Dissertations / Theses: 'Language and languages'

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Maciá, Fábrega Josep. "Natural language and formal languages." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1997. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/10348.

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Cook, Jonathan J. "Language interoperability and logic programming languages." Thesis, University of Edinburgh, 2005. http://hdl.handle.net/1842/725.

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We discuss P#, our implementation of a tool which allows interoperation between a concurrent superset of the Prolog programming language and C#. This enables Prolog to be used as a native implementation language for Microsoft's .NET platform. P# compiles a linear logic extension of Prolog to C# source code. We can thus create C# objects from Prolog and use C#'s graphical, networking and other libraries. P# was developed from a modified port of the Prolog to Java translator, Prolog Cafe. We add language constructs on the Prolog side which allow concurrent Prolog code to be written. We add a primitive predicate which evaluates a Prolog structure on a newly forked thread. Communication between threads is based on the unification of variables contained in such a structure. It is also possible for threads to communicate through a globally accessible table. All of the new features are available to the programmer through new built-in Prolog predicates. We present three case studies. The first is an application which allows several users to modify a database. The users are able to disconnect from the database and to modify their own copies of the data before reconnecting. On reconnecting, conflicts must be resolved. The second is an object-oriented assistant, which allows the user to query the contents of a C# namespace or Java package. The third is a tool which allows a user to interact with a graphical display of the inheritance tree. Finally, we optimize P#'s runtime speed by translating some Prolog predicates into more idiomatic C# code than is produced by a naive port of Prolog Cafe. This is achieved by observing that semi-deterministic predicates (being those which always either fail or succeed with exactly one solution) that only call other semi-deterministic predicates enjoy relatively simple control flow. We make use of the fact that Prolog programs often contain predicates which operate as functions, and that such predicates are usually semi-deterministic.

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Diallo, Ibrahima. "Language Planning, Language-In-Education Policy, and Attitudes Towards Languages in Senegal." Thesis, Griffith University, 2006. http://hdl.handle.net/10072/366175.

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This thesis describes language policy practices in Senegal, identifies the languages used by Senegalese people in various social, public, and institutional settings, and details the attitudes of Senegalese people towards their own mother tongues, Wolof, French, and English and these speech communities. It examines also the importance, place, and future of local languages and European languages in Senegal and analyses the issue of language(s) of education in Senegal. To conduct this research, a variety of sampling techniques were used to collect data from a wide range of population-categories including respondents from the general population, public administration, students, and the business sector. Throughout the period of this study, Senegal was undergoing a phenomenal linguistic experience characterised by the sudden arrival and strengthening of English in the country, increasing interest by Senegalese people in local languages, and a gradual decline of the domains of French language use in the country. Against this linguistic backdrop, a number of major findings have resulted from the research including the finding that home languages (in particular, the mother tongues) are dominant in most family and social settings while French is dominant only in public settings. However, the data show that both mother tongues and Wolof are being used increasingly in public institutions; domains that hitherto belonged to French. The language use with people indicates a similar pattern, i.e. local languages are mostly used with close family members and with people in the extended family circle while French is dominant only with people in public institutions. The home languages (mother tongues and Wolof) and, to a lesser extent English, are more popular in public settings, thus reducing the hegemony of the use of French with people in public institutions. The study based on the data collected from the overall sample found also that the attitudes of the Senegalese people towards French, English, and their mother tongues are high and positive but the attitudes towards Wolof show both positive and negative ratings. The results show that, according to Senegalese people, the local languages are not given due importance in the education system. Similarly, they believe that English is not regarded as important in the education system either. Therefore, they request more importance to be given to both languages in the education system. As for French, it is considered very important in the education system and therefore, there were no particular requests to increase its relative importance in education. Further, French is believed to have negative influences in Senegal while this is not the case for English. Regarding the language(s) of instruction, local languages are described as the most appropriate languages for education. However, when languages are analysed in parallel, French maintains its leadership. In general, the Senegalese people have positive attitudes towards the speech communities. However, the attitudes towards the Wolof and French speech communities are both positive and negative. Similarly, the intensity of the desire to learn languages is generally positive but is characterised by the presence of a mix of positive and negative ratings for French and Wolof. However, a cross-sectional analysis shows quite interesting variations across the four population-categories mentioned earlier, mainly regarding language use, the issue of the language(s) of instruction in Senegal, the attitudes of Senegalese people towards languages and towards speech communities, and the intensity of their desire to learn languages - to name but a few areas of variation. The study has resulted in major findings regarding language use in Senegal. One of these is the loyalty of Senegal people towards their languages, that is, first, to their own mother tongue and then to Wolof - as a second language; second the Senegalese people remain attached to the French language, and finally they have a great admiration for English. According to the study, Senegalese people are attached to their language because of the more effective communication opportunities the local languages offer and also because of the positive benefits associated with (early) education in one's own mother tongue. In addition, the respondents believe that local languages help them assert their identity and maintain their cultures. The study found that Senegalese people are attached to the French language because it is an important national language (the official language of the country) and international language (for communication in the Francophone world). As for English, they admire the language because of its prestige and its status as a 'universal' language for communication and its dominance in science, technology, education, and business. The study concludes with a number of recommendations for the improvement of language planning and language-in-education policy in Senegal. The recommendations focus mainly on enhancing considerably the place and role of local languages in the education system, initiating systematic language policy prestige activities, and developing a rigorous policy that fosters positive attitudes towards local languages in general and the Wolof language and the Wolof speech community in particular. As regards the English language, the study recommends offering greater opportunities to learn the language by widespread reinforcement of its teaching in the education system.
Thesis (PhD Doctorate)
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
School of Languages and Linguistics
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Connell, Professor T. J. "Languages (in particular Spanish) : language teaching and learning & languages for the professions." Thesis, University of London, 2004. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.444221.

