English for Academic Purposes literature is often criticized for its very functional interpretation of language (e.g. Benesch, 2001) which ignores the intellectual, cultural, and social side of learning in an attempt to appear “neutral.” Furthermore, writing is the EAP skill area which seems to provide students with the most difficulty. Many EAP students express high levels of frustration toward their writing despite years and years of ESOL writing courses (e.g. Johannson, 2001). Thus, the purpose of this study was to invent and describe a curriculum which would approach the teaching and learning of EAP writing in a way that addressed student frustrations toward L2 writing, shifted the idea of EAP writing back toward the more authentic purpose of communication and, described students’ reaction to the curriculum. The resultant PBL2 curriculum evolved into a method, under the umbrellas of Communicative Language Teaching and the Process Approach, that “fleshed out” EAP curricula with regard to second language writing by recognizing students as intellectual, cultural, and social beings, promoting life-long learning, emphasizing the importance of discourse communities, and by shifting the focus of writing to communication. This dissertation is a teacher research-evaluative case study that took place in an exit-level EFL course at a small bilingual university in Mexico City. The students were all Mexican nationals, of an average age of 21, whose majors included psychology, business administration, international studies, and computer information systems. All were enrolled in the class in order to complete the mandatory English requirements of the university. The data collected included observations via a teacher-researcher journal/lesson report per Richards & Lockhart (1994), three audio taped semi-structured student interviews per Seidman (1998), and various course related documents such as student assignments and instructor evaluations. Three types of analyses were used: (1) emergent theme-constant comparative analysis, (2) cross case analysis, and (3) document analysis. During analysis, issues concerning the impact of the learners’ feelings toward the L2 emerged along with issues of culture, hegemony and power; moreover, classroom management and learning communities were highlighted in addition to the invaluable role of technology in facilitating the PBL2 inquiry process. / text

A tese analisa redações produzidas por candidatos ao vestibular de 2008 da UERJ, nas quais são investigados aspectos concernentes à superestrutura do gênero dissertação de vestibular e às categorias do modo argumentativo de organização do texto, a saber: a tomada de posição, a presença de argumentos orientados para a tese do argumentador, a presença de contra-argumentos e as estratégias argumentativas que se destacam. Busca-se entender a relação entre as falhas redacionais e o ensino desse modo argumentativo do texto, apontando-se os estudos recentes em teoria da argumentação, semântica argumentativa, linguística textual e análise do discurso, que podem oferecer subsídios ao ensino da argumentação escrita, sobretudo os de Oliveira (2010), Charaudeau (2008) e Bernardo (2007 e 2010). Este trabalho interessa-se particularmente pelas contribuições passíveis de aplicação no ensino de redação em nível médio. Tanto os aspectos textuais, quanto os situacionais são analisados com vistas a que as conclusões advindas de tal análise possam convergir para contribuições ao ensino de produção de textos, o que se materializa no capítulo em que se apresentam sugestões de atividades / The thesis examines candidates essays produced by the vestibular, 2008 UERJ, where are investigated aspects related to the superstructure of the genre dissertation of vestibular and the categories of argumentative mode of organization of the text, namely the position, the presence of arguments oriented theory of the arguer, the presence of counter-arguments and argumentative strategies that stand out. We seek to understand the relationship between education on this mode of organization and failures in argumentative texts, as well as point recent studies in argumentation theory, argumentative semantics, text linguistics, discourse analysis, that may offer subsidies to teaching of written argumentation, mainly Oliveira (2010), Charaudeau (2008) e Bernardo (2007 e 2010). This work is particularly interested in the contributions that can be applied in the teaching of writing in high school. Both the textual and situational aspects will be analyzed, aiming to the conclusions arising from this analysis may converge for contributions to teaching text production, wich is demonstrated in the chapter were are offered suggestions of didactic activities

