Dissertations / Theses: 'English language – Noun'

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Bell, Melanie Jean. "The English noun noun construct : its prosody and structure." Thesis, University of Cambridge, 2013. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.607768.

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Abney, Steven Paul. "The English noun phrase in its sentential aspect." Cambridge, MA : Dept. of Linguistics and Philosophy, Massachusetts Institute of Technology : Distributed by MIT Working Papers in Linguistics, 1987. http://catalog.hathitrust.org/api/volumes/oclc/21895060.html.

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Godby, Carol Jean. "A computational study of lexicalized noun phrases in English /." The Ohio State University, 2001. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1486402288262164.

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McCaffrey, Tony. "The effect of context on the interpretation of noun-noun combinations eye movement and behavioral evidence /." Connect to this title, 2008. http://scholarworks.umass.edu/theses/217/.

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Cheng, Yonghong. "English non-plural nouns in -s : a survey and corpus-based study." Virtual Press, 2008. http://liblink.bsu.edu/uhtbin/catkey/1395455.

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The English suffix -s is usually used to mark third person singular present tense, noun plurals, possessives, and in some adverbs, but it is also used in words like news, linguistics, measles, billiards, belongings, riches, oats, shivers, scissors, etc. In the literature so far, words like these have been studied mainly from the diachronic perspective, according to their morphological features and within the realm of count and mass nouns, and the suffix -s has been called a plural marker, possessive marker, pseudo-morpheme, or nominalizer. But these functions identified for the English suffix -s can't successfully explain usages of the suffix -s in all the non-plural English nouns, especially those that are not abstract nouns.In this dissertation a survey on the use of English non-plural nouns in -s is conducted with middle school students, college freshmen, college seniors, college professors and staff members as subjects using six different grammatical tests. It is found that the High School group and Staff Members always stand out as different from College Students and Professors suggesting that education level or the heterogeneousness of education levels does play a role in affecting the subjects' use of the English non-plural nouns in -s. In the survey, the subjects' performance in different types of tests is statistically different indicating that different kinds of tests affect the subjects' performance and grammaticality judgment differently.The FROWN-based study shows that most of these English non-plural nouns in -s are not used very frequently in contemporary American English, revealing that most of the English reference grammars are using obsolete or historical examples. The corpus-based study also tells us that most of the cases of these English non-plural nouns in -s are in non-subject positions, making it harder for us to test the number status of these words. But this large number of non-subject cases just means that we can't tell whether these words are intrinsically plural or singular and in fact except for only a few clearly marked plural cases there is a strong tendency towards generic interpretations for these non-plural nouns in -s. Actually it is this in-determinateness that makes the appearance of the new morpheme or new functions of old morphemes possible.The data from the Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd Ed, Online (OED), supports Stahlke, Cheng & Sung's (forthcoming) argument that in the late 16th and early 17th century a new morpheme--the nominalizer -s, was developed in the English language to turn adjectives and concrete nouns into abstract nouns. The data on the historical semantic development of English non-plural nouns in -s from the OED also reveals the process of a semantic shift of Adj. -+ Sing. N -+ Pl. N -+ Col. N - Gen. N. This process of semantic shift is strongly evidenced by the disappearance of singular forms of the English non-plural nouns -s in the late 16th and early 17th century and successfully explains why the English nouns in -s have the generic interpretation and require singular verb agreement.
Department of English

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Raumolin-Brunberg, Helena. "The noun phrase in early sixteenth-century English : a study based on Sir Thomas More's writings /." Helsinki : Société néophilologique, 1991. http://books.google.com/books?id=1SJZAAAAMAAJ.

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Chan, Hung-chong, and 陳虹莊. "A comparison of the English and Chinese patterns of modification of noun phrases and the difficulties created by the differences betweenthe two patterns in translation." Thesis, The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong), 1997. http://hub.hku.hk/bib/B3195120X.

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Godby, Carol Jean. "A Computational Study of Lexicalized Noun Phrases in English." The Ohio State University, 2002. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1017343683.

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Chan, Hung-chong. "A comparison of the English and Chinese patterns of modification of noun phrases and the difficulties created by the differences between the two patterns in translation." Hong Kong : University of Hong Kong, 1997. http://sunzi.lib.hku.hk/hkuto/record.jsp?B1868533X.

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Schanding, Brian. "Shell Noun Use in Argumentative Essay Writing of English Learners and Native English Speakers." University of Cincinnati / OhioLINK, 2016. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1458814364.

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Korhonen, Jannina. "A Corpus Study of Signalling Nouns in L2 English Essays by Swedish Students." Thesis, Högskolan Dalarna, Engelska, 2018. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:du-28243.

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This study is about the structure of the noun phrases used with with signalling nouns, which are abstract nouns that are hard to understand without a context. The inspiration for the study comes from work by John Flowerdew. The aim is to investigate in what type of noun phrases (NP) the signalling nouns are used by L2 English students and if the structures of these NPs tell us something about the meaning of the nouns. The material of the study is from the pioneering learner corpus the International Corpus of Learner’s English (ICLE). In general, it was found that the chosen signalling nouns thing, argument, possibility, chapter, kind and fact, are frequently used in complex NPs. There were some differences in the distribution of nouns, with thing, kind and fact having rather high frequencies in comparison to the other nouns. For this reason, samples of these nouns were selected for the analysis. The findings indicate that these signalling nouns rarely appear alone but are most often used in complex NPs. Furthermore, the results also show that a large proportion of these nouns is used in fixed phrases.

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Cho, Sookhee. "Judgment of countability of English nouns by Korean EFL learners." Virtual Press, 2005. http://liblink.bsu.edu/uhtbin/catkey/1325994.

