English collocations extracted from a corpus of university learners and its contribution to a language teaching pedagogy

Taking into consideration the relevance of foreign language teaching and the learning of collocations (ALTENBERG; EEG-OLOFSSON, 1990; FONTENELLE, 1994; MEUNIER; GRANGER, 2008), this paper aims at showing results of an investigation on whether the teaching of collocations should be implicit or explicit to the Brazilian university students. Furthermore, the research has the purpose of presenting some collocational aspects from a corpus of the written language learners made up of intermediate, upper intermediate and advanced university students' argumentative essays at a public university in Brazil. With the help of WordSmith Tools (SCOTT, 2007), it was possible to raise students' most frequent collocational choices and patterns, the most/least used type of collocations, the influence of the mother tongue on their choices, among other aspects. With the purpose of motivating and involving students in classroom research, it was also introduced The Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA), created by Mark Davies. By doing so, students could compare their collocational choices with the patterns found in the online corpus, extract more collocational patterns and, consequently, be aware of the potential of corpora for the foreign learning process, specifically for raising language awareness, with focus on prefabricated chunks.

Towards criterion validity in classroom language analysis: methodological constraints of metadiscourse and inter-rater agreement

This paper reports on a process to validate a revised version of a system for coding classroom discourse in foreign language lessons, a context in which the dual role of language (as content and means of communication) and the speakers' specific pedagogical aims lead to a certain degree of ambiguity in language analysis. The language used by teachers and students has been extensively studied, and a framework of concepts concerning classroom discourse well-established. Models for coding classroom language need, however, to be revised when they are applied to specific research contexts. The application and revision of an initial framework can lead to the development of earlier models, and to the re-definition of previously established categories of analysis that have to be validated. The procedures followed to validate a coding system are related here as guidelines for conducting research under similar circumstances. The advantages of using instruments that incorporate two types of data, that is, quantitative measures and qualitative information from raters' metadiscourse, are discussed, and it is suggested that such procedure can contribute to the process of validation itself, towards attaining reliability of research results, as well as indicate some constraints of the adopted research methodology.

Vizinhança global ou proximidade imposta? Impactos da comunicação intercultural mediada por computador sobre o papel da cultura no ensino de língua inglesa

Muitas práticas educacionais no ensino e aprendizagem de línguas parecem ainda dominadas por uma visão de cultura essencialista, na qual os alunos, suas habilidades e atitudes de aprendizagem são caracterizadas por estereótipos problemáticos e/ou imaginários de suas culturas religiosas, étnicas e nacionais. As novas ferramentas e aplicativos para comunicação trazidos pela internet têm contribuído para o aumento de práticas comunicativas entre indivíduos de diferentes culturas e o uso da língua inglesa entre falantes não nativos, o que também tende a trazer impactos sobre a maneira como entendemos e ensinamos cultura na aprendizagem de tal língua. Este artigo pretende explicitar a visão de cultura presente nos conceitos de competência comunicativa e competência intercultural, e discutir a necessidade de reformulação do componente cultural no ensino e aprendizagem de línguas, para que ele objetive a exploração da complexidade advinda do pragmatismo dos encontros interculturais na contemporaneidade.

GRAMMAR and COMMUNICATION IN PORTUGUESE AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE A Study in the Context of Teletandem Interactions

This paper presents a study about the role of grammar in on-line interactions conducted in Portuguese and in English, between Brazilian and English-speaking interactants, with the aim of teaching Portuguese as a foreign language (PFL). The interactions occurred by means of chat and the MSN Messenger, and generated audio and video data for language analysis. Grammar is dealt with from two perspectives, an inductive and a deductive approach, so as to investigate the relevance of systematization of grammar rules in the process of learning PFL in teletandem interactions.

Competences in the classroom in the perspectives of foreign language teachers

In this article we raise some considerations about teachers’ competences, from the perspective of teachers in the Brazilian public sector. The theoretical framework includes articles by Paulo Freire (2001), Philippe Perrenoud (2012), Edgar Morin (2003) and Maurice Tardif (2002) and, based on these authors, we reflect upon issues concerning teachers’ competences taking answers provided by the Brazilian language teachers as a departing point. In a teachers’ course, followed by the same teachers, we posed the main question in our study: Which competences are necessary for a teacher to be considered a good professional at present? From the answers given individually and group discussions we proceeded to a comparative analysis with the adopted framework, and other issues concerning teachers’ competences were considered as well. All the participants mentioned the same two competences, the use of technology and sound knowledge of the course content, and other competences were pointed out by the various teachers as well. Such procedure, besides providing data for our study, also helped as a self-reflexive activity for the teachers involved, about their own professional performance. Given the issues raised in the theoretical texts and the answers provided by the teachers, we expect to revisit the competences necessary for foreign language teacher efficient performance.

