Three questions were investigated in the current study. First, do children with ADHD have language deficiencies in comparison to non-referred peers? Second, are there diagnostic group differences in parent and child storytelling when interacting in a joint picture-book setting or in parent reported home literacy habits? Third, are these differences related to child language scores? Parents of 25 children with ADHD and 39 comparison children, average age 7 years 6 months, told their children a story based on a wordless picture-book, and children then retold the story to an examiner without using the book. In addition, children made up two of their own stories and completed a standardized test of receptive and expressive language abilities. Children with ADHD demonstrated an expressive language deficiency compared to the non-referred children, but there was no group difference in receptive language scores. Parents of children in both groups told stories of similar length and complexity, as well as affective and responsive quality. However, for the ADHD group but not the comparison group, more positive and responsive parents told stories on a lower grade level. The length of the childs retell of the parents story did not differ across groups but children with ADHD told shorter stories when asked to make up their own stories without the external structure or salience of visual cues. Further, there were no significant group differences in the relations between parent storytelling and child language scores. The implications of these findings for understanding parent and child storytelling and language abilities of children with ADHD are discussed.

The aim of this study was to describe maternal self-efficacy beliefs within the parenting domain and maternal rating of pre-school child’s language abilities, where the child has a communication disability. The association between these two constructs was also investigated. Twenty-five Mothers completed a questionnaire consisting of two subsections: parental self-efficacy and maternal rating of child language ability. The results revealed that mothers generally had high self-efficacy beliefs within certain parenting roles, in spite of the fact that their child has a communication disability. The lowest competence was reported in discipline and teaching roles. In addition, mothers’ reports of patterns of child ability correlated with what has been written in the literature. Correlation statistics generally revealed weak association between the constructs, with the strongest association between the parental domain of discipline and maternal reports of their child’s receptive language abilities. Possible reasons suggested for the weak correlation values include the presence of a disability, which may alter the factors that contribute to the way parents construct and maintain self-efficacy beliefs; as well as the fact that the two sections of the questionnaire measure maternal appraisals at two very different levels (objective observations and evaluative self-regulatory processes). Suggestions for further research are provided. / Dissertation (M (Augmentative and Alternative Communication))--University of Pretoria, 2006. / Centre for Augmentative and Alternative Communication / unrestricted

D.Litt.et Phil. (African Languages) / 1. The aim of the study The primary aim of this study was to ascertain whether or not a multiple-choice test can effectively assess English mother-tongue competence. Because the testing of language is at issue, the study was approached from an applied linguistic perspective. 2. The method of investigation 2.1. Uterature study. A review of the literature relating to the following topics was performed: (i) mother-tongue competence; (ii) language skills and in particular, the skills inherent in reading; (iii) the communicative approach to language teaching and testing; (iv) multiple-choice testing; and (v) test validity. 2.2. Empirical research work. Each of the four South African provincial education departments within the Department of Education and Culture: House of Assembly was called upon to compile three traditional English First Language papers for the trial matriculation examinations. A single item bank test of one hundred and fifty pretested multiple-choice questions was compiled for the same examination period. Pupils from the four provinces wrote the traditional papers which were set for their provinces. In other words, the pupils from each province wrote a separate set of traditional papers. In contrast, the same item bank test was written by all 9456 matriculants involved in the project. . 3. Findings The study revealed that the skills inherent in the four language modes of reading, writing, speaking and listening overlap each other to such an extent that it is virtually impossible to separate them for testing purposes. The validity coefficients of the combined scores of the three traditional papers and the total scores of the item bank test were consistently satisfactory for all four education

M.Ed. (Education) / The purpose of this analytical and evaluative study was to establish why certain items of the std 7 English First Language Item Bank did not discriminate well and to make suggestions to avoid similar item failure in future. To do this the item analysis had to be interpreted and the content validity of the failed items and the entire test had to be established. The literature review emphasized the importance of syllabus analysis, test planning, the setting of objectives, item review before the application of a test and the value of item analysis in the creation of item banks. The std 7 English First Language Core Syllabus was analysed according to linguistic principles, educational objectives and skills ...

