Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1972. / Typescript. Vita. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliography.

Duisburg, Essen, Universiẗat, Diss., 2005. / Text dt. und pers.

Th.--Linguist.--Paris 5, 1986.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Georgetown University, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references.

A Division III examination in the School of Cognitive Science, Hampshire College, May 2010. Chairperson, Steven Weisler. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references.

No description available.

Master of Arts / Department of Modern Languages / Young-Ok Yum / Writing well, especially in English, is an asset to anyone who aspires to succeed in the academic or other professional fields in this age of English as a lingua franca. Numerous scholars have investigated errors committed by English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) learners. However, to date there is no empirical study on the error patterns displayed in native Dari speakers’ EFL writing in English and in Dari. The present study investigates error occurrences in 20 native Dari speakers’ English and Dari writing. These participants were English majors attending Balkh University, in Mazar-i-Sharif, Afghanistan. Most of the participants self-identified their English proficiency levels as “advanced.” The data were collected through convenience sampling of the students enrolled in EFL writing courses who voluntarily participated in two writing tasks of different levels of difficulty; they completed these first in English and then a week later in Dari. In order to observe any patterns, all spelling and word choice errors were identified by three independent judges (one Dari instructor at BU, one native-American-English-speaking graduate student in the English Department, and the author who is bilingual and works as an English instructor). All three worked separately initially and then discussed any discrepancies together in person (English) or via Skype (Dari), until they reached consensus. The analysis, concerning the three research hypotheses, supported these findings: (1) as predicted, the native Dari speakers committed a variety of errors similar to learners from previous studies; (2) as predicted, the participants made fewer errors in English than in Dari; and (3) counter to the hypothesis, the results indicated that the participants, when writing in Dari, demonstrated more errors in the simpler tasks; yet, the participants committed more errors in the more complex (versus simpler) English writing task, consistent with this hypothesis.

Master of Arts / Department of Modern Languages / Mary T. Copple / The English article system is one of the most difficult and subtle structural elements for EFL learners, and even advanced learners make errors in article use. This research analyzes patterns of use of English articles (a/an, the, zero) in guided conversations with Afghan Dari speakers who are intermediate or advanced English learners and who do have an article system in their primary language, Dari. In this research, six intermediate and six advanced learners participated by discussing similar topics (their first impressions of the USA, their life in Manhattan, their classes, and their future plans). These conversations were recorded and transcribed. The collected data were analyzed on the basis of referentiality, information status, and various properties of nouns. The results indicate that the participants were most accurate in their production of the indefinite article ‘a/an’ in referential and non-referential contexts with new information, the definite ‘the’ in referential contexts with known information, while the zero ‘Ø’ was difficult for both ELP (intermediate) and Post-ELP (advanced) learners mostly in referential contexts.

This paper presents an analysis of grammatical errors and the frequency with which they occur in compositions written in English by Afghan students.This analysis will account for the causes of errors such as interference of native language, lack of knowledge, carelessness, overgeneralization, and interference in English.The data used for this study were a set of 24 compositions obtained from the American Center English Courses in Kabul, Afghanistan. Compositions were written in class and topics were chosen by the instructor.The errors were classified into five major groups of concept, form, structure, vocabulary, and punctuation. The errors in concept, form, and structure were divided into sub-groups and analyzed on the basis of possible causes for errors. Since this is a limited piece of research, causes of vocabulary and punctuation errors were not analyzed.The conclusion of the analysis shows that the high percentage of 36.6 of errors is due to lack of knowledge, 36.8% is due to interference of the native language, 5.4% is due to overgeneralization, 9.1% is due to carelessness, and 10% is due to interference in English.

Syftet med den här uppsatsen är att visa på komplexiteten som de språkliga varieteterna utgör genom ett specifikt läkar-patientsamtal och hur tolken och de övriga deltagarna hanterar detta. Den teoretiska ansatsen är inspirerad av diskursanalys och bygger på mikroanalyser av transkriberade samtalsutdrag. Materialet består av ett autentiskt ljudinspelat samtal mellan en svensktalande läkare och en patient som talar dari med inslag av hazāragi och som tolkas av en persisktalande tolk. Det inspelade samtalet har transkriberats, översatts och analyserats på mikronivå med fokus på tolkens språkliga utmaningar. Utmaningarna har delats upp i en del som har att göra med patientens dari och den del som har att göra med läkarens svenska. De språkligt motiverade utmaningarna som tolken möter visar sig komma från båda samtalsdeltagarna, det vill säga både patientens dari med hazāragi-inslag och läkarens svenska med ofta långa resonemang. Utmaningarna ter sig olika och tolken har olika strategier för att hantera dem.