The process of migration has resulted in population growth and contributed to the transformation of New Zealand. Migrant and refugee children face many adjustment factors and their ease in resettling in New Zealand is largely dependent on their ability to learn English. Migration stress, change, trauma and loss may result in psychological difficulties which in turn may affect their resettling and learning. The Ministry of Education and other professionals work together to enhance the quality of their service provision to facilitate easier adjustment, resettlement and effective learning for these children. An adequate assessment battery for speech language therapists to assess migrant and refugee children, is presently lacking in New Zealand. Therapists currently use various assessments, with the assistance of interpreters. The New Zealand Speech Therapists’ Association (NZSTA), in accordance with speech therapists in Group Special Education (GSE), strongly supports the need for research with these groups and the development of an appropriate assessment battery. This exploratory study aimed to determine an assessment battery for use in examining English language acquisition in refugee and migrant children and to highlight the benefit of using measurement tools that determine incremental change over time in contrast to the use of monolingual psychometric tests. The study explored a selected assessment battery and gathered data in five main focus areas, namely: cognition, language, trauma, classroom behaviour, developmental and birth information. Eligible children were those who did not have physiologically - impaired cognitive abilities. Eight cases, four refugee and four migrant students, were selected by convenience sampling. All participants were children selected from primary school 1 (three refugees and three migrants) and primary school 2 (one refugee and one migrant) primary schools, aged approximately (5-8 years). Participants included four male and four females, refugee and migrant children, and those with both high and low English ability. Based on the study’s results, recommendations were made to refine the test battery, which included test modification. For example, the use of the trauma measurement tool only if there is prior evidence of trauma, the inclusion of a larger test population who have a common primary language to allow for cost effective interpreter use and to also allow for generalisations to be made, the inclusion of an assessment of the children’s primary language in order to determine the relationship, development and acquisition of the child’s second language with reference to his/her development and skills in his native language. All of the refugee children and 3 migrant children displayed slower processing time during the administration of the tests. Migrant parents were quicker in test completion as compared to refugee parents. They displayed differences in family size, contact with extended family, socioeconomic status and educational level. Migrant children produced sentences that included correct word order and sequence whilst refugee children produced sentences that lacked adequate word order or lacked articles and determiners. The study found the proposed test battery was an effective choice for use in the assessment of both migrant and refugee children, as the battery allows for dynamic assessment of children from diverse groups and this proved to be an unbiased means of assessing their English language and cognitive skills. Recommendations are made for future, more-extensive research. These findings provide information about appropriate and reliable language acquisition tests that measure incremental change with time. This study will contribute to a developing knowledge base for speech-language therapists who work with migrant or refugee children. Effective assessment on which to base tailored language programmes will assist them to optimise their experience in New Zealand schools and enhance their English language skills.

The process of migration has resulted in population growth and contributed to the transformation of New Zealand. Migrant and refugee children face many adjustment factors and their ease in resettling in New Zealand is largely dependent on their ability to learn English. Migration stress, change, trauma and loss may result in psychological difficulties which in turn may affect their resettling and learning. The Ministry of Education and other professionals work together to enhance the quality of their service provision to facilitate easier adjustment, resettlement and effective learning for these children. An adequate assessment battery for speech language therapists to assess migrant and refugee children, is presently lacking in New Zealand. Therapists currently use various assessments, with the assistance of interpreters. The New Zealand Speech Therapists’ Association (NZSTA), in accordance with speech therapists in Group Special Education (GSE), strongly supports the need for research with these groups and the development of an appropriate assessment battery. This exploratory study aimed to determine an assessment battery for use in examining English language acquisition in refugee and migrant children and to highlight the benefit of using measurement tools that determine incremental change over time in contrast to the use of monolingual psychometric tests. The study explored a selected assessment battery and gathered data in five main focus areas, namely: cognition, language, trauma, classroom behaviour, developmental and birth information. Eligible children were those who did not have physiologically - impaired cognitive abilities. Eight cases, four refugee and four migrant students, were selected by convenience sampling. All participants were children selected from primary school 1 (three refugees and three migrants) and primary school 2 (one refugee and one migrant) primary schools, aged approximately (5-8 years). Participants included four male and four females, refugee and migrant children, and those with both high and low English ability. Based on the study’s results, recommendations were made to refine the test battery, which included test modification. For example, the use of the trauma measurement tool only if there is prior evidence of trauma, the inclusion of a larger test population who have a common primary language to allow for cost effective interpreter use and to also allow for generalisations to be made, the inclusion of an assessment of the children’s primary language in order to determine the relationship, development and acquisition of the child’s second language with reference to his/her development and skills in his native language. All of the refugee children and 3 migrant children displayed slower processing time during the administration of the tests. Migrant parents were quicker in test completion as compared to refugee parents. They displayed differences in family size, contact with extended family, socioeconomic status and educational level. Migrant children produced sentences that included correct word order and sequence whilst refugee children produced sentences that lacked adequate word order or lacked articles and determiners. The study found the proposed test battery was an effective choice for use in the assessment of both migrant and refugee children, as the battery allows for dynamic assessment of children from diverse groups and this proved to be an unbiased means of assessing their English language and cognitive skills. Recommendations are made for future, more-extensive research. These findings provide information about appropriate and reliable language acquisition tests that measure incremental change with time. This study will contribute to a developing knowledge base for speech-language therapists who work with migrant or refugee children. Effective assessment on which to base tailored language programmes will assist them to optimise their experience in New Zealand schools and enhance their English language skills.

