PURPOSE: Parent-child reading allows parents to extend the walls of their home to introduce their children to novel places and scenarios, and is an important factor shaping language development. Accordingly, the parent-child reading practices characterizing the home literacy environment (HLE) offer rich potential to boost and diversify language input and exposure in early childhood, especially if parents use shared reading experiences to spark conversational dialogue around novel concepts. To date, it remains unclear how shared reading experiences may promote language interaction and development in early childhood for late talker children. Furthermore, the role of socioeconomic status (SES) in contribution to the relationship between language development and shared book reading interactions in early childhood remains understudied. Therefore, there is a need to further specify characteristics of shared reading practices and SES in relation to parent-child conversational interactions and child language abilities in early childhood. METHOD: 33 parent-child dyads (all mothers) of children classified as either late talkers (n = 15, 8 male) or typical controls (n=18, 9 male) were selected from an ongoing larger longitudinal study of language delay in collaboration with researchers at Northwestern University (PIs: Norton and Wakschlaug). Characteristics of parent-child conversational interactions during story book reading were assessed through language transcription and subsequent analysis of the quality and quantity of parent language input during these interactions. Parent language input measures and SES were evaluated for possible group differences between late talkers and typical controls, and subsequently examined as potential predictors of language status. RESULTS: Parental language input during shared book reading significantly differed among dyads of late talkers compared to typical controls, as indicated by mean length of utterance (MLU) in words, MLU in morphemes, moving average type token ratio (TTR), and number of different words. SES differences in parent education were also identified between groups. MLU in morphemes was found to significantly contribute to the prediction of language status in toddlerhood. CONCLUSION: Results suggest that the proximal factor of parent language input quality may be a more salient predictor of language development than the distal factors of SES for late talker children in particular. Findings highlight modifiable factors such as high-quality parent language input and shared book reading that have the potential to facilitate positive language outcomes for this population. These findings may lead to better guidance for adjustments that can be made within the HLE to improve language outcomes for late talker children.

Natural Language (NL) mechanics are seemingly underutilized within modern game development and may be capable of inducing unexpected levels of agency within its users. This study focuses specifically on NL Input (NLI) and examines its capability of inducing an experience of agency, control, and freedom through an interactive fiction with a database searching context. To get a more nuanced result, a version of the artefact but with an NL Understanding (NLU) system will also be tested to create a baseline. Due to the limited time and resources, the NLU version will be employing the Wizard of Oz (WOZ) method. In total, five NLI tests and four NLU tests were performed and interview results indicated full experience of control and mixed experience of freedom and agency in both versions. Possible causes include the participants‘ genre preference and the limited content in the artefact.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-12-17T15:07:03Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 LigiaSL_DISSERT_Capa_pag100.pdf: 3696792 bytes, checksum: ab2c75980c958b546cab0867db34b6a7 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013-02-05 / The aim of this study is to investigate the development of written Interlanguage in English as an Additional Language (AL) by students in the 2nd grade of Ensino Fundamental I in a bilingual school in the city of Natal-RN. For this purpose two research questions guided this study: (a) which hypotheses could be inferred from the writing development of the bilingual learners of English as AL? and, (b) what is the impact of the type of input monomodal or multimodal in the Interlanguage development in the AL of bilingual learners? The 38 learners were divided into a control group, with 21 learners exposed to monomodal input, and an experimental group, with 17 learners exposed to multimodal input, and pre and post-tests were applied to both groups. A mixed methods research design was conducted (D?RNYEI, 2007) to involve both qualitative and quantitative data collection and analysis. The qualitative aspect comprehended descriptive characteristics that interpreted the central cognitive processes in the acquisition of writing in AL by the learners. Through these interpretations, it was possible to understand the constitution of written Interlanguage (SELINKER, 1972) according to the data generated by the learners. The quantitative data were presented as the results generated from the experimental design. Thus, they narrowed the relations between the dependent variable the writing development, that is, how close it is to the target form which was modified throughout the process by the independent variable the quality of input (VAN PATTEN, 2002, GASS, 1997, SCHMIDT, 1986, PARADIS, 2009; 2010, ELLIS, 1995), which, being monomodal or multimodal, its function was possibly to alter the route of acquisition. The quantitative results pointed towards significant gains by the experimental group, which had multimodality present, suggesting that the learners in this group seem to have been more able to cognitively register (SCHIMDT, 1990) aspects of learning than the learners in the control group / Este estudo visa a investigar o desenvolvimento da Interl?ngua escrita em ingl?s como L?ngua Adicional (LA) por alunos do 2? Ano do Ensino Fundamental I em uma escola bil?ngue da cidade de Natal-RN. Para tanto, duas perguntas de pesquisa nortearam este trabalho: (a) quais hip?teses podem ser inferidas sobre o desenvolvimento da escrita dos aprendizes bil?ngues de ingl?s como LA? e, (b) qual o impacto do tipo de input - monomodal e multimodal - no desenvolvimento da Interl?ngua na LA por aprendizes bil?ngues? Os 38 participantes foram divididos em grupo controle, com 21 alunos expostos ao input monomodal; e em grupo experimental, com 17 alunos expostos ao input multimodal, ambos os grupos sendo submetidos a pr? e p?s-testes. Realizamos uma pesquisa de m?todos mistos (D?RNYEI, 2007) para envolver a coleta e an?lise tanto de dados qualitativos quanto quantitativos. O aspecto qualitativo incluiu caracter?sticas essencialmente descritivas que buscaram interpretar as etapas do processo de escrita em LA dos aprendizes. Atrav?s dessas interpreta??es foi poss?vel compreender os processo cognitivos centrais da Interl?ngua (SELINKER, 1972) escrita de acordo com os dados gerados pelos aprendizes bil?ngues. Os dados quantitativos foram apresentados como os resultados gerados a partir do design experimental. Deste modo, eles estreitaram as rela??es entre a vari?vel dependente o desenvolvimento da escrita, ou seja, o quanto ela se aproxima da forma-alvo modificada ao longo do processo pela vari?vel independente a qualidade do input (VAN PATTEN, 2002, GASS, 1997, SCHMIDT, 1986, PARADIS, 2009; 2010, ELLIS, 1995) que, sendo monomodal ou multimodal, sua fun??o consistia em possivelmente alterar o curso da aquisi??o. Os resultados quantitativos apontam para ganhos significativos no grupo em que a multimodalidade esteve presente, sugerindo que os aprendizes deste grupo teriam registrado cognitivamente (SCHIMDT, 1990) mais aspectos do aprendizado que os aprendizes do grupo controle

