Interação didática em língua estrangeira: contributos de um estudo baseado na dimensão sócio-afetiva da aprendizagem colaborativa

Pretendeu-se com este projecto de investigação estudar a interação didática co-construída por alunos do ensino superior em moldes de aprendizagem colaborativa na aula de Inglês língua estrangeira, com enfoque na dimensão sócio-afetiva da aprendizagem. Na base do quadro teórico encontra-se o pressuposto de que o conhecimento é algo dinâmico e construído colaborativamente, e que é na interação didática que emergem os comportamentos verbais reveladores do Saber―Ser/Estar/Aprender dos sujeitos, nomeadamente através da coconstrução e negociação de sentidos. Subjacente portanto ao estudo está a convicção de que “o trabalho crítico sobre a interação permite entender os modos relacionais entre os sujeitos pedagógicos, as relações interpessoais que se estabelecem e articular o desenvolvimento linguístico-comunicativo com o desenvolvimento pessoal e social dos alunos” (Araújo e Sá & Andrade, 2002, p. 82). Esta investigação centra-se exclusivamente nos aprendentes, na sequência de indicações provenientes da revisão de literatura, as quais apontam para uma lacuna nas investigações efetuadas até à data, referente ao número insuficiente de estudos dedicado à interação didática interpares, já que a grande maioria dos estudos se dirige para a relação professor-aluno (cf. Baker & Clark, 2010; Hellermann, 2008; O'Donnell & King, 2014). Por outro lado, o estado da arte relativo às investigações focalizadas na interacção entre aprendentes permite concluir que a melhor forma de exponenciar esta interação será através da aprendizagem colaborativa (cf. Johnson, Johnson, & Stanne, 2000; Slavin, 2014; Smith, Sheppard, Johnson, & Johnson, 2005). Circunscrevemos o nosso estudo à dimensão sócio-afetiva das estratégias de aprendizagem que ocorrem nessas interações, já que a revisão da literatura fez evidenciar a correlação positiva da aprendizagem colaborativa com as dimensões social e afetiva da interação (cf. Byun et al., 2012): por um lado, a dinâmica de grupo numa aula de língua estrangeira contribui grandemente para uma perceção afetiva favorável do processo de aprendizagem, incrementando igualmente a quantidade e a qualidade da interação (cf. Felder & Brent, 2007); por outro lado, a existência, na aprendizagem colaborativa, dos fenómenos de correção dos pares e de negociação de sentidos estimula a emergência da dimensão sócio-afetiva da aprendizagem de uma língua estrangeira (cf. Campbell & Kryszewska,1992; Hadfield, 1992; Macaro, 2005). É neste enquadramento teórico que se situam as nossas questões e objetivos de investigação. Em primeiro lugar procurámos saber como é que um grupo de aprendentes de Inglês língua estrangeira do ensino superior perceciona as estratégias de aprendizagem sócio-afetivas que utiliza em contexto de sala de aula, no âmbito da aprendizagem colaborativa e nãocolaborativa. Procurámos igualmente indagar quais as estratégias de aprendizagem sócio-afetivas passíveis de serem identificadas neste grupo de aprendentes, em situação de interação didática, em contexto de aprendizagem colaborativa. Finalmente, questionámo-nos sobre a relação entre a perceção que estes alunos possuem das estratégias de aprendizagem sócio-afetivas que empregam nas aulas de Inglês língua estrangeira e as estratégias sócio-afetivas identificadas em situação de interação didática, em contexto de aprendizagem colaborativa. No que respeita à componente empírica do nosso projecto, norteámo-nos pelo paradigma qualitativo, no contexto do qual efetuámos um estudo de caso, a partir de uma abordagem tendencialmente etnográfica, por tal nos parecer mais consentâneo, quer com a nossa problemática, quer com a natureza complexa dos processos interativos em sala de aula. A metodologia quantitativa está igualmente presente, pretendendo-se que tenha adicionado mais dimensionalidade à investigação, contribuindo para a triangulação dos resultados. A investigação, que se desenvolveu ao longo de 18 semanas, teve a sala de aula como local privilegiado para obter grande parte da informação. Os participantes do estudo de caso foram 24 alunos do primeiro ano de uma turma de Inglês Língua Estrangeira de um Instituto Politécnico, sendo a investigadora a docente da disciplina. A informação proveio primordialmente de um corpus de interações didáticas colaborativas audiogravadas e posteriormente transcritas, constituído por 8 sessões com uma duração aproximada de uma hora, e das respostas a um inquérito por questionário − construído a partir da taxonomia de Oxford (1990) − relativo à dimensão sócio-afetiva das estratégias de aprendizagem do Inglês língua estrangeira. O corpus gravado e transcrito foi analisado através da categorização por indicadores, com o objetivo de se detetarem as marcas sócio-afetivas das estratégias de aprendizagem mobilizadas pelos alunos. As respostas ao questionário foram tratadas quantitativamente numa primeira fase, e os resultados foram posteriormente triangulados com os provenientes da análise do corpus de interações. Este estudo permitiu: i) elencar as estratégias de aprendizagem que os aprendentes referem utilizar em situação de aprendizagem colaborativa e não colaborativa, ii) detetar quais destas estratégias são efetivamente utilizadas na aprendizagem colaborativa, iii) e concluir que existe, na maioria dos casos, um desfasamento entre o autoconceito do aluno relativamente ao seu perfil de aprendente de línguas estrangeiras, mais concretamente às dimensões afetiva e social das estratégias de aprendizagem que mobiliza, e a forma como este aprendente recorre a estas mesma estratégias na sala de aula. Concluímos igualmente que, em termos globais, existem diferenças, por vezes significativas, entre as representações que os sujeitos possuem da aprendizagem colaborativa e aquelas que detêm acerca da aprendizagem não colaborativa.

