published_or_final_version / Linguistics / Master / Master of Arts in Applied Linguistics

published_or_final_version / abstract / toc / Linguistics / Master / Master of Arts in Applied Linguistics

Introduction Being an effective communicator is a core competency required of all health care practitioners. Some undergraduate medical students at the Nelson R. Mandela School of Medicine (NRMSM), University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, are unable to communicate in isiZulu, the mother tongue of nearly 80% of the 10.2 million people in the province, and the most common home language spoken in South Africa. A one-year isiZulu course to teach communicative competence in the language, and assessed in the first three years of the 6-year MBChB programme, is currently offered at the first year level to medical students. Aim This study was conducted in 2012 to assess how isiZulu clinical communication was perceived by a third year cohort of medical students, and whether current teaching in the period 2010-2012 had prepared them to communicate with their patients. Methods An observational, cross-sectional study design was used to assess the knowledge, attitude and practice of the study group through a self-completed questionnaire. Their knowledge of isiZulu was assessed in a written test, and the students’ marks were compared with their marks in 2010. Oral competence was assessed in an isiZulu history-taking station in the objective structured clinical examination. Students’ comments on their experiences and their recommendations were recorded. Ethics approval was obtained to conduct the study, and informed consent was obtained from participants. Results & Discussion Medical students’ competence in isiZulu had improved. They were largely positive about learning the language of their patients but seldom used the language in the clinical setting. Many students indicated that the current teaching of isiZulu in the programme was inadequate for their needs. Conclusion & Recommendations Although isiZulu is taught to non-isiZulu students, this does not convert into an ability to use the language in the clinical setting. In order for medical students to acquire a satisfactory and safe level of communicative competence in isiZulu, and in line with the UKZN Language Plan to emphasize language training specific to various vocational groups, it is recommended that the teaching, learning and assessment of isiZulu language and culture be integrated into all levels of the undergraduate medical programme in the form of vocation-specific isiZulu for medical students. / Thesis (M.Med.Sc.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2013.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 85-90). / 114 leaves, bound 29 cm

Thesis (DAppLing)--Macquarie University, Division of Linguistics and Psychology, Dept. of Linguistics, 2009. / "September 2008". Bibliography: p. 189-196.

This qualitative study aims to investigate how teachers of English as a foreign language (EFL) work to develop their students’ oral proficiency. The study analyses interviews and pedagogical materials to elucidate how the interviewed teachers regard their students’ oral proficiency, what kind of activities they use for teaching speaking and how they assess oral proficiency. The participants were two licensed English teachers of higher upper secondary education, and different materials that the teachers used were analysed, including a textbook. The teachers regarded their students’ oral proficiency as generally good or very good but noted that significant differences existed in most groups regarding proficiency and that certain students who were less proficient showed an unwillingness to use the target language, which indicates a need of better strategies to involve these students in the learning process. The findings of this study suggest that the interviewed EFL teachers teach speaking according to the communicative approach and that the activities they use more frequently for teaching speaking were discussions, followed by presentations, speeches, role-playing and debates. However, the interviews and the pedagogical materials reflected a lack of focus on the features of spoken language, the importance of which has been proven by findings in corpus linguistics and conversation analysis. These findings indicate a need to raise awareness among teachers about the benefits of focusing on the features of spoken language. Regarding assessment, informal formative assessment in the form of direct observation was the most common form, while formal assessment was used in presentations and examinations in the form of group discussions. The teachers acknowledged some confusion regarding assessment due to the lack of clear guidelines from Skolverket. Moreover, they regarded speaking as being more important than other skills, which indicates the possibility of redefining the value of speaking in the course evaluation.

This thesis concerns the development of intercultural communicative competence (ICC) through reading a work of postcolonial literature (The Whale Rider by Witi Ihimaera, 2005) in an English class. The theoretical part explains notions such as intercultural communicative competence and culture. It also describes the benefits of reading in ELT. The practical part presents a project consisting of altogether twelve lessons dedicated to reading The Whale Rider. The aim of the project is to support the pupils' development of ICC, make them aware of other English-speaking cultures than just the traditionally presented ones and, last but not least, to develop their language skills. The outcome of the project is, besides the expected raised level of ICC, which is, however, hard to measure, a poster about Maori culture realized by the pupils. KEY WORDS intercultural communicative competence, postcolonial literature, reading, English language teaching, The Whale Rider