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Meyer, Hans Joachim. "A global language or a world of languages." Universitätsbibliothek Leipzig, 2016. http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bsz:15-qucosa-201117.

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Wolf, Göran. "Language contact, change of language status : ‘Celtic’ national languages in the British Isles and Ireland." Universität Potsdam, 2007. http://opus.kobv.de/ubp/volltexte/2008/1936/.

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Contents: Conceptual Clarifications Contact Situations – a Brief Outline Under Scrutiny I: Cornwall, Isle of Man and Scotland Under scrutiny II: Wales Under Scrutiny III: Ireland – a Lengthy Discourse

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Livingstone, Daniel Jack. "Computer models of the evolution of language and languages." Thesis, University of the West of Scotland, 2003. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.398331.

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Loza, Christian. "Cross Language Information Retrieval for Languages with Scarce Resources." Thesis, University of North Texas, 2009. https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc12157/.

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Our generation has experienced one of the most dramatic changes in how society communicates. Today, we have online information on almost any imaginable topic. However, most of this information is available in only a few dozen languages. In this thesis, I explore the use of parallel texts to enable cross-language information retrieval (CLIR) for languages with scarce resources. To build the parallel text I use the Bible. I evaluate different variables and their impact on the resulting CLIR system, specifically: (1) the CLIR results when using different amounts of parallel text; (2) the role of paraphrasing on the quality of the CLIR output; (3) the impact on accuracy when translating the query versus translating the collection of documents; and finally (4) how the results are affected by the use of different dialects. The results show that all these variables have a direct impact on the quality of the CLIR system.

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Botha, Gerrti Reinier. "Text-based language identification for the South African languages." Pretoria : [s.n.], 2007. http://upetd.up.ac.za/thesis/available/etd-090942008-133715/.

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Loza, Christian E. Mihalcea Rada F. "Cross language information retrieval for languages with scarce resources." [Denton, Tex.] : University of North Texas, 2009. http://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc12157.

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Chavula, Catherine. "Using language similarities in retrieval for resource scarce languages: a study of several southern Bantu languages." Doctoral thesis, Faculty of Science, 2021. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/33614.

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Most of the Web is published in languages that are not accessible to many potential users who are only able to read and understand their local languages. Many of these local languages are Resources Scarce Languages (RSLs) and lack the necessary resources, such as machine translation tools, to make available content more accessible. State of the art preprocessing tools and retrieval methods are tailored for Web dominant languages and, accordingly, documents written in RSLs are lowly ranked and difficult to access in search results, resulting in a struggling and frustrating search experience for speakers of RSLs. In this thesis, we propose the use of language similarities to match, re-rank and return search results written in closely related languages to improve the quality of search results and user experience. We also explore the use of shared morphological features to build multilingual stemming tools. Focusing on six Bantu languages spoken in Southeastern Africa, we first explore how users would interact with search results written in related languages. We conduct a user study, examining the usefulness and user preferences for ranking search results with different levels of intelligibility, and the types of emotions users experience when interacting with such results. Our results show that users can complete tasks using related language search results but, as intelligibility decreases, more users struggle to complete search tasks and, consequently, experience negative emotions. Concerning ranking, we find that users prefer that relevant documents be ranked higher, and that intelligibility be used as a secondary criterion. Additionally, we use a User-Centered Design (UCD) approach to investigate enhanced interface features that could assist users to effectively interact with such search results. Usability evaluation of our designed interface scored 86% using the System Usability Scale (SUS). We then investigate whether ranking models that integrate relevance and intelligibility features would improve retrieval effectiveness. We develop these features by drawing from traditional Information Retrieval (IR) models and linguistics studies, and employ Learning To Rank (LTR) and unsupervised methods. Our evaluation shows that models that use both relevance and intelligibility feature(s) have better performance when compared to models that use relevance features only. Finally, we propose and evaluate morphological processing approaches that include multilingual stemming, using rules derived from common morphological features across Bantu family of languages. Our evaluation of the proposed stemming approach shows that its performance is competitive on queries that use general terms. Overall, the thesis provides evidence that considering and matching search results written in closely related languages, as well as ranking and presenting them appropriately, improves the quality of retrieval and user experience for speakers of RSLs.

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Manning, Patricia. "Itsicall : Investigating Teaching Strategies in Computer Assisted Language Learning." n.p, 1994. http://ethos.bl.uk/.

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Yu, Yuanfang. "Foreign language learning : a comparative study of Australian and Chinese University students /." St. Lucia, Qld, 2002. http://www.library.uq.edu.au/pdfserve.php?image=thesisabs/absthe16092.pdf.

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Harrison, Elizabeth Anne. "Instructional choices of Mississippi foreign language teachers." Diss., Mississippi State : Mississippi State University, 2006. http://library.msstate.edu/etd/show.asp?etd=etd-11082006-165055.

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Barra, Melissa Ann. "Teaching Spanish slang, familiar language, and electronic language in the classroom /." Click here to view full-text, 2007. http://digitalcollections.sit.edu/ipp_collection/12/.

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Kopetzki, Dawid [Verfasser], Bernhard [Akademischer Betreuer] Steffen, and Sven [Gutachter] Jörges. "Generation of domain-specific language-to-language transformation languages / Dawid Kopetzki ; Gutachter: Sven Jörges ; Betreuer: Bernhard Steffen." Dortmund : Universitätsbibliothek Dortmund, 2019. http://d-nb.info/1217843558/34.

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Taylor, Annelies. "Languages : computation of communication : gender issues in curricular foreign language acquisition." Thesis, Open University, 2010. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.526901.

