Tese de mestrado. Engenharia de Serviços e Gestão. Faculdade de Engenharia. Universidade do Porto. 2010

The expressive language tasks of the Test of Narrative Language (Gillam & Pearson, 2004) were administered to eleven deaf, native signers and fifteen English-speaking hearing children who were between the ages of six and ten years old. These tasks were administered to determine the appropriateness of this measure for use with special populations and bring to light new information about children's narrative development and the differences in the language modalities of these two groups. Also, the application of this information on future testing of deaf populations is examined. The eleven native signers came from a single residential school for the deaf, and all had deaf parents. The fifteen hearing children were recruited from a private school and through associates of the primary investigator. The tasks were administered according to the TNL manual's protocol and script, with the primary investigator speaking English for the hearing children and a native signer using American Sign Language for the deaf children. Their narratives in these tasks were coded according to the standards of the test and examined: factual story comprehension, story retell abilities (and inclusion of target terms), story generation from a picture sequence, and story generation from a single picture scene. This study found that though the hearing group outperformed the deaf group on each task's raw score, the specific subcategories of "Grammar" and "Story" from the picture sequence-based story generation task, and the "Characters" and "Vocabulary and Grammar" coding of the single picture-based generation task showed ASL users as having stronger narrative skills as a whole. Specific target items from the story retell also proved differentially problematic for the ASL group and should be altered in future utilization of the TNL with deaf children. In the future, the need for appropriate and representative testing of deaf children's narrative skills should take a higher priority, and greater understanding of the differences between ASL and English will be desired for both test creators and those testing deaf children. / text

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As set in the Indonesian context of changing policies regarding the language of instruction in a particular stream of public schools, known as the International Standard Schools (ISSs), the study reported in this thesis explored the experiences of Science and Mathematics teachers regarding the introduction, implementation, and reversal of the use of English as the medium of instruction (EMI). Through this study, I aimed to develop insights with regard to teachers' experiences of educational language policy change and reversal. A qualitative, narrative-based approach to the study was adopted. I sought to attend to the meanings that seven Science and Mathematics teachers attributed - through their narration with me - to their experiences of the language of instruction policy change and reversal. A broader context for their meaning-making narratives was gained from the narrativised experiences of one curriculum leader and one teacher trainer. The narrations took place in the participants' preferred language of Bahasa Indonesia with a mixture of some vernacular languages, and, having restoried their narrations into reader friendly texts in the original language(s), I then analysed them from holistic and categorical content perspectives. Next, as informed by this analysis and my reflexively-surfaced understandings of this context, I explored the influences that may have shaped the teachers' experiences. This study identified main patterns in the teacher experiences of change, namely: i) a willingness to embrace change - struggle - fulfilment - disappointment; ii) a willingness to embrace change - excitement - fulfilment - disappointment; and iii) a resistance to change- struggle - fulfilment - relief. There were both internal and external shaping influences on these patterns. Such internal influences include teachers': i) language confidence; ii) perceptions of EMI, and iii) stage of career. These internal influences may have shaped teachers' willingness either to make the most of their involvement in the programme or to simply be part of the programme without many expectations. Possible external shaping influences include: i) societal perceptions of EMI; ii) support from school and government; iii) opportunities to interact with other teachers; and iv) support from colleagues. These external influences seemed to have created an environment which either facilitated or hindered the teachers' performance as EMI teachers and their continuing development for and through the EMI programme. My study also identified three stages of experiences of reversal, i.e.: Stage One - turbulence, intense-emotions, and feelings of nostalgia; Stage Two - readjustments; and Stage Three - acceptance and adaptation. The teachers who responded negatively towards the reversal tended to experience all the three stages. Meanwile, those who were relieved by the reversal directly moved to Stage Three: acceptance and adaptation, without experiencing Stage One and Stage Two. My study has implications for how educational language policy change and reversal may be addressed in countries with a complex linguistic landscape, e.g. Indonesia. It also offers some suggestions for policy makers and teacher educators regarding teachers' experiences and needs when potentially reversing existing or introducing a new educational language policy.

