Digital Commons Network^™

A Review Of Internet Resources Related To Spoken Language Intervention For Spanish-Speaking Parents Of Children Who Are Deaf Or Hard Of Hearing, Karen F. Munoz, Lauri H. Nelson Phd, Brittan Barker

Journal of Early Hearing Detection and Intervention

Objective: The purpose of this study was to identify website information related to hearing loss, hearing technology, and spoken language development available to Spanish-speaking parents of children who are deaf or hard of hearing (DHH).

Design: An exploratory, descriptive design was used to determine the presence or absence of parent education information on a variety of websites.

Study Sample: The study explored Internet resources provided by national, state, and parent support organizations in the United States.

Results: A total of 53 organization websites were identified that had information for parents of DHH children learning spoken language, eight of which were …

Interview With Sergio Peña, Multicultural And Multilingual Interpreter And Educator, Marla Robles, Debra Russell

International Journal of Interpreter Education

Sergio Peña is a certified interpreter in ASL, English, Spanish, and Mexican Sign Language (LSM). He is the co-author of Lo que hace a un interprete ser interprete. Técnicas y herramientas para los intérpretes de lenguas señadas y español [What makes an interpreter be an interpreter: Techniques and tools for interpreters working with signed language and Spanish]. Claire Ramsey and he also co-authored “Sign Language Interpreting at the Border of the Two Californias,” which was included in Interpreting in Multilingual, Multicultural Contexts.” (Locker McKee & Davis, 2010). He holds a bachelor’s degree in liberal studies from San Diego State …

The Effects Of Bilingualism On Language Development Of Children, Kelly Wallner

Communication Sciences and Disorders: Student Scholarship & Creative Works

This essay examines the effects of bilingualism on the language development of children by analyzing the development of literacy skills in children learning a second language, and the models and benefits of bilingualism. This essay also observes factors influencing variability in second language acquisition among children.

Doubling Grammars: Mandarin-English And Spanish-English Bilingual Children And The So-Called Auxiliary Inversion Conundrum, Jennifer Hwang, Erin Mcconkey

The Journal of Purdue Undergraduate Research

In an increasingly multicultural society, understanding the process of multilingual acquisition is essential to building positive language ideologies. The overall linguistic goal of this study is to model how the natural acquisition of language(s) leads to the creation of multiple mental Grammars in multilingual children. In particular, we want to look at how the first language (L1) affects the subsequent acquisition of English within the natural acquisition window (open until adolescence). Park’s (2011) Person Feature Auxiliary Movement (PFAM) Hypothesis claims that non-target productions of Auxiliary Inversion in questions for Korean-English bilingual children are the result of the ongoing stage-driven acquisition …

Native Language Adaptation To Novel Verb Argument Structures By Spanish-English Bilinguals: An Electrophysiological Investigation, Eve Higby

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Bilinguals have to learn two different grammatical systems. Some aspects of these grammars may be similar across the two languages (for example, the active-passive alternation) while others may exist in only one of the two grammars (for example, the distinction between recent and distant past). This dissertation investigates the degree to which grammar information specific to only one language is available when processing the other language. In particular, the current study focuses on the application of grammatical structures from the bilinguals’ second-learned language to their first-learned language, a direction of language transfer not often investigated. Based on a Shared Syntax …

Costa Rica’S Big Strides In Gender Equality Come With Some Controversy, George Rodrã­Guez

NotiCen

No abstract provided.

The Acquisition Of Bare Nominals By Three Populations Of Spanish-English Bilingual Adults, Lauren Elizabeth Miller

Open Access Dissertations

The present study contributes to our understanding of cross-linguistic influence by studying three different groups of Spanish-English speakers’ knowledge of the distribution of definite articles in both of their languages using a battery of tests that require them to draw on different linguistic abilities. These three groups include native English speakers who learned Spanish after adolescence, native Spanish speakers who learned English after adolescence and simultaneous bilinguals who grew up in the United States speaking both English and Spanish from birth. Specifically, this study explores interpretation, production and intuition regarding the acceptability of definite articles in different contexts. Since the …

Ideology, Access, And Status: Spanish-English Bilinguals In The Foreign-Language Classroom, Michael E. Rolland

Graduate Student Publications and Research

Spanish language teaching in US higher education is today generally divided between ‘foreign language’ courses for novice learners and ‘heritage language’ courses for Hispanic/Latinx students with some knowledge of the language. However, ‘heritage’ students are a linguistically diverse group, and are also often enrolled at institutions where heritage courses are not offered. Little research to date has studied ‘heritage’ speakers enrolled in ‘foreign’ language courses. For this study I conducted semi-structured interviews to explore the affective and ideological characteristics of bilingual students enrolled in elementary Spanish courses. As the literature suggests, I find that these students have a generally low …

