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abstract: This qualitative study explores the literacy development of adolescent ELLs in three middle school, Structured English Immersion (SEI) classrooms that implemented the four-hour, English Language Development (ELD), curriculum mandated by Arizona. The context of the study is set in two elementary school districts. Participants, three middle school teachers, were observed during four hours of ELD instruction within their English-only classrooms to examine literacy practices. Data were recorded using field note observations, semi-structured interviews, and artifact collection. During the year-long study, three main questions guided the design and implementation of the study: a) what kinds of literacy practices can be documented in Arizona SEI classrooms and what do they look like; b) how do junior high teachers implement mandated language policies; and c)what perceptions do junior high teachers have toward the mandated SEI, four-hour block? A descriptive qualitative approach informed data collection and analysis; data were collected during 76 hours of observed instruction in the classroom, in-depth interviews, and collection of classroom artifacts to document the preparation provided by Arizona Department of Education (ADE) for ELD instruction. A framework of Erickson's (1986) analytic induction and content analysis served as an analytical tool to observe literacy practices and events in the classroom. Observations of instruction within the four-hour language models in the classroom offer unique insight to the literacy development of adolescent ELLs. Findings show how State language policy mandates and teachers' policy implementation have impacted learning experiences and language development of adolescent ELLs. Findings are discussed through narrative-based vignettes, which illustrate the experiences occurring within middle school classrooms with students learning English. Data reveal skill-based approaches to the literacy development of adolescent ELLs and a lack of student-centered learning in the classroom. Teachers supported ELLs with prescriptive lessons that focused on decontextualized vocabulary development. Language policy in practice reveals a detrimental experience to second language acquisition (SLA) for adolescent ELLs in the four-hour language block. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Curriculum and Instruction 2012

