Digital Commons Network^™

Community Outreach English: Marketing A Community Esl Program, Carrie Lane Drake

Theses and Dissertations

The focus of this MA TESOL project was to develop promotional products for BYU's Community Outreach English (CORE) program. The purpose of these products is to create greater community awareness of the program and the resources it provides to learners. It is also hoped that the promotional products will aid in the process of recruiting students for the program from one year to the next. While the essential elements of the marketing mix (product, place, promotion, and price) were reviewed, an emphasis for this project was placed on promotion, which translated into developing materials for this purpose. Promotional materials that …

The Development Of Two Units For Basic Training And Resources For Teaching English To Speakers Of Other Languages: "Teaching Styles And Cultural Differences" And "Understanding Students' Learning Styles", Kyle F. Johnson

Theses and Dissertations

To create a much-needed program for training novice and volunteer English teachers, Dr. Lynn Henrichsen put together a team of interested TESOL graduate students who developed materials and resources for this purpose. Under his supervision and mentorship, each student helped with the development of units for a website and book titled, Basic Training and Resources for Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (BTRTESOL). Recognizing the target audience as novice teachers with little or no training in teaching English as a second language, each graduate student approached the development of each unit for this BTRTESOL program with this in mind. …

Sign Language Word List Comparisons: Toward A Replicable Coding And Scoring Methodology, Jason Parks

Theses and Dissertations

This study describes and evaluates a methodology for sign language word list comparisons. The purpose of this sociolinguistic research tool is to identify similarity relationships among sign language varieties by assessing similarities of lexical items. Similarities are calculated using the Levenshtein distance metric which measures the number of differences between signs.

In this study, the methodology was refined for optimal efficiency through an analysis of: which parameters of a sign should be compared, which values should be included in each parameter value inventory, and which items should be used in the word list. As a result of the study, I …

Quantification, Misc., Jan Anderssen

Open Access Dissertations

This dissertation investigates various topics concerning the interpretation of determiner phrases and their connection to individual entities. The first chapter looks at a phenomenon called telescoping, in which a quantificational expression appears to bind a pronominal form across sentence boundaries, at odds with commonly assumed and well motivated constraints on binding. I investigate the limited circumstances under which telescoping is available and argue that the mechanism that makes it available should respect said locality constraints. In particular, I argue that the impression of co-variation arises not because of binding by the initial quantificational expression, but because an of independent, albeit …

Language Typology And Sentence Frame Effects On Motion Verb Interpretation In Grade Schoolers, Emma C. Kelty

Master's Theses

Most English descriptions of motion events express manner in the main verb and path in a prepositional phrase, as in “She skips out of the house”. However, the same event can be described differently if a different syntactic frame is used: “She exits the house”. While young children have been found to interpret novel motion verbs according to the syntactic frame information, adults have been found to rely somewhat more on the overall language pattern, or typology (Hohenstein et al., 2004; Naigles & Terrazas, 1998). Grade schoolers have not been examined in this paradigm, and their linguistic abilities suggest that …

The Development Of Two Units For Basic Training And Resources For Teaching English To Speakers Of Other Languages: "Using Songs To Increase Participation, Recall, And Enjoyment" And "Using Games For English Language Teaching", Jung-Eun Chung

Theses and Dissertations

As English continues to become the universal language in commercial, educational and social settings worldwide, there is an increasing demand for English language teachers (ELT). While many teachers are native English speakers, many of them lack formal training in pedagogy and content knowledge. One challenge of novice teachers is how to create a learning experience that is both engaging and enjoyable for English language learners. Basic Training and Resources for Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (BTRTESOL) created by Dr. Lynn Henrichsen, is a basic but comprehensive program to provide skills and resources to teachers with limited formal training, …

Thematic Groupings In Magpie Miao Narrative, Won Ho Kim

Theses and Dissertations

Magpie Miao is a Hmong-Mien language spoken in Guizhou Province of southwest China. This thesis presents a description of three particles (jik, nid, and dik) and participant reference, which are both useful for understanding boundaries between and climaxes within thematic groupings. The primary data source for this thesis consists of five oral narratives, one of which is included in the appendix.

The three particles function as both aspectual markers and connectives. They function as the former when they occur at the end of a clause and as the latter when they occur at or near the …

Phonological And Phonetic Aspects Of Enggano Vowels, Brendon E. Yoder

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis describes aspects of Enggano phonology and phonetics, primarily at the word level. It focuses mainly on vowels and vocoid sequences.

