The development of phonological awareness and letter knowledge in young New Zealand children
- Authors: Arrow, Alison , McLachlan, Claire
- Date: 2014
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Speech, Language and Hearing Vol. 17, no. 1 (2014), p. 49-57
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- Description: The predictive nature of phonological awareness for the development of literacy skills has been replicated frequently. While the conclusions of these studies have been overwhelmingly supportive of phonological awareness being important for early literacy, there has been less groundswell in terms of its application, particularly in early childhood settings. This paper examines the nature of phonological awareness, letter knowledge, and own name knowledge in a sample of 98 New Zealand children, aged between 3 and 5 years. It examines the development of emergent literacy skills over a 3-month period, with assessments carried out at the start of that time and the end. The nature of the relationships between the emergent literacy skills of phonological awareness, letter name knowledge, and own name knowledge was also examined. A developmental pattern from own name spelling ability to letter knowledge to initial phoneme awareness was found. Support for the lexical restructuring hypothesis was also found with the relationship between vocabulary and rime awareness. Rime awareness and initial phoneme awareness also appeared to be different forms of phonological awareness, with a lack of correlation between them. © W. S. Maney & Son Ltd 2014.
Three nineteenth century colonial travellers to Victoria, Australia, and their preference for Aboriginal place names - An exploration
- Authors: Clark, Ian
- Date: 2011
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Onoma Vol. 46, no. (2011), p. 151-165
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- Description: This paper presents the results of research into a literary triptych of accounts of travelling through colonial Victoria, Australia that cover the period from 1839 until 1872. In particular, a shared interest in Aboriginal toponymy is highlighted despite the fact that all three writers did not share a common interest in Aboriginal peoples themselves. The tourist gaze and avowed interest in the Aboriginal toponymic landscape is moderated by the dissonance felt by many colonial settlers who often sought to erase Indigenous names by transplanting British place names. © Onoma. All rights reserved.
Getting into the “Dad Zone” : how do primary caregiving fathers of young children experience social support?
- Authors: Gill, Peter , Scacco, Sarina , De Haan, Sarah , Gent, Angela , Chapin, Laurie , Ganci, Michael , Morda, Romana
- Date: 2021
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Journal of Child and Family Studies Vol. 30, no. 4 (2021), p. 1028-1042
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- Description: Primary caregiving fathers (PCGFs) are a growing population that experience unique struggles on a day-to-day basis. The current study aimed to explore how fathers interpret and experience their daily responsibilities and interactions with social support, as they undertake their roles as primary caregivers. Using grounded theory, 14 PCGFs defined as those providing sole care for their 1–10 year olds for at least 25 h per week, participated in semi-structured interviews regarding their experiences of fatherhood and social supports. Participants highlighted the ways in which social support, particularly adult companionship, helped them find a social balance and allowed them to re-energise and be better fathers. In particular, the men reported that interaction with people with similar experiences was important in helping them to discursively negotiate their non-traditional roles. Analysis revealed a three-stage identity transition process where the men initially took on primary responsibility, then began to embody the primary care giver role, and finally transitioned to a new normal. The PCGFs in the study provide evidence that we may be observing a shift from what may be classed as outdated notions of one-dimensional fathering to a more well-informed masculine ideal that embraces caring and nurturing qualities. However, providing further avenues of support for PCFGs is important in order to mitigate possible social isolation and to enhance their wellbeing. © 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC part of Springer Nature.
Extensive reading and viewing as input for academic vocabulary : a large-scale vocabulary profile coverage study of students’ reading and writing across multiple secondary school subjects
- Authors: Green, Clarence
- Date: 2020
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Lingua Vol. 239, no. (2020), p.
