Spanish and Portuguese Language and Literature Commons^™

The Case Of La Escuela Smart Academy: How Legislation And Incentives Can Aid The Transition From Bicultural To Bilingual Education, Fidelina Valverde-Rivera

Honors Projects

As the Latinx population in the United States continues to rise, La Escuela SMART Academy — a bicultural school in Toledo, Ohio — serves as just one example of how educational systems are seeking to cater to their respective needs. Previous research provides us with information explaining why bilingual education is valuable and worthy of promotion — including cognitive, cultural, linguistic, and economic benefits — as well as best practices. Using this information, I create a set of conditions that, when met, have the best potential of yielding an effective bilingual institution. In order to determine where La Escuela SMART …

El Lenguaje Del Autismo: Una Evaluación De La Terminología Autista En Dos Libros Españoles (The Language Of Autism: An Evaluation Of The Autistic Terminology Used In Two Spanish Books), Catherine Droesch

Honors Projects

Hoy día hay un gran debate entre la comunidad autista y el grupo de profesionales que tratan el autismo, sobre el lenguaje y la terminología que se debe usar cuando se describen los individuos con el trastorno del espectro autista (TEA). Muchas personas que son autistas prefieren el lenguaje de identidad primero. Eso significa que prefieren decir “personas autistas” en vez de “personas con autismo.” Mientras tanto, muchos profesionales en el campo de la psicología prefieren el lenguaje de persona primero, significando que ellos prefieren describir esta población como “personas con autismo” en vez de “personas autistas.” Hay algunos estudios …

Comparing Measures Of Phonological Development For Bilingual Speech Sample Analysis: A Descriptive Study, Julianna Ciccarelli

Honors Projects

The present study analyzed two common measures of phonology for use within a bilingual (Spanish-English) preschool population. The utilized measures include Percentage of Consonants Correct-Revised (PCC-R) and Phonological Mean Length of Utterance (pMLU) and were selected to avoid sources of bias, often found in standardized, norm-referenced assessments. The scores calculated from these measures were analyzed across language.

Nuevas Posibilidades Para La Subjetividad Feminista En La Literatura Del Cono Sur, Kate Elizabeth Tapscott

Honors Projects

¿Cómo es que se puede escapar verdaderamente de la opresión patriarcal? Esta investigación aborda a través de un análisis de la literatura de escritoras del Cono Sur el asunto complicado de la liberación bajo un sistema en constante mutación. En el primer capítulo, a partir de aportes teóricos de Freud, Josefina Ludmer y Homi Bhabha entre otros, analizo cuentos de Jorge Luis Borges, Silvina Ocampo, y Clarice Lispector cuyas protagonistas intentan resistir su condición de víctima con diversos grados de éxito. En el capítulo que sigue, exploro una tendencia reciente en la literatura de escritoras del Cono Sur que incorpora …

New Word Learning In Spanish/English Bilingual Children, Haley Wemple

Honors Projects

This study aims to examine how Spanish-speaking ELLs learn new words and their features within a storytelling context. Specifically, the aim is it learn how ELLs build their vocabularies by creating taxonomic (i.e. categorical) and thematic relations between novel and known words.

Identidad Personal: Curriculum For The World Language Classroom, Kyrsten Nagypaul

Honors Projects

This project provides accessible, compelling curriculum for Spanish teachers to teach for social justice in their classroom. The integration of other disciplines is integral in making this curriculum accessible and compelling by giving students practical experience with technology, literacy skills, and social skills. More specifically, this project will help them to contribute to the social-emotional health and well-being of their students by supporting the students through an exploration of their personal culture. The curriculum is designed in a manner that is supported by theory and builds upon itself as students move through the experiences.

Posthumanism And The Representation Of Power Dynamics In Hispanic Graphic Novels, Savannah Campbell

Honors Projects

My focus in this research has been to use graphic novels, a literary medium that is often marginalized in both academic and cultural circles, to examine how posthumanism, specifically from the viewpoint of Spanish and Argentinian creators, allows readers to explore and critique various power dynamics.

