This report investigates the use of authentic readings and videos to teach Portuguese language and culture in the foreign language classroom. It starts with a discussion of the current state of the field about definitions of culture, their pedagogical implications and some approaches to teaching culture in the foreign language classroom. This discussion is followed by a review of recent research supporting the use of authentic videos and films to teach the target language and culture concomitantly, and a thorough description of the Brazilian literary genre of crônica, based upon the works of preeminent Brazilian literary critics and historians. The report ends with a unit design proposal based on the literature reviewed and grounded in second language acquisition theories and research. The proposed innovative approach that incorporates authentic non-scripted videos and literary readings, such as crônicas, provides a strong support to teachers that seek to teach cultural perspectives as well as products and practices in the foreign language classroom. / text

Thesis (M.A.)--Indiana University, 2008. / Title from screen (viewed on August 27, 2009). Department of English, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI). Advisor(s): Ulla Connor, Aye Nu E. Duerksen, Honnor Orlando. Includes vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 68-70).

This thesis project proposed the building of a website as a repository of authentic texts in video format for teaching foreign or second languages. The project planned the building of a minimal viable product or MVP with authentic videos both in English and Spanish, organized by the ACTFL levels with particular attention to the Intermediate level. Data were collected from a survey of 42 respondents in the United States and 89 combined from Spain and Mexico. The responses collected suggest that there is a need for this MVP. Additionally, the data indicated which features were most wanted by these teachers. These features included lesson plans, turn on and off captions, tag and save videos, and a dashboard for teachers. As a result, these features were included in the MVP.

The aim of this thesis is to elucidate how English teachers in Sweden choose what materials to use in the classroom and how they benefit students. In order to accomplish this, I studied a variety of theories that deal with the subject of using traditional teaching aids versus authentic materials. Four interviews with English teachers of different backgrounds and experiences were conducted. I analysed the results of the interviews in conjunction with the theories. My conclusion is that teachers use different materials based on a combination of experiences and preferences. However, due to the limited number of interviewees in this study, it is not possible to draw any general conclusions. Nevertheless, it seems probable that new and inexperienced teachers seek comfort in traditional teaching aids such as textbooks and accessories, while experienced teachers lean towards incorporating authentic materials in their teaching to a larger extent. The experienced interviewees feel that authentic materials enable students to learn in an environment where they forget that they are actually ‘learning’. Instead, English becomes the natural means of communication. However, most interviewees agreed that time constraints sometimes make it difficult to incorporate authentic materials in the classroom. It is my own conclusion that authentic materials provide teachers with a never-ending source of inspiration that has the potential to revitalize and even reinvent the profession.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / This research project evaluated four reading projects and their authentic materials. The projects were used in a U.S. university ESP program for post-bachelor Afghan students. By utilizing field-related American biographies, online academic articles, various news articles, field-specific article databases, and short fiction for in-depth reading and writing projects, the Afghan students’ reading performances proved and disproved the relevance and importance of these authentic materials as ways to improve their IBT TOEFL reading scores and academic reading proficiencies related to their future work at a U.S. graduate school. Data were collected and evaluated from three TOEFL scores and an in-depth, post program survey.

