published_or_final_version / abstract / toc / Linguistics / Master / Master of Arts in Applied Linguistics

This study explores patterns of language learning strategies and the degree of tolerance of ambiguity of Korean Naval Academy midshipmen. The subjects, 377 midshipmen, were divided into three groups according to class, major, and proficiency, and the results were analyzed by group. The study also sought to find out relationships between motivation, attitude, language learning strategies, and tolerance of ambiguity. For the study, the Strategy Inventory Language Learning (SILL for ESL/EFL) developed by Oxford (1990a) and the Second Language Tolerance of Ambiguity Scale by Ely (1995) were used, along with items about motivation and attitude toward language learning.It was found that the language learning strategy mean and tolerance of ambiguity mean were not high overall. The proficiency levels showed significant mean differences: the high proficiency level students showed a significantly higher mean use of language learning strategies and tolerance of ambiguity than did the low and mid proficiency level students. With respect to class levels, there were no significant mean differences relating to language learning strategies. The seniors' mean of tolerance of ambiguity, however, was significantly higher than that of the other class levels. For major, there were no significant differences in the use of language learning strategies and tolerance of ambiguity. Correlations between tolerance of ambiguity and language learning strategies were significant and positive, although modest.The midshipmen's means of motivation and attitude were comparatively high. It was also found that while motivation showed a strong correlation with language learning strategies, attitude showed a strong correlation with tolerance of ambiguity. Through the analysis of six open questions, in addition, it confirmed that the Korean midshipmen generally did not use active strategies in learning English, although high proficiency level students used more than the mid or low proficiency ones. / Department of English

This thesis explores the connection between linguistic theory, as embodied in a version of the Government - Binding (GB) model of syntax, and the parameter-setting theory of language acquisition. In Chapter 2, it is argued that by incorporating the criterion of epistemological priority, syntactic theory can move closer towards becoming a plausible model of language acquisition. A version of GB theory is developed which adopts this criterion, leading to several modifications, including the derivation of X-bar theory from more "primitive" grammatical sub-components, and a revision of the Projection Principle. This model is converted into a procedure for phrase-structure acquisition, employing sets of Canonical Government Configurations and Percolation Principles to map Case- and θ-relations onto phrase-structure trees. The chapter ends with a discussion of the "missing-subject" stage in the acquisition of English. Chapter 3 concerns auxiliaries. It is argued that parametric variation in auxiliary systems can be reduced to levels of association between INFL and V. The question of irregularity is dealt with through the Designation Convention of Emonds (1985), which makes a distinction between open- and closed- class grammatical elements, and a Parallel Distributed Processing model of learning. The last part of the chapter investigates the learning of the English auxiliary system, and in particular the errors known as "auxiliary overmarking". Chapter 4 investigates the syntax of Subject Auxiliary Inversion (SAI)-type rules. An account of inversion is developed based on the theory of predication, in which inversion-inducing elements are treated as "A'-type" subjects which must be linked to AGR in order to satisfy conditions on Predicate-licensing. A parametrization is developed based on the cross-linguistic examination of SAI-type rules. Chapter 5 concerns the acquisition of SAI. It is argued that there are no invariant "stages" in the development of inversion; rather, a proportion of children misanalyze (WH + contracted auxiliary) sequences as (WH + AGR-clitic) sequences and formulate grammars in which SAI is unnecessary. A "two-tiered" theory of syntactic acquisition is proposed to account for the observed developmental patterns. / Arts, Faculty of / Linguistics, Department of / Graduate

Information and communication technologies (ICTs) have given rise to many distinct discourses in the field of literacy studies. The present study examined the discursive interplay between two of these discourses, namely the practical discourses of those who see themselves as empowered by ICTs and the theoretical discourses of theory and research literature on the notions of multiliteracies. Drawing on the emergent discourses from the interview data, this study explored the practitioners' underlying beliefs and their assumptions about technology-mediated new multiliteracies as opposed to traditional print-based literacy. As such the study also argued for a sustainable dialogue between the discourses of practice and discourses of theory and research, suggesting that the discursive interplay between these two discourse communities would contribute to the application of the complex theoretical notions to multiliteracy pedagogy. Employing a qualitative approach, the study drew on Bakhtin's (1986) notion of primary/secondary genres to depict the relevance of the notions of discourse in arriving at the underlying assumptions about the nature of multiliteracies and its implications. This study was broadly framed within a critical social research perspective (Fairclough, 2003). The notion of multiliteracies was explored from the standpoint of the New London Group (1996). Grounded Theory procedures (Strauss & Corbin, 1998) were also employed to identify major themes in the data, while general content analysis method was used to interpret the interview data. The main question that guided this investigation was as follows: How do expert practitioners' perceptions of new multiliteracies and their implications map onto their practices with new multiliteracies? The findings of this study pointed to the practitioners' willingness to implement new approaches in their literacy practices. Moreover, these findings highlighted the importance of a sustainable dialogue between the discourses of theory and practice to enhance literacy educators' pedagogical choices. The researcher hopes that the findings of this study contribute to the future teacher education policy and curriculum development in such a way that current pedagogical practices are expanded to include multiple literacies. / Education, Faculty of / Language and Literacy Education (LLED), Department of / Graduate

