The first study examined the development of reading, spelling and syntactic skills in English speakers (L1) and children with English as a Second language (ESL) from kindergarten to grade 3. This longitudinal study also investigated procedures for identifying reading difficulties in the early grades of elementary school for both English speakers and children with ESL. Reading, spelling, phonological processing, syntax, lexical access and working memory skills were assessed in kindergarten. Additional tasks were incorporated into the battery to assess cognitive and reading processes in grade 3. By the end of grade 3, the L1 and ESL normally achieving readers performed in similar ways on all tasks except on the spelling, arithmetic and syntactic awareness tasks. The ESL normally achieving readers performed better than the L1 on spelling and arithmetic tasks, however the L1 normally achieving readers performed better than the ESL on the syntactic awareness task. Similar cognitive and reading components predicted word reading and reading comprehension in grade 3 for both language groups. The results show that learning English as a second language is not an impediment to successful literacy learning, and may even be an advantage. In the second part of this study we examine whether the first language of children with ESL affected the reading, spelling and syntactic awareness in English. Seven language groups, Chinese, Farsi, Slavic, Japanese, Romance, Tagalog, and native English speakers groups, were compared in a cross sectional study. This study included all the children with ESL in kindergarten and grades 1, 2 and 3. The results demonstrated positive as well as negative effects in spelling and syntactic skills, resulting from the transfer to English for members of different language groups. Differences across language groups reflect the nature of the native language. Specifically, a positive transfer occurred when the L1 grammar system was more complex than the L2 grammar system. When investigating second language it is necessary to consider the native language and effect on the acquisition of a second language.

This thesis investigates referential communication strategies using the theoretical framework of Levelt's (1989) model of speech production and its application to second language speech production (de Bot, 1992). The investigation focuses on utterances of adult speakers who solve a referential communication task in their first language (English) and their second language (German). Two different groups participate in the study. The first group consists of students from a large West Canadian University who learn German in a foreign language classroom, whereas the second group consists of native speakers of English who work in Germany and acquire German in a second language environment. All participants describe abstract shapes while their utterances are being recorded and later transcribed for analysis. Quantitative and qualitative methods measuring the time and words reflect the strategies used to describe the shapes. The analysis of the data reveals that the participants in Germany are more accurate in their descriptions and solve the referential problems more successfully than the participants from the West Canadian University do. The direct contact these participants have with the German language and culture proves to be beneficial to the process of generating a comprehensible message in referential communication. The study concludes with suggestions for the teaching of German as a second language and recommendations are made for future research on language acquisition the learning environment.

Does peer tutoring using computer-based hypermedia resources help ESL students generate academic discourse in L2? This relates issues of SL learning and the computer in education. I observed 10 upper elementary ESL students research the topic “Earth and the Solar System”, build a HyperCard stack (“Our World”) to record their results, and peer tutor the stack to younger classmates. Some peer tutored the stack again to ex-ESL Grade 5 students. I recorded both peer tutoring sessions (PT(1) and PT(2)) and analyzed discourse transcripts by quantitative variables, pedagogical objectives, cognitive functions and tutoring style; linked our discourse analysis to Krashen’s (1985) Input Hypothesis, Cummins (1991) concepts of conversational and academic language proficiency, and Halliday’s (1985) model of language socialization distinguishing interpersonal, ideational and textual components; and followed Staab (1986), in dividing the ideational component into “Informing” and “Reasoning”. In PT( 1) students spent more time talking (56%) in computer-based peer tutoring than in any other activity (10-16%). Informing was high (65%) but Reasoning was low (22%). Tutors used predominantly the traditional I-R-E knowledge-transmission teaching model, speaking 2½ times as much as tutees. In PT(2) tutors were given as aids 1) a Tutorial stack with knowledge-structure-based computer graphics to represent each topic and 2) training in moving from I-R-E to more equal dialogue exchanges with tutees. I compared a selected pair in PT(2) with a selected pair in PT(1). In PT(2). tutors produced 27% and tutees 19% more language; Reasoning increased from 22% to 39% overall and to 46% in the Tutor Explanation tutoring mode; and I-R-E discourse dropped from 62% to 13%. These changes marked a move from traditional knowledge-transmission towards a knowledge-construction paradigm. I conclude that 1) peer tutoring holds great promise for development of academic discourse in the L2; 2) but without training, tutors are likely to fall back on I-R-E teacher dominated discourse with a low proportion of Reasoning; 3) interactively using the computer facilitates a shift from traditional knowledge-transmission to cooperative knowledge construction learning; 4) the students’ use of elementary multimedia technology provides a window to a future shift from print to electronic technology and towards a knowledge construction paradigm.