A tese analisa redações produzidas por candidatos ao vestibular de 2008 da UERJ, nas quais são investigados aspectos concernentes à superestrutura do gênero dissertação de vestibular e às categorias do modo argumentativo de organização do texto, a saber: a tomada de posição, a presença de argumentos orientados para a tese do argumentador, a presença de contra-argumentos e as estratégias argumentativas que se destacam. Busca-se entender a relação entre as falhas redacionais e o ensino desse modo argumentativo do texto, apontando-se os estudos recentes em teoria da argumentação, semântica argumentativa, linguística textual e análise do discurso, que podem oferecer subsídios ao ensino da argumentação escrita, sobretudo os de Oliveira (2010), Charaudeau (2008) e Bernardo (2007 e 2010). Este trabalho interessa-se particularmente pelas contribuições passíveis de aplicação no ensino de redação em nível médio. Tanto os aspectos textuais, quanto os situacionais são analisados com vistas a que as conclusões advindas de tal análise possam convergir para contribuições ao ensino de produção de textos, o que se materializa no capítulo em que se apresentam sugestões de atividades / The thesis examines candidates essays produced by the vestibular, 2008 UERJ, where are investigated aspects related to the superstructure of the genre dissertation of vestibular and the categories of argumentative mode of organization of the text, namely the position, the presence of arguments oriented theory of the arguer, the presence of counter-arguments and argumentative strategies that stand out. We seek to understand the relationship between education on this mode of organization and failures in argumentative texts, as well as point recent studies in argumentation theory, argumentative semantics, text linguistics, discourse analysis, that may offer subsidies to teaching of written argumentation, mainly Oliveira (2010), Charaudeau (2008) e Bernardo (2007 e 2010). This work is particularly interested in the contributions that can be applied in the teaching of writing in high school. Both the textual and situational aspects will be analyzed, aiming to the conclusions arising from this analysis may converge for contributions to teaching text production, wich is demonstrated in the chapter were are offered suggestions of didactic activities

Made available in DSpace on 2016-01-26T18:49:41Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 DISSERTACAO-EDUCACAO_Maria albertina_mar07.pdf: 8132361 bytes, checksum: a0be3ec1a7f0d51738cadfeaf6c4541c (MD5) Previous issue date: 2006-09-19 / The present research entitled The Reader Building in the Elementary Education: Documental Analysis of the one Pedagogical Collection , has an objective to demonstrate the quality of the theorical contents and consequently, of the methodological procedures in teaching reading in the Elementary Education. The Theorical option for critical-reflexive analysis made in this research is centered in the most recent studies of language, based in the Sociological Critic Bakhtiniana and of Vygotsky, with emphasis on the ideological nature of language and text. In what it refers to the description part and analysis of the educational practice (Study of Case). It s opted for the qualitative Research, defining as a method, Data Collection, and the Documental Analysis. The Documental Analysis has permitted identify information, in the researched documents (pedagogical collection), which have served as basic element for the research, for the verification and hypothesis confirmations that the Elementary Education has been working on construction of the Reading starting from theorical concepts, at least, incomplete, in relation to the new theories of the language and reading. Thus, this research regard a description and critical reflection on the analysis of the Collection of Pedagogical Books entitled Assembly and Dismount of Texts , to the Elementary Education. The analysis is therefore, for documental character, because it takes as objective the reservation, the Volumes of the Pedagogical Collection quote. / A presente pesquisa, intitulada A Construção do Leitor na Educação Fundamental: Análise Documental de uma Coleção Didática, tem como objetivo demonstrar o nível de qualidade dos conteúdos teóricos e os procedimentos metodológicos inscritos no Livro Didático para o ensino da leitura, na Educação Fundamental. A opção teórica para análise crítico-reflexiva das práticas metodológicas descritas nesta pesquisa se centra nos estudos mais recentes da linguagem, voltados para a Critica Sociológica Bakhtiniana e de Vygotsky, com ênfase na natureza ideológica da linguagem e do texto. No que se refere à descrição e análise da prática educacional (Estudo de Caso), optou-se pela Pesquisa Qualitativa, definindo-se como método de Coleta dos Dados, a Análise Documental. A Análise Documental permitiu identificar informações nos documentos pesquisados (livros didáticos), que serviram de corpo básico da pesquisa, para verificação e comprovação da hipótese inicial de que a Educação Fundamental vem trabalhando a construção da leitura a partir de conceitos teóricos, no mínimo, incompletos, em relação às novas teorias da linguagem e da leitura. Assim, esta pesquisa contempla uma descrição e reflexão crítica sobre a análise da Coleção de Livros Didáticos intitulada Montagem e Desmontagem de Textos, destinada às quatro séries iniciais de escolarização (Ensino Fundamental _ Ciclo I). A análise é, portanto, de caráter documental, pois toma como objeto de observação, os Volumes da Coleção Didática citada.

