Abstract The topic of this thesis is to provide an analysis of how language is perceived in the textbooks used in lower secondary school mother-tongue classes. Scientific literature on this subject has defined ‘perception of language’ as referring to a collective approach to words, structures and phenomena of a language. ‘Perception of language’ includes a comprehensive notion of language as a system, of the ways it can be used and of its influence to its users. This study aims to provide new information responding to the needs of language cultivation and teaching. New information is needed on several issues pertaining to pedagogical approaches to teaching of mother tongue and literature. Didactics must now respond to the challenges represented by every-day life. The theoretical framework for this thesis is provided by critical discourse analysis, in particular as put forward by Norman Fairclough. Accordingly, the contents of text books are addressed from five different aspects: (i) grammar, (ii) linguistic cultivation, (iii) text linguistics, (iv) variation and (v) semantics and pragmatics. The main conclusion is that mother tongue represents itself as a random and controversial phenomenon. The learner will be treated not only as a child but also as a full-grown with full capacities. A key assumption is, nevertheless, that the texts given in the books will provide the learner with new knowledge. Conclusions on the different topics discussed include: (i) In grammar only a limited range of topics are included: lexical classes and sentence constituents. (ii) Language cultivation (planning) as presented in the books involves grammatical aspects but same issues come into consideration year after year. (iii) As far as textual competences are concerned, media and non-entertainment communication show a high ranking at the cost of creative and word-play elements of facts-based texts. (iv) Variation in Finnish is presented in the text books rather comprehensively but still in a narrow way. However, this will allow for enhancing a “learner identity”. (v) Semantics and pragmatics only have a small presence in the last year even though their level of abstraction could prove them very useful at that stage. Text books contribute to the wide perception of mother tongue as a less-liked subject. Still: these books aim to come closer to the learner’s real life. It is well possible for the school to overcome these barriers to how language is used. Mother-tongue text books pave the way for the learner to become an informed, educated individual. / Tiivistelmä Tutkimuksen aiheena on kielikäsitys peruskoulun yläkoulun äidinkielen oppikirjoissa. Aiempaan tutkimuskirjallisuuteen nojautuen kielikäsitys on määritelty siten, että se tarkoittaa kollektiivista näkemystä kielen sanoista, rakenteista ja ilmiöistä. Kielikäsitys sisältää ajatuksen siitä, millainen kieli on järjestelmänä, mitä sillä voidaan tehdä ja mitä se tekee meille. Päämääränä on ollut tuottaa uutta tietoa käytännön kielenhuollon ja opetustyön tarpeisiin. Tarvitaan uutta tietoa monista äidinkielen ja kirjallisuuden pedagogiikan asioista. Didaktiikan täytyy koettaa vastata arkielämän asettamiin haasteisiin. Teoreettisena taustana on kriittinen diskurssianalyysi, erityisesti Norman Faircloughin viitoittaman esikuvan mukaisesti. Tällöin oppikirjojen sisältöjä kuvataan, tulkitaan ja selitetään viidestä eri näkökulmasta: (i) kieliopin, (ii) kielenhuollon, (iii) tekstiopin, (iv) variaation sekä (v) semantiikan ja pragmatiikan vinkkelistä. Keskeisin päätelmä on, että oppikirjoissa äidinkieli esittäytyy hajanaisena ja ristiriitaisena ilmiönä. Yhtäällä oppijaa lähestytään lapsena mutta toisaalla häntä pidetään täysivaltaisena aikuisena. Silti keskeistä on, että kasvatettavan uskotaan oppivan uusia asioita oppikirjojen tarjoamien tekstien varassa. Tarkastelluista osa-alueista voi todeta seuraavaa: (i) Kieliopin opetus rajoittuu vain muutamiin asioihin: sanaluokkiin ja lauseenjäseniin. (ii) Kielenhuollon yhteydessä käsitellään myös kieliopin asioita; kielenhuolto toistaa samoja asioita vuodesta toiseen. (iii) Tekstitaidoissa korostuu media ja asiaviestintä; asiaproosaan sisältyvä luovuus ja sanaleikittely jäävät katveeseen. (iv) Suomen kielen vaihtelua oppikirjat esittelevät laajasti mutta ohuesti; variaation käsittely sinänsä antaa mahdollisuudet oppijan identiteetin vahvistumiseen. (v) Peruskoulun viimeisellä luokalla semantiikan ja pragmatiikan osuus on vähäinen, vaikka abstraktiotasonsa perusteella juuri ne saattaisivat olla otollista oppiainesta. Oppikirjat ovat osaltaan vahvistamassa yleistä käsitystä, että äidinkieli on vastenmielinen oppiaine. Korostettava silti on, että esimerkiksi huumoria hyväksi käyttäen teokset yrittävät lähestyä oppijan todellisuutta. On mahdollista, että koulussa saavutetaan vapautuminen kielenkäytön pidikkeistä. Äidinkielen oppikirjat tarjoavat väylän oppijan sivistyä.

