<p>Syftet med den här studien är att undersöka vad det innebär att gå från att vara illitterat till att bli litterat med fokus på den enskilde individen. Syftet är också att undersöka vad den studerande inom så kallade alfabetiseringsprogram anser att undervisningen bör innehålla när det gäller metoder, material och upplägg.</p><p>Studien utgår från frågeställningar om hur informanterna upplever att de blev alfabetiserade och vilka tankar om läsning och skrivning de hade under sin alfabetisering, vilka förändringar de upplever att läs- och skrivinlärningen har inneburit för dem och vilka inställningar de har till alfabetiseringsundervisningens innehåll, utformning och material?</p><p>Metoderna för att få svar på dessa frågor är litteraturstudier i kombination med tre djupintervjuer. Informanterna är personer som har alfabetiserats i Sverige och även studerat svenska inom sfi-undervisning.</p><p>Resultatet visar att alfabetisering, enligt en västerländsk skoltradition, möjliggör för den enskilde individen att bli mer delaktig i samhället, öppnar vägar mot arbete och vidare utbildning, förändrar tankesätt och även beteende i olika avseenden. Alfabetiseringen har inneburit självständighet och ökat självförtroende för informanterna. Lärarens förhållningssätt, delaktighet vid planering av undervisningen och att innehållet präglas av variation och flexibilitet är viktiga förutsättningar för goda studieresultat.</p><p><strong> </strong></p>

The digit span test has long been used in the study and evaluation of memory processes in children. The study of memory processes in bilingual children has received only limited attention. The purpose of the present study was to examine the influences of bilingual interference, English proficiency, and item familiarity on a task of short-term memory. One-hundred nineteen third grade subjects were assigned to one of four groups based on their language background and ethnicity. Subjects were administered the Digit Span subtest from the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Revised in English as well as a test of general ability, the Coloured Progressive Matrices, and a reaction time measure, item identification. The data were analyzed using ANOVA and multiple regression procedures. Results showed that Mexican-American bilingual subjects who were proficient in English performed comparably to monolingual Mexican-American subjects. These results were discussed in terms of their support for the dual storage and independence positions of bilingual memory. Results of the data analysis also revealed a small but significant direct causal link between English proficiency level and digit span. This finding was discussed in terms of its support for the use of digit span measures with bilingual Mexican-American children providing the students have been determined to be proficient in English on a standardized measure. A final finding of the present study concerned the absence of a role for item familiarity as an intervening variable between English proficiency level and digit span. Results showed a direct association between English proficiency level and reaction time, but no significant association between reaction time and digit span. Implications of the current findings were discussed in relation to relevant theory and prior research findings.

No description available.

The objective of this study is to trace the relationship between oveit and covert acculturation and bilingualism in the Colombian Indian community of Guambia. The first section describes the ten indicators of innovative behaviour that form the Overt Acculturation Scale, on the basis of which the informants were allocated to three Acculturation Categories. These indicators, weighted according to their relative importance for the Guambianos, are: dress and language; occupation, migration and education; reciprocal labour, goods and the home, ritual and medicine, and access to the media. Acculturation has noticeably affected very few. These form an elite of well-educated young men who wear Western clothes, have specialised occupations and skills, and are well-acquainted with White culture and society through personal ties, migration and the media. All others are distributed along a continuum, taking more or less from the White World. Secondly, imaginative stories told in Guambiano and Spanish to a series of pictures by the informants were analysed for signs of covert acculturation. Six hypotheses were statistically tested which held that the ethnic identity of the characters portrayed, as Guambiano or White, would affect their personalities, actions, aims, interactions and emotions. Also, the acculturational level of the story- teller and the language used would affect the content, except for emotion. In Guambiano all display similar beliefs in traditional values and a similar acculturated are fav achievement-oriented show ambivalence and people and culture. Thirdly, these ethnocentrism; in Spanish the highly curable to White characters and more and ambitious, the slightly acculturated the unacculturated defend their own same stories were used to investigate bilingual proficiency. The range of syntactic constructions used in the two languages, the range of vocabulary found in Spanish, and the levels of grammatical and lexical interference in both languages were used as measures of oral productive proficiency. The majority shows sufficient proficiency in Spanish for inter-group communication, but some few have only a passive knowledge and others prove more fluent than in Guambiano on the test. The major conclusion is that the Guambianos' strong ethnic identity - symbolised in their dress, language, land and work - prevents greater acculturation. At present only the highly acculturated elite is innovative and bicultural, while the majority seeks to maintain its cultural heritage. It is economic interaction, not bilingualism, that will probably lead to eventual wholesale modification, since the Guambiano language remains strong but the economic situation grows ever worse.

