Thesis (MPhil (Modern Foreign Languages))--Stellenbosch University, 2008.

Traditional mnemonic methods of teaching vocabulary in the Second Language (L2) classroom are not providing the students with sufficient vocabulary knowledge to facilitate effective communication, i.e. students do not use the words they have learnt for communication as textbook presentation and drill do not ensure student use of these same structures in the student’s own spontaneous expression (Savignon, 2000). The strategies to facilitate meaning-vocabulary1 learning as part of a wider outcome to teaching elements of functional communication in a multilingual society is not clearly defined in the Revised National Curriculum Statement (DoE, 2003). This research report set in a constructivist framework, will attempt to raise awareness in language teachers of a need to recognize the importance to facilitate meaning-vocabulary in L2 in OBE and collaborative learning. The aim of this research was therefore to find an effective strategy to facilitate collaborative L2 meaning-vocabulary learning to develop functional communication. The research question in this study was: * How can facilitators more effectively guide collaborative meaning-vocabulary learning to improve functional communication? Secondary questions to this study were: * Why do L2 facilitators not spend enough time on collaborative meaning-vocabulary learning? * What is the role of the facilitator in L2 collaborative meaning-vocabulary learning through communicative teaching strategies? * How should meaning-vocabulary be taught to ensure students acquire the ability to use the L2 critically and creatively in functional communicative situations outside the classroom? I have set my methodology in a qualitative paradigm, used an action research design, made use of interviews and interpreted the interviews to clarify the research topic by means of a ‘thick description’ (Henning, et al. 2004:142). The data used in this research were not only gathered from describing and analyzing the practices of the classroom community, but it also originated in real life classroom situations and both of these are characteristics of action research (Burns, 2000). I have used different data collection methods to ensure the validity of the findings and the recommendations. The methodology used to gather the data guided me to explore qualitative content analysis, grounded theory analysis and to a lesser extent discourse analysis. I have used these three methods to condense the data to find some meaning in the form to enable me to construct a theory around facilitating meaning-vocabulary learning, i.e. construct my own interpretive text. Qualitative content analysis was the basis for grounded theory analysis, while the discourse was dissected to find alternative proof for the findings. Some of the findings included guidelines which a teacher should keep in mind when facilitating meaning-vocabulary learning: 1. Know your students. 2. Keep meaning-vocabulary learning enjoyable – use different strategies when possible, but let them ‘construct’ their own knowledge. The students must ‘do’ something when they are learning meaning-vocabulary. 3. Encourage the students to use the words during functional communication exercises and essay writing. 4. Encourage the students to engage in their L2 inside and outside the classroom as often as possible, e.g. listen to radio, watch television, engage in conversation with friends or family in the L2. 5. Focus on meaning-vocabulary in communicative language. 6. Engage in conversation with your students as often as possible, not only about a theme or topic but also about their experiences and feelings in your classroom. 7. Use pictures to explain word meanings. Let them create their own images where possible. 8. Use the new meaning-vocabulary during discussions. / Mr. W.A. Janse van Rensburg

Este trabalho objetivou analisar os enunciados e vozes evocados nos processos discursivos dos estudantes do Curso de Letras de uma universidade pública no interior de Minas Gerais quando constroem representações sobre a escolha da habilitação no curso. Busco compreender como essa opção reflete na formação do sujeito enquanto professor pré-serviço e na sua relação com a língua. Para dar conta desta proposta, enuncio a partir do entremeio da Linguística Aplicada (LA), da Análise do Discurso de Linha Francesa (ADF) e dos estudos desenvolvidos pelo Círculo de Bakhtin. Ao estabelecer o diálogo entre esses campos preocupamo-nos com a linguagem em seu aspecto vivo e social. Nesse sentido, a relação estabelecida entre a LA, ADF e os estudos do Círculo de Bakhtin compreende que o funcionamento da língua produz sentidos, e é por meio da linguagem que os sujeitos deixam vir à tona as tensões na escolha do Curso de Letras no momento da enunciação. A Proposta AREDA – Análise de Ressonâncias Discursivas em Depoimentos Abertos (SERRANI, 1998) foi utilizada como suporte teórico metodológico para a coleta de dados. Em minha análise, os dizeres de cinco estudantes do Curso de Letras, a partir de sequências discursivas selecionadas, permitiram o estabelecimento dos axiomas discursivos e a mobilização de algumas noções como ressonância discursiva e memória discursiva. Partindo da