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No. of bitstreams: 1 pezarini_io_me_mar.pdf: 1107147 bytes, checksum: 0311407025ded97a7e4daafb560d7a92 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017-04-24 / Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP) / Objetivos: descrever o desempenho ortográfico de crianças quanto ao registro de fonemas oclusivos do PB; verificar se a ausência do acento fonológico influencia a ocorrência de possíveis erros na ortografia desses fonemas; classificar o padrão de distribuição desses possíveis erros; classificar a distribuição dos possíveis erros em traços de ponto ou vozeamento; e verificar qual a direção dos traços envolvidos nesses possíveis erros. Métodos: foram analisados 21.049 registros ortográficos de fonemas oclusivos extraídos de 1.064 produções textuais de 76 crianças da 1ª série do Ensino Fundamental em duas escolas públicas do interior paulista. Relativos ao primeiro objetivo: os dados foram divididos em acertos e erros; relativos ao segundo objetivo, os erros foram classificados conforme ocorressem em sílabas acentuadas – tônicas e monossílabos tônicos – e não-acentuadas – pretônicas, postônicas e monossílabos átonos; relativos ao terceiro objetivo, os erros foram classificados, em um primeiro momento, em substituições e omissões, as substituições, por sua vez, foram subclassificados em ortográficas não fonológicas, ortográficas fonológicas e híbridas. As ortográficas fonológicas foram subdivididas, ainda, conforme envolvessem fonemas dentro e fora da classe das oclusivas; relativos ao quarto objetivo, as substituições fonológicas dentro da classe foram classificadas conforme envolvessem traços de ponto ou de vozeamento; e, finalmente, relativo ao quinto objetivo, os traços foram analisados de acordo com a direção da substituição envolvendo tanto ponto quanto vozeamento. Resultados: observou-se, quanto ao primeiro objetivo, maior número de acertos (20.318) quando comparado ao número de erros (729), resultado que sugere significativa estabilidade das crianças (já no primeiro ano de alfabetização) no registro de grafemas que correspondem a fonemas oclusivos; quanto ao segundo objetivo, maior concentração dos erros no interior das sílabas não-acentuadas (440) quando comparado àqueles em sílabas acentuadas (289), que se dá pelo fato de as sílabas não-acentuadas apresentarem características acústicas menos favoráveis à percepção auditiva do escrevente; quanto ao terceiro objetivo, observou-se distribuição dos erros em substituições (523) e omissões (206); nas substituições foram observados erros ortográficos fonológicos (298), híbridos (132) e ortográficos não-fonológicos (93). Extraídas as omissões, que se explicam por variação linguística do tipo *correno, para “correndo”, grande parte das substituições justifica-se pelo fenômeno da transparência ortográfica; ainda quanto ao terceiro objetivo, em relação à distribuição dos erros ortográficos fonológicos, maior ocorrência deles envolvendo fonemas da própria classe das oclusivas (258) quando comparado aos fonemas fora dessa classe (40), que se justifica pelo fato de as crianças já se mostrarem capazes de perceber características fonético-fonológicos que tornam possível a distinção entre fonemas de diferentes classes; quanto ao quarto objetivo, observou-se maior número de erros fonológicos DC que envolveram vozeamento (222) quando comparado aos erros envolvendo ponto (47), resultado que sugere que a aquisição das oclusivas na escrita infantil segue, de certa forma, a trajetória de sua aquisição na fala; por fim, quanto ao quinto objetivo, observou-se, em relação aos erros de ponto, que a maioria envolvia o traço coronal, resultado que vai contramão da literatura, uma vez que se esperava maior instabilidade no traço dorsal; por fim, ainda quanto ao quinto objetivo, em relação aos erros de vozeamento, apesar da diferença numérica, não houve diferença estatística entre as direções das substituições. Conclusão: A análise do desempenho ortográfico global permite entender, quanto à especificidade dos erros, que, além de características fonético-fonológicas relacionadas à classe das oclusivas, a escrita inicial sofre influência de outros fatores, como a transparência/opacidade da escrita desses fonemas e a variação linguística. / Objectives: describe the orthographic performance of children regarding the recording of Brazilian Portuguese occlusive phonemes; verify if the absence of the phonological accent influences the occurrence of possible errors in the orthography of these phonemes; classify the distribution pattern of these possible errors; classify the distribution of possible errors in traits of point or voicing; and check the direction of the traits involved in these possible errors. Methods: 21,049 orthographic records of occlusive phonemes extracted from 1,064 textual productions of 76 children from the first grade of Elementary School were analyzed in two public schools in the interior of São Paulo