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Barr, John Davidson. "An investigation into computer-based language-learning environments for foreign languages." Thesis, University of Ulster, 2003. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.274111.

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Poliakova, T., and P. Vasylenko. "Interaction of language, human being and culture when teaching foreign languages." Thesis, Харківський національний технічний університет сільського господарства ім. Петра Василенка, 2018. http://repository.kpi.kharkov.ua/handle/KhPI-Press/37066.

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Vigilante, Maria Carleton University Dissertation Political Science. "Bodies of language and languages of power; feminism and its disjunctions." Ottawa, 1987.

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Brunn, Michael Vernon. "Language socialization, literacy and cultural identity: The centrality of heritage languages." Diss., The University of Arizona, 1994. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/186889.

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This is a Life Story project that examined the relationships between the personal and the cultural identities of American Indian persons and their abilities to speak their heritage languages. More specifically, how Heritage Languages influenced the processes of language socialization, literacy acquisition and the formation of the personal and the cultural identities of American Indian children. The premise of the study was that a child's identity, sense of belonging, literacy acquisition and success in school are interrelated aspects of her/his cultural, social, linguistic and political histories. Through the telling of life stories the underpinnings of culture, language, literacy and socialization processes were explicated as fundamental aspects which constituted holistic life experiences for children. The stories revealed how these constructs and processes were formative of their personal and cultural identities. The importance of Heritage Languages was foregrounded as a central feature in these processes. The discussions with the consultants had three sections: (a) their language and socialization contexts and practices from early childhood to adulthood, (b) their remembrances of literacy acquisition, and (c) their notions concerning the importance of and the efficacy of Heritage Languages as central to identity and to the continuance of their cultures. The findings from this project were used to discuss two interrelated concepts. First, the ways in which Heritage Languages were formative of the cultural identities of persons growing up on and around a Reservation. Second, the ways in which Heritage Languages contributed to literacy acquisition and to their social and academic success in school.

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Petersen, Kenneth A. "Implicit corrective feedback in computer-guided interaction does mode matter? /." Connect to Electronic Thesis (CONTENTdm), 2010. http://worldcat.org/oclc/642826969/viewonline.

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Richard, Erin. "Individual differences and second language acquisition among low-income preschoolers." Fairfax, VA : George Mason University, 2007. http://hdl.handle.net/1920/2957.

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Thesis (M.A.)--George Mason University, 2007.
Title from PDF t.p. (viewed Jan. 21, 2008). Thesis director: Adam Winsler. Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Psychology. Vita: p. 65. Includes bibliographical references (p. 58-64). Also available in print.

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Janopoulos, Michae. "The role of comprehension in holistic evaluation of second language writing proficiency at the university level /." The Ohio State University, 1987. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1487327695621887.

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Brett, Paul Alan. "The design and evaluation of a multimedia application for second language listening comprehension." Online version, 1999. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?did=1&uin=uk.bl.ethos.297607.

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Itani-Adams, Yuki. "One child, two languages : bilingual first language acquisition in Japanese and English." Thesis, View thesis, 2007. http://handle.uws.edu.au:8081/1959.7/28484.

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This is the first Japanese-English Bilingual First Language Acquisition (BFLA) longitudinal study carried out within the framework of Processability Theory (PT) (Pienemann, 1998a). The informant of this study is Hannah, who was raised in Australia in a one-parent one-language environment from birth. Hannah’s speech production in each language was collected in a language-specific setting with different interlocutors (i.e., Japanese with the Japanese-speaking mother and English with the English-speaking father), from the time she was 1; 11 (one year and eleven months) until she was 4;10. This study investigates Hannah’s lexical development, the acquisition of morphology and syntax in the two languages. Unlike previous studies in bilingual children’s lexicon (Deuchar and Quay, 2000), this study focuses on the composition of the lexicon in each language to test for language-specific developmental patterns (Gentner and Boroditsky, 2001).The study also compares the development of these two languages in terms of MLU, lexical, morphological and syntactic development. Furthermore, the study examines the relationships between lexical and grammatical development within each of the two languages and tests the Critical Mass Hypothesis (Marchman and Bates, 1994) in a bilingual context. One of the central issues in the field of BFLA, identified by scholars such as DeHouwer (2005) and Meisel (1990a), is to characterise the relationship between the two developing languages of one child. Does a bilingual child initially develop the two languages as one linguistic system that later separates into two as expounded by Volterra and Taeschner (1978), or does a bilingual child develop the two languages separately from the beginning, as represented by De Houwer’s (1990) Separate Development Hypothesis (SDH)? Previous BFLA studies addressing this issue (e.g., De Houwer, 1990; Meisel, 1990a; Mishina, 1997; Paradis and Genesee, 1996) did not have a common point of reference to compare the development of two different languages directly. In the present study, PT provides a common point of reference for a direct comparison of the development of two typologically distant languages. Results indicate that both Japanese and English of the child developed in the sequence predicted by PT. They also support the SDH for lexical development, the acquisition of morphology and word order. The study confirms the Critical Mass Hypothesis in bilingual context. The results from the present study suggest that, for one bilingual child, Japanese and English each developed in parallel but in a separate manner.

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Liando, Nihta V. F. "Foreign language learning in primary schools with special reference to Indonesia, Thailand and Australia /." Title page, contents and abstract only, 1999. http://web4.library.adelaide.edu.au/theses/09ARM/09arml693.pdf.

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Sugrañes, Ernest Caterina. "A plurilingual approach to language teaching and learning in Catalonia: Using heritage languages in the additional language classroom." Doctoral thesis, Universitat Ramon Llull, 2017. http://hdl.handle.net/10803/403850.

