Previous research investigations in the area of spelling development have adopted two approaches, the broad approach and the narrow approach. The broad approach suggests that spelling develops in sequential stages whereas the narrow approach focuses on individual linguistic patterns. However, research findings have revealed that children’s spellings do not exhibit errors pertaining to specifically one stage or reflecting one linguistic element, yet a research void exists in resolving how these two approaches might intermix. This study examined the spelling errors of typically developing children in first through fourth grades (N = 400) to determine the quantitative and qualitative differences in misspellings among grade levels. Each grade level had an equal representation of children (N = 100) and male and female participants. The spelling errors were extracted from two writing samples completed by the children, a narrative and expository sample. In an attempt to combine the broad and narrow approaches, a coding system was designed to evaluate the linguistic category (phonological, orthographic, morphological) and specific features (letter name spelling, vowel error, digraph, etc.) of the spelling errors. The findings revealed a significant interaction between grade level and error type for phonologically-based spelling errors (1 st graders made more errors than 2nd and 4th graders) and a greater number of morphological errors was noted in 4 th vs. 2nd grade. No significant effects were noted for writing genre or gender. Analysis of performance patterns for specific linguistic category errors within and across grade levels revealed that all four grade levels committed the most phonological errors in the PSE (phonological – silent /e/) and PSON (phonological – sonorant clusters) categories. The OLN (orthographic – letter name) and ODI (orthographic – digraph) errors also occurred frequently in all four grades with first graders demonstrating significantly more occurrences of the OLN than ODI error. Morphological findings revealed that first graders made significantly more MINF (morphological – inflection) than MHOM (morphological – homonym) errors and all four grades had significantly more MINF than MCON (morphological – contraction) errors. A qualitative analysis regarding the most frequently misspelled words and most frequently encountered codes was also performed. The clinical and educational implications of these findings are discussed.

The purpose of this project is to investigate factors that can be used to explain orthographic variation in City of Heroes (CoH), a virtual community based in an online role-playing game. While a number of models of variation exist for speech, to date, no statistical models of orthographic variation in virtual communities exist. By combining traditional variationist methods with computational text processing, this project documents socially meaningful alternations in the linguistic code regarding two types of sociolinguistic variables, namely spelling and use of abbreviations. For each of the two variable types, two dependent variables are posited, i.e. the alternation between: 1) –ing and –in in durative verbal aspect marking in forms such as coming and comin, 2) –s and –z markers of plurality in words such as cats and catz, 3) abbreviated and full forms for referential abbreviation in terms such as Atlas Park and AP, and 4) abbreviated and full forms for conative abbreviations in terms such as looking for team and lft. The study investigates the role that the following factors play in explaining orthographic variation in CoH: 1) message length, 2) standardness of the immediate linguistic environment, 3) cognitive load, 4) relative proximity in the virtual space, 5) degree of message publicness, 6) experience in the community, 7) avatar gender, and 8) social group affiliation. Through mixed-effects, multivariate models, the study demonstrates that each of the predictors has some role in explaining the orthographic variability observed in the textual record of the community. Moreover, interactions between some of the predictors prove to be significant contributors to the models, which highlight the importance of addressing interaction terms in models of language variation. The findings from the study suggest that the socio-contextual meaning of particular structures in the CoH community lead authors to make linguistic choices, which are realized as alternations in the linguistic code. Finally, implications for the study of language variation in general are discussed. / text

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.