State. Regarding the first objective: the data were divided into hits and errors; for the second objective, the errors were classified as accentuated syllables - tonics and tonic monosyllables - and unstressed – pre tonic, post tonic and unstressed monosyllables; for the third objective, the errors were initially classified in substitutions and omissions; the substitutions were sub-classified in non-phonological orthographic, phonological orthographic and hybrid. The phonological orthographic was further subdivided as they involved phonemes within and outside the class of occlusives; concerning the fourth objective, phonological substitutions within the class were classified as involving traits of point or voicing; and finally, regarding the fifth objective, the traits were analyzed according to the direction of the substitution involving both point and voicing. Results: a higher number of correct answers (20,318) was observed when compared to the number of errors (729), which suggests a significant stability of children (earlier in the first year of literacy) in the registry of graphemes corresponding to occlusive phonemes; as for the second objective, there was a greater concentration of errors within the unaccented syllables (440) when compared to those in accented syllables (289), which is due to the fact that unaccented syllables present acoustic characteristics less favorable to the auditory perception of the scribe; for the third objective, we observed a distribution of errors in substitutions (523) and omissions (206); in the substitutions, orthographic phonological (298), hybrids (132) and non-phonological orthographic (93) errors were observed. Extracting the omissions which are explained by linguistic variation like “correno” for "correndo" , most of the substitutions are justified by the phenomenon of orthographic transparency; still on the third objective, regarding the distribution of phonological orthographic errors, there was a higher occurrence involving the occlusive phonemes (258) when compared to phonemes outside this class (40), which is justified by the fact that the children already show up able to perceive phonetic-phonological characteristics that make possible the distinction between phonemes of different classes; as to the fourth objective, a greater number of phonological errors within the class involving voicing (222) was observed when compared to errors involving point (47), a result that suggests that the acquisition of occlusives in children's writing follows, to a certain extent, the trajectory of their acquisition in speech; finally, regarding the fifth objective, in relation to the point errors, it was observed that the majority involved the coronal trait, a result that goes against the literature, since greater instability was expected in the dorsal trait; still regarding the fifth objective, in relation to voicing errors, there was no statistical difference between the directions of the substitutions despite the numerical difference. Conclusion: The analysis of the global orthographic performance, regarding the specificity of the errors, allows us to understand that in addition to phonetic-phonological characteristics related to the class of occlusives, the initial writing is influenced by other factors, such as the transparency/opacity of the writing of these phonemes and the linguistic variation. / FAPESP: 2015/03208-7

CoordenaÃÃo de AperfeiÃoamento de Pessoal de NÃvel Superior / Este trabalho apresenta o resultado de uma pesquisa sobre a eficÃcia do uso de uma estratÃgia tradicional e uma estratÃgia reflexiva no processo de aprendizagem de ortografia desenvolvidas em oitavo ano do Ensino Fundamental II, de escola pÃblica estadual localizada, no municÃpio de Fortaleza. Quando convidados a usarem a lÃngua materna escrita na variaÃÃo padrÃo, os alunos apresentam dificuldades de compreensÃo das normas ortogrÃficas. Em consequÃncia disto foram propostas duas intervenÃÃes: uma que privilegia a estratÃgia sistemÃtica tradicional, o treino ortogrÃfico, e outra que privilegia a reflexÃo e explicitaÃÃo do pensamento, intitulada de sequÃncia didÃtica. Sendo assim, a proposta deste trabalho à investigar, por comparaÃÃo, os processos de apropriaÃÃo das convenÃÃes escritas. As atividades propostas tiveram como foco as inadequaÃÃes ortogrÃficas motivadas pela correspondÃncia irregular dos grafemas âsâ, âxâ e âzâ na representaÃÃo do fonema /z/. Essas inadequaÃÃes, para este estudo, sÃo consideradas construtivas e importantes para o processo de aprendizagem, pois a partir delas o presente estudo, seguindo procedimentos qualitativos e quantitativos, toma como objetivos centrais da pesquisa: a) descrever e analisar as inadequaÃÃes motivadas pela correspondÃncia irregular que se verificam entre as letras e os sons do sistema ortogrÃfico; b) avaliar os efeitos de uma atividade sistemÃtica e de atividades reflexivas sobre a performance ortogrÃficas dos alunos. Com carÃter descritivo e base