The study sheds light on the interrelations between interlanguage pragmatics and the use of a popular acting method, the Stanislavsky System, for second language (L2) acquisition. The theoretical investigation explores various uses of acting in second language education. The empirical enquiry represents an exploratory case-study of two adult EFL learners attending a theatre course in English. Through teacher journals, interviews, and the analysis of the students’ pragmatic performance as captured by a video camera, the researcher hypothesizes that the pragmatic development of the students involved in drama comes from three main sources: the script, the acting exercises, and the necessity to communicate in English during the theatre course. In all three cases, the zone of proximal development in relation to pragmatic competence emerged as a result of a teacher-generated impetus to use L2, numerous opportunities for imitation and repetition, continuous peer-support, and the collaborative spirit created in the classroom.

The study sheds light on the interrelations between interlanguage pragmatics and the use of a popular acting method, the Stanislavsky System, for second language (L2) acquisition. The theoretical investigation explores various uses of acting in second language education. The empirical enquiry represents an exploratory case-study of two adult EFL learners attending a theatre course in English. Through teacher journals, interviews, and the analysis of the students’ pragmatic performance as captured by a video camera, the researcher hypothesizes that the pragmatic development of the students involved in drama comes from three main sources: the script, the acting exercises, and the necessity to communicate in English during the theatre course. In all three cases, the zone of proximal development in relation to pragmatic competence emerged as a result of a teacher-generated impetus to use L2, numerous opportunities for imitation and repetition, continuous peer-support, and the collaborative spirit created in the classroom.

This dissertation investigates the effects of instruction on the acquisition of pragmatic competence in the classroom setting, and specifically in the English as a Foreign Language (EFL) classroom. In particular, we examine the effects of instruction on learners' pragmatic development of a specific speech act, that of suggestions, with the goal of expanding the range of learning targets addressed in pragmatic interventional studies (Kasper and Rose, 2002). Apart from dealing with instructional effects, we also take into account the need to investigate various types of instruction in order to ascertain their effectiveness (Kasper and Rose, 2002). In this way, we analyse two different treatments (i.e. explicit and implicit) that have been operationalised on the basis of the principles underlying the paradigms of Focus on FormS and Focus on Form (Long, 1991, 1996, 1998; Doughty and Williams, 1998; Long and Robinson, 1998; Doughty, 2001). The aim of comparing both teaching approaches is to determine whether the two treatments are equally effective in developing learners' pragmatic competence regarding their production, awareness and confidence when judging the appropriateness of suggestions in different situations. Additionally, we are also concerned with issues related to research methodology and, bearing in mind findings from studies that observed task effects between oral and written production tasks (Houck and Gass, 1996; Sasaki, 1998; Safont, 2001), we have compared our learners' performance when making suggestions in two different tasks: an oral production task (i.e. phone messages) and a written production task (i.e. email).The results of the investigation indicate that, in comparison to the control group, both the explicit and implicit groups improved their pragmatic competence regarding their production, awareness and confidence when judging the appropriateness of suggestions in different situations. Moreover, comparing the explicit and implicit groups' performance in the post-test no statistical differences were observed between the two instructional treatments, which illustrates the effects of both explicit and implicit instruction to develop learners' pragmatic competence in the EFL classroom. The findings also show that the production task in which learners are engaged influences their use of suggestions, since there were task effects between the two production tasks employed in our study (i.e. phone messages and emails). In conclusion, the results obtained in this dissertation expand the scope of enquiry in the field of interlanguage pragmatics as well as outline practical pedagogical implications and open several lines of investigation to be examined in future research.

This thesis investigates human product interaction with a focus on the physical experience provided by products. The differences of users&#039 / perceptions are discussed according to the differences of bodily experiences served by products. The interaction with products is taken as a holistic experience phenomenon, and in order to assess users&#039 / understandings and evaluations about the experience with products / perceived pragmatic qualities, perceived hedonic qualities and elicited emotional reactions are analyzed. The research is conducted by means of surveys in order to compare users&#039 / perceptual differences in relation to two different product groups: automobiles and the iPhone, which differ in content of interaction, namely one serves a more physical (bodily) experience while the other a more virtual one. In order to find out the perceptual differences, verbal descriptions of perceived qualities and emotional states are used as measurement tools. A list consisting of bipolar word pairs in relation with pragmatic qualities, hedonic qualities and emotional reactions has been composed, and perceptual differences are investigated through the bipolar word pairs&#039 / relevancy levels according to the product. In addition, in order to show that meaning associations related to the same verbal description are context dependent, the meanings that are associated with the same word pairs for both products are investigated. Apparent differences between the relevant word pairs of the two different product groups have been observed, in addition with pragmatic qualities&#039 / higher relevancy scores compared to hedonic qualities and emotional reactions in defining users&#039 / interactions with products.

