This research report is a case study, the aim of which is to describe and analyse the methods used by a non-profit organization in teaching Grade Seven (7) learners with reading difficulties in an Alexandra Township school, by using a combination of the whole language and phonics approaches. It involves Phenduka Literacy Project facilitators immersed in a two to three week literacy intervention with an average of 30- 35 Grade 7 learners at Dr Knak Primary School. The aim of the Phenduka programme is to improve learners’ levels of reading so that they can meet the demands of high school education. Data was collected by analysing the teaching material, carrying out semi-structured interviews with Phenduka facilitators, and observing the facilitators at work. The findings revealed that there is no one suitable method for teaching reading; rather, using an integrated approach would bear much fruits. It is envisaged that the findings of this study would enlighten teachers in disadvantaged communities in South Africa who face the same scenario of dealing with poor readers and using limited teaching/learning resources.

In NSW during the last decade there has been strong interest in promoting theories that espoused a naturalistic and wholistic approach to the teaching of reading and writing. One such theory is the Whole Language Approach to teaching reading and writing. The work of Brian Cambourne is integral to this approach and his theory is that the principles of how young children learn to become successful talkers can be applied to how children best learn to become successful readers and writers. This study was concerned with the teachers' perceptions of their classroom practice and whether these perceptions - relating to the teaching and evaluation/assessment of reading and writing - reflected a whole language approach or a non-whole language approach. The results of this study indicate that although teachers perceive that they predominantly favour classroom practices that are considered as whole language, they still employ some practices that are not considered to be whole language. Also, some perceptions of classroom practice indicate that not all whole language strategies are popular with teachers.

The purpose of this research is to investigate whether the implementation of Cooperative Learning (CL) activities, incorporating the insights given by Howard Gardner’ (1993) theory of Multiple Intelligences (MI) and the notion of Whole Language Approach (WLA) in college EFL classrooms will have a positive effect on students’ language proficiency and attitude. A quasi-experimental study was developed. The site of this study was in an EFL classroom in a Taiwanese College. The subjects were from the researcher’s three English classes at Chung Hwa Institute of Medical Technology during one semester. Many learning activities based on Gardner’s theory of Multiple Intelligences were used while a Cooperative Learning approach was practiced. The data for this study was collected from three sources. One was from the subjects’ questionnaires on attitudes and on motivation, regarding Cooperative Learning and Multiple Intelligences. Another was from student interviews. The third was from the students’ test scores on their language proficiency tests. The results of the study showed that the experimental group that was taught using the ideas based on CL and MI outperformed the group based on CL, and the control group, on the Simulate English General Proficiency tests for the four language skills. Though there were no significant differences among them within this short-time study, the motivation in learning English was enhanced a great deal for the experimental group that was taught using the CL and MI ideas. Based upon the insight gained from this study, CL, MI, WLA and Language Learning Center were thus recommended to be integrated into the Junior College English curriculum. Pedagogical implications for the application of CL and MI in an EFL classroom were developed. Above all, suggestions for teacher development in CL and MI were proposed. Finally, suggestions for future research have been recommended.

This dissertation is about reading instruction in six mixed-aged classes, called child schools, with six and seven year old children. The overall questions of this study were: How did the teachers in child schools organise work in general and reading instruction in particular? How did they handle for example the increasing range of variation concerning knowledge and skills that goes together with increasing variation of age? With respect to reading the investigation also examined the content of reading instruction and the extent to which teachers took into account those factors that, according to reading research, are important for the acquisition of reading skills? Overall the research aimed to examine how the reading ability of the pupils developed during their first years at school. Six child schools were included in the study. The data collection extended over three years and contained field studies, interviews with the staff and reading tests with the pupils. Reading theories were used to analyse the form of the reading instruction and Basil Bernstein's theory of visible and invisible pedagogy was used to analyse pedagogical practice in its context. With one exception a visible pedagogy dominated in all the child schools. During lessons designated "my own work" the pupils were allowed to plan their work. This weak framing allowed the pupils to sort themselves into groups of more or less successful learners. In reading instruction, elements of two different models for instruction were combined, e.g. the whole language and the basal reading approach. My conclusion is that this combination is effective in a mixed-age group. Pupils at different competence levels benefit from different approaches. The reading comprehension of the child school pupils did not differ from the levels obtained with comparable pupils in national surveys. The test results, like the learning conditions varied between the schools. In my view the test results were not merely a consequence of the instruction, but also of other circumstances that interacted with the pedagogy.

