Research has shown that theory of mind tends to develop in typically-developing children at about the age of 4 years. However, language appears to play a great role in this, particularly as deaf children, particularly those born to hearing parents, display extreme delays in theory of mind development, while bilinguals have been found to develop at a somewhat faster rate than monolinguals. Additionally, effects of culture on theory of mind development remain somewhat unclear, as there have been mixed results in past research. Theory of mind has also been correlated with metalinguistic ability and executive functioning skills, leading to multiple hypotheses regarding what drives theory of mind development. The aim of this doctoral thesis was to examine the relationships between theory of mind, metalinguistic awareness, and executive functioning, as well as to evaluate how language and culture play a role in these relationships. Four studies were conducted in an attempt to seek answers to six research questions surrounding this aim. Study1 evaluated theory of mind, metalinguistic awareness, and executive functioning among hearing nursery children in Central Scotland. Study 2 was aimed at evaluating these same skills among deaf children in the U.S. and U.K., as well as developing a scaling of theory of mind abilities among deaf children. Study 3 assessed these skills among deaf Ghanaian children, as well as evaluating theory of mind abilities among a group of hearing Ghanaian children. Finally, Study 4 compared monolingual and bilingual children on theory of mind, metalinguistic awareness, and executive functioning. Results show that there is a strong link between theory of mind and metalinguistic awareness among hearing children that is not explained by executive functioning skills. This relationship was not apparent among deaf children, who struggle more with theory of mind than metalinguistic awareness. The deaf children in Ghana were delayed compared to their Western peers; hearing Ghanaian children were delayed compared to their Western peers as well, but only slightly. Bilingual children and monolingual children performed similarly on false belief and set-shifting tasks; however, monolingual children outperformed bilinguals on metalinguistic awareness and inhibition tasks, possibly due to low verbal mental age among the monolinguals. Results of the four studies suggest that language does play a part in the relationship between theory of mind and metalinguistic awareness. Due to limited data, cultural effects remain unclear. It is proposed that deaf children’s struggle with theory of mind stems from their difficulty with abstract concepts.

A metacognição diz respeito ao conhecimento que se adquire sobre o próprio pensamento e à possibilidade de utilizar esse conhecimento, monitorando, o próprio indivíduo, o seu desempenho, favorecendo, dessa forma, o alcance de melhores resultados na realização de diversas tarefas. As habilidades metalinguísticas podem ser entendidas como um aspecto da metacognição; nesse caso, o aprendiz desenvolve conhecimentos que lhe permitem realizar um controle consciente e intencional sobre diferentes aspectos da linguagem, contribuindo para a aprendizagem da leitura e escrita. Dentre essas habilidades, destaca-se a consciência textual, também denominada habilidade (s) metatextual (is), na qual a unidade de análise e reflexão é o texto, o foco está em sua estrutura, partes constituintes, convenções e marcadores, sendo o objeto da presente pesquisa. Dessa forma, o objetivo geral deste estudo foi verificar a eficácia de sessões de intervenção visando ao desenvolvimento da habilidade metatextual sobre a escrita de histórias em duas situações de produção textual: livre e reprodução escrita. Objetivou-se também analisar os efeitos da intervenção sobre as habilidades metatextuais referentes ao conhecimento explícito da estrutura do texto narrativo, bem como verificar a estabilidade dos possíveis efeitos dessa intervenção ao longo do tempo. Participaram do estudo 97 alunos cursando o 4º e 5º ano do ensino fundamental de uma escola pública na cidade de Ribeirão Preto SP. Após todos os alunos realizarem o pré-teste, constituído por uma produção de texto sobre tema livre, uma produção de texto baseada na reprodução escrita de uma história ouvida (reescrita) e a aplicação de um questionário para avaliar o nível da habilidade metatextual, os mesmos foram divididos aleatoriamente em grupo controle (GC) e grupo experimental (GE). Enquanto o GE passou por quatro sessões com