published_or_final_version / Linguistics / Master / Master of Arts in Applied Linguistics

Thesis (DAppLing)--Macquarie University, Faculty of Human Sciences, Dept. of Linguistics, 2009. / Bibliography: p. 208-233. / Introduction -- Conceptual frameworks: language competence and the acquisition of modality -- Generic frameworks: speech, writing and electronic communication -- Linguistic frameworks: modality and related concepts -- Research design and methodologies -- FTDs in the ACAD and BB corpora -- Learner's use of FTDs in discoursal context and their individual repertoires -- Conclusions and implications. / While natural interaction is one of the important components that lead to successful language learning (Vygotsky 1978, 1986), communication in classroom practice in Thailand is mostly teacher-centered and not genuinely interactive. Online group communication is different because it allows learners to exercise interpersonal communicative skills through interaction and meaning negotiation, as in reciprocal speech situations. At the same time it gives learners time to think and produce language without having to face the kind of pressure they feel in face-to-face classroom discussion. The language learner's competence is thus likely to be enhanced by opportunities to communicate online, and to be more visible there than in academic contexts, although there is a dearth of experimental research to show this. One way of investigating the pedagogical potential of bulletin board discussions is to focus on the interpersonal linguistic devices used in textual interactions (Biber 1988). -- The purpose of this research is to find out whether students communicating online in bulletin board writing will exercise their repertoires of linguistic fine-tuning devices (hedges, modals, and intensifiers) more extensively than when writing academic essays. This was expected because hedges, modals and intensifiers are likely to be found in interactive discussions (Holmes 1983), while academic tasks do not create such an environment. Though hedges and modal devices are also found in academic genres (Salager-Meyer 1994, Hyland 1998), those used tend to be academic in function rather than communicative. -- In order to compare the frequency and variety of the fine-tuning devices used by learners in the two mediums, data was gathered from 39 Thai students of English at Kasetsart University, from (1) their discussions in online bulletin boards and (2) their academic essays. Tasks were assigned on parallel topics in three text types (narrative, explanatory, argumentative) for both mediums. The amount of writing was normalized to create comparable text lengths. Measures used in the quantitative analysis included tallying of the types and tokens of the experimental linguistic items, with the help of the AntConc 2007 computer concordancer. Samples of written texts from the two mediums were also analyzed qualitatively and compared in terms of their discourse structure (stages, moves and speech acts), to see which functional segments support or prompt particular types of pragmatic devices. -- The findings confirm that in electronic bulletin boards the students exercise their repertoires of fine-tuning devices more frequently, and use a greater variety of pragmatic functions than in academic essays. This is probably because online discussion fosters interactions that are more typical of speech (Crystal 2006), and its structure allows for a series of interpersonal moves which have no place in academic tasks. Text-type also emerged as a significant factor: writing argumentative texts prompted greater use of modals and intensifiers than the narrative and explanatory ones. Thus students' communicative competence showed itself most fully in the argumentative online assignments, and was not so evident in academic and expository essays. Frequent use of modal and intensifying elements was also found to correlate with the students' English proficiency grades, and how regularly they wrote online. This incidentally shows the importance of exposure to L2 in language acquisition, and that lower-proficiency learners need more opportunities to exercise their L2 resources in interactive discourse, in order to develop competence in using them. -- These research findings support Long's (1996) 'Interaction Hypothesis', that learners learn best in situations that cater for interaction; and Swain's (1985) 'Output Hypothesis', that learners need the chance to exercise their language naturally in a variety of contexts -through academic tasks as well as social interactions, which are equally important for language education. Extended performance opportunities undoubtedly feed back into the learner's communicative competence. / Mode of access: World Wide Web. / xi, 389 p. ill