Comprehension of spoken language skills are often taken for granted in research concerning early childhood language acquisition in typically developing children. While the onset of early word comprehension arguably precedes word production, traditional research has focused on language production rather than comprehension. A similar trend of focussing on expression is evident in the field of Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC). Traditionally, the role of AAC systems for individuals with little or no functional speech (LNFS) has been as an output mode for expressing messages. While this is an essential role and final outcome of AAC intervention strategies, the role of listeners is equally important. The comprehension of spoken language provides an essential foundation upon which language production competence can be built. AAC users' ability to comprehend spoken language is varied from age equivalent comprehension of spoken language to minimal comprehension. Some AAC users comprehend spoken language and therefore come to the AAC acquisition task with an established knowledge of spoken language. Others who experience difficulty comprehending spoken language require AAC as both input (receptive) and output (expressive) mode. Graphic symbols play a role in facilitating comprehension of messages either through facilitating the comprehension of the spoken language or the AAC symbols. The use of augmented input strategies like aided language stimulation is one type of instructional technique used in teaching graphic symbols to AAC users. Aided language stimulation refers to a technique in which a facilitator or communication partner combines the use of AAC with natural speech through simultaneously pointing to graphic symbols and speaking. The aim of this study was therefore to determine the impact of a three week long aided language stimulation program on the receptive language skills of children with LNFS. Four children participated in this multiple probe study. The aided language stimulation programme comprised three activities viz. arts and crafts, food preparation and story time activity. Each activity was repeated over duration of five subsequent sessions. Eight target vocabulary items were taught within each activity. The acquisition of all 24 target items were probed throughout the duration of the three week intervention period. The results indicated that all the participants acquired the target receptive vocabulary items. There were, however, variations in terms of the rate of acquisition. There was no statistically significant improvement in the general receptive language abilities of the participants. / Thesis (PhD (Augmentative and Alternative Communication))--University of Pretoria, 2005. / Centre for Augmentative and Alternative Communication (CAAC) / unrestricted

The problem of this investigation was to compare the linguistic competence of learning disabled and emotionally disturbed pupils by means of two performance tasks. Sixty subjects, seven-and-eight-year old monolingual public and private school pupils, were assigned to three groups of twenty subjects each, learning disabled, emotionally disturbed and normally achieving children. The majority of those in the learning disabled and the normally achieving groups were from middle-class families, with the majority of fathers owners of small businesses. A majority (17) of the emotionally disturbed group attended the public schools.