The Enggano phoneme inventory consists of twelve consonants and fourteen vowels in a seven-vowel oral system and an analogous seven-vowel nasal system. There are seven possible syllable types. Word stress is consistently final in both monomorphemic and polymorphemic words. Acoustic measurements show that word stress is indicated by intensity in closed syllables, and possibly by length and pitch in both open and closed syllables.

There are a few allophononic processes in Enggano. An intrusive vowel (Hall 2006) is …

Loslabern. Über Das (Ungenierte) Brechen Von Textmustern, Daniel Jach

Masters Theses

When it comes to the production and reception of texts, most linguists will readily agree that writers as well as readers constitute and follow typical text patterns as they produce and read texts. It has become common today to describe text patterns as typical sets of manifestations of formal, thematic, and pragmatic features that arise from resemblances between different texts and that are inscribed in the communicative memories of a language community. However, speakers also transcend text patterns every day and oscillate between following and overstepping textual rules. This thesis investigates how speakers categorize linguistic knowledge in text patterns, and …

A Study Of First Language Background And Second Language Order Of Acquisition, Meghan Elizabeth Aitken

Theses and Dissertations

One major topic that often appears in textbooks on second language acquisition (SLA) is that of order of acquisition of morphemes. Much research has been done on the issue in the past, and a particular acquisition order has been accepted by many in the field of SLA for second language learners of English. This order of morphemes is deemed invariant and not affected by the native language of the learner. This thesis examines this claim, using an elicited imitation test to target nine English morphemes. The results show that a learner's native language does indeed have an effect on the …

Computerized Oral Proficiency Test For Japanese: Measuring L2 Speaking Ability With Asr Technology, Hitokazu Matsushita

Theses and Dissertations

Developing a time- and cost-efficient method for second language (L2) oral proficiency measurement is one of the research topics that has attracted much attention in recent decades. The purpose of this study is to develop a computerized oral testing system for L2 Japanese using automatic speech recognition (ASR) technology. Two testing methods called elicited imitation (EI) and simulated speech (SS) are proposed to quantify L2 accuracy and fluency via ASR processing. This study also suggests systematic EI item creation leveraging corpus technology and discusses the effectiveness of the test items created through analyses of item difficulty. Further, refinement of the …

Full-Time Employment Ads In Tesol: Identifying What Employers Seek In Potential Hires, Caprice L. Bailey

Theses and Dissertations

Within the professional field of TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages), it is not unusual for highly qualified instructors to teach several part-time jobs in order to support themselves. Despite advocacy efforts carried out by the international TESOL organization, finding rewarding full-time employment in the United States can be very challenging. In addition, with the current state of the economy and high unemployment, TESOL professionals like others in various fields are seeking stable employment. Although this research will not solve the lack of full-time jobs, the intention is to help job seekers better prepare themselves for today's job …

Comparing The Effects Of Two Forms Of Dynamic Corrective Feedback On Four Characteristics Of English Language Learner Writing, Judson Mc Kay Hart

Theses and Dissertations

Particular English language learners have a need to demonstrate high levels of accuracy in their written and spoken language production. Dynamic corrective feedback (dynamic CF) has been shown to facilitate L2 learner written accuracy attainment through providing manageable, meaningful, timely and constant feedback on authentic and frequent written language production. The research of this thesis examined the benefits of altering the dynamic CF model to be responsive to students' spoken production rather than solely their written production and measured the impact this adaptation would have on the established benefits of the instructional strategy on students' gains in written accuracy. The …

Arabic Diglossia And Arabic As A Foregn Language: The Perception Of Students In World Learning Oman Center, Hilal Al-Mamari

Capstone Collection

The principle objective of this independent inquiry is to address the research question: what are the impacts of Arabic Diglossia, if any, on the experience of learners of Arabic as a foreign language? The study attempts to answer this question through the perception of a sample group of 23 learners studying Arabic as a foreign language in World Learning Oman Center in semester of Spring 2011.

Diglossia is defined by linguists as a sociolinguistic phenomenon in which a particular language has two varieties, one of which is considered High and more standard and used in exclusive domains, while the other …

La Construcción Social Del Español En La Diglosia Educativa De California, Nicole Siminski

World Languages and Cultures

This project attempts to deconstruct the position of the Spanish language in society while observing its effects on Spanish speaking students in the education system. An extensive look at the history of bilingual education in California reveals its portrayal in society as well as how it is implemented in the school systems. I will study the reaction of both native English speaking children and native Spanish speaking children to learning a second language in a dual immersion setting. Dual Immersion programs are popular for English speaking families but Spanish speaking families are often hesitant to participate. Due to social class …

