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Hemispheric involvement in the language processing of bilingualsVaid, Jyotsna January 1977 (has links)
No description available.
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Evaluating an English department: the use of illuminative evaluation procedures in descriptive and diagnostic analysis of English teaching programmes in high schoolsThorpe, Robert Nicholas January 1991 (has links)
To evaluate what is actually happening within a High School subject curriculum, the annual parade of marks, percentages and symbol distributions is not by itself adequate, especially in assessing progress towards such English syllabus goals as: That pupils expand their experience of life, gain empathetic understanding of people and develop moral awareness. (3.1. 4 HG) How too, from examination results alone, can a subject head of English assess the success of his objective "to woo his pupils into the reading habit"? (School 1: Goals 1988) Decisions on English department policy and procedures are frequently based on personal hunches and examination results. Few subject departments engage in proper evaluations of their curricula to support decisions made, or to impart meaning upon the countless daily transactions between child and adult, individual and institution in the learning process. This study demonstrates the efficacy of "illuminative evaluation" techniques in opening out an educational innovation (1986 First Language English syllabi of the Cape Education Department) at two High Schools for comment and appraisal. The array of information gathered should be useful in planning and implementing further curricula initiatives. The inherent flexibility of illuminative evaluation procedures and their freedom from large-scale data base requirements needed for 'scientific' models of evaluation are advantageous in investigating the untidy complexities of English teaching. Both 'closed' and 'open' response questionnaires, interviews, and perusal of relevant documents informed the researcher of the views of pupils, parents, English teachers, other subject heads, the two school principals and the education authorities on what waS and ought to be happening in English classes. From the considerable array of information generated, the distress of conscientious English teachers facing unreasonable work-loads emerged clearly. Such teachers are likely to occupy key roles in the non-racial state schools of the future and cannot be regarded as expendable. 'Open schools' present new challenges to existing curricula and the position of English may prove to be critical. Thus it is submitted that English subject heads should be concerned with evaluating their departments so that informed decisions can be taken on future directions. Illuminative evaluation is demonstrably useful in such analyses.
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Taalbeplanning vir die onderrig van Afrikaans as 'n vreemde taal in Suid-Afrika.Hamersma, Elsa Meiring 15 August 2012 (has links)
D.Litt. et Phil. / This study proposes that there has been and will be a need for Afrikaans Foreign Language (Third Language) as a subject in South African schools. Multilingual proposals and models for school education advocate the inclusion of three language subjects. It can be argued that a logical choice would be an African language, English and Afrikaans. The study is done from different perspectives: Following a general introduction, a broad, conceptual framework for language planning lays the basis for the study. A comparative analysis is made where a parallel is drawn between language planning in general and education in South Africa and other post-colonial countries. The analysis concludes that past practices continue to influence current policies and planning. The history of language planning in South Africa, with specific reference to Afrikaans, is traced from 1652 to the present. It becomes apparent that the linguisistic practices which were followed in the past directly influence current planning. An analysis is made of the position of Afrikaans and other languages in South Africa using empirical data obtained from the SABC, HSRC, AMPS and the Department of Education. It is noted that no extensive language study has been done since the change in government in 1994 and that the current position is therefore difficult to determine. Current proposals and models for language policy in education are discussed in detail. It becomes apparent that the multilingual nature of our society will have to be reflected in a language policy for education and that three language subjects should be promoted and may, in time, become the norm. The very specific problems of Foreign Language Teaching is addressed in the penultimate chapter. It is acknowledged that there are differences between Second Language Acquisition and Foreign Language Learning and that these differences call for other strategies in teaching. It is proposed in the study that recent democratic planning has leveled the playing fields in education. Every child's basic linguistic rights are acknowledged and guaranteed. Although Afrikaans and English have lost their privileged position, they can be promoted by cultural organisations or institutions. Finally it is suggested that language is a commodity, analogous to other marketable products.
