The application of communicative language teaching : a particular case in a polish primary school

L’objectiu d’aquest estudi és examinar si l’Ensenyament Comunicatiu de la Llengua és usat per les mestres quan duen a terme classes d’anglès com a llengua estrangera en una escola de primària polonesa, amb un context educatiu especial. Aquesta recerca qualitativa analitza cinc conjunts principals d’informació relacionats amb l’ensenyament de la llengua estrangera que caracteritzen l’enfocament de l’Ensenyament Comunicatiu de la Llengua i que estan centrats en: el coneixement i les creences dels mestres sobre l’enfocament de l’Ensenyament Comunicatiu de la Llengua; l’ús de la llengua; els aspectes de la llengua anglesa que s’ensenyen; les característiques de les activitats: i el procés d’ensenyament. Per aquest objectiu, s’ha proporcionat un qüestionari a cada mestra d’anglès i s’han portat a terme algunes observacions d’aula per tal de recollir dades, analitzar-les i extreure’n unes conclusions. Els resultats de la investigació mostren que les mestres d’anglès donen bastant suport a l’enfocament de l’Ensenyament Comunicatiu de la Llengua, així com apliquen força sovint els seus trets característics quan porten a terme les classes.

The communicative dimension of landscape. A theoretical and applied proposal

The fusion of knowledge, the interrelationship of disciplines and, finally, the interaction of learning fields, provides new challenges for an auto denominated global society. The contemporary value of landscape, linked to the patent commodification of culture, the commercial construction of identities, the triumph of inauthenticity, of the induced representation or the economy of symbolism, open up great prospects for studying the symbolic value of landscape. The rapprochement of geographical praxis to the study of space intangibles, linked to the discovery of emotional geographies, besides the growing interest of communicational sciences on the territorial discourse, allow us to envisage a communicative study of landscape based on a fusion of geographical and communicational knowledge. The balancing of the variables: geography, landscape, emotion and communication, enables the progress towards analysing the emotionalisation of space to discern its intangible value, which emerges from the application of different communication techniques.

Habilitats comunicatives per a l’aprenentatge en l’entorn virtual = Communicative skills for learning in a virtual environment

The virtual learning environments are an option in permanent training with great possibilities for adults who look for studies that are compatible with their jobs and with their family life. So as to participate in determined learning as much in attitudes as knowledge and skills. The article is dedicated to analysing the necessary linguistic habits for moving within an environment of this type and offers didactic proposals that can facilitate the active participation in a virtual course and widen the perspectives of the control of new channels of communication with objectives that are different to learning

Communicative and Anticipatory Decision-Making Supported by Bayesian Networks

The purpose of this research is to draw up a clear construction of an anticipatory communicative decision-making process and a successful implementation of a Bayesian application that can be used as an anticipatory communicative decision-making support system. This study is a decision-oriented and constructive research project, and it includes examples of simulated situations. As a basis for further methodological discussion about different approaches to management research, in this research, a decision-oriented approach is used, which is based on mathematics and logic, and it is intended to develop problem solving methods. The approach is theoretical and characteristic of normative management science research. Also, the approach of this study is constructive. An essential part of the constructive approach is to tie the problem to its solution with theoretical knowledge. Firstly, the basic definitions and behaviours of an anticipatory management and managerial communication are provided. These descriptions include discussions of the research environment and formed management processes. These issues define and explain the background to further research. Secondly, it is processed to managerial communication and anticipatory decision-making based on preparation, problem solution, and solution search, which are also related to risk management analysis. After that, a solution to the decision-making support application is formed, using four different Bayesian methods, as follows: the Bayesian network, the influence diagram, the qualitative probabilistic network, and the time critical dynamic network. The purpose of the discussion is not to discuss different theories but to explain the theories which are being implemented. Finally, an application of Bayesian networks to the research problem is presented. The usefulness of the prepared model in examining a problem and the represented results of research is shown. The theoretical contribution includes definitions and a model of anticipatory decision-making. The main theoretical contribution of this study has been to develop a process for anticipatory decision-making that includes management with communication, problem-solving, and the improvement of knowledge. The practical contribution includes a Bayesian Decision Support Model, which is based on Bayesian influenced diagrams. The main contributions of this research are two developed processes, one for anticipatory decision-making, and the other to produce a model of a Bayesian network for anticipatory decision-making. In summary, this research contributes to decision-making support by being one of the few publicly available academic descriptions of the anticipatory decision support system, by representing a Bayesian model that is grounded on firm theoretical discussion, by publishing algorithms suitable for decision-making support, and by defining the idea of anticipatory decision-making for a parallel version. Finally, according to the results of research, an analysis of anticipatory management for planned decision-making is presented, which is based on observation of environment, analysis of weak signals, and alternatives to creative problem solving and communication.

