Grade three students in the Ontario education system learn about "pioneers" to satisfy the requirements of the Social Studies curriculum. Historical fiction can be used as an addition to the curriculum, and may offer children a way to learn about, and perhaps even identify with, Canada's past. The purpose of this study was to problematize two works of historical fiction that have been used in an Ontario classroom: Little house in the big woods (Wilder, 1932), and Ticket to Curlew (Lottridge, 1992). These stories present racialized, colonial depictions of European resettlers (i.e. "pioneers"), and perpetuate preferred or dominant discourses about history (Hall, 1993; Furniss, 1999). Presented as a "micro-context" (Cohen, 1992), this discussion utilizes Snead's (1994) analytical categories (i.e. marking, mythification, and omission) to understand how these works of juvenile historical fiction are racialized through the use of "colonial narratives" (Furniss, 1999). As an alternative to colonial, dominant readings of history, Paul Yee's Tales from Gold Mountain (1989) offers a collection of short stories, which focus on the possible experiences of Chinese-Canadians. While the characters in Wilder's and Lottridge's books are implicitly and explicitly marked as "white," Yee's characters are Chinese, providing readers with non-European Canadian history. Providing alternative narratives is important because, as some literature has shown, students may emotionally or physically disengage from the educational system if they feel that they are not given, nor are they encouraged to seek, negotiated or oppositional (Hall, 1993) readings of history that might reflect their identity, or life experiences (Dei, Mazzuca, Mclssac & Zine, 1998; James, 1994/1995).

In the present thesis, the interlanguage development of second language acquisition (SLA) was examined as it relates to students' French verb tense use in three program variants of French immersion: early French immersion (EFI), middle French immersion (MFI) and late French immersion (LFI). Verb tense is a crucial element of the French language and an area of considerable difficulty for students in French immersion (FI). The age at which the learners were first exposed to intensive amounts of French varied in each of these programs--5 years of age (Kindergarten) in the earliest starting program, EFI, 9 years (grade 4) in MFI, and 11 years (grade 6) in the latest starting program, LFI. Fourteen separate FI classes were studied: eight at grade 6 and six at grade 8. There were two classes per program at each grade level with the exception of grade 6 MFI where all four classes were involved. A major goal of this thesis was to study the issue of 'starting age' in SLA as it applies to intensive exposure to the second language (L2) in a school setting. Those who favour an early start argue that the larger number of cumulative hours of exposure to the L2 coupled with a 'natural process' of language acquisition produce better results. Those who prefer a later start claim that a 'natural process' of SLA need not be limited to younger learners, and that the older learner's advanced cognitive ability and first language literacy skills result in more rapid and efficient language learning. In general, the results of this research indicated that, regarding students use of basic French verb tenses, all three French immersion (FI) programs were working effectively as reflected in the superior performance by grade 8 students in all three programs on both tests. On the more analytic, written task two groups of later-starting students appeared to make fairly quick progress in some casesby the end of grade 6), and performed at a level which was closer to their earlier starting peers. Learner factors such as starting age (i.e., cognitive maturity and first language literacy), and second language fluency seem to interact with different pedagogical techniques to produce results which advantage late starting learners on more analytic tasks. Finally, the interlanguage analyses provided evidence that the passe compose and imparfait aspects of the written French past tense are extremely difficult for students in French immersion. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)

