published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

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

published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

published_or_final_version / Psychology / Master / Master of Philosophy

Cloze procedure involves the skills of thinking, understanding , reading and writing based on the learners underlying knowledge of reading comprehension and writing subskills such as grammar and sentence construction. It is regarded as a very efficient test for measuring students integrative competence in English, and has been used in most of the important English tests in China. It is also used as a teaching instrument to help students to improve their reading competence. However, a majority of students perform poorly in cloze tests and they regard it as the most difficult and most unpopular part of the English test. The aim of this study was to find out the problem that Chinese students have with cloze tests and to determine whether they are associated with the inefficient use of reading strategies.

The present study present study explored the relationships among language use, phonological skill, and vocabulary development for 36 Cuban and Puerto Rican ELL preschoolers. Family-level variables included mother's education level and mother's language ability. Three-way ANOVAs were used to investigate the relationships among child- and family-level variables and children's performance on articulation (completeness of phonetic inventory (CPI) and proportion of whole-word proximity (PWP)) and language measures (Picture Vocabulary (PV) and Memory for Sentences (MS) subtests of the WLPB-R) in English and Spanish. Regression and correlational analyses were conducted to describe relationships between variables. Findings indicated that children in all language groups (predominantly English speaking, predominantly Spanish speaking and bilingual) demonstrated strong phonological skills, as measured by CPI and PWP, in both languages. Strength in phonological skill appeared to be related to frequency of language use, especially in English. Similarities in children's phonetic inventories across languages suggested that exposure to two languages does not interfere with phonological development in ELL children. The fact that English and Spanish share many of the same phonemes may contribute to this finding. Results for the PWPs were consistent with the findings from the CPI analyses. PWPs were found to predict children's English vocabulary level in the early stages of dual language learning. A predictive relationship was found between mother's English language ability and child's phonological skill, suggesting that when more English was used in the home, children exhibited greater English phonological production skills. In addition, mother's Spanish language ability was shown to predict child's Spanish vocabulary knowledge. This finding supports the use of the native language in the home. While phonological skill was a strength, language skills, as measured by the PV and MS subtests, were significantly below average. With the exception of the PE group in English, all children performed more than 1.5 standard deviations below the mean for both subtests in both languages, suggesting that they are not acquiring sufficient vocabulary knowledge to support academic learning in either language. It is suggested that delivery of adequate vocabulary instruction that meets the needs of these ELL children requires collaboration between teachers and speech-language pathologists.

published_or_final_version / Public Administration / Master / Master of Public Administration

Not available / text

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

No description available.