This doctoral thesis analyses the concept of risk and how it functions as an organizing principle of discourse, paying close attention to actual linguistic practice.           Article 1 analyses the concepts of risk, safety and security and their relations based on corpus data (the Corpus of Contemporary American English). Lexical, grammatical and semantic contexts of the nouns risk, safety and security, and the adjectives risky, safe and secure are analysed and compared. Similarities and differences are observed, suggesting partial synonymy between safety (safe) and security (secure) and semantic opposition to risk (risky). The findings both support and contrast theoretical assumptions about these concepts in the literature.           Article 2 analyses the concepts of risk and danger and their relation based on corpus data (in this case the British National Corpus). Frame semantics is used to explore the assumptions of the sociologist Niklas Luhmann (and others) that the risk concept presupposes decision-making, while the concept of danger does not. Findings partly support and partly contradict this assumption.           Article 3 analyses how newspapers represent risk and causality. Two theories are used: media framing and the philosopher John Mackie’s account of causality. A central finding of the study is that risks are “framed” with respect to causality in several ways (e.g. one and the same type of risk can be presented as resulting from various causes). Furthermore, newspaper reporting on risk and causality vary in complexity. In some articles, risks are presented without causal explanations, while in other articles, risks are presented as results from complex causal conditions. Considering newspaper reporting on an aggregated overall level, complex schemas of causal explanations emerge.           Article 4 analyses how phenomena referred to by the term nano (e.g. nanotechnology, nanoparticles and nanorobots) are represented as risks in Swedish newspaper reporting. Theoretically, the relational theory of risk and frame semantics are used. Five main groups of nano-risks are identified based on the risk object of the article: (I) nanotechnology; (II) nanotechnology and its artefacts (e.g. nanoparticles and nanomaterials); (III) nanoparticles, without referring to nanotechnology; (IV) non-nanotechnological nanoparticles (e.g. arising from traffic); and (V) nanotechnology and nanorobots. Various patterns are explored within each group, concerning, for example, what is considered to be at stake in relation to these risk objects, and under what conditions. It is concluded that Swedish patterns of newspaper reporting on nano-risks follow international trends, influenced by scientific assessment, as well as science fiction.           Article 5 analyses the construction and negotiation of risk in the Swedish controversy over the use of antibacterial silver in health care and consumer products (e.g. sports clothes and equipment). The controversy involves several actors: print and television news media, Government and parliament, governmental agencies, municipalities, non-government organisations, and companies. In the controversy, antibacterial silver is claimed to be a risk object that negatively affects health, the environment, and sewage treatment industry (objects at risk). In contrast, such claims are denied. Antibacterial silver is even associated with the benefit of mitigating risk objects (e.g. bacteria and micro-organisms) that threaten health and the environment (objects at risk). In other words, both sides of the controversy invoke health and the environment as objects at risk. Three strategies organising risk communication are identified: (i) representation of silver as a risk to health and the environment; (ii) denial of such representations; and (iii) benefit association, where silver is construed to mitigate risks to health and the environment. / Avhandlingen analyserar begreppet risk och hur detta begrepp strukturerar diskurs. Ett centralt intresse för analysen är faktisk språkanvändning.           I den första artikeln analyseras de engelska begreppen risk, safety and security och deras relation. Analysen bygger på korpusdata (the Corpus of Contemporary American English). Lexikala och grammatiska kontexter för substantiven risk, safety och security och adjektiven risky, safe och secure analyseras och jämförs. Både likheter och skillnader identifieras vilka i stort bekräftar att safety (safe) och security (secure) är synonymer och i sin tur motsatser (antonymer) till risk (risky). Studien stödjer flera tidigare antaganden om dessa begrepp inom forskningslitteraturen, men motsäger andra.           I den andra artikeln analyseras de engelska begreppen risk och danger och deras relation baserat på korpusdata (the British National Corpus). Ramsemantik (eng. frame semantics) används för att undersöka antagandet att begreppet risk förutsätter beslutsfattande, medan begreppet danger inte gör det. Studien stödjer delvis detta antagande, men visar också på problem med antagandet.           I den tredje artikeln analyseras hur nyhetspress framställer risk och orsak-verkansamband (kausalitet). Två teorier används. För det första används teorin om medias ”inramning” av händelser (eng. media framing). För det andra används filosofiska perspektiv på kausala beskrivningar. En huvudsaklig slutsats är att risker framställs på många olika sätt med avseende på kausalitet. Exempelvis kan en och samma risk framställas som ett resultat av flera olika orsaker. Vidare framställer nyhetspress riskers kausalitet med olika grader av komplexitet. I vissa tidningsartiklar presenteras risker utan några kausala förklaringar. I andra tidningsartiklar presenteras risker som resultat av komplexa orsak-verkansamband. Om man betraktar nyhetsrapporteringen om risker på en övergripande nivå, så framträder en komplex bild av riskers orsakssamband.           I den fjärde artikeln analyseras framställningar av fenomen som benämns med morfemet nano, exempelvis nanoteknologi, nanomaterial och nanorobotar. Frågan som besvaras är på vilket sätt sådana fenomen framställs som risker i svensk nyhetspress. Teoretiskt utgår studien från den relationella teorin om risk och ramsemantik. Baserat på vilka fenomen som framställs som riskobjekt (eller hot) i tidningsartiklar, identifieras fem grupper av nanorisker: (I) nanoteknologi, (II) nanoteknologi och dess produkter (t.ex. nanopartiklar och nanomaterial), (III) nanopartiklar (utan referens till nanoteknologi), (IV) nanopartiklar som inte är resultat av nanoteknologi (utan istället uppstår t.ex. i trafiken) och (V) nanoteknologi och nanorobotar. För varje grupp undersöks vidare mönster i framställningen av dessa risker, exempelvis, vad som beskrivs som hotat av dessa riskobjekt och under vilka förutsättningar. Studiens empiriska observationer stödjer tidigare forskning om hur nanorisker rapporteras i nyhetspress internationalt. Rapporteringen av nanorisker är influerad av vetenskapliga riskbedömningar, men också av science fiction.           I den femte artikeln analyseras en kontrovers kring användningen av antibakteriellt silver inom sjukvården och i konsumentartiklar som exempelvis träningskläder och sportutrustning. Fokus för artikeln är hur risker uppfattas i den svenska debatten som inbegriper nyhetsmedia (press och TV), regering och riksdag, myndigheter, kommuner, intresseorganisationer och företag. Vissa aktörer menar att silver är ett riskobjekt som påverkar olika värden på ett negativt sätt, till exempel, folkhälsan, miljön, och avloppsreningsindustrin. Andra aktörer förnekar dessa påståenden. De menar till och med att silver har fördelar som att motverka risker som hotar folkhälsan och miljön. Med andra ord åberopar båda sidorna av kontroversen hälsa och miljö som värden viktiga att skydda. Slutligen identifieras tre strategier för riskkommunikation som tillämpas i kontroversen: (i) framställningen av silver som en miljö- och hälsorisk, (ii) förnekande av dessa påståenden, och (iii) nyttoassociationer där silver framställs som något som motverkar miljö- och hälsorisker. / <p>QC 20160127</p>

This thesis deals with the integration of the topic of personality and social education into the Czech language lessons taught in classes on the second grade of basic schools and in grammar schools. The first part introduces personality and social education and its particular topics. Then the ways of working with these topics during Czech language lessons are described, and also the activities that can be used by a teacher to include personality and social education into Czech language lessons. One chapter is dedicated to description of E-U-R model and its applicable methods. In practical part the survey among Czech language teachers, which focuses on the attitude of teachers towards personality and social education and their experience with integrating this topic, is described. Also there is a survey that focuses on familiarity of Czech language students with this topic. The survey is carried out by the method of semi-structured interview. The results are commented and projected into theoretical part of the thesis.