<p>This paper explores the interaction of children with language impairment (LI). The present essay is a conversation analytic study of child-child and child-therapist dyads. The aim was to explore in what ways children with LI reach common understanding. Another purpose was to investigate if there are differences in interaction between dyads with children with LI and dyads with children with LI and speech language therapist. Seven children, three girls and four boys, with LI participated in the study. All the children are enrolled at a language unit. The dialogues were recorded, transcribed and analysed. The results revealed no differences in the children’s length of utterance between the child-child dyads and the child-SLT dyads. Another important finding was that it became more of a course of event in the play between child and SLT in contrast to the child-child dyads, where the communication more concerned one or a couple of objects. In general, the children managed to initiate, respond, give feedback, negotiate and make requests of clarification and repair utterances in conversation with each other. One important conclusion is that conversation analysis could be used in identification of strengths and weaknesses in children’s communication. The knowledge from the analyses ought to be applicable in intervention with children with LI.</p> / <p>Föreliggande studie behandlar hur barn med språkstörning interagerar. Vidare är den en samtalsanalytisk studie av samtal barn-barn och barn-logoped. Syftet var att studera hur gemensam förståelse uppnås i kommunikation samt att undersöka om skillnader förelåg mellan de två samtalstyperna. Sju barn, tre flickor och fyra pojkar, med generell språkstörning deltog i studien. Samtliga går på språkförskola i södra Sverige. Samtalen spelades in, transkriberades samt analyserades. Resultaten visade att barnen initierade och responderade, återkopplade, förhandlade, begärde förtydligande samt reparerade yttranden relativt väl. Vidare framkom ingen skillnad i yttrandelängd hos barnen beroende på vem de kommunicerade med. Barnen upprätthöll ett samtalsämne tämligen adekvat. I logopedbarnsamtalen utvecklades samspelet mer till ett längre händelseförlopp, till skillnad från barnbarnsamtalen, där samtalen centrerades kring ett eller ett par föremål. Samtalsanalys förefaller vara ett bra verktyg vid bedömning av kommunikation. Metoden visar barns språkliga styrkor och svagheter i vardagligt samspel. Samtalsanalysens resultat kan därefter användas för att träna social interaktion i vardagen, och där torde logopeden ha en betydande roll gällande handledning av kommunikativ träning.</p>

本研究旨在討論新聞記者如何運用語用學之「前提」概念來引導受訪者回答，藉由「丟面子問題」質疑並挑戰受訪者「答非所問」之迴避回應。個案研究以一則平面政經新聞報導為言說分析之例，從主張與前提兩個語言單位來探究前提在訪談問答間扮演何種角色與功能。 相關語言學文獻討論曾指出記者前提影響受訪者之回應面向。本文進一步認為，記者訪談前提往往誘導受訪者針對該前提回應(而非針對問題本身)，並藉助記者的背景知識與訪談對話以預設前提並挑戰受訪者。 歸納個案文本的言說分析與個案記者訪談後，本研究發現，記者前提所產生的命題確實影響並誘導受訪者回應，並以記者的前設知識來探討前提技巧如何獲得受訪者更多、更深入的回應。整理上述提問、回應模式，本研究擬出語用前提作為「問好問題」之言談方法及雙方互動的橋樑，盼能提供訪談者一套語言策略。 / The goal of this research aims to explore how pragmatic presuppositions in news interviews influence the interaction of interlocutors, conducted by discourse analysis on assertions and presuppositions within each pair of questioning. By identifying the face-threatening questions which ends up leading the interviewee to non-reply responses, the case study concentrates on one public-figure interview in attempts to unveiling the tactics of placing presuppositions, added by the in-depth interview with the journalist of the case to take the speaker’s meaning into account. The result of this research enabled the author to discover the interaction of presupposition in the form of propositions between the interlocutors that leads the interviewee’s response to challenge the journalist’s presuppostions. The researcher also found evidences indicating the presumption of the journalist produces presuppostion as well as the response, which enables this research to develop a pragmatic strategy of news interview based on the use of presuppositions.

