Spanish and Portuguese Language and Literature Commons^™

Development Of Back-Scatter And Pile-Up Identification For Ucna+, Amelia Greathouse

Undergraduate Honors Theses

The UCNA Experiment at the Los Alamos Neutron Science Center (LANSCE) uses

an electron spectrometer to observe angular correlations between the neutron spin and the momenta of beta particles emitted during the process of beta (β) decay. Combined with neutron lifetime measurements, these observations probe physics beyond the standard model. In recent years there has been an effort to modernize the equipment to reduce the physical limitations of the experiment. The new prototype helps to reduce error via use of silicon photo-multipliers (SiPMs) and the SiPMs also have a greater quantum efficiency than the photomultiplier tubes (PMTs). However, there is …

Differentiated Performance In Native And Instructed Nonnative Spanish: The Impact Of Task Demands And Individual Differences During Performance With Grammatical Gender, Martha Black

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Adult language learners demonstrate extensive variation and are believed to rely largely on explicit knowledge and declarative memory, directly impacting how target language input is processed, represented, and retrieved. The overarching aim of this thesis is to identify and better understand the factors that are most important for adult language acquisition by examining how linguistic features, task demands, and individual learner differences may impact performance with Spanish grammatical gender. This research seeks to draw principled conclusions about what knowledge types and memory systems language users exploit as proficiency develops. 115 language users of Spanish from diverse language backgrounds, including native …

Acquisition Of Main-Clause Wh-Questions In Egyptian Arabic-English And Spanish-English Bilingual Children, Riham H. Mohamed

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This dissertation examines the production and judgment of Egyptian Arabic (henceforth EA) main-clause wh-questions in EA-English bilingual children living in Ontario, Canada, or in the United Kingdom. The three comparison groups are EA monolingual children and EA monolingual adults living in Egypt, and first-generation Egyptian immigrants. The results are compared to previous research on the acquisition of obligatory subject-verb (S-V) inversion in Spanish wh-questions.

The focus of this study is to investigate the potential role of cross-linguistic influence in narrow syntactic structures. Until fairly recently, it was believed that only structures that exhibit syntax-pragmatics interfaces are vulnerable to cross-linguistic influence …

¿Cómo Se Dice...? The Spanish Use Of Hispanic College Students, Christopher Castaneda

Honors Theses

The Spanish language is very prominent in the United States. Millions of Spanishspeakers live there, and the use of the language in their day to day lives has augmented the presence of it in an otherwise Anglophone country. However, there are certain factors that may influence how often Spanish speakers actually use their language in this country. This study sought to analyze two: the existing anti-Hispanic attitudes in the United States and the parental/caretaker level of education of Spanish-speaking people. This study aimed to conduct an analysis of college-aged Hispanic students in order to conclude the extent to which those …

The Manito Topos Project: Place Naming And Toponymic Silencing In The Sierras Of Northern Nuevo México And Southern Colorado, Len N. Beké

Spanish and Portuguese ETDs

This dissertation reports on documentary research on vernacular toponymies in Manito communities in Nuevo México and Colorado. These toponymies are erased, obscured and delegitimized in official maps. Within the study area, vernacular antecedents for 49.5% of official names for natural features were documented, along with 280 previously unmapped names. These data were compared to the state-sanctioned toponymy to determine a typology of linguistic mechanisms of toponymic silencing. While a majority of official toponyms are based on Manito oral tradition, only 15.4% of the labels for natural features represent unaltered versions of names in that tradition. This dissertation theorizes the conceptual …

Healthcare Disparities And Hispanic Immigrants: A Systematic Review Of The Literature, William C. Greenman Iii

Chancellor’s Honors Program Projects

No abstract provided.

Of Word And Stone: The History Of Medieval Spain Through The Lens Of Architecture And Language, Samantha Hernandez

Architecture Undergraduate Honors Theses

Medieval Spain is a unique summation of religious and cultural communities. Through the built forms of Al-Andalus, there is unique preservation of societal imprints that parallel the formation of the Castilian language. These two mediums—architecture and language—are a telling of the culture and history of the region. By first observing the historical formation of Spanish, and in turn the various communities which inhabited the Iberian Peninsula, one may find many correlations with architecture created at the same time. After understanding the historical making of the Spanish language, it is important to analyze the language itself and how it differs from …

“Actitudes Hacia Los Acentos Y La Comunidad Latina: Un Estudio De La Percepción Del Inglés Hablado Con Influencia Del Acento Del Español Y Su Efecto En Los Latinos En Los Estados Unidos”, Eden Shenal

Student Research Submissions

The guiding question for the research in this study is as follows: what are the social impacts on Latino individuals speaking accented English as they live, work, and otherwise interact with US-born native English speakers? Are there adverse stereotypes and perceptions about foreign accents that impact their lives, and if so, what are those impacts and the potential long-term consequences of them?

