The Swedish School Board reported in 2007 that students with a foreign background to a larger extent than Swedish students leave school without grades in one or more subjects in the ninth grade. The report also reveals that during the year 2007/2008 17 percent of elementary school pupils had the right to home language instruction. Students with an other mother tongue than Swedish are considered a separate group that doesn’t perform as well in school. My study investigates how eleven Arabic-speaking ninth-graders at age 15-16 perceive the importance of their mother tongue for learning and identity development. To this purpose I have conducted semi-structured interviews – one comprising six students in group and five individual – in a school in one of the suburbs of Stockholms. The theoretic point of departure for this study has been the social constructivist perspective. The result shows unambiguously that the students consider their mother tongue to be important for the learning and development of the second language. It is principally spoken Arabic that is used for attaining knowledge – the written language, which in Arabic is quite different from the spoken language, has its greatest significance in home language instruction. The result of the study also shows two informants identify themselves as arabs since Arabic is their mother tongue, while the rest of the students identify themselves with the Arabic culture, which constitutes a construction of ethnicity and contributes to demarcations between us and them. LyssnaLäs fonetisk Ordbok - Visa detaljerad ordbok

This thesis was concerned with coarticulatory patterns across various speech articulators and whether these can be accounted for by similar movement organization principles. Movements of the tongue dorsum, and the upper and lower pharynx, were recorded separately by a computerized ultrasound system during the production of vowel-consonant-vowel sequences. The movement amplitude, duration, and onset (relative to specific acoustic events) were computed for each articulator for a variety of speech gestures. It was shown that both spatial and temporal aspects of the movements varied in a similar manner for the three articulators as a function of the phonological context. The results indicate that spatiotemporal articulatory adjustments for vowels co-occur with the articulation of a consonant. This pattern can be accounted for by the notions of co-production and the 'spatial proximity' hypothesis.

Aim: The aim of this research was to measure functional intraoral pressures using a newly developed method; specifically, three areas were examined. Firstly, this new approach to measurement allowed the equilibrium theory of tooth position to be re-addressed. Secondly, it allowed investigation the patterns of pressure change in the palatal midline during water swallowing. Lastly, this approach allowed a preliminary investigation of the affect of the viscosity of the food ingested on the pressures generated in the mouth. Methods: The participants were 6 healthy volunteers (4 males, 2 females) recruited from the post-graduate students at the University of Otago, School of Dentistry. The age range was 25 to 35 years. All had full permanent dentitions, Angle Class I occlusions (normal) with acceptable overbite and overjet relationship, and none of them had a history of previous orthodontic treatment. For each of the subjects a cast chrome-cobalt baseplate was constructed to house 8 miniature strain gauge pressure transducers (Precision Measurement Co. Michigan). The location of the sensors were standardised as follows: Three sensors were paired on the buccal and lingual surfaces of the central, canine and first molar. Two palatal vault sensors were placed in the midline of the palate, one at level of the distal of the first premolar, and the second slightly anterior to the junction of the hard and soft palate. Simultaneous recordings were taken during a set of tasks including water swallows, saliva swallows and food ingestion. Results: The results showed that swallowing was a highly complex wellcoordinated event, and that each individual had their own unique signature pattern of swallowing, characterised by pressure changes of high frequency, in excess of �1000 kPa/s. Conclusions: The analysis of the pressure acting on the teeth showed that although the pattern and magnitude of pressure generated varied among the group, the observation of waveforms would suggest a tendency for no inherent balance between the buccal and the palatal pressures on the teeth during swallowing for any of the individuals tested. This investigation of the pressure in the midline revealed an aspect previously not fully explored; these experiments showed that there were large and persistent negative pressures generated during swallowing, that preceded the positive pressures and which appear important in bolus propulsion The patterns of swallowing and the magnitudes of pressure generated, changed with the different consistency of the various substances ingested. There was a general trend for increased pressures during swallowing of substrates that are more viscous; water showed the lowest pressures, followed by saliva and finally jelly. Keywords: Tongue pressure, Intraoral pressures, Tongue dynamics, Swallowing.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hong Kong, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references (leaf 132-174) Also available in print.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hong Kong, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references (leaf 132-174) Also available online.

Thesis (M.S.)--Brigham Young University. Dept. of Audiology and Speech-Language Pathology, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 60-63).