The communicative language approach (CLA) dominates pedagogical practice in second language acquisition classrooms in the US. However, this approach does not emphasize independent pronunciation instruction, leaving learners to improve pronunciation on their own. This study explored the perspectives of English language learners (ELLs) being instructed via the CLA regarding the effectiveness of the CLA in providing intelligible pronunciation skills. The intelligibility principle of language served as the theoretical foundation underlying this study guided by research questions addressing how well the CLA met ELLs' pronunciation intelligibility needs and their perspectives on receiving independent pronunciation instruction to meet these needs. Using qualitative case study methods, the research questions were addressed through an analysis of interviews of 10 community college ELL adult volunteers who received instruction using the CLA as current or former students in the intensive English program, had linguistic skill levels ranging from beginner to advanced, and were graduates of U.S. schools. A typological analysis model was followed where the data were organized by themes, patterns, and identified relationships. Participants reported wanting to improve their pronunciation and that their pronunciation had improved with the CLA instructional strategies. Although all participants desired to receive some independent instruction in pronunciation, their preferred instructional modes differed. It is recommended that ELLs' perspectives be heard and that English as a Second Language educators instruct with the CLA while also providing explicit pronunciation instruction. The results of this study indicating student satisfaction with the CLA may elicit positive social change within the ELL community by providing a voice to ELLs.

