Modern Languages Commons^™

Dual Language In Higher Education: Assessing Student Success And Student Experiences, Katherine Christoffersen, Ramsés Ortín, Dania López García, Ming-Tsan Lu, Javier Cavazos Vela

Writing and Language Studies Faculty Publications

Although long-standing research has documented the many benefits of dual language (DL) education programs in the K-12 setting, there are few studies on the impact of DL in higher education. This study analyzes DL education at a Hispanic-Serving Institution (HSI) where certain classes are taught in Spanish or bilingually across diverse disciplines. In this mixed methods research study, we examine (1) how enrollment in these classes impacts student success through an analysis of cumulative grade point averages, retention, and time to degree and (2) how students perceive these classes through an analysis of course evaluations and surveys responses from current …

Chapter 3. Moroccan Arabic-Spanish Bilinguals’ Linguistic Profile And Their Perspectives And Experiences On Learning Standard Arabic, Ramsés Ortín, Pilar Garrido

Writing and Language Studies Faculty Publications

We surveyed a group of Moroccan Arabic-Spanish speakers in the Region of Murcia, Spain, to examine their linguistic profiles, their attitudes towards their native Arabic dialect, their motivations to learn Standard Arabic and their learning experience with Standard Arabic. We found varying degrees of dominance in this group along with fluctuating patterns of dominance, proficiency and language use according to age and onset of acquisition of Spanish. This group displayed generally positive attitudes towards their own dialect and their motivation to learn Arabic was related to their religious and cultural connections. Most of them indicated that they had engaged in …

The Impact Of Bilingualism On Executive Functioning And Mathematical Abilities Throughout Development, Brenna Claire Mehringer

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

Research suggests that a bilingual advantage is present for domain-general cognitive abilities, such as working memory (López, 2021), leaving it unclear whether an advantage exists for domain-specific abilities (e.g., mathematics abilities). Given the role of working memory and executive functioning in math achievement, this project explored the cognitive effects of bilingualism. It was hypothesized that participants who are bilingual, or who spoke a language other than English at home, would have enhanced performances on working memory and executive functioning tasks. It was further hypothesized that if an executive functioning bilingual advantage existed, then bilinguals would exhibit stronger math abilities. College …

Multilingualism And Memory: Investigating Possible Differences In The Abilities Of Monolingual And Multilingual College Students, Clara E. Barned

Honors Projects

This study investigated whether there is a difference in the memories of monolingual and multilingual undergraduate students using simple memorization tasks. There were 46 participants, 30 of which were monolingual (only knew one language) and 16 of which were multilingual (knew two or more languages). There was found to be no significant difference between the performance of the two groups, with the data generating a p-value of 0.557. This study further suggests related avenues of research and ways in which the study could be improved in the future.

Bilingual Behaviors: Learning Context In Second Language Acquisition, Sydney M. Fulton

Honors Thesis

Language separates human beings from other species in the animal kingdom. Not only does language provide humans with a means to communicate, but it represents one’s family, cultural identity, and personality. There are over six thousand spoken languages in the world today, and around half of the earth’s inhabitants speak more than one language. First language acquisition is a natural process for all humans that begins before birth. The human brain can acquire multiple languages during infancy, but many people acquire a second language after the brain has fully developed. Knowledge of more than one language allows one to make …

Desgarrandonos De Nuestra Lengua: Ripping Us From Our Language, Lillian Ramos, Julia N. Ramirez

Bilingual and Literacy Studies Faculty Publications

Using a testimonio methodology, this study provides insight on how language ideologies, family, and education in the Texas Borderlands impacted two Latina teachers’ view and understanding of their identity. Through our personal experiences as PK-16 students, classroom teachers, and doctoral students, we were able to understand the colonization of our language and the subsequent endangerment of our bilingualism, which upon reflecting, had an impact on how we see ourselves as individuals, bilinguals, teachers, and Latinas. Our experiences with our bilingualism affected the way in which we perceive ourselves and our community. The reflection and analysis of our experiences allowed us …

Supporting "Pedagogical" Spanish Language Competencies: Bilingual Teacher Education "En La Frontera", Christian E. Zúñiga

Bilingual and Literacy Studies Faculty Publications

This autoethnography explores my experience as a bilingual teacher educator on the Texas, United States-Mexico border supporting the development of preservice teachers' pedagogical Spanish language competencies through a course that I have been developing over the last few years. To this aim, I look at my positionality and experiences developing my bilingualism in the same border community and my pedagogical Spanish language competence. My goal is to suggest how teacher education can support the development of bilingual teacher candidates' Spanish language competence in ways that recognize the linguistic diversity of border communities, critically unpack hegemonic ideologies, and prepare teacher candidates …

“Siento Que Siempre Tengo Que Regresar Al Inglés”: Embracing A Translanguaging Stance In A Hispanic-Serving Institution, Sandra I. Musanti, Alyssa G. Cavazos