La pregunta guía para la investigación en este estudio es la siguiente: ¿cuál es el impacto social de hablar inglés con acento extranjero en personas de origen latino mientras viven, trabajan e interactúan con hablantes nativos de inglés …

Times Of Crisis: A Comparative Discourse Analysis Of U.S. And Mexican Presidential Rhetoric, Kassandra Gonzalez-Ramos

LSU Master's Theses

Language is a communicative tool that in the possession of politicians holds the power to be persuasive and aggressive, empowering and uniting, or disruptive and dividing. Previous research has relied on numerous methodological approaches to analyze political discourse from different viewpoints to reveal the manner in which politicians as part of political institutions transform and manipulate language. The current investigation performs a critical discourse analysis (CDA) based on the framework developed by Van Dijk (1993,1997) in order to demonstrate the speech act realization in a total of 14 political speeches delivered by American presidents Biden, Trump, and Obama and Mexican …

“Investment In Inertia”: Language Ideologies Of Instructors And Students Of Spanish As A Heritage Language, Michael E. Rolland

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

When the Spanish-language skills of heritage Spanish learners are disparaged in an academic environment, these learners are at high risk of abandoning further study of Spanish and shifting entirely to English. This dissertation uses mixed qualitative and quantitative research methods, including thematic and discourse analysis, to investigate the language ideologies of instructors and students of Spanish as a heritage language (SHL) and the effects of those ideologies on students’ experiences in SHL college courses. It builds on earlier research on language ideologies in the post-secondary heritage language context (e.g., Carreira, 2011; Loza, 2017; Valdés et al., 2003). I find that …

La Floresta; An Appreciation And Reimagination Of My Barrio, Ana Rodríguez

Scripps Senior Theses

This thesis is a love letter to my barrio, La Floresta in Quito, Ecuador. I have divided it into three different sections: a creative writing piece where I walk readers through my barrio and my life in it, a historical section where I analyze its history and the reasons for its uniqueness and current identity, and finally a project proposal for a community center called "Casa La Floresta".

We Can Do This / Juntos Sí Podemos: A Critical Discourse Analysis Of Government-Sponsored Covid-19 Public Service Announcements (Psas) In English And Spanish, Katalina R. Peterson

Scripps Senior Theses

Communication inequities are known to negatively impact people from socioeconomically and linguistically disadvantaged backgrounds during public health crises (Gomez-Aguinaga et al., 2021). In the United States, Hispanics—especially those who speak Spanish—have been among the communities most disproportionately affected by COVID-19 (National Center for Health Statistics, 2022). The pandemic has underscored the importance of understanding the linguistic and discursive strategies implemented by institutions entrusted with disseminating public health information to reach diverse audiences, especially the most vulnerable. This paper analyzes the linguistic practices used to create public service announcements (PSA) produced in English and Spanish by health agencies at both the …

Rechazos Del Español: Una Comparación De Mexicanos Monolingües, Hablantes De Herencia Y Aprendices De Español, Maribel Fernández Moctezuma

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

Learners of Spanish as a second language can use advanced grammatical structures, vocabulary, idiomatic expressions and have good pronunciation and communication skills. However, the speech act of refusal is not a natural act for them. The aim of this study is to analyze the structure and function of the refusal speech act by comparing three populations: 1) monolingual Mexicans, 2) Spanish heritage speakers and 3) second-language learners of Spanish (3 groups). This research will serve and help heritage speakers and Spanish learners improve their communicative competence to express themselves more clearly and concisely, as well as learn to communicate more …

Total Physical Response Storytelling With Undergraduate Foreign Language Learners: Exploring Vocabulary Growth, Eva M. Jones

Masters Theses

This thesis analyzes the effectiveness of two pedagogical techniques used in foreign language teaching on vocabulary growth in a university setting: Total Physical Response Storytelling (TPRS) and a more traditional approach that does not involve storytelling. Over two sessions taking place a week apart, participants were separated into either the Control group or the Experimental group. Each group learned the same list of vocabulary words in the treatment session. While the Control group learned the target vocabulary through a traditional method, the Experimental group learned the vocabulary through a story. In the introduction, TPRS’s origins are reviewed as well as …

Examining Variability In Spanish Monolingual And Bilingual Phonotactics: A Look At Sc-Clusters, Katerina A. Tetzloff

Doctoral Dissertations

Current models of generative phonology have failed to address the variability that is observed in bilingual language patterns patterns. This dissertation addresses exactly that issue by examining the perception of Spanish sC-clusters in Spanish monolinguals and English-Spanish bilinguals. Surface sC-clusters in onset position are prohibited in Spanish and are repaired by inserting a prothetic /e/ (sC $\rightarrow$ esC). English differs in that it allows sC-cluster onsets, and the structure of the sC-cluster has been shown to differ based on the sonority profile (i.e., s+stop clusters are bisyllabic, s+liquid clusters are tautosyllabic). A batch version of a Harmonic Grammar Gradual Learning …

