Applied Linguistics Commons^™

Changing Language, Remaining Pygmy, Serge Bahuchet

Human Biology Open Access Pre-Prints

In this article I am illustrating the linguistic diversity of African Pygmy populations in order to better address their anthropological diversity and history. I am also introducing a new method, based on the analysis of specialized vocabulary, to reconstruct the substratum of some languages they speak. I show that Pygmy identity is not based on their languages, which have often been borrowed from neighboring non-Pygmy farmer communities with whom each Pygmy group is linked. Understanding the nature of this partnership, quite variable in history, is essential to address Pygmy languages, identity and history. Finally, I show that only a multidisciplinary …

Observing Census Enumeration Of Non-English Speaking Households In The 2010 Census: Spanish Report, Christina Isabelli, Yuling Pan, Lubkemann Stephen

Scholarship

This study was part of an ethnographic research project in the 2010 Census Assessment and Research Program to observe the 2010 Census Nonresponse Followup interviews with households that speak a language other than English, in areas of the U.S. with heavy concentrations of residents with limited English proficiency. A multilingual research team consisting of seven sub-teams in the seven primary languages (Arabic, Chinese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, and Vietnamese) was commissioned to carry out the research in the 2010 Census.

The objectives of this research were to identify: (1) how language and socio-cultural factors affect the enumeration of non-English-speaking populations …

Acquisition Of The Non-Generic Definite Article By Spanish Learners Of English As A Foreign Language, Christina Isabelli, Rachel Slough

Scholarship

This study explains the acquisition of the non-generic uses of the English definite article the by L2 learners. Chilean university students completed a questionnaire containing deleted obligatory uses of the. in all, four identified categories showed to have different accuracy rates. Of the four categories, the one most similar to the L1 was the least difficult to acquire while the most different resulted as the most difficult. This concurs with other research and can be explained by L1 rules that are transferred to the L2. The other two categories did not show the same acquisition rate as compared to previous …

Being Physically Active: Perceptions Of Recent Mexican Immigrant Women On The Arizona-Mexico Border, Donna Hartweg, Christina Isabelli, Marylyn Mcewen, Rosie Piper

Scholarship

Mexican immigrant women report being physically active prior to arrival in the United States. However, with increased years of U.S. residency, this positive lifestyle behavior diminishes, increasing their risk of obesity and chronic disease. A qualitative descriptive design was used to elicit recent Mexican immigrant women’s perceptions of “being physically active” and to describe how living in the United States has influenced their perceptions of being physically active. Three themes were inductively generated: (a) purposeful exercising, (b) being active, and (c) being active with purposeful exercising. Overall, being physically active was described within the context of daily living well below …

Rc-Maps: Bridging The Comprehension Gap In Eap Reading, Angela Meyer Sterzik, Carol Fraser

Faculty & Staff Publications - ELI

In academic environments, reading is assigned not simply to transmit information; students are required to take the information, and based on the task set by the instructor, assess, analyze, and critique it on the basis of personal experiences, prior knowledge, and other readings (Grabe, 2009). Thus text-based comprehension (Kintsch, 1998) alone is not sufficient for academic success. Top-down processing is also required; this involves applying prior knowledge to define purpose(s), to make and verify hypotheses, and to infer and question content (Macaro & Erler, 2008; Urquhart & Weir, 1991). Although research has given teachers direction regarding the approach to use …

Deaf Education Policy As Language Policy: A Comparative Analysis Of Sweden And The United States, Sarah Compton

Sarah Compton

The present study offers a cross-national, comparative analysis of Swedish and US deaf education policies to examine the ways in which status planning and acquisition planning for sign languages are taken up. Major policy documents were selected from each polity, reflecting key national legislative policies as well as the primary texts that guide educational implementation: for Sweden, the Ordinance for Special Schools, the Education Act, and the national syllabi for special schools; for the United States, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act and Title 34 of the Code of Federal Regulations. Analysis of these texts shows that such planning tends …

Enhancing The Content Of Introductory Courses: A Literacy-Based Approach, Kate Paesani, Beth Chapman, Catherine Savino

Kate Paesani

Presenters provide a model for integrating textual content and developing foreign language literacy in introductory courses, grounded in the multiliteracies framework. After outlining the framework, presenters discuss its implementation in a second-semester course, provide sample instructional materials, and consider additional applications of the model and directions for future curricular reform.