Communicative Purposes of Press Releases Announcing Reduction in Workforce

Tämä tutkielma käsittelee kaupallisten yhtiöiden julkaisemia lehdistötiedotteita, joissa ilmoitetaan henkilöstövähennyksistä. Erityisenä tutkimuskohteena ovat lehdistötiedotteiden informatiiviset ja promotionaaliset päämäärät ja tarkoitukset sekä näiden päämäärien ja tarkoitusten ilmentyminen tekstin retorisen rakenteen, valittujen retoristen strategioiden sekä leksikaalisten ja kieliopillisten valintojen kautta. Tutkimuksen aineisto koostuu 50 englanninkielisestä lehdistötiedotteesta, jotka sisältävät ilmoituksen henkilöstövähennyksistä. Lehdistötiedotteet kerättiin yritysten verkkosivuilta. Tutkimuksen teoreettisena viitekehityksenä toimivat soveltavan kielentutkimuksen alalla erityisesti ammattikielentutkimuksessa (ESP, English for Specific Purposes) laajalti käytetty Swalesin (1990) tekstilajia (genre) koskeva määritelmää ja Bhatian (1993) kehittämä geneerisen analyysin malli. Ennen aineiston kielitieteellistä analysointia tutkimuksessa perehdyttiin Bhatian (1993) mallin mukaisesti lehdistötiedotteiden historiaan, kohdeyleisöihin, diskurssiyhteisöön ja sen tuottamiin muihin tekstilajeihin, aikaisempiin lehdistotiedotteita käsitteleviin kielitieteellisiin tutkimuksiin sekä erityisesti yritysten henkilövähennyksiin liittyvään tilannekontekstiin. Kielitieteellisessä analyysissä tutkittavista teksteistä tunnistettiin kahdeksan retorista vaihetta (move), jotka olivat tyypillisiä tutkituille teksteille. Kunkin retorisen vaiheen yksittäiset ilmentymät koottiin yhteen erillisiksi aineistoiksi, joista pyrittiin tunnistamaan kullekin vaiheelle tyypilliset retoriset strategiat sekä toistuvat leksikaaliset ja kieliopilliset valinnat. Tutkimuksessa todettiin, että vaikka tutkittujen lehdistötiedotteiden pääasiallinen tarkoitus oli yhtiön toiminnasta tiedottaminen, niillä oli myös promotionaalinen päämäärä, joka ilmeni mm. pyrkimyksenä välittää yhtiöstä mahdollisimman positiivinen kuva eri kohdeyleisöille, erityisesti sijoittajille. Tämän positiivisen kuvan välittämiseen käytettyjä keinoja olivat mm. odotettavissa olevien saavutusten korostaminen, ulkoisten tekijöiden nimeäminen nykyisen tilanteen aiheuttajaksi, passiivin käyttö sekä erilaiset yrityksen julkisen kuvan säilyttämiseen pyrkivät (face-saving) strategiat.

Development of a New Assessment System to Evaluate Students' English Communicative Capacities in China

The purpose of this study was to develop a new English assessment system to evaluate Chinese students' English communicative capacities. Since there is more interaction with people from English-speaking countries, Chinese people attach more importance to English oral skills, and a lot of Western English teaching methods were introduced into China to improve students' English communicative capacities. However, traditional paper-written examinations, like the English test of higher education entry examination, cannot evaluate it effectively. This study explored the perceptions of two Chinese English-language teachers and two Chinese students about English assessment system. A qualitative research method using telephone interviews was conducted in this study. The findings showed that the most possible ways to assess Chinese students' English communicative capacities were paper-written examination and person-machine conversations, although measures should be taken to improve these two models. On the other hand, the model of person-person conversation was the ideal assessment tool but was hard to achieve at the current stage.