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Aquesta tesi estudia els efectes de l'adopció d'un enfocament plurilingüe de l'ensenyament i l'aprenentatge de llengües en una aula de llengua addicional d’una escola pública de Barcelona amb 45 alumnes de 10 i 11 anys. Un període d'observació inicial condueix a la hipòtesi que el reconeixement i l'ús de les llengües d'origen dels alumnes és rellevant per a la seva identitat plurilingüe. L'estudi té com a objectiu avaluar si promoure la identitat plurilingüe pot afectar la motivació i les actituds cap a les llengües, d'una banda, i el rendiment acadèmic (català, castellà i anglès) de l'altra. Finalment, també es planteja la hipòtesi que l'adopció d'un enfocament plurilingüe pot afectar les actituds de la mestra de llengua vers les llengües i el seu ensenyament i aprenentatge. Basat en un Enfocament Plurilingüe Integrat (EPI) (Esteve i González Davies, 2016), s'empren dos eines pedagògiques de translanguaging: TOLC (Traducció per a altres contextos d’aprenentatge), (González Davies, 2012, 2014) i LITS (Textos d’identitat de llengua), una adaptació dels textos d'identitat de Cummins (2001, 2009) amb la finalitat de crear contes en anglès i traduir-los en les diferents llengües presents a l'aula. Seguint un enfocament mixte de la Grounded Theory (Teoria fonamentada en dades), es recullen dades quantitatives i qualitatives. Les principals conclusions de l'estudi són que l'adopció d'un enfocament plurilingüe vers l’ensenyament i aprenentatge de llengües és rellevant per a la identitat plurilingüe. Al seu torn, la identitat plurilingüe afecta significativament la motivació de l'alumne i el seu desig vers l'aprenentatge de llengües. A més, el rendiment acadèmic no es veu afectat per l'adopció d'un enfocament plurilingüe i la consciència lingüística dels alumnes i la seva actitud vers les llengües i el seu aprenentatge augmenta. Finalment, també es conclou que la mestra de llengües ha tenir una competència plurilingüe per tal d’ensenyar llengües.
Esta tesis estudia los efectos de la adopción de un enfoque plurilingüe de la enseñanza y el aprendizaje de lenguas en un aula de lengua adicional de una escuela pública de Barcelona con 45 alumnos de 10 y 11 años. Un período de observación inicial conduce a la hipótesis de que el reconocimiento y el uso de las lenguas de origen de los alumnos es relevante para su identidad plurilingüe. El estudio tiene como objetivo evaluar si promover la identidad plurilingüe puede afectar la motivación y las actitudes hacia las lenguas, por un lado, y el rendimiento académico (catalán, castellano e inglés) de la otra. Finalmente, también se plantea la hipótesis de que la adopción de un enfoque plurilingüe puede afectar las actitudes de la maestra de lengua hacia las lenguas y su enseñanza y aprendizaje. Basado en un Enfoque Plurilingüe Integrado (EPI) (Esteve y González Davies, 2016), se emplean dos herramientas pedagógicas de translanguaging: TOLC (Traducción para otros contextos de aprendizaje), (González Davies, 2012, 2014) y LITS (Textos de identidad de lengua), una adaptación de los textos de identidad de Cummins (2001, 2009) con el fin de crear cuentos en inglés y traducirlos en las diferentes lenguas presentes en el aula. Siguiendo un enfoque mixto de la Grounded Theory (Teoría fundamentada en datos), se recogen datos cuantitativos y cualitativos. Las principales conclusiones del estudio son que la adopción de un enfoque plurilingüe hacia la enseñanza y aprendizaje de lenguas es relevante para la identidad plurilingüe. A su vez, la identidad plurilingüe afecta significativamente la motivación del alumno y su deseo hacia el aprendizaje de lenguas. Además, el rendimiento académico no se ve afectado por la adopción de un enfoque plurilingüe y la conciencia lingüística de los alumnos y su actitud hacia las lenguas y su aprendizaje aumenta. Finalmente, también se concluye que la maestra de lenguas ha tener una competencia plurilingüe para enseñar lenguas.
This thesis studies the effects of adopting a plurilingual approach to teaching and learning languages in an additional language classroom of state primary school of Barcelona with 45 pupils aged 10 and 11. An initial observation period leads to the hypothesis that acknowledging and using the heritage languages of pupils is relevant to their plurilingual identity. The study aims to assess whether plurilingual identity encouragement may affect motivation and attitudes towards languages on the one hand, and academic achievement (Catalan, Spanish and English) on the other. Finally, it is also hypothesised that adopting a plurilingual approach may affect the language teacher’s attitudes towards languages and language teaching and learning. Based on an Integrating Plurilingual Approach (IPA) (Esteve & González Davies, 2016), two translanguaging pedagogical tools are employed, namely TOLC (Translation for Other Learning Contexts), (González Davies, 2012, 2014) and LITS (Language Identity Texts), an adaptation of Cummins’s identity texts (2001, 2009) in order to create storybooks in English and translate them into the different languages present in the classroom. Following a Grounded Theory and mixed-method approach, quantitative and qualitative data are collected. The main conclusions of the study are that adopting a plurilingual approach to language teaching and learning is relevant to plurilingual identity. In turn plurilingual identity significantly affects pupil’s motivation and desire towards learning languages. Also, the academic performance is not affected by adopting a plurilingual approach and the pupils' linguistic awareness and attitude towards languages and language learning increases. Finally, it is also concluded that the language teacher must be plurilingualy competent in order to teach languages.