The interlanguage development in the spanish learning as foreign language in Teletandem under the View of the Complexity Theory

This article presents, under the perspective of Complexity Theory, the characteristics of the learning process of Spanish as a foreign language in Teletandem. Data were collected from two pairs of Portuguese-Spanish interagents, who were engaged in a systematic and regular interaction, based on the tandem principles. It was found that the learning experience is developed with the peculiarities that arise from the context, agents, members and their nuances, which revealed the presence of a shallow space between the systems of native and foreign languages.

Subtitling as a pedagogical tool for language teaching in journalism

This study was designed to present and discuss some results produced by a research involving the use of English subtitles of some news videos from the webiste Reuters.com (http://www.reuters.com) with pedagogical reasons in a Brazilian context (Academic English for Journalism). We have developed the research during two semesters at UNESP (Universidade Estadual Paulista Júlio de Mesquita Filho). The professor in charge of the study has chosen the students of Journalism as the audience to whom the videos were presented. The assumptions of many theorists and experts in Audiovisual Translation were adopted as our Theoretical Sources. The first step of the study was the assessment of the syllabus of each course. This was very helpful as a guidance in order to choose the most relevant and interesting videos for students. After the evaluation of academic and professional interests, we chose some videos to insert appropriate subtitles, according to some strategies suggested by Panayota Georgakopoulou and Henrik Gottlieb. Finally we presented the videos during the English classes. At the first time, they were presented without subtitles just to notice the comprehension level of the students. After that, the videos were presented with English subtitles. As we first assumed, the students haven’t had the whole comprehension of specific details during the first presentation, they have just used their previous knowledge and the visual aids to help them in a superficial understanding of the news. As the subtitles appear, the process of communication was finally accomplished.

Intracanal dressing and root canal filling materials in tooth replantation: a literature review

The prognosis of tooth replantation is usually related to the need of endodontic treatment, which has a direct relationship with the occurrence of root resorptions. Several studies have been undertaken in an attempt to prevent, delay, or treat these complications, which are the main causes of loss of replanted teeth. This literature review examines research evidence on intracanal dressings and root canal filling materials used in cases of tooth replantation. A comprehensive search was performed in the Medline/Pubmed, Bireme and Scielo full-text electronic journal databases to retrieve English-language articles referring to these topics that had been published between 1964 and 2010. Calcium hydroxide (CH) remains the usually recommended choice as an intracanal medicament in replanted teeth; however, there is evidence to support the initial use of a corticosteroid-antibiotic combination such as Ledermix paste to control potential early resorption, prior to the introduction of CH where the beneficial effect in the treatment of progressive root resorption has been well proven. Regarding root filling materials, CH-containing sealers are a good option because of their biological properties. Accurate diagnosis and adequate treatment plan may constitute very complex tasks, particularly in tooth avulsion because several variables are involved. In addition to the technical knowledge and clinical experience directed toward the quality of treatment, patient education may favorably influence the survival of replanted teeth.

O ensino de lingua estrangeira (inglês): as relações entre as crenças e as práticas pedagógicas

Pós-graduação em Educação - FFC

A gramática em contexto teletandem e em livros didáticos de português como língua estrangeira

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Uma análise do grau comparativo nos materiais didáticos de língua inglesa via teoria das operações predicativas e enunciativas

Pós-graduação em Linguística e Língua Portuguesa - FCLAR

O professor e a prática telecolaborativa no teletandem

The new technologies have increasingly provided access to foreign languages and cultures and also to authentic communication. If we consider that the foreign languages teaching/learning process and teachers’ education can be enriched by telecollaboration, I believe it is necessary to observe the roles played by language teachers. Based on an ethnographic qualitative study carried out with Brazilian and foreign university students, this paper focuses on teletandem practice, a distance tandem modality carried out by audio and video conferences with resources such as Windows Live Messenger, Skype or ooVoo, to investigate roles played by language teachers in telecollaborative practice. The data were collected from (a) e-mails exchanged between the partners and between partners and the mediator-teacher; (b) DVDs of interaction sessions recordings; (c) written teletandem sessions recordings; (d) recordings of interviews between the partners and the researcher at ooVoo; (e) fi eld notes taken at Teletandem Laboratory at UNESP- Assis; and (f) participants’ written reports. The data analysis, from the hermeneutic interpretative perspective, revealed that the teacher is not ignored but is given new roles to maximize the process towards meaningful and intercultural learning.