This study looks deeper into the concept of formative assessment. Formative assessment is described by Black and Wiliam (Developing the Theory of Formative Assessment, 2009) as being a process using tools. The mindset of formative assessment can be difficult to grasp. Therefore, this study takes up the question if and how an understanding of the formative assessment mindset is reflected in the teaching practice of teachers in the English Language Acquisition classroom. Five lectures were observed of different teachers and groups of students, in an upper secondary school in Sweden. An additional questionnaire gave insight into the mindset of the participating teachers concerning the meaning of the term formative assessment as well as their teaching practice. The definitions the teachers gave varied in complexity and this was also reflected in their teaching. Only one teacher embedded the process of formative assessment with all the 5 key strategies of formative assessment in her lecture. By comparing classroom practice and the understanding of the teachers of what formative assessment entails, I found that the more inclusive of the 5 key strategies the understanding of the teachers was, the more their teaching practice was formed by it. Furthermore, to be able to use the 5 key strategies of formative assessment needs skill and practice, and therefore training of teachers is necessary.

The purpose of this project was to measure and compare the language concept growth of two clients who utilized different response modes; client A utilized the expressive mode and client B utilized the receptive mode. A systematic management program was administered to each client for eighteen sessions. The specific questions posed were: 1. Did both clients demonstrate the ability to verbalize concepts on the post-test of the individualized programs? 2. Did client A learn more concepts in eighteen sessions than client B as measured by the post-tests of the individualized programs and the Boehm Test of Basic Concepts? 3. Did both clients tend to learn each concept in a similar number of trials?

The purpose of this project is to focus on how art enhances written language among English language learners in third grade. It develops and designs curriculum through the mediated structure of art to develop English language learners' writing in narrative and expository genres, as well as develop second language proficiency.

Thesis (MPhil (Curriculum Studies))--Stellenbosch University, 2008.

A research report submitted to the Faculty of Humanities, University of the Witwatersrand, in partial fulfilment of the degree of Master of Education Johannesburg, 2016. / The aim of this research is to understand how the use and manipulation of concrete tools, specifically six DUPLO bricks, can impact language acquisition and vocabulary development in second language learners. The study works within a social constructivist paradigm and draws on the work of Vygotsky (1978b). This is an exploratory study and the data is gathered from observations, focus group sessions and semi-structured interviews. The research is conducted over a period of 14 weeks with one class of Grade 1 children who are learning through the medium of English but are also second language learners. The selected school was a northern suburbs government school. The findings show that the children did benefit from the intervention and that learning was enhanced through tactile activities and embodiment. The social collaborative learning through play provided the best opportunities for language acquisition and the development of a shared repertoire of vocabulary. The research study has implications for the theory and practice of teaching early literacy in South Africa in particular language learning and vocabulary development. / MT2017

