This study attempts to present the relations between discourse and ideology in debates taking place in the Bahraini Council of Representatives. It uses critical discourse analysis (CDA) and the Sociocognitive Approach (SCA) to ground the theoretical claims in the idea that Shiite members of parliament (MPs) in the Bahraini Council of Representatives employ discursive strategies differently from Sunni MPs. To test this hypothesis, the research aims first to observe whether, and if so how, the Sunni parties and the Shiite party employ discursive devices and strategies differently to achieve three ideological goals: attempting to gain political advantage discursively in parliamentary debates on topics related to dissent control and political freedom; manoeuvring the definitions of self and others in the contexts of dissent control and political rights; and manipulating the law to support one’s party’s and/or sectarian affiliation’s ideological stances about dissent-controlling laws and the definition of political freedom and political rights. The second aim of the research is to explore whether and how the use of discursive devices and strategies reflects the sectarian ideological conflict in Bahrain. The research critically analyses excerpts on dissent control and personal freedom from the Hansard of the Bahraini Council of Representatives. The research first marks discursive devices used by MPs. It then identifies discursive strategies. The research detects three major discursive strategies that are fulfilled by using the devices and called them ‘corroborating by information’; ‘intensifying grievance’; and ‘centralising pride and dignity’. The analysis shows that some discursive devices are used more intensively, though not exclusively, under certain strategies. The research also notes that the Shiite party, Al Wefaq, employs the strategy of intensifying grievance more often than other strategies. The Al Wefaq members demonstrate more tendency toward objecting than do the other parties to the dissent control in Bahrain. The research relates this tendency to the ideologies of Shi’ism as a religious and political institution that heavily relies on the ideology of protest and the feeling of injustice and discrimination. Finally, the research provides a preview of the use of identified strategies during the unrest that started in Bahrain in February 2011.

This thesis critically investigates how female and male opioid users are represented in local newspapers in Ohio, one of the states which has been most severely affected by the ongoing ‘opioid crisis’ in the United States. Through an analysis of 20 articles from the The Plain Dealer and The Columbus Dispatch, the study aims to highlight how women and men who use opioids are portrayed, and what ideologies are hidden in the texts. Guided by Fairclough’s framework for critical discourse analysis and van Dijk’s sociocognitive approach, the analysis was performed on three levels: text-level, whereby journalists’ word choices, contextualisation and linguistic emphasis were studied; discursive level, which focused on processes involved in the production and consumption of the news pieces, and; sociocultural level, which entailed analysing historical and current developments of drug policy locally and nationally. The study finds that journalists downplay the seriousness of (white) male opioid use by calling men by their nicknames, by portraying them as ‘mischievous’ and by using jokey undertones when referring to their drug use. Female opioid use is constructed as abnormal by use of words such as ‘erratic’ and ‘unruly’ and women are discursively penalised for failing in their roles as caregivers to children. This thesis exemplifies how language use by local journalists’ in Ohio reinforces societal perceptions of male and female opioid users, which may influence counteractive measures by authorities.

This thesis is a critical investigation of the language used in online news headlines to report the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting, which took place on February 14, 2018 in Florida, United States. By analyzing 50 online news headlines, published by five of the most popular national and local news outlets, the purpose of this study is to understand how the words chosen by the journalists contribute to creating particular meanings, or representations of the event, and if through these representations any hidden ideologies are put forward. The framework used to carry out the research combined Fairclough’s critical discourse analysis with van Dijk’s sociocultural approach, resulting in the study of three different but interrelated elements of discourse: sociocultural practice, or the social and cultural context of gun ownership in the U.S.; discourse practice, hence the processes behind the production of online headlines and the cognitive processes behind their interpretation; and finally, a linguistic analysis of the text itself. The analysis found that, despite the anticipated neutral stance of news journalists, dictated by professional values such as integrity and objectivity, hidden meanings and ideologies necessarily transpire in the language used to describe the violent event, and to represent victims and attacker.