The Bronx Cocked Back And Smoking Multifarious Prose Performance, Alex Avila

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

The Bronx Cocked Back And Smoking is a collection of multifarious prose performances recounting the historical, personal, social, political and cultural constructs of a city birthed by violence. This body of work is accompanied by video, audio, photography, and theatre performance texts. St. Mary’s Housing project, in the Bronx, is the foundation where most of this literary work takes place. The modern day Griot (storyteller) is a Poet, guiding his audience through the social inequalities and disparities that plague St. Mary’s community. The Poet shares personal traumatic insights while simultaneously utilizing writing as a form of survival to the conditions …

Psychometrically Equivalent Bisyllabic Word Lists For Spanish Pediatric Word Recognition Testing, Brenda Karina Peterson

Theses and Dissertations

While recorded speech audiometry materials have been developed in Spanish for adults, currently there are no speech audiometry materials available in Spanish that are suitable for a pediatric population. Thus, the purposes of this study were (a) to analyze Spanish bisyllabic words previously developed for adults to determine the words' appropriateness when testing word recognition scores in native Spanish-speaking children and (b) to compare the logistic regressions results from the Spanish adult data obtained in a previous study with the logistic regressions from Spanish pediatric data obtained in the present study. Using common-use children's dictionaries in the Spanish language, a …

Effect Of Proficiency Level On The Neural Responses Of Students Learning Spanish As A Second Language, Haley West

Celebration of Learning

This study examines the effect of Second Language proficiency on the hemispheres of the brain. This will tell us if and how the brain processes a second language differently. Comparisons explore English versus Spanish listening tasks, and right versus left hemisphere activation in students with varying proficiencies in the Spanish program at Augustana. This is one of the first experiments to use the new in-house electroencephalography (EEG) technology in the Augustana neuroscience program.

Examination Of The Effects Of Language And Cultural Barriers On Spanish-Speaking Patients In Health Settings As Observed By Medical Spanish Interpreters, Sarah J. Kraska

Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019

This study aimed to investigate how the Spanish language and culture affects treatment, access to healthcare and perceptions of medical visits within the Hispanic population. This was examined through the viewpoint of medical Spanish interpreters in the Harrisonburg community. Quantitative data served to provide descriptive statistics regarding these interpreters, while qualitative data was used to gather data about themes and subthemes that were developed regarding this topic. Language was found to not be a significant barrier, but culture did have a significant affect. It was found that these barriers affected access to care because of lack of information, education levels …

American Sign Language As A Foreign Language Equivalent At James Madison University, Abigail E. Compton

Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019

ASL is increasingly gaining acknowledgment as a foreign language in the university setting. At James Madison University, sign language classes have traditionally been housed within the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders. This research makes a case for considering ASL as an equivalent to courses in the Department of Foreign Languages, Literatures, and Cultures and argues that ASL meets the university standards for the study of a foreign language with regard to fulfilling Bachelor of Arts requirements.

Considering the linguistic history of ASL and the language’s accompanying culture, we will demonstrate the standards for teaching ASL are identical to the …

A Linguistic Comparison: Stress-Timed And Syllable-Timed Languages And Their Impact On Second Language Acquisition, Madeline M. Conlen

Honors College Theses

Acquisition of a second language can be a challenging task because no two languages are alike in their structure, syllabification, pronunciation, rhythm, etc. Also, after speaking one language for any amount of time, the speaker becomes accustomed to the specific qualities of that language; therefore, learning to speak another language takes extra effort because it is essentially rewiring the brain to think differently in many ways. One important element of language is prosody, or the patterns of stress and intonation in language (Dilley et al 237). The subsector of prosody that is to be studied is rhythm, explicitly isochrony and …

Global-To-Local-To-Global: A Model For Tutoring Esl Students In The Writing Center, David Aguilar

Theses and Dissertations

Since its inception, the writing center has always focused on traditional students, and today that tradition is continued in such a way that the overwhelming amount of research dedicated to writing center theory and practice addresses the concerns of those students. However, universities with unique student populations, such as the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley with its majority of Hispanic students, require novel practices within their writing centers. Moreover, much of the linguistic, social, and cultural factors of the region are not well documented and therefore are not addressed by the mainstream theory and practices of other universities. With …

Alzamiento De Vocales Medias En El Español Como L2 De Brasileños En El Sur De Texas, Estela Hernandez

