The purpose of this experimental study was to investigate the effect of stereoscopic three-dimensional (S3D) images on productive and receptive recall of foreign language vocabulary. S3D images are highly-realistic and differ from non-stereoscopic three-dimensional (NS3D) images in that they provide the impression of the added third dimension of depth. This within-subject study exposed the participants (N = 82) in a controlled setting to a series of carefully designed and randomly distributed NS3D and S3D images. The subjects were then given immediate productive and receptive tests of foreign language vocabulary items that were represented by NS3D and S3D images. Quantitative data consisted of the scores from the vocabulary tests. Qualitative data, gathered through background questionnaires and follow-up surveys, included a mixture of open-ended and Likert questions. The statistical analyses of the data using a series of paired t-tests showed NS3D and S3D images to be equally effective for vocabulary recall. In addition, significantly more subjects found S3D images to be engaging and/or more useful, while subjects also indicated that they perceived the main benefits of learning with S3D images to come from enhanced focus, realism, engagement, and association. At the same time, some learners reported being distracted and experiencing discomfort while viewing S3D images. Post hoc tests revealed that lower performance on S3D images was driven only by those subgroups that exhibited discomfort and / or lack of experience with S3D technology.

This study investigates the experiences of isiMpondo speakers in learning standard language through the formal education system. The sociolinguistic factors such as attitudes, language policies and language use in multilingual societies are taken into considerations. The children of non-standard language speakers such as those who speak dialects like isiMpondo have to use another language in their early years in the school system. It is articulated that the isiMpondo that the child brings to the school from the environment is not accommodated simply because it is a non-standard language; whereas the language that is used in the classroom situation is the isiXhosa variety which is a standard one. The research findings show that isiMpondo impacts on learner’s education directly because they lose marks during the course of the year and during examination times if they use it. The study concludes with a recommendation that educators should honour the seven roles of educators by appropriate norms and standards. Some approaches to teaching have been suggested to be used by teachers with regard to inclusivity, as it recognises diversity, and values the following: the uniqueness of the individuals, the experiences, abilities, cultural and language backgrounds of each individual. All in all it seeks to meet the needs of the individual learner by creating a non-discriminatory teaching and learning environment.

Doctorat en philosophie et lettres / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

Although the term CLIL standing for Content and Language Integrated Learning appeared as early as in 1994, and the European Union recognized it very quickly as a prospective and effective way of learning and teaching languages, it seems neither to have been used extensively within the Czech education system, nor there appears to be a general awareness of the method. However, this approach represents a great opportunity for creating more authentic atmosphere within language classrooms and simultaneously teaching and learning a content subject. When speaking of CLIL, several factors must be considered, such as its objectives, principles, methodology, discourse and materials, furthermore we have to take into account the criteria for designing and analysing material for language teaching (of course also in the view of the chosen content subject principles and objectives). In order to raise the awareness of CLIL as an effective approach to language and subject content teaching and to partly supply the lack of CLIL-focused materials, this thesis aims to take into account all the factors and present and analyse them in logical sequences, so finally an effective piece of material usable in CLIL classes could be created and subsequently analysed and evaluated. The present thesis is divided into three parts...

This diploma thesis deals with the partial analysis of two teaching materials which are used while teaching German as a foreign language. These materials are Themen aktuell 1 and Direkt neu 1, which are frequently utilized at secondary schools for the teaching of German at the language level A1-A2. The analysis of these teaching materials concentrates on the presentation of the grammar curriculum. The theoretical part of this diploma thesis deals with the teaching methods, current trends and also with the role of the teaching material in teaching. In the practical part of this diploma thesis the analysis of the presentation and the practice of the selected grammatical phenomena and also the classification of the exercises, which are found in the teaching materials, is carried out. The practical part also presents the results of the test, which was carried out on the basis of selected grammatical phenomena at Akademické gymnázium, school of the capital city Prague and Biskupské gymnázium J. N. Neumanna in České Budějovice. At Akademické gymnázium German is taught according to the teaching material called Themen aktuell 1, while at Biskupské gymnázium it is taught according to Direkt neu 1. The grammatical phenomena were selected on the basis of the fact, what subject matter the learners were taught,...

The purpose of this research overview is to analyze previous research and see how theeducational approach Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) has affected students’ language development and subject knowledge. The study is aimed at the Swedish upper secondary school and focuses on language learning and knowledge development in the subject of ´History. The paper is based on the research question: How has the CLILapproach been implemented in history education for the purpose of promoting students’language development as well as subject knowledge, and how is this perceived from a teacher- and student perspective? Several search engines were used for the gathering of research articles for this overview, such as; ERIC, SWEPUB, Libsearch and to a small extent Google Scholar. In order to find the most relevant data, several inclusion and exclusion criteria were applied to the searches. During the process of evaluating relevant articles, a smaller version of an annotated bibliography was created to speed up the work process. The research shows that there are not any clear guidelines on how effective CLILeducation should be implemented and that the subject of History does not seem to benefit from the implementation of it. However, most researchers agree that further investigation regarding the content-part of CLIL is needed to get an understanding of how the implementation of such educational approaches affect both language development and subject knowledge.

