Abstracts - Earli

Possessing the ability to use possessives when learning English as second languageMona Holmqvist, Kristianstad University, SwedenJane Mattisson, Kristianstad University, SwedenGunilla Lindgren, Kristianstad University, SwedenThe present study focuses on three different groups of pupils in year five in the Swedish schoolsystem (eleven to twelve year olds). It investigates how the selected pupils learn how to usepossessive pronouns. The method employed is the so-called ‘learning study cycle’ (Holmqvist &Nilsson, 2005; Holmqvist, Gustavsson & Wernberg, in press). Variation theory forms thetheoretical framework for the study (Marton & Booth, 1997; Holmqvist, 2004). The present paperdescribes how a group of teachers and researchers plan, give and revise three lessons for differentgroups of pupils. The goal was to demonstrate how the way in which one presents different criticalaspects of a given topic can influence the learning process. The results demonstrate that pupilswho were presented with dependent possessive pronouns alone demonstrated the best resultsdirectly after the lesson. The two groups of pupils who were given the opportunity to distinguishbetween dependent and independent possessive pronouns were forced to identify minor qualitativedifferences between the topic presented and an additional, but closely related, topic. This methodhas been shown to have a positive effect on pupils’ learning in the long term. This phenomenon isreferred to as ‘generative learning’ (Holmqvist, Gustavsson & Wernberg, submitted).Word reading builds on oral language? The role of vocabulary knowledge and phonological skillsin Italian deaf children’s word and pseudo-word readingBarbara Arfe, University of Verona, ItalyUmberta Bortolini, ISTC-CNR of Padova, ItalyFrancesca Poeta, University of Padova, ItalyThis study investigated how vocabulary knowledge and phonological skills are related to Italiandeaf children’s word and pseudo-words reading. Twenty-one severely to profoundly deaf children(mean age: 9.6) and 21 hearing controls, matched for grade level (mean age 9;4), participated. Theparticipants were administered a standardised test of words and pseudo-words reading, a test ofvocabulary knowledge, the PPVT-R, and two tests of phonological awareness. Results revealedthat phonological skills effectively play a major role in deaf children’s word and pseudo-wordsreading, even greater than in their hearing controls.– 352 –