This dissertation combines theories of nationalism and discourse analysis modeled on Benedict Anderson and Homi Bhabha with Kenneth Burke's dramatism to demonstrate that political states are constituted as meaningful, exclusionary communities through legislative discourses, literary representations, and practices of historiography. Although a number of scholars have acknowledged the importance of state identifications in the complex of cultural and symbolic nationalism, there has been limited examination of the composition of what I call "statist"-- as related to but distinct from "nationalist"-- identities in their own right. Using Wyoming as a case study, this project examines the unique and deeply significant affiliations formed within individual states in the United States of America. Wyoming provides an interesting lens for this discussion for several reasons. First, Wyoming's attainment of statehood in 1890 marks an important figurative closing of the frontier acknowledged in the census of that year and remarked upon as significant among many scholars of Western history. This coincidence of timing also places Wyoming's territorial period and attempts to articulate the state as an independent cultural and political entity during the period of colonialism. Many scholars, including Benedict Anderson and Homi Bhabha as well as Ernest Gellner and Eric Hobsbawm, consider this the period during which modern nationalism flowered. Finally, Wyoming presents a useful template for this analysis precisely because of its unremarkableness in legislative terms; the language of its constitution draws heavily on the models provided by earlier states as well as the US Constitution and is quite similar in this respect to many that followed. Although the symbols and narratives that circumscribe the Wyoming imaginary are unique, the process by which they are constituted is not and could be observed in some form in any state in the Union.

No description available.

This thesis investigates the equivalence of direct (live) and semi-direct (tape-mediated) versions of a test of oral proficiency which forms part of the access: test, a four-skill English language test for prospective skilled migrants to Australia sponsored by the Commonwealth Department of Immigration and Ethnic Affairs. This is essentially an equity issue since the two versions are used interchangeably in overseas test centres and candidates normally have no choice about the version to which they are assigned. It is important therefore that candidates’ final results should not be adversely affected by the particular method used to test their oral proficiency.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Illinois State University, 1999. / Title from title page screen, viewed July 28, 2006. Dissertation Committee: Douglas Hesse (chair), Janice Neuleib, Kenneth Lindblom. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 237-245) and abstract. Also available in print.

