Narrativas de professores em formação sobre a didatização de podcasts para o ensino de inglês na floresta

Considering the following conditions: (1) the fluency demands of students in an undergraduate program in Languages and Literatures/English in the Amazon region; (2) the listening and speaking needs of pre-service teachers of English as a Foreign Language (EFL); (3) my continuing education as a professor of EFL and my academic literacy as a teacher-researcher and pre-service-teacher trainer, this study, which is based on Narrative Inquiry, reports on a teacher experience of working didactically with oral genres through podcasting an activity that emerged with the advent of Information and Communication Technology (ICT). Through this process, I engage with some theorists who promote teaching as a process that is driven by a concept of language as social practice. Subsequently, I make use of the notions of context of culture and context of situation, derived from Systemic Functional Linguistics, as well as the concept of genre and register derived from the perspective of this theory. Based on these principles and beliefs, the Amazon region constitutes the register (situation) of the genres used in this study. These principles also provide, opportunities for building learning strategies appropriate to this local context, and also to teach listening and speaking skills from a task-based approach. During the experience, based on the reflective teacher-education model, the participants produced narratives about the process, which I then analyzed according to Ely, Vinz, Downing and Anzul (2001), who propose possibilities of composing meanings in Narrative Inquiry. Based on this perspective, I discuss the following topics, which were highly emphasized in the participants narratives: the lack of didactic activities using oral genres; the relevance of context within teacher education; and collaborative work as a strategy to overcome gaps in digital literacy, language fluency and teaching skills. The meanings I thereby compose point to a paradigm shift in English language teaching within this context. I also argue for a pedagogical practice that is engaged with historical and socio-cultural issues, and with the development of language skills, also one that promotes the implementation of ICTs at the very start of teacher training programs, adopting teaching and learning strategies that correspond to the demands of fluency in this particular context, and deficiencies imposed by geographical isolation

Modelo institucional do processo de estruturação de empresas de desenvolvimento de software: um estudo de múltiplos casos

Some authors have shown the need of understanding the technological structuring process in contemporary firms. From this perspective, the software industry is a very important element because it provides products and services directly to many organizations from many fields. In this case, the Brazilian software industry has some peculiarities that distinguish it from other industries located in developed countries, which makes its understanding even more relevant. There is evidence that local firms take different strategies and structural configurations to enter into a market naturally dominated by large multinational firms. Therefore, this study aims to understand not only the structural configurations assumed by domestic firms but also the dynamic and the process that lead to these different configurations. To do so, this PhD dissertation investigates the institutional environment, its entities and the isomorphic movements, by employing an exploratory, descriptive and explanatory multiple cases study. Eight software development companies from the Recife's information technology Cluster were visited. Also, a form was applied and an interview with one of the main firm s professional was conducted. Although the study is predominantly qualitative, part of the data was analyzed through charts and graphs, providing a companies and environment overview that was very useful to analysis done through the interviews interpretation. As a result, it was realized that companies are structured around hybrids business models from two ideal types of software development companies, which are: software factory and technology-based company. Regarding the development process, it was found that there is a balanced distribution between the traditional and agile development paradigm. Among the traditional methodologies, the Rational Unified Process (RUP) is predominant. The Scrum is the most used methodology among the organizations based on the Agile Manifesto's principles. Regarding the structuring process, each institutional entity acts in such way that generates different isomorphic pressure. Emphasis was given to entities such as customers, research agencies, clusters, market-leading businesses, public universities, incubators, software industry organizations, technology vendors, development tool suppliers and manager s school and background because they relate themselves in a close way with the software firms. About this relationship, a dual and bilateral influence was found. Finally, the structuring level of the organizational field has been also identified as low, which gives a chance to organizational actors of acting independently

O impacto das tarefas de aprendizagem mediadas pela lousa digital interativa na motivação situacional de aprendizes de inglês

