|
|
Language and content integration models in ELT
Synková, Blanka ; Gráf, Tomáš (advisor) ; Klégr, Aleš (referee)
The thesis focuses on the topic of language and content integration in ELT in a broad sense, i.e. it discusses not only CLIL but also other models of content-based teaching, viz. ESP (English for Specific Purposes), EAP (English for Academic Purposes), and EMI (English-medium Instruction). In the theoretical part of the thesis, these models are described as regards their history, typical features, teachers, learners, as well as benefits and negatives. The empirical part of the thesis explores the current practice of language and content integration at Czech general secondary schools ("grammar schools"). The research is based on case studies of five teachers who teach various courses belonging to this category. The preliminary research investigated what courses are currently being offered at grammar schools in Prague; they are mostly elective courses. Our research findings suggest that language and content integration in the form of elective courses is a rather common practice, although often unconscious. Teachers tend to act on the basis of their intuition rather than their knowledge of theory and practice of language and content integration. Generally, it seems that more emphasis is put on content than language in these lessons. Content-based English lessons may be beneficial for learners for...
|
|
|
Teaching bilingual adolescents for whom English is a heritage language or who have lived in an Anglophone country, and who are studying in Czech secondary school English classrooms: the students' perspective
Jirásková, Anna ; Gráf, Tomáš (advisor) ; Klégr, Aleš (referee)
(in English) The present thesis explores the issue of teaching heritage language learners and returnee students in English as a foreign language (EFL) classes in Czech secondary schools. The aim of the thesis is to examine the experiences of heritage language learners and returnees in the EFL classroom, their strengths and weaknesses in English, their attitude towards English language learning in terms of potential anxiety and motivation, as well as heritage language learners' wishes in relation to language instruction. These issues are investigated from the perspective of the students themselves. The theoretical part reviews the relevant literature on heritage language acquisition and teaching, and on the effects of experience abroad on language acquisition. Moreover, it is complemented by discussions of differentiated instruction and language education for the gifted, two areas which can prove helpful in terms of finding suitable solutions to the problems encountered by the target population in foreign language classes. The empirical part is qualitative and consists of the analysis of in-depth semi-structured interviews with three participants, gymnázium students from Prague. Insights are provided about the interconnectedness of the students' life experiences, their general beliefs about language...
|
|
|
On adverbial English - French faux amis: a contrastive view of actually and actuellement
Čapková, Andrea ; Malá, Markéta (advisor) ; Klégr, Aleš (referee)
The subject of the present thesis is a contrastive analysis of two formally similar adverbs, the English actually and the French actuellement, which despite their com- mon etymological origins nowadays render different meaning. The theoretical chapter deals with classification of the two adverbs; in particular their semantic roles and syntactic functions. The latter section of this chapter is concerned with the historical development of the semantic meaning and concentrates on the common etymological origins as well as on the possible interchangeability of the adverbs. The research part focuses on the detailed analysis of the two adverbs based on the examples excerpted from the synchronic monolingual corpora (British National Corpus for English and Lextutor-Parlé for French) and describes their semantic roles as well as syntactic functions. The second part of this chapter is an analysis of the translation equivalents of actually and actuellement. The material for this section was excerpted from the parallel corpus InterCorp (fiction Core and the subcorpus Europarl). This thesis aims to identify possible discourse functions developed in the French actuellement and explore the translation correspondences of the two adverbs. Key words: actually, actuellement, discourse functions, faux-amis
|
|
|
Utilization of general rhythm metrics for differentiation of Slovak English from Slovak and English
Kaprál, Jakub ; Volín, Jan (advisor) ; Klégr, Aleš (referee)
The purpose of the present thesis is to analyze Slovak English from the perspective of speech rhythm in relation to its native (Slovak) and target (English) language. The first part contains theoretical background for the study of language rhythm, history of its research, and describes rhythmically relevant features of English and Slovak phonetic systems. It is concluded by summary of rhythmical differences between the two languages and hypotheses are proposed. The experimental part uses rhythm metrics for determination of phonetic properties of rhythm in Slovak English. It is based on recordings of one English and two Slovak representative radio reporters along with six recordings of Slovak students of English studies. The rhythm metrcis results for Slovak English closely approximate the results for native English but due to inconsistency of the results the question of aplicability of rhythm metrics to L1, let alone L2, remains open. Keywords: Slovak English, speech rhythm, rhythm metrics, prosody, second language acquisition
|
|
|
A contrastive study of the Czech translation equivalents of the pragmatic markers now and well in electronic parallel texts
Houra, Aleš ; Klégr, Aleš (advisor) ; Šaldová, Pavlína (referee)
This thesis presents a contrastive analysis of the English pragmatic markers now and well and their Czech translation equivalents. The overall material is based on 200+12 occurrences that were excerpted from the electronic parallel corpus InterCorp, with all the instances appearing in fictional dialogues. The contrastive study focuses on the role of translation as a means to understand better the nature of the two pragmatic markers. It analyzes specific marker-collocate sequences and the respective Czech translation equivalents. It demonstrates that certain marker-collocate sequences have a tendency to be translated by specific Czech translation equivalents and that the role of other factors, such as position in discourse structure, prosody, and broader context, play in this respect an important role as well. All this and the finding that both now and well share certain Czech translation equivalents add to the multifunctionality of both now and well and prove that a combination of other factors is needed to comprehend the use of the two pragmatic markers in English. The comparison of the Czech translation equivalents in this thesis to the Czech translation equivalents in the Czech-English dictionary Lingea attempted to provide an example of how a contrastive analysis can be useful in Lexicography.