This work addresses issues in the automatic preprocessing of historical German input text for use by conventional natural language processing techniques. Conventional techniques cannot adequately account for historical input text due to conventional tools' reliance on a fixed application-specific lexicon keyed by contemporary orthographic surface form on the one hand, and the lack of consistent orthographic conventions in historical input text on the other. Historical spelling variation is treated here as an error-correction problem or "canonicalization" task: an attempt to automatically assign each (historical) input word a unique extant canonical cognate, thus allowing direct application-specific processing (tagging, parsing, etc.) of the returned canonical forms without need for any additional application-specific modifications. In the course of the work, various methods for automatic canonicalization are investigated and empirically evaluated, including conflation by phonetic identity, conflation by lemma instantiation heuristics, canonicalization by weighted finite-state rewrite cascade, and token-wise disambiguation by a dynamic Hidden Markov Model. / Diese Arbeit behandelt Themen der automatischen Vorverarbeitung historischen deutschen Textes für die Weiterverarbeitung durch konventionelle computerlinguistische Techniken. Konventionelle Techniken können historischen Text wegen des hohen Grads an graphematischer Variation in solchem Text ohne eine solche Vorverarbeitung nicht zufriedenstellend behandeln. Variation in der historischen Rechtschreibung wird hier als Fehlerkorrekturproblem oder "Kanonikalisierungsaufgabe" behandelt: ein Versuch, jedem (historischen) Eingabewort eine eindeutige extante Äquivalente zuzuordnen; so können konventionelle Techniken ohne weitere Modifikation direkt auf den gelieferten kanonischen Formen arbeiten. Verschiedene Methoden zur automatischen Kanonikalisierung werden im Rahmen dieser Arbeit untersucht, unter anderem Konflation durch phonetische Identität, Konflation durch Lemma-Instanziierungsheuristiken, Kanonikalisierung durch eine Kaskade gewichteter endlicher Transduktoren, und Disambiguiierung von Konflationskandidaten durch ein dynamisches Hidden Markov Modell.

General education and special education teachers are expected to provide evidence-based instruction to all students in the classroom. Along with that, they must make sure that their students pass the state mandated tests based on state standards. Meeting the needs of everyone in the classroom is a difficult task especially with 10-20% of those students having special learning needs that require a different approach to assessment and instruction. The purpose of this study was to investigate the role that metacognitive strategies have in second grade students with learning disabilities while they are performing written spelling lists and story generation tasks. One-on-one interviews were conducted with two second grade students with learning disabilities after they had written ten word spelling lists as well as a story based on a photograph of their choice. The interviews were conducted to identify what metacognitive processes they used by asking them to report and reflect on what they wrote, how they knew what to write, and whether or not they could identify what they wrote was correct, as well as being able to independently correct any errors they made. The results indicate that although their metacognitive strategies were emerging, they had difficulty reporting consistently and accurately what spelling strategies they used. They also had difficulty reflecting on whether a word was correct or incorrect and if incorrect, how to correct it. Each student used a different approach to spelling a word, one “Brute Force” and the other “Rule-based.” Neither of these approaches worked effectively for these students as they made many spelling errors and still had difficulty correcting them. The overall findings indicate that these two second grade students with learning disabilities used limited metacognitive strategies of monitoring, regulating and reflecting. What strategies they did employ, were not consistent or effective to help them achieve a level of spelling efficiency needed to be successful in second grade. / Department of Special Education

The research presented in this thesis investigated whether second language learners who learn via a familiar orthography (i.e. Pinyin) differed from second language learners who learned via a non-familiar orthography (i.e. Zhuyin) in their perception of English-Mandarin sound contrasts. The assumption was that significant differences in perceptual performances between experimental groups could be attributed to the orthography’s influence in the categorization of Mandarin sounds. Also investigated in this research was the degree of confusability of particular Mandarin sounds based on their relative similarities to their English counterparts. The data were obtained from thirty-two native Canadian English speaking participants through a series of experimental tasks – pre-test > training phase > post-test. The pre- and post-tests assessed the participants’ sensitivities to English-Mandarin contrasts in an oddity discrimination task. Between the two tests, the participants underwent a short training phase where they learnt Mandarin via the orthographic medium assigned to their group. Perceptual performance of the participants was measured in terms of error rates (ER), a-prime (A’) and response times (RT). The hypotheses concerning orthographic influence were not supported by the results. Three-way repeated measures ANOVAs revealed that there were no significant differences in the perceptual performances of the three groups for any of the three measures of the dependent variable. The lack of significant differences is discussed in terms of: 1) the strength of the established L1 orthographic system, 2) the cognitive load placed on the participants, and 3) the insufficient time given for the development of new symbol-sound associations within the new L2 orthographic system. The hypotheses concerning the degree of confusability were confirmed. The statistical analyses revealed three groups of perceptual sensitivity; 1) a highly sensitive group, 2) a slightly sensitive group, and 3) an insensitive group. These results are discussed in terms of acoustic saliency and models of speech processing. This is the first systematic study to investigate the potential influence of the L1 orthographic code on second language speech perception. Two major conclusions were drawn from the results. First, Mandarin instruction via Pinyin appears to have slight advantage over instruction via Zhuyin as the conflict between the two orthographic systems appears to neutralize any potential benefits. Second, participants exhibit varying degrees of perceptual sensitivity to L1-L2 sound contrasts due to the type of differences between the native and nonnative sounds.