This study appraises the effects of gap position and discourse information in the acquisition of purpose clause constructions (PCs) by adult native French speakers learning English as L2. PCs are generally of three types in English: (i) John chose Mary$\rm\sb{i}\ \lbrack\sb{CP}\ \lbrack\sb{IP}\sp{PRO}\sb{i}\ \lbrack\sb{I}$, to $\lbrack \sb{\rm VP}$to read)))); (ii) John$\sb{\rm i}$ chose a book$\rm\sb{j}\ \lbrack\sb{CP}0\sb{j}\ \lbrack \sb{IP}\sp{PRO}\sb{i}\ \lbrack \sb{I}$, to $\rm\lbrack\sb{VP}to\ read\ e\sb{j}\rbrack\rbrack\rbrack\rbrack$; (iii) John$\sb{\rm i}$ chose Mary$\rm\sb{j}\ \lbrack\sb{CP}0\sb{j}\ \lbrack\sb{IP}\sp{PRO}\sb{i}\ \lbrack\sb{I}$, to $\rm\lbrack\sb{VP}to\ read\ to\ e\sb{j}\rbrack\rbrack\rbrack\rbrack$. There are grounds for hypothesizing a late emergence of OPCs in English for French speakers. An OPC is not allowed in French and, in addition to the restrictions associated with the choice of matrix verb, is considered marked, typologically and semantically, relative to an SPC. Across languages, the presence of an OPC implies the presence of an SPC but not vice versa. An SPC is also argued to be unmarked in that it allows only a gap controlled by the highest available element in the thematic hierarchy -- Theme -- and the marked option (OPC) makes allowance for selection of a second argument for an additional gap (Chierchia 1989). Syntactically, though, only an OPC with a prepositional object gap (POPC), and not one with a direct object gap (DOPC), may be considered marked since prepositions are not proper governors in French. A POPC is thus expected to offer a special challenge initially to French speakers. L1 acquisition studies argue for children's initial insensitivity to semantic/pragmatic and discourse information in sentence interpretation during the early stages of language development apparently lacking the ability to maximally utilize such information during the early stages of language development (Goodluck 1990b; Stevenson & Pickering 1987). The adult learner, though, is capable of utilizing discourse information in L1, and initial use of discourse information in L2 will support an L2 acquisition theory of adult learners having developed processing capacities that allow them to make early and efficient use of discourse information in L2. Initially ignoring such information will support a view of a parallel between L1 and L2 acquisition. The primary experimental task comprises a number of actout sentences, including OPCs which are preceded either by a discourse (one sentence) designed to lead the subjects towards anticipating an object gap or by a discourse with no such lead. A supplementary task--Grammaticality Judgement--requires subjects to judge the acceptability of a number of constructions, including PCs. Results of the actout experiment reveal no problems by both intermediate and advanced French subjects in interpreting SPCs and DOPCs while POPCs prove problematic for intermediate subjects. There are also some marginal effects of discourse information at both levels of proficiency. The Grammaticality Judgement results also reveal more SPCs judged acceptable compared to OPCs, with less POPCs judged acceptable compared to DOPCs at both proficiency levels. Results reveal initial difficulty interpreting POPCs, providing clear support for the syntactic hypothesis that only constructions considered syntactically (or structurally) marked may create initial learning difficulty in L2 acquisition. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)

The motivational dimension of second/foreign language learning has received considerable emphasis in the literature as a means of better predicting language achievement and understanding the factors that influence language learning. The present study is an attempt to analyze the nature of orientations towards learning English as a foreign language, and to test whether they are related to other constructs, such as motivation and proficiency, in a context not hitherto explored. To this end, four instruments were administered to a random sample of approximately 200 male and female university students in Humanities and Science in Turkey. These students were enrolled in intensive English language programs at the time of testing. The instruments consisted of (1) a cloze test to measure language proficiency; (2) a questionnaire to assess Ss' reasons for studying L$\sb2$; (3) a Motivational Intensity Scale to assess the students' effort in studying L$\sb2$; and (4) a Desire to Learn L$\sb2$ Scale to assess the degree to which Ss want to learn L$\sb2$. The data was subjected to factor analyses and seven orientations to learn English were found to be common to all groups studied. Results of correlational analyses showed that there was a relationship between motivation and proficiency for females in the sample. There was no significant relationship between proficiency and any of the seven orientations for either sex. Results based on MANOVA to determine the main effects for sex and field of study revealed significant effects for sex but not for field. A second factor analysis was done to assess the relationships between the seven orientations and motivation and proficiency for males and females separately. Four factors for females and three factors for males were obtained. A detailed description was given of the cultural, historical and educational context where English as a Foreign Language (EFL) takes place, where there is almost no contact with native speakers of English outside the classroom. This study contributes to those already conducted to test the most recent models of language learning in contexts both outside and within North America.