Left hemisphere damage is a frequent cause of aphasia. Analyses of deviant linguistic behaviors provide valuable information about the functional architecture of language. Correlating specific language difficulties with damage to the brain helps shed light on the relationships between language and the neural substrate. The aim of this Ph.D. thesis is to contribute to the understanding of the neural correlates of sentence comprehension, based on behavioral and neuroimaging evidence from aphasia. A substantial amount of research based on lesion-symptom mapping has been devoted to this issue, but several issues remain to be clarified. To consider just an example, lesion-symptom mapping studies have systematically linked the posterior regions of the left hemisphere to sentence comprehension. Surprisingly, however, the same studies failed to provide similarly strong evidence for prefrontal regions, contradicting the results of previous neuropsychological investigations that clearly supported the critical role of these regions in sentence processing. To date, there are enough controversial issues on sentence processing as to warrant reconsideration of available evidence. The present project focused on the neural correlates of the mechanisms involved in thematic role assignment and in the processing of morphosyntactic features. This is because both sets of mechanisms are critical for sentence interpretation both in comprehension and in production. The first step of the project consisted of a systematic literature review and meta-analysis of lesion-symptom investigations of sentence processing (study 1 – Chapter 1). The literature search yielded 43 studies eligible for review, of which 27 were used in the meta-analysis. The main goal was to identify the correlates of thematic role assignment and of morphosyntactic processing. Thematic role assignment errors correlated mainly with damage in the left temporo-parietal regions, and morphosyntactic errors mainly with damage in the prefrontal regions. However, careful consideration of the reviewed and meta-analyzed studies shows that conclusions are biased under several aspects. Data on thematic deficits are based almost exclusively on sentence comprehension, and data on morphosyntactic deficits on sentence production. Furthermore, even the very few studies that evaluated both impairments did so in distinct linguistic contexts, or in different response modalities. In addition, studies that focused on one set of mechanisms did not consider the possibility that performance on their dimension of interest was influenced by damage to the other. For example, studies focusing on thematic comprehension administered thematic foils, but not morphosyntactic foils. Therefore, the neurofunctional correlates emerging from the meta-analysis and the review may offer a biased and/or partial view. As a first attempt at overcoming these limitations, a lesion study on native speakers of Italian with post-left stroke aphasia was conducted (study 2 – Chapter 2) to clarify the neural substrates of morphosyntactic and thematic processes in comprehension. Experimental stimuli consisted of simple declarative, semantically reversible sentences presented in the active or passive voice. In an auditory sentence comprehension task, participants were asked to match a sentence spoken by the computer to the corresponding picture, that had to be distinguished from a thematic, a morphosyntactic or a lexical-semantic foil. Thirty-three left brain-damaged individuals (out of an initial sample of 70) were selected because they fared normally on lexical-semantic foils, but poorly on morphosyntactic (n=15) and/or thematic (n=18) contrasts. Voxel-based Lesion Symptom Mapping (VLSM) analyses retrieved non-overlapping substrates. Morphosyntactic difficulties were uninfluenced by sentence voice and correlated with left inferior and middle frontal damage, whereas thematic role reversals were more frequent on passives and correlated with damage to the superior and middle temporal gyrus and to the superior occipitolateral cortex. Both correlations persisted after covarying for phonological short-term memory. When response accuracy to passive vs active sentences in the presence of thematic foils was considered, portions of the angular and supramarginal gyrus were retrieved. They could provide the neural substrate for thematic reanalysis, that is critical for comprehending sentences with noncanonical word order. However interesting and strong, these results were obtained by considering just one sentence type (declaratives) and by relying on basic neuroimaging data. To go beyond these limitations, the final step of the project relied on more comprehensive behavioral analyses and more advanced neuroimaging techniques (study 3 – Chapter 3). The SCOPRO (Sentence Comprehension and PROduction) language battery was developed, that focuses on thematic and morphosyntactic processes and allows assessing these processes in a variety of reversible sentences in both comprehension and production. SCOPRO was administered to 50 neurotypical subjects (to assess applicability and establish cutoff levels) and 27 aphasic participants (native Italian speakers with left post-stroke aphasia). Of the latter, 21 were included in an MRI-based lesion-symptom mapping study. Results obtained in comprehension tasks were correlated with neuroimaging data (structural T1 and DWI). Lesion maps, disconnectome maps, tract disconnection probability and personalized deterministic tractography data demonstrated the involvement of grey and white matter. Thematic role reversals correlated to cortical damage in the left angular gyrus. They also correlated to cortical damage in the left supramarginal gyrus when controlling for single-word processing in a voxel-based disconnectome-symptom mapping analysis. Thematic errors were associated also with underlying white matter damage. Correlating the probability of tract disconnections and personalized deterministic tractography with thematic role performance involved the left arcuate fasciculus. The posterior segment was associated with thematic role reversals, even after controlling for morphosyntactic and single-word processing. The anterior segment was linked to accuracy on thematic roles when single-word processing was used as a covariate. The long segment also correlated with the level of thematic role performance, but the correlation was no longer present when morphosyntactic performance was used as a covariate. SCOPRO can be used not only to assess language processes in a broad sense (e.g., morphosyntactic vs thematic), but also to look into more detailed issues. Contrasting accuracy on declarative and comparative sentences is an interesting case in point. Both sentence types express reversible relations, but only declaratives require thematic role mapping. Hence, contrasting results between the two could help distinguish the correlates of role mapping from those of reversibility per se. The supramarginal gyrus was damaged in participants who fared poorly in both declaratives and comparatives but, interestingly, the aphasics with selective thematic difficulties had suffered damage to the posterior division of the middle temporal gyrus and to the angular gyrus, whereas those with selective difficulties on comparatives presented with lesions in the parietal and central opercular cortex. Clearly, these results are preliminary and require further investigation. It is unanimously accepted that sentence processing involves a large-scale network including frontal, temporal and parietal cortices and the underlying white matter pathways. The main contribution of the present project is that it allows articulating more detailed hypotheses on the role played by some components of the network during sentence comprehension. Results tie left frontal regions to morphosyntactic processing, posterior temporal regions to the retrieval of verb argument structure, and a posterior-superior parietal area to thematic reanalysis. Preliminary observations also suggest that different neural substrates could be involved in processing reversibility as such and when more specifically implemented in thematic roles. Further studies exploiting detailed behavioral tools like the SCOPRO battery and sophisticated neuroimaging techniques in larger samples will lead to a better understanding of language functions and their processing in the brain.

