This research project was primarily a qualitative investigation, the purpose of which was not to test a particular set of hypotheses, but rather to develop an exploratory analysis of the disjunction between spoken and written English among pupils at St Charles High School. In light of the lack of empirical and exploratory research on the use of English as a second language in Lesotho, the study aimed to investigate pupils' and teachers' perceptions on the use of English as a subject and medium of instruction. Chapter 1 presents an introduction of English and the formal type of education in Lesotho by missionaries just before the middle of the nineteenth century. Although English is regarded as the 'language of power' nevertheless the teaching and learning of the language has its own problems and teachers and pupils' experiences with second language learning in different local and international contexts are discussed in Chapter 2. The study used both qualitative and quantitative methods to gather and analyse data. A case study approach was employed using a range of instruments to collect data relevant to the aim of this project. The findings show that although pupils are generally proficient in spoken English and appear to understand the spoken language fairly well, assessment of their written exercises and during lesson observations indicates that their fluency in English is not related to their performance in written English. Therefore, fluency in English language does not necessarily form a sufficient basis to describe pupils as competent in English (L2). This does explain the possible difference between spoken and written English. The thesis does not offer tips for teachers nor are methods prescribed about how to teach English as a second language. Although limited to a particular high school (the detail and context of which are described in Chapter 3), much of what was found and the subsequent recommendations may be of value to improve the teaching and learning of English. I hope that this study, which was very much a pilot in nature, will help to highlight issues that might be addressed in more detailed studies in the field of second language learning. / Thesis (M.Ed.)-University of Natal, 2002.

In recent years, following the demise of Apartheid education policy, there has been a move away from exclusively mother tongue instruction in ex-Natal Education Department schools. Consequently, in many English speaking pre-primary schools, Zulu-speakers are being submerged into the English language environment. At the same time, there is growing interest amongst educators in an alternative process which allows for affirmation of the first language whilst providing multiple opportunities for second language acquisition by non-English speakers. This report seeks to identify aspects of second language acquisition through lexical tests and analysis of "news" items by the Zulu-speakers at the pre-primary school in the study. Further, through observation of the social interaction of these eight children, it seeks to identify socialisation patterns and to comment on the role which language plays both in the choice of friends and on the child's emotional well-being in the second language environment. / Thesis (M.Ed.)-University of Natal, 1997.

The purpose of this study was to investigate how language affected the teaching and learning of mathematics for English second language (ESL) learners in five Further Education and Training (FET) schools in Northern KwaZulu-Natal, with a particular focus on word problems (WPs). In 2010, fifteen learners (nine boys and six girls) doing mathematics grade 11 from five different FET schools from Mtubatuba District in Northern Kwazulu-Natal participated in the study. Five teachers teaching the same learners from these five schools were also the participants in this study. The researcher’s teaching experience of eleven years as an FET mathematics teacher had taught her that many English second language learners were not able to correctly translate word problems into mathematical equation. This was what motivated the researcher to conduct a study on the impact of English to the teaching and learning of mathematics, especially Word Problems. The study was mostly framed around theory of Social Constructivism. The research instruments used in the study were: learner worksheets, learner interviews (individual and group interviews), teacher questionnaires and lesson observations. Some common challenges in the teaching of WPs were drawn from the analysis of the teachers’ responses: Many learners are unable to translate English statements into mathematical equations. The manner in which WPs are phrased generally pose some problems for many learners. There is lack of mathematics vocabulary such as ‘consecutive’, ‘twice as much as’, ‘doubled and then added to’, ‘squared’. From the learners’ responses, the following could be deduced as challenges in learning WPs: There is very little exposure of learners to word problems. Failure to write English statements mathematically. Less exposure to English due to teachers accepting the use of isiZulu more than English during teaching and learning. Too much wording in the WPs which ends up confusing. Little exposure to mathematical terms such as ‘consecutive’, ‘integers’. Both teachers and learners gave some strategies that they thought could help in the teaching of WPs, namely: Giving more time for learners to construct mathematical statements on their own. Engaging in one-on-one teaching with some struggling learners. Code-switching from English to isiZulu when necessary. Letting learners work through the worked examples first for proper understanding. Rephrasing the problem and breaking it into sections. Use of diagrams and illustrations. Giving learners more activities on WPs. / Thesis (M.Ed.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2013.

This research is a replication and expansion of Lightbown and Spada (2000) which investigated the metalinguistic awareness of 11--12 year-old francophone learners of English as second language (ESL). Their research examined whether young L2 learners were able to make explicit L1 rules influencing their L2 performance. The present research builds on Lightbown and Spada (2000) by comparing their findings to those of older and more proficient francophone ESL learners (12--16 years old) in secondary school. As observed with the younger learners in Lightbown and Spada (2000), the interlanguage of the older learners revealed a clear influence of transfer of French even though they were more accurate in their overall performance. The results also indicated that the older learners were capable of considerable metalinguistic awareness regarding the target features (question formation and adverb placement). This contrasts sharply with Lightbown and Spada's (2000) in which there was no evidence of metalinguistic awareness on the part of the younger learners.

