Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Teaching Languages Online: Innovations And Challenges, Mayu Miyamoto, Natsumi Suzuki, Atsushi Fukada, Yuhan Huang, Siyan Hou, Wei Hong

Purdue Linguistics, Literature, and Second Language Studies Conference

Language professionals long resisted teaching online mainly because it was unthinkable to teach speaking in the online environment. Recent advances in technology, however, have made it conceivable. This chapter presents the design and implementation of online courses in Japanese and Chinese recently developed and being offered at Purdue University. We will highlight not only technologies involved, but also pedagogical innovations that helped resolve difficult issues. The efficacy of online teaching will also be touched upon. Reactions from enrolled students and the instructors that have taught the courses will also be shared.

Monolingual Or Bilingual Approach: The Effectiveness Of Teaching Methods In Second Language Classroom, Jung Han, Kyongson Park

Purdue Linguistics, Literature, and Second Language Studies Conference

Previous studies (Slavin & Cheung, 2005; Purkarthofer & Mossakowski, 2011) have argued that bilingual instruction provides an advantage over English-only instruction in second language (SL) learning and English learners in bilingual condition feel more satisfied with the teaching method. However, there is a discrepancy between language policy and practice. This study investigates which method of the two (bilingual vs. monolingual instruction) is more effective and satisfying ELL students. Experimental research focused on the perspectives of future educators was conducted to answer this question. The participants were selected from graduate and undergraduate students who are enrolled in the college of education …

Society, Scientific Authority, And Linguistics: The Need For Epistemic Justification, Libby C. Chernouski

Purdue Linguistics, Literature, and Second Language Studies Conference

Many have considered Linguistics a science for decades, though linguists themselves have debated the accuracy of this characterization of the study of language. These conversations about linguistics as a science reveal a discipline intent on securing scientific status, often through rigorous methodology and theoretical frameworks mirroring the traditional sciences. If successful, however, linguistics inherits the authority of modern science, which maintains an epistemically hierarchical relationship with non-scientists. By examining and representing the epistemic relationships between expertise, authority, and science, I ask us to think of all linguistics not as a socially neutral endeavor, but as perpetuating the juxtaposition of scientific …

Pax Populi: Utilizing Technology And Education As A Means To Achieve Peace, Anand Balar

Engagement & Service-Learning Summit

This project of Pax Populi was presented to the students in the Honors course called Beyond Afghanistan taught by Dr. Brite as an opportunity to do service learning. The goal of Pax Populi as taken from their mission statement is to “put the tools of peacemaking into the hands of ordinary people through initiatives that advance peace through education and economic development within a framework of human rights.”

The tool we used in this case was Skype web conferencing to communicate with an Afghan tutee the students were individually partnered up with to teach English skills to whether they be …

Using Corpus To Facilitate Vocabulary Teaching In The Data-Driven Learning Classroom, Ge Lan

Purdue Linguistics, Literature, and Second Language Studies Conference

The synthesized paper covers the topics of “corpus linguistics” and “language instruction and pedagogies”. I would like to do a presentation to highlight the key points in my paper.

The Design And Research Potential Of Crow In Language Research And Teaching, Jie Gao, Sherri Craig

Purdue Linguistics, Literature, and Second Language Studies Conference

The proposal describes Crow’s developing background, preliminary structure, and research potentials. Possible scenarios and samples will be presented, opening ground for further contributions and suggestions. Crow serves as an example of how interdisciplinary projects could be launched, meanwhile integrating the use of corpus and database in language teaching and research.

Language Ideologies Of Tertiary Teachers In China: A Deeper Look Into English Educational Language Policy In Chinese Universities, Carrie Anne Thomas

Purdue Linguistics, Literature, and Second Language Studies Conference

No abstract provided.

Error Types In Esl Writing In The United Arab Emirates, Hadi Banat

Purdue Linguistics, Literature, and Second Language Studies Conference

This study investigates the error types in second language writers’ papers at an institution in the United Arab Emirates. Morphological, syntactic, lexical, linguistic and semantic problems were highlighted and interpreted through error analysis and by comparing the linguistic systems of L1 and L2.

Passport To Privilege: English For Survival In Pakistan, Sham Haidar

Purdue Linguistics, Literature, and Second Language Studies Conference

This qualitative study focuses on students, teachers, and administrators in different schools, from high to low SES, perceptions about the importance of English in academic, professional, and social life. Most study participants consider English competence a prerequisite for survival in Pakistan due its symbolic power and pragmatic need in life.

Effects Of Online Repetition Practice With Animated Visual Aid On The Acquisition Of Japanese Pitch Accent And Special Moras, Natsumi Suzuki, Mayu Miyamoto

Purdue Linguistics, Literature, and Second Language Studies Conference

This preliminary study examines the effectiveness of online repetition practice using an animated visual aid, "Karaoke Style", in promoting acquisition of Japanese pitch accent and special moras that could be applied to the curriiculum without using any class time.

A Reconceptualization Of Identity In Sla And Writing Research, Zhaozhe Wang

Purdue Linguistics, Literature, and Second Language Studies Conference

In this article, I argue for a reconceptualization of identity in SLA and writing studies that would problematize and complicate the current notion of identity as a property with or without clearly-defined boundaries and that views the construction and negotiation of identity as unidirectional.

