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Applying The Strategic Self-Regulation Model To Tone Acquisition In Mandarin : A Case Study, Adele Laurie Touhey May 2022

Applying The Strategic Self-Regulation Model To Tone Acquisition In Mandarin : A Case Study, Adele Laurie Touhey

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

This dissertation examines the experience of college-level American native English- speaking students who are learning elementary Mandarin Chinese as a foreign language acquire tone. Oxford (2011)’s Strategic Self-Regulation (S2R) Model is used to analyze the findings in a cross-case analysis. The findings showed that students in this study employed a variety of language learning strategies across all dimensions (cognitive, affective, and sociocultural-interactive), with the highest number of tactics being categorized as metacognitive and affective strategies. The results indicated that fostering a positive classroom environment can contribute to reduced learner anxiety and overall increased positive emotions related to tone acquisition. This …


The Acquisition Of Variation In Future Time Expression By High School Student Learners Of Spanish In Upstate New York, Erika E. Clarkin Dec 2021

The Acquisition Of Variation In Future Time Expression By High School Student Learners Of Spanish In Upstate New York, Erika E. Clarkin

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

The present dissertation sets out to investigate the acquisition of variation in future-time expression by English speakers L2 learners of Spanish in a high school setting. I explore the variable use of the morphological future, the periphrastic future, and the present indicative to express the future time in Spanish by the participants. A total of 2,282 tokens were collected at three different times during the school year. The participants were attending year six of Spanish instruction. The study takes into consideration previously published research on the use of future markers by native speakers and by non-native speakers. The present study …


The Phonology And Syntax Of Grammatical Tone In Copala Triqui, Jamillah Shantel Rodriguez Aug 2021

The Phonology And Syntax Of Grammatical Tone In Copala Triqui, Jamillah Shantel Rodriguez

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Copala Triqui is an Otomanguean language of Oaxaca, Mexico with a highly complex tone system. In Copala Triqui, the lowering of tone from an upper register tone to a lower register tone acts as a conveyor of grammatical information. Tone lowering occurs across many syntactic environments in the language (Hollenbach, 1984; Broadwell; 2011; Broadwell, 2016; Broadwell & Clemens, 2017; Rodriguez & Clemens, 2020). In this thesis, I consider two aspects of tone lowering: i) the representation of tone lowering in the phonology and ii) the syntactic trigger for tone lowering across multiple environments.


Arabic-Speaking Students' Responses To Children's Literature About The Middle East, Amal Aldaej May 2021

Arabic-Speaking Students' Responses To Children's Literature About The Middle East, Amal Aldaej

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

This dissertation explores a group of first and second grade (rising second and third grade) Arabic-speaking students’ responses to literature about the Middle East in an elementary public school in the northeast of the United States. It examines the students’ engagement throughout multiple contexts (grade-level classroom, English as a New Language classroom, and culturally sustaining context) across 14 months. The study’s theoretical framework included transactional theories of response (Rosenblatt, 1978), culturally sustaining pedagogy (Paris, 2012), and translanguaging (García, 2009). Through the methodology of practitioner research (Cochran-Smith & Lytle, 2009), I adopted a critical inquiry stance through being close to my …


Tapestry And Tomb, Choreography And Clot : Metaphors For Mobilities And Moorings In Geographical Literature, Zachary Robert Cudney May 2021

Tapestry And Tomb, Choreography And Clot : Metaphors For Mobilities And Moorings In Geographical Literature, Zachary Robert Cudney

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Metaphors, alongside maps, are important tools in geography. More than just a form of figurative language which helps represent space, metaphors play a fundamental role in shaping geographical theory and practice. They have been shown to influence conceptual systems at both an individual and a disciplinary level. Many geographical terms, like “foothill” and “congestion,” contain metaphors in disguise. However commonplace, metaphors are nonetheless steeped in the circumstances of their formation. To better examine the implications and opportunities of their usage, I focus specifically on metaphors used in geographical literature on mobilities and moorings—those points at which mobilities come to a …


Dominican Spanish In New York : Language Attitudes And Variation Of Final /ɾ/ And /L/, Gabriel Valentín Guadalupe Jan 2021

