Children's Vocabulary Development : The role of parental input, vocabulary composition and early communicative skills

The aim of this thesis is to examine the early vocabulary development of a sample of Swedish children in relation to parental input and early communicative skills. Three studies are situated in an overall description of early language development in children. The data analyzed in the thesis was collected within a larger project at Stockholm University (SPRINT- “Effects of enhanced parental input on young children’s vocabulary development and subsequent literacy development” [VR 2008-5094]). Data analysis was based on parental report via SECDI, the Swedish version of the MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventories, and audio recordings. One study examined parental verbal interaction characteristics in three groups of children with varying vocabulary size at 18 months. The stability of vocabulary development at 18 and 24 months was investigated in a larger study, with focus on children’s vocabulary composition and grammatical abilities. The third study examined interrelations among early gestures, receptive and productive vocabulary, and grammar measured with M3L, i.e. three longest utterances, from 12 to 30 months. Overall results of the thesis highlight the importance of early language development. Variability in different characteristics in parental input is associated with variability in child vocabulary size. Children with large early vocabularies exhibit the most stability in vocabulary composition and the earliest grammatical development. Children’s vocabulary composition may reflect individual stylistic variation. Use of early gestures is associated differentially with receptive and productive vocabulary. Results of the thesis have implications for parents, child- and healthcare personnel, as well as researchers and educational practitioners. The results underscore the importance of high quality in adult-child interaction, with rich input fine-tuned to children’s developmental levels and age, together with high awareness of early language development.

L1 Use in the EFL-classroom : A Literature Review on Teachers’ Use of the L1 in the EFL-classroom on Upper Secondary Level

Even though English should mainly be used in the EFL-classroom according to the Swedish national curriculum, some recent scholars have argued that a judicious use of the students’ L1 by the teachers in some particular situations may benefit the learning environment there. From this context, this thesis examines what research says about in what particular situations the L1 is used by teachers in upper secondary EFL-classrooms as well as the teachers’ and the students’ attitudes towards this practice. The method used was a systematic literature review, where seven articles from all across the globe were analyzed, compared and synthesized. The results show that the L1 was mainly used by the teachers when managing discipline, when explaining grammar and when teaching vocabulary. However, the articles did not conclude how the L1 could be used strategically by the teachers. Concerning the teachers’ and students’ attitudes, the majority of these were positive towards L1 use by the teacher in the above mentioned situations. However, the teachers were not aware of how the L1 could be used by them in a judicious and a strategic way. Lastly, it can be concluded that more research is needed on how the L1 can be used more strategically by the teachers as well as on the students’ perspective on this.

Higher salaries, more teaching, better performance? The effects of the introduction of the minimum salary for teachers in Brazil