interpretativa, esta pesquisa delineia-se no modelo experimental justificado pela utilizaÃÃo de dois grupos: um grupo controle e um grupo experimental. Inicialmente foi aplicado um ditado diagnÃstico inicial para a observaÃÃo da quantidade de ocorrÃncia da inadequaÃÃo referida, em seguida foram aplicados um treino ortogrÃfico com o gruo controle e atividades reflexivas para o grupo experimental, finalmente foi aplicado outro ditado diagnÃstico, com as mesmas palavras, em que se verificou o desenvolvimento da escrita apÃs as estratÃgias referidas. Os resultados das duas estratÃgias revelam uma influÃncia positiva das duas abordagens para a ampliaÃÃo dos conhecimentos ortogrÃficos dos alunos, embora as atividades reflexivas tenham se mostrado mais eficazes. / This work shows the results of a research on the efficacy of the use of a traditional strategy and a reflective strategy concerning the orthographic learning process. The research was conducted in a public school in Fortaleza with eighth grade students, specifically, who were invited to write using their native language in a formal register but showed difficulty in understanding the ortographic rules. Because of this result, two intervention acts were proposed: orthographic training, which is a traditional systematic strategy; and didact sequence, which draws attention to reflection and clarification of thought. By means of comparison, we aim to examine the processes of appropriation of writing conventions. The proposed activities focused on inadequate spellings motivated by irregularities on the correspondence between graphemes âsâ, âxâ, âzâ and the phoneme /z/. In our research, these inadequacies are constructive and important to the learning process once they helped us establish our main goals, following qualitative and quantitative procedures. In this sense, our work aims to: a) describe and analyse inadequacies motivated by irregularities on the correspondence between letters and sounds from the orthographic system; b) evaluate the effects of systematic activities and reflective ones concerning the spelling performance of those eighth grade students. Our investigation is descriptive, has an interpretative basis and is delineated by the experimental model, which justifies the division of two groups: a control group and an experimental group. Initially, a dictation activity was done as an initial diagnosis allowing us to observe the quantity of those inadequacies previously mentioned. Then, the control group did an orthographic training activity while the experimental group did reflective activities. Finally, another diagnostic dictation activity with the same words was applied, enabling us to verify the writing development after the referred strategies have been applied. The results of both strategies have shown a positive influence of both approaches, meaning that studentsâ knowledge about spelling has been increased, although reflective activities have been shown to be more effective.

Esta tese trata da transposição ortográfica de elementos morfossintáticos do árabe padrão moderno (APM) para o português brasileiro (PB) e constitui uma continua-ção de nossa dissertação de mestrado (Sano, 2011). Nesse trabalho anterior, trata-mos da transposição ortográfica de consoantes no mesmo sentido (APM PB) e desenvolvemos um sistema de romanização com vistas à transcrição e à translitera-ção do APM, ou seja, uma romanização que permitisse recuperar tanto a fala (os fo-nemas) quanto a escrita (os grafemas) da língua de partida. Nesta etapa atual, utili-zamos esse sistema de romanização para analisarmos dois corpora (a gramática de Cowan e o resumo da referida dissertação), com o intuito de identificar os pontos a serem abordados por um sistema de romanização que trabalhe além do nível da pa-lavra. Após esse levantamento, atualizamos o sistema de romanização anterior-mente desenvolvido, agora com o escopo estendido para o nível frasal, e reescreve-mos ambos os corpora aplicando as modificações propostas. / This dissertation deals with the orthographic transposition of morphosintactical elements from Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) into Brazilian Portuguese (BP), being a continuation of our masters thesis (Sano, 2011). In that previous work, we dealt with the orthographic transposition of consonants in the same pair of languages (MSA BP) and developed a romanization system meant to allow for the transcri-ption and transliteration of MSA, i.e., a romanization suitable for recovering both the original speech (the phonemes) and the original writing (the graphemes) of the star-ting language. In the current stage, we have used that system to analyse two corpora (Cowans grammar and our thesis abstract), in order to identify topics to be addres-sed by a romanization system inteded to be used beyond word level. After that, the now extended romanization system was used to rewrite both corpora, applying the proposed modifications encompassing the sentence level.

