This article is about a task which required learners to reformulate a story which they had listened to in writing. In the context of foreign language learning, the original text provides a discourse model, whereas the way it is rephrased reflects students’ skill to use the new information in their own words. Retelling can also be treated as language practice focused on learning and practising new vocabulary and sentence structures. The research concentrated on fragments of text that were an extension of the original text that was retold by an elementary group of students of French philology (A2 level according to The Common European Framework of Reference for Languages, 2003) in Polish and French (the foreign language). Comparison of speech produced in the two languages made it possible to consider the nature and function of the learners’ discourse competence which, depending on the students’ personal goals and communicative experience, differed in the two cases. The data collected can serve as a starting point for planning further steps to develop students’ metadiscoursal awareness with the use of the retelling of a story as a learning strategy.
Morphosyntactic performance in written reformulation tasks. A case of beginners learning French as a foreign languageIn this article the relation between the discourse production dynamic and the linguistic competence development is discussed. This problem is considered with regard to two types of language activities based on reformulation tasks: 1) written reconstruction of a story heard, 2) written production of the end of the story. The analysis of experimental data shows that in the second case the approach to the discourse is more complete which positively influences application of complex morphosyntactic structures in students production.
Adapting foreign language teaching to the requirements of studentswith special educational needs requires prior diagnosis of the developmentalpotential of the pupils concerned. Because of the educationaland rehabilitative character of foreign language learning in studentswith language and speech deficiencies, the diagnosis addresses thepossibilities of using foreign language learning in developing generaland linguistic competencies in both languages (native and foreign). Thearticle presents the aims of diagnosing linguistic communicative competenciesin the context of foreign language teaching. The differencesbetween speech diagnosis and diagnosis performed for the needs of foreignlanguage teaching are discussed, based on cases of pupils with deficienciesin their native language (Polish). The evaluation of the students’competencies involved reformulation as an instrument of linguistic diagnosis;learning strategies were also considered in the assessment.
At present the main purpose of school integration is the pursuit of dialogue and ways of ensuring integration which concerns both disabled learners and the ones who do not exhibit special educational needs. In this paper, the is-sue will be incorporated into the framework of teaching foreign languages to disabled pupils attending public schools. The present author will depict L2 teaching goals in relation to education shared by pupils with and without specific learning difficulties as well as to problems with implementing the idea of integration in foreign language classroom. These questions will be discussed with reference to the opinions of gleaned from public school teachers with experience in working with disabled learners.
As an intellectual task, academic writing is not reducible solely to language skills or adequate writing tech-niques. The paper aims to compare the research results related to the cognitive and discursive aspects of expertise in academic writing to determine the key elements that contribute to its special character. These elements are intended to lay the foundation for the teaching of academic writing in tertiary education. The analysis focuses on the development of cognitive skills among novice researchers.
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