This thesis investigates the binding of overt and null subject pronouns in second language (L2) acquisition and first language (L1) attrition of Turkish. The aim is to provide a comparative investigation of language transfer effects in the ultimate state of the L2 and L1 grammar. More specifically, it examines transfer effects from English L1 and English L2 into the grammars of Turkish L2 and Turkish L1, respectively. / In this thesis, I propose that the Subset Condition (Berwick, 1985; Manzini & Wexler, 1987) can account for transfer phenomena observed in both L2 acquisition and L1 attrition. I argue that the subset relation that holds between the L1 and the L2 can be a predictor for the extent and duration of cross-linguistic transfer in L2 acquisition and L1 attrition. In other words, whether or not a particular property will resist L2 acquisition and undergo L1 attrition can be determined by looking at the subset relationship between the L1 and the L2 with respect to that property. / The prediction is that in configurations where the 'influencing language' (L1 in L2 acquisition and L2 in L1 attrition) is the superset of the 'affected language' (L2 in L2 acquisition and L1 in L1 attrition), L1 transfer effect will persist in L2 acquisition and we will see more signs of L2 transfer into the L1 grammar, resulting in more attrition effects. / Pronominal binding is chosen to investigate such cross-linguistic transfer effects. English and Turkish differ with respect to governing domains and types of pronominals present in two languages. Turkish, being a pro-drop language, allows null subject pronouns in main and embedded clauses. It also has a special type of anaphoric pronominal, kendisi, for which English has no corresponding form. / Two experiments were conducted to test L2 acquisition and L1 attrition of binding properties of Turkish overt and null subject pronouns under the influence of English. Participants included native English-speakers living in Turkey (end-state L2 Turkish speakers) and native Turkish-speakers living in North America (end-state L2 English speakers). Overall, results obtained from the two studies reveal cross-linguistic transfer effects in the manner predicted. In particular, properties of English overt pronouns (e.g., him/her) are transferred onto the overt Turkish pronoun o in L2 acquisition and in attrition, whereas properties of the Turkish null pronoun and the anaphoric pronominal kendisi are unaffected by English.

The purpose of this study is to see how preschool teachers can support multilingual children and promote their development in their first languages. It was chosen to look at a specific municipality to see how the preschool teachers there work with multilingual children. By using the method of structured interviews, it was learnt that they do, in fact, work actively with multilingual children. The preschool teachers interviewed received the same questions in order to make the answers as comparable and measurable as possible. The results seem to indicate that more resources are needed to fulfil the needs of children with another first language than Swedish. The representatives of the municipality have chosen to concentrate on the two foreign languages that are the most common among the multilingual children in the municipality, viz. Arabic and Somali. Children who have other first language receive no formal training in their first language in preschool. One reason for the modest number of first-language teachers in the municipality – one in Arabic and one in Somali – is the fact that it is hard to find and recruit qualified first-language teachers. / Syftet med denna undersökning är att se hur några pedagoger på förskolan kan stötta flerspråkiga barn och främja deras språkutveckling i modersmålet. En kommun valdes ut för att se hur de arbetar med flerspråkiga barn. Genom att använda metoden strukturerade intervjuer framkom att pedagogerna faktiskt arbetar aktivt med de flerspråkiga barnen. Resultaten verkar tyda på att det skulle behövas mer resurser för att tillgodose behoven hos de barn som har ett annat förstaspråk än svenska. Kommunens representanter har valt att koncentrera sig på de två språk som är vanligast bland kommunens flerspråkiga barn, nämligen arabiska och somaliska. Barn med andra förstaspråk får ingen formell undervisning i sina förstaspråk i förskolan. En anledning till det blygsamma antalet modersmålslärare i kommunen – en i arabiska och en i somaliska – är det faktum att det är svårt att hitta och rekrytera kvalificerade modersmålslärare.