O presente estudo segue um viés interpretativista de natureza qualitativa e objetiva desenvolver uma reflexão filosófica e, portanto, não dogmática, de algumas questões importantes que envolvem conceitos-base na formação e evolução da grande subárea Ensino- Aprendizagem de LE/L2 na LA, tais como: abordagem, movimento, paradigma e comunidade científica. O trabalho busca como fundamentação teórica, primordialmente, o conjunto da obra de Thomas Kuhn apoiada, também, na visão de Masterman (1979). Para a evolução da reflexão, a investigação recebe um auxílio valioso da segunda filosofia de Wittgenstein, no que se refere à noção de jogos de linguagem, e da visão de Lakatos sobre a formação de programas de pesquisa científica. O tema central da pesquisa gira em torno da percepção de uma tensão instaurada na área pela apropriação, pelos especialistas, da noção de sinônimo entre os termos abordagem comunicativa (AC), ensino comunicativo de língua (ECL) e movimento comunicativo (MC), associados, muitas vezes, à concepção de paradigma. A noção de que AC, ECL e MC são sinônimos entre si, acaba atribuindo à AC uma posição de destaque na hierarquia com outras abordagens (como, por exemplo, as abordagens instrumental (AI) e comunicacional (ACC)). Atualmente na área, o uso dos termos dimensão, variante ou versão da AC aparecem na literatura para classificar as outras abordagens, minimizando o que classificamos de tensão. O que se propõe é o reconhecimento da AI e da ACC como abordagens independentes (ou paradigmas como exemplos compartilhados/metaparadigma de sentido mais restrito) e em coexistência com a AC, todas inseridas no MC. Para tanto, o termo movimento é definido para a área como paradigma como a constelação dos compromissos de grupo/sociológico (de sentido mais global). O termo abordagem mantém o conceito clássico em Anthony (1963/1965), mas o reposicionamos hierarquicamente abaixo do termo movimento. Os resultados mostram que a competência comunicativa, que historicamente inspira o surgimento dos termos AC, ECL e MC, é base de fundamentação apenas da AC e mote da comunidade científica ECL. O alicerce do MC (comunidade científica de sentido mais global; o conjunto) é a visão de linguagem como ato social que é compartilhada por todas as comunidades (de sentido mais restrito; os subconjuntos) que o compõe: ECL, ensino comunicacional de língua (ECCL) e ensino instrumental de língua (IEL). A competência linguística e a competência pragmática são as bases que fundamentam: 1) a ACC e a AI; 2) as reflexões a priori sobre a aquisição de LE/L2 das comunidades, ECCL e EIL, que, respectivamente, elaboraram as abordagens mencionadas. A proposta da tese de um re-mapeamento na área de ensino de línguas é, também, o início de um debate (filosófico e não dogmático) e um convite à reflexão para os membros que compõem a comunidade (de sentido mais global) do MC. A finalidade maior dos resultados desse debate é revertê-los para a formação de novos especialistas e de professores pré- e em serviço de línguas estrangeiras. / The aim of the thesis is to develop a philosophical reflection, and therefore not dogmatic, of some important questions which involve basic concepts in the background and improvement of Foreign and Second Language (F/SL) Teaching and Learning, such as: approach, movement, paradigm and the scientific community. This qualitative and interpretative research attempts to use the collection of work by Thomas Kuhn, also supported by Masterman´s point of view (1979), as a guideline of a theoretical basis. For this reflection to take place, the investigation was helped by the second philosophy of Wittgenstein, in which the notion of language games are referred to, as well as the vision of Lakatos concerning the development of scientific research programmes. The central theme of research is concerned with the perception of a tension felt in the area by appropriacy, by specialists, of the notion of synonym among the terms: the Communicative Approach (CA), Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) and the Communicative Movement (CM), often associated to the concept of paradigm. The notion that CA, CLT and CM are synonyms among themselves ends up attributing to the CA a strong position in the hierarchy with other approaches, such as English/Language for Specific Purpose (ESP/LSP Approach) and the Communicational Approach (CCA). Currently in the area, the use of the terms dimension, variant or ´weak´/´strong´ interpretation of the CA appears in the literature to classify the other approaches, minimizing what we classify as a tension. What is proposed here is the recognition of ESP/LSP and CCA as independent approaches (or paradigms in a restricted sense) and the co-existence with CA, all inserted into the CM (which is at the top of the hierarchy). To achieve this, the term movement is defined in the area in terms of paradigm (in a global sense). The term approach maintains the classic concept in Anthony (1963/1965), but we reposition it hierarchically under the term movement as a paradigm in a restricted sense. The results show that communicative competence, which historically inspired the appearance of the terms CA, CLT and CM is, in fact, the fundamental basis of CA only, and the motto of CLT. The basis of the CM (as a paradigm and a scientific community, both in a global sense) is the vision of language as a social act which is shared by all communities (in a restricted sense) which form it: CLT, Communicational Language Teaching (CCLT) and ESP/LSP. Linguistic and pragmatic competences are the fundamental basis of: 1) CCA and ESP/LSP approach; 2) reflections (a priori) of the communities of CCLT and ESP/LSP about F/SL acquisition, which respectively developed the mentioned approaches. The proposal of remapping the area of LT is also the beginning of a philosophical debate and an invitation to members of the MC community (in a global sense) to reflect on the issues brought about by this thesis. From this work, we expect to redirect its outcomes so as to instruct new specialists and teachers in pre- and in-service training of foreign languages.