Acredita-se que a apropriação de uma língua estrangeira pelo sujeito através do ensino pode ser medida pela a aquisição de determinado grau de proficiência na língua-alvo, por meio de materiais e abordagens que possibilitem um ensino/aprendizagem bem-sucedido. Entendemos por bem-sucedido aquele procedimento que coloca o aprendiz em posição de intérprete historicizado (ASSOLINI, 2013, 2010), ou seja, aquele sujeito que ultrapassa a suposta literalidade dos sentidos, desprendendo-se da relação termo a termo. Isto posto, este trabalho objetiva: 1) analisar a forma como os recursos disponíveis no material didático oferecido pela Secretaria da Educação do Estado de São Paulo, por meio do programa São Paulo Faz Escola são discursivizados pelo sujeito-professor de inglês em escolas públicas do Estado de São Paulo; 2) descrever e analisar recortes desse material didático relacionando-os à fala dos sujeitos-professores. O corpus desta análise foi constituído por entrevistas semiestruturadas, realizadas com quatro professores da rede pública do estado paulista, assim como por recortes do material didático referido, buscando estabelecer relações entre o discurso dos sujeitosprofessores e esse material. A Análise de Discurso de matriz francesa (pêcheuxtiana) e as ciências da educação formam nosso arcabouço teórico-metodológico, por possibilitarem relações críticas com a linguagem de maneira ampla, e com o ensino de língua inglesa e o material didático, de forma particular. Os resultados das análises discursivas indicam que: 1) alguns sujeitos (se) silenciam ao falarem sobre o material didático; acreditam que (se) silenciando, esquivando-se, deixariam de significar tal material; 2) alguns sujeitos questionam o material didático, mas, apesar de tal inquietação, ocupam a posição de sujeitos enunciadores de dizeres e práticas preestabelecidas que não lhes fazem sentido; 3) a experiência dos sujeitos-professores, na sala de aula, não corresponde as suas formações imaginárias a respeito do aluno, da escola, nem do material didático; 4) assujeitados ideologicamente, não (se) percebem como profissionais capazes de ocupar a posição de intérpretes-historicizados, condição basilar para que tenham voz e se constituam como autores de seu próprio dizer. Palavras-chave: Material didático. Ensino de língua inglesa. Análise de discurso. / It is believed that foreign language acquisition can be assessed by the acquisition of a certain level of proficiency in the target language by means of usage of any material and approaches, allowing successful teaching/learning process. By well-succeeded, we understand the procedure in which the learner puts him/herself in a position of interpreter-historicized, defined by Assolini (2013, 2010) as the subject who goes beyond literality, free from term-to-term, or word-to-meaning relationships. This work aims at: 1) analyzing the ways through which the subject-teacher of English as a foreign language in public schools in the State of São Paulo puts the teaching material into discourse; 2) describing and analyzing sections of that material, offered by State Government, referred to in the interviews with subject-teachers. This study is based on the perspective of French Discourse Analysis, adopting the views of the philosopher Michel Pêcheux and the Social-Historical Theory of Literacy Acquisition. We understand that those theories allow critical relationships with language in a broad way, and more specifically, with English Language Teaching and its materials. The corpus of this analysis consists of selected excerpts from semistructured interviews with four state public school teachers, as well as sections of material offered by the State government, seeking correlations between the subject-teachers discourse and the teaching material. Our results lead to some observations: 1) some subjects resort to silence, attempting to avoid comments about the teaching material; 2) others, although incredulous about the offered material, assume the position of broadcasters of meaningless practices from that material; 3) teachers experience in the classroom do not correspond to their representation of the subject-learner, school or teaching material; 4) ideologically subjected, teachers do not see themselves as professionals capable of assuming position of interpreter-historicized, a basic condition to be aware of their own voice, authorship and subjectivity.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-07-29T16:19:12Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertacao - part 1.pdf: 3885349 bytes, checksum: f839d98a1f1a767fc8b4fd7eb94525ae (MD5) Previous issue date: 2009-09-18 / This study aims to verify that so the blog is used in English class, identifying the types of interactions that occur during the construction and development of blogs and how they can contribute to the teaching and learning of English as LE / L2. This research was guided by two main theoretical axes: sociocultural theory, which addresses the importance of interaction for the development of learning and Information Technology and Communication, with emphasis on computer and Internet use in the classroom in LE/L2. Our research is qualitative and is configured as a case study. It was developed in a class of 16 students of Letrasde a public university in the state of Goiás, during the second half of 2008. The data discussed were obtained through a questionnaire, interviews, classroom observation with field notes, recording audio and video interactions, written reflection and students' blogs. Data analysis allowed us to identify moments of classroom interaction during which the students negotiated meaning, form and content, as well as offered and received scaffoldings. The virtual space was also used as a place of socio-emotional and cognitive development among participants. These results show the blog as a tool to motivate students and providing them with autonomy in learning LE/L2 / Este estudo tem por objetivos verificar que de modo o blog é usado na aula de inglês, identificando os tipos de interação que ocorrem durante a construção e o desenvolvimento de blogs e de que maneira eles podem contribuir para o processo de ensino e aprendizagem de inglês como LE/L2. Esta pesquisa foi norteada por dois eixos teóricos principais: teoria sociocultural, que trata da importância da interação para o desenvolvimento da aprendizagem; e as Tecnologias da Informação e da Comunicação, com ênfase para o computador e internet, usadas nas aulas de LE/L2. A nossa pesquisa é qualitativa e configura-se como um estudo de caso. Ela foi desenvolvida em uma turma de 16 alunos do curso de Letrasde uma universidade pública do estado de Goiás, durante o segundo semestre de 2008. Os dados discutidos foram obtidos por meio de questionário, entrevistas, observação de aulas com notas de campo, gravação em áudio e vídeo das interações, reflexão escrita e os blogs dos alunos. A análise dos dados nos permitiu identificar momentos de interação presencial, durante os quais os alunos negociaram significado, forma e conteúdo, bem como ofereceram e receberam scaffoldings. O espaço virtual também foi utilizado como lugar de desenvolvimento cognitivo e socioafetivo entre os participantes. Os resultados deste trabalho apontam o blog como uma ferramenta capaz de motivar os alunos e lhes propiciar autonomia para a aprendizagem de LE/L2.