Prevalence and antimicrobial resistance patterns of methicillin-resistant staphylococci (MRS) isolated in a Veterinary Teaching Hospital in Brazil

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Vitamin C and endogenous cortisol in foreign-body inflammatory response in pacus

O objetivo deste trabalho foi avaliar o efeito da suplementação com vitamina C no aumento da atividade de macrófagos e células gigantes multinucleadas (CGM), em pacus mantidos em duas densidades de estocagem. O experimento foi realizado em parcelas subdivididas, em arranjo fatorial 2x2x3 com: 0 e 500 mg kg-1 de vitamina C; densidade de estocagem de 5 e 20 kg m-3; e tempos de avaliação de 3, 6 e 12 dias após o implante subcutâneo (DPI) de lamínulas de vidro. Foram determinados o número de macrófagos e de CGM, bem como os níveis de cortisol e glicose no plasma. O número de macrófagos e de CGM com 2 a 5 núcleos foi significativamente maior nos peixes suplementados com vitamina C, à densidade 5 kg m-3, aos 3 DPI, em relação aos não suplementados. Constatou-se menor quantidade de macrófagos e CGM em peixes com baixa concentração plasmática de cortisol. A suplementação com 500 mg de vitamina C por quilograma de ração beneficia a atividade de macrófagos em inflamações do tipo corpo estranho, e a elevada concentração de cortisol circulante tem efeito supressor nesta resposta.

Factors predictive of inappropriateness in requests for parenteral antimicrobials for therapeutic purposes: A study in a small teaching hospital in Brazil

Background: The identification of patterns of inappropriate antimicrobial prescriptions in hospitals contributes to the improvement of antimicrobial stewardship programs (ASP). Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional study to identify predictors of inappropriateness in requests for parenteral antimicrobials (RPAs) in a teaching hospital with 285 beds. We reviewed 25% of RPAs for therapeutic purposes from y 2005. Appropriateness was evaluated according to current guidelines for antimicrobial therapy. We assessed predictors of inappropriateness through univariate and multivariate models. RPAs classified as 'appropriate' or 'probably appropriate' were selected as controls. Case groups comprised inappropriate RPAs, either in general or for specific errors. Results: Nine hundred and sixty-three RPAs were evaluated, 34.6% of which were considered inappropriate. In the multivariate analysis, general predictors of inappropriateness were: prescription on week-ends/holidays (odds ratio (OR) 1.67, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.20-2.28, p = 0.002), patient in the intensive care unit (OR 1.57, 95% CI 1.11-2.23, p = 0.01), peritoneal infection (OR 2.15, 95% CI 1.27-3.65, p = 0.004), urinary tract infection (OR 1.89, 95% CI 1.25 -2.87, p = 0.01), combination therapy with 2 or more antimicrobials (OR 1.72, 95% CI 1.15-2.57, p = 0.008) and prescriptions including penicillins (OR 2.12, 95% CI 1.39-3.25, p = 0.001) or 1(st) generation cephalosporins (OR 1.74, 95% CI 1.01-3.00, p = 0.048). Previous consultation with an infectious diseases (ID) specialist had a protective effect against inappropriate prescription (OR 0.34, 95% CI 0.24-0.50, p < 0.001). Factors independently associated with specific prescription errors varied. However, consultation with an ID specialist was protective against both unnecessary antimicrobial use (OR 0.04, 95% CI 0.01-0.26, p = 0.001) and requests for agents with an insufficient antimicrobial spectrum (OR 0.14, 95% CI 0.03-0.30, p = 0.01). Conclusions: Our results demonstrate the importance of previous consultation with an ID specialist in assuring the quality of prescriptions. Also, they highlight prescription patterns that should be approached by ASP policies.