Ana R. Luís

Weak object pronouns in brazilian portuguese: an LFG analysis

This paper argues that weak object pronouns in Brazilian Portuguese (BP) are best viewed as verbal morphology. However evidence also indicates that they can take wide scope over coordinated verbs, a property which entails that syntax can have access to the internal structure of words. To account for the mismatch between the morphological and syntactic properties of weak object pronouns in BP, we propose a mapping algorithm, formulated within LFG, that allows morphological sequences to be mapped onto more than one phrase-structure node.

Perceptions of the Educational Benefits of Mobile Devices in Language Teaching and Learning

This study investigates perceptions of the educational benefits of mobile devices in language teaching and learning. Within the context of Initial Teacher Education, MA students answered a semi-structured questionnaire containing questions about (a) their level of comfort with their mobile devices, (b) their own learning experiences with mobile devices and (c) their future teaching perspectives as English language teachers. The results reveal that a significant discrepancy exists between the students’ level of comfort, on the one hand, and their familiarity with the educational uses of mobile devices, on the other. Explicit training in the use of mobile devices as learning and teaching tools, with a focus on specific subject areas, is therefore needed in Initial Teacher Education programs to ensure that future teachers are capable of using mobile devices effectively.

ICT Training and Pre-service Teachers: Embracing the Challenge at Master’s Level

In Portugal, the legal framework for Initial Teacher Education stipulates that MA programs must cover the following five domains: (i) Subject Area, (ii) General Educational Sciences, (iii) Subject Didactics, (iv) Socio-Cultural Content and (v) Pre-Service Training. Given that Educational Technologies are not explicitly included, Higher Education Institutions can decide whether to offer ICT training or not, contradicting the widely-held view that Educational Technologies should be an integral component of Initial Teacher Education. The goal of this paper will be to investigate how the Portuguese legal framework has had an impact on the inclusion of ICT in Initial Teacher Education. We will analyse a wide range of MA Programs currently being offered at Portuguese universities (for Initial Teacher Education in Middle and Secondary Education) and provide evidence which shows that universities are failing to provide pre-service teachers the necessary training to help them embrace Educational Technologies in their future teaching practice.

Exploring technologically enhanced reading materials in L2 learning contexts

Technology-enhanced materials provide students with higher quality learning experiences offering them multimodal modes of information. One way of integrating technology into teaching materials is through the inclusion of hyperlinks and hypertexts which provide digitally accessible sources of information. The use of hyperlinks in English language coursebooks has significantly increased over the past decade in Portugal, in response to the ever increasing demand for authentic learning materials. In this paper, we survey an ongoing research project aimed at investigating the extent to which such hyperlinked texts can also be used to contribute to higher quality language learning.

MALL and second language teaching: Challenges for initial teacher education

A vast body of research has been exploring the effectiveness of Mobile Assisted Language Learning (MALL) in second language teaching and encouraging the incorporation of MALL into pedagogical practice (Bárcena, E. et al 2015, Kukulska-Hulme et al. 2015). Paradoxically, however, pre-service teachers tend to be unfamiliar with the benefits of using of mobile devices in language teaching and learning. Thus continued exposure to mobile-enhanced lessons is essential to the development of effective mobile-based tasks by pre-service teachers (Kevin et al. 2011). Considering that Initial Teacher Education is essential for shaping positive attitudes towards mobile technologies, this study aims to investigate how to best integrate MALL into Initial Teacher Education programs for second language teachers at the University of Coimbra. The goal of our study will be a) to prompt pre-service teachers to reflect on their use of mobile technologies (Kevin et. al. 2011), b) to engage pre-service teachers in effective mobile-learning activities (Hockly 2013) and c) to encourage lesson planning skills within recently developed mobile-enhanced pedagogical frameworks (Kukulska-Hulme et. al. 2015). In this paper, we describe our study and provide an outline of the phases that will be implemented, drawing implications about the challenges of mobile-learning for Initial Teacher Education in Portugal. While our study addresses primarily the needs identified through our contact with pre-service teachers of English, our discussion is also applicable to other content areas.