The purpose of this research was to examine the impact of Paired Reading, a literacy intervention, on specific literacy and affective outcomes for 5 looked after children in Key Stage 2, all of whom attended mainstream schools in England. A literature review incorporating a systematic element illustrates the key research around looked after children, the important of literacy in general, and its specific importance for this population. It also demonstrates the critical role played by a key 'other', in supporting both the education of looked after children and the literacy development of all children. One particular intervention, Paired Reading, incorporates both of these aspects, focusing on literacy within the context of a child working with a more able 'other'. Empirical evidence of its effectiveness, particularly in readingrelated areas, is identified. Literature around literacy development demonstrates the complex relationship between literacy intervention, reading progress and various affective factors. The literature review leads to the identification of a 'gap' in the research around the impact of Paired Reading for LAC, in addition to the impact of Paired Reading more generally in affective domains. In order to examine the impact of Paired Reading for the focus looked after children, a series of single-case experiments were undertaken. A staff member at each child's school took weekly measures across baseline and intervention phases, examining the children's reading accuracy, reading fluency, reading confidence and academic selfconcept. The children's foster carers were trained in Paired Reading and asked to use the intervention with the children 5 days a week for at least 5 minutes a day, throughout the intervention phase. Graphically presented data were visually analysed and interrater reliability calculated. Results showed there was limited or no evidence to suggest practical improvements in the majority of the focus children's reading accuracy across phases. The results pertaining to reading fluency were inconclusive as while for three children no practical gains were found, two children did make a practical improvement in this area. Relating to the affective outcomes, all children showed a practical improvement in at least one of the measures of reading confidence. Finally one child showed a practical increase in academic self-concept, however the majority of children did not. The differing pattern of outcomes across participants further emphasises the need for research to focus at the XVll -, individual level, in addition to establishing average responses from group-based designs. The pattern of results is discussed in relation to the literature presented, and implications and key avenues for future research are outlined. XVlll

After introducing the notion that meaning-making during reading includes both inter-personal and intra-personal meaning-making and exploring several issues raised by any attempt to research this activity, a number of gaps are identified in the current model of the reading transaction, arising largely from Rosenbla~t's only-partial adoption of concepts from Peirce. Wiley's re-focusing of Peirce's theories of meaning and the dialogical self is then used as a starting-point for the modification of the transactional model and a variety of disciplinary perspectives are drawn on to propose ways in which the transactional model might encompass multimodal intra- and inter-personal dialogical meaning-making activity. After an account of the case study, selected semiotic resources are analyzed as instances of multimodal intra-personal, dialogical meaning-making activity embedded in higher-scalar ecosocial systems of interpretance and constituted by ideational, interpersonal and textual metafunctions. An attempt is úthen made first to demonstrate the multimodality of intra-personal meaning-making activity through the exploration of descriptions of meaning-making activity involving sound, and then to examine the role of emotion in intra-personal meaning-making. After a consideration of the role of genre in readers' responses, differences in the same reader's responses to different texts, the generic and ideological nature of different readers' responses to the same texts and some issues n;lated to the development of response over time are explored. The findings of the case study are then outlined, its strengths and weaknesses assessed and directions for future research and practice explored.

In this thesis I focus on children's engagements with moving image media in order to understand the role of film (and children's films in particular) in children's developing understandings of narrative. Using a collaborative and creative research methodology I invited six children in Year 5 to create stories in a variety of forms, including short films. I examined the children's understandings of narrative as expressed in their multimodal productions in the light of reader response and narrative theories. I also drew on data from interviews, the children's photography and a questionnaire to explore the role of film in the children's home and school identity and literacy practices. I demonstrate that the films the children encountered provided them with imaginative spaces in which they could create, play and perform familiar and unfamiliar, fantasy and everyday narratives. This narrative play was closely connected to identity and literacy practices (Marsh, 2005; Moje and McCarthey, 2002). Family was key to the support and encouragement of this social play (Marsh, 2005) and, at school, the playground was also key. However in the literacy classroom, some of the children encountered a discontinuity between their experiences of narrative at home and those that were valued in school. I present storied accounts of the developing identities of the children in the research group, in relation to film. I then demonstrate the distinct and complex understandings of narrative the children were able to express in spaces into which children's film and popular culture were explicitly invited. Here, I focus on children's understandings of both the characteristics of narrative across modes and on the kineikonic mode of film Burn and Parker (2003). Finally, I reflect on the challenges facing children whose primary experiences of narrative are embedded in moving image media when their experiences are not given opportunities for expression in the classroom

No description available.

This thesis presents a case study of some young linguistic minority learners in mainstream education in Vietnam. Using ethnographic approaches, the study focuses on some selected Muong-speaking children who experienced difficulties with learning in their first year of primary education. The study therefore aims to observe the process and situations in which these struggling children become categorised as ‘slow’ learners, and what the consequences are for these children. By employing an ethnographic approach, the study involved an extended data collection period, during which semi-structured interviews and participant observations were extensively carried out. Such an approach allows for an in-depth study of the perspectives of participants, as well as emphasizing the significance of the researcher identity. In this process, a careful collection and analysis of relevant documentation and participants’ work samples was also undertaken. The different layers surrounding these learners, both at school and at home, were observed and recorded. An analysis of observed lessons and samples of work from particular situations, identified in field notes, suggests that there are significant factors that may not be recognised in schools that negatively influence the learning of these children. The study flags up complicated issues regarding pupils at the lowest end of the learning spectrum, where changes in the education system may not be enough to adequately or effectively address their learning problems. Such issues challenge any potential developments in education policy by suggesting that socioeconomic issues may negate any attempt to improve the learning experience of economically disadvantaged linguistic minority children in some situations. The conclusion suggests that further study into the issue over a longer period of time would provide a fuller picture of the learning journey for children like those studied here. This also identifies the multifaceted difficulties that the education authorities in Vietnam face when addressing educational equity for all groups of learners. Overall, the study offers an alternative perception when examining the underachievement of linguistic minority learners in mainstream classes, as well as exploring the extent to which a learning programme and/or an education system could be made more equitable and accessible for all learners.

