Zugl.: Basel., Univ., Diss.

Thesis (M.A.T.) -- School for International Training, 2006. / Advisor -- Pat Moran Includes bibliographical references (leaves 90-91).

This pilot study attempts to assess the correlation between language ability and a projective Tree-drawing test. The hypothesis tested is that expounded by Sandra Michel, a psychologist working with Dr. A. A. Tomatis at the Language Centre in Paris. The theory of Language from which her work derives is that put forward by A. A. Tomatis in Vers l'écoute humaine (Towards Human Hearing), (1977) and Education and Dyslexia trans . , Louise Guiney, (1972). This hypothesis states that the Tree-drawing can give a clear indication of the kind of dialogue the testee will be able and willing to use. The claims for projective Tree-drawing 'tests' or techniques have been mainly concerned with personality or psychological assessments and sometimes with intelligence testing since Charles Koch first began his work in this field in the early forties. Sandra Michel in "The Tree Test", translated by T . Brown, (unpublished paper), Tomatis Centre (Scarbrough, Ontario, 1980) discusses a Tree-drawing scale that indicates both the developmental level of the child's language ability and his/her motivation towards dialogue and communication at this level. To test this hypothesis a sample of 1094 Tree-drawings was used. The drawings were done by Primary School children of both sexes from Sub. A. to Std . 5, collected over four years of research. These drawings were studied to see if the Tree scale of drawings described by Michel did in fact occur and if they occurred in the sequence she suggests. As a result of these preliminary investigations a developmental scale was devised and proposed as a refinement of Michel's scale. Scores from these two Tree-scales were correlated with English language scores using Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficient and the Spearman Rank techniques. The sample for this correlation study was a group of 54 Std. 5 pupils whose English language ability was evaluated by (i) a school English Examination mark, (ii) a Questionnaire scoring receptive and expressive language behaviours and (iii) Verbal I.Q. scores. The positive correlation between these language scores and the Tree-drawing projective test scores are discussed and the implications for English language teaching and suggestions for further research mentioned.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-12-17T15:06:47Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 LeoSF.pdf: 504692 bytes, checksum: e9ed8970e5326f3dc76a1e7d96ff479e (MD5) Previous issue date: 2010-02-26 / This paper aims, starting with the studies of languages in contact and communicative competence, to locate and describe the interlanguage, a linguistic phenomenon observed in the interaction between beach sellers and foreign tourists. We seek to discover whether those interacting use some kind of pidgin, or some code as a lingua franca. We also seek to identify the manner in which the features of communicative competence are presented by analyzing the various competences that composes it - linguistic, sociolinguistic, pragmatic and psycholinguistic. The analysis of speech acts, the maxims and conversational implicatures given in the corpus were important to verify whether those interacting were successful in their attempt at multilingual intercomprehension. / Este trabalho tem por objetivo, a partir dos estudos de l?nguas em contato e de compet?ncia comunicativa, situar e descrever a interlinguagem, fen?meno lingu?stico observado na intera??o entre vendedores de praia e turistas estrangeiros. Buscamos responder se os interactantes usam alguma esp?cie de p?dgin, ou seja, algum c?digo como l?ngua franca. Procuramos tamb?m identificar o modo como a compet?ncia comunicativa se apresenta atrav?s da an?lise das diversas compet?ncias que a comp?e - lingu?stica, sociolingu?stica, pragm?tica e psicolingu?stica. A an?lise dos atos de fala, das m?ximas e das implicaturas conversacionais apresentadas no corpus foram importantes para verificar se os interactantes foram felizes em sua tentativa de intercompreens?o multil?ngue

The following essay presents a case study based on participant observation of a group of Swedish secondary school students’ interaction in English. The study focused on what is commonly referred to as communicative competence, or more specifically strategic competence, which represents how language speakers overcome linguistic breakdowns or gaps in their communicative skill. The aim of the study was to better understand how students use linguistic fillers in different situations. By observing students in two different situations, one stressful and one regular conversational situation, it was found that when in a stressful situation, students are more likely to use linguistic fillers in general and also that some students rely on their first language, Swedish, when using linguistic fillers. In this case study, it was found that some students experience difficulties in using English linguistic fillers. Based on these findings, there is a need for teachers to address this problem if students are to develop confidence and skill in using them. For this reason, there is a need for further research on developing and testing different teaching methods on the use of linguistic fillers.   Keywords: communicative competence, EFL, language didactics, linguistic fillers, participant observation, secondary school students, strategic competence.

M.Ed. (Educational Linguistics) / With the use of English as a medium of instruction from senior primary upwards in the traditional schools, pupils experience problems related to lack of proficiency in English. This becomes evident when they have to express themselves, and then lack the appropriate vocabulary to use in different learning areas or subjects at school. Pupils seem to be underprepared for senior primary work. An academic support programme which will help upgrade the standard or level of proficiency is discussed at length. Partnership and team teaching among teachers affected by this problem are discussed. If this programme succeeds, the failure rate which has already drained the South African economy will be reduced. The study ends with recommendations that will hopefully help remedy the situation.