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Itani-Adams, Yuki. "One child, two languages bilingual first language acquisition in Japanese and English /." View thesis, 2007. http://handle.uws.edu.au:8081/1959.7/28484.

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Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Western Sydney, 2007.
A thesis presented to the University of Western Sydney, College of Arts, School of Humanities and Languages, in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Includes bibliographies.

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Nical, Iluminado C. "Language usage and language attitudes among education consumers : the experience of Filipinos in Australia and in three linguistic communities in the Philippines." Title page, contents and abstract only, 2000. http://web4.library.adelaide.edu.au/theses/09PH/09phn582.pdf.

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Errata inserted facing t. p. Bibliography: leaves 406-457. A comparative investigation of language usage and language attitudes in relation to Filipino/Tagalog, Philippine languages other than Tagalog and English among senior high school students and their parents in two countries, the Philippines and Australia. The study provides an historical overview of the development of national language policies in Australia and in the Philippines, focussing on the way in which multiculturalism in Australia influenced language policies, and on the reasons for the adoption of the Bilingual Education Program in the Philippines.

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Wong, Chin Han. "An analysis of factors predicting graduation of students at Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center." Thesis, Monterey, Calif. : Springfield, Va. : Naval Postgraduate School ; Available from National Technical Information Service, 2004. http://library.nps.navy.mil/uhtbin/hyperion/04Dec%5FWong.pdf.

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Wennerström, Hjalmar. "Leveraging Dominant Language Image Tags for Automatic Image Annotation in Minor Languages." Thesis, Uppsala University, Department of Information Technology, 2010. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-129446.

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Image annotations, often in the form of tags, are very useful when indexing large image collections. They provide an intuitive human centered way to search and browse images using text queries. However, tagging images is very time consuming to do manually so researchers have developed methods for automatic image tagging. These methods rely on a set of example images with tags to learn what images should be associated with which tags.

One thing that has been overlooked with these systems is the fact that example images with tags are different in each language. Generally researchers have only made English automatic tagging systems and not considered the problems of building equally good systems in other minor languages where it is more difficult to obtain example images and tags.

In this thesis we study how an automatic tagging system in Japanese compares to an automatic tagging system in English. We find that the Japanese system suffers in performance and based on this we improve the performance by leveraging the dominant English language system. We compare an automatic translation of the tags using a dictionary to our proposed translation matrix method. Our method estimates the translation of tags based on the co-occurrence of different language tags in images.

We show that our proposed method using very simple heuristics performs about the same as a high end machine translator in the case of automatic tagging systems. There are several improvements to be made but with this work we show that the conceptual idea is strong, giving reasons to improve it further. The main contribution of our approach is the ability to translate words that a dictionary cannot interpret as well as considering the context when establishing a translation.

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Pluquet, Frédéric. "Efficient object versioning for object-oriented languages from model to language integration." Doctoral thesis, Universite Libre de Bruxelles, 2012. http://hdl.handle.net/2013/ULB-DIPOT:oai:dipot.ulb.ac.be:2013/209680.

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Tout le monde a déjà rencontré la fonctionnalité ``Undo/Redo' qui permet de se balader dans les versions précédentes d'un document. Bien que le versioning -- sauver et parcourir plusieurs versions d'entités données -- est nécessaire pour beaucoup d'applications, il est difficile de l'implémenter facilement et efficacement en temps et en espace utilisés. Dans cette thèse, nous présentons un système de versioning efficace et expressif pour les langages orientés objet.

Nous commencons par développer un modèle qui permet au développeur de sélectionner avec précision les parties intéressantes de son système qui seront sauvegardées à des moments clefs. Ce modèle permet de parcourir facilement les différentes versions enregistrées et de faire cohabiter aisément les parties versionnées avec les parties non sélectionnées par le développeur. Ce modèle est de plus compatible avec trois types de versioning (linear, backtracking et branching versioning) qui permettent des opérations diverses sur la ligne du temps, comme supprimer toutes les versions après une version donnée ou créer une nouvelle branche à partir d'une ancienne version.

Ensuite nous développons les structures efficaces en temps et en espace qui implémentent ce modèle dans un monde réel. Basées sur les travaux de Driscoll et al. elles sont adaptées aux spécificités de chaque type de versioning.

Nous montrons ensuite comment ce système peut être intégré concrètement dans un langage orienté object. Plus précisément, nous montrons comment notre système peut être intégré de façon transparente pour le développeur grâce à des outils tels que les aspects ou la transformation de bytecodes.

Pour valider nos propos, nous avons implémenté notre système dans les langages de programmation Smalltalk et Java. Nous montrons des applications réelles qui l'utilisent, telles que les post-conditions à états et le problème du planar point location.

Nous terminons cette thèse par évaluer l'efficacité de notre implémentation en effectuant des benchmarks détaillés en Smalltalk et en Java. Nous avons notamment étudié l'espace pris par nos structures données et le temps d'éxecution de chaque opération de versioning.
Doctorat en Sciences
info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

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Lewis, Rhodri. "Language, mind and nature : artificial languages in England from Bacon to Locke /." Cambridge [u.a.] : Cambridge Univ. Press, 2007. http://www.loc.gov/catdir/enhancements/fy0803/2007281317-b.html.

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Falsanisi, Giulia. "Linguistic relativity and second language acquisition: can languages affect how we think?" Bachelor's thesis, Alma Mater Studiorum - Università di Bologna, 2021. http://amslaurea.unibo.it/23998/.

