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In this field study report, the author investigates behaviour associated with inviting in order to see if there is any effect on the language used across cultures due to factors such as status, age, gender in actual social interactions. Chapter one gives a brief introduction to the important role of the English Language in the world in general, and in Vietnam nowadays in particular, and a review of Teaching Methods which have been used in Vietnam so far. Chapter two will deal with the theoretical background, language competences including linguistic competence, sociolinguistic competence and communicative competence. In addition, speech act theory , face work, distance, power in relation to status, age and gender as well as reviews research on the differences between spoken and written are also discussed. Chapter three defines the structure of an invite with its social and cultural characteristics focussing on the natural structure of a spoken invitation. Chapter four describes research and data analysis of the issuing, accepting and declining of spoken invitations used by Vietnamese speakers of Vietnamese (VSV). Chapter five contains the data analysis of the issuing, accepting and declining of spoken invitations used by Australian speakers of English (ASE). Chapter six discusses the comparison of Vietnamese and Australian spoken invitations, the main difference being found in the use of much more direct forms used in VSV as opposed to more tentative forms preferred by ASEs. Directness of form, however, does not reflect a lack of politeness, which is conveyed to a much larger extent by other prosodic and paralinguistic features. Chapter seven is a brief cross-cultural investigation of the spoken invitations of Vietnamese learners speaking English. This shows up a degree of cross-cultural interference and offers some implications for the classroom. Chapter eight contains a summary and conclusion. The results of the study may suggest that Vietnamese learners of English need to be taught not only linguistic competence but also communicative competence with an emphasis on cultural and social factors. Spoken invitations which really have some function in actual interactions need to be incorporated in the program for teaching spoken English.