De acordo com a literatura empírica, há fortes evidências de que, após o controle de características socioeconômicas dos alunos, a qualidade dos professores é o fator mais importante para explicar o desempenho do aluno em testes padronizados. No entanto, não há consenso sobre como sistemas públicos de ensino podem melhorar a qualidade dos professores. Será que o pagamento de salários mais elevados a professores da rede pública impactam a qualidade dos professores nas escolas públicas? O Governo Federal brasileiro introduziu, em 2009, piso salarial nacional para os professores de escolas públicas, provocando um perceptível aumento exógeno dos salários dos professores municipais. O principal objetivo desta tese é avaliar os impactos de curto prazo da elevação linear e incondicional do salário do professor na qualidade da educação. Devido à ausência de dados secundários sobre o valor do salário-base de professores entre 2008 e 2013, tivemos que realizar um levantamento com as Secretarias Municipais de Educação para reunir informação sobre a estrutura da carreira docente e sobre os salários-bases nesse período. Com base em nossa pesquisa de campo, o primeiro capítulo investiga a conformidade dos sistemas municipais de ensino ao piso salarial nacional para professores de redes públicas. Encontramos que fatores não observáveis/observados são determinantes para explicar a variabilidade salarial verificada entre os municípios e o cumprimento da lei, o que embasa nossa estratégia de identificação com base em métodos de diferença em diferenças, combinados com pareamento com base em escore de propensão. O segundo capítulo centra-se na estimativa do impacto da elevação dos salários dos professores sobre a proficiência dos alunos de 5º ano do ensino fundamental municipal. De acordo com estes resultados, o aumento salarial incondicional não gerou uma expansão da proficiência escolar dos alunos, pelo menos no curto prazo. Embora não tenham sido detectados impactos na aprendizagem dos alunos, alguns mecanismos de transmissão do aumento salarial para melhores resultados educacionais podem já ter sido ativados. Assim, o principal objetivo do terceiro capítulo é avaliar o impacto dos aumentos de salário sobre a qualidade dos professores atuais e dos potenciais futuros professores. Avaliamos o impacto de aumentos de salário sobre o desempenho dos professores no ENADE, uma proxy de sua qualidade, e sobre a atratividade dos cursos de ensino superior associados à carreira docente. Essa atratividade é medida por meio da qualidade dos que entram nos respectivos cursos superiores, de acordo com seu desempenho no Enem. Neste último capítulo, aplicamos modelo de Tripla-Diferenças visando controlar dois tipos de potenciais fatores de confusão: (i) mudanças no desempenho dos professores (potenciais futuros professores) entre grupos de municípios, que foram submetidos ao tratamento e os que não foram tratados, que nada têm a ver com a política; e (ii) as alterações no desempenho de todos os professores (alunos) que vivem no município em que houve a elevação salarial devido à introdução da lei. As estimativas obtidas indicam que a elevação salarial gerou efeitos leves sobre a qualidade dos professores e sobre a atratividade dos cursos relacionados à carreira docente.

Conectores adversativos na fala do natalense: uma análise funcionalista com implicações para o ensino

This work analyzes the behavior of the adversative connectors in the speech of the user of Natal, with views to suggest implications for the grammar teaching in the high school Portuguese languages classes. It is an investigation that sits on the functionalist paradigm, specifically in the protected ideas for Givón. For so much, data of situations of speech from the corpus Discurso e gramática lingual falada e escrita da cidade do Natal (FURTADO DA CUNHA, 1998). The sample embraces a total of forty interviews, of which the occurrences are cut out whose registrations mark the existence of adversatives constructions in narratives of personal experience and in the opinion reports, modality of oral language, of the mentioned database. The work revisits authors of the grammar, Cunha (1986); Bechara (2006); Perini (2006), among others; authors that contemplate referring approaches to the use of opposition connectors as: Barreto (1999); Tavares (2003); Longhin (2003); Silva (2005); Rocha (2006); Neves (2000, 2006). The results of the panoramic analysis reveal as adversity connectors in use for the habitant of Natal, for recurrence order, the mas, e, aí, agora, só que, no entanto and já. Analyzed the results, the same ones are compared with the treatment presented by the traditional grammar, with application of functional iconicity principle, markdness principle and the prototype of the category is chosen. In the differentiated analysis of the item " agora ", structural profile of the constructions is analyzed that involve the item, semantic profile, times, manners and aspects of the verbs that they wrap up in the constructions in reference, trajectory of grammaticalization and comparison with the prototype of the category. Finally, they are suggested implications of whole the study for the teaching of Portuguese language, in the high school classes

Se inicia oração com pronome clítico? Atitudes linguísticas, na escola, em relação aos padrões brasileiros de colocação pronominal

