Kirston Greenop

The effects of phonological awareness of Zulu‐speaking children learning to spell in English: A study of cross‐language transfer

BACKGROUND Emergent bilingual Zulu-English speaking children in South Africa have spoken but no written proficiency in Zulu (L1), yet are required to learn to spell English (L2) via English-only literacy instruction. Little research exists on emergent bilinguals phonological awareness (PA) and spelling development, with no L1 formal literacy instruction. Thus, whether PA in a L1 impacts on literacy acquisition in the L2 remains unclear. AIMS Performance on monolingual PA, monolingual and emergent bilingual spelling was compared. In addition, PA and spelling in emergent bilingual Zulu-English speakers was explored to ascertain cross-language transfer relationships. SAMPLE Thirty emergent bilingual Zulu-English and thirty monolingual English children in grade 2 participated. METHOD Emergent bilinguals were assessed on Zulu PA, Zulu and English spelling skills. Monolinguals were assessed on English PA and English spelling skills. RESULTS Emergent bilinguals had more Zulu PA levels related to spelling English tasks than to spelling Zulu tasks, and both Zulu PA and Zulu spelling were positively related to English spelling tasks. Significant differences were found between L1 Zulu and English phoneme and rime PA levels, and L1 English and L2 English spelling tasks. CONCLUSIONS Findings support the language-universal hypothesis that L1 PA is related to spelling across languages in emergent bilinguals. In emergent bilinguals, both Zulu spoken proficiency and English-only literacy instruction influences the underlying repertoire of PA skills used to spell within the L1 and the L2. Rime and phoneme PA and spelling skills in Zulu/English rely on language-specific orthographic knowledge.

The effect of education and gender on emotion-based decision-making

In the last decade, the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT) has become a widely employed instrument for the investigation of emotion-based decision-making. Previous research has suggested that education may de-emphasise the role of emotion-based learning in decision-making, which suggests the paradox that better-educated participants should show poorer performance on the IGT. Previous research has also demonstrated gender differences on the task. We investigated the effects of education level and gender on performance on the IGT in the South African context. In order to investigate the effects of these two variables, two contrast groups were utilised: 32 volunteer university students and 20 less educated volunteers with, at most, a Grade 10 level of schooling. Both groups were divided equally by gender. It was found that the university-educated group outperformed the less educated group only in the last stage of the task. The learning profiles for the two genders appeared to be similar; no significant gender differences were found. A range of possible explanations are explored for these findings including: lack of motivation, differences in tracking punishments, differences in risk taking behaviours and difficulty with reversal learning. The implication of these findings is that, in real world situations, an excessive reliance on emotion-based resources may not be an advantage, and it may be that the university educated group was advantaged by a combination of emotional and cognitive sources of evidence. These results are discussed with reference to international findings.

Factor Analyses of the Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children Assessed Longitudinally at 5 and 10 Years

The availability of test instruments that can reflect cultural differences and environmental influences and maintain their factor structure is problematic when working in multilingual environments. The Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children (K-ABC) has been considered as an assessment tool of preference for researchers working in cross cultural environments. The K-ABC, but specifically the two processing scales (Sequential and Simultaneous), has been used in a number of cross cultural studies. These scales were administered to 199 children living in Soweto, South Africa at the age of 5 years and again at 10 years. The children were participants in a longitudinal study in Johannesburg. Principal component analyses showed a two factor solution on both occasions which has been observed in other cross cultural studies with the K-ABC processing scales. However, changes in the factors loading were observed at both age stages. Separate factor analyses for boys (n = 97) and girls (n = 102) in the group showed variation in developmental processing patterns and subtest loadings. Changes in childrens processing styles have implications for teaching and learning. This study supports the two factor solution underlying the K-ABC scores in an African paediatric population.

Students' Perceptions of Efficacy and Preference for Two Lecture Formats

Active and collaborative learning can be facilitated in large lectures through structured and well-planned interventions such as small group work (Felder, 1997). This may be an effective strategy as it encourages students to become more critical and responsible in their learning. However, students may not prefer this method or view it as useful, which could lead to hostility and obstruction of the methodology. This report details an evaluation of student perceptions of two lecture approaches: traditional lecturing and lectures using ‘small group’ work. Students preferred the ‘small group’ work and perceived it to be useful to their learning. Themes that emerged from the analysis complemented social constructivist literature.

Cross-language transfer of spelling strategies in English and Afrikaans Grade 3 children

Abstract This study examined strategies for spelling accuracy in Grade 3 children. Thirty bilingual, Afrikaans–English speaking children and 30 monolingual, English-speaking children were assessed on their ability to spell English words and non-words. The bilingual children were also assessed on their Afrikaans word and non-word spelling abilities. In terms of spelling accuracy, the monolingual children had significantly higher scores for the complex opaque English words and non-words than did the bilingual children. The bilingual children showed greater spelling accuracy in the spelling of Afrikaans words and non-words compared to their spelling of English words and non-words. Nevertheless, bilingual children may benefit from utilising spelling systems from two languages to facilitate spelling in both languages. Qualitative error analyses indicated that both lexical and sub-lexical strategies are available for spelling English and Afrikaans words, but that the assembled route contributes more to spelling in a transparent orthography, consistent with the orthographic transparency hypothesis. The bilingual childrens ability to spell in Afrikaans and English was correlated, signifying a cross-language relationship for spelling both languages; but with language background and orthographic depth exerting an influence on the nature and development of spelling strategies used to spell in an orthographically different first language and second language.

