Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Análisis LingüÍstico De La Escritura BilingüE (Español-Inglés) De Los Hablantes De Español Como Lengua Hereditaria En Los Estados Unidos, Maria Luisa Spicer-Ecalante

Languages, Philosophy, and Communication Studies Faculty Publications

Tradicionalmente; los hablantes de español por herencia (Spanish Heritage Speakers) en los Estados Unidos aprenden español en casa o en su comunidad. Sin embargo; la mayoría no recibe instrucción formal académica en español. Por lo tanto; su escritura en español y en inglés muestra ciertas características lingüísticas relevantes. En esta investigación se analizan los textos persuasivos/argumentativos de estudiantes universitarios de los siguientes grupos: hablantes de español por herencia (HELH); estadounidenses que estudian español (EESL) y mexicanos hablantes nativos de español (HNE). Los resultados del análisis lingüístico y estadístico sugieren que hay diferencias notables en la manera en la que cada …

The Sound-Symbolic Expression Of Animacy In Amazonian Ecuador, Janis B. Nuckolls

Faculty Publications

Several anthropologists of Amazonian societies in Ecuador have claimed that for Achuar [1] and Quichua speaking Runa [2,3,4] there is no fundamental distinction between humans on the one hand, and plants and animals on the other. A related observation is that Runa and Achuar people share an animistic cosmology whereby animals, plants, and even seemingly inert entities such as rocks and stones are believed to have a life force or essence with a subjectivity that can be expressed. This paper will focus on Quichua speaking Runa to seek linguistic evidence for animacy by examining the sound-symbolic properties of a class …

El Concepto De Audiencia Y La Colaboración Entre Iguales En La Revisión De Textos Escritos, David Sánchez-Jiménez

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

On The Existence (And Distribution) Of Sentential Subjects, William D. Davies, Stanley Dubinsky

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Divorcing Speech Ability And Intelligence: Why The Two Can No Longer Be Strongly Linked Together, Savannah E. Sims

Senior Honors Theses

Human language is a complex cognitive ability that is still not fully understood by scientists. Except in rare occasions of extreme seclusion or disability, children are able to acquire language without explicitly being taught how. Though animals have the ability to communicate, their “languages” are not comparable to human language. Commonly, people believe that one’s language ability correlates directly to one’s intelligence. It is the purpose of this paper to explore that belief and test its veracity. My hypothesis is that this correlation does not exist or is at best weak. This will be done by looking at several language-related …

Podcasting: An Effective Tool For Honing Language Students' Pronunciation?, Lara Ducate, Lara Lomicka

Faculty Publications

This paper reports on an investigation of podcasting as a tool for honing pronunciation skills in intermediate language learning. We examined the effects of using podcasts to improve pronunciation in second language learning and how students' attitudes changed toward pronunciation over the semester. A total of 22 students in intermediate German and French courses made five scripted pronunciation recordings throughout the semester. After the pronunciation recordings, students produced three extemporaneous podcasts. Students also completed a pre- and post-survey based on Elliott's (1995) Pronunciation Attitude Inventory to assess their perspectives regarding pronunciation. Students' pronunciation, extemporaneous recordings, and surveys were analyzed to …

Relájate Y Disfruta: Lecciones De Una Vida Musical Y Temporal En El Zaidín = Relax And Enjoy: Lessons About A Temporal Musical Life In Zaidin, Granada, Laura Westman

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

In the following paper, I describe the volunteer project that I conducted during my fall 2009 semester in Granada, Spain. I spent a few hours each week accompanying voice lessons in a music school located in the neighborhood in which I lived while I was learning Spanish. This paper chronicles the importance of language and communication to my work, including problems that I had with the language barrier in communicating with people in the school before I was comfortable with the language. Though I originally planned to analyze relationships between teachers and students as a major theme in my project, …

A Preliminary Linguistic Analysis Of Plant Names In Ikpaná (Logba), An Endangered Ghana Togo Mountain Language, Lydia Jewl Green

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Methodology: I spent 12 days living in three of the towns in the Logba traditional area (Alakpeti, Klikpo, and Tota) during which time I elicited approximately three hours of footage spread over four miniDV tapes of native speakers of Ikpaná describing the names and uses of the plants in the surrounding area in the Ikpaná language.

Findings: I analyzed some of the linguistic properties of the plant names as they relate to the endangered language status of the language.

Conclusion: Ikpaná is being pressured by Ewe and by globalization. This can be demonstrated through an analysis of the plant names, …

Dit’S Dynamic Speech Corpus, Dermot Campbell, Ciaran Mcdonnell, Marty Meinardi, Charles Pritchard, Bunny Richardson, Yi Wang

Articles

The Technological University Dublin’s FLUENT Dynamic Speech Corpus is aimed at learners, teachers, authors and researchers. When the prototype is complete (target: July 2009) it will afford access to a unique audio resource based on dialogues. Users will be able to find samples of native-to-native speech on a chosen topic, listen to phonetically interesting sections and explore the dynamic environment which gave rise to the spoken features studied. At all stages the user will be able to slow down sequences for heightened intelligibility.

Assessing Online Collaboration Among Language Teachers: A Cross-Institutional Case Study, Nike Arnold, Lara Ducate, Lara Lomicka, Gillian Lord

Applied Linguistics Faculty Publications and Presentations

This paper focuses on computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) among foreign language (FL) graduate students from three universities, who worked together to create a wiki. In order to investigate the nature of CSCL among participants, this qualitative case study used the Curtis and Lawson framework (2001) to conduct a content analysis of learners’ collaborative behaviors. Transcript and survey analyses indicate that the success of collaborative interaction depends largely on the group members themselves. Differing levels of participation indicate that not everyone was equally involved with the wiki project, which ultimately affected the level of collaboration, the group dynamics, and the final …

Massachusetts Adult Basic Education And Esol Distance Learning Programs: How To Assess Student Readiness For Distance Learning?, Berna Kahraman, Amelia Mallona, Donna H. Friedman, Sarah Kuck Jalbert

Center for Social Policy Publications

This report presents the findings from the pilot screening process prepared by the Center for Social Policy (CSP) and implemented during December 2008-March 2009 by the adult basic education (ABE) online learning programs in MA which are funded by the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (ESE). The purposes of the pilot process were:

• To determine the effectiveness of screening tools in assessing participant characteristics, such as the skills, demographics, and life circumstances that are associated with success in online learning;
• To identify supports and interventions which students need in order to persist and succeed in online learning.

At the …

Beyond Free Speech: Novel Approaches To Hate On The Internet In The United States, Jessica S. Henry

Department of Justice Studies Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Hate on the Internet presents a unique problem in the United States. The First Amendment to the Constitution protects speech, even that which is hateful and offensive. Although the First Amendment is not without limitation and, indeed, although there have been a small number of successful prosecutions of individuals who disseminated hate speech over the Internet, web-based hate continues to receive broad First Amendment protections. Some non-governmental organizations in the United States, such as the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and the Southern Poverty Law Center, have adopted innovative approaches to hate on the Internet. For instance, the ADL tracks and monitors …

Applying Computational Models Of Spatial Prepositions To Visually Situated Dialog, John D. Kelleher, Fintan Costello

Articles

This article describes the application of computational models of spatial prepositions to visually situated dialog systems. In these dialogs, spatial prepositions are important because people often use them to refer to entities in the visual context of a dialog. We first describe a generic architecture for a visually situated dialog system and highlight the interactions between the spatial cognition module, which provides the interface to the models of prepositional semantics, and the other components in the architecture. Following this, we present two new computational models of topological and projective spatial prepositions. The main novelty within these models is the fact …

Update On Soar 9 And Sentence Processing, Deryle W. Lonsdale, Jeremiah Lane Mcghee, Ross Hendrickson

Faculty Publications

NLSOAR is in active development

NLSOAR can process several key types of sentences

NLSOAR updated to SOAR 9 as a prototype

Assessment Of English Language Learners Seeking A Graduate Degree In Speech Language Pathology, Lisa Anne Prushko

Honors Scholar Theses

A shortage of bilingual/bicultural speech language pathologists may reflect a problem with recruitment and retention of bilingual/bicultural students. The purpose of the present study was to survey graduate training programs in speech language pathology to determine typical policies and practices concerning students who apply and are admitted as ELLs. With a growing number of ELL children needing services from a bilingual SLP, it seems that little is being done to address the issue. The problem may be with the reluctance of programs to not only accept ELL students, but there also seems to be a disinclination for any sort of …

Review Of "Methods Of Language Teaching", By Blair Bateman And Baldomero Lago, Lara Ducate

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Story 1 (Part 2), George Tucker Childs

Mani, a Disappearing Language of Sierra Leone and Guinea

The is the second of two parts of a Mani folk tale.

Story 2 (Part 2), George Tucker Childs

Mani, a Disappearing Language of Sierra Leone and Guinea

Text of a performance of a Mani folk tale by a group of children in Moribaya.

10 Key Principles For Designing Video Games For Foreign Language Learning, Ravi Purushotma, Steven L. Thorne, Julian Wheatley

World Languages and Literatures Faculty Publications and Presentations

This paper was produced for the Open Language & Learning Games Project, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Education Arcade.

Finding Cost-Effective Methods For Language Access Services Administration At New York City Children's Services, Kerry Cook

MPA Capstone Projects 2006 - 2015

New York City Children's Services (CS) serves an increasing populations of persons with limited English language proficiency (LEP). Federal and local laws mandate that these persons are provided with meaningful language access services. This analysis attempts to find the most cost-effective strategy for CS' Division of Child Protection (DCP) to provide interpretation services to LEP persons involved in DCP cases of child abuse and neglect. The study first identifies alternative strategies for providing these services, and then qualifies the cost of the current methods and alternative methods. A framework of transaction cost economic theory guides the cost analysis process. Next, …

Dit’S Dynamic Speech Corpus, Dermot Campbell, Ciaran Mcdonnell, Marty Meinardi, Charles Pritchard, Bunny Richardson, Yi Wang

Conference papers

Given the current focus of language learning on learner autonomy, the Technological University Dublin is using its FLUENT project (commencement date 7/1/’08) to produce a Dynamic Speech Corpus, which will be a valuable resource for learners, teachers, authors and researchers. The resultant database will afford access to a unique audio resource based on unscripted dialogues between friends, characterized by industry-standard audio quality (for analysis purposes) and a high degree of naturalness. By means of search string and/or tags such as speaker intention, users will be able to find samples of native-to-native speech (various L1 varieties) on a chosen topic, particularly …

Die Taal Is Gans Die Volk? Building A Common Afrikaans-Language Identity And Community In Post-Apartheid South Africa, Susan Demartino

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The following paper examines some of the ways in which Afrikaans-speakers have begun to renegotiate Afrikaans-speaking identity and community in reaction to a perceived decline in Afrikaans in post-apartheid democratic South Africa. It also examines the values of re-negotiating Afrikaans for a multilingual South Africa.

The data was obtained through interviews with four Afrikaans-speaking South Africans who connect with the language both as a mother-tongue speaker and as players in renegotiating its role through empowerment efforts, blogging, and creating positive language policy and programming.

I have concluded that the renegotiation of Afrikaans involves depoliticizing and consciously separating Afrikaans from ideologies …

Collaborative Writing In Wikis: Insights From Culture Projects In Intermediate German Classes, Nike Arnold, Lara Ducate, Claudia Kost

Applied Linguistics Faculty Publications and Presentations

This presentation reports the findings of a study designed to investigate the collaborative writing and revision processes of foreign language learners in a wiki environment. Specifically, it is based on a comparison of two wiki projects in intermediate German classes in which small groups of students used wikis to collaborate on a project based on cultural and historical topics related to a novel. The archived versions of the wiki were analyzed for the amount, type, and quality of revisions. In addition, an end-of-semester survey was administered to assess learner attitudes towards the project and perceptions of the writing process.

External Possession Meets Bare Nouns In Malagasy, Ileana Paul

French Studies Publications

This paper examines apparent noun incorporation in Malagasy that is the result of external possession (possessor raising). It is shown that such incorporation is not derived via head movement or via compounding. Instead, it is argued that this is an instance of pseudo noun incorporation (Massam, 2001): the possessum is merged as an NP sister to the predicate. As for the structure of external possession, a non-movement analysis is proposed: the apparent possessor is generated as the specifier of a null possessive head and binds an empty argument position within the possessum. The resulting structure and meaning are shown to …

Successful Features: Verb Raising And Adverbs In L2 Acquisition Under An Organic Grammar Approach, Anne Marjatta Vainikka

Language Acquisition Work by Anne Vainikka

No abstract provided.

Tradition And Modernity In Scottish Gaelic Language Media, Ann Stewart

Final Reports of EFS student participants

No abstract provided.

Rule And Meaning In The Teaching Of Grammar, Joseph C. M. Davis

Publications and Research

While the construct of rule as a manipulation of purely formal properties of language has been widely abandoned in both formal and functional linguistics, it persists, though with diminished importance, in the field of Second Language Acquisition (SLA). This is true even in Form-Focused Instruction (FFI), including Focus-on-Form (FonF), which emphasizes meaning as both classroom focus and element of language structure. This paper illustrates the meaningfulness of grammar, even where treatment has often appealed to such rules; identifies areas of overlap between what is identified by the term rule and what is identified by the terms meaning (semantics) and form …

The P-Map In Harmonic Serialism, John J. Mccarthy

Linguistics Department Faculty Publication Series

According to the P-Map, a phonological mapping is less faithful to the extent that there is more perceptual distance between its input and output. Although this idea is attractive, it cannot be implemented in the standard parallel version of Optimality Theory. This note explains why and shows how a derivational version of OT, Harmonic Serialism, can solve this problem.

Weighted Constraints In Generative Linguistics, Joe Pater

Linguistics Department Faculty Publication Series

Harmonic Grammar (HG) and Optimality Theory (OT) are closely related formal frameworks for the study of language. In both, the structure of a given language is determined by the relative strengths of a set of constraints. They differ in how these strengths are represented: as numerical weights (HG) or as ranks (OT). Weighted constraints have advantages for the construction of accounts of language learning and other cognitive processes, partly because they allow for the adaptation of connectionist and statistical models. HG has been little studied in generative linguistics, however, largely due to influential claims that weighted constraints make incorrect predictions …

On The Presence Versus Absence Of Determiners In Malagasy, Ileana Paul

French Studies Publications

No abstract provided.