The dissertation surveys the use of expressions of futurality in professional economic texts (the linguistic part). In addition, it investigates didactic aspects of futurality in the process of English as a second language acquisition, focusing on undergraduates in the study programme B 6208 - Economy and Management (the didactic part). The topic was chosen on the basis of the author's empirical experience and the results of pre-tests in the target group. The research is based on a corpus-based linguistic study. Seven representative monographs written by native speakers were selected as a source of relevant information about the use of futural constructions in a written economic text. All the sources were explored by means of corpus query software and instances of selected futural constructions (will, shall, be going to, be about to, be on the point of, be (due) to and the present tense) were excerpted. Functions of the futural constructions were elaborted on the basis of the numerous excerpts and confronted with English for specific (economic) purpose textbooks that are used widely at Czech economic universities. To prove or disaprove their mutual interdependence, the correlation of general language and specific language proficiencies of undergraduates from two universities was measured....

Grammar is an essential part of language learning. Thus, it is important that teachers know how to efficiently teach grammar to students, and with what approach - explicitly orimplicitly as well as through Focus on Forms (FoFs), Focus on Form (FoF) or Focus onMeaning (FoM). Furthermore, the common use of textbooks in English education in Sweden makes it essential to explore how these present grammar. Therefore, to make teachers aware of what grammar teaching approach a textbook has, this degree project intends to examine how and to what degree English textbooks used in Swedish upper secondary schools can be seen to exhibit an overall explicit or implicit approach to grammar teaching. The aim is to analyze three English 5 textbooks that are currently used in classrooms in Sweden, through the use of relevant research regarding grammar teaching as well as the steering documents for English 5 in Swedish upper secondary school. The analysis was carried out with the help of a framework developed by means of research on explicit and implicit grammar teaching as well as the three grammar teaching approaches FoFs, FoF and FoM. Thus, through the textbook analysis, we set out to investigate whether the textbooks present grammar instruction explicitly or implicitly and through FoFs, FoF or FoM. After having collected research on the topic of how to teach grammar, it became apparent that researchers on grammar teaching agree that FoF is the most beneficial out of the three above mentioned approaches, and thus, we decided to take a stand for this approach throughout the project. The results of this study showed that two out of three textbooks used overall implicit grammar teaching through FoM. Moreover, one out of the three textbooks used overall explicit grammar teaching through an FoF approach.

Students with disabilities experience differential levels of achievement in mathematics when compared with their nondisabled peers. Identifying and implementing evidence-based practices (EBPs) is essential to increase their mathematics achievement. However, an argument is re-emerging that calls into question the effectiveness of well-known EBPs, such as explicit/direct instruction. However, the argument is based on opinion and conjecture, rather than student outcome measures. In this commentary, we use research on explicit and direct instruction with mathematics to (a) highlight the confusion over theoretical implications, (b) call for researchers to reduce personal bias within research, and (c) emphasize the need for improving outcomes of students with disabilities affecting mathematics learning.