o intuito de desenvolver conhecimentos explícitos sobre a estrutura narrativa de histórias, o GC continuou em sala de aula, realizando suas atividades curriculares normais. Após a intervenção, foram aplicadas tarefas equivalentes ao pré-teste (pós-teste 1) nos dois grupos e, posteriormente o GC passou pela mesma intervenção do GE, realizando-se o segundo pós-teste. Nas análises das produções textuais, foram adotados níveis de pontuações, para avaliação da elaboração da estrutura narrativa. Os questionários foram pontuados em função do conhecimento explícito da estrutura narrativa de histórias. Os dados foram analisados quantitativamente, por meio da aplicação de testes estatísticos, análises descritivas e inferenciais. Os resultados indicaram um efeito favorável à intervenção referente às habilidades metatextuais, avaliadas pelo questionário, porém essa melhora não se refletiu de modo significativo nas produções de texto, sobretudo nas reescritas. Referente às produções livres, observou-se melhoras significativas apenas nos alunos do GC, após a intervenção postergada. Discutem-se possíveis razões que podem ter contribuído para minimizar os efeitos esperados com a intervenção, entre elas o pequeno número de sessões de intervenção e a diferença entre conhecimento e controle metacognitivo, no que se refere às habilidades metatextuais. / Metacognition refers to the knowledge acquired about one\'s own thinking and the possibility of using this knowledge, monitoring the individual yours own performance, thus favoring the achievement of better results in performing various tasks. Metalinguistic skills can be understood as an aspect of metacognition; in this case, the learner develops knowledge that allows him to perform a conscious and intentional control over different aspects of the language, contributing to the learning of reading and writing. These skills include textual awareness, also called metatextual ability (ies), in which the unit of analysis and reflection is the text, the focus is on its structure, constituent parts, conventions and markers, the object of this research. Thus, the general objective of this study was to verify the effectiveness of intervention sessions aiming at the development of metatextual ability on the writing of stories in two situations of textual production: free theme and written reproduction. Another objective of this study was to analyze the effects of the intervention on the metatextual abilities related to the explicit knowledge of the structure of the narrative text, as well as to verify the stability of the possible effects of this intervention over time. The sample was composed by 97 students enrolled in the 4th and 5th degree of an elementary public school in a public school in the city of Ribeirão Preto - SP. After all the students perform the pretest, consisting of a text production on a free theme, a text production based on the written reproduction of a heard story (rewritten) and the application of a questionnaire to evaluate the level of metatextual ability, the same ones were randomly separated into control (CG) and experimental (GE) groups. While the GE took part in four sessions with the purpose of developing explicit knowledge about the narrative structure of stories, the GC continued in the classroom, performing its normal curricular activities. After the intervention, tasks equivalent to the pretest (post-test 1) were applied in both groups and, afterwards, the GC underwent the same intervention of the GE, and the second post-test was performed. The analyzes of the textual productions was made adopting, levels of scores to evaluate the elaboration of the narrative structure of the texts. The questionnaires were punctuated by the explicit knowledge of the narrative structure of stories. The data were analyzed quantitatively, through the application of statistical tests, descriptive and inferential analyzes. The results indicated a favorable effect to the intervention regarding the metatextual abilities, evaluated by the questionnaire, but this improvement was not reflected in a significant way in the text productions, especially in the rewriting. Regarding the free texts, significant improvements were observed only in the GC students, after the delayed intervention. Possible reasons are discussed that may have contributed to minimize the expected effects with the intervention, among them the small number of intervention sessions and the difference between knowledge and metacognitive control, as far as metatextual skills are concerned.

