National Lbrary I+Iofcam Canadian Theses Service Setvice des theses canadiennes ' . Ottawa. Canada KIA ON4 NOTICE The quality of this microform is heavily dependent upon the La ualitb de cette microtorme depend grandement de la quality of the original thesis submitted for microfilming. qua9 it6 de la these soumise au microfilmage.Nous avons Every effort has been made to ensure the highest quality of tout fait pour assurer une qualit4 supdrieure de reproduc- reproduction possible. tion. e If pages are missing, contact the university which granted S'il man ue des pages, veuillez communiquer avsc . the degree. I'universit'B qui a conf6r4 le grade. \ Some pages may have indistinct print especially if the La qualit6 d'impression de certaines pages peut laisser A original pages were typed with a poor typewriter ribbon or dbsirer, surtout si les pages originales ont dt4 dactylogra- if the university sent us an inferior photocopy. phides A I'aide d'un ruban us4 ou si I'universite nous a fart parvenir une photocopie de qualit4 infdrieure. Reproduction in full or ih part of this microform is La reproduction, meme partielle, de cette microforme est by the Canadian Copyright Act, R.S.C. 1970, c. soumise A la Loi canadienne sur le droit d'auteur, SRC subsequent amendments. 1970, c. C-30,et ses amendements subs 'L&quents. A STUDY OF INDIAN ENGLISH s AND ITS EFFECT ON * SCHOOL PERFORMANCE Pamela Dale Hansen B.A. (special), University of Alberta, 1976 A THESES SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEaREE OF MASTER OF ARTS (EDUCATION) ln 'the Faculty Education @ Pamela Dale Hansen, 1988 SIMON FRASIR UNIVERSI'TX 1 November, 1988 All rights reserved. This thesis my not be reproduced in whole or part, by photocopy or other mans', without permission of the author. 4 Permission has been granted L'autoriaation a &tb accordbe to the National Litqary of la ~ibliothaquar nationals Canada to microfffm this du Canada de microfilmer thesis and to lend or me11 cette these et de prster ou copies of the film. de vendre den exemplairsm du film. The author (copyright'owner) L'auteur (titulaire du droit -. has reserved other d'auteur) ae rbmsrve. lets .' "rublication rights, and autres droits de publication; neither the thesis nor ni la theee ni de longs extensive extracts from - it extraits de cells-ci ne may be printed or otherwise doivent Btre imprids ou reproduced without hielher autrement reproduits mans aon written permission. autoriaation 6crite. APPROVAL Name: Pamela Dale Hansen Degree: Master of Arts (Education) Title of Thesis: A Study of Indian English and itsEffect?,-$ -$&-* on School Performance. :I Examining Committee: Chair: S. decastell \.. I /w 7,L r I K; Toohey / Senior Supervisor ---- w J. Tuinman Professor -/ - / 'L I/- / -4~.Shapson Professor Facutty of Education Simon Fraser University External Examiner - i D PARTIAL-COPYRIGHT LICENSE I hereby grant to Simon Fraser University the right to !endo my thesis, project or extended-essay (the title of which is shown below) * * to users of the Simon Fraser University Library, and to make partial or single copies only for such users or in response ta a request from the library of any other universify, or bther educational iri;titutibn, on- , &. its own behalf or for one of its users. I further agreehat pe'rrnission 6 v * ,7 I. -4 for multiple copying f this work for scholarly may be granted 2 '- - h P '.* *F ' by me or the Dean of Gradpate Studies. It is understood that copying ' , 24 I &r publication of this work for financial ~ain'shi'll not be allpwed - " .; *>' 1 ,- + . without my written permission. % & -# + - , .\ * ,>I , r A , 2 sP -7 Ti t 1 e of ~hesi s/Project/Extended Essay 2.- 2.- 4 - 4r " So' *-*-, & p "' ' , A Studyof Indian English and its ~ffecton School ~erforqance ;. ,.. * $:< u 4 ,$# P%@ C - 9 3;. 1-3 . eJ ~uihor: ", / --'--w+d I / -- . Ys4' (signature4 &+b., - , -'E - , ds' PAMELA DALE HANSEN -, - ABSTRACT Tha preeibht study oxatmined the speech of forty Grade 6 and 1 w Orrdm 9 Native and non-Native students in one school district in British Columbia to determine whether or not the speech of Native students showed dialect features distinctive from their non-Native peers and to examine the pedagogical implications of percmivmd and real speech differences. The two speech mituations were the Teacher/Student interview and the ~tudent/~tudentfilm narrative, which required one student to tmll another of the same ethnic background about a film they h >k -, had Just seen. The speech samples were analysed for: (a)' nonstandard grammatical and vocabulary features, Cb) intonation differences via subjective dnd,objective means, Ccl differences 1 in the use of the h$+tcsr&calpreswnt or past tense in film . , * .' "3~ narrative,"and (dl cohfqrmity to LabovFs nor'mal narrati,ve. <, .? * * t , , , g1 ,* Results indicated:$haf dhpre >.were -no signi fican+. differences , 4. _I' I 9. bmtwem ethnic groups. in*thi ys. di nonstandard cyanma; or .r 42 vocabulary. Natiwe dtuden0; showed slightly more variation in intonation than their non-fW$ibe peeks at th.e Grade 6 level. G, i@8 Thrr,sQas no 'dif fermcr in:the use of main ten- between Native B - >.