Role of Culture in the Acquisition of CSL – From the Perspective of Intercultural Communication Competence

In the past few decades, the demands for coping with the rapid development of information communication technology, internationalization and globalization worldwide have shifted the focus of Chinese as a second language (CSL) towards intercultural communication competence in which the role of culture in the acquisition of CSL and in the pragmatic use of the language is emphasized and promoted. However, most of the present research in this academic area still remains only on a theoretical level.   In order to explore the possibilities and limitations of integrating Chinese culture and implementing intercultural communication theory into CSL education, an action research has been conducted since the beginning of 2013 to review an actual course for beginners. This paper will present the findings of the research: 1) By applying the theoretical framework of intercultural communicative competence, the findings indicated that the existing CSL course provided limited information explaining the cultural elements that are reflected in the Chinese language. 2) The findings also suggested that the cultural skills acquired in the students’ first language do influence their acquisition of CSL. This is demonstrated in the students’ written tasks such as introducing themselves and presenting other people, etc. The findings can be examples and resources for further research in this academic field.     

Using Swedish in the EFL-classroom : An Interview Study on Swedish Upper Secondary Students’ Attitudes towards Teachers’ L1 use in the EFL-classroom

There is very little focus in previous research on first language (L1) use by teachers in the upper secondary English as a foreign language (EFL) classroom from the students’ perspective. In this context and from a Swedish perspective, this thesis examines what attitudes students in the Swedish upper secondary school have towards their teachers’ use of L1 (Swedish) in the EFL-classroom. The method used was qualitative semi-structured interviews, where nine students in total were interviewed. The collected data was then coded, thematized and categorized. The results show that the students mainly believed Swedish should be used when teaching vocabulary, when teaching grammar and for classroom management. They did not believe the L1 should be used by them in questions and answers and in general talk in the classroom. They also endorsed an overall judicious use of Swedish by their teachers and that their use of this language should be adjusted to the specific teaching group. Finally, it can be concluded that further research is needed on how the L1 can be used judiciously in particular situations and on what attitudes students of varying proficiency and age, as well as students who do not have Swedish as their L1 have towards teachers’ L1 use in the EFL-classroom.

The Purely Reflected Self

Belief in the concept of the self causes suffering. Unfortunately, although conceptual constructions like this may help to define our goal—the casting off of the belief in the self—this is a much more difficult thing to actualize and attain in daily practice. Our building blocks can form a neat tower, and we can climb to the top and gaze at the horizon, but they will topple, leaving us once again over our heads in the hedgerow. Buddha describes his teachings as a raft to ford the river of suffering in order to reach the far off bank of enlightenment: as one does not take the raft after crossing the river, so we must not lean on his teachings to make our way through life. So I intend here to abandon the raft for other accounts of existence written by other thinkers, and in this my purpose is twofold: First, in reading other interpretations we can gain new tools with which to study the architecture of the concept of the self, and second, in studying the history of the concept of self as it progresses through history we can better understand the non-inherentness of this problematic construct. I intend to examine the philosophies of self in the Chinese and European traditions, and their subsequent deconstructive traditions in order to achieve this goal.

Ser professor de português: o que dizem os discursos reguladores, os alunos e os professores no contexto da formação inicial (UMINHO/Portugal e UFRN/Brasil)

