Something to talk about: Content and Language Integrated Learning in Modern Languages in British Higher Education. A case study of German at Aston University

This thesis investigates Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) in German undergraduate programmes in the UK. At its core is a study of how one German department integrates the teaching of language and content in its undergraduate programmes and how instructors and students experience this approach. This micro-context is embedded in the wider macro-context of UK Higher Education and subject to outside forces - be they political, economic, socio-cultural - whose effects will manifest in more or less obvious ways. Data was collected via an online survey of Heads of German at British universities to determine the status quo of CLIL in UK Higher Education and to investigate how certain institutional parameters determine the introduction of CLIL in Higher Education. This project employs a mixed-method case study approach and is based on student questionnaires and semi-structured interview with German teaching staff. The study brings to light a number of significant aspects. For example, contrary to popular belief, content provision in the L2 is rather common at British universities, which is currently not reflected in the research. Student data indicates that German students perceive clear advantages in the university’s approach to CLIL. They consider German-taught content classes challenging yet beneficial for their language development. Staff interviews have yielded intriguing information about perceived advantages and disadvantages of CLIL, about its implications for classroom practice, and about instructors’ attitude towards teacher training, which echo findings from similar investigations in European contexts. Finally, the results of the macro-analysis and the case study are compared and contrasted with findings from European research on ICLHE/CLIL to determine differences and similarities with the British context, a set of recommendations is made regarding CLIL practice at the case study institution, and some implications these indings may have for the future of CLIL in British higher education are discussed.

English Language Learners: A Correlational Study of the Relationship Between A Proficiency Level Assessment and End of Course Test Scores at one Georgia High School

Understanding the language of one’s cultural environment is important for effective communication and function. As such, students entering U.S. schools from foreign countries are given access to English to Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) programs and they are referred to as English Language Learner (ELL) students. This dissertation examined the correlation of ELL ACCESS Composite Performance Level (CPL) score to the End of Course tests (EOCTs) and the Georgia High School Graduation Tests (GHSGTs) in the four content courses (language arts, mathematics, science, and social studies). A premise of this study was that English language proficiency is critical in meeting or exceeding state and county assessment standards. A quantitative descriptive research design was conducted using Cross-sectional archival data from a secondary source. There were 148 participants from school years 2011-2012 to 2013- 2014 from Grades 9-12. A Pearson product moment correlation was run to assess the relationship between the ACCESS CPL (independent variable) and the EOCT scores and the GHSGT scores (dependent variables). The findings showed that there was a positive correlation between ACCESS CPL scores and the EOCT scores where language arts showed a strong positive correlation and mathematics showed a positive weak correlation. Also, there was a positive correlation between ACCESS CPL scores and GHSGT scores where language arts showed a weak positive correlation. The results of this study indicated that that there is a relationship between the stated variables, ACCESS CPL, EOCT and GHSGT. Also, the results of this study showed that there were positive correlations at varying degrees for each grade levels. While the null hypothesis for Research Question 1 and Research Question 2 were rejected, there was a slight relationship between the variables.

The role of games in the development of oral skills in Teaching english as a foreign language to adult learners from An extension course at Universidad del Valle [recurso electr?nico]

This research arose from the notorious need to promote oral production in the adult learners of the English Extension courses at Universidad del Valle in 2014. This qualitative research was carried out in a 60 hour course divided along 15 sessions on Saturdays, and with an adult population between the ages of 22 and 65 years old. Its main objective was to describe the impact of games aimed at promoting oral production in English with a group of adult learners. Data were collected from one demographic survey, video-recordings of classroom events during the implementation of games, students? surveys after each game and a teacher?s journal. The analysis of data showed that games did have an impact in students? performance which was related to a positive atmosphere in the classroom. Students showed progress in terms of fluency, interaction and even pronunciation; however they still showed difficulties with accuracy in their spontaneous utterances. These learners? achievements seemed to have a relation with the class atmosphere during games where students showed high level of involvement, confidence, mutual support and enjoyment.

