|
|
The English Language Teaching Methodology for Learners with Impaired Hearing
Machová, Pavla ; Mánek, Bohuslav (advisor) ; Mothejzíková, Jarmila (referee) ; Betáková, Lucie (referee)
The dissertation The English Language Teaching Methodology for Learners with Impaired Hearing deals with the current situation in the field of ELT in special secondary schools for learners with impaired hearing. It has two main aims: - 1) to gather knowledge from ELT methodology and combine it with information from other source disciplines, e.g. special pedagogy, pedagogy, psychology, and linguistics to form a coherent basis of special systemic English language teaching methodology for learners with impaired hearing; - 2) to carry out a research project in the field of reading with deaf and hard-of-hearing learners at secondary schools since reading is the skill which is practised by all groups of learners with hearing impairment. The dissertation summarizes information on these learners, it describes their characteristics and needs. Main communication methods are presented, as well as some thoughts on the development of language and mind of the deaf. A substantial part of the work is devoted to motivation, emotional and personal development of deaf learners and to their practical communicative needs in the classroom. The work sums up the ELT methodology findings and comments on them from the perspective of a special school teacher. The research part reflects the project findings in the field of...
|
|
|
Výuka odbornému anglickému jazyku se zřetelem na využití e-learningu
Kučírková, Lenka ; Mothejzíková, Jarmila (advisor) ; Voráček, Jaroslav (referee) ; Mánek, Bohuslav (referee)
The dissertation deals with the experimental research that examines the effectiveness of the ESP e-learning course of Business English in comparison with the method of face-to-face instruction. The literature review has revealed the absence of scientific research in the field of our investigation. It has justified why our proposed research study should be conducted and led us to the rationale for our research. The main objective of this dissertation was to find out whether the e-learning method was as effective as the face-to-face instruction, i.e., whether there were no statistically significant differences between the results of the students who completed the e-learning course (experimental group) and those who completed the face-to-face course (control group). Simultaneously, we examined whether there were any statistically significant differences in the results of the students at the beginning of the course and at the end of the course within individual groups, i.e., whether the students improved their skills and vocabulary. The supplementary objective was to find out the students' opinions on the effectiveness of e- learning depending on the frequencies of their responses and on their qualitative signs. The practical outcome is the ESP e-learning course for the subject of Business English in...
|
|
|
Using Children's Literature in Teaching English at Elementary Schools
Vraštilová, Olga ; Mánek, Bohuslav (advisor) ; Mothejzíková, Jarmila (referee) ; Čermák, Jan (referee)
of the thesis The dissertation thesis deals with the problem of using children's literature in teaching foreign languages at elementary schools. It frames the topic by Czech curricular documents and constituents of the teaching-learning process, provides a historical survey and lists the genres of the children's literature. It characterizes the skill of reading in foreign language teaching and deals with the position of the literary text and lesson planning with children's literature within the foreign language teaching process. Attention is also paid to children's literature as the constituent of the pre-service teacher training. The aim of the thesis is to find out whether children's literature is used in foreign language teaching at elementary schools, whether contemporary textbooks use it, how it is perceived by in-service and pre-service teachers and last but not least what children's literature in the teaching-learning process of foreign languages has to offer. Research tools used for the purposes of the thesis were questionnaires, observations, specially prepared teaching materials based on literary texts and analysis of a textbook. The research proved that children's literature is used both by contemporary textbooks and by teachers in the foreign language education process. Since there is...
|
|
|
The Pre-listening Stage in L2 Listening Instruction to A2 - B1 Adult Learners.