This study was an investigation of students’ explanations of disciplinary knowledge in content and language integrated learning (CLIL). In recent years, an increased interest in teaching content subjects in a foreign language (FL) has brought a growing body of research on CLIL (e.g., Dalton-Puffer, 2007; Llinares, Morton, & Whittaker, 2012), which has yielded valuable insights into CLIL classroom discourse. However, there is a paucity of studies that examined the development of student discourse in CLIL settings because most of existing CLIL research draws on large-scale corpus data and cross-sectional data. Thus, I investigated the processes in which students engaged with disciplinary knowledge and discourse in this case study. The participants included 25 students enrolled in a 15-week content-based English course on sociolinguistics at a Japanese university and a teacher who taught the course. In the sociolinguistics course, the students conducted a group research project in which they carried out sequenced tasks: writing and revising a research proposal, collecting and analyzing data, and presenting findings in oral and written forms. Data were collected in the sociolinguistics course through class observations, video-recordings of the lessons, seven focal students’ group work and oral presentations, and interviews with the focal students and the teacher. Moreover, written reports by the focal students were collected. Informed by a sociocognitive approach to second language acquisition (SLA) (Atkinson, 2002; Atkinson, Churchill, Nishino, & Okada, 2007), a multimodal interaction analysis was conducted on explanations of disciplinary knowledge in the instructional and student discourses. Data analysis suggested that content knowledge was represented at various degrees of abstraction in the textbook and teacher explanations (e.g., specific examples, decontextualized propositional claims). Moreover, the teacher drew on multimodal resources including gestures, body movement, and slides to make dense academic knowledge accessible to the students. Regarding student discourse in group work, the focal students flexibly coordinated diverse semiotic resources including talk, written texts, and gestures, which enabled them to appropriate content knowledge and advance their discussion. In this process, their explanations of disciplinary knowledge tended to change from descriptive ones to complex ones. In the oral presentations, the students made the structure of their explanations explicit and represented disciplinary knowledge at various degrees of abstraction (e.g., specific linguistic behaviors, sociolinguistic interpretations). In the question and answer sessions that followed the oral presentations, the teacher interactionally provided feedback, which likely led some students to produce more discipline-appropriate explanations (e.g., elaborated content, increased precision). Although there was a variation among the students, the written reports exhibited the increased use of metadiscourse markers including hedges, which likely resulted in careful explanations of propositional knowledge. These findings suggest that diverse discursive contexts afforded by sequenced tasks and access to varied semiotic resources can facilitate the appropriation of content knowledge by students and support the formulation of context-specific and discipline-appropriate explanations. / Teaching & Learning

Le présent travail développe une approche sociocognitive de la Perspective Temporelle Future (PTF), tel que ce construit est mesuré par l’échelle ZTPI (Zimbardo Time Perspective Inventory, Zimbardo & Boyd, 1999). L’objectif de cette thèse est d’analyser la normativité de ce construit et d’explorer les dimensions liées à l’expérience du temps psychologique futur. Une démarche de triangulation a été menée dans une double perspective : produire une analyse multi-niveaux de la normativité associée à la PTF et développer une réflexion théorico-méthodologique concernant la mesure de ce construit. Une première série d’études expérimentales mobilisant l’approche sociocognitive des normes sociales (Dubois, 2003) démontre une valorisation importante de la PTF dans des contextes évaluatifs. Une seconde série d’études utilisant une méthodologie mixte (paradigmes des juges et construits socio-représentationnels) analyse les dynamiques normatives de la PTF dans des situations socialement marquées (i.e. contexte de santé). Enfin, une recherche socio-représentationnelle par entretien étudie l’expérience du temps psychologique futur en tant que forme d’expérience sociale (Jodelet, 2006). En envisageant la PTF sous différentes perspectives sociocognitives, ces travaux apportent une contribution au domaine de recherche du rapport au temps (mesure de la PTF et fonctionnements idéologiques). D’autre part, ce travail pose les bases d’une approche sociocognitive de la PTF en tant que norme sociale. / The present work develops a sociocognitive approach of Future Time Perspective (FTP), as this construct is measured by the ZTPI scale (Zimbardo Time Perspective Inventory, Zimbardo & Boyd, 1999). The aim of this thesis is the analysis of this construct’s normativity and the exploration of the dimensions related to future psychological time experience. A triangulation approach has been conducted in a double perspective: its aim is to produce a multi-level analysis of normativity associated to FTP as well as to develop a theoretical and methodological thought on this construct’s measurement. A first series of experimental studies using the sociocognitive approach to social norms (Dubois, 2003) reveals an important value of FTP in evaluative contexts. A second series of studies using mixt methodology (judge paradigms and socio-representational constructs) analyses FTP’s normative dynamics in socially relevant situations (i.e. health context). Finally, a socio-representational research with interviews focuses on future psychological time experience as a form of social experience (Jodelet, 2006). Considering FTP under several sociocognitive perspectives, this thesis contributes towards the research field on relation to time (FTP measurement and ideological logics). This work lays also the foundation of a sociocognitive approach of FTP as a social norm.

