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Page 1: Dissertation

A SYNERGY OF PSYCHOLINGUISTICS PRINCIPLES AND NEUROLINGUISTICS PROGRAMMING ON DEVELOPING WRITING COMPETENCE AMONG EIGHTH STANDARD STUDENTS IN SITHANANDHA HIGH SCHOOL, PUDHUCHERRY.

Thesis submitted in partial fulfillment For the award of the degree Master of Education.

byReg. No. 1095839

School of EducationPondicherry University

Under the guidance of

Dr.K.Chellamani, M.A., M.Phil, M.Ed., Ph.D.,Reader,

School of Education, Pondicherry University.

School of Education,Pondicherry University,(A Central University)

R.V. Nagar, Kalapet,Pudhucherry – 605 014.

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Dr. K. CHELLAMANI, M.A.,M.Phil.,M.Ed.,Ph.D.,

Reader,

School of Education,Pondicherry University,Pudhucherry – 605 014.

CERTIFICATEThis is to certify that the Dissertation entitled “ SYNERGY OF PSYCHOLINGUISTICS PRINCIPLES AND NEUROLINGUISTICS PROGRAMMING ON DEVELOPING WRITING COMPETENCE AMONG EIGHTH STANDARD STUDENTS IN SITHANANDHA HIGH SCHOOL, PUDHUCHERRY” is an independent research study and work accomplished by . THILAGAVATHY (Reg. No. 1095839) in the School of Education, Pondicherry University, Pudhucherry – 605 014, Under my guidance and supervision for the award of the degree ofMASTER OF EDUCATION. Further, I certify that this research work has not previously formed the basis for the award of any other Degree, Diploma, Associate ship, Fellowship or other similar title to any candidate of this or any other University.

Place : Pudhucherry – 14Date:

(K.CHELL

AMANI)

V.THILAGAVATHY,M.Ed Student (2009- 2010),School of Education,Pondicherry University,Pudhucherry – 605 014.

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DECLARATION

I do hereby declare that this dissertation entitled “ A SYNERGY OF

PSYCHOLINGUISTICS PRINCIPLES AND NEUROLINGUISTICS

PROGRAMMING ON DEVELOPING WRITING COMPETENCE

AMONG EIGHTH STANDARD STUDENTS IN SITHANANDHA HIGH

SCHOOL, PUDHUCHERRY” Submitted to the Ponicherry University,

Pudhucherry, for the award of the Degree of MASTER OF EDUCATION is an

original and independent research work done by me under the guidance of Dr.

CHELLAMANI, Reader, School of Education, Pondicherry University,

Pudhucherry – 605 014 and it has not previously formed the basis for the award of

any other Degree, Diploma, Associate ship, Fellowship or other similar title to any

other candidate of this or any other University.

(V. THILAGAVATHY)Place: Pudhucherry – 605 014Date:

Dr.M.S. LALITHAMMA, Dr. K. CHELLAMANI,Countersigned and Coordinator Reader,School of Education, school of Education,Pondicherry University, Pudhucherry. Pondicherry University, Pudhucherry.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I am indebted to Dr.M.S.Lalithamma, Professor and head, School of Education, Pondicherry University, for having permitted me to take up this study and for all the help given to me during the period of my study in the School of Education.I express my sentiments of thanks and appreciation to my guide, Dr. K. Chellamani, Reader, School of Education, Pondicherry University, for her approachability, thought provoking insights, intellectual caliber and expert guidance at every stage of this dissertation.My heartful thanks to all teaching and non-teaching staff in the School of Education, Pondicherry University for their moral support and timely help.I wish to place on grateful to the Headmistress, teachers and students of Sithanandha High School for their whole hearted co- operation towards this dissertation.I am very much thankful to my dear classmates those who helped and encouraged me to do this Project work.My heartful thanks to my dear family members, who sacrificed their entire life for my progress and comforts. I owe a lot to my beloved father Mr. T. Velayutham, for his constant support throughout the study.I am grateful to the staff of the Central Library in Pondicherry University, Annamalai University and Madras University, for their kind help in getting research materials for my study.I extend my deepest sense of gratitude to God for showering His grace and blessing for the completion of my research study.

“He indeed does all things wonderful in His time”.

(V. THILAGAVATHY)

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CONTENTS

CHAPTER – I , INTRODUCTIONS.NO CONTENT PAGE NO.

1.0 INTRODUCTION

1.1 ENGLISH LANGUAGE : ITS IMPORTANT

1.2 POSITION OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE IN INDIA: AN OVERVIEW

1.3 SKILLS INVOLVED IN LANGUAGE LEARNING

1.4 WRITING SKILLS ACQUISITON

1.5 WRITING – AN ESSENTIAL SKILL

1.6 IMPORTANCE OF WRITING

1.7 TECHNIQUE USED FOR STUDENTS' COMPETENTENCY

1.7.1 COMPOSITION COMPETENCIES

1.7.1.1 ACQUISITION STRATEGIES

1.7.1.2 ASSESSMENT STRATEGIES

1.7.2 ANALYSIS COMPETENCIES

1.7.2.1 ACQUISITION STRATEGIES

1.7.2.2 ASSESSMENT STRATEGIES

1.7.3 LANGUAGE COMPETENCIES

1.7.3.1 ACQUISITION STRATEGIES

1.7.3.2 ASSESSMENT STRATEGIES

1.7.4 RESEARCH COMPETENCIES

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1.7.4.1 ACQUISITION STRATEGIES

1.7.4.2 ASSESSMENT STRATEGIES

1.7.5 PRESENTATION COMPETENCIES

1.7.5.1 ACQUISITION STRATEGIES

1.7.5.2 ASSESSMENT STRATEGIES

1.8 PSYCHOLINGUISTICS: COMPETENCE, PERFORMANCE

AND ACQUISITION

1.9 THE STUDY OF LANGUAGE:

1.10 LINGUISTIC DIVERSITY

1.11 THE MYTH OF PURE LANGUAGE

1. 12 LINGUISTIC CHAUVINISM

1.13 LINGUISTIC UNIVERSALS

1.13.1 DISCRETENESS

1.13.2 ARBITRARINESS

1.13.3 OPENNESS

1.13.4 DUALITY OF PATTERNING

1.14 THE NATURE OF LANGUAGE

1.15 A UNIQUE CODE AND A GENERAL CODE

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1.16 LANGUAGE AND THE COGNITIVE SYSTEM

1.17 PROCESSES INVOLVED IN LANGUAGE ACQUISITION

1.17.1 REINFORCEMENTS

1.17.2 IMITATION

1.17.3 EXPANSION

1.18 THE DEVELOPMENT OF COMMUNICATION SKILLS

1.19 WRITING SYSTEMS

1.20 LANGUAGE AND THE BRAIN

1.21 THE STUDY OF THE BRAIN-LANGUAGE RELATIONSHIP

1.22 BRAIN STRUCTURE AND LANGUAGE

1.23 THOUGHT AND LANGUAGE

1.24 CONCLUSION

CHAPTER – II , REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

2.0 INTRODUCTION

2.1 STUDIES BASED ON NEUROLINGUISTICS

2.2 STUDIES BASED ON PSYCHOLINGUISTIC

2.3 STUDIES BASED ON WRITING COMPETENCE

2.4 CONCLUSION

CHAPTER-3, RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

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3.1 INTRODUCTION

3.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM:

3.3 NEED FOR THE STUDY

3.4 SCOPE OF THE STUDY

3.5 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

3.6 TITLE OF THE STUDY

3.7 DEFINITIONS OF THE TERMS

3.8 OPERATIONAL DEFINITION

3.9 ASSUMPTIONS OF THE STUDY

3.10 HYPOTHESES

3.11 DELIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY

3.12 EXPERIMENTAL STUDY

3.13 SAMPLE

3.14 PLANNING OF THE TREATMENT

3.15 DURATION OF THE TREATMENT

3.16 THREATS TO EXPERIMENTAL VALIDITY

3.17 INTERNAL VALIDITY

3.17.1 SUBJECT CHARACTERISTICS

3.17.2 MORTALITY

3.17.3 LOCATION

3.17.4 INSTRUMENTATION

3.17.5 TESTING

3.17.6 HISTORY

3.17.7 MATURATION

3.17.8 STATISTICAL REGRESSION

3.17.9 SELECTION BIAS

3.17.10 EXPERIMENTER BIAS

3.17.11 IMPLEMENTATION

3.18 EXTERNAL VALIDITY

3.19 CONTROLLING THREATS TO EXTERNAL VALIDITY

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3.20 RESEARCH PHASES

3.21 PHASE – I ; PREPARATORY PROGRAM

3.21.1 IDENTIFICATION OF THE PROBLEM

3.21.2 SELECTION OF THE SAMPLE

3.21.3 OBSERVING THE LEARNING ENVIRONMENT

3.21.4 ANALYZING THE PREVIOUS ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE

3.21.5 COLLECTING THE RELATED LITERATURE

3.21.6 COLLECTION OF RESEARCH REVIEWS

3.21.7 DEVELOPMENT OF TOOLS

3.2.8 ESTABLISHING RELIABILITY AND VALIDITY

3.21.9 DEVELOPING AND ADMINISTERING THE PRE-TEST TOOL

3.21.10 INSTRUCTIONAL PACKAGE DEVELOPMENT

3.22 PHASE – II ; PROCEDURE FOR THE EXECUTION OF THE STUDY

3.23 TREATMENT PROGRAM SCHEDULE

3.24 PHASE – III – TREATMENT PROGRAM

3.24.1 PREPARING AND SETTING THE STAGE

3.24.2 ORIENTATION

3.24.3 INTAKING PSYCHOLINGUISTICS PRINCIPLES

3.24.4 PSYCHOLINGUISTICS PRINCIPLES INVOLVED IN INSTRUCTION

3.24.5 GIVING NEUROLINGUISTICS PROGRAMMING

3.24.6 THINK ALOUD PROTOCOL

3.24.7 PEER GROUP DISCUSSION

3.25 PHASE IV :IDENTIFYING THE EFFECT OF THE STUDY

3.26 PHASE – V ; RESEARCH TOOLS AND DATA COLLECTION

3.26.1 DATA COLLECTION

3.27 PHASE – VI; SCHEME OF DATA ANALYSIS

3.28 CONCLUSION

CHAPTER – IV,DATA ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION

4.1 INTRODUCTION

4.2 DESCRIPTIVE ANALYSIS

4.2.1 CHARACTERISTICS OF THE SAMPLE

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4.2.2 CONCLUSION

4.3 RELATIONAL ANALYSIS

4.3.1 CONCLUSION

4.4 DIFFERENTIAL ANALYSIS

4.4.1 “t” TEST

4.4.2 CONCLUSION

4. 5 CONCLUSION

CHAPTER – V, SUMMARY, FINDINGS AND CONCLUSION

5.1 INTRODUCTION

5.2 PSYCHOLINGUISTICS PRINCIPLES

5.3 NEUROLINGUISTICS PROGRAMMING

5.4 WRITING – AN ESSENTIAL SKILL

5.5 SYNERGISING EFFECT OF PSYCHOLINGUISTIC

PRINCIPLES AND NEUROLINGUISTICS PROGRAMMING IN

WRITING COMPETENCE

5.6 INFERENCES FROM THE REVIEW

5.7 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

5.8 NEED FOR THE STUDY

5.9 SCOPE OF THE STUDY

5.10 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

5.11 TITLE OF THE STUDY

5.12 DEFINITIONS OF THE TERMS

5.13 OPERATIONAL DEFINITION

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5.14 ASSUMPTIONS OF THE STUDY

5.15 HYPOTHESES

5.17 EXPERIMENTAL STUDY

5.18 PLANNING OF THE TREATMENT

5.19 RESEARCH PROCESS

5.20 SAMPLE

5.21 RESEARCH DESIGN

5.22 DURATION OF THE TREATMENT

5.23 THREATS TO EXPERIMENTAL VALIDITY

5.24 INTERNAL VALIDITY

5.24.1 SUBJECT CHARACTERISTICS

5.24.2 MORTALITY

5.24.3 LOCATION

5.24.4 INSTRUMENTATION

5.24.5 TESTING

5.24.6 HISTORY

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5.24.7 MATURATION

5.24.8 STATISTICAL REGRESSION

5.24.9 SELECTION BIAS

5.24.10 EXPERIMENTER BIAS

5.24.11 IMPLEMENTATION

5.25 EXTERNAL VALIDITY

5.26 CONTROLLING THREATS TO EXTERNAL VALIDITY

5.27 RESEARCH PHASES

5.28 PHASE – I ; PREPARATORY PROGRAM

5.28.1 IDENTIFICATION OF THE PROBLEM

5.28.2 SELECTION OF THE SAMPLE

5.28.3 OBSERVING THE LEARNING ENVIRONMENT

5.28.4 ANALYZING THE PREVIOUS ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE

5.28.5 COLLECTING THE RELATED LITERATURE

5.28.6 COLLECTION OF RESEARCH REVIEWS

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5.28.7 DEVELOPMENT OF TOOLS

5.28.8 ESTABLISHING RELIABILITY AND VALIDITY

5.28.9 DEVELOPING AND ADMINISTERING THE PRE-TEST TOOL

5.28.10 INSTRUCTIONAL PACKAGE DEVELOPMENT

5.29 PHASE – II ; PROCEDURE FOR THE EXECUTION OF THE

STUDY

5.30 PHASE – III – TREATMENT PROGRAM

5.30.1 PREPARING AND SETTING THE STAGE

5.30.2 ORIENTATION

5.30.3 INTAKING PSYCHOLINGUISTICS PRINCIPLES

5.30.4 GIVING NEUROLINGUISTICS PROGRAMMING

5.30.5 THINK ALOUD PROTOCOL

5.30.6 PEER GROUP DISCUSSION

5.31 PHASE IV :IDENTIFYING THE EFFECT OF THE STUDY

5.32 PHASE – V ; RESEARCH TOOLS AND DATA COLLECTION

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5.32.1 DATA COLLECTION

5.33 PHASE – VI; SCHEME OF DATA ANALYSIS

5.34 FINDINGS

5.35 SUGGESTIONS FOR THE FURTHER STUDY

5.36 DISSCUSSIONS

5.37 EDUCATIONAL IMPLICATIONS

5.38 CONCLUSION

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CHAPTER – I

INTRODUCTION

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CHAPTER – I

INTRODUCTION

1.0 INTRODUCTION:

Language is the most authentic means for optimum communication among humans. It

holds together society, as individuals share their needs with each through it. The

Oxford English Dictionary defines the word as “the whole body of words and of

methods of combination of words used by a nation, people or race, a tongue, which

implies that a language can exist in spoken as well as written forms”.According to

Edward Sapir, “Language is a purely human and non-instrinctive method of

communicating ideas, emotions and desires by means of a system of voluntarily

produced symbols. These symbols are in the first instance auditory and they are

produced by the so called organs of speech.

Language is a complete yet highly versatile code used for communication. It is

exclusive to human race. The human language is a signalling system which uses vocal

sounds. It is based on man's ability to speak. Other devices such as gestures, signs,

drawings, sculpture, that we use to express.The nexus between language and our

ideas, thoughts and emotions, cannot substitued for language. Since it is both a cause

and outcome of man's social existence, it is in a state of constant flux.Thought is

interesting . We think through language and need language to express our thoughts.

This means man creates new knowledge through language and uses it to the store-

house of human culture civilization.

The imminent order in the four skills of communication highlight the primary of

speech over writing. This is an important aspects of language. The order in which the

four skills are presented is, listening with comprehension, speaking, reading and

writing. Language ensures that, one does not need to know how to write to

communicate. Capacity for speech is a characteristic of human beings only. The seven

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characteristics of human speech are: duality, productivity, arbitrariness,

interchangebility, specialisation, displacement and cultural transmission. The written

language is derived from the spoken form. It is thus secondary in nature. The speaker

can move the listener active by means of words. Thus language can be said to have a

democratic nature. Rabindranath Tagore puts it aptly:”Man can speak and speech is

the force which combines a mind with others.”

1.1 ENGLISH LANGUAGE : its important:

Among the language in the world, English has gained universal acceptance because of

a number of factors. It is rich in literature, science, technology, medicine and social

science. It has creative works of the highest intellectual and creative standard.

According to media reports,50 percent of newspapers and scientific and technological

periodicals in the world are published in English. More than 60 percent of the radio

stations of the world use English as their medium. Besides , it is the language of the

international politics, communication, trade, commerce, industry and travel. And on

the academic front, it serves as a library language. The language deserves to be a

world language as it helps linking humans across countries.

French, remarks”By accidents of history and by the rapid spread of industrial

development, science and technology, international trade, and by all the factors which

have broken down frontiers and forced nations into closer interdependence, English

has become a world language. It is the means of international communication; there is

no other”.

English is the first language of the United Kingdom comprising Great Britain

(England, Wales and Scotland) and Northern Ireland, although Wales and Scotland

have preserved their own languages distinct from English. English is also the mother-

tongue of more than 300 million people living outside England, in the United States

of America, Canada, Australia and Newzeland. In addition, it is the second language

of millions of people in Europe, Africa, the Middle East, India, China, Japan and

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South America. Thus English is now spoken and read by all educated people

everywhere in the world, and a very large number of children of different countries

study it in their schools either as the mother tongue or as a foreign language.

English is one of the six official languages of the UNO. It is also the link language of

the Commonwealth countries. French remarks:”No language, accident or modern can

be compared with English in number of geographical distribution of the homes,

factories and officers in which the language is spoken, written or read”.

Countries now-a- days need mutual cooperation in the fields of social, economic and

political matters. English meets the need here. Ghatak's observation is relevant here.

“It would be rash to cut ourselves from English language which keeps us in

continuous contact with the latest thought in Europe, in every field of life and

culture”. Nehru sees, the language as a window to the world outside.

1.2 POSITION OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE IN INDIA: AN OVERVIEW:

English has many uses in India. Its status is more of a second language than a foreign

one. As someone says somewhere, it is like a bitter medicine that the patient does not

want to swallow but still swallows to get his illness cured. English still occupies an

important place in educational system and life of our country. In India English

continues to be the medium of instructions of colleges and universities and is also the

language of the administration. Emphasizing the role if English, one of the Education

Commissions has emphatically asserted, “For successful completion of the first

degree course, a student should possess adequate command of English, be able to

express himself with reasonable ease and felicity, understanding lectures in it and

avail himself of its literature. Therefore adequate emphasis will have to be laid on its

study as a language right from the school stage. English should be the most useful

library language in higher education and our most significant window on the world”.

For over a century and a half Indian intellectuals have been studying English and how

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it has entered the fabric of Indian's culture. In plays an important role in various

fields.

I English is an official language of administration the status of Associate official

language of the Union for an indefinite period has been granted by an ace of

Parliamant in 1963.

II English is the court language.

III English is the language of international trade and industry.

IV It has an important role in social life; the highly educated and sophisticated

sections of our society find it more convenient to talk in English

V English is considered to be a a window on the modern worked through which

was are able to see the scientific technological, agricultural, commercial and

literacy development taking place.

VI Enligh is a link language;It is the only language which is understood in all

Indian states. In addition to being a unifying force in our country it also links

us with other countries of the world. The trade correspondence from one state

to another is mostly conducted in English. Without a knowledge of English,

there will be dialogue between persons from different states. English is a

unifying factor and helps national integration. India is a multilingual country

and more than 15 languages have been recognised by Indian constitution.

According to census of India more than 380 languages or dialects are spoken

in India. The constitution of India opted in 1950 provides for development of

Hindi is the National Language but today e€English is the link language.

English is the only language that is spoken and understood all over the country

in addition to the National Language.; The correspondence between Union

Government and the State Governments is mostly conducted in English.

VIIIt is a library language “Kothari Commission (1964-66)” has said that no

student be considered to have qualified for a degree unless he has acquired a

reasonable proficiency in English.; English as a library language are of two-

fold:

VIII a) All teachers in higher education should be essentially bilingual. They

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should be able to teach in the regional language as well as in English.

IX b) All students, particularly post-graduate students, should be able to

follow lectures and use reading materials in the regional language as well as in

English.

1.3 SKILLS INVOLVED IN LANGUAGE LEARNING

Listening, Speaking, Reading and Writing are the four basic skills, which are very

important for acquiring a good command over a language. Listening and Speaking

precede Reading and Writing. In learning the mother tongue the child has ample

practice in speech before he/she starts reading. The child by using the listening skill

first learns certain sounds and structures unconsciously and slowly develops the skill

of speaking.

Listening and speaking are intimately related to each other, though listening is

recognition skill and speaking is production skill. Both skills (listening and speaking)

depend almost entirely on the learner's knowledge of the pronunciation of words and

the articulation of sounds in the language. That is why, in the teaching of English due

emphasis is given the development of skills of listening and speaking.

Listening and reading may be termed as passive or recognition skills (for in both these

processes we only recognize the meanings of word used by others) where as speaking

and writing may be termed as active or production kills. In the case of the latter, the

user requires an active use of language. The former two skills—listening and reading

—are also known as skills of comprehension, while the latter—speaking and writing

—are termed as skills of expression. The fulfillment language teaching is based on

both the skills of comprehension and expression.

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Have you ever thought about how a child learns its mother tongue? First it passes

through a period of intense listening and then only it begins to speak, read and write.

So in a natural method of learning a language, listening comes first; then follows

speaking, reading and writing. Speech is the very foundation of any language. If one

becomes acquainted with the basic vocabulary and structures of language through

speech it is not difficult for him or her to learn read or write late. Learning to read aw

hat one has already learn t to speak becomes then an interlinked and for acquiring

good command over language all the four skills have to be thoroughly mastered.

1.4 WRITING SKILLS ACQUISITON:

Writing is different from the other skills because it aims at compactness and precision

as well as grammatical, idiomatic and orthographic accuracy. Learning to write is

learning to use grammar with ease and present facts in a sequential order. Writing

involves both accuracy and fluency. One should master the elementary mechanics of

written work viz. Handwriting, spelling, capitalization, punctuation, word order and

word division, and sentence structure and constructions before they are given a free

hand to develop ease and fluency in writing.

1.5 WRITING – AN ESSENTIAL SKILL :

Writing is a process of analysis. An appreciation of the full import of this analytical

process requires relative cognitive maturity and, in our literate society , also functions

as a promoter of such maturity. As with most of his other experiences the totality, or

gestalt, of the language before he begins to take it apart. To a child learning his native

language, writing comes as a pleasant discovery which greatly arouses his curiosity,

as do the innards of an alarm clock which a young boy has taken apart to see what

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makes it tick. Compared to this pleasant discovery of writing, the reverse discovery of

the spoken form by a child brought up on R-W-L-S sequence is invariably a highly

disconcerning one, since he seems to have no clue how the bits and pieces of written

language that he has been given by the teacher add up to that awe-inspiring fluency of

the spoken form which the “Real” speaker of the language mouths with such

devastating ease! It is easy thereafter to feel cheated and frustrated, to feel that the

real language has somehow been missed altogether. And since usually this realization

comes rather late in the case of the second language, when other things in life have

begun to be more important, the best course seems to give up, or to just drift along.

1.6 IMPORTANCE OF WRITING:

Writing is one of the expressive skills to be developed in a language. Writing is of

immense importance. According to Bacon, “Reading maketh a full man, conference a

ready man and writing an exact man”. Emphasizing the importance of writing

Mahatma Gandhi said that “Fair and legible handwriting makes a man perfect in all

walks of life”. In the words of Bell, “Writing is a tool used to enable us to express

what is in our mind and for some people is almost as important as

speech”.S.S.M.Gaudar says, “Writing has an instrumental value in schools” He

further says, “It is a means of preserving the knowledge which the pupils have gained

or the judgment he has formed. It serves as a check on his foregoing useful items of

knowledge and ideas. The habit of making notes of what is read and of summarizing

helps the recollection of what has been studied”.