Dominican Spanish In New York : Language Attitudes And Variation Of Final /ɾ/ And /L/, Gabriel Valentín Guadalupe

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

The objective of this dissertation is to contribute to the growing body of research on sociolinguistic variation of final liquids in Caribbean Spanish in a language and dialectal contact situation. To achieve that objective, this study analyzes the Spanish of Dominicans in the New York Metropolitan Area. The dissertation has two main goals. The first is to describe language attitudes among Dominicans in New York. Data extracted from questionnaires are analyzed to show how Dominicans evaluate their varieties of Spanish and those of others. Additionally, the dissertation looks at whether inter- and intra-group interactions affect language attitudes. The second goal …


Effect Of Exposure To L2 Socio-Cultural Background On The L1-Based Conceptual System Of Korean Learners Of English, Hyeyeon Kim Jan 2020

Effect Of Exposure To L2 Socio-Cultural Background On The L1-Based Conceptual System Of Korean Learners Of English, Hyeyeon Kim

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

This study explores the conceptual system of adult Korean learners of English with three different levels of exposure to a second language (L2) cultural background. Assuming that different exposure to an L2 socio-cultural backgrounds plays a significant role in modifying a learner’s conceptual system that operates both an L1 as well as an L2 channel, this study examines the influence of L2 cultural background knowledge on (previously developed) L1-based conceptual knowledge of lexical items in production. The cross-cultural difference of lexical-conceptual knowledge is characterized by the lexical items (pairs of L1-L2 lexical items) existing in both in their first language …


Situation-Bound Utterances As Main Supporters Of Chinese As A Second Language Learners' Conceptual Socialization, Zhiqi Gong Jan 2018

Situation-Bound Utterances As Main Supporters Of Chinese As A Second Language Learners' Conceptual Socialization, Zhiqi Gong

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Second language learners’ performance in terms of situation-bound utterances (SBUs) to a great extent reflects how well they conceptually socialize in the target speech community and also represents their willingness to abide by the collectively accepted rules of social interaction. That is because second language learners not only have to memorize certain linguistic structures in order to communicate in social encounters, but also have the freedom to select whether and to what extent to use expressions with literal meanings or expressions with metaphorical meanings. The process of conceptual socialization is usually culture-specific and determined by a mixture of factors, such …


La ProbléMatique Du Dictionnaire ÉWé-Langue(S) Indo-EuropéEnne(S) : ÉTude MéTalexicographique Et ÉTat Des Lieux, Komla Amegashie Jan 2017

La ProbléMatique Du Dictionnaire ÉWé-Langue(S) Indo-EuropéEnne(S) : ÉTude MéTalexicographique Et ÉTat Des Lieux, Komla Amegashie

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

The dictionary is the core reference object of a language. It is used to learn and understand the lexicon of languages. Speakers acquire and develop knowledge of the language through its lexicon. Ewe speakers are not an exception. Ewe dictionaries are their main reference works and it emerges from our research that more than a dozen dictionaries have been produced in Ewe. However, many of them have not survived and exist only in bibliographical references. Many others are quite rare. In general, Ewe dictionaries are difficult for the public to acquire or access.


Sociophonetic Accommodation As A Function Of Interlocutor Target Language Competence : The Case Of New York Dominican Spanish, Cecily Corbett Jan 2017

Sociophonetic Accommodation As A Function Of Interlocutor Target Language Competence : The Case Of New York Dominican Spanish, Cecily Corbett

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

This dissertation contributes to the variationist understanding of the process of phonetic accommodation through the analysis of syllable-final consonant weakening in the speech of native speakers of New York Dominican Spanish (NYDS) during their interactions with second language learners of Spanish. The principal objective is to examine the inner workings of the accommodation phenomenon by using Dominican Spanish as a medium. The data analyzed in this dissertation come from conversations between the informants—native speakers of NYDS—and four different interlocutors, one of whom is a fellow native speaker of NYDS and three who are second-language learners of Spanish with varying degrees …


A Study Of Sociolinguistic Variation In A Small Community : Puerto Rican Spanish In Amsterdam, New York, Zahir Mumin Jan 2017

