Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2004. / Supervisor: Orlando Kelm. Vita. Includes bibliographical references. Also available from UMI.

This study addresses the question of the necessity of propositional content in children's comprehension of speech acts. In investigating this aspect of communicative competence in children the study considered the relative importance of age (3, 4), context (Requests, Questions, and Offers), and quantity of propositional content. Two factorial experiments were conducted in which 54 three and four-year-old children were administered a discrimination task, where, through puppet play, contexts were constructed for utterances in order to simulate particular speech acts. Judgments of the illocutionary force of such contexts were elicited by having children decide which one of two paraphrased utterances matched the stimulus utterance. Quantity of linguistic information in the stimulus presentations was progressively reduced. While younger children's performance was relatively unaffected by the reduction of linguistic information, the older children's discrimination of speech acts was relatively adversely affected. These findings were supported by additional data from an elicited imitation task and spontaneous responses. A developmental shift is proposed, from more direct context-dependent strategies of speech act processing to a later more linear or text-dependent approach linked to developing linguistic awareness. / Education, Faculty of / Language and Literacy Education (LLED), Department of / Graduate

This study aimed to explore Chinese and Korean EFL learners? perceptions with regards to the use of listening strategies. The purpose is to learn whether Chinese and Korean students achieve academic listening comprehension through specific listening strategies. The data were collected from first and second year students currently studying abroad in the US. Although they are immersed in an English speaking environment, the use of listening strategies still affects their development of academic listening comprehension based on what they have learned in their home countries. For this reason, this study provides a corpus for understanding Chinese and Korean EFL students' listening behavior and what constrains their English listening comprehension. The research design is one hundred and sixty-six college level students from three public universities in Texas who completed web-based questionnaires. Skilled and less-skilled groups were differentiated according to their TOEFL listening scores. If the student had a score of more than 570, he/she was categorized into the skilled listeners group; below 570, they belonged to the less-skilled listeners group. In terms of the need for additional research on the different factors that affect developmental outcomes in L2 listening comprehension, the following research questions were investigated: 1) Is there a statistically significant relationship between the self-reported use of listening strategies and self-reported listening comprehension scores on the TOEFL? 2) Is there a difference between skilled and less-skilled non-native English speakers in the self-reported use of four categories of listening strategies (memory, cognitive, meta-cognitive, and socio-affective)? 3) What factors influence the use of self-reported listening strategies? The findings show that students in this sample tended to employ memory strategies as a means of achieving listening comprehension. In theory, cognitive and metacognitive strategies are more difficult than memory strategies, prompting a lack of sophisticated strategies for Chinese and Korean students. In addition, students? listening skills are not mature. The pedagogical implications of this study for EFL education are that teachers, while teaching listening, should be alert to spot such phenomena and, specifically, instruct students to reach listening maturity via cognitive and metacognitive strategies.

The importance of using the target language (TL) in the FL classroom is ingrained in the minds of most language teachers e.g., the Direct Method, Audiolingualism, and the Communicative Method. However, few studies have examined how TL and first language (L1) are being used in the FL classroom (Duff & Polio, 1990, 1994; Macaro, 2001; Levine, 2003). Even less research has been done regarding the purpose(s) for which the L1 and TL are being used in the classroom and the types of discourse for which the L1 and TL are being employed by teachers and students. There is, however, a growing number of researchers who have begun to question the exclusion of the L1 from the classroom (Guthrie, 1984; Cook, 2001; Macaro, 2001; Turnbull, 2001).This study was carried out at the University of Arizona. Sixteen first- and second-year Spanish classes were video- and audio-recorded over the course of three observations. Additionally, over 500 students participated in a pre- and post-listening test as well as a survey regarding perceptions of L1 and TL use in the classroom and beliefs about language use. This study also investigated in what types of discourse the L1 and TL are being employed and some of the motivations behind this usage. Also, explored are the differences between native and non-native instructors of the TL.The results showed that while there was a strong positive correlation between the instructors' use of the L1 and the students' use of the L1, this did not adversely affect the listening gains in the classroom. Also, it was found that both the students and the instructors were able with a high degree of accuracy to predict the L1 and TL of the instructors in the classroom. Finally, there were no significant differences between the classes with native speaking instructors of the TL and those who were non-native speaking instructors of the TL. This study contributes to a better understanding of actual classroom language usage, the motivations behind L1 and TL use, and the students' and teachers' perceptions of the role of the L1 and TL in the classroom.

