French Studies (Theses)https://dspace.mic.ul.ie/handle/10395/15182024-03-28T14:56:59Z2024-03-28T14:56:59ZForeign language anxiety in the Irish third-level context and the potential of performative pedagogy for learners' of Frenchhttps://dspace.mic.ul.ie/handle/10395/31492023-10-24T02:01:08Z2023-10-23T00:00:00ZForeign language anxiety in the Irish third-level context and the potential of performative pedagogy for learners' of French
Who among us has never been lost in translation at one point or another when learning a language?
Given its complex nature, the study of second language (L2) acquisition has become a largely
interdisciplinary enterprise and has received considerable critical attention from many different
research disciplines including psychology, linguistics, education, and sociology. Research trends
across the disciplines have been predominantly centred on the cognitive, linguistic and social
dimensions of the language acquisition process. There is, however, an additional affective
dimension within the language learning process which, until very recently, has attracted
considerably less critical scholarly attention.
While engaging with these interrelated dimensions, this study seeks to call attention to and
interrogate more closely the impact of emotion on the language learner and, more specifically, on
the ever-evolving and complex process of language acquisition. Within this broader focus on the
affective dimension of language learning, the investigation specifically concentrates upon foreign
language anxiety (FLA), a psychological construct which represents a significant emotional barrier
to successful language acquisition. Both theoretical and experimental, this investigation employs a
single pre-post intervention case study as a primary methodological tool in order to address two
central research aims. Firstly, this study seeks to uncover to what extent final year students of
French, in the Irish third-level context, experience FLA, and to explore the principal factors that
trigger this reaction in the language learning process. Secondly, it aspires to investigate the
potentiality of performative pedagogy, enacted through a theatre praxis, in reducing or alleviating
students levels of FLA.
At present, Ireland is undergoing a dynamic evolution in its linguistic and educational landscape,
which provides the basis for a rich and contemporary case study on language learning. Despite
Ireland s evolving relationship with language and language learning, presently, there is a dearth of
research and lack of awareness on L2 acquisition that is specific to the Irish context, and perceptions
of language learners in the Irish context remain anecdotal. To facilitate and evolve the knowledge
required to develop this refined understanding, FLA was chosen as the point de départ for this
investigation, as it has never been explored in the Irish context and provides valuable and holistic
insight into the various dimensions of the L2 acquisition process.
Pre-intervention findings highlighted the influence of empathy, familiarity, understanding, forming
dialogic relationships, and self-confidence on FLA levels. The performance intervention,
conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic, highlighted a number of significant ways in which
FLA may be alleviated in and through performance, including the development of communicative
proficiency, the establishment of empathetic support, the integration of a creative medium to
teach language, the removal of uncertainty surrounding the examination process, and the
development of a collective sense of accomplishment. Findings also provided additional evidence
with respect to transitioning performance from stage to screen and, moreover, the important role it
played in alleviating students FLA. While the embodiment of a character provided students with
one veil to overcome their communication apprehension, the screen served as another mask that
helped them to reach their highest potential.
2023-10-23T00:00:00ZA Literary translation and critical analysis of Voltaire's "Prix de la justice et de l'humanité" (1777)https://dspace.mic.ul.ie/handle/10395/29372021-02-20T03:00:43Z2021-02-19T00:00:00ZA Literary translation and critical analysis of Voltaire's "Prix de la justice et de l'humanité" (1777)
On 1 October 1777, the Economic Society of Berne proposed a reform discussion in the Gazette de Berne, that required entrants to ‘compose and write a complete and detailed legislative proposal on criminal matters.’ As a member of the Society, Voltaire composed and submitted his own treatise Prix de la Justice et de l’Humanité (1777), in response to the proposed competition as a gesture of support. Unlike many of his other celebrated works, Prix de la Justice et de l’Humanité was never adequately translated into the English language.
However, the following research study has produced a comprehensively annotated literary translation of the first edition of Voltaire’s treatise, including detailed commentaries and an integrated analysis. In order to accurately represent Voltaire’s views about crime and punishment, the following study examined the historical background of Prix de la Justice et de l’Humanité, including its publication and the first edition of the treatise. In addition, Voltaire’s relationship with justice throughout his life as well as his literary style were also examined. Furthermore, a detailed analysis of Prix de la Justice et de l’Humanité is presented, which addresses principal themes in the treatise including corruption, freedom of speech and thought, the death penalty, rationalist thought, and social optimism.
Keywords: Criminal theory, legal history, crime and punishment, capital punishment, French enlightenment, criminal law, rationalist thought, social optimism.
2021-02-19T00:00:00ZInstruire et plaire - l’implication idéologique de la littérature enfantine dans le débat sur l’éducation en France au XIXe sièclehttps://dspace.mic.ul.ie/handle/10395/29322021-02-20T03:01:03Z2021-02-19T00:00:00ZInstruire et plaire - l’implication idéologique de la littérature enfantine dans le débat sur l’éducation en France au XIXe siècle
‘To instruct and delight’: ideology and children’s literature in 19th-century France
The dialectical tension between instructional and purely recreational, between didactic and imaginative, between socialisation and entertainment, is one that lies at the very heart of literary creation, especially that aimed at a younger readership.
In 19th-century France, more than ever, children’s literature becomes invested with a dual mission to both entertain and instruct the young, as the emergence of new education laws creates favourable conditions for an expanding and increasingly diverse readership.
Through a comparison of various texts, in terms of the light which they shed on the production of children’s literature across the full range of the period, this thesis sets out to examine the place of ‘education’ and ‘recreation’ within the polyphony of ideological discourses which criss-cross 19th-century educational thought. A corpus of sixteen works has been selected in order to reveal the educational impact of children’s literature in the form of short stories and romans d’apprentissage, and to highlight the extent to which such texts form an integral part of contemporary educational debates. An analysis of their underlying ideological discourse also reveals the potentially subversive nature of the genre.
2021-02-19T00:00:00ZLa fabrique d’un roi: les représentations de Louis XIV pendant son enfance et sa première jeunesse (1638-1661) dans la fiction littéraire en France de la Révolution à Alexandre Dumashttps://dspace.mic.ul.ie/handle/10395/20692018-01-24T20:58:36Z2016-01-01T00:00:00ZLa fabrique d’un roi: les représentations de Louis XIV pendant son enfance et sa première jeunesse (1638-1661) dans la fiction littéraire en France de la Révolution à Alexandre Dumas
This doctoral thesis proposes a study of fictional representations of the young dauphin and monarch Louis XIV in literary fiction in France from the Revolution to Alexandre Dumas. It specifically examines the portrayal of the future Sun King from his birth in 1638 to the commencement of his personal rule over France, following the death of Cardinal Mazarin on 9th March 1661. The main aim of this work is to understand how, in the French collective imagination, the figure of the dauphin and the young king evolved and was shaped by writers from the Revolution to 1854. This work identifies the various historical sources used by eighteenth and nineteenth-century novelists and playwrights and discusses the networks of influence that can be found within their works of fiction. Furthermore, by comparing successive fictional portraits of Louis as a child, teenager and young man with the historical facts, as established by the most renowned and authoritative seventeenth-century specialists, it sheds light on the aesthetic, political and ideological choices made by authors in the first half of the long nineteenth century.
2016-01-01T00:00:00Z