Thesis (M.A. (English Studies)) -- University of Limpopo, 2021 / The purpose of this study was to investigate the significance of English for Specific Purposes (ESP) approach for the first year Law Degree students at the University of Limpopo. Qualitative, ethnographic research was conducted to determine the views and perceptions of the participants. Data was collected through interviews and questionnaires with a selected sample of respondents, and the data was analysed using thematic analysis. Themes were generated to present the data based on the objectives of the study, which were aligned to the literature review. The study has highlighted how the ESP approach could be used in the existing English module drawing from the participants’ conceptions. The findings revealed that even though the English module is considered important in the law degree by students and lecturers, the content of the module should be designed in a manner that fits the Law field. The study recommends that relevant content be designed to develop essential skills such as problem-solving and critical thinking and the module content should be designed with the specific content that fits the law degree.

No description available.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / This case study of a Generation 1.5 university student presents the participant’s experiences in an EAP writing course and a text analysis of her revision process in that course. The study shows the participant's complex educational and English language learning experiences both before and after her immigration to the U.S.

Syftet med denna studie är att öka kunskapen om hur Organiserande syften kan användas som stöd för didaktisk analys och design av kemiundervisning i förskolan som tar utgångspunkt i faktaböcker. Som forskningsansats har vi använt oss av aktionsforskning och inom ramen för detta gjordes en didaktisk modellering där vi exemplifierat hur den didaktiska modellen Organiserande syften kan användas som stöd i planering, genomförande samt utvärdering av undervisning i förskolan. Utifrån detta har vi i vår studie genomfört två undervisningscyklar och påbörjat en tredje där vi systematiskt har planerat, agerat, observerat och reflekterat med hjälp av begrepp som kopplas till den didaktiska modellen Organiserande syften: övergripande syfte, närliggande syfte och kontinuitet. Datainsamlingen skedde genom observation under undervisningsaktiviteterna. Aktiviteternas huvudfokus var vattnets olika faser och riktade sig till barn i åldern tre – fem år. I resultatet kunde vi se att när den didaktiska modellen Organiserande syfte användes som ett didaktiskt verktyg var denna ett stöd i utvecklingen samt förbättringen av undervisningen. Modellen hjälpte oss vid planering av aktiviteterna och synliggjorde genom övergripande och närliggande syften på vilket lärandeobjekt eller område som skulle vara i fokus. Analysen av undervisningscyklarna visade på vilka förbättringar som behövde göras inför nästkommande cykel för att det skulle utgå från barnens livsvärld samt utmana till nya upptäckter. Slutsatsen i denna studie påvisar att organiserande syften kan vara ett stöd för pedagoger i förskolan att designa, analysera samt utveckla undervisningens kvalité. / The purpose of this study is to increase the knowledge of how the didactic model organizing purposes can be used in preschool, as support in didactic analyzis and design of chemistry teaching based on non-fictional books. As a research approach, we utilized action research and within this structure didactic modeling was done. We exemplified how organizing purposes can be used as support in planning, implementation and evaluation of preschool teaching. Within this systematically planned, acted, observed and analysed two teaching cycles and planned a third by using the concepts that are linked to the model organizing purposes: ultimate purposes, proximate purposes and continuity. Data was collected through observation of the teaching activities that were carried out. The activities refer to different phases of water and was aimed at children aged three to five years. The results of this study show that using the didactic model organizing purposes as a didactic tool supports the improvement and development of teaching in a preschool environment. The model supported us in the planning of the activities by bringing light to which learning objects or area should be in focus, through the concepts ultimate and proximal purposes. Our analysis of the teaching cycles showed what improvements needed to be made. Improvements that would make the activities better based on children’s knowledge as well as challenge them to make new discoveries. The conclusion of this study shows that organizing purposes can act as support for preschool educators when designing, analyzing and developing the quality of teaching.

