Doctor of Philosophy / Secondary Education / Diane McGrath / As students are required to learn more and more and the world of technology evolves with access to information, how can schools use this knowledge to help students learn? This project focuses on the development of a prototype tool to assist students in building a vocabulary over time. The tool will allow students to capture definitions using research based graphic organizers. It also has a variety of ways students can represent the new words non-linguistically – graphically, audio, adding a variety of files. A prototype of this tool was developed and expert teachers reviewed the tool for functionality. Students were also asked to review the tool. After revisions were made students were asked to use the tool in class in a preliminary field test. Students were then asked their opinion on how they felt this tool would help them learn. This study involved four students and their experiences using the Knowledge Banks. The students overwhelmingly felt the tool would help them to organize their information, give them easier access to finding the information at a later date, and allow them ways to represent the new information non-linguistically. They enjoyed the ability to search for terms and find all the information that was connected to this term in any way. Having all of this information allowed them to make connections with their information they hadn’t done before. The implications of this study on education include; the need to provide ways for students to collect and build their knowledge, giving them access to tools for storage, allowing them to search their knowledge therefore making connections to new learning. This study showed that a tool can be developed that will help students learn new vocabulary and allow students to continue to learn this vocabulary by revisiting the terms over and over again year after year.

Orientador: Giovanna Longo / Resumo: Este trabalho é composto por pesquisa bibliográfica voltada para o ensino lexical nas aulas de língua portuguesa. Através dos estudos realizados, podemos perceber que a questão lexical, apesar da sua importância, não é considerada um tema relevante nas salas de aula, tornando-se marginalizada no ensino. Há tempos, o estudo voltado para a gramática tem ficado em primeiro lugar nas aulas de língua materna, pois de acordo com os conceitos culturais impostos por nossa sociedade, só se fala bem o idioma se se conhece impecavelmente a gramática. No aprofundamento das leituras e no acompanhamento pedagógico, nota-se essa errônea ideia. Havendo uma imensa gama de variedades linguísticas e possibilidades semânticas, conhecer a gramática, nada mais é que conhecer a norma padrão instituída pela escrita, ignorando a pluralidade e mutabilidade do idioma como patrimônio cultural. Percebe-se, portanto, a necessidade urgente de mudança nas nossas práticas didáticas, introduzindo textos e dicionários, focando o estudo lexical, mas não de uma forma irrelevante e pouco significativa, mas sim de maneira a levar o discente a perceber sua língua como algo vivo, em constante modificação, tendo a habilidade de buscar no acervo lexical a melhor maneira de representar-se no mundo e poder ver-se como sujeito deste mundo / Abstract: This paper is comprised of a bibliographical study focusing on lexical teachings for the Portuguese language as a school subject. Through this research it was possible to ascertain that the lexical aspect of the Portuguese language is not considered a relevant topic in classes, despite its importance, marginalizing it in the education. For a long time now, grammar has had the utmost importance when teaching Portuguese because of cultural beliefs: in order to speak proper Portuguese you need to flawlessly know its grammar. With further reading on the subject as well as pedagogic supervision this is evidenced to be untrue. Having a broad array of linguistics variants and semantic possibilities, knowing grammar is - essentially - knowing the standard norm established by written Portuguese while ignoring the pluralism and mutability of the Portuguese language, its cultural heritage. Therefore, it can be seen that there is a necessity for changes in the teaching practices by introducing texts and dictionaries focusing on lexical studies in a relevant and significant manner so as to have the student perceive the Portuguese language as being alive and in constant change, giving them the ability to seek in its lexical collection the best way to present themselves and feel like they belong. / Mestre

Research has identified the importance of academic vocabulary (e.g., Corson, 1997; Gardner, 2013; Hsueh-chao & Nation, 2000). In turn, many researchers have focused on identifying the most frequent and salient words present in academic texts across registers and presenting these words in lists, such as The Academic Word List (AWL) (Coxhead, 2000). Gardner and Davies (2014), recognizing the limitations of the AWL, have developed a new list known as The Academic Vocabulary List (AVL). This present study examines the appearance of the 570 AWL word families and the top 570 AVL word families in the Academic Textbook Corpus (ATC) – a 1.9-million-word corpus created from three middle school, three high school, and three college level textbooks from the disciplines of American history, mathematics, and physical sciences. The study determined (1) word families from both the AWL and the AVL found in the ATC, (2) words families unique to the AWL in the ATC, (3) word families unique to the AVL in the ATC, and (4) characteristic differences between the AWL and AVL unique word families. The results suggest that the AWL and AVL capture high frequency academic word families that are salient across a variety of academic disciplines and grade levels, but the AVL provides a greater number of unique frequent core academic word families.

The Institute for Test Research and Test Development (ITT) has provided complimentary Vocabulary Size Tests (VST) in 15 languages to language learners and their teachers, measuring their own or their learners’ receptive and productive vocabulary sizes. This report examines in detail and on a large empirical basis the validity and reliability of these tests.

