Thesis (M.ED) --University of Limpopo, Turfloop Campus, 2008 / The major problem dealt with in this study is the lack of or inadequate implementation of multilingualism in schools, especially in the FET band schools of Polokwane Area. The interpretation of the concept of multilingualism, in the Language Policy, is rather selfcontradictory and seems to be the root cause of the problem. The fact that two languages are prescribed as a requirement for exit at Grade 12, does not effectively and practically address the issue of multilingualism given the South African context of eleven official languages. The fact that each learner is free to receive education in the language of his/her choice remains shallow and not prone to implementation. The chief Language of Learning and Teaching in South Africa remains English and, to a lesser extent, Afrikaans. This is largely so because of reasons that have been advanced and which far much outweighs the belief that African languages can be developed to the same level as English and Afrikaans. Much as Afrikaans is not international, African languages would be equally used to access local knowledge and education, which could later be translated into English for international consumption. The study attempts to make proposals to address the implementation of multilingualism in schools so that all South African languages could be equitably and functionally represented in the country’s language policy. It is hoped that the quality of education could be enhanced by the learning and teaching in more than two languages to afford a wide range of conceptualisation, interpretation, clarity and understanding in learners who have to offer a variety of learning areas largely in English.

South Africa (SA) is home to 11 official named languages; its Language in Education Policy (LIEP) identifies multilingualism as one of the defining characteristics of its citizenry (DOE, 1997). Moreover, English is the official Language of Learning and Teaching (LOLT) in most ex-Model C schools nationwide. It is the language that is reported to be valued by the middleclass, people who are known for placing a high premium on education (Soudien, 2004; Alexander, 2005). The aim of this ethnographic Language Socialisation study is to explore the language socialisation experiences of a Grade R child in a Black middle-class multilingual family residing in a Cape Town suburb. The study is framed by the question: What are the language socialisation experiences of a child from a Black middle-class multilingual family? It uses a socio-cultural approach, drawing from linguistic anthropology, applied linguistics and sociolinguistics to critically analyse the language ideologies, language practices and linguistic repertoires evident in both the home and school domains across which the young child traverses. Concepts such as multilingualism, Family Language Policy and ‘mother tongue’ identity are reviewed and used to gain insight into the lived language experiences of the Grade R child. The concepts of assimilation (Soudien, 2004) and anglonormativity (Christie & McKinney, 2017) are reflected on as markers of school language practices and ideologies. Findings reveal that the Grade R child is an emergent multilingual who participates meaningfully in multilingual conversations with her family but only produces English. Despite the evident heteroglossia (Bhaktin, 1991) of the family’s language practices through translanguaging (Garcia, 2009; Creese and Blackledge, 2010) and drawing from the range of resources in their linguistic repertoires (Busch, 2012), the parents continue to use their Tswana and Xhosa ethnicity as markers of their language identities. The parents want their children to speak their heritage languages for identity reasons. They also want them to speak English to ‘fit in’ with their peers and to access learning. They see the teaching of Tswana and Xhosa as their sole responsibility thereby absolving the school. Their view enables the schools’ status quo of anglonormativity to go unchallenged. The child, thus, experiences heritage languages as identity markers and languages reserved for home, and English as a valuable language resource that gives access to learning. The notion of a single language identity remains complex for a child who is expected to be multilingual at home but monolingual at school.

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This mini-thesis profiles some aspects realted to the accessibility of printed news to first language speakers of Xhosa. The major aim of this thesis is to investigate whether speakers of Xhosa do have access to printed news in English, which is not in their first language. Therefore, this thesis investigates whether African langusge speakers of school leaving age understand hwat they read in English newspapers.