The aim of this essay is to investigate how writing is taught in upper secondary school as well as what kind of writing is taught, the teachers’ attitudes towards writing and how written production is assessed. I am interested to see if teachers use different methods both when it comes to teaching and grading writing. My research is based on recorded interviews with four upper secondary school teachers from two different schools. The teachers were interviewed on their planning, executing and grading of writing within English A and B. I have also carried out extensive reading of earlier research in order to get a complete background. The result shows that all four teachers believe that writing is an important part of language learning and they all enjoy teaching it. The main focus is put on the formal aspects of writing, in order to prepare students for the national tests. Only one of the four teachers feel that creative writing is the best way to learn a second language. All teachers go through the formal rules of writing with the entire class before giving them an assignment. The biggest difference between the different teachers is the marking and final grading of the written production, where one teacher does not grade assignments at all and another has developed her own scale.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-07-18T17:54:14Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 DISSERTACAO-EDUCACAO_Maria albertina_mar07.pdf: 8132361 bytes, checksum: a0be3ec1a7f0d51738cadfeaf6c4541c (MD5) Previous issue date: 2006-09-19 / The present research entitled The Reader Building in the Elementary Education: Documental Analysis of the one Pedagogical Collection , has an objective to demonstrate the quality of the theorical contents and consequently, of the methodological procedures in teaching reading in the Elementary Education. The Theorical option for critical-reflexive analysis made in this research is centered in the most recent studies of language, based in the Sociological Critic Bakhtiniana and of Vygotsky, with emphasis on the ideological nature of language and text. In what it refers to the description part and analysis of the educational practice (Study of Case). It s opted for the qualitative Research, defining as a method, Data Collection, and the Documental Analysis. The Documental Analysis has permitted identify information, in the researched documents (pedagogical collection), which have served as basic element for the research, for the verification and hypothesis confirmations that the Elementary Education has been working on construction of the Reading starting from theorical concepts, at least, incomplete, in relation to the new theories of the language and reading. Thus, this research regard a description and critical reflection on the analysis of the Collection of Pedagogical Books entitled Assembly and Dismount of Texts , to the Elementary Education. The analysis is therefore, for documental character, because it takes as objective the reservation, the Volumes of the Pedagogical Collection quote. / A presente pesquisa, intitulada A Construção do Leitor na Educação Fundamental: Análise Documental de uma Coleção Didática, tem como objetivo demonstrar o nível de qualidade dos conteúdos teóricos e os procedimentos metodológicos inscritos no Livro Didático para o ensino da leitura, na Educação Fundamental. A opção teórica para análise crítico-reflexiva das práticas metodológicas descritas nesta pesquisa se centra nos estudos mais recentes da linguagem, voltados para a Critica Sociológica Bakhtiniana e de Vygotsky, com ênfase na natureza ideológica da linguagem e do texto. No que se refere à descrição e análise da prática educacional (Estudo de Caso), optou-se pela Pesquisa Qualitativa, definindo-se como método de Coleta dos Dados, a Análise Documental. A Análise Documental permitiu identificar informações nos documentos pesquisados (livros didáticos), que serviram de corpo básico da pesquisa, para verificação e comprovação da hipótese inicial de que a Educação Fundamental vem trabalhando a construção da leitura a partir de conceitos teóricos, no mínimo, incompletos, em relação às novas teorias da linguagem e da leitura. Assim, esta pesquisa contempla uma descrição e reflexão crítica sobre a análise da Coleção de Livros Didáticos intitulada Montagem e Desmontagem de Textos, destinada às quatro séries iniciais de escolarização (Ensino Fundamental _ Ciclo I). A análise é, portanto, de caráter documental, pois toma como objeto de observação, os Volumes da Coleção Didática citada.

Why do so many students confuse good writing with simply error-free writing, and what can writing instructors do about it? In order to answer this question, the present study first undertakes an exploration of the different meanings associated with grammar and how those definitions have influenced composition instruction. These influences range from an over-emphasis on grammar in the first half of the twentieth century to allowing it to disappear almost completely from the composition curriculum in the second half of the century. However, because research demonstrates that students over this same time period make errors in writing at a fairly constant rate, the present study investigated how writing instructors might target their teaching in order to strategically eliminate or decrease error from student writing while still maintaining composition classes focused on writing rather than grammar. A survey of frequent errors was constructed based on findings from Connors & Lunsford's 1988 study and Lunsford & Lunsford's 2008 study of error frequency; following Hairston's 1981 study, the survey also focused on error egregiousness. The survey was sent to samples from three different university populations: faculty, first-year writing students, and advanced writing students. Faculty's identification of errors and their seriousness is compared to that of students. The results of the survey help composition instructors target what to teach based on what students already know and don't know about error and its relative seriousness. The study offers suggestions for teaching the identified taxonomy of the most frequent, most serious errors; it also calls for more research in order to continue building the data instructors use to justify pedagogy.