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At every educational level reading is a powerful tool for academic success because it provides students with access to information. Comprehension is crucial to reading. Many students at Lobatse College of Education, Botswana, have problems comprehending L2 reading materials and thus struggle academically because English is the medium of instruction. To some extent, methods of teaching L2 reading contribute to students’ reading failure. It is said that how we teach is as important as what we teach. Thus, how L2 reading is taught is important for improving students’ understanding of texts and their L2 academic performance. This study focuses on teaching reading as a process which involves an application of reading strategies in order to facilitate comprehension of texts. The overall aim of the research is concerned with the improvement of methods of teaching L2 reading comprehension in Botswana Colleges of Education. The specific objective was to implement reading strategy instruction programme (RSI) to see what effect it would have on (i) on L2 students’ use of strategies during reading (ii) on L2 students’ reading comprehension, and (iii) on L2 students’ English academic performance. Using a quasi-experimental pre-posttest design, an explicit RSI programme was implemented over six-week period in a Botswana College of Education. Two intact cohorts of second-year teacher trainees were randomly assigned to a control and intervention groups. A reading strategy questionnaire and a reading comprehension test were used to examine the relationship between strategy use and level of comprehension. A discrepancy emerged between the self-reports responses of the participants and their actual performance in reading text. Although they claimed to be strategic readers the results suggested that they were not in fact reading strategically.The Cohen’s d analysis yielded a large effect size. This corroborates the significant differences that emerged between the two cohorts in their posttest comprehension results. The intervention group showed significant gains in strategy use and reading comprehension after the six-week intervention period. This suggests that even a short period of intervention can be beneficial to L2 students. However, these effects did not manifest themselves in the students’ English academic performance. This suggests that students need more exposure and more opportunities to practice applying strategies to texts that they read before the effect spill over into academic performance in general. The findings from this study have important implications for the teaching reading in Botswana in both L1 and L2 context. This research also point to further avenues for reading research in Botswana, and cautions against a reliance on questionnaire data alone in reading research; the triangulation of data is important to gain an accurate and deeper understanding of reading practices and reading performance. / Linguistics / M.A. (Applied Linguistics)

Esta pesquisa investigou o efeito da instrução implícita e explícita no desenvolvimento da competência sociolinguística em aprendizes brasileiros de italiano. Como definida aqui, a competência sociolinguística constitui o conhecimento que permite ao aprendiz reconhecer e produzir variedades linguísticas adequadas a gêneros textuais orais e escritos com diferentes graus de formalidade. Na primeira etapa da pesquisa, foram coletados na Itália quatro corpora de gêneros textuais produzidos por italianos, a saber: 140 e-mails; 13 interações em plantão docente; 10 entrevistas e 18 históricos de mensagens de texto enviadas pelo celular. A partir dos dados reunidos, foram conduzidas análises com o intuito de identificar fenômenos marcados em diamesia e diafasia que pudessem, posteriormente, ser abordados por meio da instrução em sala de aula. Com base nas análises, foi constatada a existência de seis traços linguísticos capazes de diferenciar os quatro gêneros textuais no plano da formalidade e do canal empregado na comunicação, foram eles: 1) a expressão da posterioridade verbal; 2) as conjunções adversativas, causais, concessivas e conclusivas; 3) as unidades lexicais alteradas; 4) os superlativos absolutos; 5) os deslocamentos à esquerda e à direita; e 6) os pronomes relativos. Passamos, então, à etapa subsequente da pesquisa: a formulação dos cursos experimentais. Ambos os cursos tiveram duração de 20 horas, que foram divididas em cinco unidades de trabalho. Participaram do experimento didático 22 aprendizes, dos quais 11 fizeram parte do grupo submetido à instrução explícita e 11 do grupo que recebeu instrução implícita. Para distinguir a instrução implícita da explícita, adotamos as propostas de Ellis (1998), Housen e Pierrard (2005), Doughty e Williams (1998), entre outros, diferenciando o curso explícito pela presença de momentos voltados à reflexão metalinguística indutiva (GAUGHIER et al., 2014) e pelo oferecimento de feedback corretivo explícito (LYSTER; RANTA, 1997). No curso implícito, por outro lado, a instrução foi realizada por meio de perguntas de compreensão sobre o input (VANPATTEN, 2004; WONG, 2004), de atividades de revisão colaborativa (FIGUEIREDO, 2006; CARVALHO, 2006) e de atividades de listasíntese (SCHNEUWLY; DOLZ, 2010). A coleta de dados nos dois grupos se deu pela realização de três testes aplicados antes e depois da instrução em sala de aula. Dois testes foram construídos para eliciar conhecimento declarativo e um para eliciar conhecimento processual (ELLIS, 2009). A comparação do desempenho dos aprendizes revelou que a instrução gerou efeitos na competência sociolinguística em ambos os grupos, porém houve efeitos mais significativos para o grupo que recebeu instrução explícita. Nesse grupo, houve alteração no desempenho, sobretudo, nas medidas mais relacionadas ao conhecimento declarativo - o teste de recepção e o de produção escrita - enquanto no grupo que recebeu instrução implícita as modificações se deram, principalmente, quanto a aspectos relativos à estrutura composicional dos gêneros textuais. / This research investigated the effect of implicit and explicit instruction on the development of sociolinguistic competence in Brazilian learners of Italian. As