Esta pesquisa tem como objetivo principal investigar o desenvolvimento da consciência morfológica e o seu papel na ampliação do vocabulário, das habilidades de leitura e de escrita. Para contemplar este objetivo, foi realizado um programa de intervenção em consciência morfológica baseado na sensibilização em morfemas e em estratégias de formação de palavras. Participaram da pesquisa 44 alunos do 3º ano escolar de uma escola pública da cidade de São Paulo. Era esperado que a intervenção produzisse um efeito na habilidade dos alunos do grupo experimental na resolução das tarefas de consciência morfológica (tarefa de Produção de Neologismo, Analogia de Palavras, Derivação em Contexto), vocabulário (Tarefa de Definição), compreensão na leitura de texto (teste de Cloze), fluência de leitura (tarefa de LUMP) e escrita de palavras (tarefa de Ditado). Além disso, era esperado observar um fortalecimento da relação entre a consciência morfológica e as outras variáveis psicolinguísticas incluídas na pesquisa. Em termos de resultados, verificou-se a ampliação da consciência morfológica derivacional, no trato tanto de prefixos, quanto sufixos ao longo do tempo. Este desenvolvimento foi ainda mais expressivo nas crianças do grupo experimental, comparado ao controle. O impacto positivo e significativo do programa de intervenção em consciência morfológica ocorreu principalmente sobre as variáveis que mediam este conhecimento. Além disso foi investigado o papel da consciência morfológica para a ampliação das habilidades em vocabulário, leitura e escrita sendo atestado apenas para a primeira. Com isso, destaca-se especialmente o valor da intervenção em potencializar o desenvolvimento da consciência morfológica na reflexão e produção de palavras por crianças ao final do ciclo de alfabetização / This research aims to investigate the development of morphological awareness and its role in expanding vocabulary, reading and writing skills. In order to contemplate this objective, a morphological awareness intervention program based on sensitization in morphemes and word formation strategies was carried out. The study included 44 students from the 3rd year of a public school in the city of São Paulo. It was expected that the intervention would have an effect on the ability of students in the experimental group to solve tasks of morphological awareness (task of Neologism Production, Analogy of Words, Derivation in Context), vocabulary (Definition Task), reading comprehension (Cloze test), reading fluency (LUMP task) and word writing (dictation task). In addition, it was expected to observe a strengthening of the relationship between the morphological awareness and the other psycholinguistic variables included in the research. In terms of results, there was an increase in derivational morphological awareness, in the treatment of both prefixes and suffixes over time. This development was even more significant in the children of the experimental group compared to control. The positive and significant impact of the intervention program on morphological awareness occurred mainly on the variables that measure this knowledge. In addition, the role of morphological awareness for the expansion of vocabulary, reading and writing abilities was attested only to the former. Thus, the value of intervention in enhancing the development of morphological awareness in the reflection and production of words by children at the end of the literacy cycle is particularly noteworthy

A produção do texto escrito depende, além do domínio básico do código alfabético, de conhecimentos a respeito das normas ortográficas, bem como de conhecimentos relacionados à estrutura de diferentes gêneros textuais. Considerando a complexidade da aprendizagem da escrita, que envolve o desenvolvimento de habilidades metalinguísticas, e a permanência de dificuldades apresentadas por muitas crianças ao longo da escolaridade, esta pesquisa teve como objetivos principais investigar as relações entre conhecimento ortográfico e produção escrita de textos, além de analisar em que medida diferentes condições de produção afetam a qualidade dos textos escritos. Participaram do estudo 72 alunos do 5º ano do Ensino Fundamental de uma escola pública. A coleta de dados foi feita através da aplicação coletiva de um ditado de palavras para avaliação da competência ortográfica e três produções de texto: livre, a partir de sequência de figuras e reconto. Os dados foram analisados em função da natureza e frequência dos erros ortográficos, e da classificação das produções de texto em diferentes categorias. Análises estatísticas descritivas permitiram verificar que os alunos possuíam um domínio precário da ortografia, sendo os erros ortográficos mais frequentes aqueles envolvendo regularidades contextuais ou morfossintática, além de casos irregulares. As produções mais elaboradas estruturalmente foram aquelas realizadas a partir de suportes visuais (figuras) e orais (reconto). Análises inferenciais mostraram que há correlação positiva moderada entre escrever ortograficamente correto e produzir textos mais elaborados. Discute-se a importância de um ensino explícito das regras ortográficas, que envolva o desenvolvimento de habilidades metafonológicas e metamorfossintáticas, favorecendo o domínio da ortografia e colaborando para a liberação de recursos cognitivos a