The Development Of Discourse Markers In Narrations Written By Spanish Heritage Language Learners: A Case For Explicit And Implicit Instruction, Mark Cisneros

Spanish and Portuguese ETDs

This Dissertation attempted to determine the types and number of discourse markers (DMs) used in narrations written by Spanish Heritage Language (SHL) learners and if they benefitted from the following pedagogical intervention (i.e., Explicit Instruction + Input Flood + Textual Enhancement) regarding the use of DMs. It also calculated the syntactic complexity, morphosyntactic accuracy, and fluency of their narrations. For this study, 39 SHL learners served as participants: 19 in an Experimental group and 20 in a Control group. All participants wrote two narrations of two short, silent films: a pre-test narration and an immediate post-test narration. Before completing the …

Investigación Sobre Los Materiales Disponibles En Español En El Sitio Web “Ny State Of Health”, Michaela Kirwan

Languages, Literatures & Cultures

Las lenguas que se usan en todo el mundo son sistemas ricos y diferentes que permiten a los miembros de las diferentes comunidades de habla comunicarse a diario de forma oral y escrita. La importancia de una comunicación exitosa es obvia, especialmente para acceder a los servicios públicos como el sistema judicial o la asistencia médica. Tanto los ciudadanos como los profesionales en estos campos tienen que asegurarse de poder comunicar la información de forma adecuada. Sin embargo, en estos sistemas, históricamente no siempre se ha garantizado el acceso a la información en el caso de grupos migratorios por la …

A Survey To Highlight Areas Of Focus For Patient Care In Settings Utilizing Medical Interpretation, Azayzel Deregis

Undergraduate Honors Theses

This thesis recounts my personal experience working as a volunteer medical interpreter for the Language and Culture Resource Center at East Tennessee State University. The result of my time spent volunteering as a medical interpreter, shadowing professional medical interpreters, and witnessing patient-provider interactions during interpreted sessions was an inspiration to study medical interpretation further and delve into the challenges faced by patients who require medical interpreters. During my time researching this topic, I found that the United States is severely lacking in Spanish medical interpreters—with some healthcare facilities employing no medical interpreters—even though the size of the Hispanic population is …

Student Centered Language Teaching: A Focus On Student Identity, Rachel Mano

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

This portfolio is a compilation of essays that describe what the writer has come to see as essential topics in second language acquisition. It begins with a professional environment piece, and then a teaching philosophy statement focused on student identity and interaction in the classroom. This is followed by an essay on observations of teaching. The next two sections focus on pragmatic resistance among advanced learners and the importance of preparing learners for peer interaction. The portfolio concludes with an annotated bibliography outlining the main concepts associated with Communicative Language Teaching, a method that is commonly employed in second language …

Linguistic And Cultural Training For Immigration Attorneys Representing Undocumented Oaxacan Immigrants In The United States., Alexis Faith Ecarma

College of Arts & Sciences Senior Honors Theses

The roles of second language acquisition and cultural competence in the training of attorneys have been explored by legal scholars and law professors. Some suggest that such training ought to be administered to law students as a component of their law school curricula. Others argue that, in an increasingly globalized legal field, “experiential learning” is essential for developing linguistically-proficient and culturally-competent lawyers. Despite the growing presence of undocumented Oaxacan immigrants in the U.S., scholars have yet to investigate the linguistic and cultural training of U.S. immigration attorneys who represent these immigrants in legal contexts. The following research fills this gap …

A Sign Of The Time: An Exploration Of Interior Design For Senior Living Via Aging In Place, Independent Living, Assisted Living, And Memory Care, Mary Lane

Undergraduate Honors Theses

The nature of this essay explores the changes in designing a space for aging clients through the end of their lives. Over the course of the essay, four major time periods, their respective design elements, and three floor plans are highlighted through a third person narrative of Jill and Don. These fictitious characters are created using research in the process of aging and personal interviews with loved ones whose experiences have been adapted or modified from their original candor to fit this storyline.