The topics of this diploma thesis are dictations and orthographic exercises within didactics of the Czech language. The thesis consists of theoretical part, which contains a definition of the term didactics of Czech language, its inclusion among the other fields of science and their relationship. In this part of the thesis, I also focus on orthography, which includes dictation. The core of the theoretical part is characteristics of dictation, principles of dictated text and evaluation and classification of a written dictation. A part of the thesis is also a chapter dealing with specific learning disabilities. The practical part of this diploma thesis is dedicated to the analysis of textbooks of Czech language and orthographic publications. Detailed description of each particular dictation focusing on punctuation is presented in this part. At the end of the thesis is a brief summary and evaluation of the analysis of individual types of dictation and alternatively orthographic exercises.

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has taken over every aspect of our daily lives, from commerce to leisure and even culture. Today, mobile phones, desktop computers, hand-held devices, emails and the use of the internet have become a central part of our culture and society. ICT has made us a global society, where people can interact and communicate efficiently. In order for South Africa to be competitive in the global economy, it will need to develop a workforce with appropriate Information Technology skills. Of necessity, these skills will extend to using a computers and developing appropriate software and technical support skills (DOE, 2008). This thesis represents a critical analytical study in that it explores the online Sesotho Information and Communication Technology (ICT). It aims at analysing terminology development in this area. The study aims to determine how Sesotho and ICT correlate and how the linguistic aspect plays a role in online ICT terminology. The focus is not on creating new terms but to analyze the already existing ICT terms available, with regards to linguistic rules and principles and to critique if they are of quality. Furthermore, the thesis explores whether there are other strategies that can be used in the development of this terminology. It also seeks to determine if the terms are easily accessible to students and if they are used at all. Terms will be sourced from the Department of Arts and Culture ICT term list, and the focus will be on extracting only terms that have to do with computer literacy. Other online sources that list Sesotho equivalents will also be considered. The study also assesses the quality of the terms created by the Department of Arts and Culture (DAC) together with the Department of Communications (DOC) for a multilingual ICT terminology list. Furthermore, the thesis explores whether the Sesotho equivalents adhere to the linguistic rules and principles of the language. The other question asked is whether the terms are used by the intended users and if they are easily accessible to the speakers of the language. This entire aspect of the thesis speaks to the notion of the intellectualization of African languages and in this case Sesotho in particular. Not only does the thesis engage with computer literacy terminology, it also presents a detailed literature review of studies and work that has been done in this field. The thesis engagement is also done by linking the backdrop of the history of Sesotho and the Basotho peoples.

abstract: The Hopi people have the distinct term mongwi applied to a person who is charged with leadership of a group. According to Hopi oral history and some contemporary Hopi thought, a mongwi (leader) or group of momngwit (leaders), gain their foremost positions in Hopi society after being recognizably able to fulfill numerous qualifications linked to their respective clan identity, ceremonial initiation, and personal conduct. Numerous occurrences related to the Hopis historical experiences have rendered a substantial record of what are considered the qualifications of a Hopi leader. This thesis is an extensive examination of the language used and the context wherein Hopi people express leadership qualities in the written and documentary record. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis American Indian Studies 2016

