Treating speaking in its own right: an exploratory study

Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Centro de Comunicação e Expressão. Programa de Pós-Graduação em Letras/Inglês e Literatura Correspondente.The present study investigates the implications of the treatment of speaking in its own right (mainly based on McCarthy, 1998) to the speaking performance of Brazilian learners of English as a foreign language. This was done through the comparison of the speaking performance of two groups of students (one that received the treatment of speaking in its own right for forty-five hours, and another one that did not receive the treatment) on a pre-test/post-test basis. The group that received treatment consisted of fourteen participants, whilst the control group had ten participants. Speaking performance was operationalized in terms of fluency, accuracy, complexity and weighed lexical density. Results were analyzed statistically with paired-sample and independent-sample t-tests. Findings suggest that the effectiveness of the treatment of speaking in its own right in the EFL classroom is not as linear as it might be expected, as none of the groups analyzed showed an overall consistently significant increase or decrease from the pre-test to the post-test, and the groups did not present significantly different gains after the period of treatment. These results are important in the sense that they imply the need for implementations to the treatment of speaking in its own right, such as more time for treatment, specific material that addresses such treatment, and more empirical research to have a better understanding of the results that the treatment may bring to the speaking performance of L2 learners. O presente estudo investiga as implicações do tratamento da fala como habilidade específica (baseado principalmente em McCarthy, 1998) para a performance da fala de aprendizes brasileiros de inglês como língua estrangeira. A pesquisa foi conduzida atraves da comparação entre a performance de fala de dois grupos (um que recebeu o tratamento específico de fala, e outro que não recebeu o mesmo tratamento), usando a abordagem de pré- e pós-teste. O grupo que recebeu o tratamento tinha quatorze participantes, enquanto que o grupo controle tinha dez. A performance de fala foi operacionalizada em termos de fluência, acurácia, complexidade e densidade lexical. Os resultados foram analizados estatisticamente através de t-testes. As descobertas sugerem que a eficácia do tratamento da fala como habilidade específica não é tao linear como pode parecer a princípio, pois nenhum dos grupos apresentou ganho ou perda significante na performance da fala depois do período de tratamento, além de que os grupos nao apresentaram ganhos significamente diferentes entre si. Esses resultados são importantes devido ao fato de que eles indicam a necessidade de implementações para o tratamento da fala como habilidade específica, tais quais mais tempo, e um material didático específico para o tratamento, além da necessidade de mais estudos empíricos que permitam um melhor entendimento dos resultados que o tratamnto pode trazer para aprendizes de língua estrangeira

Emotions of L2 Learners in Different Contexts and Modes

Considering the role of emotions in L2 use/learning and in different contexts and modes (online, hybrid, in-person), the present study aims to analyze and discuss the role of different emotions that emerged in those three contexts and modes. With that aim, we draw on two different sets of data produced as part of larger studies to discuss the role of emotions in online, in-person and hybrid settings in Brazil, Spain, the UK and the USA. Overall, results point to the need to address native-speakerism in L2 education as well as unpleasant feelings related to online learning and/or to abrupt transitions in learning modes

Trickstering applied linguistics with Pennycook and Makoni

It was a cold Curitiba night in mid-October, 2019 when one of the present authors came into a meeting room for professors at our university and found a colleague who seemed to be annoyed for some reason. Soon after they started a conversation, she (the colleague) revealed that what had been bothering her was the fact that she had just found out about a new book entitled Innovations and Challenges in Applied Linguistics from the Global South, which had been written by two scholars from the Global North - Alastair Pennycook and Sinfree Makoni

"EU SÓ POSSO ME RESPONSABILIZAR PELAS MINHAS LEITURAS, NÃO PELAS TEORIAS QUE EU CITO": entrevista com Lynn Mario Trindade Menezes de Souza (USP)

