<p>South Africa&rsquo / s Language-in-Education Policy is one of additive multilingualism, but in reality this policy is not adhered to, in that most black children are being educated through the medium of English from Grade 4. This type of instruction affects the development of academic language proficiency in their primary language, as these children are not engaging in cognitively demanding tasks in their primary or first language. The Woodcock Mu&ntilde / oz Language Survey (WMLS) is a test to assess academic language proficiency in Additive Bilingual Education, and is extensively used in the United States of America (USA) for this purpose. It is important to note that the proposed study is a sub-study of a larger study, in which the original WMLS (American-English version) was adapted into English and Xhosa, to be used in South Africa to assess additive bilingual programmes. For this sub-study, the researcher was interested in examining the overall equivalence of the adapted English version of the WMLS. Owing to insufficient tests evaluating academic language proficiency in the South African context, the significance, as well as the overall aim, of the study is to ensure that the issues of group difference and item bias have been assessed to ensure that the adapted English version of the WMLS is suitable to be used across English first-language and Xhosa first-language speakers. Because this is a sub-study, the researcher (of the sub-study) has conducted an exploratory quantitative study with the use of Secondary Data. The researcher has used the framework of equivalence as a theoretical framework in order to examine the research question. Given the use of existing data, the procedures of the collection of the data by the researcher of the larger study have been outlined in the Methodology section of the present study. The sample consisted of 198 English and 197 Xhosa first-language speakers...</p>

Made available in DSpace on 2016-06-02T20:24:58Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 DissLFPSD.pdf: 801179 bytes, checksum: 757f280a7d8d89975af5d340fb81e2f2 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2007-03-16 / Financiadora de Estudos e Projetos / There are many foreign language teacher Education courses in Brazil which try to teach the pre-service teachers some language apart from theory studies and the practice needed to the professional development of these future teachers. We have seen that the theory and the classroom practice are almost always placed at the end of the courses in just some semesters. The language and literature course analyzed in this research tries to break with this tradition by using a different methodology which integrates aspects concerning theory studies and classroom practice through language studies (more specifically English). When adopting an innovative methodology to the Brazilian teacher education context, the course we propose to analyze brings many possibilities for research attempting to clarify the results in the usage of this methodology. Among other possibilities, this work focuses the students assessment. Through our personal experience in dealing with this course - since the researcher is a former English teacher of the course in study - we could notice a lot of questioning relating to the students assessment process. During the development of many competences in the course, we found some dilemmas in order to find assessment instruments and procedures which could serve to the integration proposed by the course. As a result, we invited three former teachers from the course to take part in this work in order to investigate how these teachers understood the methodology used in the course and how they performed the assessment process with their students. We have come to the conclusion that the assessment process is done intuitively and there is the need of developing a more appropriate assessment process for this context. We also try to define and characterize the methodology used in the course based on what has been developed in terms of learning-teaching theory. / Encontramos muitos cursos de licenciatura em Letras que buscam ensinar uma língua estrangeira aos alunos-futuros-professores separadamente dos estudos teóricos relacionados à formação profissional desses alunos, o que fica relegado a alguns semestres no final do curso. O curso de Letras analisado neste estudo tenta romper com essa tradição ao integrar os estudos e práticas necessários à formação profissional dos alunos-futurosprofessores com e por meio dos estudos em língua estrangeira (mais especificamente em língua inglesa). Ao buscar adotar uma metodologia de ensino inovadora ao contexto brasileiro para a formação de professores, o curso em questão proporciona várias possibilidades de estudo na tentativa de iluminar os resultados da utilização dessa metodologia. O estudo que este trabalho apresenta volta-se para o processo de avaliação desses alunos. Com a experiência pessoal do pesquisador, então professor de língua inglesa do curso analisado, houve a percepção dos questionamentos relacionados ao processo de avaliação dos alunos. Uma vez que várias competências são desenvolvidas durante o curso, alguns dilemas foram encontrados na busca por procedimentos e instrumentos que contemplassem a integração de competências no processo de avaliação. Então, convidamos três professoras que trabalharam no curso de Letras em questão para participarem desta pesquisa a fim de investigar como essas professoras entendiam a metodologia de ensino adotada no curso e como conceberam o processo de avaliação dos alunos. Constatamos que a avaliação é feita de forma intuitiva e existe a necessidade de desenvolvimento de um direcionamento mais adequado no processo de avaliação para o contexto estudado. Tentamos também caracterizar e definir a metodologia de ensino utilizada no curso com base no que já foi desenvolvido teoricamente para o processo de ensino-aprendizagem de línguas.