1.7 TECHNIQUE USED FOR STUDENTS' COMPETENTENCY:

I The student will become competent in composition, analysis, language,

research, and presentation.

II 1.7.1 COMPOSITION COMPETENCIES

The student will

1 Use a process of writing that includes independent and collaborative

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prewriting, drafting, revising, and editing to produce unified, coherent,

and well-developed paragraphs and essays that support the expressed or

implied controlling idea.

2 Write under time constraints imposed by school and workplace

situations.

A 1.7.1.1 ACQUISITION STRATEGIES

The student will

1 Respond appropriately to a variety of specific writing tasks,

some out-of-class assignments, and some timed, in-class

assignments.

2 Engage in a variety of prewriting activities (e.g., brainstorming,

listing, freewriting, journal keeping, clustering) as a group

member before proceeding to individual prewriting in order to

develop both confidence and competency in the beginning

stages of the composing process.

3 Work through the stages of the writing process both in groups

and individually to develop ideas, select appropriate supporting

details, organize those details, write drafts, edit, and complete a

final product.

4 Read high-quality essays and identify both the controlling idea

and the organizational methods used to provide support.

5 Write essays demonstrating command of specific organizational

strategies, i.e., modes of discourse.

6 Share writing samples through both oral and written

presentations.

A 1.7.1.2 ASSESSMENT STRATEGIES

The instructor will

1 Evaluate both the student's writing process and the final product

—to include out-of-class and timed in-class assignments.

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2 Use student self-assessment rubrics.

3 Use peer evaluation rubrics.

4 Score holistically using trained faculty teams.

5 Encourage holistic scoring by trained peers.

6 Use collaborative, small-group peer assessment.

7 Administer objective and essay exams to demonstrate student

command of course material.

8 Publish class "books" of student writing.

9 Schedule instructor-student conferences.

10 Evaluate portfolios of student writing.

I 1.7.2 ANALYSIS COMPETENCIES

The student will

1 Explore attitudes and beliefs in writing, reading, and speaking, valuing

cultural diversity.

2 Demonstrate critical thinking/problem solving skills.

3 Apply techniques of analysis, interpretation, and evaluation to works of

literature and to workplace documents and situations.

A 1.7.2.1 ACQUISITION STRATEGIES

The student will

1 Complete writing and research tasks which require critical

thinking, i.e., planning and executing writing projects

individually and in groups.

2 Generate ideas through group brainstorming to help students

become aware of and use problem-solving skills.

3 Use reading strategies such as previewing, annotating, note

taking, and outlining.

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4 Read selections representing various cultures and explore

different value/belief systems.

5 Discuss issues concerning writer's voice, point of view, tone,

and audience.

6 Compare/contrast both in writing and in discussion different

attitudes and values encountered through readings.

7 Identify techniques used to interpret literature, such as character

analysis, and apply these techniques in writing and discussion.

8 Apply critical skill used in literary analysis to analytical

techniques that students use in everyday situations, including the

workplace.

A 1.7.2.2 ASSESSMENT STRATEGIES

The instructor will

1 Evaluate student analytical work.

2 Use student self-assessment. Set up instructor/student

collaboration to establish evaluation criteria.

3 Encourage peer evaluation in small groups using established

evaluation criteria.

4 Have class members evaluate group or individual projects using

established evaluation criteria.

I 1.7.3 LANGUAGE COMPETENCIES

The student will

1 Practice standard usage in oral and written communications, including

conventions of grammar, punctuation, mechanics, spelling, diction, and

sentence structure.

2 Use appropriate diction, tone, voice, point of view, and figurative

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language, depending upon audience and purpose.

A 1.7.3.1 ACQUISITION STRATEGIES

The student will

1 Write sentences using prescribed sentence patterns.

2 Edit faulty sentences to correct usage errors.

3 Confer with instructor and revise works in process for

appropriate language use.

4 Define the audience for a given written work.

5 Create an audience analysis checklist.

6 Define various tones and points of view.

7 Analyze sentences, paragraphs, and whole works to identify

tone and point of view.

8 Produce written materials that demonstrate a variety of tones

and figurative language.

9 Demonstrate standard usage in group and class discussions and

in oral presentations.

A 1.7.3.2 ASSESSMENT STRATEGIES

The instructor will

1 Administer pretest and posttest on standard usage.

2 Administer standardized tests.

3 Evaluate student writing in process.

4 Use student self-assessment rubrics.

5 Use peer evaluation rubrics.

6 Score holistically using trained faculty teams.

7 Encourage holistic scoring by trained peers.

8 Use small-group peer assessments.

9 Administer objective and essay exams.

10 Publish class "books" of student writing.

11 Schedule instructor-student conferences.

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12 Evaluate portfolios of student writing.

I 1.7.4 RESEARCH COMPETENCIES

The student will

1 Use a research process that includes selecting a topic and gathering

information from a variety of primary and secondary sources: oral, text,

and electronic.

2 Summarize, paraphrase, interpret, and synthesize information from a

variety of primary and secondary sources.

3 Incorporate relevant research findings into essays or reports,

documenting them appropriately to avoid plagiarism.

A 1.7.4.1 ACQUISITION STRATEGIES

The student will

1 Tailor topics to suit the assigned scope of researched writing

projects.

2 Identify the kind of questions that should be answered to write

well on a topic.

3 Identify potential kinds and sources of information needed to

write well on a given topic.

4 Produce bibliographies in accordance with a required style

sheet.

5 Justify the inclusion of particular sources on a bibliography

according to such criteria as credibility, quality of writing, date

of publication, and established authority.

6 Identify in particular sources the material likely to be useful and

appropriate in a given paper.

7 Write précis of short texts.

8 Produce notes in which the mixture of direct and indirect

quotation and various forms of summarizing show an

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understanding of how outside information is used in researched

essays and reports.

9 Produce appropriate notes on information in published tables,

charts, and graphs.

10 Use electronic and textual library research equipment, indexes,

and catalogues to identify and locate potentially useful sources

of information on various topics.

11 Write passages synthesizing and analyzing data collected from a

variety of sources and incorporate them in essays and reports of

substantial length.

A 1.7.4.2 ASSESSMENT STRATEGIES

The instructor will

1 Evaluate both the student's research process and the final

product.

2 Use student self-assessment rubrics.

3 Use peer evaluation rubrics.

4 Score holistically by trained faculty teams.

5 Score holistically using trained peers.

6 Use collaborative, small-group peer assessments.

7 Administer objective and essay exams to demonstrate command

of research procedures and standard conventions of

documentation.

8 Require oral defenses of findings and interpretations in major

essays and reports based on research.

9 Schedule instructor-student conferences.

10 Assign hands-on tests or exercises using appropriate research

technology in both electronic and print form.

11 Evaluate portfolios of research process.

I 1.7.5 PRESENTATION COMPETENCIES

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The student will

1 Select or design appropriate academic and workplace communication

formats and styles and use them in oral or written presentations, both

individually and collaboratively, to achieve a specific purpose.

2 Use computer applications to write and format documents and to create

and integrate visual materials where appropriate to support text.

A 1.7.5.1 ACQUISITION STRATEGIES

The student will

1 Format appropriately a variety of academic and workplace

writing tasks.

2 Prepare oral and written presentations acceptable to the intended

audience for either academic or workplace communication.

3 Prepare computer-generated documents using computer

graphics or other visual materials as appropriate.

A 1.7.5.2 ASSESSMENT STRATEGIES

The instructor will

1 Evaluate both the student's process and the final product.

2 Use student self-assessment rubrics.

3 Use peer evaluation rubrics.

4 Score holistically using trained faculty teams.

5 Encourage holistic scoring by trained peers.

6 Provide for evaluation by professionals in the workplace.

7 Use collaborative, small-group peer assessments.

8 Administer objective and essay exams to demonstrate student

knowledge of various academic and workplace formats and

graphics options.

9 Administer objective and essay exams which require the student

to respond using a computer.

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10 Schedule instructor-student conferences.

11 Evaluate portfolios of documents for presentation effectiveness.

1.8 PSYCHOLINGUISTICS: COMPETENCE, PERFORMANCE AND ACQUISITION

Educationalist opine that it is possible to analyze a natural language at a number of

different levels: sounds (phonology), words (morphology), sentence structure

(syntax), meaning (semantics), and use (pragmatics). The task of linguistics is in part

to discover the appropriate units of analysis at each level and to state generalizations

in terms of these units that capture that regularities inherent in the language itself. But

languages are not just abstract structured systems. They are also used in thought and

communication, and it is the task of psycholinguistics (or psychology of language) to

discover how knowledge of language is represented in the mind/brain of a fluent

speaker, how this information is utilized in the production and comprehension of

expressions, and how speakers acquire these abilities.

Chomsky (1972) proposes that we construct three models. The first reflects what a

fluent speaker knows (what information is stored) about the sound-meaning relations

in the language—it a model of the speaker’s linguistic competence . This is to be

distinguished from a performance model, which reflects the actual processes that go

into producing and understanding language.Finally, a language acquisition model (or

device) reflects the changes in the competence and performance of a child during the

acquisition period and thus provides a model of the child’s language-learning

achievements .

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COMPETENCESounds MODEL Linguistic meaning

(Grammar)

Figure :1.1

A competence model

Communicative intention PERFORMANCE SoundsMODEL

Figure :1. 2

A performance model

ACQUISITION PERFORMANCELanguage experience MODEL MODEL

Figure :1. 3

1.9 THE STUDY OF LANGUAGE:

People communicate in many ways—a look can kill, a tone of voice can indicate that

a speaker means the opposite of what he or she is saying, and a touch sometimes says

more than a book can. Two people will sometimes speak to each other quite

differently when they are alone than when a third person is present. A very large part

of modern psychology, from physiological studies of muscle control to the social

psychology of persuasion, could be considered relevant to the topic of human

communication. This book focuses on one mode of communication; it is about

language.

Language is surely the most important tool of communication that individuals have at

their disposal. Many people have claimed that the possession of language is the single

most important distinction between humans and lower forms of life. All humans, with

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a few pathological exceptions to be discussed later, acquire language; it is a universal

human accomplishment. Up to this point, no non-human has acquired a language.

(This last claim has recently been disputed. We will also consider that issue later.)

Language permits people to communicate a tremendous range of attitudes and

information, biases and truths. It permits the building of a tradition through which a

person’s actions and thoughts can be influenced by the thoughts of someone who

lived hundreds of years earlier. It permits a degree of self-expression impossible to

any other species. When used to describe events, it has an evocative power rivaling

that of the events themselves. Further, language can be used to request information or

action, to challenge, to command, and to perform many other functions.

While it is obvious that language is our central tool of communication and that it has

great expressive and informative power, its actual nature is not so obvious. Usually

we do not think much about language itself; we simply use it. But in fact there are

many different ways to think about language. The point of view we will take is that of

psycholinguistics.

Psycholinguistics, as we will use the term here, is the study of language as a human

activity. It is the study of what people acquire when they acquire a language, of how

they acquire it, and of how they use it when producing and understanding messages.

As such, it is a sub-field of the general area of cognitive psychology, the psychology

of knowing or of thinking. Thus, psycholinguistics is an important part of the study of

how the mind is organized and how it works. It is clearly relevant to the study of

human communication, and it may have applications in many practical areas, such as

teaching reading skills, language acquisition by the deaf, learning foreign languages,

and others. But the present focus of the field is not directly on the topic of

communication. Rather, it is on the language abilities that make communication

possible. In addition, psycholinguistics does not yet have very much to offer in the

way of concrete proposals about practical problems. Some people, the present authors

included, believe that a study of the basic processes involved in acquiring,

understanding, and producing language will be a useful and necessary antecedent to

significant advances in these important fields. But for the present this is only a belief

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and not an established fact.

1.10 LINGUISTIC DIVERSITY

The rule of thumb is that two people speak the same language if they are mutually

intelligible, while those who learn to speak a language in the same community are

said to speak the same dialect. But these are only rough and inadequate distinctions.

For example, it is sometimes said that speakers of Mandarin and Cantonese speak two

dialects of Chinese, even though they are not mutually intelligible. And speakers of

Norwegian can make themselves understood by Swedes, even though they are usually

said to speak different languages. The distinction between a language difference and a

dialect difference is not a sharp one. A whimsical linguist once suggested that a

dialect becomes a language when its speakers get an army and a navy! For the

present, that is good enough for our purposes.

There are two points about linguistic diversity that should be mentioned at the outset,

since a misunderstanding of the issues involved can badly distort one’s understanding

of the nature of language. We call these the myth of “pure language” and the problem

of linguistic chauvinism. They are related problems.

1.11 THE MYTH OF PURE LANGUAGE

In our experience, almost everyone who is new to the study of language believes in

the myth of pure language. According to this myth each language exists in some pure

or absolutely correct form. Any deviation from this form is looked upon as an

impurity, as sub-standard. This view is represented schematically in Figure1.1 A. At

the top of the figure is an L, representing the “pure” form of some language. This is

the ideal form in which, say, American English exists. Perhaps it is the English

spoken by an educated and articulate network news broadcaster. Related to L are

various dialects, D1, D2, etc. some of the dialects are quite close to L, for example

D1. This is the dialect of someone who speaks very much like the newsman, but has

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some trace of impurity or difference, perhaps a broad Boston a. Further away are

other dialects, until we reach D7. This might be the dialect spoken by a poor

sharecropper who, when asked what his son does, would reply, “He be workin at

farmin.”

1. 12 LINGUISTIC CHAUVINISM

A second, related attitude toward linguistic diversity is linguistic chauvinism—the

belief that one’s own language is the best of all possible languages. This romantic

notion has been far from harmless, since a great deal of human strife has been caused,

at least in part, by one group of people trying to impose their language on another,

generally in the belief that their language was superior to the other, “heathen” tongue.

A rather harmless example was provided by the 1923 Illinois of a country has a

powerful psychological influence in stimulating and preserving the national ideal, be

it enacted: ‘The official language of the State of Illinois shall be known hereafter as

the “American” language and not as the “English” language,’” (Mencken, 1963, PP.

92-93). We wonder if those who voted “aye” knew that that very word has its roots in

Middle English!

Linguistic chauvinism often shows up in the claim that one language is more

“complex” than another. Depending upon the mood of the chauvinist at the moment,

this alleged fact may be used to condemn or to praise the language under discussion.

(For example, the language is complex and therefore overly complicated, confused,

and hard to learn. Or, the language is complex and therefore rich in expressive power

and useful for communication). Such claims presuppose a yardstick for measuring

complexity, for without one the chauvinist’s claims are simply empty. No such

yardstick exists.

1.13 LINGUISTIC UNIVERSALS

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A linguist might approach the question by asking how the rules of a grammar of

English are like those of a grammar of, say, Finnish, and whether these similarities

are also reflected in the grammars of other languages. Taking a more psychological

approach, we can ask about the similarities between what speakers of English and

Finnish know about their languages.

1.13.1 DISCRETENESS

“Discreteness. The possible messages in any language constitute a discrete repertory

rather than a continuous one”. (Hockett, 1966, p.10). That is, the messages in a human

language are built up form units (i.e., speech sounds), of which there is a limited

number. For example, you can say the word camel in a number of ways that differ

slightly from each other, but a hearer would probably regard all the pronunciations as

being variations of camel. The variations might indicate something about how

important the word was in what you were saying, about whether you were speaking

rapidly or slowly, or about your dialect; but they would all be taken as being the same

word.

1.13.2 ARBITRARINESS

“Arbitrariness. The relation between a meaningful element in language and its

denotation is independent of any physical resemblance between the two”. ( Hockett,

1966, p.10). That is, words do not have to sound or look like the things they stand for.

There are, in every language, a few words (e.g. names for animal noises) where there

is a relationship between the word’s sound and what the word stands for

(onomatopoeia). There also may be a few words in which some aspect of the word’s

sound appears to be related to the kind of thing the word means. For example, words

with vowels like ee (teeny) seem to refer to small things, while words with vowels

like oo (huge) appear to refer to large things (phonetic symbolism). What is striking

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about these phenomena is that they are quite rare and perhaps due only to chance (see

Taylor & Taylor, 1965).

1.13.3 OPENNESS

“Openness. New linguistic messages are coined freely and easily” ( Hockett, 1966,

p.11). This is one of the most important universal characteristics of human language.

Consider for a moment a simple question: How many sentences are there in English?

Although it may not be immediately obvious, the correct answer is that there is no

limit.

1.13.4 DUALITY OF PATTERNING

“Duality of patterning.” Language is, essentially, a means of relating two different

kinds of patterns or forms of representation—sound and meaning. The representation;

the representation of meanings, the semantic system, is an internal representation. The

means of relating the two is a language’s syntactic system.

1.14 THE NATURE OF LANGUAGE

For the psycholinguist and the linguist, probably the most important characteristics

are the last two universals we discussed—openness and duality of patterning.

The central fact to keep in mind is that the external form of language does not involve

representations of meanings. Meanings is conveyed from person to person

linguistically only when the speaker translates the meaning he wishes to convey into

an external form and the listener translates that form back into a representation of the

meaning. Thus, it is the internal and external codes as well as the means by which

translations between them are accomplished that constitute language. A language can

be thought of as both the two codes and the set of rules or procedures for turning a

representation in one of them into a representation in the other. In principle, the

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procedures must be able to carry out an unlimited number of such translations, each

one novel.

To put it slightly differently, what a person knows when he knows a language is how

to translate between internal and external representations. The rules and procedures

involved in such translations are, as we have already suggested, quite complicated.

This in itself would make the task of understanding what a person knows and how he

is able to make use of that knowledge a difficult one. Yet as we will soon see, the task

is made even more difficult by the fact that we do not have direct access to the

knowledge involved. Language users cannot say in any details what it is they know or

how they use that knowledge. But before exploring the implications of this lack of

awareness, there are a few additional points about the nature of language that should

be touched upon.

1.15 A UNIQUE CODE AND A GENERAL CODE

Although the external and internal codes will be discussed in detail later, one point of

contrast is worth mentioning here. The external code, the highly structured

phonological system, is unique to language and serves almost no function other than

its linguistic one.Occasionally, the close relationship between the external code and

the translation process has led people to speak as if the code itself were language.

The internal code, on the other hand, is probably not unique to language. This code

appears to serve functions in addition to its linguistic ones. The semantic code

involves concepts and propositions of the sorts involved in thought. Language is one

way, though not necessarily the only way, of translating these representations into an

external code is, of course, not necessary. We often think without speaking. And in

some cases a translation can be performed only with great difficulty. We sometimes

have trouble finding the appropriate form for expressing what is represented in the

internal code. In cases where the translation does occur, we tend to think of the

internal code as semantic and a part of language. When translation into the external

code of language does not occur, we tend to think of the internal code as a general

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cognitive code. The semantic and cognitive codes are interrelated, perhaps identical.

1.16 LANGUAGE AND THE COGNITIVE SYSTEM

We have suggested that the internal, meaningful representations may occur in a

general cognitive code, the same code involved in thinking. We might think of this

code as being the interface between language and though, the place where the two

meet. This implies that the relationship between forming and manipulating

representations in the internal cognitive code on the one hand, and translating some of

them into and out of representations in the external phonological code on the other.

The fact that such translations can be performed does not require that they must be.

Also, it does not imply that such translations can always be performed easily.

If the internal representations that underlie language are the same kind as those

involved in thinking, then it seems likely that there will be close relationships

between the kinds of phenomena we observe in language and those we observe in

some other kinds of cognitive functioning. This suggests that we might learn a great

deal about language and language processing from considering certain other aspects

of cognitive functioning. For example, it might be helpful to view that processes

involved in a child’s acquiring language as reflections of those underlying general

cognitive development .

This view that there are important parallels between the processes of understanding,

producing, and acquiring language on the one hand, and other cognitive processes on

the other, has not always been a being special, separate from other human cognitive

processes. This latter view has been reflected in a tendency to characterize the

universal properties of language as being linguistic universals, implying that there is

something specifically linguistic about them . The question of how language is related

to other human cognitive processes is, of course, not a matter to be settled by

definition. It is an empirical question, a question of what the facts are.

1.17 PROCESSES INVOLVED IN LANGUAGE ACQUISITION

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Certainly a child must be exposed to a language in order to acquire it. How else could

we account for such obvious facts as that children who are exposed to Chinese but not

English learn Chinese and not English? But beyond the mere fact of exposure to a

language, is there anything about how children interact with adult language users that

is important for their acquiring the adults’ language?

Most parents believe that there is, and if asked are likely to say that they taught their

children to talk. Several processes are frequently mentioned in this context—

reinforcement, imitation, and expansion being prominent among them.

1.17.1REINFORCEMENTS

The general notion about how reinforcement works is that adults respond positively to

some of the utterances children produce but not to others. By encouraging the

children, agreeing with what they say, showing interest, etc., they reinforce these

utterances, making the children more likely to use them in the future. If reinforcement

is selective, and only the most adult-like utterances are reinforced, it is these that are

strengthened. The other utterances, the ones that is unreinforced because they are less

adult-like, come to occur less frequently. Thus, over a period of time, the child’s

utterances become more and more like those of adults.

Such a proposal has an appealing simplicity; it sounds like something that might

happen in interactions between adults and children. Unfortunately, the proposal’s

apparent plausibility is highly misleading, because this account of language

development is wrong. Reinforcement is not a central part of language development.

The question about reinforcement is not whether the sorts of reinforcing interchanges

we have mentioned actually occur. They do. The question is whether reinforcement

has the kind of effect on language acquisition that the proposal suggests. That is, what

does the child learn about language by having certain utterances reinforced?

The reinforcement proposal suggests that language acquisition is a process of

strengthening and shaping particular behaviors, in this case utterance. In order for a

child’s utterance to be strengthened or shaped, he must first produce it. Hence,

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reinforcement cannot easily account for the initial occurrence of utterances. And, as

we have already said, utterances are understood before they are produced. Thus, there

are many aspects of language acquisition about which the reinforcement proposal has

nothing to say.

1.17.2 IMITATION

Young children often reproduce portions of utterances they have recently heard,

though such reproductions, or imitations, are generally not exact copies of those

utterances. It is often suggested that imitation serves to increase the child’s language

abilities, that is, that he learns about language through imitating it . The question of

interest here is not whether children imitate utterances they hear. Clearly, they do.

The question is, rather, whether imitation has an effect upon language development.

There is clear evidence that imitating utterances is not a necessary condition for

language development. Occasionally children are born who, because of disorders of

the speech production mechanisms, are unable to produce the sounds of human

speech. But such children show essentially normal development of the ability to

understand language (Lenneberg, 1962; MacNeilage, Rootes, & Chase, 1967). Thus,

being able to produce speech (and hence being able to imitate) is not essential for

progress in other aspects of language development.

1.17.3 EXPANSION

Children imitate adults’ utterances, but adults also “imitate” children. But while a

child’s imitations of an adult are likely to be reductions of the adult’s utterances, the

adult’s imitations of the child are likely to be expansions, taking the child’s

incomplete utterances and expanding them into appropriate full sentences.

1.18 THE DEVELOPMENT OF COMMUNICATION SKILLS

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Children obviously do not acquire language simply to amuse themselves or because

they have nothing better to do. One of the major functions that children’s language

serves for them is communicating—communicating information about what they

know (and, in asking questions, about what they do not know), about how they feel,

what they need, and so forth. Even young children communicate about such things,

sometimes verbally, sometimes non-verbally, and often in both ways simultaneously.

But communicating effectively requires more than just knowing a language and

having something to communicate. It requires, in addition, being able to take into

account the characteristics of the audience to which the communication is directed-

what they already know, what they might be interested in knowing, etc. in discussing

sentence production in adults .