Does gender make a difference? Gender-related fairness of high-stakes testing in A-level examinations in English as foreign language in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia in the context of Educational Governance

The shift from decentralized to centralized A-level examinations (Abitur) was implemented in the German school system as a measure of Educational Governance in the last decade. This reform was mainly introduced with the intention of providing higher comparability of school examinations and student achievement as well as increasing fairness in school examinations. It is not known yet if these ambitious aims and functions of the new centralized examination format have been achieved and if fairer assessment can be guaranteed in terms of providing all students with the same opportunities to pass the examinations by allocating fair tests to different student subpopulations e.g., students of different background or gender. The research presented in this article deals with these questions and focuses on gender differences. It investigates gender-specific fairness of the test items in centralized Abitur examinations as high school exit examinations in Germany. The data are drawn from Abitur examinations in English (as a foreign language). Differential item functioning (DIF) analysis reveals that at least some parts of the examinations indicate gender inequality. (DIPF/Orig.)

Pronoun-dropping or zero anaphora in translation from german into portuguese

In this article I will analyse anaphoric references in German texts and their transaltion into Portuguese. I will take as main corpus Heinrich Böll's novel Haus ohne Hüter and its translation into Portuguese by Jorge Rosa with the title Casa Indefesa. I will concentrate on the use of personal pronouns and possessives in references to both people and objects in source text and target text and I will present patterns of symmetries and asymmetries. I will claim that asymmetries in the translation of such anaphoric references can be accounted for mainly by differences in the pronominal systems and verbal systems of both languages and by differences in the way each language marks theme/topic continuity/discontinuity in discourse. Issues related to style and the translation of anaphors will also be addressed. I will finally raise some questions related to ambiguous references which can not be solved within the scope of syntax or semantics, thus requiring pragmatic interpretation based on cultural knowledge/world knowledge.

Testing native speakers of German and Portuguese on the understanding of topological operators-line-region relations in gvSIG

Dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Science in Geospatial Technologies

Model of a specialized bidirectional dictionary for German and Portuguese

Dissertação apresentada para cumprimento dos requisitos necessários à obtenção do grau de Mestre em Terminologia e Gestão da Informação de Especialidade

L' Ensenyament per tasques: programació d'una assignatura de traducció de l'alemany a l'espanyol

In this work we present a proposal for a course in translation from German into Spanish following the task based approach as known in second language acquisition. The aim is to improve the translation competence of translation students. We depart from the hypothesis that some students select inapropiate translation strategies when faced with certain translation problems leading them to translation errors. In order to avoid these translation errors originated by wrong application of such strategies we propose a didactic method which helps to prevent them by a) raising awareness of the different subcompetences required while translating, b) improving the ability to identify translation problems and relate them to the different subcompetences and c) enhancing the use of the most adequate strategy according to the characteristics of each problem. With regard to translation and how translation competence is acquired our work follows the communicative approach to translation theory as defended among others by Hatim & Mason (1990), Lörscher (1992) and Kiraly (1995), where translation is seen as a communicative activity which can be analized from a psycholinguistic perspective. In this sense we give operative definitions for what we understand by “translation problem”, “translation strategy”, “translation error”, “translation competence” and “translation”. Our approach to didactics adapts recent developments in Second Language Teaching within the communicative paradigm as is the task based approach by Nunan (1989) acquisition to translation. Fitting the recquirements of this pedagogic approach we present a planning for a translation course which is compatible with present translation studies.

Language and syntactic impairment following stroke in late bilingual aphasics.

PURPOSE: Bilingual aphasia generally affects both languages. However, the age of acquisition of the second language (L2) seems to play a role in the anatomo-functional correlation of the syntactical/grammatical processes, thus potentially influencing the L2 syntactic impairment following a stroke. The present study aims to analyze the influence of late age of acquisition of the L2 on syntactic impairment in bilingual aphasic patients. METHODS: Twelve late bilingual participants (speaking French as L2 and either English, German, Italian or Spanish as L1) with stroke-induced aphasia participated in the study. The MAST or BAT aphasia batteries were used to evaluate overall aphasia score. An auditory syntactic judgement task was developed and used to test participants syntactic performance. RESULTS: The overall aphasia scores did not differ between L1 and L2. In a multiple case analysis, only one patient had lower scores in L2. However, four patients presented significantly lower performances in syntactic processing in the late L2 than in their native language (L1). In these four patients the infarct was localized, either exclusively or at least partially, in the pre-rolandic region. CONCLUSION: This pilot study suggests that, in late bilingual aphasics, syntactic judgment abilities may be more severely impaired in L2, and that this syntactic deficit is most likely to occur following anterior lesions.