[pt] No campo da Psicologia e da Didática de Línguas, pesquisas sobre aquisição e aprendizagem do discurso argumentativo entre crianças em fase de letramento têm conduzido à avaliação dessa competência discursiva, orientada por parâmetros definidores do modelo adulto de argumentar. Em decorrência, os estudos na área tendem a avaliar o texto argumentativo do escritor aprendiz na perspectiva da deficiência e inadequação e, sob a justificativa da complexidade cognitiva, o ensino da argumentação tem sido postergado para as séries finais do ensino fundamental (14- 15 anos). A hipótese implícita a tal decisão é a de que o ensino dos gêneros do discurso deva obedecer a uma gradativa sucessão, de modo que os gêneros da narração e descrição devam preceder ao ensino sistemático da argumentação. O primeiro objetivo relevante da pesquisa é o de determinar até que ponto alunos de 8-11 anos têm representado para si o esquema textual argumentativo, quando solicitados a produzir um texto de opinião em contexto escolar. O segundo é identificar como o esquema textual acionado é textualizado no modelo escrito de língua, considerando-se (1) o nível de desenvolvimento cognitivo da criança para lidar com a dimensão dialógica do discurso escrito; (2) as influências do modelo conversacional de mudança de turno na escrita do aprendiz; e (3) a ausência de ensino formalizado dos gêneros da argumentação no currículo escolar nas primeiras séries. Para atender a este propósito, o presente trabalho baseou- se na hipótese sociocognitiva de linguagem e na abordagem socionteracionista discursiva. A pesquisa analisa um corpus longitudinal, composto de 145 textos de opinião, produzidos pelos mesmos alunos entre a 2a. série e o início da 5a. série de uma escola pública, a partir da proposição de cinco diferentes tarefas. A análise orienta- se por dois enfoques: o primeiro foca a maneira como o escritor aprendiz constrói seu texto de opinião, no tocante à sua configuração textual, através de articulação e coordenação de seqüências textuais; o segundo incide sobre a natureza dos argumentos selecionados pelo aprendiz, no tocante à atitude epistemológica e evidencialidade. A pesquisa confirma que no que respeita à construção do discurso argumentativo e à capacidade de expressar opinião, a maioria das crianças é capaz de categorizar eventos comunicativos de linguagem em uso, mesmo que esse esquema não se adeque ao modelo prototípico de argumentação do adulto ou à expectativa da escola. Ao mesmo tempo, a pesquisa demonstrou que um simples dispositivo de conteúdo polêmico não determina, de antemão, o esquema textual a ser acionado pela criança para emoldurar sua argumentação; traços de natureza contextual e sociocognitiva são também utilizados para determinar a dimensão pragmática, discursiva e argumentativa do texto de opinião. Com base no exposto, defendemos que o ensino progressivo e sistemático da argumentação deve iniciar desde cedo nas práticas escolares de linguagem. / [en] In the field of Psychology and Didactics of Language many researches on the acquisition and learning process of argumentative discourse among elementary school students have led us to approach this discursive competence based on the parameters of adult mode of writing arguments. As a result, studies on the subject matter tend to conceive the children`s essays in terms of inadequacy and lack of proficiency; and as consequence of its complex cognitive demands the teaching of argument has been belated to the end of elementary school curriculum (14-15years old). The implicit hypothesis behind this procedure is that there is a graduation-succession for the learning of discursive genres in a way that narrative and descriptive genres should precede systematic teaching of argumentation. The prime goal of the present research is to determine to what extent 8-11 year-old pupils have represented for themselves the argumentative schema when they are asked to write an opinion essay as a school task. The second one is to identify how this textual schema is carried out by the learning children and textualized into written mode of language, considering (1) children`s cognitive development level to deal with the dialogic dimensions of written discourse; (2) the turn-take conversation influences on their writing, and (3) children`s lack of formal learning of argumentative genres in school curriculum. For this purpose we took as our basis on the sociocognitive hypothesis of language acquisition and on socionteracionist approach of language. The research analyses a longitudinal corpus composed of 145 essays produced by the same elementary school students from 2nd grade up to the beginning of 5th in a public school. The students were asked to write five different opinion essays. The analysis is split into two main focuses: the first one highlights the way the learning children build their written opinion in terms of textual configuration through both articulation and coordination of textual sequences; the second focus highlights the nature of arguments chosen by the learning children in terms of epistemological attitude and evidenciality. The research confirms that in the genre of argument and expressions of opinion, most of the children displays a particular knowledge to categorize communicative events of language in use, although the cognitive model triggered to convince and persuade the addressee could not necessarily suit the adult prototype schema and school expectations. At the same time, it also shows that a simple argumentative disposal does not determine beforehand the textual schema triggered by the children to frame their argumentation; contextual and sociocognitve features also determine the pragmatic, discursive and argumentative dimension of the text. Due to the features shown in the present research, and as far as pedagogy and didactic of language is concerned we defend that systematical and progressive teaching of argumentation should begin as early as possible in school context.