Orientador: Selma de Cassia Martinelli / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Faculdade de Educação / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-05T12:24:34Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Caliatto_SusanaGakyia_M.pdf: 494895 bytes, checksum: 05ffe3e93bb8f879fdca69981ad093da (MD5) Previous issue date: 2005 / Resumo: O objetivo deste trabalho foi o de analisar a ortografia, de jovens e adultos que retornam a escola para completar a alfabetização, por não ter realizado os estudos na idade habitual. Os participantes da pesquisa foram alunos da Educação de Jovens e Adultos (EJA) da rede municipal da cidade de Amparo/SP. A amostra foi composta por 57 participantes, no primeiro ciclo do Ensino Fundamental, sendo que 27 (47,37%) cursavam a terceira série e 30 (52,63%) cursavam a quarta série. A coleta de dados foi realizada em três diferentes situações; um Ditado, o Reconhecimento de palavras e a Reescrita. O ditado utilizado foi o texto do Instrumento de Avaliação das Dificuldades de Aprendizagem na Escrita (ADAPE), padronizado para esse fim. O reconhecimento de palavras foi realizado a partir de um instrumento de múltipla escolha e a reescrita foi feita baseando-se numa lenda conhecida do folclore nacional. A análise dos resultados foi possível a partir de uma categorização dos erros em cada instrumento e da análise comparativa dos mesmos. Os resultados indicaram que as principais dificuldades se relacionam ao apoio na oralidade, mais especificamente quando se trata de palavras que empregam sílabas compostas, dígrafos e letras que representam vários sons. Na escrita de frases e textos deve-se destacar a dificuldade de segmentá-las, seja no ditado ou na escrita espontânea. O fato de que os erros mais freqüentes se mantiveram iguais nas três atividades de escritas propostas ofereceram maior convicção das reais dificuldades do grupo de participantes e acredita-se que os instrumentos utilizados em conjunto são uma alternativa confiável para se obter informações mais precisas sobre as dificuldades dos alunos, bem como podem ser utilizados como recursos didáticos na aprendizagem da escrita, desde que devidamente explorados com tal finalidade / Abstract: The objective of this study was to analyze the spelling in the young¿s and adult¿s writings who did not finish primary school at the proper age and after a time away from school decide to complete their studies in order to get their literacy. The participants of this research were students from ¿Education for Young and Adults¿ from public schools in the city of Amparo ¿ São Paulo ¿ Brazil. The sample consisted of 57 participants attending primary school, being 27 (47,37%) from the third grade and 30 (52,63%) from the fourth grade. The data were collected from three different situations ¿dictation, the word recognition and rewriting. The dictation used was the test of evaluation instrument of learning difficulties in writing down (ADAPE), which was patterned for this purpose. The word recognition was opened from an instrument of multiple choice and the rewriting followed a model based on a known legend of the Brazilian folklore. The analysis of the results was possible from a categorization of mistakes in each instrument as well as comparing such mistakes. The results showed that the main difficulties were related to the support on speech, particularly concerning the use of composed syllable words, digraphs and letters that represent several sounds. The difficulty of word separation either in dictation or in free writing must be pointed out. The fact that the most frequent mistakes were the same in the three done writing activities suggested strong conviction of the real difficulties of the group of participants. Thus being used together, one believes that the instruments are a reliable alternative to obtain more accurate information on the students¿ difficulties as well as being used as educational resources in the writing learning as long as they are exploited with such purposes / Mestrado / Psicologia, Desenvolvimento Humano e Educação / Mestre em Educação

Nesta dissertação tomamos por objeto de estudo a romanização, em português, de palavras árabes (e·g, termos, topônimos e antropônimos). Estudamos por que alguns nomes são grafados de maneiras diferentes em um ou outro jornal, por exemplo, analisamos esquemas existentes de romanização e propomos um sistema que seja não apenas conciso e regular, mas também abrangente e minucioso, podendo ser usado tanto por leigos quanto por acadêmicos. Os seis capítulos encontram-se divididos em duas partes. Na primeira parte, abordamos a relação entre transposição ortográfica (i·e, transcrição, transliteração romanização e latinização) e tradução; apresentamos a língua árabe e sua escrita; ressaltamos elementos pertinentes da ortografia do português brasileiro. Na segunda parte, cotejamos oito esquemas de romanização árabeportuguês, apontando suas (des)semelhanças; apresentamos nosso sistema de transposição ortográfica, em seus quatro módulos (leigo simplificado, leigo comum, acadêmico amplo e acadêmico estrito), incluindo exemplos de aplicação em nomes, expressões e um breve texto; concluímos antecipando os desdobramentos da proposta. / This master\'s thesis presents our research concerning the romanization of Arabic words (e·g, technical terms, toponyms and anthroponyms) into Portuguese. We have first studied