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<p>This paper examines the distribution of corrective feedback in the Swedish EFL classroom, and the relationship between the context of teacher-student exchanges and the provision of feedback. Corrective feedback was categorized in six types as being ‘recasts’, ‘explicit feedback’, ‘repetition’, ‘elicitation’, ‘metalinguistic feedback’, and ‘clarification requests’. In parts of this study, the latter four types were classed together as ‘prompts’ because they aim at pushing the students to say the correct forms of language. Student exchanges were defined in four ways: content, communication, management, and explicit language-focused exchanges. The results show the number of moves per category of corrective feedback type used by each of the teachers, the overall number of feedback moves per context, and even the overall number of feedback moves provided by each teacher in each context. The findings indicated that recasts yielded the highest number of feedback moves. Recasts were also the favored feedback type provided by the teachers. However, when recasts were compared to prompts, prompts were used often by teachers, and thus suggesting that at least two of the teachers usually pushed their students to say the correct form. The findings also indicated that explicit language-focused exchanges yielded the highest number of feedback moves, whereas management exchanges had the fewest. In conclusion, this study suggests that context plays a role in the provision of corrective feedback, and teachers appear to favor recasts over any other single feedback type. The findings also confirmed that similar results which have been found in other cultural and educational contexts can be yielded in the Swedish EFL classroom.</p>

La presente tesis tiene por objetivo identificar para la enseñanza del español una serie de características prosódicas que son comunicativamente importantes. El trabajo también se propone poner de relieve el papel central de la prosodia en la comunicación, así como la necesidad de incorporar esta destreza en las competencias comunicativas de la enseñanza de lenguas extranjeras. La tesis integra una colección de cinco estudios, tres de los cuales realizados con un enfoque empírico experimental y dedicados a los temas siguientes: (a) las diferencias en la realización de prominencia prosódica por parte de hablantes de español L2 y español L1 (Estudio I), (b) la transferencia de estrategias pragmáticas del sueco L1 al español L2, manifestada en la realización de los tonos de frontera ascendentes (Estudio II), y (c) la contribución de rasgos prosódicos al acento extranjero percibido en hablantes suecos de español L2 con especial atención al rol desempeñado por los tonos de frontera ascendentes y sus correspondientes valores pragmáticos (Estudio III). El objetivo de estos tres estudios es, por un lado, identificar cuáles son las características prosódicas más importantes para conseguir una interacción exitosa en la L2 y, por el otro, investigar en qué medida estas características han sido adquiridas por los aprendientes investigados. Estudio IV resalta que, a pesar del enfoque comunicativo en la enseñanza LE, se abordan los aspectos suprasegmentales en el currículo sueco así como en los cinco libros de enseñanza E/LE analizados como una competencia aislada que no está integrada en la competencia comunicativa. El Estudio V, al combinar los resultados de los Estudios I-III con los de otros estudios temáticamente relevantes, busca identificar unas características principales, unos Core Prosodic Features, para la enseñanza de la prosodia española a los aprendientes suecos. El estudio recomienda un enfoque basado en la atención a la forma para la enseñanza de estas características en contextos interaccionales. / This thesis sets out to identify a series of communicatively important prosodic features for the teaching of Spanish in a Swedish context. The present work also aims to highlight both the central role played by prosody in communication and the need for this skill to be integrated in the communicative competences of second language teaching and learning. The thesis comprises a collection of five studies, three of which use an experimental approach to investigate the following: (a) differences in the realization of prosodic prominence by L2 and L1 speakers of Spanish (Study I); (b) the transfer of pragmatic strategies from L1 Swedish to L2 Spanish, manifested in the realization of rising boundary tones (Study II); and (c) the contribution of the type of L2 prosody displayed by Swedish learners to a percieved foreign accent, focusing, focusing especially on the role played by rising boundary tones and their pragmatic values  (Study III). These initial studies describe some of the main prosodic characteristics of the L2 product as compared to Spanish L1, and identify prosodic features of Spanish L1 that are of importance to acquire for interactional success in the L2. Study IV highlights the fact that, despite the emphasis on a communicative approach in L2 teaching, the approach to the teaching of prosody in the Swedish curriculum and the L2 Spanish text books studied tends to be addressed as a separate skill, that is not integrated in the descriptions of the communicative competences. Study V, by combining the results of Studies I-III with those of other thematically relevant studies, proposes some main features, so-called Core Prosodic Features (CPFs), for the teaching of Spanish prosody to Swedish learners. The identification of the CPFs also enables a future evaluation of the form-focused teaching approach suggested.

