published_or_final_version / Language Studies / Master / Master of Arts

published_or_final_version / Linguistics / Master / Master of Arts in Applied Linguistics

This thesis investigates non-native language acquisition of the verbal and nominal functional domains in Second language (L2) English and second/third language (L2/L3) French by Chinese and Vietnamese speakers. Six experimental studies are reported. Two current competing theories in the field of theoretical second language acquisition (L2A), namely, the Failed Features Hypothesis (FFH) and the Full Transfer Full Access (FTFA) model are compared and their applicability to third language acquisition (L3A) evaluated in the light of our data. / A version of the Minimalist Program is assumed in this work. Predictions based on FFH and FTFA are as follows: As far as L2A is concerned, both FFH and FTFA predict full transfer of L1 in the L2 initial state. With respect to L3A, FFH predicts the initial state to be L1 while FTFA predicts either L1 or L2. The two models diverge regarding their predictions on the L2/L3 transitional and steady states. In particular, FFH hypothesizes permanent "failure" and persistent L1 influence in L2/L3 interlanguage while FTFA hypothesizes full access and acquirability of target structures. / Three L2/L3 experimental studies on the verbal functional domain (i.e. tense and agreement) and another three on the nominal functional domain (i.e. the Determiner Phrase) were conducted. Subjects include Chinese monolingual learners of English, Vietnamese monolingual learners of French as well as Chinese-English bilingual learners of French. A variety of tasks were used to test the predictions made by the two models. Results demonstrate partial transfer of L1 in the L2 initial state and of L2 in the L3 initial state, and point towards full access in the L2/L3 steady states. These findings do not seem to be consistent with FFH. It appears that FTFA is a more viable theory for non-native language acquisition. We also contend that L3A is not simply another case of L2A.

This paper is a qualitative case study of a Korean first grade child. The primary purpose of this study was to investigate the nature of a first grade Korean child’s oral language interactions with teachers, parents, peers, and community members and to examine how a child’s oral language impacts his literacy learning in English. The data were collected over five months from three different settings: the school, the Korean Language School, and the home. Data methods were interviews, observations, field notes, surveys, audio and video recordings, documents, and informal assessments in Korean and English. Data analysis was based on the analytical categorization and the constant comparison analysis. The results of this study revealed that opportunities to engage in social interactions between a child and his teachers, parents, and peers through oral conversation contributed to the language and literacy learning of the child observed. The analysis of the data showed that literacy development in English was influenced by three factors: individual factors, home and school environmental factors, and community and cultural environmental factors. Individual factors were personal motivation, the first language effect, and background knowledge. Home and school environmental factors included parents’ support, peer group activity, and teacher’s role. Finally, community and cultural environmental factors were mass media and Korean culture and identity. The results of the study supported Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory and Bronfenbrenner’s ecology system theory that learning occurs through social interactions in cooperated groups and their environments. / Department of Elementary Education

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published_or_final_version / Linguistics / Master / Master of Arts in Applied Linguistics

In 1998, seventy per cent of children in South Africa failed and had to repeat the Grade 1 year. This is the result of a number of factors, among them academic and cultural readiness for school. Many primary schools in South Africa teach through English, a language that is not the home language of the majority of learners. Despite recent legislation aimed at improving preschool facilities and teacher capacity, there has been insufficient consideration of which languages are taught and how they should be taught to children before they arrive at Grade 1. This study sets out to explore whether there is a relational link between preschool English language teaching and learning and subsequent educational achievement at Grade 1. It also sketches out possible recommendations for improving the teaching and learning of English in the sample schools. The study does not attempt to enter the debate over choice of language of teaching and learning (LoLT). In this longitudinal case study, four children from two different preschools, (one mainly isiXhosa medium and one English medium), were observed in their classroom environments over a period of four months. The following year, the same children were observed in their respective Grade 1 classrooms, all of which were English medium either entirely or to a degree. The parents of all four children were interviewed in their home environment, as were their teachers. The study found that there is a significant communication gap between preschool teachers and Grade 1 teachers. This was combined with a self-confessed need amongst some teachers for increased training in teaching through English. Low motivation and limited professional experience in some cases contributed to a preschool language-learning environment that lacked many of the factors identified as being essential for a positive learning environment in early childhood There was in addition a clear bias in many sites towards universality of ECD prinCiples with little regard for the hegemony of Western pedagogy, particularly in the area of literacy acquisition. The study concludes by suggesting some ways in which this situation could be improved in order to enable preschool children to cope better with the demands of Grade 1.

