This descriptive, sociolinguistic study examines six middle grade children's perceptions and productions of English and French written narratives in a suburban Montreal English Protestant, French Immersion school in the province of Quebec during the period of one school year. The primary purpose of this study was to determine the children's perceptions of writing stories in English and French and strategies for writing stories in two languages and classrooms. Interviews were transcribed, coded for emerging patterns and interpreted as socially negotiated texts. A secondary purpose was to analyze their use of temporal perspectives, verb forms for self chosen English and French written stories. Descriptive statistics such as frequencies, means and percentages were utilized in data analysis. Major findings of this study were the following: (1) Across interviews in both English and French the children are very consistent in their perceptions of story writing in L2 as being more complex than in L1. (2) They perceive the writing of narrative in English and French to involve a culturally organized system of strategies and values learned in specific contexts of situations. (3) The use of varied interviewing techniques serves as a cross validation of children's perceptions. (4) The children have similar and systematic ways of assigning tense to their stories in both languages. (5) The children were exposed to contradictory models of language instruction and narrative discourse. The teachers' models of language learning, narrative discourse influenced the children's perceptions of themselves as language learners and story writers. (6) The six children provide evidence to support the hypothesis that there might be a single processing mechanism across languages that is flexible enough to handle differences among bilingual children in their perceptions of and use of strategies for writing stories in English and French. Findings from this study suggest that the relationship between first and second language learning is more similar than different. Direct teaching of linguistic forms can have a deleterious effect on children's written productions and perceptions of themselves as language learners. Large scale, product analysis studies, may no longer be a viable way to tap and assess the language, narrative competence and performance of bilingual children.

Thesis (M.S.)--Central Connecticut State University, 2003. / Thesis advisor: Patti Lynn O'Brien. " ... in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Reading." Includes bibliographical references (leaf 39). Also available via the World Wide Web.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of North Texas, Dec., 2009. / Title from title page display. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis--University of Wisconsin--Madison. / Typescript. Vita. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 188-199).

I intend, with this thesis, to investigate how Michel Foucault's concept of ???a positive unconscious of knowledge??? can be illustrated by overlapping narrative segments. I have coined the term ???friction???, as a writing practice, to describe the space in-between narrative conception and conscious, ordered reflection upon that narrative. Thus, the thesis comprises an exploration of Foucault's intersecting marginal zone, which is an integral aspect of his philosophic concept of ???positive unconscious???. The ???positive unconscious??? is where the overlapping sections of what Foucault calls, a ???table??? (creative narrative) and ???tabula??? (the ordering of the narrative) are situated. The frictional form is synonymous with Foucault's concept. It is as a developing narrative conception that becomes an ordered practice, and also aims to be what Jacques Derrida calls ???a new writing???. Hence, Foucault's ???positive unconscious???, Derrida's ???new writing???, and the frictional narrative process all comprise, along with and through the multiple inclusions of myriad theorists, philosophers, fiction writers, lyric poets, etc., an amalgamated whole ???new??? narrative (the frictionalised thesis). The paradox of the ???new??? (frictional) narrative is that through mimesis comes characterised difference - a ???new??? hybridised space is opened up which both fascinates and appals, railing as it does against fixed, constraining and systematised linguistic and discursive structures. Yet this is a stimulating space that ultimately brings new focus to stifling self-conformity. It is a frictional space comprised of a profusion of literary ???voices??? made singular, a singularity that is also mutiplicitous in its composite origin. It is a frictional observance that refutes the injunction of needing definite closure given its inclusion of potentially unlimited sources.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 1999. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 198-212). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2003. / Supervisor: Carl Blyth. Vita. Includes bibliographical references. Available also from UMI Company.

Diss.--Tu̇bingen. / Vita. Bibliography: p. 407-422.

Thesis (M.A.)--Ball State University, 2009. / Title from PDF t.p. (viewed on Nov. 30, 2009). Includes bibliographical references (p. 88-90).

Thesis (D. Min.)--Harding University Graduate School of Religion, 2000. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 243-256).