This is an in-depth study of word knowledge where the researcher attempts to investigate the need to systematically teach vocabulary in the language classroom. It is motivated by findings within second language (L2) vocabulary testing research that state that the current communicative language learning environment is insufficient for L2 learners to acquire adequate vocabulary knowledge and L2 learners need help with vocabulary learning (Laufer, 2005). This semester-long study explores the need to provide explicit vocabulary instruction from within a meaningful environment. It also investigates the relevance of focus on forms and focus on form practices in helping second language (L2) learners increase the size and depth of word knowledge. The study involved 129 undergraduates from a writing program, and used a pretest and posttest design to measure gains in L2 learners vocabulary knowledge. .The results indicate that the vocabulary gains for both implicit (control) and explicit (treatment) instructional context were not very different though the subjects in the implicit instructional group learned slightly more words compared to the explicit instructional group. However, this has more to do with individual instructor effectiveness and learner proficiency. In terms of word use, L2 learners subjected to explicit focus on forms and focus on form tasks increased their word use while the first language (L1) learners and L2 learners from the control groups did not increase their academic words. Therefore, it is possible to suggest that L2 learners can be taught to increase the depth of their vocabulary knowledge through explicit instructional practices. In terms of L1 and L2 learners, the initial findings revealed that the L2 learners did not benefit from explicit instruction. However, additional analysis revealed that subjects with sufficient vocabulary knowledge at the 2000 word level can increase their word size much more rapidly than the proficient L2 learners in the control group. An additional test on L1 and L2 learners' word collocation skills indicated that while explicit instruction did not help increase L2 learners vocabulary size, it was able to help L2 learners increase their word collocation skills and also make word associations that are closer to L1 learners' associations.

This paper examines the distribution of corrective feedback in the Swedish EFL classroom, and the relationship between the context of teacher-student exchanges and the provision of feedback. Corrective feedback was categorized in six types as being ‘recasts’, ‘explicit feedback’, ‘repetition’, ‘elicitation’, ‘metalinguistic feedback’, and ‘clarification requests’. In parts of this study, the latter four types were classed together as ‘prompts’ because they aim at pushing the students to say the correct forms of language. Student exchanges were defined in four ways: content, communication, management, and explicit language-focused exchanges. The results show the number of moves per category of corrective feedback type used by each of the teachers, the overall number of feedback moves per context, and even the overall number of feedback moves provided by each teacher in each context. The findings indicated that recasts yielded the highest number of feedback moves. Recasts were also the favored feedback type provided by the teachers. However, when recasts were compared to prompts, prompts were used often by teachers, and thus suggesting that at least two of the teachers usually pushed their students to say the correct form. The findings also indicated that explicit language-focused exchanges yielded the highest number of feedback moves, whereas management exchanges had the fewest. In conclusion, this study suggests that context plays a role in the provision of corrective feedback, and teachers appear to favor recasts over any other single feedback type. The findings also confirmed that similar results which have been found in other cultural and educational contexts can be yielded in the Swedish EFL classroom.

This paper investigates what role grammar plays, what grammatical content is included, and whether focus on form or meaning dominates in six EFL (English as a Foreign Language) textbooks for English 5. Through the methodology content analysis, the grammatical content is calculated, categorized, and analyzed with coding frames in three parts: form-focused instruction and grammar tasks and meaning-focused instruction and grammar tasks, context, and grammatical categories. The results show that form-focused instruction and grammar tasks dominate over meaning-focused instruction and grammar tasks in all textbooks. The proportions of form-focused grammar task range from 74% to 100%. When it comes to context, in all textbooks but one, grammar tasks are both placed in separate grammar sections and integrated in the texts. Furthermore, there is a considerable degree of variation between the textbooks in terms of the proportions of grammatical categories. In form-focused grammar tasks, the highest frequencies were seen in verbs, the mixed category, nouns, pronouns, and adjectives and adverbs. In meaning-focused grammar tasks, verbs, the mixed category, and adjectives and adverbs have the highest frequencies. Even though the textbooks treat grammar rather similarly, the grammatical content and the proportions of tasks differ.

The purpose of this study is to examine the role of form-focused instruction in relation to learner investment in second language (L2) communication and learning. Although positive effects of form-focused instruction have been reported in the instructed second language acquisition literature, most of this research has been conducted from a cognitive-interactionist perspective. Little attention has been paid to the social and cultural factors of form-focused instruction, including learner investment— a desire to learn a second/foreign language taking into consideration learners’ socially constructed identities (Norton-Peirce, 1995). Drawing on second language socialization theory (Duff, 2007) and using discursive practices (Young, 2009) as an analytic framework, this study examines how form-focused instruction influences learner investment in L2 communication in the classroom setting. Twenty-four high school students in Japan participated in a study, where two Japanese teachers of English team-taught four 50-minute lessons. Each lesson contained a 30-minute treatment period, which consisted of a 15-minute exclusively meaning-focused (MF) activity and a 15-minute form-focused (FF) activity that included attention to both form and meaning. By counter-balancing effects of tasks, target grammar features, and teachers, the study examined whether and how the same learners invested in L2 communication in similar or different ways during the two different types of activities. Data were collected through classroom observations, video-recorded classroom interactions, stimulated recalls, interviews, questionnaires, and diaries. The interactional data were analyzed quantitatively by comparing the frequency of turns and language-related episodes during FF and MF activities. The same interactional data were also analyzed qualitatively in relation to discursive practices and self-reported data. The results showed that the FF activities created contexts for learners to establish their identities as L2 learners leading to more engagement in L2 communication than in the MF activities. This suggests that FF activities create a social context that enables learners to communicate in the L2 with greater investment than in MF activities.