This study seeks to report on the investigation into the need to use code switching as one of the language teaching strategies in the teaching and learning of Afrikaans as Additional Language in the FET band, in predominantly Xhosa-speaking environments in the Eastern Cape. The study was conducted in twelve secondary schools of the Transkei where Afrikaans is taught as an additional language. The sample of the study comprised the educators, the learners and the school managers of the twelve researched schools. The research was a case study of the selected schools. The participants were studied in their own environment and the data was collected by means of both the interviews and structured questionnaires. South Africa is a multilingual and multicultural country. This state of affairs calls for a serious re-evaluation of the existing teaching methodologies. Children acquire language skills in and outside the classroom in two different ways in multilingual societies. While children acquire proficiency in languages outside the classroom in a natural way, in the classroom they are constrained by rigid purist rules that compel them to learn languages in artificial ways. This manner of language acquisition in the predominantly Xhosa-speaking environments of the Eastern Cape, often goes hand in hand with code switching from source language to target language and vice versa. These children can be described as compound informal bilinguals (polyglots) as far as the indigenous languages are concerned since they acquire the indigenous languages from early childhood in natural settings. In the context of formal acquisition of European languages and Afrikaans in schools, they can be categorised as coordinate bilinguals. The linguistic disparities between classroom and natural acquisition practices were revealed in this investigation. In the classroom, code switching has two contradictory sides. On one hand code switching provides the teacher with ease of expression, confidence and satisfaction that the learners understand the lesson. Notwithstanding the dynamic attributes of code switching in the classroom, the learners are faced with the dilemma of having to avoid code switching as much as possible in the examinations since there is no room for code switching in the examinations. This investigation showed that despite the fact that non-mother tongue teaching is supposed to take place through the medium of the target language, both the teachers and the learners admitted that they code switch during Afrikaans classes and they perceive code switching as the best way to facilitate understanding. The findings of this study revealed that code switching was a natural and inevitable strategy in teaching an additional language. However, it also surfaced that some teachers resorted to using code switching because of their own lack of proficiency in the target language. Informed by the above findings, the study recommended that code switching be considered as one of the strategies to be used in the teaching and learning of Afrikaans as additional language. It was also recommended that learners be credited if they used code switching in the examinations since all respondents admitted that code switching was every-day practice in the classroom. This, however is to be done with extreme caution and with the sole purpose of assisting the learners achieve full mastery of the target language at the end of their learning career. Since this kind of exercise needs highly-skilled personnel, it was recommended that practising teachers be retrained and resource materials be expanded to all schools that offer Afrikaans as additional language. Although the arguments presented in this investigation do not reject the reality of the impeding effect code switching might have on the learning of an additional language, the study maintains that for purposes of mutual understanding, code switching is an enabling factor that impacts positively on the teaching-learning situation.

"'Thinking Things Together': What Contemplative Practice Can Offer Academic Writing Instruction," calls for the inclusion of contemplative practices (e.g., mindfulness meditation, visualization, deep listening, reflective journaling, etc.) in the instruction of writing, due to their potential to foster more self-efficacy in the writing process. Because recent research has linked contemplative practices to improved cognition, they are especially well-suited to facilitate writing, which is-at least in part-a cognitive act. In other words, the common denominator of composition studies and contemplative practice is cognition. However, composition studies has failed to make this connection because the field has been largely dismissive of cognitivist writing research, and has neglected to stay abreast of recent research on cognition and writing. By presenting recent research on the cognitive processes involved in the production of text, as well as recent research on the effects of meditation on the brain (pioneered in the emerging field of contemplative neuroscience), this transdisciplinary project highlights the points at which these two bodies of research converge. Two systematic literature reviews (SLRs) of these-seemingly disparate-areas of research reveal that they share interests in the cognitive processes of executive function, working memory, attention, motivation, and self-regulation. Furthermore, a meta-synthesis of the research conducted on these cognitive processes illustrates how contemplative neuroscience can inform-and improve-the theory and practice of teaching writing. Specifically, I provide readers with classroom activities and assignments that implement contemplative practices in the writing classroom in empirically-informed and effective ways.

No description available.