1.19 WRITING SYSTEMS

It is tempting to think of written material as simply a way of making spoken language

visible and permanent. However, this view is too simple. For one thing, there are

many written forms that do not correspond at all closely to the way that people talk.

Consider, for example, the instructions on an income tax form, or those that come

with a do-it-yourself electronics kit. No one, not even a government bureaucrat, talks

like these written forms. Much descriptive writing also has a style quite unlike any

spoken form (read any travel brochure for evidence of this). Since many things that

we read are quite different in structure and style from what we hear, the view that

writing is just speech made permanent simply cannot be correct. Writing is an abstract

system which certainly bears an intimate relationship to the abstract system of spoken

language, but that relationship is not generally one of simple and direct translation.

As we think about the way in which the reader translates the printed word into a

meaningful message, our conception of this process must be shaped by the nature of

the written code itself. Not all writing systems encode information in the same way.

The inventions do not all have the same patent number. Early writing may have

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developed out of the use of symbols that represented animals and other images. These

early symbols bore more-or-less direct relationships to the things they represented, as

when a stylized picture of a horse was used to represent a horse. Around 15,000 B.C.,

some marks began to be used in more abstract ways, perhaps to represent lunar cycles

(Marshack, 1972). This was an important step in the evolution of writing. However,

we do not speak of symbolic notations as being writing until the symbols were used to

represent elements of the spoken language (e.g., words, syllables, phonemes).

Writing, then, did not appear until long after the early symbolic period.

Three major systems of writing have been invented, along with many that are

combination forms. The three major ones are the logographic, the syllabic, and the

alphabetic. The earliest writing of which we have records is Egyptian, and comes

from the latter part of the fourth millennium B.C. the Egyptian system consisted of

approximately five hundred symbols (hieroglyphs) which represented words for

objects, actions, and abstractions (Lehmann, 1962). Since each symbol represented a

word or concept, the system is called logographic (from the Greek logos or word).

Later, the Egyptian system developed into one in which the hieroglyphs sometimes

represented words and sometimes syllables. (When the written symbol represents a

syllable, the writing system is, of course, syllabic.)

Some time before 1500 B.C. an important advance in writing systems was made by

Semtic-speaking people. The Semtic system still used hieroglyphs, but it used only 24

such symbols, each of which stood for a consonant (Bloomfield, 1933). It was the

Greeks who added written representations for the vowels and essentially made the

writing system alphabetic. (In an alphabetic system the written symbol represents,

approximately, a phoneme.) According to Lehmann (1962), “This advance in writing

systems has never been independently duplicated, nor have writing systems

developed beyond it.” The development of the alphabetic principle has stimulated

scholars to rapturous admiration:

The notion of representing a sound by a graphic symbol is itself so stupefying a leap

of the imagination that what is remarkable is not so much that it happened relatively

late in human history, but rather that it happened at all. (Goody & Watt, 1963)

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Writing systems based upon all three principles still exist today. The Chinese system

is primarily logographic; the Japanese is a combination of logographic and syllabic;

and, of course, English is primarily an alphabetic system. Not all symbols in English

are alphabetic, however; the symbol “c” is logographic, and a symbol like “4 th”

involves a combination of systems.The process involved in extracting information

form a printed page no doubt depend heavily upon which kind of writing system is

being read. Users of a logographic system are presented with a different set of

problems than are users of an alphabetic system. Many psychologists have speculated

that learning a logographic system like Chinese may be much more difficult than

learning to read English.

1.20 LANGUAGE AND THE BRAIN

The existence of a relationship between the brain and language has been recognized

for a very long time. The ancient Egyptians recorded reports of head injuries that

resulted in the loss of speech, the phenomenon we now know as aphasia. Many of the

phenomena we have discussed throughout his book point to the central role which the

brain plays in linguistic competence and performance. Similarly, the speech

perception and comprehension processes discussed earlier are to be accounted for

mainly in terms of cortical mechanisms and functioning. In this chapter we will focus

directly on the nature of the brain’s involvement in language.

Three themes will guide our discussion. One concerns the possible relationships

between specific brain structures and specific language functions. This topic is

generally referred to as the localization of language functions. The second topic,

closely related to the first, concerns the effects of brain damage upon language

functions. The primary focus here will be on the kind of language deficit known as

aphasia. The third topic concerns the extent to which language is unique to humans.

We will be concerned here with whether or not the human brain is the only one

possessing the structures and capabilities necessary for language. This is the question

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of the species specificity of language. Throughout the discussion our guiding concern

will be to discover what can be learned from a study of the brain-language

relationship about the psychological processes involved in language.

1.21 THE STUDY OF THE BRAIN-LANGUAGE RELATIONSHIP

Since the ancient Egyptians first discovered aphasia, we have learned a great deal

about the brain and about language. But although we have acquired a great many

facts, a coherent account of the relationships between these two areas of interest still

eludes us. Almost every aspect of the brain’s involvement in language still gives rise

to heated arguments. We should not find this too surprising, for we have seen

abundant evidence that the processes involved in such performances as understanding

and producing utterances are enormously complex. And it is equally apparent that the

human brain is unequalled in complexity by any other organ. Finding the

relationships that hold between one set of complexities and another has to be very

difficult.

However, it is not just their complexity that underlies our ignorance of the

relationships between the brain and language. Rather, it is that much of what we know

about the brain is the wrong sort of knowledge. The relevant things we know about

language are largely about the processes involved in translating from a speech signal

to a meaning and back again. In the case of the brain, we know a great deal about the

anatomy and physiology of its Mann interrelated structures, but we are still all too

ignorant of the functions those structures serve. That is, we know what kinds of things

the brain must be doing when producing or understanding utterances, but we do not

know very know how it does those things.

One reason for this unhappy situation is the immense difficulty of obtain relevant data

about brain functions. To discover such data generally requires studying the brain

while it is functioning (though a certain amount can be learned from anatomical data

collected at autopsy). In the main, we are forced to work with two kinds of data:

records of brain activity occurring during language related activities (e.g.,

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electrophysiological data), and data on the effects of pathological brain conditions on

activities involving language.

There are, essentially, two relevant kinds of electrophysiological data concerning

brain activity. One comes from stimulating brain structures electrically while those

structures are exposed for surgery (see, e.g., Penfield & Roberts, 1959). Since patients

are generally conscious during such surgery, it is possible to observe the effects that

stimulating a particular area has on their speech performance. But brain surgery is not

performed for the purpose of collecting such data. It is done to treat some

pathological condition (e.g., to remove a tumor). Thus, such data are available only

for brains that are not functioning normally, and it is difficult to interpret them in

terms of language-related brain functions in the normal, nonpathological brain.

The second kind of electrophysiological data comes from recording the brain’s

surface electrical activity (electroencephalographic, or EEG, activity) while subjects

are engaged in some language activity. This technique can, of course, be used with

normal subjects, giving it an advantage over other techniques. The difficulty is that

there are no simple relationships between such surface electrical activity and the

underlying brain processes which give rise to it. The data are very “noisy”. One of our

colleagues has remarked about EEG studies of auditory perception that learning about

audition from them is like trying to learn how baseball is played by analyzing

recordings made with a microphone attached to the top of the Houston Astrodome. It

is not that there is nothing to be learned this way. The problem is, rather, that unless

you already know what you are looking for in the EEG data it is very difficult to find

it amid all the other, irrelevant things that are also there. For this reason we will not

be able to make much use of the EEG data available.

The other main source of evidence on the brain-language relationship is studies of

language deficits produced by such pathological conditions of the brain as those

resulting from cerebral hemorrhages, tumors, and injuries. A wealth of data

concerning such effects has accumulated over the past century. As we will see

shortly, there is considerable debate over both the usefulness and the interpretation of

these data. For example, it is generally difficult to pinpoint the exact nature or extent

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of brain damage. Although techniques for obtaining such information have improved

in the past few years, the relevant anatomical data are usually unavailable until an

autopsy can be performed, often many years after the initial damage. During the

interim, many brain changes can occur, clouding the picture of the damage which

produced the language deficit in the first place.

But although there are major difficulties in interpreting the kinds of data available on

the brain functions underlying language, they are all the data we have. We have little

choice but to try to make as much sense of them as we can. Before considering these

data on the relationships between brain structures and language functions, it will be

useful to very briefly review some of the relevant structures.

1.22 BRAIN STRUCTURE AND LANGUAGE

In discussions of language and the brain, one often hears the statement that humans

have large brains, relative to body weight, compared with other animals. This fact is

sometimes used to “explain” why humans alone have language: only they have large

enough brains to cope with linguistic complexities. It is true that the ratio of brain

weight to body weight is relatively high in humans (Lenneberg, 1967). This ratio is

about 1/47 (with a brain weight of 1.35 kg) for an adult human, compared to about

1/104 (with a brain weight of .45 kg) for an adult chimpanzee.

It appears, however, that neither the mass of the brain nor the brain/body weight ratio

is the crucial determinant of language capabilities. Humans with remarkably small

brains have acquired language. There is, for example, a rare condition known as

nanocephalic dwarfism in which, unlike other dwarfs, the individuals preserve the

body proportions of normal humans. Such individuals may be only 75 cm ( 21/2 feet)

tall as adults. The adult brain weight of nanocephalic dwarfs may be as little as. 4 kg,

barely more than that of a normal newborn infant. Their brain/body weight ratio is

about 1/34, about the same as a 3-year-old (i.e still immature) chimpanzee, whose

brain weight is also .4 kg. Although these dwarfs are mentally retarded, with a mental

age of 5 or 6 years, the majority master language skills at the 5-year-old level. We

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know from chapter 6 and 7 that this is a substantial mastery of language.

The nanocephalic dwarf has a very small brain and almost masters language. Other

creatures match these individuals in brain weight and in brain/body weight ratio and

do not acquire language. This calls into doubt the argument that brain size is all-

important to language. Lenneberg (1967) noted that the important fact about the

nanocephalic dwarf’s brain is that it is a human brain—it has the structural and

organizational characteristics distinctive of the human species. It is not the brain’s

size that is important for language. Rather, it is the brain’s structure and organization.

The human brain, viewed from the outside, looks rather like a wrinkled boxing glove.

Somewhat more accurately, it looks like two boxing gloves held tightly together with

the thumbs along the outside edges. Like the rest of the body, the brain is roughly

symmetrical around the midline—it’s left and right halves, or hemispheres, are nearly

mirror-images of each other. Most concern about the brain’s involvement in language

has focused on the cerebral cortex, the thin layer of fissured and convoluted tissue

which covers the surface of the brain and gives it its wrinkled appearance. The two

hemispheres of the cortex are almost completely separated at the midline, being

joined only by a sheet of nerve fibers known as the corpus callosum. All

communication between the cortical areas of the two hemispheres occurs thought the

corpus callosum.

Two areas of the cerebral cortex that are generally accepted as being intimately

involved in language functions are Brocas’s area and Wernicke’s area. The first of

these is named for Paul Broca, who is generally regarded as being the first (1861) to

point out a relationship between damage to a particular brain area and aphasia. Broca

argued that the structures of this area are the one primarily involved in the production

of speech, a view still accepted by many, though not all, authorities.

Wernicke’s area, named for another pioneering aphasiologist, is often regarded as

being involved mainly in receptive aspects of language processing. A third cortical

area regarded as important for language is the supplementary motor area. That these

areas are involved in language functioning is indisputable. What is far more

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controversial, as we shall see, is how they are involved.

One fact on which there is considerable agreement is that the brain’s left hemisphere

is more intimately involved in language than the right hemisphere. Since the time of

Broca, for example, it has been apparent that damage to the left hemisphere is far

more likely to result in aphasia than is corresponding damage to the right hemisphere.

This lateral difference, sometimes referred to as cerebral dominance, appears to be

related in a complex way to handedness. For nearly all right-handed adults, it is the

left hemisphere that is dominant for language. The correlation is more complex for

individuals who are left-handed. The majority of these (60-70%) are also left-

hemisphere that is dominant for language while the remainder are right-hemisphere

dominant. There is little doubt that the two hemispheres of the cortex serve somewhat

different functions and that these differences are in some way involved with language.

But, as we shall see later, the nature of the difference is highly complex and a matter

of considerable controversy. In any event, Broca’s observation that aphasia was

associated with left hemisphere damage was the first indication that language

functions might be localized in particular areas of the brain.

1.23 THOUGHT AND LANGUAGE

Learning common term for a set of objects permits the set to be more readily

manipulated in our cognitive systems. As a result, those objects in the culture that are

referred to by a common linguistic term will tend to be manipulated together in the

speaker’s cognitive system. It is important to note, however, that the language does

not have complete freedom to sort just any set of objects together. As the researcher

get further from perceptual objects such as shape and color, our flexibility in choosing

what can be members of a common class may increase, but there probably are always

cognitive constraints upon what conceptual (as well as perceptual ) objects can go

together as members of a useful cognitive category.

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Let us return for a moment to the example of the verb be in Black English. We can

ask whether speakrs of BE are more aware of whether an event is momentary or

ongoing than are speakers of SE. According to the weak version of Whorf’s

hypothesis, they should be. Since the language requires that this aspect of the event be

coded in the verb system of BE, speakers must attend to it. Speakers of SE are not

required to encode this aspect of events in their speech, and therefore they may not be

as aware of the distinction.

We do not want to make the same mistake that Whorf made and stop here. The

linguistic distinction is not in itself evidence about the cognitive stat of the language

user. We know of no direct evidence that bears on the point, so our comments must

remain at the level of speculation for now. But there are plenty of reasons to be

skeptical about the claim that speakers of BE are more aware of the ongoing or

momentary nature of the events they describe than are speakers of SE. One reason for

skepticism has to do with the notion of “awareness” that we have been using so

loosely up to this point. When a language makes use of a distinction this fact alone

does not imply that the language user is consciously aware of that distinction. The

processing which makes use of the distinction may occur so automatically as to be

outside of the speaker’s conscious awareness.

For example, we are almost always unaware of whether the final phonological

segment of singular nouns is voiced or unvoiced, but we consistenltly make use of the

voicing information when we add plural markers. Words ending in voiceless

consonants are made plural by adding /s/ while those ending in voiced consonants are

pluralized by adding /z/. the operations that carry out this process occur outside of our

awareness. Do we “pay attention” to the voicing feature when we form plurals? In

one sense, we do. Our production mechanism takes voicing into account as it carries

out its operations. In another sense, we don’t. we are not consciously aware of the

distinction and, in fact, probably were not aware of it even when we acquired it. A

text book can point out the distinction, but even then it does not become part of our

conscious awareness as we are actually producing sentences and making use of it.

Analogously, it is not obvious that speakers of BE are consciously aware of the

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distinction between the ongoing or temporary state of an event even as they produce.

So, before we can answer the question of whether or not the cognitive state of the

speaker of BE is different form that of the speaker of SE, we must clarify what is

going to count as a difference in cognitive state.

In sum, then, whether or not one concludes that systematic linguistic differences lead

to systematic cognitive differences depends on what one means by the latter phrase. If

it is taken to mean, “differences in conscious awareness of aspects of the

environment,” then the answer to the question is not likely to be the same as when it

means “differences in processing operations.” In the latter case the weak version of

Whorf’s hypothesis is reduced to a truism. That is, if the linguistic code is different

between two dialects (and it is, by definition) then the processing operations of the

speakers who possess the two dialects must also be different. In the former case,

however, more work has to be done before the hypothesis is shown to be true.

In order to make clear the relationship between language and thinking, we must first

clarify our picture of each of these separately. We need to have a better theory of

cognitive processes in general and of language processing in particular. In limited

domains, such as solving the kinds of word problems that Clark put to his subjects,

we have “mini-theories” of thought. In these cases some of the relationships between

our theory of language and our theory of thinking have been spelled out. But Clark’s

theory and the other mini-theories that exist, even if correct, will not generalize to all

aspects of question answering left alone to all aspects of thinking.

1.24 CONCLUSION:

An aspect of Writing proficiency that is receiving increasing attention fits with the

view of “Writer as a thinker”.Language and Thought process is a central and

important part of writing , as it able to enhance the quality of writing. The investigator

collected literature and analyzed various studies related to writing competence,

Psycholinguistic and Neurolinguistics.

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As a next step the researcher had ventured to get a comprehensive view of the

research works already done on the major issues relating to the topic. Through the

researcher had collected exhaustive materials, only the most significant and relevant

studies are reviewed and presented in the following chapter.

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CHAPTER – II

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

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CHAPTER - II

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

2.0 INTRODUCTION:

The review of the literature involves locating, reading and evaluating reports of

research as well as reports of casual observation and opinion that are related to the

individuals planned research project.

Survey of literature is as crucial as planning of the study and time; spent in such a

survey invariable is a wise investment. It gives the knowledge of the previous studies

undertaken, the latest trend in the field of present investigation, the missing gaps and

gives scope for future investigation. The major purpose of reviewing the literature is

to determine what has already done that to the research topic under investigation. This

knowledge not only avoid unintentional duplication but also provides understanding

and insights necessary to develop a logical frame work into which the research topic

fit.

In this chapter, the researcher gave studies based on Psycholinguistic and

Neurolinguistics and Writing competence which was already done by various

researchers and the investigator reviewed it for references for her study .This chapter

contains nearly forty reviews of various researches.

2.1 STUDIES BASED ON NEUROLINGUISTICS

Carey, John; Churches, Richard; Hutchinson, Geraldine; Jones, Jeff; Tosey, Paul,(2010),

did a study on Neuro-Linguistic Programming and Learning: Teacher Case Studies on the

Impact of NLP in Education. This research paper reports on evidence from 24 teacher-

led action research case studies and builds on the 2008 CfBT Education Trust

published paper by Richard Churches and John West-Burnham "Leading learning

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through relationships: the implications of Neurolinguistic programming for

personalisation and the children's agenda in England". The current research focused

on two gaps in the research literature: (1) The absence of any formal and systematic

literature review of evidence in relation to the impact and use of NLP in education;

and (2) The lack of any substantive teacher-led and classroom-based action research

in this area. Teachers followed the Teacher Learning Academy framework in

designing and implementing their research--a framework that CfBT Education Trust

was closely involved in the development of. All of the case studies demonstrate

significant impact in relation to teacher development, with many demonstrating

positive impacts on pupil learning outcomes. The paper also contains the first

systematic and comprehensive literature review of research evidence into the impact

of NLP in education and discusses the content of 111 papers and references including

quantitative and qualitative research evidence. The majority of published work was

found to be supportive of the use of NLP in schools and education although, as the

authors point out, this should only be considered as an interim finding because of the

wide range of methods used and variations in the quality of some of the research.

Helm, David Jay, (2009) did a study on Improving English Instruction through Neuro-

Linguistic Programming, This study examines the background information and

numerous applications of neuro-linguistic programming as it applies to improving

English instruction. In addition, the N.L.P. modalities of eye movement, the use of

predicates, and posturing are discussed. Neuro-linguistic programming presents all

students of English an opportunity to reach their full intellectual potential in the

learning environment.

Morett, Laura, (2007) did a study on Second Language Learning in an Undergraduate

Population: Applications of Psycholinguistic Theory, A mini-lesson in Spanish

vocabulary was taught to undergraduates unfamiliar with the language using one of

two predominant L2 teaching methodologies, the grammar-translation approach or the

communicative approach. Both experimental groups showed significant improvement

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in learning the target language over the baseline measure set by the control group, but

no significant differences were observed between the two experimental groups.

Working memory efficiency appeared to be related to L2 learning. Two weeks later,

there were no significant differences between the performance of the any of the

groups. A subset of participants who underwent a neuroimaging procedure while

performing the experimental tasks showed higher overall cerebral blood flow

velocities under the condition based on the grammar-translation approach compared

to the condition based on the communicative approach. Taken as a whole, these

results form a mosaic of the mechanisms and variables involved in second language

learning, providing insight into the process of second language acquisition in

undergraduate students. Appended are: (1) Informed consent form for main task

component; (2) Pre-screening quiz; (3) Demographic survey; (4) Bilingual vocabulary

sheet; (5) Graphic vocabulary sheet; (6) Bilingual worksheet; (7) Graphic worksheet;

(8) Metacognitive survey; (9) Short-term post assessment; (10) Debriefing form for

main task component; (11) Informed consent form for follow-up component; (12)

Long-term post assessment; (13) Debriefing form for follow-up component; (14)

Informed consent form for neuroimaging component; (15) Debriefing form for

neuroimaging component; (16) Informed consent form for multicultural component;

(17) Interview questions; and (18) Debriefing form for multicultural component.

Valarino H., Elizabeth, (1997) did a study on Automatism and Neurolinguistics in the

Creation of a Fairy Tale for Adults: Excerpts of "The Secret of the Seventh Tower.", Present

excerpts of a fairy tale for adults entitled "The Secret of the Seventh Tower,"

indicating the presence of the neurolinguistic systems of representation used in its

creation during the process of automatism (automatic writing). Notes that the model

can facilitate the resolution of writer's block and enhance creative writing in seminars

for students and university professors.

Hynd, George W.; (1991) did a study on, Developmental Dyslexia, Neurolinguistic Theory

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and Deviations in Brain Morphology. This research reviews computer tomography and

magnetic resonance imaging studies examining deviations in brain morphology.

Discusses methodological and technical issues. Concludes that dyslexics show

variations in specific brain regions. Suggests that neuroimaging procedures appear to

provide direct evidence supporting the importance of deviations in normal patterns of

brain morphology in dyslexia.

Sandhu, Daya Singh,(1991) did a study on , Application of Neurolinguistic Programming

for Treatment and Relapse Prevention of Addictive Behaviors. The dilemma of relapse

exists for a number of addictive behaviors, and mental health authorities agree that

keeping addictive behaviors off permanently is much more difficult than treating the

behaviors initially. Several relapse prevention models have been posited and

environmental, physiological, behavioral, cognitive, and affective factors have been

proposed to explain relapse after treatment of addictive behaviors. A conceptual

model for relapse prevention and treatment was developed which underscores the role

of intrapsychic variables that form the structure of subjective experiences of the

clients and contribute to relapse. Neurolinguistic programming (NLP) techniques are

incorporated into the model to deal with the relapse problems of addictive clients.

This NLP model emphasizes establishing rapport with clients to access their

subjective experiences. NLP techniques are employed to examine the client's belief

system, including beliefs about addictive behaviors, change, dealing with

incongruence or conflicting beliefs, and targets of intervention. The NLP model

works to plan a road map to change. NLP meta-tactics are used to re-imprint new

beliefs on the client, access the deep structure of the client's subjective experience,

explore the client's change history, reframe the situation, program the client's brain to

"go in a new direction" through the "swish" technique, and ensure that positive

changes that took place during therapy become generalized to other contexts through

the technique of future pacing.

Johnsen, Birgitta,(1990) did a study on, Acquisition of Reading and Writing. A

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Neurolinguistic Approach. In the neurolinguistic approach to the study of the

acquisition of reading and writing, language may be used to express thoughts and

intellectual attitudes as well as emotions and emotional attitudes. Experimental

studies and clinical data suggest that grammatical rules for spoken language

predominantly rely on the left hemisphere of the brain, while the grammatical rules

for body language (expressing emotions) rely more on the right hemisphere. The

neurolinguistic approach also holds that: (1) in normal children and adults there is a

strong relationship between expressive speech ability and reading and writing; (2)

dyslexia is related to a left hemisphere lesion or to the absence of left hemisphere

dominance for auditory discrimination of speech sounds; (3) speechless persons can

develop reading and writing skills; (4) there are some basic abilities that must be

available to these persons; and (5) it is possible to support the development of these

abilities by using pictorial symbols.

