Modern Languages Commons^™

South Germany: Integrating German Speakers Into Latin American Societies, Logan Bellos

Undergraduate Research Competition

Argentina and Chile have always been known to be predominantly Spanish speaking countries. However, following the conclusions of both World Wars, an interesting trend in immigration has led to both countries developing a surprisingly large German population. The majority of German immigrants consisted of three groups: ethnic Germans escaping the economic hardships of the First World War, German Jews pre- World War Two, and Nazi Sympathizers fleeing the country post World War Two. While some groups of Germans have successfully assimilated into the hispanic cultures of both Argentina and Chile respectively, other groups of Germans have developed outlying colonies, distancing …

France Through The Eyes Of African Migrants In Contemporary France, Destanee Timmons

Undergraduate Research Competition

The impacts of French colonization can be felt worldwide. In the continent of Africa, numerous nations have had their native livelihoods turned on its head during and after the second French colonial empire. During France’s regime over several African nations, France has morphed the traditions of the native’s people and forever left its mark on the continent. Years after their independence, many African nations such as Algeria, Senegal, and Morocco are still affected by the changes implemented during the colonial era. These changes such as suppressing local culture in favor of French ideals resulted in internal turmoil and rampant corruption …

The Impact Of Prc Language Policies On Minority Languages Of China, Margaret Shoop

Undergraduate Research Competition

While language is often used as a tool to bring people together and celebrate differences, language can also be weaponized and used to suppress minority groups of people. There are over three hundred unique languages and dialects spoken in Mainland China, with Mandarin Chinese being the most widely spoken of the languages. Mandarin is the official state language of the People’s Republic of China (PRC), and it is also the primary language taught in schools across the country. Despite official Chinese policy of teaching Mandarin Chinese alongside local dialects, Mandarin is favored over minority languages. The unequal emphasis on Mandarin …

Representación De Mujeres En El Cine Español: Icíar Bollaín Y Pedro Almodóvar, Jennyfer Sanchez Toribio

World Languages and Cultures Senior Capstones

This paper examines the representation of women in Spanish film, particularly the films Flores de otro mundo (1999) directed by Icíar Bollaín and Volver (2006) by Pedro Almodóvar. Both directors choose to protagonize women as strong individuals capable of being independent and having the ability to move forward in life without the help of a man. Many of the scenes in these films contradict the patriarchal systems set in place to maintain the inferiority of women. Both films also refute societal gender roles and challenge the ideas of machismo, and as a result positively represent women and their capabilities.

Clic Newsletter - Spring 2023, Jesus Bautista, Ramiro Garcia, Kevin Zhou

CLIC Newsletter

Page 0: New Logo

Page 1: An Interview with International Professor Dr. Anqi Xu

Page 3: Balancing Social Media Addiction

Page 4: Event Throwback: Spring Day Gala

Page 5: An Interview with the First Student Graduating in Chinese Language, Culture, and Business (LCB) Major

Page 8: Event Throwback: Study Abroad in Italy

Page 9: Interview with Students who Studied Abroad

Page 11: Restaurant Recommendations

Page 15: French Programming: Celebrating Francophone at Bentley!

Page 16: Event Throwback: Mardi Gras

Page 17: Music and Social Media

Page 18: French Student Poster

Page 19: Women’s History Month

Page 23: A Conversation with Former …

L’Alphabet De Lyon De Bruno Benoit Traducido Al Español, Rosslyn M. Lyell

World Languages and Cultures

This is a translation of the novel L'Alphabet de Lyon by Bruno Benoit. It goes into the rich history and culture of Lyon, France.

Exploring The Lexical Profile Of Advanced L2 Writers: Longitudinal Data From The Russian Overseas Flagship Program, William J. Comer

World Languages and Literatures Faculty Publications and Presentations

This study explores the lexical profile of essays written by 48 advanced learners of second language (L2) Russian who participated in the Russian Overseas Flagship, an intensive year-long study abroad program, designed to help students reach Interagency Language Roundtable (ILR) Level 3 proficiency in all skills. Using the lexical frequency profile (LFP) and P–Lex as measures of vocabulary sophistication, the study found that over the 9 months of the program, students significantly increased their usage of words from the lowest frequency bands. This adds to the findings of Hacking and Tschirner (2017) that knowledge of lexical items at the 3,000–5,000 …