This study assesses the usefulness of Marsien-Wilson’s (1989, 1987; Marsien Wilson & Welsh, 1978) cohort model of spoken (first language) word recognition as a method of explaining the high-speed, on-line processes involved in recognizing spoken words while listening to a second language. Two important assumptions of the model are: 1) syntactic and semantic properties of mental lexical entries can function to-facilitate spoken word recognition and 2) spoken word recognition is a function of the frequency of exposure to words in the general language environment. These assumptions were tested in three functionally defined levels of language proficiency: Native Speakers of English, Fluent Users of ESL, and Advanced learners of ESL. Their performance was compared on a reading cloze test and a spoken-word recognition task in which there were five different levels of contextual richness prior to a target word, and two levels of word frequency. The cloze results indicated that the three groups differed in their general English proficiency. Congruent with the cohort model, there was a significant overall effect of sentence context and word frequency on recognition latency. Despite the difference in cloze scores and immersion experience between the two ESL groups, there were no reliable differences in their recognition latencies or latency profiles across sentence contexts or across word frequency. There was an interaction of ESL group, word frequency, and sentence context. This may be due to a reorganization of rules used during processing or a restructuring of lexical knowledge. There was also an interesting non-linear relationship between recognition latency and language immersion time. Spoken word recognition speed decreased in the early immersion experience, and then increased with further exposure. There was a significant difference in overall mean recognition latency between the Native and the ESL speakers, with the ESL subjects responding on average 98 msec slower than the Native Speakers. However, there were no significant differences in the way Native Speakers and the ESL subjects used sentence context. In contrast with the comparison across the sentential contexts, there was a significant difference in the recognition profiles of the Native English speakers and the ESL subjects across word frequency.

Written in the form of a narrative, this thesis explores the phenomenon of voice in writing, and what the development of an awareness of the multiplicity voices while writing and reading can mean for language learners. This thesis is also a personal reflection of depression, and a recollection of individual, family and life events. One chapter takes the form of a unified narrative, while another presents anecdotal recollections. It is, in this sense, an exploration of voices through an analysis of available academic and public writing, and a personal inquiry into how the concept of voices in writing has affected my development as an individual and as a writer. The first section reviews some of the academic and public literature on writing and voice, and reveals that early writing on the issue of voice reflected a monolistic theory of voice. That is, that there is one voice that as writers we must find within ourselves, or there is a voice of the author that we must seek out. However, views of the multiplicity of voices in writing are increasingly common. While philosophical tradition since Plato has mistrusted writing and viewed it as secondary to speech, philosophy has nevertheless employed writing to further its own inquiries. Re/viewing the issue of voice in writing may be one way to deal with this long-standing schism between speech and writing. There is a need to further problematize the field of writing, not searching for ways to simplify the process but seeking ways to celebrate the inherent complexity, ambiguity, and paradoxical nature of writing. The thesis concludes with a reflection on the need to seriously consider the significance of voices in writing in first and second language instruction.

This study, undertaken in the classrooms of minority-language students in French-language schools in Montreal, aims to test Stern's (1990, 1992) proposal for integrating analytic and experiential teaching strategies in second language pedagogy. A related objective seeks to establish the pedagogical orientation of instructional practices during French language arts as being more analytically---or more experientially---focused and to describe the setting from the perspective of these culturally and linguistically diverse students for whom French is a second language. Research procedures entailed the implementation of an integrated activity---journal writing with differential feedback (form-focused, content-based, and a combination of form-focused and content-based)---in four Grade 5 classrooms (N = 112 in total) for approximately four months of one academic year. Twenty-four classroom observations that included coding with the COLT observation scheme and taking fieldnotes were also carried out, and individual interviews were conducted with students, teachers, and administrators. Throughout the study, the francophone students in the participating classrooms acted as a comparison group. The study demonstrated that minority-language students' home cultures and the potentially positive role of the mother tongue in second language learning were not well understood in this context of submersion. COLT findings and qualitative outcomes triangulated to reveal instructional practices that were more inclined towards an analytic than towards an experiential approach to teaching. For both groups of students, MANOVA results indicated no significant effects for quantity of production, accuracy, and overall effectiveness in the journal writing as a function of differential feedback; behavioural and attitudinal data proved helpful in the interpretation of these statistical outcomes. A qualitative analysis of various aspects of the journals' contents revealed that the activity had b

Research has shown that children attending immersion programs reach a native-like level in comprehension and in reading by the end of elementary level. However, in writing and speaking, they rarely achieve target-like proficiency. Some conditions seem to favor the production of output. This study presents an investigation of children's ability to notice errors in their French second language in immersion program in Montreal. The study was conducted with forty-three (43) children aged 8-9, and aimed to gather information related to the following research questions: / Can we train 8 year-old second language learners to: (a) notice their errors; (b) self-correct (given certain prompts); (c) use metalinguistic terminology to identify forms; and (d) negotiate form using language as a conscious tool to improve their L2 oral production? / Children were required to participate in two (2) stages: first, video recording of communicative activities whit ungrammatical episodes with provision of corrective feedback were selected; and second, audio recording of children's attempts to negotiate form. The database was collected from these stimulated recall sessions of collaborative discussion. Results show how young learners may benefit from the provision of metalinguistic information, thus facilitating their second language learning development.