This study examines an English for Academic Purposes (EAP) teacher's speech throughout one curricular unit of an intermediate grammar and writing course in order to better understand which high-value vocabulary students might acquire through attending to the teacher and noticing words that are used. Vocabulary acquisition is important for English for Academic Purposes students, given the vocabulary demands of academic language. The Academic Word List (Coxhead, 2000) has been shown to include important vocabulary in written academic texts, and has become a standard part of English for Academic Purposes curricula and pedagogical materials. Although explicit vocabulary instruction is important, research has shown that large amounts of vocabulary may be acquired incidentally by attending to meaning. Classroom instruction provides a great deal of input, and could potentially offer a chance for students to encounter and begin to learn academic vocabulary through incidental acquisition. However, existing research on incidental vocabulary acquisition in classrooms has focused on adult instruction and English as a Foreign Language settings, resulting in a lack of evidence about English for Academic Purposes classrooms. To respond to these needs, this study analyzes the occurrence and repetition of Academic Word List items in the teacher's speech throughout two weeks of a course in an intensive academic English program in the United States. Two weeks of naturalistic class recordings from the Multimedia Adult Learner Corpus were transcribed and analyzed using the RANGE program to find the number of academic vocabulary types in the teacher's speech and how often they were repeated. Additionally, I derived categories of classroom topics and coded the transcribed speech in order to investigate the connection between topics and academic word use. Academic Word List items are present in the teacher's speech, although they do not constitute a large proportion overall, only 2.8% of the running words. Most of the AWL types relate to specific classroom topics or routines. There are 13 AWL types repeated to a high degree, and 26 AWL types repeated to a moderate degree. These items are the most likely candidates for incidental vocabulary acquisition, though there is evidence from the videos that most of the students already understand their general meanings. It is unlikely that students could learn a great deal about AWL items that they were not already familiar with. However, it is possible that the teacher's speech provides incremental gains in AWL word knowledge. These findings show that there may be a substantial number of AWL items that students learn about even before explicitly studying academic vocabulary. Teachers should try to draw out students' familiarity with these forms when explicitly teaching AWL vocabulary in order to connect familiar words with their academic meanings and uses.

This study is an attempt to determine the impact of teachers' attitudes on their classroom behaviour and therefore on their implementation of the Communicative Approach. A descriptive case study was conducted at six secondary schools in Harare, Zimbabwe (as ESL environment) to determine the effect of 38 O-level English teachers' attitudes on their classroom practice. Quantitative and qualitative methods of data collection, including a questionnaire, an observation instrument and a semistructured interview were used to gauge teachers' attitudes, assessing the extent to which attitudes are reflected in their classroom behaviour, and eliciting teachers' verbalisation of how they conceive of their professional task. The findings show that the effective implementation of the Communicative Approach was critically dependent on teachers' positive attitudes towards this approach in the five categories covered by this study. / Linguistics / M.A. (Applied Linguistics)

Text in English / One of the critical challenges associated with migration is a need to acquire a destination language, which has never been an easy experience for immigrants. This study aims at exploring and analysing experiences of Malawian immigrant labourers in their process of acquiring spoken skills of isiZulu in Durban. In order to understand the phenomenon under investigation better, this study used a qualitative research approach and adopted a phenomenological research design. The data for this study was collected using semi structured one-to-one interviews. The data were analysed using content analysis method and was approached and discussed in light of Schumann‟s (1986) Acculturation Model and frame works and a destination–language acquisition model of Chiswick and Miller (2001). Empirical findings from this study have shown that adults; just like children, are also capable of mastering a second language if they can manage both social and psychological factors that impede acquisition. / Linguistics and Modern Languages / M.A. (Linguistics)