Talking To The Earth: A Digital Documentation Of Biodiversity In The Sherpa Language, Dvij Sharma

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Identified as a pressing matter by organizations as prominent as the UN, the conservation of minority and indigenous languages “is essential for ensuring the continuation and transmission of culture, customs, and history, but it is also important to address biodiversity loss and climate change.” This project focuses on one of the latter issues, biodiversity loss, as it relates to Sherpa, a minority language spoken primarily in Eastern Nepal. In an effort to help preserve the native vocabulary and descriptions of basic plants and animals found in Sherpa-speaking regions, primarily interview-based fieldwork was conducted in the lower Solu regions of Lumsa, …

El Retén Fronterizo: Un Foto Ensayo / The Border Checkpoint: A Photo Essay, José Luis Cano

Writing and Language Studies Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The Role Classifiers Play In Selecting The Referent Of A Word, Weiyi Ma, Peng Zhou, Roberta Michnick Golinkoff

General Human Environmental Sciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

An important cue to the meaning of a new noun is its accompanying classifier. For example, in English, X in “a sheet of X” should refer to a broad, flat object. A classifier is required in Chinese to quantify nouns. Using children’s overt responses in an object/picture selection task, past research found reliable semantic knowledge of classifiers in Mandarin-reared children at around age three. However, it is unclear how children’s semantic knowledge differs across different types of classifiers and how this difference develops with age. Here we use an arguably more sensitive measure of children’s language knowledge (the intermodal preferential-looking …

El Mejor Método De Lectoescritura Para Ayuda Adicional En Las Aulas, Yanileth C. Vauclin

World Languages and Cultures

Literacy is important for the student to develop the skills that allow them to see beyond the pronunciation of words and their meaning. The purpose of this project is to demonstrate a better method of teaching literacy to teachers. That way students can improve, learn to speak, read, and write the Spanish language effectively in a simple way.

Additionally, the text explores through the diagnostic evaluation called Basic Phonetic Service in Spanish - Registration, offered by the Santa Maria School District. I evaluated two classrooms with a total of 20 students and determined which groups have been effective in deciding …

Luchas Contra La Matriz Colonial Del Poder: La Liminalidad Del Inmigrante En Axolotl De Julio Cortázar Y Everything, Everywhere All At Once De Daniel Kwan Y Daniel Scheinert., Daniela Hernandez

World Languages and Cultures Senior Capstones

Throughout this essay, immigrant liminality and its connection to Anibal Quijano’s colonial matrix of power is highlighted. Literature and film, such as "Axolotl" and "Everything Everywhere All at Once," illustrate the impact of colonialism on immigrant liminality. Decolonization, anti-colonial thought and culture, can empower marginalized communities by recognizing the ongoing impacts of colonialism. Such representations acknowledge the state of limbo immigrants face, which is disconnected from the mainstream representation of the immigrant experience and the American Dream. By exploring liminality, these representations can help dismantle the colonial matrix of power that shapes how immigrants are perceived in the Western world.

Ideologías Y Políticas De Perpetua Ilegitimidad: El Caso De La Enseñanza De Lenguas En México, David Martinez-Prieto

Bilingual and Literacy Studies Faculty Publications

Based on data collected in central and southern Mexico, this article examines ideologies embedded in the language learning policies of this country. By qualitatively analyzing 72 interviews to 24 participants, field notes, and the author’s reflective journal, this research investigates the impact of language policies amongst teachers from three different states: Puebla (2017, 2019, 2021), Oaxaca (2018), and Tlaxcala (2020-2021). After comparing the situations of participants, I suggest that nativist, (neo)colonial and neoliberal ideologies—which are prevalent in language policies in Mexico—foster the perpetual delegitimization of language teachers.

