This study investigates the effects of instruction delivered via a learner-centered, self-access website on the learning of expressions of gratitude by L2 Chinese learners across proficiency levels. Three research questions are addressed: (1) whether the web-based instruction facilitates students' learning of Chinese expressions of gratitude, (2) whether the effects of instruction vary across proficiency levels, and (3) how L2 learners regard the use of the website as a learning tool. Based on the noticing hypothesis and the pragmatic consciousness-raising approach, a pragmatics website was developed that provided explicit instruction on how to appropriately express gratitude in Chinese and offered awareness-raising exercises and activities for practice. It was structured in eight instructional units and two review sessions. To address the three research questions, this study adopted a pretest-posttest design to include two groups of learners who differed in their proficiency in the Chinese language. The two groups of learners received pragmatics instruction delivered via the self-access website over five weeks. Two weeks prior to the instruction, all learners were asked to complete (1) the language contact profile (LCP) for eliciting their demographic information and their contact with Chinese outside the classroom, (2) a local standardized Chinese proficiency test (CPT) for assessing their proficiency in Chinese, (3) discourse completion tasks/tests (DCT) for soliciting their production of Chinese expressions of gratitude, (4) metapragmatic assessment tasks (MAT) for eliciting their metapragmatic assessment of thanking responses provided, and (5) retrospective interviews for soliciting learners' explanations of their assessments in the MAT. On a weekly basis during the treatment period, learners wrote reflective e-journals in response to prompt questions provided by the researcher, which helped track learners' self-access study progress and their on-going perceptions of the website. One week after the online instruction, all learners were also asked to complete the same types of questionnaires (i.e., the DCT and the MAT) and retrospective interviews for assessing their pragmatic development. Results showed that after receiving the web-based instruction, all learners produced more appropriate expressions of gratitude and used more varied thanking strategies in their responses, regardless of their proficiency. Learners' assessments of Chinese expressions of gratitude became more target-like and their metapragmatic awareness was also promoted. However, higher-level learners seemed to have benefited more from the instruction in their production of Chinese expressions of gratitude than lower-level participants, and the higher-level group demonstrated an overall higher level of pragmatic awareness than the lower-level group after the online instruction. But no significant difference was found between the two groups in terms of learners' metapragmatic assessments. In addition, participants responded positively to the website and put forward constructive suggestions to improve it. Finally, this study interpreted the findings based on cognitive processing theories, proposed both theoretical and pedagogical implications, and discussed the limitations of this study and directions for future research.

No description available.

Thesis (M.Soc.Sc.)--University of Hong Kong, 2006. / Title from title page (viewed Apr. 19, 2007) Includes bibliographical references (p. 35-43)

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Toledo, 2006.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, San Diego and San Diego State University, 2006. / Title from first page of PDF file (viewed January 4, 2007). Available via ProQuest Digital Dissertations. Vita. Appendix C : Language proficiency measures in Hindi. Includes bibliographical references (p. 231-253).

This research investigated aspects of the morphosyntactic language development of 115 3-, 4-, and 5-year-old monolingual Spanish-speaking preschool children who resided in Cali, Colombia. Two general language measures were collected from the children: a standardized receptive vocabulary measure (Test de Vocabulario en Imágenes, TVIP), and a parental report of speech and language problems. In addition, morphosyntactic measures of language development were obtained using both a story retelling and an elicitation task. Developmental language measures such as number of T-units (NU-TU), mean length of T-units (MLTU), subordination index (SUB-I), and grammatical errors per T-unit (GRE-TU) were derived from the narratives. Percentages of correct use of direct and indirect object pronouns, reflexive pronouns, definite articles, indefinite articles, plurals and adjectives were obtained from an elicitation task that was specifically designed for this study. Counts of use of these grammatical structures were also calculated from the narratives. There were no statistically significant differences between the three age groups on standard scores for the TVIP or scores for the parent questionnaires, indicating that the three age groups were comparable. For the developmental language measures there was an increasing developmental pattern for NU-TU, MLTU and SUB-I, but no changes were found for GRE-TU. Statistically significant changes for the productive use of the grammatical structures of interest to this study were almost always seen between 3 and 4 years of age. Adult use of these grammatical structures was always statistically significantly more correct than child productions. This investigation provides novel normative data for NU-TU, MLTU, SUB-I and GRE-TU for preschool children. This investigation also offers original data on the productive use of object pronouns, articles, adjectives and plurals across the preschool years. The language battery used in this investigation proved to be sensitive to developmental changes between 3 and 4-5 year olds and has the potential to be used as an eventual diagnostic tool for the identification of children with language disorders. Speech-language pathologists who work with Spanish-speaking children will be able to use this normative information to conduct more objective language assessments.