serem utilizados na produção de textos mais elaborados. Estes, por sua vez, podem beneficiar-se de intervenções educativas voltadas para o desenvolvimento de habilidades metatextuais, bem como da produção de textos apoiados em suportes que sugiram uma estrutura (narrativa) mais elaborada. / The production of written texts depends, beyond the basic understanding of alphabetic code, also of knowledge about the orthographic rules as well as knowledge about the structure of different textual genres. Considering the complexity of learning of writing, which involves the development of metalinguistic abilities such as phonological, morphosyntactic and metatextual awareness, and the permanence of writing difficulties experienced by many children throughout schooling, this research aimed to investigate the relationship between the orthographic knowledge and text productions skills and analyze how different conditions affect the quality of the written texts. Participants were 72 students in the 5th grade of an elementary public school. Data collection was done through a request to write words for assessing the competence of spelling and a request for write narrative texts in three situations: free theme, from a sequence of figures from a story previously read (retelling). Data were analyzed according to the nature and frequency of spelling errors and by the classification of written productions in different categories. Descriptive statistical analyzes showed that the students presented poor spelling achievement and that the most frequent misspellings involved contextual or morphosyntactic regularities and irregular spellings. The more elaborate written texts productions were those made from visual (figures) and oral (retelling) supports. Inferential analyzes showed that there was a positive and moderate correlation between spelling correctly and writing more elaborated texts. We discuss the importance of explicit teaching of spelling rules, which involves the development of metaphonologic and metamorphosyntactic abilities, favoring the performance of spelling and collaborating to release cognitive resources to be used in the production of more elaborated texts. These, in turn, can benefit from educational interventions aimed at development of metatextual abilities, as well by the request of written texts supported by models suggesting a (narrative) structure more elaborated.

This study seeks to: (1) determine if differences exist between children with Specific Language Impairment (SLI) compared to age-matched (AM) and language- matched (LM) children with typical language development (TL) in rates and proportions of five types of metalinguistic productions and (2) test theories of metalinguistic production. Forty-five children, 24 with TL and 21 with SLI, paired for age or language level, formed two groups. Previously collected data from two studies of verb learning (Proctor-Williams & Fey, 2007; Proctor- Williams, unpublished) were analyzed for rates and types of metalinguistic productions. Results yielded no within or between group significant differences in the rates types. There were differences in proportional use of types of metalinguistic utterances in the LM group. This study showed that children as young as 3;0 produce metalinguistic utterances. Further, it disproved the Piagetian-Based Metalinguistic Development Theory. Interesting trends suggest direction for future research.

The purpose of this classroom-based study was to create a variation of the Dictogloss that is successful in teaching target grammar within a meaningful context in beginning level secondary foreign language classrooms. Specifically, the study aimed to find out if there were differences in the amount of target grammar (demonstrative adjectives and the imperfect tense) noticed, learned and used by students in the three treatment groups: Treatment Group 1 completed a traditional Dictogloss with the last phase being a self-reflection activity, Group 2 was the same as Group 1, except the learners saw a written version of the text during the first reading in addition to hearing the text. Both the written text and a whole class discussion during the last stage of the Dictogloss were added to the lessons completed by Group 3. Differing from traditional DG studies that tend to examine Language Related Episodes, quantitative data was collected via pre, immediate post and delayed post-tests which consisted of multiple-choice and fill-in-the-blank questions. Although there were significant within-group differences for all three groups, indicating that the participants in all groups noticed and began learning the target grammar, there were no significant between-groups differences, suggesting that the addition of the written text and class discussion did not increase the amount of target grammar learned by the students. While the test scores showed that the participants’ knowledge of the TG did improve, the fact that many participants never scored above chance level shows that the Dictogloss is not an effective stand-alone activity for teaching TG. Qualitative data was also collected via student surveys and the written metatalk produced during self-reflection activities. The participants were asked what they liked, did not like and what they learned during the Dictogloss lesson. The data was analyzed using Content Analysis which revealed three themes: organization and administration of the Dictogloss based on the theoretical framework of the Dictogloss, issues regarding the texts and the Dictogloss and learning. The collaborating classroom teacher was interviewed two times in order to further analyze the effectiveness of using the variations of the Dictogloss with beginning Spanish FL learners. / text

