Modern Languages Commons^™

Comprehensible Input As A Language Learning Strategy Among Heritage Language Learners In The Spanish Classroom, Colleen Murphy

Liberty University Research Week

Undergraduate

Theoretical Proposal

American Sign Language Interpreting For D/Deaf Individuals With Disabilities: A Qualitative Study And Practical Guide, Emily Mason

Senior Honors Theses

American Sign Language (ASL) interpreting for d/Deaf individuals with disabilities (DWD) is a complex task, and one which lacks an adequate research-base to inform best practices. Using the foundation of existing literature on closely related topics such as the field of ASL interpreting, educational interpreting, education of DWD individuals, and research about specific disabilities occurring with d/Deafness, I compiled a literature review and created a theoretical conceptual framework concerning this topic. In further investigation of this subject, I also conducted a qualitative study through online questionnaires sent out by email to ASL interpreters located through snowball sampling. The data collected …

A Qualitative Study Of American Sign Language Interpreting For Deaf Individuals With Disabilities, Emily A. Mason

Montview Journal of Research & Scholarship

There are complexities involved in American Sign Language (ASL) interpreting for the unique population of Deaf individuals with disabilities (DWD), particularly in educational settings, that must be considered. Based on the foundation of existing literature regarding the field of ASL interpreting, educational interpreting, and strategies of working with DWD individuals, the researcher created a theoretical conceptual framework that combined the frameworks of ASL Interpreting and Special Education. The current primary research is aimed at addressing another portion of the gap, that is, research regarding practical experiences in working with this population. This study was conducted through questionnaires sent out through …

Promoting Student Success: Bilingual Education Best Practices And Research Flaws, Lillian Fassero

Senior Honors Theses

This paper first determines the benefits which bilingual education offers and then compares transitional, dual-language, and heritage language maintenance programs. After exploring the outcomes, contexts, and practical implications of the various bilingual programs, this paper explores the oversight in most bilingual studies, which assess students’ syntax and semantics while neglecting their understanding of pragmatics and discourse structures (Maxwell-Reid, 2011). Incorporating information from recent studies which question traditional understandings of bilingualism and argue that biliteracy requires more than grammatical and vocabulary instruction, this paper proposes modifications in current research strategies and suggests best practices for transitional, dual-language, and heritage maintenance programs.

Texto, Contexto Y Cultura En Los Comentarios Sobre Teología De La Liberación, Sara Heist

Senior Honors Theses

The critical dialogue sparked by Latin American liberation theology in the 1970s has involved diverse authors from various creeds and cultures. Although dozens of critics have offered an analysis of both Liberation Theology and its foundational text, Gustavo Gutiérrez’s A Theology of Liberation, the discussion has not reached consensus. Some critics, such as Ray Hundley, Ronald Nash, C. F. H. Henry, Harold O. J. Brown and Michael Novak, dismiss the movement as a hopeless entanglement of social goodwill, economic ignorance, and insidious Marxist philosophy. Others, among them the Catholic Magisterium, Michael Löwy, Juan Carlos Scannone, and João B. Chaves, …

English As A Global Commodity, Katarina Bouton

Senior Honors Theses

English is currently the language of diplomacy, higher education, business, science, the internet, and more. In order to understand what this means for the present state of English and its future, one must begin by looking at this language’s diachronic journey, followed by a synchronic picture of English today. In addition to statistics on English, this analysis will consider potential language competitors of Chinese, Arabic, Spanish, and Hindi, among others, in displacing the English language. Compared to these prospective challengers, English has broad roots in world history, lending to its depth and growing breadth; however, not only do the diachronic …

Phonetic And Phonological Research Sharing Methods, Cory C. Coogan

The Kabod

This paper reviews the materials linguists use to compile and share research in the linguistic sub-fields of phonetics and phonology. It summarizes the content and purpose of major books, journal publications, and databases within these two fields, especially those with broad selections of data that have been collected for cross-linguistic study and research reference. This paper discusses the various uses of these materials and then analyzes how well equipped the linguistic research community is for compiling and sharing comprehensive-oriented language data.

Nonstandard Languages: The Outcasts Of The Language Revitalization Movement, Whitney Snowden

Senior Honors Theses

This thesis compares the failures of the creolization movement with the success of the language revitalization movement and seeks to determine which elements are missing from the former to make it as successful as the latter. Education policy, identity, and language ideology are all examined as contributors to the future success of creole inclusivity in education and society, as well as the potential benefits such a movement would include. Specifically examined are Siegel’s research on creole education and Armstrong’s work on language ideology.

A Comparative Analysis On The Skill Acquisition Of Music And Language, Dominique Lopiccolo

The Kabod

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate some of the shared cognitive processes, which seem to underlie both the acquisition of music and language. Since linguists have separated language acquisition studies into one of two major categories, that is, child versus second language acquisition, the following comparative study will predominantly focus on the similarities found between second language acquisition and music acquisition. This is due in large part to the fact that our current understanding of how child language acquisition works is still in its primitive stages, and it most likely follows a more intuitivist paradigm. Second language acquisition, …

Vicarious Trauma As Applied To The Professional Sign Language Interpreter, Jami L. Macdonald

Montview Journal of Research & Scholarship

This collected research and analysis will focus on vicarious trauma as applied to the experience of the professional Sign Language interpreter. Sign Language interpreters work in a vast scope of different settings where there can be a high risk of exposure to traumatic events or content and where the staffed professionals are equipped with training and support services. Sign Language interpreters do not have access to training or support services for managing vicarious trauma, though they are widely impacted by it. The extent of impact depends on the nature of the assignment as well as the susceptibility of the interpreter. …

Order Of Acquisition: A Comparison Of L1 And L2 English And Spanish Morpheme Acquisition, Kyle A. Mcferren

Senior Honors Theses

This paper examines the order of acquisition for grammatical morphemes in Spanish and English first and second language learners. Brown’s first morpheme order study, conducted in 1973, laid the foundation for what would become one of the most common types of study conducted within the field of second language acquisition. The four orders of acquisition relevant here are examined and compared in order to support the roles of salience, morphophonological regularity, complexity, input frequency, and native language transfer in first and/or second language acquisition. The conclusion is that these five determinants work interdependently in determining the difficulty of acquiring a …

English In South Asia And Pedagogical Implications, Brittany R. Ehret

Senior Honors Theses

English at present maintains a significant role as a second or foreign language in the region of South Asia as well as globally. In a discussion of this topic, it is important to explore a brief history of the expansion of English and its origins in South Asia. It is also essential to provide a background of South Asian English and its unique linguistic characteristics as well as its use in different contexts of South Asia. The perspectives of linguists and educators who are native to the region of South Asia should be included as much as possible in this …

Phonological Adaptations Of English Loanwords In Turkish, Rachel Beel, Jennifer Felder

Other Undergraduate Scholarship

When trying to understand the phonological system of a language (the sounds used in speech), what are some of the ways to figure out the patterns of an unfamiliar language? The way that borrowed or loanwords (words taken from one language and used in another) are pronounced in a language reveals much about the language’s phonology. The phonological system of Turkish has accommodated for starkly different syllable structures when incorporating modern English words into this contrasting language.

A personal survey of Turkish syllable structure has revealed how native speakers of Turkish cope with the phonological features of borrowed English words …