Classroom Discourse In Foreign Language Classrooms: A Review Of The Literature, Joshua J. Thoms

Joshua J. Thoms

This article reviews studies that have investigated discourse in foreign language (FL) classroom contexts from the perspective of sociocultural theory. Sociocultural theory maintains that language learning and development in a classroom context are intimately tied to the discursive practices by which and through which learners interact with each other and their teacher. Furthermore, the research has shown that teachers play an important role in that the specific types of patterns created in their interactions with students are a fundamental source of learners’ competence in the FL. This review raises additional questions that remain to be addressed in future research that …

Mani: Buk 3, George Tucker Childs, Meghan Oswalt, Dan Oswalt, Hannah Sarvasy

Mani, a Disappearing Language of Sierra Leone and Guinea

Book 3 in a series of 4 primers for the Mani language, created by G. Tucker Childs. Based on fieldwork in the coastal Samou region of Guinea (Conakry) and Sierra Leone, beginning in 2000.

Illustrated by Hannah Sarvasy, with contributions from Meghan Oswalt and Dan Oswalt.

Mani: Buk 4, George Tucker Childs, Meghan Oswalt, Dan Oswalt, Hannah Sarvasy

Mani, a Disappearing Language of Sierra Leone and Guinea

Book 4 in a series of 4 primers for the Mani language, created by G. Tucker Childs. Based on fieldwork in the coastal Samou region of Guinea (Conakry) and Sierra Leone, beginning in 2000.

Illustrated by Hannah Sarvasy, with contributions from Meghan Oswalt and Dan Oswalt.

Kasabi Cε Ŋɔ Amani Acε (Mani History), George Tucker Childs, Morlay Boyo Keita, Foday Jd Camara

Mani, a Disappearing Language of Sierra Leone and Guinea

This account of Mani history, as spoken by Morlay Boyo Keita and Foday JD Camara, was recorded in Palatougou in 2005 as part of the Mani Documentation Project (MDP), Dr. G. Tucker Childs P.I.

Mani: Buk 1, George Tucker Childs, Meghan Oswalt, Dan Oswalt, Hannah Sarvasy

Mani, a Disappearing Language of Sierra Leone and Guinea

Book 1 in a series of 4 primers for the Mani language, created by G. Tucker Childs. Based on fieldwork in the coastal Samou region of Guinea (Conakry) and Sierra Leone, beginning in 2000.

Illustrated by Hannah Sarvasy, with contributions from Meghan Oswalt and Dan Oswalt.

Mani: Buk 2, George Tucker Childs, Meghan Oswalt, Dan Oswalt, Hannah Sarvasy

Mani, a Disappearing Language of Sierra Leone and Guinea

Book 2 in a series of 4 primers for the Mani language, created by G. Tucker Childs. Based on fieldwork in the coastal Samou region of Guinea (Conakry) and Sierra Leone, beginning in 2000.

Illustrated by Hannah Sarvasy, with contributions from Meghan Oswalt and Dan Oswalt.