Williams, M. F.; Jacobson, W. H.,(1989) did a study on , Neurolinguistic Programming in

Orientation and Mobility. The research describes the neurolinguistic programing model

and applies it to teaching orientation and mobility skills to congenitally blind

students, who have access to only the auditory and kinesthetic primary systems.

Understanding the effects on thought of limited representational systems can help

trainers teach more effective cane or dog guide use.

Leavell, Carol; Lewandowski, Lawrence (1989) did a study on, Neurolinguistic Deficits

and the Left Hemisphere in the Reading Disabled. This study addressed the left

hemisphere deficiency hypothesis, associated with reading disability, by accounting

for attention and examining the relationship between dichotic listening results and

neuropsychological deficits. Twenty reading-disabled (RD) and 20 non-reading-

disabled (NRD) boys, aged 8-12, were administered the Verbal Dichotic Listening

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Task, the Non Verbal Dichotic Listening Task, the Lindamood Auditory Conceptual

Test (LAC), and the Luria Nebraska Neuropsychological Battery-Childrens Revision

(LNNB-CR). Results showed that RD children performed significantly more poorly

than NRD children on: tests designed to measure overall "neurological involvement";

scales believed to tap predominantly left hemispheric processes, including the LNNB-

CR Writing, Expressive Language, and Reading scales; the LAC, a test of phonemic

segmentation; and the Left Sensorimotor scale, a scale which presumably taps left

hemispheric sensory and motor functions. RD children performed equivalently to

NRD children on the right hemispheric Visual scale. While RD children exhibited a

similar left ear advantage for dichotic words as NRD children, they performed more

poorly with both left and right ears. These data suggest that RD boys have problems

with specific, predominantly left hemisphere-controlled functions, some of which are

critical to reading.

Sharpley, Christopher F. (1987) did a study on , Research Findings on Neurolinguistic

Programming: Nonsupportive Data or an Untestable Theory?, This research examines the

experimental literature on neurolinguistic programming (NLP). Sharpley (l984) and

Einspruch and Forman (l985) concluded that the effectiveness of this therapy was yet

to be demonstrated. Presents data from seven recent studies that further question the

basic tenets of NLP and their application in counseling situations.

Cassiere, M. F.;  (1987) did study on, Gender Differences in the Primary Representational

System according to Neurolinguistic Programming. Neurolinguistic Programming (NLP)

is a currently popular therapeutic modality in which individuals organize information

through three basic sensory systems, one of which is the Primary Representational

System (PRS). This study was designed to investigate gender differences in PRS

according to the predicate preference method. It was expected that males would be

identified as primarily visual and that females would be identified as primarily

kinesthetic. Results suggest that standard guidelines should be developed for scoring

predicates and that NLP should be used cautiously until further research has been

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conducted.

Schmedlen, George W. (1987) did a study on , Neuro-Linguistic Programming, Matching

Sensory Predicates, and Rapport. A key task for the therapist in psychotherapy is to

build trust and rapport with the client. Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP)

practitioners believe that matching the sensory modality (representational system) of a

client's predicates (verbs, adverbs, and adjectives) improves rapport. In this study, 16

volunteer subjects participated in two sessions of analogue therapy. The findings fail

to support the hypotheses in terms of increased perception of the therapist's Level of

Regard or improved showing on the Depth/Value, Smoothness/Ease or Positive

Feeling indices at the .05 level. The findings are interpreted as supporting the idea

that systematic matching (versus mismatching) of a client's sensory predicates

improves the client's perception of the empathic component of rapport in the therapist.

Burton, Grace M., (1986) did a study on , Using Neurolinguistic Programming: Some

Suggestions for the Remedial Teacher. The use of neurolinguistic programming

techniques is suggested as a means of enhancing rapport with students. Mirroring,

digital mirroring, analog mirroring, metaphors, knowing persons, and how these aid

in presenting content are each discussed.

Obler, Loraine K., (1983) did a study on , Knowledge in Neurolinguistics: The Case of

Bilingualism. This research emphasizes the importance of psycholinguistic research in

enabling us to discover phenomena which will later be seen to have representations in

the brain. In addition, the different ways a second language is learned and used, as

well as the differences in the actual language structures themselves, will participate in

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determining brain organization for language.

2.2 STUDIES BASED ON PSYCHOLINGUISTIC

Scovel, Thomas, (1998) did study on Psycholinguistics. Oxford Introductory to Language

Study. This brief survey of the field of psycholinguistics is intended for both students

and anyone interested in language. It contains a summary overview of the main

features of this area of language study: scope and principles of inquiry; basic

concerns; and key concepts. Chapter topics include: language acquisition (first words,

the birth of grammar, evidence or the innateness of language ability, linguistic

creativity, stages of linguistic development); language production (conceptualization,

formulation, articulation, self-monitoring); comprehension (of sounds, words,

sentences, texts); and language loss (neurolinguistics and language loss, speech and

language disorders). A section on related readings offers suggestions for further study

for each chapter.

Homstad, Alice, (1987) did a study on, . Neurolinguistic and Psycholinguistic Research on

Learning Modes of Older Language Learners: Classroom Implications. This research

reviews of neurolinguistic and psycholinguistic research regarding older (over 40

years of age) second language learners suggests classroom implications for dealing

with this population's pronunciation problems and ways to capitalize on their

superiority to younger students in terms of higher order linguistic processing.

Marcum, Karen, (1987) did a study on , Lozanov's Suggestopedy: A Psycholinguistic

Analysis of Its Theory and Praxis. Suggestopedia, the psycholinguistic second language

teaching methodology of Georgi Lozanov, has received both favorable and

unfavorable evaluations from well-known scholars in the field of language learning.

Some suspicious views by Western scholars may be due to the paucity of

interpretable scientific evidence for the method's claims. An examination of the

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underlying principles of the method suggests that they are valid and accurate in light

of current theory on the nature of learning, language acquisition, and memory. While

the claims that the method induces "superlearning" or "hypermnesia" need more

substantial empirical validation, theory on learning may suggest that Lozanov's

method should achieve better than average results in learning.

Pyee-Cohen, Doris, (1986) did a study on, L'analyse psycholinguistique de l'activite

langagiere en langue non-maternelle: Bilan des recherches actuelles (Psycholinguistic

Analysis of Non-Native Language Activity: Indications on Current Research). Reviews

research on the psycholinguistic processes underlying second-language learning,

especially as it relates to the concept of interlanguage and the contributions made by

sociolinguistics, neurolinguistics, and cognitive psychology.

Hatch, Evelyn Marcussen, (1983) did a study on , Psycholinguistics: A Second Language

Perspective. Perspectives of the field of psycholinguistics and second language

research are examined to provide a broader understanding of language learning and

language behavior. Psycholinguistics, which uses the approaches of psychology and

linguistics is defined as the search for an understanding of how humans comprehend

and produce language. Based on the view that language can be examined at different

hierarchical levels (psycholinguistic plan levels) and that the lower levels can affect

higher levels, research findings for the following levels are examined: (1) phonology;

(2) morphology; (3) lexicon; (4) syntax and sentence comprehension models; (5)

syntax and language acquisition; (6) discourse and sentence syntax; (7) discourse and

communication; (8) input/interaction and language development; (9) individual

factors--age; (10) neurolinguistics and bilingualism; and (11) cognition, cognitive

strategies, and language acquisition. By attending to factors related to second

language acquisition, questions not covered in the psycholinguistic literature are

discussed that may support linguistic rules or descriptions of language. While much

of the review research primarily represents the reductionist school, unified

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explanations have also been addressed. The text may be appropriate for use in

methods courses.

Ellis, Nick C.; Simpson-Vlach, Rita; Maynard, Carson, (2008) did a study on, Formulaic

Language in Native and Second Language Speakers: Psycholinguistics, Corpus Linguistics,

and TESOL, Natural language makes considerable use of recurrent formulaic patterns

of words. This article triangulates the construct of "formula" from corpus linguistic,

psycholinguistic, and educational perspectives. It describes the corpus linguistic

extraction of pedagogically useful formulaic sequences for academic speech and

writing. It determines English as a second language (ESL) and English for academic

purposes (EAP) instructors' evaluations of their pedagogical importance. It

summarizes three experiments which show that different aspects of formulaicity

affect the accuracy and fluency of processing of these formulas in native speakers and

in advanced L2 learners of English. The language processing tasks were selected to

sample an ecologically valid range of language processing skills: spoken and written,

production and comprehension. Processing in all experiments was affected by various

corpus-derived metrics: length, frequency, and mutual information (MI), but to

different degrees in the different populations. For native speakers, it is predominantly

the MI of the formula which determines processability; for nonnative learners of the

language, it is predominantly the frequency of the formula. The implications of these

findings are discussed for (a) the psycholinguistic validity of corpus-derived

formulas, (b) a model of their acquisition, (c) ESL and EAP instruction and the

prioritization of which formulas to teach.

Diehl, Joshua J.; Bennetto, Loisa; Watson, Duane; Gunlogson, Christine; McDonough,

Joyce, (2008) did a study on, Resolving Ambiguity: A Psycholinguistic Approach to

Understanding Prosody Processing in High-Functioning Autism, Individuals with autism

exhibit significant impairments in prosody production, yet there is a paucity of

research on prosody comprehension in this population. The current study adapted a

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psycholinguistic paradigm to examine whether individuals with autism are able to use

prosody to resolve syntactically ambiguous sentences. Participants were 21

adolescents with high-functioning autism (HFA), and 22 typically developing controls

matched on age, IQ, receptive language, and gender. The HFA group was

significantly less likely to use prosody to disambiguate syntax, but scored comparably

to controls when syntax alone or both prosody and syntax indicated the correct

response. These findings indicate that adolescents with HFA have difficulty using

prosody to disambiguate syntax in comparison to typically developing controls, even

when matched on chronological age, IQ, and receptive language. The implications of

these findings for how individuals with autism process language are discussed

Caplan, David; Waters, Gloria; DeDe, Gayle; Michaud, Jennifer; Reddy, Amanda, (2007)

did a study on, A Study of Syntactic Processing in Aphasia I: Behavioral (Psycholinguistic)

Aspects , This paper presents the results of a study of syntactically based

comprehension in aphasic patients. We studied 42 patients with aphasia secondary to

left hemisphere strokes and 25 control participants. We measured off-line, end-of-

sentence, performance (accuracy and reaction time) in two tasks that require

comprehension--enactment and sentence-picture matching--and in grammaticality

judgment, with whole sentence auditory presentation. The results showed that almost

no individual patients had stable deficits referable to the ability to interpret individual

syntactic structures, that a variety of structural features contributed to sentence

processing complexity both on-line and off-line, that correct responses were

associated with normal on-line and errors with abnormal performance, and that the

major determinant of performance is a factor that affected performance on all

sentence types. The results indicate that the major cause of aphasic impairments of

syntactically based comprehension are intermittent reductions in the processing

capacity available for syntactic, interpretive, and task-related operations.

Morett, Laura, (2007) did a study on, Second Language Learning in an Undergraduate

Population: Applications of Psycholinguistic Theory, A mini-lesson in Spanish

Page 64: Dissertation

vocabulary was taught to undergraduates unfamiliar with the language using one of

two predominant L2 teaching methodologies, the grammar-translation approach or the

communicative approach. Working memory efficiency appeared to be related to L2

learning. A subset of participants who underwent a neuro imaging procedure while

performing the experimental tasks showed higher overall cerebral blood flow

velocities under the condition based on the grammar-translation approach compared

to the condition based on the communicative approach. Taken as a whole, these

results form a mosaic of the mechanisms and variables involved in second language

learning, providing insight into the process of second language acquisition in

undergraduate students. Appended are: (1) Informed consent form for main task

component; (2) Pre-screening quiz; (3) Demographic survey; (4) Bilingual vocabulary

sheet; (5) Graphic vocabulary sheet; (6) Bilingual worksheet; (7) Graphic worksheet;

(8) Metacognitive survey; (9) Short-term post assessment; (10) Debriefing form for

main task component; (11) Informed consent form for follow-up component; (12)

Long-term post assessment; (13) Debriefing form for follow-up component; (14)

Informed consent form for neuroimaging component; (15) Debriefing form for

neuroimaging component; (16) Informed consent form for multicultural component;

(17) Interview questions; and (18) Debriefing form for multicultural component.

Nergard-Nilssen, T.,(2006) did a study on, Word-Decoding Deficits in Norwegian: The

Impact of Psycholinguistic Marker Effects, The effects of regularity, frequency,

lexicality, and granularity on single word reading in Norwegian children with

dyslexia and control children matched for age and reading level were examined. The

reading impaired children showed the same pattern of performance as younger

children matched for reading level on most tasks except for the fact that they were

worse at nonword reading. The findings are discussed against different theoretical

models of reading.

Catton, Julie C., (2006) did a study on, A Pilot Study on a Holistic Model Incorporating a

Psycholinguistic Approach Accelerating Second Language Acquisition Students learning a

Page 65: Dissertation

second language commonly confront insurmountable obstacles in the language

acquisition process, due to the ineffectiveness of traditional, grammar-first methods.

This creates detrimental effects on the learner and his or her self-esteem. Existing

literature contains information about problems created by traditional approaches, the

effectiveness of a natural approach and key elements necessary to establish it. The

purpose of this study is to examine the failings of traditional methods and to review

some important natural ways that remedy these failings, yet have their own

shortcomings. This study reports efforts to improve natural approaches through on-

going research at La Catalina Natural Language School that elaborates on a Holistic

Model, i.e., one that considers the individual as whole by productively integrating

their mind, body, and emotions. The following are appended: (1) Glossary; (2) Pilot

Course Registration Form; (3) Student Psychological Profile for Pilot Course; and (4)

Pilot Program English Assessment.

O'Connell, Daniel C.; Kowal, Sabine, (2005) did a study on , Where Do Interjections

Come From? A Psycholinguistic Analysis of Shaw's "Pygmalion", Starting from our recent

findings regarding emotional and initializing functions of interjections in TV and

radio interviews (Kowal & O'Connell, 2004b; O'Connell & Kowal, in press;

O'Connell, Kowal, & Ageneau, 2005.The following hypotheses were tested: (1) The

actors use the written cues selectively in their oral performance by substituting,

adding, and deleting interjections; (2) primary interjections added by the actors are

less conventional than those in the written text; (3) durations and number of syllables

of Eliza Doolittle's spoken renditions of her signature interjection ah-ah-ah-ow-ow-

ow-oo do not correlate with the length in letters and syllables of the written versions;

and (4) there is no evidence for Ameka's (1992b, 1994) characterization of

interjections as temporally isolated, i.e., preceded and followed by silent pauses, in

consequence of their syntactic isolation. Our findings confirmed all the hypotheses

except for one unexpectedly significant correlation between number of syllables in

Eliza Doolittle's signature interjection in the written version and duration in seconds

of the spoken version thereof. The common thread throughout these data is the actor's

Page 66: Dissertation

need to personalize emotions in a dramatic performance--by means of interjections

other than those provided in the written text. In this process of personalization, the

emotional and initializing functions of interjections are confirmed.

Ziegler, Johannes C.; Goswami, Usha, (2005) did a study on , Reading Acquisition,

Developmental Dyslexia, and Skilled Reading Across Languages: A Psycholinguistic Grain

Size Theory, The development of reading depends on phonological awareness across

all languages so far studied. Languages vary in the consistency with which phonology

is represented in orthography. This results in developmental differences in the grain

size of lexical representations and accompanying differences in developmental

reading strategies and the manifestation of dyslexia across orthographies. Differences

in lexical representations and reading across languages leave developmental

"footprints" in the adult lexicon. The lexical organization and processing strategies

that are characteristic of skilled reading in different orthographies are affected by

different developmental constraints in different writing systems. The authors develop

a novel theoretical framework to explain these cross-language data, which they label a

psycholinguistic grain size theory of reading and its development.

Penke, Martina; Janssen, Ulrike; Eisenbeiss, Sonja, (2004) did a study on ,

Psycholinguistic Evidence for the Underspecification of Morphosyntactic Features, This

paper investigates the paradigmatic relations between inflected word forms (or their

affixes) and the feature specifications of these elements. In two sentence-matching

experiments German speakers had to decide whether sentence pairs involving

inflected adjectives or determiners were identical or not. In both experiments, there

was a delay when an inflected form contained positive feature specifications for

grammatical features that did not match the feature specifications of the grammatical

context in which it appeared. No delay, however, occurred when an incorrectly

inflected form had mismatching negative specifications, whereas its positively

specified features matched the respective positive features of the context. This result

provides evidence for a different status of positively and negatively specified

Page 67: Dissertation

morphosyntactic features. It supports the idea of radical underspecification according

to which only positive feature specifications are part of the representations of

morphologically complex forms or affixes, whereas negative feature specifications

are assigned on the basis of paradigmatic contrasts.

Ottem, Ernst; Jakobsen, Unni, (2004) did a study on , Using the Illinois Test of

Psycholinguistic Ability with Bilingual and Monolingual Language-Impaired Children, The

current popular case against the use of standardised ability tests in bilingual

assessment is not as unequivocal as may be commonly assumed. Evidence currently

available indicates that such tests generally measure the same constructs, with equal

accuracy, regardless of language backgrounds. The purpose of this paper is to

contribute to this debate by presenting a detailed comparison of the Illinois Test of

Psycholinguistic Ability (ITPA) profiles of monolingual language-impaired children

who have received the diagnosis 'specifically language-impaired' (SLI) (N = 95) and

ITPA profiles of bilingual children who are referred for assessment of their language

problems (N = 43). It is concluded that most bilingual children suffer from a

'knowledge-based' problem, while most monolingual children suffer from a more

fundamental 'processing-based' problem. By presenting this analysis, we hope to

contribute to the general debate about whether this commonly used test can be used in

the assessment of bilingual children.

Tijms, Jurgen; Hoeks, Jan J. W. M.; Paulussen-Hoogeboom, Marja C.; Smolenaars, Anton

J., (2003) did a study on, Long-Term Effects of a Psycholinguistic Treatment for Dyslexia.,

This research evaluates short- and long-term effects of a treatment for dyslexia. Notes

that the treatment focuses on learning to recognize and to make use of the

phonological and morphological structure of Dutch words. Finds that the results of

the treatment were clear improvements in reading words, reading text and spelling.

2.3 STUDIES BASED ON WRITING COMPETENCE

Page 68: Dissertation

Beck, Sarah W.; Jeffery, Jill V. (2007) did a study on , Genres of High-Stakes Writing

Assessments and the Construct of Writing Competence, High-stakes writing assessments

currently exert a strong influence on the writing curriculum and instruction in schools

across the United States. Under these circumstances it is important to examine the

construct of writing competence on which these assessments are based, as well as the

extent to which this construct supports the goals of secondary education. In this paper

we conduct an exploratory analysis of the genre demands of high-stakes writing

assessments from three states - California, Texas, and New York - with the aim of

discerning, comparing, and evaluating the role that genre knowledge plays in the

construct of writing competence measured by these assessments. This method of

inquiry includes both task analysis of the prompts and genre analysis of high-scoring

benchmark papers written in response to these prompts. This results suggest a lack of

alignment between the genres of the benchmark papers designated as exemplary and

the genre demands of the prompts to which they were written. Findings from our

exploratory analysis lead us to argue for greater consistency and clarity of

expectations in the design of high-stakes writing exams, and for the design of writing

tasks that adequately represent the demands of discipline-specific forms of written

discourse.

Kleniewski, Nancy, (2007) did a study on , Joint Authorship: Faculty Members from Six

Institutions Collaborate to Measure Writing Competence, Southeastern Massachusetts is

home to six public institutions of higher education. In 2003, at the invitation of

Bridgewater President Dana Mohler-Faria, five of them joined together to form a

regional collaborative called CONNECT. They agreed that students faced two types

of challenges in the transfer process: administrative challenges and academic

challenges. To reduce administrative challenges, the four-year institutions agreed to

create "transfer coordinator" positions to help transfer students navigate their new

campuses. To reduce academic challenges, the institutions sought to ensure that

Page 69: Dissertation

community college students would master the same basic skills and knowledge, cover

similar foundational work in their disciplines, and experience equivalent academic

expectations as in a bachelor's curriculum. The chief academic officers decided that

these issues of curriculum and evaluation standards could be best addressed through

faculty dialogue around course goals, syllabi, and evaluation methods. The chief

academic officers chose to begin the faculty dialogue with the institutions' first-year

writing courses. They reasoned that writing is the bedrock skill in any general

education program and that writing instructors were already practicing assessment (as

distinct from grading) through the placement process. Writing Project experience

points to several ingredients for a successful and lasting collaboration among different

types of institutions. First, peer-to-peer interaction with others in the discipline is a

powerful tool for faculty collaboration, reducing barriers between two- and four-year

institutions and between adjuncts and full-time faculty. Second, a focus on common

student learning outcomes and successful pedagogy allows all instructors to address a

common goal: creating a good teaching and learning environment. Finally, leadership

must come from the top, with the blessing and financial support of presidents,

provosts, and deans.

Dunsmuir, Sandra; Blatchford, Peter, (2004) did a study on, Predictors of Writing

Competence in 4- to 7-Year-Old Children, This longitudinal study sought to improve

understanding of the factors at home and school that influence children's attainment

and progress in writing between the ages of 4 and 7 years. Results: Preschool

variables that were found to be significantly associated with writing proficiency at

school entry included mother's educational level, family size, parental assessment of

writing and a measure of home writing. Child characteristics, skills and competencies

were measured at school entry and those found to be significantly associated with

writing at 7 years included season of birth, vocabulary score, pre-reading skills,

handwriting and proficiency in writing name. The only preschool variable that

maintained its significant relationship to writing at 7 years was home writing. Teacher

assessments of pupil attitudes to writing were consistently found to be significantly

Page 70: Dissertation

associated with writing competence. Conclusions: This comprehensive study explored

the complex interaction of cognitive, affective and contextual processes involved in

learning to write, and identified specific features of successful writers. Results are

discussed in relation to educational policy and practice issues.

Hohn, Alisabeth M., (2001) did a study on , Effects of Survey Format on Perceived

Competence in Writing: A Developmental Study. Whether students of various ages

reported different self-perceptions of their writing because of survey design effects

was studied. As part of a writing performance assessment, 1,972 students in an

urban/suburban school district in grades 3 (n=736), 6 (n=636), and 9 (n=600)

completed a brief self-perception survey that contained 5 items measuring students'

perceived competence in writing. Students were randomly assigned to answer

questions or to respond to statements regarding their beliefs about themselves as

writers. Both versions of the survey contains response options that were ordered from

positive to negative for all items, and items were presented in the same order on both

versions. A univariate analysis that controlled for gender showed a two-way

interaction between grade level and survey format. Students rated themselves higher

on the question than statement format at all grade levels, but the difference between

groups increased with the age of the student. Older students generated more accurate

estimates of their competence than did younger students, but overall the correlations

between perceived competence and overall score on the writing assessment were low.

These results indicate that, by acknowledging the potential effects of survey design

decision on data interpretation, researchers will improve the validity of their

inferences in developmental studies as well as improving the comparability of data

across researchers.

TABLE – 2.1

STUDIES BASED ON WRITING COMPETENCE

Page 71: Dissertation

2007 Beck, Sarah

W.; Jeffery, Jill V.

Genres of High-Stakes

Writing Assessments and

the Construct of Writing

Competence,

Findings from this exploratory

analysis lead us to argue for

greater consistency and clarity

of expectations in the design

of high-stakes writing exams,

and for the design of writing

tasks that adequately represent

the demands of discipline-

specific forms of written

discourse.

2007 Kleniewski, Nancy Joint Authorship: Faculty

Members from Six

Institutions Collaborate to

Measure Writing

Competence

Writing Project experience

points to several ingredients

for a successful and lasting

collaboration among different

types of institutions.