CROSS-LINGUISTIC TRANSFER OF SPELLING SKILLS IN SPANISH-SPEAKING ADULT ESL LEARNERS

Spelling is an important literacy skill, and learning to spell is an important component of learning to write. Learners with strong spelling skills also exhibit greater reading, vocabulary, and orthographic knowledge than those with poor spelling skills (Ehri & Rosenthal, 2007; Ehri & Wilce, 1987; Rankin, Bruning, Timme, & Katkanant, 1993). English, being a deep orthography, has inconsistent sound-to-letter correspondences (Seymour, 2005; Ziegler & Goswami, 2005). This poses a great challenge for learners in gaining spelling fluency and accuracy. The purpose of the present study is to examine cross-linguistic transfer of English vowel spellings in Spanish-speaking adult ESL learners. The research participants were 129 Spanish-speaking adult ESL learners and 104 native English-speaking GED students enrolled in a community college located in the South Atlantic region of the United States. The adult ESL participants were in classes at three different levels of English proficiency: advanced, intermediate, and beginning. An experimental English spelling test was administered to both the native English-speaking and ESL participants. In addition, the adult ESL participants took the standardized spelling tests to rank their spelling skills in both English and Spanish. The data were analyzed using robust regression and Poisson regression procedures, Mann-Whitney test, and descriptive statistics. The study found that both Spanish spelling skills and English proficiency are strong predictors of English spelling skills. Spanish spelling is also a strong predictor of level of L1-influenced transfer. More proficient Spanish spellers made significantly fewer L1-influenced spelling errors than less proficient Spanish spellers. L1-influenced transfer of spelling knowledge from Spanish to English likely occurred in three vowel targets (/ɑɪ/ spelled as ae, ai, or ay, /ɑʊ/ spelled as au, and /eɪ/ spelled as e). The ESL participants and the native English-speaking participants produced highly similar error patterns of English vowel spellings when the errors did not indicate L1-influenced transfer, which implies that the two groups might follow similar trajectories of developing English spelling skills. The findings may help guide future researchers or practitioners to modify and develop instructional spelling intervention to meet the needs of adult ESL learners and help them gain English spelling competence.

