This thesis comprised an investigation of literacy development and literacy difficulties in the context of bilingualism involving 479s ix to thirteen year old children bilingual in two languages The children in this study were required to learn literacy in two writing systems namely Filipino and English.' Me context of concurrent earning and a bilingual background provided a unique context for studying biliteracy development and difficulties. Additionally variations in the orthographio complexity between e two scripts( Filipino is transparent, whilst English is complex) allowed an assessment of current cross-language perspective ins literacy difficulties. The main aim of the research was to investigate cognitive and linguistic factors that are related to literacy difficulties in a bilingual population. This was achieved via two additional ims:i e, to understand the development of, and the skills involved in , literacy acquisition. This required assessment of the impact of processes within and between the languages of literacy. 'Me results in dicate that the predominant theories on literacy developmengte nerated on the basiso f monolingual English-speaking cohortd o not explain literacyp rocesses amongt he bilingual-biliterate children in this study. Although predictions base do n these theories found some support in the English based data, the were inconsistent with the data produced by the same children in Filipino. The second main conclusion asserttsh at the central processing hypothesis and the script dependent hypothesis are complementary explanations of bilingual reading. Although development seems to progressa t different rates underlyings kills in literacys how a high degree of crosslanguage interdependence Finally, in examining literacy difficulties a mongth e children in this study, it was found that group c omparisondsi d not provides ufficientb asisto characterise ingle word literacy difficulties Howevert he analysiys of single cases indicated different manifestations of literacy difficulties across the two languages These findings1 )indicate that illiteracy resents a fundamentally different context in which to investigate and assess literacy difficulties2, ) highlight the importance of assessments in all languages of literacy and3 ) demonstrate the need to assesm sore than single word processing deficits, particularly when dealing with a highly transparent writing system.

Submitted by Juliana Ferreira Blandino null (juliana.ferreiraae@gmail.com) on 2016-07-09T15:00:41Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertação Juliana Blandino 2016.pdf: 2008055 bytes, checksum: 4c46413394a65884ce7d41bafce68822 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Ana Paula Grisoto (grisotoana@reitoria.unesp.br) on 2016-07-12T14:09:52Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 blandino_jf_me_arafcl.pdf: 2008055 bytes, checksum: 4c46413394a65884ce7d41bafce68822 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-07-12T14:09:52Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 blandino_jf_me_arafcl.pdf: 2008055 bytes, checksum: 4c46413394a65884ce7d41bafce68822 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-06-30 / Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP) / As novas tecnologias de informação e comunicação vêm sendo consideradas ferramentas importantes para melhorar o processo de ensino-aprendizagem e a inovação das práticas pedagógicas. Os Objetos de Aprendizagem podem contribuir para tornar o processo educativo mais contextualizado, lúdico e interativo, características que podem ajudar na compreensão dos conteúdos estudados, contribuindo com o ensino-aprendizagem. Assim, esta pesquisa teve por objetivo investigar o uso de Objetos de Aprendizagem como mecanismo de apoio a alunos com dificuldade no processo de alfabetização no primeiro ano do Ensino Fundamental de uma escola pública estadual. A investigação buscou verificar como o uso do referido recurso tecnológico, acompanhado de uma proposta pedagógica, pode auxiliar os alunos a superarem as dificuldades de aprendizagem identificadas no processo de alfabetização. Assim, nesta pesquisa-ação, utilizamos os Objetos de Aprendizagem durante as aulas de informática de forma individual e diferenciada com um grupo de 7 alunos com dificuldades de aprendizagem, durante três meses. Os Objetos de Aprendizagem foram instalados em 4 Tablets, e utilizados coletivamente pelo grupo de alunos com a coordenação e supervisão da pesquisadora. A análise dos dados coletados durante o processo revelou que, embora o período de aplicação da proposta tenha sido de apenas três meses, todos os alunos apresentaram ganhos qualitativos no processo de alfabetização. Podemos destacar entre os resultados positivos, o aumento da motivação dos alunos na realização das atividades complementares; o desenvolvimento da consciência fonológica; o aumento da confiança dos alunos que gerou uma atitude positiva perante os desafios da aprendizagem; e, finalmente, o progresso dos alunos nas avaliações do nível de alfabetização realizado pela escola. A atenção individualizada da pesquisadora para com os alunos também foi outro fator significativo que contribuiu para os progressos observados. / The new information technology and communication have been considered important tools to improve the teaching-learning process and the innovation of educational practices. The learning objects may contribute to make the educational process more contextualized, playful and interactive, what can help to understand the content covered by these studies, and contribute as well for learning. Thus, this research aimed investigating the use of learning objects as a support system to students with disabilities in the literacy process in the first year of primary education at a public school. The investigation sought to verify how the use of the proposed technological resource, with an appropriate educational proposal, may assist the students to overcome the learning difficulties identified in the process of literacy. This way, through this research-action, the learning objects were used, during the computing classes, individually and in a differentiated way, with a seven-years-old group of children with educational disabilities, for three months. The learning objects were installed in 4 tablets and they were used collectively by the students monitored and coordinated by the researcher. The analysis of data collected during the process showed that, although the implementation period of the proposal had been only for three months, all the students achieved qualitative gains in the literacy process. Between the positive results, specific mention can be made on the students increasing motivation when doing complementary activities; phonological awareness development; the increasing confidence, what reflected positively on facing learning challenges; and finally, the progress of the students in the literacy level assessments provided by the school. The personal attention of the researcher to the students was also a significant element, which contributed to the progress noted. / FAPESP: 2014/13167-3