Narrativity And Involvement In Online Consumer Reviews: The Case Of Tripadvisor, Camilla Vasquez

World Languages Faculty Publications

Drawing on recent work on digital narratives of personal experience in online genres such as email, social networking sites, and blogs, the present study explores narrative features in 100 online consumer reviews of hotels. Focusing on negative reviews, or “Rants,” from popular consumer travel platform, TripAdvisor, the article examines both canonical and genre-specific structural features of narratives, as well as some of the discursive resources used by online narrators to engage their audiences, and to draw them into their stories. Specifically, the study explores the use of story prefaces and related forms of second person address, represented speech and mental …

Fundaments Of Morfo-Syntactical Ergativity (Fundamentos De Ergatividad Morfológico-Sintáctica), Eva Núñez-Méndez

World Languages and Literatures Faculty Publications and Presentations

The main goal of this research paper is to clarify the concept of ergativity, which has been used as a modern term in recent grammar studies, from a morpholo gicalsyntactical approach. This term, nonexistent in the traditional linguistic studies on romance languages, has been newly applied to values of transitivity where the participant roles in the action may or may not have the agent function. latin and his daughter-languages have a syntactical accusative profile where the subject of the action is also the agent, different in form from the direct object. in latin, the correspondence subject-agent is marked morphologically in …

El Uso De Las Funciones De Las Citas En La Estructura Retórica De Las Introducciones De Memorias De Máster Escritas En Español Por Estudiantes Nativos Españoles Y No Nativos Filipinos, David Sánchez-Jiménez

Publications and Research

This article analyzes the correlation between the use of functions of citations and the organizational structure of the Introduction section of a corpus of sixteen (16) master´s theses written in Spanish in the field of Applied Linguistics by native and non-native writers. The quantitative and qualitative analysis in this study arises from the model proposed by Carbonell- Olivares et al. (2009) which aims to define the organization of the Introduction section of the doctoral thesis in Spanish and the classification of the functions of citations made by Sánchez Jiménez (2011). The research results show that there is a direct relationship …

Key Concepts For Theorizing Spanish As A Heritage Language, Andrew Lynch

Andrew Lynch

In this chapter, I provide a selective, critical overview of the principal theoretical concepts that have served to frame studies of Spanish as a heritage language in the United States since the 1970s. Among the concepts I consider are: diglossia, standard language, proficiency, register, agency, and generation.

Dialect-Neutral Indices Of Narrative Cohesion And Evaluation, Frances Burns, Peter A. De Villiers, Barbara Zurer Pearson, Tempii Champion

Barbara Zurer Pearson

Purpose: This study compares the development of essential elements of narrative skill in children from African American English (AAE)- and general American English (GAE)-speaking communities using an innovative elicitation and evaluation paradigm. The measures include: 1) reference contrasting, 2) temporal expressions, 3) mental state descriptions, and 4) understanding of behavior based on false belief. Method: Participants were 291 AAE speakers and 238 GAE speakers, 4 to 9 years of age. Approximately one-third of both dialect groups were identified as language impaired. Children generated two stories based on short picture sequences. Their stories were coded for the four key indices of …

Beyond The Language-Content Divide: A Review Of Research On Advanced Foreign Language Teaching And Learning, Kate Paesani, Heather W. Allen

Heather Willis Allen

The purpose of this review is to provide an overview of research into advanced-level FL teaching and learning in collegiate contexts with a particular focus on the merging of language and literary-cultural content. The overarching question that frames the review is: What is the relationship between language, literature, and culture and how are they instantiated through FL curricula and instruction at the advanced level? As such, we address language and literary-cultural content in advanced FL teaching and learning from the perspective of three trends evidenced in published research. First, we explore how literature and culture are conceptualized and what their …

Appropriating Conceptual And Pedagogical Tools Of Literacy: A Qualitative Study Of Two Novice Foreign Language Teaching Assistants, Beatrice Dupuy, Heather W. Allen

Heather Willis Allen

Guided by a sociocultural theory perspective, this qualitative study explores how conceptual understanding and teaching practices related to literacy evolved for two novice TAs of Spanish during and after an “Introduction to FL Teaching” seminar. In particular, this study sought to answer the following questions: 1. In what ways were participants’ everyday concepts of language learning and teaching evidenced in their reactions to literacy-based FL pedagogy and its application in their local context? 2. What were the conceptual learning outcomes of participation in a one-semester seminar on literacy-oriented FL pedagogy? 3. According to participants, which activities and tools from the …