One third of all patients with acute stroke acquire the language impairment aphasia. The assessment of aphasia is important in order to give a correct diagnosis and treatment. Two types of aphasia assessments are assessment of language function and assessment of functional communication (communication in everyday life). The assessment is usually performed by a speech and language pathologist (SLP) but it can also be performed by a family member or close friend with a proxy rating questionnaire. In this study the correlation between proxy rating of functional communication and SLP assessment of both language function and functional communication were examined. The assessments were performed at 16 days and 6 months after stroke onset. The study also examined if two proxy ratings correlated. The study was conducted using ANH and CETI proxy ratings, and the SLP assessments NGTA and ANELT. The results revealed a strong, statistically significant, correlation between proxy rating and SLP assessment and a very strong, statistically significant, correlation between the two proxy ratings. All correlations remained strong over time. When differences between proxy rating and SLP assessment were observed there was a tendency that proxies rated the functional communication higher than the SLP did. When the participants were divided into groups based on severity of aphasia, the results revealed a greater consistency between proxy rating and SLP assessment for people with mild aphasia than for those with moderate to severe aphasia. / En tredjedel av alla som drabbas av stroke får den förvärvade språkstörningen afasi. Det är viktigt att bedöma afasi för att bland annat kunna diagnosticera och lägga upp behandling. Två sätt att bedöma afasi är bedömning av språkfunktion och bedömning av funktionell kommunikation (kommunikation i vardagslivet). Vanligtvis utförs bedömningen av logoped men svårigheterna kan också bedömas genom anhörigskattning. I denna studie undersöktes samband mellan anhörigskattning av funktionell kommunikation med logopedisk bedömning av både språklig funktion och funktionell kommunikation vid 16 dagar samt vid 6 månader efter insjuknandet i stroke. Dessutom undersöktes huruvida två olika anhörigskattningar korrelerade med varandra. Testerna som användes var anhörigskattningarna ANH och CETI samt logopedbedömningarna NGTA och ANELT. Resultaten visade en stark, statistiskt signifikant korrelation mellan anhörigskattning och logopedbedömning samt en mycket stark, statistiskt signifikant korrelation mellan anhörigskattningarna. Korrelationerna var fortsatt starka över tid för alla jämförelser. Observation av skillnader mellan anhörigskattning och logopedisk bedömning visade att anhöriga tenderade att skatta den funktionella kommunikationsförmågan högre än logopedbedömningen av samma förmåga. Vid gruppindelning efter afasigrad observerades att för personer med lätt afasi fanns större samstämmighet mellan anhörigskattning och logopedisk bedömning än för personer med måttlig till grav afasi.