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The purpose of the present study was to investigate Korean EFL learners' judgments of countability of English nouns because a correct judgment of noun countability is a key factor for the appropriate use of English indefinite articles and noun phrases. To investigate the subjects' judgments of noun countability and how they are related to the use of English indefinite articles and noun phrases, fourteen hypotheses were set forth and four task types were designed.Participants were 115 Korean college EFL students and they were given four tasks: a task of judgment of countability of nouns in isolation OCT), a task of judgment of countability of nouns in context (JCC), a fill-in-the-blank task (FB), and an error correction task (EC).Overall the subjects showed a flexible notion of countability. There was a statistically significant difference between their performance of JCI and JCC. There was a positive relation between their judgments of countability in three contexts (isolation, context, and overall context) and their performance on the indefinite articles in FB.There was no relationship between their performance of JCC and OJC (overall judgment of countability) and the indefinite articles in EC.With respect to JCI, a statistically significant difference was found between the performance of the low and advanced learners and between the performance of the intermediate and advanced learners, but it was not found between the performance of the low and intermediate learners.In regard to JCC, no statistically significant difference was found between the performance of the low and intermediate learners and between the performance of the intermediate and advanced learners. A statistically significant difference was found only between the performance of the low and advanced learners.The participants performed better on the count use of concrete nouns than on the noncount use of concrete nouns, whereas they performed better on the noncount use of abstract nouns than on the count use of abstract nouns.There was an interaction between proficiency and the noncount use of concrete nouns, while no interaction was found between proficiency and the count use of abstract nouns.
Department of English

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Bang, Nguyen, and n/a. "Noun and prepositional phrases in English and Vietnamese : a contrastive analysis." University of Canberra. Education, 1985. http://erl.canberra.edu.au./public/adt-AUC20060606.154323.

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This study aims to discuss the noun and prepositional phrases in English and in Vietnamese and their impact upon teaching and learning English in the Vietnamese situation. Attempts have been made to state the similarities and differences in noun and prepositional phrases in the two languages and raise and solve some difficulties and problems arising particularly from differences between English and Vietnamese. In this study, Contrastive Linguistics is concerned with the comparison of the two languages with a view to determining the differences and similarities between them. With this practical aim the study tries to provide a model for comparison and determine how and which of the phrases are comparable. It is hoped to provide as much information as is possible in a limited study of this kind on English noun and prepositional phrases, then on Vietnamese noun phrases. The study draws attention to differences with examples. It analyses the heads of noun phrases in the two languages as well as the pre and postmodifications and their positions. It also analyses the uses of the prepositional phrases in the two languages. At the same time, it points out the kinds of errors made by Vietnamese learners in the above-mentioned areas and their causes. Finally, some suggestions are made for those who may be responsible for teaching English as a Foreign Language to younger pupils as well as adults, or to students at universities or colleges

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Cooper, Stephanie R. "Exploring Elaborated Noun Phrase Use of Middle School English Language Learners Following Writing Strategy Instruction." Scholar Commons, 2013. http://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd/4656.

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English Language Learners (ELLs) are a growing population within the U.S. school system. In the secondary grades, this diverse group requires instruction to improve not only English language proficiency but also utilization of the academic language register, especially in writing tasks. The present study focused on ELLs in middle school. The aim was to explore the effects of enhanced Self–Regulated Strategy Development (SRSD) writing instruction on the use of complex language, particularly elaborated noun phrases (ENPs) when SRSD was combined with linguistic instruction on increased sentence complexity. As a part of a larger study exploring critical literacy and the persuasive writing instruction of Spanish–English speaking students, this repeated measures design detailed the effects of two six–week instructional periods aimed at teaching 19 ELLs methods for organizing, planning, and constructing persuasive texts (the macr–-structure level), as well as ways of incorporating academic language forms and functions in their writing (the micro–structure level). Within the critical literacy project that involved topics and themes related to immigration, the 19 students produced three texts in English (pre–, mid–, and post–instruction essays). These texts were analyzed for ENP frequency and complexity. Three case studies were also chosen to highlight the variation in ENP outcomes and to discuss additional aspects of persuasive writing at both the macr–- and micro–structure levels. Statistical analysis of group use of ENPs revealed no significant increase in frequency or complexity across essays as simple pre–noun modifications were produced in amounts greater than all other ENP type across all essays. The three case studies revealed that frequency of ENP use generally corresponded to strength of abilities at either the macro–structure level, such as inclusion of more persuasive elements, or the micro–structure level as indicated by increased text length and variety of vocabulary. One implication of these outcomes indicates the need for more in–depth emphasis on the coordination of both the macro– and micro–structure levels in writing instruction studies with ELLs. Other implications pertain to further analysis of classification approaches for designating ENP complexity, and how enhanced understanding of ENP production signals aspects of the academic language register.

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Molchanova, О. M., and P. A. Yashchuk. "Funktioning of the Noun Form (with an Article or without it) in the English Language." Thesis, Sumy State University, 2016. http://essuir.sumdu.edu.ua/handle/123456789/46476.

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The aim of the research is to prove that the article is just a grammatical morpheme which has no meaning of its own, that the whole noun form determines its contextual meaning. The object of the research is the noun form, its functioning in speech with an article or without it. The method which was used is descriptive method. We explore the problem and find out that a noun form with an article or without it has some meanings.

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Liu, Songhao. "The acquisition of the Chinese de-construction by native English speakers." HKBU Institutional Repository, 2010. http://repository.hkbu.edu.hk/etd_ra/1192.

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Yoshida, Etsuko. "Patterns of use of referring expressions in English and Japanese dialogues." Thesis, University of Edinburgh, 2008. http://hdl.handle.net/1842/4036.

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The main aim of the thesis is to investigate how discourse entities are linked with topic chaining and discourse coherence by showing that the choice and the distribution of referring expressions is correlated with the center transition patterns in the centering framework. The thesis provides an integrated interpretation in understanding the behaviour of referring expressions in discourse by considering the relation between referential choice and the local and global coherence of discourse. The thesis has three stages: (1) to provide a semantic and pragmatic perspective in a contrastive study of referring expressions in English and Japanese spontaneous dialogues, (2) to analyse the way anaphoric and deictic expressions can contribute to discourse organisation in structuring and focusing the specific discourse segment, and (3) to investigate the choice and the distribution of referring expressions in the Map Task Corpus and to clarify the way the participants collaborate to judge the most salient entity in the current discourse against their common ground. Significantly, despite the grammatical differences in the form of reference between the two languages, the ways of discourse development in both data sets show distinctive similarities in the process by which the topic entities are introduced, established, and shifted away to the subsequent topic entities. Comparing and contrasting the choice and the distribution of referring expressions of the four different transition patterns of centers, the crucial factors of their correspondent relations between English and Japanese referring expressions are shown in the findings that the topic chains of noun phrases are constructed and are treated like proper names in discourse. This can suggest that full noun phrases play a major role when the topic entity is established in the course of discourse. Since the existing centering model cannot handle the topic chain of noun phrases in the anaphoric relations in terms of the local focus of discourse, centering must be integrated with a model of global focus to account for both pronouns and full noun phrases that can be used for continuations across segment boundaries. Based on Walker’s cache model, I argue that the forms of anaphors are not always shorter, and the focus of attention is maintained by the chain of noun phrases rather than by (zero) pronouns both within a discourse segment and over discourse segment boundaries. These processes are predicted and likely to underlie other uses of language as well. The result can modify the existing perspectives that the focus of attention is normally represented by attenuated forms of reference, and full noun phrases always show focus-shift. In addition, necessary extension to the global coherence of discourse can link these anaphoric relations with the deictic expressions over discourse segment boundaries. Finally, I argue that the choice and the distribution of referring expressions in the Map Task Corpus depends on the way the participants collaborate to judge the most salient entity in the current discourse against their common ground.