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The purpose of this thesis is to provide a global overview on the studies that have been carried out on the relationship between language, culture and thought. Specifically, the first part will focus on the belief at the core of this subject, Linguistic Relativity, while the second part will analyse the field of second language acquisition, which appears to often intertwine with the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis. After a short introduction, a brief overview of previous research is provided. In particular, the claims of Aristotle, von Humboldt and Boas are illustrated more in detail. Then, the focus is shifted towards the figures and claims of Edward Sapir and Benjamin Lee Whorf. The hypothesis of Linguistic Relativity is further explained, pointing to the two principles which stem from it (the weak and the strong version, i.e., linguistic determinism). The belief that each language deeply affects its speaker’s cognition (resulting in differences in patterns of thought and cognitive structures) is consequently illustrated. A review of some of the objections that have been moved against this hypothesis follow. After that, a general overview on subsequent studies is provided, drawing the attention towards some of the main domains around which research has revolved: colour perception and grammatical gender and number. Lastly, the field of second language acquisition is outlined. The main focus concerns the implications of Linguistic Relativity for this field and a summary of the research that has been carried out on this topic, again offering a deeper insight on some of the most well-researched areas: colour terms and perception, grammatical gender and number and the interpretation of motion events.

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Nseendi, Lubasa N'Ti. "Motivation and perseverance in language learning : materials for speakers of other languages." Thesis, University College London (University of London), 1986. http://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/10019592/.

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Santoro, Mirko. "Compounds in sign languages : the case of Italian and French Sign Language." Thesis, Paris Sciences et Lettres (ComUE), 2018. http://www.theses.fr/2018PSLEH204.

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Dans cette thèse, j’étudie le domaine des mots composés dans les langues des signes. La composition a été décrite comme étant une stratégie d’enrichissement du lexique des langues des signes, même dans des cas de langues des signes émergentes. J’aborde ce sujet au travers de trois approches principales : typologique/empirique, théorique et expérimentale.Dans la partie typologique/empirique, j’apporte une description approfondie des mots composés dans deux langues signées : la LIS et la LSF. Dans ce domaine, ma principale contribution est de proposer une typologie plus exhaustive des classificateurs en y incluant les formes simultanées.Dans la partie théorique, j’apporte une description formelle de la manière de dériver la typologie complète des mots composés présents dans ces deux langues.Mon objectif premier est de montrer que les mots composés peuvent être dérivés de différentes manières selon leurs propriétés, et que la dérivation morpho-syntaxique n’est pas le seul processus qui affecte les options combinatoires de composition. Les processus post-syntaxiques, et particulièrement la linéarisation, doivent avoir au minimum accès à des représentations partielles afin de distinguer les formes qui doivent être épelées de façon séquentielle et simultanée.Dans la partie expérimentale, je cherche à savoir si la réduction phonologique est une condition suffisante pour identifier les mots composés dans les langues signées. Ma principale contribution a été de montrer que l’importation des critères d’une langue des signes à une autre doit être réalisée avec une extrême précaution
In this dissertation, I investigate the domain of compounds in sign languages. Compounding has been documented as a key strategy to enrich the lexicon of sign languages even in situations of emergent sign languages. I address this topic with three main angles: typological/empirical, theoretical and experimental. In the typological/empirical part, I offer a thorough description of compounds in two sign languages: Italian and French Sign Language (LIS and LSF). I offer a refined and more comprehensive typology of compounds, in which classifiers and simultaneous forms are also taken into account.In the theoretical part, I provide a formal account of how to derive the whole typology of compounds found in LIS and LSF. I show i) that compounds can be derived in multiple ways depending on their morphosyntactic properties and ii) that morphosyntactic derivation is not the only process that affects the combinatorial options of compounding. Post-syntactic processes, especially linearization, have to have access to at least partial representations in order to distinguish between forms that have to be spelled out either sequentially or simultaneously.In the experimental part, I investigate whether phonological reduction is a sufficient condition to identify compounds in SL. I show that importing criteria from one SL to another can be done, but with extreme caution

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Harrison, Michelle. "Managing France's regional languages : language policy in bilingual primary education in Alsace." Thesis, University of Liverpool, 2012. http://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/11315/.

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The introduction of regional language bilingual education in France dates back to the late 1960s in the private education system and to the 1980s in the public system. Before this time the extensive use of regional languages was forbidden in French schools, which served as ‘local centres for the gallicisation of France’ (Blackwood 2008, 28). France began to pursue a French-only language policy from the time of the 1789 Revolution, with Jacobin ideology proposing that to be French, one must speak French. Thus began the shaping of France into a nation-state. As the result of the official language policy that imposed French in all public domains, as well as extra-linguistic factors such as the Industrial Revolution and the two World Wars, a significant language shift occurred in France during the twentieth century, as an increasing number of parents chose not to pass on their regional language to the next generation. In light of the decline in intergenerational transmission of the regional languages, Judge (2007, 233) concludes that ‘in the short term, everything depends on education in the [regional languages]’. This thesis analyses the development of language policy in bilingual education programmes in Alsace; Spolsky’s tripartite language policy model (2004), which focuses on language management, language practices and language beliefs, will be employed. In spite of the efforts of the State to impose the French language, in Alsace the traditionally non-standard spoken regional language variety, Alsatian, continued to be used widely until the mid-twentieth century. Whilst Alsatian has been spoken, the traditional language of writing and reference has been standard German. Today Alsace is a region of north eastern France, but it has existed under the political control of Germany for prolonged periods of time in the past, changing hands between the two countries five times between the seventeenth and twentieth centuries. Since the mid-twentieth century a significant language shift away from Alsatian has occurred in the region, with estimates that over 90% spoke the language variety in 1946 in comparison with only 43% of the population in 2012 (OLCA 2012a). Regional language bilingual education programmes were introduced in Alsace in the early 1990s in the private and public education systems. In both systems the language-in-education policy supported has primarily promoted the learning of and through French and standard German. The case study that forms the central part of the thesis seeks to examine current language policy in practice. It will analyse the place of Alsatian in the modern regional language bilingual classroom and examine the language beliefs of the key actors in the bilingual education programmes (namely parents, teachers and policy-makers at regional level). Finally, it will discuss what this means for efforts to reverse the language shift in twenty-first-century Alsace.

