Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 39-11, Section: A, page: 6596. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1978.

Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 39-11, Section: A, page: 6599. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1978.

The purpose of this study was to compare the effects of a peer tutoring treatment involving bilingual migrant children and native English-speaking children on the oral language development of limited-English proficient migrant children. / The treatment consisted of 37 twenty-minute second language tutoring sessions. The curriculum content selected was from Action Sequence Stories Program, Act I. Subjects in treatment I were paired with a bilingual migrant tutor; in treatment II, subjects were paired with a native English-speaking tutor; and the control group consisted of teacher-centered, whole group instruction. / Subjects were forty-two 8-12 year olds whose native language was Spanish. A pretest, The IDEA, IPT I, stratified subjects into two levels of proficiency. Subjects were randomly assigned to the three treatment groups in each stratum. / The two groups of tutors were randomly selected and matched on three variables (a) age, (b) sex, and (c) grade level. Dyads consisting of one tutor and a limited-English proficient child were formed by randomly assigning tutors to subjects on similar variables. / An analysis of covariance was used to analyze the data collected with posttest scores on the IPT I, as the dependent variable. Spanish reading comprehension performance was analyzed as a covariate as was the pretest. / No significant differences were found between the three treatment groups on the posttest. All three groups had similar significant growth on the posttest measure. Spanish literacy had no significant relationship with oral language development. The analysis of the pretest as a covariate revealed significance indicating that the individual differences on the posttest already existed in the pretest. / The results suggest that cross-level peer tutoring either by a bilingual migrant or native English-speaking tutor, and teacher-centered, whole group instruction are equal in their effectiveness as techniques for Spanish-speaking migrant children. / In summary, peer tutoring by more fluent speakers of the target language engaged in meaningful structured activities may facilitate English oral language development. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 48-07, Section: A, page: 1682. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1987.

This report describes an ethnographic case study of an ESL student taking a graduate-level course in a U.S. university. It seeks to identify the ways ESL academic skills (e.g., reading, listening, and writing) were actually used in the university setting. / One Saudi Arabian ESL student was studied over a 15-week semester while taking a course in Comparative Education. Participant observation, in conjunction with tape or video recordings, was used to provide a basis for comparisons of perceptions between the ESL student, the researcher, and other participants in the class. His class notes, written work, and readings were all analyzed and these provided further insights into his version of the reality of the class. Interviews with the teacher revealed the extent to which ideas were accurately transferred from teacher to student. / The final picture of the teacher's demands and the ESL student's strategies challenges a number of the existing language-teaching and curriculum-design assumptions in preparatory ESL programs. The student's reading consisted mainly of extensive coverage of relatively uncomplicated material. His listening was highly selective, governed by the nature of his motivation and by his background knowledge. In writing he lacked the skill to retrieve, assemble, and present data forcefully. He did not participate at all in classroom interactions. / Nevertheless, this ESL student completed the course successfully, regarding it as one of the most interesting he had ever taken. In his motivation, learning conception, and study modes he did not differ radically from others in the class, whether ESL students like himself or native speakers of English. Cultural difficulties, previously a problem, did not adversely affect his learning. However, the competition of other classes for his time did force him into rationalizations regarding the amount of time and effort to be expended on this course. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 48-02, Section: A, page: 0322. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1987.

No description available.

No description available.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 1999. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 304-347). Available also in a digital version from Dissertation Abstracts.

Thesis (PhD)--Technischen Universität Berlin, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 306-318). Also issued online.

This dissertation is a study of young adolescent females' responses to female literary characters in realistic adolescent fiction. Working with 11 adolescent girls aged 12-14 from diverse ethnic, racial, class, and religious backgrounds, I explored the multiple perspectives of female adolescents in terms of female representation as well as issues of race, class, and gender. The female characters from the books read in this study are also from various ethnic, racial, religious, and class backgrounds. The novels included three pieces of social issues realism: Make Lemonade (Wolff, 1993), I Hadn't Meant to Tell You This (Woodson, 1994), and Humming Whispers (Johnson, 1995), while the fourth novel, Among Friends (Cooney, 1988), was a piece of contemporary fiction, which allowed for a comparison of female representation across the genre. After the participants read the novels, I interviewed each of them about their perceptions of female representation, as well as the issues of class and race within the novels. Applying feminist methodology with a focus on consciousness-raising, I asked the participants specific questions about female roles and representation in realistic novels, class and race representation as it intersects with female representation, and their own connections to the situations and female characters within the novels. This consciousness-raising also included my own increased consciousness of female adolescent thinking and reasoning. By working with these adolescent girls I noted implicit ideologies that included gender stereotyping, classism, and racism within many of their answers. The standpoint from where many of these participants spoke concluded that the attributes of "femaleness" of which they especially approved included being "helpful," "nice," and "caring" which were considered "normal" female behavior. The participants, however, also admired female bravery, courage, and strength, yet did not especially desire or acknowledge those characteristics within themselves. Further analysis revealed that these participants constructed narrow limitations of normality. Female characters outside the norm of affluence and popularity coupled with insecurity, were not acceptable. Challenging this norm, as well as interrogating the self as part of the norm is one of the implications of this investigation that needs further studying.

This dissertation examined students' learning processes and development of Japanese as a foreign language (FL) in relationship to a human ability called shutaisei in Japanese. Based on the premise that aspects of shutaisei and language use have an intrinsic relationship, this study explored the meanings of the concept of shutaisei and FL ability. It challenged the current notion of FL proficiency that sets a native-like competence as a major goal. Shutaisei is the ability to direct one's own conduct as an autonomous person. In order to lead an independent life harmoniously with other people in human society, this autonomous ability has three over-arching characteristics: make critical decisions, put decisions into action, and respect other people's attempts to lead equally independent lives. These characteristics involve further attributes: the unity of subjectivity and objectivity, the unity of reflection and action, risk-taking, introspection, critical pursuit of one's own interests, among others. Based on learner-centered philosophy and the functional view of language, this study examined how students' shutaisei actually affected their functional use and development of Japanese in two consecutive beginning Japanese as a FL courses. Both the practice and the lack of their shutaisei had considerable effects on the extent and quality in every phase of their studying Japanese, such as learning grammar, participating in activities and using Japanese meaningfully. Shutaisei induced the students' willingness and initiative in their learning, and enhanced the development of their control over the use of Japanese. The contribution that this dissertation offers to foreign language education is a significant implication of shutaisei in the development of critical, functional, and independent FL ability. This view of FL ability acknowledges the same responsibility that native speakers must take as language users: to search for the form that truly reflects one's own meanings. This dissertation extends the importance of practicing and developing shutaisei to every learning context inside and outside of school. It also calls for developing teachers' own shutaisei in their decision making. Students will not develop shutaisei unless teachers present themselves as learners and practice their own shutaisei in the classroom.