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Estling, Maria. "Syntactic variation in English quantified noun phrases with all, whole, both and half." Doctoral thesis, Växjö universitet, Institutionen för humaniora, 2004. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:vxu:diva-388.

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The overall aim of the present study is to investigate syntactic variation in certain Present-day English noun phrase types including the quantifiers all, whole, both and half (e.g. a half hour vs. half an hour). More specific research questions concerns the overall frequency distribution of the variants, how they are distributed across regions and media and what linguistic factors influence the choice of variant. The study is based on corpus material comprising three newspapers from 1995 (The Independent, The New York Times and The Sydney Morning Herald) and two spoken corpora (the dialogue component of the BNC and the Longman Spoken American Corpus). The book presents a number of previously not discussed issues with respect to all, whole, both and half. The study of distribution shows that one form often predominated greatly over the other(s) and that there were several cases of regional variation. A number of linguistic factors further seem to be involved for each of the variables analysed, such as the syntactic function of the noun phrase and the presence of certain elements in the NP or its near co-text. For each of the variables, all factors were ranked according to their strength of correlation with particular variants. The study also discusses a possible grammaticalisation process concerning NPs with half and the possibility of all sometimes having another function than expressing totality: to express large quantity. The whole idea of grammatical synonymy has been questioned by some scholars, but the conclusion drawn in the present study is that there are variables that are at least very close to each other in meaning, and that a number of linguistic and non-linguistic factors influence our choices of variant. A great deal of the information obtained was too detailed to be useful for pedagogical purposes, but in several cases the results could clearly be used to improve school and reference grammars.

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Eldeeb, Muftah Bashir. "THE ACQUISITION OF DERIVATIONAL MORPHOLOGY BY ARAB LEARNERS OF ENGLISH: VERB>NOUN DERIVATION." OpenSIUC, 2013. https://opensiuc.lib.siu.edu/theses/1185.

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This study examines seven deverbal nominalizing suffixes through theoretical framework and previous research. They include the morphological aspects, productivity of suffixes, base-driven approach and phonological neutral and nonneutral suffixes. Learners participated in an instrument to account for their competence of verb-noun derivation. The participants presented knowledge of relational, syntactic and relatively distributional morphology. Also, some suffixes are more productive than others and that was shown through the level of accuracy of these suffixes. The suffixes -ing, -er, and (at)-ion are of high accuracy and thus productive. Whereas the suffixes -ment, -ent/-ant, -ence/-ance and -al are less accurate and less productive. The underlying reason behind the productivity and non-productivity of these suffixes is because of the phonological transparency factors. Suffixes that do not cause internal phonological changes in the base presented high accuracy and easily learned, while suffixes that require internal phonological changes posed challenges to learners. The -ment suffix is neutral, no internal change required, however; its accuracy went down in this study.

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Feijóo, Antolín Sara. "Learning from the input: syntactic, semantic and phonological cues to the noun category in English." Doctoral thesis, Universitat de Barcelona, 2010. http://hdl.handle.net/10803/673498.

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Las líneas centrales de la teoría lingüística de los últimos años han descrito la adquisición y el desarrollo de primeras lenguas como un proceso basado en el conocimiento innato de las propiedades gramaticales de la lengua por parte de los niños aprendices. Tales descripciones del desarrollo sintáctico asumen que el entorno lingüístico al que los niños están expuestos es demasiado limitado como para dar lugar al aprendizaje de una lengua (es decir, el llamado argumento de la pobreza del estímulo). Así pues, según esta visión, es el conocimiento lingüístico innato lo que permite a los niños llegar a ser hablantes competentes de su propia lengua nativa. Este estudio se plantea el objetivo de cuestionar esta visión y muestra evidencia empírica con la que se puede inferir que los niños pueden adquirir conocimientos gramaticales a partir de la experiencia y de la información que reciben del entorno.

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Sånglöf, Sharelle. "Pre- and Postmodification in Noun Phrases : A comparison of monolingual, bilingual and multilingual male learners of English in Sweden." Thesis, Uppsala universitet, Institutionen för pedagogik, didaktik och utbildningsstudier, 2014. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-235817.

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Students in Sweden are exposed to English education in the classroom from a very young age. This paper sets out to see whether bilingual or multilingual students perform better than monolingual students when acquiring English as a second or third language in Sweden. The research questions look at whether or not complex noun phrase structures can be connected to the language background of the students. The Dynamic Model of Multilingualism along with Second Language Acquisition theories suggest that students who have already acquired a second language have achieved a multilingual competence that monolingual speakers do not have, and that this multilingual competence can benefit a learner in acquiring additional languages. 64 students submitted language background surveys and essays. 12 essays were chosen to represent three different language categories: monolingual, bilingual and multilingual. The method of comparing the essays was based on the use of complex noun phrases. Two analyses were carried out: 1) on the modification of noun phrases at phrase level, and 2) on the embedding and modification of embedded noun phrases at the clause level. The results of the study are not statistically significant, but they may indicate that bilingual students create the most complex noun phrases, though the monolingual students were not far behind. The multilingual students used the least modification and also the least embedded noun phrases. Further research in this area is warranted based on the results found here.

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Azaz, Mahmoud. "Acquisition of Form-Meaning Mapping in L2 Arabic and English Noun Phrases: A Bidirectional Framework." Diss., The University of Arizona, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/333120.

