<p> The Chandogya Upanisad is one of the most important pieces of literature in orthodox Hinduism. It contains some of the most crucial statements for the religion about salvation and ritualistic uses of language. This dissertation attempts to explain to modern Western readers what the Chandogya Upanisad says about the nature of language and in so doing explain the meaning of the Upanisad. In order to do this the traditional explanations of the text have been considered as carefully as posslble. One aspect of this consideration has been that whereas previous explanations of the text have not considered the implications of the ChU's relation to the Chandogya Brahmana this has. Another aspect has been that whereas previous explanations have not sought to understand this text as a complete and necessary whole this one has. </p> <p> Consequently part of the dissertation seeks implicitly and explicitly to demarcate the assumptions of previous scholarship from the assumptions of the ChU. The result of this is to show modern scholarship's desire to point out the historicality of the ChU and the ChU's desire to point out the uninformativeness historicality. The paradigmatic case of these incompatible desires is etymology which in the ChU is seen to imply the unity inherent to eternal being and in modern linguistics is seen to be the record of the historicality of beings, in particular, man. Another result of this part of the investigation was to discover that the transmission of upasana's (teachings) was a central cohesive theme of the ChU and that the ritualization of speech was inherent to this transmission. </p> <p> The central thesis of this dissertation is that chanted or ritualistic language is said in the ChU to be founded in desire which necessarily implies a dependent order of being. Language, which exists within this being, articulates various limits of dependency most authentically in a ritualistic manner. The primordial form of ritualistic speech is the pronoun, tat, which implies that the central phenomenon of all things is that they can be counted. We show during the course of the explanation of this thesis how the ChU points out what this dependency and numericality mean with respect to sacrifice, religious language, etymology, social order, propriety, duty, and education. In so doing we hope to have explained many of the more obscure portions of the text as well as to have presented the context in which several later theological discussions took place in the tradition. </p> / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

This study explores English language pragmatic phenomena in the Mandarin speech of a native Chinese language teacher as she interacts with American learners of Mandarin in a university classroom setting. I document and analyze her use of English backchannel 'mm hmm' in interactions that are otherwise in Mandarin, and I document and analyze the transfer of American interaction rituals and English syntax to her Mandarin language interactions with students. In this context, her patterns of communication both reflect and constitute cultural worlds. These pragmatic transfers to her Mandarin reflect her cultural and communicative assimilation to America, but they also serve to constitute pedagogical contexts that are familiar to American students and may facilitate their learning, and they serve to constitute a sojourner Chinese scholar identity for the teacher.

The research described here was inspired by a national review which concluded that too many children come into our primary schools with unmet speech and language needs (Bercow, 2008). Teachers are in a position to identify language difficulties but many have expressed uncertainty regarding their role in this process. I believed that the LAMP (Linguistic Assessment for Mapped Provision) screen for language and communication which I had developed would help teachers to identify language concerns and would also increase their professional confidence in this complex area. I had developed the LAMP screening instrument and piloted it over a 2 year period prior to this study. It is employed here as a universal screen that is used in a whole school approach in order to enable teachers to identify language need. The use of the LAMP as a universal screen applied to all the children in a school lessened the likelihood of preconceived notions impacting upon teacher’s perceptions of need in the classroom. The LAMP data allowed schools to track the progress of individual children within a class and whole school context. Teachers need to be aware of any pre-conceptions they may have in relation to the performance of children from different socio economic circumstances. The hypothesis that poverty continues to provide the weightiest detrimental effects upon children’s language development was examined and within the parameters of this study was found to be contestable. Study design: A systematic survey was conducted over 4 Primary schools using the LAMP. Rich picture data was accessed from teacher questionnaires and focus groups involving participants from the schools in the study. The repeated measures design provided information on what teachers had learned in the period of reflection between the screenings. The use of a mixed methods repeated measures design helped me to understand what was difficult for teachers and what the teachers felt would help them. The 4 schools in the study were chosen to reflect varied social contexts in order to explore any impacts of SES on the results. Analysis of data: In a repeated measures design, a LAMP screen was completed for every child across the 4 schools by their teachers in February and then June in one school year. Results of screening were analysed and compared on a range of variables using SPSS. Questionnaires were used to collect teacher perceptions before and after using the LAMP screen. Focus groups were held in the schools at the end of the study to add more information on how helpful teachers felt the process had been in raising their awareness, confidence, and skills in the identification of SLCN. Findings: The main trend observed was a decrease in levels of teacher concern related to children’s speech and language needs from the first to second screening survey. Differences were found at a statistically significant level on a range of variables. The expected differences between high and low socio-economic status (SES) schools were not found. Teachers reported increases in their awareness, confidence, and skill in identifying children’s speech language and communication concerns by the end of the study. Some changes to classroom practice were reported. Conclusions: I propose that use of the LAMP screen increased teacher awareness of the nature of language difficulty and that this heightened awareness was a key variable in the observed changes to language concern scores. The LAMP screening process was seen by schools’ staff to have had a positive effect on teacher’s skills and to be relatively easily assimilated into the school system. However some participants identified a number of challenges relating to time constraints and maintaining the use of LAMP as high profile in the context of competing time demands in their schools. It is suggested that EP services would be in a position to support schools to implement and embed the LAMP screening model as part of their Service provision. It is also proposed that economic deprivation or disadvantage did not appear to be the only important factor to consider when making funding decisions intended to support children’s linguistic competency in schools.