The English language plays an important role as a lingua franca in Sweden as well as in many countries across the European Union (EU). The ability to communicate well in English is highly valued and as a response to this, communicative competence has had an increasingly major part in the English language education and curriculums all over Europe, including the Swedish curriculum for English language education. (Rindal & Piercy, 2013; Swedish National Agency for Education, 1995; Tornberg, 2015). With communication as a primary goal of the Swedish curriculum for English, the importance of acquiring an inner-circle accent, an accent spoken by native speakers of English, has had to take a step back, without thoroughly studying the effect it has on the communicative competence and speaking confidence of the students. The aim of this study is to investigate, with an empirical approach, if student’s self-perceived English accent impacts positively or negatively on their speaking confidence and communicative competence. The study was conducted using an empirical and descriptive approach, with a quantitative data analysis. The investigation was conducted in an upper-secondary school, using a web-based survey with 80 respondents from the second and third grade. The students took English 6, a course the students must pass to be eligible for further academic studies. The school and the respondents were chosen using a convenience sample. The results were analysed, and the data was shown using figures to explain the results further. The results of the study concluded that students seem to think that having a native-like accent is overvalued and that communication is to favour over their perceived English accent. It is somewhat conclusive that most of the students value communication over perceived accent, and many of them say that they do not care how they sound as long as what they say is conveyed.

Research shows that oral proficiency is a big part of communicative competence, and therefore highly relevant for EFL teachers in today’s society. This study aims to investigate what types of activities four EFL teachers in secondary school in Sweden prefer to use in order to practice and assess their students’ oral proficiency. This study further seeks to give an insight in what the four teachers focus on when assessing their students’ oral proficiency. The method used for this study was qualitative, semi- structured interviews with four EFL teachers of different secondary schools in south of Sweden. Furthermore, the data was later coded and analysed with inspiration of the Grounded theory methodology. The results of this study showed that the four teachers used different oral activities very often in their teaching, especially different kinds of discussions. The oral activities were often connected to other projects and assignments that included other skills such as reading and writing. Therefore, the oral proficiency activities were only said to be clearly planned and assessed once or twice per term. Moreover, the four teachers main focus when assessing the students’ oral proficiency seemed to be phenomena like fluency, clearness, adaption to purpose and strategy- usage.

The aim of this thesis is to investigate the use of literature within the Swedish Upper Secondary EFL-classroom from the students’ perspective. How do the students in the study relate to literature and its use to enhance and enable their communicative competence and cultural understanding? Also, how do their answers compare with their teacher’s and the adult perspectives and findings from previous international research? The empirical data obtained from the study has been analysed from the perspectives of sociocultural and motivational theory, and the findings show that the participating students believe literature to be a good didactic tool to apply in the EFL-classroom, both in order to enhance their communicative competence and their cultural understanding. The students prefer to have a sociocultural approach to their literature-learning, with group-discussions of various sizes. The key for the students in this respect is interesting, relevant and engaging subject-matter, as well as a positive and motivational teacher. The responses given by the students correlate with those given by their teacher as well as previous international research. The students regard literature as a way of gaining new perspectives, as well as experiencing language in use. Where they diverge somewhat from the international research is in regard to literature’s use for enhancing their competence to speak in class, and that some students seem to think that communication and cultural understanding are separable. Future studies within this field might include the conducting of a larger and more in-depth survey regarding the students’ ideas about literature, culture and communication. Why do so many of the student respondents neither agree nor disagree with the statement concerning communication and cultural understanding being inseparable? This can be an important issue to investigate in today’s global climate of cross-cultural and intercultural experiences, especially in view of the political climate of diverse attitudes towards refugees, immigrants and emigration

The increasing globalization of trade has resulted in a growing need for Swedish corporations to ensure that their work force is able to communicate in English. In order to meet this demand, there is a growing market of companies offering courses in Business English. When English is used for communication between people from different linguacultural backgrounds in a business context it is referred to as BELF (Business English as a Lingua Franca). The purpose of this study was to investigate whether or not the participants and teachers in different classes of Business English are more open to the non-native speaker model, as this type of course is supposed to prepare the students for communication with people of various nationalities. This was done with the aim to explore how these attitudes can be linked to the development of communicative competence in a business context. In the study a survey was distributed to twenty-one participants of courses in Business English and four teachers were interviewed. The study showed that although the business context affects the attitudes of the participants, there is still a preference for a native-like model. However, the teachers show an open attitude towards BELF, focusing instead on promoting communicative competence in their teaching. The findings of this study support previous research in the field indicating that there exists a certain discrepancy between the perceptions of the teachers and learners as to what constitutes an effective communicator.