Bilingual and Literacy Studies Faculty Publications

This chapter centers on our reflections and pedagogical moves as two bilingual educators at a Hispanic-Serving Institution on the borderland region of South Texas, a predominantly bilingual and bicultural community. Specifically, the chapter documents how we embrace a translanguaging pedagogical stance. Translanguaging practices are identity markers and represent the complex ways bilinguals use their linguistic repertoire to communicate across contexts and to negotiate social identities (García & Li Wei, 2014; Martinez-Roldán, 2015). Drawing on García, Johnson, and Seltzer’s (2017) conceptualization of a translanguaging “corriente,” we describe our translanguaging stance and moves as we, respectively, design and teach two undergraduate courses: …

Perceptions Of University Students Toward Bilingualism In Fribourg, Barcelona, And Oxford, Madison Densmore

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This master's thesis explores university students’ perceptions toward bilingualism and foreign language teaching in two bilingual, European communities—Fribourg, Switzerland, and Barcelona, Spain—and at the University of Mississippi in monolingual-dominant Oxford, Mississippi. This research was conducted over a period of about nine months and includes both qualitative and quantitative data: twenty-four interviews as well as three online questionnaires which were made available in the following five languages: French, German, Catalan, Castilian Spanish, and English. During the interviews and on the Qualtrics questionnaires, students were asked to share their perceptions about language, their communities, and foreign language teaching. For clarity purposes, although …

Promoting Student Success: Bilingual Education Best Practices And Research Flaws, Lillian Fassero

Senior Honors Theses

This paper first determines the benefits which bilingual education offers and then compares transitional, dual-language, and heritage language maintenance programs. After exploring the outcomes, contexts, and practical implications of the various bilingual programs, this paper explores the oversight in most bilingual studies, which assess students’ syntax and semantics while neglecting their understanding of pragmatics and discourse structures (Maxwell-Reid, 2011). Incorporating information from recent studies which question traditional understandings of bilingualism and argue that biliteracy requires more than grammatical and vocabulary instruction, this paper proposes modifications in current research strategies and suggests best practices for transitional, dual-language, and heritage maintenance programs.

Beginning From The Border, Kip Austin Hinton

Bilingual and Literacy Studies Faculty Publications

Abstract

In this essay, Educational Borderlands: A Bilingual Journal (EBBJ) is introduced in relation to borderlands, in South Texas and beyond. The journal’s purpose is explained, beginning with its inception as part of the bilingual mission at a majority Mexican American university, then placed within educational, political, and linguistic contexts. Each of EBBJ’s threads is situated in relation to hybridity, intersectionality, bilingualism, translanguaging, transnationalism, and the border itself. The journal seeks to apply these to the study of curriculum, instruction, special education, dual language bilingual education, and research across various interdisciplinary fields.

Resumen

En este ensayo, Educational Borderlands: A Bilingual …

Erinnerungen An Robert(O) Schopflocher: Ein Multikulturelles Leben Als Vorbild, Reinhard Andress

Modern Languages and Literatures: Faculty Publications and Other Works

Ich kam vor etwa zehn Jahren auf Robert Schopflocher zunächst über seine Doppelsprachigkeit. Damit meine ich nicht nur eine relativ beliebige Mehrsprachigkeit, sondern auch die Fähigkeit, literarisch in zwei Sprachen schreiben zu können, oft als Ergebnis des Exils. In seinem ersten Erzählband auf Deutsch, Wie Reb Froike die Welt rettete, las ich mich fest, und da ich Spanisch durch Studium und Ehe kann, nahm ich mir ebenfalls seine früheren, in der Sprache geschriebenen Texte vor, etwa den Erzählband Ventana abierta (Offenes Fenster) oder den Roman Extraños negocios (Seltsame Geschäfte). Auch seine weiteren Bücher auf Deutsch schaffte ich mir immer schnell …

Intergenerational Spanish Transmission In El Paso, Texas: Parental Perceptions Of Cost/Benefit, M. Isabel Velázquez

Spanish Language and Literature Papers

This study examines the beliefs held by a group of adult Spanish-English bilinguals from El Paso, Texas, regarding the vitality of Spanish in their community and the ways in which their own experience of being bilingual on the US-Mexico border has influenced their perceptions of the benefits and costs of fostering Spanish development in their children. Results show that parents’ positive attitudes toward Spanish did not translate into the investment of time and resources to foster Spanish development in their children nor, ultimately, into the use of Spanish by their children. Households where the mother perceived herself as having an …

Power, Linguistic Diversity And Education, Eva Núñez-Méndez

World Languages and Literatures Faculty Publications and Presentations

Brief editorial outlining the author's views on issues around diversity, bilingualism and multiculturalism, arguing for the benefits of multilingualism.

Attitudes Toward Spanish Language Maintenance Or Shift (Lmls) In The Lower Rio Grande Valley Of South Texas, Hugo A. Macias, Pamela L. Anderson, Ralph Carlson

Writing and Language Studies Faculty Publications

This article considers attitudes among Spanish/English bilinguals of the Lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas toward Spanish language maintenance or language shift to English. The investigation was undertaken to replicate and compare results with similar data collected in 1982. Since the area has changed socially in the intervening years and is now the third-fastest-growing metropolitan-suburban area in the United States. it seems prudent to reconsider the sociolinguistic attitude changes that may also have occurred. Data collection. sampling. the indices. and the analysis of the 1982 study were replicated as nearly as possible for the present study. Results of the analysis …