The standardisation of Scottish Gaelic orthography 1750-2007: a corpus approach

This thesis investigates the standardisation of Modern Scottish Gaelic orthography from the mid-eighteenth century to the twenty-first. It presents the results of the first corpus-based analysis of Modern Scottish Gaelic orthographic development combined with an analytic approach that places orthographic choices in their sociolinguistic context. The theoretical framework behind the analysis centres on discussion of how the language ideologies of the phonographic ideal, historicism, autonomy, vernacularism and the ideology of the standard itself have shaped orthographic conventions and debates. It argues that current spelling norms reflect an orthography that is the result of compromise, historical factors and pragmatic function. The research uses a digital corpus to examine how three particular features have been used over time: the dialect variation between <eu> and <ia>; variation in s + stop consonant clusters (sd/st, sg/sc, sb/sp); and the use of the grave and acute accents. Evidence is drawn from the Corpas na Gàidhlig electronic corpus created at the University of Glasgow: the sub-corpus used in this study includes 117 published texts representing a period of over 250 years from 1750 to 2007, and a total size of over four and a quarter million words. The results confirm a key period of reform between 1750 and the early nineteenth century, and thereafter a settled norm being established in the early nineteenth century. Since then, some variation has been acceptable although changes and reform of some features have centred on increasing uniformity and regularisation.

SMS length and function: A comparative study of 13- to 18-year-old girls and boys

International audience

Tratamento didático do erro na produção escrita dos alunos do 1.º ciclo do ensino básico : um estudo de caso

Relatório de Estágio apresentado à Escola Superior de Educação do Instituto Politécnico de Castelo Branco para cumprimento dos requisitos necessários à obtenção do grau de Mestre em Educação Pré-Escolar e Ensino do 1.º Ciclo do Ensino Básico.

The “handwriting brain”: a motor/linguistic network with specialized “writing-specific” areas?

International audience

Estratégias para aprender ortografia: O caso da regra contextual nasalização diante de p e b

Dissertação de Mestrado apresentada ao Instituto Superior de Psicologia Aplicada para obtenção de grau de Mestre na especialidade de Psicologia Educacional.

Orthographic regularization in Early Modern English: Grapheme distribution and vowel length indication

The present study is an attempt at assessing the level of consistency in the orthographic systems of selected sixteenth and seventeenth-century printers and at tracing the influence that normative writings could have potentially exerted on them. The approach taken here draws upon the philological tradition of examining and comparing several texts written in the same language, but produced at different times. The study discusses the orthography of the editions of The Schoole of Vertue, a manual of good conduct for children, published between 1557 and 1687. The orthographic variables taken into account fall into two criteria: the distribution and functional load of the selected graphemes and the indication of vowel length.

Toponímia da vila de Porto de Mós : (1880-2015) : ecos de memória

A investigação insere-se no Mestrado em Estudos do Património, da Universidade Aberta, visando a origem, significado e memórias da vila de Porto de Mós, através da análise da sua toponímia no período que medeia os anos de 1880 a 2015. O vasto período em estudo requereu uma demarcação das datas significativas da História e a consequente perpetuação das referências nacionais e locais nas placas toponímicas. O estudo teve como suporte a recolha e a explicação dos topónimos de Porto de Mós, numa pesquisa de campo, com o apoio do registo em atas de sessão da Câmara Municipal, mapas da vila, bem como na recolha de depoimentos orais. Foi estudada a evolução demográfica e o crescimento urbano, observados nos censos e em bibliografia. A reconstituição histórica Portomosense foi feita a partir de narrativas, inquéritos e registos documentais. O levantamento dos topónimos permitiu acompanhar as alterações políticas e económicas, ao longo de mais de cem anos da vila de Porto de Mós.

A supervisão em contexto da reforma educativa angolana : um estudo da prática seminários e estágios pedagógicos dos estagiários na Escola de Formação de Professores de Benguela

O propósito do presente estudo de investigação visa compreender o papel do supervisor pedagógico no desempenho e desenvolvimento das competências pedagógicas dos professores em estágio na Formação Inicial de Professores no contexto das modificações implementadas pela reforma educativa. A sua elaboração surge no sentido da constatação, reflexão e compreensão, dos desfasamentos que se encontram entre as teorias propostas e os processos praticados num ambiente de adaptação às mudanças operadas no papel do supervisor e professores supervisionados. Este é um projecto de investigação avaliativa cujo aporte presta-se ao saber e avaliar e não resolver o problema. O estudo é de carácter descritivo e foi realizado, na escola de formação de professores de Benguela – IEFPB – com os professores acompanhantes e professores orientados em estágio no ano lectivo 2015. Optamos predominantemente por uma metodologia quantitativa por meio da aplicação de questionário por inquérito aos professores/supervisores e aos professores/supervisionados e para complementar usamos o método qualitativo por meio da aplicação de entrevistas semiestruturadas dirigidas ao director pedagógico e ao coordenador das práticas pedagógicas. No que tange à ortografia deste trabalho, optamos por não usar o novo acordo ortográfico da língua portuguesa, por não estar em vigor em Angola pelo que usamos ortografia antiga em português europeu.