國立政治大學英國語文學系在職碩士班 碩士論文提要 論文名稱：使用真實語料做為高中生英語聽力輔助教材之個案研究 指導教授：彭欽清 研究生：林宜如 論文提要內容： 本研究旨在分析探討以廣播真實語料 (authentic broadcast materials) 做為台灣高中生英語聽力輔助教材之可能性，並兼論不同題型設計 (task types) 對不同程度學生聽力表現上的影響，以期能夠提供高中英語教師在英聽教學教材上的另一選擇及英聽測驗的方針。 實驗對象為41位高一學生。學生在學期初以全民英檢聽力測驗結果分為高、中、低三種程度，並接受為期十週的廣播英聽訓練。實驗過程中搭配以不同測驗題型來協助並檢視學生英聽理解力。學期結束前再以同樣之英檢試題做為後測。 本研究採用質與量的分析方法。質的分析涵蓋：（一）實驗對象的英文學習背景；（二）學生英聽困難的分析；（三）學生對選材及不同題型的看法。量的分析則以SPSS統計法，包括（一）前後測統計數值的差異；（二）取材（text types）與後測英聽成效的關係；（三）題型（task types）與後測英聽成效的關係。 研究結果發現：受試者在收聽廣播真實語料上最大的困難在於速度及連音。但經過廣播真實語料的英聽訓練後，高程度組不但在後測表現上有明顯進步，且較習慣於外國人的速度及連音，並能接受更長篇的真實語料。至於題型設計對英聽成效影響不大，但是，從學生問卷發現，高程度者認為克漏字題型較有助於英聽訓練，而中、低程度者則都認為選擇題較有助於英聽訓練。最後，本研究提出一些英語聽力教學上的建議：（一）教學初期只要求學生達到重要但簡單的基本目標；（二）教導學生分辨中英文語言的差異以及口說與書寫英文的不同特性；（三）設計多樣化的題型。最後，希望本研究能對台灣的高中英語聽力教學有所助益。 / ABSTRACT This study aims chiefly at the feasibility of using authentic English broadcast programs as supplementary materials in listening comprehension training for EFL senior high school students. It also discusses the effect of different task types on different proficiency levels in English listening comprehension performance, in the hope that the research would provide other alternative of supplementary listening materials and test designs as a reference for senior high school teachers. The research is conducted among 41first-year senior high school students. In the beginning of the first semester in fall, 2002, the subjects were divided into three proficiency levels (high, middle and low) according to the results of their performance on the GEPT listening comprehension as a pretest. Then they were given a ten-week authentic English broadcast listening training. During the course of training, different task types were provided to evaluate students’ listening proficiency and to help them to the focus of the test. At the end of the semester, the same GEPT listening task was administered as a posttest. The research adopts both qualitative and quantitative data analyses. Qualitative analyses consist of (1) the subjects’ English learning background, (2) the English listening comprehension difficulties encountered by the subjects, and (3) students’ views on different test and task types. By using SPSS, the quantitative analyses incorporate (1) the difference of statistical values between the pretest and posttest, (2) the correlation between text types and proficiency performance on the posttest, and (3) the correlation between task types and proficiency performance on the posttest. The research has found out that in listening to authentic English broadcast, the major difficulties encountered by the subjects are speed and linkage. Nevertheless, after the ten-week systematic training, the high-achievers are found to have improved obviously in their posttest performance. Little by little the subjects, especially the high-achievers, are not only adapted to the speed and linkage in authentic speech but also used to longer utterance by native speakers. Furthermore, it is also found in the research that the task types have little effect on the subjects’ listening performance. However, from the analysis of the subjects’ feedback questionnaire, the research has found that high-proficiency students reveal that cloze test types are helpful for the training of listening comprehension, while the middle- and low-achievers prefer the multiple choices. It is suggested that in teaching English listening comprehension teachers should (1) start with requiring students to achieve the basic goals the teacher considers essential in comprehension certain types of tasks, (2) teach students to differentiate the features between English and Chinese as well as those between spoken English and written English, and (3) design diverged types of tasks for students to practice listening skills. It is hoped that this research would make some contribution to English listening comprehension teaching in senior high schools in Taiwan.

TITLE: Multimedia applications in French language teaching SUMMARY: This thesis describes the possibilities of using tablets as educational devices within learning French as a foreign language. The work has a theoretical part and a practical part. In the theoretical part the role of information and communication technologies (ICT) in the educational process is defined. Tablet is characterized and classified in the system of didactic tools. Studies that have dealt with the teaching and learning via tablets are presented and programmes that enable equipping schools with these devices are mentioned. The way of teaching is transforming due to the upcoming educational technology and also the teacher's role in the process of education is changing. The practical part provides a critical review of the applications available in the App Store, which can be used for the development of different language skills in French class and beyond. Furthermore the thesis offers methodological instructions as a teacher's support. Through these materials, lessons containing work with authentic French applications could be introduced in class. The contribution of this thesis is thus both a critical review of selected educational applications that can serve as basic information for newcomers to the environment of multimedia...

