M. Ed. (Inclusive Education) / Please refer to full text to view abstract

D.Litt. et Phil. / The matter of ill-equipped black Afrikaans teachers still remains a topical issue but it appears as though little progress has been made to remedy the situation. In the present research a literature study as well as an empirical investigation, conducted from a number of angles, were undertaken in order to identify the most irksome problems and to accordingly make recommendations towards the development of an in-service program. The literature study serves as the backdrop against which the empirical study was undertaken. The empirical study was conducted in accordance with the principles of the process of triangulation, i.e. deductions were only made after the data presented by each of the empirical components was diagonally compared and verified. The overarching purpose of the empirical study was to pinpoint the shortcomings in the professional outfit of both the teachers and the learning facilitators, and to subsequently determine to what extent the Free State Department of Education succeeds in rectifying them. The study revealed that the teachers experience a number of teaching-related problems and that their interaction with the learning facilitators does not bear much fruit. The learning facilitators are not sufficiently empowered to fulfil their duty as in-service trainers and they consequently experience difficulty in providing effective and purposeful in-service training. It is the duty of the Free State Department of Education to relieve the existing need for in-service training.

Refugee adult language learners in the United States need alphabetic print literacy in English in order to successfully integrate into their adoptive societies and find meaningful employment. Accurate spelling and word recognition are important for completing forms about medical history, school paperwork, job applications, and social benefits. To aid in their integration, adult refugees are often enrolled in English courses targeted to those with low levels of education and alphabetic print literacy. However, many leave without having achieved a level of print literacy necessary for economic or social purposes. Current teaching approaches for alphabetic print literacy are either social- (Bigelow & Vinogradov, 2011) or skills-based (Burt, Peyton,& Adams, 2003; Haverson & Haynes, 1982) approaches. They are ineffective for meeting student learning needs within the six-month time frame for self-sufficiency imposed by U.S. refugee resettlement (U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, 2015). The purpose of this project was to see if using two principles of implicit learning: variability and complexity, would help low literate refugee English learners enrolled in English classes to accurately spell and perceive words in their curriculum. Specifically, the use of high variability visual input was contrasted with high and low linguistic complexity. Stimuli with high visual variability and low linguistic complexity proved the right combination for successful word learning for this population.

The purpose of this research is to explore the academic and social experiences of English learners (ELs) in a Spanish immersion program. The researcher is specifically interested in learning about both the English and Spanish language acquisition of these ELs, as well as their social interactions as this pertains to their academic development. The participants were a sample of 12 Spanish native speakers who were working towards acquiring both social and academic English. Additionally, the researcher interviewed five other students who were in the Spanish immersion program, but who were not included in the ESOL class. These 17 students represented a wide range of English language proficiencies, ranging from emergent to advanced, and were in the ninth grade during the period of data collection. The researcher also interviewed five of these students' teachers, so as to gain a better understanding of the experiences of these heritage speakers. Data were collected over the course of the 2009-2010 school year through observations, interviews, sociograms, and ongoing assessments. These assessments were collected from several sources, including an English language assessment that was administered by the ESOL coordinator, an ongoing school-wide assessment of lexile scores, and an English and Spanish informal reading inventory. The findings of this study were divided into two meta themes of the academic and social experiences of the student participants. In investigating these students' academic experiences, the researcher found that the 22 participants placed a considerable emphasis on language development, particularly in the maintenance of the Spanish native speakers' heritage language. A sizeable need existed, however, for instruction that was better differentiated to the wide range xv of proficiencies that these students demonstrated in both English and Spanish. Through the analysis of the participants' social experiences, the researcher also discovered that a strong sense of community existed amongst the participants in the ESOL and immersion programs. This interconnectedness, however, led to an insular behavior amongst the Spanish native speakers, which further exacerbated the racial tension that existed at Greenwood High. Greenwood as a whole would greatly benefit from the fostering of intercultural sensitivity amongst this multicultural and multilingual student body.