Submitted by LARISSA APARECIDA PASCHOAL null (larissa.apaschoal@gmail.com) on 2017-05-10T21:32:02Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Larissa - Dissertação - versão final.pdf: 1292538 bytes, checksum: 23cdaf93be93fbaa87c1e7a44e1535e2 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Luiz Galeffi (luizgaleffi@gmail.com) on 2017-05-12T13:40:00Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 paschoal_la_me_mar.pdf: 1292538 bytes, checksum: 23cdaf93be93fbaa87c1e7a44e1535e2 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-05-12T13:40:00Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 paschoal_la_me_mar.pdf: 1292538 bytes, checksum: 23cdaf93be93fbaa87c1e7a44e1535e2 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017-04-25 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) / Objetivos: descrever o desempenho ortográfico de crianças no registro dos grafemas que remetem aos fonemas fricativos do Português Brasileiro; verificar a influência do acento na ocorrência de possíveis erros; categorizar a tipologia dos erros encontrados; verificar em que medida os erros mobilizam elementos da classe fonológica das fricativas; e verificar quais traços distintivos se mostrariam como mais, ou como menos, conflitantes no registro dos fonemas fricativos. Método: foram selecionadas 762 produções textuais de crianças que cursaram a 1ª série do Ensino Fundamental em duas escolas públicas do interior paulista. Nessas produções, foram verificadas todas as ocorrências de grafemas que remetiam a fonemas fricativos do Português Brasileiro, na posição silábica de ataque simples. Na sequência, essas ocorrências foram organizadas conforme ocorressem em sílabas pré-tônicas, tônicas, pós-tônicas, monossílabos átonos e monossílabos tônicos. As ocorrências foram classificadas em acertos e erros, e estes últimos foram ainda classificados em: omissões e substituições. Resultados: (1) maior ocorrência de erros em fonemas que apresentavam escrita irregular e de acertos em fonemas com escrita regular; (2) não interferência do acento lexical na ocorrência de erros; (3) maior número de erros que envolveram substituição de grafemas; (4) preponderância de erros que envolveram a substituição de grafemas que remetiam à classe das fricativas; (5) não influência de traços fonológicos na ocorrência de erros. Conclusão: a escrita das crianças estudadas não foi somente influenciada por aspectos fonético-fonológicos, mas, também, por aspectos de outras práticas relacionadas à aquisição da ortografia, como as de letramento. / Objectives: describe the orthographic performance of children in the record of graphemes that refer to Brazilian Portuguese fricative phonemes; verify the influence of the accent on the occurrence of possible errors; categorize typology of the errors found; verify to what extent the errors mobilize elements of the phonological class of fricatives; and verify which distinctive features would appear to be more or less conflicting in the register of fricative phonemes. Methods: 762 textual productions of children who attended the first grade of Elementary School were selected in two public schools in the interior of São Paulo. In these productions, all occurrences of graphemes that refer to fricative phonemes of Brazilian Portuguese were verified in the syllabic position of simple onset. These occurrences were then organized as they occurred in pre-tonic syllables, tonic syllables, post-tonic syllables, atonic monosyllables and tonic monosyllables. The occurrences were classified in hits and errors, and these errors were further classified in omissions and substitutions. Results: (1) greater occurrence of errors in phonemes that presented irregular writing and correct answers in phonemes with regular writing; (2) no lexical accent interference in the occurrence of errors; (3) greater number of errors involving substitution of graphemes; (4) preponderance of errors involving the substitution of graphemes that refer to the class of fricatives; (5) no influence of phonological traits on the occurrence of errors. Conclusion: the writing of the children in this study was influenced not only by phonetic and phonological aspects, but also by aspects of other practices related to the acquisition of spelling, such as literacy.