This research investigated aspects of the morphosyntactic language development of 115 3-, 4-, and 5-year-old monolingual Spanish-speaking preschool children who resided in Cali, Colombia. Two general language measures were collected from the children: a standardized receptive vocabulary measure (Test de Vocabulario en Imágenes, TVIP), and a parental report of speech and language problems. In addition, morphosyntactic measures of language development were obtained using both a story retelling and an elicitation task. Developmental language measures such as number of T-units (NU-TU), mean length of T-units (MLTU), subordination index (SUB-I), and grammatical errors per T-unit (GRE-TU) were derived from the narratives. Percentages of correct use of direct and indirect object pronouns, reflexive pronouns, definite articles, indefinite articles, plurals and adjectives were obtained from an elicitation task that was specifically designed for this study. Counts of use of these grammatical structures were also calculated from the narratives. There were no statistically significant differences between the three age groups on standard scores for the TVIP or scores for the parent questionnaires, indicating that the three age groups were comparable. For the developmental language measures there was an increasing developmental pattern for NU-TU, MLTU and SUB-I, but no changes were found for GRE-TU. Statistically significant changes for the productive use of the grammatical structures of interest to this study were almost always seen between 3 and 4 years of age. Adult use of these grammatical structures was always statistically significantly more correct than child productions. This investigation provides novel normative data for NU-TU, MLTU, SUB-I and GRE-TU for preschool children. This investigation also offers original data on the productive use of object pronouns, articles, adjectives and plurals across the preschool years. The language battery used in this investigation proved to be sensitive to developmental changes between 3 and 4-5 year olds and has the potential to be used as an eventual diagnostic tool for the identification of children with language disorders. Speech-language pathologists who work with Spanish-speaking children will be able to use this normative information to conduct more objective language assessments.

The fact that English is not only a widespread foreign language,a recognized lingua franca in Sweden but even one of the major subjects at Swedish secondary school promotes its acquisition at all levels of everyday life. The increasing mobility of the world population has resulted in a unique situation when English is acquired as L3 by many students. In secondary schools English teachers daily meet students whose native language is not Swedish. The palette of the students' native languages is colourful and diverse: Polish, Arabic, Spanish, Chinese, Croatian, etc.-- all in one classroom. Teaching English in multicultural classes is a more complex and flexible process than it was two decades ago.The problem a teacher of English faces now is that English has to be taught not only as L2 to native Swedish speakers but as L3 (and even L4) to non-native ones. Both learning and teaching L3 differs in many ways from teaching and learning L2. This task becomes even more complex if one takes into account the diversity of proficiency levels of Swedish as L2 among students. Better understanding of cross-linguistic interferences between L2 and L3 would provide teachers with better understanding of processes that non-native Swedish students undergo while acquiring English as L3 and provide them with necessary scaffolding.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Oregon, 2000. / Typescript. Includes vita and abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 96-102). Also available for download via the World Wide Web; free to University of Oregon users.

Thesis (M.A.)--Brigham Young University. Dept. of Language Studies, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 59-61).