A Study Of Sociolinguistic Variation In A Small Community : Puerto Rican Spanish In Amsterdam, New York, Zahir Mumin

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

The objective of the current study is to contribute to the larger body of sociophonetic variation research by describing and analyzing Spanish as spoken in a small Puerto Rican community in the US. First, I describe phonological and morphosyntactic features of Spanish as used by four different groups of Puerto Rican informants in Amsterdam, New York based on the duration of time that they have lived on the Island of Puerto Rico. Previous research on Puerto Rican Spanish in the US has focused particularly on final /s/ deletion (Poplack, 1980b, 1980c), final liquid production of /l/ and /ɾ/ (Ramos-Pellicia, 2007), …


Examining The Role Of Corrective Feedback On Learners' Modified Output Of The Spanish Past Tense In Face-To-Face And Telecollaboration Contexts, Arnaldo Robles Jan 2016

Examining The Role Of Corrective Feedback On Learners' Modified Output Of The Spanish Past Tense In Face-To-Face And Telecollaboration Contexts, Arnaldo Robles

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

In the field of Second Language Acquisition (SLA) there has been a demand for further research to look into how corrective feedback (CF) can aid adult second language (L2) learners’ language performance and development. More specifically, to what degree elicitations with prompts (i.e., a form of explicit correct feedback) can affect the modified output of adult learners of Spanish during task performance. Additionally, how face-to-face and telecollaboration environments might play a role in learner’s modified output. Therefore, this dissertation study examines the effects of elicitations with prompts by measuring learners’ modified output in producing the Spanish past tense – the …


Hemispheric Specialization For Emotion Within First And Second Languages : Emotion Word Processing In Monolingual And Bilingual Speakers, Jennifer Mary Martin Jan 2015

Hemispheric Specialization For Emotion Within First And Second Languages : Emotion Word Processing In Monolingual And Bilingual Speakers, Jennifer Mary Martin

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Emotion representation in monolingual speakers is complex, and for bilinguals the relationship between emotion and language can be even more intriguing. The present study examined reactions to words of six types, including positive, negative, and neutral words varying in concreteness. Words and nonwords were intermixed in a lexical decision task using hemifield presentation. In Experiment 1, participants were English monolinguals and all stimuli were presented in English. In Experiment 2, participants were Spanish-English bilinguals who were presented with both English and Spanish stimuli. Results revealed a general left hemisphere advantage. Overall, reaction times for positive words were faster than for …


Understanding The Role Of Literature In The Reading Lives Of Secondary English Students, Tracy Pontin Jan 2015

Understanding The Role Of Literature In The Reading Lives Of Secondary English Students, Tracy Pontin

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Students’ perspectives on their high school reading experiences can provide great insight into the long term influence literature has in the lives of adolescents; however, students’ voices are seldom prioritized in the current research and in the conversations about curriculum and educational policy. This dissertation presents and analyzes the narratives of high school students nearing graduation as they reflect on the texts and social practices of English. The conceptual framework of this study is informed by Louise Rosenblatt’s transactional theory and Mikhail Bakhtin’s belief that an individual’s interaction with literature inspires rethinking and reevaluation of the reader’s “inconclusive present.”


The Effect Of A Dual Coding Elucidation Technique On Idiom Comprehension In Esl And Efl Learners, Denis Samburskiy Jan 2015

The Effect Of A Dual Coding Elucidation Technique On Idiom Comprehension In Esl And Efl Learners, Denis Samburskiy

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

This study relied on the assumption that literal meaning of some idiomatic expressions (i.e., their conceptual motivation) could have a positive effect on the comprehension of their correct figurative sense. To test this hypothesis, a Dual Coding elucidation technique, in which important elements of correct figurative meaning were mapped onto literal ones, was designed to facilitate the comprehension of 15 highly imageable idioms. This technique was administered in the form of an online questionnaire to Russian- and Korean-speaking EFL and ESL learners. The facilitative effect of this technique was assessed taking into account several relevant variables: the learners’ levels of …


Sound Environment Programming The Post-1945 Moment : Charles Olson, Sun Ra, John Cage, And The Way Back In, Michael Peters Jan 2014