Elicited Imitation (EI) is an assessment approach that uses sentence imitation tasks to gauge the oral proficiency level of test takers. EI tests have been created for several of the world's languages, including English, Spanish, Japanese, French, and Mandarin. Little research has been conducted for using the EI approach with learners of Russian. This dissertation describes a multi-faceted study that was presented in two journal articles for the creation and analysis of a Russian EI test. The EI test was created for and tested with Russian-speaking missionaries and employees at the Missionary Training Center (MTC) in Provo, UT. The first article describes the creation of the test and analyzes its ability to predict oral language proficiency by comparing individuals' scores on the EI to their scores on the Oral Proficiency Interview (OPI). The test was found to effectively predict an individual's OPI score (R2 = .86). The second article analyzes the difference in person ability estimates and item difficulty measures between items from a general content bank and a religious content bank. The mean score for the content specific items (x̄ = .51) was significantly higher than the mean score for the general test (x̄ = .44, p < 0.001). Additionally, the item difficulties for the religious items were significantly less than the item difficulties for the general items (p < 0.05).

No description available.

There has been growing concern in the higher education sector in South Africa about the high number of students with low academic literacy (AL) levels who are gaining entry into the sector. This influx necessitated the introduction of academic literacy interventions which are aimed at supporting these students in meeting the academic literacy requirements of university education. As a result, the tertiary sector has seen a growing number of AL interventions, each catering for a different context. However, the available literature reports very little substantial evidence on the impact/effectiveness of such interventions regarding the purpose for which they have been designed. The Vaal Triangle Campus (VTC) of the North-West University has also found that the majority of first year students who register at this Campus in order to attain a tertiary qualification, show inadequate levels of academic literacy in English. However, the academic literacy intervention that is currently used at this campus has never been formally assessed for its effectiveness in improving students’ academic literacy levels. The purpose of the current study was therefore to investigate the impact of the academic literacy intervention on students’ academic literacy levels. This intervention, which consists of two complementary semester modules, is offered over a one-year period to new first year students. As a first step, a comprehensive literature survey was conducted on important changes that took place in the tertiary education sector after 1994. The reason for this enquiry is based on the fact that many of these changes, such as the ‘massification’ of tertiary education, had far-reaching consequences for the tertiary sector in terms of more underprepared students who gained access to university education. Furthermore, available literature on the types of academic literacy interventions in South Africa, as well as specific sources on the reported impact of such interventions, were critiqued. The empirical part of the study made use of both a qualitative and quantitative research paradigm in order to investigate the impact of the AL intervention at the VTC. A highly reliable academic literacy test (the TALL – Test of Academic Literacy Levels) was used to determine whether students showed any significant improvement in their levels of academic literacy as a result of the intervention. This study reports positive findings in this regard. The investigation further gathered opinion-based data through the administration of three questionnaires aimed at determining student and lecturer perceptions of the impact of the intervention. The main findings of the two student questionnaires (one administered for each AL module) show that students generally see the value in attending the academic literacy modules because they feel that they derive benefit from them. The findings of the lecturer survey indicate that although mainstream lecturers are acutely aware of the low academic literacy levels of their students, they do not see the impact of the intervention on improving such levels. They are further not very knowledgeable about what the focus of the intervention entails. The main conclusion of this study is, in brief, that the academic literacy intervention has a definite effect on the improvement of students’ academic literacy levels. However, no conclusive data was found to support the idea that the improvement was due only to the influence of the intervention. / MA (Applied Language Studies), North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2014

