This study aimed to investigate the motivation of a number of Swedish upper secondary students in terms of learning English, as well as their two English teachers’ understanding of this motivation, and how teacher roles and teaching methods might be crucial for students’ motivation to learn English at upper secondary level. The data was collected and analysed both quantitatively and qualitatively, as both a questionnaire and interviews were chosen as data collection methods. In terms of results, a variety of levels and sources of motivation were indicated by both the students and the teachers that participated in the study. Among other things, the teacher’s approach and attitude as well as choice of teaching methods play a crucial role for students’ motivation to learn English. For example, creating a safe classroom climate, showing enthusiasm and a positive outlook as well as working with the students' interests, are all factors that can help teachers in improving student motivation both individually and collectively.

Spanning over 2 000 years, teaching languages through drama is nothing new. Despite promising international research on the topic of teaching English as a second language (ESL) through drama, few to no studies have been conducted to assess its pedagogical value in the Swedish elementary school context. The national curriculum in Sweden promotes playful learning, with drama being included as a viable teaching activity for English in grades 4-6. Through five semi-structured interviews, this study explores how teachers in Sweden employ drama and role-play-based methods, but also how they perceive these method’s impact on students’ language skills. A thematic analysis of the teacher interviews suggests that drama and role-play can have positive effects, both in terms of academic skills development and in terms of affective factors related to the English subject. However, the teachers express concern that drama can give rise to unwanted behavior and bullying, which underlines the importance of a safe and supportive classroom environment before implementing drama-based tasks. Overall, the results seem to be in line with previous research on the topic and may thus be of relevance to the Swedish educational context. This study’s main limitation is its sole reliance on teachers who have a positive attitude towards drama and role-play. Therefore, further research could involve teachers who have used drama-based methods but found dissatisfying outcomes.

This study investigates when and why teachers use code-switching as a method as well as teachers’ approach to the use of code-switching as a language strategy. I’ve seen that pupils in Swedish schools have a problem with oral communication and often use code-switching as a strategy. Earlier research has been done on the subject, but most has been done with observations of pupils or teachers. There is also a lack of research done in Swedish schools. It therefore felt necessary to carry out a study interviewing teachers about their approach to the strategy and how they use it. The informants of the study are five teachers who teach English in grades 4-6 in four Swedish schools. Interviews as a qualitative method were used to be able to answer the research questions. The results show that four of the informants use code-switching quite frequently. It shows five different reasons why they code-switch and that they mostly have a positive approach to the strategy, while they see the negative aspects and wish they could use the English language more in class. One of the informants has got a negative approach to the subject and only used codeswitching when necessary. The conclusion shows that all informants think that code-switching helps pupils that have a difficulty with the language of some sort. / Syftet med denna studie var att undersöka när och varför lärare använder kodväxling som metod och även lärares inställning till kodväxling som språkstrategi. Jag har sett att elever i svenska skolor har svårigheter med den muntliga kommunikationen och ofta använder kodväxling som strategi. Tidigare studier har utförts på ämnet men de flesta har varit observationer av elever och lärare. Det råder också brist på forskning utförd i Sverige. Därför kändes det nödvändigt att utföra en studie där lärare intervjuas kring deras inställning till och användande av strategin. Studien genomfördes på fem lärare som undervisar i engelska i årskurs 4–6 på fyra svenska skolor. Intervju som kvalitativ metod användes för att kunna svara på forskningsfrågorna. Resultaten visar att fyra av informanterna använder kodväxling ofta. De visar fem olika anledningar till att de kodväxlar och att de mestadels har en positiv inställning till strategin, samtidigt som de ser negativa aspekter och önskar att de använde engelskan mer i undervisningen. En informant har en negativ inställning till strategin och använder den bara när det är nödvändigt. Slutsatsen visar att alla informanter tycker att kodväxling är bra när det kommer till elever som har någon svårighet med språket.