Ždímalová, Hana ; Mothejzíková, Jarmila (advisor) ; Betáková, Lucie (referee) ; Mánek, Bohuslav (referee)
The Pre-listening Stage in L2 Listening Instruction to A2 - B1 Adult Learners By Hana Ždímalová This dissertation deals with listening instruction to adult EFL learners in the Czech Republic and the phenomenon of pre-listening, which is currently under-researched. It examines adult EFL students' perspectives and perceptions of listening instruction and of the inclusion of different pre-listening techniques, particularly at CEFR A2-B1 proficiency levels. The theoretical part of the study focuses on current developments in listening research and the historical context of the development of listening instruction in classical FLT methodology. The pre-listening stage has been integral to L2 listening instruction since the beginning of Communicative Language Teaching. However, some controversial issues have recently been raised. For example, teachers are sometimes suspected of spending too much time on the pre- listening stage (Field 2002; 2008) and the overall usefulness of previewed comprehension questions in testing listening has been challenged (Sherman 1997). Moreover, adult students' listening needs and their perceptions of listening instruction have not yet been thoroughly researched (Graham 2006; Graham and Macaro 2008). This study argues that we should ask the students about their perceptions...
|
|
|
Topophilia and Escapism: W.H.Auden's Interwar Poetics of Place (1927-1938)
Vít, Ladislav ; Mánek, Bohuslav (advisor)
This work focuses on Wystan Hugh Auden's (1907-1973) early poetry (1927-1938) and analyzes its engagement with places, landscapes and local cultures. The scope is limited to the interwar years, when Auden started to write poetry, entered the literary stage and formed his ethical stances, poetics and a personal voice within one of the most socially arduous and aesthetically innovative periods of recent history. This turns his 1920s and 1930s work into a fertile ground for research, which is evidenced by the large body of extant criticism scrutinizing the technical aspects of Auden's interwar poetry as well as its reflection of the poet's affinity with Marxism and the politically conscious intelligentsia of his generation. While sharing the same historical focus, this dissertation diverges from existing scholarship and traces the character of Auden's imaginative dynamic, which renders an inscription of the physical world into art. Auden was highly emotionally and intellectually responsive to particular places, environmental types, human spatial experience and their embedment in arts. This work examines his engagement with Alston Moor in the Northern Pennines, Iceland and England. In his prose, the former two are constructed as sacred places and asylums for his imaginative and physical escapism. The...
|
|
|
Topophilia and Escapism: W.H.Auden's Interwar Poetics of Place (1927-1938)
Vít, Ladislav ; Mánek, Bohuslav (advisor) ; Sukdolová, Alice (referee) ; Franková, Milada (referee)
This work focuses on Wystan Hugh Auden's (1907-1973) early poetry (1927-1938) and analyzes its engagement with places, landscapes and local cultures. The scope is limited to the interwar years, when Auden started to write poetry, entered the literary stage and formed his ethical stances, poetics and a personal voice within one of the most socially arduous and aesthetically innovative periods of recent history. This turns his 1920s and 1930s work into a fertile ground for research, which is evidenced by the large body of extant criticism scrutinizing the technical aspects of Auden's interwar poetry as well as its reflection of the poet's affinity with Marxism and the politically conscious intelligentsia of his generation. While sharing the same historical focus, this dissertation diverges from existing scholarship and traces the character of Auden's imaginative dynamic, which renders an inscription of the physical world into art. Auden was highly emotionally and intellectually responsive to particular places, environmental types, human spatial experience and their embedment in arts. This work examines his engagement with Alston Moor in the Northern Pennines, Iceland and England. In his prose, the former two are constructed as sacred places and asylums for his imaginative and physical escapism. The...
|
|
|
Ideology, censorship, indirect translations and non-translation: Czech literature in 20th -century Portugal
Špirk, Jaroslav ; Králová, Jana (advisor) ; Seruya, Teresa Maria Menano (referee) ; Mánek, Bohuslav (referee)
The present doctoral thesis investigates book translations of Czech and Slovak literature into European Portuguese in 20th -century Portugal. The Introduction gives reasons for choosing the topic, argues for its relevance and outlines the structure of the thesis. It defines the main research question, 'What was the presence of Czech literature translated into European Portuguese in 20th -century Portugal?', and formulates the hypothesis to be tested: 'The translations of Czech literature in 20th century Portugal exhibited a tendency, a pattern.' Chapter 1 attempts to operationalise seven theoretical issues pertinent to Translation Studies in general: (1) ideology, (2) censorship, (3) indirect translations, (4) non- translation, (5) canon and world literature, (6) paratexts, and (7) medium-sized lingua- & socio-cultures. Chapter 2 delineates the research subject, discusses the most important types of sources and materials used and presents the methodology. The principal research subject is defined as translations of Czech fiction into European Portuguese published in book form in Portugal in the 20th century. Seminal works by J. Levý and A. Popovič are introduced, discussing the methodology most apposite to analysing the material found. Chapter 3 provides a general historical, political and cultural...
