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First and Second Language Acquisition

2015

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Full-Text Articles in Education

Nonstandard Languages: The Outcasts Of The Language Revitalization Movement, Whitney Snowden Nov 2015

Nonstandard Languages: The Outcasts Of The Language Revitalization Movement, Whitney Snowden

Senior Honors Theses

This thesis compares the failures of the creolization movement with the success of the language revitalization movement and seeks to determine which elements are missing from the former to make it as successful as the latter. Education policy, identity, and language ideology are all examined as contributors to the future success of creole inclusivity in education and society, as well as the potential benefits such a movement would include. Specifically examined are Siegel’s research on creole education and Armstrong’s work on language ideology.


Correcting Errors In The L2 Classroom: Students' And Teachers' Perceptions, Kerwin A. Livingstone Oct 2015

Correcting Errors In The L2 Classroom: Students' And Teachers' Perceptions, Kerwin A. Livingstone

Kerwin A. Livingstone

Correcting students’ errors is necessary for improving their linguistic and communicative competence. This study seeks to examine students’ and teachers’ perceptions about error correction in the L2 classroom. An online survey was designed and sent out to a purposive sample. The sample consists of 12 students from the University of Guyana’s Modern Language Programme, who are pursuing a career in Spanish, French and Portuguese (with B1 and C1 language levels), and 9 teachers (7 current/2 former) from the Programme who specialise in teaching these different languages. The results of the survey are analysed and discussed through a mixed method approach, …


Developing Chinese Complimenting In A Study Abroad Program, Li Jin Sep 2015

Developing Chinese Complimenting In A Study Abroad Program, Li Jin

Li Jin

This article reports on an empirical study investigating what and how two college-level American learners of Mandarin Chinese developed their own understanding of the Chinese complimenting speech act while participating in a 7-week intensive language study abroad program. A case study approach was adopted with a focus on participants’ self-reflection data supplemented with the researcher’s observation data to unpack each participant’s pragmatic developmental process throughout the program. Guided by sociocultural theory, the study uncovered the dynamic, complex and highly individualized developmental process each participant experienced. The findings revealed that Chinese people’s special treatment of the two American students provided more …


Context-Perception Model Of Third Language Learning Motivation, Masanori Matsumoto Aug 2015

Context-Perception Model Of Third Language Learning Motivation, Masanori Matsumoto

Masanori Matsumoto

Through Matsumoto’s recent studies (2009, 2011) on foreign language learners’ motivation in Australian context, a third cultural factor has been detected. Both studies have revealed that besides the conventional account of the cultural distance between learners’ own culture and that of target language, the distance between learners’ own culture and the Australian educational culture in which their language learning occurs also influences the learners’ motivational state. That is, when learners learn a second foreign language in the second language educational context, this additional third culture plays an additional role which affects learner motivation. The study of cultural distance as a …


Determining The Academic Achievement Of English Language Learners (Ells) By Using Additional Measures Of Growth, Adriana Maria Marin Aug 2015

Determining The Academic Achievement Of English Language Learners (Ells) By Using Additional Measures Of Growth, Adriana Maria Marin

Dissertations

Accountability measures employed in the country to determine the academic achievement of all the student population rely solely on the results obtained on the standardized tests. Such measures have often placed English language learners’ (ELLs) at risk of academic failure despite the fact that research on second language acquisition (SLA) has stated the complexity involved in the learning/acquisition process of a target language. Scholars have also discussed the influence accountability measures and the issues with the validity of the tests implemented to assess ELLs may have on such results. Therefore, in an effort to obtain a more comprehensive idea of …


Analysis Of English Language Learner Performance On The Biology Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System: The Impact Of English Proficiency, First Language Characteristics, And Late-Entry Ell Status, Mary A. Mitchell Jun 2015

Analysis Of English Language Learner Performance On The Biology Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System: The Impact Of English Proficiency, First Language Characteristics, And Late-Entry Ell Status, Mary A. Mitchell