Le travail enseignant a connu au fil des années une évolution continue qui s’est traduite par une complexification de la tâche et des changements dans les pratiques professionnelles avec des possibles conséquences sur le bien-être pédagogique des enseignants. C’est dans ce sens que cette recherche s’intéresse à l’exploration des relations entre les pratiques professionnelles réfléchies des enseignants oeuvrant dans une école secondaire et leur bien-être pédagogique. Pour ce faire, nous avons réalisé une recherche de type exploratoire, à dominance qualitative, auprès de onze enseignantes et de deux enseignants d’écoles secondaire de la grande région de Montréal. Afin de documenter leurs niveaux de réflexions au cours de leurs relations avec les élèves et les collègues et les relations entre ces réflexions et les dimensions du bien-être pédagogique chez les enseignants interviewés, nous avons opté pour une approche sociocognitive. Pour la cueillette des données, nous avons fait appel à deux techniques : la technique Q et la technique de l’incident critique. Pour explorer ces liens, nous avons commencé par nous pencher sur le modèle des niveaux de changement de Korthagen et Vasalos (2005), qui ont mis en évidence les interactions entre les réflexions spécifiques concernant six niveaux de réflexions : environnement professionnel, comportements centrés sur l’apprentissage scolaire, compétences de gestion de classe, croyances, identité professionnelles et mission auprès des élèves. Nous avons ensuite exploré le concept de bien-être pédagogique des enseignants. D’après l’ensemble des résultats de notre recherche, le bien-être pédagogique des enseignants des écoles secondaires s’avère à la fois un processus dynamique, dont l’évolution est influencée par ce qui se passe dans le milieu de travail, particulièrement dans la classe, et par les qualités essentielles de l’enseignant, et un construit reposant sur des dimensions spécifiques; trois dimensions ont été retenues pour cette étude : l’autoefficacité, l’engagement et la satisfaction au travail. Les relations pédagogiques avec les élèves constitueraient la principale source de bien-être pédagogique des enseignants. Le fait de croire en l’efficacité de leurs compétences de gestion de classe et de constater que les élèves sont contents d’être dans leur classe et engagés dans leur apprentissage stimulerait l’engagement et la satisfaction au travail des enseignants. Les réflexions sur les caractéristiques et sur le vécu des élèves, y compris sur leur bien-être en classe, et les compétences professionnelles seraient les aspects des interactions avec les élèves qui interagiraient le plus avec le bien-être pédagogique des enseignants. Pour ce qui est des interactions entre les relations de travail avec leurs collègues, elles auraient un impact positif sur le bien-être pédagogique, notamment par l’entremise de réflexions collectives sur les situations ordinaires des pratiques professionnelles. Enfin, malgré certaines limites méthodologiques et conceptuelles, cette étude met en évidence l’existence de liens empiriques entre les pratiques réfléchies et le bien-être pédagogique des enseignantes et enseignants oeuvrant dans une école secondaire. Elle dégage également des pistes de recherches futures sur les influences réciproques entre les pratiques pédagogiques et le bien-être pédagogique, et propose des idées de recherches prospectives. / This research explores the relations between the well-designed professional practices of high school teachers and their educational well-being. To do this, we conducted an exploratory research, with a qualitative dominance, among eleven female and two male high school teachers from the Greater Montreal Area. We adopted a sociocognitive approach to document their levels of reflection throughout their relations with their students and colleagues and their relations with dimensions of educational well-being among high school teachers. We used two data collection techniques: the Q technique and critical incident technique. To explore these links, we started by examining the change level model of Korthagen and Vasalos (2005), which highlighted the interactions between the specific reflections of six levels of reflection: work environment, schooling-centered behaviors, class management skills, professional beliefs and identify and mission with students. We then explored the concept of the educational well-being of teachers. According to the overall results of our research, the educational well-being of high school teachers is both a dynamic process whose evolution is influenced by what is going on in the work environment, especially in the classroom, and by the teacher’s essential qualities, and a construct based on specific dimensions; three dimensions were used in this study: self-efficacy, commitment and job satisfaction. Educational relations with students seem to be the main source of educational well-being for teachers. Believing in the efficiency of their class management skills and noticing that students are happy to be in their class and are involved in their learning apparently stimulates the commitment and job satisfaction of teachers. Reflections on the characteristics and background of students, including their well-being in the classroom, and professional skills seem to be the aspects of interactions with students that affect the educational well-being of teachers the most. As for interactions between work relations with their colleagues, they seem to have a positive impact on educational well-being, namely through collective reflections on the ordinary situations of professional practices. Lastly, despite certain methodological and conceptual limitations, this study highlights the existence of empirical links between well-designed practices and the educational well-being of high school teachers. It also identifies directions for future research on the reciprocal influences between educational practices and educational well-being, and proposes foresight research ideas.