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- Description: The extent to which extensive reading (ER) and extensive viewing (EV) support academic literacy in secondary school, particularly for L2 students, through relevant vocabulary input has yet to be established. This study undertakes a lexical profile coverage study providing information on how much coverage is afforded by ER/EV vocabulary constructs for reading and writing in biology, physics, chemistry, mathematics and English (as a subject area). It operationalizes ER/EV as vocabulary input constructs through corpora representing general fiction, science fiction, juvenile fiction, television and movies. It computes coverage provided by this input at different frequency bands (e.g. ER/EV's 1st 1000 most frequent word families, 2nd 1000 etc.) in secondary school textbooks and student writing. It finds ER/EV input appears very valuable for English as a subject area, and provides within the first 11–12,000 most frequent word families substantial coverage of receptive and productive vocabulary in secondary school science. Science-fiction provides more coverage, and juvenile fiction less. EV does not appear to offer impoverished coverage to ER. The study suggests that additional vocabulary pedagogy is nevertheless going to be needed, to cover from about 1 in 10 to 1 in 20 vocabulary items in the target subject areas. © 2020 Elsevier B.V.
Conjunctive howeveritis : A corpus-based analysis of however used as a conjunction
- Authors: Hamilton, Andrew
- Date: 2016
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: English Today Vol. 32, no. 4 (2016), p. 19-26
- Full Text: false
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- Description: The word however is an adverb and an adverb alone. The current online Oxford (Oxford English Dictionary Online, n.d.) and Cambridge (Cambridge English Dictionary Online, n.d. a) English dictionaries both have it listed solely as an adverb for British English. At the risk of awakening yet another descriptivist versus prescriptivist war, it must however be acknowledged that however is often used as a conjunction. This can, and frequently does, lead to confusion though, as the reader has to read on before realising that in fact that however was actually being used as a conjunction (or connective' in modern grammatical parlance). However the cat walked down the street ...' surely has the reader thinking something along the lines of In whatever manner the cat walked down the street ...' But a typical case of what I shall in this article call conjunctive howeveritis would reveal a complete (well, incomplete actually) sentence along the lines of, However the cat walked down the street, even though it rarely ventured from the house.' Not only are we now left with a sentence fragment, but in such an instance the reader would have to backtrack and subsequently assume the However was in fact being used as a coordinating conjunction. To me this is inefficient and an enemy of lucid writing. The Cambridge English Dictionary raises the warning flag high with the following example (Cambridge English Dictionary Online, n.d. b): We can't use however as a conjunction instead of but to connect words and phrases:
Signs of the times: Changing names and cultural values in Australia
- Authors: Kostanski, Laura
- Date: 2011
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Onoma Vol. 46, no. (2011), p. 251-274
- Full Text: false
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- Description: Naming is claiming. Ipso Facto- to sign is to reinforce the party line. Toponyms play multiple roles in the cerebral world: they represent histories; connect communities; identify cultural heritage; locate areas; and, define places in the landscape. Within the natural and constructed landscape they also have a role in written form: they appear as words on signposts, names on banners and markings on walls. Their physical appearance and existence (in some cases also non-existence) speaks volumes for the cultural, political and social fabric surrounding the area of their location. If a painted picture can say 1000 words, then so too the constructed and written toponym can evoke discussions about its landscape. This paper explores various aspects of the linguistic landscape in Australia. Examples are provided from naming and signage programs in the State of Victoria. A particular emphasis is given to exploring the changing dynamics of the linguistic landscape whereby contemporary communities develop 'welcome to country' signage as contrasted against the actions of communities in the 1990s who removed dual-name signs. Thought will be given to the serious nature of politically-motivated toponymic practices, and time will be spent exploring the nature of community-defined 'acknowledgement' linguistic landscapes. © Onoma. All rights reserved.