Thesis (DAppLing)--Macquarie University, Division of Linguistics and Psychology, Department of Linguistics, 2008. / Bibliography: p. 404-418. / Introduction -- Literature review -- Methodology -- Results -- Discussion -- Conclusion. / This study sets out to examine the pragmatic competence of Cantonese adult learners of English possessing different levels of proficiency when performing the speech act of requesting for a formal purpose in writing. Pragmatic judgment - one of the two aspects of pragmatic competence - was examined by studying the most proficient group (i.e., native Cantonese-speaking EFL teachers at university), whereas pragmatic performance - the other aspect of pragmatic competence - was examined by studying the two weaker groups (i.e., university students at two language proficient levels). Both pragmatic judgment and pragmatic performance were examined by investigating the same four dependent variables (i.e., politeness, directness, formality and amount of information). Teacher data, collected through a Pragmatic Judgment Questionnaire completed and returned by sixteen EFL teachers (eight native Cantonese speakers and eight native English speakers) and by means of individual interviews, were analyzed quantitatively for responses to twelve questions and qualitatively for responses to an additional two questions. Student data, consisting of both experimental and authentic letters and e-mails, were analyzed quantitatively. -- Main research findings suggest: *It is possible for very proficient NNSs of English, (i.e., the EFL teachers in this study), to achieve native-like pragmatic judgments in most aspects, except for their views on several pragmatic considerations (i.e., "unnaturally polite" expressions, usefulness of "negative" words, supportive moves not to be used and writing plans preferred). *As the English proficiency of L2 learners improves from Grade E to Grade A/B (as determined by the Hong Kong A-level Examinations in the subject "Use of English"), their pragmatic performance shows improvement. -- For pedagogical reasons, a qualitative analysis was conducted for Questions 1 and 2 in order to generate examples of "unnaturally polite"/ "polite" / "impolite" expressions and to provide examples of inappropriate supportive moves in relation to three writing topics. / Mode of access: World Wide Web. / xvii, 576 p

Orientador: Maria José Rodrigues Faria Coracini / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Estudos da Linguagem / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-17T05:49:07Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Jalabert_AdelineMarie_M.pdf: 693645 bytes, checksum: 2bfca3c4ab3f575b1f3c54f1c26de6ac (MD5) Previous issue date: 2010 / Resumo: No romance Zazie dans le métro (1959), Raymond Queneau explora a linguagem coloquial, valendo-se da língua que chamou de neo-francês. O autor faz um verdadeiro "exercício de estilo" oral popular, em que mistura registros e faz paródias, imprimindo ao romance, além de um ritmo rápido, redundâncias, ortografia fonética, ausência de concordâncias gramaticais, arcaísmos etc. em franca oposição aos preconceitos em relação à língua oral. O oulipiano questiona a língua, provocando o leitor e obrigando-o a se distanciar da linguagem a que está habituado. Este trabalho propõe uma reflexão sobre a violência observada tanto no texto dito 'original' de Queneau, quanto na tradução e, em particular, na passagem do neo-francês à língua portuguesa do Brasil. Se a própria escrita de Zazie na língua original (o neo-francês) já é um exercício, da tradução espera-se um trabalho que podemos chamar de "trabalho dobrado". Para tanto, admite-se a violência na tradução, o que permite levantar várias questões relativas à língua, à cultura, à identidade, à dicotomia entre língua oral e língua escrita, entre obra original e obra traduzida, além de questionar os limites e as proibições, a criação literária, o trabalho do tradutor, as normas acadêmicas, o desafio da escrita e favorece a divulgação de obras literárias importantes / Abstract: In the novel Zazie dans le métro (1959), Raymond Queneau explores colloquial language, making use of what he called neo-French. The author makes a real popular and oral "exercise in style", mixing registers and parodies, making the novel fast paced and using redundancy, phonetic spelling, grammatically incorrect expressions, archaisms etc. in clear opposition to the prejudices about oral language. The oulipian questions language and culture provoking the reader and forcing him to distance himself from the language he is accustomed to. This work proposes a reflection on violence observed both in Queneau's 'original' text and in its translations, particularly between neo-French and Brazilian Portuguese. If the actual writing of Zazie in the original language (neo-French) was already an exercise, in translation, a kind of "double work" is expected. Admitting violence in translation allows us to raise several issues relating to language, culture, identity, the dichotomy between oral and written language, and between original work and translated work, to limits and prohibitions, literary creation, the work of the translator, academic standards, the challenge of writing and dissemination of important literary works / Mestrado / Teoria, Pratica e Ensino da Tradução / Mestre em Linguística Aplicada

The majority of learners in South Africa are not native speakers of English, yet English is the dominant language of learning and teaching (LoLT). South African teachers, therefore, have the challenge of ensuring that their learners' literacy skills in English are adequately developed so as to facilitate learning in other curricular areas. This study investigated the way in which two Grade 5 teachers employed at different primary schools in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa taught writing to their English first additional language (EFAL) learners. English is the LoLT at both schools. A qualitative interpretive approach was used to identify factors that shape the ways these teachers handle the teaching of writing. The theoretical framework was informed by Borg's model of teacher cognition (2003) Shulman's conception of teacher knowledge (1987). Data collection methods consisted of interviews, classroom observations and document analysis. In-depth interviews, comprising two semi-structured interviews, two post-lesson informal conversational interviews and one stimulated recall interview were conducted with each teacher. Five of each teacher's writing lessons were observed and audio and video recorded. Samples of learners' written work were also collected. Analysis of the data reveals that the two teachers' beliefs, their experiences as learners themselves and subsequently as teachers, impacted on their pedagogy, as did other contextual factors (including the support they received from subject advisors, time management, and the number and range of learners in their classrooms). It was found that both teachers focused primarily on ensuring that their learners completed their written work so that it could be marked and graded in response to demands from their superiors, rather than on engaging deeply with the processes of writing (brainstorming, drafting, revising etc). Not only does this run counter to the writing pedagogy recommended in the Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statements (CAPS), but it also denies learners the scaffolding needed to help them develop the self-regulation skills needed to become independent writers. These findings demonstrate the need for assisting teachers to shift away from focusing only on learners' performance (testing and grading) towards a stronger emphasis on the process of writing. This would require that teachers develop a deeper understanding of the process/genre approaches to teaching writing advocated by CAPS.