Focusing on the empirical assessment issue, proposed by Language change theory (cf. cf. WEINREICH; LABOV; HERZOG, 2006; LABOV, [1972] 2008), this research assists to clarifying Portuguese teacher s attitudes in Natal- RN, regarding (a) to proclisis in three specific contexts: in the beginning of a simple/compound sentence (V1), after the subjects (SV), and proclisis after the secondary verb in complex verbal structures (V1V2); (b) to students who use such patterns in usage. Specific contexts were gathered thanks to their representing of the standard variety, as many studies have proven (Martins, 2012; Schei, 2003; Biazzoli, 2010, 2012). The research aims at: (i) verifying by means of a classroom assessment test, whether Portuguese teachers correct proclisis on referred contexts; (ii) identifying, via attitudinal tests what actions teachers take regarding to the usage of standards above mentioned, as well as students as users of those. Twenty Portuguese teachers, picked at random out of different of public schools in Natal-RN, responded to a classroom assessment test in addition to other two attitudinal ones. Results achieved point to a recurring high proclisis correction index of 50% in simple/compound sentences, even though such variety has been implemented to pronominal usage standards in Brazilian Portuguese. This setting of usage was generally assessed negatively, having no commonality between this assessment and the neutral one used by students. Unlike previous setting, the proclisis after subject did not receive any correction of the twenty teachers, what proves coherence with the positive evaluation both the varieties and the students attained. As for the second verb of complex verbal structures, proclisis correction went negative on presenting single results, despite their proximity, with correction indexes of 20% (infinite structures), 10% (present progressive structures) and 25% (participle structures). The assessment on these contexts of proclisis ranged between positive and neutral, also valid for the one students utilized. It means that proclisis in the beginning of simple/compound sentences are yet seemingly spotted in writing school scenario, much likely due to the negative evaluation, opposite to students . Later to subjects and earlier to secondary verbs in structures, proclisis appears to be acknowledged in writing school scenarios, which reflects on teachers assessment as compared to students who use proclisis in these contexts; being in general either positive or neutral

As estratégias de negação variantes no inglês falado: uma comparação com o português

The general aim of this work is to verify the occurence of variant forms of negation in spoken English with the purpose of making a comparative study between the English and the Portuguese languages. As for Portuguese, we used as a matter of reference a study already made on negation. As for English, we analized a corpus of the North American English variant organized by a university in the United States. This study is based on the North American Functional Linguistics theoretical perspective, which considers relevant the study of language used in real situations of communicative interaction. The data analisys proved that there is at least one form of negative variant in spoken English which is not allowed by prescriptive grammar. This phenomenon turns out to be similar to Portuguese, which includes three variant strategies. According to the data obtained, it was possible to verify that the variant strategy used in English, from a contrastive point of view, corresponds to a negative strategy ruled by Portuguese prescriptive grammar. Finally, we discussed about the different conceptions of language, grammar and teaching, giving suggestions to colaborate to a productive and reflexive teaching of first or second language

TEACHING OF MEDICAL MICROBIOLOGY - COMMENTS ON BASIC VERSUS APPLIED ASPECTS RELATED TO PROFESSION

Comments about education and medicine teaching were made. The learning and the curriculum in according with the priorities of the country's health had special emphasis.Students and teachers of Botucatu considered that the improvement of the 2nd year medical microbiological course was good with predominantly basic contents. The students prefer a balanced content or predominantly applied to medicine.Three phases of the teaching of microbiological contents are proposed: 1st - in the basic cycly (2nd year); 2nd - into the course of Clinical Laboratory (3rd or 4th year); 3rd - into the clinical cycle, following a program of integration.

Alfabetização e letramento: as concepções e as práticas educativas de uma professora do 2º ano do ensino fundamental

Pós-graduação em Educação - FCT

A gramática da língua inglesa no ensino público: implementação de uma proposta pedagógica voltada para a comunicação

Pós-graduação em Estudos Linguísticos - IBILCE

O ensino da gramática da língua inglesa em um contexto de escola pública: crenças, abordagens e motivação

Pós-graduação em Estudos Linguísticos - IBILCE

Incompletudes da abordagem tradicional e suas implicações no ensino/aprendizagem da língua: um recorte sobre as relações de coordenação e subordinação nos períodos compostos

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Atividade epilinguística em sala de aula: as interpretações naturais feitas pelos alunos

Pós-graduação em Linguística e Língua Portuguesa - FCLAR

O professor iniciante: seu trabalho com o texto

Pós-graduação em Letras - FCLAS

A construção da representação dos nomes: processos qualitativos e quantitativos na categorização dos substantivos concretos e abstratos

Pós-graduação em Linguística e Língua Portuguesa - FCLAR

Precisão e complexidade gramatical na avaliação de proficiência oral em inglês do formando em Letras: implicações para a validação de um teste

Pós-graduação em Estudos Linguísticos - IBILCE