Pre-service teachers have a large role to play in initiatives to raise children’s literacy achievement. There is growing concern about the disparity of reading abilities of children, particularly in New Zealand, prompting a greater need to examine the skills and knowledge of the adults who provide reading instruction to these children. Adults engaged in higher education are typically expected to possess strong and proficient literacy skills, yet research examining the literacy skills of the broader adult population reports adult literacy levels to be much lower than assumed. Well over a third of adults in countries including the United States of America and New Zealand do not possess basic literacy skills. There is a paucity of research identifying and addressing the literacy needs of the adult population. Further, there have been limited studies investigating the literacy abilities of adults with relatively higher levels of literacy skill (e.g., those in higher education). Such research is particularly pertinent in the education context due to the influence that teaching professionals have on future generations of readers. The research reported in this thesis investigated the reading comprehension and metalinguistic abilities of pre-service teachers, and conducted two interventions within this population. The first intervention focussed on improving the reading comprehension of individuals who presented with difficulties understanding written text relative to their peers. The second intervention provided explicit instruction in building students’ language structure knowledge within general coursework completed by a whole cohort of pre-service teachers. The findings from this thesis have implications for the provision of support for pre-service teachers with literacy needs in higher education, as well as for augmenting the skills of the broader pre-service teacher population to prepare them to deliver evidence-based reading instruction. The first study (presented in Chapter Four) assessed selected cognitive and literacy skills of a cohort of undergraduate pre-service teachers in their initial year of higher education. One-hundred and thirty-one students completed an assessment battery comprising tasks of spelling, reading comprehension, inferencing, working memory, and knowledge of language structure. Analysis of results demonstrated a wide range of abilities across each of the measures, reflecting the large variance in skill with which these individuals enter into higher education. Spelling, inferencing, and working memory were each found to make significant unique contributions to reading comprehension. Furthermore, the elements contributing towards reading comprehension were found to be highly interactive, thus demonstrating the complex interactive nature of the skills that contribute to the reading comprehension process in these individuals. In the second study (presented in Chapter Five) individuals with difficulties understanding written text were identified using the reading comprehension measure from the first study. Individuals who performed more than one standard deviation below the group mean were identified for inclusion in a reading comprehension intervention. Seventeen individuals met the criteria for inclusion in the intervention and consented to participate (referred to as the IN group). Two control groups were also identified to allow for comparisons to be made pre- and post-intervention. The first control group, referred to as the NT group (n = 6), comprised of six participants who qualified for the intervention but who opted not to participate. The second control group, referred to as the CN group (n = 83), comprised of the remaining students from the large cohort. Four different strategies designed to assist with reading comprehension were modelled and practiced with each participant in the IN group over four sessions. Each intervention session focussed on one strategy alone and the intervention was administered on an individual basis. Reading comprehension and summarising assessments were completed following every session to ascertain the effectiveness of each strategy. Results showed that the first strategy (text-to-speech) was detrimental to the participants’ reading comprehension scores, while a further strategy (highlighting and summarising) was beneficial for almost all participants. There was a significant gain in reading comprehension score by the IN group after completing the intervention. Neither the NT nor the CN group, however, made any improvement in reading comprehension over this time period. The results also demonstrated that the improvement made by the IN participants increased their mean reading comprehension score to within range of the CN group (i.e., their peers identified with typical ability at the outset of the study). A third study (presented in Chapter Six) examined the responsiveness of the intervention participants to the reading comprehension