This research investigated aspects of the morphosyntactic language development of 115 3-, 4-, and 5-year-old monolingual Spanish-speaking preschool children who resided in Cali, Colombia. Two general language measures were collected from the children: a standardized receptive vocabulary measure (Test de Vocabulario en Imágenes, TVIP), and a parental report of speech and language problems. In addition, morphosyntactic measures of language development were obtained using both a story retelling and an elicitation task. Developmental language measures such as number of T-units (NU-TU), mean length of T-units (MLTU), subordination index (SUB-I), and grammatical errors per T-unit (GRE-TU) were derived from the narratives. Percentages of correct use of direct and indirect object pronouns, reflexive pronouns, definite articles, indefinite articles, plurals and adjectives were obtained from an elicitation task that was specifically designed for this study. Counts of use of these grammatical structures were also calculated from the narratives. There were no statistically significant differences between the three age groups on standard scores for the TVIP or scores for the parent questionnaires, indicating that the three age groups were comparable. For the developmental language measures there was an increasing developmental pattern for NU-TU, MLTU and SUB-I, but no changes were found for GRE-TU. Statistically significant changes for the productive use of the grammatical structures of interest to this study were almost always seen between 3 and 4 years of age. Adult use of these grammatical structures was always statistically significantly more correct than child productions. This investigation provides novel normative data for NU-TU, MLTU, SUB-I and GRE-TU for preschool children. This investigation also offers original data on the productive use of object pronouns, articles, adjectives and plurals across the preschool years. The language battery used in this investigation proved to be sensitive to developmental changes between 3 and 4-5 year olds and has the potential to be used as an eventual diagnostic tool for the identification of children with language disorders. Speech-language pathologists who work with Spanish-speaking children will be able to use this normative information to conduct more objective language assessments.

The fact that English is not only a widespread foreign language,a recognized lingua franca in Sweden but even one of the major subjects at Swedish secondary school promotes its acquisition at all levels of everyday life. The increasing mobility of the world population has resulted in a unique situation when English is acquired as L3 by many students. In secondary schools English teachers daily meet students whose native language is not Swedish. The palette of the students' native languages is colourful and diverse: Polish, Arabic, Spanish, Chinese, Croatian, etc.-- all in one classroom. Teaching English in multicultural classes is a more complex and flexible process than it was two decades ago.The problem a teacher of English faces now is that English has to be taught not only as L2 to native Swedish speakers but as L3 (and even L4) to non-native ones. Both learning and teaching L3 differs in many ways from teaching and learning L2. This task becomes even more complex if one takes into account the diversity of proficiency levels of Swedish as L2 among students. Better understanding of cross-linguistic interferences between L2 and L3 would provide teachers with better understanding of processes that non-native Swedish students undergo while acquiring English as L3 and provide them with necessary scaffolding.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Oregon, 2000. / Typescript. Includes vita and abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 96-102). Also available for download via the World Wide Web; free to University of Oregon users.

Thesis (M.A.)--Brigham Young University. Dept. of Language Studies, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 59-61).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2003. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references. Available also from UMI Company.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2003. / Title from first page of PDF file. Document formatted into pages; contains xiii, 103p.; also includes graphics. Includes abstract and vita. Advisor: Mark A. Pitt, Dept. of Psychology. Includes bibliographical references (p. 99-103).

Thesis (M.Ed.)--York University, 2000. Graduate Programme in Education. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 151-161). Also available on the Internet. MODE OF ACCESS via web browser by entering the following URL: http://wwwlib.umi.com/cr/yorku/fullcit?pMQ59172

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, San Diego, 2003. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Studies of spoken Arabic language comprehension in children are few. This research obtained data on the developmental patterns, rate and order of acquisition of the comprehension of some morpho-syntactic structures for Saudi children as a basis for a criterion-referenced test. The structures tested were chosen from data collected by studying Saudi Child Directed Speech (CDS), similar Tests in English and from linguistic knowledge of Arabic structures. The CDS sample was collected from 12 Saudi fathers conversing with their children (8 boys and 4 girls) aged 2;4 to 5;6 years. This data was analysed in terms of the vocabulary, structure and function used. Saudi fathers were found to use discourse function used by parents speaking other languages when addressing their children but in different frequencies. Fathers' language complexity was found to increase as their children got older. The comprehension of morpho-syntactic structures by Saudi children was tested through a language comprehension test that was designed for the purpose of this research. The test consisted of sixty three pictures testing twenty-one morpho-syntactic structures and six miniature toys to test children's comprehension of three structures. The test incorporated a naming test to establish the dialect forms familiar to each child, a speech discrimination screening to screen children's hearing and a vocabulary pre-test to ensure that children have comprehension of the target lexical items used in the test. Test materials were designed in a way to suit the Saudi culture. The test was performed in Saudi on 120 Saudi children ranging between 3;0 and 6;0 years of age and were 60 boys and 60 girls attending three nursery schools in Riyadh. Subjects were grouped into six groups according to their age: 3;0 to 3;5, 3;6 to 3;11, 4;0 to 4;5, 4;6 to 4;11, 5;0 to 5;5, and 5;6to 5;11 years of age. Ten boys and ten girls were tested in each age group. Results showed that gender did not affect children's results. Significant test sensitivity to age was found. Nearly half of the structures were sensitive to age while the other structures were not. An order of acquisition according to structures' difficulty was established. The age group at which every structure develops was judged by using a 60% passing criterion. The agreement between test and re-test was shown to be high, indicating that the test was reliable. A comparison was made between frequencies of structures found in the CDS study and age of acquisition in the comprehension test. An error analysis of the tested morpho-syntactic structures was obtained by analysing children's performance on every item used. Children's errors on these items were interpreted on the basis of the competition model and several patterns differed from findings in other languages. Children were found to use previously reported comprehension strategies such as world knowledge when interpreting some of the tested morpho-syntactic structures. The way children interpreted structures that require the comprehension of gender and number inflections is reported. Younger children were found to be guided more by their lexical knowledge, while older ones relied on both lexical and syntactic knowledge. While Saudi children were found to use well-established comprehension strategies such as world knowledge, they also demonstrated strategies for understanding gender and number inflections which have not been previously reported. Gender and number inflections were modified in some of the fathers' utterances in the CDS in a way that violates the rules of Arabic grammar.

published_or_final_version / Linguistics / Master / Master of Arts