Sammanfattning I läraryrket har vi sett hur viktigt och väsentligt det muntliga och skriftliga språket är i allt lärande. Språkkravet i skolan ökar under elevens skolgång och eleven möter allt mer komplexa texter av olika text- och språkstrukturer, textmängder och textinnehåll. Syftet med studien var att undersöka hur lärares undervisning bedrivs i praktiken, med fokus på hur språklig utveckling hos eleverna i förskoleklass till årskurs 3 främjas. Vidare handlar det om att synliggöra vilka språkliga förmågor som lärare bearbetar med eleverna, för att stärka deras språkliga kompetens. Studien tillämpar ett induktivt förhållningssätt och är av kvalitativ natur. Metodansatsen är etnografisk och består av öppna observationer med förstärkning av observjuer, där materialinsamlingen analyseras genom en tematisk analys. Detta innebär att studien grundar sig i ett öppet förhållningssätt till det vi observerade och observjuade. Insamlingen är från 9 olika grundskolor i 5 olika kommuner. Omfattningen av materialet är 18 timmar observerad undervisning. Studiens resultat visar att läraren arbetar språkutvecklande i både planerad form och genom att fånga de tillfällen som ges till spontana interaktioner med eleverna. Undervisningen har berört både språkets form, struktur och funktion, vilka kan betecknas som grunden för en språklig utveckling. I studien har vi mött engagerade lärare, som lägger stor vikt vid att inkludera ord och begrepp som en naturlig del i undervisningen. På så sätt har den semantiska förmågan stått i fokus i den språkliga undervisningen.

Bartholomae contends that "a reading course is necessarily a writing course and a writing course must be a course in reading." At most community colleges, however, reading and writing are still taught as if they were independent of each other. The course on which this curriculum study is based, English 07, Writing and Reading Improvement, represents a revision of that traditional approach, for it combines instruction in reading and writing to create a comprehensive class in developmental English. This dissertation describes the salient pedagogical features of English 07, from its rejection of the skills approach to language instruction to its treatment of reading and writing as complementary activities. The results of this study indicate that teaching reading with writing in the same course can be a viable alternative to teaching these skills separately. Success rates of students in English 07 consistently exceeded those of students enrolled in more traditional classes in which reading and writing remained isolated from one another. English 07 students also enjoyed a relatively high rate of success in subsequent first year English classes, approaching a level of achievement equal to that of students in the general population of the college. In addition, the study revealed several curricular elements that seem to have been unusually important in helping students develop their literate abilities. The course's emphasis upon reading and writing as complementary processes of composition, its thematic focus upon the self, the structure and sequence of reading and writing assignments, and the social relations in the classroom all emerged as significant influences in students' attempts to transform themselves into literate members of the academy. Clowes notes that successful integration "little evidence exists of developmental theory for the into the practice of remediation," and Berthoff asserts that "we need more research in teaching reading and writing together." This study answers those calls by demonstrating how reading and writing can be melded together to create an effective developmental English course. This dissertation should thus provide other community-college practitioners with an immediate theoretical framework and a model curriculum for helping students become more proficient readers and more accomplished writers. / Ed. D.

The primary purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of a training program in summarizing textbook articles on developmental English community college students’ ability to summarize text. Although previous research has documented improvement in reading recall when subjects were taught a hierarchical summary procedure, the study constitutes the first attempt to test whether this procedure can be used to train students to write better summaries. Developmental English students were chosen for study because students in this population typically do poorly at this important academic task. Because summary notes are often considered an aid to recall, the study also measured recall protocols of students who were trained in summary writing in contrast to those who received alternative training. Experimental group students were taught to identify the top three levels of importance and had guided practice with feedback once a week for five weeks. Control group students were given training in vocabulary and comprehension techniques. Passages were at least 1200 words. Scoring was based on inclusion of information from the top three levels of hierarchical structure in each passage. The basic questions of the study were: (1) Is there an interaction between group status and cognitive abilities on summary writing posttest scores? (2) Are students who received training in summarization more proficient at summarizing text than students who received another type of training? (3) Are students who received training in summarization more proficient at recalling text than students who received another type of training? (4) Do students trained in summarization score higher than students trained with other methods on a standardized reading test? Regression analyses indicated the following results: (1) There was no interaction between type of training and cognitive abilities on summary writing posttest scores; high and low students profited equally from instruction. (2) Students trained in summarization performed significantly higher than control group students on the summary writing posttest. (3) Treatment group students did not score significantly higher than control group students on the delayed recall test, but there was a trend towards Significance. (4) There was no significant difference between treatment and control group students’ standardized reading test scores. / Ed. D.

D. Tech. Language Practice / Additional language learning in South Africa is a challenge, partly as a result of the country's past history which promoted certain languages in official domains, while others that were spoken by the majority of the citizens remained underdeveloped, and marginalised. As English is a language of learning and teaching at most universities in South Africa, students with a very poor command of English find it severely challenging when they enroll at university. This study assessed the possible, significant effectiveness of the English Word Power (EWP) program, which is used as a form of intervention on the poor English proficiency skills of ICT Foundation students at a University of Technology in Gauteng.