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Minority Francophone schools in British Columbia, past, present, and futureBoudreau, Hélène-Marie 05 1900 (has links)
Canada has two official languages: French and English. Each province must allow
for an educational program in both languages where the number of students warrant such
programs. Although minority language schools exist in all Canadian provinces, some
provinces are so overwhelmingly English that the Francophone school programs struggle
constantly to survive and threaten to become extinct. Yet a vigilant group of parents and
partisans work incessantly to maintain these minority language school programs. This
thesis will examine why these schools exist in British Columbia and whether or not they
can promote the Francophone minority language and culture in the overwhelming
Anglophone environment.
Bilingual Canadian wonder that more Canadians are not bilingual. Some Canadians
are dedicated to educating their children in their official minority language while others
do not understand why Canada is officially bilingual. Yet, to take the example of just one
province, British Columbia is and remains an Anglophone province. A Francophone
parent would, I shall argue, be doing her child a great disservice to insist on schooling in
Francophone minority programs.
Family is only part of a child's world. The media, friends, neighbors, the stores, the
community centers and the people that surround us make up our language and culture. In
British Columbia, the language is English and the cultures are as diverse as the people
who are part of them.
The purpose of this study is to investigate and present an historical, religious,
political and economic analysis of the reasoning behind the existence of Francophone
minority language schools and programs in British Columbia, and to evaluate whether or
not it is possible for these programs and schools to fulfill their mandate.
My initial sentiments were biased in favor of Francophone minority programs and
though I still believe that official minorities have an unquestionable constitutional right to their schools and to the administration of these schools, I no longer believe that these
schools and programs alone can provide a rich ethnic sanctuary that could permit the
minority language and culture to flourish.
In fact, I no longer believe that it is in the student's best interest to attend these
schools and programs. The students can only be crippled by their lack of knowledge of
English and by their limited exposure to the Francophone world.
I visited two of the three homogeneous Francophone schools and four Programme
cadre programs in the mainstream Anglophone and French immersion schools in BC. I
interviewed and videotaped students, parents, teachers, language education experts
and attended conferences and meetings, examined pertinent historical, political, legal and
pedagogical data, and concluded (not surprisingly) that language and culture are
expressions of our everyday lives. My research strategy thus combined elements of
historical, legal, sociological, and socio-linguistic method, relying both on direct
observation and reference, and on considerable secondary literature.
I conclude that one can teach the French language, but unless it is expressed and
alive as part of our world, it is but a code with limited value. One cannot teach the
Francophone culture. One either lives it (or a limited part of it) in a setting that must
exclude the majority, thereby confining the world around and restricting opportunity, or
one quickly becomes assimilated.
Providing community schools where minority language is strictly enforced and
reinforced at home is only the beginning. To date these ethnocentric shelters are not
available in British Columbia. Perhaps the recently acquired right to administer some of
the Francophone programs by the Francophone minority will empower the Francophone
minority in B.C. and provide higher academic standards, a more attractive image of the
minority language and culture and force the Francophone community to assume a sense
of identity and belonging. / Education, Faculty of / Language and Literacy Education (LLED), Department of / Graduate
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A between groups comparison of gains in English proficiency in a sheltered English immersion programCrittenden, Rose Elizabeth 05 1900 (has links)
Some second language learners are more successful than others. Students in
the University of British Columbia/Ritsumeikan Joint Academic Exchange
Programme, a sheltered English-as-a-second-language (ESL) immersion program,
have in the past exhibited varying degrees of gain in English proficiency in their
writing, reading, speech, and academic achievement during their stay in Vancouver.
The explanation of why some learners become proficient in a second language may
lie in our understanding the interactions of such individual attributes as the
learner's age, language aptitudes, autonomy and motivation, attitudes, personality,
cognitive style, learning strategies, background in language and knowledge of other
languages.
In this study the gain in English proficiency of all the students in the program
was examined first and then the gain of two different groups of students who were
categorized and "low" and "high" on the basis of their entry level scores on the Test
of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL). The standardized tests used in this
program were supplemented with two additional tests to measure gain in
proficiency. A language experience questionnaire was given to all students and
interviews of selected students from each group were conducted. The results of the
standardized tests were analyzed and a significant difference in the gain of English
proficiency between these two groups was found. An evaluation of the individual
language learning histories and the interview data was conducted to further
understand the language proficiency gains found from the psychometric measures.
