O portefólio em faixas etárias precoces: potencialidades e constrangimentos

Mestrado em Ensino Precoce do Inglês

RAISING INTERCULTURAL AWARENESS AT PRIMARY LEVEL THROUGH STORYTELLING WITHIN A CLIL APPROACH

Trabalho de Projecto apresentado para cumprimento dos requisitos necessários à obtenção do grau de Mestre em Ensino de Inglês

Peer interaction and learning opportunities in cohesive and less cohesive L2 classrooms

The present study investigates peer to peer oral interaction in two task based language teaching classrooms, one of which was a self-declared cohesive group, and the other a self- declared less cohesive group, both at B1 level. It studies how learners talk cohesion into being and considers how this talk leads to learning opportunities in these groups. The study was classroom-based and was carried out over the period of an academic year. Research was conducted in the classrooms and the tasks were part of regular class work. The research was framed within a sociocognitive perspective of second language learning and data came from a number of sources, namely questionnaires, interviews and audio recorded talk of dyads, triads and groups of four students completing a total of eight oral tasks. These audio recordings were transcribed and analysed qualitatively for interactions which encouraged a positive social dimension and behaviours which led to learning opportunities, using conversation analysis. In addition, recordings were analysed quantitatively for learning opportunities and quantity and quality of language produced. Results show that learners in both classes exhibited multiple behaviours in interaction which could promote a positive social dimension, although behaviours which could discourage positive affect amongst group members were also found. Analysis of interactions also revealed the many ways in which learners in both the cohesive and less cohesive class created learning opportunities. Further qualitative analysis of these interactions showed that a number of factors including how learners approach a task, the decisions they make at zones of interactional transition and the affective relationship between participants influence the amount of learning opportunities created, as well as the quality and quantity of language produced. The main conclusion of the study is that it is not the cohesive nature of the group as a whole but the nature of the relationship between the individual members of the small group completing the task which influences the effectiveness of oral interaction for learning.This study contributes to our understanding of the way in which learners individualise the learning space and highlights the situated nature of language learning. It shows how individuals interact with each other and the task, and how talk in interaction changes moment-by-moment as learners react to the ‘here and now’ of the classroom environment.

VET: a strategic approach for economic, organisational and personal development in EU countries

Vocational Education and Training (VET) is a continuous long-term process of economic, organisational and personal development. It envisions the construction of dynamic skills to improve performance, productivity and organisational, personal and social development. This article focuses on generating skills. It frames training as a process of work-linked training and as a primary source for generating skills whilst seeking to boost creativity. It sheds light upon the discussion pertaining to learning transfer as a necessary condition to structure performance and competitiveness. It highlights the Learning Transfer System Inventory (LTSI), because it allows to measure the effectiveness of training and it identifies the organisations' weaknesses. The data used were collected from the Eurostat Database.

Alunos em risco na fluência da leitura: o uso da monitorização com base no currículo no contexto de um modelo de resposta à intervenção

Dissertação de mestrado em Educação Especial (área de especialização em Dificuldades de Aprendizagem Específicas)

A glimpse into classroom interaction

How does classroom interaction contribute to language learning? This study aims at identifying and interpreting some patterns of teacher-student interaction within an EFL classroom. Different interactional patterns and strategies are examined through the self-observation of the teacher's own performance as a student-teacher during her practicum period in a secondary school

L'enseignement et l'apprentissage de la conjugaison en FLE : comment réduire les difficultés engendrées par l'orthographe ?

French verb morphology has always been a major challenge for learners as well as teachers of French as a foreign language. Learning difficulties arise not only from the inherent complexity of the conjugation system itself, but mostly from the traditional description found in specialized books, grammars, etc. French spelling alone tends to complexify the actual oral verb morphology by more than 60%, thus hindering efficient learning. Following Dubois (1967), Csécsy (1968), Pouradier Duteil (1997), etc., I suggest an alternative approach, exclusively based on phonetic transcription, and starting with plural forms instead of singular ones (Mayer 1969). For more than 500 verbs of the 2nd and 3rd groups, this strategy allows learners to first memorize the present tense plural form e.g. /illiz/ (ils lisent, "they read") and take the stem's final consonant away to get the singular /illi/ (il lit, "he reads").