defined here, sociolinguistic competence consists in the knowledge that allows the learner to recognize and produce linguistic varieties appropriate to oral and written textual genres with different degrees of formality. In the first stage of the research, we collected in Italy four corpora of textual genres produced by Italians, namely: 140 e-mails; 13 professor-student advising sessions; 10 interviews and 18 mobile phone chat histories. We performed analyses of the gathered data with the purpose of identifying phenomena marked in the diamesic and diaphasic dimensions that could later be addressed in classroom instruction. The analyses led to the identification of six linguistic traits capable of differentiating the four textual genres in terms of formality and of the channel used in the communication: 1) the expression of verbal posteriority; 2) adversative, causal, concessive and conclusive conjunctions; 3) altered lexical units; 4) absolute superlatives; 5) left and right dislocation; and 6) relative pronouns. We then moved on to the subsequent stage of the research: the formulation of the experimental courses. Both courses lasted 20 hours, which were divided into five units of work. Twenty-two learners participated in the teaching experiment and were divided into two groups: 11 learners were in the explicit group and 11 in the implicit group. In order to differentiate the techniques of implicit and explicit instruction, we adopted the proposals of Ellis (1998), Housen and Pierrard (2005), Doughty and Williams (1998), among others. Therefore, on the one hand, the explicit course included the presence of moments focused on inductive metalinguistic reflection (GAUGHIER et al., 2014) and the use of explicit corrective feedback (LYSTER; RANTA, 1997); on the other hand, in the implicit course, the techniques consisted in comprehension questions about the input (VANPATTEN, 2004; WONG, 2004), collaborative review tasks (FIGUEIREDO, 2006; CARVALHO, 2006) and list-synthesis activities (SCHNEUWLY; DOLZ, 2010). The data in the two groups were collected using three tests, which were applied before and after the instruction in the classroom. Two tests were constructed to elicit declarative knowledge and one to elicit procedural knowledge (ELLIS, 2009). The comparison of learners\' performance revealed that the instruction generated effects on sociolinguistic competence in both groups, but there were more significant effects in the group submitted to explicit instruction techniques. In this group, there was a change in performance, especially in the measures most related to declarative knowledge - the reception test and the written test - while in the implicit group the modifications affected mainly aspects related to the compositional structure of the textual genres.

At every educational level reading is a powerful tool for academic success because it provides students with access to information. Comprehension is crucial to reading. Many students at Lobatse College of Education, Botswana, have problems comprehending L2 reading materials and thus struggle academically because English is the medium of instruction. To some extent, methods of teaching L2 reading contribute to students’ reading failure. It is said that how we teach is as important as what we teach. Thus, how L2 reading is taught is important for improving students’ understanding of texts and their L2 academic performance. This study focuses on teaching reading as a process which involves an application of reading strategies in order to facilitate comprehension of texts. The overall aim of the research is concerned with the improvement of methods of teaching L2 reading comprehension in Botswana Colleges of Education. The specific objective was to implement reading strategy instruction programme (RSI) to see what effect it would have on (i) on L2 students’ use of strategies during reading (ii) on L2 students’ reading comprehension, and (iii) on L2 students’ English academic performance. Using a quasi-experimental pre-posttest design, an explicit RSI programme was implemented over six-week period in a Botswana College of Education. Two intact cohorts of second-year teacher trainees were randomly assigned to a control and intervention groups. A reading strategy questionnaire and a reading comprehension test were used to examine the relationship between strategy use and level of comprehension. A discrepancy emerged between the self-reports responses of the participants and their actual performance in reading text. Although they claimed to be strategic readers the results suggested that they were not in fact reading strategically.The Cohen’s d analysis yielded a large effect size. This corroborates the significant differences that emerged between the two cohorts in their posttest comprehension results. The intervention group showed significant gains in strategy use and reading comprehension after the six-week intervention period. This suggests that even a short period of intervention can be beneficial to L2 students. However, these effects did not manifest themselves in the students’ English academic performance. This suggests that students need more exposure and more opportunities to practice applying strategies to texts that they read before the effect spill over into academic performance in general. The findings from this study have important implications for the teaching reading in Botswana in both L1 and L2 context. This research also point to further avenues for reading research in Botswana, and cautions against a reliance on questionnaire data alone in reading research; the triangulation of data is important to gain an accurate and deeper understanding of reading practices and reading performance. / Linguistics and Modern Languages / M.A. (Applied Linguistics)

