Spanish and Portuguese Language and Literature Commons^™

Broadening Perspectives: Using Multiple Teaching Approaches To Meet The Needs Of Language Students, Kalen Taylor

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

This portfolio is comprised of research, opinions, and ideas that the author has learned during the Master of Second Language Teaching (MSLT) program at Utah State University (USU). It is a representation of experiences gained through teaching lower division Spanish courses at USU. In addition to experiences, it is also comprised of research perspectives which were furthered by coursework in the MSLT program.

Contained within the pages is a road map of the author’s journey of learning and research. The portfolio begins with the author’s perspectives on teaching including his philosophy on teaching and how he has developed by observing …

"Our Roots:": Latinx Parents' Language Ideologies Concerning Bilingualism, Akanne S. Torres Beltran

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Language is a fundamental component of one's identity, as well as a means of surviving in a globalizing world. This study draws upon sixteen narratives of first-generation Mexican and Puerto Rican parents in Central Florida to answer the research question: What are the language ideologies of Mexican and Puerto Rican immigrant parents towards the English Language acquisition and Spanish Language retention of their children? The information was gathered through semi-structured interviews and it aimed to learn how and if they value English and Spanish bilingualism and whether it was desired for their children. On the one hand, they are aware …

El Futuro Ya Está Aquí: A Comparative Analysis Of Punk In Spain And Mexico, Rex Richard Wilkins

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines the punk genre's evolution into commercial mainstream music in Spain and Mexico. It looks at how this evolution altered both the aesthetic and gesture of the genre. This evolution can be seen by examining four bands that followed similar musical and commercial trajectories. In Spain, Kaka de Luxe and Radio Futura; in Mexico, Size and Ritmo Peligroso. Since punk music's gesture is both visceral and political, various methods of suppressing or containing the punk gesture arise. For both Spain and Mexico, containing the punk gesture was a matter of government censorship in the early years of punk. …

Storytelling Through Movement: An Analysis Of The Connections Between Dance & Literature, Zoe Hester

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Movement and storytelling are the links between past and present; both dance and literature have the same artistic and primal origins. We began to dance to express and communicate, to worship and feel. We tell stories for the same reasons: to learn from the past and to be able to communicate in the present.

This work explores the many connections between literature and dance through examinations of six dance forms: Native American, Bharatanatyam, West African, Ballet, Modern, and Post-Modern dance.

Back From Oblivion: Society And Literature In Ventura Ruiz Aguilera’S Ecos Nacionales And Proverbios Ejemplares, Bruce Milton Cole

Doctoral Dissertations

Ventura Ruiz Aguilera (1820-1881) enjoyed great popularity and influence throughout the mid- 19th century in Spain. He was most famous for his book of poems Ecos nacionales (1849), which was inspired by the people. Although he continued to attract attention amongst literary critics, shortly after his death Aguilera’s popularity declined. This investigation explores the representation of society in both Aguilera’s Ecos nacionales and his prose collection Proverbios ejemplares (1864). By reexamining these two texts, I reveal how Aguilera’s works partake in discussions of both literary and social issues with an emphasis on progress and modernity.

When Aguilera published Ecos nacionales …

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 …

Reflections On Effectively Implementing Culture In The Foreign Language Classroom, Alyssa N. Petsche

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The purpose of this research project is to explore the perceptions and attitudes of past and current foreign language students regarding the relevancy of culture within foreign language education. The first portion of this paper contains a literature review from a variety of international research articles discussing the necessity, implementation methods, and assessment techniques for implementing culture within the foreign language classroom setting. While the research from the literature review emphasizes for researchers and educators the importance of including culture within the foreign language curriculum, very little research has been recorded regarding the perceptions and beliefs of foreign language learners. …

Hablo Español, You Know? Language And Identity In The Puerto Rican Diaspora, Rachel Ann Denton

Masters Theses

This thesis explores the relationship between language, personal identity, and culture among members of the Puerto Rican diaspora. Puerto Rico represents a unique situation socially and politically because of its colonial relationship with the United States. This relationship has facilitated a continuous circular migration to and from the mainland U.S. over the last century. As of 2012, the diasporic community now represents a greater population than those who remain on the island. While nationalistic debates in Puerto Rico have traditionally excluded this group (collectively dubbed “neoricans” or “nuyoricans”), their recent contributions to literature and Puerto Rican cultural theory, as well …

Una Cárcel De Cultura: Secuelas De La Dictadura Chilena En Un Centro De Arte Comunitario, Sofia Leblanc

Honors Papers

In Chile, wounds from the Pinochet dictatorship of 1973 to 1990 still fester under the surface of its post-transitional society. The regime of terror lives on in economic policies, architecture, the country's grave-pocked landscape, and in the everyday lives of Chileans. My research examines a former prison and torture center that has been converted into a cultural park: a space of culture, art, and community, sanctioned and administered by the state. It serves as a microcosm for Chile, which has chosen to erase its violent past while also perpetuating a system of class stratification and power structures that come directly …

The Experiences Of Hispanic International Students As Interviewees In A Cross-Cultural Interview Project, Ren S. Carbutt

Theses and Dissertations

In the field of world language education, it has long been affirmed that language and culture are inseparable. It has also often been asked how teaching language and culture in an inseparable way is to be accomplished. One solution that has been proposed is ethnographic interviews. Other studies have demonstrated that interviewing native cultural informants is beneficial for language students. This study examined whether such interviews are also beneficial to the native informants. The participants in this project, sixteen native speakers of Spanish, were each interviewed three times by a pair of Spanish students who employed ethnographic techniques as a …

From Roosters To Talking Fish: A Comparative Study Of Hispaniolas Societal Evolution Through Folktales And Myths, Sara Block

Honors Theses

The island of Hispaniola is home to two sovereign nations with a bloody and complex history: Haiti and the Dominican Republic. Their disparate experiences with European powers and colonization and their different roads to independence fundamentally shaped their cultures and current political status. The evolution of culture and the intrusions of external influences and powers are visible in the popular myths and folktales of the two countries. After a close analysis of the respective folktales through a historical lens, the thematic and structural composition of the stories suggest that Haitian and Dominican cultures are similar, but still characterized by small …

Latin American Legends And Exercises For Beginning And Intermediate High School Students Of Spanish, Jeanne Joyce Jensen

MA TESOL Collection

This paper is a collection of Latin American legends for beginning and intermediate high school students of Spanish. It begins with an introduction including why I chose this subject. Following the introduction, the legends begin. There are ten legends from various Latin American countries and time periods. Before each legend is a short explanation in English about the country and how the story relates to it. Finally, there are sample exercises to be used in the classroom with the legends.