The developmental appropriateness of the English language arts essential elements for kindergarten children in the State of Texas was evaluated by surveying the opinions of thirty-six kindergarten teachers in one school district. A questionnaire was developed using the essential elements so that respondents could record a yes or no opinion and supply additional comments on each essential element. Ninety-seven percent of the teachers responded. The results indicated rates of agreement for developmental appropriateness by the teachers surveyed to be 100% for language, 95% for listening, 94% for speaking and reading and 81% for writing.

published_or_final_version / abstract / Humanities / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

published_or_final_version / Linguistics / Master / Master of Arts in Applied Linguistics

<p>Ova doktorska disertacija ima za cilj sticanje naučnog saznanja o nivou i<br />značaju uticaja verbalno-vizuelnog materijala sa sredstava vizuelnih komunikacija na<br />usvajanje vokabulara engleskog kao stranog jezika. Dosada&scaron;nja istraživanja vezana za<br />ovu temu se uglavnom usredsređuju na mlađi uzrast učenika, dok se ova disertacija<br />bavi proučavanjem pomenute pojave na univerzitetskom nivou ˗ kod studenata<br />engleskog jezika i književnosti.<br />Ovo istraživanje je bazirano na četiri izvora podataka: (1) upitniku koji su<br />popunili studenti prve, druge, treće i četvrte godine (N=71) s ciljem da omogući op&scaron;te<br />podatke o studentima i da se stekne uvid u njihova mi&scaron;ljenja i stavove o upotrebi<br />verbalno-vizuelnog materijala u nastavi vokabulara, kao i o značaju sredstava<br />vizuelnih komunikacija na usvajanje vokabulara engleskog kao stranog jezika; (2)<br />testu kao sastavnom delu eksperimenta sa paralelnim grupama, koji je sproveden na<br />uzorku studenata druge i četvrte godine (N=41) gde je verbalno-vizuelni materijal<br />kori&scaron;ćen kao eksperimentalni faktor; (3) izve&scaron;tajima koje su studenti eksperimentalnih<br />grupa imali obavezu da pi&scaron;u nakon obavljene nastave vokabulara kako bi na taj način<br />autorka dobila jasniju sliku i detaljnije podatke o sprovedenoj eksperimentalnoj<br />nastavi i (4) intervjuu koji je obavljen sa odabranim studentima iz eksperimentalnih i<br />kontrolnih grupa druge i četvrte godine (20 intervjua). Na ovaj način, istraživanjem<br />koje se oslanja na četiri izvora podataka, prikupljeni su detaljni podaci o pojavi koja<br />se istražuje, a time se obezbeđuje pouzdanost i validnost metodologije koja je<br />kori&scaron;ćena.<br />Rezultati istraživanja su analizirani kvantitativno i kvalitativno. Na osnovu<br />konačnih rezultata dobijenih analizom celokupnog materijala, može se zaključiti da je<br />uticaj verbalno-vizuelnog materijala sa sredstava vizuelnih komunikacija na usvajanje<br />vokabulara engleskog kao stranog jezika generalno pozitivan. Takođe, primećeno je<br />da je taj uticaj statistički značajan kod usvajanja značenja i pisanja reči, ali ne i kod<br />usvajanja oblika i manje-frekventnih reči. Iako su mi&scaron;ljenja i stavovi studenata o<br />značaju verbalno-vizuelnog materijala, kao i o sprovedenoj eksperimentalnoj nastavi<br />pozitivni, uočeno je da oni od svih strategija učenja vokabulara najređe koriste<br />strategije pamćenja koje podrazumevaju kori&scaron;ćenje verbalno-vizuelnog materijala.<br />Potencijal ovog istraživanja je u tome &scaron;to se daju predlozi za podučavanje vokabulara<br />engleskog kao stranog jezika sa upotrebom vi&scaron;e verbalno-vizuelnog materijala na<br />univerzitetskom nivou, sa ciljem da se pomogne studentima da &scaron;to lak&scaron;e i uspe&scaron;nije<br />usvoje nove reči, ali i u cilju postizanja kreativnijeg i zanimljivijeg okruženja u samoj<br />nastavi.</p> / <p>This thesis aims to explain the level and the importance of visual-verbal<br />material influence on EFL vocabulary acquisition. The previous studies on this topic<br />focus mainly on younger learners, while this thesis examines the research<br />phenomenon at the university level among English language and literature students.<br />The research is based on four data sources: (1) the questionnaire which was<br />completed by all the students (N=71) with the aim to provide general data of the<br />sample and to get the clearer picture about their thoughts and attitudes towards using<br />visual-verbal material in the classroom, as well as towards the importance and the<br />influence of visual communication on EFL vocabulary acquisition; (2) the test as a<br />part of the experiment with parallel groups, conducted with the second and the fourth<br />year students (N=41) where visual-verbal material was used as an experimental<br />factor; (3) the narratives which students of the two experimental groups were obliged<br />to write after vocabulary classes, in order to provide broad picture and more precise<br />data about the experimental classes, and (4) the interview with the selected students<br />from both year of study experimental and control groups (20 interviews). This kind of<br />research, based on these four data sources, was the way to collect the precise data<br />about the research phenomenon, and also to provide the reliability and the validity of<br />the used methodology.<br />The results of the research were analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively. On<br />the basis of the final results, it can be concluded that the influence of the visual-verbal<br />material on EFL vocabulary acquisition is generally positive. It is also noticed that the<br />influence on the acquisition of word meaning and spelling was statistically significant,<br />but the influence on acquisition of word form and low-frequency words was not<br />statistically significant. Although students&rsquo; attitudes towards the importance of visualverbal<br />material and conducted experimental classes are positive, it is noticed that<br />students very rarely use memory strategies (visual-verbal material usage). The<br />potential of this research lies in the prepositions of teaching EFL vocabulary at the<br />university level with more visual-verbal annotations, with the aim to help students in<br />easier and more successful acquisition of English language vocabulary, as well as in<br />order to help teachers in achieving more creative and more interesting surrounding for<br />EFL vocabulary classes.<br />&nbsp;</p>