Este estudio presenta los resultados de una investigación que examina la efectividad del enfoque léxico como forma de instrucción explícita sobre la adquisición de la competencia léxica en aprendices de español como lengua extranjera. El estudio esta guiado por dos preguntas de investigación. La primera pregunta de investigación (PI 1) examina el impacto del enfoque léxico sobre la adquisición de la competencia léxica. La segunda pregunta de investigación (PI 2) examina si la efectividad del enfoque léxico en el grupo de alumnos examinados viene condicionada por las creencias de los participantes acerca de las estrategias empleadas en dicho método. La aplicación del enfoque léxico se basó en una propuesta pedagógica consistente en una unidad didáctica de creación propia. Se analizaron los datos obtenidos tanto de forma cuantitativa como cualitativa. Los resultados confirmaron empíricamente la validez del enfoque léxico como principio metodológico para adquirir la competencia léxica. Del mismo modo, se encontró una relación entre las creencias de los participantes y las estrategias de aprendizaje empleadas. / This paper reports the results of a study that examined the effectiveness of the lexical approach as a form of explicit instruction in relation to the acquisition of lexical competence in learners of Spanish as a foreign language. The study was guided by two research questions. The first question aimed to examine the impact of the lexical approach with regard to the lexical competence. The second question asked whether the effectiveness of the lexical approach was conditioned by the learner’s beliefs regarding the learning strategies inherent to the lexical approach. The lexical approach was applied by means of a lesson plan based on a self-created design. The data obtained was analyzed both quantitatively and qualitatively. The results obtained empirically confirm the validity of the lexical approach as a methodological principle suitable for the teaching of lexical competence. Similarly, a relationship was found between the learner’s beliefs and the learning strategies they employed.

South Africa’s current performance on national and international studies is an indication that all is not well with our literacy teaching. In spite of the implementation of the National Curriculum Statement Grade R-9, illiteracy is currently a serious problem in South Africa. Current international and national documents call for direct, explicit, systematic teaching of reading and language concepts to beginning readers. The five principal components of reading instruction, namely phoneme awareness; phonics; word study and spelling; reading fluency; and text comprehension encompass language instruction at the phoneme, grapheme, syllable, word, sentence, and discourse levels. Teachers need specific and explicit linguistic knowledge to recognise and address the needs of all learners on the continuum of reading and language proficiency. Phonological awareness skills are considered as the most important indicators of early reading skills. Literature suggests a strong positive correlation between phonological awareness skills and reading skills development. Longitudinal studies show that children who don’t have phonological awareness skills have difficulties in reading. Experimental studies on phonological awareness suggest that the implementation of phonological awareness training has positive effects on the development of reading and spelling abilities. Phonological awareness is a key component in the prevention of reading failure. The information collected through the assessment of phonological awareness, enables teachers to make informed decisions about modifications of the literacy learning programme and implement reading interventions to prevent failure of reading acquisition. This early, preventative intervention reduces the possibility that learners fall behind in reading. The teaching of phonological awareness is par excellence for emergent literacy in the grade R class. Phonological awareness can be improved through the systematic, explicit instruction thereof. Therefore, teachers need to be able to implement a variety of phonological awareness activities in their classroom instruction. Teachers need content knowledge about phonological awareness, and how to implement it successfully. The purpose of this study was to determine: What a SWOT analysis reveals about grade R-teachers’: * Current in-depth knowledge of phonological awareness. * Preparedness to teach phonological awareness. * Implementation of instructional practices relevant to phonological awareness. * Perceptions of the support received from DoBE, in terms of relevant documentation, teaching and learning support material and professional development. The limitations, if any, in the teacher support documents of the DoBE, regarding the teaching of phonological awareness in grade R and to make suggestion with regard to the improvement thereof. What the perceptions of grade R teachers are about their in-depth knowledge, instructional practices and preparedness, concerning phonological awareness, after the implementation of a teacher training programme, focussing specifically on phonological awareness. The study was conducted utilizing a case study with thirteen grade R teachers from Lichtenburg, and the surrounding towns, Koster, Coligny and Itsoseng in the North West Province, Department of Basic Education, in South Africa. Data was collected in three phases, using questionnaires, interviews, observations and document analyses. In the first phase, the researcher gathered information on the knowledge and implementation of phonological awareness before the intervention (i.e., a teacher training programme). In the second phase, the teachers received training about the concept of phonological awareness and its relevance in reading acquisition. The training programme included relevant teaching activities as well as learning and teaching support material. In the third phase, the researcher trained the participants in the implementation of phonological awareness and gathered data about the implementation process. The results indicated that if teachers received explicit training about phonological awareness and are provided with relevant learning and teaching support material, they are able to implement phonological awareness activities in grade R classrooms. The results of this study have implications for teacher training. The concept of phonological awareness, its relevance in reading acquisition as well as relevant teaching activities need to be included in the training of grade R teachers. / Thesis (Ph.D. (Learning and Teaching))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2011.

