This dissertation investigates the relationship between Computer-Assisted Language Learning (CALL) and language-learning approaches. In this sense, Language Learning Autonomy (LLA) seems to be the most preferred candidate by researchers in order to become the suitable approach in order to make the most out of technology (Blin, 1999; Little, 2001; Littlemore, 2003; The European Directorate General of Education and Culture, 2003; sanz, 2003; Villanueva, 2003). The increasing research on this specific field and the theoretical reflections derived from it over the last decade constitutes the framework of our study. Following previous studies (Beatty, 2003; Chapelle, 2003; Alessi, 2001; Marqués, 1995, 2001; Rushby, 1997; Shin and Wastell, 1998; Blin, 1999; Holliday, 1999; Hoven, 1997, 1999; Murray, 1998; Sanz, 2003), the aim of the present study is to examine to what extent an approach to language learning autonomy from a socioconstructivist perspective can effectively inform the design of a specific language learning package taht promotes both autonomising behaviours and positive attitudes in learners. With these reflections in mind, three aspects underline the present study, namely 1) the need to carry out qualitative studies in order to inform a theoretical framework for CALL development, 2) the need to focus on the relationship between CALL and LLA and 3) the need to examine the "teachibility"of learner autonomy by means of a language learning package designed for this specific purpose. This context motivated the following actions: 1) to design a pilot application based upon autonomising criteria (TADLA: Technology Applied to the Development of Learner Autonomy); 2) to test this design with learners with a specific learner style regarding their learner autonomy degree. And finally 3) to compare the results obtained in the tests of other language learning package (Communicate and Connect, 2003).The results obtained in the case-study confirm that the criteria upon which the design of TADLA is based could be considered the requirements that enable the integration of autonomising strategies within the learning activities. In this sense, attention to learning styles, implementation of authentic materials, the possibility of transfer and a discursive approach among others are suitable criteria for the development of attitudes that could lead to a later development of learner autonomy.

The study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of the educational games as a technique in the preschool-level English vocabulary learning of four year-olds. A true-experimental study design, specifically randomized pre-test, post-test control group design, was adopted. The sample was 33 private preschool children who were four years old. There were 17 females and 16 males in total. Data collection instrument was the 24-item English as a Foreign Language (EFL) Vocabulary Performance checklist prepared in accordance with the Total Physical Response (TPR) lessons&rsquo / content by the researcher. A pilot study, reliability and validity checks were done. In a four-week period, totally 24 vocabulary items were presented with picture cards by using Total Physical Response Method to both groups. In the experimental group, picture vocabulary games were used additionally while the control group did not receive picture vocabulary games. At the end, independent-samples t-test was conducted and the results indicated a significant difference in English Vocabulary achievement in favor of the experimental group which was taught by the educational picture vocabulary games with a large effect size. In addition, whether or not there was a gender effect on learning vocabularies of English as a foreign language with picture vocabulary games in the experimental group and without picture vocabulary games in the control group was investigated by means of t-tests. As a result, non-significant gender effect was found for both experimental and control group in learning English vocabulary. Upon understanding the remarkable effectiveness of the picture vocabulary games on English language learning for four year-olds, it can be implied that more picture vocabulary games should be devised for very young learners by the experts for the classroom use and the number of the books about educational vocabulary games should be increased. Furthermore, policy makers ought to prepare English as a foreign language curriculum including games for early childhood education programs, and integrate a new course about teaching English to very young learners into foreign language teacher training and education programs of the universities for pre-service teachers in the scope of a national foreign language policy.

Information Technology (IT) has been integrated in many foreign-language classrooms for some decades now. However, one of the many questions related to IT at school is whether it is beneficial for students and, if yes, in what way. This study compares two different teaching approaches in the English classroom in a Swedish secondary school. A digital approach and a traditional approach were tested during some teaching sessions, where two groups of students were compared to gauge the possible influence of IT on performance. In addition, questionnaires were administered to the students in order to measure their opinion of IT use in general and whether they find it motivating in class. The results suggest that a digital approach can boost performance and create more positive attitudes among the students than the more traditional approach.