2004 Dunsmuir,

Sandra; Blatchford,

Peter

Predictors of Writing

Competence in 4- to 7-

Year-Old Children,

This comprehensive study

explored the complex

interaction of cognitive,

affective and contextual

processes involved in learning

to write, and identified

specific features of successful

writers. Results are discussed

in relation to educational

policy and practice issues.

2001 Hohn, Alisabeth M. Effects of Survey Format

on Perceived Competence

in Writing: A

Developmental Study.

The research results indicate

that, by acknowledging the

potential effects of survey

design decision on data

Page 72: Dissertation

interpretation, researchers will

improve the validity of their

inferences in developmental

studies as well as improving

the comparability of data

across researchers.

1999 Parks, Susam;

Maguire, Mary H.

Coping with on-the-job

writing in ESL: A

constructivist-semiotic

perspective,

Data from interviews and

observations indicated that

social context and mediation

were an important part of

nurses’ ability to appropriate

competence in a subgenre of

nursing notes in English.

1987 McCutchen,

Dehorah

Children’s discourse

skill: form and modality

requirements of

schooled writing

Describes a psycholinguistic

investigation of children’s

competence in the production

of extended discourse,

concentrating on discourse

form (narrative versus

expository) and production

modality (written versus

spoken).

1984 Perez, Bertha Selecting computer

software for limited

English speakers

Findings are the implications

for the development of

English as a second

language/CAI software are

considered. Multiple criteria

Page 73: Dissertation

are presented, including

primary goals (such as

communicative competence

and functional literacy) and

the need for integrating the

effective, cognitive, and

psychomotor aspects of

learning. (KH)

1970 Alyeshmerni,

Mansoor; Taubr,

Paul

Working with aspects

language

The principal goal of this

manual is to encourage the

student to make

generalizations about

language through his

increased awareness of facts

about his own language.

1978 Perron, Jack Changing the questions:

psycholinguistics and

writing

The findings requires that the

classroom teacher shift the

emphasis in the teaching of

writing from a product-

oriented approach to one that

encourages the development

of current thinking processes

TABLE – 2.2

STUDIES BASED ON PSYCHOLINGUISTICS

Page 74: Dissertation

1998 Scovel, Thomas Psycholinguistics.

Oxford Introductory to

Language Study

The brief survey of the

field of psycholinguistics

is intended for both

students and anyone

interested in language. It

proves that there is interest

in Language.

1983 Hatch, Evelyn Marcussen Psycholinguistics: A

Second Language

Perspective. Perspectives

of the field of

psycholinguistics and

second language research

are examined to provide

a broader understanding

of language learning and

language behavior.

By attending to factors

related to second language

acquisition, questions not

covered in the

psycholinguistic literature

are discussed that may

support linguistic rules or

descriptions of language

2008 Ellis, Nick

C.; Simpson-Vlach,

Rita; Maynard, Carson

Formulaic Language in

Native and Second

Language Speakers:

Psycholinguistics, Corpus

Linguistics, and TESOL,

Natural language makes

considerable use of

recurrent formulaic

patterns of words.

This research describes the

corpus linguistic extraction

of pedagogically useful

formulaic sequences for

academic speech and

writing. It determines

English as a second

language (ESL) and

English for academic

purposes (EAP)

instructors' evaluations of

their pedagogical

Page 75: Dissertation

importance

2008 Diehl, Joshua

J.; Bennetto,

Loisa; Watson,

Duane; Gunlogson,

Christine; McDonough,

Joyce,

Resolving Ambiguity: A

Psycholinguistic Approach

to Understanding Prosody

Processing in High-

Functioning Autism,

The high-functioning

autism HFA group was

significantly less likely to

use prosody to

disambiguate syntax, but

scored comparably to

controls when syntax

alone or both prosody and

syntax indicated the

correct response. These

findings indicate that

adolescents with HFA

have difficulty using

prosody to disambiguate

syntax in comparison to

typically developing

controls, even when

matched on chronological

age, IQ, and receptive

language.

2007 Caplan, David; Waters,

Gloria; DeDe,

Gayle; Michaud,

Jennifer; Reddy,

Amanda,

A Study of Syntactic

Processing in Aphasia I:

Behavioral

(Psycholinguistic) Aspects

The results indicate that

the major cause of aphasic

impairments of

syntactically based

comprehension are

intermittent reductions in

the processing capacity

available for syntactic,

interpretive, and task-

Page 76: Dissertation

related operations.

2007 Morett, Laura Second Language Learning

in an Undergraduate

Population: Applications of

Psycholinguistic Theory,

The research results form a

mosaic of the mechanisms

and variables involved in

second language learning,

providing insight into the

process of second

language acquisition in

undergraduate students.

2006 Nergard-Nilssen, T Word-Decoding Deficits in

Norwegian: The Impact of

Psycholinguistic Marker

Effects,

The effects of regularity,

frequency, lexicality, and

granularity on single word

reading in Norwegian

children with dyslexia and

control children matched

for age and reading level

were examined.

2006 Catton, Julie C. A Pilot Study on a Holistic

Model Incorporating a

Psycholinguistic Approach

Accelerating Second

Language Acquisition

Students learning

This study reports efforts

to improve natural

approaches through on-

going research at La

Catalina Natural Language

School that elaborates on a

Holistic Model, i.e., one

that considers the

individual as whole by

productively integrating

their mind, body, and

Page 77: Dissertation

emotions.

2005 O'Connell, Daniel

C.; Kowal, Sabine,

Where Do Interjections

Come From? A

Psycholinguistic Analysis

of Shaw's "Pygmalion"

The research findings

confirmed all the

hypotheses except for one

unexpectedly significant

correlation between

number of syllables in

Eliza Doolittle's signature

interjection in the written

version and duration in

seconds of the spoken

version thereof.

2005 Ziegler, Johannes

C.; Goswami, Usha

Reading Acquisition,

Developmental Dyslexia,

and Skilled Reading Across

Languages: A

Psycholinguistic Grain Size

Theory,

The researcher develop a

novel theoretical

framework to explain

these cross-language data,

which they label a

psycholinguistic grain size

theory of reading and its

development.

2004 Penke, Martina; Janssen,

Ulrike; Eisenbeiss, Sonja

Psycholinguistic Evidence

for the Underspecification

of Morphosyntactic

Features

The research result

supports the idea of radical

underspecification

according to which only

positive feature

specifications are part of

the representations of

morphologically complex

forms or affixes, whereas

Page 78: Dissertation

negative feature

specifications are assigned

on the basis of

paradigmatic contrasts.

2004 Ottem,

Ernst; Jakobsen, Unni

Using the Illinois Test of

Psycholinguistic Ability

with Bilingual and

Monolingual Language-

Impaired Children

This study concluded that

most bilingual children

suffer from a 'knowledge-

based' problem, while

most monolingual children

suffer from a more

fundamental 'processing-

based' problem. By

presenting this analysis,

we hope to contribute to

the general debate about

whether this commonly

used test can be used in the

assessment of bilingual

children.

2003 Tijms, Jurgen; Hoeks, Jan

J. W. M.; Paulussen-

Hoogeboom, Marja

C.; Smolenaars, Anton J.

Long-Term Effects of a

Psycholinguistic

Treatment for Dyslexia

This research finds that the

results of the treatment

were clear improvements

in reading words, reading

text and spelling.

1978 Perron, Jack Changing the questions:

psycholinguistics and

writing

The findings requires that

the classroom teacher shift

the emphasis in the

Page 79: Dissertation

teaching of writing from a

product-oriented approach

to one that encourages the

development of current

thinking processes

1980 Templeton, Shane;

Sulzby, Elizabeth

Beyond the

psycholinguistic vise of

competence/performance

theory Why study

metalinguistic

awareness?

Metalinguistic awareness,

researchers could focus on

understanding as a

function of what

individuals have been

exposed to, where the have

been, and where they

might yet go in their

linguistic explorations

1980 Swearingen, C.J. Psycholinguistics and

readability: The cognitive

reality of the reader.

Teachers should be careful

to distinguish this writing

goal from the very

different goal of teaching

students to compose clear,

correct, and engaging

discourse.

1978 Perron, Jack Changing the questions

psycholinguistics and

writing

The practical application

of these findings requires

that the classroom teacher

shift the emphasis in the

teaching of writing from a

product-oriented approach

to one that encourages the

development of current

Page 80: Dissertation

thinking processes.

1987 Marcum, Karen, Lozanov's Suggestopedy: A

Psycholinguistic Analysis

of Its Theory and Praxis.

Suggestopedia, the

psycholinguistic second

language teaching

methodology of Georgi

Lozanov, has received

both favorable and

unfavorable evaluations

from well-known

scholars in the field of

language learning.

The method induces

"superlearning" or

"hypermnesia" need more

substantial empirical

validation, theory on

learning may suggest that

Lozanov's method should

achieve better than

average results in learning.

1986 Pyee-Cohen, Doris L'analyse

psycholinguistique de

l'activite langagiere en

langue non-maternelle:

Bilan des recherches

actuelles

(Psycholinguistic

Analysis of Non-Native

Language Activity:

Indications on Current

Research)

Reviews research on the

psycholinguistic processes

underlying second-

language learning,

especially as it relates to

the concept of

interlanguage and the

contributions made by

sociolinguistics,

neurolinguistics, and

cognitive psychology.

TABLE 2.3

Page 81: Dissertation

STUDIES BASED ON NEUROLINGUISTICS

1987 Schmedlen, George

W

Neuro-Linguistic

Programming, Matching

Sensory Predicates, and

Rapport.

The findings are interpreted

as supporting the idea that

systematic matching (versus

mismatching) of a client's

sensory predicates improves

the client's perception of the

empathic component of

rapport in the therapist

1986 Burton, Grace M Using Neurolinguistic

Programming: Some

Suggestions for the

Remedial Teacher.

The use of neurolinguistic

programming techniques is

suggested as a means of

enhancing rapport with

students. Mirroring, digital

mirroring, analog mirroring,

metaphors, knowing

persons, and how these aid

in presenting content are

each discussed.

1983 Obler, Loraine K. Knowledge in

Neurolinguistics: The

Case of Bilingualism.

This research emphasizes

the importance of

psycholinguistic research in

enabling us to discover

phenomena which will later

be seen to have

representations in the brain.

In addition, the different

ways a second language is

Page 82: Dissertation

learned and used, as well as

the differences in the actual

language structures

themselves, will participate

in determining brain

organization for language

2007 Russeler, Becker,

Johanne and Munte

The Department of

Psychology II,

Neuropsychology

Unit

The findings indicate that

dyslexics are phonologically

impaired.

1980 Kagan, Dona M. Syntactic complexity

and cognitive style

This research describes two

studies of which one

analyzes syntactic

complexity in writing

samples by secondary and

postsecondary students,

while the other correlates

the syntactic dimensions

revealed by the former with

measures of cognitive style.

Correlations indicate an

association between

complexity and analytic

cognitive style.

1970 Alyeshmerni,

Mansoor; Taubr,

Paul

Working with aspects

language

The principal goal of this

manual is to encourage the

student to make

generalizations about

language through his

Page 83: Dissertation

increased awareness of facts

about his own language.

1980 Kagan, Dona M. Syntactic complexity

and cognitive style

This research describes two

studies of which one

analyzes syntactic

complexity in writing

samples by secondary and

post secondary students,

while the other correlates

the syntactic dimensions

revealed by the former with

measures of cognitive style.

Correlations indicate an

association between

complexity and analytic

cognitive style.

1990 Johnsen, Birgitta Acquisition of Reading

and Writing. A

Neurolinguistic

Approach.

This Experimental studies

and clinical data suggest

that grammatical rules for

spoken language

predominantly rely on the

left hemisphere of the brain,

while the grammatical rules

for body language

(expressing emotions) rely

more on the right

hemisphere.

1991 Hynd, George W. Developmental This researvh concludes that

Page 84: Dissertation

Dyslexia,

Neurolinguistic Theory

and Deviations in Brain

Morphology.

dyslexics show variations in

specific brain regions.

Suggests that neuroimaging

procedures appear to

provide direct evidence

supporting the importance

of deviations in normal

patterns of brain

morphology in dyslexia.

(RS)

1991 Sandhu, Daya Singh Application of

Neurolinguistic

Programming for

Treatment and Relapse

Prevention of Addictive

Behaviors.

NLP meta-tactics are used

to re-imprint new beliefs on

the client, access the deep

structure of the client's

subjective experience,

explore the client's change

history, reframe the

situation, program the

client's brain to "go in a new

direction" through the

"swish" technique, and

ensure that positive changes

that took place during

therapy become generalized

to other contexts through

the technique of future

pacing.

1989 Williams, M. Neurolinguistic

Programming in

Understanding the effects

on thought of limited

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F.; Jacobson, W. H. Orientation and

Mobility.

representational systems can

help trainers teach more

effective cane or dog guide

use.

1989 Leavell,

Carol; Lewandowski,

Lawrence

Neurolinguistic Deficits

and the Left

Hemisphere in the

Reading Disabled.

These research’s data

suggest that (reading-

disabled) RD boys have

problems with specific,

predominantly left

hemisphere-controlled

functions, some of which

are critical to reading.

1987 Homstad, Alice Neurolinguistic and

Psycholinguistic

Research on Learning

Modes of Older

Language Learners:

Classroom

Implications

This research reviews of

neurolinguistic and

psycholinguistic research

regarding older (over 40

years of age) second

language learners suggests

classroom implications for

dealing with this

population's pronunciation

problems and ways to

capitalize on their

superiority to younger

students in terms of higher

order linguistic processing.

(CB)

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1987 Sharpley,

Christopher F

Research Findings on

Neurolinguistic

Programming:

Nonsupportive Data or

an Untestable Theory?

This research examines the

experimental literature on

neurolinguistic

programming (NLP).

Sharpley (l984) and

Einspruch and Forman

(l985) concluded that the

effectiveness of this therapy

was yet to be demonstrated.

Presents data from seven

recent studies that further

question the basic tenets of

NLP and their application in

counseling situations.

1987 Cassiere, M. F.; Gender Differences in

the Primary

Representational

System according to

Neurolinguistic

Programming.

Results suggest that

standard guidelines should

be developed for scoring

predicates and that NLP

should be used cautiously

until further research has

been conducted.

2.4 CONCLUSION:

From the above reviews and research findings the investigator has knowledge about

the topic for the research. It supported the researcher to do the research avoiding any

unnecessary repetition. It helped the researcher to go along with the work with proper

plan and pace. The review of research also helped to know the methodology and the

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statistical techniques to be applied for the study.

CHAPTER – III

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RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

CHAPTER-3

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

3.1 INTRODUCTION:

Writing is a process of analysis and writing is a very complex

process. So most of the students are still lacking behind in proper writing competency.

So, an experimental research done with the help of synergizing Psycholinguistics and

Neurolinguistics program to enhance writing competence.

This chapter deals with the procedure adopted in the conduct of

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investigation. The entire chapter has been discussed under various sub-headings of

the study Viz., significance of the study, scope of the study, objectives of the study,

definition of the key terms, operational definition, assumption, Hypotheses,

delimitations of the study, experimental research, Planning of the treatment, research

process, sample, research design, duration of the treatment, internal validity, research

phase, Preparatory program, effects of the program, research tools and data

collection.

3.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM:

Writing is one of the important skills of communication through which

we express our thoughts. Writing is an art which plays a vital role in our language

communication. The 2009 secondary school exam results of pudhucherry reveals

students scored less in English when compared to other subjects. This information

made the investigator to find out the reason behind it. As a research, the investigator

wanted to critically analyse the reasons behind the low performance in English. The

researcher discussed this problem with the tenth standard English language teachers

of same schools in pudhucherry. It is understood that students are unable to present

their thoughts. They do commit spelling mistakes, punctuation mistakes, grammatical

errors and week sentence construction. As the medium of instruction is English, this

problem reflects in other subjects too. The researcher observed the English classroom

instruction and English text book. It has a list of writing competencies which they are

expected to achieve like Explaining, Report writing, Knowledge of using appropriate

punctuation marks, Precis writing, Letter writing, etc. If the student are expected to

perform these competencies in writing, they have to be given training in writing

components and they should be given frequent practices. The focus of the instruction

should be on development of writing ability and not an content transfer. But the

language English is being handled as a subject and not as skill development. All the

competencies prescribed for standard tenth, can not be developed overnight. It

regulates certain basics. Had they been given adequate training on their writing

competencies, student in class tenth would not have faced the above said problem in

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communication. Hence, the researcher went through language objectives of the

classes sixth and eighth. It focuses on Paragraph writing , Synopsis writing, Using

appropriate punctuation marks.This observation, made the researcher to think on the

pedagogical aspects in school instruction program. Thus, the researcher designed an

effective pedagogy which would help them to acquire competencies in writing and

hence the researcher implemented with a new pedagogy under this title to enhance

writing competencies of school students.

3.3 NEED FOR THE STUDY:

Either in the corporate sector or in government sector, English is the

language for communication. This information era, experts every individual to equip

with competence to withstand competition and survival. Skill development and

language competencies express writing in GATE, SAT, and Various competitive

exam. Hence, it is imperative to find out a right pedagogy for writing competence

development and for students.

Communication skill is more important in our day today life for

expressing our ideas effectively to others. For tenth standard students, English

language is very very important because it is more helpful for their higher studies.

Their writing comprehension and communication abilities are expected for their

future success. So, this pedagogy is for enhancing writing competency , sure to

facilitate of students.

3.4 SCOPE OF THE STUDY:

This research is focusing on development of writing competence.

Psycholinguistics or Psychology of language, is the study of mind process and

produce language awareness should be given to language teachers and every

individual should have attitudinal change and aspirational change and every teacher

should program (practice) the students thinking and Neurolinguistics programming , a

technique that people use to help themselves or others think in a more positive way,

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and which uses neurolinguistics as its basis, should be given to students. Therefore,

this research outcome will bring awareness among school teachers especially for

enhancing writing competencies in English language.

This research is an experimental method where neurolinguistic

programming and psycholinguistics principles are synergized to enhancing the

writing competence of the high school students. Psycholinguistics principles were

practiced by teachers and they want to teach with the help of NLP to the students.

This strategy or model will be considered as a better method than any other method

for enhancing Writing competence.

3.5 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY:

The following are the objectives of the study

1. To find out the existing competence in writing among eighth standard students.

2. To apply Psycholinguistics principles towards developing writing competence

among eighth standard students.

3. To apply NLP towards developing writing competence among eighth standard

students.

4. To find out the impact of the Neurolinguistic programming towards writing

competence.

5. To find out the effect of Psycholinguistics principles on the writing competence.

6. To find out the synergizing effect of psycholinguistics principles and NLP on

developing writing competence among eighth standard students.

7. To identify the significant relationship between psycholinguistics and writing

competence.

8. To identify the significant relationship between NLP and writing competence.

9. To identify the significant relationship between Psycholinguistics and NLP and

writing competence.

3.6 TITLE OF THE STUDY:

A synergy of Psycholinguistics and Neurolinguistics Programming on

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developing writing competence among Eighth standard students in

Sithanandha High School, Pudhucherry

3.7 DEFINITIONS OF THE TERMS:

According to 21st Century, Illustrated Oxford dictionary,

a) The term “Synergy” means the extra energy, power, success, etc., that is achieved

by two or more people or companies working together instead of their own.

b) The term “Psycholinguistics” means the study of the mind process and produces

language.

c) The term “Neurolinguistics” means the study of the way the human brain process

language.

d) The term “Neurolinguistics Programming” means a technique that people use to

help themselves or others think in a more positive way , and which uses

neurolinguistics as its basis.

e) The term “Programming” means a set of instructions to make it perform a

particular task.

f) The term “Writing” means a group or sequence of letters or symbols.

g) The term “Competence” means the ability to do something well.

3.8 OPERATIONAL DEFINITION:

In the process of helping eighth standard students in acquiring writing

competence, the researcher applies psycholinguistics principles and tunes them to

practice Neurolinguistics Programming.

3.9 ASSUMPTIONS OF THE STUDY:

The following are the assumptions of the study.

a) Secondary School language teaching must be on psycholinguistics

principles.

b) Neurolinguistics programming helps the learner in second acquisition.

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c) Synergising Psycholinguistics principles and Neurolinguistics programming

results in development of language competencies.

3.10 HYPOTHESES:

The following hypotheses were formulated in the research.

1) There will be significant difference between the Pre-test and the Post-test

scores of the experimental group.

2) There will be a relationship between Psycholinguistics principles and

writing competence.

3) There will be a relationship between Neurolinguistics programming and

Writing competence.

4) There will be an impact of Psycholinguistics and Neurolinguistics

programming on writing competence.

3.11 DELIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY:

The following are the delimitations of the study .

1. The study was restricted to eighth standard students of Sithananadha

High School, Lawspet, Pudhucherry-8.

2. The study was concerned only with thirty eighth standard students.

3. The study was focused on the need and development in writing

competence.

4. The researcher limited her study mainly to Writing competence in

English especially in paragraph writing.

5. The program was carried out only for ten days.

3.12 EXPERIMENTAL STUDY:

Experimental method is clearly for determining the casual effect of

independent variables on dependent variable. It provides a systematic and logical way

for answering the research questions. It is to establish cause and affect relationship

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between variables. This method is considered to provide for a high degree of control

over extraneous variables and the manipulation of variables. It helps to test

hypotheses of relationship between variables. It also permits drawing inference about

causality.

Experimentation is defined as “observation under controlled

conditions”. Experiments are studies involving intervention by the investigator

beyond that required for measurement . The usual intervention is to manipulate how it

affects the subjects being studied by the investigator, manipulate the independent or

explanatory variable and then observe whether the hypothesized dependent variable is

affected by the intervention.

In the experimental studies, observably changes take place, which

help the investigator to establish a cause and effect relationship. It is the description

and analysis of what will be or what will occur or what can be made to occur under

carefully controlled conditions. Experimentation consists of the deliberate and

controlled modification of the conditions determining an event and in the observation

and interpretation of the changes that occur in the event itself.

Experimenters deliberately and systematically manipulate certain

stimuli, treatment or environmental conditions and observe how the condition or

behaviour of other factors that could influence the outcome and remove or control

them in such a way that they can establish a logical association between manipulated

factors and observed effects.

Since experimentation is considered to be the scientifically

sophisticated research method the investigator adopted experimental method to study

the effectiveness of applying Psycholinguistics principles and Neurolinguistics

program. The investigator wanted to develop writing competence among high school

students through Psycholinguistics and Neurolinguistics program activities. One

group was taken and Pre-test was administered followed by the treatment and the

Post-test was given to find out the treatments’ effect. In this study the investigator

adopted experimental design – one group- Pre test- Post test design.

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3.13 SAMPLE:

As the researcher felt the urgent need for the improvement of writing competence

among the high school students in English, the investigator took a sample of 30

students from Sithananda High School, Lawspet, Pudhucherry.

3.14 PLANNING OF THE TREATMENT:

The researcher sensitized the problems faced by students with writing

difficulties and realized the need for development of writing competence. The existing

teaching learning process was analyzed. The students were selected and were

personally en quired about the problems being faced in the present school setting.

For enhancing writing competence the researcher found a new method or

pedagogy for instructions. This method involves Psycholinguistics principles for

teachers and Neurolinguistics programming for students to enhance writing

competence among students.

3.15 DURATION OF THE TREATMENT:

The investigator had the study for a period of one week for preparatory

program and ten days for the intervention program. One week preparatory program

starts from December last week, where the Pre-test was conducted to the samples and

collected the demographic particulars from the sample.

3.16 THREATS TO EXPERIMENTAL VALIDITY:

After selecting the experimental group, the researcher took steps to avoid

threats to validity. In spite of careful planning and implementation, threats were more

on affecting the validity of the experimentation. Attempts were made to minimize

threats for ensuring experimental validity.