From the perspective of cognitive psychology, our knowledge of language can be viewed as mental representations and our use of language can be understood as the computation or processing of mental representations. This thesis explores the mental representation and processing of syntactic structure. The method used in this thesis is structural priming, a phenomenon in which people tend to repeat the linguistic structure that they have recently processed. The language under investigation is Chinese. The main research theme is divided up into four different questions. The first question is how syntactic structure is mentally represented. For a long time this has been a question for syntacticians whose main evidence is their intuition. There are, however, recent calls for experimental methods in the investigation of syntactic representation. I propose that structural priming can be used as an experimental approach to the investigation of syntactic representation. More specifically, structural priming can illuminate the constituent structure of a syntactic construction and help us determine which syntactic analysis corresponds to the representation of the construction. Three structural priming experiments on some controversial constructions in Mandarin were reported to show that structural priming can be used to distinguish alternative analyses of a syntactic construction. The second question concerns the use of thematic and lexical information in grammatical encoding in sentence production. Models of grammatical encoding differ in the locus of conceptual effects on grammatical encoding and the extent to which grammatical encoding is lexically guided. Five experiments were reported on these two issues. First, the results indicate that thematic information affects grammatical encoding by prompting the processor map thematic roles onto the same linear order as they were previously mapped. Though conceptual information was previously believed to only affect the assignment of grammatical functions (e.g., subject and object) to nouns (i.e., functional processing), this finding suggests that it can influence the linear order of sentence constituents (i.e., positional processing) as well. The results also show that the processor persists in using the same argument structure of the verb, implying that grammatical encoding is lexically guided to some extent. The third question concerns the processing of verb-phrase (VP) ellipsis in comprehension. Previous research on this topic disagrees on whether the interpretation of VP ellipsis is based over the syntactic or semantic representation of the antecedent and whether the antecedent representation is copied or reconstructed at the ellipsis site. An experiment was presented and the results show no structural priming effect from the ellipsis site. This suggests that no syntactic structure is reconstructed at the ellipsis and possibly no copying of the antecedent structure either. The results then favour a semantic account of VP ellipsis processing. The last question concerns the lexico-syntactic representation of cognates in Cantonese-Mandarin bilinguals. Previous research has paid little attention as to whether cognates have shared or distinct lemmas in bilinguals. Two experiments show that the structural priming effect from the cognate of a verb was smaller than from the verb itself, suggesting that Cantonese/Mandarin cognates have distinct rather than shared lemmas, though the syntactic information associated with cognates is collectively represented across the two languages. At the end of the thesis, I discussed the implications of these empirical studies and directions of further research.

This study assesses the scope of the Crosslinguistic Influence (CLI) hypothesis’ predictions with regard to early bilingual acquisition. To this end, we analyze longitudinal corpus data from four bilinguals attesting the acquisition of subjecthood (null versus overt; preverbal versus postverbal) and the pragmatic adequacy of early null and overt subjects in a null-subject language (i.e., Spanish) in combination with a language differing in its pro-drop parameter setting (i.e., English). Our results indicate that CLI barely affects the development of subjects in the null-subject language at the initial stages, namely at the outset of null and overt subjects, and in turn support the Separate Development Hypothesis. Our bilingual cohort patterns with their Spanish-acquiring monolingual peer in that both groups display comparable proportions of null subjects as well as acquisitional trajectories of null and overt subjects at the early stages of acquisition. Much like monolinguals, bilinguals begin to produce preverbal and postverbal subjects concurrently. The bilingual children and the monolingual child of this study actually produce extremely high rates of pragmatically appropriate covert and overt subjects, which are for the most part target-like from the start, thus pointing to the absence of CLI effects. In light of monolingual and bilingual data, the paper also revisits the hotly debated issue of the ‘no overt subject’ stage of Grinstead (1998, et seq.), its existence in child Spanish being questionable.