Implications for instruction and further research were reached. / Education, Faculty of / Curriculum and Pedagogy (EDCP), Department of / Graduate
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A case study of a teacher's questions in an English Second Language (ESL) classroomNhlapo, Malefu January 1999 (has links)
This research study seeks to explore and understand the way a Form C (the third year of high school) teacher asks questions in an English second language (ESL) classroom in a high school in Lesotho. As this is a small-scale study on a teacher’s questions in a familiar setting, an ethnographic stance was adopted. The researcher adopted the role of non-participant observer, recorded three different lesson types and took observational notes. She transcribed the lessons and used the transcription to interview both the teacher and the students. The interviews were recorded and transcribed by the researcher. She then analysed the classroom and interview data and invited the teacher to respond to the analysis she had made. The interview was also recorded and transcribed. The findings indicated that the teacher asked most questions in the three lesson types. He asked mainly lower order question. However, the nature of the questions varied according to the intentions of the teacher, even when the lesson type was the same. Although it is difficult to generalize from a small-scale study like this one, it is believed that this study has been beneficial in raising awareness about the nature and role of questions in classroom interaction, and also in raising awareness of the teacher. Consciousness raising may be essential to educators and researchers. Moreover, this research may enable educators to theorize their practice. This research demonstrates the need for teacher development. It argues that knowledge should be linked with the skills. Therefore, it proposes the need for teacher education to include an explicit focus on questioning since questions are an integral part of teaching and learning. It further proposes the need for teachers to plan their questions carefully as good questioning strategies may facilitate learning. To my knowledge, existing research on teachers’ questions has not linked the cognitive, linguistic and pedagogic functions of teachers’ questions. This study draws from literature on these three areas while acknowledging the importance of taking into account contextual issues in analysing teachers’ questions. It therefore concludes that, content, curriculum, and the teacher’s intentions and his/her ideologies cannot be ignored in the study of a teacher’s questions.
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The acquisition of the English system of pronominalization by adult second language learnersTakagaki, Bob January 1985 (has links)
The study presented in this paper is a second language study of the acquisition of the English system of pronominalization by adult learners of English. It is a partial replication of Ingram and Shaw's (1981) first language acquisition study on the same topic.
One hundred and eighty four subjects and twenty control subjects were administered a written task that involved making anaphoric assignments to pronouns in thirty five test sentences, representing seven different sentence construction types.
Analysis of the data indicated that the two syntactic constraints of precedence and dominance played major roles in the anaphoric assignments made by all subjects. In addition, these two syntactic constraints were instrumental in delineating developmental stages in the acquisition process. A comparison of the response patterns displayed by the present study's subjects and those displayed by Ingram, and Shaw's subjects revealed a number of differences. These differences suggested that the acquisition process was not invariant and highly sequential in nature, but dynamic and highly creative, allowing a great deal of latitude in terms of the processing strategies employed. / Education, Faculty of / Language and Literacy Education (LLED), Department of / Graduate
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The oral interaction of native speakers and non-native speakers in a multicultural preschool : a comparison between freeplay and contrived NS/NNS dyadsKennedy, Elizabeth Anne January 1988 (has links)
While researchers generally recommend a 1:1 ratio of native speakers (NSs) to non-native speakers (NNSs) be maintained in multicultural preschool classrooms, these- ideal proportions are often unrealistic in regions where populations reflect high concentrations of ethnic groups. In these areas, where enrolments usually consist of a majority of NNSs, pedagogical modifications may be necessary to ensure second language learners are exposed to sufficient amounts of 'meaningful target language input' which is considered essential for second language acquisition (Krashen, 1979).
This study investigated the effects of deliberate pairing on NSs and those NNSs who had low English language proficiency (L) in one multicultural preschool where NNSs outnumbered NSs by 3:1. Four NS subjects were videotaped, employing a multiple baseline design, as they interacted with their peers during a math game activity time. The effects of the treatment on four interactional measures were analysed using Ruvusky's statistic.
