Thesis (M. A. (Education)) -- University of Limpopo, 2016 / Poor performance, by English Language Learners (ELLs), in Science examinations remains a thorny issue in countries where English is not the home language. Research around the world and the Department of Basic Education in South Africa have long recommended the integration of Language Literacy skills in the teaching of Physical Sciences in order to solve this issue. Despite that, learners’ poor performance in Physical Sciences examinations has been found to be positively related to low language literacy skills. The questions are: Do Physical Sciences teachers integrate language literacy skills in teaching the subject?; If yes, to what extent is the integration of language literacy skills practiced in Physical Sciences classroom? In an attempt to answer the above questions, a quantitative survey was carried out in Riba Cross District of Sekhukhune Region of Limpopo Province in South Africa. 211 learners and five teachers from selected nine schools took part in the study and questionnaires were used to collect data. Data were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics and the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 22 was used. The results indicate that Language Literacy skills are integrated into the teaching of Physical Sciences in Riba Cross District, despite concerns raised by the teachers. The areas of concern include letting learners to argue using evidences and writing reports. Furthermore, schools with large classes have challenges in integrating Language Literacy Skills in the teaching of Physical Sciences. Therefore, further studies are recommended which should integrate both qualitative and quantitative approaches in school contexts.

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published_or_final_version / abstract / Linguistics / Master / Master of Arts

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In order to explain the development of English and Spanish skills in children from Spanish-speaking homes in the United States, it is necessary to identify their sources of language exposure. Most research to date has focused on home language use. The aim of this study is to identify sources of English and Spanish exposure outside the home that bilingual children experience between the ages of 2 and 5 years. The present study focuses on 3 potential sources: grandparents, extracurricular activities, and early childcare and education settings. We ask how much English and Spanish exposure children receive, how that changes from 2.5 to 5 years, and whether family variables influence those changes. Participants were 149 children from Spanish-speaking homes in southeastern Florida, with at least one parent an immigrant from a Spanish-speaking country. Measured out-of-home sources of input included hours per of week of English and Spanish from a Grandparent, during Extracurricular Activities, and during Preschool at 30, 36, 42, 48, and 60 months. Parents’ Native Language Background groups were either both native Spanish-speaking or one native, Spanish-speaking and one native, English-speaking. Maternal Education was treated as a dichotomous variable: mothers whose highest level of education in English is less than a four-year college degree and mothers whose highest level of education in English is equivalent to or greater than a four-year college degree. Child Birth Order was also treated as a dichotomous variable: only children and first-born children or later born children. Results revealed that for these children from Spanish-speaking homes, Grandparents are primarily a source of heritage-language (Spanish) input and Extracurricular Activities and Preschool are primarily a source of societal-language (English) input. Findings suggest English exposure from out-of-home sources increases over time possibly at the expense of Spanish exposure. Parents’ Native Language Backgrounds and Maternal Education influenced children’s exposure to both languages from these outside sources of input; Child Birth Order did not. Implications for future research and practical application are discussed. / Includes bibliography. / Dissertation (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2017. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

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The present study replicates research by Tomoko Takahashi (1984) on lexico-semantic patterns used by students in an acquisition poor environment. The purpose of the current study was to determine how an acquisition rich environment affects learners' use of four lexico-semantic patterns: congruence occurs when the Ll definition of a lexical item forms a one-to-one correspondence with the L2 lexical item; convergence occurs when the Ll lexical item has broader applications than the L2 lexical item; divergence occurs when the L2 lexical item has broader applications than the Ll lexical item; and semantic gap occurs when the Ll lexical item has no appropriate corresponding L2 lexical item (Takahashi, 1984). The instrument, a lexico-semantics test, is the same instrument used in Takahashi's study. It was designed to measure which patterns are most frequently used by Japanese EFL students learning English. The results, unlike Takahashi's, suggest that beginning and advanced ESL students use the four patterns equally well. No significant difference was found between the two groups. These results are contrary to what had been expected. However, they show that the proposed hierarchical order of difficulty of congruence, convergence, divergence and semantic gap is the same in both studies. The results also indicate that the acquisition· rich environment seems to dramatically improve beginners' performance of the four patterns. Since the instrument was designed for EFL students (an acquisition poor environment) it may not have fully challenged the advanced ESL students (an acquisition rich environment) while challenging the beginning students. This may have been due to the fact that the students in the present study received a great deal of input from the acquisition rich environment, which could account for their increased ability to restructure hypotheses about L2 vocabulary items. In conclusion, more studies are needed to determine the complete role of the four lexico-semantic patterns in vocabulary acquisition. An expanded follow up study that fully tests the advanced and beginning ESL learners' ability could determine whether both groups progress along a language continuum with respect to the use of the four lexico-semantic patterns. Furthermore, although the patterns may serve, in a limited capacity, as indicators of a learner's difficulties in vocabulary acquisition, a wider body of research is needed before they can be applied in a language learning environment.

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This thesis investigates the knowledge of semantics-syntax correspondences in second language acquisition (SLA) within the Principles and Parameters framework. A parameter of semantic structure is proposed to account for crosslinguistic syntactic differences between two previously unrelated, and superficially distinct, verb classes: change of state locatives and 'psychological' verbs. Chinese and English contrast in terms of the parameter setting. Experimental evidence indicates that adult Chinese learners of English L2 initially transfer parameter settings, but are able to reset the proposed parameter. However, they only acquire L2 lexical properties and concomitant syntactic privileges with ease when L2 input adds a representation to their grammar. When positive L2 input should pre-empt overgeneralizations based on representation transferred from the L1, it is shown that L1 influence may persist until quite advanced stages of acquisition. The implications of the results are discussed for the parameter setting model of SLA.