Textual and interpersonal pragmatic markers in full- and semi-english-medium instruction: their acquisition and the impact of learners' motivational profiles
- Autores: Jennifer Rose Ament
- Directores de la Tesis: Carmen Pérez Vidal (dir. tes.), Júlia Barón Parés (codir. tes.)
- Lectura: En la Universitat Pompeu Fabra ( España ) en 2018
- Idioma: español
- Tribunal Calificador de la Tesis: María Luz Celaya Villanueva (presid.), John Airey (secret.), Rachel Shively (voc.)
- Programa de doctorado: Programa de Doctorado en Traducción y Ciencias del Lenguaje por la Universidad Pompeu Fabra
- Materias:
- Enlaces
- Tesis en acceso abierto en: TDX
- Resumen
This doctoral dissertation has three main aims: firstly, to investigate the acquisition of pragmatic markers (PMs); secondly, to investigate the effect of either full- or semi-English-medium instruction (EMI) course on learner’s PM use; and thirdly, to identify whether or not there are any relationships between individual learner differences (IDs) and PM use and EMI study. To do so, three studies were carried out. The first one examined the effects of a semi and full-EMI undergraduate program on the participants’ frequency and variety of interpersonal and textual PMs. The second study investigated the distribution of textual PM use of full-EMI learners and native speakers, and, identified similarities and differences between the functions learners and natives attribute to PMs. The third study had a two-fold objective: on the one hand, it compared full-EMI and semi-EMI learners according to motivational orientation, attitudes towards English, foreign language anxiety, and enjoyment; and on the other, it investigated the relationship between such IDs and PM use. The study consisted of a cross-sectional sample of 39 full-EMI and 33 semi-EMI participants in second and third year of study plus 10 native speakers (NSs) (used as baseline data). Regarding the instruments, oral data were collected via a monologue and an interaction task to elicit PMs use. Then, in order to collect data on IDs, a series of questionnaires were administered. A functional-pragmatic approach was taken to the analysis of PMs.
As for the results of the first study, the findings showed a significant increase in the overall frequency and variety of types of PMs used from year two to year three. The full-EMI group used PMs at a significantly higher frequency and wider variety when compared to the semi-EMI group. Neither group reached baseline levels for the use of interpersonal PMs, whereas both groups displayed a higher use of textual PMs compared to the NSs. Results from the second study showed that EMI learners produced causal, contrast, sequential and topic shift/digression markers similarly to NSs. Finally, regarding the third study, results showed that full-EMI and semi-EMI groups did not differ according to motivational orientation; however, there were significant differences between learner’s motivations depending on year of study, with third-year learners being more ought to self motivated than second-year learners. Other findings revealed that strong ought to L2 self motivational orientation learners demonstrated an increased frequency of PM use. In addition, level of enjoyment correlated to an increased use of PMs, and learners with positive attitudes towards English also reported stronger ideal L2 selves.