All in all, the thesis tries to fill the research gap in the study of English pronunciation in a Hong Kong context. It exhausts the pronunciation of all types of English consonant clusters by native Cantonese learners of English, provides experimental studies to investigate the most effective approach to the acquisition of English consonant clusters, and applies Optimality Theory to elucidate the pronunciation phenomena found among Cantonese learners of English. / Apart from the inquiry into language pedagogy, this thesis also analyses and expounds the language phenomena of consonant cluster production through the application of Optimality Theory. From the data of the pre-test and post-tests, the pronunciation modification phenomena of subjects were summarised and analysed. It is found that subjects produced pronunciation forms that resembled that of native English speakers, but at the same time they produced forms that deviated from that of native English speakers. The most frequent pronunciation modifications are substitution and deletion. / Optimality Theory argues that phonological differences between languages are the results of the differences in the ranking of universal constraints; therefore, the preference towards certain modification phenomena and the production of certain pronunciation forms by Cantonese speakers can be viewed as the differences in the ranking of constraints between English and Cantonese. In the interlanguage phonology of Cantonese speakers, words like pray /pre I/ and find /faInd/ could become [pe I] and [faIn] phonetically. This can be explained by assuming that the English words are input to a phonology in which *COMPLEX (complex onset or coda is not permissible) is highly ranked, and that in order to observe this constraint, Cantonese learners of English might apply deletion to delete a consonant in syllables with consonant clusters. / Yam Pui Suen, Josephine. / "June 2005." / Advisers: G. Gong; J. Hung. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 67-01, Section: A, page: 0170. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 202-214). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. [Ann Arbor, MI] : ProQuest Information and Learning, [200-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, MI : ProQuest Information and Learning Company, [200-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / School code: 1307.