intervention at a subgroup and individual level. Four subgroups of participants were identified based on their underlying literacy profile at the outset of the intervention. The first group (n = 2) comprised individuals with poor spelling; the second (n = 4), individuals with poor listening comprehension; the third (n = 1), those with poor spelling and listening comprehension; and the fourth (n = 10), individuals who did not demonstrate poor spelling or listening comprehension. There were no differences in the responsiveness of these groups to the four different strategies. There was also no association between an individual’s literacy profile and their response to the various strategies. Furthermore, closer examination of four case studies (one from each of the four subgroups) did not demonstrate any clear relationship between the responsiveness to the four different reading comprehension strategies, and their literacy profile. Finally, the fourth study (presented in Chapter Seven) examined the responsiveness of the whole cohort (n = 121) to a teaching intervention targeting metalinguistic knowledge. Two subgroups were identified within the larger cohort based on participants’ word-level skill (determined by spelling ability): good spellers (n = 24), and poor spellers (n = 24). Two subgroups were also identified based on participants’ comprehension-level skills (determined by reading comprehension): individuals with difficulties understanding written text (n = 22), and individuals with typical reading comprehension (n = 99). The metalinguistic intervention was integrated into an existing literacy course and delivered over seven weeks. The intervention focussed on raising phoneme, morpheme, and orthotactic knowledge amongst the participants in a pre-test / post-test study design. The whole cohort demonstrated significant gains in knowledge in each of the constructs targeted, after just seven hours of teaching integrated into an existing course. Analysis of subgroups of participants demonstrated that individuals with stronger spelling skills responded more favourably to the intervention than their peers with weaker spelling skills. The between-groups differences identified in the subgroups determined by reading comprehension were not as significant as those of the spelling subgroups. Thus, the results suggest the need for differentiated teaching of metalinguistic constructs based on the underlying word-level skills of each individual to ensure that pre-service teachers acquire adequate language structure knowledge within their teacher preparation programme. The findings from this thesis refute the assumption that individuals who meet the criteria required to enter into higher education present with strong or adequate literacy skills. The pre-service teachers in the reported studies demonstrated a wide range of literacy ability. The results of this assessment identified spelling, inferencing, and working memory as significant predictors of reading comprehension. The appropriateness of the Simple View of Reading framework for this population was also investigated. Individuals who demonstrated lower reading comprehension showed significant increases in their reading comprehension scores when using a strategy that incorporated highlighting and summarising techniques. This strategy was highly effective across the whole intervention group, in spite of the vast differences in the literacy profiles of these individuals. Findings from a whole-cohort teaching intervention to raise metalinguistic knowledge provide support for the inclusion of differentiated, explicit teaching of these constructs within pre-service teaching programmes. The results reported in this thesis show that by providing targeted intervention to raise the reading comprehension and metalinguistic abilities of pre-service teachers, they become better equipped to provide effective reading instruction for children, and address the disparity in children’s literacy achievement.

This thesis provides a general descriptive account of the morpho-syntactic expression of negation in fifteen Modern Arabic varieties and investigates three of these varieties in more depth. The thesis contributes to the typological literature on negation through a survey of the negation patterns in a number of related and geographically close varieties. It sheds light on the most influential factors that unify the negation patterns found in these varieties, which are predicate type and form. It is found that the type of the predicate, such as verbal and nonverbal predicates, as well as the form of the verbal predicate, such as active participle as opposed to other verbal forms, play an essential role in determining the negation markers used. In addition, this thesis gives a comprehensive account of a number of negative elements in Libyan Arabic, namely the negative auxiliary, negative particle mʕəš, and miš as a metalinguistic marker, and establishes the morpho-syntactic properties and pragmatic functions of these elements. It concludes that the negative auxiliary is used for a specific pragmatic function, which is to deny assumed background information. It also finds that even though miš is not a negation marker exclusive for metalinguistic negation, it is a special metalinguistic marker that signals the metalinguistic reading of verbal sentences.