A new age of fuel performance code criteria studied through advanced atomistic simulation techniques

A fundamental step in understanding the effects of irradiation on metallic uranium and uranium dioxide ceramic fuels, or any material, must start with the nature of radiation damage on the atomic level. The atomic damage displacement results in a multitude of defects that influence the fuel performance. Nuclear reactions are coupled, in that changing one variable will alter others through feedback. In the field of fuel performance modeling, these difficulties are addressed through the use of empirical models rather than models based on first principles. Empirical models can be used as a predictive code through the careful manipulation of input variables for the limited circumstances that are closely tied to the data used to create the model. While empirical models are efficient and give acceptable results, these results are only applicable within the range of the existing data. This narrow window prevents modeling changes in operating conditions that would invalidate the model as the new operating conditions would not be within the calibration data set. This work is part of a larger effort to correct for this modeling deficiency. Uranium dioxide and metallic uranium fuels are analyzed through a kinetic Monte Carlo code (kMC) as part of an overall effort to generate a stochastic and predictive fuel code. The kMC investigations include sensitivity analysis of point defect concentrations, thermal gradients implemented through a temperature variation mesh-grid, and migration energy values. In this work, fission damage is primarily represented through defects on the oxygen anion sublattice. Results were also compared between the various models. Past studies of kMC point defect migration have not adequately addressed non-standard migration events such as clustering and dissociation of vacancies. As such, the General Utility Lattice Program (GULP) code was utilized to generate new migration energies so that additional non-migration events could be included into kMC code in the future for more comprehensive studies. Defect energies were calculated to generate barrier heights for single vacancy migration, clustering and dissociation of two vacancies, and vacancy migration while under the influence of both an additional oxygen and uranium vacancy.

Veto of R.182, H.4717

This veto message from Governor Nikki Haley vetoes a bill would give farmers an additional $40 million in cash payments other small businesses will never receive because it is an unprecedented bailout for a single industry affected by last year's flooding.

An investigation into the folding and assembly of engineered antibodies and novel antibody formats

Monoclonal antibodies and novel antibody formats are currently one of the principal therapeutic in the biopharmaceutical industry worldwide and are widely used in the treatment of autoimmune diseases and cancer. It is for this reason that the productivity and quality of antibody production requires improvement; specifically investigations into the engineering of antibodies and any issues that may arise from the production of these therapeutics. The work presented in this thesis describes an investigation into the folding and assembly of seven antibodies plus the novel antibody format FabFv. IgG is comprised of two identical HCs and two identical LCs. The folding process of immunoglobulin is controlled by the CH1 domain within the HC. The CH1 domain remains in a disordered state and is sequestered by BiP in the endoplasmic reticulum. Upon the addition of a folded CL domain, BiP is displaced, the CH1 domain is able to fold and the complete IgG protein can then be secreted from the cell. The results presented in this thesis however, have outlined an additional mechanism for the folding of the CH1 domain. We have shown that the CH1 domain is able to fold in the absence of LC resulting in the secretion of HC dimers in a VH dependent manner. The proposed mechanism for the secretion of HC dimers suggests that some VH domains can interact with each other in order to bring the CH1 domains in close proximity to enable folding to occur. As HC dimer secretion is a hindrance in antibody production, this result has highlighted an engineering target to improve antibody yield. Examination of the folding of IgG4 with the variable region A33 has revealed the inability to secrete LC dimers, cleavage of the HC during expression and secretion of HC dimers in the Fab, FabFv and full length forms. The attributes described have also been shown to be variable region dependent. This has introduced a new concept that the variable domain is important in determining the expression and secretion of antibodies and their individual chains. Pulse chase and 2D gel electrophoresis analysis of the novel antibody format FabFv has revealed that the folding and expression of the LC and HC causes multimeric species of FabFv to be secreted, as opposed to the monomeric form which is the desired therapeutic. Our hypothesis is that this process occurs via a LC dependent mechanism. The proposed hypothesis suggests that further engineering to the LC could diminish the formation and secretion of FabFv multimers. The results from these investigations can be applied to increase the productivity of therapeutics and increase the biological understanding of the domain interactions of IgG during folding, assembly and secretion.

O desenvolvimento da competência comunicativa intercultural de surdos aprendizes de inglês : a internet como meio

Dissertação (mestrado)—Universidade de Brasília, Instituto de Letras, Departamento de Línguas Estrangeiras e Tradução, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Linguística Aplicada, 2015.