Bilingualism and multilingualism are phenomena dominantly present in today’s globalized world. Sweden is not an exception and its international character is apparent in all domains, such as politics, business and education. English is perceived more as a second language rather a foreign one, taking into consideration the numerous bilingual and international schools of the country that promote the acquisition of Swedish and English from an early age. Teaching in bilingual classrooms may cause challenges due to students’ different linguistic abilities and background and thus, teachers are responsible to maintain a balance between both languages. The particular study has a two-fold aim; at first place, it analyzes theories of bilingualism that are directly related to pedagogical and teaching practices as well as the relation between bilingualism and brain functions. The purpose is to identify how these theories are reflected into everyday classrooms through teachers’ methods. The second part of the research is the examination of the contextual background of Sweden in terms of linguistic hierarchy, the aims of society to bilingual education and laws regarding languages and teacher training. The purpose is to outline the extent to which this background is applied into actual contexts. Therefore, the third part is the empirical study that is a comparative case-study through a qualitative approach into two bilingual schools in Sweden. The central focus is on teachers’ opinions about challenges, teaching methods and personal reflections and the identification of differences and similarities. The critical analysis of the three main parts enables the researcher to reach conclusions where certain points and issues are outlined along with possible solutions. The goal of the study is not the generalization of data but a focus on individuals and reflection of real situations that sets the basis for research in larger scales.

This study attempted to investigate the effects of aphasia on word retrieval skills in a bilingual (Spanish-English) anomic patient. Two aspects of word finding difficulties were considered. First, an attempt was made to determine whether the patient exhibited the same degree of difficulty in both languages. Second, after the presentation of three different types of facilatory cues (initial syllable, sentence completion, translated word) the correct number of correct responses per cue were analyzed to determine whether or not the same kinds of cues were equally effective in English and in Spanish. Results indicated that word retrieval was affected to essentially the same degree in both languages, with performance in Spanish only slightly better than in English. Cue effectiveness also appeared to differ across languages.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Boston University / PLEASE NOTE: Boston University Libraries did not receive an Authorization To Manage form for this thesis or dissertation. It is therefore not openly accessible, though it may be available by request. If you are the author or principal advisor of this work and would like to request open access for it, please contact us at open-help@bu.edu. Thank you. / The lives of eleven Latino subjects meeting strict language proficiency criteria were examined as individuals, students, peers, family members, and as members of their community. The students became bilingual and biliterate over time, having arrived in the United States as children with limited English proficiency. Factors believed to have contributed to their bilingual status were categorized in the areas of home, school, individual and society. These were identified through questionnaire, interviews and accountings of academic histories. Language proficiency was measured with story retelling tasks in each language, and scores on the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) and Spanish Advanced Placement exams. Each subject became bilingual and biliterate through varied and complex circumstances. The data revealed factors that interacted in different ways for each of the subjects although they reached the same results of bilingualism and biliteracy. Two factors, however, were present in each case. One was the use of Spanish in the homes as the dominant language of the parents, and the other was the participation in Spanish language arts classes in high school. The subjects exhibited values such as loyalty to the family, respect for elders and figures of authority, a strong work ethic, and a positive perception of both the Latino identity and the Spanish language. They had all been instructed in bilingual education programs. The Spanish language arts program at the high school provided the subjects with a challenging curriculum in Spanish. They shared the perception that the high school as well as society regarded them with respect as bilingual and biliterate Latinos. The subjects held a strong image of themselves as Latinos proud to be mastering English while educated in both languages. All eleven subjects believed that Spanish was integral to their lives and that learning English did not have to be at the expense of the continued development of Spanish. / 2031-01-01

Thesis advisor: Susan Bruce / The prevalence of children with severe and multiple disabilities who come from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds increased considerably with the rise of immigration to the U.S. However, there is very little research about the way that children with disabilities who come from a culturally and linguistically diverse background communicate and develop communication skills (Mueller, Singer, & Carranza, 2006). Furthermore, there is no established term for describing this group of children. That is why this study uses the term Prelinguistic bilinguals to define individuals who use one or more languages at a nonverbal level in their everyday lives. This definition of prelinguistic bilinguals was built upon Grosjean’s (2010) definition of bilingualism. Knowing how prelinguistic bilingual children communicate and develop communication skills is fundamental for their educational team in order to effectively interact and support the children’s communication, which in turn would have a positive effect on their learning outcomes. The main goals of this study were to describe the communication of prelinguistic bilingual children and to learn more about what teachers, teacher assistants, speech language pathologists, and parents do to support their communication in English and Spanish. This qualitative study uses a constructivist theory approach to make in-case and across-case analyses of three case studies. Findings for the study indicated that prelinguistic bilingual children were not only aware of a difference between the two languages, but could also express a preference for one of their languages. Most of the communication supports that the participating adults provided for prelinguistic bilingual children were the same communication supports used for monolingual children developing language, which did not consider the children’s bilingual needs. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2018. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Teacher Education, Special Education, Curriculum and Instruction.