Made available in DSpace on 2016-06-02T20:25:11Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 3883.pdf: 2717797 bytes, checksum: 640ba1f54870aea329d5f04ef4bbb07f (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011-07-27 / This qualitative, ethnographic-interpretative research aimed at analyzing the development of communicative competence of English Language undergraduate students of a private college in the center-western region of the state of São Paulo during their participation in a Thematic Task-Based Planning for English teaching and learning through classes guided by the use of a theme, the history of Great Britain, and communicative tasks with focus on meaning. The students' perceptions, feelings and how they behave throughout the process have also been investigated in this study. In order to collect the data, the following instruments have been used: initial and final cloze tests, three written evaluations throughout the process, audio recordings of tasks and written production of the tasks which have been previously performed orally and transcribed for analysis, plus questionnaires administered to students in different moments of the course. The framework is based on theoretical studies of theme and taskbased teaching of authors such as: Almeida Filho (1993, 1997, 1999, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2009); Barbirato (1999, 2005); Bygate, Skehan, Swain (2001); Candlin (1987, 2001); Crandall (1994, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2006); Ellis (2000, 2003); Nunan (1989, 2004); Prabhu (1987, 1990); Skehan (1998, 2001); Skehan, Foster (1997, 1999, 2001); Van den Braden (2006,2008); Willis (1996); Willis, Willis (2007), among others. The analysis has shown that the work combining theme-based teaching and communicative tasks could be an alternative for the teaching and learning of English in the context investigated, where it was previously found that most participants had limited linguistic and communicative competence in the target language. It was also possible to verify that the work with communicative tasks with focus on meaning and based on the theme of the history of Great Britain provided collaborative efforts among the students and opportunities for noticing the form, vocabulary or pronunciation of the target language. The data analysis also showed considerable improvement in the oral proficiency of the students in the target language. / A presente pesquisa, qualitativa e de base etnográfica interpretativista, teve como objetivo analisar como se dá o desenvolvimento da competência comunicativa (CC) em aprendizes de curso de Letras de contexto adverso de uma faculdade particular do centro-oeste paulista durante a sua participação em um Planejamento Temático Baseado em Tarefas para o ensinoaprendizagem de língua inglesa por meio de aulas pautadas pelo uso de um tema, a história da Grã-Bretanha, e tarefas comunicativas com foco no sentido. Também foram investigados a percepção dos alunos, os seus sentimentos e comportamentos ao longo do processo. Para a coleta de dados foram utilizados testes cloze inicial e final, avaliações escritas ao longo do processo, gravações em áudio das tarefas, posteriormente transcritas para análise, e questionários aplicados aos discentes em momentos diferentes do curso. O arcabouço teórico se fundamenta em estudos sobre tarefas e ensino temático de autores como: Almeida Filho (1993, 1997, 1999, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2009); Barbirato (1999, 2005); Bygate, Skehan, Swain (2001); Candlin (1987, 2001); Crandall (1994, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2006); Ellis (2000, 2003); Nunan (1989, 2004); Prabhu (1987, 1990); Skehan (1998, 2001); Skehan, Foster (1997, 1999, 2001); Van den Braden (2006,2008); Willis (1996); Willis, Willis (2007), entre outros. A análise dos resultados demonstrou que o trabalho em que coexistiram ensino temático e tarefas comunicativas pode ser uma alternativa para o ensino-aprendizagem de língua inglesa no contexto investigado, em que havia limitação linguístico-comunicativa prévia na línguaalvo na maioria dos participantes.Também foi possível averiguar que o trabalho com tarefas comunicativas com foco no sentido e baseadas no tema da história da Grã-Bretanha motivou os participantes e possibilitou esforço colaborativo entre eles e momentos de explicitação da forma, léxico ou pronúncia da língua-alvo. Houve indícios de que o ensino com base em conteúdo temático e tarefas problematizadoras é ponto importante para colaborar para a aquisição de LE no contexto estudado. A análise dos dados revelou ainda que o trabalho desenvolvido resultou em considerável melhora da proficiência oral dos alunos na línguaalvo.