Thesis (MA)--Stellenbosch University, 2014. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This study focuses on the requestive behaviour, including perceptions of politeness and directness, of Omani second language (L2) English students at Nizwa University in Oman as revealed by their written responses to real life scenarios. The study is an attempt to improve linguistic understanding of pragmatic differences, with reference to the similarities and differences between Omani L2 English students and L1 English speakers’ communicative proficiency, in order to contribute to improved language teaching curricula. The research design consisted of an initial series of two questionnaires which required that the participants rate given responses based on their perceptions of ‘politeness’ and ‘indirectness’; a third discourse completion test (DCT) that required participants to respond in writing in the form of a request to five real life scenarios; and a fourth questionnaire that required teachers to judge the written responses of the DCT according to five criteria. Additionally, the Omani-speaking teachers of L2 English were interviewed and asked questions relating to their responses from a sociopragmatic/ cultural perspective. The Omani teachers’ responses were then used to assist in the analysis of the written response data. The four instruments above thus used both quantitative and qualitative research methods. The results of the data analysis showed that (1) the query preparatory is considered by both groups to be the most polite request strategy and is used to mitigate imposition; (2) Omani L2 English students consider the words should and must to be most impolite in contrast with the L1 English speakers who consider the mood derivable to be the most impolite request strategy; (3) mild hints are considered far more polite by L1 English speakers than by Omani L2 English students; (4) politeness is influenced by differences in perceptions of social variables such as social distance, social power and degree of imposition; (5) direct strategies are not considered impolite and are used six times more frequently by Omani L2 English students than by L1 English speakers in low-imposition contextual situations; and (6) positive transfer and conventionalisation of the time intensifier has been produced and the strategy is used more than twice as much by the Omani L2 English students than by the L1 English speakers. In contrast, the L1 English speakers use the preparator 11 times more frequently than the Omani L2 English students who predominantly have no pragmalinguistic knowledge of this tactic. The study highlights the need for pragmalinguistic and sociopragmatic training of students in the classroom and for pragmatics to be included in the material and curriculum design of English language learning programmes. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie studie fokus op hoe versoeke, insluitend die persepsies van beleefdheid en direktheid, van tweede taal (T2) Omani studente aan die Universiteit van Nizwa in Oman geformuleer word soos geopenbaar deur hulle skriftelike reaksies op realistiese lewenscenarios tydens vraagstelling. Die studie is ‘n poging om taalkundige begrip van pragmatiese verskille te verbeter, met verwysing na die ooreenkomste en verskille tussen Omani T2 Engelssprekendes en L1 Engelssprekendes se kommunikatiewe vaardighede, ten einde by te dra tot die verbetering van taalonderrig leerplanne. Die navorsing het bestaan uit ‘n aanvanklike reeks van twee vraelyste wat vereis dat deelnemers antwoorde gee op grond van hulle persepsies van beleefdheid en indirektheid; ‘n derde diskoers voltooiings toets (DVT) wat vereis dat deelnemers skriftelik reageer op versoeke in vyf realistiese lewenscenarios; en ‘n vierde vraelys wat vereis dat onderwysers die skriftelike reaksies op die DVT in vyf areas beoordeel. Daarbenewens is die T2 Omani onderwysers ondervra met betrekking tot hulle antwoorde vanuit ‘n sosio-pragmatiese perspektief. Die Omani onderwysers se antwoorde is vervolgens gebruik om die ontleding van die skriftelike response te doen. Die bogenoemde vier instrumente gebruik dus beide kwalitatiewe en kwantitatiewe navorsingsmetodes. Die resultate van die data-analise toon dat (1) die “query preparatory” deur beide groepe as die mees beleefde vraag-strategie beskou word en gebruik word om taakoplegging te versag; (2) T2 sprekers beskou die woorde moet en behoort meestal as onbeskof, in teenstelling met die T1 Engelssprekendes, wat die “mood derivable” as die mees onbeskofte vraag-strategie ervaar; (3) die “mild hint” word as baie meer beleefd deur L1 Engelssprekendes as deur T2-sprekers ervaar; (4) beleefdheid word beinvloed deur verskille in persepsies van sosiale faktore soos sosiale afstand en –druk, en die graad van oplegging; (5) direktheid word nie as onbeskof gesien nie, en kom ses keer meer voor by T2 sprekers in laer taalvaardigheid situasies; en (6) positiewe oordrag en vaslegging van tyd as ‘n drukkrag het voorgekom, en die taktiek word meer as twee keer soveel deur die T2 sprekers as deur die T1 Engelssprekendes gebruik. In teenstelling gebruik die T1 Engelssprekendes die “preparatory” 11 keer meer as die T2 sprekers, wat meestal geen pragma-linguistiese kennis van hierdie tegniek het nie. Die studie beklemtoon die noodsaaklikheid van pragma-linguistiese en sosio-linguistiese opleiding in die klaskamer, en dat pragmatika in materiaal en kurrikulumontwerp vir Engelse taalleer programme ingesluit word.

The purpose of this paper was to review research within the field of digital games and language learning to explore whether gaming can facilitate communicative competence and foster motivation for language learning. To answer my questions I conducted a research synthesis, compiling a variety of research over the last decade to answer my questions as effectively as possible. Results showed that digital games do in fact facilitate language development and induce motivation. Research also showed that different games provide different opportunities and activities, resulting in some games fostering language competence more than others. For instance, World of Warcraft provided social situations where conversations were erratic, spontaneous, contextual and driven by small events in the game, while The Sims focused more on strategic and creative activities. Additionally, research suggested that digital games motivated learners to develop their L2 language in hope of achieving more goals together within a variety games and game types.

