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This study is conducted to compare the effect of practicing a multilingual approach to a monolingual approach in teaching the English article system for students with multilingual backgrounds. Through a structured experiment in light of sociolinguistic and second language acquisition theories, two different discourses (complexes of signs and practices that organize social existence and social reproduction) structuring different legitimate languages are implemented in each respective approach. In the multilingual approach, all languages in the participants’ language repertoire are legitimized and encouraged, while only Standard English is legitimized in the monolingual approach. Three groups of informants participated in the experiment. Two groups of young informants with low English proficiency, and one group of adult informants with intermediate English proficiency participated in the experiment. The majority of the participants have more than two languages in their language repertoires. The multilingual approach was adopted in one of the young groups and the adult group. The study shows that all informants improved in their use of the English article system, regardless of the different approaches. The informants with lower English proficiency level and with a strongest [-ART] language (language with no articles) improved 40.9% in the multilingual approach, which is almost twice as much as the improvement in the monolingual approach. However, the young informants in both groups tend to be confused about the use of the indefinite article a/an after the exercise. The improvements tend to remain in a longer period of time with the multilingual approach in both the adult group and the young group. In addition, the participants tend to show higher rates of concentration, positive emotional feelings and engagement during and after the multilingual approach. The results suggest that it is beneficial to deploy the multilingual approach, through intentional structuring of the legitimized languages in classroom.

Despite the theoretical and practical ramifications arising from sociolinguistic studies in Brazil, the 90s brought the resurgence of a set of reflections on language which, expressed in newspaper columns, school grammars, books “no more mistakes" and writing manuals of major newspapers and public administration bodies, spreads the belief that there is only a "right" way to use language and that is the only acceptable way: the standard norm. All others are "wrong", and should be avoided. In this line of thought, in the state of Sergipe stands the book "Do not bite the Portuguese language", authored by Professor Wilma Ramos, described in its 10th edition as a reference guide for everyday difficulties of the Portuguese language, which brings advice on how to use the language in the light of the grammar of standard variant.This research aims to analyze prescriptions contained in the book “Do not bite the Portuguese language”, which disregard lessons contained in the normative instruments reference of Portuguese and disqualify the several varieties non-standard, as its speakers;discuss lessons that reject typical linguistic phenomena of Brazilian Portuguese, not welcomed by normative instruments reference of the Portuguese language, but widely disseminated in speech or writing from educated urban speakers, and, moreover, to assert the principles underlying the work “Do not bite the Portuguese language”, its contribution to the process of social representation of language and its implications for the process of teaching and learning Portuguese.The theoretical framework will focus in the postulates of sociolinguistics, whose studies have evidenced that natural languages are characterized by the phenomenon of variation and change and that the cultured varieties coexist with the informal varieties in a complex process of interactions, making room for the recognition of the legitimacy of difference, which are a result of the recent publication of the first grammars aimed for variety of Portuguese spoken in Brazil. Based on the norm concept in Coseriu, they seek to clarify the use of the terms "cultured norms", "standard norm", "grammatical norm", "pedagogical norm", "popular norm", characterizing Brazilian linguistic reality as essentially tripartite, formed by a standard norm, a set of prestigious norms and a large range of popular standards. It will set-up the concept of short standard, based on Faraco, to show their materialization in the work under review. It will also discuss the concept of legitimate language, as Bourdieu, aiming to outline the large-scale social factors involved in the construction processof the standard norm,in order to correlate linguistic issues properly with its institutional interface.The process of building the legitimate language, coupled with the sociolinguistic conception of the variation phenomenon, will provide the basis to place the institutional role of the work from Professor Wilma Ramos and discuss their implications for the Portuguese language teaching-learning process. The reference normative instruments of Portuguese language were chosen from grammars and dictionaries in vogue in the second half of the twentieth century, whose authors are or were consecrated philologists. Regarding the dictionaries, works ratified by the National Textbook Program will also be used – Dictionaries. / A despeito dos desdobramentos teóricos e práticos decorrentes dos estudos sociolinguísticos no Brasil, os anos 90 trouxeram o recrudescimento de um conjunto de reflexões sobre a língua que, manifestadas em colunas jornalísticas, gramáticas