A cross-cultural shortened form of the ZKPQ (ZKPQ-50-CC) adapted to English, French, German, and Spanish languages.

The aim of the present study was to develop a short form of the Zuckerman-Kuhlman Personality Questionnaire (ZKPQ) with acceptable psychometric properties in four languages: English (United States), French (Switzerland), German (Germany), and Spanish (Spain). The total sample (N = 4,621) was randomly divided into calibration and validation samples. An exploratory factor analysis was conducted in the calibration sample. Eighty items, with loadings equal or higher than 0.30 on their own factor and lower on the remaining factors, were retained. A confirmatory factor analysis was performed over the survival items in the validation sample in order to select the best 10 items for each scale. This short version (named ZKPQ-50-CC) presents psychometric properties strongly similar to the original version in the four countries. Moreover, the factor structure are near equivalent across the four countries since the congruence indices were all higher than 0.90. It is concluded that the ZKPQ-50-CC presented a high cross-language replicability, and it could be an useful questionnaire that may be used for personality research.

Adaptation en français et en allemand d'une échelle de pression des pairs pour jeunes adultes : le Peer Pressure Inventory [Adaptation of a peer pressure scale in French and German: the Peer Pressure Inventory].

BACKGROUND: Peer pressure is regarded as an important determinant of substance use, sexual behavior and juvenile delinquency. However, few peer pressure scales are validated, especially in French or German. Little is known about the factor structure of such scales or the kind of scale needed: some scales takes into account both peer pressure to do and peer pressure not to do, while others consider only peer pressure to do. The aim of the present study was to adapt French and German versions of the Peer Pressure Inventory, which is one of the most widely used scales in this field. We considered its factor structure and concurrent validity. METHODS: Five thousand eight hundred and sixty-seven young Swiss men filled in a questionnaire on peer pressure, substance use, and other variables (conformity, involvement) in a cohort study. RESULTS: We identified a four-factor structure, with the three factors of the initial Peer Pressure Inventory (involvement, conformity, misconduct) and adding a new one (relationship with girls). A non-valued scale (from no peer pressure to peer pressure to do only) showed stronger psychometric qualities than a valued scale (from peer pressure not to do to peer pressure to do). Concurrent validity was also good. Each behavior or attitude was significantly associated with peer pressure. CONCLUSION: Peer pressure seems to be a multidimensional concept. In this study, peer pressure to do showed the strongest influence on participants. Indeed, peer pressure not to do did not add anything useful. Only peer pressure to do affected young Swiss men's behaviors and attitudes and was reliable.

Language lateralization in early and late bilinguals using an international vocabulary

In lateralized Lexical Decision Tasks (LDT), accuracy is commonly higher and reaction times are commonly faster for right visual field (RVF) than left visual field (LVF) presentations. This visual field differences are thought to demonstrate the left hemisphere's dominance for language. Unfortunately, different tasks and words are used between studies and languages making direct comparisons difficult. For example, high frequency words show a performance advantage over low frequency words. Moreover, demographic variables impact on lateralized behavior such as language knowledge (one versus several, early acquired versus late acquired). We here aim to alleviate some of these obstacles by presenting results from a lateralized LDT for which we selected words between 4 and 6 letters used in five different languages, i.e. English, French, German, Dutch and Italian. In this first study using these words, we compared performance of right- and left-handed students being either early or late bilinguals (acquired before or after the age of 6 years) from a French-speaking University in Switzerland. Results showed a left hemispheric advantage (accuracy, reaction times) for all groups, with a trend for early as compared to late bilinguals to be less accurate and taking longer in lexical decisions. These results show that the current words result in solid visual field differences, and do so irrespective of how many languages are spoken. While early bilinguals might experience a slight performance disadvantage, it was not affecting visual field differences.