Digital Commons Network^™

Workplace English As Professional Development: The Uw-Madison Model, Karen Parrillo

MITESOL Journal: An Online Publication of MITESOL

University human resources departments dedicate themselves to providing relevant professional development to their institutions’ employees. However, few of these departments consider the language learning needs of employees who are nonnative English speakers. This paper introduces the University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW-Madison)’s unique approach to meeting the English language learning needs of employees through its Cultural Linguistic Services (CLS) department within the Office of Human Resources (OHR). The CLS Workplace English Program features the development of contextualized learning materials, active participation of employees’ supervisors, dynamic scheduling, and on-the-job practice with authentic communicative tasks. The collaboration between CLS/OHR and other UW-Madison departments has …

The ‘Real’ Outcomes Of Language Learning: The History Of English Language Education In China, Olivia (Jia Ming) Feng

Bridges: An Undergraduate Journal of Contemporary Connections

This paper examines the history of English Language Education (ELE) and its societal role in China from 1900 to 1990. Throughout different periods in China's modern history, ELE was associated with key issues, including the revitalization of the declining Qing dynasty, modernization during the Republican era, and Cold War competitions during the Mao era. To investigate the connections between ELE and the political trends and movements in modern China, my research examines textbooks written and used in 1913, 1976, and 1979 China. These texts were implemented under different regimes, showing that the historical and political trends shaped the development of …

Khmer Phonetics & Phonology: Theoretical Implications For Esl Instruction, Alex Donley

Senior Honors Theses

This thesis develops an approach to English teaching for Khmer-speaking students that centers on Khmer phonetics and phonology. Cambodia has a strong demand for English instruction, but consistently underperforms next to other nations in terms of proficiency. A significant reason for Cambodia’s skill gap is the lack of research into linguistic hurdles Khmer speakers face when learning English. This paper aims to bridge Khmer and English with an understanding of the speech systems that both languages use before turning to the unique challenges Khmer speakers must overcome based on the tenets of L1 Transfer Theory. It closes by outlining strategies …

Student Perceptions Regarding The Use Of Purposive English In A Spanish As A Foreign Language Classroom, Kacey Booth

Dissertations

In modern American society, diversity is both challenged and celebrated, and inclusion is imperative. This ideology begins in the classroom. Oftentimes, this celebration of diversity, more specifically linguistic diversity, is most visible in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) classes and similar bilingual educational programs. In TESOL programs, students’ international identities are highlighted and students are often instructed using multilingual educational resources to scaffold their acquisition of English. Historically, foreign language teaching also utilized dual-language instructional methodologies. Such archaic teaching methodologies have since been replaced by more modern and immersive sociopsycholinguistic approaches such as Communicative Language Teaching. Such …

Macarthur-Bates Communicative Developmental Inventories (Cdi): A Research Synthesis Evaluating Children At 2-36 Months,, Nicholas Giammarco

MA in Linguistics Final Projects

This synthesis will touch on the current parent-based assessments available while focusing specifically on the MacArthur-Bates Communicative Inventory English and Spanish versions. It will analyze studies that have used this test to predict language delays in infants from 2-36 months and look at its validity and effectiveness. It will use the PRISMA method to narrow search results. The PRISMA method is an evidence-based minimum set of items for reporting in systematic reviews and meta-analyses. Areas of concern were socioeconomic status, level of parent education, race, design, and effects of disability on CDI performance. 26 studies met the criteria to be …

Syntactic Accidents In The Spontaneous Speech Of English And Armenian Speakers, Karen Velyan

Fragmented syntax or a break of the flow of surface syntax is well known to be an indispensable part of spontaneous spoken language. Interruptions in the flow of speech may be triggered by pragmatic reasons, changes in syntactic planning and performance errors, which results in syntactic fragments. Syntactic accidents may take different forms in the actual flow of speech. This study presents a cross-linguistic comparative analysis of the cases of syntax in the speech of low socioeconomic status speakers of English and Armenian. Based on data from informal interviews with native speakers, the analysis presents a variety of syntactic accidents, …