Oral Proficiency Assessment Of French Using An Elicited Imitation Test And Automatic Speech Recognition, Benjamin J. Millard

Theses and Dissertations

Testing oral proficiency is an important, but often neglected part of the foreign language classroom. Currently accepted methods in testing oral proficiency are timely and expensive. Some work has been done to test and implement new assessment methods, but have focused primarily on English or Spanish (Graham et al. 2008). In this thesis, I demonstrate that the processes established for English and Spanish elicited imitation (EI) testing are relevant to French EI testing. First, I document the development, implementation and evaluation of an EI test to assess French oral proficiency. I also detail the incorporation of the use of automatic …

The Instant Habit Of Thought: Perceptual Priming In Slogans, Ann Marie Lewis

Theses and Dissertations

Benjamin Whorf proposed a relationship between habitual language use and automatic behavior. His work has since led to a great deal of linguistic research, but the field thus far has neglected to explore the relationship between individual lexical items and their connotational effects. This work explores the relationship between exposure to altruism-related words and the subsequent lexical accessibility of aggressive words, then applies that research to real-life situations by exploring the consumer entitlement paradigm with the manipulation of slogans. I found that in a response time study, priming with altruistic items facilitated the lexical accessibility of aggressive items; however, in …

Effects Of Extended Explicit Systematic Phonics Instruction On Adult L2 Fluency, H. Vanessa Ocana

Theses and Dissertations

Reading may be viewed as an invisible skill, and some may even consider it a passive skill. However, reading is an active and complex skill. It requires one to use a wide range of skills simultaneously to achieve fluency. Hence, it is crucial to learn and use strategies to master such a complex skill. Today, research states that fluent reading includes using top-down and bottom-up strategies, or an interactive approach, to truly become a fluent reader. In fact, research has shown the effects that all three models have had on students. More specifically, L1 studies have shown positive effects in …

Unorthodox Oral Expressions In English Dictionaries, Corpora, Textbooks, And English Language Instructional Materials, Khemlada Chittaladakorn

Theses and Dissertations

The aim of this project is to provide useful data from published dictionaries, corpora, and instructional materials, as well as sample lessons, to promote the teaching of Unorthodox Oral Expressions (UOEs) to learners of English as a second/foreign language. In the first chapter, the author reviews relevant literature, explains what UOEs are, and discusses the importance of incorporating UOEs in EFL or ESL classrooms. In the second chapter, a linguistic categorization of UOEs is given. In the third chapter, the results are given of an examination of 10 different dictionaries. The purpose of this examination was to find which of …

A Study Of The Correlation Between Working Memory And Second Language Ei Test Scores, Eve Kiyomi Okura

Theses and Dissertations

A principal argument against the use of elicited imitation (EI) to measure L2 oral proficiency is that performance does not require linguistic knowledge, but requires only rote memorization. This study addressed the issue by administering two tests to the same group of students studying English as a second language: (1) a working memory test, and (2) an English oral proficiency EI test. Participants came from a range of English language proficiency levels. A Pearson correlation was performed on the test results for each participant. The hypothesis was that English EI scores and working memory scores would not correlate significantly. This …

Teaching Vocabulary Through Data-Driven Learning, Erin Margaret Shaw

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this master's project was to write a resource book that demonstrates how teachers can use data-driven learning methods to teach vocabulary. First, a brief overview of corpus linguistics, data-driven learning, and the corpus used in this book (COCA) is given. Then, the book presents different aspects of vocabulary learning in the context of a corpus. Topics included are frequency knowledge, part of speech knowledge, morphological knowledge, synonym knowledge, collocational knowledge, and register knowledge with a chapter on each topic. For each aspect of vocabulary learning there is a section that introduces the topic to the teacher, followed …

Children's Day At The Plaza 2011 Booth Coordinator, Claribel Marquez

Psychology and Child Development

This project outlines the organizational process of Children's Day at the Plaza, as well as a literature review about linguistic diversity at the elementary school level. Imersion, dual immersion, and other bilingual programs are among the linguistic programs discussed in the review.

Constraining Interpretation: Sentence Final Particles In Japanese, Christopher M. Davis

Open Access Dissertations

This dissertation is concerned with how pragmatic particles interact with sentential force and with general pragmatic constraints to derive optimal dynamic interpretations. The primary empirical focus of the dissertation is the Japanese sentence final particle yo and its intonational associates. These right-peripheral elements are argued to interact semantically with sentential force in specifying the set of contextual transitions compatible with an utterance. In this way, they semantically constrain the pragmatic interpretation of the utterances in which they occur. These conventional constraints on interpretation are wedded with general pragmatic constraints which provide a further filter on the road to optimal interpretation.