Submitted by Salma Oliveira Attuy Scalise (salma.attuy@gmail.com) on 2018-07-06T19:18:35Z No. of bitstreams: 2 O AGIR ARGUMENTATIVO NO ARTIGO DE OPINIÃO - DESENVOLVIMENTO DE CAPACIDADES DE LINGUAGEM DO ARGUMENTAR NOS ANOS INICIAIS DO ENSINO FUNDAMENTAL.pdf: 7176707 bytes, checksum: 689cb5915ef72b3e3a76d9529dc3aea3 (MD5) GESTOS DIDÁTICOS NA ORGANIZAÇÃO DE ATIVIDADES ESCOLARES PARA O DESENVOLVIMENTO DO RACIOCÍNIO ARGUMENTATIVO NO ENSINO FUNDAMENTAL - ANOS INICIAIS - MEDIADOS PELO GÊNERO ARTIGO DE OPINIÃO.pdf: 26336776 bytes, checksum: e8c29c1a6398a7f5c2726383c63ff3cf (MD5) / Rejected by Maria Marlene Zaniboni null (zaniboni@bauru.unesp.br), reason: Solicitamos que realize correções na submissão seguindo as orientações abaixo: 1) A submissão no Repositório deve ser de apenas um arquivo. Neste caso o produto deve ser inserido no final da dissertação. Agradecemos a compreensão. on 2018-07-10T19:52:19Z (GMT) / Submitted by Salma Oliveira Attuy Scalise (salma.attuy@gmail.com) on 2018-07-10T21:47:42Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertação e Produto.pdf: 34392813 bytes, checksum: afd294cc1aa35b10f0d39f339aea7aec (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Maria Marlene Zaniboni null (zaniboni@bauru.unesp.br) on 2018-07-11T12:22:51Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 scalise_soa_me_bauru.pdf: 34392813 bytes, checksum: afd294cc1aa35b10f0d39f339aea7aec (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-07-11T12:22:51Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 scalise_soa_me_bauru.pdf: 34392813 bytes, checksum: afd294cc1aa35b10f0d39f339aea7aec (MD5) Previous issue date: 2018-02-28 / Esta dissertação, realizada em nível de mestrado profissional, no Programa Docência para Educação Básica, da Unesp de Bauru/SP, foi concretizada a partir da necessidade de desenvolver o raciocínio argumentativo escrito nos anos iniciais do ensino fundamental. Assim, teve como objetivo estudar o ensino-aprendizagem do raciocínio argumentativo em crianças do 5º ano, de uma escola pública do município de Bauru, interior do estado de São Paulo, por meio da elaboração de uma Sequência Didática (SD) fundamentada na didatização do gênero artigo de opinião, e da produção de textos pertencentes a esse gênero. Buscamos colaborar para as reflexões sobre o desenvolvimento das capacidades de linguagem de argumentar dos alunos na aprendizagem do raciocínio argumentativo escrito. Para isso apoiamo-nos na concepção de linguagem bakthiniana (2014), no quadro teórico-metodológico do Interacionismo Sociodiscursivo (ISD), no que se refere à compreensão do agir humano da atividade de linguagem e na proposta de SD para o ensino de línguas por meio dos gêneros textuais (SCHNEUWLY; DOLZ, 2004), com adaptação nas duas primeiras etapas. O percurso metodológico da pesquisa foi delineado nas etapas da pesquisa-ação (THIOLLENT, 2008). Dessa forma, construímos o modelo didático do gênero artigo de opinião, elaboramos parte da SD e a desenvolvemos de modo a apresentar o gênero aos alunos e, posteriormente, para a produção inicial (PI) dos alunos do 5º ano. A análise da PI foi feita segundo o modelo de análise de textos (capacidades de ação, discursivas e linguístico-discursivas) proposto por Bronckart (1999, 2003), observando o desenvolvimento do raciocínio argumentativo escrito nos alunos e, portanto, sua aprendizagem especificamente da tipologia textual argumentativa. Essa análise serviu de base para a construção da outra parte da SD, desta vez composta por oficinas de atividades de linguagem organizadas em torno do gênero escolhido, que culminou na produção final (PF) do gênero, a qual recebeu o mesmo tratamento analítico da PI. Os resultados da análise das PI e PF foram cotejados somente na categoria analítica Sequência Textual Argumentativa, por ser o foco deste trabalho, para verificar se, na PF, os alunos ampliaram capacidades de linguagem do argumentar, após o desenvolvimento do procedimento da SD. Os resultados de análise mostraram que, apesar de os aprendizes utilizarem as fases da sequência textual argumentativa na construção do raciocínio argumentativo, essas fases foram elaboradas a partir da relação de interação dos aprendizes com a realidade objetiva, portanto, ausentes de conceitos abstratos como, geralmente, os gêneros argumentativos requerem. Fato compreensível do ponto de vista do desenvolvimento intelectual humano. Não obstante a isso, a análise comparativa entre a PI e a PF mostrou que os alunos ampliaram as capacidades de linguagem de modo geral e de maneira específica da linguagem do argumentar na planificação do raciocínio argumentativo, sobretudo na reestruturação do conteúdo temático. / This dissertation, carried out at the level of a professional master's degree, in the Basic Education Teaching Program of Unesp of Bauru / SP, was fulfilled based on the need to develop argumentative reasoning written in the initial years of elementary education. The purpose of this research was to study the teaching and learning of argumentative reasoning in fifth year children from a public school in the city of Bauru, in the state of São Paulo, through the elaboration of a Didactic Sequence (SD) based on the opinion genre, and the production of texts belonging to this genre. We seek to contribute to the reflections on the development of language arguing abilities in the students through the learning of argumentative written reasoning. In order to do this we rely on the conception of Bakhtinian language (2014), in the theoretical-methodological framework of Sociodiscursive Interactionism, regarding the understanding of the human action of language activity and in the proposal of Didactic Sequence for language teaching by means of the textual genres (SCHNEUWLY; DOLZ, 2004), with adaptation in the first two stages. The methodological path of the research was delineated in the stages of action research (THIOLLENT, 2008). Thus, we constructed the didactic model of the opinion article genre, we elaborated part of the Didactic Sequence and developed it in order to present the genre to the students and, later, to the initial production of the students of the 5th year. The analysis of the initial production was made according to the text analysis model (action capacities, discursive and linguistic-discursive) proposed by Bronckart (1999, 2003), observing the development of argumentative reasoning written in the students and, therefore, their learning specifically of argumentative textual typology. This analysis served as a basis for the construction of the other part of the Didatic Sequence, this time composed of workshops of language activities organized around the chosen genre, culminating in the final production of the genre, which received the same analytical treatment of Initial Production. The results of the analysis of Initial Production and Final Production were only checked in the Argumentative Textual Sequence analytical category, because it is the focus of this work, to verify if, in the final production, the students amplified the argumentative language abilities, after the development of the Didactic Sequence. In general, the comparative analysis showed that the students increased argumentative language abilities in the planning of argumentative reasoning, mainly in the restructuring of the thematic content. However, the analysis results also showed that, despite using the argumentative textual sequence phases in the construction of argumentative reasoning, these phases were elaborated from the interaction of the learners with the objective reality, therefore, absent from abstract concepts, as usually argumentative genres require.