It would be favorable, during the clinical assessment of language in multilingual children, if the speech-language-pathologist (SLP)spoke all the languages of the child. This is, however, not always possible, hence the need for interpreter-mediation. Furthermore, it would be desirable if the interpreters used in clinical assessments of language are specifically trained. There are only a few studies concerning interpreter-mediated clinical assessment of language and cognition using Conversation Analysis as a method, and no studies of interpreter-mediated clinical assessment of language in multilingual children. The purpose of this study was therefore to investigate the interaction between the SLP, interpreter and child, in interpreter-mediated clinical assessments of language in multilingual children, with a specific focus on the SLP and the interpreter. Participants of the study were two licensed S LPs, three interpreters and two multilingual children and their caregivers. The study was based on three video recordings of clinical encounters and four semi-structured interviews. The video recordings were translated, transcribed and analyzed using the theory and method of Conversation Analysis, and the interviews were transcribed and analyzed. Analysis of the video recordings resulted in the discovery of three phenomena; the importance of preunderstanding of the working process of SLP, the importance of responsibility during interpreter-mediated clinical assessment of language, and finally communication and language approach. Analysis of the semi-structured interviews resulted in the discovery of four phenomena, which, in addition to the ones already discovered during the video recordings, also included the importance of dialects. Strategies and challenges that the SLP and interpreter faced could be revealed from the phenomena discovered in the video recordings and the semi-structured interviews. It was suggested in the conclusion that challenges were caused by expectations on the interpreter, a lack of preunderstanding of the working process of the SLP, uncertainty regarding the responsibilities of the interpreter versus the SLP, and finally, the demands of a high level of language competence. Strategies that were used within the discovered phenomena were partially consciously applied by the SLP and interpreter. However, there is a great need for further knowledge and awareness of the processes involved in this clinical context, in order to obtain reliable and satisfactory interpreter-mediated clinical assessments of language. Lastly, it was discussed that the patient safety might be compromised if no consideration is taken regarding the investigated challenges and strategies.

In the research regarding rating ESL writing assessments, borderline writing samples are mentioned, but a solution has yet to be addressed. Borderline samples are writing samples that do not perfectly fit a set level within the rubric, but instead have characteristics from multiple levels. The aim of this thesis is to provide an improved training module in the setting of an Intensive English Program by exposing new raters to borderline samples and rating rationale from experienced raters. The purpose of this training is to increase the confidence, consistency, and accuracy of novice raters when rating borderline samples of writing. The training consists of a workbook with a rubric and instructions for use, benchmark examples of writing, borderline examples of writing with comments from experienced raters defending the established scores, then a variety of writing samples for practice. The selection of the benchmark and the borderline examples of writing was informed by the fit statistic from existing datasets that had been analyzed with many-facet Rasch measurement. Eight experienced raters participated in providing rationale based upon the rubric explaining why each borderline sample was rated with its established score, and describing why the sample could be considered at a different level. In order to assess the effectiveness of the training workbook, it was piloted by 10 novice raters who rated a series of essays and responded to a survey. Results of the survey demonstrated that rater confidence increased following the training, but that they needed more time with the training materials to use them properly. The statistical analyses showed insignificant changes, which could be due to the limitations of the data collection. Further research regarding the effectiveness of this training workbook is necessary, as well as an increased discussion in the field regarding the prevalent issue of rating borderline samples of writing.