Estudos na área de Sociolinguística têm mostrado a complexidade da arquitetura do italiano contemporâneo, composta tanto de variedades linguísticas comuns a todas as línguas naturais, relacionadas às dimensões diamésica, diastrática, diafásica e diatópica, quanto de dialetos e interlínguas. Essa intricada realidade, no entanto, parece não chegar até os aprendizes de italiano, sobretudo, fora da Itália, que, frequentemente, têm a impressão de que essa língua é monolítica e estável. Isso, em geral, se reflete em seu desempenho enquanto falantes, pois, uma vez que acreditam que a língua italiana é imutável e única, não serão capazes de reconhecer as variedades e registros linguísticos produzidos por falantes nativos. Tendo em vista a importância do livro didático como fonte de input linguístico em sala de aula e como norteador da atividade docente e discente, selecionamos os dois livros didáticos mais usados no estado de São Paulo para o ensino do italiano no momento em que se iniciou a pesquisa, e analisamos como e em que medida tais obras expõem o aprendiz às variedades linguísticas do italiano para que desenvolvam competência sociolinguística e, portanto, sensibilidade sobretudo receptiva quanto à realidade linguística italiana. Para isso, analisamos os diálogos, os livros do aluno e os guias do professor das coleções didáticas Linea Diretta e Rete! com base em 67 critérios escolhidos por poderem identificar diferentes variedades do italiano. Os resultados relacionados ao livro Linea diretta permitem dizer que essa coleção aborda implicitamente alguns dos fenômenos considerados, mas que não os explora explicitamente. Por outro lado, Rete! praticamente não insere fenômenos marcados sociolinguisticamente em seus diálogos, mas trata as questões fonológicas das variedades regionais. Desse modo, foi possível constatar que o tratamento das variedades sociolinguísticas mostrou-se insuficiente e, em alguns casos, inexistente em ambos os livros didáticos, fazendo-nos concluir que o aprendiz, cujo input linguístico derive de seus conteúdos, dificilmente desenvolverá uma competência sociolinguística que lhe propicie reconhecer e compreender adequadamente enunciados produzidos em diferentes contextos comunicativos. / Studies in Sociolinguistics have shown the complexity of contemporary Italian arquitecture, composed of both linguistic varieties, common to all natural languages and related to diamesic, diastratic, diaphasic and diatopic dimension, and the dialects and interlanguages. Nonetheless, this intricate reality doesn\'t seem to reach learners of Italian, especially outside Italy, which often have the impression that this language is monolithic and that it doesn\'t change. In general, this reflect on their performance as speakers of the language they learn, therefore, since they believe that the Italian language is unique and unchangeable, they will not be able to recognize linguistic varieties produced by native speakers. Considering the importance of the textbook as a source of linguistic input in the classroom and as a guide for teacher\'s and learner\'s activity, we selected, in the period in which our research began, the two most used textbooks for Italian teaching in the State of São Paulo, and analyzed how and to what extent these works expose the learner to linguistic varieties of Italian, in order to develop sociolinguistic competence and mainly receptive sensibility to Italian linguistic reality. We analyzed the dialogues, the student books and teacher\'s guides of the teaching collections Linea Diretta and Rete! based on 67 criteria chosen by selecting phenomena that could identify different varieties of Italian. The results related to the textbook Linea diretta let say that this collection implicitly addresses some of the considered phenomena, but doesn\'t explore them explicitly. On the other side, Rete! practically doesn\'t insert in its dialogues sociolinguistically marked phenomena, but treats phonological issues of regional varieties. So, it was found that the treatment of sociolinguistic varieties proved to be scanty and, in some cases, not existent in both textbooks. This caused the conclusion that learners, whose linguistic input derives from its content, can hardly develop a sociolinguistic competence that can allow them to recognize and understand properly utterances produced in different communicative contexts.

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.

The main goal of this study was to investigate whether computer-mediated communication (CMC) intercultural exchange offers the conditions necessary for the development of the sociolinguistic competence of L2 learners. The secondary goal was to provide a description of the characteristics of the exchange as a language practice regarding language learning and cultural contact. Non-native speakers (NNS) of French in British Columbia interacted through computer-mediated communication with native speakers (NS) of French in Quebec over the course of one school semester. The data for this study included the transcripts of text-based chat discussions and of a group forum, and answers to questionnaires and interviews. Drawing on the sociocultural perspective, this study used a qualitative approach to analyze the collected data. The framework used to guide the sociolinguistic inquiry consisted of The Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (Council of Europe, 2001). The findings of this study suggest that intercultural CMC exchange offers positive conditions for the development of this competence. NNS were exposed to sociolinguistic variation and made minor changes in their use of sociolinguistic elements, showing that they developed sensitivity to the vernacular style used by NS. In addition, the exchange fostered the creation of a collective meaning that allowed L2 learners to participate in meaningful interactions and to increase their level of confidence. Finally, the exchange allowed participants to experience the dimension of “culture as individual” (Levy, 2007), an aspect of culture that encouraged them to share their personal views on culture and to connect on a personal level with their NS partners.

