setting, but also by their personal backgrounds. Their education, upbringing, and social experiences since moving to Sweden have come to shape their language use at work and in everyday life. Moreover, there could be subsequent implications for them not only in work-related functions and activities at the company but also in their integration and immersion in Swedish society. Using LE to investigate language choice and use in a corporate setting allows for a more nuanced collection of data, providing a context to linguistic research.