The purpose of this study was to investigate the praxis (theory and practice) of oral language by student teachers during their practicum. Specifically, this study identified and described the factors which 13 British Columbia student teachers perceived of as affecting the establishment of an orally interactive environment within their practicum classroom. Through the analysis of dialogue journals, interviews, and questionnaires, 24 factors in 5 categories were identified and described that affect the development of orally interactive teaching. The factors were grouped into categories of knowledge, position, expectations, structures, and assumptions. This study concludes that the identification of factors affecting orality in the practicum can assist teacher education programs and teachers to more effectively address the potential of orality as a medium for negotiation and meaning making in the classroom.

Thesis (MTech (Education))--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2015. / Writing pedagogy of the News Report genre across the Intermediate Phase in one school. The low levels of writing proficiency that are experienced by students is a global phenomenon and South Africa is no exception (DBE, 2008; 2013). The NEEDU Report (2012) and Hendricks (2007, 2008) argue that insufficient extended writing takes place in South African classrooms, resulting in limited textual and linguistic progression across grades. According to Hendricks (2007, 2008) and Dornbrack and Dixon (2014) little research around writing pedagogy has been carried out in South Africa, particularly on how genres or text types are taught and extended across the grades. This research examines the teaching of the News Report genre across the Intermediate Phase in one school, the discourses and positioning of literacy by the three teachers and how these are translated into practice. This study is underpinned by the notion of literacy as a social practice which Street (2003) and Prinsloo (2013) propose is not merely a technical and neutral skill but that it occurs in social practice not only through formal schooling but within a social context which has a direct bearing on it. Themes that emerge from the semi-structured interviews conducted with the three teachers include inadequate information on writing in the CAPS documents, an “overloaded” writing curriculum, a lack of pre-service/ in-service training, gaps in espoused pedagogy and the impact of teachers’ writing histories on their conceptualization of writing and espoused pedagogy. Classroom observations of writing lessons on this genre reveal the dominance of a skills discourse by two of the teachers. However, the third teacher who clearly articulated her own writing history as being “fraught and contested” illustrates evidence of a socio cultural writing pedagogy which deeply engages her students (Ivanic, 2004).

The purpose of this study was to determine if elementary student teachers applied the training received in a communication course on a thirteen week practicum, and if so, what specifically was applied or transferred. The practicum took place a year after the communication course; this study was undertaken nineteen months after the completion of the communication course. The participants had obtained a bachelor's degree prior to enrolling for a two year teacher training program. The critical incident technique and a structured questioning technique were used respectively in an intensive interviewing process. The findings reveal that the transference occurred in terms of attitude, knowledge, and skills from the experience of the communication course to the practical experience of the thirteen week practicum. These factors were helpful in creating a focussed and motivating presentational style, verbally and nonverbally, and in reducing stress and conflict in interactions with students, parents and collegues. Student teachers were adamant in stating that the success of their learning was due to the positive atmosphere of the communication course, the caring, enthusiastic and motivating nature of the instructors, and the bonding which occurred between the participants as a result of this caring. These factors provided the basic human needs of affection and community. / Education, Faculty of / Language and Literacy Education (LLED), Department of / Graduate

The purpose of this study was to investigate the praxis (theory and practice) of oral language by student teachers during their practicum. Specifically, this study identified and described the factors which 13 British Columbia student teachers perceived of as affecting the establishment of an orally interactive environment within their practicum classroom. Through the analysis of dialogue journals, interviews, and questionnaires, 24 factors in 5 categories were identified and described that affect the development of orally interactive teaching. The factors were grouped into categories of knowledge, position, expectations, structures, and assumptions. This study concludes that the identification of factors affecting orality in the practicum can assist teacher education programs and teachers to more effectively address the potential of orality as a medium for negotiation and meaning making in the classroom. / Education, Faculty of / Curriculum and Pedagogy (EDCP), Department of / Graduate