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Despite the plethora of SLA research conducted on the acquisition of the definite marker in noun phrase configurations in L2 Arabic and English (e.g., Sarko, 2007; Master, 1997; Collier, 1987; Anderson, 1984; Kharma, 1981), there is as yet no definitive description of how noun phrases are acquired and why errors persist after advanced stages in L2 learning. Results, as shown by Butler (2002), are inconclusive, and the primary causes of difficulties in the acquisition of the definite marker in noun phrase configurations remain unclear. Recently, the internal syntax-semantics interface (Cuza & Frank, 2011; Montrul, 2010; Tsimpli & Sorace, 2006; Sorace, 2003, 2004) and the specificity-definiteness distinction (Ionin, 2003; Ionin et al., 2004; Ionin et al., 2008) have been considered as appropriate frameworks for exploring the acquisition of noun phrases and other structural features. The structure of noun phrase configurations in Arabic and English offers a complex interface between form and meaning for L2 learners with multiple cases of matches and mismatches between specificity and definiteness. In this three-article dissertation project, two of which were conducted in a bidirectional methodological framework with L1 Arabic-L2 English and L1 English-L2 Arabic learners, I explored the acquisition of three cases of noun phrase configurations. In the first study, I investigated the acquisition of plural noun phrase configurations that carry generic and specific readings at the initial state of L2 learning. Using three data collection instruments: written translation; error detection and correction; and forced choice elicitation, I tested the predictions made by the Interface Hypothesis (IH) and the Full Transfer (FT) Hypothesis. Results showed that L2 learners in both directions tend to transfer noun phrase configurations from L1 into L2, a result that I took to support the FT hypothesis. In addition, it took L1 English-L2 Arabic learners two years of instruction to recover from this L1 effect. The second study aimed at confirming the result of the first study, but in the acquisition of the definite marker in generic singular noun phrase configurations in the L1 English-L2 Arabic direction. The behavior of generic singular noun phrases in L2 Arabic offers a good testing ground since it has numerous similarities and differences with English. Two conditions were established: a matching condition and a mismatching condition. Both conditions were tested in the L1 English-L2 Arabic direction. Results showed a similar pattern to the one recorded in the first study. Typological proximity and distance were found to be important determiners of language acquisition of the in/definiteness configurations of singular noun phrases. In the third study, I shifted to the exploration of a more complex type of noun phrases; namely the definite Iḍāfah construction in Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) and its equivalent noun phrase configurations in English in the two directions. I started with a common difference between MSA and English. Whereas in MSA there is a canonical configuration in terms of head-complement ordering and head-complement definiteness, English is tolerant of more than one permissible configuration. I operationalized the acquisition of these noun phrases in terms of head-complement ordering and head-complement definiteness. Results showed a clear effect of L1 transfer in both directions; knowledge of L1 noun phrase configurations acts as the initial step in L2 learning. I concluded that both communities of L2 learners face problems that vary according to the L1 noun phrase configuration at hand. However, in the L1 English-L2 Arabic direction, learners reached a satisfactory level of performance in the Iḍāfah construction after two years of instruction. I approached this finding as a result of intensive Focus-on-Form Episodes (Loewn, 2005) that the Iḍāfah construction receives in MSA instruction. At the conclusion of this research project I highlighted some implications for the second language acquisition and teaching of noun phrases. The overall results were couched in a broader perspective that characterizes the initial state of L2 learning of noun phrases in + article and – article languages, the effects of typological proximity and distance, and the effects of Instructed SLA. For the pedagogical implications, I called for the integration of the semantics of the definite marker while presenting noun phrases in textbooks. I also recommended the use of explicit instruction and structured-input activities (VanPatten, 2004; Marsden & Chen, 2011) as effective pedagogical tools that foster form-meaning mapping in the acquisition of L2 Arabic and English noun phrases.

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Asghari, Parastoo. "Ambiguity in Peace Agreements : Cognitive and Computational Models for Processing Syntactic Ambiguity in Israeli-Palestinian Peace Agreements in English." Thesis, Stockholms universitet, Engelska institutionen, 2018. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:su:diva-152824.

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Systems that attempt to process texts and acquire information from texts in English need to be particularly alert to noun phrases since they carry so much information. Systems, whether comprehensional or computational, may face particular difficulties when dealing with complex noun phrases. One of the decomposition patterns for noun phrases is left or right branching, which determines the semantic relations between the constituents of the combination.This degree project seeks to describe a processing model that the comprehension system employs to process difficulties. Since the minicorpus studied in this research consists of four of the peace agreements that were produced in English for Israeli and Palestinian sides of their conflicts to sign and implement, the comprehension models that were used by a non-native speaker of English are described, and then a computational model to enhance performing this task is suggested which includes using the frequencies of the combinations of the constituents in two major contemporary corpora, the Corpus of Contemporary American English and the British National Corpus, to help decide how to nest the noun phrases as either left or right branching structures, to resolve the ambiguity problem. Hyphening is also suggested as a potential strategy to avoid unwanted structural ambiguity in adjective + noun + noun combinations.

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Gressang, Jane E. "A frequency and error analysis of the use of determiners, the relationships between noun phrases, and the structure of discourse in English essays by native English writers and native Chinese, Taiwanese, and Korean learners of English as a Second language." Diss., University of Iowa, 2010. https://ir.uiowa.edu/etd/507.

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Second language (L2) learners notoriously have trouble using articles in their target languages (e.g., a, an, the in English). However, researchers disagree about the patterns and causes of these errors. Past studies have found that L2 English learners: *Predominantly omit articles (White 2003, Robertson 2000), *Overuse the (Huebner 1983, Master 1987, Parrish 1987, Tarone & Parrish 1988, Thomas 1989, Ionin 2003), or *Overuse a (Leung 2001). Previously proposed explanations of the causes of article errors include: *Learners have incorrect or incomplete semantic representations (Tarone & Parrish 1988, Hawkins & Chan 1997, Goto Butler 2002, Ionin 2003), or *Learners have complete, correct semantic representations for articles, but difficulty choosing the lexical form during production due to stress on mental processing or phonological limitations (Lardiere 1998, Bruhn de Garavito & White 2000, White 2003, Goad, White, & Steele 2003). Prior studies have focused on articles, which identify discourse relationships, but have not considered other morphemes that do so as well, such as pronouns and demonstratives. Furthermore, they have focused on L2 errors in isolation and not in the context of a full discourse or contrasted with first language (L1) input. This study examined the use of articles and other discourse morphemes in 20 L1 and 20 L2 English essays. L2 essays were produced by L1 Chinese and Korean writers at two proficiency levels. The essays' noun phrases (NPs) were marked for part-of-speech, co-reference, syntactic position, and other discourse-relevant features. L2 errors were identified and categorized. Frequency data showed that L2 proficiency level more often indicated significant differences in discourse construction than L1. No significant difference between L2 and L1 writers was when considering all articles together. Breaking this down, students used a/an significantly less than L1 writers, but the use of the was not significantly different. In contrast, the error analysis showed most L2 mistakes being made in the use of the, with almost none in the use of a/an. Together the frequency and error data give a richer understanding of discourse and article use in L2 production.

