Given the fact that cultures are a distinct way of identifying the mores and customs of a people, culture-specific units such as proverbs could serve as veritable teaching tools to pass on otherwise difficult language...Given the fact that cultures are a distinct way of identifying the mores and customs of a people, culture-specific units such as proverbs could serve as veritable teaching tools to pass on otherwise difficult language concepts to students, especially in the context of acquiring a foreign language. Proverbs can actually be viewed as succinct sayings that convey semantically-laden units expressing a people＇s worldview. In this paper, an attempt is made to illustrate the effectiveness of using culture-specific units like French proverbs to teach challenging grammatical features to English-speaking students in a French class. For example, grammatical aspects like verb conjugation French syntax, etc., can be effectively tackled. Translational techniques could then serve as pedagogical tools to bring about a better grasp of the foreign language being acquired, and in the process, exposure to a larger world culture would be achieved展开更多
This paper aims at investigating the teletandem learning interactions between a group of Brazilian students from Instituto Federal de Educagao, Ciencia e Tecnologia do Estado de Goias, Brazil, and a group of foreign s...This paper aims at investigating the teletandem learning interactions between a group of Brazilian students from Instituto Federal de Educagao, Ciencia e Tecnologia do Estado de Goias, Brazil, and a group of foreign students from two German universities. In this study, the Brazilian students helped their foreign partners with Portuguese learning and were helped by them in the English learning. The participants used a synchronous computer software called Openmeetings and also an electronic dictionary as a complementary tool. Adopting a qualitative perspective in the data collection and analysis, this case study was conducted in the second semester of 2010. The data were collected by means of conversation sessions through Openmeetings and were analyzed in the light of studies on sociocultural theory as well as on tandem/teletandem language learning researches. The data analyses showed that the participants used English as an anchoring language to work with Portuguese and English itself, and German was introduced in the teletandem sessions. The data also showed that the whiteboard and the electronic dictionary were used as complementary resources to the use of audio and video for the language learning process the participants engaged in.展开更多
文摘Given the fact that cultures are a distinct way of identifying the mores and customs of a people, culture-specific units such as proverbs could serve as veritable teaching tools to pass on otherwise difficult language concepts to students, especially in the context of acquiring a foreign language. Proverbs can actually be viewed as succinct sayings that convey semantically-laden units expressing a people＇s worldview. In this paper, an attempt is made to illustrate the effectiveness of using culture-specific units like French proverbs to teach challenging grammatical features to English-speaking students in a French class. For example, grammatical aspects like verb conjugation French syntax, etc., can be effectively tackled. Translational techniques could then serve as pedagogical tools to bring about a better grasp of the foreign language being acquired, and in the process, exposure to a larger world culture would be achieved
文摘This paper aims at investigating the teletandem learning interactions between a group of Brazilian students from Instituto Federal de Educagao, Ciencia e Tecnologia do Estado de Goias, Brazil, and a group of foreign students from two German universities. In this study, the Brazilian students helped their foreign partners with Portuguese learning and were helped by them in the English learning. The participants used a synchronous computer software called Openmeetings and also an electronic dictionary as a complementary tool. Adopting a qualitative perspective in the data collection and analysis, this case study was conducted in the second semester of 2010. The data were collected by means of conversation sessions through Openmeetings and were analyzed in the light of studies on sociocultural theory as well as on tandem/teletandem language learning researches. The data analyses showed that the participants used English as an anchoring language to work with Portuguese and English itself, and German was introduced in the teletandem sessions. The data also showed that the whiteboard and the electronic dictionary were used as complementary resources to the use of audio and video for the language learning process the participants engaged in.
