The primary purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of a training program in summarizing textbook articles on developmental English community college students’ ability to summarize text. Although previous research has documented improvement in reading recall when subjects were taught a hierarchical summary procedure, the study constitutes the first attempt to test whether this procedure can be used to train students to write better summaries. Developmental English students were chosen for study because students in this population typically do poorly at this important academic task. Because summary notes are often considered an aid to recall, the study also measured recall protocols of students who were trained in summary writing in contrast to those who received alternative training. Experimental group students were taught to identify the top three levels of importance and had guided practice with feedback once a week for five weeks. Control group students were given training in vocabulary and comprehension techniques. Passages were at least 1200 words. Scoring was based on inclusion of information from the top three levels of hierarchical structure in each passage. The basic questions of the study were: (1) Is there an interaction between group status and cognitive abilities on summary writing posttest scores? (2) Are students who received training in summarization more proficient at summarizing text than students who received another type of training? (3) Are students who received training in summarization more proficient at recalling text than students who received another type of training? (4) Do students trained in summarization score higher than students trained with other methods on a standardized reading test? Regression analyses indicated the following results: (1) There was no interaction between type of training and cognitive abilities on summary writing posttest scores; high and low students profited equally from instruction. (2) Students trained in summarization performed significantly higher than control group students on the summary writing posttest. (3) Treatment group students did not score significantly higher than control group students on the delayed recall test, but there was a trend towards Significance. (4) There was no significant difference between treatment and control group students’ standardized reading test scores. / Ed. D.

Research in the process of reading to write used by foreign language (FL) students is lacking. This study is descriptive in nature as its main purpose was to generate a hypothesis about how good Spanish-as-foreign-language (SFL) students in a third-year level class performed reading-to-write tasks. The following objectives guided the investigation: (1) to explore the processes and strategies that good upper-level SFL students in a third-year Spanish composition class used to perform reading-to-write tasks; (2) to explore how the processes used were affected by the contextual constraints of academic writing within an authentic FL class; and (3) to explore how the students integrated information from the source texts into their writing in terms of types of use of information, their function, and location in the students' texts. Case study was used to explore the processes of reading to write and to capture the relationship between cognition and context within an academic FL setting. In order to achieve the objectives of the study, two good third-year SFL students from a composition and conversation class in a large southeastern university were the subjects in this investigation. The subjects performed two reading-to-write tasks as part of their class assignments. The two reading-to-write tasks were intensely analyzed as to the processes and strategies that the subjects used and the effects of the teacher's expectations, of the rules and conventions of academic writing, and of the subjects’ limited command in Spanish on such processes. In addition, a product analysis was conducted on the final written products. Stimulated-recall interview was used as the method for data collection process. The subjects also kept reading and writing logs for each task that were used to help stimulate recall of the processes they used. Findings indicate that the process of reading to write used by good third-year SFL students is a recursive process that includes the orchestration of the following major processes: brainstorming/synthesizing, monitoring, structuring, elaborating, planning, relaxing, writing, revising, and editing. In addition, results show that contextual constraints affect the processes listed above. Among the contextual factors explored, teacher's expectations had the strongest effect. Rules and conventions of academic writing and limited command of Spanish also affected the processes of writing from source texts. Results from the product analysis indicate that good SFL students tend to integrate information from the source texts using mainly original statements, synthesis, and paraphrases. Results led to the design of a preliminary-research based model that could have important implications for future research and consequences for teaching. / Ph. D.

Responding to Student Writing: Strategies for a Distance-Teaching Context identifies viable response techniques for a unique discourse community. An overview of paradigmatic shifts in writing and reading theory, 'frameworks of response' developed to classify response statements for research purposes, and an overview of research in the field provide the theoretical basis for the evaluation of the empirical study. The research comprises a three-fold exploration of the response strategies adopted by Unisa lecturers to the writing of Practical English (PENl00-3) students. In the first phase the focus falls on the effect of intervention on the students' revised drafts of four divergent marking strategies - coded correction, minimal marking, taped response and self assessment. All the experimental strategies tested result in statistically-significant improvement levels in the revised draft. The benefits of self assessment and rewriting, even without tutorial intervention, were demonstrated. The study is unique by virtue of its distance-teaching context, its sample size of 1750 and in the high significance levels achieved. The second phase of the research consisted of a questionnaire that determined 2640 students' expectations with respect to marking, the value of commentary, their perceptions of markers' roles and their opinions of the experimental strategies tested. Their responses were also correlated with their final Practical English examination results. The third phase examined tutorial response. The framework of response, developed for the purpose, revealed that present response strategies represent a regression to the traditional product-orientated approach to writing that contradicts the cognitive and rhetorical axiological basis of the course. There is thus a disjunction between the teaching and theoretical practices. The final chapter bridges this gap by examining issues of audience, transparency, ownership, timing of intervention and training. The researcher believes that she has successfully identified practical and innovative strategies that assist lecturers in a distance-teaching context to break away from old response blueprints. / English Studies / D.Litt. et Phil. (English)