Graduate Doctoral Dissertations

This study analyzed English language learner (ELL) performance on the June 2012 Biology MCAS, namely on item attributes of domain, cognitive skill, and linguistic complexity. It examined the impact of English proficiency, Latinate first language, first language orthography, and late-entry ELL status. The results indicated that English proficiency was a strong predictor of performance and that ELLs at higher levels of English proficiency overwhelmingly passed. The results further indicated that English proficiency introduced a construct-irrelevant variance on the Biology MCAS and raised validity issues for using this assessment at lower levels of English proficiency. This study also found that ELLs …


The Effect Of Two Foreign Language Teaching Approaches, Communicative Language Teaching And Teaching Proficiency Through Reading And Storytelling, On Motivation And Proficiency For Spanish Iii Students In High School, Maite Blanton Jun 2015

The Effect Of Two Foreign Language Teaching Approaches, Communicative Language Teaching And Teaching Proficiency Through Reading And Storytelling, On Motivation And Proficiency For Spanish Iii Students In High School, Maite Blanton

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this comparative study was to examine the effects of two foreign language teaching approaches--communicative language teaching and teaching proficiency through reading and storytelling--on motivation and proficiency for Spanish III students in high school. These two teaching approaches have gained prominence over the last couple of decades and no consensus exists between second language (L2) researchers and practitioners on which approach might be best to increase students' motivation to learn and to become proficient. One hundred and seventeen Spanish III students in high school studying with the TPRS or the CLT teaching approach, completed the LLOS-IEA Motivation Scale …


A Case For An Ecological Approach And Against Language Commodification In Elt, Vinicius O. Souza May 2015

A Case For An Ecological Approach And Against Language Commodification In Elt, Vinicius O. Souza

MA TESOL Collection

This paper aims to provide an alternative approach to the English language education practiced in many developing countries which can help reverse their current low-proficiency status, as revealed by standard international examinations such as the PISA scores and others. The author argues that this can be best accomplished by adopting an ecological approach to teaching which promotes language learning as emergent and socially situated phenomena, two concepts largely neglected by current teaching methods. In fact, many of these countries have long been dominated by an extremely commodified and cognitivist ELT market, where business interests have taken precedence over pedagogical considerations. …


Use Of Phonetics In The Beginner French Classroom: An Analysis Of Textbooks, Melissa B. Scarbrough May 2015

Use Of Phonetics In The Beginner French Classroom: An Analysis Of Textbooks, Melissa B. Scarbrough

Honors Scholar Theses

Textbooks are a common resource for teachers in a variety of content areas, as such it is important that teachers know whether or not textbooks are aligned to standards and current research. This study investigates if common textbooks, reported to be in use in schools across Connecticut, are aligned to recent second language acquisition and French linguistics studies.


Order Of Acquisition: A Comparison Of L1 And L2 English And Spanish Morpheme Acquisition, Kyle A. Mcferren Apr 2015

Order Of Acquisition: A Comparison Of L1 And L2 English And Spanish Morpheme Acquisition, Kyle A. Mcferren

Senior Honors Theses

This paper examines the order of acquisition for grammatical morphemes in Spanish and English first and second language learners. Brown’s first morpheme order study, conducted in 1973, laid the foundation for what would become one of the most common types of study conducted within the field of second language acquisition. The four orders of acquisition relevant here are examined and compared in order to support the roles of salience, morphophonological regularity, complexity, input frequency, and native language transfer in first and/or second language acquisition. The conclusion is that these five determinants work interdependently in determining the difficulty of acquiring a …


Is Service-Learning The Answer? Preparing Teacher Candidates To Work With Ells Through Service-Learning Experiences, Sandra Rodriguez-Arroyo Apr 2015

Is Service-Learning The Answer? Preparing Teacher Candidates To Work With Ells Through Service-Learning Experiences, Sandra Rodriguez-Arroyo

