published_or_final_version / Language Studies / Master / Master of Arts

Thesis (M.S.)--Eastern Illinois University, 2010. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 61-70).

Incidental language acquisition has been a topic of interest in the field of education, cognitive psychology, and behavior analysis (Horne & Lowe, 1996; Carey & Bartlett, 1978; Greer & Speckman, 2009). Researchers in the area of verbal behavior and derived relations have developed multiple perspectives that overlap in many ways (Greer & Ross, 2008; Greer & Speckman, 2009; Hayes, Barnes-Holmes, and Roche, 2001). Despite the overlap of these perspectives, research to date has been conducted independently. Fienup (2019) acknowledges the overlap in the respective work and suggest that integration can produce a more cohesive and comprehensive understanding of the development of verbal behavior. Study 1 included two experiments. In Experiment 1, the experimenter exposed 14 preschoolers with varying degrees of bidirectional naming (3 classified as having bidirectional naming (BiN), 8 as having unidirectional naming (UniN), and 3 as having no incidental naming (NiN) to two conditions, 1) directly reinforcing speaker (tact) responses and testing for the emergence of listener (point to) responses, and 2) directly reinforcing listener responses and testing for the emergence of speaker responses. The experimenter rotated between two conditions. Results suggested that participants with BiN readily derived speaker and listener responses, participants with unidirectional naming (UniN) readily derived listener, but not speaker responses, and participants with NiN had difficulty acquiring directly reinforced responses and deriving responses. In Study 1 Experiment 2, six participants with unidirectional naming (UniN) were selected from Experiment 1. Multiple Exemplar Instruction (MEI) and stimulus-stimulus pairing procedures were implemented to induce the capability of BiN. Following the acquisition of BiN, the experimenter replicated the repeated measure design of directly reinforcing speaker or listener responses and testing for the emergence of corresponding responses. Upon the acquisition of BiN, participants derived both listener and speaker relations, suggesting that the development from UniN to BiN is associated with the stimulus control for speaker responses following direct reinforcement for listener responses. Study 2 addressed the limitations of Study 1 and replicated the procedures with new participants and new science educational content. The experimenter selected 6 participants that demonstrated BiN and 5 that demonstrated UniN. Data support the findings of Study 1, suggesting that degrees of bidirectional naming are associated with degrees of derived relational responding.

The present study was designed to investigate the perceptual and spectrographic features of vocal effort in the speech of severely to profoundly hearing-impaired children and their normal hearing agemates. Recorded vowel and speech samples were obtained from ten normal hearing children, ten severely to profoundly hearing-impaired children attending Oral/Aural educational programs, and eight severely to profoundly hearing-impaired children attending Total Communication programs. The degree of perceived vocal effort for vowels and speech was evaluated, using a nine point equal-appearing-interval scale. In order to obtain a physical measurement for vocal effort, a digital wave analyzer was used to produce vowel spectra, and the amount of in-harmonic (noise) components in each spectrum was indexed as spectral noise level.

Intellectually normal young children learn to request absent but needed objects which they are able to name. The primary focus of my study of child language in context was to assess the motivational effect of operation or stimulus preference on Lhe rate of toy request acquisition and the formation of stimulus classes (stimulus equivalences) . Of 13 21- to 37- month-old day-care children screened for generalized request responses (novel requests) , 1 girl and 4 boys participated in the training program because they were unable to request. Two of 4 children who completed training showed some support for the effect of preference for two two-stimulus operations on request response acquisition. All 4 children emitted novel requests to generalization probes following request acquisition criterion for one most and one least preferred stimulus. Preference had no observable effect on generalization of requesting to untrained stimuli. Additionally, I assessed and compared the cognitive-linguistic and adaptive-social maturity of those 5 children who were unable and those 8 who were able to request during preliminary request screening. The trained children tended to have a greater difference between their measured receptive and expressive language skills, and also they tended to have slightly lower scores on the Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales: Communication, Daily Living Skills, Socialization, and Motor Skills Domains. I also tested the efficacy of a natural language paradigm using a distributed skills trial sequence with interspersed trials of known-items as an extension of Tidwell's (1986) matching-to-sample, errorless learning procedure. Four within-subject replications of successful operation, name, and request acquisition are reported across 8 operations in support of his response chain methodology. I suggest that a battery of most of the developmental measures and request screening and training procedures tested in my study might be used by behavioral interventionists to assess and remediate delayed and/or inappropriate requesting among young normally developing children in a day-care setting.

