The purpose of this paper is to investigate what pupils who study Spanish as a foreignlanguage in the senior level of the nine year compulsory school, think about how theylearn to talk Spanish. What is their opinion about what it takes to be able to speak andcommunicate in Spanish? And what type of exercises do they prefer? This paper alsoaims at investigating if the pupils understand the importance of reading, writing andlistening to as much Spanish as possible if they want to be good at talking Spanish. Inour investigation are we using the Common European Framework of Reference forlanguages: Learning, Teaching, Assessment (CEFR) and other theories that supporttheir conclusions. A quantitative method is applied, a questionnaire is given to 108students in the seventh, eighth and ninth grade in a school in the southern part ofSweden.The results of the questionnaire have shown that when it comes to learn to talkSpanish the pupils believe most in practicing talking in Spanish. 72% of the pupils haveanswered that they agree completely with this assertion. They also understand theimportance of the teacher speaking Spanish during class, 58% completely agree that thisis important. Talking Spanish is classed as output, and listening to the teacher talkingSpanish goes under the term input. The type of activity that they prefer when they talkSpanish is to talk in small groups with friends/classmates, 38% of the pupils think thatthis is the best method. The activity that they prefer the least is to make presentations infront of the class (11%). We have also calculated by using Fisher´s exact test if there isa connection between how they have answered the questions and their age and gender.In only one case was there a connection with statistical certainty. The test showed thatwhen it comes to speaking when everyone is listening, the girls are those whoexperience it hardest to do.

The main objective of this thesis is to describe category of reflexivity in Czech language based on Russian language material, followed by design and formation of language handbook to category of reflexivity for foreign students of Czech language for A1 - B2 levels in accordance with Common European Framework of Reference for Languages: Learning, teaching, assessment (CEFR). In the theoretical part individual aspects in category of reflexivity in Czech language are described. Mainly reflexive form of verbs, reflexive deagentive forms and reflexive verbs. The proposal of our own clasification category of reflexivity comes after and it incorporates explored material, which is systemized for design and formation of educational materials. The main target of the practical part is to design and form language handbook to category of reflexivity in Czech language. After the analysis of current educational materials we realized category of reflexivity is not taken in consideration enough, sometimes it is missing at all. In the process of creation of the educational material itself we followed the current methodological base CEFR for Czech language as foreign language. We defined grammar and lexical competences for individual A1, A2, B1, B2 levels in accordance with CEFR. Based on all above rules four...

La présente recherche, qui s’inscrit à la croisée de la linguistique, de la didactique deslangues et du traitement automatique des langues, se focalise sur la problématique d’un côtédu classement des supports textuels utilisés dans le cadre de l’apprentissage du françaislangue étrangère (FLE) et de l’autre côté de l’analyse des divers critères nécessaires à ceclassement.Notre analyse se base principalement sur le critère lexical, déterminant dans leprocessus de la lecture. Ainsi, nous nous sommes interrogé, à partir d’un échantillon desupports textuels, préalablement sélectionnés dans les manuels de FLE, si une telleclassification est viable. De ce fait, on a procédé à l’analyse de ces textes du point de vue deleur correspondance avec les niveaux établis par le Cadre européen commun de référence(CECR) (niveaux A1 à B2) et cela à l’aide des inventaires développés dans les Référentielspour le français.La première partie développe une réflexion sur l’interdisciplinarité, les supportstextuels, les typologies des textes et les référentiels, en essayant de voir à quel pointl’approche par le lexique se justifie afin de devenir le critère principal d’une telleclassification.La seconde partie nous amène à l’analyse de la correspondance des supports textuelsavec les niveaux du CECR à partir du critère lexical, à l’aide d’outils informatiques, et celadans la perspective d’étudier quelles sont les possibilités de pouvoir élaborer un corpusdynamique des supports textuels utilisable dans le cadre du FLE. / This research paper, situated at the crossroads of linguistics, language teaching andautomated language processing tools, focuses firstly on the classification of the textualmaterials used in the teaching of French as a Foreign Language (FFL), and secondly on theanalysis of the various criteria required for such a classification.Our analysis centres chiefly on the lexical criterion, the determining factor in thereading process. Starting from a pre-selected sample of textual materials drawn from FFLmaterials, we therefore set out to determine whether a classification along these lines wasviable. To this end, we analysed these texts from the point of view of their correspondencewith the levels drawn up by the Common European Framework of References (CEFR), levelsA1 to B2, using the inventories developed in the Reference Frameworks for French.In the first part, we consider the questions of interdisciplinarity, textual materials, texttypologies and reference frameworks, by seeking to determine to what extent the lexicalapproach may justifiably be adopted as the chief criterion of this classification.In the second part, we use information technologies to analyse the correspondencebetween the textual materials and the CEFR levels based on the lexical criterion, with a viewto examining the scope for developing a dynamic corpus of textual materials for use in FFL.