This inquiry involves two case studies that examine the beliefs of two selected ESL teachers in Zimbabwe teaching at the secondary school level. The study looks at the various nested contexts of the two case studies at the international, national, provincial, school and classroom levels with respect to Zimbabwe before and after independence in 1980. The analysis of the nested contexts aims to show how the various factors at the different levels impinge on the ESL instruction of the two teachers. / The study adopts a naturalistic, classroom-based approach that allows for the holistic investigation of teacher-learner interactions in socially-situated cognitive instruction. Specific research questions addressed are: (a) What are the classroom interaction patterns of each of the two teachers selected for the study? What do these patterns and the teachers! classroom artifacts reveal about their beliefs about the construction of social knowledge at secondary school level? (b) How does each teacher in the study construct academic knowledge in his/her ESL instruction? What do the patterns of construction and the teachers' classroom artifacts reveal about their beliefs about the instruction of ESL academic knowledge at the secondary school level? / The study uses tools of data collection and analysis from constitutive ethnography and ethnomethodology. Data from interviews, classroom observations, field notes, artifacts and documents are analyzed to see what they reveal about each teacher's beliefs about ESL instruction. Four major themes emerge from the analysis of these data: (a) teachers' beliefs about curriculum documents; (b) teachers; beliefs about ESL models for instruction; (c) teachers' beliefs about interactional rights and obligations in the classroom and (d) teachers' beliefs about teaching linguistic and communicative competence. A major finding of this inquiry is that the two selected teachers, guided by their personal beliefs, respond in different ways to the many contextual factors that impinge on their teaching, giving rise to each teacher's unique teaching repertoires. In the fight of this major finding, it is recommended that ESL teacher education programmes in Zimbabwe begin with the student teachers' beliefs rather than the traditional "method" paradigm.

This study focuses on the use of English as the sole medium of instruction in Zimbabwean schools and the effect of such a policy on the educational achievement of students, particularly in secondary schools. The role of Shona and Ndebele, two other Zimbabwean official languages, in schooling is also examined. / Some of the findings reveal a learning and teaching environment that prevents strategies from addressing linguistic, social and cultural development with a coherent workable vision in the English classroom. / Because English is the working language of government, business, and industry in Zimbabwe, an English-only policy seems to be a practical means to prepare students for higher education and the workforce. The growing status of English as an international lingua franca provides additional support for such a policy. / This study reveals the need to rethink the imposition of an English-only policy. The findings indicate that current teaching approaches/methods and materials do not entirely support language development in English, largely because they do not take into account the economic, social, and linguistic situations of the students. / The study supports and calls for a multifaceted approach to the way language is currently taught in Zimbabwe, and sees this as one way secondary schools can produce, through the medium of English instruction, students and teachers who can adapt to rapid change, and relate to people from diverse socio-cultural and linguistic backgrounds. / The study emphasizes the integration and expectations of people's views on language and education, as heard and expressed by many respondents. This is considered central to any meaningful effort towards linguistic competence, a challenging but stimulating learning environment, and better communication among students and teachers.

This classroom-based interpretive inquiry investigates how two academic writing instructors with disciplinary backgrounds in English Literature and English Education teach writing to graduate students with other disciplinary backgrounds. The instructors' teaching practices are conceptualized within a Vygotskian socio-cultural framework. Relevant educational issues are situated within two fields of education, Second Language Education and L1 writing instruction. This inquiry challenges the polarized views of writing instruction reflected in the second language literature. The research participants were two writing instructors and two focal students in one class. Data collected and analyzed include 70 hours of classroom-based observations in two classes over a semester, 12 hours of interviews with the research participants over 16 months, and documents such as course handouts, the focal students' portfolios, teacher audio-taped and written feedback to student drafts. Findings indicate that the writing instructors provided writing instruction and writing opportunities both in the specific disciplinary discourses of their students and other discourses. The instructors' goal-directed teaching practices were informed by their own generalist and discipline-sensitive evaluative orientations toward academic writing instruction at postsecondary levels. The instructors' evolving individual beliefs, perceptions, and practices were shown to be related to embedding sets of nested institutional contexts, such as developments in composition and education theory, and the changing theoretical orientations of the instructors' teaching units. Despite the instructors' different emphases on discipline-specific and general features of writing, findings suggest that both instructors mediated the students' appropriation of disciplinary discourses.