Understanding A Discourse Marker In Quito, Ecuador, Hannah Jesberger

Honors Projects

The present research project examines the possible factors to explain the word-final /f/ in Ecuadorian Spanish including but not limited to: where it is used, who uses it (gender, age ranges, social class), and with which words it is most commonly used. As the first extensive research study on the word-final /f/, the project may lead to other investigations of this phenomenon and other features of Ecuadorian Spanish. In addition, if there are other variations of the marker pues in the Spanish varieties spoken in different regions and/or countries, researchers can use this present study as basis to analyze the …

Self-Esteem In Spanish-Speaking Latinos In Northwest Ohio, Mckenna Freeman

Honors Projects

Self-esteem is a widely-studied construct across many disciplines of social science. However, previous research regarding self-esteem and language barriers has focused primarily on children and adolescent populations, while much less research has examined this relationship among adults. The current study measures linguistic acculturation and self-esteem in both Latino and control adult samples. Hypothesis 1 states that participants in the Latino sample would report significantly lower self-esteem than the control sample. Hypothesis 2 states that linguistic acculturation levels in Spanish speaking Latinos would be positively correlated with self-esteem. Finally, a research question was addressed measuring the differences in self-esteem between foreign …

Defining Spanglish: A Linguistic Categorization Of Spanish-English Code-Switching In The United States, Leah Mernaugh

Honors Projects

This paper will linguistically explore the forms of Spanish spoken by Spanish-English bilinguals in the United States in order to argue that Spanglish is a complex linguistic system governed by a set of specific linguistic rules and patterns. I will do this by drawing on previous research in this field that examines the phonological patterns, morphological trends, and syntactic constraints that govern acceptable code switches between English and Spanish (Otheguy, 1993; Rodriguez-Gonzalez and Parafita-Couto, 2012; Rothman and Rell, 2005; Lipski, 2008; et al.). This evaluation of Spanglish will also include description and assessment of different arguments regarding how it can …

Assessing Spanish-Speaking Children: A Comparison Of International Practices, Alexis Decker

Honors Projects

According to The National Center for Educational Statistics, 7.7% of all public K-12 students in the United States (US) speak Spanish in the home, representing 76.5% of all English- language learner (ELL) students (2013). Children exposed to two languages are referred to in the literature as ELLs, language minorities and/or bilingual children. As these children enter school, language disorders and differences may become apparent to the Speech-Language Pathologist (SLP). It is the responsibility of the SLP to determine whether a disorder exists or if what is being observed is simply an issue of language difference. As such, it is important …

Found In Translation: An Analysis Of Popular American Film In Spain, Emily Dushek

Honors Projects

This research examines American popular film in Spain with the aim of understanding if and how removing a popular text (such as a film) from its original language and socio-cultural context and translating it for consumption in a different language and culture affects the interpretation of the film. The study delves into the very successful 2012 films The Avengers (Joss Whedon) and Django Unchained (Quentin Tarantino) and uses textual analyses and comparisons of the original English and the translated Castellano Spanish versions of the films, specifically focusing on the translations, as well as analyses of film reviews and critiques written …

Connecting Communities And Building World Language Proficiency, Tyler Anthony

Honors Projects

There are a variety of ways for students to learn a second language such as, learning in the typical classroom setting, studying abroad, and participating in an immersion program. However, often times the benefits of technology are overlooked in the world language classroom. Technology can be used to establish a global community and provide students with new opportunities to practice their language outside of the classroom. Utilizing the language as much as possible is essential to evolving high levels of proficiency and developing communicative competence; however, world language students often do not get the chance to speak the second language …

Póliza: A Bilingual Anthology Of Postmodern Peninsular Spanish Women Poets, Jacqueline Osborn

Honors Projects

Within this project I endeavor to translate a series of poems from seven postmodern female Spanish poets, exploring the challenges and idiosyncrasies of not only the migration between languages, but those specifically between Spanish and English as well as those particular to poetry translation. Of course, there are inherent limits to this process. Regarding the differences between English and Spanish, such difficulties as the presence of naturally reflexive verbs, neutral pronouns, more efficient nominalization of adjectives, and the greater presence of the subjunctive tense in Spanish arise. Respecting the problem of poetry, the structure, rhythm, and even the tone of …

Actores Transnacionales: Un Estudio En Cinema Internacional, Lydia Hartlaub

Honors Projects

Vivimos en un tiempo de cambio para el cine, específicamente un cambio de modelos de género. Es una era buena para ser una mujer quien va al cine. Las películas de Hollywood más populares están llenas de protagonistas femeninas fuertes, atléticas, e inteligentes. Películas como The Hunger Games (2012-2015) y Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015) (IMDb) destacan protagonistas poderosas sin la típica objetivación sexual. Los programas de televisión populares en los Estados Unidos también usan mujeres fuertes que son guerreras en vez de víctimas, como The Walking Dead (2010- ) y Game of Thrones (2011- ) (ver IMDb). Sin …