L'ensenyament de la llengua als immigrants : les aules d'acollida

Les preguntes de recerca que es podran respondre a partir de la realització del treball es basen en les següents: Com funcionen les aules d'acollida o el TAE a l'escola estudiada pels alumnes immigrants de secundària? Quines diferències hi ha depenent de si el centre és públic o concertat? Afecta el nombre d'immigrants de l'escola en l'estratègia seguida per a la integració d'aquests alumnes? Afecta el país de procedència a la integració dels immigrants en l?escola (llengua i cultura incloses)? Quins recursos pedagògics s'utilitzen? Com evoluciona l'aprenentatge de la llengua en aquests alumnes? Quines estratègies d'integració s'apliquen des dels centres escolars? Com s'han solucionat els reptes plantejats en cursos anteriors? què esperen aquests alumnes i les seves famílies de l?escola? Es poden millorar aquestes estratègies d'aprenentatge i acollida de l'alumne?

La percepció per part de l’alumnat del caràcter motivador d’un entorn virtual en l’aprenentatge d’una llengua estrangera

Aquest treball presenta una proposta d’investigació mitjançant la qual es pretendràanalitzar com percep l’aprenent la incidència de l’ús de les eines comunicatives de l’entornvirtual en la motivació envers l’aprenentatge d’una llengua estrangera. L’objectiu delprojecte d’investigació serà indagar com l’alumnat es relaciona amb l’ús d’eines decomunicació de l’entorn virtual com a recurs en l’aprenentatge de l’anglès i com percep elgrau en que aquestes estimulen el seu interès en adquirir la llengua.Aquesta indagació es durà a terme mitjançant una investigació bàsicament qualitativa. Elsresultats seran extrets a partir de dos grups de subjectes, que expressaran la seva pròpiapercepció del caràcter motivador de les eines de comunicació de l’entorn virtual. A partirde l’anàlisi i comparació dels resultats, s’inferirà quins estímuls resulten incitadors per al’estudiant, i si aquests estan relacionats amb les eines comunicatives de l’entorn virtual; o,al contrari, si en són independents.

L'avançament de la introducció d'una llengua estrangera: un fugida cap enrera?

The age at which school children begin instruction in the foreign language has been brought forward on two main grounds: (1) young children are better language learners than older children, and (2) bilingualism brings cognitive advantages to children. Both statements are critically analysed in this paper. First of all, recent research findings show that the advantage that younger learners show in a naturalistic language learning situation (or through school immersion) disappears in a formal language learning situation with very limited exposure to the target language. Secondly, the positive effects on cognitive development that have been revealed through research correspond to situations of balanced bilingualism, that is, situations in which children have a high command of the two languages. In contrast, children¿s command of the foreign language in our context is very limited and hence far from the situation of balanced bilingualism (or trilingualism) that is said to bring positive cognitive effects.

En torno a los efectos de la edad en el aprendizaje escolar de una lengua extrangera

