Percepções de alunos egressos de institutos de idiomas sobre seu conhecimento linguístico em exames de Inglês para mestrado e doutorado: um estudo à luz do sistema de avaliatividade

O uso da língua materna (LM) faz parte dos exames do conhecimento de uma língua estrangeira (LE) tomados como instrumentos de avaliação em cursos de pós-graduação no Brasil que, em sua maioria, constam de tradução e compreensão leitora de um texto em Inglês. Porém, as abordagens adotadas em cursos de Inglês tendem a deixar a LM de fora do processo de ensino- aprendizagem. Outra questão importante inclui a qualidade e a abrangência da atenção dada à compreensão leitora, embora saiba-se que os cursos de Inglês trabalhem as quatro habilidades (falar, ouvir, ler e escrever) em sala de aula. Diante desse cenário, este estudo busca avaliar a percepção do percurso da aprendizagem de língua inglesa de treze participantes, quando confrontados com a necessidade de realizar provas de LI como parte da seleção para cursos de Mestrado e Doutorado. Aqui, voltamos nosso olhar sobre objetivos de uso do idioma especialmente para compreensão leitora, uma das possíveis ramificações do quadro teórico do Inglês para Fins Específicos (IFE). Neste sentido, apoiamo-nos em Hutchinson & Waters (1987, p. 19), que nos falam em aprendizagem centrada no aluno, nas necessidades trazidas por ele em determinado momento de sua vida profissional ou acadêmica.Para tanto, coletaram-se as percepções de treze participantes, por meio da técnica de Grupo Focal, a respeito do modo como aprenderam a língua inglesa ao longo de suas trajetórias. Utilizamo-nos, para analisar as realizações destes sujeitos, do Sistema de Avaliatividade, proposto por Martin & White (2005) dentre outros, no escopo da Linguística Sistêmico-Funcional, valendo-nos especialmente do domínio semântico de Atitude para investigar as opiniões expressas. Apesar de os participantes terem feito uso de todas as categorias do subsistema da Atitude, Afeto e Apreciação foram as mais recorrentemente utilizadas, já que suas falas revelam não apenas o modo como os sujeitos se sentiam e ainda se sentem quando no papel de alunos sob os métodos vigentes no mercado, mas também suas críticas aos métodos de aprendizagem de inglês. Obtivemos 10 índices de Apreciações Negativas aos cursos de idiomas a respeito da exclusão quase completa da LM em aulas, além de 11 Apreciações Negativas ao modelo de ensino de língua inglesa na esfera escolar.

'You' and 'I' in university seminars and spoken learner discourse

You and I may be little words but they do a great deal. In spoken discourse they reference shared knowledge and mark stance. In pedagogical contexts, they maintain relations in teacher-student discourse. However, language classrooms may rarely explore this array of pragmatic meanings. A lack of awareness of the variety of these functions may be problematic for learners when seeking to construct interpersonal relations and operate successfully in particular spoken contexts. This paper presents a study of you and I in two spoken corpora: a corpus of English language learner task talk and a corpus of university seminar talk. Findings illustrate different patterns of I and you between the two corpora: I and you have a higher rate of occurrence in learner discourse, and pronoun repetition is more frequent in learner discourse, though it does not account for the higher rate of you and I. These findings suggest that language learner task talk displays more features tied to speech production and self-regulation and fewer features associated with attempting to point to the informational space of others, a key feature of university classroom talk. This paper concludes by outlining pedagogical applications to overcome features perceived as disfluent.

Personal statement in PhD applications: Gatekeepers' evaluative perspectives

This paper explores academic readers’ views of the doctoral Personal Statements (PSs) written by student applicants across institutional contexts. The analysis was based on in-depth semi-structured interviews with 19 faculty members involved in evaluating the PhD applications within Education at one UK-based and one US-based university. Data were coded by NVivo software and then analysed using methods drawn from critical discourse analysis and conversation analysis to unravel participant intended meaning. Results suggest that the situated knowledge of institutional settings where these academics are based will affect the ways in which they act and think in relation to particular forms of discourse. Specifically, the UK and US academics’ interpretations of PSs and its associated evaluation practices are related to their conceptual understanding of the culture of doctoral level study and the structure of the admissions process in their own particular academic community. The paper concludes with some pedagogical implications and a discussion of potential areas for further study to investigate the ‘academic’ and ‘rhetorical’ aspects of the PS and to understand the different and often implicit features of the PS across different disciplines, programmes, and institutional contexts.