READY FOR KINDERGARTEN: A TRAINING PROGRAM DESIGNED TO ENCOURAGE PARENT-CHILD CONVERSATION DURING THE PRESCHOOL YEARS

Many children in the United States begin kindergarten unprepared to converse in the academic language surrounding instruction, putting them at greater risk for later language and reading difficulties. Importantly, correlational research has shown there are certain experiences prior to kindergarten that foster the oral language skills needed to understand and produce academic language. The focus of this dissertation was on increasing one of these experiences: parent-child conversations about abstract and non-present concepts, known as decontextualized language (DL). Decontextualized language involves talking about non-present concepts such as events that happened in the past or future, or abstract discussions such as providing explanations or defining unknown words. As caregivers’ decontextualized language input to children aged three to five is consistently correlated with kindergarten oral language skills and later reading achievement, it is surprising no experimental research has been done to establish this relation causally. The study described in this dissertation filled this literature gap by designing, implementing, and evaluating a decontextualized language training program for parents of 4-year-old children (N=30). After obtaining an initial measure of decontextualized language, parents were randomly assigned to a control condition or training condition, the latter of which educated parents about decontextualized language and why it is important. All parents then audio-recorded four mealtime conversations over the next month, which were transcribed and reliably coded for decontextualized language. Results indicated that trained parents boosted their DL from roughly 17 percent of their total utterances at baseline to approximately 50 percent by the mid-point of the study, and remained at these boosted levels throughout the duration of the study. Children’s DL was also boosted by similar margins, but no improvement in children’s oral language skills was observed, measured prior to, and one month following training. Further, exploratory analyses pointed to parents’ initial use of DL and their theories of the malleability of intelligence (i.e., growth mindsets) as moderators of training gains. Altogether, these findings are a first step in establishing DL as a viable strategy for giving children the oral language skills needed to begin kindergarten ready to succeed in the classroom.

DEVELOPMENT OF AN OFF-LINE RAINFLOW COUNTING ALGORITHM WITH TEMPORAL PARAMETERS AND DATA REDUCTION

Rainflow counting methods convert a complex load time history into a set of load reversals for use in fatigue damage modeling. Rainflow counting methods were originally developed to assess fatigue damage associated with mechanical cycling where creep of the material under load was not considered to be a significant contributor to failure. However, creep is a significant factor in some cyclic loading cases such as solder interconnects under temperature cycling. In this case, fatigue life models require the dwell time to account for stress relaxation and creep. This study develops a new version of the multi-parameter rainflow counting algorithm that provides a range-based dwell time estimation for use with time-dependent fatigue damage models. To show the applicability, the method is used to calculate the life of solder joints under a complex thermal cycling regime and is verified by experimental testing. An additional algorithm is developed in this study to provide data reduction in the results of the rainflow counting. This algorithm uses a damage model and a statistical test to determine which of the resultant cycles are statistically insignificant to a given confidence level. This makes the resulting data file to be smaller, and for a simplified load history to be reconstructed.

Effects of light quality supplied by light emitting diodes (LEDs) on microalgal production

Dissertação de mestrado, Aquacultura, Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia, Universidade do Algarve, 2014

An integrated approach to delimiting species borders in the genus Chrysotoxum Meigen, 1803 (Diptera: Syrphidae), with description of two new species

Integrative taxonomy tests the validity of taxa using methods additional to traditional morphology. The existence of two different morphotypes in specimens identified as Chrysotoxum vernale Loew (Diptera: Syrphidae) prompted their taxonomic study using an integrative approach that included morphology, wing and male-surstylus geometric morphometrics, genetic and ecological analyses. As a result, a new species is recognised, Chrysotoxum montanum Nedeljković & Vujić sp. nov., and C. vernale is re-defined. A lectotype and paralectotypes are designated for C. vernale to stabilize this concept. An additional species, Chrysotoxum orthostylum Vujić sp. nov., with distinctive male genitalia is also described. The three species share an antenna with the basoflagellomere shorter than the scape plus pedicel and terga with yellow fasciae not reaching the lateral margins. This study confirms the value of integrative approach for resolving species boundaries.

The Role of EFL Teachers in the ESL Setting

Se describen las acciones que los profesionales de la enseñanza del inglés como lengua extranjera deben llevar a cabo al trasladarse a un contexto en el que se aprende el idioma como segunda lengua. Se subraya la función de esos profesionales como defensores y tutores de estudiantes con diversidad cultural y lingüística. Asimismo, se señalan los importantes aspectos portener en cuenta para cumplir con esa función.A description is provided of the challenges that English as a Foreign Language teaching professionals face when being relocated to an English as a Second Language setting. Language teaching professionals' role as advocates and educational parents to Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CLD) students is highlighted. The most important aspects to take into account to fulfill such a role are also presented.