Mojarra Aesthetics In Piolin Por La Ma?Ana: A Time And Space For The Dislocated, J. Luis Loya Garcia

Open Access Dissertations

This dissertation is a cultural analysis of Piolín por la Mañana, a Spanish-language radio talk show conducted by Eduardo Piolín Sotelo and broadcast from Los Angeles. The program expands the boundaries of the performing arts as well as the reach and elasticity of literary tropes and study. It connects often geographically disparate ―imagined communities‖ of working class Latino/as by revisiting traditional Mexican theater, joke delivery style, literary genre (e.g., magical realism and the picaresque), and taxonomies of everyday personalities. Central to my discussion of Piolín is listener participation, which stages community formation within the radio-text.

The introduction and the first …

Pronunciation Pedagogy: Second Language Teacher Cognition And Practice, Amanda A. Baker

Applied Linguistics and English as a Second Language Dissertations

Over the past few decades, increasing research has examined the cognitions (knowledge and beliefs) of second language (L2) teachers. Such efforts have provided insight into what constitutes teachers' beliefs and knowledge about teaching, how these cognitions have developed and how they are reflected in classroom practice (see Borg, 2006). Although numerous studies have been conducted into the curricular areas of L2 grammar and, to a lesser extent, L2 literacy, far fewer have examined L2 teachers' cognitions concerning L2 pronunciation instruction. The purpose of the present study, therefore, was to explore some of the dynamic relationships that exist between L2 teachers’ …

A Genre Analysis Of Second Language Classroom Discourse: Exploring The Rhetorical, Linguistic, And Contextual Dimensions Of Language Lessons, Joseph J. Lee

Applied Linguistics and English as a Second Language Dissertations

The purpose of the present study is to expand our current understanding of second language classroom discourse by exploring how four English as a second language (ESL) teachers working in an intensive English program structurally organize classroom language lessons through the use of language; how students and teachers perceive the functions of the various stages in a lesson; how teachers prepare for their language lessons; and how various discourses and texts in this teaching context influence teachers‘ spoken discourse in the classroom. In order to carry out the exploratory study of language lessons, a multidimensional genre-oriented approach is utilized that …

The Discursive Construction Of Autism: Contingent Meanings Of Autism And Therapeutic Talk, Jessica Nina Lester

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation was a discourse analysis study, drawing upon discursive psychology, poststructural understandings of discourse, conversation analysis, and a social relational model of disability. The purpose of this study was to explore how autism was performed as an interactional event among children with autism labels, the therapists who work with them, and their parents, in the context of a pediatric therapy setting. I interrogated how the participants’ everyday discursive practices were shaped and, at times, constrained by the social and political institutions that often work to define autism and the related, official plans of treatment. A total of 12 families …

Fostering Effective French Communication In The Classroom, Lindi Brown

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

This portfolio is a compilation of work the author completed while in the Master of Second Language Teaching (MSLT) program at Utah State University. It is focused on her beliefs of how French should be taught in a university classroom. It also includes three artifacts addressing how a challenging aspect of the language should be taught, how authentic literature can be utilized in the classroom, and why the French culture should be incorporated into the curriculum. Finally, there is an annotated bibliography of books and articles which have shaped the author’s beliefs and opinions about teaching French as a foreign …

The Lived Experiences Of Participants In The Euchee/Yuchi Language Project: A Phenomenological Study Of Language Preservation, Jessica Park

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Native languages are disappearing quickly in this country, but there are many programs that are underway trying to save Native languages before they are gone. One such program is the Euchee/Yuchi Language Project which uses a modified version of the Master-Apprentice Language Learning Program (MALLP). Elder language speakers, masters, and younger members of the tribe, apprentices, meet daily in a two-hour language session. The goal of the session is to immerse the apprentices in the language by using conversational Euchee/Yuchi in the form of lessons, props, and presentations, so they can learn the language quickly. The purpose of this study …

There’S An App For That: Foreign Language Learning Through Mobile- And Social Media-Based Video Games, Trenton Edward Hoy

Masters Theses

There is no doubt that the video game industry is undergoing a major upheaval, yet in spite of the recent reconceptualization of video games, educational games as a whole remain the pariah of the industry. Very little has been done in the wake of recent social and industry trends to adapt instruction of academic subjects, especially foreign language, for delivery through video games. Prior studies discussing the potential of games developed specifically for language learning have focused primarily on general principles and have offered no recommendations for platform, genre, or other aspects of design. Through an online survey as well …