The premise of the Simple View of Reading is that reading comprehension is the product of two components – decoding and language comprehension. Each component is necessary but not sufficient. To support teachers in identifying end-of-second-grade students who may have difficulties in one or both of the components, parallel listening comprehension and reading comprehension screening measures were developed and investigated in two preliminary pilot studies and one large-scale administration. The first pilot study, conducted with 41 end-of-second-grade students, established administration times for the listening comprehension screening (LCS) and the reading comprehension screening (RCS) and confirmed the appropriateness of the 75 items on each of the measures. The second pilot study, conducted with 12 end-of-second- grade students with varying reading levels, demonstrated that the LCS and RCS could differentiate readers with good comprehension from readers with poor comprehension. The large-scale administration, conducted with 699 end-of-second-grade students, aided in the development of shorter final versions of the LCS and RCS and provided data to determine the score reliability and validity of the final versions of the measures, each of which had 42 items. Item response theory (IRT) was used to identify the most apposite and discriminating items for use on the final versions of the LCS and RCS. Score reliability (Cronbach’s alpha) on the final LCS was estimated to be .89 and was estimated to be .93 on the final RCS. Various sources provided content and criterion-related validity evidence. In particular, criterion-related validity evidence included strong correlations with the Gates-MacGinitie Reading Tests and strong sensitivity, specificity, and positive predictive indices. Construct validity evidence included group differentiation and a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), all of which supported a single underlying construct on the LCS and a single underlying construct on the RCS. In a subset of 214 end-of-second-grade students from the larger study, partial correlation and structural equation modeling (SEM) analyses supported the discriminant validity of the LCS and RCS as measures of comprehension. The listening and reading comprehension screening measures will assist second-grade teachers in identifying student learning needs that cannot be identified with reading-only comprehension tests.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 1999. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 254-271). Available also in a digital version from Dissertation Abstracts.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Idaho, April 2006. / Major professor: Jerry L. Tuchscherer. Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 124-132). Also available online in PDF format.

The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of certain interruptions upon fourth-grade pupils' comprehension when listening to the teacher's oral reading of stories. The interruptions made were (1) music being played over the address system (2) announcements being made over the public address system, and (3) pupils entering and leaving the rooms.

No description available.