DOMINGOS, Francisca Liliane da Costa. Aprendizagem formal de fonologia e seus efeitos na pronúncia dos sons vocálicos do inglês de aprendizes brasileiros. 2012. 115f. – Dissertação (Mestrado) – Universidade Federal do Ceará, Departamento de Letras Vernáculas, Programa de Pós-graduação em Linguística, Fortaleza (CE), 2012. / Submitted by Márcia Araújo (marcia_m_bezerra@yahoo.com.br) on 2014-09-25T12:52:19Z No. of bitstreams: 1 2012_dis_flcdomingos.pdf: 1366301 bytes, checksum: 72dc8a4377ef83fd57c007e63ded24ac (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Márcia Araújo(marcia_m_bezerra@yahoo.com.br) on 2014-09-25T15:12:39Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 2012_dis_flcdomingos.pdf: 1366301 bytes, checksum: 72dc8a4377ef83fd57c007e63ded24ac (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2014-09-25T15:12:39Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 2012_dis_flcdomingos.pdf: 1366301 bytes, checksum: 72dc8a4377ef83fd57c007e63ded24ac (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012 / The purpose of this study was to investigate if, and how, the metalinguistic knowledge of the phonological system of the English language affects the level of accuracy of the production of English vowel sounds by prospective teachers of English and how this knowledge enables them to monitor their own pronunciation. Specifically, the study attempted to: identify the problems English learners have when pronouncing vowel phonemes in English; investigate the level of perception the prospective teachers of English have concerning their own difficulties and problems in producing vowel sounds; analyze if the prospective teachers of English begin to more precisely identify their own problems/difficulties in the production of the vowel phonemes once they gain metalinguistic knowledge about the phonological system of English while taking the course English Language Phonology; and, finally, analyze if, and how, the metalinguistic learning of the phonological system of English helps learners to monitor their pronunciation in both controlled activities in the course English Segmental Phonology (focussing on the production of sounds) and less controlled activities in courses which focus on communicating messages, especially after a time gap between the instructed learning and spontaneous communicative production. This study is theoretically supported by McLaughlin’s Model of Information Processing (1983), Fledge’s Model of Speech Acquisition (1995), Best’s Perceptual Assimilation Model (1995), Krashen’s Monitor Hypothesis (1972), and other works which attempt to apply models of learning and of language acquisition to distance learning. In order to achieve the above mentioned objectives, portfolio activities recorded by 29 (twenty nine) prospective English teachers of the Distance English Teaching Certificate Program, at UFC-UAB, were collected while the learners were taking the following courses: English Segmental Phonology, which focuses on the production of sounds of the language, and English V: Oral Comprehension and Production, which focuses on communicating messages. An analysis of the recordings indicated: i) the most recurrent problems in the production of oral sounds result from the improper substitution of English sounds for Portuguese sounds, either because students don’t perceive their distinction or because they are influenced by the graphonemic spelling of word; ii) the students were able to perceive and correct their own pronunciation problems, which suggests that instruction on the phonological system of English allowed the students to activate and use self-monitoring strategies; iii) as the students learned about the phonology of English, they began to identify and correct their own pronunciation problems; and iv) after some time of having taken the Phonology Course, students were able to identify and correct their pronunciation problems, maintaining a 70% level of accuracy in the production of the oral sounds, even in activities which focus was not on the production of the sounds but on message communication. These results suggest that metalinguistic instruction on the phonological system of English can be helpful in the development of self-monitoring strategies and, therefore, optimize the production of oral sounds in a foreign language. The long-lasting effect of metalinguistic knowledge of phonology in the pronunciation of English can also be implied. / Esse trabalho teve por objetivo, investigar se, e de que maneira, o conhecimento metalinguístico do sistema fonológico da LI influi no nível