Theses and Dissertations

En este trabajo examinaré el alzamiento de vocales en el español como L2 de brasileños en el sur de Texas. Analizaré este fenómeno desde un punto sociolingüístico variacionista. Propongo que el alzamiento de vocales medias en posición átona entre los participantes es afectado por factores lingüísticos y sociolingüísticos. Algunos de los factores lingüísticos que se estudiarán son; posición de vocal, número de sílabas, sonido previo y sonido posterior. Los factores sociolingüísticos que se verán son tiempo viviendo en un país hispanohablante, años de educación formal en español, y primera lengua de pareja. Los resultados serán analizados en el programa estadístico …

Language Teaching In The Secondary Education Classroom: Strategies For Teaching Spanish And English, Alexandria Adair

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

This portfolio is a compilation of the author’s beliefs about effectively teaching English as a Second Language and Spanish as a Foreign Language. All of the work in the portfolio centers on the teaching philosophy statement, which contains what the author believes to be the most important aspects of second and foreign language teaching. This statement discusses the importance of communicative language teaching, with a focus on real-life interactions with others. It also advocates teaching content via the second language for more concrete understanding. Four artifacts follow the teaching philosophy statement. The first artifact examines the role of neutral Spanish …

The Effect Of First Language Dialect On Second Language Accent, Sarah Yaure

Senior Capstone Theses

The purpose of this study was to discover how dialectal differences in L1 Spanish impact the L2 English pronunciation of 6 speakers (5 dialects). Spanish and English share several sounds (phonemes) such as /m, n, f/. However, both languages also contain distinct phonemes (Whitley, 2002). Due to this imperfect overlap, phonemes that are distinct in English may have been grouped into one category by learners, reflecting the Spanish inventory, which makes it more difficult to differentiate sounds in received and therefore produced English speech (Flege 2004). Even among Spanish dialects, phonemes can vary (Whitley, 2002). As a result, speakers of …

Perception And Production Of Phonetic Stress In Spanish: An Investigation Of Native Speakers And Non-Native Learners, Benjamin Stoltenberg, Elizabeth Enkin

UCARE: Research Products

In recent years, foreign language studies have become an area of great interest, given that students must be prepared to take on a career in a globalized world. Consequently, there is a growing incentive to learn a second language, and especially Spanish given that it is the most-studied foreign language in the United States. Language courses designed for majors and minors generally center on the analysis and discussion of sounds, morphological processes and grammatical constructions. However, little is known about the nature of specific difficulties that may arise for native speakers of English when they interpret spoken speech in Spanish. …

Una Entrada En La Vida De Las Mujeres Inmigrantes: Una Exposición Visual Para Representar Las Experiencias De Mujeres Inmigrantes De México A Través De Retratos Y Entrevistas, Ashley Ables

World Languages and Cultures

Una entrada en la vida de las mujeres inmigrantes:

Una exposición visual para representar las experiencias de mujeres inmigrantes de México a través de retratos y entrevistas

Ashley Ables

California Polytechnic State University

Intent:

The intent of my project is to research the lives of migrant, farm-working women who have migrated from Mexico and now live and work in California. The other purpose is to present the findings to the Cal Poly and San Luis Obispo communities through interviews and artistic expression.

Methodology:

In order to research and present the lives of these women, I plan to do the following: …

Organizational Assimilation Through Heritage Language Programming: Reconciling Justice And Bilingualism, Ricardo José Pedroarias

LMU Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this mixed-methods study was to analyze the effectiveness of a heritage language Spanish program from the standpoint of organizational, curricular, and cocurricular practices. In this study, heritage language study was defined as having an emphasis on maintaining cultural awareness and language needs (Beaudrie, 2009) through cultural mediation, in which the experiences and identity of students are developed as areas of strength in the educational experience (Bennett, 2003; Gollnick & Chinn, 2004; Lovelace & Wheeler, 2006). The setting for this mixed-methodology study was an all-male Catholic secondary school. The participants in this study numbered 78 students in the …

Service-Learning: Overcoming Fears, Connecting With The Hispanic/Latino Community, Laura Guglani

Dimensions

This chapter explores the reasons why adult Spanish language students claimed to be hesitant to participate in the local Hispanic/Latino community in a recent study on 25 students enrolled in a 400/500-level Spanish class with a service-learning component at a Southeastern university. Data come from student reflection papers, written four times over the course of the semester, analyzed through thematic content analysis. Findings indicate that students held specific fears about participating in the local Hispanic/Latino community, including fear of interacting with the community and insecurity about their ability to communicate with native speakers. The analysis of the reflection papers revealed …

Web 2.0 Use To Foster Learners’ Intercultural Sensitivity: An Exploratory Study, Claire Mitchell

Dimensions

This chapter reports on a qualitative investigation on the development of adult Spanish language learners’ intercultural sensitivity while using Web 2.0 technologies to explore living abroad. Comments provided by 33 participants on wikis, Pinterest, and journal entries were analyzed using a line-by-line interpretative approach (Charmaz, 2006). Data analysis revealed that while investigating studying and living abroad using Web 2.0 technologies, learners often remained in an ethnocentric stage of intercultural sensitivity (Bennett, 1993). However, upon the completion of reflective activities, many learners began to progress in their intercultural sensitivity, demonstrating a shift away from ethnocentric thinking.