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-28T18:24:14Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 ERIKA TEIXEIRA BREGEIRO.pdf: 2506885 bytes, checksum: f133b19b0a59feb2558f7192fd653199 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2010-01-28 / This research aims at: (1) identifying the needs, wants and preferences of EJA students, as far as learning English is concerned; and (2) describing and interpreting the phenomenon of learning English from the perspective of 1st term of EJA. The theoretical foundation of the current study is based on Parâmetros Curriculares Nacionais Língua Estrangeira (Brasil, 2002b), Proposta Curricular para a Educação de Jovens e Adultos (Brasil, 2002a), Diretrizes Curriculares para a Educação de Jovens e Adultos (Brasil, 2000b) among other official documents which rule such an educational segment. In addition, this study is also grounded on criteria for needs analysis, considering the perceptions suggested by Hutchinson and Waters (1987), Berwick (1989) and Dudley- Evans and St John (1998). The hermeneutic-phenomenological approach (Ricoeur, 1986/2002; van Manen, 1990; Freire, 2006, 2007) was the orientation adopted for describing and interpreting the learning of English from the perspective of 1st term EJA students as a human experience phenomenon. The research context was a public school in which, through three questionnaires, the opinions of 52 first-tem students were captured and interpreted. The results of this study indicate that the focused students need English for work-related purposes, for using computers or operating machines. In daily life, they also need this foreign language to understand ads, purchase products or use computers. As for expectations, they want to use English for traveling; understanding songs, movies; communicating; and finding better job opportunities. The results also reveal that: (1) they prefer learning English by learning vocabulary; (2) they would like to have listening-comprehension activities; and (3) they would not like to perform tasks related to writing. Furthermore, the results reveal that learning English from the perspective of EJA students, as a phenomenon of human experience, is structured in seven themes: knowledge, opportunity, difficulty, performance, lack, utility, motivation, and teacher. The results of this study may provide reference for teachers and researchers to comprehend, adapt, adjust and select materials for a variety of classroom situations / Esta pesquisa tem por objetivos: (1) identificar as necessidades, expectativas e preferências de aprendizagem da língua inglesa, na visão de alunos da EJA, e (2) descrever e interpretar o fenômeno aprender o inglês sob a perspectiva de alunos do 1º termo Médio da EJA. Este estudo fundamenta-se na Proposta Curricular para a Educação de Jovens e Adultos (Brasil, 2002a); nos Parâmetros Curriculares Nacionais Língua Estrangeira (Brasil, 2002b); nas Diretrizes Curriculares para a Educação de Jovens e Adultos (Brasil, 2000a e Brasil, 2000b) dentre outros documentos para o segmento. Também foram relevantes para este estudo os critérios para Análise de Necessidades, sugeridos por Hutchinson & Waters (1987), Berwick (1989) e Dudley-Evans e St John (1998). A orientação metodológica utilizada foi a abordagem hermenêutico-fenomenológica (Ricoeur, 1986/2002; van Manen, 1990; Freire, 2006, 2007). O contexto de pesquisa foi uma escola pública estadual, na qual foram investigadas duas turmas do 1º termo Médio, noturno, da Educação de Jovens e Adultos, totalizando 52 participantes. Os textos que serviram de base para a interpretação foram coletados por meio de três questionários, aplicados no primeiro semestre letivo de 2008. Os resultados desta pesquisa revelaram que os alunos têm necessidades do Inglês, no trabalho, para o manuseio de máquinas e programas de computador; no cotidiano, para ler e entender anúncios, adquirir produtos ou utilizar o computador. Quanto às expectativas, desejam utilizar o inglês para viajar, compreender filmes, músicas, programas de TV, o que as pessoas falam e para ter oportunidade no mercado de trabalho. Revelam, também, que: (1) a melhor forma de aprender é conhecendo o significado das palavras; (2) gostariam de ter atividades que visassem à compreensão auditiva; e (3) não gostariam de ter atividades de prática escrita. Para os alunos pesquisados, a habilidade mais fácil, útil e, portanto, preferida é a de compreensão oral. Além disso, os resultados indicam que aprender Inglês sob a perspectiva de alunos da EJA se constitui de conhecimento, oportunidade, dificuldade, atuação, falta, utilidade, motivação e professor que emergiram como os grandes temas que estruturam esse fenômeno da experiência humana. Esses resultados permitem tecer considerações sobre a elaboração de materiais ou o planejamento de aulas destinadas especificamente a esse público. Poderá servir de referência para o professor pesquisador, avaliador, adaptador de materiais didáticos, para compreender, procurar, adequar, ajustar e selecionar os materiais para uma situação em sala de aula

Thesis (Ph.D. (English))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2008.