hipótese de que a escolha por uma das habilitações (Espanhol, Francês, Inglês ou Português), no primeiro ano do Curso de Letras, é um momento de tensão em que os sujeitos, enquanto professores em formação inicial, se encontram em conflito ao tomarem uma decisão que marcará os anos seguintes de sua formação, bem como sua atuação como professor. Algumas inscrições discursivas desses estudantes em formação pré-serviço foram delineadas, a saber: i) a tensão na escolha do Curso de Letras, em que os estudantes deixam vir à tona a inscrição em um discurso de desprestígio do Curso de Letras que interpela a sua escolha profissional; ii) a relação com a língua materna antes e no Curso de Letras em que os sujeitos (d)enunciam o ensino aprendizagem insatisfatório de língua materna no ensino básico, a partir da ilusão de completude do domínio de Português no Curso de Letras; iii) a relação com as línguas estrangeiras antes e no Curso de Letras, em que os estudantes do curso enunciam sobre a facilidade na aprendizagem da língua estrangeira devido ao encontro anterior com as línguas estrangeiras antes do Curso de Letras; estabelecemos, também, a partir das regularidades enunciativas, tensões que constituem os estudantes do Curso de Letras e se estabelecem ao enunciarem sobre iv) o papel do Ciclo Básico na formação dos professores pré-serviço, em que os enunciadores, ao falarem do Ciclo Básico, trazem à tona a relação com a língua e apagam a formação docente. Por fim, ao enunciarem sobre v) a escolha da habilitação no Curso de Letras, os sujeitos, a partir de seus dizeres que se estabelecem no momento da escolha da habilitação, inscrevem-se em discursos que pautam sua escolha pela necessidade pragmática e pela anterioridade histórica do sujeito, que chega ao curso com a sua decisão por uma das línguas ofertadas já tomada. / This study aimed to analyze the statements and raised voices in the discursive processes when students of the Language and Literature Course of a public university in Minas Gerais (Brazil) build representations about the choice of the graduation in the Course, in order to understand how this choice reflects on the development of the subject as pre-service teacher and on their relationship with the language. To account for this proposal, I enunciated from Applied Linguistics (AL), from French Discourse Analysis (FDA) and from the studies developed by the Bakhtin Circle. By establishing dialogue between these fields, we are concerned with language in its living and social aspects. In this sense, the relationship established between AL, FDA and the studies of the Bakhtin Circle understands that the language in operation produces senses, and it is through language that the subjects surface tensions in the choice of Language and Literature Course at the time of enunciation. The AREDA Proposal– Resonances Discourse Analysis in Open Testimonials (SERRANI, 1998) was used as a methodological theoretical support for data collection. In my analysis, the speeches of five students from the Language and Literature Course, from selected discursive sequences, allowed the establishment of discursive axioms and the mobilization of some notions such as discursive resonance and discursive memory. It is considered that the choice for one of the graduations (Spanish, French, English or Portuguese) in the first year of the Language and Literature Course is a moment of tension, in which the subjects as teachers in initial development are in conflict when taking a decision that will define the following years of his/her graduation and his/her performance as a teacher. Some discursive enrollment of these students in pre-service training were outlined, such as: i) the tension in the choice of Language and Literature Course, in which students surface the enrollment in a disrepute Course that challenges their professional choice; ii) the relationship with the mother tongue before and in the Language and Literature Course, in which subjects enunciate and report the unsatisfactory learning of mother tongue education in primary school, from the illusion of Portuguese completeness domain in Language and Literature Course; iii) the relationship with foreign languages before and in the Language and Literature Course, in which the students of the Course enunciate on the ease in learning the foreign language because of the previous meeting with foreign languages before the Language and Literature Course; we also established, from the enunciative regularities, tensions that constitute the students of Language and Literature Course and are settled to enunciate about iv) the role of the basic cycle in the training of pre-service teachers, in which the subject when speaking about the basic cycle evidences the relationship with the language and erases the teacher training. Finally, when enunciating on v) the choice of the graduation on the Language and Literature Course, the subjects, from their utterances, which are established at the time of the graduation choice (Spanish, French, English and Portuguese), enroll in speeches that guide their choices of pragmatic necessity and the historical precedence of the subject, who comes to the Course with his/her decision in one of the languages offered already taken. / Dissertação (Mestrado)