This dissertation study examines urban and bilingual children's dialogue in the contexts of school and home. First and second graders talked about children's literature in literature circles throughout one academic school year. I was guided by the following main purpose in this qualitative classroom study: What issues of language diversity and culture do first and second grade students discuss in home and school contexts? Data sources connected to the children's dialogue in school included audiotapes, transcripts, response journals, and field notes. All families discussed the literature and three bilingual families consistently audiotaped their home discussions. The findings from this research demonstrate that working class bilingual children and their families do have the resources to construct rich literacy experiences through dialogue related to complex issues of language diversity and culture. Key issues that parents and children discovered to be relevant for discussion in the home and school contexts are: literacy, positionality within society, and resistance to structural inequality. Additionally, this study reveals how the home context ultimately scaffolds the child's native language by acting as a linguistically rich resource for the child. The child draws upon his or her linguistic resources from the home and has linguistic support as he/she enters the primarily English dialogue within small group literature circles in the schooling context. This study demonstrates the significance of drawing upon the home as a resource to support children in their native languages. Additionally, this study examines how one classroom uses children's native languages as a resource.

Research in the area of computer-mediated communication (CMC) has shown enormous potential for its use in the foreign language classroom. The observed benefits include affective factors as well as linguistic features (Beauvois, 1992, 1995; Kern, 1995; Pellettieri, 2000; Sotillo, 2000; Warschauer, 1995/96). However, so far only three studies (Abrams, 2003; Beauvois, 1998b; Payne & Whitney, 2002) directly examined the effects of CMC on the development of oral language skills in a foreign language. These studies reported higher scores for the synchronous CMC groups, thus suggesting that oral proficiency can be enhanced by synchronous online discussions. Neither of these studies, however, examined the effects of online discussions on the development of learners' overall language skills, based on their practice with CMC. Thus, the present study investigated the effects of synchronous CMC on the interlanguage development of beginning learners of German over the course of one semester, specifically with regards to accuracy, proficiency, and communication strategies. Employing a pretest-posttest quasi-experimental design, two sections of German 102 participated in oral role plays and two sections engaged in synchronous online discussion after comparable preparation. Results showed no statistically significant differences in oral and written proficiency at the end of the semester due to treatment. However, students engaging in online discussions perceived them as beneficial for both their oral and written language skills; they also reported that they were able to notice their peers' vocabulary and grammar mistakes, which constitutes the first step of turning language input into intake. Other analyses indicated a general increase in language production and accuracy, especially for low- and medium-proficient learners. The fact that students perceived the online discussions as beneficial for their oral speech, and the fact that there was no significant difference between the post-treatment oral and written proficiency of the groups, corroborates the notion that online discussions support the development of the same processes that underlie oral speech. CMC discussions are thus shown to be a valuable addition to the foreign language classroom, in terms of second language acquisition and learners' interlanguage development.

This study examines the usefulness of an adjunct course (Precourse) that was taught by a language teacher who accompanied her students to an undergraduate history course at the university level. Qualitative methods and quantitative measurements were employed to: (a) to assess the effectiveness of the Precourse on improving the participants' proficiency level, and (b) to examine the effect of such a course on improving the students' academic competence and performance. Special attention was paid to the influence of the first social and academic culture of the participants on their process of learning English as a second language.

The purpose of this dissertation was to investigate the use of German as a foreign language during written conversation in an intermediate German course. Specifically, the study compared the language output of intermediate students of German in the context of the innovative computer conferencing and the more traditional group journals. The dissertation aimed to serve two purposes: (1) to provide further insights into the role of computer-mediated interaction for promoting the successful development of communicative competence in foreign language pedagogy (both in theory and practice); (2) to shed light on the quality of language that learners produce in the two writing contexts, in terms of grammatical and lexical accuracy, sociolinguistic appropriateness and communicative success. For these purposes, the researcher analyzed the language output of 46 subjects at the University of Arizona during the Fall semester of 1996. Learners' language output was examined using statistical analyses (matched t-tests and multiple regression analyses), discourse analysis and the ethnography of writing. The results indicated many differences of the language produced in the two writing contexts. Although there was no difference between them in terms of lexical diversity, learners' language in computer conferencing reflects a higher level of grammatical accuracy, richer lexicon and improved comprehensibility (as rated by native speaker judges). Furthermore, learners had a more positive attitude towards the computer conferencing than towards the group journals. Learners were also found to use the two writing contexts for different communicative purposes (computer conferencing reflected interaction among participants, while group journals were monologues). Finally, learners managed conversations, and prevented or resolved instances of miscommunication, differently in the two conversational contexts. In conclusion, it can be said that the results of this study concur with previous research that supports the beneficial implementation of computer-mediated interaction in foreign language pedagogical contexts (Healy Beauvois, 1995; Kern, 1995; Leppainen and Kalaja, 1995). This dissertation was also able to contribute to our understanding of the level and quality of interlanguage of intermediate German learners, to our knowledge of how writing context and purpose interact, and to our understanding of the process of pidginization in foreign language learning contexts.