D.Litt. et Phil. / The purpose of this study is to establish differences and similarities between German and Zulu and to identify areas of difficulty for different groups of South African learners in order to give the language learners autonomy in determining their own learning strategies in accordance with their mother tongue and to foster a mutual understanding between different cultural groups in South Africa. Historically, German is a subject, which was taught to mainly white learners in segregated South African schools; hence research was limited to the problems of English and Afrikaans speaking learners of German as a foreign language. This study is aimed at addressing the problems that Zulu speaking learners would encounter when learning German. Since English and/or Afrikaans form part of the linguistic knowledge of these Zulu speaking students, cognizance is taken of the effects this knowledge has on the learning of German as Lx, where Lx > L3. Learners from English and Afrikaans L1 backgrounds are incorporated into the study as control groups. The error analysis that forms part of this study reveals that the language repertoire of the learners does indeed impact on language learning. This study is useful for teachers who have little or no knowledge of Zulu, but who are confronted with learners from diverse linguistic backgrounds.

D. Phil. / The unit of analysis in this study is the reading competence of a selection of grade three learners in linguistically diverse schools in Gauteng Province. In a socio-cultural perspective on their reading competence (and logically also their English language proficiency), the findings indicate that their reading performance is linked to a variety of factors in the context of school and family. The inquiry was motivated by the need to understand and interpret the reading performance of learners who do not appear to benefit from early schooling, specifically in the area of reading literacy. The main premise of the study was that the young learners' reading could not be viewed in psychological isolation and that a broader picture of the pedagogical, the social, the cultural and the personal components interfacing with the action of reading would capture data that could inform both theory and practice of reading pedagogy. In the context of South African educational policy this is pertinent, because the learners in this country have a choice of the language of instruction (Department of Education, 1997), and parents often decide on English as the medium of education for their children — probably because of the assumed status of English as language of opportunity. Thus young children who do not know English as a primary language access the world of reading literacy though this often-strange medium. In addition, the teachers have mostly not been educated to practice a pedagogy of bilingualism or one that is suited to a typical ESL classroom. The research question posed in the study addresses this complex world of reading in a second/additional language, including the interaction between teachers, learners and the broader socio-cultural context. The study draws on literature in studies of socio-cultural research and concomitant pedagogies, arguing that Vygotsky's notion of mediated action is a viable perspective from which to try to understand problems in reading and reading instruction in a multilingual setting, with teachers ostensibly ill-equipped to practice effectively. The theoretical argument pertaining to reading as socio-culturally situated activity was woven into a research design that would capture both psychological and social components of reading action. To capture data that would reveal details of this action as well as the interrelatedness of various components of the action, I used multiple methods of data gathering, data analysis and data presentation of processed data. Methods of data gathering included language and reading evaluation instruments, evaluation of pre-literacy skills instruments, interviews with learners and educators, classroom observations and questionnaires. Data obtained from these research methods were described and interpreted qualitatively and/or quantitatively. The findings show that that both the learners' language and reading competence are not sufficiently developed for successful progress in grade three. An important finding is also that there is a relationship between the socio-economic background of the learners and their proficiency in English and also their reading and pre-literacy skills development. The findings have furthermore shown that reading development is influenced by pre-literacy skills development. Findings derived from the educators' interviews and classroom observations show that some of them, for whom English is not a primary language, use a pedagogic discourse that is generally ambiguous and that could confuse the young learners who have few other examples of English language use. It is furthermore evident that the educators do not have knowledge of reading pedagogy for the ESL classroom and that their theoretical knowledge does not get proceduralised. These findings were substantiated by the content of the teacher survey questionnaires. The significance of the findings is that reading pedagogy would have to be adapted in order to facilitate improved teaching practice and improved reading literacy of the learners, including the enhancement of pre-literacy skills development. I therefore recommend, again from the domain of socio-cultural research, that a model for teacher professional development be applied in the context of the six research schools. This model, which is essentially organic, is aimed at sustainable and dynamic professional development at grassroots level. It was originally designed by Lave and Wenger (Wenger et al, 2002) and has become known as the "communities of practice" model of work, learning and development. I present an application that can be used in the schools and which can include myself as co-founder of the community.

