Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2006. / Printout. Vita Includes bibliographical references (leaves 308-318) Available on microfilm from ProQuest Information and Learning.

Studying issues of heritage language (HL) maintenance is gaining more significance than ever as our lives become significantly more complex and dynamic because of frequent migration and the transnational diasporas that such migration creates in its wake. HL maintenance is important in multicultural environments because familial relationships depend heavily on successful communication among family members. Viewing HL maintenance as a social practice, this exploratory qualitative study attempts to understand how participants are involved in their children’s HL maintenance by investigating, comparing, and contrasting the participants’ attitudes and practices. This study recruited eight Korean immigrant families with different lengths of residence in Greater Vancouver, an area that has seen a steady growth in the numbers of Korean immigrants. Combining social practice theory and qualitative research, this study uses discourse analysis to explore the participants’ language ideologies and beliefs about HL maintenance. This study also explored actual parental involvement in their children’s HL acquisition and maintenance. Furthermore, this study examined participants’ technology use as a means of HL acquisition and maintenance. In particular, the participants’ online conversations were examined to explore language use. This study supports the view that the parental role is important, even paramount, in children’s HL maintenance, but goes beyond this to show how technology can play a positive role in HL acquisition and maintenance. There are three central findings. First, a match between parental attitudes and behaviours concerning HL acquisition and maintenance and contributes to their children’s HL maintenance. Second, a mismatch or inconsistency between parental attitudes and behaviours correlates with children’s HL attrition or loss. Third, language revitalization can occur through HL and cultural practices in various online activities such as synchronous and asynchronous online communication, including access to Korean websites and playing games in Korean. To conclude, examining HL maintenance as a social practice offers new insights into the complexity and dynamics of the social practices of HL maintenance in the lives of Korean immigrants in Canada. / Education, Faculty of / Language and Literacy Education (LLED), Department of / Graduate

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Murdoch University, 2003. / Thesis submitted to the Division of Arts. Bibliography: leaves 239-260.

Thesis (Ed.D.)--The University of Auckland (New Zealand), 2005. / (UnM)AAI3201547. Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 66-12, Section: A, page: 4359. Adviser: John Hattie.

Thesis (M.A. (Philosophy))--University of Pretoria, 2002. / Summary in English and Afrikaans. Includes bibliographical references.

Dissertation (MCIS - Computer and Information Sciences) -- AUT University, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references. Also held in print ( ix,139 leaves : ill., charts. ; 30 cm.) in the Archive at the City Campus (T 371.33 LI)

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Indiana University, Dept. of Instructional Systems Technology, 2006. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 67-06, Section: A, page: 2129. Adviser: Sasha Barab. "Title from dissertation home page (viewed June 21, 2007)."

The following Master thesis is based on the technical language of recycling and plastic processing taking into consideration the relevant language and text attributes. Characteristic features are analysed on the basis of leaflets acquired at the international trade fair Fakuma focussing on this particular industry. First, the Master thesis concentrates on the definition of technical language itself presenting different points of view of this issue. Furthermore, the thesis focuses on the technical language of technology, chemistry and ecology which is employed in the analysed leaflets. Of major importance for the flyers is also the element of advertising which is elaborated in the second chapter. The empirical part of the thesis concentrates on a text analysis of each of the language subsystems: textual, stylistic, lexical and morphological. To conclude with, the thesis provides table overviews and a summarizing chapter.

Thesis (M.A. (African Languages)) --University of Limpopo, 2014 / Refer to the document

In this qualitative study based on constructivist learning theory, nine intermediate level university students of German were observed as they read foreign language texts on the Internet. Through observations, as well as think-aloud protocols and semi-structured interviews, the study identified Internet reading strategies the students used, and determined the difficulties they encountered in Internet reading activities. The observed strategies were related to four different types of reading tasks the students had to complete and to the language levels of the students. The four task types included: (a) scanning for specific information, (b) skimming and summary writing, (c) detailed reading and text comparison, and (d) observing linguistic phenomena in a text. The research questions arose from the observation that, while the Internet has a positive influence on motivation, independent learning and cultural understanding (Alm-Lequeux, 2001; Brandl, 2002; Chapelle, 2000; Lee, 1997), the literature also talks of frustration on the part of the students, and of students being overwhelmed by foreign language Internet pages (Kubota, 1999; Rüschoff & Wolff, 1999; Shetzer & Warschauer, 2000). This frustration is hypothesized to be due to the fact that Internet texts are authentic texts written for readers in the target culture, and have not been adjusted to the linguistic and cultural knowledge level of foreign language students. There is still little empirical research on the specific ways students deal with these difficulties while completing Internet reading tasks. The present study was carried out with the aim of shedding light on the Internet reading process for pedagogical purposes. The think-aloud technique of data collection permitted a deeper understanding and a more precise description of this special type of reading than would have been possible with interviews alone. The data analysis revealed eight key factors playing a role in foreign language Internet reading: course performance level, background knowledge, motivation, strategic reading, computer skills, problem-solving style, hypertext structure, and type of task. These factors lead to pedagogical implications for designing suitable Internet tasks for foreign language students, and for scaffolding the foreign language Internet reading process.