Master of Arts / Department of Modern Languages / Douglas Benson / The principal objective of this paper is to provide a thematic teaching unit that explores the Aztec, Incan and Mayan cultures of Latin America, designed for a level II Spanish course. It contains theoretical underpinnings for teaching language, culture and literature while incorporating concepts related to the development of communicative competence; processing instruction; the use of scaffolding in the zone of proximal development; target language instruction; and the inclusion of authentic materials and language in the classroom. The classroom management strategies explained and used throughout the unit include pre, during and post-reading activities; small group activities that help to develop communicative competence through negotiation of meaning and interactional feedback; focused tasks and collaborative output tasks; the use of structured input, structured output and information exchange; the PACE approach to grammar teaching; and the incorporation of authentic aural and written texts. Lesson plans for an eighteen day unit consisting of 40 minute classes are outlined; the lesson objective, necessary materials, time needed for each activity, and expected results of each lesson are included. Each lesson activity is made clear through a description of the activity and instructions for the teacher. The daily lesson plans contain authentic and teacher-created materials that can be found in the appendices section. At the end of the thematic unit, students complete cumulative activities that relate indigenous cultures to present-day life in Latin America through investigating the influence of Aztec words on the Spanish and English languages, analyzing a poem about Peru, and reading an article about discrimination against Mayan descendants in Central America, Mexico and the U.S.

<p dir="ltr">Suprasegmental features (i.e., features realized through pitch, volume, and/or duration changes) are particularly difficult for second language learners. This has led to the creation of many different methods of training, often employing the use of experimenter or instructor-created training materials. However, the use of authentic materials for training suprasegmental features remains underexplored. Authentic materials have recently been shown to be useful for some aspects of language learning, such as communicative competence and listening comprehension, while their usefulness for training suprasegmental features remains unclear.</p><p dir="ltr">This dissertation explores the potential usefulness of authentic materials for training two suprasegmental features, second language (L2) lexical tone in Mandarin and L2 lexical pitch accent in Japanese. For each language, participants were divided into an authentic group and an inauthentic group based on the type of materials they were exposed to during a shadowing task. Participants then used words they shadowed in a visual feedback task, which was chosen due to visual feedback’s previously proven usefulness for training these two features.</p><p dir="ltr">For each language, L2 productions at the pretest, posttest, and delayed posttest were compared to first language (L1) productions using a previously established analysis known as the <i>CID </i>measure analysis. The resulting time-series plots, <i>CID </i>measures, magnitudes (pitch height), and phases (timing), were analyzed to determine which group, authentic or inauthentic, performed in a more L1-like way at the posttest compared to the pretest. Results suggest that the authentic group outperformed the inauthentic group for three out of four Mandarin tones, and three out of seven Japanese pitch accent patterns. These results begin to show support for the usefulness of authentic materials, with experimental and pedagogical implications for researchers and learners of Mandarin and Japanese.</p>