Teachers undergo changes in their beliefs, knowledge and practices on an individual level as they learn how to teach. If society undergoes significant change, as Hong Kong did during the transition from British to Chinese rule in 1997, then social groups within society such as teachers are likely to react to change in different and complex ways. The purpose of this investigation is to exam.ine the changes experienced by teachers of English in Hong Kong, with a focus on teachers who received their teacher preparation at one Hong Kong institution during the final years leading up to the transition. The educational, linguistic, social and political context of Hong Kong is first described through a study of the research literature and a number of theories and models of change are presented through which the findings of the investigation are analysed. The main sources of data for the investigation consist of questionnaire responses, interview transcriptions and lesson observation reports of trainee English teachers during and after graduation from a BA course in TESL at a Hong Kong university. The main conclusions of the investigation are: (i) Educational issues and particularly those affecting ELT became more high-profile and politicised in the lead up to and after the changeover. (ii) English teachers in Hong Kong experience conflict between their desired approaches and the realities and constraints of the Hong Kong teaching context. These constraints provide a common justification for lack of innovative behaviour and make it possible for teachers to put off being innovative in the classroom indefinitely. (iii) At the same time, English teachers in Hong Kong are becoming more empowered within the educational system in reaction to challenges to their competency and as they have realised that they can affect educational policy through individual and collective action. The findings suggest that colonial discourses as documented by Pennycook (1998) of English language teaching still persist in Hong Kong, as they have been shown to do in other post-colonial societies, and Hong Kong is undergoing a post-handover period of change as it struggles to synthesise the educational legacies of the colonial period with new initiatives adopted to address Hong Kong's changing educational and social needs. The results of the research are developed into an original model of the factors impacting English language education in Hong Kong. The generic model is then elaborated in two versions, one of which applies before the changeover and the other after it.

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No. of bitstreams: 1 costa_td_me_arafcl.pdf: 2780204 bytes, checksum: 28025dd7c6d56859f519bd486e58fc15 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017-05-26 / Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq) / No contexto de ensino e aprendizagem de língua inglesa para aprendizes brasileiros, nota-se que o foco de ensino ainda é centrado em questões gramaticais e lexicais, sendo o aspecto fônico, fundamental para uma produção de fala fluida e sem ruídos, muitas vezes facultado ou abordado de forma inadequada em sala de aula. Isto ocorre, por conta, principalmente, da falta de formação e de conhecimentos específicos dos professores em relação aos aspectos articulatórios e acústicos da língua materna (doravante LM) do estudante e da língua estrangeira (doravante LE). Considerando as várias diferenças nos níveis segmental e prosódico e os âmbitos acústico e articulatório entre ambas as línguas, o presente trabalho aborda uma intervenção didática para aprimorar a pronúncia em língua inglesa de estudantes de graduação em Letras de uma universidade pública do interior do Estado de São Paulo e investigar a produção dos sons vocálicos da língua inglesa /i:/ e /ɪ/ desses estudantes pré e pós essa intervenção por meio de um experimento de natureza fonético-acústica. A inexistência da distinção entre /i:/ e /ɪ/ na língua portuguesa pode resultar em dificuldades na percepção desses sons vocálicos em língua inglesa e, consequentemente, na sua produção, trazendo possíveis problemas de inteligibilidade e, em alguns casos, de fossilização para os aprendizes. Portanto, seu tratamento em sala de aula é fundamental. Para a realização de uma análise mais específica da aquisição e aprendizagem de sons da LE, baseamo-nos nos conceitos de “Surdez Fonológica” de Polivanov (1931) e de “Crivo Fonológico” de Trubetzkoy (1939), além de considerarmos o “Modelo de Aprendizagem da Fala” de Flege (1981, 1991, 1995). Ademais, fez-se o uso da plataforma PRAAT como auxílio na gravação e análise da produção de nossos aprendizes. Por meio deste estudo, esperamos proporcionar os saberes necessários para que os envolvidos e demais interessados no tema possam perceber as diferenças nos níveis segmentais e suprassegmentais entre a LE e a LM, com o intuito de refletirem de maneira mais aprofundada acerca de sua percepção e produção do aspecto fônico na língua alvo. / In the context of teaching and learning the English language for Brazilian learners, it is noted that the educational focus is still centered on grammatical and lexical issues, and the phonic aspect, essential for fluid speech production and no disturbance, is often provided or approached inappropriately in class. This occurs, mainly due to the lack of training and expertise of teachers in relation to the articulatory and acoustic aspects of the student’s mother tongue and his/her foreign language. Considering the various differences between the segmental and prosodic levels and the acoustic and articulatory levels of the two languages, this paper approaches a didactic intervention to improve the English language pronunciation of undergraduate students in Language and Literature in a public university in the state of São Paulo. It also investigates the production of the English vowel sounds /i:/ e /ɪ/ of these students pre and post this intervention by means of an acoustic-phonetic experiment. The nonexistence of the distinction between /i:/ e /ɪ/ in Portuguese may result in difficulties in the perception of these vowel sounds in English, and consequently in their production, contributing to possible intelligibility problems and, in some cases, fossilization for the learners, thus its treatment in the classroom is essential. To conduct a more specific analysis of acquisition and learning sounds of a foreign language, we rely on the concepts of "Phonological Deafness" of Polivanov (1931) and "Phonological Sieve" of Trubetzkoy (1939), and consider the "Speech Learning Model" of Flege (1981, 1991, 1995). In addition, we used the PRAAT platform to aid in the recording and analysis of the learners’ production. Through this study, we hope to provide the necessary knowledge for all parties and others interested in the subject so that they can perceive differences in segmental and prosodic levels between the foreign language and the mother tongue. Moreover, we aim to provide tools for them to reflect deeply about their perception and production of the phonic aspect of the target language. / 164816/2015-1

