Modern Languages Commons^™

Into The Streets: The Residuality Of 'Otherness' And Material Representation In The Cityscape, Addison Elizabeth Mckown

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

Throughout history, the ideology of ‘Othering’ has taken precedence in our capacity to connect with people outside of our home borders. The layers of history evoked within the German streets; the commemoration of persecuted others; the mediated expressions of socially ignored out-groups; are constitutively shaping the receptive responses of the modern refugee crisis. The residuality of this otherness is represented in the material cityscape, and I argue that it is in the space of the urban streets where belonging is contested. The cityscape is a constant mirror between the past and the future as the cyclical dynamics of social power …

The Long-Term Impact Of A Study Trip Abroad On The Acquisition Of Regional Spanish Vocabulary Incidentally, Juan P. Rodríguez Prieto

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

This quantitative study investigated the possible gains in the acquisition of regional vocabulary as a result of incidental learning after studying abroad for one semester. Five college students took courses at a language institute in Madrid (Spain) while living with a host family during a semester, while a control group with five participants continued their studies at XXXX, in the US. They took a survey online that contained forty vocabulary items exclusive to Spain (majo, mola, guay and similar) three times: at the beginning and at the end of the program and after three years. Results indicated …

The Impact Of College Students’ Motivational Orientations And The Social Dimension Of Emotional Intelligence In Their Willingness To Study Abroad, Juan P. Rodríguez Prieto

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

This study investigated the effect of motivational orientations and the social aspects of emotional intelligence (EI) on L2 Spanish learners’ willingness to participate in a study abroad program. The only significant result was the correlation between an integrative motivational orientation and the Altruism Scale score (N = 68, r = .290, p < .05), indicating that those learners with a higher desire to learn the L2 in order to interact with members of the target community also showed more responsiveness to others as measured by empathy, nurturance, helpfulness, and social responsibility. No additional interactions were found between the motivational orientations and the social aspects of EI. Neither the motivational orientations (integrative/instrumental) nor the social subscales of EI used correlated with the L2 learners’ participation in a short-term (three weeks to Costa Rica, N = 30) or a long-term study abroad program (a full semester to Spain, N = 13). This finding is indicative that those variables do not seem to have an influential effect or predictability on whether participants would ultimately continue their study of L2 Spanish in a foreign country or at home in the near future.

Imitation And Creation: Bing Xin’S Fanxing (A Maze Of Stars) 繁星And Chunshui (Spring Water) 春水, Xiaoqing Liu

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

Fanxing (A Maze of Stars) and Chunshui (Spring Water) are two poetry collections of modern Chinese woman writer Bing Xin (1900–1999). Because they stand at the beginning of a new genre, xiaoshi (short poetry), and are commonly regarded as representative works of this genre, people use the epithets “Bing Xin style,” “Fanxing style,” or “Chunshui style” to refer to xiaoshi writing. Nevertheless, viewed from their intimate relationship with Rabindranath Tagore’s Stray Birds, I argue that Fanxing and Chunshui are products of both imitation and creation. Imitation is not plagiarism. Dryden defines imitation as a form …

Eco-Psychological And Phenomenological Approach To Sustainability, Larry Riggs, Sandra Hellyer-Riggs

Modern Languages, Literatures & Cultures

Our purpose is to show the value of eco-psychology and phenomenology for a cognitive paradigm fostering sustainable development. Our hypothesis is that those fields help lay the groundwork for truly sustainable development. Our method is a review of scholarly and theoretical work on the origins of the modern paradigm that has governed conceptions of development, and on eco-psychology, phenomenology, cognitive science, and sustainable development. Our contribution is a fully informed understanding of psychological and socio-cultural issues relevant to sustainability. The prevailing conception of development derives from the origins of modern science in seventeenth-century Europe. Francis Bacon and René Descartes elaborated …

"Chicas Raras:" A Comparative Literary Study Of Historical Spanish And 21st Century Feminism, Serenity Dzubay

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

How have women learned to rebel creatively against male-dominated political structures when their public voices are silenced? How has literature aided in feminist rhetoric and helped to protest the patriarchy? In 1987, Carmen Martín Gaite created the term “chica rara” to describe female protagonists in novels who revolted against their gendered positions in society. Women of Spain have faced severe repression of identity due to the Franco regime; however, his oppressive ideologies helped to produce a rich history in feminist protest through literature from Spanish authors who I would argue are real-life chicas raras, because they rejected their traditional roles …

Say "Oui" To "We": A Longitudinal Analysis Of Pronouns And Articles In French And English, Colleen Wilkes