Usage-based approaches to Second Language Acquisition (SLA) hold that grammatical development can at least in part be explained by a trajectory from initially entrenched formulaic chunks of linguistic material through partially abstract low-scope patterns to abstract constructions. Although earlier empirical research found little to support such a trajectory, more recent research suggests that when the methodological focus is on the breakdown of tokens not on the acquisition of abstract morphology formulaic chunks do seem to develop into at least low-scope patterns. What is not clear from these later studies, however, is why users select tokens from the environment, how these selections are repurposed to meet communicative needs and what grammatical development may be the result of such repurposing. Drawing on insights into usage-based approaches to SLA in general, and specifically predictions that the analogical processing of similar tokens can explain in part a trajectory from tokens in the linguistic environment to abstract constructions, this study investigates whether intervention in the form of task demands and written task productions can drive the selection and repurposing of task-relevant input, and whether such repurposing may influence the development of past-counterfactual constructions in instructed SLA. The study uses a classroom-based pre-test/post-test quasi-experimental design with pre-sessional university students in intact classes (n=92). Out of the three groups in the study, one group were exposed to instances of past counterfactuals which were identical to the forms needed for task completion in terms of function and lexical items (Literal Group). A second group were exposed to instances which called for the same function but different lexical items for successful task completion (Analogous Group), while a third group were not exposed to input. Results show that the analogous processing of task-relevant tokens led to positive and significant gains on most acceptability judgment and production test measures. Regression models further show that the selection of tokens explained very little variance, while analogical processing, operationalised as the repurposing of tokens to fit task demands, explained a significant amount of the variance in the same models. These findings highlight the importance of analogical processing in SLA and the significant implications such processing has for cognitive accounts of SLA and for second language teaching.

<p>The purpose of this study was twofold. Firstly, this study sought to capture second semester language students’ auditory perception of German vowels. Secondly, this study sought to investigate the effectiveness of direct pronunciation instruction in enhancing learners’ perception and consequent production of German vowels. Vowels were selected to be analyzed in this study, as they are the nucleus of words (Derwing, Thomson, Foote, & Munro, 2012). Front rounded vowels in German were given particular attention, as they do not exist in English, and they frequently pose as a challenge for native English-speakers to learn (O’Brien & Fagan, 2016, Hall, 2003). </p> <p>This study was conducted at a large midwestern U.S. university. The project consisted of 47 participants which were divided into experimental and control groups. Throughout the duration of the study, students were administered a biographical survey, and a pre- and post-test which consisted of a listening identification exercise and speaking assessment. Participants in the test group were also offered a lesson on the German phonemic system as it relates to German vowels. Upon the completion of the study, the data analyzed did not yield any significant results. Students’ scores on the perception and production exercises taken from both the pre- and post-tests remained largely stagnant. This was true for the test scores taken from the experimental and control groups. Though the study outcomes did not produce the hypothesized results, they do underscore the need for long-term explicit pronunciation instruction in the language classroom. </p> <br> <p> </p>