A researcher has to have an important consideration in planning an

experimental study or in evaluating the results of a reported study. In the likelihood of

possible threats to internal validity after selecting the experimental group the

researcher took steps to avoid threats to validity. Attempts were made to minimize

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threats for ensuring experimental validity.

3.17 INTERNAL VALIDITY:

Internal validity is concerned with the extent to which the experience is

genuinely effective ie. The extent to which the manipulations in the independent

variables brings about changes in the dependent variables. It is concerned with the

true variance in the dependent variable that has been brought about by the induced

variations in the independent variables . The following are the threats to internal

validity which should be avoided.

3.17.1 SUBJECT CHARACTERISTICS:

If the participants in the group happened to be different to be in the matter

of age, sex, etc., the results cannot be wholly attributed to working of independent

variable. This threat was also eliminated as the investigator selected only eighth

standard students’ of the same group.

3.17.2 MORTALITY:

This threat may happen if the participants in the selected group drop out in

the course of the study. The researcher carefully averted this threat in the selection of

students. Students from class eighth were selected and there were no drop outs.

3.17.3 LOCATION:

As this study was concentrated on writing skill of the students, the location

was only the classroom for the treatment. There was no change in the location. So it

did not affect the study.

3.17.4 INSTRUMENTATION:

Unreliable instruments used to measure aspects of behavior are threats to

the validity of an experiment. In the study actual performance of students was

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evaluated. Students were given training on writing skills and were assessed for the

same.

The entire variables namely Psycholinguistics, Neurolinguistics

programming, Writing competence, Demographic particulars were all scored

uniformly. The validity and the reliability of all the tools were established.

3.17.5 TESTING:

Testing refers to a threat to interval validity which arises due to the

participant becoming “Test-wise”. The Pre-test given to students sensitized them to

the components of writing skills. Moreover the feed back received from everybody,

the follow up work was given due consideration. Post-test was administered to

students on a different aspect on the same pattern there by the effect of testing was

balanced out.

3.17.6 HISTORY:

Unplanned events do not occur during the research and affect the

results. The researcher carefully observed the treatment hour and protected it from

any new event.

3.17.7 MATURATION:

In refers to the change that may occur in the biological and

psychological conditions of the child during the course of study, and such changes are

likely to happen only if the study spreads over longer period of time but the present

study was confined to a period of ten days only. Hence the question of maturation did

not arise.

3.17.8 STATISTICAL REGRESSION :

It refers to the threat to validity, which occurs in studies that used

participants selected on the basis of extreme high or low scores. Here the researcher

selected the students based on their performance in previous exam (half-yearly) and

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Pre-test scores. Thus this threat was also eliminated in the present research.

3.17.9 SELECTION BIAS:

In spite of the sample being purposive, the group taken for experiment

was really in need for the treatment for development in writing competence. Students

were from standard eighth having who really need to develop writing competence for

the competitive future study. Selection was based on students’ previous academic

performance.

3.17.10. EXPERIMENTER BIAS:

This type of threat occurs when the investigator has some previous

knowledge about the subject involved in the experiment. As the researcher was new

to the school the question of experimenter bias was ruled out.

3.17.11. IMPLEMENTATION:

The method of implementation may also affect internal validity. This can be

controlled by handling effective implementation strategies in the instructional

package.

3.18 EXTERNAL VALIDITY:

It is the extent to which the result of an experiment can be generalized to

pupils environmental conditions outside the context of the experiment. It is relatively

expensive with large sample.

3.19 CONTROLLING THREATS TO EXTERNAL VALIDITY:

In an experiment, several factors like Hawthrone effect, evaluation

apprehension may be associated with subject awareness being in study and these

factors may interact with treatments or effect responses on the dependent variable.

So the investigator made students to be aware of their participation

in the experiment. Thus the Hawthorne effect was eliminated.

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3.20 RESEARCH PHASES:

In order to realize the objectives the investigator had proceeded

the research in the following manner.

Phase I – Preparatory Program

Phase II - Procedure for Execution of the study

Phase III – Treatment Program

Phase IV – Identifying the effect of the study

Phase V – Analysis and Data collection

Phase VI – Scheme of Data analysis.

3.21 PHASE – I ; PREPARATORY PROGRAM:

1. Identification of the Problem

2. Selection of the Sample

3. Observing the learning environment

4. Analyze the previous academic performance

5. Collecting the Related literature

6. Collection of research reviews

7. Development of tools

8. Establishment of Validity and Reliability

9. Developing and administering the pre-test tool

10. Instructional package development.

3.21.1 IDENTIFICATION OF THE PROBLEM:

The investigator identified the existing problems in writing among VIII standard

students and found that difficulties in writing not only affect students' academic

performance but also affect their confidence and their future progress. The problem

had been identified by means of classroom observation, analyzing the previous

examination papers and by assessing the overall performance of students.

3.21.2 SELECTION OF THE SAMPLE:

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Sithanandha High School students (30 students) were selected by the

investigator for the study.

3.21.3 OBSERVING THE LEARNING ENVIRONMENT:

The investigator has observed the class to identify the problems among

students in an academic sense. In the teaching – learning process, little importance is

being given to develop writing skill. The teachers are more concerned about

completing the syllabus rather than encouranging students to write and understand

what they learn. The teacher tells the gist of the lesson in mother tongue. Answers for

the questions are given and students are tuned to repeat it. Thus from the observation

the investigator found that the present teaching – learning process does not develop

the writing ability of students. To put in a nut shell, students without understanding

the real meaning of the writing process face many difficulties in learning situation.

3.21.4 ANALYZING THE PREVIOUS ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE:

The investigator has collected the previous academic marks of

students in their examinations. She collected the previous examinations papers to

identify students writing skills and their level of difficulty.

3.21.5 COLLECTING THE RELATED LITERATURE:

The investigator has collected the literature from books and

from Internet based on the identified problem.The investgator analyzed all practical

difficulties that are hindering students to get proficiency in writing and to secure

good marks. The investigator has already collected literature about the problem and

incorporated the material taken from the books and other sources.

3.21.6 COLLECTION OF RESEARCH REVIEWS:

The investigator has collected related research reviews on the basis of the

problem identified. The reviews gave knowledge about the various research works

done on the field. When the investigator reviewed related studies, she becomes aware

of the important and unimportant variables in the area concerned in the research. It

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helped the investigator in avoiding any duplication of work done. The studies cited in

the foregoing review strongly suggest there is a great need for a multi model

intervention for enhancing writing competence.

3.21.7 DEVELOPMENT OF TOOLS:

In order to find out the effect of the treatment , the investigator has framed a

pre-test tool and post-test tool in English. The objectives are foccussed to develop

writing competence among upper primary students. The pre-test is administered

during this preparatory week itself.

3.21.8 ESTABLISHING RELIABILITY AND VALIDITY:

The researcher wanted to find out the validity and reliability of the tool. To find

the validity of the tool, it has been given to the subject experts. After modifying the

necessary changes in the tool, it has allowed to find the reliability by using Split-half

method. The “r” value was 0.7.

Validity refers to what extent the instruments is to measure and how it measures.

Face validity concerns to what it appears to measure. The question paper for the field

of education to be tested for content validity and construct validity and the validity

was established.

3.21.9 DEVELOPING AND ADMINISTERING THE PRE-TEST TOOL:

To find out the present level of achievement of students in writing and writing

competence, a pre-test tool was developed and was administered among the students

of standard VIII. It includes all the important components of writing.

3.21.10 INSTRUCTIONAL PACKAGE DEVELOPMENT:

After studying the related literature, and reviews the investigator designed

an “Instructional Package” to get a solution for the identified problem. The

instructional package was designed by calculating the total number of days along with

the special strategies adopted.

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3.22 PHASE – II ; PROCEDURE FOR THE EXECUTION OF THE

STUDY:

Designing of an intervention programme with the application of

Psycholinguistics Principles and Neurolinguistics programming in facilitating writing

competence.

Writing skill plays a vital role in the person's life. As in the present

scenario the teachers are more concerned about completing the syllabus rather than

encouraging students to read andd understand what they learn. The essence and

aesthetic sense lies in English has not been enjoyed by students. In many schools

even in English medium, English is portrayed as a complicated subject. Like the other

subjects, they are trained to memorize English also. They have not realized the

benefits of English which shapes their future and considered to be the window of the

modern world. As the present world is globalized, even to survive we need to learn

English.

Therefore the investigator was so particular in making students to enjoy

the language optimum and to have the real pleasure lies in it. The investigator

analyzed and discussed with the experts in the field of education and concluded that

through proper orientation and instruction in Punctuation and Capitalization make

students to excel in writing communication and comprehension. The investigator in

specified prepared an instructional program based on punctuation and capitalization

for the betterment of students because they play a vital and remarkable role in writing

comprehension. The investigator planned the program on punctuation and correct

capitalization through the assigned writing competencies prescribed in their syllabus.

Writing competencies assigned to them were- Paragraph writing, informal letters to

friends and relatives, formal letter relating to school context, filling in forms and

using punctuation. The investigator adopted the synergy of Psycholinguistics

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Principles and Neurolinguistics Programming which paves the most for enhancing

writing competence.

Many teachers and most students have the mistaken impression that punctuation

is a very complex matter with hundreds of rules difficult to understand and next to

impossible to apply. First of all this impression should be erased from the minds of

students. The instructional program aimed at this and even specifically to make them

learn by their own using Psycholinguistics Principles and Neurolinguistics

programming for students. The Knowledge and process of Neurolinguistics

programming make students to be successful in life in all aspects.

3.23 TREATMENT PROGRAM SCHEDULE

Day Forenoon Session Afternoon session

1 Teaching Handwriting and introduction of spelling and its rules.

Giving exercises and activities like group activity of Language games, Cursive writing,etc.

Collecting Think Aloud Protocol and portfolio of that class.

2 Recapitalization of Previous day's portion and teaching spelling and its rules and introduction of Capitalization

Giving exercise like Dictation, Missing letters, etc.

Collecting Think aloud protocol and portfolio of that class.

3 Recapitalization of previous day's portion and teach the students about capitalization and introduced Punctuation

Giving exercise like writing their own sentences.

Giving activity like ask them to write a long paragraph or dialogue and do the capitalization in that.

Collecting Think Aloud Protocol and Portfolio also.

4 Recapitalization of Previous class and teach them Punctuation and introduced word order

Giving exercise like writing their own dialogue for a particular situation and do the punctuation mark in it.

Collecting Think Aloud Protocol and Portfolio

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5 Recapitalization of Previous class and give instruction on word order and introduce Sentence structure to them.

Giving activities like language games and give jumbled word sentence to students and ask them to correct it.

Collecting Think Aloud Protocol and Portfolio also.

6 Recapitalization of previous class and teach sentence structure to them.

Ask the students to write a paragraph on their own experience

Collecting Think Aloud Protocol and Portfolio from the students.

7 Recapitalization of previous classes and disscused with them about Handwriting and Spelling

Giving activities like Language games, Missing letter game and ask them to write a paragraph with neat handwriting

Collecting Think Aloud Protocol and Portfolio from the students

8 Recapitalization of Previous classes and discussed about capitalization and punctuation

Giving exercise like writing a story of their own and include capitalization and punctuation in it.

Collecting think Aloud Protocol and Portfolio from the students.

9 Recapitalization of Previous classes and have a discussion of word order and sentence structure

Giving exercise like jumbled word sentences and ask them to make it to a meaningful sentences.

Ask them to write a paragraph of their own.

Collecting Think Aloud Protocol and Portfolio from them.

10 Post-test, Pre- assessment self- appraisal tool

Teachers remark and feedback.

3.24 PHASE – III – TREATMENT PROGRAM:

The instructional package developed by the investigator was administered in the

treatment program in the following way:

I. Preparing and setting the stage

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II. Orientation

III. Intaking Psycholinguistics Principles

IV. Giving Neurolinguistics programming

V. Think Aloud Protocol

VI. Peer group discussion

3.24.1 PREPARING AND SETTING THE STAGE:

The study was well planned by the investigator and the treatment was decided

before hand. Each and every components is considered and the investgator

planned to make the study in order.

3.24.2 ORIENTATION:

First, the researcher gave importance to language and its skills and then the

researcher concentrated his view to writing competence. The researcher

oriented the students with various components like Spelling, Punctuation,

Handwriting, etc. The researcher gave importance to writing competence and

its usefulness in our day-to-day life.

3.24.3 INTAKING PSYCHOLINGUISTICS PRINCIPLES:

The researcher taking Psycholinguistics Principles within himself and the

investigator use those principles while teaching. The psycholinguistics

principles are listed below.

a. From known to unknown

b. Motivation

c. Speech before reading and writing

d. Present language in basic sentence pattern

e. Language habits through practice and drill

f. The oral way

g. Imitation

h. Selection and Gradation

I. Controlled vocabulary

j. Reinforcement

k. Multiple line of approach, Language usages

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3.24.4 PSYCHOLINGUISTICS PRINCIPLES INVOLVED IN INSTRUCTION :

1 From Known to Unknown Setting for initiating Conceptualization(writing – Paragraph)

2 Motivation Initial Prediction(Stimulating ideas about Paragraph writing)

3 Speech before reading and writing Interacting with them about concept

Getting their idea before writing Example for Paragraph writing

4 Present language in basic sentence pattern

Using the meaning of the context-Missing word

Understanding the Grammar.

5 Language habits through practice and drill

Inter-group activities like Think Aloud Protocol, Reflective thinking, etc.

6 The oral way Think Aloud Protocol.

7 Imitation Perceiving the teaching and using in the action of writing

Listening to and repeating

8 Selection and Gradation Sequencing

9 Controlled Vocabulary Identifying Synonyms and antonyms.

Enriching word power.

10 Reinforcement Direct and indirect experience in present.

11 Multiple line of approach, Language usage

Drawing conclusions, Inference/ Generalizations.

3.24.5 GIVING NEUROLINGUISTICS PROGRAMMING:

Neurolinguistics means the study of the way the human brain processes Language

and Neurolinguistics programming means a technique that people use to help

themselves or others think in a more positive way, and which uses neurolinguistics as

its basis.

The synergising effect, of Psycholinguistics Principles and Neuolinguistics

programming, will enhance writing competence.

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3.24.6 THINK ALOUD PROTOCOL:

Think Aloud Protocol involve in students' thinking aloud as they are performing a set

of specified tasks. Students are asked to say whatever they are looking at,

thinking,doing, and feeling as they go about their task. This enables them to see first

hand the process of task completion (rather than only its final product). The purpose

of this technique is to make explicit what is implicitly present in subjects who are able

to perform a specific task.

3.24.7 PEER GROUP DISCUSSION:

Peer group discussion is being planned to implement after the answers for “Think

Aloud Protocol”. Peer group discussions allows everyone to participate. Students feel

more comfortable in small groups. They could analyze the answers and finalize an

answer apt to the question. The adaptation of group discussion makes students to have

a clear idea of the subject.

3.25 PHASE IV :IDENTIFYING THE EFFECT OF THE STUDY:

The intervention of Psycholinguistics and Neurolinguistics program

had a great impact on students. These make them to improve their writing

comprehension. For each and everyday systematic organization of material had been

framed. As a predictable routine helps students to get organized, everyday is planned

in sequence. The objective of the investigator was to tune students towards the

components of second language and finally to facilitate writing competence. The

morning session began with testing their previous knowledge and recapitalization of

previous class. Then the investigator focus on the one components which is more

essential for writing. The investigator practices them by giving various exercise to

them. The afternoon session started with more activities which is based on their skill

and it is related to enhance writing competence. The investigator introduce more

activities like language games, group games, etc which makes students to express

them easily. Students were asked to write what they had learn t on that day as a

feedback and Think aloud protocol. This enhances their writing process and had a

close association with the treatment.

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In-between Neurolinguistics Programming were also used to make the program

effective. An objective factor of attention , Namely “size” was applied by writing the

important points in different handwriting and by attractive techniques. “Intensity”was

administered by raising the tone wherever needed. “Change”was applied by making

students to give examples in between . “Contrast” was applied by asking students

questions in between the session. “Novelty” was used by giving examples from

stories and personal experience of the investigator.”Movement” was applied through

moving in the class and by using appropriate gestures while talking.”Repeatation”

was done by repeating the main content again and again.”Systematic form” was

administered by making the students to be aware of the topic before hand as an over-

view. Subjective factor of attention namely “Interest” was applied through making

students to write on a their own experience.”Need” was administered by giving the

importance and essentials of the topic. “Mental set” was applied by giving a clear cut

idea about the schedule. “Mood” was created by making students involve into the

study.

During every session, the utilization of Neurolinguistics Programming enhances the

listeningpower of students and even makes the study useful. Students could follow

with the investigator. They were aware of the program and effectively participated in

the study. Students were able to administer the strategies that the investigator adopts.

The application of Neurolinguistics programming makes the study more interesting

and lively. During each session questions were asked orally in between and students

who tried to give the answers were given one chocolate and who gave the correct

answers were awarded with two chocolates. This provokes an ease among students

and they observed and participated actively and keenly.

Every day the session started with the self-experience writing of students in order to

try out their thoughts and feelings in English. The present generation did not have

chance to write a Self- experienced topic by themselves. During the first day of the

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session students felt shy and even feared and hesitated to write in English. The next

day they had some ideas and started to write. From the third day onwards they

enjoyed their writing and the investigator found tremendous improvement in their

writing process.

3.26 PHASE – V ; RESEARCH TOOLS AND DATA COLLECTION:

In order to asses the treatment given to the experimental group the investigator

intended to develop a tool for post-test. The content validity of the tool was

established by giving it to expert opinion. The reliability of the tool was established

by Split-half method.

As the outset the researcher wanted to know the influence of extraneous variables

intervention on the treatment given to the experimental group. Though the

experimental group was in the same school, the homogeneity of the group was

checked through collecting the demographic characteristics like the “Order of Birth”,

“Father's qualification and designation”, “Mother's qualification and designation”,

“the year of the study in the same school”, “choice of activities inside the classroom”,

“choice of activities in developing competencies in learning English”, etc., of the

group were collected through the questionnare. In addition to the demographic

particulars , awareness of writing competence were also collected through the

respective questionnare.

3.26.1 DATA COLLECTION:

The research design of this experiment study is pre-test and post-test experimental

group design. The Pre-test and post-test were given to students and data were

collected. The demographic particulars of students were collected. Awareness on

writing competence was collected and data were evaluated . Thus the available data

for analysis of students were,

Demographic Particulars

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Pre-test and Post-test scores on the performance of the students in writing

competence in English.

Awareness on writing competence

3.27 PHASE – VI; SCHEME OF DATA ANALYSIS:

In the present study, the relevant data obtained from scores on the pre-test and post-

test have been analyzed as follows:

Descriptive analysis

Relational analysis

Differential analysis

3.28 CONCLUSION:

Even though methodology occupies a central in research endeavor, its efficacy could

be approved only through data analysis. Therefore data analysis is described in the

coming chapter.

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CHAPTER- IV

DATA ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION

CHAPTER – IV

DATA ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION

4.1 INTRODUCTION:

After the collection of pertinent data through the use of appropriate tools and

techniques, the next step in the process of research is the organisation, analysis and

interpretation of data and formulation of conclusion.

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Data were collected from the experimental group students on the following

factors.

10. Demographic Particulars

11. Pre-test and Post-test on Writing competence in English

12. Awareness on Writing competence

13. Awareness on Psycholinguistics Principles

14. Awareness on Neurolinguistics Programming

15. Awareness on Synergistic effect of Psycholinguistic principles and

Neurolinguistics Programming

Data obtained on the above factors were subjected to statistical

analysis. Analysis was categorized under:

16. Descriptive analysis

17. Relational analysis

18. Differential analysis

4.2 DESCRIPTIVE ANALYSIS:

The term “Descriptive analysis” refers to a set of concepts and methods

used in organising, summarizing, tabulating, depicting and collection of

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data. The goal of descriptive analysis is to provide a representation of the

data, which describes data or the results of the researcher in the tabular,

graphical or numerical form. The function of descriptive analysis is to

describe and indicate several characteristics common to the entire sample.

4.2.1 CHARACTERISTICS OF THE SAMPLE:

In this section, “the order of birth”, “father's qualification and designation”,

mother's qualification and designation”, “the years of study in the same

school”,”place of study other than this school”, “choice of grouping for activities”,

“mother tongue”, “choice of learning activities”, “importance according to

language skill”, etc., of the experimental group are explained.

TABLE – 4.2.1

“Order of Birth”of experimental group students

SAMPLE SIZE 1 2 3 4

N=30 14 9 6 1

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46.6% 30%

20%

3.3%

Most of the students are from “1st” and “2nd” order of birth. A maximum of

46.6% of students in the experimental group are born of “1st” order. Students of

30% are of “2nd” order, 20% are of “3rd”order and only 3.3% are born of “4th”

order of birth.

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TABLE – 4.2.2

Experimental group students' “Parents' Qualification”

SAMPLE

SIZE (N=30)

IL ELE SSE HSE UG

Father's

qualification

1

3.3%

8

26.7%

14

46.6%

4

13.3%

3

10%

Mother's

qualification

3

10%

12

40%

10

33.3%

3

10%

2

6.7%

IL- Illiterate

ELE- Elementary Education

SSE – Secondary School Education

HSE – Higher Secondary Education

UG – Under Graduation

From the table, it is inferred that “illiteracy” is higher on the side of mothers

(10%) compared to fathers (3.33%). Fathers of 26.7% and mothers of 40% have

“Elementary Education”. A maximum of 46.6% of fathers and 33.3% of mothers

have “Secondary school Education”. Fathers of 13.3% and mothers of 10% have

“Higher secondary Education”. Only a minimum of 10% of fathers and 6.7% of

mothers have “Under Graduation”. Finally it is understood that most of the fathers

have undergone “Secondary school Education” and most of the mothers have

undergone “Elementary Education”.

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TABLE – 4.2.3

Experimental group students' “Father's Designation”

SAMPLE SIZE PROFESSION BUSINESS OTHERS

N=30 2

6.7%

8

26.7%

20

66.7%

In designation wise 66.7% of the experimental group students' fathers designation

come under “Others” category and 26.7% belongs to the “Business” category and

6.7% belongs to the “Profession” category.

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TABLE – 4.2.4

Experimental group students' “Mother's Designation”

SAMPLE SIZE PROFESSION BUSINESS HOUSE WIFE OTHERS

N=30 1

3.3%

1

3.3%

26

86.7%

2

6.7%

A maximum of 86.7% of students' mothers serve as “Housewives”. A minimum of

3.3% comes under “Business”and “Professional” and 6.7% of mothers are comes

under “Others” category respectively.

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TABLE – 4.2.5

“The years of study in the Same school “ of experimental group students.

SAMPLE

SIZE

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

N=30 2

6.7%

2

6.7%

9

30%

1

3.3%

0

0%

1

3.3%

3

10%

12

40%

A maximum of 40% of students have “8” years of study in the same school.

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Students of 30% have “3” years of study, 10% have “7” years of study, 6.7% have

respectively “2” and “1” year of study and 3.3% of students have respectively “4”

and “6” years of study in the same school. From the data it is inferred that a

maximum of 40% of students have been studying in the school since 1 st standard

and 30% of students have been studying in the school since 6th standard.

TABLE – 4.2.6

Experimental group students' “Place of residence”

SAMPLE SIZE RURAL URBAN

N=30 27 3

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90% 10%

A maximum of 90% of students are from “Rural” areas and a minimum of 10%

are from “Urban” areas.