|
|
|
Romantic Impulses in Victorian Literature
Beran, Zdeněk ; Hilský, Martin (advisor) ; Mánek, Bohuslav (referee) ; Peprník, Michal (referee)
The thesis attempts to discuss the character of late Romantic literature and art as it developed in England throughout the Victorian period. It follows the assertion made by G. Hough that it is possible to identify a continuous presence of Romantic ideas and methods in the writings of some major Victorian authors, and reflects the fact that there was actually no consensus or prevailing unequivocal view of Romanticism at that time, as is evidenced in the contradicting statements of such writers as John Ruskin and Walter Pater. The first objective of the thesis is thus to define the characteristic features of English Romanticism as they can be tracked down in the formative period of the 18th century and the time of High Romanticism of the first decades of the following century, and to see what transforming changes these characteristics underwent during the Victorian era. The sources of Romantic sensibility are located in the revolutionary role of the scientific discoveries of the 17th century and a new focus of the philosophical writings of that period, concerning mainly operations of the human mind. This development resulted in new aesthetic conceptions based on the two prevailing approaches, empiricism and Neo-Platonism. These theories conditioned the main concern of Romantic thought, i.e. an...
|
|
|
Walter Scott's historical novel in anglo-american context and in Czech translations
Mohrová, Hana ; Mánek, Bohuslav (referee) ; Kalivodová, Eva (advisor)
The dissertation deals with the reception of new and world-acclaimed genre of Walter Scott's historical novel and its forms in specific cultures. The theoretical part of this dissertation is focused on comparing the reception of Scott's prose in the original Anglo-Scottish context, in North American cultural context with special emphasis on the context of the American South, and in Czech context. The researching of the two English speaking cultural contexts proves our hypothesis claiming that every single cultural context shapes its own interpretation. Such cultural interpretation in the non-English speaking context materialises in the form of translations. Each chapter on the reception in given cultures deals with the unprecedented success of the new genre of historical novel as established by Walter Scott. When describing the reception the dissertation uses period reviews and criticisms, and monographs dealing with Scott's reputation. In comparison with the Czech reception, which manifests itself as nationally conscious only allusively (in cultural responses, in the choice of novels to be translated, in their texts and paratexts), the reception in North America manifests itself as the transformation of the influence of Scott's works on original literature and also in cultural attitudes and social life....
|
|
|
Subverting Scotland: cultural identities in contemporary Scottish fiction
Roebuck, Olga ; Nováková, Soňa (advisor) ; Mánek, Bohuslav (referee) ; Franková, Milada (referee)
This dissertation deals with the possibility of expressing cultural identities in contemporary literature. Scottish literature was chosen as it stands for a country which has been undergoing significant changes in its self-definition. The Scottish nation is still searching for its position within larger European or global structures. Thus, it provides an interesting basis for examining the validity of such concepts as nation, state or national culture during a period of time which has tended to abandon these traditional structures under the influence of globalisation. This cultural process of re-definition fuels an outburst of literary creativity and since the beginning of the 1980s, Scottish literature has been experiencing an incredible boom aiming mainly to get rid of traditional and limiting cultural representations. The dissertation is based on cultural and literary analysis. Cultural analysis starts with characterising the contemporary Scottish cultural context, typical mainly for its traditional dualities and internal oppositions, such as nation and region, coloniser and colonised, Highland and Lowland, Scottish and British, male and female. Most of these dualities have historical roots and the task of this text is also to find out to what extent these are valid today and how they influence...
|
guest ::