This study evaluates a teacher development course on the use of English as the language of learning and teaching (LoLT). The course was developed and implemented in a sample of Intermediate Phase classrooms in four rural primary schools of the Free State Province. The course was a language intervention programme in an integrated district development project funded by the Flemish Government. The project was implemented from 2002 to 2004. The course was developed and implemented by Sacred Heart College Research and Development Unit in collaboration with the School of Languages of the North-West University. The course aimed at developing teachers' knowledge and skills in using learners' basic interpersonal communication skills in their home languages and in English to develop their English cognitive academic proficiency. It practically demonstrates communicative language teaching, co-operative learning and reflective practice. The evaluation of the English as LoLT Course explored the multiple perspectives of its evaluation audience; the interrelatedness of the course content and the learning milieu; planning, learner participation and assessment in Outcomes-based education (OBE), teaching practice, and the conceptual development and transfer of English in everyday communication and as the LoLT. The findings and recommendations of the study highlight the need to develop teachers' own English language usage and their participation in professional working groups to develop their knowledge and skills as facilitators, reflective practitioners, and curriculum developers. In addition, the study evaluates the Context Adaptive Model (Lynch, 1996; 2003) selected to guide the evaluation of the English as LoLT Course at a meta-evaluation level. The validation of the language programme evaluation model is mainly related to the epistemological claims of utilitarian pragmatism and interpretivism in programme evaluation research. The ability of the model to facilitate valid findings according to these epistemological claims in the evaluation of the English as LoLT Course is evaluated. Core criteria of flexibility, appropriateness, clarity of description and clarity of logic were identified and used to evaluate the language programme evaluation model. The findings and recommendations of the study attempt to offer a response to the need for quality assured language learning programmes in teacher development, especially for programmes in the use of English as a LoLT in the multilingual and multicultural rural context of South Africa. / Thesis (Ph.D. (English))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2008.

This study evaluates a teacher development course on the use of English as the language of learning and teaching (LoLT). The course was developed and implemented in a sample of Intermediate Phase classrooms in four rural primary schools of the Free State Province. The course was a language intervention programme in an integrated district development project funded by the Flemish Government. The project was implemented from 2002 to 2004. The course was developed and implemented by Sacred Heart College Research and Development Unit in collaboration with the School of Languages of the North-West University. The course aimed at developing teachers' knowledge and skills in using learners' basic interpersonal communication skills in their home languages and in English to develop their English cognitive academic proficiency. It practically demonstrates communicative language teaching, co-operative learning and reflective practice. The evaluation of the English as LoLT Course explored the multiple perspectives of its evaluation audience; the interrelatedness of the course content and the learning milieu; planning, learner participation and assessment in Outcomes-based education (OBE), teaching practice, and the conceptual development and transfer of English in everyday communication and as the LoLT. The findings and recommendations of the study highlight the need to develop teachers' own English language usage and their participation in professional working groups to develop their knowledge and skills as facilitators, reflective practitioners, and curriculum developers. In addition, the study evaluates the Context Adaptive Model (Lynch, 1996; 2003) selected to guide the evaluation of the English as LoLT Course at a meta-evaluation level. The validation of the language programme evaluation model is mainly related to the epistemological claims of utilitarian pragmatism and interpretivism in programme evaluation research. The ability of the model to facilitate valid findings according to these epistemological claims in the evaluation of the English as LoLT Course is evaluated. Core criteria of flexibility, appropriateness, clarity of description and clarity of logic were identified and used to evaluate the language programme evaluation model. The findings and recommendations of the study attempt to offer a response to the need for quality assured language learning programmes in teacher development, especially for programmes in the use of English as a LoLT in the multilingual and multicultural rural context of South Africa. / Thesis (Ph.D. (English))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2008.