The purpose of this thesis was to examine the preliminary validity of a newly developed dynamic assessment of narrative language in Mandarin Chinese. Two studies are reported in this thesis. Study 1 included 31 second grade participants and Study 2 included 43 first grade participants. All participants were enrolled in a Chinese immersion program in an elementary school in Utah. A dynamic assessment of narrative language was administered to each participant in Mandarin Chinese. A teacher rating was also included in Study 1. Results indicated that the dynamic assessment investigated in this thesis demonstrated some similar characteristics with other valid dynamic assessments of narrative language. As hypothesized, participants in Study 1 made gains from pretest to posttest after the teaching phase. Gain score from pretest to posttest and static teacher rating did not significantly correlate with modifiability rating. Modifiability rating and posttest score were significantly correlated in both studies. There is also no significant group difference between the participants in Study 1 and Study 2 on modifiability rating. These results are promising. However, more research will need to be conducted to further examine the dynamic assessment due to the limitations of the current studies.

The purpose of this study was to investigate preliminary psychometric normative data of an English dynamic assessment of narrative language for a group of diverse school-age students with and without language disorder. This study included 364 diverse students with and without language disorder ranging from kindergarten through 6th grade. Students were confirmed as having a language disorder if they had an existing active IEP for language, and scores below a certain cutoff point on a nonword repetition (NWR) task and the narrative language measure (NLM). English language proficiency was investigated, and students were classified as being a dual language learner (DLL) based on student, teacher, or parent report of diverse home language, and poor performance on an English narrative language assessment. Participants were administered a nonword repetition task (NWR), the Narrative Language Measure (NLM), and the Dynamic Assessment of Oral Narrative Discourse (the DYMOND). Data were analyzed within groups of typically developing students and students with a language disorder to identify statistically different mean modifiability and posttest scores given various demographic factors. Results of this study indicate that modifiability and posttest scores for typically developing students were not found to be statistically different given gender or school location, however, significant differences were noted given grade and level of English proficiency or DLL status. The group of students with a disorder demonstrated no statistically different mean modifiability scores given any demographic factor. Students with a language disorder demonstrated significantly different mean posttest scores given school location and English proficiency and DLL status. Results from this study are consistent with previous dynamic assessment research in demonstrating excellent classification accuracy in culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) populations. Students may benefit from a norm-referenced dynamic assessment of narrative language in order to provide less-biased standardized forms of assessment for CLD populations.