Sound Environment Programming The Post-1945 Moment : Charles Olson, Sun Ra, John Cage, And The Way Back In, Michael Peters

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

On the eve of 1945, when the Manhattan Project's machinations to split the atom were almost in place, another physicist published a little book--What Is Life? Applying physics to biology, Erwin Schrödinger described how genetic "code-script" could create aperiodic (non-repeating) new life from periodic materials, revealing the "secret" of life. This dilemma of life or death defines the post-1945 moment. Fraught with Hamlet-like uncertainty, I argue this moment is the apex of a long-fomenting, eco-historical crisis where Western thinking had severed "Man" from "Nature." Sound Environment Programming is a term I invented to detail how Charles Olson, Sun Ra, and …


The Blackness Of Black (W)Holes, Eric M. Anderson Jan 2014

The Blackness Of Black (W)Holes, Eric M. Anderson

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

The Blackness of Black (W)holes analyzes Toni Morrison's Sula, William Faulkner's Sanctuary, and Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man as against establishing the illusion of a coherent, recognizable self through relational identities and subservience to denotative language and categories of identity. These novel’s feature characters packing knives, I claim, because they advocate for what I term stylistic self–extrication: a rupture with prevailing forms of identity and cliché ways of speaking through rhythmic, sonorous, experimental language use. Characters who succeed at the task, I argue, are associated with a blackness in excess of racial markings, because they become unclassifiable as a result. In …


From Pamphlet To Melodrama : The Resacralization Of The Queen In Dumas' Marie Antoinette Romances, Karen Elizabeth Keegan Jan 2014

From Pamphlet To Melodrama : The Resacralization Of The Queen In Dumas' Marie Antoinette Romances, Karen Elizabeth Keegan

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Marie Antoinette was famously calumniated in pre-revolutionary and revolutionary pamphlets as being a debauched monarch who represented the corruption of the Ancien Régime. The transition of her portrayal from wicked queen to that of a martyr started to appear in earnest during the Restoration period of the early nineteenth century as literary genres evolved from libertine literature to pamphlet to melodrama. During the period of 1846-1855 Alexandre Dumas père wrote a series of historical dramas called the Marie Antoinette Romances in which he used melodramatic elements such as moral polarization, masks and mistaken identities, and the occult to paint a …


Trans-Relational Poetics And Outsider American Modernist And Postmodernist Poetry, Anna Elena Eyre Jan 2013

Trans-Relational Poetics And Outsider American Modernist And Postmodernist Poetry, Anna Elena Eyre

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

This dissertation is concerned with how language mediates the relationship between self and other, and in particular, mythopoetic language. The political potential of myth has long been condemned, so much so that the word "myth" is now synonymous with "false." I argue that this is a result of what I term as heroic mythopoesis wherein the relationship between self and other is predicated on a violent separation that reinforces conceptions of identity. In contrast, in what I term as trans-relational mythopoesis this relationship is contingent on an embodied exposure between self and other that reciprocally translates and transforms conceptions of …


Use Of Subordination In English Second Language Texts, Susan L. Nesbitt Perez Jan 2013

Use Of Subordination In English Second Language Texts, Susan L. Nesbitt Perez

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

This study investigates features of high-level academic writing in English with the aim of understanding the development of L2 English learners' academic writing skills as they follow a course of study in an English-speaking country. The study focuses on L2 writers' text quality and use of clause subordinators as a measure of writing complexity. The typology of the writers' L1s provides the organizational framework for the study, with three language typology groupings determined by a writer's L1 word order tendency: (1) configurational languages, (2) nonconfigurational languages, and (3) Asian languages.