This diploma thesis deals with national assessment of language abilities of hearing impaired pupils and closer focuses on pre-lingual deaf pupils at the ends of the primary and lower secondary schools. Based on the definition of the characteristics of the national assessment, the diploma thesis also focuses on an overview of currently used language tests, both at international level as well as it gives information about the practice in selected foreign education systems. Special attention is devoted to information that deal with the assessment of language abilities in the Czech Republic, and the form of participation of deaf pupils in such testing . The practical part is done by a research which was done to find out the views of those involved in the education of pupils with hearing disorders just the current assessment practice language skills of the pupils. In the final part of my diploma thesis is a possible outline for innovations for testing related to information from the preceding parts of my diploma thesis.

This diploma thesis deals with national assessment of language abilities of hearing impaired pupils at the ends of the primary and lower secondary schools. Based on the definition of the characteristics of the national assessment, the diploma thesis also focuses on an overview of currently used language tests, both at international level as well as it gives information about the practice in selected foreign education systems. Special attention is devoted to information that deal with the assessment of language abilities in the Czech Republic, and the form of participation of pupils with hearing impairement in such testing . The practical part is done by a research which was done to find out the views of those involved in the education of pupils with hearing disorders just the current assessment practice language skills of the pupils. In the final part of my diploma thesis is a possible outline for innovations for testing related to information from the preceding parts of my diploma thesis.