Narration, or storytelling, is an important aspect of language. Narrative skills have practical and social importance; for example, children who tell good stories receive attention and approval from their peers. When children accurately recount events surrounding an injury or dispute, vital information is passed to parents and teachers. Additionally, early childhood narrative skills are moderately correlated with reading comprehension in primary grades. Because narration is socially and academically valued, language interventionists often address it. The research literature on narrative intervention has most often included school-aged participants and those with language or learning difficulties. Only a small number of studies have investigated narrative intervention with preschoolers, and the supporting evidence is suggestive rather than conclusive. Outcomes frequently targeted include narrative story grammar (e.g., character, problem, action, consequence) and general language outcomes (e.g., length of story, mean length of communication unit, and total number of words). Results have been generally positive; however, the methodological quality of studies is poor. Therefore, few firm conclusions can be drawn regarding the efficacy of narrative interventions. Because of its potential and popularity, the effect of narrative intervention on a range of populations needs to be examined systematically through high quality research. This study evaluated the effects of a narrative intervention on story retelling and story generation using a multiple baseline design with five target participants. We delivered narrative intervention in a small group arrangement. Materials, activities, and instructor assistance were adjusted systematically within session to facilitate increasingly independent practice of story retells and personal story generations. Results suggest that narrative intervention improved participants' narrative retell and personal generation performance based on Index of Narrative Complexity (INC) scores. All five target participants made substantial gains in narrative retelling, demonstrated improved pre-intervention to post-intervention INC scores for personal generations, and these improvements maintained when assessed following a 2-week break. In addition, we documented growth in general language measures such as number of communication units, mean length of utterance, number of different words, and total number of words.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-06-02T20:23:16Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 6224.pdf: 7240273 bytes, checksum: ee96f70466bec151cf269cb96b52c9a3 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-07-30 / The stereoscopic application is not in itself a technical novelty, because, already in 1838, the first device that allowed the stereoscopic display is designed. In the early years of its invention new apparatus were constructed in an attempt to combine animation with stereoscopy. The 1910s and 1920s are marked by the beginning of the use of stereoscopy in the cinema and at the end of the 1930s in film animation. Since then, there have been periods of great productivity alternated by periods of relative calm. Today, we live in a time in which stereoscopy comes back to matter in the film scene, especially in animated films. This research builds a historical overview of stereoscopy, stereoscopic cinema and stereoscopic animated film. It also exposes the particularities of a stereoscopic audiovisual piece and discusses the specifics of the application of stereoscopy in animated films. Using as reference periods of stereoscopic film according to the author Ray Zone, this research aims to analyze the use of stereoscopy in animations from different historical periods. The selected works for the analysis are: Motor Rhythm (1952), Starchaser: The Legend of Orin (1985) and Brave (2012). In order to verify the implementation of stereoscopy and the role of parallax in the pieces chosen, an analysis methodology was developed so that we could be able to determine the application of stereoscopy within an audiovisual work while also addressing its narrative composition. / A aplicação estereoscópica não é em si uma novidade técnica, pois, já em 1838, o primeiro aparelho que possibilitou a visualização estereoscópica foi concebido. Já nos primeiros anos de sua invenção novos aparatos foram construídos na tentativa de combinar a animação com a estereoscopia. As décadas de 1910 e 1920 são marcadas pelo início do emprego da estereoscopia no cinema e no final da década de 1930 no cinema de animação. Desde então, houve períodos de grande produtividade alternados por períodos de relativa calmaria. Hoje, vivemos um momento no qual a estereoscopia volta a ter importância no cenário cinematográfico, especialmente em filmes animados. A pesquisa constrói um panorama histórico da estereoscopia, do cinema estereoscópico e do cinema de animação estereoscópico, também expõe as particularidades de uma obra audiovisual estereoscópica e discute as especificidades da aplicação da estereoscopia no cinema de animação. Utilizando como referência os períodos do cinema estereoscópico segundo o autor Ray Zone, esta pesquisa tem como objetivo analisar o emprego da estereoscopia em animações de diferentes períodos históricos. As obras escolhidas para análise foram: Motor Rhythm (1952), Starchaser: The Legend of Orin (1985) e Brave (2012). Com o intuito de verificar a aplicação da estereoscopia e o papel da paralaxe nas obras escolhidas, foi desenvolvida uma metodologia de análise, capaz de averiguar a aplicação da estereoscopia dentro de uma obra audiovisual, sem que sua composição narrativa fosse deixada de lado.

The Story Art and Tech merges storytelling and technology together to elucidate the animated filmmaking process for readers who are interested in animation. The author's path to animation director is traced from beginning to end starting with writing ideas and moving on to forming storyboards and animatics to completing animations for the screen. Two 3D short animated films and three storyboards with animatics are presented. A storyboard primarily shows the audience the thought process of storytelling; it previsualizes a script or an idea. It is then narrated into moving images called animatics; a preliminary version of a film. Animatics are important references for animators to animate shots and characters. Eventually the rest of the animation pipeline makes it into a final product: an animated film. As an artist who writes stories and animates them with 3D technology, presenting how a storyboard is made into an animated film is the most immediate way to inform the audience of this process with entertaining stories. In this paper, an extended discussion of the author's creative thought and development processes are presented with two distinct parts: storytelling and technology. / Master of Fine Arts / The Story Art and Tech shows how storyboards are made into movies. The author utilizes storytelling and media technology together such as 3D animation and game-engine rendering. It is the author's intention to make entertaining animated movies for the audience as a prospective animation director. When a director comes up with a movie script or an idea, the quickest way to visualize it is to sketch it out on a storyboard. This profession is called a 'story artist.' Story artists simplify characters and backgrounds on the boards to catch a glimpse of the final movie. To make the storyboards more detailed, story artists make them into 'animatics', which show more animated images and characters. Animatics are then taken by the 'animators' to animate everything in the final phase which is eventually produced as an animated film. In entirety, concept arts, storyboards, and animatics are presented together to show the audience the 'behind the scenes' of animated films. This helps them understand the thought process of the author and how she moved from story idea to completed animation. In this paper, the journey of a filmmaker in the animation field is extensively discussed.