The purpose of this study was to investigate aspects of cognitive styles in relationship to the academic orientation of Arab ESL students. More specifically, this study attempted to answer the following questions:1- What are the different cognitive styles Arab students use in their learning of English as a second language?2- To what degree do Arab students who possess different cognitive styles perform differently on the Michigan Test of English Language Proficiency?3- Are students' academic majors related to their proficiency in English as a second language?The subjects of this study were 82 students representing 11 Arab countries enrolled in ESL programs in four American universities. The Inventory of Learning Processes (Schmeck, Ribich, & Ramanaiah, 1977), was used to measure the students' cognitive styles and the Michigan Test of English Language Proficiency (MTELP) was used to measure their performance on English as a second language.Results of this study indicated that Arab students fall on a continuum of four different cognitive styles with Elaborative Processing being the most dominant cognitive style among Arab students (44% of students). Deep Processing and Fact Retention were the next two cognitive styles Arab students possessed (26%, 21 % of students respectively). Only 10% of students possessed the Study Methods cognitive style. There was no significant relationship between students' cognitive styles and their performance on English as a second language except for the weak positive relationship that existed between the cognitive style of Elaborative Processing and proficiency in English as a second language. It was also found that students' academic majors played a major role in their performance on MTELP. Literature majors performed significantly better than science majors in English as a second language.It was recommended that ESL instructors at American universities identify Arab students' cognitive styles by using ILP prior to their enrollment in ESL courses. It was also recommended that ESL instructors vary their teaching strategies and resources so that individual student's needs regarding cognitive style are met. Further research is needed to investigate the interaction between students' academic majors, their cognitive styles and their proficiency in English as a second language. It is also important to further explore the relationship between the Elaborative Processing scale and students' proficiency in English as a second language. / Department of Secondary, Higher, and Foundations of Education

This study was designed to examine the impact of rote repetition strategies (RRSs) on the retention of newly learned vocabulary items on both immediate recall test (IRT) and delayed recall test (DRT) in the Saudi Arabian English as a Foreign Language (EFL) context. The RRSs included in this study were the following:1. Silent repetition (SR): repeating the foreign word with its first language (Ll) translation silently2. Verbal repetition (VR): repeating the foreign word with its first language (L1) translation out loud3. Silent-written repetition (SWR): repeating the foreign word with its first language (Ll) translation silently while writing it down4. Verbal-written repetition (VWR): repeating the foreign word with its first language (L1) translation out loud while writing it downThe following hypotheses were investigated in this study:1. For Saudi EFL college learners rote repetition (RR) is an effective learning strategy in vocabulary learning for both short and long term retention.2. In terms of their impact on short-and-long-term retention, the four RR strategies investigated in this study are predicted to be ranked as follows: VWR > SWR > VR > SR.Four treatment groups with a total of one hundred and thirty three freshmen Saudi students majoring in English language and translation participated in this study. Each group was introduced to one of the above repetition strategies, trained to use the strategy, and instructed to carry out a vocabulary learning task using the specified strategy. The learning task was a memorization task of new English words with their Arabic equivalent translations. An iaanediate recall test (IRT) was administered right after the learning task was carried out followed by a one-week delayed recall test (DRT).The results obtained from participants' scores on both recall tests indicate that rote repetition strategies are effective strategies for Saudi EFL college students and help them in increasing their retention scores. The results also indicate that the SWR and VWR are more effective memorization strategies than VR and SR. The former strategies yielded better retention not only on the IRT but also on the DRT.College of Architecture / Department of English

This study investigates the fossilization and defossilization in the developing interlanguage of ESL students. The subjects were a group of 13 Japanese SL learners who studied at a U. S. University in an exchange program during 1994-95. The students' use of copula, auxiliaries, morphemes and syntactic structures was examined to see the degree to which there were interlanguage changes during the period. A close examination of SL production in form-focused contexts indicates that fossilized errors are more likely to occur when a number of particular conditions are not satisfied, involving a relatively automatized system of conveying meaning, an easy control of topic and a high degree of understanding of the target linguistic structure. / Department of English

Twenty-five computer scientists representing thirteen language groups at a highly respected university in Japan were surveyed and interviewed to identify the English writing products and processes characteristic of their professional work. Twenty-two major genres were identified and grouped according to purpose. Fourteen significant contextual factors that affected writing production and, ultimately, success in the field of computer science were also identified. Several models were proposed to provide an overview of the writing practices and products potentially illustrative of writing in the computer science field.In the second research phase, two detailed case studies were conducted involving one native and one non-native speaker of English to identify how English language proficiency affected professional practice. Efficiency was a major concern for both subjects but employed different strategies to make their work as efficient and productive as possible.The native speaker, for example, employed skillful use of the computer to gather, create, and store data that could be efficiently "chunked" and assembled into papers, either for publication or for obtaining valuable feedback from other professionals. The subject also thought a great deal about the expectations of his readers as well as the referees and editors who judged the quality of his work. He also revised his work extensively and recruited other professionals locally and abroad to assist him in refining his texts.The non-native speaker employed many of the same computer strategies for gathering and managing information; however, the added difficulty of functioning professionally in English severely limited his work pace and left too little time before deadlines to revise or solicit the amount of feedback he desired from his peers. His most effective strategy was co-authoring papers with native speakers of English who could handle most of the final editing and revising.In the final chapter, results of the surveys, interviews, and case studies were illustrated graphically in an algorithmic flowchart of professional writing practice, and educational applications for writing instruction as well as recommendations for additional research were also suggested / Department of English