A contributing factor to children's lack of reading achievement in school is that there may be ineffective or no early literacy intervention programs at their school. A review of literature suggests that early literacy intervention is beneficial to help children be successful in school. This teacher-as-researcher study was designed to investigate six years of the development of the Reading Discovery program and to describe the process of reflecting on my practice and analyzing my results in order to improve my early literacy program, students' literacy, and teachers' literacy instruction. The instruments I used to assess student literacy were from Marie Clay's Observation Survey or my adaptations of them, consisting of letter identification, a word test, concepts about print, writing vocabulary, dictation, and text reading. My study included 324 first-grade students from two elementary schools, where I was a reading specialist over the last six years. There were 170 children who participated in the Reading Discovery Program. This program was enhanced by the assistance of 17 literacy volunteers. During the study, 145 children, identified as being at-risk, graduated from Reading Discovery. The longitudinal data showed that only three of the students who graduated from the program needed further reading intervention. Unlike some remedial programs, the children in this program spent 90% of their time actually reading and writing real texts. The rest of the time was spent reflecting on their work, doing word analysis, and taking care of bookkeeping. In conclusion, the Reading Discovery program had a positive effect on the literacy achievement of the participating first-grade children. Even those children not in the program benefited, because I provided their classroom teachers with instructional support, in-service training, and assessment data on every first-grade child. In addition, primary grade children regularly checked out appropriately leveled books from my library. As a result of this study, I have increased the number of students who participated in the program by providing individualized instruction, by using trained literacy volunteers, and by selecting the appropriate time for instruction. Reading Discovery program has significantly increased the number of children who can read and write without future remediation.

Children's responses to picture books are documented through this qualitative research involving a case study of three students in an intermediate elementary classroom. The study focuses on multiple ways of knowing through examining students' responses to these books through language and art. Specific research questions within this context are: How is the learning environment constructed to support children's responses to picture books? How do children respond to picture books?, What are the children's responses to the illustrations in picture books? and How do children create their own interpretations of the illustrations and written language in picture books? The theoretical frame for this study is based in semiotic theory and transactional theory as well as reader response research, picture books and response, visual literacy, children's responses to art, literary content analysis of picture books, reviews of picture book illustrations, interviews with illustrators, and illustrators reflecting on their artistic processes. The curriculum design developed of this study integrates children's literature and art. The curriculum cycle was an introduction of a picture book or textset, followed by a literature discussion, studio art experiences, and a reflective interview. The infusion of fine arts into the classroom curriculum more closely resembles the multiple ways children approach learning in the world outside school. The combination of written language and illustration in picture books can provide children with an introduction to literature and literacy. In the study, students were encouraged to read a variety of picture books and respond through literature discussion and art experiences. The findings related to the case study of three students were organized within two main areas: meaning making within a picture book and meaning making within the artwork. The picture book was defined as a unique art form that was central to the lives of students as they developed visual literacy. The students' responses were extremely sophisticated and showed that they were capable of complex understandings of art and literature.

The purpose of this dissertation is to compare the quantity and quality of writing produced by L2 students after participating in either (1) collaborative, computer-mediated communication (CMC), or (2) non-collaborative, computer-assisted writing skills practice. The subjects for this study were 42 students enrolled in French classes at the U.S. Air Force Academy. The CMC treatment consisted of 45 minutes of collaborative, simultaneous written "discussion" among student clusters of 3 or 4 students. The writing skills group focused on vocabulary building, grammatical review, and format review, using the French writing software program, Système-D. A computerized text analysis program, as well as experienced foreign language instructors then analyzed students' compositions. This study also addressed learner attributes (including gender, grade point average [GPA], and personality variables) and L2 proficiency and their interaction with the two computer-based contexts. Finally, it assessed learners' attitudes toward each of the two pre-writing activities. Results revealed that the effects of participating in either collaborative CMC or non-collaborative writing skills practice on L2 writing, in terms of the 6 variables considered (total number of words, grammatical accuracy, lexical density, lexical diversity, syntactic complexity, and overall writing quality) were minimal. While gender did not have a significant impact on quantity and quality of writing in the two contexts considered, GPA and language proficiency were significantly correlated with grammatical accuracy and overall writing quality. Selected personality variables had minimal effects on L2 writing. While subjects were markedly interested in both CMC and Système-D , quantitative as well as qualitative analysis of the attitude questionnaire showed a clear preference for Système-D over CMC. This study showed that students benefited from both types of pre-writing activities. The CMC group had the benefits of interaction and increased target language production, while the computer-assisted writing skills group benefited from access to a computerized data base of grammar, vocabulary and phrases for their compositions. Overall, students had positive attitudes toward both computer-based activities. If positive attitudes lead to increased motivation and enhanced second language development, it follows that these computer-based activities should be integrated into the traditional second language acquisition syllabus.