There has been growing concern in the higher education sector in South Africa about the high number of students with low academic literacy (AL) levels who are gaining entry into the sector. This influx necessitated the introduction of academic literacy interventions which are aimed at supporting these students in meeting the academic literacy requirements of university education. As a result, the tertiary sector has seen a growing number of AL interventions, each catering for a different context. However, the available literature reports very little substantial evidence on the impact/effectiveness of such interventions regarding the purpose for which they have been designed. The Vaal Triangle Campus (VTC) of the North-West University has also found that the majority of first year students who register at this Campus in order to attain a tertiary qualification, show inadequate levels of academic literacy in English. However, the academic literacy intervention that is currently used at this campus has never been formally assessed for its effectiveness in improving students’ academic literacy levels. The purpose of the current study was therefore to investigate the impact of the academic literacy intervention on students’ academic literacy levels. This intervention, which consists of two complementary semester modules, is offered over a one-year period to new first year students. As a first step, a comprehensive literature survey was conducted on important changes that took place in the tertiary education sector after 1994. The reason for this enquiry is based on the fact that many of these changes, such as the ‘massification’ of tertiary education, had far-reaching consequences for the tertiary sector in terms of more underprepared students who gained access to university education. Furthermore, available literature on the types of academic literacy interventions in South Africa, as well as specific sources on the reported impact of such interventions, were critiqued. The empirical part of the study made use of both a qualitative and quantitative research paradigm in order to investigate the impact of the AL intervention at the VTC. A highly reliable academic literacy test (the TALL – Test of Academic Literacy Levels) was used to determine whether students showed any significant improvement in their levels of academic literacy as a result of the intervention. This study reports positive findings in this regard. The investigation further gathered opinion-based data through the administration of three questionnaires aimed at determining student and lecturer perceptions of the impact of the intervention. The main findings of the two student questionnaires (one administered for each AL module) show that students generally see the value in attending the academic literacy modules because they feel that they derive benefit from them. The findings of the lecturer survey indicate that although mainstream lecturers are acutely aware of the low academic literacy levels of their students, they do not see the impact of the intervention on improving such levels. They are further not very knowledgeable about what the focus of the intervention entails. The main conclusion of this study is, in brief, that the academic literacy intervention has a definite effect on the improvement of students’ academic literacy levels. However, no conclusive data was found to support the idea that the improvement was due only to the influence of the intervention. / MA (Applied Language Studies), North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2014