O presente estudo segue um viés interpretativista de natureza qualitativa e objetiva desenvolver uma reflexão filosófica e, portanto, não dogmática, de algumas questões importantes que envolvem conceitos-base na formação e evolução da grande subárea Ensino- Aprendizagem de LE/L2 na LA, tais como: abordagem, movimento, paradigma e comunidade científica. O trabalho busca como fundamentação teórica, primordialmente, o conjunto da obra de Thomas Kuhn apoiada, também, na visão de Masterman (1979). Para a evolução da reflexão, a investigação recebe um auxílio valioso da segunda filosofia de Wittgenstein, no que se refere à noção de jogos de linguagem, e da visão de Lakatos sobre a formação de programas de pesquisa científica. O tema central da pesquisa gira em torno da percepção de uma tensão instaurada na área pela apropriação, pelos especialistas, da noção de sinônimo entre os termos abordagem comunicativa (AC), ensino comunicativo de língua (ECL) e movimento comunicativo (MC), associados, muitas vezes, à concepção de paradigma. A noção de que AC, ECL e MC são sinônimos entre si, acaba atribuindo à AC uma posição de destaque na hierarquia com outras abordagens (como, por exemplo, as abordagens instrumental (AI) e comunicacional (ACC)). Atualmente na área, o uso dos termos dimensão, variante ou versão da AC aparecem na literatura para classificar as outras abordagens, minimizando o que classificamos de tensão. O que se propõe é o reconhecimento da AI e da ACC como abordagens independentes (ou paradigmas como exemplos compartilhados/metaparadigma de sentido mais restrito) e em coexistência com a AC, todas inseridas no MC. Para tanto, o termo movimento é definido para a área como paradigma como a constelação dos compromissos de grupo/sociológico (de sentido mais global). O termo abordagem mantém o conceito clássico em Anthony (1963/1965), mas o reposicionamos hierarquicamente abaixo do termo movimento. Os resultados mostram que a competência comunicativa, que historicamente inspira o surgimento dos termos AC, ECL e MC, é base de fundamentação apenas da AC e mote da comunidade científica ECL. O alicerce do MC (comunidade científica de sentido mais global; o conjunto) é a visão de linguagem como ato social que é compartilhada por todas as comunidades (de sentido mais restrito; os subconjuntos) que o compõe: ECL, ensino comunicacional de língua (ECCL) e ensino instrumental de língua (IEL). A competência linguística e a competência pragmática são as bases que fundamentam: 1) a ACC e a AI; 2) as reflexões a priori sobre a aquisição de LE/L2 das comunidades, ECCL e EIL, que, respectivamente, elaboraram as abordagens mencionadas. A proposta da tese de um re-mapeamento na área de ensino de línguas é, também, o início de um debate (filosófico e não dogmático) e um convite à reflexão para os membros que compõem a comunidade (de sentido mais global) do MC. A finalidade maior dos resultados desse debate é revertê-los para a formação de novos especialistas e de professores pré- e em serviço de línguas estrangeiras. / The aim of the thesis is to develop a philosophical reflection, and therefore not dogmatic, of some important questions which involve basic concepts in the background and improvement of Foreign and Second Language (F/SL) Teaching and Learning, such as: approach, movement, paradigm and the scientific community. This qualitative and interpretative research attempts to use the collection of work by Thomas Kuhn, also supported by Masterman´s point of view (1979), as a guideline of a theoretical basis. For this reflection to take place, the investigation was helped by the second philosophy of Wittgenstein, in which the notion of language games are referred to, as well as the vision of Lakatos concerning the development of scientific research programmes. The central theme of research is concerned with the perception of a tension felt in the area by appropriacy, by specialists, of the notion of synonym among the terms: the Communicative Approach (CA), Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) and the Communicative Movement (CM), often associated to the concept of paradigm. The notion that CA, CLT and CM are synonyms among themselves ends up attributing to the CA a strong position in the hierarchy with other approaches, such as English/Language for Specific Purpose (ESP/LSP Approach) and the Communicational Approach (CCA). Currently in the area, the use of the terms dimension, variant or ´weak´/´strong´ interpretation of the CA appears in the literature to classify the other approaches, minimizing what we classify as a tension. What is proposed here is the recognition of ESP/LSP and CCA as independent approaches (or paradigms in a restricted sense) and the co-existence with CA, all inserted into the CM (which is at the top of the hierarchy). To achieve this, the term movement is defined in the area in terms of paradigm (in a global sense). The term approach maintains the classic concept in Anthony (1963/1965), but we reposition it hierarchically under the term movement as a paradigm in a restricted sense. The results show that communicative competence, which historically inspired the appearance of the terms CA, CLT and CM is, in fact, the fundamental basis of CA only, and the motto of CLT. The basis of the CM (as a paradigm and a scientific community, both in a global sense) is the vision of language as a social act which is shared by all communities (in a restricted sense) which form it: CLT, Communicational Language Teaching (CCLT) and ESP/LSP. Linguistic and pragmatic competences are the fundamental basis of: 1) CCA and ESP/LSP approach; 2) reflections (a priori) of the communities of CCLT and ESP/LSP about F/SL acquisition, which respectively developed the mentioned approaches. The proposal of remapping the area of LT is also the beginning of a philosophical debate and an invitation to members of the MC community (in a global sense) to reflect on the issues brought about by this thesis. From this work, we expect to redirect its outcomes so as to instruct new specialists and teachers in pre- and in-service training of foreign languages.