Results, as predicted, indicated significant differences for three of the four measures. When deliberately paired, both NSs and NNSs(L) took more turns, and NSs uttered significantly more directives to their NNS(L) peers than they did during the freeplay situation. -Deliberate pairing of NSs and NNSs(L) has been shown to be a successful technique for exposing NNSs(L) to increased levels of target language input in this multicultural preschool. Implications for teachers are outlined and the role of NSs in multicultural classrooms is discussed. / Education, Faculty of / Curriculum and Pedagogy (EDCP), Department of / Graduate
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Project-based instruction in a Canadian secondary school's ESL classes : goals and evaluationsBeckett, Gulbahar Huxur 11 1900 (has links)
Research on project-based instruction is common in mainstream education. It
conceives the activity broadly, but omits language. It is rare in English as a Second
Language (ESL) education, and Second Language Acquisition (SLA) theory conceives it
narrowly, omitting a functional view of language. The present study examines the
implementation of project-based instruction in ESL classes in a Canadian secondary school
through interviews with Canadian ESL teachers and Chinese ESL students, observations of
two projects in action, and examination of students' written work, and school, school board
and Ministry of Education documents.
Results indicate that the teachers held and implemented a broad, integrated
conception of project-based instruction that includes a functional view of language. They
have many more goals than those stressed for project-based instruction in the SLA literature,
and have goals that are not included even in the mainstream literature. The teachers evaluated
project-based instruction positively, and the researcher's observations support the teachers'
evaluations.
However, despite teacher's and students' successes, a number of students evaluated
project-based instruction negatively. This discrepancy is discussed using three explanatory
models (philosophical, cultural, and linguistic) that the participants may have been using
when interpreting project-based instruction.
The study points to the need to develop a rationale which adequately addresses
project-based instruction as a functional language learning activity in the context of academic
subject matter learning. It identifies problems of cross-cultural interpretation of and
communication about projects, and notes difficulties of resolving them. It points out the
necessity for an examination of the processes of project-based instruction, noting places of
difficulty and success, and considering promising strategies. / Education, Faculty of / Language and Literacy Education (LLED), Department of / Graduate
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The collaborative role of an ESL support teacher in a secondary school : supporting ESL students and content teachers utilizing integrated language and content instructionKonnert, Michele Rand 05 1900 (has links)
This research project was conducted with social studies and English teachers
and ESL students in mainstream classes at a secondary school in Richmond, B.C. over a
seven-month period from September 1998 to March 1999. As an action researcher, I
solved problems through team work and through following a cyclical process of
1. strategic planning, 2. action, 3. observation, evaluation and self-evaluation, and
4. critical and self-critical reflection on the cycle (McNiff, Lomax, & Whitehead,
1996).
The findings included in this study are a definition of the ESL support role,
effectiveness of the ESL support program, teacher collaboration, application of the
ILC approach and the Knowledge Framework (Mohan, 1986), challenges and issues
for content teachers and ESL students, and the dual role as support teacher and
researcher. First, with regard to a definition of the ESL support role, ESL support
teachers were viewed by myself and the administration as language development
specialists who act as consultants, with a focus on co-teaching and individual
instruction. Colleagues perceived the ESL support team as ESL trained teachers who
must prove their effectiveness through action, rather than words, in content
teachers' classrooms. ESL students viewed the ESL support teachers as a welcome
support or unwelcome intruders. Second, with regard to the effectiveness of the ESL
support program, the administration and I felt that the program provided exceptional
support services to content teachers and ESL students. ESL students also felt that the
ESL support program was very helpful. Colleagues, however, were initially skeptical
of the program, but eventually valued the support.
Third, collaboration increased over time as ESL support specialists worked in
cooperative relationships with content teachers. Fourth, the ILC approach was
selectively, and at times superficially, implemented in content courses. Also, the
Knowledge Framework was the most successful teaching method for ESL support of
content teachers and ESL students. Fifth, there were many challenges for content
teachers, ESL learners, and ESL support specialists. One challenge was the lack of
English spoken by our student population. Another concern was the appearance of
passivity of ESL students. Also, assessment and evaluation of ESL students was very
difficult for content teachers. Thus, content instructors needed to learn alternate
assessment and evaluation strategies for their ESL learners. In addition, teachers
wondered about their ESL students' comprehension and exam preparation. Lastly,
tensions inevitably arose from the dual role as teacher and researcher. / Education, Faculty of / Language and Literacy Education (LLED), Department of / Graduate
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