Interspeech posture (ISP) is a term used to define the position of a person’s articulators when they are preparing to speak. Research suggests that ISP may be representative of a speaker’s phonological knowledge in a particular language, as determined empirically with ultrasound measures of the tongue in English-French bilinguals (Wilson & Gick, 2014). It is possible, therefore, that measuring ISP could be a diagnostic tool for determining phonological knowledge in bilingual speakers. However, more information on ISP in typical adult bilingual speakers is needed before diagnostic claims can be made. For example, ISP is believed to be language specific, and the typical ISP for each language must be determined. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to extend the research by Wilson and Gick (2014) to investigate ISP in Spanish-English speaking adults. To this end, 13 bilingual Spanish-English adults were asked to produce 30 sentences while speaking in monolingual and bilingual modes. While they were speaking, ultrasound images of the oral cavity were obtained by placing a probe sub-mentally and analyzing the position of the tongue using Articulate Assistant Advanced 2.0 software (Articulate Instruments, 2012). Tongue and palate contour measurements were made by using a curved tongue spline that was manually drawn and semi-automatically fit to each speaker’s tongue/palate contour. ISP was measured using the participant’s tongue tip height along a reference angle from the probe to the alveolar ridge. Additionally, monolingual English speaking adults were asked to rate the accentedness of each bilingual’s speech in English as a behavioral correlate of language proficiency. Overall results of this study were non-significant; bilingual Spanish-English speakers utilized similar postures in monolingual Spanish and English modes, and in bilingual mode, in contrast with the findings of Wilson and Gick (2014). Accentedness ratings in English v indicated that the bilingual speakers were relatively uniform in their lack of accentedness. Although overall results from this study differ from those of Wilson and Gick (2014) a subset of their participants- speakers that were rated as having non-native accents- had similar results in that they also showed no difference in ISP. Related ISP’s across languages may be due to participants having native sounding English but non-native Spanish. Due to contrasting findings from Wilson and Gick (2014), further investigation with accented speakers is needed to determine if distinct ISPs exist for bilingual Spanish-English speakers.

This diploma theses introduces case studies of bilingual children attending Czech School Without Borders, London (CSWBL) that focuses on their education in this supplementary school. The theoretical part determines the term bilingualism. The aim is to describe aspects of bilingualism in students of CSWBL and specifics of their education with consideration of their frequent mistakes. In one chapter we describe institutions providing education to bilingual children worldwide. Another chapter outlines curriculum of "Czech schools without borders", curriculum of CSWBL and worksheets used for classwork in CSWBL. We are aware that textbooks for bilingual speaker do not yet exist. Empiric part focuses on creation of educational materials for Reception and Year 1 classes, both based on curriculum of CSWBL. This material is used during the lessons and evaluated. We describe in total six Saturday lessons, which took place at school year 2015/16. The lessons were based on those materials we created. Whilst creating the education materials we got inspired by Czech language textbooks, Czech for foreigners textbooks, CSWBL archive and internet sources. Key words bilingvism, methodology, biculturalism, mothar tongue

Tongue-computer interfaces allow people with upper limb disability to control a computer with their tongue. A number of assistive devices, that make use of this technology, have been developed in the last two decades: some employ contact impedance, membrane switches, or miniature joysticks, while others use magnetic or piezoelectric sensors. This thesis proposes a new tongue-computer interface, which was designed to enable users to manipulate a computer pointer by moving the tip of their tongue over an intraoral electrode array. The system maps the contact between the tongue and the electrodes, detects the movements of the tongue, and translates it into pointer movements. Compared to similar devices, the MouthPad does not require any head gear or sensors, and does not employ heavy signal processing. The hardware is simplified by using a small number of electrodes and only one output channel, multiplexed over the electrode array. A low power footprint allows the potential miniaturization of the system, so that it could fit on palatal retainer, and allow for permanent unobtrusive usage. The performance of the device was evaluated by measuring the throughput and the accuracy as defined in ISO 9241-9 standard. Two extra measures proposed in the literature, target re-entry and movement offset, were used for the evaluation of the accuracy. The measured throughput values were situated between 78% and 88% of the throughput rates of regular computer joysticks.