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Hillert, Albin. "The Postposed Indefinite Article Noun Phrase from a Construction Grammar Perspective." Thesis, Stockholm University, Department of English, 2010. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:su:diva-40006.

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English noun phrases (NP) which include degree modified adjectives show some interesting variation of the position of the indefinite article. A particularly salient pattern is displayed in This is anticipated to be more common a scenario than fleas spreading bubonic plague (BoE, BU-NX022521). The present paper is based on a study of utterances where this pattern was used even though a canonical word order would have been possible. Such constructs are referred to as the Optional Postposed Indefinite Article Noun Phrase (OPIANP) and have been collected from the British National Corpus (BNC) and Collins Word Banks Online: English Corpus (BoE). The central question is whether there is semantic motivation for this postposition of the indefinite article. The results suggest that there is such motivation, namely that the OPIANP could be an extension of a more frequent construction identified as the Postposed Indefinite Article Noun Phrase (PIANP). Furthermore, it is shown that the pattern’s semantics is unpredictable from the composition of its parts and that its primary function is that it positions already given arguments on an adjectival scale. That is, it foregrounds scalar qualities and backgrounds the noun. These conclusions stem from observations of patterns of unification with other constructions, illustrating how the OPIANP unifies best with the non-referential, descriptive PC-constructions and less well with referential constructions such as the subject and direct object constructions. These findings are remarkable as the idea of an adjective-scalar centred NP-construction challenges the idea of NPs being centred round their head, the noun.

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Åkerhage, Jessica. "Complete vs Abridged: A Readability Study of Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre." Thesis, Högskolan i Skövde, Institutionen för kommunikation och information, 2008. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:his:diva-2787.

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This essay deals with the issue of readability, the term readability referring to what it is that makes a reader perceive a text as difficult or easy. Some factors are related to the reader but there are also those which depend on the text as such, one such factor being style which is the one that will be focused on in this essay. The investigation is based on the analysis and comparison of a complete version and an abridged version of Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre, and the questions to be investigated are whether the author of the abridged version has succeeded in making it less complicated, and if he or she has done so by considering stylistic features said to be affecting readability. Further, this essay is divided into four chapters. The first chapter contains the background for the analysis and is divided into 4 parts dealing with the following aspects: the definition of readability, early research on readability, later research on readability, and difficult and easy language. Chapter two describes the limitations made and the method used for the analysis which involves looking at the noun phrase, the verb phrase, and the clause. Chapter three gives a detailed description of the corpus investigated. Moving on to chapter four, this is where the results of the investigation are presented. This is done by dividing it into four different subchapters, each of them dealing with issues related to the different areas described in the method. Each of the subchapters then begins with the presentation of the results for each edition which is then followed by a comparative discussion. The essay ends with a conclusion part where conclusions regarding the four areas presented in the analysis are made along with the answering of research questions.

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Hutter, Jo-Anne. "A Corpus Based Analysis of Noun Modification in Empirical Research Articles in Applied Linguistics." PDXScholar, 2015. https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/open_access_etds/2211.

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Previous research has established the importance of the nouns and noun modification in academic writing because of their commonness and complexity. However, little is known about how noun modification varies across the rhetorical sections of research articles. Such a perspective is important because it reflects the interplay between communicative function and linguistic form. This study used a corpus of empirical research articles from the fields of applied linguistics and language teaching to explore the connection between article sections (Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion; IMRD) and six types of noun modification: relative clauses, ing-clause postmodifiers, ed-clause postmodifiers, prepositional postmodifiers, premodifying nouns, and attributive adjectives. First the frequency of these six types of noun modification was compared across IMRD sections. Second, the study also used a hand coded analysis of the structure and structural patterns of a sample of noun phrases through IMRD sections. The results of the analyses showed that noun modification is not uniform across IMRD sections. Significant differences were found in the rates of use for attributive adjectives, premodifying nouns, and prepositional phrase postmodifiers. There were no significant differences between sections for relative clauses, ing-clause postmodifiers, or ed-clause postmodifiers. The differences between sections for attributive adjectives, premodifying nouns, and prepositional phrases illustrate the way the functions of these structures intersects with the functions of IMRD sections. For example, Methods sections describe research methods, which often have premodifying nouns (corpus analysis, conversation analysis, speech sample, etc.); this function of Methods sections results in a higher use of premodifying nouns compared to other sections. Results for structures of noun phrase across IMRD sections showed that the common noun modification patterns, such as premodifying noun only or attributive adjective with prepositional phrase postmodifier, were mostly consistent across sections. Noun phrase structures including pre-/post- or no modification did have differences across sections, with Introduction sections the most frequently modified and Methods sections the least frequently modified. The different functions of IMRD sections call for different rates of usage for noun modification, and the results reflected this. The results of this research benefit teachers of graduate students of applied linguistics in students' research reading and writing by describing the use of noun modification in the sections of empirical research articles and aiding teachers in the design of materials to clarify the use of noun modification in these IMRD sections.

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Ackles, Nancy M. "Historical syntax of the English articles in relation to the count/non-count distinction /." Thesis, Connect to this title online; UW restricted, 1996. http://hdl.handle.net/1773/8405.

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Zhan, Ying. "Washback and possible selves Chinese non-English-major undergraduates' English learning experiences /." Click to view the E-thesis via HKUTO, 2009. http://sunzi.lib.hku.hk/hkuto/record/B43943779.

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Humed, Kammi G., Kenneth T. Olson, and Janet Cooley. "Verification of Non-English-Language Prescription Label Translations." The University of Arizona, 2016. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/613994.