- Description: C1
Promoting alphabet knowledge and phonological awareness in low socioeconomic child care settings: A quasi experimental study in five New Zealand centers
- Authors: McLachlan, Claire , Arrow, Alison
- Date: 2014
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Reading and Writing Vol. 27, no. 5 (2014), p. 819-839
- Full Text: false
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- Description: This study examined if professional development with teachers would increase children's literacy skills in low socioeconomic early childhood settings in New Zealand and would lead to changes in teachers' beliefs and practices and children's abilities over an 8 week intervention period. Research indicates that children who have alphabetic and phonological awareness on school entry are well positioned to transition from emergent to conventional literacy (Whitehurst & Lonigan, 1998). Although most children develop requisite knowledge and skills as part of early education in New Zealand, about 25 % of children do not (Nicholson, 2005) and struggle with beginning reading. One of the challenges is how teachers can foster emergent literacy within a holistic curriculum such as Te Whāriki (Ministry of Education, 1996), the New Zealand early childhood curriculum. A quasi experimental design was used in which teachers' and children's knowledge was pre and post tested in five early childhood centers. Teachers' (n = 32) beliefs and phonemic awareness were tested using a questionnaire. A range of literacy measures which tested alphabet knowledge, phonemic awareness, ability to recognise and write their own name and the British Picture Vocabulary Test were used with children aged 3-5 years (n = 103). Professional development was offered to teachers at the beginning of the study in four centers; the fifth center was a control. In addition, teachers' logbooks of how they promoted literacy were collected. Some changes in children's skills were found, along with some differences in teachers' beliefs and practices. The results suggest professional development with teachers to support children's literacy needs to involve more intensive coaching and guiding. © 2013 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht.
Technology and the evolution of clinical methods for stuttering
- Authors: Packman, Ann , Meredith, Grant
- Date: 2011
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Journal of Fluency Disorders Vol. 36, no. 2 (2011), p. 75-85
- Full Text: false
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- Description: The World Wide Web (WWW) was 20 years old last year. Enormous amounts of information about stuttering are now available to anyone who can access the Internet. Compared to 20 years ago, people who stutter and their families can now make more informed choices about speech-language interventions, from a distance. Blogs and chat rooms provide opportunities for people who stutter to share their experiences from a distance and to support one another. New technologies are also being adopted into speech-language pathology practice and service delivery. Telehealth is an exciting development as it means that treatment can now be made available to many rural and remotely located people who previously did not have access to it. Possible future technological developments for speech-language pathology practice include Internet based treatments and the use of Virtual Reality. Having speech and CBT treatments for stuttering available on the Internet would greatly increase their accessibility. Second Life also has exciting possibilities for people who stutter.Educational objectives: The reader will (1) explain how people who stutter and their families can get information about stuttering from the World Wide Web, (2) discuss how new technologies have been applied in speech-language pathology practice, and (3) summarize the principles and practice of telehealth delivery of services for people who stutter and their families. © 2011 Elsevier Inc.
Speech-language pathology intervention in a youth justice setting : Benefits perceived by staff extend beyond communication
- Authors: Snow, Pamela , Bagley, Kerryn , White, Donna
- Date: 2018
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology Vol. 20, no. 4 (2018), p. 458-467
- Full Text: false
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- Description: Purpose: Young people in youth justice (YJ) settings face high-risk for unidentified language disorder, however, speech-language pathology (SLP) services are not routinely offered in such settings. The aim of this study was to explore and describe the perceptions and experiences of YJ staff in a custodial centre of the utility of having a speech-language pathologist working with young offenders. Method: Following a SLP intervention trial, two staff focus groups were conducted by an independent SLP. Interview probes were developed through review of the literature and consultation with the practitioner who conducted the clinical intervention. Focus groups were digitally recorded for thematic analysis, which was carried out by the three authors independently. Result: YJ staff expressed consistently positive views about the SLP intervention trial in their centre. Staff indicated that they learnt a great deal about the complexity of communication difficulties in this population, and that this information informed and guided their own practices. They expressed surprise at the engagement of young people in the SLP service, and supported its embedding in the YJ setting. Conclusion: YJ staff endorsed the value of a SLP service in a custodial setting. Further research should focus on refining measurement of this service and its impact. © 2017,