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

Modern English only uses gender in personal, reflexive, and possessive third person singular pronouns. Modern English also does not use gendered articles, which extends to not assigning an arbitrary gender to inanimate objects. This study examines how recent this aspect of grammar is, and to what degree did cultural interaction with the French throughout history influence the use of gendered pronouns. Two written texts in British English (one in Old English, one in Modern English) and one written text in French are analyzed for elements of grammatical gender embedded within articles, pronouns, and possessive adjectives. The geopolitical influences on incorporating …

Children Of Vienna: Translation, Rewriting, And Robert Neumann’S Legacy, Sarah Painitz

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

This essay aims to bring attention to the complex intersections of language, translation, and exile through an analysis of the production and various reproductions of Robert Neumann’s Children of Vienna. With this novel, first written in English in the fall and winter of 1945, Neumann wanted to direct attention to the plight of children in the destroyed cities of the former Third Reich and appeal for humanitarian aid from the British and American public. Why, then, considering its original intent as a call for action in response to an acute crisis, did the author retranslate his text almost 25 …

Tabaquismo: ¿Negocio Y Forma De Identidad Cultural?, Caroline Zuhone

Modern Language, Literature, and Culture Honors Theses

España es un país con un nivel de desarrollo similar a los Estados Unidos, no obstante, a pesar de su inserción dentro de los países del primer mundo tiene un índice que no se corresponde con esta categoría, una gran parte de su población usa tabaco frecuentemente. Con la actualización de muchos trabajos científicos que explican los efectos negativos del tabaco y su difusión pública, en los Estados Unidos se ha logrado que muchas personas dejen de fumar. No ha sucedido lo mismo en España, allí muchos españoles siguen consumiendo tabaco desestimando la difusión de los mismos estudios científicos. El …

Islamic Influence On Spain: Discussion Of Women’S Rights And Islamic Influence, Samreen Uzzama

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

Current sentiment in the West surrounding Islam stems from a variety of factors: terror attacks, lack of understanding the Islamic faith and cultures that practice the religion, and stereotypical depictions in the media of Muslims as terrorist or as oppressed women. Arab societies oppress women via laws, such as the law that prevents women from driving or the law that prevents women from being outside of the house without being accompanied by a man, both in Saudi Arabia. These depictions, especially of Saudi Arabian practices or similar practices from other nations, are generally available to the West, via media, web, …

Late L2 Acquisition And Phonological Memory Development, Madeline Westerhoff

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

The development of phonological memory, a subdivision of short term memory, is crucial to learning and analyzing sequences of sounds to form words and phrases. This process utilizes short term representation and rehearsal to allow for the eventual long term representation of language. Individuals learning more than one language must acquire even more of these language sequences than monolinguals. Previous research agrees that early Spanish-English bilinguals have superior phonological memory to monolinguals, however the impact of second language acquisition on phonological memory remains unknown. This study examined three groups of undergraduate participants studying Spanish as a second language including study …

Tabaquismo: ¿Negocio Y Forma De Identidad Cultural?, Caroline Zuhone

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

España es un país con un nivel de desarrollo similar a los Estados Unidos, no obstante, a pesar de su inserción dentro de los países del primer mundo tiene un índice que no se corresponde con esta categoría, una gran parte de su población usa tabaco frecuentemente. Con la actualización de muchos trabajos científicos que explican los efectos negativos del tabaco y su difusión publica, en los Estados Unidos se ha logrado que muchas personas dejen de fumar. No ha sucedido lo mismo en España, allí muchos españoles siguen consumiendo tabaco desestimando la difusión de los mismos estudios científicos. El …

Ejemplos De Jejeo Salvadoreño En Cuentos De Barro De Salarrué., Juan Rodríguez Prieto

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

By expanding the definition of jejeo with aspirations of fricative consonants in syllable/ word initial position, dialectal examples which previously did not have a precise terminology to be identified, as fuerte ['hwer.te], can now be defined. In Salarrué’s Cuentos de barro there are dozens of terms that justify the expansion of the definition of jejeo, suggesting, in addittion, the need to determine the subgroup of fricative consonants that can suffer such an aspiration process.