Scholarship of Metropolitan Mission

In an effort to address the gaps in preparing teacher candidates (TCs) to work with English Language Learners (ELLs), service-learning experiences (SLE) were integrated into two courses within a teacher education program. This exploratory case study sought to explore the outcomes of teacher candidates (TCs) engaged in SLE with diverse students and families, particularly ELLs. Content analysis of students’ reflections provided insights of the impact of the SLE. Findings indicate that participating in service-learning with ELLs provides opportunities for TCs to engage in positive interactions that help to address misconceptions about students, families, and communities. TCs also began to confront …


Metacognitive Instruction In L2 French: An Analysis Of Listening Performance And Automaticity, Shannon Becker Apr 2015

Metacognitive Instruction In L2 French: An Analysis Of Listening Performance And Automaticity, Shannon Becker

Open Access Dissertations

The goal of the present study was to investigate the instructional potential of metacognitive strategies to improve listening comprehension and the automaticity of listening processes. Metacognition can be described as focusing attention on the cognitive processes one is currently using. In the classroom, metacognitive listening instruction means guiding learners in applying metacognition to learning by monitoring the mental strategies they use while listening, evaluating the relative success of these strategies, and planning for future listening experiences. I argue that providing students with these tools to monitor and regulate the perceptual and cognitive processes involved in listening contributes significantly to building …


English Vocabulary Teaching In Chinese Junior High Schools, Jinghong Zhang Apr 2015

English Vocabulary Teaching In Chinese Junior High Schools, Jinghong Zhang

Open Access Theses

Vocabulary learning is an important and indispensable part of the English language learning process. In this paper, the author tried to examine the vocabulary teaching practice in Chinese junior high schools. A questionnaire was used to investigate the problem from the perspectives of in-service teachers. Besides, the National English Curriculum (MOE, 2011) served as another important source of data in this study. The data revealed that progress has been made in English vocabulary teaching in Chinese junior high schools. Teachers are utilizing a wider range of educational resources and vocabulary teaching strategies during their instruction. The methods to assess vocabulary …


Comparing Interaction And Use Of Space In Traditional And Innovative Classrooms, Laura Gurzynski-Weiss, Avizia Long, Megan Solon Mar 2015

Comparing Interaction And Use Of Space In Traditional And Innovative Classrooms, Laura Gurzynski-Weiss, Avizia Long, Megan Solon

Faculty Publications

Despite myriad changes to language teaching methods over time, university-level classroom spaces have largely remained the same—until now. Recent innovations in classroom space design center on technological advances, include movable furniture and coffee-shop style rooms, and are believed to facilitate language learning in several ways. Specifically, compared to traditional classrooms, innovative spaces are designed in the hope of decreasing pre-task set up, increasing student-centered interaction, and facilitating collaborative work with multiple partners—features believed to be important for classroom learning. However, whether or not such features are present in these innovative spaces, or more so than in traditional classrooms, has yet …


Tradición Y Actualidad En La Enseñanza De La Escritura Académica En El Entorno Europeo (Reseña De Rethinking Academic Writing Pedagogy For The European University), David Sánchez-Jiménez Jan 2015

Tradición Y Actualidad En La Enseñanza De La Escritura Académica En El Entorno Europeo (Reseña De Rethinking Academic Writing Pedagogy For The European University), David Sánchez-Jiménez

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.


A Review Of Motivation And Foreign Language Learning: From Theory To Practice, Avizia Long Jan 2015

A Review Of Motivation And Foreign Language Learning: From Theory To Practice, Avizia Long

Faculty Publications

A review of Motivation and foreign language learning: From theory to practice, by David Lasagabaster, Aintzane Doiz, and Juan Manuel Sierra (Eds.). Amsterdam, the Netherlands: Benjamins, 2014. Pp. viii + 190.