Call number: LD2668 .T4 1966 H873 / Master of Science

Thesis (PhD)--Stellenbosch University, 2015. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This study investigated the comprehension and production of articles, quantifiers, binding relations and passive constructions as later developing constructions (LDCs) by 27 Grade (Gr) 1 monolingual Afrikaans-speaking learners with Afrikaans as language of learning and teaching (LOLT), 31 bilingual isiXhosa-speaking learners with English as LOLT and 31 monolingual isiXhosa-speaking learners with isiXhosa as LOLT in three non-fee-paying schools, each in a different low socio-economic status area, in the Stellenbosch area of the Western Cape Province in South Africa. The overarching aim of this study was to determine which LDCs these learners are capable of comprehending and producing at the start of Gr 1 and what progress they make in terms of these LDCs during their Gr 1 year. The English and isiXhosa LOLT groups were then compared on how they fared on the LDCs in their respective LOLTs in order to ascertain whether the English language proficiency of the English group is at such a level at the start of Gr 1 that they can, without disadvantage, undergo schooling successfully in English. Data were collected on articles, binding relations, quantifiers and passive constructions by using the informal language assessment instrument, the Receptive and Expressive Activities for Language Therapy (Southwood & Van Dulm 2012a), which makes use of picture selection- and pointing tasks for assessment of comprehension and sentence completion, picture description- and question answering tasks for assessment of production. The results showed that for the Afrikaans and English groups all four LDCs are indeed later developing and are only mastered after the end of Gr 1. For the isiXhosa group, quantifiers and passive production are mastered by the end of Gr 1. In terms of the language-in-education and teaching policy, the results show that the time allocated to listening to and producing language in Gr 1 is sufficient for children whose first language is also their LOLT, whereas it is not sufficient in the case of English additional language learners. The latter group made significant progress in all LDCs assessed, but still performed worse than their isiXhosa-speaking peers, for whom there was a match between first language and LOLT. The implication of the results are that (i) the Foundation Phase school curriculum should be refined so as to consider the needs of all Gr 1 learners, as learners enter Gr 1 with different language skills and different levels of preparation for the tasks which lie before them, (ii) teachers should be assisted to foster the development of language skills in additional language learners, and (iii) the institution of a universal Gr R year, which is free to those who cannot afford school fees, should be considered a necessity. Without ensuring that all children enter Gr 1 with an adequate language foundation on which literacy development can build, historical inequalities still present in South Africa will likely be perpetuated rather than systematically removed. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie studie ondersoek die begrip en produksie van lidwoorde, kwantifiseerders, bindingsverhoudings en passiefkonstruksies as later-ontwikkelende konstruksies (LOKs) deur Graad 1 (Gr 1)-leerders. Die deelnemers was 27 eentalige Afrikaanssprekendes met Afrikaans as taal van leer en onderrig (TLO), 31 tweetalige isiXhosa-sprekendes met Engels as TLO en 31 eentalige isiXhosa-sprekendes met isiXhosa as TLO, in drie nie-skoolfondsbetalende skole, elk in 'n ander area met lae sosio-ekonomiese status in die Stellenbosch-omgewing in die Wes-Kaap Provinsie van Suid-Afrika. Die oorkoepelende doel van hierdie studie was om te bepaal watter LOKs hierdie leerders in staat is om te verstaan en te produseer aan die begin van Gr 1 en watter vordering hulle in terme van hierdie LOKs maak tydens hul Gr 1-jaar. Die Engelse en isiXhosa TLO-groepe is vergelyk in terme van hoe hulle gevaar het op die LOKs in hul onderskeie TLOs, ten einde vas te stel of die Engels-taalvaardighede van die Engelse TLO-groep op so 'n vlak aan die begin van Gr 1 is dat hulle sonder benadeling hul skoolopleiding suksesvol in Engels kan ontvang. Data is ingesamel oor lidwoorde, bindingsverhoudings, kwantifiseerders en passiefkonstruksies met die informele taalassesseringsinstrument, die Reseptiewe en Ekspressiewe Aktiwiteite vir Later-ontwikkelende Taalvaardighede (Southwood & Van Dulm 2012a), wat gebruik maak van prentseleksietake vir die assessering van taalbegrip en van sinsvoltooiings-, prentbeskrywings- en vraagbeantwoordingstake vir die assessering van taalproduksie. Die resultate het aangetoon dat al vier LOKs wel later ontwikkelend is vir die Afrikaanse en Engelse TLO-groepe en slegs bemeester word ná die einde van Gr 1. Vir die isiXhosa-groep is kwantifiseerders en passiefproduksie teen die einde van Gr 1 bemeester. Gegee die taal-in-onderwys- en onderrigbeleid toon die resultate dat die tyd wat toegeken is aan die ontwikkeling van luister- en taalproduksievaardighede in Gr 1 voldoende is vir kinders wie se eerste taal ook hul TLO is, terwyl dit onvoldoende is in die geval van Engels Addisionele Taalleerders. Laasgenoemde groep het beduidende vordering gemaak oor hul Gr 1-jaar in alle LOKs, maar het steeds swakker gevaar as hul isiXhosa-sprekende eweknieë wie se eerste taal en TLO ooreenstem. Die implikasies van die resultate is (i) dat die grondslagfase-skoolkurrikulum verfyn behoort te word met inagname van alle Gr 1-leerders se taalbehoeftes, omdat leerders Gr 1 betree met verskillende taalvaardigheidsvlakke asook verskillende vlakke van voorbereiding vir die take wat voorlê in Gr 1, (ii) dat onderwysers gehelp moet word om die ontwikkeling van taalvaardighede vir Addisionele Taal-leerders te bevorder, en (iii) dat die instelling van 'n universele Gr R-jaar, gratis vir diegene wat nie skoolfonds kan bekostig nie, as noodsaaklik beskou behoort te word. As daar nie verseker word dat alle kinders Gr 1 betree met ‘n voldoende taalbasis waarop geletterdheidsontwikkeling kan bou nie, sal historiese ongelykhede, steeds teenwoordig in Suid-Afrika, waarskynlik eerder voortgesit as stelselmatig verwyder word.