why the way some nouns and proper names are written varies from source to source, then analysed some of the existing romanization schemes and, finally, proposed a system both concise and regular as well as comprehensive and detailed, one which is suitable for laymen and scholars alike. there are six chapters, distributed in two parts. In the first part, we see four orthographic transposition methods (transcription, transliteration, romanization and latinization) and how they relate to translation; the Arabic language and its writing script; and relevant aspects of the Brazilian Portuguese orthography. In the second part, we compare eight ArabicPortuguese romanization schemes, highlighting their (dis)similarities; introduce all four modules (laymans simplified, laymans common, scholars broad and scholars narrow) of our orthographic transposition system, including samples comprising names, expressions and a small text; and finish off with an assessment on how said proposal may unfold.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-08-20T13:48:23Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Daiani_Jesus_Garcia_Dissertacao.pdf: 1604592 bytes, checksum: 257446b63a62b00955448dcdf428ba3f (MD5) Previous issue date: 2010-07-12 / This paper aims at describing and analyzing orthographic mistakes committed in initial stages of writing, mainly the ones influenced by orality. It is based on data collected from texts which were spontaneously produced by children who belong to three distinct sociolinguistic groups and attend different schools: an urban public one, a rural public one and a private one in Pelotas, RS. The orthographic mistakes were classified according to three categories: mistakes resulting from the interference of categorical phonological rules; mistakes resulting from the interference of gradual variable phonological rules; and mistakes resulting from the interference of discontinued variable phonological rules (according to BORTONIRICARDO, 2005). The study also aims at verifying the influence of extralinguistic categories such as type of school, grade, and sex. Findings agree with the idea that orthographic deviations committed by children can reveal some aspects of their linguistic knowledge, mainly the ones related to the phonology of the language. Mistakes resulting from the interference of gradual variable rules were the most frequent in all three schools under investigation; however, in most cases, the incidence of these mistakes gradually decreased as the children advanced to the next grades. Mistakes resulting from the interference of discontinued variable rules occurred only in the texts written by public school children, mainly the ones attending the one located in a rural area. Mistakes resulting from the interference of categorical rules, whose main data involve hiposegmentation, can mainly be found in the rural school. This study shows that Bortoni-Ricardo s proposal for the categorization of oral mistakes is adequate to classify the data under analysis / Este trabalho, com o objetivo de descrever e analisar os erros ortográficos na escrita inicial, especialmente aqueles motivados pela influência da oralidade, desenvolve-se a partir da análise de dados extraídos de textos produzidos espontaneamente por crianças pertencentes a três grupos sociolinguísticos distintos, que frequentam diferentes escolas da cidade de Pelotas/RS: duas públicas, uma de zona urbana e outra de zona rural, e uma particular. Os erros ortográficos foram classificados em três categorias: erros decorrentes da interferência de regras fonológicas categóricas; erros decorrentes da interferência de regras fonológicas variáveis graduais; e erros decorrentes da interferência de regras fonológicas variáveis descontínuas (cf. BORTONI-RICARDO, 2005). É também objetivo do estudo verificar a influência de categorias extralinguísticas tais como tipo de escola, série e sexo. Os resultados obtidos corroboram a ideia de que os desvios ortográficos cometidos pelas crianças podem revelar aspectos de seu conhecimento linguístico, sobretudo aqueles referentes à fonologia da língua. Verificamos que os erros decorrentes da interferência de regras variáveis graduais foram os que ocorreram com mais frequência nas três escolas pesquisadas, entretanto, na maioria dos casos, a incidência desses erros foi diminuindo com o avanço das séries. Em relação aos erros decorrentes da interferência de regras variáveis descontínuas, pudemos constatar que ocorreram apenas nos textos dos alunos das escolas públicas, principalmente na de zona rural. Quanto aos erros decorrentes da interferência das regras categóricas, cujo dado principal envolve casos de hipossegmentação, observamos que têm maior incidência em dados da zona rural. Em nosso estudo, verificamos que a proposta de Bortoni-Ricardo para a categorização de erros de oralidade mostrou-se adequada para a classificação dos dados analisados

