Thesis (Ed.D.)--Teachers College, Columbia University, l989. / Typescript; issued also on microfilm. Sponsor: Leslie Beebe. Dissertation Committee: John Fanselow. Bibliography: leaves 223-234.

This study investigates how learners of English as a foreign language (EFL) whose first language (L1) is Swedish select prepositions in the English language. The study involves two groups, the participants and their respective controls. The participants are advanced EFL students at a Swedish university and their controls are intermediate EFL speakers who are no longer enrolled in an EFL course. The aim of the present psycholinguistic investigation is to elucidate the process of the preposition selection in EFL by means of a think-aloud-protocol. The present study involves the assumption that preposition selection by Swedish EFL learners is based on both implicitly and explicitly acquired knowledge. Data analysis indicates that the participants’ EFL preposition selection is influenced by their L1 knowledge. The results suggest that EFL preposition selection does not differ significantly between the two groups. However, the results are indicative of a variation in EFL preposition selection between the two groups in an EFL proficiency test and a think-aloud-protocol.

The current study aims to investigate the source(s)of cross linguistic influence(CLI)on the production of future encoding strategies by L1 Cantonese learners of L3 Swedish who speak L2 English. In the literature of third language acquisition (TLA) research, the language status of native and non-native languages as well as genetic and (psycho)typological language distance are identified to be important to TLA processes but the current knowledge is insufficient to inform which factor(s) is/are more influential. Given the close genetic distance between English and Swedish and the status of English as a second language, it is hypothesized that CLI on L3 Swedish comes from L2 English rather than L1 Cantonese. Any confirmation or rejection to this hypothesis serves to inform the relationship of language status and language distance to TLA. To test this hypothesis, linguistic background questionnaire and a picture elicitation task are designed to record the production of future ideas in the three languages. Through qualitative and quantitative analyses, mixed sources of CLI from Cantonese and English are identified. An equidistance representation of non-native languages is also identified in which non-native English and Swedish respectively show similar degree of cross linguistic matching in relation to native Cantonese regardless which of them is the principal source of CLI. The hypothesis of differentiation of linguistic representation in the minds of polyglots is therefore proposed and further verification and investigation is required. / published_or_final_version / Linguistics / Master / Master of Arts

Thesis (M.A.)--York University, 2004. Graduate Programme in Linguistics. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 142-148). Also available on the Internet. MODE OF ACCESS via web browser by entering the following URL: http://wwwlib.umi.com/cr/yorku/fullcit?pMQ99397

Thesis advisor: Patrick Proctor / This study is an investigation of Arabic native speakers' (ANSs) acquisition of the English causative-inchoative alternation (e.g. <italic>Tom broke the vase</italic> vs. <italic>The vase broke</italic>). Emphasis is placed on the relationship between English proficiency, language transfer, and Universal Grammar mechanisms in ANSs' interlanguage representations. Four central research questions guide the study: (1) Does the English causative-inchoative alternation pose a learnability problem for ANSs? (2) Do ANSs distinguish between unaccusative and unergative verbs in English? (3) Are there L1 transfer effects on ANSs' acquisition of the English causative-inchoative alternation? (4) Are there differences across English proficiency levels with respect to the answers to questions 1-3? To address these questions, an acceptability judgment and correction task was administered to a total of 119 ANSs (from the Gaza Strip, Palestine) of different English proficiency levels. Additionally, 23 American native speakers of English served as controls. The results obtained from data analyses indicated that the English causative-inchoative alternation posed a learnability problem for the Arab participants. They exhibited four major non-target behaviors: overpassivization (both ungrammatical and unnatural), overcausativization, underpassivization, and undercausativization. It is argued that these errors can largely be attributed to L1 transfer, since Arabic is significantly different from English in terms of how to encode the causative-inchoative alternation. The results also revealed sensitivity to the unaccusative-unergative distinction in English, which supports the hypothesis that ANSs have access to the innate mechanisms of Universal Grammar. Moreover, while interlanguage development towards target-like behavior was observed across proficiency groups, certain test conditions revealed a strong influence of L1 transfer on even the high proficiency participants. The findings from the study are inconsistent with the modular view of L1 transfer (Montrul, 2000), but they lend support to the hypothesis that L1 transfer operates not only on morphology, but on lexical argument structure as well (Whong-Barr, 2005). The study is an attempt to fill a gap in the literature, since no research has specifically investigated the acquisition of the English causative-inchoative alternation by ANSs. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2010. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Curriculum and Instruction.