Abstract Not Available.

This thesis examines the supportive relationship between reading and writing. Using persuasive discourse structure, the study explores whether reading and writing taught together in context enhance writing more than if each of these modes is taught separately. The thesis focuses on the interactive approach to reading and writing as explained by Shanahan (1984). To explain the structure of the persuasive mode in writing Kinneavy's (1983) classification of discourse types is used. According to Kinneavy (1983) the writer's purpose establishes the discourse type. He states "The aims of discourse determine everything else in the process of discourse" (p. 48). The study examined the hypothesis that using both reading and writing activities improves writing more than using reading or writing activities separately. Thirty-seven students from Intermediate ESL levels participated in this project. The subjects were divided into three groups: Reading, Writing, and Reading and Writing Group. Univariate statistics were computed on the pre-post difference scores to investigate the effects of the three approaches to writing. In the results, it was found that Reading and Writing group showed gains, although non-significant, in discourse structure whereas the other two did not show the improvement. Since it was difficult to control for L$\sb2$ proficiency as intermediate students may have possessed varied L$\sb2$ proficiency levels, this research explored whether the writing effectiveness was constrained by low L$\sb2$ proficiency. Thus the research question dealing with correlation between L$\sb2$ proficiency and the results on the writing tasks revealed a positive correlation, although non-significant.

Recent research into writing process of second language writers has produced a range of different conclusions: the composing process is different in the second language (L2) than first language (L1) writing (Silva, 1993); the writing strategies are similar in both L1 and L2 writing (Matsumoto, 1995); adult L2 writers are less effective in their L2 than L1 academic writing (Silva, 1993). In the review of literature, Silva's studies reveal that L2 composing is more difficult and less effective than L1 composing (Silva, 1993, 1992). Yet other studies, German (1994) and Matsumoto (1995) suggest that writers transfer their writing strategies from L1 to L2 provided they possess L2 grammatical proficiency (Berman, 1994). The object of the study was to explore content generating and planning processes in proficient L2 writers. Eight participants took part in this study; each participant was proficient in two languages: English and Spanish and proficient in academic writing in both languages (according to the writing test given). The participants' first and second languages were either English or Spanish and they had either studied beyond secondary level in both languages or worked in both languages where academic writing was required. The researcher collected data through individual interviews, participant observation and think-aloud protocols during writing, and the writing samples. A profile of each participant, addressing his/her content-generating and planning in writing, was developed. Moreover the study used Bereiter and Scardamalia's model to explain the process. Similarities not differences between L1 and L2 composing processes were found. The only difference between L1 and L2 content generating and planning was evident in content generating: English writers generated more utterances during think-aloud sessions than Spanish writers in both L1 and L2. It has not provided enough support for the point of view that L1 composing process is different than L2 composing for adult L1 and L 2 proficient writers. In addition, the study has found similarities between L1 and L2 strategies used during the writing sessions.