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Fogle, Evelyn Wright. "Language socialization in the internationally adoptive family identities, second languages, and learning /." Connect to Electronic Thesis (CONTENTdm), 2009. http://worldcat.org/oclc/460562377/viewonline.

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Service, Elisabet. "Phonological coding in working memory and foreign-language learning." Helsinki : Dept. of Psychology, University of Helsinki, 1989. http://catalog.hathitrust.org/api/volumes/oclc/24617470.html.

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Schaengold, Charlotte C. "Bilingual Navajo mixed codes, bilingualism, and language maintenance /." Connect to this title online, 2004. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc%5Fnum=osu1092425886.

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Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2004.
Title from first page of PDF file. Document formatted into pages; contains ix, 189 p.; also includes graphics. Includes bibliographical references (p. 168-174).

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Fredericks, Izak Nicolaas Andreas. "The protection of languages and of language rights in the South African constitution." University of the Western cape, 2011. http://hdl.handle.net/11394/5401.

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Doctor Legum - LLD
The 1996 South African Constitution contains a number of provisions that deal specifically with the protection of languages and of rights relating to language. The most important of these is section 6 which recognises 11 languages as official languages. This recognition is in line with recent developments in international law where common standards in relation to the protection of minority languages are in the process of being developed. The recognition of multilingualism as well as its implementation is thus becoming an obligation resting on all states, including South Africa. International law shows that persons belonging to linguistic minorities are entitled not only to protection against discrimination based on the language they speak, that is, formal equality, but also to positive state action in order to ensure their substantive equality. International law furthermore prescribes that where protection is given to minority languages, the principle of proportionality must guide states, and that legislation needs to be sufficiently detailed in bringing about such protection. The present thesis has as its main aims the interpretation of the provisions of the 1996 Constitution, in accordance with the above-mentioned international standards and the evaluation of the extent to which South African has complied with its constitutional obligations. The thesis in addition makes proposals in relation to what needs to be done to comply with such obligations. This is done in respect of the three levels of government - national, provincial and local - as well as the three state branches - the legislature, the executive and the judiciary. In addition, the implementation of the constitutional requirements in the educational sector is analysed.The thesis shows that a number of steps have thus far been taken in the process of giving effect to the relevant provisions of the Constitution. This includes the adoption of language policies on the national, provincial and local levels, as well as the enactment of language legislation in some provinces. In many provinces as well as municipalities, little effort has however been made to comply with these constitutional obligations. On the national level, much likewise still remains to be done in this regard. The current South African Languages Bill (2011) only caters for the activities of the national government, and does so in a way which conflicts with international norms. The Bill does not deal with parliament or the courts, and much uncertainty remains about the way in which the Constitution is to be given effect to in relation to these state branches. In relation to education, the issue of single-medium schools has been controversial, but has now been resolved by the Constitutional Court. Commendable policies have furthermore been adopted to provide for mother-tongue education, but it appears that English is slowly becoming the dominant language in education, at the expense of mother-tongue instruction.

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Fuchs, Carolin. "Computer-mediated negotiation across borders : German-American collaboration in language teacher education /." Frankfurt am Main ; New York : Peter Lang, 2006. http://www.loc.gov/catdir/toc/fy0608/2006040841.html.

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Mohamed, Mohamed Abdulla. "Ellipsis : a contrastive study of Swahili and English discourse /." Access Digital Full Text version, 1986. http://pocketknowledge.tc.columbia.edu/home.php/bybib/10620175.

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Zahir, Freshta. "Teaching Methods of Foreign Languages : Teaching and learning of Spanish language in Kabul." Thesis, Karlstads universitet, 2013. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:kau:diva-33821.

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Second languages which are also called foreign languages are learnt beside native spoken languages and they are learnt in a systematic way (Hinkel, 2005). Spanish and English are widely spoken around the globe and they have improved a lot in Afghanistan, especially SPanish after Spanish military existence in teh country as part of ISAF after 2001 to Afghanistan and after the establishment of some private schools where Spanish is a part of curriculum. This school was built due to the interest of Spanish embassy. As the embassy got informed that there is the Spanish department, they immidiately got interested and wanted to establish a school in Afghanistan too where Spanish will be taught as one subject in this only one school in Kabul city. Since, there are mostly non-native speaking teachers with different teaching approaches in Kabul University; the researcher therefore, conducted this study to compares English and Spanish language teachers in the university and a private school. Moreover, students’ perceptions as regards learning a second language are explored as well as their experience and motives. Data for this research is collected with the help of ready-made questionnaire which was distributed to 20 English teachers, seven Spanish teachers at the university, five teachers of Kabul international school, 50 students of Spanish department and 50 students of Kabul international school. In addition to this, five classes were observed in university and five in private school, which helped the comparison of teachers’ perceptions and factual teaching performance in the class. It was found that there are both similarities and differences among teachers of English and Spanish teachers when teaching these foreign languages. In schools these languages are taught superficially and teachers lack professional knowledge while in the university vice versa. This research also found that nearly all the staff and students in Spanish department are grown up in urban areas and none of the students while only three out of 12 Spanish teachers have visited Spain. Half of the students in school were concerned about the impact of Spanish on Afghan society while students in the university and Spanish teachers had the counter idea. Moreover, it was found that in university students were given articles, assignments and topics from magazines and newspapers apart from daily lessons for the intention that students strengthen their Spanish language while this practice was hardly visible in school classrooms. In school Spanish language was taught on lecture based where students rarely found any chance for practice of the language and most of the time was allocated for the translation of Spanish.
TEMP Afganistan

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Rondyang, H. Wani. "The role of indigenous languages in southern Sudan : educational language policy and planning." Thesis, University College London (University of London), 2007. http://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/10007457/.

