Thesis (M. A.)--University of Hong Kong, 2006. / Title proper from title frame. Also available in printed format.

Language teachers, including educators from all levels &ndash / from primary to college level &ndash / and teacher trainers have all agreed with the idea that it is impossible to consider language skills as independent from each other since each of them has a great contribution to the language itself as a whole system. However / it cannot be ignored that all language teachers have also agreed with the idea that reading is a skill that has its own significance, especially in foreign language education. What makes reading so unique is that it can be considered to be the door that is about to be opening to a new world in which the target language is spoken. In that sense, as an essential skill, reading, throughout the centuries, has also had its own keys that have been difficult to be unlocked even by the native speakers of English. This matter of fact brings the question to the light that what guardians are waiting in front of this castle door especially for foreign language students. Although many scholars claim that formal aspect of language, including syntactical and lexical features, stand as great challenge, they ignore the cultural significance of a language. The relationship between language, thought and culture shows that even formal aspects are affected by culture. This fact brings the importance of &lsquo / content schema&rsquo / as well as &lsquo / formal schema&rsquo / in reading to surface. However, now the question is that how it is possible to provide students with sufficient cultural background. As foreign language students are less likely to experience exposure to foreign culture when compared to second language learners, there is an urgent need to create a &lsquo / social context&rsquo / or &lsquo / second hand reality&rsquo / in Kovalik&rsquo / s terms in classroom settings. At this point, literature is believed to give her helping hand to FL students with her wide range of texts carrying a variety of formal aspect of language, but at the same time, a range of cultural components, and thus, constructing &lsquo / schema&rsquo / for them. Apart from this, what literature offers is examined in detail within the framework of brain-based learning principles. This paper tends to contribute to this controversial issue with a case study, which aims to illustrate that the use of literature in FL settings enhance language/cultural awareness. The result of the study showed that 1) literature is a useful source to teach the formal aspects of language such as grammar and vocabulary (language awareness) 2) literature contributes to students&rsquo / cultural awareness which is essential to have language awareness 3) literature is a brain-compatible source with various advantages over the other written materials. In accordance with what is mentioned above, this study has a direct aim to show how ELT and Literature can intrude the ancient walls of this castle when work interdisciplinary.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Oregon, 2000. / Typescript. Includes vita and abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 176-182). Also available for download via the World Wide Web; free to University of Oregon users.

Title from title page of PDF (University of Missouri--St. Louis, viewed March 2, 2010). Includes bibliographical references (p. 341-357).

Heidelberg, Universität, Thesis (doctoral), 2001.

Not available / text

No description available.

Research has shown that children attending immersion programs reach a native-like level in comprehension and in reading by the end of elementary level. However, in writing and speaking, they rarely achieve target-like proficiency. Some conditions seem to favor the production of output. This study presents an investigation of children's ability to notice errors in their French second language in immersion program in Montreal. The study was conducted with forty-three (43) children aged 8-9, and aimed to gather information related to the following research questions: / Can we train 8 year-old second language learners to: (a) notice their errors; (b) self-correct (given certain prompts); (c) use metalinguistic terminology to identify forms; and (d) negotiate form using language as a conscious tool to improve their L2 oral production? / Children were required to participate in two (2) stages: first, video recording of communicative activities whit ungrammatical episodes with provision of corrective feedback were selected; and second, audio recording of children's attempts to negotiate form. The database was collected from these stimulated recall sessions of collaborative discussion. Results show how young learners may benefit from the provision of metalinguistic information, thus facilitating their second language learning development.

In this study I investigate gender representations in a South African magazine directed at a teenage female readership. It begins with a survey of sociolinguistic understandings of the relationship between language and gender, and of critical linguistic insights into how gender and gender relations are constructed through discourse. This is followed by the Critical Discourse Analysis of selected texts from the magazine. These analyses reveal that the writers draw on conventional representations of women and conventional social relations between men and women to perpetuate subordinate roles for woman in a male-dominated society. On the basis of this evidence I suggest that such magazines serve as instruments of social control in a patriarchal society by positioning women as being overwhelmingly concerned with their personal appearance and with developing and sustaining relationships with the opposite sex. I also point to the ways in which the writers have drawn on representations of femininity to position the readership as consumers, thereby serving the interests of the capitalist modes of production. This study concludes with suggestions on how the findings can be used to implement Critical Language Awareness in the classroom. / Theses (M.A.)-University of Natal, Durban, 2002.

The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of learning to read on developing phonemic awareness. The study was designed to determine whether a relationship exists between the development of the five levels of phonemic awareness identified by Adams (1991), and the phases of reading acquisition described by Biemiller (1970). Data pertaining to phonemic awareness and oral readings were collected in December, February, and April for 71 first grade children. Measures of phonemic awareness included five instruments; one for each level of phonemic awareness. Students were determined to be in one of the three phases of reading acquisition, described by Biemiller (1970), on the basis of their approaches to graphic and contextual cues in text.The analysis of data consisted of two procedures. The first, a series of one-way analyses of variance, examined the relationship between performance on measures of phonemic awareness and membership in one of the three phases of reading acquisition. The second procedure, a series of two-way repeated measures analyses of variance, were computed to examine differences in phonemic awareness between students who experienced a change in phases and those who did not.Results of the one-way analyses found significant group effects for each of the measures except the Rhyming task. However, when means and standard error were examined, it was determined that the Word Analysis task (measuring the ability to manipulate phonemes) was the only instrument that revealed both practically and statistically significant differences. Therefore, the ability to manipulate phonemes appeared to be the distinguishing factor between children in the phases of reading acquisition.Results of the two-way analyses of variance found that only performance on the Word Analysis task revealed significance for group membership. The performance of those students who had changed phases was found to have improved significantly, and at a more rapid pace, than those students who had remained in the same phase throughout the study. The findings indicate that it is during that period of time when children are actively attending to the graphic cues in text that they are also learning to manipulate phonemes. / Department of Elementary Education