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Class of 2016 Abstract
Objectives: To verify a set of translated medication labels in consultation with native speakers of non-English languages, specifically for this study: Amharic, Arabic, Chinese (Mandarin), Somali, Spanish, Tigrinya, and Vietnamese. Methods: Native speakers of target languages were recruited from academic and community organizations in the Tucson area. Participants were asked to review a set of translated directions and complete a survey regarding the validity and comprehensibility of the translations. In some cases, a short interview was used to clarify any comments or corrections made by the participants. Results: Surveys were completed by 23 participants, 12 men and 11 women, covering seven languages, with an uneven distribution between languages. Directions in Somali were the least problematic, with relatively strong agreement between respondents. Amharic directions were rated poorly and scored consistently worse than the overall average. Tigrinya had the most variation between respondents compared to other languages. Chinese, Spanish, and Vietnamese all received rather high scores, but analysis is complicated by a small sample size for each. Among responses to the open-ended questions, comments regarding word choice were the most common, for various reasons. Conclusions: We were able to validate some of the provided translations, but found that certain languages posed more problems than others, and these translations would need to undergo further review before they can be reliably used in clinical practice.

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Hantrakul, Chanpen Steffensen Margaret S. "English tense and aspect usage in controlled written discourse by non-native speakers." Normal, Ill. Illinois State University, 1990. http://wwwlib.umi.com/cr/ilstu/fullcit?p9101113.

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Thesis (D.A.)--Illinois State University, 1990.
Title from title page screen, viewed November 4, 2005. Dissertation Committee: Margaret S. Steffensen (chair), Irene T. Brosnahan, Ronald J. Fortune, Ronald S. Halinski, Bruce W. Hawkins. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 144-150) and abstract. Also available in print.

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Rida, A. "Non English speaking background migrant Muslim women and migrant English language provision." Thesis, Edith Cowan University, Research Online, Perth, Western Australia, 1996. https://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses/945.

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The purpose of this study is to define and delineate the factors which influence the decision by non-English speaking background migrant Muslim women to access or not access their eligibility for English language tuition, as set out by current policies governing the eligibility of migrants to participate in Adult Migrant Education programs. As such, the study is of particular interest to both key informants: teachers, community workers, coordinators, and to the target population themselves-Migrant Muslim women. It is also of benefit to those who are concerned with implementing language programs as it will provide them with an understanding of the issues facing Muslim women that may prevent them from accessing such classes. It is also of particular interest because it delves into and explores an• area where much speculation has taken place, but where little research of significance has been directed. The target population is defined as adult (over age 16) Muslim women from a non-English speaking background who are currently residing in the Perth metropolitan area. Two groups within this target population have been included in the study, the first being those women who have accessed migrant language tuition in a formal class setting (excluding those who have accessed the home tutor scheme). The second being those women who have not, with the objective of drawing a typology of the kind of Muslim women accessing classes-age, country of birth, family, socio-economic status, perceived need to learn English, level of education and aspirations and other relevant variables that were brought to light through the research process. Data was collected using both quantitative and qualitative research methods which involved the analysis of figures pertaining to the numbers of women from Muslim countries of birth who have accessed English language classes through the Adult Migrant Education Program in order to arrive at conclusions about the relative absence of Muslim women in these programs. Qualitative data was collected using a structured interview with twenty three women from the target population as well as interviews with three key informants. The purpose of the key informant interviews was to gain an understanding of the external factors accessibility, availability of information and practical considerations such as child care transport and provision of special arrangements that may affect the decision or the ability of Muslim women to attend classes.

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McGuire, Michael Larson-Hall Jenifer. "Formulaic sequences in English conversation improving spoken fluency in non-native speakers /." [Denton, Tex.] : University of North Texas, 2009. http://digital.library.unt.edu/permalink/meta-dc-11024.

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Coady, Ann. "The non-sexist language debate in French and English." Thesis, Sheffield Hallam University, 2018. http://shura.shu.ac.uk/24058/.

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The field of gender and language has gradually abandoned studies of gender-fair language, perhaps considering that there is little left to say on the subject. However, the debate over gender-fair language rages on in the media. Language bodies spend a significant amount of time and money on producing guidelines, yet there have been woefully few studies on what speakers think of these reforms, and the few studies that have been carried out have tended to focus on small groups. In addition, there have been very few analyses of how sexism gets debated and defined within media texts themselves, whereas examining social evaluations of language is essential in understanding the motivating force of language change. There is also a dearth of comparative studies in gender and language, which would allow conceptions of language in general, as well as feminist linguistic reforms, to be framed in their cultural and historical perspectives. This thesis aims at filling this gap in the field of gender and language by examining discourses on feminist linguistic reform in the media from a cross-linguistic perspective. A corpus of 242 articles (approx. 167,000 words) spanning 15 years (2001-2016), whose main topic is (non-)sexist or gender-fair language was collected from British and French on-line national newspapers. Apart from the obvious fact that the media have an enormous influence on public opinion, this is where the debate on sexist language has traditionally been carried out, and thus the media play a special role in the debate. On-line newspaper texts were therefore chosen in an effort to find discourses that readers are exposed to on a regular basis, and that could be classed as widespread and familiar to the general public. A corpus-based analysis was employed as a starting point to identify traces of discourses that are used to frame arguments in the gender-fair language debate. Frequency lists, keyword lists, and word sketches were carried out in order to indicate possible directions for analysis. Hypotheses based on the literature review were also followed up with searches for particular semantically related terms relating to discourses found in other studies. Finally, a CDA analysis was carried out on relevant concordance lines. Twelve main discourses were identified in the two corpora, based on six principle ideologies of language. Findings indicated that the overwhelming majority of these discourses and language ideologies are found in both the English and the French corpus, and across the political spectrum of newspaper groups. However, differences in quantitative and qualitative use may indicate on the one hand, deeper cultural differences between the UK and France, and on the other, core political and moral values between the right and left wing. The main contribution to knowledge that this thesis makes is in helping to revitalise research on sexist language through an analysis of the discourses and language ideologies that determine the success, or failure, of non-sexist language, as well as a novel analysis of the origin of sexism in language (Chapter 3).

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Pihko, Marja-Kaisa. ""His English sounded strange" : the intelligibility of native and non-native English pronunciation to Finnish learners of English /." Online version, 1997. http://bibpurl.oclc.org/web/25092.

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Chavalala, Bulu James. "Lemmatisation of derivative nouns in Xitsonga-English bilingual dictionaries." Thesis, University of Limpopo, 2005. http://hdl.handle.net/10386/2373.

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Ehlers-Zavala, Fabiola P. Steffensen Margaret S. "Reading an illustrated and non-illustrated story dual coding in the foreign language classroom /." Normal, Ill. Illinois State University, 1999. http://wwwlib.umi.com/cr/ilstu/fullcit?p9942643.