The purpose of this article is to treat a currently much debated issue, the effects of age on second language learning. To do so, we contrast data collected by our research team from over one thousand seven hundred young and adult learners with four popular beliefs or generalizations, which, while deeply rooted in this society, are not always corroborated by our data.Two of these generalizations about Second Language Acquisition (languages spoken in the social context) seem to be widely accepted: a) older children, adolescents and adults are quicker and more efficient at the first stages of learning than are younger learners; b) in a natural context children with an early start are more liable to attain higher levels of proficiency. However, in the context of Foreign Language Acquisition, the context in which we collect the data, this second generalization is difficult to verify due to the low number of instructional hours (a maximum of some 800 hours) and the lower levels of language exposure time provided. The design of our research project has allowed us to study differences observed with respect to the age of onset (ranging from 2 to 18+), but in this article we focus on students who began English instruction at the age of 8 (LOGSE Educational System) and those who began at the age of 11 (EGB). We have collected data from both groups after a period of 200 (Time 1) and 416 instructional hours (Time 2), and we are currently collecting data after a period of 726 instructional hours (Time 3). We have designed and administered a variety of tests: tests on English production and reception, both oral and written, and within both academic and communicative oriented approaches, on the learners' L1 (Spanish and Catalan), as well as a questionnaire eliciting personal and sociolinguistic information. The questions we address and the relevant empirical evidence are as follows: 1. "For young children, learning languages is a game. They enjoy it more than adults."Our data demonstrate that the situation is not quite so. Firstly, both at the levels of Primary and Secondary education (ranging from 70.5% in 11-year-olds to 89% in 14-year-olds) students have a positive attitude towards learning English. Secondly, there is a difference between the two groups with respect to the factors they cite as responsible for their motivation to learn English: the younger students cite intrinsic factors, such as the games they play, the methodology used and the teacher, whereas the older students cite extrinsic factors, such as the role of their knowledge of English in the achievement of their future professional goals. 2 ."Young children have more resources to learn languages." Here our data suggest just the opposite. The ability to employ learning strategies (actions or steps used) increases with age. Older learners' strategies are more varied and cognitively more complex. In contrast, younger learners depend more on their interlocutor and external resources and therefore have a lower level of autonomy in their learning. 3. "Young children don't talk much but understand a lot"This third generalization does seem to be confirmed, at least to a certain extent, by our data in relation to the analysis of differences due to the age factor and productive use of the target language. As seen above, the comparably slower progress of the younger learners is confirmed. Our analysis of interpersonal receptive abilities demonstrates as well the advantage of the older learners. Nevertheless, with respect to passive receptive activities (for example, simple recognition of words or sentences) no great differences are observed. Statistical analyses suggest that in this test, in contrast to the others analyzed, the dominance of the subjects' L1s (reflecting a cognitive capacity that grows with age) has no significant influence on the learning process. 4. "The sooner they begin, the better their results will be in written language"This is not either completely confirmed in our research. First of all, we perceive that certain compensatory strategies disappear only with age, but not with the number of instructional hours. Secondly, given an identical number of instructional hours, the older subjects obtain better results. With respect to our analysis of data from subjects of the same age (12 years old) but with a different number of instructional hours (200 and 416 respectively, as they began at the ages of 11 and 8), we observe that those who began earlier excel only in the area of lexical fluency. In conclusion, the superior rate of older learners appears to be due to their higher level of cognitive development, a factor which allows them to benefit more from formal or explicit instruction in the school context. Younger learners, however, do not benefit from the quantity and quality of linguistic exposure typical of a natural acquisition context in which they would be allowed to make use of implicit learning abilities. It seems clear, then, that the initiative in this country to begin foreign language instruction earlier will have positive effects only if it occurs in combination with either higher levels of exposure time to the foreign language, or, alternatively, with its use as the language of instruction in other areas of the curriculum.

The effect of innovation and sex-specific migration on neutral cultural differentiation

Studies of behaviour are increasingly focusing on acquisition of traits through cultural inheritance. Comparison of patterns of spatial population structure (FST) between neutral genetic loci and behavioural or cultural traits can been used to test hypotheses about demography, life history, and the mechanisms of inheritance/transmission of these traits in humans, chimpanzees and other animals. Here, we develop analytical expectations to show how FST in cultural traits can differ strongly from that measured at neutral genetic markers if migration is largely restricted to one sex but social learning is predominantly modelled on the other (e.g. males migrate, females serve as models for cultural traits), if one individual is the learning model for many, or if rates of innovation (individual learning) are high or rates of social learning are low. We discuss how comparisons of FST between genetic loci and behavioural traits can be applied to evaluate the importance of innovation in shaping patterns of cultural differentiation, as even low rates of innovation can considerably reduce FST, relative to observed structure at neutral genetic loci. Our results also suggest that differentiation in neutral cultural traits should occur over much smaller scales in species with male migration and female enculturation (or the reverse).

L'avançament de la introducció d'una llengua estrangera: un fugida cap enrera?

The age at which school children begin instruction in the foreign language has been brought forward on two main grounds: (1) young children are better language learners than older children, and (2) bilingualism brings cognitive advantages to children. Both statements are critically analysed in this paper. First of all, recent research findings show that the advantage that younger learners show in a naturalistic language learning situation (or through school immersion) disappears in a formal language learning situation with very limited exposure to the target language. Secondly, the positive effects on cognitive development that have been revealed through research correspond to situations of balanced bilingualism, that is, situations in which children have a high command of the two languages. In contrast, children¿s command of the foreign language in our context is very limited and hence far from the situation of balanced bilingualism (or trilingualism) that is said to bring positive cognitive effects.

