Faculty of Education - Theses
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ItemFace-to-face : cross-cultural communication with Somali-speaking parents( 2008)This research thesis reports on an investigation of cross-cultural communication at one Victorian primary school, at which the linguistic and cultural backgrounds of the staff and a sizeable proportion of the parents differ markedly. This qualitative, case study investigated the perspectives of one group of parents, all from a Somali speaking background, and school staff about the current levels of cross-cultural communication and how these key stakeholders believed home/school links could be improved. Data for this investigation were gathered from parent participants through group and individual interviews, some of which were conducted in Somali with the assistance of a bilingual research assistant. Consideration of these participants' vulnerable social status (Liamputtong, 2007), was an important aspect of this research process thus ensuring these parents, seldom heard within the school environment, had the opportunity to express their opinions and relate their experiences of cross-cultural communication with school staff. The data collection process, therefore, provides a model for excellent cross-cultural communication between an institution, such as a school, and a marginalised parent community. Written questionnaires, comprising open-ended and some ranked questions were used to investigate staff perspectives of cross-cultural communication. This was followed by a group interview with some staff members in which issues were discussed with greater depth. This research project revealed that the low-levels of cross-cultural communication noted at this school are not an indication of the level of goodwill held by Somali-speaking parents and school staff. On the contrary, all participants expressed a strong desire to learn more about the other and for communication levels to improve, recognising the importance of strong home/school links in improving educational outcomes for students. Through the suggestions, opinions and experiences of participants, a series of recommendations are made in this report, so that the momentum of improved communication, initiated by the research project, might be continued at the school, or within similar educational contexts.
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ItemThe emergence of consonants in severe to profoundly hearing impaired pre-school aged children using hearing aids or cochlear implant( 1997)The Nucleus 22 Electrode Cochlear Implant is being implanted in young, severe to profound hearing impaired children with the anticipation that spontaneous speech production will develop more in line with what is expected in normal hearing children This study investigated the early emergence of consonantal sounds in the spontaneous speech production of two groups of pre school aged children. The first group consisted of five children implanted with the Nucleus 22 Electrode Cochlear Implant and using the Multipeak Speech Processor (MSP). The second group of five children wore electronic hearing aids and had at least some aided thresholds in the speech spectrum. The consonantal inventories of each subject, collected over a thirteen month period, were compared within the subject groups, between the subject groups and also to literature discussing consonantal emergence in children with normal hearing. All subjects in this study were found to have increased the number of consonants in their consonantal inventories by the end of the thirteen month period. This result indicated that both devices were of some use to the subjects. Neither group showed a consistently larger increase in the number of new consonants that had emerged by the final inventory. The assortment of consonants emerging in the consonantal inventories of the subjects was also investigated and found to vary more on an individual basis rather than a group basis. However, the results did show that more implanted subjects had the consonants /s/, /w/ and / / in their inventories by the end of the study. More aided subjects had / / and /h/ in their consonantal inventories by the end of the study. Although being an average 12 months older than the aided subjects, more implanted subjects had consonants in their inventories that required the perception of high frequency cues. This study also showed two other interesting trends. Firstly, both subject groups had individuals that did not progress as well as expected. Secondly, the implanted subjects produced the unvoiced stops /p,t,k/ and the unvoiced fricative / / more often than the aided subjects.
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ItemSpecific strategies that can be applied to teach reading in English as a second language to children from different home language backgrounds in Uganda( 2005)The study examined the literature review about strategies that can be applied to teach reading in English to second language learners. Three `training' videos, containing model lessons for teaching English to students in Australia whose first language is not English, were also analyzed to provide an in-depth picture of how some strategies are executed in the classroom context. The aim of the study was to explore and identify particular strategies that can be applied to teach reading in English to children who acquire English as a second language in Uganda. Qualitative exploratory research was conducted to explore the strategies that can be applied to teach reading in English to children from different home language backgrounds in Uganda. Content analysis technique was established to collect data from videotaped model lessons for teaching English to students in Australia whose first language is not English. Using an observation framework, the data was collected and analysed in reference to: strategies carried out in the classroom contexts, teacher's role in language instruction and literacy activities in which learners were involved. The findings suggested particular strategies for teaching reading in English to second language learners with more emphasis on getting meaning out of text. Further, the teacher's role in language instruction was recognised to be vital in teaching reading in English to bilingual students. The results also showed that second language learners effectively learnt to read in English in language contexts that encourage peer-peer and teacher-learner interactions. The study concluded with a discussion of the results and their implications to the teaching of English as a second language to bilingual children in Uganda.