Spanish and Portuguese Language and Literature Commons^™

Comparing Spanish L2 Use Of Regional Phonemes After Study Abroad In Spain And Mexico, Katherine R. Lindley

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

The present study analyzed the use of regional phonemes by native-English speakers before and after spending a year abroad in either Spain or Mexico. The variables selected were the interdental voiceless fricative [θ] and the uvular voiceless fricative [χ], along with their variations. Semi-structured oral interviews were used to elicit data before their sojourn and at the end of their stay. Results show that many participants used [θ] and [χ] more after spending a year in Spain and participants preferred [s] and [h] after spending a year in Mexico. Data on social networks were collected throughout the study for the …

Grammatical Gender Acquisition In L2 Spanish, Alanna Quinn, Mónica Cabrera

Honors Thesis

Grammatical gender, identified as “one of the most difficult structures that non-native speakers need to acquire” (Alamry & Sabourin, 2017) does not exist in English. L1 English speakers learning L2 Spanish must acquire this new grammatical feature. This thesis investigates this acquisition.

A literature review synthesizes the findings of studies on L2 acquisition of Spanish grammatical gender, and includes an overview of the structure and function of gender within both English and Spanish, as well as a variety of L2 acquisition process hypotheses. An analysis of four introductory Spanish textbooks is offered regarding their presentation of grammatical gender. The findings …

"It's Not Me, It's /U/: An Acoustic Analysis Of Target-Language Immersion's Effect On L1 English Speakers' Spanish Vowel Production" And "Tener: ¿Lo Tenemos Entendido?", Tanner Charles Linton

Theses and Dissertations

Within the field of second language acquisition of phonology, the role of immersion experiences on language learners' pronunciation has recently become a topic of greater interest. While students of a foreign language with study abroad experience (one to six months) have shown relatively little progress in pronunciation gains, language learners group with extended immersion experience—approximately 24 months abroad—have demonstrated more native-like pronunciation. This study compares the pronunciation of L2 Spanish /u/ among native English speakers enrolled in the same third-year Spanish course who belong to two different groups based on the context of their previous language learning: extended immersion in …

Adquisición De Los Contrafactuales Pasados En Español: Mapeo De Formas – Significados En Las Interfaces Morfología – Sintaxis – Semántica – Pragmática, Diana Patricia Botero Ibarra

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This study focuses on the acquisition of the compound form of the Pluperfect Subjunctive to express counterfactual meaning in the past through conditional clauses. The aim was to examine in which instances we can find the greatest difficulty in the acquisition and what are the sets of information that stem from universal mechanisms.

This study included two experiments: Experiment 1 consisted of a sentence completion task and a written production task to investigate morphological recognition and morphological written production of subjunctive and conditional forms. Experiment 2 included an interpretation and context task, a sentence selection task, and a picture-matching task …

Acquisition Of L2 Phonology: An Acoustic Analysis Of The Centralization Of L2 Spanish /A/ In Adult L1 English-Speaking Learners, Alexander Charles Aldrich

Theses and Dissertations

Although many studies have been carried out regarding the acquisition of Spanish as a second language, very few have focused on the acquisition of Spanish vowels. Studies that have compared the L2 production of Spanish vowels in learners who have spent an extensive time living abroad versus at home learners are scarce at best. The present study hopes to add to the literature by comparing the L2 pronunciation of the Spanish /a/ in these two groups using an acoustic analysis with the aid of speech-signal processing software and the inclusion of a native group for comparison. In addition, it hopes …

Student Perceptions Of Strategies Used For Reading Hispanic Literature: A Case Study, Rebecca Leigh Brazzale

Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative study investigated the experiences of students during their reading tasks for their university Spanish courses during the Fall 2013 semester at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah. The purpose of this research was to explore what types of reading strategies university Spanish students use during literary readings tasks and their perceptions of the reading strategies they use. This case study employed stimulated recall protocol interviews, student reading logs and student notes in texts. Interviews were conducted within 24 hours of the reading, while reading logs and notes were completed during the reading. The data collected were analyzed for …