Linking Language To Latino Turnout, Alexander C. Ervin

Honors Projects

After Latino-Americans demonstrated their power in the 2012 presidential election, securing increased minority support at the polls has become a primary goal for both major U.S. political parties. A reliable bloc of Latino voters on one’s side could mean more wins, yet Latinos have a low voter turnout rate. This paper explores how to increase Latino turnout and argues that the use of the Spanish language in electoral advertising will have a positive effect and actually raise the rate of Latino participation. By comparing statewide Latino turnout data during both the 2002 midterm elections and the 2008 presidential election, I …

"Unos Seres Nacen Para Vivir": Un Análisis Psicosocial De Nada, Nathan Douglas

Honors Projects

Winner of the first Premio Nadal in 1945, Nada, the first published work of then-unknown author Carmen Laforet, has remained a captivating, yet elusive work of Spanish literature. Since its very publication, readers, critics, and even censors have debated the true emancipatory message (or lack there of) within the pseudo-autobiographical, confessional work. While the majority of critics maintain the novel’s characterization as a feminist, female bildungsroman, dissenters cite traces of palimpsestic ennui mediated by the novel’s complex narrative schema as reason to believe otherwise. This critical reading of Nada seeks to shed new light on these debates through …

Los Sistemas De Sa Iud: Una Comparacion Entre Illinois, Ee.Uu. Y Cataluna, Espana (A Comparison Of Healthcare Systems In Illinois, Usa And Catalonia, Spain), Jennifer Boll

Honors Projects

This project focuses on the differences in healthcare systems in Illinois, United States and Catalonia, Spain. The research includes a literature review on the different systems and the fundamental differences in how care is delivered. An investigation of the major differences in the cultural and political approaches to health care and how the systems provide for their patients is part of the study. Another focus is the treatment of Spanish-speaking patients in hospitals in Illinois and also the treatment of patients who speak Castilian (traditional Spanish) in hospitals in Catalan-speaking Barcelona. This comparison displays the importance of language in the …

The Strange Loop: Paradoxical Hierarchies In Borges's Fictions, Jessica Erin Beebe

Honors Projects

In Gödel, Escher, and Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid, Douglas Hofstadter studies how three great minds created their own version of what he calls the “Strange Loop.” The Strange Loop is a paradoxical construction, a shift from one level of abstraction to another that somehow gives rise to a closed, eternal cycle. In other words, despite one’s sense of departing ever further from one’s origin, one winds up, to one’s shock, exactly where one had started out. I argue that this paradoxical model is prevalent in Jorge Luis Borges’s short stories and that by applying Hofstadter’s model to Borges’s …

Re-Formando Cuerpos: Las Identidades Femeninas En Escritoras Cubanas Durante El PeríOdo Especial, Amanda M. Montenegro

Honors Projects

Esta tesis explora cómo una variedad de autoras cubanas representan el cuerpo, las identidades femeninas y la relación entre las mujeres y la nación. Las autoras estudiadas incluyen Marilyn Bobes, Karla Suárez y Daína Chaviano. Sus narrativas ilustran y desarrollan una variedad de personajes –desde las mujeres blancas prerrevolucionarias hasta las “hijas de la revolución” afrocubanas—que representan diferentes maneras en que las mujeres construyen y reconstruyen sus identidades en la Cuba revolucionaria y hasta el comienzo del “Período especial”. Ilustran además cómo las mujeres vivieron fenómenos propios de ese período como la migración, la dolarización y el jineterismo. Así, revelan …

Foreign Language Textbooks In The Classroom: Bridging The Gap Between Second Language Acquisition Theory And Pedagogy, Kristina Harlan '00

Honors Projects

Second language acquisition (SLA) research encompasses various theories of language learning in which the theoretical perspectives sometimes are not connected to SLA methods used by instructors in the classroom. This paper discusses several theories of SLA in an effort to better understand their connection to pedagogy. Foreign language (FL) pedagogy accounts for various methodological approaches the most common being Grammatical-Translation, Direct Method, Audiolingual, and Communicative. These distinctive methodologies have produced a variety of FL textbooks which focus on one or several methodologies.

The following research examines a selection oftextbooks in which the methodologies in beginning language learning are analyzed and …

Las Mujeres De Oro, Benjamin J. Nelson '99

Honors Projects

De un plato simple de bellotas durante una cena con algunos cabreros, el protagonista don Quijote se hace sentimental y filosfico y, a causa de esto, empieza a alabar poeticamente la Edad de Oro. Durante su discurso, este caballero pinta con sus palabras una utopia en que la humanidad vivia en armonia perfecta con la naturaleza fertil. Continuando con su descripci6n, comenta tambien sobre la relaci6n entre los hombres y las mujeres.