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This research considers the perceptions of an academic writing task held by a lecturer and first year students in the Philosophy department at the University of Zululand. The research takes as its starting point the following premises: that language is inextricably linked to learning; that each academic discipline has a particular discourse which students have to acquire in order to participate as accepted members of the academic community; that learning proceeds most effectively when teaching starts with what is known and moves into the unknown; and that learning takes place through experience and involvement, rather than transmission. The research suggests that many first year students bring with them to university an understanding of the nature of learning and of knowledge which makes it difficult for them to understand the implicit rules of the discourse of analytical philosophy. My investigation uncovered several of these rules in the study guide written for the course, but it appears that students were not able to discover them and, as a result, experienced great difficulty in fulfilling the assignment task in a way which promoted their understanding of the content. The research also shows that the lecturer's expectations of the task were far removed from the manner in which the students implemented the task. It is argued that the students appear to have reverted to their established writing strategies which consisted of simply repeating what the 'authority' has said. From this it is argued that unless rules of the discourse are made explicit to students, and students understand the content of the course, they will revert to copying and relying on other sources to tell them what to write. One way of making these rules explicit and encouraging students to integrate new knowledge with previous knowledge which they bring with them to university is through providing well-structured writing tasks, and where necessary, developing clearly defined assessment procedures. Writing is the principal means of mediation between the lecturer, who is trying to offer students entry into the discipline, and the student apprentice trying to make sense of the discipline and find his or her own 'voice' within that discipline.

This project demonstrates how English teachers in Japan can conduct purposeful and meaningful lessons for middle school low-intermediate students. The teaching approach used for this project is based on Content-Based Instruction (CBI).

The objective of this study was to determine some of the effects of child protective service investigations on families, children and the workers, when the allegations are determined to be unfounded and no abuse and/or neglect is further suspected.

This thesis begins with sufficient research to support the contention that secondary teachers should be using writing in the classroom, proceeds to question why some are not, and then supplies specific lesson plan ideas which can be adapted to suit most needs in the secondary history classrooms.

Oral proficiency plays a crucial part in mastering the English language. It is, because of that, heavily debated among professors and teachers. Among teachers, uncertainty prevails regarding how oral proficiency should be taught and assessed. This qualitative study aims to raise awareness of how teachers define, understand, and experience oral proficiency in the upper secondary EFL classroom. Furthermore, this study seeks to analyze teachers’ conflicting perceptions regarding the assessment process along with what problems they encounter and how they solve these problems. Four EFL teachers from three schools in the south of Sweden lay the foundation for the study. Semi-structured interviews were used as the method of data collection in order to gain insights from the teachers’ reflections. The data of the interviews were analyzed with the help of the grounded theory approach. Adopting this theory, the results of the study show that the four EFL teachers had general difficulties understanding the terms assessment and oral proficiency. While one teacher viewed oral proficiency as a two-fold challenge, another stated that in order to get a good grade, good discussion abilities are vital. When assessing students’ oral proficiency, the teachers focused on different features such as pronunciation, fluency, variation, interaction, content, and vocabulary.

( Abstract(( This diploma thesis pursues an analysis of a language component in a didactical material called L-pack which is dedicated to A2 level migrants according to Common European Framework of Reference. This document projects an inner differentiation of the Czech language as well as communication needs of a focus group. The theoretical part of the thesis deals with the importance of a situation in communication for didactical purposes considering the factual usage. In three chapters is focussed on pragmatic aspects of language behavior, to the choice of language and stylistic tools according to a character of a situation and monitors different approaches to communication situations to achieve optimal development of student' s communication competence. The methodological part presents the target and the work order and describes the didactical materials that have been analyzed. The analytical part of this thesis follows implementation manners of the L-pack in several dimensions. Selected cases are reviewed not only with respect to second language educational specialists but also with regard to the linguistic awareness of the Czech native speakers. In the end of this diploma thesis are suggested possibilities how to improve the implementation of the L-pack in relation to needs of the focus group of...