[pt] Esse trabalho se voltou para o desenvolvimento de um teste de avaliação do processamento sintático na compreensão da linguagem no envelhecimento. Esse teste tem como objetivo oferecer um auxílio no diagnóstico de Comprometimento Cognitivo Leve (CCL). Este é um quadro que pode evoluir para a Doença de Alzheimer (DA). Por isso, o diagnóstico o mais cedo possível de um comprometimento cognitivo no envelhecimento pode oferecer um melhor prognóstico para o paciente, a partir de acompanhamento médico e reabilitação neuropsicológica. Sabe-se que a idade avançada é um dos principais fatores de risco para o desenvolvimento da DA. Esta pesquisa se justifica na medida em que a população mundial vem envelhecendo em ritmo acelerado e também pela enorme carência de um instrumento de avaliação voltado para o processamento sintático no envelhecimento e, principalmente, pela carência de um instrumento em português brasileiro. Uma revisão sistemática feita nas plataformas PubMed, LILACS e SciELO revelou que por volta dos últimos 5 anos pouquíssimos estudos avaliaram o processamento sintático de pacientes com CCL. E o número de estudos que consideraram o processamento sintático de sentenças com estrutura mais complexa é mais reduzido ainda. Apresentamos, portanto, neste trabalho, um protótipo de um teste de compreensão de sentenças que variam em nível de complexidade sintática, construído com base em pesquisas na área de Psicolinguística e de Neuropsicologia Clínica. Trata-se de um teste de identificação de figura a partir de uma tarefa de verificação de correspondência entre sentença e imagem. Esse teste explora a compreensão de sentenças com oração relativa de sujeito e de objeto; interrogativas de sujeito e de objeto; clivadas de sujeito e de objeto; passivas reversíveis (implausíveis e neutras) e irreversíveis; estruturas com verbo de perspectiva; e ativas simples reversíveis e irreversíveis. Como a literatura reporta, até mesmo no envelhecimento saudável, espera-se um declínio no processamento dessas estruturas sintáticas mais complexas, que acarretam maior demanda cognitiva. Em um quadro de envelhecimento não saudável, esse declínio estaria mais acentuado e evidente. Por isso, esse teste pode ser uma medida promissora na detecção de um CCL que afete o domínio da linguagem. Foi realizado um estudo piloto com um grupo de 43 adultos mais jovens e um grupo de 10 idosos sem comprometimento cognitivo, para avaliar a funcionalidade do teste desenvolvido. Os dois grupos realizaram a tarefa de identificação de imagens sem dificuldades, com média de tempo similar e baixo percentual de erros, tendo estes ocorrido com as estruturas mais complexas do conjunto de sentenças examinadas. Os resultados do piloto sugerem, portanto, que o teste pode ser um instrumento sensível na avaliação do processamento sintático na compreensão de sentenças por parte de adultos e idosos. / [en] This work focused on the development of a test to assess syntactic processing in language comprehension in aging. This test aims to help in the diagnosis of Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI), a condition that can progress to Alzheimer s Disease (AD). Thus, the early diagnosis of cognitive impairment in aging can offer a better prognosis for the patient, based on medical follow-up and neuropsychological rehabilitation. It is known that one that greatest risk factor for AD is advancing age. This research is very relevant because the world population has been aging at an accelerated pace and because there is a huge lack of an assessment instrument aimed at syntactic processing in aging, mainly due to the lack of a test in Brazilian Portuguese. A systematic review carried out on the PubMed, LILACS and SciELO platforms revealed that over the last 5 years very few studies have evaluated the syntactic processing of patients with MCI. And the number of studies that considered the processing of syntactically complex sentences is even smaller. Therefore, in this work, we present a prototype of a test of comprehension of sentences that vary in level of syntactic complexity, developed on the basis of research in the fields of Psycholinguistics and Clinical Neuropsychology. It is a sentence-picture matching task, in which participants must evaluate the correspondence between the sentence and the correct illustration. This test explores the comprehension of sentences with subject and object relative clause; subject and object interrogatives; sentences with subject and object topicalization; reversible (implausible and neutral) and irreversible passive sentences; structures with perspective verb; and reversible and irreversible active sentences. As the literature reports, even in healthy aging, a decline in the processing of more complex syntactic structures is expected, which entail greater cognitive demand. In a context of unhealthy aging, this decline would be more accentuated and evident. Therefore, this test can be a promising measure in the detection of a MCI that affects the language domain. A pilot study was conducted with a group of 43 younger adults and a group of 10 elderly people without cognitive impairment, to evaluate the functionality of the developed test. Both groups performed the image identification task without difficulties, with a similar average time and a low percentage of errors, which occurred with the most complex structures of the set of the examined sentences. Therefore, the pilot study results suggest that the test can be a sensitive measure in the evaluation of syntactic processing in sentence comprehension by adults and the elderly.

No description available.