Submitted by Viviane Lima da Cunha (viviane@biblioteca.ufpb.br) on 2016-09-06T12:08:37Z No. of bitstreams: 1 arquivototal.pdf: 1936144 bytes, checksum: dc6a1e8405ac2b116c0ab38a231c7385 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-09-06T12:08:37Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 arquivototal.pdf: 1936144 bytes, checksum: dc6a1e8405ac2b116c0ab38a231c7385 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-03-22 / The research investigates theoretical basis to support restructuring strategies of linguistic and communicative actions and interaction processes in the public communication in higher education. Research anchored in the Communicative Action Theory of the German philosopher Jürgen Habermas, and the philosophy of language, the linguist Mikhail Bakhtin where the foundations of communicative rationality in communicative action theory and the foundations of the theory of enunciation were studied. He started from the assumption that higher education is the privileged much space to trigger discursive and communicative actions whose pragmatic rationality facilitates consensus-building between speakers and listeners in search of consensus. The thesis substantiates the fact that the university, as fundamental communicational public sphere to society, constitutes a privileged locus for the formation of language subjects, interacting from linguistic and communicative actions, which take into account the relationship Pragmatic Language and Communicative speeches. The methodology used for analysis of selected works was the Hermeneutics. one basic categories framework of the works of both authors who guided exploration of the basic concepts and their co-relations was produced. The study allowed for the interpretation, establish correlations anchored in the understanding of how language-action contributes to increasing the capacity of understanding linguistically communicable way. The university was becoming known as a communicational public sphere important in the context of the network society, to constitute adequate space for interaction between the various social actors that is, free and democratic manner, in order to generate the agreement between them , always from the best argument. To build the theoretical, approach the study was defined as methodological approach to hermeneutics, as it was considered that this approach allows the construction of a critical reflection, anchored in language action. It became clear in the study that the educational subjects in higher education, seeking to develop the ability to understand linguistically communicable way. The analyzes from the categorical framework facilitated dialogue between the two authors with an emphasis on understanding of speech acts, language, concepts of language and communicative competence. The results show that the language in the network society takes on a dimension that requires complex analysis for his understanding, once they emerge broadly new spaces for debates, socialization skills, and consequently the need to transform recurrently information into knowledge. New forms of communication, require the subject to expand its capacity through linguistic and communicative actions, test validity claims about the world and create spaces of dialogue, negotiation and consensus. The study points out forcefully that the language and communicative actions and contribute to the formation of speech acts of ideas, play an important role in the learning process developed in higher education institutions. These actions constitute important mechanisms in the formation of the subject discursively emancipated, free to interact in the public sphere communication from ethical and moral standards, strengthening discursive-rational-dialogical actions. / A pesquisa investiga bases teóricas para fundamentar estratégias de reestruturação das ações linguístico-comunicativas e processos de interação na esfera pública comunicacional no Ensino Superior. A investigação ancorou-se na Teoria do Agir Comunicativo do filósofo alemão Jürgen Habermas, e na Filosofia da Linguagem, do linguista Mikhail Bakhtin a partir das quais foram estudadas as bases da racionalidade comunicativa na teoria de Ação comunicativa e os fundamentos da teoria da enunciação. Partiu-se do pressuposto de que o Ensino Superior é o espaço privilegiado para desencadear ações discursivas e comunicativas cuja racionalidade pragmática facilite a formação de consensos entre falantes e ouvintes em busca de consensos. A tese fundamenta a constatação de que a universidade, enquanto esfera pública comunicacional fundamental para a sociedade, constitui-se em lócus privilegiado para a formação de sujeitos de linguagem, que interagem entre si a partir de ações linguísticas e comunicativas, que levam em conta a relação Pragmática Linguística e Comunicativa dos discursos. A metodologia utilizada para análise das obras escolhidas foi a Hermenêutica. Foi produzida um quadro de categorias basilares das obras de ambos os autores que guiou a exploração dos conceitos básicos e suas co-relações. O Estudo permitiu, pela interpretação, estabelecer correlações ancoradas na compreensão de como a linguagem-ação contribui para a ampliação da capacidade de compreensão de sentidos linguisticamente comunicáveis. A universidade foi tematizada como uma esfera pública comunicacional importante no contexto da sociedade em rede, por se constituir em um espaço adequado para a interação entre os diversos atores sociais que a constitui, de forma livre e democrática, com vistas a gerar o acordo entre eles, sempre a partir do melhor argumento. Para construir a abordagem de cunho teórico do estudo, foi definido como aporte metodológico a Hermenêutica, por se considerar, que essa abordagem permite a construção de uma reflexão crítica, ancorada na linguagem-ação. Foi possível evidenciar pelo estudo que os sujeitos educativos, no Ensino Superior, procuram desenvolver a capacidade de compreensão de sentidos linguisticamente comunicáveis. As análises realizadas a partir do quadro categorial propiciaram diálogos entre os dois autores com ênfase na compreensão dos atos de fala, concepções de língua-linguagem e competência comunicativa. Os resultados apontam que a linguagem na sociedade em rede assume uma dimensão que requer análises complexas para sua compreensão, uma vez que emergem de forma ampla novos espaços de debates, socialização de conhecimentos e, consequentemente, a necessidade de transformar de forma recorrente informações em conhecimento. Novas formas de comunicação exigem dos sujeitos a ampliação de sua capacidade de, através de ações linguístico-comunicativas, testarem pretensões de validez sobre o mundo e criarem espaços de diálogos, negociações e consensos. O estudo aponta de forma contundente que as ações linguísticas e comunicativas, além de contribuírem para formação de atos ideias de fala, desempenham um papel importante no processo de aprendizagem desenvolvido nas instituições de Ensino Superior. Essas ações se constituem em importantes mecanismos na formação do sujeito emancipado discursivamente, livre para interagir na esfera pública comunicacional a partir de padrões éticos e morais, fortalecendo ações discursivo-racional-dialógicas.

Pragmatic competence has become an essential component of L2 (second language) proficiency. The purpose of this case study is to investigate how pragmatic competence in English is taught in a public Swedish secondary and upper secondary school. The aim with this study is to reach an in-depth understanding of how the teachers in this specific school view, value and teach pragmatic competence. The study has a qualitative approach and was conducted through semi-structured interviews with two teachers. In addition to the interviews, an analysis of the pedagogic material used in the classroom was made. The most significant findings of the study show that pragmatic competence and cultural knowledge are teachable and are indeed being taught in the studied school. Different types of oral activities are the mostly used pedagogical practices to teach different aspects of pragmatic competence. The aspects of pragmatic competence that are in focus, in both secondary and upper secondary school, are formal and informal language, adaptation of the language and politeness.