Interactive storytelling to improve the listening skill of 8th grade at INAN High School

Este trabajo de investigación se trata de Cuentacuentos de respuesta física total y su influencia en el proceso de enseñanza-aprendizaje de Inglés como segunda lengua de los estudiantes del octavo grado de Educación General Básica del Colegio "INTEGRACIÓN ANDINA" en la ciudad de Cuenca en el Año Lectivo 2014 y 2015. Es necesario un nuevo sistema educativo para responder a las necesidades de la sociedad actual para permitir el desarrollo general de la educación, implementando un nuevo programa de enseñanza en el aprendizaje del Inglés a través de la narración. La búsqueda de una mejor manera de aprender y enseñar es responsabilidad ineludible de todos los maestros que deben enfrentar los desafíos con entusiasmo mientras se mira hacia innovaciones futuras permitiendo a los estudiantes mejorar sus habilidades de escucha y demás destrezas. Dado que el 90% de conocimiento de un nuevo idioma se adquiere a través de la lectura; el uso de Cuentacuentos ayuda a los estudiantes a adquirir el conocimiento necesario que será la base para un alto nivel cultural, tanto en el aprendizaje y en el desarrollo de habilidades de lenguaje, la lectura es un medio esencial para el desarrollo cultural en Educación. La falta de preparación en la lectura obstaculiza los esfuerzos del maestro secundario para lograr una formación integral en el alumno. Es necesario implementar estrategias para tratar de superar la falta de lectura, mediante el uso de la narración de cuentos en clase para animar a los estudiantes a leer en casa.

Solution to reduce nonlinearity in LTE RoF system for an efficient das topology:a brief review

In this paper, a review on radio-over-fiber (RoF) technology is conducted to support the exploding growth of mobile broadband. An RoF system will provide a platform for distributed antenna system (DAS) as a fronthaul of long term evolution (LTE) technology. A higher splitting ratio from a macrocell is required to support large DAS topology, hence higher optical launch power (OLP) is the right approach. However, high OLP generates undesired nonlinearities, namely the stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS). Three different aspects of solving the SBS process are covered in this paper, where the solutions ultimately provided an additional 4 dB link budget.

Participation of portuguese manufacturing industry in global value chains

Portugal’s manufacturing sector has a significant importance both in national income and employment. As has been pointed out by several researchers, the traditional methods of analysis fail to grasp all the dimensions of economic competitiveness. This dissertation is then, at its core, an analysis of Portugal’s manufacturing industry in terms of the latter’s value added to production and impact to employment under the framework of global value chains. The current dissertation seeks to study in which way the Portuguese manufacturing industry, and its respective sectors, has a direct and indirect impact on the creation of value added and employment and how this impact can be measured. For development of this work the input-output approach for calculation of multipliers and the new framework proposed by Timmer et al. (2013) for calculation of GVC income and GVC jobs indicators were used, elaborated on the basis of the WIOD project dataset. Moreover, to illustrate the application of the provided methodology the Portuguese textile industry was used as an example. It was found that the changes in final demand of such sectors as Pulp, Paper, Printing and Publishing; Machinery, Nec and Textiles and Textile Products would have a larger impact on generated value added than other manufacturing sectors. At the same time, employment created by the changes in final demand would be more impacted by such sectors as Food, Beverages and Tobacco; Wood and Products of Wood and Cork and Textiles and Textile Products. In this regard, the number of low-skilled workers in Portugal seems to be more effected by changes in final demand, than those occupied by higher -skilled individuals. Moreover, it was found that the distribution of GVC income and GVC jobs for the Portuguese manufacturing industry shares a similar outlook. However, upon closer inspection of GVC labour distribution by skill levels there seems to exist a general progression in which low-skilled jobs requirements are met by local resources, while the need for higher skilled jobs require a greater “off-shoring” of work The results obtained through calculations of presented multipliers provide a powerful tool for policy makers in strategic planning of development of national economy. Using the provided methodology and obtained results, a government and supranational organizations could define which industry would have the greatest impact for an additional unit of output generated through the economy, and thus define the sectors for further investments.