"When I have holidays": Influència entre llengües i producció escrita. Un estudi amb aprenents adults d'anglès com a llengua estrangera

En aquest article presentem una proposta de tipologia de la transferència lèxica en la producció escrita per tal d¿analitzar la incidència que té en adults aprenents d¿anglès com a llengua estrangera i veure les possibles relacions entre els tipus de transferència i el nivell de competència en anglès, així com les interrelacions entre les llengües prèvies (materna/es) i segones i l¿anglès. Els resultats mostren una influència important de la primera llengua en l¿aprenentatge de les altres i, en el cas dels aprenents bilingües que aprenen una tercera o quarta llengua, influències interessants entre totes les llengües.

En torno a los efectos de la edad en el aprendizaje escolar de una lengua extrangera

The purpose of this article is to treat a currently much debated issue, the effects of age on second language learning. To do so, we contrast data collected by our research team from over one thousand seven hundred young and adult learners with four popular beliefs or generalizations, which, while deeply rooted in this society, are not always corroborated by our data.Two of these generalizations about Second Language Acquisition (languages spoken in the social context) seem to be widely accepted: a) older children, adolescents and adults are quicker and more efficient at the first stages of learning than are younger learners; b) in a natural context children with an early start are more liable to attain higher levels of proficiency. However, in the context of Foreign Language Acquisition, the context in which we collect the data, this second generalization is difficult to verify due to the low number of instructional hours (a maximum of some 800 hours) and the lower levels of language exposure time provided. The design of our research project has allowed us to study differences observed with respect to the age of onset (ranging from 2 to 18+), but in this article we focus on students who began English instruction at the age of 8 (LOGSE Educational System) and those who began at the age of 11 (EGB). We have collected data from both groups after a period of 200 (Time 1) and 416 instructional hours (Time 2), and we are currently collecting data after a period of 726 instructional hours (Time 3). We have designed and administered a variety of tests: tests on English production and reception, both oral and written, and within both academic and communicative oriented approaches, on the learners' L1 (Spanish and Catalan), as well as a questionnaire eliciting personal and sociolinguistic information. The questions we address and the relevant empirical evidence are as follows: 1. "For young children, learning languages is a game. They enjoy it more than adults."Our data demonstrate that the situation is not quite so. Firstly, both at the levels of Primary and Secondary education (ranging from 70.5% in 11-year-olds to 89% in 14-year-olds) students have a positive attitude towards learning English. Secondly, there is a difference between the two groups with respect to the factors they cite as responsible for their motivation to learn English: the younger students cite intrinsic factors, such as the games they play, the methodology used and the teacher, whereas the older students cite extrinsic factors, such as the role of their knowledge of English in the achievement of their future professional goals. 2 ."Young children have more resources to learn languages." Here our data suggest just the opposite. The ability to employ learning strategies (actions or steps used) increases with age. Older learners' strategies are more varied and cognitively more complex. In contrast, younger learners depend more on their interlocutor and external resources and therefore have a lower level of autonomy in their learning. 3. "Young children don't talk much but understand a lot"This third generalization does seem to be confirmed, at least to a certain extent, by our data in relation to the analysis of differences due to the age factor and productive use of the target language. As seen above, the comparably slower progress of the younger learners is confirmed. Our analysis of interpersonal receptive abilities demonstrates as well the advantage of the older learners. Nevertheless, with respect to passive receptive activities (for example, simple recognition of words or sentences) no great differences are observed. Statistical analyses suggest that in this test, in contrast to the others analyzed, the dominance of the subjects' L1s (reflecting a cognitive capacity that grows with age) has no significant influence on the learning process. 4. "The sooner they begin, the better their results will be in written language"This is not either completely confirmed in our research. First of all, we perceive that certain compensatory strategies disappear only with age, but not with the number of instructional hours. Secondly, given an identical number of instructional hours, the older subjects obtain better results. With respect to our analysis of data from subjects of the same age (12 years old) but with a different number of instructional hours (200 and 416 respectively, as they began at the ages of 11 and 8), we observe that those who began earlier excel only in the area of lexical fluency. In conclusion, the superior rate of older learners appears to be due to their higher level of cognitive development, a factor which allows them to benefit more from formal or explicit instruction in the school context. Younger learners, however, do not benefit from the quantity and quality of linguistic exposure typical of a natural acquisition context in which they would be allowed to make use of implicit learning abilities. It seems clear, then, that the initiative in this country to begin foreign language instruction earlier will have positive effects only if it occurs in combination with either higher levels of exposure time to the foreign language, or, alternatively, with its use as the language of instruction in other areas of the curriculum.