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Pasirodžius lingvistinio mandagumo teorijai, pasaulyje tokio pobūdžio tyrimai tapo labai populiarūs, tačiau lingvistinė pragmatika tebėra naujas reiškinys lietuvių kalbotyroje, visai mažai dėmesio skiriama pragmatiniams elektroninio diskurso tyrimams, ypač retai lingvistiniu aspektu tiriami interneto komentarai. Tačiau juos tirti verta dėl šio žanro populiarumo ir dėl to, kad jie parodo kasdien vartojamą kalbą bei veikia kalbinius mūsų visuomenės įpročius. Analizuoti interneto komentarus nuspręsta ir dėl jiems būdingo anonimiškumo, kadangi buvo siekiama patikrinti, ar asmens įvaizdžio apsaugos teorija veikia ir tada, kai adresantas slepiasi po pseudonimu. Šiame darbe pristatomas interneto svetainėje dėstytojai.lt esančiuose studentų komentaruose dėstytojams skirtų vertinimų tyrimas. Vertinimai analizuoti leksiniu-gramatiniu, lingvistinio mandagumo ir funkciniu aspektais. Buvo tiriama, kokie žodžiai ir jų junginiai dažniausiai vartojami vertinant dėstytoją, kaip teigiami-neigiami vertinimai sąveikauja tekste, kaip nuo jų sąveikos priklauso bendras komentaro turinio teigiamumas-neigiamumas. Taip pat buvo tiriama, kaip studentų komentaruose veikia lingvistinio mandagumo teorija: kokias strategijas naudoja studentai, pateikdami neigiamus vertinimus (kurie iš esmės yra asmens įvaizdžiui grėsmingi šnekos aktai), kokiais būdais jie yra švelninami. Išanalizuotas ir funkcinis neigiamų vertinimų aspektas – nustatyti šnekos aktai, kuriais realizuojami neigiami vertinimai, ištirta jų... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / When linguistic politeness theory has emerged, it became very popular all over the world, but it’s still a new phenomenon in Lithuanian linguistics. Little attention from pragmatic point of view is paid to the electronic discourse, especially to the interactive internet commentaries. However, they are worth analyzing because of the popularity of their genre and because they reflect the everyday language, also they are affecting the speech habits of our society. It was also decided to analyze interactive commentaries because of their anonymity factor, as it was expected to verify if the politeness theory works when the addressers are hiding behind their pseudonyms. Therefore, this study aims to represent the analysis of the assessments of lecturers in the interactive student commentaries on the website dėstytojai.lt. The analysis includes research of what words and phrases are commonly used for the assessment of lecturers, and research of how do positive and negative assessments interact in texts – how the negativity-positivity of the overall content of the commentary depends on their interaction. It has also been analyzed how the linguistic theory of politeness manifests itself in these commentaries: what strategies are used for the negative assessments (that are considered as face threatening speech acts), what criticism mitigating devices are used in them. It has been analyzed what the speech acts are used to actualize negative assessments in researched commentaries and how... [to full text]

Information and communication technologies (ICT) are having a rapid and increasing impact on all K-12 schools as school districts attempt, in a myriad of ways, to keep pace with the technological changes taking place in society. Unfortunately, this impact is increasingly a financial one as financial challenges continue to figure among the most extensive barriers to ICT use (Plante & Beattie, 2004). This research explores ICT options that are cost effective to our educational institutions and our communities while maintaining high functioning and sustainable technology for students and educators. Low-cost alternative technologies such as Free/Libre Open Source Software (FLOSS) and cloud computing lessen the socio-economic divide between students, encourage the sharing of technological advancements and collaboration and allow teachers to freely and legally give their students access to software necessary for success. In addition to the potential benefits of this technology’s use in an educational setting, this research also addresses the pragmatic aspects of introducing these tools district-wide. Complexity theory is utilized to lend an understanding of how to look at technological changes within the context of society as a whole, within enabling constraints that create the conditions for the emergence of new patterns of teacher, student, task and content interactions. This complexity frame informs themes in the study such as: (1) the importance of forward-thinking technology from recursive feedback loops on decision-making and planning in order to “keep up” with technological changes outside of school, (2) the critical impact educational leaders have on the change environment when both introducing these technologies into a school district and providing enabling conditions so that new ways of teaching and learning with technology can emerge and (3) the effect changing technological systems and support infrastructures have on enabling new teaching and learning processes. / Graduate / 0710 / 0524 / 0533 / katyconnelly@gmail.com

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