The present study addresses a core issue in the study of speech perception, the question of how stable phonological representations are accessed from an inherently variable speech signal. In particular, the research investigates the perception of accented English speech by native and non-native listeners. It is known from previous research that foreign-accented speech is harder for native listeners to process than native-accented speech. The reason for this lies in not only qualities of the input (deviation from native production norms, for example) but also in qualities of the listener. Specifically, listeners' speech perception systems are tuned from an early age to pay attention to useful distinctions in the language environment but to attenuate differences which are not useful. This quality of the listeners' speech processing system suggests that in addition to being native speakers of a language or languages, we are also native listeners. However, what is a liability for native listeners (non-native input) may be a benefit for non-native listeners. When the foreign accent is derived from a single language shared between the speaker and the listener, application of native-language processing strategies to the accented input may result in more efficient processing of the input. The experiments in this dissertation address this possibility. In an experiment involving Dutch listeners processing Dutch-accented and American English-accented sentence materials, a reaction time advantage was observed for the mutually-accented materials. Experiments testing the main hypothesis with native Spanish-listening participants showed a different pattern of results. These participants, who had more experience with English overall that the Dutch participants, performed similarly to native-listening controls in displaying faster verification times for native accented materials than mutually-accented materials. These experiments lead to the conclusion that native-like listening, as assessed by the sentence verification paradigm employed in these experiments, can be achieved by non-native listeners. In particular, non-native listeners with little experience processing spoken English benefit from hearing input produced in a matching accent. Non-native listeners with sufficiently more experience processing spoken English, however, perform similar to native listeners, displaying an advantage for native accented input.

The purpose of this qualitative case study was to explore how five middle school students used humor in young adult literature as a vehicle for understanding according to Louise Rosenblatt's transactional reading theory. The study was conducted in an honors language arts classroom in the Southwestern region of the United States. Methods for data collection included twenty semi-structured interviews, observational fieldnotes, transcripts of audiotaped and videotaped literature circle discussions, journal entries, a humor survey and other miscellaneous written artifacts. Data were collected for seven months. Instructional materials included a variety of young adult novels and short stories representing historical fiction and contemporary realistic fiction genres. Analytic induction, constant comparison, organizational charts, and various forms of member checking were used to analyze the data. The results of the study indicate that the students used humor to construct meaning while reading. Specifically, students visualized action humor in the texts enhancing their comprehension. Discussions referencing experiential and textual connections were commonplace. Some students found humor in the use of archaic language or the use of dialects different from their own. The students read the adolescent literature both efferently and aesthetically (Rosenblatt, 1995) as they attended to humor setting conditions for engaging the humor. First, if the humor was the result of superiority humor where the focus group members could predict the targeted character would be hurt, disappointed or promote a negative change in the character's development, then they would not engage in the humor. Second, if the humor was closely related to their world of understanding, then the humor was embraced only after careful deliberation. Third, if the characters presented themselves as resilient and unaffected by the humor, then the students were willing to laugh at the characters.

This longitudinal, nine-semester, teacher research investigation focuses upon young, hearing-impaired students' responses to literature through the sign systems of Language, drama and art. Theories underlying this study are the transactional theory of literature as conceptualized by Louise Rosenblatt (1938-1983) and the semiotic process of signification put forth by C. S. Peirce (1839-1914). The questions guiding this investigation focused upon (1) the role of literature in this classroom, (2) the role of dramatization in students' "lived-through" experiences of literature, (3) patterns of visual and verbal response in these students' drawings and dictations, and (4) changes in these children's visual and verbal literary responses over the course of time. Research findings indicated a steadfast pattern of visual response (n = 559), i.e., students depicted story characters (94%), story settings (3%), or something else brought to mind (3%) in responding to literature through art. This focus was found also in students' accompanying dictations which explicated story characters' actions or feelings 41% of the time. These dictated responses revealed that students also gave retellings of story events (22%), paraphrases of story events (20%), identifications of items in drawings (4%), combined paraphrase/retellings of story events (4%), evaluations (6%) or other types of statements (1%). This study indicates that retelling as a form of literary response can serve multiple purposes within the classroom context and merits further investigation. Uniquely characteristic and focused themes of personal response were found in this investigation as well. Three of these themes are explicated in case studies of selected students whose responses to classroom literary experiences led each to pursue a path of self-realization as an artist, language learner, and contemplator of self-identity. This study indicates that contextualized literary experience within and across multiple sign systems allowed these hearing-impaired students to develop multifaceted understandings of literature, art, drama, language and life. These multifaceted understandings, in turn, led these children to deeper understandings of their own worlds of experience.