The purpose of this research was to investigate the effects of Irish medium education (immersion) on children's first language (L1; English) skills in the educational setting and on their executive functioning (EF) skills. A battery of tests was used to compare 8 Year- Old and 12 Year-Old children's performance on a range of tasks testing their L1 vocabulary, reading, writing, creative, and descriptive (academic) skills and their attention, inhibition, and task switching (EF) skills. Data were collected in two school types (immersion and English medium) in two areas in the Republic of Ireland and one school type (English medium) in one area in Northern Ireland to represent a monolingual sample. As such, this provided a comparison of three school types and, in particular, the effects of learning a second language (L2) to varying degrees of ability-either total immersion (successive bilingualism) or L2 learning for approximately 3.5 hours per week-upon children's L1 and EF skills. Overall, results revealed that immersion education in Irish had no detrimental effects on children's L1 (English) or EF skills. Indeed, results suggest that whereas immersion may have helped to enhance children's attention to and control of their L1, successive bilingualism itself had limited influence on EF skills, although there were some evidence of heightened performance in tasks of attention, inhibition, and task switching. These findings, in addition to the majority of research into bilingualism in the worldwide setting, could be used to inform parents and policy makers that Irish medium education has no negative effects upon children's L1 skills in the educational setting or their EF skills of attention, control, and inhibition.

Young children in nursery and school at the present time are active participants in a community and a culture where the use of technology is a regular, and growing, part of daily life. This thesis discusses the possible benefits of children's experience and awareness of ICT and examines aspects of teacher-child interaction in the context using computers to support literacy teaching in the classroom. A detailed consideration of the 'scaffolding' process and its role in supporting teaching and learning with ICT is made. The thesis describes and analyses a research project carried out in primary and nursery school classes with children aged between 3 and 8 years, over a period of two years. The research was designed to explore how children use computers to read and write in the classroom and to investigate the teachers' style of interaction when supporting children's literacy with ICT. The research was conducted from a sociocultural perspective and a range of methods, including video recordings, observations, questionnaires and semi-structured interviews were used to gather and evaluate data from children and teachers. After evaluation of the data, results from the project are analysed, and the thesis then discusses the findings of the study in relation to previous research and makes a number of points about the nature of teacher-child interaction around the computer during literacy sessions. The problematic nature of identifying and describing scaffolding and joint activity in the classroom is considered in detail and further areas for investigation discussed. In the concluding remarks a conceptual and theoretical position is advanced in the light of the study to determine ways forward for research in the field.

No description available.

The present thesis investigates language development and social functioning. It concentrates on the development of one aspect of language, namely conversational competence in children between the ages of three and half and seven. A main assumption is that language is an aspect of social life and must be understood accordingly. In the empirical research, nineteen children were observed interacting with - their mothers. The study had two aims. The first was to find out the extent to which children at different developmental ages were able to successfully communicate with their mothers. Here, two aspects of language use were investigated: the relevance of the child's comments to ongoing conversation and the orientation of the child's speech to the listener's perspective. The results indicate that children's language use is not as egocentric as the Piagetian perspective indicates. The second aim was to link the children's use of language with their social functioning. For that purpose, the same children were tested on several socio-cognitive tasks. The analysis showed that children's scores on the socio-cognitive tasks were related to several parameters of their language functioning.

This thesis is based upon an experimental study designed to establish the effects of task features on lexis and grammar in L2 (English as a second or foreign language) learners' oral performance by investigating the complex interactions between a wide range of interrelating variables. Specifically, task conditions (the presence or absence of planning time with descriptive vs. narrative tasks) are analysed with respect to lexical measures (word range, lexis-to-grammar ratio, lexical density, lexical choice, syllabic range, lexical strategy use and evidence for lexical stretching) and to grammatical measures (complexity and accuracy), as well as to measures of fluency. The thesis aims to look into the relationship between lexis and grammar within the context of spoken discourse where task features like planning time and task type interact. It is particularly focussed on lexis (which has so far been underplayed in L2 acquisition research). The concept of lexical stretching is proposed, as a parallel to the already familiar notion of grammaticallinterlanguage stretching, and evidence for lexical stretching is provided by drawing parallels between the quantitative, statistical analysis of oral performances and qualitative analysis of protocols held with learners on the completion of tasks. The research study addresses such questions as the effect of the provision of planning time on lexical vs. grammatical stretching: is there a trade-off between them, and is this further influenced by task type (operationalised here as descriptive vs. narrativebased tasks)? It also examines the ways in which contextual and interpersonal factors influence interlanguage use, particularly the use of lexis and grammar. Based on the analyses (both quantitative and qualitative), it is concluded that not only are there interdependencies between lexis and grammar, and most strikingly within lexis, but also there are contextual and interpersonal constraints on L2 learners' output, suggesting an interaction of task features and contextual factors.