In many South African schools where English is used as the language of instruction learners with a different mother tongue are accepted, yet they may experience many challenges. In this research study I investigated whether group music therapy sessions can have a positive impact on such learners in relation to particularly two of these difficulties. The first difficulty is social interaction and integration. The second difficulty is their negative attitude towards English, the school and their school work. This difficulty develops because of their weak competency in the language. The paradigm in which this study falls is interpretive and a qualitative approach was used. A case study design was utilised. Ten music therapy sessions were offered to a group of nine grade eight boys from three different linguistic backgrounds: three English home language speakers, three Portuguese home language speakers and three siSwati home language speakers. Music therapy offers a non-threatening environment in which group members can creatively interact. I made use of an array of techniques including improvisation, movement, song writing and musical games where group members had opportunities to express themselves in an unconventional way. Three different sources of naturally-occurring data were used. Questionnaires were filled in by all participants before the commencement of the sessions, five video excerpts were selected from the music therapy group sessions and a focus group was held with all participants after the last session. Data was analysed according to Ansdell and Pavlicevic’s (2001) qualitative content analysis. Responses from the questionnaires and focus group and thick descriptions from the selected video excerpts were coded and categorised according to Gibb’s (2007) proposed technique of open coding. Results generated from the analysed data indicated that, through the opportunities afforded to the group in music therapy sessions, social interaction was experienced in a novel way and integration was enhanced. Findings also indicated that, through this unique way of interacting, the attitude of some members towards English improved. There were also indications that improvement was not across the board and individuals reacted differently to the process. A much longer process could hold far more convincing results. / Dissertation (MMus)--University of Pretoria, 2013. / lmchunu2014 / Music / unrestricted

This study investigates the efficiency of using children’s literature to support English vocabulary acquisition in a first and second language classroom context. Previous research has established that it is important for children to be given the opportunity to expand their basic vocabulary in English during their years in school, in order to assimilate the teaching in the classroom. The knowledge of words is mentioned in the curriculum, for almost all subject areas. Therefore it is of great importance that teachers are aware of factors that affect vocabulary acquisition to support/enable children’s vocabulary development. Results of this study are based on 7 scientific studies that were found through searches in the ERIC database. The synthesis of our study highlighted several significant factors that can affect children's vocabulary acquisition. Our focus was to examine children's literature as a didactic tool along with different working methods and strategies. Through storybook reading, children encounter many new words which has been shown to have a positive effect on all children's vocabulary development. Teaching target words, repeated reading of the story and discussions about vocabulary appeared to be working methods and strategies that benefited vocabulary acquisition. Research highlights that there is a connection between the development of children's vocabulary and the number of instructions and activities that are completed linked to the target words. Based on these results, our concluding reflections highlights the importance of teachers using interaction and storybook reading to support the acquisition of children’s vocabulary. A rich vocabulary gives students the conditions to succeed in school and to function in a democratic society.

This thesis presents a study of the relationship between test-takers’ first language, listening proficiency and their performance on paired speaking tests. Forty participants from two different L1 backgrounds (20 Urdu and 20 Thai) participated in the study. They took two paired speaking tests: one with a shared L1 partner, and one with a non-shared L1 partner, as well as a listening test and a monologic speaking test to measure their listening ability and individual speaking ability. After each paired speaking test, the participants were also interviewed about their test-taking experience. All speaking tests and interviews were video recorded and transcribed. Raters awarded test-takers analytical speaking test scores (grammar and vocabulary, discourse management, pronunciation and interactive communication) and provided comments to justify their scores. Raters also participated in a stimulated recall session. The mixed-methods approach was utilised in analysing and triangulating different data sources. The data analysed in this study included listening and speaking test scores, raters’ perceptions of the test-takers’ speaking performance gathered from stimulated recalls and test-takers’ stimulated recall interviews, as well as the interactional discourse data in the paired speaking formats. The combination of quantitative analysis, Conversation Analysis (CA) and thematic analysis informed the relationship between test-takers’ listening proficiency, their L1 and their paired speaking performance.

Il est bien documenté que les élèves de l’élémentaire et du secondaire évoluant en milieu francophone minoritaire éprouvent plus de difficultés à apprendre à écrire en français que les élèves vivant en milieu francophone majoritaire. Ce constat a également été établi pour le postsecondaire. Ces difficultés d’apprentissage pourraient être attribuables à certains aspects de leur rapport à l’écrit, soit de la relation qu’ils entretiennent avec les écrits (les documents lus et écrits) ainsi qu’avec leurs processus. Nous nous sommes intéressée au rapport à l’écrit d’étudiants francophones universitaires issus d’un milieu francophone minoritaire canadien. Nous avons posé chaque question non seulement pour le français, mais également pour l’anglais parce que ces derniers sont exposés régulièrement à ces deux langues. Par ailleurs, il est opportun de connaître les caractéristiques du rapport à l’écrit de cette population étudiante parce qu’elles peuvent différer de celles présentes chez des francophones issus d’un milieu francophone majoritaire. Pour recueillir nos données, nous avons demandé à des étudiants francophones qui font des études de baccalauréat en français dans une université bilingue de l’est de l’Ontario de remplir un questionnaire écrit et de participer à un entretien individuel semi dirigé. Nous avons cherché à décrire le rapport à l’écrit à la fois en français et en anglais, et ce, dans une perspective de groupe et dans une perspective individuelle. Les résultats ont montré des caractéristiques semblables et différentes quant aux représentations, aux sentiments, aux émotions, aux pratiques et aux types d’investissement, et ce, autant pour le français que pour l’anglais. En outre, tous les participants reconnaissent que leur bilinguisme français anglais leur procure un grand nombre d’avantages. Cette étude revêt un caractère unique parce qu’elle porte sur le rapport à l’écrit à la fois en français et en anglais des participants et qu’elle contribue à une meilleure connaissance des facteurs qui se révèlent être favorables ou défavorables au développement des compétences rédactionnelles en français des étudiants francophones universitaires issus d’un milieu francophone minoritaire canadien.