Questões sobre Preposições | Prepositions

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    The Vienna Oxford International Corpus of English (VOICE), a collection of English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) currently under construction, defines lingua franca as an additionally acquired language system that serves as a means of communication for speakers from different speech communities, who use it to communicate with each other but for whom it is not their native language.

    Early findings from the VOICE corpus tentatively identify a number of features which point to systematic lexicogrammatical differences between native-speaker English and ELF, for example dropping the third person present tense ‘s’ (e.g. she wear), omitting definite and indefinite articles, insertion of prepositions (e.g. can we discuss about this issue). These features are not a threat to comprehension, as they involve typical errors that most English teachers would correct and remediate. However, Seidlhofer (2004) points out that they appear to be generally unproblematic and do not cause an obstacle to communicative success in ELF. 

    The work of Jenkins (1996, 2000, 2004, 2005) has also been very influential in relation to the teaching of pronunciation for ELF. Her research finds that a number of items common to most native-speaker varieties of English were not necessary in successful ELF interactions; for example, the substitution of voiceless and voiced th with /t/ or /s/ and /d/ or /z/ (e.g. think became sink or tink, and this became dis or zis). Jenkins argues that such features occur regularly in ELF interactions and do not cause intelligibility problems.

    Problems may arise in the (perhaps unfair) equation between a reduced or ‘stripped down’ ELF syllabus and an impoverished experience of the L2. Indeed, it could be argued that learners of any language always end up producing less than the input they are exposed to, and that if that input itself is deliberately restricted, then even less will be the outcome.

(O’KEEFFE, A., MCCARTHY, M. & CARTER, R. From corpus to classroom. Language Use and Language Teaching. Cambridge, CUP. 2007. Adaptado)

        Girls play outside in nature less than boys do, even at the age of two, according to the first national survey of play among preschool-age children in Britain. While researchers expect to see older children socialised to particular gender roles, they were shocked to see similar patterns of behaviour starting to emerge at such a young age. They fear it could have long-term implications for girls’ health, as girls are less physically active as they get older and are more likely than boys to have difficulties with their mental health.

         The study also found that preschool-age children from a minority ethnic background play less outdoors than their white counterparts, and children in urban areas play less outdoors than those in rural areas. “The results highlight inequalities in play even in the youngest age group, which may exacerbate existing inequalities in health,” the report concluded.

         The research surveyed more than 1,100 parents and carers of children aged two, three and four. They found that preschool children spent approximately four hours a day at play, of which one hour and 45 minutes was spent playing outdoors, mainly in back gardens at home. Away from home, children played in playgrounds and green spaces, with the most adventurous play usually associated with indoor play centres.

         “The popularity of these play centers is growing,” the report said. “This may be driven by indoor play centres providing adventurous play experiences that overcome some of the barriers to outdoor adventurous play such as traffic, weather and safety concerns.”

Sally Weale. Girls play outside less than boys even at two years old, UK survey reveals.

In: The Guardian. Internet:<theguardian.com>  (adapted).