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Thesis (Ph. D.)--Illinois State University, 1999.
Title from title page screen, viewed July 24, 2006. Dissertation Committee: Margaret S. Steffensen (chair), Jeffrey P. Bakken, William C. Woodson, Charles B. Harris. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 214-240) and abstract. Also available in print.

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Long, Kathryn Ann. "Self-perceptions of non-native English speaking teachers of English as a second language." PDXScholar, 2003. https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/open_access_etds/3605.

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The purpose of the present study was to examine the self-perceptions of effective non-native English speaking teachers (non-NESTs) of English as a Second Language (ESL) regarding their teaching behaviors. The study also sought to discover the relationship between effective non-NEST perceptions of their teaching behaviors and stereotypes for those behaviors. It further sought to define what experiences have contributed to their non-conformation if their perceptions do not fit the negative stereotypes of teaching behaviors of non-NESTs.

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Mirahayuni, Ni Ketut School of Modern Language Studies UNSW. "Investigating textual structure in native and non-native English research articles : strategy differences between English and Indonesian writers." Awarded by:University of New South Wales. School of Modern Language Studies, 2002. http://handle.unsw.edu.au/1959.4/19068.

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Research into English research articles (RAs) has largely been focused on articles produced by native English writers. This thesis aims to investigate the textual structure of research articles written by non-native English writers, which may contribute to their acceptance for international publication. A comparison is made between RAs written by native English speakers, Indonesian writers writing in English, and Indonesian writers writing in Indonesian, all in the field of Language and Language Teaching. It explores the relation of text's generic structure, context and linguistic realization. The thesis develops a framework for the generic structure analysis based on Swales' CARS model of moves. A complementary analysis using Systemic-Functional Linguistics' (SFL) approach to texture, namely, text's method of development and structure of information, is conducted to further reveal the textual strategies of the different groups. The findings indicate significant differences in both forms and functions of textual strategies between the native and non-native texts. The differences may partly be due to the influence of writing practices in the non-native writers' first language and partly to the writer's attempt to find an appropriate format in the absence of well-established research writing conventions in the first language. Consequently, non-native English texts may show textual features and organising strategies unfamiliar to both the native English and native Indonesian texts. Findings from the research highlight two issues. First, formal and functional differences of generic structure elements and their realizations between the native and non-native English texts may disadvantage the non-native writers, particularly with regards to employment of unfamiliar organizational strategies. Second, besides knowledge of formal generic structure, more importantly, non-native English writers need to acquire the knowledge of the nature of scientific writing in English in order to achieve full control of the writing process and thus produce successful writing. The implications for further research and the teaching of academic writing are discussed.

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Melnick, Robin. "Plurality cues and non-agreement in English existentials." Thesis, San Jose State University, 2013. http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=1541541.

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This paper furthers the discussion of variable agreement in English existential constructions. Previous studies across dialects have shown that there +be with a plural notional post-copular subject is frequently realized with contracted singular agreement, for example, "There's many articles on this topic." Prior work in building probabilistic models for predicting the presence of agreement or non-agreement in any given such _there+be sentential context has investigated a variety of factors with potential influence on this variation, but the present study provides evidence for the inclusion of two novel and significantly predictive elements: a plurality "cue distance" and a new taxonomy for determiner type. The latter references each form's strength in terms of number semantics, rather than along the lines of definiteness employed in traditional determiner classifications. These new factors are, in turn, motivated by a general formulation, the Weak Number Hypothesis, which offers further insight into factor significances found by prior works. Multiple corpus studies and logistic regression model analysis provide empirical support for the central hypothesis and its attendant predictions.

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Zhan, Ying, and 詹颖. "Washback and possible selves: Chinese non-English-major undergraduates' English learning experiences." Thesis, The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong), 2009. http://hub.hku.hk/bib/B43943779.

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Cummings, Victor. "Speech and writing : an analysis of expository texts composed by native and non-native speakers of English at the City University of New York /." Access Digital Full Text version, 1990. http://pocketknowledge.tc.columbia.edu/home.php/bybib/10938783.

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Cheung, Sin-lin Isabelle. "A study of lexical errors in South-Asian Non-Chinese speaking children's writing." Click to view the E-thesis via HKUTO, 2006. http://sunzi.lib.hku.hk/hkuto/record/B36863658.

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Jones, Carrie Sloss Traci Wallace Janet. "Research-Based Best Practices for Closing the Achievement Gap between English Language Learners and Non-English Language Learners in Southeastern School District." Thesis, Lipscomb University, 2015. http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=3666879.

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The English Language Learners (ELL) student population continues to increase in American schools. Schools have the obligation and privilege to serve this population, but challenges exist to help ELLs become proficient in all subjects. The need for educators to use research-based best practices is critical to help best serve ELLs and to increase academic achievement. The researchers conducted a mixed-methods study in order to identify the research-based practices proven to increase the academic achievement of ELLs. The researchers found that Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol (SIOP) was a research-based framework proven to help ELLs academically. ELL Directors of middle Tennessee districts having statistically significant gains with ELLs believed that the top best practices to use with ELLs were activating prior knowledge and building background, comprehensible input, academic vocabulary, explicit instruction and differentiated instruction. Teachers within Southeastern School District (SSD) believed the top five practices to use with ELLs were activating prior knowledge and building background, differentiated instruction, scaffolding instruction, teaching academic vocabulary, and continual review of vocabulary and content. The study also found the instructional models that work best with the varying levels of ELLs. The instructional model best used with newcomers was pullout, and for active ELLs, either pullout or push-in. Push-in or Structured English Immersion was most effective with Transitional 1 and Structured English Immersion for Transitional 2 ELL students. Educational stakeholders can use the findings of this study in order to promote the academic achievement of ELLs.

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Chen, Selma Shu-Mei. "The effects of L1 word order and English proficiency on non-English speakers' sentence processing." Virtual Press, 1989. http://liblink.bsu.edu/uhtbin/catkey/720150.