This study deals with the relationship between attitudes and practice in terms of strategies for oral communication of five teachers of Spanish as a foreign language (ELE) in five Swedish schools. Through surveys and observations, it is proposed to find out which strategies teachers turn to in their oral communication with students and whether they are aware of this. The purpose is to indicate whether there are divergences in the use and conscience between Spanish-speaking teachers and those who have Swedish as their mother tongue. According to the results, having Spanish as a mother tongue is not a criterion for communicating in the target language with students in ELE classes. Likewise, Spanish-speaking teachers are no more aware of their use of the target language than speaking Swedes. Strategies that predominate in oral communication are code switching and nonverbal language. All teachers are aware of the degree to which and in what contexts they turn to code switching, but not of the different ways in how they use it in oral interaction with students. The results also indicate that Spanish-speaking teachers use nonverbal communication as a strategy to support oral communication to a greater degree than Swedish speakers, but it is not proved that they are aware of their use. / Este estudio versa sobre la relación entre actitudes y práctica en cuanto a estrategias para la comunicación oral de cinco profesores de español como lengua extranjera (ELE) en cinco colegios suecos. Mediante encuestas y observaciones se propone averiguar a qué estrategias los docentes recurren en su comunicación oral con los alumnos y si son conscientes de esto. El propósito es indicar si existen divergencias al respecto entre los profesores hispanohablantes y los que tienen el sueco como lengua materna. Según los resultados, el tener español como lengua materna no es un criterio para comunicarse en la lengua meta con los alumnos en las clases de ELE. Asimismo, los profesores hispanoparlantes no son más conscientes sobre su uso de la lengua meta que los sueco parlantes. Las estrategias que predominan en la comunicación oral son el cambio de código y el lenguaje no verbal. Todos los profesores son conscientes de en qué grado y en qué contextos recurren al cambio de código, pero no de las diferentes maneras que existen para usarlo en la interacción oral con los alumnos. Los resultados indican también que los docentes hispanohablantes usan la comunicación no verbal como estrategia para apoyar la comunicación oral en mayor grado que los sueco parlantes, sea de modo consciente o no consciente.

Studiens syfte var att belysa vilka möjligheter förlagsproducerade läromedel för engelskämnet ger eleverna att utveckla sin kommunikativa kompetens i linje med läroplanens intentioner. För att uppfylla detta syfte ställdes två forskningsfrågor: hur möjligheten att öva de fyra förmåg­orna för språkinlärning fördelas i förlagsproducerade läromedel och på vilka sätt ut­veckling av elev­ernas kommunikativa kompetens möjliggörs i läromedlen. Sammanlagt nio textböcker och nio övningsböcker för årskurserna 4–6 från tre olika läromedelsserier (Skills, Sparks och Join the Quest) ingick i studien. Studiens metod var en kvalitativ innehållsanalys med kvantitativa in­slag. Övningarna kategoriserades efter vilken/vilka av de fyra förmågorna som övades och på vilket sätt förmågan övades (mekaniskt, meningsfullt eller kommunikativt). Resultatet visade att hörförståelse är den förmåga som får minst utrymme i alla tre läromedels­serier och i två av tre läromedelsserier övas hörförståelse inte en gång i ett kommunikativt syfte genom årskurs 4–6. Vissa läromedelsserier erbjuder eleverna mer kommuni­kativ övning av för­mågorna, medan vissa erbjuder mindre. En av de tre läromedelsserierna visar även på brister med att möjliggöra utveckling av de två potentiellt viktigaste förmågorna, hör­förståelse och den muntliga förmå­gan, i ett kommunikativt syfte. / The aim of this study was to illustrate the possibility of developing communicative competence with the help of English language teaching materials for grades 4-6. Two research questions were asked to fulfill the aim of the study: how the opportunity to develop the four language skills are distributed in commercial English language teaching materials and in what way dev­elopment of communicative competence is facilitated by using these teaching materials. A total of nine textbooks and nine exercise books for grades 4-6 from three different series (Skills, Sparks and Join the Quest) were included in this study. The methodological approach of this study was a qualitative content analysis with quantitative features. The exercises were catego­rized based on which of the four language skills that were practiced and how they were practiced (mechanical, meaningful, or communicative exercises). The result showed that listening comp­rehension is the least focused skill in all three series. In two out of three series, listening compre­hension is not practiced in a communicative way in either of the grades. Some series contain more communicative language exercises, while some contain less. One of the three series also shows shortcomings when it comes to developing the two potentially most important skills, listening comprehension and the oral skill, in a communicative way.

In many multilingual communities around the world, speakers need to choose, often at an unconscious level, which language to use in their interactions with other members of the community. One of the choices that bilingual speakers often make is to code switch; that is, speakers switch back and forth between languages (or varieties of the same language), even within the same utterance. This article reviews the major theoretical approaches that have been proposed to answer the question of why bilingual speakers choose to code switch.