150 research outputs found
Spelling and Learning of French Plural Markers in Fourth Graders in Luxembourg
No full textOver the last 30 years, many studies have shown that French plural spelling is challenging for learners. The difficulty lies in the fact that, although the plural is regularly marked in written language, there is no audible counterpart in spoken language. Additionally, the correct plural spelling requires more than knowledge of declarative rules. It requires knowledge of the underlying syntactic structures. Plural is part of the curriculum and is taught in the schoolbooks. Nevertheless, even after 1.5 years of French instruction, the students’ spellings still show some deficits that can be improved through syntactic training.
The present dissertation pursued two overarching aims. First, we analyzed the plural spelling of fourth graders in Luxembourg after they had received 1.5 years of French L2 instruction. Second, we wanted to analyze how the learners' performance could be improved through syntactic training. We conducted two studies with a total of 710 students.
In a first study, we inspected 517 students’ spelling on a syntactic spelling test (pretest) after 1.5 years of French L2 instruction. We investigated how proficient and nonproficient plural spellers spelled words from the three word categories nouns, verbs, and adjectives, and whether nonproficient spellers were also able to recognize the plural forms in writing. Furthermore, we wanted to know whether the spelling of noun plural predicted the spelling of verb and adjective plural. Therefore, we analyzed the spelling of the plural forms of real and pseudowords. The results for real words showed that noun plural was spelled best, followed by verb plural, and lastly by adjective plural. For pseudowords, noun plural was also spelled best, but then followed by adjective plural, and lastly by verb plural. The results on plural spelling recognition showed that nonproficient learners were able to recognize noun plural spellings. Our results also showed that the spelling of noun plural indeed predicted the spelling of verb an adjective plural, for both real words and pseudowords.
In a second study, we analyzed how learners’ spelling performance could be improved. To do so, we conducted an intervention study that was part of a larger project by Weth et al. (C18/SC/12675187/GRASP/Weth). A total of 193 students participated in the intervention study for the current dissertation. The experimental group received 2 weeks of syntactic video- based training in French, and the control group received a parallel syntactic video-based training in German. The students were tested at four time points (T1-T4) on a syntactic spelling test (gap dictation). Our results showed that syntactic training focusing on the underlying sentence structure and fostering metalinguistic awareness significantly improved overall spelling performance as well as performance in each word category (nouns, verbs, adjectives).The present dissertation was designed to contribute to existing research by investigating the plural spelling and learning of early L2 French learners in more detail. Furthermore, our findings show the influence of regular instruction in school in the Luxembourgish context (Aim 1) as well as the impact of syntactic training (Aim 2) and provide a basis for further developing training material on French plural spelling
Distinguishing Syntactic Markers From Morphological Markers. A Cross-Linguistic Comparison
No full textpeer reviewedThis brief review summarizes findings about syntactic markers, i.e., graphemic elements that indicate syntactic relations, such as inflection morphemes. Current spelling models subsume inflection with derivation and stem alternations under “morphological spellings.” They hence consider inflection only in relation to the orthographic word. This paper argues that syntactic markers are a specific category as they are part of the orthographic word but also systematically tied to the presence of syntactic features above the word level. Syntactic spelling refers thus not only to the correct spelling of a syntactic marker but to its correct application within a given syntactical context. In syntactic reading, (proof)readers must notice the marker and interpret it correctly to understand the sentence. Syntactic spelling and reading have hence been found to be highly demanding in many languages. Syntactic information is not decisive for sentence understanding in many cases, since the information can be deduced from the context. In order to focus the definition of syntactic markers, this paper restricts them to those graphemic elements that convey syntactical but no lexical features and are further unrelated to phonology. The paper concludes that syntactic markers and spelling should be distinguished from morphological spelling. Examples are given for English, French, Dutch, and German
Profiles of poor and good spellers in German noun capitalization
No full textpeer reviewedThis study investigated how fourth graders with different proficiency levels (1st and 4th quartile, 192 and 195 pupils respectively) produce and detect German noun capitalization in relation to two factors, lexical-semantic characteristics of the noun and the structure of the noun phrase (NP). The first factor includes concrete and abstract nouns, as well as nominalized verbs and adjectives; the second factor the syntactic context of the NP (with or without determiner and/or adjective, including bare noun). The two proficiency groups showed different patterns in the production and detection of capitalization in relation to these two factors after three years of instruction in noun capitalization. The low-proficiency group performed on chance level only for concrete nouns in the context with precedent determiner, the context highlighted at school. The high-proficiency group seemed to make use systematically of the expanded NP in order to recognize and capitalize the noun but still had difficulties with most bare nouns. The paper discusses the type of information low- and high-achieving pupils seem to use in noun capitalization and detection
[Rezension zu:] Dahmen, Silvia / Weth, Constanze (2017): Phonetik, Phonologie und Schrift. Paderborn: Schöningh. (LiLa, 4752). 223 S. ISBN 978-3-8252-4752-2
No full textDas Buch Phonetik, Phonologie und Schrift von Silvia Dahmen und Constanze Weth ist in der Reihe LiLA - Linguistik fürs Lehramt im UTB-Verlag im Dezember 2017 erschienen. Die von Petra Gretsch und Gabriele Kniffka herausgegebene Reihe richtet sich an Lehramtsstudierende und Lehrkräfte, wobei eine praxisnahe Verknüpfung theoretischer sprachwissenschaftlicher Inhalte und didaktischer Methoden im Fokus steht. Für den Bereich Deutsch als Fremd- und Zweitsprache werden dabei sprachkontrastive Beispiele berücksichtigt
IMIS-Beiträge Heft 37 - Themenheft: Schrifterwerb unter den Bedingungen von Mehrsprachigkeit und Fremdsprachenunterricht
No full textUlrich Mehlem: Eine heilige Sprache? Literalität im Arabischen in Aus- und Einwanderungskontexten; Christoph Schroeder und Yazgül Şimşek: Die Entwicklung der Kategorie Wort im Türkisch-Deutsch bilingualen Schrifterwerb in Deutschland; Adelheid Kierepka: Historischer Blick auf den Fremdsprachenunterricht in der Grundschule; Daniela Elsner: »Ich habe was, das du nicht hast…« Oder: Welchen Mehrwert hat die Mehrsprachigkeit für das Fremdsprachenlernen?; Constanze Weth: Gesteuert-ungesteuerter Schrifterwerb in der Fremdsprache; Bärbel Diehr und Stefanie Frisch: Lesen sie doch? – Fragen an die LiPs Studie (Lesen im Englischunterricht auf der Primarstufe
Syntaxorientierte Didaktik der Großschreibung – ein Forschungsüberblick
No full textBangel M, Rautenberg I, Weth C. Syntaxorientierte Didaktik der Großschreibung – ein Forschungsüberblick. Didaktik Deutsch. 2020;48:55-70
Capitalization of nouns in German in multilingual children in Luxembourg. From contrasting different training approaches to exploring training-independent factors.
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VOKALE IM ZWEITSCHRIFTERWERB DES FRANZÖSISCHEN: EMPIRISCHE UNTERSUCHUNGEN IM DEUTSCH-FRANZÖSISCHEN GRUNDSCHULKONTEXT
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