Metalinguistic awareness skills (i.e., phonological awareness, orthographic awareness, morphological awareness) contribute to children’s spelling as well as reading. Although the multidimensional nature of these metalinguistic awareness skills has been acknowledged, little research has been conducted on the simultaneous investigation of these three metalinguistic skills, and it is especially true for Korean Hangul. The purpose of this study was to simultaneously examine these three inter-related constructs and the unique and shared contributions of each construct to English spelling as well as Korean spelling of typically developing fourth, fifth and sixth grade Korean-speaking students (n= 287). Korean metalinguistic awareness skills represented by three-first order factors (i.e., phonological, orthographic, morphological awareness) predicted 83% of the total variance in Korean spelling, and 52% of the total variance in English Word Spelling. It was particularly noteworthy that Korean metalinguistic awareness skills determined 12% of the variance in English Word Spelling, even after controlling for English vocabulary, demonstrating that there was a transfer effect between the two different orthographies. Findings from the present study provide strong support for the relationships between first language and second language literacy skills in terms of spelling and the concrete relationship between morphological awareness and spelling.

Sentence processing strategies by 10 bilingual speakers (Spanish: L1 and English: L2) were compared to 10 monolingual speakers of Spanish and 10 of English. Word-by-word reading times for ambiguous and non-ambiguous sentences were recorded. A paraphrasing task was used to determine the attachment preferences for a prepositional phrase placed after the verb. Multivariate analyses of the data showed that bilingual speakers combined strategies from both languages when processing ambiguous sentences in L2 that are non-ambiguous in L1. Furthermore, overall results showed that the three groups were sensitive to the attachment of the prepositional phrase. The results are discussed in terms of their implications for theories of sentence processing and of language transfer.

This thesis investigates development and transfer of oral reading fluency among early French immersion students. Using a longitudinal design, students were assessed on phonological awareness, rapid naming, word-level fluency and text-level fluency in English and in French in Grade 2 and Grade 3. In three related studies, this thesis examines transfer both within levels of fluency individually (word-level and text-level) and between levels of fluency (from word-level to text-level). The results indicated that word-level fluency significantly improved over the one-year period in both English and in French. Language status comparing English-as-first-language students (EL1) and English-language-learners (ELLs) did not influence fluency performance in either language. Further, results showed bidirectional transfer of fluency at the word-level and the text-level independently, and unidirectional transfer from word to text fluency from French to English only. These findings provide evidence supporting cross-language transfer of oral reading fluency both within and between levels of the construct.

This thesis investigates development and transfer of oral reading fluency among early French immersion students. Using a longitudinal design, students were assessed on phonological awareness, rapid naming, word-level fluency and text-level fluency in English and in French in Grade 2 and Grade 3. In three related studies, this thesis examines transfer both within levels of fluency individually (word-level and text-level) and between levels of fluency (from word-level to text-level). The results indicated that word-level fluency significantly improved over the one-year period in both English and in French. Language status comparing English-as-first-language students (EL1) and English-language-learners (ELLs) did not influence fluency performance in either language. Further, results showed bidirectional transfer of fluency at the word-level and the text-level independently, and unidirectional transfer from word to text fluency from French to English only. These findings provide evidence supporting cross-language transfer of oral reading fluency both within and between levels of the construct.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2007. / Full text release at OhioLINK's ETD Center delayed at author's request