Communication in a second or multiple languages has become essential in the globalized world. However, acquiring a second language (L2) after a critical period is universally acknowledged to be challenging (Lenneberg, 1967). Late learners hardly reach a nativelike level in L2, particularly in its pronunciation, and their incomplete phonological acquisition is manifested by a foreign accent—a common and persistent feature of otherwise fluent L2 speech. Although foreign-accented speech is widespread, it has been a target of social constraints in L2-speaking communities, causing many learners and instructors to seek out ways to reduce foreign accents. Accordingly, research in L2 speech has unceasingly examined various learner-external and learner-internal factors of the occurrence of foreign accents as well as nonnative speech characteristics underlying the judgment of the degree of foreign accents. The current study aimed to expand the understanding of the characteristics and judgments of foreign accents by investigating phonological awareness, a construct pertinent to learners’ phonological knowledge, which has received little attention in research on foreign accents. The current study was exploratory and non-experimental research that targeted 40 adults with Korean-accented English living in the United States. The study first examined how 23 raters speaking American English as their native language detect, perceive, describe, and rate Korean-accented English. Through qualitative and quantitative analyses of the accent perception data, the study identified various phonological and phonetic deviations from the nativelike sounds, which largely result from the influence of first language (Korean) on L2 (English). The study then probed the relationship between foreign accents and learners’ awareness of the phonological system of L2, which was measured using production, perception, and verbalization tasks that tapped into the knowledge of L2 phonology. The study found a significant inverse relationship between the degree of a foreign accent and phonological awareness, particularly implicit knowledge of L2 segmentals. Further in-depth analyses revealed that explicit knowledge of L2 phonology alone was not sufficient for targetlike pronunciation. Findings suggest that L2 speakers experience varying degrees of difficulty in perceiving and producing different L2 segmentals, possibly resulting in foreign-accented speech.

Esta pesquisa de Mestrado foi conduzida nas séries iniciais de ensino fundamental I, no contexto de ensino de língua estrangeira e tem por objetivo investigar, a partir de uma unidade didática trabalhada, os sentidos que emergem quando a professora explica e orienta as tarefas e como os alunos compreendem e atribuem significados às orientações recebidas da docente. Por meio de uma análise linguística, pretende-se investigar os sentidos atribuídos à orientação e à recepção das tarefas, da parte da professora e dos alunos, respectivamente. A presente pesquisa apoia-se nas teorias de Ensino-Aprendizagem, conforme discutido por Mizukami (2002); na teoria Sócio-Histórico-Cultural (Vygotsky, 1933-1935/1934, Leontiev, 1977-1978), e na compreensão dialógica da linguagem (Bakhtin, 2002), além de trazer uma ampla discussão sobre as teorias de bilinguismo e educação Bilíngue (Baker 2017). Este trabalho situa-se no Paradigma crítico, sendo uma pesquisa-ação de caráter interpretativista, pois pelas observações e resultados, propõe-se uma reflexão para possível reconstrução da própria prática. A pesquisa é conduzida pela professora-pesquisadora na turma de alunos da terceira série do ensino fundamental de uma escola bilíngue na cidade de São Paulo. A partir de elaboração de questionários da unidade do gênero carta, no segundo trimestre letivo do ano 2018, os dados coletados foram categorizados para análise dos fenômenos e compreensão dos sentidos dos alunos a partir das teorias propostas, além do relato da professora, realizado em três momentos. Os resultados sugerem que os alunos tiveram aproximações significativas entre eles, convergindo para um mesmo sentido, mas distanciando-se dos sentidos esperados da professora, o que trouxe reflexão e questionamento com relação às práticas reais e pensadas ser praticadas pela pesquisadora ao final da pesquisa. / The aim of this work is to investigate, through an English unit, what senses emerge as the teacher explain and guide students. The goal is to reflect upon how students understand and make connections based on teacher\'s guidance. Through linguistic analysis, the aim is to investigate the senses given during the activities guidance and how they are perceived by both students\' and teachers\' point of view respectively. This research is based on teaching-learning theories, discussed by Mizukami (2002); social-historical-cultural theory (Vygotsky, 1933-1935/1934, Leontiev, 1977-1978), and by the dialogical comprehension of language (Bakhtin, 2002). This research also discusses bilingualism and bilingual education theories (Baker 2017). This research is based on critical paradigm and it is an action interpretive research, as based on observations and results, there is a reflection by the end in order to open possibilities for reconstructing our own practice. This research is carried out by the researcher-teacher in a primary year 3 group at a bilingual school from São Paulo. Starting from the elaboration of questionnaires based on letters genre, during the second term in 2018, all data were collected, organized and categorized in order to analyse the comprehension of students senses based on the proposed theories. In addition to that the teacher\'s point of view written in three moments of the research is also analysed. The results suggest that students\' reactions were significantly close, converging to the same sense, but far from the teacher\'s senses.