Em 14 de maio de 2019, a Professora Dra. Juliana Zeggio Martinez e o Professor Dr. Eduardo Henrique Diniz de Figueiredo, da Universidade Federal do Paraná, entrevistaram o Professor Dr. Lynn Mario T. Menezes de Souza, da Universidade de São Paulo, homenageado do primeiro FICLLA. Na conversa, que ocorreu via Skype e durou cerca de uma hora, foram retomados assuntos que haviam sido discutidos por Menezes de Souza tanto no FICLLA quanto na reunião anual do Projeto Nacional de Letramentos, em São Paulo. O objetivo da entrevista foi trazer um senso de continuidade aos diálogos propostos por Menezes de Souza para as pessoas que participaram desses eventos, e ao mesmo tempo apresentar esses temas e discussões às pessoas que não tiveram a oportunidade de estar neles

Second language acquisition in Brazil since the social turn

ABSTRACT The present study is an appraisal of the literature that has been published in second language acquisition (SLA) in Brazil since what is widely known as the social turn in the field (BLOCK, 2003). The objective of such an examination is to assess the impact that the social turn has had upon SLA research in the country. One hundred forty-one texts (among articles from top-ranked journals, theses, dissertations, and books) were systematically reviewed and categorized based on three main criteria: a) main topics, b) SLA frameworks/approaches, and c) methods used. The results show that socially-guided research seems to have gained space in SLA in Brazil since the social turn; however, cognitivist work in the country is still very strong, and little dialog seems to occur among these different perspectives on SLA

Perspectives of postgraduate professors and students on internationalization and English language use at a university in the south of Brazil

The aim of the present study is to understand how internationalization has been understood, lived, and discursively constructed by postgraduate students and faculty members at a publicly funded university in the south of Brazil. Through data generated using questionnaires and interviews (with 406 and 19 participants, respectively), we observed at this university that there are discrepancies between how student and faculty participation in the process of internationalization is perceived. We also identified inconsistencies in relation to the understandings of the role of foreign languages in this process. The results show that internationalization is conceptualized as the establishment of interpersonal, intercultural, and inter-institutional relationships (as defended by Martinez, 2017). They also point to two specific needs: a) for more student involvement in discussions over the internationalization process of the university; and b) for a plurilingual understanding of the status of English within this process

Clinical and epidemiological aspects of children hospitalized with severe rotavirus-associated gastroenteritis in Salvador, BA, Brazil

Little is known about the epidemiology of severe rotavirus-associated gastroenteritis in Brazil. Given the morbidity associated with this condition and the importance of having detailed knowledge about the impact of rotavirus infection on the epidemiology of acute diarrhea in children, especially those with the most severe diarrheal conditions, we retrospectively reviewed the medical records of all pediatric patients admitted to a tertiary hospital in Salvador, Brazil, due to rotavirus-associated gastroenteritis during one year. It was observed that rotavirus was responsible for 15.6% of the hospitalizations caused by diarrhea and/or vomiting during the period of the study and that 87 of 218 (39.1%) patients seen at the emergency room with rotavirus-associated gastroenteritis needed to be hospitalized, comprising the population of our study. Most patients presented signs of dehydration, and 41% of them had metabolic acidosis. Most patients (79%) were between six months and four years of age and 72% of the cases occurred in June and July. Gastrointestinal symptoms were rarely present at the beginning of the clinical presentation, and they normally did not last for more than one week

Clinical and epidemiological aspects of children hospitalized with severe rotavirus-associated gastroenteritis in Salvador, BA, Brazil

Little is known about the epidemiology of severe rotavirus-associated gastroenteritis in Brazil. Given the morbidity associated with this condition and the importance of having detailed knowledge about the impact of rotavirus infection on the epidemiology of acute diarrhea in children, especially those with the most severe diarrheal conditions, we retrospectively reviewed the medical records of all pediatric patients admitted to a tertiary hospital in Salvador, Brazil, due to rotavirus-associated gastroenteritis during one year. It was observed that rotavirus was responsible for 15.6% of the hospitalizations caused by diarrhea and/or vomiting during the period of the study and that 87 of 218 (39.1%) patients seen at the emergency room with rotavirus-associated gastroenteritis needed to be hospitalized, comprising the population of our study. Most patients presented signs of dehydration, and 41% of them had metabolic acidosis. Most patients (79%) were between six months and four years of age and 72% of the cases occurred in June and July. Gastrointestinal symptoms were rarely present at the beginning of the clinical presentation, and they normally did not last for more than one week