Spanish Language, Cultural Knowledge And Teachers’ Professional Development In An English-Only Environment, Sara Soledad Garcia Jan 2015

Spanish Language, Cultural Knowledge And Teachers’ Professional Development In An English-Only Environment, Sara Soledad Garcia

Teacher Education

This study documents the findings of action research projects generated by two teachers with different cultural backgrounds and grade levels; one is a bilingual Spanish-English high school teacher and the other is an English monolingual first grade-reading teacher. Teachers’ cognitive and professional development is examined by taking into account the results of the action research project on the literacy needs of their students. Qualitative data from teacher interviews and reflections have been collected and analyzed. These teachers as researchers of their own practice plan and integrate cultural interpretation produced by the children to better understand how learners construct knowledge through …


Rule, Pattern, And Meaning In The Second-Language Teaching Of Grammar, Joseph C. M. Davis Jan 2015

Rule, Pattern, And Meaning In The Second-Language Teaching Of Grammar, Joseph C. M. Davis

Publications and Research

This is a position paper aimed at the interface between meaning-oriented linguistics generally and instructed language-learning. The alliance between usage-based linguistics and form-focused instruction in language teaching stands to benefit from advances on both sides: a recognition by theoretical linguists that systematic meanings of grammatical forms are responsible for observed, emerging patterns of usage; and a greater willingness on the part of advocates of the teaching of grammar to engage in focusing upon individual, meaningful grammatical forms, as distinct from unanalyzed, holistic form. Explicit knowledge of forms and their meanings can usefully guide the practice of teachers and, …


Second Language Research In Practice: Exploring Foreign Language Teaching, Maria Luisa Spicer-Ecalante, Karin Dejonge-Kannan, Aliza M. Atkin Kroek Jan 2015

Second Language Research In Practice: Exploring Foreign Language Teaching, Maria Luisa Spicer-Ecalante, Karin Dejonge-Kannan, Aliza M. Atkin Kroek

Languages, Philosophy, and Communication Studies Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.


Lessons Learned: Insights Into One Teacher’S Experience Working With Karen Refugee Students In The United States, Daniel J. Gilhooly Jan 2015

Lessons Learned: Insights Into One Teacher’S Experience Working With Karen Refugee Students In The United States, Daniel J. Gilhooly

Journal of Southeast Asian American Education and Advancement

This study is informed by funds of knowledge and culturally responsive teaching studies that aim to explore and legitimize the cultural knowledge immigrant children bring to their communities and schools. Consequently, this paper specifically addresses issues related to the educational experiences of Karen children and their parents from one American teacher/researcher who has worked with the Karen for the past four years. In aggregate, this paper addresses issues germane to Karen education including; (1) background information on Karen educational experiences prior to resettlement, including a review of their journey from Thailand to the U.S.; (2) important characteristics of Karen culture; …


Experiential Language Learning: A Short-Term Study Abroad Program To Quetzaltenango, Guatemala For Canton High School, Michelle Traub Jan 2015

Experiential Language Learning: A Short-Term Study Abroad Program To Quetzaltenango, Guatemala For Canton High School, Michelle Traub

Capstone Collection

Canton High School (CHS) is a 485 student, small upper-middle class public school located in Canton, Connecticut. The mission of the school involves preparing productive, tolerant and responsible citizens with the character and independence to embrace and contribute to the global world. However, CHS is limited in its ability to provide students with opportunities to connect with the world outside of Connecticut and the United States, both linguistically and culturally. Although the majority of Canton students take a language class freshman year, the number of students continuing on in learning a language drops every year thereafter. Many students state that …


Spanish-English Bilingual Adolescents' Attitude Towards Home Language: Effects On Narrative Language, Rebecca M. Hunt Jan 2015

Spanish-English Bilingual Adolescents' Attitude Towards Home Language: Effects On Narrative Language, Rebecca M. Hunt

Masters Theses

The purpose of the current study was to investigate the relationship between use of English as a second language in academic and social settings, and attitude towards home language (Spanish) in bilingual adolescents in a Central Illinois high school. In addition, the study evaluated the possible relationship between home language attitude and the structure of a personal narrative. Participants included include 11 Spanish-English bilingual high school students who resided in Spanish-speaking homes. Participants completed a questionnaire pertaining to self-rated proficiency of English and Spanish, frequency of use in various settings, and attitude towards English, Spanish, and bilingualism. English narrative samples …