& & and non~Mtiv@ students at ei t her grade 1eve1 . Native students , , at both- &i ~rade6 and Gr.ade 9 level tense-switched less a",, frmqd&tly*thari their-non-~ativrpeers. There was no *& -d C ... difference between ther,$1650ya-3 - groups in conformity to Labovps + narrative format at the Wad+ 6 level. At the Grade 9 level, j. more nm-Nat ive students used Evaluation than Nrtive students. -< , More Grade 9 Native students percejved themselves as Nativr- sounding than did Grade 6 ~ativestudents. This finding contrasted with that &f the Teacher/Listener who was able to identify only one-fifth of Grade 9 Native studentr as opporbd to four-fifths of the Grade 6 Native students. The results suggest that nonstandard speech %not be idrnti fied as. an inhibiting factor in school for this particular group of Native students,. that these ~atikstudents do not have a flattmr intonation than their non-Native peers, and that there is some indication that other factors must be contributing to older studentsv self-perceptions of differentness. , ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to acknowl'edge the following people for their support in the paking and finishing of this thesis: Uy Senior Supervisor, Dr. Kelleen Toohey, SFU, for her guidance and acuity in perceiving ambiguity; The teachers and principals at A. D. Rundle Junior Secondary ,--+/ and McCammon Elementary for faclllt~tlngthis kesearch,- and a , special thank you to the students at these schools for making the interviewing such an enjoyable experience; . * .+ .+ Craig Dickson, Jocelyn Clayards, and Stephen Eady at the Center for Speech Research Technology, University of Victoria, for their infinite readiness to help in the interpretation of the intonation data; d Wendy Lockerby, Home-School Coordinator, and Alice Stein, Native Support Worker, chillfwack School Board; and Herb Joe and Phil Hall of the Chilllwack Area Indian Council for their extensive help and support in setting up the research; and last, but not least, Charles Steele, for his at times acerbic, but ultimately helpful, comments throughout the writing of this thesis. TABLE OF CONTENTS APPROVAL PAGE ........................................... ii ABSTRACT ................................................ iii. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ......................................... 'v LIST OF TABLES ...........................P.............. viii @ CHAPTER ONE .INTRODUCTION TO PROBLEM ................... 1 Objective of the study .............................. 1 Research questions .......................*............ 7 The-&aature of the study .............................. 11 Methodology ......................................... 11 Summary ............................................. 12 CHAPTER TWO .REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE .................. 14 Dialect research- ................................... 14 Oral and written discourse .......................... 22 Past and historic present ........................... 28 Film narrative ...................................... 29 ~nt~natlon......................................... 30 Summary .................................... .......... 31 CHAPTER THREE .METHOD ...................................... 33 Subjects ............................................ 33 Selection procedure ................................. 35 Listeners ........................................ 36 Apparatus ........................................... 36 Procedur .......................................... 37 ~i sc&"ur edium .................................... 39 Gramma sca features ................................ 40 Narrat ve form ...................................... 41 Intma ion ........................................ 41 Past and? historic present ........................... 42 Summary .......................................... 42 CWTER FOUR .RESULTS .................................. 44 ..- Introduction ........................................ 44 Grammar ...............................=I........... 44 Use of past participle for simple past/Delotion of auxiliary .. ........................................ 45 4 TABLE OF CONTENTS .. Double ,negative..... .............................. 46 Other non-standard features ................... ... 46 Fraaquancy of ten=-switching ........................ -48 LabovTs normal narrative ............................ 51 Main tense ......................................... 57 Intonation .........................................