O erro mora aqui! - A relação entre a consciência fonológica e morfológica e a natureza dos erros ortográficos em crianças do 2º e 4º ano de escolaridade

Dissertação de Mestrado apresentada ao Instituto Superior de Psicologia Aplicada para obtenção de grau de Mestre na especialidade de Psicologia Educacional.

Promotion of literacy skills in early childhood: a follow-up study from kindergarten to grade 1

Several researchers have shown that invented spelling activities in kindergarten foster preschool children’s early literacy skills. However, few studies have assessed its impact on learning to read and write in the first year of primary school. Our goal was to analyse the impact of an invented spelling programme with kindergarteners on their literacy skills until the end of Grade 1. A follow-up study was conducted with 45 five-year-old Portuguese children attending two classes of two schools in Lisbon. The teaching effect was controlled as children from each class were randomly assigned into two groups (experimental/control) — equivalent on letter knowledge, cognitive abilities and phonological awareness. The participants were assessed in kindergarten with a pre-test, immediate post-test and delayed post-test (spelling; reading; phonemic awareness) and at the end of Grade 1 (spelling; reading). The experimental group participated in invented spelling sessions, while control children participated in storytelling activities. Data analysis revealed statistically significant differences between the two groups. The experimental group scored higher, not only in kindergarten but also in the follow-up year for all literacy measures.

Project Flappy Crab : an edugame for music learning

This chapter discusses some possibilities of gamification and remixing processes for music education. It also analyzes the concepts of gamification, mashup/remix and presents its possible usage in education—music teaching—through the development of the project/educational game FLAPPY CRAB. The chapter begins with a brief introduction to the concepts listed above, trying to consider them in the school context. After that, we will make the summary presentation of the music educational game FLAPPY CRAB, a clone of the GEARS Studios Flappy Bird, developed for mobile devices and other platforms with the UNITY 3D© game engine. In this chapter we’ll talk yet, albeit briefly, about the game engine used in the development of this educational application. This educational game aims to assess the possible impacts that its use has on learning and skill development related to auditory memory, qualitative discrimination of musical sound height (pitch—in the range of an octave with a central point in 440 Hz), visual identification of musical notation symbols and its relative organization according to the grammar rules of traditional music spelling. The game has been tested by a group of approximately 30 teenagers over a period of about 6 months, over which data was collected. In this chapter, we will present a review of the preliminary data collected to date.

Programas de escrita inventada: Será que a estrutura silábica das palavras influencia a evolução da escrita e da leitura?

Dissertação de Mestrado apresentada no ISPA – Instituto Universitário para obtenção de grau de Mestre na especialidade de Psicologia Educacional

Escrita inventada e aquisição da leitura em crianças de idade pré-escolar

Vários investigadores mostraram que actividades de escrita inventada com crianças em idade pré-escolar contribuem para a aquisição da literacia, tendo um impacto positivo na evolução da sua escrita e consciência fonológica. O nosso objectivo foi avaliar o impacto de um programa de escrita inventada na aquisição da leitura. Participaram 60 crianças Portuguesas de 5 anos que não sabiam ler nem escrever. Foram aleatoriamente divididas em dois grupos, experimental e controlo, equivalentes quanto às letras conhecidas, consciência fonológica e inteligência. O grupo experimental participou num programa de escrita inventada e o grupo de controlo num programa de leitura de histórias. A leitura de palavras foi avaliada num pré-teste, pós-teste e pós-teste postergado. O grupo experimental teve resultados superiores nos dois pós-testes.

A literary approach to teaching english language in a multicultural classroom

Literature is not generally considered as a coherent branch of the curriculum in relation to language development in either native or foreign language teaching. As teachers of English in multicultural Indian classrooms, we come across students with varying degrees of competence in English language learning. Although language learning is a natural process for natives, students of other languages put in colossal efforts to learn it. Despite their sincere efforts, they face challenges regarding pronunciation, spelling, and vocabulary. Indian classrooms are a microcosm of the larger society, so teaching English language in a manner that equips the students to face the cutthroat competition has become a necessity and a challenge for English language teachers. English today has become the key determinant for being successful in their careers. The hackneyed and stereotypical methods of teaching are not acceptable now. Teachers are no longer arbitrary dispensers of knowledge, but they are playing the role of a guide and facilitator for the students. Teachers of English are using innovative ideas to make English language teaching and learning interesting and simple. Teachers have started using literary texts and their analyses to explore and ignite the imagination and creative skills of the students. One needs to think and rethink the contribution of literature to intelligent thinking as well as its role in the process of teaching/learning. This article is, therefore, an attempt at exploring the nature of the literary experience in the present-day classrooms and the broader role of literature in life.