South Africa’s current performance on national and international studies is an indication that all is not well with our literacy teaching. In spite of the implementation of the National Curriculum Statement Grade R-9, illiteracy is currently a serious problem in South Africa. Current international and national documents call for direct, explicit, systematic teaching of reading and language concepts to beginning readers. The five principal components of reading instruction, namely phoneme awareness; phonics; word study and spelling; reading fluency; and text comprehension encompass language instruction at the phoneme, grapheme, syllable, word, sentence, and discourse levels. Teachers need specific and explicit linguistic knowledge to recognise and address the needs of all learners on the continuum of reading and language proficiency. Phonological awareness skills are considered as the most important indicators of early reading skills. Literature suggests a strong positive correlation between phonological awareness skills and reading skills development. Longitudinal studies show that children who don’t have phonological awareness skills have difficulties in reading. Experimental studies on phonological awareness suggest that the implementation of phonological awareness training has positive effects on the development of reading and spelling abilities. Phonological awareness is a key component in the prevention of reading failure. The information collected through the assessment of phonological awareness, enables teachers to make informed decisions about modifications of the literacy learning programme and implement reading interventions to prevent failure of reading acquisition. This early, preventative intervention reduces the possibility that learners fall behind in reading. The teaching of phonological awareness is par excellence for emergent literacy in the grade R class. Phonological awareness can be improved through the systematic, explicit instruction thereof. Therefore, teachers need to be able to implement a variety of phonological awareness activities in their classroom instruction. Teachers need content knowledge about phonological awareness, and how to implement it successfully. The purpose of this study was to determine: What a SWOT analysis reveals about grade R-teachers’: * Current in-depth knowledge of phonological awareness. * Preparedness to teach phonological awareness. * Implementation of instructional practices relevant to phonological awareness. * Perceptions of the support received from DoBE, in terms of relevant documentation, teaching and learning support material and professional development. The limitations, if any, in the teacher support documents of the DoBE, regarding the teaching of phonological awareness in grade R and to make suggestion with regard to the improvement thereof. What the perceptions of grade R teachers are about their in-depth knowledge, instructional practices and preparedness, concerning phonological awareness, after the implementation of a teacher training programme, focussing specifically on phonological awareness. The study was conducted utilizing a case study with thirteen grade R teachers from Lichtenburg, and the surrounding towns, Koster, Coligny and Itsoseng in the North West Province, Department of Basic Education, in South Africa. Data was collected in three phases, using questionnaires, interviews, observations and document analyses. In the first phase, the researcher gathered information on the knowledge and implementation of phonological awareness before the intervention (i.e., a teacher training programme). In the second phase, the teachers received training about the concept of phonological awareness and its relevance in reading acquisition. The training programme included relevant teaching activities as well as learning and teaching support material. In the third phase, the researcher trained the participants in the implementation of phonological awareness and gathered data about the implementation process. The results indicated that if teachers received explicit training about phonological awareness and are provided with relevant learning and teaching support material, they are able to implement phonological awareness activities in grade R classrooms. The results of this study have implications for teacher training. The concept of phonological awareness, its relevance in reading acquisition as well as relevant teaching activities need to be included in the training of grade R teachers. / Thesis (Ph.D. (Learning and Teaching))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2011.