Modern Languages Commons^™

The Impact Of The First Language Transfer On English Language Syntax For Arab Esl Students At Private Language Center In Mid-Size University Town, Mohammed A. S. Abdalhadi

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study investigated the Impact of the First Language Transfer on English Language Syntax for Arab ESL Students at Private Language Center in Mid-Size University Town. The research population was 12 participants from Spring International Language Center through Intensive English Program and 7 participants from Adult Education center. The writing samples and interview were the main two instruments to analyze the data. I used constructive Analysis (CA), Error Analysis (EA), and coding to analyze the writing samples and the interview. The study focused on the syntax transfer between Arabic L1 and English L2, so Adjective/noun order, Subject/verb order, Number/numbered order, …

El Papel De La Educación En La Conservación Y El Ecoturismo En Costa Rica, Alice Sperry

Honors Theses

Costa Rica is a unique country that has some of the greatest biodiversity in the world. In order to protect this rich biodiversity, Costa Rica has developed a system of conservation and sustainability. Conservation and sustainability are two of the primary focuses of the country. Another focus of the country, since it was formed, is education. Therefore, the country has combined the importance of education and sustainability to offer environmental education programs for future generations. There are a variety of programs for a wide range of ages, children and adults. Some local people need these programs in order to get …

Pedagogy Or Andragogy?: Which Teaching Method Produces Successful Esl Tutoring That Involves Musical Activities?, Julia Cormack

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

Considering the connections between music and language, as well as Chi et al.’s (2001) theory, this thesis introduces an original case study investigation: which teaching method, pedagogy or andragogy, will be most effective in one-on-one ESL tutoring sessions that use music as source material? The term pedagogy often describes the art and science of teaching. However, its Greek roots refer to the method of the teacher leading the classroom. Meanwhile, andragogy describes a teaching method where the teacher engages with the students in the learning and leading; Greek for “leader of man,” andragogy most often refers to teaching adults. To …

Peace, Love, And (Soul)Cialism: Function Of Teacher- Student Love In Collectivist Societal Education And Its Relationship To The Elimination Of African American Educational Underachievement, Nirel Jonesmitchell

CMC Senior Theses

Top researchers in the field of intimacy education signify that definitions of intimate connection—referring to a deep relationship with oneself, immediate circle, or humankind, more broadly—are identity dependent. Different countries and racial demographics, thus, conceptualize notions of solidarity, interdependence, and self-awareness distinctly. Without investigation, these discrepancies provoke division; attention, alternatively, has the power to induce the mitigation of educational achievement gaps in Latin America and domestically. Cuban notions of ‘legitimate’ relationships are contextualized by the political philosopher Jose Martí who delineated an ideological framework encouraging collectivism. This idea undergirds his contribution to the revolutionary Cuban literacy campaign: dialogical education. Despite …

How To Promote Education For Sustainable Development? Vision Of The Educational Situation And Its Contribution To Sustainable Development., Khalid Aada

Writing and Language Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations

During the last decade, the importance of leaving a rational paradigm, debtor of functionalist and utilitarian models, towards another more congruent with the preservation of natural resources, and therefore of life, has been widely discussed. In the same way, different voices have been raised, pointing out the urgency of inserting these precepts into the educational field, hoping to achieve the true cultural transformation that is needed to consolidate the change. Multiple International Entities promote sustainability in Education as an initiative that should be ambitious, complex and reforming character, given the global scope of the social, economic and environmental situation affecting …

Engaging The Needs Of Young Refugees In The Language Classroom, Mia-Shalom N. Hayes

Selected Honors Theses

As the number of refugee students increase each year, many language teachers find themselves uninformed and ill-equipped to effectively engage refugee students in the classroom. Thus, through a survey and synthesis of the current body of research, the following literature review seeks to present the specific needs of refugee students and suggest practical ways in which language teachers can effectively meet those needs and engage refugees in the language classroom. The findings suggest that though the pre-migration, trans-migration, and post-migration experiences present numerous physical, emotional, behavioral, cultural, social, and academic challenges to refugee students in the classroom, teachers can combat …

Translating To Change The Nation: The Case Of José Pedro Varela, A Reformer In Late 19th Century Uruguay, Gabriel Gonzalez Nunez

Writing and Language Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations

The history of translation in Hispanic America can be segmented into specific historical periods that differ from those found in Europe, namely: encounter and conquest, the colonial period; pre-independence and emancipation; independence and republic; and an ongoing period that started in 1920 (Bastin, 2006). A great deal of work has been done regarding the first three of those periods. Later historical periods, while still receiving some scholarly attention, have not been the focus of as much research (cf. e.g., Montoya, 2014). This paper hopes to provide further insights on translation practices during the Independence and Republic Period by focusing on …

Expertise And Expression In Second Language Acquisition: An Embodied Perspective, Mia Burnett

Senior Theses

In directing our attention to mundane aspects of the human experience, we can discover new ways of interacting with and understanding the world. One such formative experience, regularly seen as mundane in much of the world, is learning a second language. It is no exaggeration to say that second language acquisition is one of the processes which most influences and drives our globalized world, and yet we understand and study this process relatively little.

