M.A. (Psychology) / Please refer to full text to view abstract

Thesis (MA)--Stellenbosch University, 2008. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Children experiencing language disorders have often been noted to have difficulty in comprehending figurative language, to a greater or lesser degree. The present study examined and compared the comprehension of figurative language, namely idioms and similes, in three groups of boys between the ages of 8 and 10. These three groups included (i) typically developing Afrikaans first language speakers, (ii) typically developing Afrikaans second language speakers (L2) and (iii) Afrikaans first language speakers with specific language impairment (SLI). A total of 18 participants were studied. The participants were interviewed individually and tests were conducted verbally. 25 idioms and 25 similes obtained from Die Afrikaanse Semantiese Taalevaluering (AST) were used. No contexts were provided for the idioms initially, but if the participant produced an incorrect or literal answer for the idiom, the idiom was placed in context. The use of context proved to be beneficial to all groups. Similes were read to the participant, who had to provide the final word as a response. The similes proved easier for all groups to comprehend, possibly due to their greater explicitness. The data were analysed statistically, but due to the small sample size, the participants were also examined individually as case studies, which provided further insight into the results obtained and revealed the non-homogeneity within the SLI group. The performance of the SLI group proved to be slightly inferior to that of the other two groups, but no statistically significant differences were found among the three groups. The L2 participants were asked to translate the idioms and similes into English. It was found that the Afrikaans idioms and similes were seldom likened to their English equivalents. Idioms which were semantically and syntactically similar or identical to the Afrikaans sentences often incited literal interpretations. Incorrect phonological transfers also appeared to create confusion and to obscure meaning. The L2 speakers’ difficulties possibly arose from (i) a lack of familiarity with figurative language, (ii) an inability to grasp figurative language, and/or (iii) a lack of proficiency in Afrikaans. Pedagogical implications and recommendations are discussed, and comments are made regarding future research on this topic. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Kinders met taalversteurings blyk dikwels ook tot 'n minder of meerdere mate probleme te hê met die begrip van figuurlike taal. Hierdie studie ondersoek en vergelyk die begrip van figuurlike taal, naamlik idiome en vergelykings, in drie groepe seuns tussen die ouderdomme van 8 en 10 jaar. Hierdie drie groepe sluit in (i) tipies-ontwikkelende Afrikaans eerstetaalsprekers, (ii) tipies ontwikkelende Afrikaans tweedetaalsprekers, en (iii) Afrikaans eertetaalsprekers met spesifieke taalgestremdheid (STG). 'n Totaal van 18 deelnemers is bestudeer. Onderhoude is individueel met elke deelnemer gevoer en toetse is verbaal uitgevoer. 25 idiome van Die Afrikaanse Semantiese Taalevaluering (AST) is gebruik. Aanvanklik is geen konteks gegee nie, maar indien die deelnemer 'n verkeerde of letterlike antwoord vir 'n idioom gegee het, is die idioom in konteks geplaas. Die gebruik van konteks het in alle groepe 'n positiewe effek gehad. Vergelykings is aan deelnemers gelees, waar hulle as respons die laaste woord moes verskaf. Die vergelykings was vir alle groepe makliker vir begrip, moontlik weens hulle hoër vlak van eksplisiteit. Die data is statisties geanaliseer, maar weens die klein aantal deelnemers is elkeen ook individiueel as 'n gevallestudie ondersoek, wat verdere insigte in die resultate gelewer het, en die nie-homogeniteit van die STG groep aangedui het. Die prestasie van die deelnemers met STG was effens onder dié van die ander twee groepe, maar geen statisties-beduidende verskille is onder die drie groepe gevind nie. Die tweedetaal-deelnemers is gevra om die idiome en vergelykings in Engels te vertaal. Daar is gevind dat die Afrikaanse idiome en vergelykings selde aan hulle Engelse ekwivalente gekoppel is. Letterlike interpretasies is dikwels gegee vir idiome wat sintakties en semanties eenders is as die Afrikaanse sin. Verkeerde fonologiese oordragte het ook verwarring veroorsaak en betekenis verduister. Die probleme van die tweedetaal-deelnemers is moontlik as gevolg van (i) onvoldoende vertroudheid met figuurlike taal, (ii) onvermoë om figuurlike taal te interpreteer, en/of (iii) onvoldoende vaardigheid in Afrikaans. Pedagogiese implikasies en aanbevelings word bespreek, en kommentaar word gelewer oor verdere ondersoek op hierdie gebied.