Um problema comum a muitos alunos de inglês como língua estrangeira EFL (English as Foreign Language) é a dificuldade em elaborar um discurso objetivo ou se expressar de uma forma coesa, clara e compreensiva. Acreditamos que parte do problema reside na dificuldade em empregar elementos de ligação que estabeleçam a coesão seqüencial entre sentenças e orações. Por essa razão, analisamos tanto o papel das conjunções nas produções escritas dos aprendizes como também o tratamento dado à coesão intersentencial e intrasentencial nos livros didáticos de EFL em três escolas de idiomas do estado de Pernambuco. Através da análise dos dados coletados nesta pesquisa (27 aprendizes), conclui-se que há uma limitação em relação ao uso das conjunções em produções escritas dos aprendizes de inglês como língua estrangeira, tomando como base a Lingüística Textual e a tabela das conjunções de Halliday e Hasan (1982). Observou-se que a produção escrita dos aprendizes soa, na maioria das vezes, desordenada, repetitiva e desconexa, limitando-se ao uso das conjunções and, but, so e because. Espera-se, com os resultados aqui obtidos, chamar a atenção de professores de inglês, pesquisadores e autores de livros didáticos (EFL) para a importância dos conectivos no processo de ensino-aprendizagem da língua Inglesa em sala de aula / Most EFL students fail to elaborate an objective discourse and express themselves in a cohesive, clear and understandable way. We assume that part of the problem resides in their difficulty to use linking words to join simple and complex sentences. For this reason, we analyzed the role of conjunctions in written texts and how the EFL books deal with them. This research has been done with the participation of 27 EFL students who study at three different private English schools in the state of Pernambuco. As a result of this work, we conclude that there is a sort of limitation on the use of the conjunctions (linking words) in written texts produced by Brazilian EFL students. As a result of this research, we conclude that the use of conjunctions by the EFL students at these three schools is limited to: and but so because. This research work has been based on Text Linguistics, as well as the chart of conjunctions by Halliday and Hasan (1982). Its hoped that this work may call teacher and researchers attention to the importance of the cohesive ties in the teaching and learning of the English language

M.Ed. (Educational Linguistics) / This research project has two primary focuses. The first focus explores home literacy practices of Turkish immigrant children in South Africa, who are learning the English language in the school context to be able to carry on their education in the country, and how congruent these home literacy practices are with the school literacy practices. To be able to discover this, I studied their experiences with family members in their homes, as well their experiences in the school setting. The second focus is the parental involvement of Turkish immigrant parents’ in the schooling of their children and how their being involved can be facilitated for more effective communication between parents and the school. To explore this area, my project is framed by two broad theories of literacy: literacy as social practice and immigrant literacies. In this study two sets of data were collected: the primary data were interviews conducted with immigrant children, their parents and the teachers, while observations made up the secondary component of my data. The data was analysed by using content analysis. This helped me code the data into six manageable themes, which produced a collection of findings regarding immigrant children’s home literacy practices which are different from the school literacy, their experiences at school in their process of adaptation, and parental involvement in the school activities. The acknowledged themes of this research are clearly interrelated: feelings of Turkish immigrant children before coming to South Africa, their experiences regarding language learning, home literacy practices, the school’s view on immigrant children, segregation between local and immigrant children and parental involvement. The results of this research project were stimulating and displayed that how the literacy practices of immigrant children differ in different contexts such as home and school and in what ways the school can build on them to facilitate adaptation and language learning for them, as well as the new ways to promote immigrant parents’ actively partaking in the school activities.

"September 2008". / Thesis (DAppLing)--Macquarie University, Division of Linguistics and Psychology, Dept. of Linguistics, 2009. / Bibliography: p. 189-196. / The purpose of this research was to analyse the pragmalinguistic and sociopragmatic development of language groups at different proficiency levels and investigate the relationship between interlanguage pragmatics and grammatical competence. For this study, 36 native Spanish speaking EFL learners at different proficiency levels were asked to respond in English to 24 different situations which called for the speech acts of request and apology. Their English performances were compared to those of 12 American English native speakers in order to provide base-line cultural data. Thirty six Mexican Spanish native speakers also participated as a control group in order to analyse the role of the mother tongue in the performances of the EFL learners. The data, collected using a carton oral production task (COPT), were analysed quantitatively and qualitatively. Results showed three important findings that illuminate the relationship between pragmatic development and grammatical competence and lent support to Kasper and Rose's (2003) claim of a universal pragmatic principle. The first finding suggested that basic adult learners possess a previous pragmatic knowledge in their L1 that allows them to focus on the intended meaning and, in most cases, and to assemble (from the linguistic structures available to them) an utterance that conveys a pragmatic intention and satisfies the communicative demands of a social situation. The second finding revealed that there are two essential conditions to communicate a linguistic action: the knowledge of the relevant linguistic rules and the knowledge of how to use them appropriately and effectively in a specific context. Without an elementary knowledge of the linguistic rules, it is impossible to select the forms to realize a speech act in a target-like manner. The findings further suggested that advanced learners possess the grammatical knowledge to produce an illocutionary act, but they need to learn the specific L2 pragmatic conventions that enable them to know when to use these grammatical forms and under what circumstances. / Mode of access: World Wide Web. / xi, 238 p. ill