This qualitative study aims to investigate how teachers of English as a foreign language (EFL) work to develop their students’ oral proficiency. The study analyses interviews and pedagogical materials to elucidate how the interviewed teachers regard their students’ oral proficiency, what kind of activities they use for teaching speaking and how they assess oral proficiency. The participants were two licensed English teachers of higher upper secondary education, and different materials that the teachers used were analysed, including a textbook. The teachers regarded their students’ oral proficiency as generally good or very good but noted that significant differences existed in most groups regarding proficiency and that certain students who were less proficient showed an unwillingness to use the target language, which indicates a need of better strategies to involve these students in the learning process. The findings of this study suggest that the interviewed EFL teachers teach speaking according to the communicative approach and that the activities they use more frequently for teaching speaking were discussions, followed by presentations, speeches, role-playing and debates. However, the interviews and the pedagogical materials reflected a lack of focus on the features of spoken language, the importance of which has been proven by findings in corpus linguistics and conversation analysis. These findings indicate a need to raise awareness among teachers about the benefits of focusing on the features of spoken language. Regarding assessment, informal formative assessment in the form of direct observation was the most common form, while formal assessment was used in presentations and examinations in the form of group discussions. The teachers acknowledged some confusion regarding assessment due to the lack of clear guidelines from Skolverket. Moreover, they regarded speaking as being more important than other skills, which indicates the possibility of redefining the value of speaking in the course evaluation.

The objective of the thesis was twofold. Firstly, to map the situation in one-year post- secondary courses of English organised by private language schools in the Czech Republic and to recommend teaching methods and materials suitable for the given age group and the aims of the courses. Secondly, to outline the legislation regulating this form of study and in view of the recent legislative changes to compile a set of arguments for preserving the student status for the course participants. The first part of the thesis summarizes the lingvodidactic principles of teaching English as a foreign language with respect to the specific characteristics of learners between 19 and 22 years of age. It also presents a brief overview of the historical development of teaching methods as a background to the methodology applicable to post-secondary courses and provides a basis for textbook evaluation and selection. In the empirical part of the thesis the organization of post-secondary courses at three private language schools was contrasted and two sets of questionnaires completed by their students were analysed. Based on the conclusions drawn in the theoretical background as well as on the output of the questionnaires the contemporary approach of principled eclecticism was recommended as the most suitable...

This dissertation study explored the practices that foster teacher development in a community of practice (Wenger, 1998, 2010) of teachers of English as an Additional Language in a large federal university in the south of Brazil. The community is part of a big internationalization effort in Brazilian universities, named Languages without Borders (LwB). In summary, the goal of the program is to teach additional languages for university students, faculty and staff. For that, the local LwB center has fifteen student teachers, from sophomore to senior year, who are pursuing a teaching certification in English as an Additional Language. Although the community has teaching as its end goal, and not teacher development, teacher development has emerged as an epiphenomenon, for student teachers need to learn how to teach in order for the community’s goals to be attained. The objective of this study was to observe, describe and analyze the practices that foster professional development for these student teachers in order to understand in what ways (and if) the experiences in their everyday life of the community become professional learning. While previous research has shown that communities of practice (Lave & Wenger, 1991; Wenger, 1998) can be sites of learning, and has explored communities among teachers and students in a variety of contexts, there is a scarcity of studies about community among these additional language teachers (Costa, 2013; Merril, 2016) With the theoretical framework of Practice Theory (Wenger, 1998; Young, 2009; Ortner, 1983), this interpretative study (Erickson, 1990) examined history-in-person interviews with focal participants as well as intensive participant observation – recorded in the form of field notes, audio recordings and photographs – and collection of artifacts. The research participants consist of fifteen student teachers, two former student teachers, three Fulbright English Teaching Assistants, and two of the three coordinators of the program at this university. Out of these, five student teachers were chosen for the interviews. Results revealed that this community has both formal and informal practices that cultivate teacher development. The formal practices are planned by the coordinator and enacted in weekly pedagogical meetings, and include practices such as microteaching, workshops and lectures. The informal practices emerge from teachers’ everyday interactions in the teachers’ room, and include practices such as sharing materials, requesting help, sharing classroom stories, sharing specialized concepts and literature in the field of AL teaching, and planning classes together. In conclusion, the landscape of practices that student teachers experience throughout their trajectory in the program helps them develop as teachers through the profession (Nóvoa, 1992) and integrate both technical and practical aspects of the job.