Thesis (M.Sc. (Computer Science) --University of Limpopo, 2013 / This research study focuses on building a general-purpose working Xitsonga speech synthesis system that is as far as can be possible reasonably intelligible, natural sounding, and flexible. The system built has to be able to model some of the desirable speaker characteristics and speaking styles. This research project forms part of the broader national speech technology project that aims at developing spoken language systems for human-machine interaction using the eleven official languages of South Africa (SA). Speech synthesis is the reverse of automatic speech recognition (which receives speech as input and converts it to text) in that it receives text as input and produces synthesized speech as output. It is generally accepted that most people find listening to spoken utterances better that reading the equivalent of such utterances. The Xitsonga speech synthesis system has been developed using a hidden Markov model (HMM) speech synthesis method. The HMM-based speech synthesis (HTS) system synthesizes speech that is intelligible, and natural sounding. This method can synthesize speech on a footprint of only a few megabytes of training speech data. The HTS toolkit is applied as a patch to the HTK toolkit which is a hidden Markov model toolkit primarily designed for use in speech recognition to build and manipulate hidden Markov models.

Within the framework of task-based language teaching, various types of tasks have been proposed, yet in English as foreign language classroom contexts where learners’ exposure to target language input is often limited, the adoption of form-focused tasks seems to receive much credit. Although the potential academic gains brought forth by such tasks have been studied in some previous quantitative research, the call for investigations into those tasks from a learner perspective remains warranted. In this study I investigated the use of grammatical consciousness-raising (C-R) tasks as an inductive approach to grammar pedagogy in an EFL classroom from a learner perspective. While performing such tasks the informants, who were a class of secondary level English as foreign language learners, made discoveries about the targeted grammar items based on contextualized examples provided. In the study I first examined the extent to which adopting C-R tasks impacted on the informants’ learning of English grammar through pretests and posttests. Second, I elicited their perceptions of C-R tasks through a questionnaire and two semi-structured interviews. Third, with the think-aloud protocols method I studied the informants’ engagement with the grammar items presented through either C-R tasks or deductive explanation. The findings revealed that the majority of the informants were able to develop grammatical understanding through performing C-R tasks. They tended to respond positively to and show deep engagement with the grammar items presented though such tasks as well. To enhance the perceived effectiveness of such tasks and thus to maximize the effect of grammar teaching, I concluded by suggesting the need for teachers to make the learners fully aware of the nature of and rationale behind C-R tasks and to investigate whether and how such tasks can be integrated with other methodological options in realizing effective grammar instruction in their own contexts. / published_or_final_version / Education / Doctoral / Doctor of Education

published_or_final_version / abstract / Education / Master / Master of Education

Language ability can be a determining factor in deciding a defendant's legal guilt or innocence. This was the case for Chinese immigrant, LK, a licensed gun dealer who was criminally charged with selling weapons to ineligible buyers. In his defense, LK claimed that, as an English language learner, he did not possess the sufficient language skills required to adequately complete the complex administrative forms that accompany gun purchases. This study explores whether the defendant's English language abilities were sufficient to understand the government's requisite weapon sales report forms.Data collection comes from three sources: audio body bug (wiretap) tapes, written court transcripts, and the Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms' sales transaction forms. Using these sources as a basis for analysis, this study examines key linguistic features of the defendant's speech to evaluate his English language proficiency. Additionally, the language used by the defendant will be compared with the language found in the weapons purchase application report.Drawing upon theories on communicative competence (Bachman, 1990; Bachman &amp; Palmer, 1996; Canale &amp; Swain, 1980; Canale, 1983; Savignon, 1997), LK's functional, linguistic, discourse, sociolinguistic, and strategic competencies will first be evaluated. The second phase of the analysis uses the insight gained from examining LK's competencies in order to determine his level of proficiency. The Speaking Proficiency English Assessment Kit (1996, SPEAK®) test and the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) Proficiency Guidelines (2000) will be used. The third stage of the analysis turns to readability studies in order to determine the level of difficulty in the ATF form. Chall et al.'s (1996) rubric and Flesch's readability formula (1946, 1949, 1972, 1979) serve as the foundation for the readability assessment. And last, additional areas for a forensic linguistic investigation into this case are considered. These include thematic (topical) tracking, sociolinguistic practices, and speech accommodation.This research serves those interested in second language issues as well as members of the judicial system. It builds on and supports other work in linguistics, language acquisition, sociolinguistcs, as well as the more specialized field of forensic linguistics.