The purpose of this study was to compare early speech and language development of children with and without cleft lip and/or palate (CLP) in the US and Slovakia from 6 to 24 months of age. Thirty-two children from the US (eight with CLP and eight noncleft) and Slovakia (eight with CLP and eight noncleft) participated in this study. The children were videotaped at four time points for 30 minutes during mother-child interaction with play sets controlled for early-developing sounds in each language. Mean Babbling Level, consonant inventories, number of different words and mean length of utterance were calculated for 6-to 24-month samples. Results indicated that the US and Slovak groups showed similar performance across the ages. Cleft and noncleft groups showed significant differences in acquisition of all of the speech and language measures. High-pressure consonants, particularly alveolar place of articulation, were problematic for children with CLP.

The purpose of this study was to compare early speech and language development of children with and without cleft lip and/or palate (CLP) in the US and Slovakia from 6 to 24 months of age. Thirty-two children from the US (eight with CLP and eight noncleft) and Slovakia (eight with CLP and eight noncleft) participated in this study. The children were videotaped at four time points for 30 minutes during mother-child interaction with play sets controlled for early-developing sounds in each language. Mean Babbling Level, consonant inventories, number of different words and mean length of utterance were calculated for 6-to 24-month samples. Results indicated that the US and Slovak groups showed similar performance across the ages. Cleft and noncleft groups showed significant differences in acquisition of all of the speech and language measures. High-pressure consonants, particularly alveolar place of articulation, were problematic for children with CLP.

This study explored the effect of implementing purposeful and strategic communicative techniques situated in aspects of the communicative approach to language learning when teaching vocabulary from a core reading program to English learners. Given the importance of vocabulary instruction and the widespread use of core reading programs, it is imperative such studies are conducted to determine effective instructional practices of vocabulary with core reading programs for English learners. Participants were 73 fifth-grade English learners nested in classrooms of 11 teachers who were randomly assigned to the instructional treatment group or to the comparison group. Both the treatment and comparison groups were taught vocabulary words from the districtadopted core reading program. The treatment group implemented an intervention specifically designed to teach vocabulary using several methods recommended in the research with the potential to increase vocabulary acquisition of English learners. The methods were used in a communicative approach to instruction, in which oral interaction was a main focus of the treatment. Student vocabulary acquisition was measured with a mastery test administered at the beginning and end of the study and with weekly quizzes. Additional data from classroom observations, teacher logs, and student work were collected on the fidelity of the implementation of the treatment and on the vocabulary instructional strategies used by the comparison group teachers. Linear regression analysis revealed a significant difference in growth of vocabulary skills from pretest to posttest between treatment and comparison groups (p = .001), with students in the treatment group showing greater progress than students in the comparison group. This study confirmed the effectiveness of implementing purposeful and strategic communicative techniques for successful vocabulary acquisition for English learners.

Richard Rorty's seminal work, Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature (1979), a text that critiques the foundationalist aspirations of philosophy, locates John Locke within a line of thinkers primarily concerned with discerning and accurately representing either the external "reality" of the world or the internal essence of human beings. Such thinkers, according to Rorty, have perpetuated the conception of philosophy as foundational-that is, mediating between "reality" and all other claims to knowledge in order to adjudicate accuracy of representation. Contending that the conception of philosophy as foundational derives from an obsolete vocabulary inherited from the seventeenth century, Rorty locates philosophic texts on par with all other texts, whose relation to the world is functional rather than foundational. Rorty then proposes that philosophy assume a more pragmatic cultural role as the promoter, but not the arbiter, of more fruitful redescriptions of ourselves to deal with the historically specific complexity of the world. Rorty's conception of language as a tool that underpins his argument that texts bear a functional as opposed to foundational relation to the world forms the theoretical framework for my analysis of John Locke's An Essay concerning Human Understanding. Although the putative impetus of Locke's Essay is discerning the origin of our ideas as the foundations of all knowledge, this thesis proffers an alternate reading of Locke's Essay by attending to its rhetorical structure. More specifically, I argue that the Essay is an experiential and experimental text that insistently involves the reader in the textual exegesis of mind. Based on my reading of the rhetorical movements and literal denotation of the Essay, I propose that the primary aim of the text was not to represent accurately the cognitive processes of the mind forming ideas about the world as the foundations of all knowledge; rather, I suggest that the Essay self-consciously functions metaphorically by proffering a new vocabulary with which to think about mind, world, language, and society as a viable alternative to endless sectarian strife. Using Rorty's vocabulary to redescribe Locke's rhetorical project in the Essay, I suggest that Locke's text not only embodies an awareness of its own contingency, but functions within its historical context in the role which Rorty proposes for philosophy. In this regard, Locke and Rorty become aligned on an imaginative continuum in their shared rhetorical project of redescription with specifically pragmatic aims. / Thesis / Master of Arts (MA)

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This study examines the effects of single word modification on the perceived comprehension of individual sentences. A test was created by randomly selecting sentences from a college level American history textbook. Each sentence was analyzed using Nation's Range program, and the lowest frequency verbs were selected for modification. Each target verb was simplified (replaced with a higher frequency equivalent) or elaborated (left in the sentence, but followed by a parenthetical definition). Subjects received both treatment types and unmodified control items in a fifty-sentence test. Each sentence was rated by the subjects, as it was read, according to the amount of information the subject felt they comprehended. Results indicated no statistically significant difference in the comprehension ratings for simplified, elaborated or unmodified items. However, some trends were evident, indicating the possibility of effects that might become apparent with further study.