Made available in DSpace on 2017-06-01T18:24:26Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 dissertacao_frederico.pdf: 7046462 bytes, checksum: d1d831b32a610d72736df5c14e4f2137 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2008-05-13 / Most EFL students fail to elaborate an objective discourse and express themselves in a cohesive, clear and understandable way. We assume that part of the problem resides in their difficulty to use linking words to join simple and complex sentences. For this reason, we analyzed the role of conjunctions in written texts and how the EFL books deal with them. This research has been done with the participation of 27 EFL students who study at three different private English schools in the state of Pernambuco. As a result of this work, we conclude that there is a sort of limitation on the use of the conjunctions (linking words) in written texts produced by Brazilian EFL students. As a result of this research, we conclude that the use of conjunctions by the EFL students at these three schools is limited to: and but so because . This research work has been based on Text Linguistics, as well as the chart of conjunctions by Halliday and Hasan (1982). It s hoped that this work may call teacher and researchers´ attention to the importance of the cohesive ties in the teaching and learning of the English language / Um problema comum a muitos alunos de inglês como língua estrangeira EFL (English as Foreign Language) é a dificuldade em elaborar um discurso objetivo ou se expressar de uma forma coesa, clara e compreensiva. Acreditamos que parte do problema reside na dificuldade em empregar elementos de ligação que estabeleçam a coesão seqüencial entre sentenças e orações. Por essa razão, analisamos tanto o papel das conjunções nas produções escritas dos aprendizes como também o tratamento dado à coesão intersentencial e intrasentencial nos livros didáticos de EFL em três escolas de idiomas do estado de Pernambuco. Através da análise dos dados coletados nesta pesquisa (27 aprendizes), conclui-se que há uma limitação em relação ao uso das conjunções em produções escritas dos aprendizes de inglês como língua estrangeira, tomando como base a Lingüística Textual e a tabela das conjunções de Halliday e Hasan (1982). Observou-se que a produção escrita dos aprendizes soa, na maioria das vezes, desordenada, repetitiva e desconexa, limitando-se ao uso das conjunções and, but, so e because. Espera-se, com os resultados aqui obtidos, chamar a atenção de professores de inglês, pesquisadores e autores de livros didáticos (EFL) para a importância dos conectivos no processo de ensino-aprendizagem da língua Inglesa em sala de aula

Thesis (Masters. English) - University of Zululand, 2006. / The post 1994 era in South Africa has been characterized by rampant change. During this age of transition, almost every aspect of social life has seen new institutions and structures being put in place to redress the injustices and imbalances of the apartheid system. Education has not been an exception. The English Second Language (ESL) syllabus was changed in 1996 and replaced by the 'Interim Core Syllabus'. Since 1996, this interim syllabus has been in effect until 2006 in Grades 11 and 12. Practically, the Education Department of South Africa has relied on the ESL syllabus which was meant to be a temporary measure for eleven years. In the classes lower than Grades 11 and 12, Curriculum 2005 was put in place and was subsequently replaced by the Revised National Curriculum Statement. Again, the Revised National Curriculum Statement was replaced by the National Curriculum Statement. In short, until 2006 high schools, that is, Further Education and Training band, have relied on the interim syllabus and Grade 12 will continue doing so up to 2007. Prompted by the fact that the ESL syllabus had been interim for quite some time and the learners' performance was not satisfactory, the researcher engaged in this study. In 1999 and 2000, learners' performance in ESL in the Empangeni Region was not of the required standard. Eshowe district, which is the focus of this study, was no exception. Learners' poor performance in ESL during these years meant that the aims and objectives of the ESL Interim Core Syllabus for Standard 8,9 and 10 that was used by schools were not entirely realized. This research aimed at finding factors that were responsible for learners' not performing up to the required standard during the years referred to above and possibly in subsequent years. The point of departure for this study was syllabus design - specifically the Interim Core Syllabus of 1996. Admittedly, there may have been other factors that are social, political, affective, etc in nature. However, this study was concerned with factors more directly linked to the education system since syllabi used in schools to facilitate learner assessment are an education factor.