TABLE- 4.2.7

Experimental group students' “Choice of grouping for activities”

SAMPLE SIZE A B C

N=30 1 6 23

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3.3% 20% 76.7%

A- Practicing with the whole class

B- Practicing with the small groups

C – Practicing alone

A maximum of 76.6% students of experimental group prefer to “Practicing alone”

and 20% of students choose “Practicing with the small groups” and 3.3% of the

students prefer to “Practicing with the whole class”.

TABLE – 4.2.8

Experimental group students' “Mother tongue”

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SAMPLE SIZE TAMIL OTHERS

N=30 29

96.7%

1

3.3%

A maximum of 96.7% of students' mother tongue is “Tamil” and only 3.3%

students comes under “Others” category.

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TABLE – 4.2.9

Experimental group students' “Choice of learning activities”

SAMPLE SIZE A B C D

N=30 10

33.3%

3

10%

13

43.3%

4

13.3%

A-Articulating words

B- Dealing the exercise of the text book

C- Learning new words and phases

D- Studying text books

Experimental group students prefer “Learning new words and phases”followed by

“articulating words”. A maximum of 43.3% of students prefer to “learn new words

and Phrases”, 33.3% of students prefer to “articulate words”, 13.3% of students

prefer to “study text book” and only 10% of students prefer to “deal the exercises

of the textbook”.

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TABLE – 4.2.10

Experimental group students' “Importance according to language skill”

SAMPLE SIZE L R S W

N=30 17

56.7%

1

3.3%

8

26.7%

4

13.3%

L- Listening

R-Reading

S-Speaking

W- Writing

Students give much importance to “Listening” in language skills. A maximum of

56.7% prefer “Listening skill”, 26.7% prefer “speaking skill”, 13.3% prefer

“Writing skill” and only 3.3% prefer “Reading skill”.

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4.2.2 CONCLUSION:

From the descriptive analysis it is evident that most of the students are from “1st”

and “2nd” order of birth. Only a minimum of 10% of fathers and 6.7% of mothers

have acquired”Under graduation”. Most of the fathers are involved in occupations

indicated as “Others” category and most of the mothers are “Housewives”. Around

40% of students have studied in the same school for a period of “8” years and 30%

of students have studied for a period of “3”years. This indicates that 40% of

students have been studying in this school since 1st standard and students of 30%

have been studying since 6th standard. Majority of students are from “Rural” areas.

The mother tongue of 96.7% of students is “Tamil”. A maximum of 83% of

students prefer to “Practice alone”. Students prefer “Learning new words and

phrases” followed by “Articulating words”. Students give much importance to

“Listening” in Language skills.

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4.3 RELATIONAL ANALYSIS:

Relational analysis is attempted to find out the significant relationship between

varibles. The “r” value was calculated by using Pearson product moment

correlation to find out the relation between Pretest and Post-test scores, between

awareness on writing competence and Psycholinguistics principles, between

writing competence and Neurolinguistics programming and writing competence

and synergising effect of Psycholinguistic Principles and Neurolinguistics

programming.

TABLE – 4.3.1

“r” value between the awareness on Psycholinguistic Principles and Writing

competence

Test “r” value between the awareness on

Psycholinguistic Principles and Writing

competence

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Awareness on Psycholinguistic Principles and

Writing competence

0.75

There is a high relationship between awareness on Psycholinguistic Principles and

Writing competence.

TABLE – 4.3.2

“r” value between awareness on Neurolinguistics programming and Writing

competence

Test “r” value between awareness on

Neurolinguistics programming and Writing

competence

Awareness on Neurolinguistics programming

and Writing competence

0.79

There is a high relationship between awareness on Neurolinguistics Programming

and Writing competence.

TABLE – 4.3.3

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“r” value between awareness on synergising effect of Psycholinguistic

Principles and Neurolinguistics programming.

Test “r” value between awareness on

synergising effect of Psycholinguistic

Principles and Neurolinguistics

programming

Awareness on synergising effect of

Psycholinguistic Principles and

Neurolinguistics programming.

0.87

There is a high relationship between awareness on synergising effect of

Psycholinguistic Principles and Neurolinguistics programming.

4.3.1. CONCLUSION:

From the Relational analysis,the high relationship between awareness on writing

competence and Psycholinguistics principles, between writing competence and

Neurolinguistics programming and writing competence and synergising effect of

Psycholinguistic Principles and Neurolinguistics programming are Highly

correlated. To put in nut shell, this new pedagogy will help to enhance Writing

competence.

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4.4 DIFFERENTIAL ANALYSIS:

The differential analysis is attempted to find out the significant mean difference

between the pre-test and post-test scores of the experimental group students. In the

experimental group the application of Psycholinguistic Principles and

Neurolinguistics programming in writing competence is tested by comparing the

pre-test and post-test scores through computation of t-values between the pre-test

and post-test scores.

4.4.1. “t” TEST:

The most common statistical procedure for determining the level of significance

6;when two means are compared is the “t” test. The “t”test is a formula that

generates a number, and this number is used to determine the probability level of

rejecting/accepting the null hypothesis. The “t” test is used to observe the

difference between the two means. The “t” test is applied to know the difference

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between the results from two matched groups or single group.

TABLE – 4.4.1

The mean and standard deviation of the pre-test scores of experimental group

students.

Test Sample size Mean Standard Deviation

PRE-TEST N=30 60.5 16.28

The mean and standard deviation of the pre-test scores on Writing competence in

English of the experimental group students are 60.5 and 16.5 respectively.

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TABLE – 4.4.2

The mean and standard deviation of the post-test scores of experimental

group students

.

Test Sample size Mean Standard Deviation

POST-TEST N=30 69.5 14.97

The mean and standard deviation of the post-test scores on writing competence in

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English of the experimental group students are 69.5 and 14.97 respectively.

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TABLE – 4.4.3

“t” value between pre-test and post-test scores of experimental group

students in achievement test in Writing competence.

Sample size df Test “t” value between

pre-test and post-test

N=30 58 Writing competence 2.23*

* significance at 0.05 level

For df, to be significant at 0.05 level the calculated “t” value should be greater

than or equal to 2.01. Hence, df= 58 and “t” = 2.23, and it is greater than the table

value. Hence, it is significant.

4.4.2 CONCLUSION:

The calculated t value (t=2.23) is far above the table value at 0.05(95%).Hence,

there is significant difference between pre-test and post-test score of the

experimental group students at 0.05 levels.

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4. 5. CONCLUSION:

This chapter had extensively dealt with the calculations pertaining to different

statistical analysis of variables, tabulations and interpretations of results obtained.

The findings, discussions,educational implications and conclusion of the study are

listed in the successive chapter.

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CHAPTER – V

SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION

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CHAPTER – V

SUMMARY, FINDINGS AND CONCLUSION

5.1 INTRODUCTION:

The present study is to find out the synergising effect of Psycholinguistics

principles and Neurolinguistics Programming on facilitating writing competence

among upper primary students. Research effort can be said to be worthwhile if

only, it emanates some findings and educational implications. So along with this

discussion of the present study and follow up work to be taken in this area are

presented in this chapter.

5.2 PSYCHOLINGUISTICS PRINCIPLES:

The researcher taking Psycholinguistics Principles within himself and the

investigator use those principles while teaching. The psycholinguistics principles

are listed below.

a. From known to unknown

b. Motivation

c. Speech before reading and writing

d. Present language in basic sentence pattern

e. Language habits through practice and drill

f. The oral way

g. Imitation

h. Selection and Gradation

I. Controlled vocabulary

j. Reinforcement

k. Multiple line of approach, Language usages

5 5.3 NEUROLINGUISTICS PROGRAMMING:

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Neurolinguistics means the study of the way the human brain processes Language

and Neurolinguistics programming means a technique that people use to help

themselves or others think in a more positive way, and which uses neurolinguistics

as its basis.

The synergising effect, of Psycholinguistics Principles and Neuolinguistics

programming, will enhance writing competence.

5

6 5.4 WRITING – AN ESSENTIAL SKILL :

Writing is a process of analysis. An appreciation of the full import of this

analytical process requires relative cognitive maturity and, in our literate society ,

also functions as a promoter of such maturity. As with most of his other

experiences the totality, or gestalt, of the language before he begins to take it apart.

To a child learning his native language, writing comes as a pleasant discovery

which greatly arouses his curiosity, as do the innards of an alarm clock which a

young boy has taken apart to see what makes it tick. Compared to this pleasant

discovery of writing, the reverse discovery of the spoken form by a child brought

up on R-W-L-S sequence is invariably a highly disconcerning one, since he seems

to have no clue how the bits and pieces of written language that he has been given

by the teacher add up to that awe-inspiring fluency of the spoken form which the

“Real” speaker of the language mouths with such devastating ease! It is easy

thereafter to feel cheated and frustrated, to feel that the real language has somehow

been missed altogether. And since usually this realization comes rather late in the

case of the second language, when other things in life have begun to be more

important, the best course seems to give up, or to just drift along.

5

6 5.5 SYNERGISING EFFECT OF PSYCHOLINGUISTIC PRINCIPLES

AND NEUROLINGUISTICS PROGRAMMING IN WRITING

COMPETENCE:

7 Psycholinguistics or Psychology of language, is the study of mind

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process and produce language awareness should be given to language teachers

and every individual should have attitudinal change and aspirational change

and every teacher should program (practice) the students thinking and

Neurolinguistics programming , a technique that people use to help themselves

or others think in a more positive way, and which uses neurolinguistics as its

basis, should be given to students. Therefore, this research outcome will bring

awareness among school teachers especially for enhancing writing

competencies in English language.

This research is an experimental method where

neurolinguistic programming and psycholinguistics principles are synergized to

enhancing the writing competence of the high school students. Psycholinguistics

principles were practiced by teachers and they want to teach with the help of NLP

to the students. This strategy or model will be considered as a better method than

any other method for enhancing competence.

5.6 INFERENCES FROM THE REVIEW:

The investigator has collected research studies under the following sections as,

Psycholinguistics Principles, Neurolinguistics Programming and Writing

competence.The inferences drawn from the review of literature strongly suggest

that no single intervention can be effective to suit the academic needs of students.

When the investgator reviewed related literature, she becomes aware of the

variables in the area concerned in the research. It helped the investigator in

avoiding any duplication of work done.

5.7 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM:

Writing is one of the important skills of communication

through which we express our thoughts. Writing is an art which plays a vital role

in our language communication. The 2009 secondary school exam results of

pudhucherry reveals students scored less in English when compared to other

subjects. This information made the investigator to find out the reason behind it.

As a research, the investigator wanted to critically analyse the reasons behind the

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low performance in English. The researcher discussed this problem with the tenth

standard English language teachers of same schools in pudhucherry. It is

understood that students are unable to present their thoughts. They do commit

spelling mistakes, punctuation mistakes, grammatical errors and week sentence

construction. As the medium of instruction is English, this problem reflects in

other subjects too. The researcher observed the English classroom instruction and

English text book. It has a list of writing competencies which they are expected to

achieve like Explaining, Report writing, Knowledge of using appropriate

punctuation marks, Precis writing, Letter writing, etc. If the student are expected

to perform these competencies in writing, they have to be given training in writing

components and they should be given frequent practices. The focus of the

instruction should be on development of writing ability and not an content

transfer. But the language English is being handled as a subject and not as skill

development. All the competencies prescribed for standard tenth, can not be

developed overnight. It regulates certain basics. Had they been given adequate

training on their writing competencies, student in class tenth would not have faced

the above said problem in communication. Hence, the researcher went through

language objectives of the classes sixth and eighth. It focuses on Paragraph writing

, Synopsis writing, Using appropriate punctuation marks.This observation, made

the researcher to think on the pedagogical aspects in school instruction program.

Thus, the researcher designed an effective pedagogy which would help them to

acquire competencies in writing and hence the researcher implemented with a new

pedagogy under this title to enhance writing competencies of school students.

5.8 NEED FOR THE STUDY:

Either in the corporate sector or in government sector, English

is the language for communication. This information era, experts every individual

to equip with competence to withstand competition and survival. Skill

development and language competencies express writing in GATE, SAT, and

Various competitive exam. Hence, it is imperative to find out a right pedagogy for

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writing competence development and for students.

Communication skill is more important in our day today life for

expressing our ideas effectively to others. For tenth standard students, English

language is very very important because it is more helpful for their higher studies.

Their writing comprehension and communication abilities are expected for their

future success. So, this pedagogy is for enhancing writing competency sure to

facilitate of students.

5.9 SCOPE OF THE STUDY:

This research is focusing on development of writing

competence. Psycholinguistics or Psychology of language, is the study of mind

process and produce language awareness should be given to language teachers and

every individual should have attitudinal change and aspirational change and every

teacher should program (practice) the students thinking and Neurolinguistics

programming , a technique that people use to help themselves or others think in a

more positive way, and which uses neurolinguistics as its basis, should be given to

students. Therefore, this research outcome will bring awareness among school

teachers especially for enhancing writing competencies in English language.

This research is an experimental method where neurolinguistic programming

and psycholinguistics principles are synergized to enhancing the writing

competence of the high school students. Psycholinguistics principles were

practiced by teachers and they want to teach with the help of NLP to the students.

This strategy or model will be considered as a better method than any other method

for enhancing competence.

5.10 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY:

The following are the objectives of the study framed by the

researcher and his / her aim to achieve those objectives.

1 To find out the existing competence in writing among eighth

standard.

2 To apply Psycholinguistics principles towards developing writing

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competence among eighth standard students.

3 To apply NLP towards developing writing competence among

eighth standard students.

4 To find out the impact of the Neurolinguistic programming

towards writing competence.

5 To find out the effect of Psycholinguistics principles on the

writing competence.

6 To find out the synergizing effect of psycholinguistics principles

and NLP on developing writing competence among eighth

standard students.

7 To identify the significant relationship between psycholinguistics

and writing competence.

8 To identify the significant relationship between NLP and writing

competence.

9 To identify the significant relationship between Psycholinguistics

and NLP and writing competence.

5.11 TITLE OF THE STUDY:

A synergy of Psycholinguistics and Neurolinguistics Programming on

developing writing competence among Eighth standard students in Sithanandha

High School, Pudhucherry.

5.12 DEFINITIONS OF THE TERMS:

According to 21st Century, Illustrated Oxford dictionary,

a The term “Synergy” means the extra energy, power, success, etc.,

that is achieved by two or more people or companies working

together instead of their own.

b The term “Psycholinguistics” means the study of the mind

process and produces language.

c The term “Neurolinguistics” means the study of the way the

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human brain process language.

d The term “Neurolinguistics Programming” means a technique

that people use to help themselves or others think in a more

positive way , and which uses neurolinguistics as its basis.

e The term “Programming” means a set of instructions to make it

perform a particular task.

f The term “Writing” means a group or sequence of letters or

symbols.

g The term “Competence” means the ability to do something well.

5.13 OPERATIONAL DEFINITION:

In the process of helping eighth standard students in acquiring

writing competence, the researcher applies psycholinguistics principles and tunes

them to practice Neurolinguistics Programming.

5.14 ASSUMPTIONS OF THE STUDY:

The following are the assumptions of the study.

a) Secondary language teaching must be on psycholinguistics principles.

b) Neurolinguistics programming helps the learner in second acquisition.

c) Synergising Psycholinguistics principles and Neurolinguistics

programming results in development of language competencies.

5.15 HYPOTHESES:

The following hypotheses were formulated in the research.

1) There will be significant difference between the Pre-test and the Post-

test scores of the experimental group.

2) There will be a relationship between Psycholinguistics principles and

writing competence.

3) There will be a relationship between Neurolinguistics programming

and Writing competence.

1 There will be an impact of Psycholinguistics and Neurolinguistics

programming on writing competence.

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2

5.16 DELIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY:

The following are the delimitations of the study .

1. The study was restricted to eighth standard students of Sithananadha

High School, Lawspet, Pudhucherry-8.

2. The study was concerned only with thirty eighth standard students.

3. The study was focused on the need and development in writing

competence.

4. The researcher limited her study mainly to writing competence to

Writing competence in English especially in paragraph writing.

5. The program was carried out only for ten days.

5.17 EXPERIMENTAL STUDY:

Experimental method is clearly for determining the casual effect of

independent variables on dependent variable. It provides a systematic and logical

way for answering the research questions. It is to establish cause and affect

relationship between variables. This method is considered to provide for a high

degree of control over extraneous variables and the manipulation of variables. It

helps to test hypotheses of relationship between variables. It also permits drawing

inference about causality.

Experimentation is defined as “observation under controlled conditions”.

Experiments are studies involving intervention by the investigator beyond that

required for measurement . The usual intervention is to manipulate how it affects

the subjects being studied by the investigator, manipulate the independent or

explanatory variable and then observe whether the hypothesized dependent

variable is affected by the intervention.

In the experimental studies, observably changes take place, which help the

investigator to establish a cause and effect relationship. It is the description and

analysis of what will be or what will occur or what can be made to occur under

carefully controlled conditions. Experimentation consists of the deliberate and

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controlled modification of the conditions determining an event and in the

observation and interpretation of the changes that occur in the event itself.

Experimenters deliberately and systematically manipulate certain stimuli,

treatment or environmental conditions and observe how the condition or behaviour

of other factors that could influence the outcome and remove or control them in

such a way that they can establish a logical association between manipulated

factors and observed effects.

Since experimentation is considered to be the scientifically sophisticated

research method the investigator adopted experimental method to study the

effectiveness of applying Psycholinguistics principles and Neurolinguistics

program. The investigator wanted to develop writing competence among high

school students through Psycholinguistics and Neurolinguistics program activities.

One group was taken and Pre-test was administered followed by the treatment and

the Post-test was given to find out the treatments’ effect. In this study the

investigator adopted experimental design – one group- Pre test- Post test design.

5.18 PLANNING OF THE TREATMENT:

The researcher sensitized the problems faced by students with writing

difficulties and realized the need for development of writing competence. The

existing teaching learning process was analyzed. The students were selected and

were personally en quired about the problems being faced in the present school

setting.

For enhancing writing competence the researcher found a new method

or pedagogy for instructions. This method involves Psycholinguistics

principles for teachers and Neurolinguistics programming for students to

enhance writing competence among students

5.19 RESEARCH PROCESS:

I this section the following aspects of the research process are presented.

Sample

Research design

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Duration of the treatment

Threats to Experiemental validity

Research phase

Preparatory program

Pre-test tool on assessing writing competence

Planning for incorporation of Psycholinguistics principles

Designing of the inculcation of Neurolinguistics programming

Continuous application of Psycholinguistics principles and

Neurolinguistics programming and Writing competence

Effects of the treatment

Research tool and data collection

Scheme of data analysis

5.20 SAMPLE:

As the researcher felt the urgent need for the improvement of writing

competence among the high school students in English, the investigator took a

sample of 30 students from Sithananda High School, Lawspet, Pudhucherry.

5.21 RESEARCH DESIGN :

5 A research design is a plan and conceptual structure of

investigation and procedure conceived that to obtain answers for

research question. “It is an outline of what for an investigator as that

for an archiect”.

6 The researcher selected experimental method and thus

designed a research design. The research process is given in the

research design. Standard VIII students were selected for the study.

The Pre-test, treatment and Post-test were designed and given on the

depentent variable. Thus there was one experiemental group and it

was decided to see the synergising effect of Psycholinguistics

Principles and Neurolinguistics programming in enhancing students'

writing competence.

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5.22 DURATION OF THE TREATMENT:

The investigator had the study for a period of one week for preparatory

program and ten days for the intervention program. One week preparatory

program stars from December last week, were the Pre-test was conducted to the

samples and collected the demographic particulars from the sample.

5.23 THREATS TO EXPERIMENTAL VALIDITY:

After selecting the experimental group, the researcher took

steps to avoid threats to validity. In spite of careful planning and implementation,

threats were more on affecting the validity of the experimentation. Attempts were

made to minimize threats for ensuring experimental validity.

A researcher has to have an important consideration in planning

an experimental study or in evaluating the results of a reported study. In the

likelihood of possible threats to internal validity after selecting the experimental

group the researcher took steps to avoid threats to validity. Attempts were made to

minimize threats for ensuring experimental validity.

5.24 INTERNAL VALIDITY:

Internal validity is concerned with the extent to which the

experience is genuinely effective ie. The extent to which the manipulations in the

independent variables brings about changes in the dependent variables. It is

concerned with the true variance in the dependent variable that has been brought

about by the induced variations in the independent variables . The following are

the threats to internal validity which should be avoided.

5.24.1 SUBJECT CHARACTERISTICS:

If the participants in the group happened to be different to be in

the matter of age, sex, etc., the results cannot be wholly attributed to working of

independent variable. This threat was also eliminated as the investigator selected

only eighth standard students’ of the same group.

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5.24.2 MORTALITY:

This threat may happen if the participants in the selected group

drop out in the course of the study. The researcher carefully averted this threat in

the selection of students. Students from class eighth were selected and there were

no drop outs.

5.24.3 LOCATION:

As this study was concentrated on writing skill of the students,

the location was only the classroom for the treatment. There was no change in the

location. So it did not affect the study.

5.24.4 INSTRUMENTATION:

Unreliable instruments used to measure aspects of behavior are

threats to the validity of an experiment. In the study actual performance of

students was evaluated. Students were given training on writing skills and were

assessed for the same.

The entire variables namely Psycholinguistics, Neurolinguistics

programming, Writing competence, Demographic particulars were all scored

uniformly. The validity and the reliability of all the tools were established.

5.24.5 TESTING:

Testing refers to a threat to interval validity which arises due

to the participant becoming “Test-wise”. The Pre-test given to students sensitized

them to the components of writing skills. Moreover the feed back received from

everybody, the follow up work was given due consideration. Post-test was

administered to students on a different aspect on the same pattern there by the

effect of testing was balanced out.

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5.24.6 HISTORY:

Unplanned events do not occur during the research and affect

the results. The researcher carefully observed the treatment hour and protected it

from any new event.

5.24.7 MATURATION:

In refers to the change that may occur in the biological and

psychological conditions of the child during the course of study, and such changes

are likely to happen only if the study spreads over longer period of time but the

present study was confined to a period of ten days only. Hence the question of

maturation did not arise.

5.24.8 STATISTICAL REGRESSION :

It refers to the threat to validity, which occurs in studies that

used participants selected on the basis of extreme high or low scores. Here the

researcher selected the students based on their performance in previous exam

(half-yearly) and Pre-test scores. Thus this threat was also eliminated in the

present research.

5.24.9 SELECTION BIAS:

In spite of the sample being purposive, the group taken for

experiment was really in need for the treatment for development in writing

competence. Students were from standard eighth having who really need to

develop writing competence for the competitive future study. Selection was based

on students’ previous academic performance.

5.24.10. EXPERIMENTER BIAS:

This type of threat occurs when the investigator has some

previous knowledge about the subject involved in the experiment. As the

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researcher was new to the school the question of experimenter bias was ruled out.

5.24.11. IMPLEMENTATION:

The method of implementation may also affect internal validity.

This can be controlled by handling effective implementation strategies in the

instructional package.

5.25 EXTERNAL VALIDITY:

It is the extent to which the result of an experiment can be

generalized to pupils environmental conditions outside the context of the

experiment. It is relatively expensive with large sample.

5.26 CONTROLLING THREATS TO EXTERNAL VALIDITY:

In an experiment, several factors like Hawthrone effect,

evaluation apprehension may be associated with subject awareness being in study

and these factors may interact with treatments or effect responses on the dependent

variable.

So the investigator made students to be aware of their

participation in the experiment. Thus the Hawthorne effect was eliminated.

5.27 RESEARCH PHASES:

In order to realize the objectives the investigator had proceeded

the research in the following manner.

Phase I – Preparatory Program

Phase II - Procedure for Execution of the study

Phase III – Treatment Program

Phase IV – Identifying the effect of the study

Phase V – Analysis and Data collection

Phase VI – Scheme of Data analysis.