The purpose of this study is to examine the role of form-focused instruction in relation to learner investment in second language (L2) communication and learning. Although positive effects of form-focused instruction have been reported in the instructed second language acquisition literature, most of this research has been conducted from a cognitive-interactionist perspective. Little attention has been paid to the social and cultural factors of form-focused instruction, including learner investment— a desire to learn a second/foreign language taking into consideration learners’ socially constructed identities (Norton-Peirce, 1995). Drawing on second language socialization theory (Duff, 2007) and using discursive practices (Young, 2009) as an analytic framework, this study examines how form-focused instruction influences learner investment in L2 communication in the classroom setting. Twenty-four high school students in Japan participated in a study, where two Japanese teachers of English team-taught four 50-minute lessons. Each lesson contained a 30-minute treatment period, which consisted of a 15-minute exclusively meaning-focused (MF) activity and a 15-minute form-focused (FF) activity that included attention to both form and meaning. By counter-balancing effects of tasks, target grammar features, and teachers, the study examined whether and how the same learners invested in L2 communication in similar or different ways during the two different types of activities. Data were collected through classroom observations, video-recorded classroom interactions, stimulated recalls, interviews, questionnaires, and diaries. The interactional data were analyzed quantitatively by comparing the frequency of turns and language-related episodes during FF and MF activities. The same interactional data were also analyzed qualitatively in relation to discursive practices and self-reported data. The results showed that the FF activities created contexts for learners to establish their identities as L2 learners leading to more engagement in L2 communication than in the MF activities. This suggests that FF activities create a social context that enables learners to communicate in the L2 with greater investment than in MF activities.

This study is an investigation of Swedish junior high school students’ English grammar knowledge, based on their written production. The Swedish students’ written productions where analyzed using error analysis as a method to find the most frequent errors that the students make. The errors were identified in texts that were produced in two different ways (free and controlled), and these texts were then compared. The study was conducted through (a) identifying the most frequent grammatical errors in Swedish students’ written production, (b) analyzing what causes the errors to be made, and (c) distinguishing if there is any difference between free written or controlled written production. The students’ grammatical knowledge was discussed on the basis of the results of these procedures. The results show that the most frequent errors made by Swedish junior high school students are errors of verb tense, verb inflection and subject-verb agreement. The errors are probably caused by lack of grammatical knowledge, but also by incorrect transfer from Swedish into English. Furthermore, the results show that the students from the two target groups to some extent make the same type of errors regardless of their productions were free written or more controlled.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-03-22T17:26:44Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Patta Alves.pdf: 946799 bytes, checksum: 7cde5c03d3fac4fda62b03a67fcefb54 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012-03-30 / This research study investigates how Form-Focused Instruction, following the taxonomy proposed by Rod Ellis (2001), occurs in an EFL school in Southern Brazil. In addition to this, it aimed to identify in the English classes of two teachers, if their practices were permeated by technical knowledge, practical knowledge or both kinds of knowledge on Form-Focused Instruction (FFI), as well as at which moment of their teacher development this knowledge was originated. The data were collected from the audio and video recordings of two consecutive classes taught by each professional, as well as from a semi-structured questionnaire and a stimulated recall interview. The results from this investigation showed that, in the act of teaching, such professionals made use, primarily, of their practical knowledge (intuitive and implicit knowledge that is built during the practice), and that their beliefs about formal instruction were originated during their development as teachers / Este trabalho investiga como se dá a Instrução Focada na Forma no Ensino de Inglês como Língua Estrangeira sob a luz das taxionomias propostas por Rod Ellis (2001), num ambiente de curso particular de Inglês. Além disso, buscou-se identificar, nas duas professoras pesquisadas, P1 e P2, se suas aulas eram permeadas pelo conhecimento técnico, teórico ou ambos, acerca da Instrução Focada na Forma (IFF), bem como em que momento de sua formação tal conhecimento foi originado. Os dados foram obtidos a partir da gravação em áudio e vídeo de duas aulas consecutivas de cada profissional, da aplicação de um questionário semi-estruturado e de uma entrevista com lembrança estimulada. Os resultados desta investigação mostraram que, no ato da IFF, as profissionais fizeram uso, principalmente, de seu conhecimento prático (conhecimento desenvolvido durante a prática, sendo implícito e intuitivo), e que suas crenças acerca do ensino formal se originaram, inconscientemente, durante suas formações como professoras o