Working memory functioning in deaf primary school children: Implications for inclusive education

Working memory is a limited capacity system in which information is temporarily stored and processed. Its optimal functioning is essential for educational attainment from the earliest grade. The working memory system enables the storage and mental manipulation of information during classroom learning activities that are crucial for the acquisition of complex skills and knowledge. Given the South African Department of Educations commitment to inclusive education, it was deemed important to consider the visual working memory functioning of deaf learners and how this may differ, if at all, from that of hearing children. In this study, the visuospatial components of working memory were assessed in 24 deaf children and 15 matched, hearing children, to determine what, if any, differences existed between these groups. The results indicated that the hearing children scored significantly higher than the deaf children on virtually all components of visuospatial short-term and working memory. The implication of thi...

Simultaneous and Sequential Cognitive Processing in Monolingual and Bilingual Children in South Africa

Academic success is correlated with simultaneous and sequential cognitive processing. The cognitive processing skills of bilingual children have come under scrutiny. Cognitive processing may be mediated by level of orthographic transparency, level of bilingualism, and language of instruction at school. Given the imperative of assessing the impact of bilingualism and multilingualism on learning, the performance of 30 monolingual English and 30 bilingual Afrikaans-English third grade children was compared on the Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children (K-ABC) simultaneous and sequential processing standard scales. The K-ABC is relatively culture fair with low language requirements. We did not find any significant differences between the two groups on the global simultaneous-sequential scales, but significant differences were found on two specific subtests of the K-ABC: Hand Movements and Matrix Analogies. Findings provide overall support for the usefulness of the K-ABC as a measure of cognitive processing for children from diverse cultural-linguistic backgrounds, but with the understanding that a monolingual and a bilingual literacy-learning environment influences cognitive processing skills on specific cognitive tasks on the K-ABC. Importantly, the unchanged Hand Movements subtest and a modified version of the Matrix Analogies subtest (i.e. Pattern Recognition) is used in the K-ABC II, not yet widely used in South Africa. This study has important implications for using the K-ABC and K-ABC II across cultural-linguistic groups, for educational purposes.

Phonological awareness and learning to read in Afrikaans

In this study, the issue of whether phonological awareness is a precursor to learning to read in Afrikaans or a consequence of literacy was explored. It appears that, for children learning to read in Afrikaans, certain aspects of phonological awareness such as onset and rime detection and syllable manipulation are acquired before they are able to read, while other aspects, such as phoneme manipulation are related to the process of learning to read. The development of phonological awareness and its relationship to learning to read was also investigated. It was proposed that children who were learning to read and write in Afrikaans, which has a systematic phonological and orthographic structure, would show a different developmental pattern to children who were learning to read and write in English, which has an opaque orthography with many irregular letter-sound correspondences. The findings indicate that the order of phonological development is similar in both languages, although it is possible that there may be differences in the rate of acquisition of phonological awareness skills. The phonological awareness tests used in this study could be used to detect children who may be at risk for later reading difficulties.

Extra-Task Stimulation on Mathematics Performance in Children with and without ADHD

The optimal stimulation theory developed by Zentall (1975) holds that children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) will demonstrate high levels of activity when faced with a task or situation of low arousal or stimulation. Both Zentalls early work and more recent research have supported the theory. The present study aimed to add to this literature by comparing children with and without ADHD on an academic task under two counterbalanced stimulation conditions. The first required children to do mathematics problems in silence, and the second required doing the problems with their favourite music playing. Twenty-two children with ADHD and 20 children without ADHD, with a mean age of 9.75 years, were hypothesised to perform significantly differently under the two conditions. Mathematics performance was scored as Correct, Number attempted, and Accurate (number correct divided by number attempted). A repeated measures ANOVA demonstrated that generally no main effects for group (ADHD and non-ADHD) nor condition (music and silence) were observed. The only significant finding was that Accuracy (the complex mathematical calculation) improved for both the ADHD and non-ADHD groups, an effect not influenced by order of task presentation. This finding supports the optimal stimulation theory for all children under both order conditions, and is not specific to ADHD.

The development of phonological awareness in children at an English-medium school: a cross-sectional study

The importance of phonological awareness in learning to read has been the focus of much research. Poor phonological awareness has been related to poor reading, and thus also has implications for the childs general knowledge and vocabulary. The purpose of this study was to investigate the developmental sequence of phonological awareness in children attending an English-medium school. It was hypothesised that phonological awareness would develop in a fixed order, starting with syllable awareness, progressing to onset and rime awareness and finally to phoneme awareness. The results suggest that the introduction of reading training influences the development of phonological awareness. It seems that certain aspects of phonological awareness such as syllable manipulation and onset and rime detection may be acquired spontaneously, but the manipulation of phonemic units is linked to the acquisition of literacy.