Pragmatism And Democratic Embodiment : The Poetics Of Constructive Conflict In Emily Dickinson, Gertrude Stein, Mina Loy, And Laura (Riding) Jackson, Aidan Patricia Thompson Jan 2013

Pragmatism And Democratic Embodiment : The Poetics Of Constructive Conflict In Emily Dickinson, Gertrude Stein, Mina Loy, And Laura (Riding) Jackson, Aidan Patricia Thompson

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

My dissertation, "Pragmatism and Democratic Embodiment: The Poetics of Constructive Conflict in Emily Dickinson, Gertrude Stein, Mina Loy, and Laura (Riding) Jackson," establishes a methodology based on William James's notion of the subject (1890) as fluid to interrogate how these poets, working roughly between 1860 and 1970, complicated questions of writing in order to critique systems of gender. I reconsider a presumed relation between language and feminism in Modernist Studies that understands the aesthetic practice of unsettling linguistic norms to be counter to feminist concerns relating to the body. Through this reassessment, I argue that the poets anticipated problems associated …


Phonetics And Phonology Of Chicahuaxtla Triqui Tones, Kosuke Matsukawa Jan 2012

Phonetics And Phonology Of Chicahuaxtla Triqui Tones, Kosuke Matsukawa

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Chicahuaxtla Triqui (Otomanguean, Mexico) is one of the rare tone languages with five contrastive level tones and its underlying tone system is even more complicated than its surface five-level tone system. The complexity of its underlying tone system has developed through the historical tone shifts from Proto-Triqui. The surface tone system of Chicahuaxtla Triqui is also unusually complicated and its complexity led to the insufficient analysis of the previous studies (e.g. Longacre 1952, 1957, 1959; Good 1978). To understand the tone system and tonal phonology of Chicahuaxtla Triqui, we must know their diachronic development from Proto-Triqui because historical tone shifts, …


An Experience With Language, Alexandra Beth Cummings Jan 2011

An Experience With Language, Alexandra Beth Cummings

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

An Experience with Language is a collection of genres designed to incorporate modern-day conversational language and slang for the purpose of tempting young adults into partaking in an involvement in reading--from Young Adult literature to the classic canonical texts. After having encountered numerous adolescents who claim to "not read"--a statement implying not that they are illiterate, but rather have little to no interest in reading--I wondered what, exactly, was contributing to this growing, nation-wide apathy towards literature. With a library or bookstore in every town, how is it possible that the percentage of those who read for pleasure has plummeted …


The Construction Of Reading Identity In Struggling Middle School Readers, Anna Marie Anatriello Bonafide Jan 2011

The Construction Of Reading Identity In Struggling Middle School Readers, Anna Marie Anatriello Bonafide

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Middle school students bring various identities into the classroom including their reading identities, their self concepts concerning their views of themselves as readers. Using identity and psycho-social and socio-cultural theoretical constructs as a foundation, I conducted phenomenological case studies that focused on middle school remedial readers and the means by which their reading identities are constructed within and outside the institution of school. The study investigated in- school factors which impact student reading identities, including interactions with remedial and classroom teachers, as well as out- of- school factors such as family literacy.


Expression Of Possession In Spanish In Contact With English : A Sociolinguistic Study Across Two Generations In The Greater New York Metropolitan Area, Maria Cristina Montoya Jan 2011

Expression Of Possession In Spanish In Contact With English : A Sociolinguistic Study Across Two Generations In The Greater New York Metropolitan Area, Maria Cristina Montoya

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

ABSTRACT


Flexible Literacies, Cultural Crossings And Global Identities : Three Singaporean Adolescent Boys' Reading And Identity Practices' In A Globalized World, Chin Ee Loh Jan 2010

Flexible Literacies, Cultural Crossings And Global Identities : Three Singaporean Adolescent Boys' Reading And Identity Practices' In A Globalized World, Chin Ee Loh

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

This case examines the reading and identity practices of three highly literate adolescent boys from an elite all-boys school in Singapore, focusing on how they constructed their identities as global and local citizens through their reading practices. There have not been any studies examining the reading and identity practices of adolescent boys who have had every access to literacy, and this study contributes to much-needed research on youth literacy, identity, and globalization. The data consist of survey and interview data, classroom observations and email reading logs collected from September 2008 to September 2009.


English As A Foreign Language And Cultural Capital In South Korea : A Mixed Methods Study, Eun Hi Seo Jan 2010

English As A Foreign Language And Cultural Capital In South Korea : A Mixed Methods Study, Eun Hi Seo

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Relying on Bourdieu's cultural reproduction theory, this mixed methods study examined the direct and indirect trajectories of social and economic benefits in the home in improving ninth and college-track twelfth graders English language performance, focusing on their participation in cultural capital activities.