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

The general aim of this longitudinal study was to look at literacy acquisition of multilingual good and poor spellers (hereafter GS and PS) in German and French with a special emphasis on spelling. For this purpose GS and PS were selected in grade 2 in German and followed up to grade 4. The focus was on this period as in Luxembourg literacy is acquired through German from the first grade and written French from grade 3 on. The interval between grades 2 and 4 thus represents a critical period for written second language acquisition. The native language of the children, Germanic (e.g. Luxembourgish) or Romanophone (e.g. Portuguese), adds another linguistic characteristic. Research focused at the development of biliteracy but some multilingual aspects were analyzed. Abstract The first two studies differentiate between top-level processes related to semantics (e.g. vocabulary) and bottom level processes implied in literacy (e.g. spelling). The first two studies established that the native language has an impact on reading comprehension as Germanic speaking children have an advantage on German tasks and Romanophone children an advantage on French tasks. By contrast, performances on bottom-level processes such as spelling and reading are not influenced by the native language. Structural equation models revealed that German top-level processes did not influence French top-level processes. Concerning bottom-level processes however, there was an influence from one academic year on the following as well as from German on French. Abstract The last three studies focused on differences between biliterate GS and PS in German and in French. The third study examined the reading and spelling strategies (e.g. the application of orthographic rules) that both groups of children acquired in German and in French. Although GS outperformed PS, their overall reading and spelling performance patterns were different in German than in French. GS applied orthographic rules more systematically than PS in German. In French, both groups were strongly affected by frequency effects. The word frequency effect appeared clearly in French, showing that after one year of instruction children strongly rely on the orthographic lexicon for spelling and do not apply orthographic rules systematically. Study 4 establishes the link between the recognition and production of orthographic features. PS's performance is similar to GS's on orthographic judgments and for spelling they produce the same type of errors, showing GS and PS are sensitive to the underlying regularities of the orthography. However, PS produced more errors overall compared to GS. It seems that GS passed the level of automatic use of the most prominent response, whereas PS use the dominant responses as default spelling. In the last study, the emphasis was on GS and PS in French after two years of instruction in grade 4. GS and PS were re-classified to new groups according to their spelling performance in French. GS in French used more French specific phoneme-to-grapheme correspondences in a nonword dictation than PS. PS in French used more German phoneme-to-grapheme correspondences in the French and German nonword dictation. It seems that PS in French rely more on the phoneme-grapheme correspondences of the first acquired and thus dominant language (German). In the general discussion, the previously presented results are summarized and a theoretical model of bilingual spelling is proposed.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--UCLA, 2009. / Vita. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 312-347).

The interactions among languages in the Qinghai Area of China involved the historical migration of those who came into the area at some point in time and settled in. In addition, political driving forces dictated various migratory movements of different ethnic groups to settle into the area throughout history. The Qinghai Area, known as Amdo in the Tibetan cultural world, constitutes a geographical depression in the northeastern end of the Tibetan plateau which is ideal for grazing and farming. The climate of the region is largely monitored by the mega size salt water lake known as the Qinghai Lake. The largest number of mixed cultural areal contact occurs around this lake particularly towards the east. The geographical feature of the area has proved itself as a strategic hub for military expansion at different time in history creating dynamics of interaction in every juncture. As a result, different levels of multilingual influences are observed among of the regional languages of each language groups. Among the diversified languages flourished in the area, the most prominent language groups are the Sinitic, Bodic and Mongolic languages. Through studies of corpuses, literature and contributions of human participants, the present condition of multilingual mixing among Chinese, Tibetan and Mongolian were explored. Within the various phenomena of language mixing and language changes, it is notable that these languages have lost parts of their original features while having gained foreign features as a result of language contacts among these ethnic groups. / published_or_final_version / Linguistics / Master / Master of Arts

The present study explores cross linguistic influence (CLI) on L3 Korean acquisition in Hong Kong higher education through analyzing learner’s particle errors in composition, particularly identifying the specific source of CLI –L1 (Cantonese/Chinese) or/and L2(English) in comparative linguistic perspective. A hybrid research approach is designed. Respondent’s particle errors in text assignment data and survey data are analyzed in descriptive and statistical approach correspondingly. In this thesis, majorities of findings regarding EA of particles are consistent with literature and there are also evidences of CLI on morphology stated in the literature such as inter-language grammars in word-order and semantic equivalence in different syntactic categories between source and target languages have been found in our data. It is argued positive transfer of morphology is possible if the semantic and syntactic function of morphemes between source languages and target language are identical or very similar and concluded that analysis of morpho-syntax would be crucial to identify CLI on Korean particle acquisition. Some of the important findings about the negative relationship between proficiency in source languages and CLI on Korean particle acquisition have been pinpointed. Significantly, the different roles of proficiency in L1 Chinese and L2 English are assumed as factors indicating learner’s error pattern and particle error rates respectively. The final part of the thesis is to apply theory into pedagogy. It is hoped that a tailor-made pedagogy, teaching L3 Korean in Hong Kong higher education where L2 English is teaching medium, will be achieved with the better understandings of learner’ particle errors and their causes. Certain issues of causes of particle errors except CLI are also outlined for further research in this area. / published_or_final_version / Linguistics / Master / Master of Arts

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