|
|
|
Contrastive study of the translation equivalents of the Czech particles "tedy" and "tak" in the InterCorp English texts
Horálek, Štěpán ; Klégr, Aleš (advisor) ; Čermák, Jan (referee)
The present thesis presents a contrastive analysis of the Czech modifying and connecting particles tedy and tak and their English counterparts. Since these particles are specific for the Czech language as well as highly ambiguous, they can cause problems with translation as well as theoretical description. It is expected that a quality translation will provide a representative overview of possible correlates, which should contribute to their description and classification. The theoretical chapter of the thesis firstly outlines the treatment of particles in the Czech grammars and linguistic literature, their definition and classification, and secondly, it discusses formal correspondences of the Czech particles in the English grammars and linguistic literature, with the focus on the English conjuncts and discourse particles as most likely candidates of the formal equivalence of tedy and tak as modifying and connecting particles. The methodological chapter describes the source material for the analysis and clarifies the selection of the sample. 200 occurrences of tedy and tak in four Czech novels and their English translations were extracted from the electronic parallel corpus InterCorp. The data collection was performed manually in order to distinguish modifying and connecting particle meanings from...
|
|
|
Rhythmic differences between Vietnamese English and the British standard
Slówik, Ondřej ; Volín, Jan (advisor) ; Klégr, Aleš (referee)
This thesis deals with rhythmic differences between Vietnamese English and the British Standard. As all the recorded speakers were originally from Northern Vietnam or lived there for an extensive period of time, it should be noted that the subject of analysis was in fact North Vietnamese English. The theoretical part describes the concept of rhythm in general and modern approaches to its analysing and measuring. Furthermore, the theoretical chapter describes the basics of phonetic characteristics of the Vietnamese language and the British standard of English. The last chapter of the theoretical part constitutes a bridge between theory and analysis as it explains selected features of Vietnamese English concerning mainly the realization of vowels and consonants. The next part is dedicated to methodology and it informs the reader about the criteria for selection of speakers and the means of gathering and processing material. At the end, a number of hypotheses regarding Vietnamese English are presented. In the analysis, values for rhythm metrics for Vietnamese English (%V, ΔV, ΔC, varcoV, varcoC, rPVI-V, rPVI-C, nPVI-V, nPVI-C) are calculated, compared to the rhythm metrics for British English and further evaluated in relation to gender, speakers and prosodic compactness. The results of the analysis...
|
|
|
Introduction to ELT Methodology
Gráf, Tomáš ; Mothejzíková, Jarmila (advisor) ; Klégr, Aleš (referee)
The thesis presents a theoretical framework for a portfolio for the course Teorie a praxe jazykové akvizice pro uèitele angliètiny (didaktická propedeutika). This preparatory course in didactics serves as an introduction to the subject for future teachers of English in secondary schools, whom it should equip with a basic level of understanding of the general principles of learning, language acquisition and language learning. The work presents a course syllabus, and in its individual chapters it describes the theoretical background for each seminar. The themes introduced in the course are: theories of learning and their application to language teaching, language identity, theory and description of first and second language acquisition, learner variables (age, gender,aptitude, intelligence, motivation, affective filter, learning styles, multiple intelligences, learner beliefs, the role of brain and memory in language acquisition, methods of teaching foreign languages, interlanguage, linguistic errors, levels of proficiency, communication and learning strategies, learner autonomy, the theory of a good language learner and teacher. The thesis includes an appendix containing handouts for each seminar and a student evaluation form for the assessment of the quality of the seminar.
|
|
|
Perceptual evaluation of rhythmic features in Czech English
Hanzlíková, Dagmar ; Volín, Jan (advisor) ; Klégr, Aleš (referee)
The aim of this thesis is to investigate the effect of changes in speech rhythm on the perception of personality traits which are detectable in speech. The theoretical part is concerned with the description of some important theories in the field of psychology of personality, then with summarizing research done in the effects of foreign-accented speech on perception, and finally with presenting the issue of speech rhythm with a focus on representative studies of speech rhythm and its effect on speech perception. In an independently designed experiment, the changes in speech rhythm were created by manipulating the durational patterns and pitch contours. Subsequently a perceptual test was prepared. Twenty subjects were asked to evaluate individual speech samples and rate to what extent they would characterize the speaker by the given personality trait. The results from the perceptual tests were analyzed from multiple points of view: the effects of the manipulations on the perception in general, and then in relation to the nationality of the speaker (native vs. non-native speaker), to the personality trait in question, and in relation to the individual speakers and items. The results showed some tendencies for example in perception of honesty in relation to durational patterns, or in perception of...
|
|
|
A corpus-based analysis of a synonym set: suppose - assume - presume
Teuchnerová, Michaela ; Klégr, Aleš (advisor) ; Vašků, Kateřina (referee)
The thesis deals with study of synonyms and the possible ways distinguishing between them on the basis of data from The British National Corpus. Firstly, theoretical part defines the term semantic relations and meaning and then focuses on synonymy. Different approaches to synonymy are presented and there is also a list of types of synonymy according to each approach. This part is the base for the theoretical part as it introduces the main idea - the meaning of the word in context. The practical part studies the synonymous set of verbs suppose - assume - presume. We used the material from The British National Corpus and the program Word Net which also uses data from BNC. This part focuses on aspects in which these synonyms may differ. It deals with frequency, grammatical features and collocations (subject or object). The conclusion of this paper sums up the results from the research and thus offers us more concrete knowledge of using these synonyms.
|
guest ::