Streaming video services have been ingrained into everyday life among Swedish teens, and the media content is often considered to benefit English language learners. The present study aims to verify that elevated English language proficiency and avid consumption of online streaming media appear synchronously in upper secondary school students. This is done by gauging online streaming media habits in students enrolled in a Swedish upper secondary school using a questionnaire, and then employing Pearson correlations to investigate the strength of the relationship between this data and student scores on a provided test of receptive vocabulary. Some attention is given to the effect of subtitle language choice on the viewer, as well as giving a brief summary of extramural English. The results are that there were found to be mostly weak correlations of low significance between test scores and online streaming media-use. The discussion links the predominantly weak correlations and significance values to previous studies about frequent multitasking occurring while participants are watching audiovisual media at home. Some space is given to a suggestion on how to adapt the present methodology to upper secondary schools to enable active teachers to explore how their English learners consume audiovisual streaming media and how this may relate to language proficiency. The study concludes that more research is needed to form a more accurate view of the relationship between watching online streaming audiovisual media and improved English language proficiency, and that further investigations should be of greater magnitude and breadth in both sampling as well as what demographic data is gathered.

This two-part dissertation investigated the home language experiences and language development of 35 toddler-aged children from low-income Mexican immigrant families. These children represent a rapidly growing demographic in the United States. Because early language abilities are closely linked to later academic success, understanding the characteristics of the early language learning experiences provided in the homes of Mexican immigrant children is a foundational step to supporting their strengths and needs prior to formal school entry. In the first study of this dissertation, semi-structured interviews were conducted with the children’s mothers regarding the everyday activity settings of their young children. Degree of maternal acculturation was also assessed. Commonalities and variations in mothers’ values, beliefs, and practices regarding language teaching and learning were revealed. The commonalities included attention towards children’s early behavior and social skills, collective child-rearing practices, emphasis on the family unit and Mexican identity, and support for Spanish-English language learning and educational success, among others. A limited number of variations were also found to be associated with mothers’ affiliation with Anglo-American culture. In the second study, naturalistic recordings of the toddlers' language input in the home were analyzed in-depth to describe features of the quantity and quality of the input to which children were exposed. A wide range of variability in children’s quantity and quality was found. In addition, the relative amount of Spanish and English spoken to children was determined. Spanish was the primary language used with children, although English was also used in most homes. Children’s productive vocabulary in both languages was further measured contemporaneously; total vocabulary size ranged widely across children. There were no associations revealed between the characteristics of children’s language input quantity and quality and their productive vocabulary, although quantity and quality were related to one another. Implications of both studies to early childhood researchers and practitioners focused on early language development, including speech-language pathologists, are discussed. / Communication Sciences

This study investigates the effects of authentic materials and contextually-developed role-playing activities on the oral proficiency of Thai undergraduate students. The study was conducted at Prince of Songkla University, Thailand during the first semester (June to September) of 2010. The study consisted of four research instruments and the data were analyzed using Independent Samples t-test to determine whether the authentic materials and contextually-developed role-playing activities had improved the students’ oral fluency and accuracy in the target language. The findings indicated statistically significant differences between the two groups wherein the experimental group performed better on both fluency and accuracy than the control group. Therefore, based on the findings of the current study, it can be concluded that authentic materials and contextually-developed role-playing activities involving a series of sequential events are effective in enhancing learners’ oral proficiency in programs of English as a foreign language in the context of Thailand English education. / English Studies / M.A. (TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages))