The Use Of Clickers To Assess Knowledge In Foreign Language Classes And Their Failure To Increase Reading Compliance, Juan P. Rodríguez Prieto

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

This is the first quantitative research on reading compliance in FL courses. It investigated the effect of clickers on learning gains for regularly assigned readings, determined by 16 quiz grades during a semester. 38 intermediate L2 Spanish students assigned to two group conditions also completed a questionnaire at the end of the semester about their preparedness for the quizzes and their opinions about the use of clickers. Results indicated that participants in the Clicker condition obtained significantly lower grades in the quizzes than those in the Paper and Pencil one, despite clickers receiving positive feedback and comments, and even though …

The Use Of Email Attachments To Increase Reading Compliance In Foreign Language Classes., Juan Rodríguez Prieto

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

This is the first quantitative research on reading compliance in foreign language courses. It investigated the effect of email attachments with the assigned readings to promote read­ing compliance of the textbook. Their effect on learning gains was measured by 16 grammar or vocabulary quizzes during a semester. 31 intermediate L2 Spanish students assigned to two group conditions, those receiving the emails and those who did not, also completed a questionnaire at the end of the semester about their preparedness for the quizzes and about their opinions about the email attachments. Results indicated that participants in the email group prepared more …

Observaciones Sobre El Estado Del Sonido Fricativo Palatal Sordo En El Español Salvadoreño., Alexander Quintanilla

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

In this work I discuss the current situation in the Spanish of El Salvador of the voiceless fricative palatal sound. The presence of this sound in Pipil, an orginal language already spoken in El Salvador before the Spaniards arrived, favored its maintenance in Salvadoran Spanish. Since Pipil is a language in extinction, some authors believe that this sound is also disappearing in Salvadoran Spanish. However, Pipil is not the only language with this sound that influences Salvadoran Spanish. Thus, we examine the linguistic distribution of this sound in El Salvador, the possible reasons of its maintenance and its implications for …

Review Of Herzog, Hillary Hope, Vienna Is Different: Jewish Writers In Austria From The Fin De Siècle To The Present, Sarah S. Painitz

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

A review essay of Hillary Hope Herzog. Vienna Is Different: Jewish Writers in Austria from the Fin de Siècle to the Present. Austrian and Habsburg Studies Series. New York: Berghahn Books, 2011. 308 pp. $95.00 (cloth), ISBN 978-0-85745-181-1, by Sarah S. Painitz published online on H-Net.

The Making And Breaking Of A Language: The French And Spanish Effect Upon The Catalan Regional Language, Margaret Emilyn Cychosz

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

Almost four hundred years ago, the French and Spanish governments divided the Catalan border regions located between their respective countries. The subsequent centuries have seen the expansion and development of the Catalan language in Spain and the demise of the Catalan language in France, where it has nearly deteriorated to disuse. Is this a reflection upon the French and Spanish culture or was it simply governmental policy? If so, what did the central governments of Madrid and Paris do in the centuries following the division that resulted in this contrasting development of Catalan? What effect did the usage of Catalan …

Emotional Intelligence, Motivational Orientations, And Motivational Learning Effort And Achievement In Spanish As A Foreign Language, Juan Rodríguez Prieto

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

No abstract provided.

La (Des) Pluralización Del Verbo Haber Existencial En El Español Salvadoreño: ¿Un Cambio En Progreso?, Alexander Quintanilla

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

This study analyzes the pluralization of the verb haber in Salvadoran Spanish. Spanish uses the verb haber ‘to have’ for existential sentences. According to traditional grammars, existential sentences with haber are impersonal, that is, they are conjugated only in the third-person singular. However, it is common in most Spanish varieties to conjugate haber in the plural when the nominal phrase is plural.

Recent studies have suggested that the pluralization of haber is an innovation in modern Spanish and that it is advancing from lower to higher classes. My study shows that on the contrary there is little evidence indicating that …

Good Intentions Aren't Enough: Intellectuals And Violence In Luis Goytisolo's Mzungo, Terri Carney

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

In the 1990s Luis Goytisolo explores the possibilities of popular fiction, adapting various genres (travel, mystery, erotic, historical) to accomodate his long-term project of unpacking Western Values. Indeed, Goytisolo’s flirtation with the best-selling genre fiction constitutes a postmodern gesture of “complicitous critique.”For example, in Escalera hacia el cielo (1999) Goytisolo exploits the erotic genre to challenge the traditional paradigm of the dominant male gaze and the objectified female body and to offer instead expressions of mutuality. In Mzungo (1996), Goytisolo engages the travel novel to undermine the culturally dominant position of the white European male who “discovers” an unknown culture/geography …

Conrad Baker, Former Governor Of Indiana, Arnold Ernst R. Muelller

Graduate Thesis Collection

This thesis was assigned by the Department of German principally to learn through the study of the German newspapers of the day what influence the German-American population of Indiana might have had upon the election of Governor Conrad baker and also upon his whole administration as such; since Governor Baker was of German descent and the act, August 16, 1859, which provided when the German language should be taught in the common schools, also took effect when Baker was Governor of Indiana.