Orientadores: Sergio Goldenberg, Orly Zucatto Mantovani de Assis / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Faculdade de Educação / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-14T18:18:00Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Cesar_JaneteSchmidtdeCamargo_M.pdf: 5669758 bytes, checksum: 84546b9153bea96f830647609e3f9201 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2009 / Resumo: Esta pesquisa teve por objetivo investigar, de forma qualitativa, as idéias das crianças a respeito de suas dificuldades de aprendizagem do sistema escrito através da utilização do Método Clínico Crítico, elaborado por Jean Piaget, que permite diagnosticar o estágio de evolução de determinados conceitos em que as crianças se encontram. Nosso referencial teórico se encontra alicerçado na Epistemologia Genética e no Construtivismo. O estudo foi realizado com 19 crianças entre 7 e 13 anos, selecionadas dentre 173 sujeitos participantes do reforço escolar, pertencentes a uma rede municipal de ensino do interior do estado de São Paulo. A escolha ocorreu através da avaliação da construção do sistema escrito, e/ou do sistema ortográfico. Para diagnosticar a natureza das estruturas de pensamento do sujeito utilizamos as Provas Piagetianas para determinação do comportamento operatório concreto. A fim de perceber se a criança compreende o significado do que é aprender e de como se dá esse processo empregamos como referência os estudos realizados por Piaget e colaboradores sobre o Realismo Infantil: A Noção de Pensamento. Por fim, empregamos a Entrevista semi-estruturada sobre o não-aprender que foi testada em projeto piloto. Este instrumento foi elaborado por nós a partir da junção de elementos empregados na Entrevista Operativa Centrada na Aprendizagem (EOCA) com os do Método Clínico Crítico, valorizando o saber-fazer com o intuito de desencadear o processo de compreensão da criança desse saber para então questioná-la a respeito do não-aprender. Os dados obtidos foram analisados por meio da Correlação Linear e do Estudo de Caso. Os resultados encontrados apontaram para uma correlação linear positiva média (índice de dispersão = 0,5595403) entre a noção de pensamento e o desenvolvimento cognitivo, o que sugere que o desenvolvimento cognitivo influência a noção de pensamento e vice-versa. No entanto, a análise da correlação entre idade e noção de pensamento não se mostraram significativas (índice de dispersão = 0,10007395), fato que creditamos à heterogeneidade dos sujeitos estudados. Os números fornecidos analisados à luz do Estudo de Caso nos permitiu perceber que é possível colaborar para a tomada de consciência das crianças sobre seus problemas de aprendizagem do sistema escrito, e que as crenças a respeito de suas dificuldades ou de seus pares sofrem a influência de recalcamentos os quais atribuímos as idades e ao desenvolvimento cognitivo apresentado pelos sujeitos estudados. Quanto às soluções apresentadas para seus problemas, foi possível perceber que as crianças repetem o que vivenciam, fato que implica a importância da reflexão a propósito da metodologia de ensino adotada pelas escolas e, sobretudo, a concepção de desenvolvimento e aprendizagem apresentada pelo professor, que não foi investigado neste trabalho. / Abstract: This research has as a goal to investigate, in a qualitative way, the ideas of children about their learning disorders of the written system, by the use of the Clinic Critic method, made by Jean Piaget, that allows to diagnose the stage of evolution of determined concepts in which children are. The research?s theoretical referential system is based in Genetic Psichology and Constructivism. 19 children with ages between 7 and 13 were selected among 173 that participates of School Reinforcement belonging to a network of municipal education within the state of São Paulo. They were chosen by the evaluation sounding of construction of the written system, by the use of the researches developed by Ferreiro and Teberosky, and/or the ortographic system, by the Itinerary of Orthographic Observation developed by Zorzi. To diagnose the nature of the thought structures of children, we used the Piagetian Operational Behavior Diagnoses Proofs. To realize if the child understands the real meaning of learning and how this process happens, we used as reference the studies made by Piaget and collaborators about Childish Realism: The notion of thought. Finally, we used the half-structured interview about the not-learning, wich was tested in the pilot project. We elaborate this instrument using a junction between elements applied in the Operative Interview Centered in Learning and elements of the Clinical Critical Method, giving value to the know-how in order to trigger the process of understanding the child know that to question it then on the non-learning. The data were analyzed by linear correlation and the Case Study. The results pointed to a positive linear correlation average (index of dispersion = 0.5595403) between the notion of thought and the cognitive development, which suggests that the cognitive development influence the concept of thought and vice versa. However, analysis of the correlation between age and the concept of thought were not significant (index of dispersion = 0.10007395), which credited the heterogeneity of subjects studied. The figures analyzed in light of the case study allowed us to realize that it?s possible to collaborate for the capture of conscience of children on their problems of apprenticeship of the written system, and that the believes about their own disorders and the disorders of his friends are affected by repression that we attribute to the ages and the cognitive development presented by the studied children. It was possible to realize that children seek for solutions for their own problems based on facts that their live, so it?s important for us to think about the methodology of teaching adopted by schools especially in the conception of development and apprenticeship presented by the teacher, who was not investigated in this work. / Mestrado / Psicologia, Desenvolvimento Humano e Educação / Mestre em Educação