by Suen Lai Kuen, Denise. / Publication date from spine. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1995. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 103-114). / Abstract --- p.i / Chapter Chapter 1 --- The issue and its background --- p.1 / Chapter 1.1 --- Languages in Hong Kong society --- p.1 / Chapter 1.2 --- Hong Kong Certificate of Education Examination --- p.2 / Chapter 1.3 --- The validation of the HKCE Eng. (B) Examination Paper III --- p.3 / Chapter Chapter 2 --- Review of relevant literature / Chapter 2.1 --- Reliability and validity --- p.6 / Chapter 2.1.1 --- Reliability --- p.6 / Chapter 2.1.2 --- Validity --- p.8 / Chapter 2.1.2.1 --- Test validation --- p.7 / Chapter 2.1.2.2 --- Construct validity --- p.10 / Chapter 2.1.2.3 --- Content validity . --- p.11 / Chapter 2.1.2.3.1 --- Qualitative and quantitative approaches to content validation --- p.12 / Chapter 2.1.2.3.2 --- Item difficulty and item discriminability --- p.13 / Chapter 2.1.2.3 --- Criterion-related validity --- p.14 / Chapter 2.1.3 --- Validity and reliability --- p.16 / Chapter 2.1.4 --- Summary --- p.16 / Chapter 2.2 --- Communicative paradigm and the study of language --- p.18 / Chapter 2.2.1 --- Communicative competence --- p.20 / Chapter 2.2.2 --- Framework of communicative competence --- p.21 / Chapter 2.2.3 --- Problems in communicative language testing --- p.23 / Chapter 2.2.4 --- Characteristics of communicative language tests --- p.24 / Chapter 2.2.5 --- HKCE Eng. (B) Examination Paper III in the communicative paradigm --- p.25 / Chapter 2.2.6 --- Features of spoken language --- p.26 / Chapter 2.2.6.1 --- Speaking against time --- p.26 / Chapter 2.2.6.2 --- Spoken against written language --- p.27 / Chapter 2.2.6.3 --- Variety of vocabulary --- p.28 / Chapter 2.2.6.4 --- Level of vocabulary --- p.29 / Chapter 2.2.6.5 --- Intonation unit --- p.30 / Chapter 2.2.6.6 --- Clausal construction --- p.32 / Chapter 2.2.6.7 --- Sentence construction --- p.33 / Chapter 2.2.6.8 --- "Involvement with audience, with self, and with concrete reality" --- p.33 / Chapter 2.2.6.9 --- Features of conversations and lectures --- p.34 / Chapter 2.2.7 --- Summary --- p.35 / Chapter 2.3 --- Second language listening comprehension --- p.37 / Chapter 2.3.1 --- Factors in L2 listening comprehension --- p.37 / Chapter 2.3.1.1 --- Speech rate and syntactic structure --- p.37 / Chapter 2.3.1.2 --- Sandhi and proficiency level --- p.38 / Chapter 2.3.1.3 --- "Syntactic simplication, repetition, and proficiency level" --- p.39 / Chapter 2.3.1.4 --- Discourse markers and proficiency level --- p.40 / Chapter 2.3.1.5 --- Background knowledge --- p.41 / Chapter 2.3.1.6 --- Text type and question type --- p.42 / Chapter 2.3.1.7 --- "Note taking, memory, and proficiency level" --- p.43 / Chapter 2.3.1.8 --- Syntactic simplicity and redundancy --- p.44 / Chapter 2.3.2 --- Different types of listening skills --- p.46 / Chapter 2.3.3 --- Summary --- p.49 / Chapter Chapter 3 --- Content validation of the HKCE Eng. (B) Examination Paper III / Chapter 3 1 --- Test objectives and test specifications --- p.51 / Chapter 3.2 --- Question types in the HKCE Eng. (B) Examination Paper III --- p.53 / Chapter 3.3 --- Validity of test specifications --- p.58 / Chapter 3.3.1 --- Domains of use --- p.58 / Chapter 3.3.2 --- Listening comprehension component skills as test specifcations --- p.59 / Chapter 3.4 --- Validity of test content --- p.61 / Chapter 3.4.1 --- Domains of use in test content --- p.62 / Chapter 3.4.1.1 --- Domains of use in section A items --- p.62 / Chapter 3.4.1.2 --- Domains of use in section B items --- p.66 / Chapter 3.4.2 --- Content validity in terms of skills --- p.66 / Chapter 3.4.3 --- Content validity in terms of text authenticity --- p.68 / Chapter 3.5 --- Quantitative approach to content validation --- p.71 / Chapter 3.6 --- Summary --- p.77 / Chapter Chapter 4 --- Criterion-related (concurrent) validation of the HKCE Eng. (B) Examination Paper III / Chapter 4.1 --- The choice of the criterion --- p.78 / Chapter 4.1.1 --- Test of English as a Foreign Language --- p.78 / Chapter 4.1.2 --- Section 1 (Listening comprehension) of the TOEFL --- p.79 / Chapter 4.1.3 --- The TOEFL program under the policy council --- p.80 / Chapter 4 1.4 --- Development of TOEFL questions --- p.80 / Chapter 4.1.5 --- Reliability and validity of the TOEFL --- p.81 / Chapter 4.1.6 --- TOEFL as the criterion --- p.86 / Chapter 4.2 --- The subjects and the procedure --- p.89 / Chapter 4.3 --- Basic assumptions of correlation analysis --- p.90 / Chapter 4.4 --- Statistical procedure and findings --- p.94 / Chapter Chapter 5 --- Discussion and conclusion / Chapter 5.1 --- Content validity of the HKCE Eng. (B) Examination Paper III --- p.98 / Chapter 5.1.1 --- Validity of test objectives and test specificiations --- p.99 / Chapter 5.1.2 --- Validity of test content in terms of testing specifications --- p.99 / Chapter 5.1.3 --- Content validity in terms of skills --- p.99 / Chapter 5.1.4 --- Content validity in terms of text authenticity --- p.100 / Chapter 5.1.5 --- Content validity based on internal analysis --- p.100 / Chapter 5.2 --- Criterion-related validity of the HKCE Eng. (B) Examination Paper III --- p.102 / Chapter 5.3 --- Further research as corroboration --- p.103 / Bibliography --- p.103 / Appendix Materials of the 1991 (session 2) HKCE Eng. (B) Examination Paper III --- p.115 / Appendix 2 Teacher A's evaluation form --- p.136 / Appendix 3 Teacher B's evaluation form --- p.142 / Appendix 4 Materials of the TOEFL Secion 1 (Listening Comprehension) used as the criterion --- p.147 / Appendix 5 HKCE scores and TOEFL scores in the criterion-related validation study --- p.158