En esta tesis se analizan aspectos relacionados con exámenes de segundas lenguas de alto impacto (high-stakes). A diferencia de estudios anteriores, se trata de un trabajo de investigación comparativo que toma como referencia los contrastes y las similitudes que existen entre la PAU española y el sistema inglés de exámenes A-levels en relación a distintos aspectos. Por un lado, se presenta el tema desde una perspectiva histórica de la evolución de los exámenes de acceso a la universidad en cada país. Por otro, se hace un análisis en profundidad de aspectos clave de la evaluación como la validez del constructo, las características de las actividades o ítems y la fiabilidad. El contraste entre dos realidades evaluadoras diferentes nos permite ilustrar los desaciertos del sistema español mediante una evaluación de los éxitos relativos al procedimiento de evaluación pre-universitario inglés. Además, al comparar la naturaleza de la prueba en España con un equivalente europeo, se pretende comprender la manera en la que la PAU puede ser mejorada en el futuro. Finalmente, en esta tesis presentamos una propuesta de cambios fundamentales y viables para la prueba de inglés en la PAU actual. / López Navas, MD. (2012). COMPARATIVE STUDY OF TWO FOREIGN LANGUAGE EXAMINATIONS FOR UNIVERSITY ENTRY IN ENGLAND AND SPAIN [Tesis doctoral]. Universitat Politècnica de València. https://doi.org/10.4995/Thesis/10251/18055

In der vorliegenden Habilitationsschrift werden anhand von zehn Einzelbeiträgen Fragen der Diagnostik, des Erwerbs und der Förderung sprachlicher Kompetenzen im schulischen Kontext untersucht. Im Anschluss an die Darstellung zentraler Herausforderungen und Entwicklungsbereiche in der Sprachdiagnostik (Beitrag 1) wird in Beitrag 2 ein Test zur Erfassung des Verständnisses von Bildungssprache in der Grundschule vorgestellt (BiSpra 2-4). Die psychometrischen Kennwerte sprechen überwiegend dafür, dass sich der Test zur reliablen und validen Bestimmung bildungssprachlicher Fähigkeiten und Fertigkeiten eignet. Die Ergebnisse von Beitrag 3 zeigen, dass die Leistungen in BiSpra 2-4 bedeutsam mit schulischen Kompetenzen zusammenhängen. Beitrag 4 bestätigt die prädiktive Validität des Verständnisses von Satzverbindungen mit Konnektoren (BiSpra-Satz); in den Beiträgen 5 und 6 zeigt sich, dass für fachliche Lernzuwächse im Sachunterricht der Grundschule insbesondere der Fachwortschatz ausschlaggebend ist. In Beitrag 7 wird deutlich, dass sich die Leistungsnachteile von mehrsprachigen Lernenden gegenüber ihren monolingual deutschsprachigen Peers im Laufe der Grundschulzeit zunächst vergrößern, bevor sie sich stabilisieren. Ferner erweist sich der familiäre Buchbestand als signifikanter Prädiktor des Verständnisses von Bildungssprache (Beitrag 8). Fragen der fachintegrierten Förderung bildungssprachlicher Kompetenzen werden in den Beiträgen 9 und 10 untersucht. Es zeigt sich, dass eine Lehrkräftefortbildung zum Wissen von Lehrkräften im Bereich Sprachbildung beiträgt und die Umsetzung einer sprachbildenden Unterrichtspraxis begünstigen dürfte (Beitrag 9). Allerdings wirkt sich die Umsetzungsqualität über allgemeine Effekte von forschungsorientierten Sachunterrichtseinheiten hinaus nicht auf die Lernentwicklung von Grundschüler:innen aus. Die Einzelbeiträge werden abschließend zusammenfassend diskutiert und es werden Perspektiven für künftige Forschungsarbeiten aufgezeigt. / Based on ten individual contributions, the present habilitation thesis addresses questions on the assessment, acquisition, and support of language competencies in the school context. Following a presentation of central challenges and areas of development in language assessment and diagnostics (Contribution 1), Contribution 2 reports on a test instrument for assessing the comprehension of academic language in elementary school (BiSpra 2-4). By and large, the psychometric properties of the test indicate that the test is a reliable and valid measure of academic language skills. The results of Contribution 3 show that student achievement on BiSpra 2-4 relates to their academic achievement. Contribution 4 supports the predictive validity of a measure for assessing the comprehension of connectives; Contributions 5 and 6 show that subject-specific science vocabulary is pivotal