The effects of instruction integrating pictorial and textual components in a fifth and a seventh grade Social Studies lesson were investigated. Measures of recall were examined both immediately after the lesson and after a two week delay. Experimental instruction focusing on the integration of illustrations with the expository text was compared to the more conventional classroom procedure of focusing on the written text through guided silent reading. The fifth grade experimental group outperformed the conventional group on all measures of immediate and delayed recall. The seventh grade experimental group had higher scores than the conventional group on one delayed measure of recall, a short answer test. No particular reading ability level was benefited more than another by the experimental treatment in either grade. An examination of gender differences revealed that fifth grade females in the experimental group outscored males on one immediate measure of recall, a short answer test. Implications for instruction and further research are discussed. / Education, Faculty of / Language and Literacy Education (LLED), Department of / Graduate

Thesis (PhD (Education management, law and policy))-University of Pretoria, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references.

No description available.

This research examines whether a seven-year-old nonverbal boy's comprehension of syntax develops at an accelerated rate following the introduction of speech output through a portable speech synthesizer (VOIS 135). The study was motivated by (1) a general lack of agreement about the relationship of comprehension and production in language acquisition, (2) some child language investigators' claims that--at certain points during the development of language--production precedes and influences comprehension, and (3) the natural experimental condition provided by a nonverbal child who is suddenly given the ability to 'speak' with the help of a portable speech synthesizer. At the beginning of the research period, the child's sentence comprehension was thoroughly assessed with standard and special purpose tests. His production was assessed through analysis of videotaped interactions. The child was then trained to use the synthetic speech device (VOIS 135) over an eight month period. At the end of this period testing of both comprehension and production was repeated to provide a measurement of language growth in each performance mode. The child demonstrated comprehension of concatenated structures and clefts at the end of the research period; this represented a developmental leap from the beginning of the research period when he understood only much simpler structures. During the eight month study, development of comprehension on the lexical level came to an apparent halt. Production results indicated that the child experienced a definite expansion in productive vocabulary and length of utterance during the research period. Observations indicated that the child's pragmatic and discourse skills improved markedly with his use of the speech output device. Factors which might account for developments (or lack of development as in the case of lexical comprehension) are discussed. Clinical implications of improvements in pragmatic and discourse skills through the use of the device are considered along with methodological suggestions for using this study as a pilot for larger research. Conclusions are that: (1) use of the speech synthesizer led the child to listen to utterances as structural wholes; (2) the child became a more active and independent partner in the communication exchange; (3) synthetic speech garnered the child more attention and more opportunities for interaction; (4) synthetic speech gave the subject access to a greater range of communication partners. While the comprehension-production results are interesting, i.e. the child was able to understand structures at a level of unanticipated complexity after being trained to use the speech device, these results do not elucidate the nature of the comprehension-production relationship. Difficulties in interpreting the results of this study underline the need for a coherent theory relating comprehension and production in language development. / Medicine, Faculty of / Audiology and Speech Sciences, School of / Graduate

No description available.