Towards a communicative understanding of organizational change : Koumbit's change process

Comment comprendre les dynamiques qui sous-tendent les changements des organisations? Le changement organisationnel fait partie de la réalité quotidienne des organisations et, comme en témoigne une vaste littérature, le sujet a été abordé à partir de diverses perspectives conceptuelles. Toutefois, plusieurs questions fondamentales demeurent quant à la façon dont le changement organisationnel est accompli (Tsoukas & Chia, 2002; Chia, 1999). Je suggère que la clé pour répondre à ces questions se trouve dans l’étude de la communication. Cependant, le rôle de la communication dans la production du changement reste peu exploré dans les conceptualisations actuelles sur le sujet. Ainsi, l’objectif principal de cette thèse est de décrire la façon dont le changement émerge dans la communication, en d’autres termes, comment il est accompli à partir des interactions. Dans cette recherche, je propose que la compréhension du changement passe par une vision de la communication comme un processus constant dans lequel les réalités sont créées, négociées et transformées de manière interactive. Cette conception est fondée sur a plurified view of interactions (Cooren, Fox, Robichaud & Talih, 2005; Cooren 2010) qui prend en considération la contribution d’êtres appartenant à diverses ontologies (e.g., ordinateurs, règlements, principes, émotions, règles, c.) dans l’action. En mobilisant cette vision de la communication, j’ai étudié les changements qui ont eu lieu à Koumbit — une organisation à but non lucratif basée à Montréal qui œuvre dans le domaine des technologies de l’information. L’observation, les entrevues ainsi que la révision de documents officiels ont été les techniques choisies pour cueillir les données. Ma recherche m’a permis de déterminer que le changement organisationnel est un processus progressif qui se matérialise d’interaction en interaction. C’est en composant et en recomposant des ensembles d’associations que se crée une différence dans l’état des choses. Si bien les interactions sont accomplies dans le ici et le maintenant, leur caractère hybride leur permet de rendre compte de ce que l’organisation a été et de ce qu’elle sera. Cette étude suggère que, d’un point de vue communicationnel, les mécanismes à partir desquels le changement organisationnel est accompli n sont pas aussi différents de ceux qui produisent les processus organisants (organizing).

Communicative competence in Spanish-English cross-cultural language education : some pedagogic strategies drawn from the national arts.

Resumen tomado de la publicación

A Communicative Approach to Testing : II parte.

Se recogen una serie de actividades en inglés a modo de pruebas de evaluación sobre contenidos interdisciplinares relativos al medio ambiente. El objetivo es relacionar la lengua inglesa con otras asignaturas, potenciando al mismo tiempo la capacidad lingüístico-comunicativa de los alumnos en otro idioma (investigación, análisis de datos, deducciones lógicas, argumentación, etc). El material utilizado son artículos de periódicos y revistas, fragmentos de programas de televisión, cómics, etc y va dirigido a jóvenes del nuevo bachillerato..

A Communicative Approach to Testing. 'Una aproximación comunicativa a la evaluación'.

El presente documento realiza un estudio sobre los distintos criterios y técnicas de evaluación que se pueden aplicar al conocimiento de la asignatura de lengua inglesa por parte de los alumnos. Se valorará la participación de éstos en conversaciones breves, la redacción de textos sencillos con una estructura lógica, el establecimiento de comparaciones para establecer semejanzas y diferencias entre objetos, personas, etc., la capacidad para comprender textos sencillos... Los contenidos están dirigidos a alumnos de tercero y cuarto curso de la Educación Secundaria Obligatoria.

Keep talking : communicative fluency activities for language teaching.

Guía práctica con actividades de comunicación para la enseñanza del inglés como segundo idioma, adecuado para su uso con alumnos desde el nivel elemental al avanzado. Está dividido en dos partes, la primera contiene instrucciones para cien ejercicios diferentes, incluyendo entrevistas, juegos de adivinanzas, rompecabezas, resolución de problemas, mímica, juegos de rol y cuenta cuentos. Cada actividad va acompañada de notas sobre sus objetivos lingüísticos y educativos, el nivel, la organización, el tiempo y la preparación necesaria. La segunda parte incluye las hojas de trabajo para cada actividad, una tabla con todos los ejercicios y un índice para facilitar la consulta del libro.

Holistic versus communicative approach in assesing oral production in English. 'Aproximación holística versus aproximación comunicativa en la evaluación de la producción oral en inglés'.

Resumen tomado de la publicación