Students diagnosed with specific learning disabilities struggle with spelling accuracy, but they do so for different reasons. For instance, students with dysgraphia, dyslexia, and oral-written language learning disability (OWL-LD) have distinct areas of weakness in cognitive processing and unique difficulties with the linguistic features necessary for accurate spelling (Silliman & Berninger, 2011). This project considered the spelling errors made by such students to determine if their unique learning profiles lead to distinct misspelling patterns. Academic summaries handwritten by 33 students diagnosed with dysgraphia (n=13), dyslexia (n=15), and OWL-LD (n=5) were analyzed for type/complexity and number of spelling errors. Additionally, the differences in error frequency and complexity were analyzed based on whether academic material had been listened to or read. Misspellings were extracted from the students' essays and evaluated using an unconstrained linguistic scoring system (POMAS). Then, the complexity/severity of the misspelling was computed using a complexity metric (POMplexity). Statistical results revealed that children within the diagnostic categories of dysgraphia, dyslexia, and OWL-LD appear to produce errors that are similar in complexity and frequency. Hence, students with specific learning disabilities do not appear to make patterns and numbers of errors specific to their diagnosis. Additionally, statistical results indicated that all students produced similar numbers of errors in both the reading and listening conditions, indicating that the mode of presentation did not affect spelling accuracy. When spelling errors were analyzed qualitatively, some differences across diagnostic categories and variability within groups was noted. Students with dysgraphia produced misspellings involving a phoneme addition or omission. Phonological and orthographic errors typical of younger children were characteristic of misspellings produced by students with dyslexia. Individuals with OWL-LD tended to omit essential vowels and were more likely to misspell the same word in multiple different ways. Overall, these results indicate that the subcategories of dysgraphia, dyslexia, and OWL-LD represent of gradients of impairment within the overarching category of specific learning disabilities. However, even within those subcategories, there is a wide degree of variability. Diagnostic categories, then, may suggest areas of linguistic weakness, but subcategories alone cannot be used for determining the nature of spelling intervention.

M.Ed. / This case study focuses on the pedagogy of spelling and reading in a grade two class at an independent school. It has set out to investigate and understand the roles of the teacher and learner at the initial phases of this school activity. A pilot study, conducted through observation in the class that was used for the case study, indicated not only the possibility of there being roles for the teacher and learner, but also that definite problems arise at this stage of reading instruction. The case study continued from the pilot investigation and sought to understand the pedagogy of reading with special reference to the role of spelling in this. While reading and spelling are the focus of the study at hand, two further issues formed part of the investigation: the role of Piagetian development served as a framework in which the pedagogy of initial spelling and reading was examined; and, the popular South African perception, that independent schools offer a better education to children than other schools, was challenged. An essential part of this case study is the literature review. This review investigates a theory of reading, Piagetian theory of cognitive development, theories of language, semiotic theory and various issues surrounding spelling. Suggested within the review are a more comprehensive model of language and a more adequate model of semiotics. These models, specifically intended to be of use to teachers, form part of the conceptual framework and eventually of the suggested model of reading that is proposed on the basis of the research. The literature review indicates that reading is a complex activity of which spelling is only a small part. The traditional inclusion of phonemic awareness in the pedagogy of initial reading is questioned throughout the conceptual framework and research, thus leading to the arguments for a revised model of language. The cognitive aspects of reading are explored within the theory of cognitive development advanced by Jean Piaget, because of its common application in South African schools. The literature reviewed with regard to this theory indicates a place for the theory within educational settings. Furthermore, the semiotic aspect of language and reading is explored; this investigation shows that present models of semiotics are inadequate, not only with respect to written language, but to all language. This review was followed by an intense investigation in which the researcher was a 'participant'. A great deal of data was collected by various methods in the course of three months. These data were processed, both quantitatively and qualitatively, and analyzed, yielding results that differed from the indications given in the conceptual framework. The role of Piagetian development and the value of independent school education is questioned. The pedagogy of reading is challenged, specifically with respect to the use of oral reading in the classroom and with respect to the teaching of reading skills. The investigation suggested certain recommendations to the research school, which can be extended beyond the confines of that specific setting. Most of the suggestions are aimed at teacher education and call for liberal uniformity in schools and the education' system which might bring about more learner-centred approaches to teaching initial reading.