[pt] Esta tese analisa o processo de escrita de alunos do terceiro e quinto anos do Ensino Fundamental, com foco nas ações de revisão realizadas. Investigamos em que medida as ações de revisão dos alunos dos dois grupos se diferenciam em termos quantitativos e qualitativos, em tarefas de revisão do próprio texto e em tarefas de revisão de textos escritos por seus pares. O referencial teórico adotado abarca estudos em Psicolinguística, Psicologia Cognitiva e Linguística textual. Foi realizado um conjunto de três atividades experimentais, que abordaram tanto a revisão de aspectos formais quanto de aspectos de conteúdo do texto. Os resultados obtidos indicam que a quantidade e o tipo de ação de revisão variam de acordo com o nível de escolaridade, o tipo de tarefa de escrita (enredo livre e reprodução de histórias conhecidas) e a familiaridade com texto (se o aluno revisa o próprio texto ou um texto produzido por um colega). Nas categorias estabelecidas para as ações de revisão, há diferenças expressivas tanto na comparação da frequência de revisão em cada categoria e também diferenças entre o grau de complexidade das ações propostas na mesma categoria. Quatro aspectos da revisão foram analisados de forma mais minuciosa neste trabalho, buscando examinar grau de refinamento entre ações de revisão: ortografia, pontuação, correferência e incoerências semânticas. Os resultados contribuíram para a elaboração de possíveis marcos de desenvolvimento associados ao expertise em escrita. Além da contribuição teórica relacionada aos estudos sobre desenvolvimento da escrita, esta tese possui um potencial aplicado, por meio da elaboração de uma matriz com habilidades associadas a aspectos linguísticos-textuais relevantes para o ensino da escrita ao longo do Ensino Fundamental, considerando as demandas cognitivas e linguísticas envolvidas na produção textual. / [en] This work analyzes the writing process of 3rd and 5th grade students, focusing on the revision actions they produce. We investigate if the revision actions of both groups differ in quantitative and qualitative terms, in tasks where they revise the text they have written and also in tasks where the text was written by another person. Our theoretical framework includes studies in Psycholinguistics, Cognitive Psychology and textual Linguistics. A set of three experimental activities was carried out, which addressed both revision of formal aspects and aspects related to the textual content. The results indicate that the amount and the type of revision actions vary according to schooling, the type of writing task (free plot and reproduction of known stories) and familiarity with the text (if the student revises his own text or a text written by another person). Concerning the categories established for revision actions, there were significant differences both in the comparison of categories and also differences between the degree of complexity in the same category. Four revision aspects were analyzed in a more detailed way: orthography, punctuation, coreference and semantic inconsistences. The results contributed to set possible development stages related to writing expertise. Besides the theoretical contribution to writing development studies, this thesis has also an applied potential: a grade of linguistic-textual abilities which are relevant to teaching writing in Elementary school and that considers the cognitive and linguistic demand involved in textual production.

This thesis examines the promise and problems of memoir in the pedagogy and practices of teaching memoir in college composition. I interviewed three University of Central Florida instructors who value memoir in composition, and who at the time of this study, were mandated to teach memoir in their composition courses. The interviews focus on three main points of interest: (1) the instructors’ motivations behind their teaching of memoir, (2) how these instructors see memoir functioning in their classes, and (3) what these instructors hope their students will gain in the process of writing the memoir essay. By analyzing these interviews, I was better able to understand the three instructors’ pedagogical choices and rationales for teaching memoir in their classes. I have also collected data and research from scholarly journal articles, books, and from my experiences teaching memoir in the composition classroom. This thesis challenges the widely accepted notion that memoir and the personal in composition scholarship, pedagogy, and teaching practices are “‘touchy-feely,’ ‘soft,’ ‘unrigorous,’ ‘mystical,’ ‘therapeutic,’ and ‘Mickey Mouse’” ways of meaning-making and teaching writing (Tompkins 214). My findings show that memoir in the classroom is richer and far more complex than it might appear at first, and that the teaching of memoir in composition can, in fact, be greater than the memoir essay itself. Even though each instructor I interviewed values the personal and believes memoir belongs in composition curriculum, it turns out that none of these instructors’ core reasons for teaching memoir was so his or her students could master writing the memoir essay, although this was important; rather the memoir essay ultimately served in the instructors’ classrooms as a conduit through which they ultimately could teach more diverse writing skills and techniques as well as intellectual concepts that truly inspired them. Since the teaching of memoir seems to be even iv more dynamic and versatile in process and pedagogy than many of the other essay genres traditionally taught in college composition, this thesis makes recommendations for how memoir needs to be viewed, written about, and taught in order to harness the promise of this essay genre more consistently in the discussion of composition pedagogy and in the teaching of memoir to our students in the composition classroom.

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