escolares, livros de “não erre mais” e manuais de redação de grandes jornais e órgãos da Administração Pública, difunde a crença de que só existe uma maneira “certa” de usar a língua e que essa é a única maneira aceitável: a norma-padrão. Todas as outras são “erradas” e devem ser evitadas. Nessa linha de reflexão, no Estado de Sergipe sobressai a obra Não morda a língua portuguesa, de autoria da professora Wilma Ramos, descrita em sua 10ª edição como um manual de consulta para dificuldades corriqueiras da língua portuguesa, que traz conselhos de como usar o idioma à luz da gramática da variante padrão. Esta pesquisa tem por objetivo analisar prescrições contidas na obra Não morda a língua portuguesaque desconsideram lições constantes nos instrumentos normativos de referência da língua e desqualificam as variedades diversas da norma-padrão, assim como seus falantes; discutir lições que rejeitam fenômenos linguísticos típicos do português brasileiro, não acolhidos pelos instrumentos normativos de referência da língua portuguesa, mas amplamente disseminados na fala ou escrita de falantes urbanos escolarizados, além de perquirir os princípios subjacentes à obra Não morda a língua portuguesa, sua contribuição ao processo de representação social da língua e suas implicações para o processo de ensino-aprendizagem da língua portuguesa. O referencial teórico centrarse- á em postulados da Sociolinguística, cujos estudos têm evidenciado que as línguas naturais são caracterizadas pelo fenômeno da variação e mudança e que as variedades cultas convivem com as variedades informais em um complexo processo de interações, abrindo espaço para o reconhecimento da legitimidade da diferença, de que são resultado as recentes publicações das primeiras gramáticas voltadas para a variedade do português falado no Brasil. Com fundamento no conceito de norma em Coseriu, busca-se precisar o emprego dos termos “norma culta”, “norma-padrão”, “norma gramatical”, “norma pedagógica”, “norma popular”, caracterizando a realidade linguística brasileira como essencialmente tripartite, formada por uma norma-padrão, um conjunto de normas prestigiadas e uma gama de normas populares. Definiu-se o conceito de norma curta, com base em Faraco, para mostrar a sua materialização na obra em análise. Discutir-se-á também o conceito de língua legítima, conforme Bourdieu, objetivando delinear os fatores sociais de larga escala envolvidos no processo de construção da norma-padrão, de modo a correlacionar questões linguísticas com sua interface propriamente institucional. O processo de construção da língua legítima, conjugado com a concepção sociolinguística acerca do fenômeno da variação, fornecerá as bases parasituar o papel institucional da obra da professora Wilma Ramos e discutir as suas implicações para o processo de ensino-aprendizagem da língua portuguesa. Os instrumentos normativos de referência da língua portuguesa foram escolhidos entre gramáticas e dicionários em voga na segunda metade do século XX, cujos autores são ou foram filólogos consagrados. No tocante aos dicionários, também foram utilizadas obras referendadas pelo Programa Nacional do Livro Didático – Dicionários.

This study explores the manner in which Anne Michaels uses figurative language, particularly metaphor, in her poetry and prose. In her first novel, Fugitive Pieces, and in certain of her poems, Michaels demonstrates the powers of language to destroy and to recuperate. For her, metaphor is not simply a literary device; it is an essential mechanism in the creation of an authentic story or poem. Moreover, in contrast to other figurative language such as euphemism, which she feels can be used to conceal the truth and make moral that which is immoral, metaphor in her view can be used to gain access to the truth and is therefore moral. Thus, as this study demonstrates, Michaels proposes as well as utilises the moral power of language. The ideas of four language theorists provide the basis of this study, and prove highly useful in application to Michaels’s work. With the aid of Certeau and Bourdieu, we examine Michaels’s participation in and literary presentation of the relationship of domination and subordination in which people seem to interact and which takes place partly through language. In the light of Ricoeur’s explication of the precise functions of metaphor, we discuss Fugitive Pieces as a novel whose engagement with the topic of the Holocaust in intensely emotive and figurative language makes it controversial in terms of what may or may not constitute the appropriate manner of Holocaust literary representation. Klemperer’s meticulous, first-hand study of the Nazis’ use of the German language during the period of the Third Reich proves illuminating in our exploration of the works of Michaels that feature themes of oppression and dispossession. In certain of her poems, Michaels stands in for real people and speaks in their voices. This is also a form of metaphor, this study suggests, as for the duration of each poem Michaels requires us to imagine that she is the real-life person who expresses him- or herself in the first person singular, which she patently is not. We could see this as appropriation and misrepresentation of those people’s lives and thoughts; however, with the aid of the notion of empathic identification we learn that Michaels’s approach is always empathic – she imaginatively places herself in various situations and people’s positions without ever losing her sense of individuality and separate identity, and her portrayal of their stories is always respectful and carefully considered. / Thesis (DLitt)--University of Pretoria, 2011. / English / unrestricted