<p>Doktorska disertacija &bdquo;Nov model stručnog usavr&scaron;avanja profesora poslovnog engleskog jezika u Srbiji: teorijski, metodolo&scaron;ki i praktični aspekti&rdquo; bavi se stručnim usavr&scaron;avanjem profesora poslovnog engleskog jezika u Srbiji. Cilj je upoznavanje profesora, ali i ostalih učesnika u obrazovanju sa savremenim teorijskim istraživanjima i kretanjima u nastavnoj praksi iz oblasti poslovnog engleskog jezika i stručnom usavr&scaron;avanju profesora, te uzimajući u obzir aktuelno stanje u Srbiji u tom pogledu, autorka takođe nastoji da ponudi nov model stručnog usavr&scaron;avanja profesora poslovnog engleskog jezika, koji će se zasnivati na savremenim shvatanjima procesa usavr&scaron;avanja, ali će odgovarati i potrebama i radnim prilikama profesora.<br />Nakon uvodnog poglavlja, koje sadrži opis ciljeva, metoda i tehnika istraživanja, pregled relevantne literature i prikaz organizacije izlaganja, naredna četiri poglavlja predstavljaju teorijski okvir disertacije. U drugom poglavlju opisani su pojmovi u vezi sa jezikom struke i poslovnim engleskim jezikom, dat je uvid u razvoj ovih oblasti i njihove karakteristike, te su povučene sličnosti i razlike između poslovnog i op&scaron;teg engleskog jezika.<br />U trećem poglavlju predstavljen je profil profesora u kontekstu nastave poslovnog engleskog jezika. Na osnovu postojeće literature detaljno su opisane uloge i kompetencije profesora u pogledu poznavanja stručne discipline, analize potreba, kreiranja kursa, odabira i produkcije materijala i evaluacije.<br />Četvrto poglavlje bavi se profilom profesora poslovnog engleskog jezika u okviru savremenog poimanja nastave uop&scaron;te. Tu je opisan razvoj pojma nastavničkog znanja i prikazan je model nastavničkih kompetencija koji je nastao u okviru obrazovnog sistema u Srbiji. Takođe, dat je osvrt na karakteristike ličnosti uspe&scaron;nog i kompetentnog profesora.</p><p>Predmet petog poglavlja jesu pojam i karakteristike stručnog usavr&scaron;avanja profesora, sa posebnim naglaskom na usavr&scaron;avanje profesora poslovnog engleskog jezika. U ovom poglavlju takođe je predstavljeno aktuelno stanje u Srbiji u pogledu učenja poslovnog engleskog jezika i stručnog usavr&scaron;avanja.<br />&Scaron;esto poglavlje sadrži opis organizacije i rezultate empirijskog istraživanja sprovedenog tokom 2014. i 2015. godine sa profesorima poslovnog engleskog jezika i polaznicima kurseva poslovnog engleskog jezika u Srbiji. Putem anketnih upitnika i intervjua, profesori su pružili uvid u svoja shvatanja, stavove, potrebe i očekivanja u vezi sa stručnim usavr&scaron;avanjem, a polaznici u vezi sa potrebama i očekivanjima u kontekstu nastave, uloga i kompetencija profesora. Dobijeni rezultati su detaljno analizirani i protumačeni u svetlu savremene teorije i prakse.<br />U sedmom poglavlju predstavljeni su op&scaron;ti zaključci proistekli iz istraživanja i dat je predlog modela stručnog usavr&scaron;avanja profesora poslovnog engleskog jezika u Srbiji.</p> / <p>The doctoral thesis &ldquo;A New Model of Professional Development of Business English Teachers in Serbia: Theoretical, Methodological and Practical Aspects&rdquo; deals with the professional development of Business English Teachers in Serbia. It aims at introducing teachers and other interested parties from the field of education with current research and trends in teaching practice regarding Business English and professional development of teachers. Taking into account the current state of these two fields in Serbia, the author also proposes a new model of professional development of Business English teachers, which draws on contemporary views of the process of professional development and also meets the needs and fits the working environment of the teachers.<br />Following the introductory chapter, which offers the description of the aims, methods and techniques employed in this research, the overview of relevant literature as well as the thesis structure, the next four chapters represent a theoretical framework within which the research has been undertaken. The second chapter introduces the main concepts related to the language for specific purposes and Business English, shows the development of these two fields, draws similarities and explores differences between Business English and General English.<br />The third chapter provides a description of the teacher profile within the Business English context. Based on findings in the literature, the author describes Business English teacher roles and competences in terms of knowledge of the specialist subject, needs analysis, course design, material selection and production, and evaluation.</p><p>The fourth chapter addresses the teacher profile within the contemporary understanding of the teaching practice in general. It shows the development of the concept of teaching knowledge and presents a framework of teacher competences that has been created within the educational system in Serbia. At the end of the chapter, the author briefly touches upon the subject of personality features of successful and competent teachers.<br />The fifth chapter outlines the main concepts and features of the field of teachers&rsquo; professional development and particularly focuses on the professional development of Business English teachers. It then proceeds with a description of the current situation in Serbia regarding learning and teaching Business English, as well as that of professional development of Business English teachers.<br />The sixth chapter offers a thorough description of the organization and results of the empirical research conducted with Business English teachers and students in Serbia during 2014 and 2015. By employing a survey and an interview as research instruments, the teachers gave an insight into their attitudes, views, needs and expectations regarding professional development, and the students revealed their needs and expectations regarding Business English classes, teacher roles and competences. The findings have been analysed in detail and interpreted within the framework of contemporary teaching theory and practice.<br />The seventh chapter presents the general conclusions that have been drawn from the empirical research and contains the author&rsquo;s proposal of the model of professional development of Business English teachers in Serbia.</p>

CHANGE OF LEGAL POSITION OF PARTIES TO AGREEMENTS ON LEASE OF NON-RESIDENTIAL PREMISES IN RELATION TO ACT NO. 89/2012 COLL. BECOMING EFFECTIVE Summary: The purpose of my thesis is to analyse the legal consequence of the Act. No. 89/2012 Coll., the Civil Code, as amended (the "Civil Code"), coming into effectiveness in the Czech Republic on 1 January 2014, with regards to lease agreements on lease of non-residential premises (re-defined by the Civil Code as premises for business purposes). The reason for this analysis is the fact that, as a result of the Civil Code becoming effective, all the lease relationships, including lease relationships under lease agreement concluded prior to 1 January 2014 shall be governed by the Civil Code. Given that the introduction of the Civil Code represents full recodification of the civil law in the Czech Republic, the related changes concerning the lease agreements on lease of premises for business purposes are of significant character. Accordingly, the thesis is mainly addressed to the parties to the existing lease agreements on premises for business purposes concluded on 31 December 2013 or earlier, even though it may be found of use for other addressees as well. The first chapter is introductory as it outlines the new concept of obligations, subject of which is use of...