Quelle place ont la culture et la littérature dans les méthodes actuelles d’enseignement-apprentissage des langues étrangères ? Comment transmettre ces compétences en accord avec les manuels de FLE en Espagne et remotiver ainsi les apprenants envers la langue française? Voici les questions principales auxquelles nous essaierons de répondre tout au long de ce travail. Tout d’abord, nous réfléchirons à propos de diverses problématiques constatées dans le domaine de la didactique du FLE dans notre pays.Cela sera suivi d’une réflexion sur les caractéristiques qui font de la littérature –particulièrement la littérature de l’intime– une source très riche pour enseigner la culture étrangère dans toutes ses dimensions, en établissant parallèlement des liens avec la culture maternelle de l’apprenant. Ensuite, à partir de l’analyse de plusieurs textes autobiographiques d’un corpus d’ouvrages de M. Proust, R. Queneau, G. Perec et A.Ernaux, nous proposerons une méthodologie didactique pour enseigner le FLE à partir de textes autobiographiques. Enfin, nous présenterons des propositions pratiques, sur la base de certains textes de ce corpus, qui ont été essayées dans plusieurs contextes éducatifs en Espagne. / This work fits into the broader study of languages and cultural didactics. This is the result of one Action-Research project of 6 years having taken place in several school contexts in Spain. Our main aim is to answer to the following questions: What place is offered to culture and literature by foreign languages teaching and learning methodologies for today? How could these skills be transmitted according to Spanish methods to teaching French as a foreign language? First of all the notion of culture will be considered as well as some of the several problems caused by it in the field of FFL in Spain.Secondly, we will analyse some of the reasons which make Personal literature a very rich source to teach culture in all its dimensions and in parallel with mother culture thought a corpus of M. Proust, R.Queneau, G. Perec and A. Ernaux. To finish, a few ideas so as to work around some texts of these authors will be given.

The diploma thesis focuses on integration of the Cross-Cutting Theme of Media Education in the English language teaching at grammar schools. The theoretical part defines the concept of media, incorporates Media Education in the Czech educational environment and presents its thematic areas. Further on, the thesis deals with educational fields of the Framework Education Programme and the common reference levels B1 and B2 according to The Common European Framework of Reference for Languages. The thesis also focuses on the methodical approach of the teaching of Media Education, then on the educational sources and the system of the approval clauses for English language textbooks of the Ministery of Education. The practical part deals with analysis of the English language textbooks for secondary general education and their activities that focus on Media Education. Then the practical part presents the corpus of suggested activities created on the basis of recommended expected outcomes of Media Education and their integration in the English language teaching at grammar schools.

The thesis presents a multi-aspectual analysis of simplified fiction at the B2 and C1 levels and their original counterparts. It aims to explore the simplification and language transformation performed on authentic texts to adapt them to particular CEFR levels. The thesis also endeavors to provide an insight into whether there are common linguistic features that characterize authentic and adapted texts of different levels, thus helping teachers and learners justify their choice between original and simplified texts. Based on the theoretical framework, the thesis provides an analysis of a specialized corpus of six texts which is comprised of the first chapters of the two original novels and their simplified versions adapted to the B2 and C1 levels by two different publishers. Each sample was subjected to scrutiny of selected linguistic features, thus unveiling the tendencies in the language, discourse, and information control in the graded readers. Consequently, the results of the text analysis were contrasted with CEFR to compare the actual text complexity with its assigned CEFR level. The results of the analysis seem to indicate certain discrepancies in this respect. Keywords: CEFR, specialized corpus, graded readers, authentic texts, simplification, language control, discourse control,...