Psychometrically Equivalent Trisyllabic Words For Testing Spanish Pediatric Speech Recognition Thresholds, Jessica Lee Graham

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to use previously recorded Spanish trisyllabic words tested on adults in the measurement of the speech recognition threshold of Spanish-speaking children in order to (a) determine the words' appropriateness when testing children and (b) compare psychometric functions between adults and children. A selection of 28 frequently used trisyllabic words was chosen from previously recorded samples of male and female adult native speakers of Spanish. These words were then presented to 20 native Spanish-speaking children with normal hearing between the ages of 4 and 8 years. The words were presented starting at -5 dB HL …

Motivaciones Comunicativas Para La Expresión De Sujeto En Secuencias Clausales Correferenciales En Español, Berenice Darwich

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation examines subject expression in co-referential clauses in Spanish from a functional and discourse perspective. The purpose of this quantitative and qualitative investigation is to provide a strategy of communication that accounts for the presence or absence of subject expression in the second clause of a co-referential clausal sequence. Specifically, it is proposed that that subject expression, in this environment, is a discourse strategy for the use of the meanings of the personal pronouns and nominal phrases available for the speaker’s communicative purposes, and that this discourse strategy forestalls the competition for the status of discourse theme in the …

Caribbean Speaks With One Voice At Paris Climate Talks, Gregory Scruggs

NotiCen

No abstract provided.

Don Quixote In Russia In The Eighteenth And Nineteenth Centuries: The Problem Of Perception And Interpretation, Slav N. Gratchev Phd

Modern Languages Faculty Research

This study examines the problem of the perception of Don Quixote in Russia in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. By using materials inaccessible to English-speaking scholars, I want to demonstrate that this process of appropriation was a long and a complex one, and there were specific reasons for that. The first modern novel, upon arrival in Russia, received minimal attention and was perceived as a simple, comical book; then, gradually, it started to gain significance. The majority of the materials that are used throughout this text are only available in Russian, are kept in the scientific libraries of Saint Petersburg …

El Español En Los Estados Unidos: Panorama De Estudios Sociolingüísticos, Lotfi Sayahi, Juanita Reyes, Cecily Corbett

Languages, Literatures and Cultures Faculty Scholarship

The aim of this paper is to present the principal areas of sociolinguistic research concerning Spanish spoken in the United States. In doing so, we focus on a variety of topics ranging from macro-sociolinguistic issues, such as the sociology of language, to micro-sociolinguistic features having more to do with language variation and change. In our discussion of bilingualism and sociology of language, we explore the situation faced by Spanish speakers in the United States, including discussions of language policies and bilingual education. We also examine cases of contact between various dialects of Spanish in the United States, and some variable …

Use Of Student Created Video Podcasts To Promote Foreign Language Grammar Acquisition In Middle School, Sergio Parra

CCAC Theses and Dissertations

The use of video podcasts in education has emerged as a phenomenon that has gained a considerable amount of attention over the last few years. Although video podcasting is becoming a well-established technology in higher education, new multimedia instructional strategies such as student-created video podcasts in grades K-12 are under-researched.

The study investigated the effects of video podcasts created by students to promote foreign language grammar acquisition at the middle school level and find how students described such experience. The current investigation was conducted by using the explanatory sequential design, which is a mixed methods research design that occurs in …

Comparing The Opi And The Opic: The Effect Of Test Method On Oral Proficiency Scores And Student Preference, Troy L. Cox, Gregory L. Thompson, Nieves Knapp

Faculty Publications

While studies have been done to rate the validity and reliability of the Oral Proficiency Interview (OPI) and Oral Proficiency Interview–Computer (OPIc) independently, a limited amount of research has analyzed the interexam reliability of these tests, and studies have yet to be conducted comparing the results of Spanish language learners who take both exams. For this study, 154 Spanish language learners of various proficiency levels were divided into two groups and administered both the OPI and OPIc within a 2-week period using a counterbalanced design. In addition, study participants took both a pre- and postsurvey that gathered data about their …