Previous studies of bilingual infants learning their languages simultaneously have suggested that such children go through what is known as a unified speech period in which they make no differentation between the languages in question and in which they frequently use mixed utterances (Arnberg, 1987; Grosjen, 1982; Leopold, 1939; & Skutnabb-Kangas, 1981). To test the validity of the claim that there is such a period, an English-Japanese bilingual child from one year and six months of age (1;6) through two years and six months of age (2;6) was observed and his speech recorded.

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This thesis investigates language standardization from linguistic, sociolinguistic and critical applied linguistic perspectives. It arises from my involvement with a local ex-refugee Hmong community, who asked me a few years ago to assist in an ongoing standardization project; working first on orthography establishment, then moving on to dictionary work. This work has led me to consider what directs the phenomenon, the goals and the procedures of standardization. An intricate web of ideologies, intergroup relations, linguistic considerations and practical requirements motivate and shape the course it follows. Speakers and researchers, the minority community and the dominant culture all influence its processes and outcomes. For my primary Hmong consultancy group, a strong socio-politico-religious position leads the standardization agenda, manifested particularly in the choice of a unique script. Throughout the wider Hmong community, values including orthodoxy, progressivism and nationism interact with communicative, pedagogical, scientific and technological imperatives, as well as the broader context of recent relocation to a western environment. This complex of conditions informs the salient problems and directions discussed. My approach comprises (i) a descriptive linguistic and sociolinguistic assessment of how particular aspects of language are treated in standardisation, and (ii) a post-Foucauldian investigation of how the processes of standardization are given form as possible objects of thought, discussion or action. In order to explore these questions: / (i) I ground my case study in a descriptive and analytical presentation of the language and linguistics topics most salient to standardisation. Base linguistic issues include phonology and word formation. Key language planning issues are standard dialect, orthography, lexical elaboration, tools of standardisation and dissemination. Contentions and solutions are discussed for each issue which arises, as seen from various positions from both inside and outside the Hmong-speaking community. The focuses and projects of many different subgroups are incorporated, and the local dictionary project discussed in depth. / (ii) I excavate and construct the discourse formations—that is, the structures which predispose the particular ideas, principles and directions of standardization that emerge. I examine the strategies people employ in their movement within these discourse formations, and explore how the discourses are perpetually reworked and reconstituted in the process of their actualisation during the standardization processes. / The strong orientation of this thesis on the one hand to the work and ideas of the speech community, and on the other hand to exploring the underlying structures shaping language and linguistics work, calls attention to the some of structures implicit in the research itself. Specifically, this thesis foregrounds considerations of the changing roles of researchers and speakers, the legitimation of certain kinds of knowledge, and the differences in what can be understood of the object of research depending on the discursive position of the viewer. I develop working principles which pursue diversity of viewing positions, emphasise the knowledge and perspectives of speakers, and privilege the small and particular over the dominant and central. / The thesis as a whole contributes to: • furthering current understanding of linguistic and sociolinguistic aspects of the Hmonglanguage and its standardization / • expanding linguistic theory to incorporate social conditions and discursive bases as aninextricable part of the language ecology.

This study investigates the impact of the Skills for Life Strategy (2001) on assessment practices in ESOL teaching in England, and whether these assessments resulted in any washback. In this qualitative study, the Henrichsen (1989) model of the diffusion of innovation acted as the framework to explore the assessment of ESOL students in 3 further education colleges in the UK, using interviews and observations. The research found that due to the Strategy, assessment became considerably more standardised, with the focus falling on a range of external exams, although the effects of internal measures such as Independent Learning Plans was also noted. While washback was detected, mostly in the form of changes in staff-student relationships, the ‘double accounting’ of students preparing to sit the Skills for Life exams as well as other exams, and to some degree more of a focus on accuracy in classroom work, the washback was not particularly strong. This was attributed to the timing of the study, being relatively close to the introduction of the new range of exams. The washback was also noted to be differential, namely, that the washback was not uniform across the sites studied. Factors to explain this were investigated, including the variability of the stakes for various stakeholders, features of the teachers themselves, the quality and nature of the communication of the changes and finally other factors, as suggested by the Henrichsen model. The latter suggested some distortion of the aims of assessment cause by perceived pressure to reach targets to secure funding. The results suggested there was considerable variability, leading to the conclusion that washback studies, which are vital for monitoring exams, need to avoid being simplistic and thus missing key factors which illuminate contextual detail. The nature of washback can easily be masked by superficial investigation.

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The current study builds upon previous UK EAL research by i. sampling EAL children who do not struggle with reading comprehension and ii. investigating participants’ semantic ability at the word, sentence and discourse levels. Four groups of 9-10 year old children were recruited: EAL Average Readers; EL1 Average Readers; EAL Above Average Readers; EL1 Above Average Readers. At the word level, EL1 participants significantly outperformed EAL participants on 2 out of 6 vocabulary measures administered (TOWK Expressive Vocabulary and Multiple Contexts). The results of an idiom comprehension measure (ICM) showed that EAL and EL1 participants did not differ in their ability to engage in semantic analysis or in inference from context (semantic ability at the sentence and at the discourse levels respectively). The EL1 Above Average group alone were able to use prior experience with English language idioms to their advantage when answering the ICM. For the EAL participants, relationships between performance on the TOWK Expressive Vocabulary and Multiple Contexts and on the ICM are stronger than for the EL1 participants. The relationships between performance on the ICM and on a measure of reading comprehension are also stronger for EAL than for EL1 participants. These results suggest the following: i. it is important to develop the vocabulary abilities of EAL children, as the relationships between word-level semantic skills and sentence/discourse level semantic skills are stronger for EAL children than for their EL1 peers; ii. the relationships between the knowledge and skills measured by the ICM (i.e. prior knowledge of English language idioms; semantic analysis; inference from context) and reading comprehension are stronger for EAL than for EL1 children, suggesting the importance of a comprehensive approach to the semantic development of EAL children.