Tonal Alignment And Segmental Timing In English-Speaking Children, Afua Blay

Purdue Linguistic Association Symposium

Tonal alignment has been shown to be sensitive to segmental timing. This suggests that development of the former may be influenced by the latter. The developmental literature reports that English-speaking children do not attain adult-like competence in segmental timing until after age 6. While this suggests that the ability for alignment may be mastered after this age, this possibility is speculative due to paucity of data. Accordingly, the present study sought to determine whether 7- and 8-year old English-speaking children exhibit adult-like alignment and segmental timing in their speech. Seven children (ages 7 and 8) and 10 adults (ages 19 …

Dialect Influence On California Chicano English, Laura Kompara

Purdue Linguistic Association Symposium

Chicano English is a distinct U.S. English dialect common in California and the Southwestern United States. As Spanish immigrants from Mexico moved to the United States, especially throughout the 1990s, they learned English but carried some of the sounds and grammatical constructions from Spanish with them. Chicano English has become its own variety of English with organized linguistic patterns and must not be confused with English of second-language learners. This paper offers an accessible background piece to Chicano English in California and the ways that this dialect is changing due to contact with the surrounding dialects. The linguistic patterns of …

The Interaction Of Palatal Coarticulation And Palatal Harmony In Kazan Tatar, Jenna Conklin

Purdue Linguistic Association Symposium

Vowel harmony and vowel-to-vowel coarticulation are long-distance assimilatory processes wherein certain vowels trigger systematic changes in adjacent vowels; harmony effects phonological change, resulting in phonemic alternation, while coarticulation effects phonetic change. This study examines the coarticulatory processes present in disharmonic words in Kazan Tatar, a language with left-to-right palatal harmony. While right-to-left palatal coarticulation is found to be widespread, left- to-right palatal coarticulation is virtually nonexistent in Tatar. It is hypothesized that gradient and categorical processes sharing the same triggers, targets, target feature, and direction cannot coexist; the diachronic implication for Tatar is that, once coarticulation was phonologized into harmony …

Uses Of Someone: Beyond Simple Person Reference, Yu-Han Lin

Purdue Linguistic Association Symposium

This study looks at how the non-recognitional reference form “someone” is used to refer to a known referent when a recognitional, such as a first name or a descriptive recognitional (Stiver, 2007), is available (Sacks & Schegloff, 1979). In a conversation, when participants have shared knowledge about who a referent is, the occurrence of “someone” connotes more than a simple reference to the referent. While there is little previous research concerning the use of a non-recognitional to complete particular social actions, in this study, I show how “someone” can be employed to accomplish disaffiliative actions such as complaints, accusations and …

The Role Of Antonymy On Semantic Change, Ashley M. Kentner

Purdue Linguistic Association Symposium

The role of antonymy in semantic change is investigated via the etymology of sets of English antonyms. The results show a developmental pattern wherein two words sharing an antonym tend to exhibit similar trajectories of semantic development. Metaphorical extension is proposed as the primary mechanism that produces this regularity with antonymy playing a secondary role. These results further support semantic change as regular, even in contexts not involving grammaticalization, and that furthermore, metaphor is not peripheral to language use. (See Lakoff & Johnson, 1980; Traugott & Dasher, 2002; Hopper & Traugott, 2003.) There are also implications for formal and cognitive …

A Unified Analysis Of Classifiers And Reduplication Across Nominal And Verbal Domains, Charles Lam

Purdue Linguistic Association Symposium

This paper discusses the use of classifiers and reduplication in Cantonese. I propose a unified account for the syntax-semantics of both nouns and verbs, based on two functional layers: individuation and quantification. I demonstrate an abstract semantics that handles the interaction between classifiers and reduplication without reference to syntactic categories. Quantification (reduplication) and individuation (classifiers) can be treated as general semantic functions that subsume category-specific functions. The analysis also separates quantification from individuation to provide a natural explanation of durative readings of reduplicated unbounded events.

The (Statistical) Power Of Mechanical Turk, Amelia Kimball

Purdue Linguistic Association Symposium

In this paper, I argue for the use of Amazon Mechanical Turk (AMT) in language research. AMT is an online marketplace of paid workers who may be used as subjects, which can greatly increase the statistical power of studies quickly and with minimal funding. I will show that—despite some obvious limitations of using distant subjects—properly designed experiments completed on AMT are trustworthy, cheap, and much faster than traditional face-to-face data collection. Not only this, but AMT workers may help with data analysis, which can greatly increase the scope of research that one researcher may carry out. This paper will first …

The Role Of The Input In Young Children’S Speech Production Is Modulated By Syllable Position, Yuanyuan Wang

Purdue Linguistic Association Symposium

The aim of the current study is to investigate the role of the input on an English-speaking child’s production of fricatives in onset and coda positions. Transcript data from a child-mother dyad from Providence Corpus (Demuth, Culbertson & Alter 2006) in CHILDES database (MacWhinney 2000) was examined. The child and the adult production frequency of fricatives in both onset and coda positions were calculated. The results suggested the role of the input in child’s production was modulated by syllable position; more specifically, the child’s production of fricatives was predicted by the mother’s input frequency better in coda position than in …

Proceedings Of The 9th Pla Symposium, Charles Bradley, Charles Lam, Mengxi Lin

Purdue Linguistic Association Symposium

This is the combined conference proceedings of the 9th annual Purdue Linguistics Association (PLA) Symposium.