Plank (tongue and groove) wood decking is a product that is commonly used in post and beam timber construction to transfer gravity loads on roofs and floors. In 2010, The National Building Code of Canada changed the application area of the specified concentrated roof live loads from 750 mm x 750 mm to 200 mm x 200 mm. The change was made to better reflect the area which a construction worker with equipment occupies. Preliminary analysis showed that the change in the application area of concentrated loads may have a significant impact on the design of decking systems. Little research or development has been done on plank decking since the 1950’s and 1960’s. An experimental program was undertaken at the University of Ottawa’s structural laboratory to better understand the behaviour of plank decking under uniformly distributed and concentrated loads. Non-destructive and destructive tests were conducted on plank decking systems to investigate their stiffness and failure mode characteristics under uniformly distributed as well as concentrated loads. The experimental test program was complimented with a detailed finite element model in order to predict the behaviour of a plank decking system, especially the force transfer between decks through the tongue and groove joint. The study showed that the published deflection coefficients for uniformly distributed loads can accurately predict the three types of decking layup patterns specified in the Canadian Design Standard (CSA O86, 2009). For unbalanced uniformly distributed loads on two-span continuous layup, it was found that the deflection coefficient of 0.42 was non-conservative. It was also found that under concentrated loads, the stiffness of the decking system increased significantly as more boards were added. A deflection coefficient of 0.40 is appropriate to calculate the deflection for the three types of decking layup patterns specified in the Canadian Design Standard (CSA O86, 2009) under concentrated load on an area of 200 mm by 200 mm. Significant load sharing was observed for plank decking under concentrated loads. An increase in capacity of about 1.5 to 2.5 times the capacity of the loaded boards was found. Furthermore, it was found that placing sheathing on top of a decking system had a significant effect in the case of concentrated load with an increase of over 50% in stiffness and over 100% in ultimate capacity.

Background: The overall good prognosis for Human Papillomavirus (HPV) driven base of the tongue cancer has prompted an increasing interest in whether this group could benefit from a less aggressive treatment regime. Different studies have drawn different conclusions as to which laboratory test should be used to identify these patients, using the surrogate marker p16, analyzing for HPV presence or both. Aim: The main purpose of this study was to investigate the presence of HPV-DNA and p16 in base of tongue cancer patients and their respective prognostic value, both used individually as well as combined. Material and methods: This was a retrospective cohort study consisting of 40 patients diagnosed with base of tongue cancer. The follow-up period was 5 years. Survival analysis was performed both depending on the combined results from the p16 immunohistochemistry analysis and the HPV DNA PCR, as well as separately. Results: Five-year survival rates were 73.9% for p16(+) and 17,6% for p16(-) subjects (p<0.001), 60.7% for HPV-DNA(+) and 25.0% for HPV-DNA(-) subjects (p=0.025). Five-year survival rates when combining p16 and HPV-DNA were 73.9% for p16(+)/HPV DNA(+), 25.0% for p16(-)/HPV DNA(-) and 0.0% for p16(-)/HPV DNA(+) (p<0.001). Conclusion: Our results add to previous research that p16 is a strong predictor of prognosis for base of tongue cancer patients, and could have the clinical implication of serving as a reliable tool for clinicians when determining prognosis and identifying patients who could benefit from treatment de-escalation in the future.

The present study was designed to determine whether differences exist between frontal tongue thrusters and normal swallowers on tasks or oral stereognosis and two-point discrimination.

This study compares the different primary school language of instruction models found in South Africa for performance on the higher-order reading comprehension processes tested in the international, large-scale assessment, prePIRLS 2011. The language of instruction groupings include the African languages, Afrikaans, English L1 and English L2 as an immersion model. The marked differences in performance observed on the higher-order prePIRLS 2011 items across the language models are not singular reasons for performance in themselves, but reflect embedded contextual factors that influence performance. It was, therefore, examined how language of instruction creates or restricts access to ‘social tools’ and ‘cultural capital’ which mediate the development of higher-order reading comprehension at home and at school. It was found that socio-economic status (SES) at the school level contributes 86.06 (SE=20.48) and 98.54 (SE=17.28) score points for English (N=2 205) and Afrikaans (N=1 463) respectively as a school level indicator. For the Afrikaans LoLT grouping access to text explained 44 score points (SE=11.09). Neither SES nor access to text explained significant variance in performance for the African languages schools when examined within the language grouping (N= 12 076). A linear regression (N=6 342) showed that low SES learners whose language of instruction is English, despite it not being their mother tongue, benefit by 20.35 score points (equivalent to half a year) from being in the English L2 group, in comparison to the African languages L1 group as a measure of achievement on the higher-order subscale. The hypothesis that SES and access to text significantly affect performance in higher-order reading comprehension was further supported by the findings of a two-level regression, showing that access to text at school contributed 32.91 score points (B=32.91, SE=13.96, p=.03) to performance for English L2 low SES learners (N=480). It is argued that better provision of text at school can mediate the development of the cognitive and metacognitive reading strategies required for higher-order reading comprehension across all language of instruction models and socio-economic strata. Print material is often more accessible to learners in English. This strengthens a pragmatic, contextually-based argument for focused prioritisation of English L2 instruction concomitant to raising the quality of home language instruction. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2017. / Science, Mathematics and Technology Education / Centre for Evaluation & Assessment (CEA) / PhD / Unrestricted