The geographical locations of foreign language French learners are as diverse as their needs. Consequently, teaching material in any French foreign language classroom should be revised on a regular basis. In 2012, a newly developed Creative Expression programme, which consists of a combination of African francophone music and creative writing activities, was presented to the second-year students at the French Department of the University of Pretoria, South Africa. The objective was to explore the potential of combining the use of music and creative writing in the hope that the new programme would enrich the current second-year course. Factors that contributed to the development and organisation of the programme included: the progression in the international context with regard to the French language, accentuating the importance of francophone Africa with regard to the expansion and preservation of French; the widely recognised teaching approach in foreign language French teaching (FLE), being the Approche actionnelle; reevaluating the use of song and creative writing activities in the FLE classroom and lastly, the departmental needs at the University of Pretoria. In this study, the researcher explains in detail how the Creative Expression programme was designed and also how a group of research participants experienced the classes. The following data sources and artefacts were collected: student interviews, journals and creative pieces of writing, the lecturer’s teaching diary and the teaching material of the programme. Qualitative methodologies were followed to analyse the artefacts and uncover themes that represent students’ experience of the programme. Student suggestions with regard to the programme were also incorporated in the analysis. The findings of this study demonstrate that students experienced the Creative Expression programme as contributing to the following: social interaction; the imaginative use of the French language; the development of four principal language skills (speaking, reading, listening, writing); a heightened francophone cultural awareness and a better understanding of the content of their Grammar and Cultural Texts classes. The music also lowered the students’ anxiety levels, which made them more receptive to engage in the creative writing activities. This, in turn, developed their creative expressive capacities. It is concluded that it is in fact the combination of music and creative writing in FLE that brings forth and bridges the following two notions: “Creating a non-threatening environment” and “Learning to express affect”, which are two very topical areas in FLE pedagogy. / Dissertation (MA)--University of Pretoria, 2015. / tm2015 / Modern European Languages / MA / Unrestricted

This study aims at exploring the quality of the Swedish and Norwegian national tests using their respective model texts for assessing. The study does so by relating them to the CEFR and the grading tool Write & Improve within the context of the two countries and the field of language testing. The study finds there to be a set of inconsistences between what the national tests want to do and what they actually do. In particular, the study finds the Swedish national test not to be up to its own standards.

The present study examines and classifies learning activities found in teaching materials of Spanish as a foreign language produced for a Swedish context with the aim of determining to what extent they conform to the functional, action-oriented language view advocated by the Swedish curriculum. Both the distribution of learning activities within receptive, productive and interactive skills, the activity types within each skill, and the theoretical underpinnings of the activities have been studied in four popular coursebooks and two websites for teaching Spanish as a foreign language. The activities analyzed have shown a dominance of the written language even in oral activities. The results have also shown a bias towards more controlled, non-communicative activities with an explicit focus on forms at the expense of freer communicative activities with a primary focus on meaning, known to support language acquisition.

Title: The Use of Connectors in the Texts of Non-Native Speakers of Czech Author: Pavel Pečený Department: Institute of Czech Language and Theory of Communication Faculty of Arts, Charles University Supervisor: doc. RNDr. Vladimír Petkevič, CSc. Abstract Over the last few years two learner corpora of authentic texts of non-native speakers of Czech have originated (MERLIN Corpus and CzeSL Corpus), giving linguists an important source of data for researching Czech as a foreign language. Ergo, for the first time it is possible to carry out the language analysis of non-native speakers of Czech using tools of corpus linguistics to formulate evidence-based research findings. The presented thesis uses that as well, focussing on the study and description of the use of connectors in the written text production of non-native speakers of Czech, being primarily based on evidence from the learner MERLIN Corpus, which as opposed to other corpora is characterized by linking written text production reliably to the proficiency levels of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR), including the levels of A2-B2. At the same time, it also contains a text error annotation, thus enabling to ascertain what effect the language proficiency has on the extent of the repertoire and frequency of using connectors,...