The constitution of being a teacher of Portuguese occurs in a dynamic process involving various factors, such as the requirements of regulatory documents, the context of teacher formation, and the configuration of current society, per se. This study is aimed at reflecting on the initial formation of teachers of Portuguese and on official documents that face this formation, raising the following questions: (1) what does it mean to be a Portuguese teacher? (2) what is the vision of the subjects (teachers and students) involved with the formation of teaching the Portuguese Language? (3) how do these individuals deal with official documents? and (4) how do these subjects discourses relate? To understand the context of the formative processes and the knowledge inherent in them, first we take the studies of Garcia (1999) and Tardif (2002) as a theoretical framework, and to understand and interpret the utterances of the interviewees, we were grounded in the writing of Bakhtin (2003), for whom the object of the Humanities, the sciences of man, is the text, since man is, by nature, an expressive being. We situate this study in the framework of qualitative research. It is a multiple case study that focuses on two contexts: formation of teachers of Portuguese at the University of Minho, Portugal, and the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil. The data that make up the research corpus come from documents elaborated by the Ministries of Education of Portugal and Brazil and were adopted by the two teacher formation institutions cited, from individual interviews involving eight trainer teachers (four from each university), and from two group-interviews (one in each institution), done with students in training. Our analysis is divided into three stages: first, document analysis; second, analysis of the discourse of the teachers in both contexts studied; and, third, analysis of the speech of the students in training. It is noteworthy that our purpose in this research was not to come out with a definition like being a teacher of Portuguese is X, but we are interested, above all, in discussing the issues surrounding initial formation, seeking different points of view, and hearing voices coming from different social positions for better understanding our object of study. Our analysis reveals that the initial formation of teachers of Portuguese, both in Portugal and Brazil, occurs in a complex way, under the influence of various factors, including: (a) difficulties in having the individuals involved adapt to the demands of regulatory agencies; (b) students and teachers adequacy to the organizational model of the post-secondary institution; (c) teachers difficulties to deal with the learning problems of students who have limited schooling basis and come from distinct socioeconomic realities; (d) a search for the establishment of methodologies for teaching and learning the Portuguese Language more adequate to reality; and (e) a search for a definition of professional knowledge needed for the teaching practice

Introdução da comunicação suplementar e alternativa na terapia com afásicos

Sabe-se que o tratamento fonoaudiológico de pacientes com afasia severa é limitado. A ausência de fala articulada, algumas vezes, impede o diagnóstico da afasia. O paciente grave pode não falar devido à inabilidade de articulação, como ocorre na disartria e/ou apraxia. Essa ausência de fala não permite afirmar se a linguagem está comprometida. O uso da comunicação suplementar e alternativa tem sido um método eficaz na reabilitação desses pacientes. Esse estudo visou descrever o uso da comunicação suplementar e alternativa associada a outras modalidades de linguagem (escrita, gestos), a partir do relato de dois casos de afasia. A análise dos dados foi composta por dois blocos: a introdução da comunicação suplementar e alternativa no diálogo; e o uso da leitura e escrita associado aos símbolos. A comunicação suplementar e alternativa foi um apoio para a oralidade, leitura e escrita dos pacientes.

Leitura de jornais em famílias de estudantes de escola pública de ensino fundamental

Pós-graduação em Educação - FFC

Aquisição/aprendizagem de LE: subjetividade e deslocamentos identitários

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

TV, Lobato e o ato da leitura: a mediação dos sentidos através da narrativa ficcional da TV brasileira

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Histórias de famílias: processos de escrita por alunos de 7ª e 8ª séries do ensino fundamental

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Revisitando a pedagogia Freinet: contribuições para o processo de aprendizagem da lingua materna

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Pisa 2000 e letramento literário: um estudo comparativo entre Brasil e Alemanha

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

A língua kaingáng da aldeia paulista Icatu: uma descrição funcional

Pós-graduação em Estudos Linguísticos - IBILCE

A apropriação da escrita por crianças surdas usuárias da língua de sinais brasileira

Pós-graduação em Letras - FCLAS

A avaliação da compreensão leitora em espanhol língua estrangeira: análise de provas de vestibular

Analisa quantitativa e qualitativamente a avaliação da compreensão leitora do Espanhol Língua Estrangeira em provas de vestibular da região norte do Brasil, para assim evidenciar os tipos de operações e, dessa maneira, os tipos de modelos de leitura privilegiados nos testes analisados; estabelecer uma relação entre as provas coletadas e as concepções didáticas subjacentes; identificar problemas nos itens das provas com base em uma série de parâmetros de qualidade; analisar a validade dos testes selecionados; e detectar possíveis diferenças entre as provas elaboradas por Instituições de Ensino Superior públicas e privadas. Essa análise evidencia, por um lado, a tendência a se priorizarem, nessas provas, modelos ascendentes de leitura, com valorização das operações cognitivas de baixo nível e de aspectos léxico-gramaticais da língua, como conseqüência de uma concepção didática de leitura baseada em um enfoque estruturalista. Por outro lado, o estudo empreendido mostra a existência de sérias deficiências nos itens das provas de vestibular, afetando assim sua validade.