Läs- och skrivsvårigheter är inte enbart ett växande problem i skolan utan även ett samhällsproblem. Den ökande kravbilden på läsförmåga i samhället bidrar till betydelsen av att utarbeta verkningsbara läs- och skrivstrategier bland elever med läs- och skrivsvårigheter. Samtidigt visar forskning att allt fler lärare känner en oro i att undervisa i lässtrategier, en oro som i mångt och mycket grundar sig i okunskap. Eftersom utvecklingen av lässtrategier utgör ett bedömningsunderlag i nationella provet i svenska och dessutom betonas i läroplanen (Lgy11) är det ett aktuellt forskningsämne som både belyses nationellt som internationellt. Forskning visar att det råder en slags konsensus kring vad som elever med god läsförmåga och läsförståelse har jämfört med vad elever med läs- och skrivsvårigheter inte har. Till exempel saknar de sistnämnda eleverna kompetens att göra inferenser och förutsäga kommande information i det de läser. Däremot går meningarna ibland isär vilka läs- och skrivstrategier som kan ha effekt för läs- och skrivutveckling och det är inte sällan brist på kunskap när det gäller att tillämpa läs- och skrivstrategier i praktiken.

Researchers have conducted many studies to examine the academic, social and general self-concept of pupils of differing ages and in varied settings. Yet, not very much is known about the varied facets of self-concept of bilingual pupils and the monolingual who have specific literacy difficulties (SpLD). Furthermore, the influence of learning a second language on the self-concept or the motivation to learn a second language in the Arabic- English pupils in the Middle Eastern region has also not been addressed by any researchers. So, the main focus of this study was to examine the self-concept of bilingual (Arabic-English) and monolingual pupils who have specific literacy difficulties. The motivation to learn a foreign language and its impact on the pupils' English and general self-concept was also studied. This study used a mixed methodology design using a systematic survey followed by purposive case studies. Established measures were used to examine each facet of the self-concept moving from the literacy in both English and Arabic (reading, writing and spelling) to the maths self-concept and to a more general self-concept, academic self-concept and school self-concept. Furthermore, this study also examined the non-academic self-concept such as athletic self-concept and social self-concept among a group of bilingual (Arabic-English) and monolingual (Arabic) who have SpLD. The study was conducted in Oman in a bilingual private schools and monolingual state schools which included 99 pupils. A Foreign Language Learning Orientation Scale/ intrinsic – extrinsic motivation was also designed to measure the motivation to learning English as a second language. In phase two, this study examined the consistency between the pupils’ and Arabic and English teachers’ interview reports and the pupil's questionnaire for 6 bilingual pupils who had SpLD. This study compared 4 groups (monolingual SpLD, bilingual SpLD, monolingual typical literacy level and bilingual typical literacy level). The quantitative results showed differences between the four groups in terms of the self-concept. There were no differences in terms of the self-concept between the monolingual SpLD and bilingual SpLD in any facets of the self-concept. However, there were a significantly lower Arabic handwriting self concept, Arabic spelling self-concept and general school self-concept for monolingual SpLD pupils in comparison to their peers who had typical literacy level. Also bilingual pupils with SpLD showed significantly lower English reading self-concept, English spelling self-concept, and the general school self-concept than for the bilingual typical literacy pupils. The last comparison showed that there were significantly lower Arabic reading, Arabic handwriting, and Arabic spelling self-concept for the monolingual typical literacy levels in comparison to their bilingual typical literacy peers. In terms of intrinsic extrinsic motivation there were no significant differences shown between the SpLD bilingual and the bilingual typical literacy levels groups. According to the case study analysis there was a general inconsistency between the pupils’ interview and their questionnaire reports for their general, English and Arabic self-concept and the intrinsic and the extrinsic motivation for learning a foreign language. In many cases the pupils were negative about their literacy self-concept according to the questionnaire, but they perceived themselves more positively in the interview. In general, there was a tendency for both quantitative and qualitative results to indicate positive social self-concept for the bilingual and monolingual pupils who had SpLD and the 6 case studies. It was concluded that as research into self-concept of the bilingual (Arabic- English) is not well developed, more research is need in this area, especially in the Middle East using the same methods from this study. It is concluded that it is important for language assessors to consider assessing the literacy difficulties in two languages when the pupils are bilingual.