In this embedded case study, I examined and documented discussions of literature across two literacy contexts within one multiage classroom. Further, I explored the experiences of four focal students within and across the two contexts, highlighting the affordances of each space and considering the implications of tacit rules of participation for individual students. I employed ethnographic data collection methods including field notes, audio and video recordings, semi-structured interviews, and student and teacher created artifacts. Data analysis drew on constant comparative methods as well as traditions of interactive sociolinguistics. Drawing on sociocultural theories of learning and transactional theories of reading response, the study demonstrates the ways in which talk is used as a tool for meaning-making tasks including comprehension, argumentation, and identity construction. The study highlights the purposeful and strategic instructional moves made by the classroom teachers in discussion that facilitated more complete and complex interpretations of texts. The cases of the focal students illustrate the affordances of each context as well as demonstrating the ways in which responses to literature might be leveraged to claim identity positions within the classroom. The study cultivates deeper understanding about the importance of individual contributions within discussion contexts, as well as demonstrating the ways in which children and teachers mediate meaning making in collaborative contexts. The findings suggest implications for the ways in which educators might support and draw on individual approaches to response to facilitate divergent meaning making and expansion of repertoires of response for students. In addition, the study suggests implications for the careful design and development of contexts in which children are granted interpretive authority and encouraged to engage in collaborative meaning-making. / text

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published_or_final_version / Language Studies / Master / Master of Arts

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<p> As people groups have immigrated to the United States, churches have struggled to keep up with the demands of discipleship. Culture, language, and communication have proved to be formidable challenges, particularly when the written materials used to disciple people are construed with an inherent American bias. This research project sought to address this ministry problem by utilizing the concept of cultural transposition. By having a multicultural work group transpose a portion of American-based discipleship materials, this project attempted to determine whether the transposed materials are more understandable to a multicultural church congregation than the original. The study also analyzed the interactions among the transposition group to identify common problems that culture groups experience in understanding American-based materials. </p>

This thesis investigates change in a number of phonological variables in New Zealand English (NZE) during a formative period of its development. The variables under analysis are the short front vowels /ɪ/, /ɛ/, /æ/, the front centring diphthongs /ɪə/ and /ɛə/, and the so-called 'broad A' vowel. The sample includes 30 NZE speakers born between the 1890s and the 1930s (the 'Intermediate period'). Acoustic analysis reveals that the short front vowel system develops into one with two front vowels and one central vowel over the intermediate period via a push chain shift. There is evidence for complex allophonisation in the speech of early intermediate speakers. I argue that duration plays an important role in resolving overlap between vowel distributions during this time. With regard to the front centring diphthongs there is approximation of the nuclei of the two vowels in F1/F2 space over the intermediate period as well as incipient merger in the speech of late intermediate speakers. Although the merger is mainly one of gradual approximation, it is argued that patterns of expansion of the vowel space available to both vowels are also found. The analysis carried out on the 'broad A' vowel reveals that whereas flat A was still present in the speech of the earlier speakers from the sample, broad A had become categorical toward the end of the intermediate period. It is shown that, by and large, the process involves discrete transfer of words across etymological categories. The final chapters discuss a number of theoretical implications. Processes such as the NZE front vowel shift suggest that a number of previously recognised concepts, such as 'tracks' and 'subsystems', may either have to be relaxed or abandoned altogether. It is argued that chain shifts of this type come about by rather simple mechanisms that have a strong resemblance to functional principles found in the evolution of organisms. A case for 'fitness' of variants of a given vowel will be made. Phonological optimisation, on the other hand, is not a driving force in this type of sound change.

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In standard, written German, causal clauses introduced by the conjunction weil (because) display subordinate, verb-final word order. In spoken German, however, verb-second (V2) or main clause order has been increasingly found to follow weil. Early discussion of weil explored the possible loss of subordinate word order, the influence of English on German word order, and weil V2 as specific to a region or dialect. The present study addresses these and other arguments using a corpus of over 800 weil clauses. Spontaneous, spoken data from two groups of native German speakers who immigrated to Canada before 1970 and after 1985 were analyzed and coded for word order. The data showed an increase in the use of the conjunction weil, and weil V2 among younger native speakers. Earlier hypotheses regarding speaker origin, the influence of English and the loss of subordinate word order were either confirmed or refuted by the data. / Applied Linguistics

Thesis (Ph. D.)--UCLA, 2008. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 182-216).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Sydney, 1991. / Title from title screen (viewed 23 April 2008). Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy to the Dept. of Linguistics, Faculty of Arts. Degree awarded 1991; thesis submitted 1990. Includes bibliographical references. Also available in print form.