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Made available in DSpace on 2014-12-17T15:07:18Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 JoseMSU_TESE.pdf: 3832725 bytes, checksum: dbd234f30a69b32acf022ed8603bd5cf (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-02-03 / Considering the following conditions: (1) the fluency demands of students in an undergraduate program in Languages and Literatures/English in the Amazon region; (2) the listening and speaking needs of pre-service teachers of English as a Foreign Language (EFL); (3) my continuing education as a professor of EFL and my academic literacy as a teacher-researcher and pre-service-teacher trainer, this study, which is based on Narrative Inquiry, reports on a teacher experience of working didactically with oral genres through podcasting an activity that emerged with the advent of Information and Communication Technology (ICT). Through this process, I engage with some theorists who promote teaching as a process that is driven by a concept of language as social practice. Subsequently, I make use of the notions of context of culture and context of situation, derived from Systemic Functional Linguistics, as well as the concept of genre and register derived from the perspective of this theory. Based on these principles and beliefs, the Amazon region constitutes the register (situation) of the genres used in this study. These principles also provide, opportunities for building learning strategies appropriate to this local context, and also to teach listening and speaking skills from a task-based approach. During the experience, based on the reflective teacher-education model, the participants produced narratives about the process, which I then analyzed according to Ely, Vinz, Downing and Anzul (2001), who propose possibilities of composing meanings in Narrative Inquiry. Based on this perspective, I discuss the following topics, which were highly emphasized in the participants narratives: the lack of didactic activities using oral genres; the relevance of context within teacher education; and collaborative work as a strategy to overcome gaps in digital literacy, language fluency and teaching skills. The meanings I thereby compose point to a paradigm shift in English language teaching within this context. I also argue for a pedagogical practice that is engaged with historical and socio-cultural issues, and with the development of language skills, also one that promotes the implementation of ICTs at the very start of teacher training programs, adopting teaching and learning strategies that correspond to the demands of fluency in this particular context, and deficiencies imposed by geographical isolation / Em conson?ncia com: (1) as demandas de flu?ncia dos participantes de um Curso de Letras/Ingl?s da Amaz?nia; (2) as necessidades da compreens?o e da produ??o oral em l?ngua inglesa dos professores de Ingl?s como L?ngua Estrangeira (ILE) em forma??o inicial e (3) a minha forma??o continuada e o meu letramento acad?mico na condi??o de professor-pesquisador e formador de professores de ILE, neste estudo, com base na Pesquisa Narrativa, relato os procedimentos adotados durante a viv?ncia em um processo de didatiza??o de g?neros discursivos orais difundidos pela pr?tica de podcasting, atividade oriunda do advento das Tecnologias da Informa??o e da Comunica??o (TICs). Neste processo, dialogo com te?ricos que advogam o ensino de ILE norteado por abordagem que preceitue uma vis?o de linguagem como pr?tica social, compreendendo o ensino tamb?m como uma atividade constru?da na intera??o e mediada pela linguagem. Para isso, lan?o m?o das no??es de contexto de cultura e de contexto de situa??o da Lingu?stica Sist?mico-Funcional, contemplando o conceito de g?nero e de registro. Como princ?pio e cren?a que defendo, os registros dos g?neros utilizados neste estudo possuem tem?ticas voltadas para o contexto da floresta Amaz?nica, oportunizando a constru??o de estrat?gias de ensino apropriadas ao contexto local para ensino da compreens?o e da produ??o oral pela elabora??o de tarefas. Durante a viv?ncia, com base no paradigma reflexivo de forma??o de professores, os participantes produziram narrativas sobre o processo que foram analisadas conforme Ely, Vinz, Downing e Anzul (2001), que defendem a composi??o de sentidos na Pesquisa Narrativa. Ao reler e rescrever sobre as experi?ncias vividas, elegi discutir sobre os seguintes temas revelados com maior ?nfase pela escrita dos participantes: a pouca viv?ncia em processos de didatiza??o de g?neros orais; a relev?ncia dos temas sobre o contexto para a forma??o do professor de ILE local; o trabalho colaborativo como estrat?gia para superar a defici?ncia de letramento digital, conhecimentos lingu?sticos e pedag?gicos. Os sentidos que componho dessa viv?ncia apontam para a mudan?a de paradigma que precisa ser estabelecida no ensino de ILE deste contexto e para o fazer pedag?gico engajado com as quest?es hist?rico-socioculturais e o desenvolvimento das habilidades lingu?sticas de produ??o e de compreens?o oral, sugerindo que as TICs devem ser implementadas progressivamente no contexto em quest?o durante a forma??o inicial do professor de ILE por meio de estrat?gias condizentes com as demandas de flu?ncia e as defici?ncias ocasionadas pelo isolamento geogr?fico