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This study is a partial replication of Davison & Lutz's (1984) experiment. It was designed to test if L1 word order and English proficiency are involved in non-native speakers' sentence processing. This study concentrates on the roles of syntax and pragmatics/semantics in sentence processing. By comparing two corresponding syntactic structures with similar meanings but different forms in context, we can detect the different degrees of the salient property of a certain NP. The perception of the salient NP is related to the definition of the sentence topic, which functions as the link between the sentence and the discourse. The salient NP can be identified by applying our linguistic knowledge, syntactic rules, and our real world knowledge, pragmatic principles,. The choice of syntactic structure is conditioned heavily by pragmatic principles. It is believed that response times correspond to the degrees of salience.Sixty international students participated in the experiment. Stimulus sentences were presented with a computer program and response times were recorded in seconds by the computer automatically. A cloze test was given for the measuring of English proficiency.The data collected were analyzed with SPSS-X. The MANOVA was carried out to compare the differences between VO/OV language types, target sentences (transformed and untransformed ones), five types of syntactic constructions, and the interactions ofword order by target sentences, target sentences by syntactic constructions, and L1 word order by target sentences by syntactic constructions. The response times for English proficiency were used as a post hoc variable. Significance was set at .05.The results revealed that there was a significant difference across five syntactic constructions (p < .05). The other tests were not significant. Two important limitations on this study are problems arising out of randomization parameters in the experiment, and the lack of lower level English proficiency subjects.
Department of English

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Arden-Close, Christopher. "The language of chemistry lectures to non-native speakers of English." Thesis, University of Southampton, 1990. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.256367.

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Wynne, Hilary Suzanne Zinsmeyer. "The phonological encoding of complex morphosyntactic structures in native and non-native English speakers." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2016. https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:39fd5b76-2099-4f42-a428-e4c2df39685d.

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Theories of phonological word formation (e.g. Selkirk 1980, 1986; Nespor & Vogel 1986; Lahiri & Plank 2010) assume that prosodic units are not isomorphic with syntactic units. However, the prosodic status of compounds remain uncertain, at least in so far as language planning and phonological encoding is concerned. Theories are not transparent about the prosodic status of compounds: although a noun-noun compound in English consists of two lexical words (and therefore two prosodic words), it can also act as a single prosodic item by exhibiting main stress on the first unit and carrying inflection. Thus the question remains controversial - should these items be treated as a single prosodic unit, similar to a monomorphemic word, or as two distinct units for the purpose of post-lexical representation? Recursive word formation may suggest that compounds are a single unit. Psycholinguistic evidence measuring speech onset latency in native speakers of Dutch and Portuguese also shows compounds being treated as single prosodic units (Wheeldon & Lahiri 1997, 2002; Vigario, 2010). Although recent studies have produced evidence for the prosodification of compounds in native speakers, little is known about the process in non-native speakers. Our research questions are as follows: what is the post-lexical planning unit in English, and how do non-native fluent speakers of English plan these units for the purpose of phonological encoding? To investigate our hypotheses, we focus on the phonological encoding of compounds with and without encliticisation, for native and non-native speakers of English. In a series of delayed priming tasks, we found overwhelming evidence that reaction times reflected the total number of prosodic units in the target sentence. In online tasks, however, speech latencies only reflected the size of the first prosodic unit. Taken together,these results suggest that, despite containing two lexical and prosodic words, English compounds are planned as single prosodic units, exhibiting encliticisation and reaction times similar to those of monomorphemic words. As shown by the results in this study, this naming paradigm has proved extremely beneficial for eliciting data about the structure of prosodic units in speech production. Not only was it successful for native speakers of Dutch, European Portuguese, and English, we also found that it was easily implemented into a study of post-lexical encoding in non-native speakers of English.

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Bae, Myung-Sook. "Contrastive phonological analysis of Kyungsang Korean and English : interference from a first language with tones in acquiring non-tone language intonation." Thesis, University of Sussex, 1999. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.285345.

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Lester, Benjamin T. "Standard English Language Acquisition Among African American Vernacular English Speaking Adolescents: A Modified Guided Reading Study." Scholarly Repository, 2008. http://scholarlyrepository.miami.edu/oa_dissertations/37.

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This dissertation is an effort to contribute to the knowledge base concerning reading instruction for adolescent students who speak African American Vernacular English (AAVE), as well as their acquisition of Standard English (SE), by focusing on language structure during a modified approach to guided reading (MGR). Emphasis was placed on teaching the eight inflectional morphemes in SE, as well as other literacy strategies to AAVE speaking students. This intervention hypothesized that the teaching and learning of inflectional morphemes, in particular, would increase SE literacy acquisition. The intervention utilized formative experiment methodology and a quasi-experimental time series design. Data sources and collection took several forms: a) KTEA II - reading (letter and word recognition and reading comprehension) and written language (written expression) (Kaufman & Kaufman, 2004); b) field reflections; c) student surveys; and d) video-taped MGR lessons. Informal assessments such as the Ekwall/Shanker Reading Inventory, 4th Edition (Shanker & Ekwall, 2000) were used to guide instruction for MGR lessons. The findings supported the hypothesis that instruction of inflectional morphemes in SE has a positive impact on reading, writing, and overall acquisition of SE among AAVE speaking students.

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Davies, Susan. "English language skills of minority language children in a French Immersion program." Thesis, University of British Columbia, 1985. http://hdl.handle.net/2429/24625.

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The purpose of this study was to determine the English language skills of minority language children (experimental group) in a early total French Immersion program by comparing them with those of English-speaking children in French Immersion (English control group), and with those of minority language children in a regular English program (minority control group). Ten grade one children comprised each of the three groups of children. Listening comprehension of English was assessed using two standardized tests of English comprehension (the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test and the Token Test for Children). English speaking skills were assessed using the Clark-Madison Test of Oral Language (a standardized test) and a ten to fifteen minute language sample. English metalinguistic skills were assessed with a phoneme deletion task used by Rosner & Simon (1971) and with two tasks used by Pratt, Tunmer & Bowey (1984): a morpheme correction task and a word order correction task. Questionnaires were used to assess attitudes towards the minority language and culture and to determine the children's home and language background. It was hypothesized that the English language skills of the experimental group would be at least as good as those of the English control group and the minority control group. The results supported the hypotheses. The experimental group did as well as the English control group on all of the measures of English comprehension and production tested. The minority control group scored lower than the English control group on all measures of English comprehension and production. They scored lower than the experimental group on the comprehension of complex commands and on the Clark-Madison Test of Oral Language. The three groups scored similarly on all of the metalinguistic tasks except on the morpheme correction task, where the minority control group scored lower than the English control group. Results support the suitability of early total French Immersion for minority language children who have their first language and culture valued and maintained.
Medicine, Faculty of
Audiology and Speech Sciences, School of
Graduate

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