5.28 PHASE – I ; PREPARATORY PROGRAM:

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1 Identification of the Problem

2 Selection of the Sample

3 Observing the learning environment

4 Analyze the previous academic performance

5 Collecting the Related literature

6 Collection of research reviews

7 Development of tools

8 Establishment of Validity and Reliability

9 Developing and administering the pre-test tool

10 Instructional package development.

5.28.1 IDENTIFICATION OF THE PROBLEM:

The investigator identified the existing problems in writing among VIII

standard students and found that difficulties in writing not only affect students'

academic performance but also affect their confidence and their future progress.

The problem had been identified by means of classroom observation, analyzing

the previous examination papers and by assessing the overall performance of

students.

5.28.2 SELECTION OF THE SAMPLE:

Sithanandha High School students (30 students) were selected by the

investigator for the study.

5.28.3 OBSERVING THE LEARNING ENVIRONMENT:

The investigator has observed the class to identify the problems among

students in an academic sense. In the teaching – learning process, little importance

is being given to develop writing skill. The teachers are more concerned about

completing the syllabus rather than encouranging students to write and understand

what they learn. The teacher tells the gist of the lesson in mother tongue. Answers

for the questions are given and students are tuned to repeat it. Thus from the

observation the investigator found that the present teaching – learning process

does not develop the writing ability of students. To put in a nut shell, students

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without understanding the real meaning of the writing process face many

difficulties in learning situation.

5.28.4 ANALYZING THE PREVIOUS ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE:

The investigator has collected the previous academic marks

of students in their examinations. She collected the previous examinations papers

to identify students writing skills and their level of difficulty.

5.28.5 COLLECTING THE RELATED LITERATURE:

The investigator has collected the literature from

books and from Internet based on the identified problem.The investgator analyzed

all practical difficulties that are hindering students to get proficiency in writing

and to secure good marks. The investigator has already collected literature about

the problem and incorporated the material taken from the books and other sources.

5.28.6 COLLECTION OF RESEARCH REVIEWS:

The investigator has collected related research reviews on the basis of

the problem identified. The reviews gave knowledge about the various research

works done on the field. When the investigator reviewed related studies, she

becomes aware of the important and unimportant variables in the area concerned

in the research. It helped the investigator in avoiding any duplication of work

done. The studies cited in the foregoing review strongly suggest there is a great

need for a multi model intervention for enhancing writing competence.

5.28.7 DEVELOPMENT OF TOOLS:

In order to find out the effect of the treatment , the investigator

has framed a pre-test tool and post-test tool in English. The objectives are

foccussed to develop writing competence among upper primary students. The pre-

test is administered during this preparatory week itself.

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5.28.8 ESTABLISHING RELIABILITY AND VALIDITY:

The researcher wanted to find out

the validity and reliability of the tool. To find the validity of the tool, it has been

given to the subject experts. After modifying the necessary changes in the tool, it

has allowed to find the reliability by using Split-half method.

Validity refers to what extent the instruments is to measure and how it

measures. Face validity concerns to what it appears to measure. The question

paper for the field of education to be tested for content validity and construct

validity and the validity was established.

5.28.9 DEVELOPING AND ADMINISTERING THE PRE-TEST TOOL:

To find out the present level of achievement of students in writing

and writing competence, a pre-test tool was developed and was administered

among the students of standard VIII. It includes all the important components of

writing.

5.28.10 INSTRUCTIONAL PACKAGE DEVELOPMENT:

After studying the related literature, and reviews the investigator

designed an “Instructional Package” to get a solution for the identified problem.

The instructional package was designed by calculating the total number of days

along with the special strategies adopted.

5.29 PHASE – II ; PROCEDURE FOR THE EXECUTION OF THE

STUDY:

Designing of an intervention programme with the application of

Psycholinguistics Principles and Neurolinguistics programming in facilitating

writing competence.

Writing skill plays a vital role in the person's life. As in the present scenario

the teachers are more concerned about completing the syllabus rather than

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encouraging students to read andd understand what they learn. The essence and

aesthetic sense lies in English has not been enjoyed by students. In many schools

even in English medium, English is portrayed as a complicated subject. Like the

other subjects, they are trained to memorize English also. They have not realized

the benefits of English which shapes their future and considered to be the window

of the modern world. As the present world is globalized, even to survive we need

to learn English.

Therefore the investigator was so particular in making students to enjoy the

language optimum and to have the real pleasure lies in it. The investigator

analyzed and discussed with the experts in the field of education and concluded

that through proper orientation and instruction in Punctuation and Capitalization

make students to excel in writing communication and comprehension. The

investigator in specified prepared an instructional program based on punctuation

and capitalization for the betterment of students because they play a vital and

remarkable role in writing comprehension. The investigator planned the program

on punctuation and correct capitalization through the assigned writing

competencies prescribed in their syllabus. Writing competencies assigned to them

were- Paragraph writing, informal letters to friends and relatives, formal letter

relating to school context, filling in forms and using punctuation. The investigator

adopted the synergy of Psycholinguistics Principles and Neurolinguistics

Programming which paves the most for enhancing writing competence.

Many teachers and most students have the mistaken

impression that punctuation is a very complex matter with hundreds

of rules difficult to understand and next to impossible to apply. First

of all this impression should be erased from the minds of students.

The instructional program aimed at this and even specifically to

make them learn by their own using Psycholinguistics Principles and

Neurolinguistics programming for students. The Knowledge and

process of Neurolinguistics programming make students to be

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successful in life in all aspects.

5.30 PHASE – III – TREATMENT PROGRAM:

The instructional package developed by the investigator was

administered in the treatment program in the following way:

I Preparing and setting the stage

II Orientation

III Intaking Psycholinguistics Principles

IV Giving Neurolinguistics programming

V Think Aloud Protocol

VI Peer group discussion

5.30.1 PREPARING AND SETTING THE STAGE:

The study was well planned by the investigator and the treatment was decided

before hand. Each and every components is considered and the investgator

planned to make the study in order.

5.30.2 ORIENTATION:

First, the researcher gave importance to language and its skills and then the

researcher concentrated his view to writing competence. The researcher oriented

the students with various components like Spelling, Punctuation, Handwriting, etc.

The researcher gave importance to writing competence and its usefulness in our

day-to-day life.

5.30.3 INTAKING PSYCHOLINGUISTICS PRINCIPLES:

The researcher taking Psycholinguistics Principles within himself and the

investigator use those principles while teaching. The psycholinguistics principles

are listed below.

a. From known to unknown

b. Motivation

c. Speech before reading and writing

d. Present language in basic sentence pattern

e. Language habits through practice and drill

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f. The oral way

g. Imitation

h. Selection and Gradation

I. Controlled vocabulary

j. Reinforcement

k. Multiple line of approach, Language usages

5.30.4 GIVING NEUROLINGUISTICS PROGRAMMING:

Neurolinguistics means the study of the way the human brain processes Language

and Neurolinguistics programming means a technique that people use to help

themselves or others think in a more positive way, and which uses neurolinguistics

as its basis.

The synergising effect, of Psycholinguistics Principles and Neuolinguistics

programming, will enhance writing competence.

5.30.5 THINK ALOUD PROTOCOL:

Think Aloud Protocol involve in students' thinking aloud as they are performing a

set of specified tasks. Students are asked to say whatever they are looking at,

thinking,doing, and feeling as they go about their task. This enables them to see

first hand the process of task completion (rather than only its final product). The

purpose of this technique is to make explicit what is implicitly present in subjects

who are able to perform a specific task.

5.30.6 PEER GROUP DISCUSSION:

Peer group discussion is being planned to implement after the answers for “Think

Aloud Protocol”. Peer group discussions allows everyone to participate. Students

feel more comfortable in small groups. They could analyze the answers and

finalize an answer apt to the question. The adaptation of group discussion makes

students to have a clear idea of the subject.

5.31 PHASE IV :IDENTIFYING THE EFFECT OF THE STUDY:

The intervention of Psycholinguistics and Neurolinguistics

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program had a great impact on students. These make them to improve their writing

comprehension. For each and everyday systematic organization of material had

been framed. As a predictable routine helps students to get organized, everyday is

planned in sequence. The objective of the investigator was to tune students

towards the components of second language and finally to facilitate writing

competence. The morning session began with testing their previous knowledge

and recapitalization of previous class. Then the investigator focus on the one

components which is more essential for writing. The investigator practices them

by giving various exercise to them. The afternoon session started with more

activities which is based on their skill and it is related to enhance writing

competence. The investigator introduce more activities like language games, group

games, etc which makes students to express them easily. Students were asked to

write what they had learn t on that day as a feedback and Think aloud protocol.

This enhances their writing process and had a close association with the treatment.

In-between Neurolinguistics Programming were also used to make the program

effective. An objective factor of attention , Namely “size” was applied by writing

the important points in different handwriting and by attractive techniques.

“Intensity”was administered by raising the tone wherever needed. “Change”was

applied by making students to give examples in between . “Contrast” was applied

by asking students questions in between the session. “Novelty” was used by giving

examples from stories and personal experience of the investigator.”Movement”

was applied through moving in the class and by using appropriate gestures while

talking.”Repeatation” was done by repeating the main content again and

again.”Systematic form” was administered by making the students to be aware of

the topic before hand as an over-view. Subjective factor of attention namely

“Interest” was applied through making students to write on a their own

experience.”Need” was administered by giving the importance and essentials of

the topic. “Mental set” was applied by giving a clear cut idea about the schedule.

“Mood” was created by making students involve into the study.

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During every session, the utilization of Neurolinguistics Programming enhances

the listeningpower of students and even makes the study useful. Students could

follow with the investigator. They were aware of the program and effectively

participated in the study. Students were able to administer the strategies that the

investigator adopts.

The application of Neurolinguistics programming makes the study more

interesting and lively. During each session questions were asked orally in between

and students who tried to give the answers were given one chocolate and who gave

the correct answers were awarded with two chocolates. This provokes an ease

among students and they observed and participated actively and keenly.

Every day the session started with the self-experience writing of students in order

to try out their thoughts and feelings in English. The present generation did not

have chance to write a Self- experienced topic by themselves. During the first day

of the session students felt shy and even feared and hesitated to write in English.

The next day they had some ideas and started to write. From the third day onwards

they enjoyed their writing and the investigator found tremendous improvement in

their writing process.

5.32 PHASE – V ; RESEARCH TOOLS AND DATA COLLECTION:

In order to asses the treatment given to the experimental group the investigator

intended to develop a tool for post-test. The content validity of the tool was

established by giving it to expert opinion. The reliability of the tool was

established by Split-half method.

As the outset the researcher wanted to know the influence of extraneous variables

intervention on the treatment given to the experimental group. Though the

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experimental group was in the same school, the homogeneity of the group was

checked through collecting the demographic characteristics like the “Order of

Birth”, “Father's qualification and designation”, “Mother's qualification and

designation”, “the year of the study in the same school”, “choice of activities

inside the classroom”, “choice of activities in developing competencies in learning

English”, etc., of the group were collected through the questionnare. In addition to

the demographic particulars , awareness of writing competence were also collected

through the respective questionnare.

5.32.1 DATA COLLECTION:

The research design of this experiment study is pre-test and post-test experimental

group design. The Pre-test and post-test were given to students and data were

collected. The demographic particulars of students were collected. Awareness on

writing competence was collected and data were evaluated . Thus the available

data for analysis of students were,

Demographic Particulars

Pre-test and Post-test scores on the performance of the students

in writing competence in English.

Awareness on writing competence

5.33 PHASE – VI; SCHEME OF DATA ANALYSIS:

In the present study, the relevant data obtained from scores on the pre-test and

post-test have been analyzed as follows:

Descriptive analysis

Relational analysis

Differential analysis

5.34 FINDINGS :

The mean and standard deviation of the pre-test scores on

Writing competence in English of the experimental group

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students are 60.5 and 16.5 respectively.

The mean and standard deviation of the post-test scores on

writing competence in English of the experimental group

students are 69.5 and 14.97 respectively.

There is significant difference between the pre-test and post-tesr

scores of the experimental group at 0.05 (95%) level.

There is significant relationship between the pre-test and post-

test scores on writing competence due to the intervention of

Psycholinguistics Principles on the experimental group at 0.75

There is significant relationship between the pre-test and post-

test scores on writing competence due to the intervention of

Neurolinguistics Programming on the experimental group at 0.79

There is significant relationship between the pre-test and post-

test scores on writing competence due to the intervention of

synergising effect of Psycholinguistics Principles and

Neurolinguistics Programming on the experimental group at

0.87.

The above findings suggest that there is remarkable improvement

in the academic performance of students due to the intervention

of synergising effect Psycholinguistics principles and

Neurolinguistics programming.

There is significant relationship between parent's level of education and

students learning and post-test scores of the experimental group.

Most of the students are from “1st” and “2nd” order of birth. A

maximum of 46.6% of students in the experimental group are

born of “1st” order. Students of 30% are of “2nd” order, 20% are

of “3rd”order and only 3.3% are born of “4th” order of birth.

it is inferred that “illiteracy” is higher on the side of mothers

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(10%) compared to fathers (3.33%). Fathers of 26.7% and

mothers of 40% have “Elementary Education”. A maximum of

46.6% of fathers and 33.3% of mothers have “Secondary school

Education”. Fathers of 13.3% and mothers of 10% have “Higher

secondary Education”. Only a minimum of 10% of fathers and

6.7% of mothers have “Under Graduation”. Finally it is

understood that most of the fathers have undergone “Secondary

school Education” and most of the mothers have undergone

“Elementary Education”.

In designation wise 66.7% of the experimental group students'

fathers designation come under “Others” category and 26.7%

belongs to the “Business” category and 6.7% belongs to the

“Profession” category.

A maximum of 86.7% of students' mothers serve as

“Housewives”. A minimum of 3.3% comes under “Business”and

“Professional” and 6.7% of mothers are comes under “Others”

category respectively.

A maximum of 40% of students have “8” years of study in the

same school. Students of 30% have “3” years of study, 10% have

“7” years of study, 6.7% have respectively “2” and “1” year of

study and 3.3% of students have respectively “4” and “6” years

of study in the same school. From the data it is inferred that a

maximum of 40% of students have been studying in the school

since 1 st standard and 30% of students have been studying in the

school since 6th standard.

A maximum of 90% of students are from “Rural” areas and a

minimum of 10% are from “Urban” areas.

A maximum of 76.6% students of experimental group prefer to

“Practicing alone” and 20% of students choose “Practicing with

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the small groups” and 3.3% of the students prefer to “Practicing

with the whole class”.

A maximum of 96.7% of students' mother tongue is “Tamil” and

only 3.3% students comes under “Others” category.

Experimental group students prefer “Learning new words and

phases”followed by “articulating words”. A maximum of 43.3%

of students prefer to “learn new words and Phrases”, 33.3% of

students prefer to “articulate words”, 13.3% of students prefer to

“study text book” and only 10% of students prefer to “deal the

exercises of the textbook”.

Students give much importance to “Listening” in language skills.

A maximum of 56.7% prefer “Listening skill”, 26.7% prefer

“speaking skill”, 13.3% prefer “Writing skill” and only 3.3%

prefer “Reading skill”.

From the descriptive analysis it is evident that most of the

students are from “1st” and “2nd” order of birth. Only a

minimum of 10% of fathers and 6.7% of mothers have

acquired”Under graduation”. Most of the fathers are involved in

occupations indicated as “Others” category and most of the

mothers are “Housewives”. Around 40% of students have studied

in the same school for a period of “8” years and 30% of students

have studied for a period of “3”years. This indicates that 40% of

students have been studying in this school since 1st standard and

students of 30% have been studying since 6th standard. Majority

of students are from “Rural” areas. The mother tongue of 96.7%

of students is “Tamil”. A maximum of 83% of students prefer to

“Practice alone”. Students prefer “Learning new words and

phrases” followed by “Articulating words”. Students give much

importance to “Listening” in Language skills.

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There is a high relationship between awareness on

Psycholinguistic Principles and Writing competence.

There is a high relationship between awareness on

Neurolinguistics Programming and Writing competence.

There is a high relationship between awareness on synergising

effect of Psycholinguistic Principles and Neurolinguistics

programming.

From the Relational analysis,the high relationship between

awareness on writing competence and Psycholinguistics

principles, between writing competence and Neurolinguistics

programming and writing competence and synergising effect of

Psycholinguistic Principles and Neurolinguistics programming

are Highly correlated. To put in nut shell, this new pedagogy will

help to enhance Writing competence.

The mean and standard deviation of the pre-test scores on

Writing competence in English of the experimental group

students are 60.5 and 16.5 respectively.

The mean and standard deviation of the post-test scores on

writing competence in English of the experimental group

students are 69.5 and 14.97 respectively.

For df, to be significant at 0.05 level the calculated “t” value

should be greater than or equal to 2.01. Hence, df= 58 and “t” =

2.23, and it is greater than the table value. Hence, it is significant.

The calculated t value (t=2.23) is far above the table value at

0.05(95%).Hence, there is significant difference between pre-test

and post-test score of the experimental group students at 0.05

level.

Students prefer to write on a self-selected topic and opportunity

should be given to strengthen their writing competence.

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Improved Self-esteem and confidence.

Notable difference in the achievement level of students.

5.35SUGGESTIONS FOR THE FURTHER STUDY:

On the basis of the study, reported by the investigator, he recommended further

research on the forth coming lines. The attempt made by the investigator was a

successful one; there are some gaps, Which can be filled by the future work.

Writing Competence in English is mainly focused in this study. A study

can also be done not only with concerns with Writing competence in

English but also with reading comprehension in English.

The present study has done only by using 10 days. So, the study could

be done for more than one or two months.

The present study could be done in Socio economic back ground of the

family.

The present study could be done in applying various strategies other

than Psycholinguistic Principles and Neurolinguistics programming

instruction.

The present study could be done in more than one institutions and also

in large samples.

The present study could be done to enhance or disrupts the socio economic

backgrounds.

5.36 DISSCUSSIONS:

The investigator through relational analysis found that there is significant

relationship between the awareness of Psycholinguistic Principles and writing

competence at 0.7. It is concurrent with the findings of Morett, Laura, (2007) in the

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study on Second Language Learning in an Undergraduate Population: Applications of

Psycholinguistic Theory, A mini-lesson in Spanish vocabulary was taught to

undergraduates unfamiliar with the language using one of two predominant L2

teaching methodologies, the grammar-translation approach or the communicative

approach. Both experimental groups showed significant improvement in learning

the target language over the baseline measure set by the control group, but no

significant differences were observed between the two experimental groups.

Working memory efficiency appeared to be related to L2 learning. Two weeks

later, there were no significant differences between the performance of the any of

the groups. A subset of participants who underwent a neuroimaging procedure

while performing the experimental tasks showed higher overall cerebral blood

flow velocities under the condition based on the grammar-translation approach

compared to the condition based on the communicative approach. Taken as a

whole, these results form a mosaic of the mechanisms and variables involved in

second language learning, providing insight into the process of second language

acquisition in undergraduate students. Appended are: (1) Informed consent form

for main task component; (2) Pre-screening quiz; (3) Demographic survey; (4)

Bilingual vocabulary sheet; (5) Graphic vocabulary sheet; (6) Bilingual worksheet;

(7) Graphic worksheet; (8) Metacognitive survey; (9) Short-term post assessment;

(10) Debriefing form for main task component; (11) Informed consent form for

follow-up component; (12) Long-term post assessment; (13) Debriefing form for

follow-up component; (14) Informed consent form for neuroimaging component;

(15) Debriefing form for neuroimaging component; (16) Informed consent form

for multicultural component; (17) Interview questions; and (18) Debriefing form

for multicultural component.

The investigator through relational analysis found that there is significant

relationship between the awareness of Neurolinguistics programing and writing

competence at 0.7. It is concurrent with the findings of Williams, M. F.; Jacobson,

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W. H.,(1989) in the study on , Neurolinguistic Programming in Orientation and

Mobility. The research describes the neurolinguistic programing model and applies

it to teaching orientation and mobility skills to congenitally blind students, who

have access to only the auditory and kinesthetic primary systems. Understanding

the effects on thought of limited representational systems can help trainers teach

more effective cane or dog guide use.Sharpley, Christopher F. (1987) in the study

on , Research Findings on Neurolinguistic Programming: Nonsupportive Data or an

Untestable Theory?, This research examines the experimental literature on

neurolinguistic programming (NLP). Sharpley (l984) and Einspruch and Forman

(l985) concluded that the effectiveness of this therapy was yet to be demonstrated.

Presents data from seven recent studies that further question the basic tenets of

NLP and their application in counseling situations.

The investigator through the study insisted the importance of writing competence

and it is concurrred with the findings of Boquet, Elizabeth H.; Lerner, Neal (2008)

in the study “Reconsiderations :After “The Idea of a Writing Center” that writing

centers are greatly needed for potentially valuable scholarly inquiry.

5.37 EDUCATIONAL IMPLICATIONS:

The result of this study presented a practical model for improving writing

competence with the intervention of Psycholinguistic principles and

Neurolinguistics Programming over a short duration. Writing competence is an

essential factor in language learning . It should be developed within students as it

is a process which comes throughout the life time of a person. As writing

competence is found to be low among students Psycholinguistic principles and

Neurolinguistics programming strategies help students to make students as

proficient learners. Students gain confidence and become more independent.

Independence leads to ownership as students realize they can pursue their own

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intellectual needs and discover a world of information at their fingerprints.

5.38 CONCLUSION:

The present study is on enhancing writing competence in English by applying the

intervention of Psycholinguistic principles and Neurolinguistics programming.

Writing competence will enhance the achievement mark in English. Writing

competence is a life long process which the growth of a person.

This research has shown a strong link between students writing competence,

Psycholinguistic Principles and Neurolinguistics programming strategies. The

application of

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

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WEB RESOURCES

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APPENDIX

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INVENTORY TO ACCESS THE AWARENESS ON WRITING COMPREHENSION AMONG UPPER PRIMARY STUDENTS.

Kindly read the following and say whether you can find them applicable or not by TICK mark.

Sl.no PART - A Yes/No

1. I can punctuate any given passage as per the meaning in the context

2. I can arrange the given jumbled sentences into a meaningful arrangement

3. I can write with clarity without mistakes

4. I can write sentences with correct structure

5. I can write with correct grammar.

6. I can identify the synonyms from the given words.

7. I can identify the antonyms from the given words.

8. I can frame spelling for an unknown word.

9. I can take notes in the class effetively.

10. I can comprehend any given passage and jot down the important details.

11. I can comprehend any written passage.

12. I can take regular writing exercises to improve learning potential.

Page 176: Dissertation

INVENTORY TO ACCESS THE AWARENESS ON WRITING COMPREHENSION AMONG UPPER PRIMARY STUDENTS.

Kindly read the following and say whether you can find them applicable or not by TICK mark.

Sl.no PART - A Yes/No

1. I can punctuate any given passage as per the meaning in the context

2. I can arrange the given jumbled sentences into a meaningful arrangement

3. I can write with clarity without mistakes

4. I can write sentences with correct structure

5. I can write with correct grammar.

6. I can identify the synonyms from the given words.

7. I can identify the antonyms from the given words.

8. I can frame spelling for an unknown word.

9. I can take notes in the class effetively.

10. I can comprehend any given passage and jot down the important details.

11. I can comprehend any written passage.

12. I can take regular writing exercises to improve learning potential.

THINK ALOUD PROTOCOL

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Read the following questions , Think Aloud and Answer.

1. What is the content about ?

2. What do I already know about ?

3. What did I understand in the class ?

4. What have I enriched in the class ?

5. What have I enriched from the content ?


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