published_or_final_version / abstract / Education / Master / Master of Education

published_or_final_version / abstract / Education / Master / Master of Education

published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

The purpose of this study was examine the effects of guided recall prompts on the written recalls of community college students. Data were presented relative to the following areas: (1) statistical analysis of frequency of idea units; (2) statistical analysis of frequency as well as proportion of idea units categorized as literal; inferential, text-relevant supplementary, and text-irrelevant supplementary; (3) statistical analysis of frequency as well as proportion of idea supplementary units categorized as relating to character, theme, reader reaction, or none; (4) statistical analysis of holistic scores for quality of recall; (5) statistical analysis of correlation of holistic scores to frequency scores. Descriptive data relative to categorization of supplementary idea units relating to character, theme, reader reaction, or none were also reported. Subjects were students enrolled in developmental reading courses at Pima Community College who demonstrated a reading ability of at least ninth grade level on the Nelson Denny Reading Test. Subjects were randomly assigned to one of four recall prompts: (1) guided recall prompt which called attention to character, (2) guided recall prompt which called attention to theme, (3) guided recall prompt which called attention to reader reaction, or (4) free recall prompt. Findings indicated that guided recall prompts had effects on the written recalls and that those effects were specific to the respective prompt. Additionally, the responses of readers provided with the guided recall prompts were qualitatively better than those provided with the free recall prompt. A comparison of the frequency scores to the holistic scores seemed to indicate that the holistic score does reflect some aspects of comprehension--specifically literal and inferential recall; however, data also seemed to indicate that the holistic score measures something beyond those things measured by the frequency data

This study explores various aspects of the spelling and punctuation development of six Tohono O'odham (Papago) children during their third and fourth grade years. The data used, which was collected in a prior study, consisted of 215 texts (13,793 words) written in natural classroom settings as part of the teacher's ongoing writing curriculum. Field notes decribing what the subjects did as they wrote, as well as written interviews, supplemented the texts themselves. A number of specific features were examined to explore the subjects' use of various level of linguistic information about spelling. Those features included: initial letters, vowel phonemes, consonant digraphs, the letters C and G, consonant gemination, bound morphemes, and homophones. Spellings involving permutation (changes in letter order) and the letters E and Y as final markers, as well as those spellings which were real words, were also examined. Finally, differences between spellers, the subjects' use of punctuation and capitalization, and orthography in the classroom context were analyzed. A number of conclusions were drawn from the analysis. The subjects spelled most words conventionally. The more frequently a word appeared in the subjects' writing, the more likely it was to be spelled conventionally. Selected orthographic features varied widely in how conventionally they were spelled, with those which were less predictable or more abstract tending to be more difficult. Almost every spelling feature examined showed growth from third to fourth grade. The invented spellings of particular features tended to reflect understandable, logical processes. Invented spellings which were either real words or permutations of the intended word were common. There were differences between children not only in how conventionally they spelled but in the types of invented spellings they produced. Punctuation was more difficult than spelling for the subjects, and its use varied greatly between subjects. Capitalization was comparable to spelling in how conventionally it was used. Children used a variety of linguistic information and spelling strategies as they wrote. There was evidence that punctuation usage was driven (at least in some cases) by conscious hypotheses about how it works. Children's metalinguistic knowledge about orthography may or may not parallel their use of it.

The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of nonverbal communication training on the acquisition of expressive and receptive sign language skills. Thirteen skills were included. Twenty-eight participants enrolled in the Beginning Interpreter Training Program (BITP) held at the University of Arizona were selected as subjects. The subjects were randomly assigned to two groups, a control group and an experimental group. The experimental group received ten hours of nonverbal communication training in the categories of kinesics, eye movement, facial expression, proxemics, chronemics, haptics, and artifacts, concurrently with their participation in the BITP. A rating instrument was devised and administered that measured the subject's performance on thirteen expressive and receptive sign language skills. A comparison of pretest and posttest performances was made utilizing the analysis of covariance. The results of the statistical analysis indicated that the experimental group improved significantly on the skills of receptive clarity and receptive fluency. No statistically significant differences were found between the experimental group and the control group on the other eleven skills although the experimental group mean score values were consistently higher than the control group mean score values. The importance of the results for the two groups of subjects involved in this study and the field of interpreting is that nonverbal communication training appears to enhance the receptive clarity and fluency abilities of sign language interpreters. This study should serve as an impetus and a reference point for others wishing to investigate the inclusion of nonverbal communication training in sign language interpreter training programs.