Department of English / PhD (English) / The study sought to investigate the role played by learners’ mother tongue, in the teaching and learning of English in secondary schools in Zimbabwe. Two secondary schools in Masvingo District were used as a case study. The study was informed by bilingualism, models of bilingualism and related theories such as Second Language Acquisition (SLA) and Communication Strategies. The selected communication strategy that was focused on is code-switching. This communication strategy reveals the important role that the learners’ L1 can play in learning English. The study, therefore, sought to gain insights into the beliefs of secondary school teachers and learners of English about the use of code-switching in the teaching and learning of English. The study also sought to investigate the ESL teachers’ perceptions on the relationship between code-switching and emerging varieties of English called New Englishes, as well as the teachers’ perceptions on the teaching of such local varieties of English. The inquiry adopted a qualitative research paradigm and focused on two purposively sampled secondary schools comprising one rural day, and one urban boarding school that also enrols day learners. It was the researcher’s belief that these schools would offer useful insights about the role of the learners’ L1 in the teaching and learning of English. The study employed three data collection tools, namely observation, interviews and focus group discussions. Ten Form One and ten Form Three English lessons were observed per school, to give a total of twenty lessons. The four ESL teachers whose lessons were observed at the two schools were interviewed. The researcher also held focus group discussions with a sample of a group of ten Form One and ten Form Three English learners per school. Thus, four focus group discussions were held. Data were analysed and presented qualitatively through identification of emerging themes, and through descriptions, narratives, direct quotes, and tables. Results show that the ESL teachers and learners who participated in the study code-switched from English to the learners’ L1 as a communication strategy and teaching and learning tool, mainly to foster understanding among learners and between the learners and their teachers, and for other communicative and social functions. Results also indicate that there was more code-switching at School B (rural day secondary school) than at School A (urban boarding secondary school), although the teachers’ and learners’ code-switching functions at the two secondary schools were by and large similar. It also emerged that the frequencies of the teachers code v switching differed from teacher to teacher, with Teacher A (urban boarding secondary school) code-switching moderately and Teacher B (urban boarding secondary school) code-switching minimally, while Teacher C and Teacher D (rural day secondary school) code-switched frequently. With regard to the learners, the study revealed that Class A learners (urban boarding secondary school) code-switched moderately during formal classroom exchanges with their teacher, but code-switched a lot among themselves. Class B learners (urban boarding secondary school), Class C and Class D learners (rural day secondary school), code-switched minimally during formal classroom exchanges with their teachers. However, as was the case with Class A learners, they code-switched a lot among themselves. The teachers were largely tolerant of their learners’ code-switching although they showed awareness of the possible negative effects of learners’ code-switching in the learning of ESL. As for the learners, the majority expressed an appreciation of their teachers’ code-switching but there were also negative sentiments against the teachers’ code-switching. The inquiry also revealed that there was unanimous agreement among the four teachers that there is a relationship between code-switching and New Englishes. In addition, two of the teachers expressed the view that there is nothing wrong with teaching the local variety of English in the schools, while the other two said they preferred the teaching of ‘standard’ English. In light of the findings, the study recommends that language policy planners revisit the English-only policy in the school and consider adopting the endonormative rather than the exo-normative model of English for the education system. The study also recommends that the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education should hold workshops to sensitise teachers on how code-switching may best be employed as a teaching and learning tool. Furthermore, the study recommends that ESL teachers be guided by the Postmethod pedagogy, a sense of plausibility as well as the notion of relativism in their decisions on code-switching. In addition, the inquiry recommends that the Zimbabwe Schools Examinations Council be sensitive to aspects of the local variety of English rather than set exo-normative models. Finally, the study recommends that further research be done on code-switching in school types which were not included in the sample for the present study.

The purpose of this study is to assemble information needed to assess, understand and hopefully correct muscular hyperfunction that is related to tongue tension in singing and speech which inhibit freely, efficiently, and comfortably produced beautiful singing. This text will include a definition of freely produced, fully resonating tone for beautiful singing, major components of vocal technique, physiology related to singing and speech production, hyperfunctions associated with tongue tension, tongue involvement in the articulation of the four major singing languages, and will present exercises for training the muscles of coordination in a manner conducive to singing and speech.