The thesis analyses lexical complexity in the written production of L2 proficient learners of English (the highest C2 level). Additionally, it compares L2 lexical complexity with L1 lexical complexity of English native speakers. This lexical complexity is investigated in two key parameters: lexical diversity and lexical sophistication. A quantitative analysis is made by the means of single indicators and is followed by an analysis where composite indicators VOCD-D and MTLD are employed to measure lexical diversity. Lexical sophistication is explored through the English Vocabulary Profile tool (EVP), which categorises words in a text according to predefined frequency word lists (A1-C2 types). The main hypothesis presumed that the lexical complexity of L2 English speakers is inferior to L1 English speakers, despite the fact that their L2 English language competence is at the highest level possible (C2 level), often compared to "native-speaker competence". It was expected that the results in respective groups (L2 and L1 speakers) would be similar. Another working hypothesis is that low- frequency words at the C2 level will be smaller for L2 English speakers than that for L1 English speakers. The data comprises 20 comparable texts of L2 proficient English speakers in the dimension of their length (the...

While translation can be studied with a view to throwing light on a number of aspects in life, in this thesis translation has been researched with a view to outlining the development of written Zulu from its earliest stages, using twelve texts of the Book of Matthew. The Book of Matthew has been chosen in this undertaking because it was the first book of the Bible to be translated into Zulu and was thought to be the most apposite instrument with which the development of written Zulu could be measured. The polysystem theory and the descriptive approach to translation studies are the theoretical models that inform the arguments presented in this study. Polysystem theory sees translated literature as a system operating in the larger social, literary and historical systems of the target culture, while with the descriptive approach translations are regarded as facts of the target culture. Against this premise the focus of this study is mainly on the twelve translations of the Book of Matthew and no comparisons between source and target texts are undertaken here. Corpus-based research provided tools such as WordSmith Tools 3.0 for linguistic analysis. Biblical texts were obtained, scanned and presented in electronic format ready to be analysed. From the findings drawn, written Zulu developed all the way through Bible translation, with some translations revealing slight developments and others showing enormous ones. As the findings of this study reveal, Zulu developed gradually, as evidenced by the change to conjunctive writing which occurred over a considerable period, along with the appropriate representation of Zulu speech sounds and grammar conventions. It could also be established at what point during the development of the language, processes such as consonantalisation and palatalisation were introduced into the written language. It is also clear that words of Greek and Hebrew origin were brought into the Zulu language through Bible translation. Furthermore, this study demonstrates that it is feasible to use corpus-based research for analysis in the indigenous languages of South Africa. / Linguistics / D. Litt. et Phil. (Linguistics)

La tesi fornisce uno studio empirico relativo agli elementi linguistici caratterizzanti il parlato faccia-a-faccia e il parlato filmico americano, due domini conversazionali solitamente detti differire in termini di spontaneità, essendo il primo generalmente descritto come la quintessenza del linguaggio parlato (in quanto totalmente spontaneo) e il secondo come non-spontaneo (essendo scritto-per-essere-parlato) e, quindi, non adatto a rappresentare l'uso generale della conversazione. Entrambe le analisi (i.e. quella multi-dimensionale, che offre una panoramica generale dei due domini presi in considerazione, e quella più specifica relativa al comportamento linguistico dell’espressione you know) basate su esempi autentici tratti da corpora dimostrano che, nonostante quanto venga generalmente descritto dalla letteratura a riguardo, conversazione faccia-a-faccia e conversazione filmica hanno molti tratti in comune e confutano l’idea che il linguaggio filmico non possa essere rappresentativo dell'uso generale della conversazione. / The present dissertation examines empirically the linguistic features characterizing American face-to-face and movie conversation, two domains which are usually claimed to differ especially in terms of spontaneity. Natural conversation is, indeed, considered the quintessence of the spoken language for it is totally spontaneous, whereas movie conversation is usually described as non-spontaneous, being artificially written-to-be spoken and, thus, not likely to represent the general usage of conversation. In spite of what is generally maintained by the literature, both the Multi-Dimensional analysis and the micro-analysis of the functions of you know based on authentic data retrieved from corpora show that the two conversational domains do not differ to a great extent and thus confutes the claim that movie language has “a very limited value” in that it does not reflect natural conversation and, consequently, is “not likely to be representative of the general usage of conversation”.