Submitted in part fulfilment of the requirements for the degree Masters in Educational Psychology At the: University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg January 2016 / South Africa is a multicultural and multilingual country. The majority of learners (90%) speak a mother tongue that is not English. The language of instruction is however English. English has become the dominant language in education, commerce and industry and therefore proficiency in the language is imperative. In order to help learners learn more efficiently, and to inform education policy making, an exploration of what language learning strategies learners from divergent mother tongue backgrounds employ, is beneficial. This study was conducted in a high school, in a township area of Gauteng, South Africa in order to investigate whether there is a relationship between the mother tongue of South African high school learners and English second language learning strategies employed by these learners. The sample consisted of 107 Grade 8-Grade 12 participants who were receiving instruction in English, with their mother tongue specified as one of the 9 African languages. Learners were asked to complete a 50 item questionnaire, as well as a demographical information form. The results showed that although there was no significant relationship between mother tongue and English second language learning strategies used by high school learners, other variables such as number of years of English language instruction and age were significant variables that influenced choice of English language learning strategy use. It was also found that metacognitive strategies were the most commonly used English language learning strategies. Research on the relationship between mother tongue and language learning strategy use is imperative given the significant number of learners that would benefit from this research and subsequent interventions implemented

Sweden's changing demographics, due to recent migrations in the last fifty years, have affected the Swedish educational system and Sweden's language policy. Funding for special education in Sweden regarding its minority populations is on the decline. Previous forced linguistic assimilation has occurred in Sweden among the Finnish population to the proven detriment of Finnish children. Today, Sweden faces similar value assessments regarding its immigrant language programs, bilingual education, and immigrant rights. The theoretical framework behind a "new" form of preschool education being implemented within Sweden will be explored. As the children in the Botkyrka sprakforskola undergo an immersion foreign language program, they are denied access to bilingual education. The sprakforskola's strategy, to assimilate the children into Swedish society through language training, is met with resistance among individual children, stemming from certain cultural groups, who actively determine their own language shift or language maintenance. Final recommendations in the conclusion stress the valuing of individual and cultural choice. / Graduation date: 2001

Alla barn har i förskolan rätt att utveckla sitt modersmål. I denna studie utgör fenomenet modersmålsstöd fallet, vilket undersökts utifrån: Syftet med studien är att undersöka hur två förskollärare, två modersmålslärare och två förskolechefer uppfattar modersmålsstöd. Vilket görs utifrån följande frågor: Vilken betydelse ges modersmålstöd för flerspråkiga barn, enligt respondenternas be-skrivning? Hur organiseras modersmålsstöd enligt respondenternas beskrivning? Fallstudien är av kvalitativ art och inspireras av fenomenografin. Valet av datainsamlingsmetod är intervjuer, som genomfördes med två förskollärare, två modersmålslärare och två förskolechefer som alla arbetar inom förskoleverksamheter där majoriteten av barnen är flerspråkiga. Materialet analyserades vilket resulterade i fem uppfattningar som presenteras som beskrivningskategorier. Uppfattningarna som framkom gällande modersmålstödets betydelse är: Ges stor betydelse och Ges underordnad betydelse. Uppfattningarna som framkom gällande modersmålsstödets organisering är: Integreras i förskolans ordinarie verksamhet, Styrs centralt och Med hjälp av föräldrarna. Resultatet visar att modersmålsstöd ges underordnad betydelse i förhållande till svenska språket. Respondenterna visar samtidigt på en medvetenhet gällande modersmålsstödets betydelse för flerspråkiga barns språkutveckling, identitetsutveckling samt tillhörighet både i förskolan och i hemmets kultur, samt att modersmålsstöd organiseras på olika sätt.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2003. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references. Available also from UMI Company.

Learning words have shown to be a very crucial part of learning a second language and the one most important factor to make pupils with Swedish as a second language succeed in school. To make sure that all pupils get the right conditions to learn from all subjects and their entire content a wide vocabulary is necessary. Even so it is found that there are shortcomings regarding this kind of teaching in Swedish schools. Through interviews and observations of two teachers that teach pupils with Swedish as a second language, and also with a short reading test for the pupils, the possible strategies that these teachers use for learning words have been studied. The result shows that the teachers are using several strategies and that they are actively working with transmitting these to the pupils, but there are some areas that need developing.

No abstract available. / Thesis (M.Ed.)-University of Natal, 1980.

The percentage of language and cultural minority students is increasing (Okagaki, 2006; U.S. Department of Education, 2010). This reality emphasizes the need for elementary school general education teachers to become knowledgeable about students’ backgrounds so that they can mold instruction to meet all students’ needs (Bennett, 2007; Spring, 2007; Whitcomb, 2003). There is, however, little research about elementary school general education teachers’ views and accommodations about heritage language maintenance (a.k.a. multicultural and multilingual inclusion) (Goldstein, 2003). The purpose of this study was to examine how teachers view heritage language learning and how teachers accommodate to students who have a heritage language background. A mixed methods study (n = 30) consisting of thirty surveys and ninety observations from general education teachers who taught in the 2010-2011 school year was used to examine elementary school general education teachers’ beliefs and accommodations about heritage language maintenance (HLM). Overall, the majority of teachers reported positive beliefs about HLM while exercising few accommodations in the classroom. Only teachers’ subject area of specialization, school corporation, teachers’ indication of HL strategies, and six accommodations were associated significantly with the positive beliefs and negative beliefs about HLM. The results from this study provide support for teachers’ input about accommodations and institutional support. The significant associations between area of specialization, six accommodations, and beliefs about HLM suggest mixed evidence and require further exploration for other intervening variables. Further investigation of findings indicates teachers’ actual practices and multicultural experiences cannot be predicted based on teachers’ expressed beliefs. Design issues like the instruments used, the sample size obtained, and the observation schedule implemented may affect the results. Longitudinal research is needed to explore other contextual factors that could impact the multi-conceptual relationship between beliefs and actual practice for further research. / Department of Educational Psychology

Detta arbete ska ge oss en insyn i hur samarbete och samspel mellan förskollärare och modersmålspedagoger sker i förskolan. / The purpose of the study is to examine pedagogue’s awareness of environment, interactions and working methods in the work of multilingual children. The study can give us knowledge about the work that is in the process of multilingual children. The study may also give us an idea of how cooperation takes place between preschool teachers and the native language teachers in the work of multilingual children. The study has given us a deeper knowledge of the interaction between native language educators, children and preschool teachers. The importance of the preschool teacher´s skills and awareness for the children´s language development and the cooperation between preschool teachers, native language teachers and children are also important to this study. Therefore it is important to see how the interaction contributes to multilingual children´s development in preschool. In this study we have also received native language teachers and preschool teacher´s perspective why the native language is important for bilingual children. The research method we chose for our study was the qualitative method. The qualitative method indicated how researchers can obtain the raw data. Four preschool teachers and three native language educators were interviewed (Denscombe, 2009). The result revealed that the cooperation between pedagogues, pedagogues working methods and its conditions played a role in how the two parties were working along with multilingual children. The result also presented that preschool teachers and native language teachers both strive to have a good cooperation with each other. In our study, we assumed Vygotsky's sociocultural theory which involves educators should use communication and collaboration to help bilingual children develop their language.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Toronto, 2004. / Adviser: Alister Cumming.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Toronto, 2004. / Adviser: Antoinette Gagne.