本研究探究了香港某所國際學校中漢語作為第二語言學習者的中文交際意願。研究對象主要是香港某英基國際學校的170名漢語學習者；主要採用定量的研究方法，通過研究者的課堂觀課和學生的“自我報告”（Self-report）來搜集數據，通過五個量表（背景變量量表、心理變量量表和課堂內外漢語交際意願量表）來實現研究；研究的內容包括學生們課堂內、外漢語交際意願的總體水平以及可能存在的差異，並總結前人研究發現，在新的研究背景下對一些可能存在影響關係的背景變量（年齡、性別、漢語水平、學習漢語的社會支持、母語、性格、對待學習漢語的態度）和心理變量（學習漢語時的焦慮、動機、自我覺察的交際能力）進行數據分析并驗證假設，通過SPSS19.0來付諸實現；最終就如何提高學生的課堂內、外漢語交際意願提出教學建議。 本次研究的主要研究發現有：（1）該國際學校漢語學習者的總體漢語交際意願水平偏低，介於“較低交際意願”和“中度交際意願”之間，而且課內漢語交際意願略高於課外漢語交際意願。（2）總體來看，男生和女生之間不存在漢語交際意願上的顯著差異，但在課內，女生比男生更容易不懂就問、更關注語言知識的細節；男生比女生更願意作為發言代表來公開表達自己觀點；在課外，男生比女生更願意在校園裡與陌生人說漢語，更願意和朋友們或者陌生人上網用漢語交流。（3）預科項目（DP）和中學項目（MYP）的學生群體間不存在漢語交際意願的顯著差異。但在課堂上，DP學生比MYP的學生更願意進行公開性的漢語表達，更願意深入探討相關問題，更願意進行一些總結概括能力較強的發言。（4）DP年級學生的漢語水平和交際意願呈顯著正相關，即漢語水平高越高，課內、課外和總體的漢語交際意願越高,漢語水平越低，課內、課外和總體的漢語交際意願越低。（5）在用漢語進行“主動性發言”上的意願，漢語水平高的群體明顯高於漢語水平低的群體，說明高水平漢語學習者更願意掌握交際的主動權。（6）學習漢語社會支持較多的群體表現出明顯更高的漢語交際意願，呈顯著正相關。（7）以廣東話作為母語的學生比以英語作為母語的學生具有更高的漢語交際意願，這種差異性在課堂外比課堂內體現得更為明顯。（8）性格較外向的學生比性格較內向的學生具有更高的課內漢語交際意願。（9）喜歡學漢語的學生比不喜歡學漢語的學生具有更高的課內、課外和總體漢語交際意願。（10）總體來看，學生學習漢語的動機和自我覺察的漢語交際能力都偏高，且兩者與課內、課外和總體漢語交際意願均呈十分顯著正相關，其中動機與課外方面相關性略大，而自我覺察的交際能力與課內方面相關性略大。學生的總體焦慮水平偏低，與課內、課外和總體交際意願均呈十分顯著負相關，與課內方面相關性略大課外方面。無論是課內還是課外漢語交際意願，“自我覺察的交際能力”對漢語交際意願來說是預測性最強的心理變量。 This research investigated Chinese as second language (CSL) learner’s willingness to communicate (WTC) both inside and outside classroom in one of international schools, Hong Kong. The research objects are 170 Chinese Language B learners from an English School Foundation (ESF) international school. The main methodology adopted here was quantitative method. Classroom observations by researcher and self-reports by students were firstly done to collect background data, and then five scales were employed to do the main investigation, including a WTC Inside–the-classroom Scales (WTCIS), a WTC Outside-the-classroom Scale (WTCOS), a Language Anxiety Scale (LAS), a Motivation Scale (MS) and a Self-perceived Communicative Competence Scale (SCCS). The research objectives were to explore the general situation of CSL learners’ WTC, and the specific characteristics as well as possible differences of their WTC inside and outside the classroom; then to further examine the possible affecting variables from both background and psychological perspectives including gender, age, Chinese language proficiency, mother tongue, social support, personality and attitudes towards learning Chinese, which were regarded as background variables, and language anxiety, motivation and self-perceived communicative competence, which were regarded as psychological variables. After that, data was processed and analyzed by SPSS 19.0 for hypothesis verification. Finally, pedagogical implications on how to improve CSL learners’ WTC both inside and outside classroom were generalized from the study. 　　The major findings showed that: (1) the general WTC of CSL learners from this school were slightly on the low side, between the Lower and Middle level, and the WTC inside the classroom was comparatively higher than outside of classroom. (2) On overall WTC, there was no significant difference between male and female students. But inside the classroom, girls were more likely to ask questions and pay more attention on language details than boys, while boy were more active to be the presenters and voice out in public. Outside the classroom, boys were more willing to communicate with strangers or chat online with friends in Chinese. (3) No significant WTC difference was found between Diploma Program (DP) and Middle Years Program (MYP), but DP CSL learners showed more willingness to make public speech, to be more of an inquirer in problems, and to do more generalization in speaking. (4) Among DP group, significant positive correlation was found between language proficiency and WTC, suggesting that the more proficient CSL learners showed higher WTC, and vice versa. (5) The more proficient group were more willing to speak Chinese voluntarily than the less proficient ones, implying that the more competent language learners are more likely to the take the initiative in communication. (6) CSL learners with more social supports to learn Chinese showed higher WTC, and a significant positive correlation was found here. (7) Students with Cantonese as mother tongue had higher WTC than their English as mothertougue counterparts, and this difference was more obviously outside of classroom. (8) Extroverted students showed significantly higher WTC inside of the classroom than the introverted. (9) Students who liked learning Chinese demonstrated higher WTC than those who didn’t. (10) Students’ motivation to learn Chinese and their SPCC were both on the high side, and both correlated positively on WTC, with motivation correlated more closely on outside WTC while SPCC more on inside WTC. Students showed slight lower anxiety level in speaking Chinese. Anxiety had significant negative correlation with WTC, and it mattered more inside than outside of classroom. No matter for WTC inside or outside, SPCC was the most predictive variable among the three. / published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education