Estudos na área de Sociolinguística têm mostrado a complexidade da arquitetura do italiano contemporâneo, composta tanto de variedades linguísticas comuns a todas as línguas naturais, relacionadas às dimensões diamésica, diastrática, diafásica e diatópica, quanto de dialetos e interlínguas. Essa intricada realidade, no entanto, parece não chegar até os aprendizes de italiano, sobretudo, fora da Itália, que, frequentemente, têm a impressão de que essa língua é monolítica e estável. Isso, em geral, se reflete em seu desempenho enquanto falantes, pois, uma vez que acreditam que a língua italiana é imutável e única, não serão capazes de reconhecer as variedades e registros linguísticos produzidos por falantes nativos. Tendo em vista a importância do livro didático como fonte de input linguístico em sala de aula e como norteador da atividade docente e discente, selecionamos os dois livros didáticos mais usados no estado de São Paulo para o ensino do italiano no momento em que se iniciou a pesquisa, e analisamos como e em que medida tais obras expõem o aprendiz às variedades linguísticas do italiano para que desenvolvam competência sociolinguística e, portanto, sensibilidade sobretudo receptiva quanto à realidade linguística italiana. Para isso, analisamos os diálogos, os livros do aluno e os guias do professor das coleções didáticas Linea Diretta e Rete! com base em 67 critérios escolhidos por poderem identificar diferentes variedades do italiano. Os resultados relacionados ao livro Linea diretta permitem dizer que essa coleção aborda implicitamente alguns dos fenômenos considerados, mas que não os explora explicitamente. Por outro lado, Rete! praticamente não insere fenômenos marcados sociolinguisticamente em seus diálogos, mas trata as questões fonológicas das variedades regionais. Desse modo, foi possível constatar que o tratamento das variedades sociolinguísticas mostrou-se insuficiente e, em alguns casos, inexistente em ambos os livros didáticos, fazendo-nos concluir que o aprendiz, cujo input linguístico derive de seus conteúdos, dificilmente desenvolverá uma competência sociolinguística que lhe propicie reconhecer e compreender adequadamente enunciados produzidos em diferentes contextos comunicativos. / Studies in Sociolinguistics have shown the complexity of contemporary Italian arquitecture, composed of both linguistic varieties, common to all natural languages and related to diamesic, diastratic, diaphasic and diatopic dimension, and the dialects and interlanguages. Nonetheless, this intricate reality doesn\'t seem to reach learners of Italian, especially outside Italy, which often have the impression that this language is monolithic and that it doesn\'t change. In general, this reflect on their performance as speakers of the language they learn, therefore, since they believe that the Italian language is unique and unchangeable, they will not be able to recognize linguistic varieties produced by native speakers. Considering the importance of the textbook as a source of linguistic input in the classroom and as a guide for teacher\'s and learner\'s activity, we selected, in the period in which our research began, the two most used textbooks for Italian teaching in the State of São Paulo, and analyzed how and to what extent these works expose the learner to linguistic varieties of Italian, in order to develop sociolinguistic competence and mainly receptive sensibility to Italian linguistic reality. We analyzed the dialogues, the student books and teacher\'s guides of the teaching collections Linea Diretta and Rete! based on 67 criteria chosen by selecting phenomena that could identify different varieties of Italian. The results related to the textbook Linea diretta let say that this collection implicitly addresses some of the considered phenomena, but doesn\'t explore them explicitly. On the other side, Rete! practically doesn\'t insert in its dialogues sociolinguistically marked phenomena, but treats phonological issues of regional varieties. So, it was found that the treatment of sociolinguistic varieties proved to be scanty and, in some cases, not existent in both textbooks. This caused the conclusion that learners, whose linguistic input derives from its content, can hardly develop a sociolinguistic competence that can allow them to recognize and understand properly utterances produced in different communicative contexts.

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.