Gu, Chenjie. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 164-168). / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / Contents / Acknowledgements / List of Abbreviations / List of Tables / Abstract / Chapter Chapter One --- Introduction / Chapter 1.1 --- Issues in Bilingual First Language Acquisition / Chapter 1.2 --- Minimal Default Grammar and Acquisition Stages in Child Language / Chapter 1.3 --- Input Ambiguity in Bilingual First Language Acquisition / Chapter 1.4 --- Organization of the Thesis / Chapter Chapter Two --- Theoretical Framework / Chapter 2.1 --- Dative Constructions in English and Cantonese / Chapter 2.1.1 --- English Dative Constructions / Chapter 2.1.2 --- Cantonese Dative Constructions / Chapter 2.1.3 --- The Syntax and Semantics of Dative Constructions / Chapter 2.1.3.1 --- Larson (1988): VP Shell / Chapter 2.1.3.2 --- Decomposing Dative Verbs / Chapter 2.1.3.3 --- English Double Object Datives as Low Applicative Constructions / Chapter 2.2 --- Previous Acquisition Studies on Dative Constructions / Chapter 2.2.1 --- Chan (2003): Acquisition of Cantonese Inverted Double Object Datives / Chapter 2.2.2 --- Snyder and Stromswold (1997): Acquisition Order and Parameter Setting / Chapter 2.2.3 --- Viau (2006): Lexical Decomposition and Primitives in Acquisition / Chapter Chapter Three --- "Acquisition Tasks, Hypotheses and Methodology" / Chapter 3.1 --- Acquisition Task for Bilingual Children / Chapter 3.1.1 --- Acquisition of English Dative Constructions / Chapter 3.1.2 --- Acquisition of Cantonese Dative Constructions / Chapter 3.1.3 --- Possible Areas of Crosslinguistic Influence in Bilingual Acquisition / Chapter 3.2 --- Methodology / Chapter 3.2.1 --- Cantonese-English Bilingual Children: The Hong Long Bilingual Child Language Corpus / Chapter 3.2.2 --- Monolingual English-speaking Children / Chapter 3.2.3 --- Monolingual Cantonese-speaking Children: The Hong Kong Cantonese Child Language Corpus (CANCORP) / Chapter 3.2.4 --- Measure for Acquisition / Chapter Chapter Four --- The Acquisition of English Dative Constructions / Chapter 4.1 --- Order of Emergence of Double Object Datives and Prepositional Datives / Chapter 4.2 --- The Acquisition of To-datives / Chapter 4.2.1 --- To-datives and Triadic Directional to in Bilingual Children / Chapter 4.2.2 --- To-datives and Triadic Directional to in Monolingual Children / Chapter 4.3 --- The Acquisition of For-datives / Chapter 4.3.1 --- For-datives in Bilingual Children / Chapter 4.3.2 --- For-datives in Monolingual Children / Chapter 4.3.3 --- To-datives and for-datives / Chapter 4.4 --- Double Object Datives and Dative Alternation / Chapter 4.4.1 --- Double Object Datives and Dative Alternation in Bilingual Children / Chapter 4.4.2 --- Double Object Datives and Dative Alternation in Monolingual Children / Chapter 4.5 --- Summary / Chapter Chapter Five --- The Acquisition of Cantonese Dative Constructions / Chapter 5.1 --- Order of Emergence of Cantonese Dative Constructions / Chapter 5.1.1 --- Order of Emergence in Bilingual Children / Chapter 5.1.2 --- Order of Emergence in Monolingual Children / Chapter 5.2 --- The Acquisition of Inverted Double Object Datives / Chapter 5.2.1 --- Order of Emergence and Preference of Target vs. Non-target Forms / Chapter 5.2.2 --- Underlying Form and Surface Order / Chapter 5.3 --- The Acquisition of Serial Verb Dative Constructions / Chapter 5.3.1 --- Target and Non-target Serial Verb Dative Constructions / Chapter 5.3.2 --- Serial Verb Dative Constructions and [Bei2-Goal-Theme] Constructions / Chapter 5.4 --- Summary / Chapter Chapter Six --- Discussions / Chapter 6.1 --- Crosslinguistic Influence in the Acquisition of Dative Constructions / Chapter 6.1.1 --- Crosslinguistic Influence on English Dative Constructions / Chapter 6.1.2 --- Crosslinguistic Influence on Cantonese Dative Constructions / Chapter 6.2 --- Vulnerable Domains in Dative Constructions / Chapter 6.2.1 --- Vulnerable Domains in English Dative Construction / Chapter 6.2.2 --- Vulnerable Domains in Cantonese Dative Constructions / Chapter 6.3 --- Other Factors in the Acquisition of Dative Constructions / Chapter 6.3.1 --- Input frequency / Chapter 6.3.2 --- Parameters in Dative Constructions / Chapter 6.3.3 --- Default Grammars of Dative Constructions / Chapter 6.4 --- Summary / Chapter Chapter Seven --- Conclusions and Suggestions for Future Research / Chapter 7.1 --- Conclusions / Chapter 7.2 --- Open Questions / Chapter 7.3 --- Suggestions for Future Research / Chapter 7.3.1 --- Experimental Studies of Dative Constructions / Chapter 7.3.2 --- Dative Constructions in Other Languages / Chapter 7.3.3 --- Other Related Constructions / References