for students’ content-related learning gains. Results of Contribution 7 indicate that the achievement disadvantages of multilingual students compared to their monolingual peers initially increase during elementary school and level off towards the end of elementary school. Moreover, the number of books at home turn out as a significant predictor of students’ academic language comprehension (Contribution 8). Questions concerning subject-integrated language support for fostering academic language proficiency are addressed in Contributions 9 and 10. Analyses show that professional development helps teachers gain language-support skills and seems to support them in adopting language-supportive teaching practices in their regular elementary school science teaching (Contribution 9). However, considering the general effectiveness of inquiry-based science classes, instructional quality does not contribute to elementary school students’ learning gains. Finally, the individual contributions are jointly discussed and perspectives for future research are presented.

L’étude présente l’élaboration du premier outil d’évaluation normalisée du langage destiné aux enfants francophones d’âge préscolaire des pays africains qui se caractérisent par l’absence de services publics en orthophonie et la méconnaissance des retards de langage. En s’inspirant des techniques psychométriques langagières utilisées en Amérique du nord et en se basant sur les théories d’acquisition du langage, on a construit un outil appelé Batterie de tests de dépistage approfondi (BATEDA) qui compte onze tests répartis en trois sous-batteries évaluant respectivement l’intégrité des modalités de transmission du langage (BATEM), les composantes langagières (BATEL) et la mémoire verbale (TMV). A partir d’un échantillon de 159 enfants camerounais francophones, on a normalisé la batterie suivant la cote z et les rangs en centile. Les tests présentent une fiabilité inter-juge et intra-juge (p<0,05), une cohérence interne globale d’environ 96% (α de Cronbach=0,958) et une validité prédictive de la réussite scolaire des enfants (r=0,700). Les stratégies d’application de la BATEDA visent à favoriser la pratique du dépistage systématique et la prise en charge des retards de langage au Cameroun, en mettant à contribution les enseignants et les parents comme principaux intervenants. Les implications de cette étude sont de trois ordres : (1) une meilleure connaissance des difficultés langagières, la revalorisation des personnes atteintes et une attitude de vigilance sociale; (2) l’instauration de la pratique de dépistage précoce favorable à l’intervention; (3) une potentielle diminution du taux d’exclusion et d’abandon scolaire d’enfants présentant des retards langagiers à travers un enseignement ciblé en leur faveur. / The study aims at the building of the first normalized language assessment test intended for French-speaking preschoolers living in African countries where language delays are ignored and where there is a lack of public services in speech-language therapy. Being inspired by the format of standardized language tests, and based on language acquisition theories, we developed a tool named Batterie de tests de dépistage approfondi (BATEDA) which combine eleven tests organized in three batteries assessing respectively modalities (BATEM), language components (BATEL) and memory (TMV). From a sample of 159 Cameroonian French-speaking four-to-five-years old children, the tool has been normalized using standard scores technique (the z score and the percentile). Tests have an inter-scorer reliability, an internal consistency of 96% (α de Cronbach=0,958) and a predictive validity of the primary school success of children (r=0,700). The application strategies of BATEDA aim at encouraging the screening of language delays in order to take charge of these difficulties in Cameroon by implicating teachers and parents as main participants. Among the implications of this study, we have the better knowledge of difficulties related to language delays, the better consideration of children affected, the establishment of early screening and language assessment on behalf of intervention, and a potential decrease of the rate of school abandon and expulsion of children with language delays.