Thesis (M.S.)--Ohio University, August, 2001. / Title from PDF t.p.

Thesis (M.Ed.)--York University, 2006. Graduate Programme in Education. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 110-114). Also available on the Internet. MODE OF ACCESS via web browser by entering the following URL: http://gateway.proquest.com/openurl?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&res_dat=xri:pqdiss&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:dissertation&rft_dat=xri:pqdiss:MR29599

The language of schooling, a register closely linked to academic success, poses challenges for young pupils. These challenges are greater for immigrant and dialectal pupils who are expected to encode the register in question in a second language (L2) and a second dialect (D2) respectively. While the linguistic challenges facing immigrant and dialectal pupils have been extensively researched, those facing learners lying at the intersection of immigrant and dialectal pupils have not as yet received attention. The latter are immigrant pupils immersed in bidialectal communities, that is, communities where communication is performed through a standard and a non-standard variety of language. These pupils are confronted with the comparatively greater challenge of operating in the second dialect of a second language (L2:D2). Addressing a gap in research, this study sought to examine the school-based linguistic challenges facing L2:D2 learners, specifically as these manifest themselves in writing. To this end, a mixed-methods design was employed. One hundred immigrant and 76 non-immigrant pupils participated in the study, all in their final year of primary school. The latter served as a reference group. Data were collected mainly via writing and editing tasks. Interviews with pupils and teachers, together with a small questionnaire, provided supplementary information. Cyprus, a bidialectal country currently hosting an increasing immigrant population, provided the setting for this study. The texts produced by immigrant pupils contained unconventional forms and structures relating to register learning, L2 learning and D2 learning. Traces of L2:D2 learning were also detected. It was found that immigrant pupils - including the very early-arrived ones - underperformed in comparison with their Cypriot counterparts, not only in the language-specific aspects of the register (e.g. immigrants used more dialectal forms in their texts than Cypriots), but also in the non-language-specific ones (e.g. more immigrants than Cypriots assumed common ground with the reader). This performance gap cast light on a number of 'hidden' extralinguistic factors undermining immigrants' school-based written production: pupils' sociocultural circumstances, their 'outsiderness' in relation to the dominant community and the prevailing national ideology. These extralinguistic factors shift the attention away from L2 learning, a linguistic factor often portrayed as the primary source of immigrant pupils' language underperformance. This study contributed to the understanding of the construct 'immigrant pupil' by exposing its multifaceted and context-specific nature. Also, it illuminated an unexplored area, namely, the interplay between second language acquisition and second dialect acquisition, while informing educational policy and practice.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Rutgers University, 2009. / "Graduate Program in Urban Systems." Includes bibliographical references (p. 154-168).

Thesis (M. Phil.)--University of Hong Kong, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 79-99). Also available in print.

Thesis (M.A.)--George Mason University, 2008. / Vita: p. 108. Thesis director: Adam Winsler. Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Psychology. Title from PDF t.p. (viewed Mar. 9, 2009). Includes bibliographical references (p. 101-107). Also issued in print.

Using data from the Leicestershire Growth Study, which was established in 1981, this thesis sets out to evaluate the growth of children in Leicestershire and to highlight any differences which may exist between those children indigenous to Great Britain and those whose families have emigrated from the subcontinent of India. The latter population can be subdivided further, i.e. peoples from the countries of India, Bangladesh and Pakistan, the first group primarily, having either migrated from India directly to this country or having spent an interim period in East Africa, and into adherents of the Muslim, Hindu or Sikh faiths. Seven anthropometric parameters, selected to represent skeletal and soft tissue components of the body, and whose dimensions reflect best the changing patterns of growth with age and environmental factors, were measured on 3775 children aged from 3-10 years inclusive. There are distinct anthropometric differences between the indigenous population and that from the Indian subcontinent, with the indigenous population having greater skeletal dimensions, e.g. stature, head circumference, and differences in body composition, reflected in greater weight. These ethnic differences appear to have been exacerbated by religious factors which impinge upon both genotype and phenotype by imposition of their respective individual cultures:, involving such factors as dietary intake and marriage customs, resulting in the Indian Sikh children resembling more closely the indigenous population than do the Hindus and Muslims. Other environmental factors such as length of time of residence in this country, or period of time spent in East Africa appear to have had some impact upon growth, since the Indians in Leicestershire are taller and heavier than their counterparts still resident in India. Finally, it is recommended that some of the growth charts in current use in Great Britain be modified for use with certain groups of children from the Indian subcontinent.

No description available.

published_or_final_version / Psychology / Master / Master of Philosophy

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2004. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 115-130).