O presente trabalho visa a contribuir com o avanço das pesquisas na área de multimodalidade, mais especificamente na área aplicada ao contexto de ensino de língua estrangeira. Analisa-se uma amostra de textos multimodais em um livro didático produzido e utilizado no Brasil como ferramenta para o ensino de inglês como língua estrangeira para alunos adultos iniciantes em um curso livre. Tendo em vista a preocupação, apontada no próprio material didático, em atender às necessidades e expectativas desses alunos, objetiva-se, através desta investigação: verificar como se dá a interação entre o verbal e o visual no livro didático selecionado; verificar como essa interação contribui para atingir os objetivos pedagógicos propostos pelo material; e, por fim, contribuir, de alguma maneira, para o letramento multimodal de alunos em língua estrangeira. Tais objetivos determinam a natureza híbrida desta pesquisa que, além da sua dimensão analítico-descritiva, apresenta também uma dimensão pedagógica, que visa a apresentar propostas de trabalho multimodal com algumas das atividades selecionadas para análise. A seleção dos textos multimodais para a composição do corpus desta pesquisa foi baseada na observação da recorrência de imagens com determinados personagens ao longo do livro. Tal recorrência provocou questionamentos que só poderiam ser respondidos a partir da análise desses personagens representados em situações de (inter)ação, o que deu lugar à seleção das representações narrativas que os incluíssem. Os personagens em questão são desenhos criados para os fins pedagógicos do material e são representados em situações sociais muito limitadas: a maior parte dessas representações parece formar uma sequência narrativa cuja interação acontece em uma festa; entre as outras representações, que não representam a referida festa como contexto, incluem-se interações no escritório, no restaurante, no parque e ao telefone. Uma análise da representação visual desses atores sociais revelou que, apesar da inclusão de uma negra entre os personagens, e a consequente suposta visão multicultural transmitida com essa inclusão, os participantes representam um grupo homogêneo, pertencentes ao mesmo segmento social, que só interagem entre eles mesmos em situações sociais limitadas, não sendo, portanto, representativos da diversidade étnica, social e cultural do Brasil, ou dos países em que o inglês é falado. Após a análise da representação dos atores sociais, analisam-se, com vistas a atingir os objetivos deste trabalho, os padrões de representação e de interação nos textos multimodais selecionados, segundo categorias do quadro da multimodalidade de van Leeuwen (1996). Verifica-se, a partir de tais análises, que o verbal e o visual nem sempre apresentam uma relação direta, e que, quando apresentam, tal relação não é explorada pelo material, tornando o visual um elemento meramente decorativo que, na maioria das vezes, em nada contribui para o desenvolvimento das unidades. Por essa razão, e por se tratar de uma pesquisa centrada no contexto pedagógico, propõem-se, ao final das análises, atividades de exploração de alguns dos textos multimodais analisados, visando à formação multimodal do aluno em língua estrangeira / This study aims at contributing to the advancement of research in the area of multimodality, within the context of foreign language teaching. A sample of multimodal texts in a coursebook produced and used in Brazil as a tool for teaching English as a foreign language to adult beginner students in a free language course is analyzed. Given the concerns pointed out in the teaching materials themselves, in meeting the needs and expectations of these students, the objectives of this research are: to investigate the interaction between the verbal and the visual semiotic modes in the corpus; to examine how this interaction contributes to achieving the educational objectives proposed by the material; and, finally, to contribute in some way to the multimodal literacy of foreign language students. Such objectives account for the hybrid nature of this research which, apart from its descriptive-analytic dimension, also features a pedagogical dimension, aimed at presenting proposals for multimodal work with some of the activities selected for analysis. The starting point for the selection of the multimodal texts for the corpus of this research was the observation that certain characters were consistently depicted throughout the coursebook. Such recurrence motivated questions that could only be answered through the analysis of the visual elements in the representation of these characters, particularly when depicted in situations of (inter)action, which led to the selection of narrative representations that included them. The characters concerned are drawings created for the educational purposes of the material and are depicted in very limited social situations: most of these representations seem to form a narrative sequence with interactions taking place at a party, in the office, at a restaurant, in a park, and on the phone. An analysis of the visual representation of these characters showed that, despite the inclusion of a black woman among the characters, which would supposedly convey a multicultural vision, the participants represent a homogeneous group pertaining to the same social segment, who only interact in limited social situations and are not therefore representative of the ethnic, social and cultural diversity of Brazil, or of countries where English is spoken. The analysis of the visual representation of the characters was followed by investigation of the patterns of representation and interaction in the multimodal texts selected, drawing on categories from the framework for the study of multimodality by van Leeuwen (1996). These analyses suggest that the verbal and the visual are not always in a direct relationship, and that, when they are, such relationship is not exploited by the material, making the visual element a purely decorative one, in most cases, contributing very little to the development of the pedagogical objectives of the units. For this reason, some exploration activities of the multimodal texts analyzed are suggested, aiming at the multimodal literacy of foreign language students

