Thesis (M.A.)--University of Hong Kong, 1999. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 139-141). Also available in print.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Chicago, Dept. of Linguistics, August 2002. / Includes bibliographical references. Also available on the Internet.

Students learning a foreign language are apt to apply their own linguistic habits to the new language. Actually many problems of foreign language learning arise out of the interference of the learner’s first language habits. Thus modern linguists believe that a given foreign language cannot be successfully taught in an identical way to a group of students with different linguistic backgrounds. While it is true that problems of the learning of a foreign language are various, and that each of them must be attacked with a different technique, the technique of Contrastive Analysis can be universally applied in foreign language teaching. Contrastive analysis of the source language and the target language has been proved fruitful by Professor Robert Lado formerly of the University of Michigan, especially in devising tests and preparing teaching materials. This thesis, which is based upon Professor Lado’s method, is a contrastive analysis of English and Chinese basic syntactical structures, and an attempt to establish a hierachy of difficulty so as to help teachers who teach English as a second language to Chinese students. The work is confined to the syntactical level. Other levels of the formal structure of language such as the phonological level, the morphophonemic level, and the semantic level, are beyond the scope of the purpose of the paper. The analysis is presented in the transformational approach demonstrated by Noam Chomsky in "A Transformational Approach to Syntax". (See Introduction) The thesis is divided into five sections. In each section, except Section 1, descriptions and contrastive analyses of the two languages are made so that conclusions can be reached and problems of Chinese speakers learning English can be predicted. Section 1 is an introduction which explains the use of contrastive analysis, and justifies the adoption of the transformational approach. Section 2 is an illustration, by generating sentences, of the English and Chinese Phrase Structure rules. Section 3 describes the Noun Phrases in both languages. Section 4 is a discussion of the personal pronoun, while Section 5 contains a classification of English and Chinese verbs. It is hoped that this paper will be of some value for teachers who are teaching English to Chinese speakers, and also that it will provide other teachers with some insight into the values of contrastive analysis in foreign language teaching. / Education, Faculty of / Graduate

This dissertation has three main goals: 1. To provide an analysis of the syntax and semantics of Salish determiners and quantifiers. 2. To provide an account of differences in the determiner and quantification systems of Salish and English which reduces cross-linguistic variation to a minimum, in line with a restrictive theory of Universal Grammar. 3. To assess the theoretical consequences of the analysis of Salish, including implications for the range of possible cross-linguistic variation in determiner and quantification systems, and the nature of the relationship between syntactic structure and interpretation. I give evidence that one common method of expressing quantificational notions in English is absent in Salish. While English readily allows quantifiers to occupy the syntactic position of the determiner (as in every woman, most women), Salish languages do not allow such constructions (see also Jelinek 1995). I propose that Salish and English exemplify opposite settings of a Common Ground Parameter, which states that Salish determiners may not access the common ground of the discourse. This parameter accounts not only for the absence of quantificational determiners in Salish (since quantifiers presuppose existence, and therefore access the common ground), it also derives several other differences between Salish and English determiners, such as the absence of a definiteness distinction in Salish. I further demonstrate that Salish possesses a robust system of DP-internal quantification, and that quantificational DPs in Salish function as generalized quantifiers at logical form. This means that the strong hypothesis that languages do not differ with respect to the presence or absence of generalized quantifiers is upheld (cf. Barwise and Cooper 1981). Simple DPs in Salish, unlike in English, do not function as generalized quantifiers. This result follows from the Common Ground Parameter. I give further evidence from St'at'imcets (Lillooet Salish) on the strong/weak quantifier distinction; I argue that the interpretation of weak quantifiers is derivable directly from the overt syntactic position of the quantifier. / Arts, Faculty of / Linguistics, Department of / Graduate

The use of augmented transition network (ATM) gramaars for the analysis of natural language sentences is discussed. A small sample grammar is illustrated and briefly described. An ATN grammar for English was implemented and is described in detail. This grammar uses both semantic and syntactic information to guide the parsing. The value of the ATM model for natural language analysis is critically evaluated. / Science, Faculty of / Computer Science, Department of / Graduate

The purpose of this study will be to make an investigation of the shifting of a word from one part of speech to another, to see whether this linguistic process existed in Old English, Middle English, and to note the prevalence of functional shift among present-day writers.

By presenting first, statement of theory, and then concrete examples and original exercises, wherever practical, this thesis suggests possible ways to combine linguistic methods with traditional ones to make a more effective approach to teaching language in the ninth grade.

Thesis. 1976. Ph.D.--Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Foreign Literatures and Linguistics. / Microfiche copy available in Archives and Humanities. / Vita. / Bibliography: leaves 286-288. / Ph.D.

Research report submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the degree Masters in applied language and literacy education in the division of languages, literacies and literatures school of education at the University of the Witwatersrand June 2017 / This study explored and compared how language structures and conventions were taught in the intermediate phase English Home Language classroom at a public and at an independent school in central Johannesburg, South Africa. The aim was to identify challenges and strategies in an attempt at promoting pedagogies that enhance the learning of language structures and conventions. Specific themes related to the teaching and learning of language structures and conventions have been highlighted as the main point of departure in the study. Such themes include: a synthesis of the curriculum applied at public and independent schools; theoretical viewpoints in the teaching and learning of language structures and conventions, highlighting challenges experienced in the EHL classroom; and lastly, the teaching strategies used in overcoming the challenges. A qualitative research approach was adopted, using a case study as the research design. Most case studies allow space for generalisations to be made, however, in this study I was limited to making such generalisations because my study is considered a minor study. The research methods consisted of: biographical questionnaires; 8 teacher interviews (Grades 4 – 6); and 5 classroom observations (only Grade 6) per school which were audio-taped. The findings suggested that the most common teaching approach used throughout the lessons in both schools was the text-based approach, which is advocated in the CAPS (2011). The classroom observations conducted at the public school illustrated that the Audio-lingual Method of language teaching was used, as opposed to CLT which was evident in the classroom observations at the independent school. Lessons in the public school were primarily teacher-centered, where the teacher engaged in giving instructions, providing explanations and eliciting responses. The type of questions asked consisted of lower level thinking (literal). Learners in the independent school, however, showed more enthusiasm towards participating in classroom discussions and answering questions, thus creating a learner-centered culture. It is evident that the independent school is more flexible in selecting the language components that need to be covered within a specific period. Based on the interview sessions, the teachers at the independent school mention that it is more important for them to cover a minimum amount of work in-depth rather than covering everything and not having learners understand what they are learning. As a future recommendation, a similar study can be conducted comparing an urban public school and a rural public school that apply the CAPS. This study adds to the understanding of how language structures and conventions are taught in the intermediate phase EHL classroom in the South African context. By encouraging and promoting the teaching of grammar, we are able to identify approaches best suited for quality learning to take place. / MT 2018

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