Orientador: Linda Gentry El-Dash / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Estudos da Linguagem / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-06T06:03:50Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Sousa_DenilsonAmade_M.pdf: 683113 bytes, checksum: b56e92e2cf7ccf5d2606b65b00c15c99 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2006 / Resumo: Este estudo realizou uma descrição de um fenômeno lingüístico chamado alternância das formas dativas em inglês (dative alternation) e verificou, através de um teste de julgamento de gramaticalidade, se professores e alunos brasileiros de inglês têm conhecimento implícito ou explícito acerca deste fenômeno. Comparando a intuição de nativos americanos com a intuição de alunos e professores brasileiros, chegou-se à conclusão de que nem os professores nem os alunos possuem esse conhecimento. A partir desses resultados foram realizadas intervenções em sala de aula com o intuito de fazer com que aprendizes de inglês de nível intermediário adquirissem a alternância das formas dativas. Essas intervenções foram baseadas em processamento de insumo e instrução para processamento (como formulados por VanPatten, 1993,1996) e tiveram um design de pré-teste/pós-teste. As análises estatísticas desse segundo experimento ¿ intervenção ¿ mostraram, com uma diferença significativa ao nível de 5%, que o grupo que sofreu o tratamento baseado em instrução para processamento de insumo aprendeu a alternância das formas dativas apenas no nível imediato, já que essa aprendizagem se perdeu depois de passado um mês. As análises estatísticas referentes ao grupo que sofreu um tratamento baseado numa abordagem tradicional indicaram que não houve aprendizagem imediata estatisticamente relevante. Essas análises também apontaram, com uma diferença significativa ao nível de 10%, para a perda do conhecimento, estatisticamente não significativo, adquirido na intervenção. O conhecimento do grupo de controle ¿ aquele que não sofreu nenhum tipo de tratamento ¿ se manteve o mesmo durante o período da pesquisa. Evidenciou-se, assim, que, pelo menos para esse tipo de estrutura, a Instrução para Processamento de Insumo surtiu um efeito apenas imediato, que não durou muito tempo. Essa descoberta é interessante, pois se pode imaginar o motivo pelo qual isso tenha ocorrido e conseqüentemente se especular acerca daquilo que pode ser feito para se evitar a perda do conhecimento adquirido na intervenção / Abstract: This study was designed to describe a linguistic phenomenon in English known as dative alternation. A grammaticality judgment task was used to ascertain whether Brazilian teachers and learners of English have any knowledge of that phenomenon, either implicit or explicit. When the intuition of native Americans was compared with that of Brazilian teachers and learners, it was attested that neither the teachers nor the students possess that kind of knowledge. Based on these results, two kinds of classroom intervention were carried out in an attempt to investigate the acquisition of the possession constraint underlying dative alternation by intermediate level English students. These interventions, based on input processing and processing instruction (as formulated by VanPatten, 1993, 1996), involved a pre-test/post-test design. The statistical analysis of this experiment showed, with a level of significance of 5%, that the group submitted to processing instruction learned the restriction underlying dative alternation, but only in the short term, since this learning was lost after a month. The statistical analysis of the group submitted to a treatment involving a traditional approach did not reveal any statistically significant kind of short term learning. Although the analysis suggested, with a level of significance of 10%, that any knowledge acquired during intervention was lost. The knowledge of dative alternation of the control group ¿ a group which did not undergo any kind of treatment ¿ remained unaltered. Thus, it was demonstrated that, at least for this kind of structure, processing instruction had only a short term effect, which did not last as long as a month. These findings are interesting because one may wonder why this happened and, consequently, speculate about what can be done in order to avoid the loss of the knowledge acquired through the processing instruction intervention / Mestrado / Mestre em Linguística Aplicada

This study investigates the effects of authentic materials and contextually-developed role-playing activities on the oral proficiency of Thai undergraduate students. The study was conducted at Prince of Songkla University, Thailand during the first semester (June to September) of 2010. The study consisted of four research instruments and the data were analyzed using Independent Samples t-test to determine whether the authentic materials and contextually-developed role-playing activities had improved the students’ oral fluency and accuracy in the target language. The findings indicated statistically significant differences between the two groups wherein the experimental group performed better on both fluency and accuracy than the control group. Therefore, based on the findings of the current study, it can be concluded that authentic materials and contextually-developed role-playing activities involving a series of sequential events are effective in enhancing learners’ oral proficiency in programs of English as a foreign language in the context of Thailand English education. / English Studies / M.A. (TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages))