Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Grammatical Errors By Arabic Esl Students: An Investigation Of L1 Transfer Through Error Analysis, Aisha Saud Alasfour

Dissertations and Theses

This study investigated the effect of first language (L1) transfer on Arabic ESL learners' acquisition of the relative clauses, the passive voice and the definite article. I used Contrastive Analysis (CA) and Error Analysis (EA) to analyze 50 papers written by Arabic ESL students at the ACTFL Advanced Mid proficiency level. The analysis was paired with interviews with five advanced students to help determine whether L1 transfer was, in fact, influencing students' errors predicted by CA.

Students in this study made L1 errors along with other errors. Although no statistical difference was found between the frequency of transfer and other …

Stance-Taking: Jfl Learners And Benefactive Verbs, Kumiko Takizawa

Dissertations and Theses

This study explores how JFL learners take a benefactive stance in Japanese. As Jaffe (2009) observes, stance-taking "plays a complex role with respect to the naturalization of social and linguistic ideologies and the social structures they legitimate." The way in which language is used to take a stance always concerns the social context in which a speaker finds her/himself. In Japanese, benefactive verbs (kureru, ageru, morau and their honorific and humble equivalents) are indispensable stance indicators for showing gratitude or indebtedness. Such expressions do not really exist in English and their grammar is complex. It is assumed that JFL learners …

Verb Stem Alternation In Vaiphei, Jesse Prichard

Dissertations and Theses

This thesis describes the form and function of verb stem alternations (VSAs) in Vaiphei, a Kuki-Chin (KC) language belonging to the larger Tibeto-Burman branch of the Sino-Tibetan language family. In the existing literature on Vaiphei and Kuki-Chin verb stem alternations, there is no treatment of the form and function of Vaiphei verb stem alternations and how they may be used in classifying Vaiphei in the broader Northern Kuki-Chin language family. I document the form and function of Vaiphei verb stem alternations, showing how these compare to other Northern Kuki-Chin languages and where to classify Vaiphei in Northern Kuki-Chin.

Participants were …

Foreign Language Anxiety, Sexuality, And Gender: Lived Experiences Of Four Lgbtq+ Students, James Donald Mitchell

Dissertations and Theses

The relationship between foreign language anxiety and gender identity has been largely a quantitative endeavor that has shown contradictory results. Furthermore, sexual identity has not been researched in foreign language anxiety literature. A qualitative account of LGBTQ+ language learners with different gender identities has been absent from the literature. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between foreign language anxiety and sexual and gender identity. To gain insight into this relationship, this qualitative study investigated the lived experiences of four LGBTQ+ foreign language university students who represented three gender identities. Data were collected through multiple, in-depth …

College Student Rankings Of Multiple Speakers In A Public Speaking Context: A Language Attitudes Study On Japanese-Accented English With A World Englishes Perspective, John James Ahlbrecht

Dissertations and Theses

This language attitudes study used a matched guise technique to compare participant reactions of American-accented English to Japanese-accented English. Participants (n = 40) were college educated adults living in the Portland area who completed an online survey which measured characteristics related to Status, Solidarity, and Dynamism using semantic differential Likert scales. Results showed that while Japanese-accented English received less favorable ratings on the Status and Solidarity dimensions on a statistically significant level, the small effect size may have indicated that the differences were negligible. Interpreting the results from the data through the World Englishes Kachruvian paradigm, it is argued that …