O principal objetivo desta dissertação é investigar, dos pontos de vista teórico e prático, o processo de didatização de textos autênticos no âmbito do ensino do italiano como língua estrangeira (LE). Quanto aos aspectos teóricos, procuramos apresentar as definições dos termos material didático, material autêntico e didatização. Procuramos, também, enfatizar a importância dos textos autênticos no processo de ensino-aprendizagem do italiano LE. Para alicerçar nosso trabalho, baseamo-nos na Teoria da Aprendizagem Significativa, de David Ausubel, na Teoria de Aquisição de Segunda Língua, de Stephen Krashen, e na Linguística Textual. A primeira consiste em uma teoria do âmbito da educação em geral e explica a importância dos conhecimentos prévios dos alunos no processo de ensino-aprendizagem. A segunda é uma teoria da área de aquisição/aprendizagem de línguas e interessa-nos, particularmente, pelo conceito de input compreensível. Já a terceira consiste em uma vertente da Linguística cujo objeto de estudo é o texto, que é considerado um instrumento resultante de processos cognitivos e de interações sociais. Essas três teorias têm bases cognitivistas e ofereceram-nos subsídios para a elaboração desta dissertação. Tentamos mostrar, com base em tais teorias, que a didatização de materiais autênticos pode ser uma maneira de oferecer insumo compreensível aos alunos e favorecer a aprendizagem significativa da língua-alvo por parte deles. No tocante aos aspectos práticos, por sua vez, realizamos uma pesquisa com os estudantes e com os professores do Italiano no Campus, curso de difusão cultural da Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas da Universidade de São Paulo, no qual demos aulas de 2009 a 2011. Ademais, descrevemos algumas atividades que construímos com base em materiais autênticos e que utilizamos em uma classe de nível elementar (A1 do Quadro Comum Europeu de Referência para as Línguas). Essa pesquisa consiste em dois questionários: o que elaboramos para os alunos contém dezenove perguntas, e o que fizemos para os professores possui apenas quatro questões. A análise das respostas dos discentes, bem como a análise das respostas dos docentes parece ter evidenciado que os materiais que mais interessam aos alunos são, geralmente, aqueles que o professor mais utiliza em suas aulas. Os comentários dos aprendizes corroboram o que postulam muitos teóricos da pedagogia de línguas, isto é, que é importante que o professor de LE não use apenas o livro didático (LD) e que, para os discentes, a variedade de materiais e atividades pode tornar as aulas mais motivantes. A análise das respostas dos docentes parece ter mostrado que, na opinião dos professores, faz-se necessário utilizar outros materiais além do manual didático, mas que este ocupa, ainda, um lugar central no processo de ensino-aprendizagem do italiano LE. Com base nos dados analisados, parece-nos que essa centralidade deva-se, sobretudo, a três motivos: a obrigatoriedade do uso do LD; o fato de este ser uma referência para os aprendizes; e a praticidade desse instrumento aliada à falta de tempo que o professor tem para selecionar outros materiais e elaborar suas próprias atividades. / The main purpose of this thesis is to investigate, from the theoretical and practical point of view, the process of didactization of authentic texts in the teaching of Italian as foreign language (FL). Regarding the theoretical aspects, we have attempted to present the definition of the terms didactic material, authentic material and didactization. We also have sought to emphasize the importance of authentic texts in the process of teaching-learning Italian as a foreign language. In order to establish a foundation for our work, we have based it on David Ausubels Theory of Meaningful Learning, on Stephen Krashens Theory of Second Language Acquisition, and on Textual Linguistics. The first consists of a theory of the scope of education in general and explains the importance of the students previous knowledge in the teaching-learning process. The second is a theory in acquisition/learning of languages and interests us especially because of the concept of comprehensible input. The latter consists of a branch in Linguistics whose purpose is the study of the text, which is considered an instrument that results from cognitive processes and social interactions. These three theories have cognitivist bases and provide us with tools for the development of this work. We have tried to show, based on such theories, that the didactization of authentic materials can be a way to provide comprehensible input to the students and to favor the meaningful learning of the target-language by them. Regarding the practical aspects, we have conducted a research with the students and teachers of Italian in the campus, the cultural dissemination course at the Faculty of Philosophy, Languages and Human Sciences at the University of São Paulo, in which we have taught from 2009 to 2011. Also, we have described some activities we developed that were based on authentic materials, which we used in an elementary level class (A1 from the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages). This research comprises of two questionnaires: the one with the students includes nineteen questions and the one conducted with the teachers includes four questions. The analysis of the students answers and the analysis of the teachers answers show that the materials that most interest the students are the ones used the most by the teachers in classes. The apprentices comments corroborate what is postulated by many theoreticians in language teaching, i.e., it is important for the FL teacher not to be restricted to the textbook, and for the student, the variety of materials and activities might render the classes more captivating. The analysis of the teachers answers seems to show that in their opinion it is necessary to use other materials apart from the teaching manual, which still occupies a central position in the process of teaching-learning Italian as foreign language. Based on the analyzed data, it seems to us that this centrality has three reasons: the obligation to use the textbook; the fact that the textbook is a reference for the apprentices; and the practical aspect of this tool connected to the teachers lack of time to choose other materials and create their own activities.