Some authors have suggested that learning tasks conducted in L2 classes can motivate learners in different ways. Similarly, Interactive Whiteboards (IWB) have already been linked as drivers to engagement and enthusiasm in L2 classes, which may cause some impact on affective variables that influence learning (e.g. motivation). This crosssectional mixed-methods study aims to understand how situational motivation caused by learning tasks mediated by the IWB impact participants. We seek to answer the following research questions: (1) How does motivation as a personality trait of the learner relate to his/her additional language learning performance?, (2) How does the type of learning task mediated by the IWB impact the learner s motivation?, (3) How does motivation vary along the learning task mediated by the IWB? and (4) What is the relation between the learning task motivation and the learners perception about the task mediated by the IWB? Data collection lasted four months with 29 learners from a private language school. The instruments used were the following: (a) an initial questionnaire (adapted from the Attitudes/Motivation Test Battery by GARDNER, 2004), (b) situation-specific on-line scales to assess learners motivation in three moments: before, during and after the task, and analyze how motivation varies along the task; (c) class observations and field notes resulting from these observations, (d) participants end-of-course grades to understand the connection between academic success and their motivational profiles and (e) a final questionnaire with the qualitative purpose to know learners perceptions about the tasks mediated by the IWB. Our theoretical framework is based on Task-Based Learning and cognitive aspects present in tasks (WILLIS, 1996; SKEHAN, 1996), theories on motivation and second language learning (GARDNER, 2001; DÖRNYEI e OTTÓ, 1998; DÖRNYEI, 2000; 2002) and conceptions about L2 learning mediated by technology (GIBSON, 2001; OLIVEIRA, 2001; MILLER et al, 2005). Our results do not point out to a significative correlation between learners end-of-course grades and their motivational profiles. However, they indicate that there is some variability in situational motivation along the tasks, even among learning tasks from the same type. Furthermore, they show that learners report different perceptions for each learning task and that the impact of the IWB on participants did not have a large proportion

Uma análise da aplicação do modelo de Rede Neural RePART em Comitês de classificadores

RePART (Reward/Punishment ART) is a neural model that constitutes a variation of the Fuzzy Artmap model. This network was proposed in order to minimize the inherent problems in the Artmap-based model, such as the proliferation of categories and misclassification. RePART makes use of additional mechanisms, such as an instance counting parameter, a reward/punishment process and a variable vigilance parameter. The instance counting parameter, for instance, aims to minimize the misclassification problem, which is a consequence of the sensitivity to the noises, frequently presents in Artmap-based models. On the other hand, the use of the variable vigilance parameter tries to smoouth out the category proliferation problem, which is inherent of Artmap-based models, decreasing the complexity of the net. RePART was originally proposed in order to minimize the aforementioned problems and it was shown to have better performance (higer accuracy and lower complexity) than Artmap-based models. This work proposes an investigation of the performance of the RePART model in classifier ensembles. Different sizes, learning strategies and structures will be used in this investigation. As a result of this investigation, it is aimed to define the main advantages and drawbacks of this model, when used as a component in classifier ensembles. This can provide a broader foundation for the use of RePART in other pattern recognition applications

Um método para desenvolvimento de abordagens generativas com composição de linguagens específicas de domínio

The software systems development with domain-specific languages has become increasingly common. Domain-specific languages (DSLs) provide increased of the domain expressiveness, raising the abstraction level by facilitating the generation of models or low-level source code, thus increasing the productivity of systems development. Consequently, methods for the development of software product lines and software system families have also proposed the adoption of domain-specific languages. Recent studies have investigated the limitations of feature model expressiveness and proposing the use of DSLs as a complement or substitute for feature model. However, in complex projects, a single DSL is often insufficient to represent the different views and perspectives of development, being necessary to work with multiple DSLs. In order to address new challenges in this context, such as the management of consistency between DSLs, and the need to methods and tools that support the development with multiple DSLs, over the past years, several approaches have been proposed for the development of generative approaches. However, none of them considers matters relating to the composition of DSLs. Thus, with the aim to address this problem, the main objectives of this dissertation are: (i) to investigate the adoption of the integrated use of feature models and DSLs during the domain and application engineering of the development of generative approaches; (ii) to propose a method for the development of generative approaches with composition DSLs; and (iii) to investigate and evaluate the usage of modern technology based on models driven engineering to implement strategies of integration between feature models and composition of DSLs

A produção oral de inglês como LE em uma escola pública de Natal: uma experiência com a abordagem baseada em tarefas