de acurácia da produção dos sons vocálicos de professores de inglês em formação e como este conhecimento lhes possibilita a melhor monitorar sua pronúncia. Mais especificamente, buscávamos: identificar os problemas de produção dos sons vocálicos do inglês apresentados por aprendizes dessa língua; investigar o nível de percepção dos professores de inglês em formação acerca de seus problemas na produção dos sons vocálicos da LI; analisar se, à medida que os professores em formação adquirem conhecimento metalinguístico sobre o sistema fonológico da LI durante a disciplina Fonologia da Língua Inglesa, passaram a identificar com mais precisão seus problemas/dificuldades de pronúncia dos fonemas vocálicos; e, finalmente, analisar se, e de que forma, a aprendizagem metalinguística do sistema fonológico da LI auxiliaria esses professores em formação a monitorar sua pronúncia, tanto em atividades controladas durante a disciplina de Fonologia Segmental da Língua Inglesa (foco na produção dos sons) como em atividades mais livres em disciplinas subsequentes (foco na produção de mensagem), principalmente após decorrido um certo espaço de tempo entre a instrução explícita e a atividade de produção espontânea. Como base teórica para tais objetivos, usamos o modelo de processamento da informação de Barry McLaughlin (1983), o modelo de aprendizagem da fala (FLEGE, 1995) e o modelo de assimilação perceptual (BEST, 1995), a teoria do monitor de Krashen (1972), além de tentarmos relacionar esses conceitos aplicados ao EAD. Para alcance dos objetivos mencionados, coletamos e analisamos atividades de portfólio gravadas por 29 (vinte e nove) professores em formação do curso semipresencial de Letras/Inglês da UFC/UAB, durante as disciplinas de Fonologia Segmental da LI, com foco na produção de sons, e Língua Inglesa V-A: Compreensão e Produção Oral, com foco na produção de mensagem. Nossos resultados foram os seguintes: os problemas mais recorrentes em relação à produção oral dos sons vocálicos pelos professores em formação se referem à substituição imprópria de sons, seja pela não percepção de certos sons da LI que não existem no PB, seja pela influência grafo-fonêmica das palavras na pronúncia dos aprendizes; quanto ao nível de percepção dos aprendizes em relação aos seus problemas de pronúncia, podemos dizer que muitos desvios de produção oral foram percebidos e corrigidos de maneira a sugerir que o automonitoramento foi ativado pela instrução explícita; à medida que adquiriram conhecimento explícito em Fonologia, os professores em formação foram capazes de identificar e corrigir seus problemas de pronúncia; e, após decorrido certo tempo da instrução explícita, os participantes da pesquisa mantiveram um nível de 70% (setenta por cento) em acurácia na produção dos sons vocálicos da LI, quando o foco da atividade era a produção de mensagem e não somente de sons. Tais resultados nos levam a atestar a afirmação de que a instrução explícita em Fonologia pode auxiliar no desenvolvimento do automonitoramento, e assim, na otimização da produção oral. Além disso, também podemos sugerir que o efeito da instrução explícita na produção oral é durável.

Las novelas de Jaime Bayly muestran un reflejo literario del conflicto lingüístico que caracteriza el español en Perú. Siguiendo las ideas de Coseriu sobre la competencia de los hablantes como lingüistas y las teorías psicosociales de Giles sobre la acomodación, analizamos en el presente trabajo los juicios que los protagonistas emiten sobre el castellano. Para ellos el castellano se ha convertido en una marca de etnicidad de un grupo social concreto y reaccionan ante expresiones que pertenecen a la variedad andina. Si esta variedad está llamada a conformar el español peruano, resulta interesante observar cómo las clases sociales altas la valoran. Aunque se trate de obras de ficción, estas actitudes pueden describir una situación real. / Jaime Bayly’s novels show the literary treatment of linguistic conflict that characterizes Peruvian Spanish. Following Coseriu’s ideas about speakers as linguists and Giles’ psychosocial theories about accommodation, in the present study we analyze the judgements that the main characters utter about Spanish. According to them, Spanish has become an ethnicity marker of a given social group and they react against linguistic phenomena belonging to the Andean variety. If we consider that this variety shapes Peruvian Spanish, it would be of interest to study what high-class members think about it. Even if we deal with fictional works, these attitudes could depict a real situation.