Comentarios Críticos Escritos Por Estudiantes De Medicina Sobre La Evaluación Del Paciente, David Sánchez-Jiménez

Publications and Research

La presente investigación analiza los comentarios críticos producidos por estudiantes chilenos de 3º y 4º de Medicina en la sección Comentario/Reflexión final de la Ficha Clínica con el objetivo de conocer su opinión sobre la experiencia de su estancia hospitalaria y la práctica médica en general, así como de entender los elementos retórico-discursivos que utilizan para posicionar su voz en el texto al evaluar dicha experiencia. Para investigar este fenómeno se realizó un análisis textual computarizado de las categorías gramaticales y los contenidos semántico-funcionales valorativos desde un enfoque cualitativo inductivo-deductivo. Los resultados del estudio mostraron un predominio de los comentarios …

(Im-)Plausible Classroom Communities: World Language Learners‘ Perceived Accuracy Of Stereotypical Attributions To Teachers Of German, Lucian Rothe

Faculty and Staff Scholarship

Grounded in self-based and community-oriented concepts of motivation research into learning world languages, this study investigated stereotypes about native-speaker and non-native speaker teachers of German that 110 novice learners of French, German, Russian, and Spanish had encountered. It furthermore analyzed how participants rated the accuracy of the described stereotypes. With the goal to explore whether stereotypical attributions to teachers of German speak to Chavez’s (2021) concept of the plausible foreign-language self, the study examined how clichés about instructors and their perceived accuracy differ between learners and non-learners of German. Statistical analyses showed students’ awareness of stereotypes about teachers of another …

Type Of Glossing Affects Cognitive Load And Retrieval Of Meaning During L2 Reading, Camilo Andrés Bonilla Carvajal

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The use of translation in language teaching has been a source of controversial debate, nevertheless, glossing—and, specifically, interlinear glossing—remains an understudied type of materials, despite having been used by learners and teachers of foreign languages since at least 1000 C.E. (Bata, Gwara & Porter, 1997). In the absence of a comprehensive literature review tracing the history of interlinear glossing, as well as the absence of enough empirical studies addressing the effect of glossing on cognitive effort in language learning, the present work aims at exploring the role of first language glossing in facilitating reading by describing the results of an …

“Investment In Inertia”: Language Ideologies Of Instructors And Students Of Spanish As A Heritage Language, Michael E. Rolland

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

When the Spanish-language skills of heritage Spanish learners are disparaged in an academic environment, these learners are at high risk of abandoning further study of Spanish and shifting entirely to English. This dissertation uses mixed qualitative and quantitative research methods, including thematic and discourse analysis, to investigate the language ideologies of instructors and students of Spanish as a heritage language (SHL) and the effects of those ideologies on students’ experiences in SHL college courses. It builds on earlier research on language ideologies in the post-secondary heritage language context (e.g., Carreira, 2011; Loza, 2017; Valdés et al., 2003). I find that …

Perceptual Sensitivity To Stress In Native English Speakers Learning Spanish As A Second Language, Ramsés Ortín, Miquel Simonet

Writing and Language Studies Faculty Publications

Second language (L2) learners of Spanish whose first language (L1) is English tend to find Spanish lexical stress patterns difficult to acquire. This study investigates whether such difficulty derives, at least in part, from an obstacle encountered during perceptual processing: reduced perceptual sensitivity to stress distinctions. Participants were adult L1 English L2 Spanish learners of various proficiency levels. The experiment was a categorical matching task with triads of auditory stimuli minimally contrasting in stress (target) or segmental composition (baseline), an ABX task. The results show that learners were more accurate in the baseline condition than in the target condition, suggesting …

La Liberté Face À L’Absurde : Comment Exister Dans Le Monde Moderne, Braiden Ellis

World Languages and Cultures Senior Capstones

French existentialist literature was born in response to the horrors of World War II. The two most prominent representatives of French existentialism were Jean-Paul Sartre and Albert Camus. Both writers were once friends, but their differing approaches to existentialism drove them apart. Camus believed that people should appreciate the life they have, rather than focus on the meaninglessness of a world without God. Sartre believed that people should take agency for their own lives to achieve a state of higher consciousness called “pour-soi.” Sartre’s ideas of self-agency were sometimes problematic, however, in that they ascribed inferiority to selected groups and …

La Représentation Des Personnages Féminins De Colette Avant Et Après La Première Guerre Mondiale, Payton Thompson

World Languages and Cultures Senior Capstones

At the time that the French novelist Colette was writing, there was a clear hierarchy between the genders that limited the representation of women in literature. In examining the main female characters within two of Colette’s novels, Chéri (1920) and La fin de Chéri (1926), we see that the characters Léa and Edmée disrupt this hierarchy. Specifically, they disturb the patriarchal structures of the time through their representation of the feminist ideas of autonomy in the aspect of freedom of choice, sexual liberation, the inversion of gender roles, and the creation of an individual identity. Since these novels take place …