M.Ed. (Educational Linguistics) / A major difficulty in teaching English to Deaf high school students is the struggle they have in understanding the densely figurative language of prescribed literature. This research has focused on this particular area of English teaching in order to investigate and describe the complexities, and aetiology, of the problem and possibly thus aid instruction design in this area. The dearth of studies on Deaf education in South Africa has left teachers/practioners in the unstable position of isolation in strategies used to help Deaf students achieve a workable understanding of metaphorical English as it is used in daily communication and more specifically, in studying, understanding and passing written examinations of prescribed English literature. There are presently so many conflicting views and parctices in the world of Deaf education, some of which constitute the theoretical and actual frameworks within which this research is carried out. The explication of this context entails some discussions of learning theories and issues particular to Deaf education such as language acquisition, the medium of instruction, cognitive development and socio-cultural perspectives on Deafness. It is the lack of a strong policy which often leaves Deaf students adrift in a sea of conflict between educators, school policies and the Deaf community. There is little consistency or long term design in the teaching strategies and syllabus development for the Deaf; certainly none that matches the relatively orderly progress in hearing education. The result is a fluctuating standard of education in special schools for the Deaf, the deafness itself often being given the blame for any inadequacies. The research problem in this enquiry is approached qualitatively and has taken the form of a case study which is set within the context of a real classroom situation. The study involves three pupils (out of a possible six) and covers a period of eighteen months in order to monitor their development in the use and understanding of metaphor. Data were gathered from group lessons, written responses and questionnaires as well as informal discussions with Deaf children, Deaf adults and teachers of the Deaf. Data were then analysed and tentative conclusions drawn concerning the accessibility of metaphorical language to Deaf children. Some suggestions concerning teaching strategies are proposed and these could be used by other educators and researchers to formulate instruction material in future curricula.

The main purpose of this study was to identify, describe, and explain the school effectiveness characteristics that might influence English language certification in selected secondary schools in a Third World country, Nigeria. Ethnographic methods of participant observation, interviews, questionnaires, camera and video recordings, and documentary analysis were used to study six secondary schools in urban, sub-urban, and rural settings. The study was conducted in response to the call for the contextualization of School Effectiveness Research (SER). One incontrovertible conclusion in School Effectiveness Research (SER) is that the accumulation of evidence on the characteristics of school effectiveness has not answered the perplexing question of why certain characteristics work in one school and not in others. Many researchers have suggested contextualizing SER as one way of dealing with this nagging problem. The contextualization of SER, argued these researchers, would ensure that local school and classroom cultures were taken into consideration in the design, implementation, and interpretation of School Effectiveness Research. Studying the nuances of local school cultures might illuminate the relationships between school effectiveness characteristics and the classroom instructional strategies employed by effective teachers to enhance student academic achievement. Results from the six case studies indicated support for many school effectiveness characteristics that have been attested to in the literature, such as strong and purposeful school leadership, clear and articulated goals, high expectations of student achievement, a safe and orderly environment conducive to learning, and frequent evaluation of students' progress. But some characteristics that might be peculiar to the Third World were also unraveled by the study. For instance, extramural lessons seemed to be an important feature in certain schools that achieved effective examination results but lacked effectiveness characteristics. There appears also to be a link between the identified school level effectiveness characteristics and the classroom level instructional strategies employed by effective teachers in English language classrooms. The study of the dimensions of effective instruction in Nigerian English language classrooms yielded some "language examination-oriented instructional strategies" that were different from the "mediational instructional strategies" used by effective language teachers in Californian classrooms in the United States of America. It was felt that these differences were a result of contextual differences in the two developed and developing world domains. / Education, Faculty of / Language and Literacy Education (LLED), Department of / Graduate

This study assesses the usefulness of Marsien-Wilson’s (1989, 1987; Marsien Wilson & Welsh, 1978) cohort model of spoken (first language) word recognition as a method of explaining the high-speed, on-line processes involved in recognizing spoken words while listening to a second language. Two important assumptions of the model are: 1) syntactic and semantic properties of mental lexical entries can function to-facilitate spoken word recognition and 2) spoken word recognition is a function of the frequency of exposure to words in the general language environment. These assumptions were tested in three functionally defined levels of language proficiency: Native Speakers of English, Fluent Users of ESL, and Advanced learners of ESL. Their performance was compared on a reading cloze test and a spoken-word recognition task in which there were five different levels of contextual richness prior to a target word, and two levels of word frequency. The cloze results indicated that the three groups differed in their general English proficiency. Congruent with the cohort model, there was a significant overall effect of sentence context and word frequency on recognition latency. Despite the difference in cloze scores and immersion experience between the two ESL groups, there were no reliable differences in their recognition latencies or latency profiles across sentence contexts or across word frequency. There was an interaction of ESL group, word frequency, and sentence context. This may be due to a reorganization of rules used during processing or a restructuring of lexical knowledge. There was also an interesting non-linear relationship between recognition latency and language immersion time. Spoken word recognition speed decreased in the early immersion experience, and then increased with further exposure. There was a significant difference in overall mean recognition latency between the Native and the ESL speakers, with the ESL subjects responding on average 98 msec slower than the Native Speakers. However, there were no significant differences in the way Native Speakers and the ESL subjects used sentence context. In contrast with the comparison across the sentential contexts, there was a significant difference in the recognition profiles of the Native English speakers and the ESL subjects across word frequency. / Education, Faculty of / Educational and Counselling Psychology, and Special Education (ECPS), Department of / Graduate

[abstract missing] / Education, Faculty of / Language and Literacy Education (LLED), Department of / Graduate

Surveys two populations, teachers of grade 12 English in the province of British Columbia and recent high school graduates who are now in English 100 at the University of British Columbia, to ascertain the differing perspectives held by those two groups toward certain literacy and communication skills deemed to be relevant to successful university or college study. Respondents were asked to rate the frequency of teaching of each skill, the strength of the average university-bound student (or the student respondent) in each skill, and the importance of each skill to university study. All student-completed questionnaires were considered usable. A 76% return was obtained from teachers in the Province. Results, reported in descriptive terms, were analyzed by computer using programs from SPSS Statistical Package for the Social Sciences. It was found that teachers agree with students as to the freguency of the teaching of skills and the importance of those skills to university study. However, students and teachers show less agreement in rating the strength that students have in individual skills. / Education, Faculty of / Language and Literacy Education (LLED), Department of / Graduate

This paper compares English as a second language (ESL) and foreign language (FL) teachers' and students' perspectives regarding target language (TL) and first language (L1) use in the respective classrooms. Teachers and students were given questionnaires asking their opinions of a rule that restricts students' L1 use. Questionnaires were administered to 46 ESL students, 43 FL students, 14 ESL teachers, and 15 FL teachers in Texas secondary public schools. Results were analyzed using SPSS and R. Results demonstrated an almost statistical difference between perspectives of ESL and FL students regarding TL and L1 use, while teacher results demonstrated no statistical difference between the groups. Students had a more positive perspective of the rule than teachers.

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