Continuing the trends of naturalizing phenomenological inquiry, this project attempts to evaluate phenomenological approaches to skill acquisition alongside second language acquisition theory and research through an …

The Globalized Classroom: Integrating Technology To Improve Communicative And Cultural Proficiency, Nicholas Frank

International ResearchScape Journal

The purpose of this project was to explore how the integration of technology affects students’ communicative and cultural proficiency in a second language when connecting two world language classrooms from across the globe. Through a series of weekly emails between partner schools, students practiced their interpretive reading and presentational writing skills while gaining knowledge of their partners’ cultures and colloquial language in a meaningful and individualized manner. The participants were U.S. high school students learning Spanish and Spanish high school students learning English. This created an authentic and organic environment for language acquisition, showing improvement in both communicative and cultural …

Beginning From The Border, Kip Austin Hinton

Bilingual and Literacy Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations

Abstract

In this essay, Educational Borderlands: A Bilingual Journal (EBBJ) is introduced in relation to borderlands, in South Texas and beyond. The journal’s purpose is explained, beginning with its inception as part of the bilingual mission at a majority Mexican American university, then placed within educational, political, and linguistic contexts. Each of EBBJ’s threads is situated in relation to hybridity, intersectionality, bilingualism, translanguaging, transnationalism, and the border itself. The journal seeks to apply these to the study of curriculum, instruction, special education, dual language bilingual education, and research across various interdisciplinary fields.

Resumen

En este ensayo, Educational Borderlands: A Bilingual …

Japanese Pronoun Adventure: A Japanese Language Learner's Exploration Of His Japanese Gender Pronoun, Takumi Nakano

Masters Theses

In Japanese, there are various kinds of first-person pronouns, and some of them express the referent’s gender identity. Gender-neutral pronouns are made in English- speaking world day by day, but there is not any common first-person pronoun which indicates the gender identity that positions the referent’s gender somewhere between masculine and feminine. The present paper conducted a life story research on the “Japanese life” of an advanced learner of Japanese at a university in the United States who has been exploring his gender identity by coining and using a new Japanese first- person pronoun 㛪 ore, which indicates “in the …

Traducciones De Documentos De Los Programas Que Ofrece United Way Del Condado De San Luis Obispo, Courtney Helena Connor

World Languages and Cultures

The intent of this project is to translate various documents used by the United Way of San Luis Obispo County from English to Spanish. Due to the large number of native Spanish-speakers in San Luis Obispo County, there is a great need for information about community resources to be available in Spanish. Due to the nature of languages having many dialects, a significant amount of research was put into determining the dialect and word choice for the translations. Factors considered included region, educational level, socioeconomic status, etc. The translation was completed using a form of Spanish that sought to avoid …

Use Of Student Created Video Podcasts To Promote Foreign Language Grammar Acquisition In Middle School, Sergio Parra

CCE Theses and Dissertations

The use of video podcasts in education has emerged as a phenomenon that has gained a considerable amount of attention over the last few years. Although video podcasting is becoming a well-established technology in higher education, new multimedia instructional strategies such as student-created video podcasts in grades K-12 are under-researched.

The study investigated the effects of video podcasts created by students to promote foreign language grammar acquisition at the middle school level and find how students described such experience. The current investigation was conducted by using the explanatory sequential design, which is a mixed methods research design that occurs in …

Mandarin Chinese As A Second Language: A Review Of Literature, Wesley A. Spencer

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Mandarin Chinese has become increasing prevalent in the modern world. Accordingly, research of Chinese as a second language has developed greatly over the past few decades. This paper reviews research on the difficulties of acquiring a second language in general and research that specifically details the difficulty of acquiring Chinese as a second language. Based on this research, the author also reveals some areas that should be researched further in order to advance the field.

The Impact Of Web 2.0 In Education And Its Potential For Language Learning And Teaching, Kerwin A. Livingstone

Kerwin A. Livingstone

The arrival of technology has transited the path for an increased use of the Web, allowing for access to diverse kinds of information and materials. With this advent of technology, a significant number of distinct technologies have been introduced to assist in human communication and interaction. Since the genesis of Web 2.0 technologies, people all over the world now have the Internet at their finger tips, and can execute communicative acts with little or no difficulty. In educational contexts, Web 2.0 is making great in-roads even though its full effectiveness still needs to be further researched in the said environments. …

Who We Are: Incarcerated Students And The New Prison Literature, 1995-2010, Reilly Hannah N. Lorastein

Honors Projects

This project focuses on American prison writings from the late 1990s to the 2000s. Much has been written about American prison intellectuals such as Malcolm X, George Jackson, Eldridge Cleaver, and Angela Davis, who wrote as active participants in black and brown freedom movements in the United States. However the new prison literature that has emerged over the past two decades through higher education programs within prisons has received little to no attention. This study provides a more nuanced view of the steadily growing silent population in the United States through close readings of Openline, an inter-disciplinary journal featuring …

Hall, Deborah Mcguffey (Fa 69), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

FA Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folklife Archives Project 69. Thesis: “Using Folklore to Teach English as a Second Language” by Deborah McGuffey Hall in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Master of Arts, Department of Folk and Intercultural Studies at Western Kentucky University.

‘Because When Governments Speak, They Are Not Always Right’: National Construction And Orthographic Conflicts In Mid-Nineteenth Century Spain, Laura Villa

Global Languages and Cultures Faculty Publications and Presentations

This paper analyzes the polemics surrounding the discursive legitimation and political institutionalization of different spelling systems circulating in mid-nineteenth-century Spain. In 1843, teachers associated with Madrid's Literary and Scientific Academy of Primary Education developed a simplified orthography and began to implement it in schools. In response to this independent initiative, Queen Isabel II signed a Royal Decree in 1844 that mandated the exclusive use of Royal Spanish Academy's orthography in Spain's primary education. The Literary and Scientific Academy contested the imposition and took actions to oppose its implementation, by organizing meetings and publishing essays to defend both the simplified orthography …