published_or_final_version / abstract / toc / Linguistics / Master / Master of Philosophy

published_or_final_version / abstract / Linguistics / Master / Master of Arts

Despite claims by some theorists to the contrary, investigators have shown that information about grammatical errors is available to young children learning language via the conversational responses of their parents. The present study described five categories of responses in the conversations of working mothers and fathers to their normally developing two-year-old sons, and investigated whether any of these responses were differentially related to well-formed vs. ill-formed child utterances. Subjects were six middle-class, monolingual (English) parent-child dyads. Parents worked full-time jobs and the children were enrolled in full-time daycare. Within a two week period, four 20-minute conversational samples were audio and video recorded for each dyad in the subjects' homes during freeplay activities of the subjects' choice. Results indicated that the pattern of responses for these six parents was very similar to that reported for other parent-child dyads. The most frequent type of response for all parents was one that continued the conversation without either repeating or clarifying the child's previous utterance. The least frequent type of response was one that explicitly corrected portions of the child's utterance. Of all responses, repetitions--both clarifying and nonclarifying--appeared to be the type of response most differentially related to well-formed and ill-formed child utterances. Exact repetitions were more likely to follow well-formed utterances, while the remaining repetitions were more likely to follow ill-formed utterances. This pattern of differential responses was similar for all six dyads. Very few differences regarding the style or pattern of interaction were noted for fathers and mothers. Implications were drawn regarding the nature of linguistic input that is available to two-year-old children learning language.