La Voz Obrera En Chile (1879-1937): Lenguaje Y Escritura De La Clase Trabajadora Chilena En El Proceso De Construcción Nacional, Tania A. Aviles Vergara

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This study examines the linguistic construction of social personae (voice) of the Chilean working class during the process of nation-state formation in the late 19^th and beginning of the 20^th centuries. Specifically, it considers the mediation of writing in processes of identity formation and emerging political stances in a historical context characterized by the intense socioeconomic, linguistic and cultural transformations that took place in Chile during a period of capitalist development and national modernization. The corpus is made up of a set of seventy familiar letters written by soldiers, miners and women who experienced the territorial expansion brought …

The Effects Of Musical Experience And Aptitude On Phonological Skills In A Foreign Language, Joshua Shockley

Honors Theses

Music has been shown to have an important effect on L2 language acquisition. Recently, researchers have investigated how musical ability or experience can give an advantage to L2 learners attempting to acquire specific aspects of a second language in the beginning stages of language acquisition. This study investigates this connection between musicality and early L2 ability in Spanish through a series of tests including a musical aptitude test, two language aptitude tests, a Spanish receptive test, and a Spanish imitation test. Results revealed no significant correlations between musical ability or experience and language ability as tested by the aptitude, receptive, …

Teoría & Creatividad. La Imagen Visual De La Lírica Y La Competencia Emocional En La Representación Del Arte, Isabel Urdaneta

Honors Undergraduate Theses

El mundo se encuentra lleno de seres humanos que a lo largo de los siglos han desarrollado sorprendentes destrezas y habilidades que les han permitido desarrollarse como individuos en una sociedad. Satisfacerse de las necesidades básicas no es lo suficiente para el ser humano quien debe además desarrollar una forma de comunicación oral y escrita para poder expresar ideas y pensamientos. Partiendo de la noción de que el ser humano necesita comunicarse para poder expresarse, se puede decir que nace la idea de la literatura y el valor de la creatividad humana. La literatura siendo el arte de una lengua …

Clitic Doubling: The Case Of Nariño Andean Spanish, Jessica Paola Jurado Eraso

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

This thesis examines the behavior of clitic doubling in Nariñense, a little-studied Andean Spanish variety spoken in the southwest of Colombia, and compares it to well-studied varieties such as standard Peninsular, Rioplatense, and other Andean Spanish varieties. Its aim is to present novel data about clitic doubling in order to shed more light into the extensive literature about this phenomenon in Spanish. Through spontaneous speech recordings obtained from thirty native speakers of Nariñense, 133 sentences involving clitic doubling were analyzed. Features such as agreement matching between the clitic and the doubled NP, use of the preposition a to introduce the …

Propuestas De Autoría Y Datación En El Teatro De Lope De Vega A La Luz De La Inteligencia Artificial, Álvaro Cuéllar

Theses and Dissertations--Hispanic Studies

The purpose of this thesis is to shed light on the numerous authorship and dating problems presented by the Spanish Golden Age theatre. Specifically, it focuses on Lope de Vega (1562-1635), a notable and highly successful playwright of this period. Through the compilation of a wide set of texts and the application of Artificial Intelligence techniques (machine learning), a control corpus is evaluated to find the best systems and parameters. Once this evaluation has been undertaken, a large group of plays is analyzed to try to obtain results that can illuminate some real problems of authorship and dating in relation …

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.

“Fake It!”: An Exploration Of Cinematography, Societal Expectations, And Artist Collaboration, Sullivan Perry

Undergraduate Honors Theses

An exploration of cinematography, societal expectations, and artist collaboration, “Fake It!” challenges the traditional definition of art. Part one follows the journey of creating a music video for an original song titled “Fake It!” by the band Model City. Location, lighting, camera, and editing choices are explained and connected to the song's themes of teenage angst, regret, and a rejection of societal norms. Part two explores the process of creating art by translating the hexadecimal color values from the music video into a new musical composition. This is accomplished through a mathematical process that converts the computer-identified RGB letters and …

Fórmulas De Tratamiento En Ocaña, Colombia, Liceth Bohorquez Leon

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The paradigm of forms of address has been a recurrent topic of study from a sociolinguistic perspective. Voseo, tuteo and ustedeo are the forms of address used in the Hispanic world. Voseo expreses confidence and familiarity, while tuteo same as voseo, denotes confidence and familiarity. Finally, ustedeo has a connotation of formality, respect and distance. This thesis aims to examine how forms of address are used in Ocaña, Colombia, and the relationship between their use and the social factors that affect the choice of pronoun. To achieve this aim, a sociolinguistic survey was applied to 88 participants. The …

The Effects Of Multilingualism And Music Experience On Tone And Vowel Discrimination Ability, Niloufar Ansari Dezfuly

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This study investigates the effects of language background (monolingual/bilingual and early/late bilingual exposure), knowledge of a tonal language and music experience on auditory discrimination by employing tone and vowel discrimination tasks. A total number of 8,769 observations were analyzed using logistic regression to answer the following questions: (1) Do vowel and tone discrimination abilities correlate with language background in diverse groups of speakers such as monolinguals and bilinguals of different types (early/late bilinguals)? (2) Does musical training affect tone and vowel discrimination? (3) Does knowledge of tonal language affect tone discrimination? The findings suggest that with regard to vowel discrimination, …