Thesis (M.S.)--Brigham Young University. Dept. of Audiology and Speech-Language Pathology, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 40-45).

This research project is mainly a study of attitudes towards Afrikaans and its setworks by non-mother-tongue speakers in Grades 10 - 12 in an English Government school. The approach taken to this research was a combined one. This was as a result of gathering information through both qualitative and quantitative methods. Grade 10 - 12 learners completed questionnaires in which they indicated their attitudes which were then arranged according to qualitative research. Focus groups were also allocated that can be viewed as qualitative research. The Grade 10 - 12 learners were questioned in smaller groups as to their attitudes to language and their preferences regarding the teaching of poetry. The main research aims, answered in Chapter 4, are the following: <ul> <li>to determine whether non-mother-tongue learners in Grades 10 - 12 are negative towards the language Afrikaans,</li> <li>to determine the attitude of non-mother-tongue learners towards poetry,</li> <li>to determine the attitudes of non-mother-tongue learners regarding teaching methods, and</li> <li>to recommend which aims are acceptable when teaching poetry within a South African context to non-mother-tongue learners.</li> </ul> The research that involved the learners was completed in July 2006. One hundred Grade 12 learners were involved in the pilot study towards the end of their academic year in 2005. This study required the learners to indicate their feelings regarding their set poems. In 2006, two hundred-and-forty Grade 10 - 12 learners at the same school were involved in answering a more comprehensive questionnaire. This included: the themes they prefer; whether they ever read poetry by choice; and whether the teaching that they received at school, inspired them enough to become life-long poetry readers. The questionnaire also contained an attitude indicator which allowed learners to demonstrate whether they enjoyed something, felt neutral, or did not like it at all. This allowed their attitudes regarding teaching and assessment methods, as well as the compilation of a poetry syllabus with possible themes to be made known. After the information had been processed by the researcher’s statistic analyst, it was found that learners are generally more positive towards the language Afrikaans (61.59%), but are negative towards certain aspects of the poetry syllabus. The learners demonstrated that they did not enjoy group work. This is, however, a problem because this is a prerequisite for the Grades 10 – 12 syllabi. A recommendation was made that the educator must give thought to how he or she is going to implement group work. When learners are led in a meaningful way during group work sessions, they will feel that their interpretation is also validated. A further issue that the research highlighted as problematic are the types of poem that are currently prescribed. Learners did, for example, indicate that they did not enjoy analysing poems about death and war. However, the two poems “Begrafnis van ‘n ouma” and “Foto van man wat val” relating to these themes were positively received during the research. A recommendation is made that educators should not necessarily shy away from themes that learners dislike, but perhaps educators could spend the time looking at the type of poem on these themes that could be set. Chapter 5 suggests a model for the teaching of poetry to non-mother-tongue speakers. It offers questions suitable for Afrikaans First Additional Language and the poems were selected according to popular themes as indicated by learners. This research project suggests that non-mother-tongue learners can be motivated to enjoy Afrikaans poetry. This is dependent on the teaching methodology employed; the type of prescribed poems taught; and learners’ attitudes towards Afrikaans as a language. These factors influence their attitude towards Afrikaans in general. / Dissertation (MA (Afrikaans))--University of Pretoria, 2007. / Afrikaans / unrestricted

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Submitted in partial fulfillment for the requirements of the Degree of Master of Arts in the Department of Afrikaans in the Faculty of Arts at the University of Zululand, South Africa, 1995. / The aim of the research was to identify the role of mother tongue influence in the Afrikaans of Zulu speaking pupils. The research was conducted in the Mehlwesizwe and Hlabisa inspection circuits respectively. The results showed that most deviations which could be ascribed to mother tongue influence were syntactic. Followed by lexical phonological and morphological deviations that there was a need for the use of the communicative approach in the teaching of Afrikaans which can result in the pupils being able to communicate in the language . Successful communication would determine whether the language is correct or not. The amount of exposure to Afrikaans as well as the residential area of the respondent did not necessarily determine the measure of proficiency in the language. The results also showed that Afrikaans occupies third place after the mother tongue and English in the research area. So is it fair to teach pupils a second language higher grade syllabus in Afrikaans ? Why not make provision for a second Language lower grade or even a third language Afrikaans sylabus?