The work reported in this study is based on empirical data collected from three groups of speakers: native speakers of English, native speakers of Persian and Persian speakers of English as a second language. The study addresses, among others, two of the most important aspects of second language speech: (1) it provides an extensive sociolinguistic description of L2 speech by conducting multivariate analyses on features of English spoken by Persians. In this way it throws light on the issue of the systematicity of second language speech by providing evidence for systematic variation in L2, (2) it explores the relationship between native language of the speakers and their L2, on one hand, and the relation between the L2 and the language L2 learners try to acquire, on the other. In other words, it examines the sources of the patterns of variability found in second language speech. The focus of our investigation is the variable contraction (deletion) of auxiliary verbs and variable use of relative and resumptive pronouns by L2 learners. We first use the principles of variation theory to make a detailed assessment of the behavior of the L2 learners with respect to the contraction of auxiliary verbs in their natural L2 speech at both low and high proficiency levels. The comparative method, then, is applied to systematically compare patterns of contraction in low and high proficient L2 speech with: (a) patterns of contracting auxiliaries in our native English data and, (b) patterns found in the samples of Persian speech produced mostly by the same L2 informants. Then, we extend the same procedures to examine variable use of relative and resumptive pronouns in restrictive relative clauses in the three contexts of English, Persian and L2 (high proficiency only). Our results produced conclusive evidence that the variability found in the features of L2 speech studied in this thesis was indeed systematically conditioned by at least one linguistic factor group. There was found to be no difference between high and less proficient learners in this regard. With respect to the sources of variability in L2 speech, we consider at least three possibilities: (1) that the variation can be explained by processes derived from English as the target language, (2) that the variation can be explained by the processes derived from Persian as the native language of the learners, and (3) that the variation and its conditioning system is unique to our learners' L2 speech, different from native or target languages. Parallel analysis and comparison of features of L2 and those of the informants' native and target languages demonstrated that variability in advanced second language speech was mostly conditioned by factor groups and factor weights that constrain native English speech. Informants' native language was found to play a trivial role in this respect. Less proficient learners, however, relied more on their native patterns of variability in cases where they have not acquired the target language patterns of variation yet. It was also demonstrated that patterns of variability change as learners advance in their L2 development. We did not observe any pattern unique to our informants' second language behavior, different from either English or Persian.

Children perceive stories in particular ways and they use the rules and the roles depicted in their content to negotiate and formulate their everyday world (Wolf and Heath, 1992). This qualitative research study investigates children's construction of meaning and use of fairy tale narratives in a Greek second language learning environment. Twenty-two participants from the Canadian Greek Heritage Language School participate in the study. The students are asked to reflect on their engagements with specific Greek fairy tales, and then to express the ideas and feelings produced through their interaction with these cultural texts. The study highlights the salient role of texts in processes of identity formation, their influence on the definition of values, and their contribution to the installation of notions regarding the community and the future. Many theorists argue that the analysis of cultural texts from this perspective can lead individuals to challenge social constructs.

En esta tesis se investiga la adquisicion de las palabras compuestas del espanol por hablantes del fines. La investigacion se centra en dos tipos de compuestos, i.e. los compuestos N-N (coche cama) y los deverbales (matamoscas), empezando por un analisis comparativo de estos compuestos del espanol y del fines. En el caso de los compuestos N-N, la productividad minima de los compuestos del espanol en comparacion con los del fines se explica a partir del 'Parametro de los compuestos' (Snyder, 1995), mientras que la direccionalidad opuesta del nucleo y del modificador se basa en la propuesta del 'Marcador de palabra' (Harris, 1991; Piera, 1995). Las diferencias mas importantes entre los compuestos deverbales en las dos lenguas son la direccionalidad y la estrategia de formacion, las cuales se explican con el modelo LMBM de Beard (1995). Las hipotesis se basan en la influencia del L1 en la adquisicion de las diferencias mencionadas. La parte empirica de la tesis consiste en un estudio con 19 hablantes de fines, 13 de nivel intermedio y 6 de nivel avanzado. Los compuestos se obtuvieron a partir de dos pruebas, una de dibujos y otra de parafrasis para las que los aprendices debian proporcionar el compuesto correspondienete. Los resultados confirman la influencia del L1 tanto en el cas o de los compuestos N-N como de los deverbales. La variacion en la productividad de los compuestos N-N se explica con la propuesta de Snyder. Por lo que se refiere al 'Marcador de palabra' los resultados indican que no parece formar parte de la representacion mental del la Interlengua de los sujetos. Por lo que se refiere a la direccionalidad de los deverbales, ademas de ser mas problematica su adquisicion, lo cual puede explicarse por el hecho de que la opcion del fines---como la del ingles---represente una estructura marcada.