This research investigated two aspects of intuition: preference and process. The underlying basis of preference for intuition defined by Jung in his theory of psychological types and measured by the sensing-intuition (SN) scale of the Myers- Briggs Type Indicator was explored in two areas: performance on ability tests and individual differences in use of intuition. Process of intuition is defined as the use of unconscious associations to guide decision making. A thinking aloud protocol technique was used to investigate differences in strategy between sensing and intuitive types on two ability tests. Test instructions and conditions were varied to investigate whether preference or ability underlies this difference. Results indicated that the SN difference is best characterised as a focus on different types of information - concrete reality vs. looking beyond reality to patterns, connections and possibilities. The finding that sensing types could modify their style suggested that this is due to a personality preference that can be overridden rather than an underlying ability difference. The nature of the SN difference was further explored by examining the differences predicted by type theory between the types in the use of intuition. This prediction contrasts with some process theories of intuition which expect few or no individual differences. Results indicated that intuitive types were more accurate and more likely to choose to use intuition than sensing types. Results suggested that preference for different types of information led to use of different strategies on the tasks. Intuitive types tended to focus on feelings of familiarity, which resulted in their accessing intuition in the form of unconsciously learnt associations. Sensing types preferred to focus on concrete information such as conscious memory of prior experience. The research has made contributions by evaluating the theory of psychological types, validating the sensing-intuition scale, and also by demonstrating the existence of individual differences in certain measures of intuition.

Mémoire numérisé par la Division de la gestion de documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal.

Mémoire numérisé par la Division de la gestion de documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal

Made available in DSpace on 2016-06-02T20:25:00Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 DissSPE.pdf: 993314 bytes, checksum: 979ffb4878aaf229085ece40596fbffd (MD5) Previous issue date: 2007-09-27 / This study approaches the present perfect simple (PP) in English, a verb structure that does not have a semantic equivalent in Brazilian Portuguese language. This fact brings out teaching and learning issues that one occasionally tries to answer. Frequently taught through out of context sentences and treated in grammar and language teaching books in a fragmented way, through confusing and haphazard explanations, this structure is difficult for Brazilian English learners to grasp. Although morphologically similar to the compound past tense in Portuguese, once both are formed by have and the past participle of a given verb, it is acknowledged that these structures do not always operate in the same way. Besides the concept of Tense, the PP also bears strong aspectual information which is rarely taken into consideration in its teaching, but essential for its understanding. With this in mind, this investigation goal was to analyze if a contextual approach facilitates the comprehension of the notion of Aspect underlying the PP. The experiment consisted of two distinct tasks, one structural and another contextual, and also a questionnaire with questions concerning some verb structures. Based on verbal protocols technique, the participants, 20 English language students attending the last year of Language College in two public universities in the state of São Paulo, were instructed to verbalize their thoughts while performing the tasks. The results are favorable to the use of contextual activities in the understanding of the aspectual feature that underlies the meaning of the PP, since this type of approach seems to attenuate the difficulties found by learners when carrying out tasks involving several verb structures, therefore providing greater possibility of focusing in aspectual features and less in temporality. / Este estudo visa a problematizar a questão do ensino-aprendizagem e aquisição do present perfect simples (PP) em inglês, estrutura verbal que não possui equivalente semântico na língua portuguesa. Freqüentemente ensinada de forma fragmentada e abordada em gramáticas e livros didáticos de maneira descontextualizada e por meio de explicações confusas e incompatíveis, tal estrutura é de difícil compreensão para aprendizes brasileiros. Mesmo sendo morfologicamente análoga ao pretérito perfeito composto do português, já que ambas são formadas pelo verbo ter + particípio passado de algum verbo qualquer, sabe-se que elas nem sempre operam da mesma forma. Além da noção de Tempo, o PP carrega também forte informação aspectual, que é raramente abordada em seu ensino, porém essencial para seu entendimento. Com isso em mente, o intuito deste estudo foi analisar em que medida uma abordagem contextual facilita a compreensão da questão de Aspecto subjacente ao PP e a partir disso apontar alguns caminhos para seu ensino. O experimento, realizado com 20 alunos do último ano do curso de Letras com habilitação na língua inglesa de duas universidades públicas do interior de São Paulo, constou de duas tarefas distintas, uma de base estrutural e outra contextual, além de um questionário com perguntas acerca de algumas estruturas verbais. Tendo como base a técnica de protocolos verbais, os participantes foram instruídos a verbalizar seus pensamentos quando realizavam as tarefas. Os resultados obtidos se mostram favoráveis ao uso de atividades contextualizadas no entendimento da noção de Aspecto que abarca o PP, uma vez que esse tipo de tratamento parece amenizar as dificuldades encontradas pelos aprendizes ao realizarem uma tarefa que envolve diversas estruturas verbais, pois proporciona uma maior possibilidade de focar na questão aspectual e menos na temporal.

(English) The dissertation presents the findings of a mixed method research project aimed at analysing the process of reading in Modern Standard Arabic. Think aloud method represents the main instrument for collecting qualitative data in the form of verbal reports that the students produce while taking a test of reading comprehension. The test is used as an instrument for distinguishing good and poor readers whose reading strategies are analysed using protocol analyses. The resulting codes of reading strategies are then categorized and their specificities are discussed at length. Key words: Modern Standard Arabic, Arabic as a second language, construct of reading, reading comprehension, proficiency testing, reading aloud, reading strategies, think aloud, verbal protocols, validity.