The aim of this action research of mixed-methods was investigating the role of the tasks proposed by the Task-Based Learning, TBL (WILLIS, 1996) in the process of development of speech production in English as a foreign language (EFL) at the public school. Twenty-three students from a grade of secondary school from a state school in Rio Grande do Norte were exposed systematically to the implementation of the learning tasks focused in the speech production in EFL during two months. The instruments used at the data collection – pre and post-questionnaire; field notes; focal group; and pre and post-tests - generated two kinds of data: a) qualitative (the perception of the students about their speech production and the teaching of this ability at the public school; and, the usage of strategies of communication for these learners facing TBL); and, b) quantitative (the development of pronunciation; of accuracy in the proficiency tests (test KET – Cambridge, adapted); and, of Global Oral Proficiency (POG) of these learners after the accomplishment of the learning tasks). The quantitative results of the study indicate that there was a statistically significant development of pronunciation and accuracy at the proficiency tests, after the tasks experience. The qualitative findings, in turn, represented by the learners‟ reports and from the research teacher, show that there has been greater focus on the use of communicative strategies during the learners‟ oral production throughout the intervention with the tasks.

A pedagogia de projetos e o ensino de música na educação básica da cidade de Natal/RN

This research aims to investigate the use of Project based learning as a method for teaching music in Elementary Schools located in Natal, RN. Its main objective is to analyze how this method is used during the classes of music at school context and which are its implications to the process of music learning acquirement. The specific objectives comprise: gathering the music teachers in preschool that work with project based learning as a method for their classes; identifying how the theory meets their practice; and analyzing how project based learning contributes to the learning process of music within schools. The main scholars adopted as theoretical reference were Boutinet (2002), Hernández (1998; 200), Antunes (2001), Cavalcante (2009), from Education area; and Penna (2008), Fonterrada (2008), Queiroz (2012), regarding Musical Education. Such choice was made in views of identifying the relationship and how project based pedagogy associates to the current Brazil school curriculum. For data collection, mixed methodological strategies were used, of qualitative and quantitative approaches that are complementary for better meeting the research needs. By applying a questionnaire, it was sought to identify the music schools and teachers who reported working with project based learning. Based on these results were selected two schools, one private school and one public school to perform a participant observation in two groups following the development of music classes based on project based learning, and the information were recorded in a diary of audio and video recordings. The results of this work show that the Project Education is a methodology frequently used by music teachers from Natal/ RN contributing to the integration of content and subjects and engages students in activities awakening interest and contributing to the development of music education at school. However, it was identified that many of the conceptions of the teachers about projects are confused by ambiguities from the use of the term in different areas and in various theoretical perspectives as well as the lack of publications that address the music education through the project based learning. It is hoped that this study provides discussions and research about the project based learning applied to music education in elementary school.

Modelo institucional do processo de estruturação de empresas de desenvolvimento de software: um estudo de múltiplos casos

Some authors have shown the need of understanding the technological structuring process in contemporary firms. From this perspective, the software industry is a very important element because it provides products and services directly to many organizations from many fields. In this case, the Brazilian software industry has some peculiarities that distinguish it from other industries located in developed countries, which makes its understanding even more relevant. There is evidence that local firms take different strategies and structural configurations to enter into a market naturally dominated by large multinational firms. Therefore, this study aims to understand not only the structural configurations assumed by domestic firms but also the dynamic and the process that lead to these different configurations. To do so, this PhD dissertation investigates the institutional environment, its entities and the isomorphic movements, by employing an exploratory, descriptive and explanatory multiple cases study. Eight software development companies from the Recife's information technology Cluster were visited. Also, a form was applied and an interview with one of the main firm s professional was conducted. Although the study is predominantly qualitative, part of the data was analyzed through charts and graphs, providing a companies and environment overview that was very useful to analysis done through the interviews interpretation. As a result, it was realized that companies are structured around hybrids business models from two ideal types of software development companies, which are: software factory and technology-based company. Regarding the development process, it was found that there is a balanced distribution between the traditional and agile development paradigm. Among the traditional methodologies, the Rational Unified Process (RUP) is predominant. The Scrum is the most used methodology among the organizations based on the Agile Manifesto's principles. Regarding the structuring process, each institutional entity acts in such way that generates different isomorphic pressure. Emphasis was given to entities such as customers, research agencies, clusters, market-leading businesses, public universities, incubators, software industry organizations, technology vendors, development tool suppliers and manager s school and background because they relate themselves in a close way with the software firms. About this relationship, a dual and bilateral influence was found. Finally, the structuring level of the organizational field has been also identified as low, which gives a chance to organizational actors of acting independently