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This thesis aims to questions the language policy of Sudan's central government since independence in 1956. An investigation of the root causes of educational problems, which are seemingly linked to the current language policy, is examined throughout the thesis from Chapter 1 through 9. In specific terms, Chapter 1 foregrounds the discussion of the methods and methodology for this research purposely because the study is based, among other things, on the analysis of historical documents pertaining to events and processes of sociolinguistic significance for this study. The factors and sociolinguistic conditions behind the central government's Arabicisation policy which discourages multilingual development, relate the historical analysis in Chapter 3 to the actual language situation in the country described in Chapter 4. However, both chapters are viewed in the context of theoretical understanding of language situation within multilingualism in Chapter 2. The thesis argues that an accommodating language policy would accord a role for the indigenous Sudanese languages. By extension, it would encourage the development and promotion of those languages and cultures in an essentially linguistically and culturally diverse and multilingual country. Recommendations for such an alternative educational language policy are based on the historical and sociolinguistic findings in chapters 3 and 4 as well as in the subsequent discussions on language policy and planning proper in Chapters 5, where theoretical frameworks for examining such issues are explained, and Chapters 6 through 8, where Sudan's post-independence language policy is discussed. In the latter chapters, there is a focus on implications for language use language as a national resource for social and cultural development, both of which are examined in the light of historical and sociolinguistic information in the preceding chapters. Chapter 9 concludes the thesis by proposing an alternative educational language policy that would give a role to the nation's indigenous languages.

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Yilmaz, Birgul. "Learning "my" language : moments of languages and identities among Kurds in the UK." Thesis, SOAS, University of London, 2016. http://eprints.soas.ac.uk/23798/.

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This thesis examines the intersection of language, identity, language ideologies and attitudes in relation to national, regional, religious and gender identities among Kurdish, Turkish and English speaking multilingual Kurds of Turkey in the UK who are learning Kurmanji-Kurdish as their heritage language in community-based language classes in the UK. The central concern of this thesis is to explore the ways in which language is constructed as a salient marker of Kurdish identity in the UK diaspora. The process of Turkey's accession to the EU, along with greater cultural and linguistic demands of Kurds, has foregrounded the significance of language as a means of democratisation and conflict resolution. The armed conflict between the PKK (Kurdistan Workers' Party) and the Turkish Republic which has been a problem since the 1980s is currently undergoing peace negotiations via a turbulent 'resolution process' (since 2009), tantamount to the 'peace process' initiated in 2012, where language and identity became an important part of the political negotiations between the PKK and the Turkish state. These macro-political developments have had a great impact on the emerging Kurdish language classes in the UK. More specifically, this thesis seeks to examine how national/ethnic identities (Anderson 2006; Hobsbawm 1996; Joseph 2004) as well as regional, religious and gender identities are hierarchised (Omoniyi 2006) in classroom interactions and semistructured interviews. The first part of the thesis draws on a systematic analysis of ethnographic data which predominantly focuses on languages and identities using Interactional Sociolinguistics (IS) (Gumperz 2001) and Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) (Fairclough 2010; Wodak and Meyer 2009; Fairclough and Wodak 1997). The second part of the thesis investigates language attitudes (Azjen 1988; Baker 1992; Ryan et al. 1987) towards 'standard' or 'academic' (Bohtan Kürtc̦esi/southern dialect region) versus 'nonstandard' or 'vernacular' varieties such as that which is referred to as 'Maraș Kürtc̦esi' in Turkish or 'Kurmanjiya Mereșe' (northwestern dialect region see figure 1.3) in Kurdish, spoken in Kahramanmara., a city in southern Turkey. This aspect of the investigation takes a social psychological perspective. This thesis aims to contribute to the field of sociolinguistics in relation to the investigation of language and identity from a multidisciplinary and multi-analytical perspective.

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Shimizu, Katsumasa. "A cross-language study of voicing contrasts of stop consonants in Asian languages." Thesis, University of Edinburgh, 1990. http://hdl.handle.net/1842/20185.

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Di, Stefano Marialuisa. "Understanding How Emergent Bilinguals Bridge Belonging and Languages in Dual Language Immersion Settings." DigitalCommons@USU, 2017. https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/etd/6261.

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The purpose of this study was to understand how young children bridge belonging and language in a dual language immersion (DLI) setting. I developed a 10-week ethnographic study in a Spanish-English third-grade class in the Northeast of the U.S. where data was collected in the form of field notes, interviews, and artifacts. Here I explored the way language instruction and student participation influenced the development of the teacher and students’ multiple identities. The findings of this study suggest that emergent bilinguals’ identity development derives from the process built through multiple dialogic classroom instruction and practices. The products of this process emphasize the sense of belonging and language practices as main components of students’ hybrid and fluid identities. This research contributes to the field of identity development and DLI studies in terms of knowledge, policy, and practices. In particular, the findings of this study: (a) increase our knowledge of students’ multiple identities development in DLI settings; (b) impact policy implementation in elementary schools; and (c) reveal classroom strategies and successful instructions in elementary education.

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Schmiedtova, Barbara. "At the same time ... the expression of simultaneity in learner varieties /." Berlin ; New York : Mouton de Gruyter, 2004. http://site.ebrary.com/id/10197197.

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Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Language and languages'

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