Questões de Concurso

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Learning strategies are defined as “specific actions, behaviors, steps, or techniques—such as seeking out conversation partners, or giving one self-encouragement to tackle a difficult language task—used by students to enhance their own learning. When the learner consciously chooses strategies that suit his or her learning style and the L2 task at hand, these strategies become a useful toolkit for active, conscious, and purposeful self-regulation of learning. Learning strategies can be classified into six types; the compensatory strategies, for example, are those that help the learner make up for missing knowledge.

A given strategy is neither good nor bad; it is neutral until the context of its use is thoroughly considered. What makes a strategy positive and helpful for a given learner? A strategy is useful if the following conditions are present: (a) the strategy relates to the L2 task at hand; (b) the strategy fits the particular student’s learning style preferences to one degree or another; and (c) the student employs the strategy effectivety and links it with other relevant strategies. Strategies that fulfill these conditions “make learning easier, faster, more enjoyable, more self-directed, more effective, and more transferable to new situations” (Oxford 1990, p.8). Learning strategies can also enable students to become more independent and lifelong learners.

(Rebecca Oxford. Language Learning Styles and Strategies. Adaptado)

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Learning strategies are defined as “specific actions, behaviors, steps, or techniques—such as seeking out conversation partners, or giving one self-encouragement to tackle a difficult language task—used by students to enhance their own learning. When the learner consciously chooses strategies that suit his or her learning style and the L2 task at hand, these strategies become a useful toolkit for active, conscious, and purposeful self-regulation of learning. Learning strategies can be classified into six types; the compensatory strategies, for example, are those that help the learner make up for missing knowledge.

A given strategy is neither good nor bad; it is neutral until the context of its use is thoroughly considered. What makes a strategy positive and helpful for a given learner? A strategy is useful if the following conditions are present: (a) the strategy relates to the L2 task at hand; (b) the strategy fits the particular student’s learning style preferences to one degree or another; and (c) the student employs the strategy effectivety and links it with other relevant strategies. Strategies that fulfill these conditions “make learning easier, faster, more enjoyable, more self-directed, more effective, and more transferable to new situations” (Oxford 1990, p.8). Learning strategies can also enable students to become more independent and lifelong learners.

(Rebecca Oxford. Language Learning Styles and Strategies. Adaptado)

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Communicating successfully in another language means shifting frames of reference, shifting norms, shifting assumptions of what can and cannot be said, what might be considered ambiguous, what should be explicit and what ought to remain tacit, and so on. In other words, using another language effectively involves more than vocabulary and structures; it involves thinking differently about language and communication.

The question is, how can we begin to understand another way of thinking, how can we be sensitized to different cultural frames, when we are in a classroom in Nebraska, Nairobi, or New South Wales? One answer, I will argue, is by reading, writing, and discussing texts. By examining the particular ways in which language is used to capture and express experiences, we not only learn a great deal about the conventions of the language, but can also begin to glimpse the beliefs and values that underlie the discourse.

The basic message is a simple one: academic language teaching must foster literacy, not only in terms of basic reading and writing skills, but also in terms of a broader discourse competence that involves the ability to interpret and critically evaluate a wide variety of written and spoken texts. Preparing students to communicate in multiple cultural contexts, both at home and abroad, means sensitizing them to discourse practices in other societies and to the ways those discourse practices both reflect and create cultural norms. I here argue that this kind of literacy is essential to real communicative ability in a language, and is therefore an indispensable goal in our efforts to prepare future generations for the challenges associated with the increased internationalization of many aspects of our society.

(Richard Kern, Literacy and language teaching. Adaptado)

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Communicating successfully in another language means shifting frames of reference, shifting norms, shifting assumptions of what can and cannot be said, what might be considered ambiguous, what should be explicit and what ought to remain tacit, and so on. In other words, using another language effectively involves more than vocabulary and structures; it involves thinking differently about language and communication.

The question is, how can we begin to understand another way of thinking, how can we be sensitized to different cultural frames, when we are in a classroom in Nebraska, Nairobi, or New South Wales? One answer, I will argue, is by reading, writing, and discussing texts. By examining the particular ways in which language is used to capture and express experiences, we not only learn a great deal about the conventions of the language, but can also begin to glimpse the beliefs and values that underlie the discourse.

The basic message is a simple one: academic language teaching must foster literacy, not only in terms of basic reading and writing skills, but also in terms of a broader discourse competence that involves the ability to interpret and critically evaluate a wide variety of written and spoken texts. Preparing students to communicate in multiple cultural contexts, both at home and abroad, means sensitizing them to discourse practices in other societies and to the ways those discourse practices both reflect and create cultural norms. I here argue that this kind of literacy is essential to real communicative ability in a language, and is therefore an indispensable goal in our efforts to prepare future generations for the challenges associated with the increased internationalization of many aspects of our society.

(Richard Kern, Literacy and language teaching. Adaptado)

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An inexorable trend in the use of global English is that fewer interactions now involve a native speaker. Proponents of teaching English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) suggest that the way English is taught and assessed should reflect the needs and aspirations of the ever-growing number of non-native speakers who use English to communicate with other nonnatives. Understanding how non-native speakers use English among themselves has now become a serious research area.

Different priorities in teaching English pronunciation, for example, have been defined. Teaching certain pronunciation features, such as the articulation of ‘th’ as an interdental fricative, appears to be a waste of time whereas other common pronunciation problems (such as simplifying consonant clusters) contribute to problems of understanding. Such an approach is allowing researchers to identify a ‘Lingua Franca Core’ (LFC) which provides guiding principles in creating syllabuses and assessment materials.

Unlike traditional ESL (English as Second Language), ELF focuses also on pragmatic strategies required in intercultural communication. The target model of English, within the ELF framework, is not a native speaker but a fluent bilingual speaker, who retains a national identity in terms of accent, and who also has the special skills required to negotiate understanding with another non-native speaker. Research is also beginning to show how bad some native speakers are at using English for international communication. It may be that elements of an ELF syllabus could usefully be taught within a mother tongue curriculum.

(David Graddol, English Next. Adaptado)