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The influx of international students attending American universities has put the U.S. at the forefront of international education, generating over $14.5 billion yearly. International students often face adjustment issues impacting their level of satisfaction with their experience. These involve oral language proficiency, as well as feelings of anxiety and isolation resulting from language deficiencies, which increase their feelings of marginality. Engaged learning, which is dependent on comprehension, is affected by the anxiety students bring to class. It is believed that coursecasts may alleviate anxiety, thus improving student engagement in learning. A pre-experimental research design investigates whether coursecasting mitigates feelings of marginalization and isolation, deficiencies in language comprehension and proficiency, and anxiety in international students. Research in the value of coursecasting has been anecdotal, and concrete evidence of its educational value is needed before its wide-spread adoption in educational settings (Elliot, King, & Scutter, 2009). Participants completed the Cultural Adjustment Difficulties Checklist (CADC) by Sodowsky and Lai (1997), the Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS) by Horwitz, Horwitz, and Cope (1986), the Self-Reported Fluency of English Scale (SRFES) by Yeh and Inose (2003), and the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL), Listening portion. A pretest-posttest approach was chosen to evaluate the influence of podcasting within a naturalistic setting. The implications of the study were categorized into three areas. First, it provided insight into the barriers that negatively impact international student learning due to anxiety. Second, it identified methods of instruction, and issues that may have hindered international students from achieving at their highest level. Finally, it provided an opportunity to explore the educational effectiveness of a technology created for entertainment. Quantitative measures yielded no significance, so the null hypotheses were rejected. It was thought that these results were due to limited exposure to the coursecasting treatment. Their significance was further discussed by providing conclusions and implications. Recommendations for future research suggest replicating the study with a control group or administering the coursecasting treatment for a longer period of time. Suggestions for educators and educational institutions include requesting faculty and staff to identify specific ways to help this vulnerable population with their acculturation instead of waiting for them to ask for help. Although no significant impact could be established between available coursecasts and international students' perceptions of marginality and isolation, anxiety, and English language proficiency and comprehension, the findings regarding the analysis of the dependent variables seem to present interesting implications for education.

In recent years social media has become ubiquitous and necessary for social networking and content sharing. Social media reached a stage where its impact is being felt by larger organizations that exist today. It has become necessary for the organizations to re-examine their existing business processes and formulate new business processes to compete in the globalized markets. In our paper we are going to deal with issues like how the social media affect the business processes and why they are affecting the business processes in contemporary organizations. The success of a business depends on effective implementation of its business processes. So these business processes when being designed several factors are being taken into consideration. Social media facilitates for the conjecture of a mixture of people from different domains for sharing of content, it serves as an important and indispensable factor in defining business processes. / Program: Magisterutbildning i informatik

This master’s thesis presents a study on the mediated negotiation between radio broadcasting and digital media. During the last decade, digitalisation has become unanimous with changing media structures, and has fundamentally altered the way radio is mediated by broadcasters and perceived by listeners. This study delves deeper into specialist music radio, more specifically, the London-based UK club music station Rinse FM. The study investigates how developments in digital media have influenced the way Rinse FM is reached and utilised by listeners, and how its implementation of digital media has affected its position as a cultural intermediary within the UK club music community. The investigation was carried out though a survey, and subsequent interviews, with members of Dubstepforum; an online forum, host to a substantial quantity of UK club music listeners. The research provides interesting results on listeners’ contemporary experience of Rinse FM, and outlines pivotal functions of specialist music radio in a digital age of free-flowing music content. The results explore participants’ digital listening habits in relation to Rinse FM; as well as the role of Rinse FM as cultural intermediary and community institution, depicted through the mediated experiences of Dubstepforum members. The study concludes with reflections upon specialist music radio’s continued development, and cultural position in the digital media environment.

Thesis (M.S. Ed.) - - Bank Street College of Education, New York, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 27-29) and abstract.

This thesis deals with the phenomenon of "podcasting" and the possibility of its business use. It covers and combines some selected aspects such as communica-tion trends, psychological aspects, and the marketing communication mix. There development of podcasting its current state is also considered. The general data come from the United States, while the dataset for the practical part has been tak-en from a public survey in the Czech Republic and Germany and a business survey of 315 Czech companies. The outcome answers whether podcasting is applicable as a new method for business communication, especially in the Czech Republic, and which segments of the Czech and German population are more suitable for this medium. Companies were tested on their current needs, challenges, communica-tion approaches and internal capacities towards podcasting integration. Finally some proposals on future challenges and developments are provided.

The aim of this study is to examine knowledge processes in online spaces. It focuses on threeparticular cases: the Bonfireside Chat podcast, the community around the computer game Europa Universalis 4, and the Supernatural fandom. By applying the frameworks of Wenger’s (1998) communities of practice and Hall’s (1980) modes of reading, it examines how these spaces and their communities engage with their respective media artifacts. It concludes thatthese processes display high levels of complexity and literacy, and that a deeper understanding of such processes is useful in developing future educational efforts, online as well as offline.