Philosophies, traditional pedagogy, and new technologies: a report on a case study of EAP teachers' integration of technology into traditional practice

This chapter reports on a study of teachers in transition, developing their practice and their cognitions regarding the integration of learning technologies with traditional approaches to the teaching of English for Academic Purposes (EAP). Taking a case study approach, it examines developments in the practice of three teachers during and after a teacher education programme on the use of technology in the EAP classroom. This is a study of cognition, teaching philosophy, and the relationship between pedagogy, technology, and content, and how teachers situate these within their own practice. The setting is the rapidly changing UK higher education environment, where the speed of change is such that today's latest fashions and gadgets may well be yesterday's news tomorrow. Thus, this is not a tale of individual technologies or tools to make teachers' lives better. This is a story of people, of pedagogy's traditional values intersecting with technology, and the issues arising from this, alongside the evolution of strategies for dealing with these issues.

Social freezing in Switzerland and worldwide--a blessing for women today?

This is a critical review of the medical, ethical, judicial and financial aspects of the so called "social freezing", the cryopreservation of a woman's oocytes for non-medical purposes. The possibility of storing the eggs of fertile women in order to prevent age-related fertility decline is being widely promoted by fertility centres and the lay press throughout the world. Research data has shown that social freezing should ideally be performed on women around 25 years of age in order to increase their chances of a future pregnancy. In reality, it is mostly performed after the age of 35. Unfortunately, social freezing is in general not a solution for the underlying societal problems to fit in with professionally active women and having children. It only delays the existing problems. Furthermore, it creates a lot of potential new problems. A great deal more should be undertaken to offer real solutions to the underlying societal problems which are in part: pre-school education, care in the event of childhood illness, and the many weeks of school holidays, acceptance of professionally active women having children, and more job offers with a workload <100%.). Furthermore, society should be informed about the decreasing chances of pregnancy with increasing maternal (and paternal) age as well as the increasing risks of miscarriage and obstetric/neonatal complications. Detailed information for woman considering social freezing is crucial. Every doctor, proposing social freezing to his patients, should be up to date with all these details. Follow-up studies on the outcome of these children are needed.

Encadrement normatif visant l'utilisation de la marijuana à des fins médicales en Occident

"Mémoire présenté à la Faculté des études supérieures en vue de l'obtention du grade de Maîtrise en droit, option recherche (LL.M.)"

Supporting International Students in the Classroom

The University’s strategy aims to increase the numbers of International Students studying here, and this brings particular challenges for the teaching staff. Do you sometimes wonder if your international students are able to fully engage with their studies? Have you been in a situation where the international students in your class seem very quiet and reluctant to engage in group discussion? Have you found a higher proportion of international students seemed to struggle with their assignments? This guide highlights some of the issues facing international students studying in the UK and it provides tips for teaching staff to use in order to maximise the internal students engagement in their studies. In addition the guide provides references to further reading and resources both within the University and externally. You can find this guide on your blackboard site: TTLLP-GPG: Good practice guide for supporting international students. The production of the guide was funded by the Transition to Living & Learning Project.

Eficacia del plasma rico en plaquetas en procedimientos médicos estéticos faciales . Evaluación en contorno de ojos.

Introducción: En la actualidad se están implementando nuevas técnicas, para el tratamiento de líneas de expresión facial. El Plasma Rico en Plaquetas (PRP) utiliza factores de crecimiento humano autólogos con fines médicos estéticos. El objetivo de este trabajo fue evaluar el tratamiento con plasma rico en plaquetas en el manejo del rejuvenecimiento periocular. Materiales y métodos: Estudio descriptivo retrospectivo en una cohorte de 27 pacientes entre 30 a 70 años de ambos sexos,tratados con PRP sin tratamientos médicos estéticos previos . Se compararon fotografías del sistema VISIA®, previo y posterior el PRP, para determinar los cambios del área periocular. Con análisis comparativo de medias utilizando pruebas t de student. Resultados: De 27 historias clínicas revisadas 96,3% eran mujeres, la edad promedio fue de 52.67 años. Se observaron cambios clínicos satisfactorios en el manejo del foto envejecimiento periocular con mejoría estadísticamente significativa entre el promedio inicial y el post tratamiento en arrugas, textura y porfirinas (p: 0.000). No se observaron diferencias estadísticamente significativas entre los grupos de edad (p = 0,62). Los pacientes analizados posterior al tratamiento se encuentran en mejor estado que el 63,78% de la población de su mismo sexo, edad y fototipo de piel. Los eventos adversos fueron disminuyendo en su frecuencia en cada una de las sesiones siguientes. Discusión: El PRP proporciona una mejoría global en los parámetros de envejecimiento periocular lo cual se correlaciono con los estudios previos in vitro. Conclusiones: El PRP es seguro y eficaz en contorno de ojos.