This research focused on the process of digital inclusion within the context of English teaching and learning in two public schools in Uberlândia MG, in order to identify in which implementation stage these schools are in the present moment. We also aimed at analyzing how the process of digital inclusion was carried out in the context of English Language teaching in these schools, from the perspective of the director, the teacher and the student. Our study also investigated the policies and actions taken by the Administrators and participant schools, which intend to promote (and facilitate) the process of digital inclusion in the English Language setup. We noticed that, when it comes to English Language teaching, the public schools investigated have not effectively adopted the process of digital inclusion in pedagogical terms. This non-effectiveness seems to be the result of a tension between what the documents concerning the issue predict and what effectively happens in the schools in practical terms. This inclusion process is still facing different problems; ranging from practical, concrete issues regarding digitalization access, to those emerging from occasional negative convictions of people involved. Education managers, directors, teachers and students participated in our research. Data was gathered through interviews, questionnaires and classes observation. For the analysis of the corpus, we applied the method based on Carlo Ginsburg s Indiciary Paradigm (2007) and of the postulations proposed by Bax (2003), Chambers; Bax (2006), Sandholtz; Ringstaff; Dwyer (1997). It now seems possible that schools have already started their process of digital inclusion in their general practice. Regarding English Language however each school is in a different initial stage of digital inclusion. / Esta pesquisa teve como objetivo investigar o processo de inclusão digital no contexto de ensino e aprendizagem de Língua Inglesa no âmbito de duas escolas públicas da cidade de Uberlândia MG, para identificar seus estágios de implementação. Objetivamos, também, analisar a forma de implantação efetiva do processo de inclusão digital no contexto de ensino de Língua Inglesa das referidas escolas, na visão da direção, do professor e do aluno, bem como investigar quais são as políticas e ações promovidas pelos gestores de Educação e pelas escolas participantes, que visam a incentivar (e facilitar) o processo de inclusão digital em aulas de Língua Inglesa. Percebemos que, no que diz respeito ao ensino de Língua Inglesa a escola pública, ainda não se efetivou, de fato, o processo de inclusão digital. Essa não efetivação parece resultar de uma tensão entre o que preveem os documentos sobre a matéria e o que efetivamente acontece nas escolas em termos de operacionalização. Esse processo de inclusão se encontra ainda às voltas com problemas de diversas ordens, que vão desde questões práticas, de acesso aos meios de digitalização, até aqueles que se originam das convicções dos envolvidos que, por vezes, sustentam o discurso do fracasso. Participaram de nossa pesquisa gestores de Educação, diretores, professores e alunos. Para a coleta de dados, contamos com entrevistas, questionário e observação de aulas. Para a análise do corpus dessa pesquisa, valemo-nos do método denominado Paradigma Indiciário de Carlo Ginzburg (2007) e das postulações de Bax (2003), Chambers; Bax (2006), Sandholtz; Ringstaff; Dwyer (1997). Foi possível perceber que as duas escolas já iniciaram um processo de inclusão digital em âmbitos gerais. Cada uma das escolas encontra-se em um diferente estágio de inclusão digital no que se refere à Língua Inglesa. / Mestre em Linguística

This work aims at analyzing and reflecting on the stories of English teacher education at the Modern Languages course. My specific goals were to observe and narrate pre-teachers' English learning and teacher education stories, besides my own teaching stories as a language teacher and the continuous education process I lived throughout the inquiry. The research was carried out alongside some undergraduate students attending a critical-reflexive English learning course at a Brazilian Federal University. I was also a researcher-participant. The theoretical background used to discuss pre-teachers' and my own English teaching and learning stories includes Wallace (1991), Celani (2001), Cristóvão and Szundy (2008), Gimenez (2007), Ifa (2006), Teixeira-da-Silva (2006), Mello (2004), Telles (2004) and Motta- Roth (2001). Yet, Carr and Kemmis' (1988), Schön s (1983, 2000), Van-Manen's (1990) and Diamond's (1991) perspectives guided some of the discussions. The research theoreticmethodological approach I used in the inquiry was Clandinin and Connelly's (2000) Narrative Inquiry perspective. The field texts that I composed emerged from the activities of MOODLE, students' and my e-mails exchanges, field notes written by me during the experiences lived in the classroom, the course curriculum and activities and the diaries written during the research process. These documents were viewed with the lens of Ely, Vinz, Downing and Anzul's (2001) interpretative perspective, who sustain possibilities for composing meanings in the research. In reconstructing the lived experiences, I composed the themes: stories of being a teacher, stories of being a researcher, stories of using technology and stories of English language teaching. These themes that emerged out of the pre-teachers' and my own stories point out to