There are mounting concerns to ensure that children are prepared for the literacy demands of the 21st century. Reading inability at 9 years of age portends a lifetime of illiteracy for the majority of struggling readers. Given the greater weight placed on expository text from the junior grades onwards, children with reading disabilities become increasingly constrained by their reading deficits, putting them at risk of falling ever further behind their normally achieving peers. This ethnographic study, extending over an 8 month period and finishing on the last day of the school year, targeted older poor readers at the junior level. Less is known about their reading deficits, relative to younger struggling readers. Therefore, the first of three principal objectives aimed to extend understanding of the processes whereby older poor readers interact with expository text by providing a qualitative finer-grained assessment of their particular difficulties than presently exists. The second objective was focused on developing and implementing a cohesive program of research-based interventions that targeted critical requirements of successful interactions with expository text, including the ability to summarize, locate information, and attend to text structure. The third objective involved establishing and describing a collaborative, intensive research partnership with two classroom teachers at the junior level to implement and evaluate research-grounded interventions for their students with reading difficulties, working within the context of the regular classroom. The dual researcher role, as collaborator with the teachers and instigator of the intervention program, shaped a reconfigured model of special education, responsive to a diverse range of student needs and abilities, and situated within a content-rich, challenging curriculum. Parallel lessons afforded the opportunity to tier instruction with increasing intensity for the children with the highest needs. Results showed the critical importance of aggressively promoting self-efficacy, self-regulation, and metacognitve awareness for older struggling readers. As these children’s strategic repertoire increased, so, too, did their comprehension and comprehension-monitoring. Differentiated instruction that was tiered, flexible, and responsive supported social inclusion and social collaboration. Social context and authentic content became interwoven and instrumental in engaging the children, maintaining their motivation and sustaining their commitment to read to learn. / Thesis (Ph.D, Education) -- Queen's University, 2010-01-27 15:10:03.202

This study explores Cummins' interdependence hypothesis in the South African context. The design is experimental, involving Zulu primary language writing instruction to explore whether skills taught in Zulu composition classes transfer into English expository writing. The intervention and control groups were drawn from two ex-Model C high schools and the focus was on measuring use of coherence and cohesion in English essays. Quantitative findings showed, although the intervention group's writing skills did not improve significantly, they did not decline. By contrast, the control group's writing skills declined significantly. A more qualitative investigation of the corpus supports the statistical findings. However, because of the limitations of this study, more research is required into Cummins' hypothesis, bilingual programmes and teaching academic writing skills in African languages. It is hoped that this research design will benefit future researchers investigate the current debate about the efficacy of bilingual and multilingual approaches to education. / Linguistics and Modern Languages / M. A. (Applied Linguistics)

In this dissertation, I investigate the cognitive processes integral to intertextual readings by referring to the cognitive linguistics framework known as conceptual blending. I refer to different genres of intertextual texts and then explain these intertexts in terms of cognitive principles and processes, such as conceptual blending networks. By applying the framework of conceptual blending to intertexts within different genres, I suggest that the underlying cognitive processes are universal for the interpretation of any type of intertextual text. My findings indicate that conceptual blending underpins intertextuality which is cognitive, creative and dynamic in nature. This means that the meaning we construct from intertexts is dependent on the context in which they appear and cannot be studied in isolation. Investigating intertextual texts from a cognitive linguistics perspective reveals new inferences (such as the influence of implicit knowledge as a type of intertext) and the creativity involved in the meaning-making process. / Linguistics and Modern Languages / M.A. (Linguistics)

This thesis examines the challenges faced by the ministers of religion in Churches of Christ (Restoration Movement) in Bicol, Philippines. The goal is to do theology from below, not from above, as pastoral ministry must come from the experience of those who practice it, not from textbooks. The pastoral perspectives of the dilemmas that the ministers raise are heard, observed, documented, and then reflected upon. To do this, case studies of four preachers are used and the mga problema that they present are explored with them. As a result, first, I introduce some of those challenges which are perplexing on the ground level and which appear to be under-researched in serious theological circles, especially in an Asian context. Second, I hope that these case studies can be used to stimulate reflection in ministerial and spiritual formation. Third, I document some of the theology and methodology of the Churches of Christ, particularly as practiced in the Philippines. Chapter 1 explores the dichotomy between the perceived satisfaction in the pastoral ministry with the crisis of role and identity. In particular, issues such as forced exits and stress are presented while baptism and preaching are scrutinized. Chapter 2 centres on the conundrums experienced in planting a new church and being the lone planter. Chapter 3 examines three challenges–the task of ministering in a home congregation, the issue of accreditation in ministerial training, and how the minister can be a success and grow the church. Never far from the thoughts and actions of any of the Bicolano ministers is the problema of poverty, so Chapter 4 considers some of the Filipino, personal, and spiritual complexities of poverty, delineates a number of factors that need to be taken into consideration in any effort to overcome this malady and concludes with a particular reference to ministry.