O presente trabalho analisa as taxas de transferência da regra de vocalização da lateral em posição pós-vocálica para o inglês por falantes de língua portuguesa como língua materna em diferentes estágios do processo de aprendizagem. Para tanto, fizemos duas coletas de dados em diferentes situações. A primeira coleta foi feita em Dublin, Irlanda com cinco aprendizes de inglês em níveis pré-intermediário e intermediário em situação de aquisição de segunda língua. Essa coleta foi realizada em dois momentos do aprendizado dos informantes, uma próxima à data de sua chegada na Irlanda e outra após três meses de sua estada no país. A segunda coleta foi realizada em Canoas, na região metropolitana de Porto Alegre – RS, com seis informantes detentores de diferentes certificados da Universidade de Cambridge (FCE – First Certificate in English e CPE – Certificate of Proficiency in English). Para que pudéssemos fazer essa análise, encontrando os fatores lingüísticos e extralingüísticos que estavam agindo na aplicação, ou não, da regra variável aqui testada, submetemos os dados coletados ao programa computacional GOLDVARB2001. As coletas foram analisadas separadamente e em conjunto. Os grupos de fatores testados foram: acento, posição na palavra, contexto precedente, contexto seguinte, nível de inglês, tipo de gravação e informante. As variáveis posição na palavra, contexto precedente e nível de inglês foram as selecionadas pelo programa quando todos os dados foram testados. As variáveis contexto seguinte e tipo de gravação mostraram-se não atuantes na transferência da regra de vocalização. Das variáveis extralingüísticas, a variável nível de inglês foi a que mais se mostrou atuante, uma vez que foi selecionada em todas as rodadas, assim como a variável lingüística posição na palavra. / This study analyses the transference rates of vocalization rules of the lateral in post-vocalic position into English by speakers of Portuguese as mother language in different stages of the learning process. In order to do that, two data collection were made in different situations. The first collection was made in Dublin, Ireland, with 5 learners of English as a second language in pre-intermediate and intermediate levels. This collection took place in two moments of their learning process, one close to the date of their arrival in Ireland and another one three months later. The second collection was made in Canoas, in the metropolitan area of Porto Alegre – RS, with 6 informants who have different certificates from Cambridge University (FCE – First Certificate in English e CPE – Certificate of Proficiency in English). In order to make this analysis, finding the linguistic and extralinguistic factors which were influencing the application or non-application of the variable rules tested here, the collected data were submitted to the computational program GoldVarb2001. The collections were first analysed separately and, afterwards, the results were compared in only one run with all the collected data. The groups of factors tested were: stress, word position, preceding context, following context, English level, type of recording and informant. The variables word position, preceding context and English level were selected by the program when all data were tested. The variables following context and type of recording were shown as non acting in the transference of the vocalization rule. From the extralinguistic variables, the variable English level was the one which most acted since it was selected in all the runs as well as the linguistic variable word position.