Factores Que Influyen En La Adquisición De Los Sonidos Róticos Del Español Como Segunda Lengua: Sensibilidad Cultural, Motivación, Nivel De Instrucción, Tipo De Discurso, Tiempo De Residencia En El Extranjero Y Contexto Fonético, Ixchel Zarco Gonzalez

Theses and Dissertations

The body of the literature examining the acquisition of Spanish rhotics is expanding (e.g., Canfield, 1940; Face, 2006; Rose, 2010; Hurtado & Estrada, 2010). Most studies on the acquisition of Spanish rhotics have focused on how students progress at different levels of instruction (e.g., Rose, 2010; Hurtado & Estrada, 2010) while various other factors have been shown to affect the second language acquisition of phonology, such as style variation (e.g., Diaz-Campos, 2006; González--Bueno, 1997; Zampini, 1994), L1 transfer (e.g., Major, 2001), and experience abroad (e.g., Díaz-Campos, 2004, 2006; Lafford, 2006). Work on the acquisition of the Spanish tap and trill …

Leaving The Dark To Find The Light: A Study Of L1 English Acquisition Of L2 Spanish /L/, Ariel Rebekah Bean

Theses and Dissertations

Second language acquisition (SLA) research is rich in possibilities for examining language-specific phonetics and phonology in the cross-linguistic context of acquisition. However, much of the existing English-Spanish research focuses on the acquisition of voice onset time (VOT) of /p, t, k, b, d, ɡ/ or rhotics, or on acquisition in relation to factors such as task type, time abroad, and motivational intensity (e.g. Alvord & Christiansen, 2012; Díaz-Campos, 2004, 2006; Face, 2006; Martinsen, 2010; Martinsen & Alvord, 2012; Shively, 2008; Shively & Cohen, 2008; Tanner, 2012 a, 2012b; Zampini, 1994). Like these studies, the present study incorporates linguistic and extralinguistic …

Acquisition Of Spanish Voiceless Stops In Extended Stays Abroad, Mary Williams Crane

Theses and Dissertations

Although English and Spanish both have the voiceless stops /ptk/, they differ in VOT; English has long-lag voiceless stops and Spanish has short-lag. This difference means that native English-speaking learners of Spanish are likely to transfer the long voice lag typical of their first language (L1) to Spanish voiceless stops. This study measured the VOT of 20 native English-speaking learners of Spanish, each with a length of residence (LOR) in a Spanish-speaking country of almost 2 years. The study participants were found to produce voiceless stops intermediate to the averages of their L1 (American English) and L2 (Spanish), with some …

Recuerda Que Yo Estoy Aqui Tambien : A Bilingual Picture Book, Liliana Ivette Funes

Graduate Student Independent Studies

My independent study for my Integrative Masters consists of a bilingual (Spanish/English) picture book that is based on personal experience, and endeavors to describe the emotional distress and anxiety children can experience as second language learners entering a monolingual classroom for the first time. The book addresses not only the emotional and academic struggles of the child, but also the ways in which peers and teachers can intervene to ease the child's transition into English. Thus the book can serve as a resource to support monolingual classrooms. The study also includes a personal reflection of the process and journey, I …

Second Language Acquisition Of The Spanish Tap And Trill In A Contact Learning Environment, Andrew M. Weech

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this thesis is to study whether target-like articulation of the Spanish tap [ɾ] and trill [r] is achieved by second language learners who have lived in a Spanish-speaking environment for an extensive period of time. The subjects of this study were students at Brigham Young University (BYU) who had spent 18 months to two years in a Spanish-speaking country. Most of the subjects had little to no previous Spanish instruction, but rather learned the language primarily through their contact with native speakers while abroad. In addition to whether or not subjects achieved target-like pronunciation of these two …