Geometric Multigrid (GMG) methods are widely used in numerical analysis to accelerate the convergence of partial differential equations solvers using a hierarchy of grid discretizations. These solvers find plenty of applications in various fields in engineering and scientific domains, where solving PDEs is of fundamental importance. Using multigrid methods, the pace at which the solvers arrive at the solution can be improved at an algorithmic level. With the advance in modern computer architecture, solving problems with higher complexity and sizes is feasible - this is also the case with multigrid methods. However, since hardware support alone cannot achieve high performance in execution time, there is a need for good software that help programmers in doing so. Multiple grid sizes and recursive expression of multigrid cycles make the task of manual program optimization tedious and error-prone. A high-level language that aids domain experts to quickly express complex algorithms in a compact way using dedicated constructs for multigrid methods and with good optimization support is thus valuable. Typical computation patterns in a GMG algorithm includes stencils, point-wise accesses, restriction and interpolation of a grid. These computations can be optimized for performance on modern architectures using standard parallelization and locality enhancement techniques. Several past works have addressed the problem of automatic optimizations of computations in various scientific domains using a domain-specific language (DSL) approach. A DSL is a language with features to express domain-specific computations and compiler support to enable optimizations specific to these computations. Halide and PolyMage are two of the recent works in this direction, that aim to optimize image processing pipelines. Many computations like upsampling and downsampling an image are similar to interpolation and restriction in geometric multigrid methods. In this thesis, we demonstrate how high performance can be achieved on GMG algorithms written in the PolyMage domain-specific language with new optimizations we added to the compiler. We also discuss the implementation of non-trivial optimizations, on PolyMage compiler, necessary to achieve high parallel performance for multigrid methods on modern architectures. We realize these goals by: • introducing multigrid domain-specific constructs to minimize the verbosity of the algorithm specification; • storage remapping to reduce the memory footprint of the program and improve cache locality exploitation; • mitigating execution time spent in data handling operations like memory allocation and freeing, using a pool of memory, across multiple multigrid cycles; and • incorporating other well-known techniques to leverage performance, like exploiting multi-dimensional parallelism and minimizing the lifetime of storage buffers. We evaluate our optimizations on a modern multicore system using five different benchmarks varying in multigrid cycle structure, complexity and size, for two-and three-dimensional data grids. Experimental results show that our optimizations: • improve performance of existing PolyMage optimizer by 1.31x; • are better than straight-forward parallel and vector implementations by 3.2x; • are better than hand-optimized versions in conjunction with optimizations by Pluto, a state-of-the-art polyhedral source-to-source optimizer, by 1.23x; and • achieve up to 1.5$\times$ speedup over NAS MG benchmark from the NAS Parallel Benchmarks. (The speedup numbers are Geometric means over all benchmarks)

The topic of this study was to determine the factors affecting the reading readiness of Grade R learners in selected preschools in Gauteng Province. The purpose of this study was to explore factors that affect the reading readiness of Grade R learners as understood by teachers and mothers. The aim of the study was to establish what factors affect the reading readiness of Grade R learners. The primary research question asked what factors Grade R teachers and mothers find affect reading readiness. The secondary research questions asked how Grade R teachers address these factors in the classroom; who the people involved in the learners’ reading readiness are; and how they contribute to reading readiness. This study employed a multiple case study approach. Data was collected in six preschools in Johannesburg through semi-structured, face-to-face interviews with five Grade R teachers and five mothers of Grade R learners. A focus group discussion with four Grade R teachers was also conducted. The main findings of the study were eight factors affecting the reading readiness of Grade R learners: the learner’s individual developmental level; the learner’s maturity; the learner’s desire to learn to read; the learner’s phonological awareness; the learner’s need for play and kinaesthetics; the learner’s parents’ contributions; the learner’s socioeconomic living conditions; and reading stories to the learner. The implication is that these findings may improve teaching practice and Grade R curriculum development. / Psychology of Education / M. Ed. (Psychology of Education)

No description available.