IsiXhosa language is one of the first languages in sub-Saharan Africa to be reduced into writing. The first written texts in isiXhosa were produced by British missionaries in the Tyhume river valley as early as 1824. In spite of these early developments, there still remain today many inconsistencies and anomalies with regard to the standardization of isiXhosa orthography that require attention. This research focuses on the status quo of the current orthography of isiXhosa which is used in the writing of the selected texts which were published from 2000 to date. The research study investigates how these texts are written, that is, whether they are written according to the principles of the writing of this language as developed by the respective language boards or not. The reason for doing this is that this language has become one of the official languages of the Republic of South Africa. Therefore, in order for it to be read and written without any difficulty by anyone, as it is expected to be used as a medium of instruction even at tertiary level in the future, it should be written accurately and consistently. The study analyses a number of isiXhosa written texts including the following: (1) Selected literary texts which were published from 2000 to date. (2) Selected publications by government departments. (3) Selected translated texts. (4) Some of the newspapers and magazines which are currently in circulation in this language. (5) Some dictionaries of isiXhosa. (6) The updated isiXhosa Orthography as compiled by the PanSALB (2008). The aims of the study are outlined in Chapter 1. This chapter also provides the theoretical framework within which the research is located. Chapter 2 is about the theoretical perspectives on the development of the art of writing and orthography. The historical background, that is, the development of the art of writing and the general as well as the specific requirements of a good orthography are discussed. Chapters 3, 4 and 5 observe and analyse the orthographical features of some written documents of isiXhosa such as writing of capital letters, word division, usage of concords, etc. These three chapters also observe and analyse the various anomalies and inconsistencies in the spelling of isiXhosa words that were identified in the consulted texts. Chapter 6 is devoted to the conclusion and the recommendations.

Recent research in phonological awareness found a strong link between rhyming ability in preschool children and later reading achievement. The use of orthographic analogy, the ability to make inferences from similarities in spelling to similarities in sound, was proposed as the mechanism to explain this relationship (Goswami & Bryant, 1990). Literature was presented that suggested the need for further research. Four research questions were examined. First, can prereaders learn to read unfamiliar words on the basis of orthographic analogy after brief training with rhyming words? The evidence supported the view that they could. Second, will the ability to read words by orthographic analogy be enhanced by phonological training in onset and rime, and by the use of segmented text? The brief phonological training did not increase analogy word reading over the same training without it. However, using text segmented at the onset-rime boundary for training items did increase analogy word reading. Third, will reading by orthographic analogy vary according to the level of prereading skills (rhyming ability, phoneme identity, letter-sound knowledge)? The majority of children with high prereading skills learned to read analogy test words whereas most children with low prereading skills found the task too arduous. Fourth, will rhyming ability make an independent contribution to reading achievement? The results were equivocal. Rhyming ability did make an independent contribution to the number of trials taken to learn the training items. It did not when analogy word reading was the dependent variable. Phoneme identity accounted for most of the variance in analogy word reading. Further analyses found that the ability to identify the final phoneme was the best discriminator between children who learned to read analogy test words and those who did not. A possible explanation was that children used the final phoneme to determine the sound of the rime ending rather than the last two phonemes together. / Education, Faculty of / Educational and Counselling Psychology, and Special Education (ECPS), Department of / Graduate