Thesis (MEd) -- Stellenbosch University, 1991. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This study aims at contributing towards the improvement of teaching, in secondary schools, of written composition and literature in Afrikaans as a first language. · For this purpose, an outline of the relevant literature is presented. It is evident that the teaching of Afrikaans is not entirely sound. As simple solution does not exist; however, this study is an attempt to improve the present situation by focussing on integrated teaching and on the implementation of the media. Technological development puts the media within reach of more people each day. Pupils spend a great deal of time watching television, films and videos; or listening to the radio, records and cassettes. They read newspapers and magazines. This study maintains that the media should therefore be utilized to advance the teaching of Afrikaans, as all communicative skills will then improve in particular reading and writing. An integrative approach to teaching is widely recognised as the ideal. Neuropsychological research has shown that the human brain functions optimally when teaching is integrated. Ideally, in regard to the teaching of a language, composition writing and literature study should merge. The current South African curriculum does not as yet place enough emphasis on this aspect. This study concludes that there is a need for integrated teaching to be introduced into the curriculum for Afrikaans as first language. A second conclusion is that the media, which can serve as device for blending written composition and literature teaching, is not yet exploited effectively. Pupils display an ardent interest in the media and it follows that the media should be used intentionally and as a prominent component of the teaching programme. An integrated teaching programme, which focusses on the media, is proposed in this study. Practical suggestions are made in this regard, proving that the media can serve as crucial point of integration for the teaching of written composition and literature. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die doel van hierdie studie is om deur 'n oorsig van die relevante literatuur 'n bydrae te lewer tot die onderrig van stelwerk en letterkunde in Afrikaans as Eerste Taal in die senior sekondere skoolfase. Dit is duidelik dat alles nie wel is met die onderrig van Afrikaans nie. 'n Enkelvoudige oplossing is nie moontlik nie, maar hierdie studie wil probeer om die betreklik negatiewe beeld wat bestaan, te verbeter. Die invalshoek wat gekies is, is die van mediagerigtheid. Die patr.oon wat gevolg is, is 'n ge1ntegreerde onderrigbenadering. Tegnologiese ontwikkeling plaas die media binne al meer mense se bereik en dit is 'n werklikheid dat leerlinge baie tyd aan televisie, rolprente, radio, musiekvideo's, liedjies, koerante en tydskrifte bestee. In hierdie studie is van die standpunt ui tgegaan dat hierdie tendens tot voordeel van Afrikaans aangewend moet word om die media te benut ten einde leerlinge se lees- e~ skryfvaardighede en dus oak hulle kommunikatiewe vaardighede te ontwikkel. 'n Ge1ntegreerde onderrigbenadering word allerwee as die ideaal erken. Neuropsigologiese navorsing het getoon dat die menslike brein optimaal funksioneer wanneer onderrig ge1ntegreerd aangebied word. Wat die komponente van taalonderrig betref, is die ideaal dat die stelwerk en "letterkunde ten nouste ge1ntegreer behoort te word. Die huidige situasie in Suid-Afrika vertoon egter nog leemtes, want binne die bestaande kurrikulum kom ge1ntegreerde onderrig nog nie tot sy reg nie. Die studie kom dan tot die eerste gevolgtrekking dat daar wel 'n behoefte bestaan aan ge1ntegreerde onderrig in die kurrikulum vir Afrikaans Eerste Taal. 'n Tweede belangrike gevolgtrekking is dat die media as ontmoetingspunt van stelwerk en letterkunde nie genoegsaam ontgin word nie. Aangesien leerlinge so 'n intense belangstelling toon in die media, is dit net logies dat die media grater prominensie verkry binne die huidige kurrikulum deur die bewustelike inskakeling van hierdie media in die onderrigprogram. Aan die hand van praktiese voorstelle en wenke is in hierdie studie 'n ge1ntegreerde onderrigprogram vir stelwerk en letterkunde met as fokuspunt die media, voorgestel. Op die wyse is bewys gelewer dat die media wel as integrasiepunt van stelwerk en letterkunde kan dien.

published_or_final_version / Education / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

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

published_or_final_version / abstract / Education / Master / Master of Education

published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education