the learning that I, the researcher, and the participants could experience through the research process we lived. / Este trabalho tem como objetivo analisar e refletir sobre as histórias de formação do professor de inglês no curso de Letras. Meus objetivos específicos foram observar e narrar histórias de aprendizagem dos alunos em relação à língua e sua formação docente, além de analisar minha própria experiência de formação continuada vivida durante todo o processo de pesquisa. O contexto desta pesquisa foi a disciplina Língua Inglesa: aprendizagem críticorreflexiva do curso de Letras de uma universidade federal brasileira e os participantes foram os alunos dessa disciplina e eu como pesquisadora-participante. A partir das discussões teóricas sobre formação do professor, de acordo com Wallace (1991), Celani (2001), Cristóvão e Szundy (2008), Gimenez (2007), Ifa (2006), Teixeira-da-Silva (2006), Mello (2004), Telles (2004) e Motta-Roth (2001), minha fundamentação teórica traz algumas perspectivas de formação de professores, baseadas na pesquisa-ação de Carr e Kemmis (1988), no paradigma reflexivo, conforme Schön (1983, 2000), na abordagem hermenêutico-fenomenológica (VAN-MANEN, 1990) e na pesquisa educacional com base nas artes, segundo Diamond (1991). A perspectiva teórico-metodológica que utilizei foi a pesquisa narrativa, conforme Clandinin e Connelly (2000). Os textos de campo que compus partiram das atividades da plataforma MOODLE, dos e-mails trocados entre mim e os participantes, das notas de campo escritas por mim durante as aulas observadas, da ementa da disciplina, das atividades de sala e dos diários que escrevi durante o processo de pesquisa. Analisei esses textos de campo conforme Ely, Vinz, Downing e Anzul (2001), que sustentam possibilidades de composição de sentidos. Ao reconstruir as experiências vividas compus os temas: histórias de ser professor, histórias de ser pesquisador, histórias de uso da tecnologia e histórias de ensino de língua inglesa. Esses temas apontam os tipos de aprendizagem vividos pelos participantes de pesquisa, durante o processo vivenciado. / Mestre em Estudos Linguísticos

This thesis investigates the possibilities of conditionally generating English sentences based on keywords-framing content and different difficulty levels of vocabulary. It aims to contribute to the field of Conditional Text Generation (CTG), a type of Natural Language Generation (NLG), where the process of creating text is based on a set of conditions. These conditions include words, topics, content or perceived sentiments. Specifically, it compares the performances of two well-known model architectures: Sequence-toSequence (Seq2Seq) and Autoregressive (AR). These are applied to two different tasks, individual and combined. The Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) is used to assess the vocabulary level of the texts. In the absence of openly available CEFR-labelled datasets, the author has developed a new methodology with the host company to generate suitable datasets. The generated texts are evaluated on accuracy of the vocabulary levels and readability using readily available formulas. The analysis combines four established readability metrics, and assesses classification accuracy. Both models show a high degree of accuracy when classifying texts into different CEFR-levels. However, the same models are weaker when generating sentences based on a desired CEFR-level. This study contributes empirical evidence suggesting that: (1) Seq2Seq models have a higher accuracy than AR models in generating English sentences based on a desired CEFR-level and keywords; (2) combining Multi-Task Learning (MTL) with instructiontuning is an effective way to fine-tune models on text-classification tasks; and (3) it is difficult to assess the quality of computer generated language using only readability metrics. / I den här studien undersöks möjligheterna att villkorligt generera engelska meningar på så-kallad “naturligt” språk, som baseras på nyckelord, innehåll och vokabulärnivå. Syftet är att bidra till området betingad textgenerering, en underkategori av naturlig textgenerering, vilket är en metod för att skapa text givet vissa ingångsvärden, till exempel ämne, innehåll eller uppfattning. I synnerhet jämförs prestandan hos två välkända modellarkitekturer: sekvenstill-sekvens (Seq2Seq) och autoregressiv (AR). Dessa tillämpas på två uppgifter, såväl individuellt som kombinerat. Den europeiska gemensamma referensramen (CEFR) används för att bedöma texternas vokabulärnivå. I och med avsaknaden av öppet tillgängliga CEFR-märkta dataset har författaren tillsammans med värdföretaget utvecklat en ny metod för att generera lämpliga dataset. De av modellerna genererade texterna utvärderas utifrån vokabulärnivå och läsbarhet samt hur väl de uppfyller den sökta CEFRnivån. Båda modellerna visade en hög träffsäkerhet när de klassificerar texter i olika CEFR-nivåer. Dock uppvisade samma modeller en sämre förmåga att generera meningar utifrån en önskad CEFR-nivå. Denna studie bidrar med empiriska bevis som tyder på: (1) att Seq2Seq-modeller har högre träffsäkerhet än AR-modeller när det gäller att generera engelska meningar utifrån en önskad CEFR-nivå och nyckelord; (2) att kombinera inlärning av multipla uppgifter med instruktionsjustering är ett effektivt sätt att finjustera modeller för textklassificering; (3) att man inte kan bedömma kvaliteten av datorgenererade meningar genom att endast använda läsbarhetsmått.