Spanish and Portuguese Language and Literature Commons^™

Worth Its Weight In Gold: The Incredible Success Of Byu’S Spanish Golden Age Theater Program, Jared White, Dr. Dale Pratt

Journal of Undergraduate Research

During the first quarter of 2005, Brigham Young University’s Spanish Golden Age Theater program performed the theatrical work El caballero de Olmedo, a seventeenth-century production by Lope de Vega, a renowned Spanish playwright. The Golden Age Theater program not only performed the play, but also published a play guide, traveled to Idaho, Texas, Utah, and Mexico, and introduced the Golden Age, giving a small Outreach workshop on key playwrights and occurrences during seventeenth-century Spain, to various elementary, middle, and high schools. In my project, I visited Salamanca, Spain, and shared with the American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese …

Evaluating The Effectiveness Of A College Preparation Course For Hispanic High School Students, Dayan Bernal, Dr. Thomas E. Lyon

Journal of Undergraduate Research

This thesis examines the effectiveness of a college preparation course for Hispanic students at Provo High School. Studies indicate that the majority of Hispanic students in the United States are not enrolled in postsecondary institutions. As a result, their education is discontinued after high school. This does not imply that the majority of Hispanic students do not desire to pursue a postsecondary degree; instead it indicates the scarcity and lack of initiatives and outreach programs that steer Hispanic students toward a higher education. Therefore, additional initiatives and outreach programs are required to promote higher college enrollment rates among Hispanic students.

A History Of The Lara Family: Their Life In Mexico And Their Exodus To The United States, Jennifer M. Derby, Dr. Douglas Weatherford

Journal of Undergraduate Research

The Office of Research and Creative Activities funded research into the history of my family and their experiences as Mexican-Americans. I was able to investigate what life in Mexico was like for my great-grandparents and their children. Through investigating the manner in which they lived, I was able to understand the reasons for their exodus to the United States. They fled from Mexico to the United States in 1927 while the Cristero Revolt raged in their small city. I was able to discover how this revolt affected their lives in Mexico, how their journey to the United States was accomplished, …

Report On Orca-Funded Interpretation Research, Brian L. Price, Mariam B. Labrum

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Last year I submitted a proposal for funding to support a research project aimed at improving the quality of interpreter training at the undergraduate level for all those students with demonstrated interest in the field of interpretation. I claimed that such improvements would benefit the existing Spanish Translation and Interpretation program at Brigham Young University, and could eventually serve the needs of other institutions. In the course of my investigation, I have determined that such improvements can be made with relatively little effort and without having to hire large quantities of additional staff to meet the needs of a stronger …

Translation And Commentary Of Manuel Canete’S Prologue To The Obras Completas Del Duque De Rivas, Emily Bishop Milner, Dr. Dale Pratt

Journal of Undergraduate Research

My project had two phases: first, to translate approximately twenty-five pages of flowery and rather difficult Spanish into clear English; and second, to provide a commentary explaining the relationship of the translated prologue to other similar works within Spanish Romanticism as well as continental Romanticism. The translation phase of the project went smoothly. I used the technique of sentence patterning to separate the clauses in the somewhat convoluted sentences, both so that I could understand them and so that I could translate with faithful attention to the original text. The translation turned out well; because of the sentence patterning I …

Factores Que Influyen En La Adquisición De Los Sonidos Róticos Del Español Como Segunda Lengua: Sensibilidad Cultural, Motivación, Nivel De Instrucción, Tipo De Discurso, Tiempo De Residencia En El Extranjero Y Contexto Fonético, Ixchel Zarco Gonzalez

Theses and Dissertations

The body of the literature examining the acquisition of Spanish rhotics is expanding (e.g., Canfield, 1940; Face, 2006; Rose, 2010; Hurtado & Estrada, 2010). Most studies on the acquisition of Spanish rhotics have focused on how students progress at different levels of instruction (e.g., Rose, 2010; Hurtado & Estrada, 2010) while various other factors have been shown to affect the second language acquisition of phonology, such as style variation (e.g., Diaz-Campos, 2006; González--Bueno, 1997; Zampini, 1994), L1 transfer (e.g., Major, 2001), and experience abroad (e.g., Díaz-Campos, 2004, 2006; Lafford, 2006). Work on the acquisition of the Spanish tap and trill …

“Há Um Mundo Que Se Quebra Quando Eu (Não) Falo": Women's Speech And The Power Of Silence In Teolinda Gersão’S O Silêncio, Robert Marcus Jeffery

Theses and Dissertations

Teolinda Gersão's debut novel, O silêncio, addresses two issues which several prominent feminist writers and critics have discussed: women's search for identity, and the difficulty women encounter when expressing themselves in a man's world. To this second point, this discussion has been varied but comes to a consensus around the need for women to vocalize as a means of asserting themselves. However, the approach that O silêncio brings to this matter is completely the opposite, revealing instead how silence-a form of controlled non-speech-can be more empowering than words. The novel comes to this conclusion as the protagonist Lídia-a headstrong young …

Voicing The Violence Of Favelas, Berkeley A. Kershisnik

Theses and Dissertations

This project analyzes three examples of testimonial literature written by favela residents in Brazil to demonstrate the extent to which these accounts contest or confirm the popular news media's violent representation of favelas and their inhabitants. The literary works Quatrocentos contra um: Uma história do Comando Vermelho (1991) by William da Silva Lima and Capão pecado (2000) by Ferréz and the documentary Notícias de uma guerra particular (1999) present an insider's perspective of the violence that takes place in the favela and thus can reveal the factors that contribute to it. Through these explanations, readers and viewers become aware of …

The Hispanic Mortality Paradox: A Systematic Review And Meta-Analysis Of The Longitudinal Literature, J. Ruiz, P. Steffen, Timothy B. Smith

Faculty Publications

Objectives: The current objective was to compare Hispanic mortality rates to those of other racial/ethnic groups in order to investigate the possibility of a Hispanic mortality advantage.

Methods: We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of the published longitudinal literature reporting Hispanic individuals’ mortality of any cause compared with that of any other racial/ethnic group.

Results: Across 58 studies (4,615,747 participants), the random effects weighted average effect size was OR = 0.825 (P < .001, 95% CI = 0.75 to 0.91), corresponding to a 17.5% lower risk of mortality among Hispanic populations compared to other racial groups. The difference in mortality risk tended to be greater among older populations and varied as a function of pre-existing health condition, with effects apparent for initially healthy samples and for those with cardiovascular diseases. The results also differed by racial group comparison: Hispanics had lower overall risk for mortality than non-Hispanic Whites and non-Hispanic Blacks, but overall higher risk for mortality than Asian Americans.

Conclusions: These findings provide evidence of a small Hispanic mortality advantage, with implications for conceptualizing and addressing racial/ethnic health disparities.

Leaving The Dark To Find The Light: A Study Of L1 English Acquisition Of L2 Spanish /L/, Ariel Rebekah Bean

Theses and Dissertations

Second language acquisition (SLA) research is rich in possibilities for examining language-specific phonetics and phonology in the cross-linguistic context of acquisition. However, much of the existing English-Spanish research focuses on the acquisition of voice onset time (VOT) of /p, t, k, b, d, ɡ/ or rhotics, or on acquisition in relation to factors such as task type, time abroad, and motivational intensity (e.g. Alvord & Christiansen, 2012; Díaz-Campos, 2004, 2006; Face, 2006; Martinsen, 2010; Martinsen & Alvord, 2012; Shively, 2008; Shively & Cohen, 2008; Tanner, 2012 a, 2012b; Zampini, 1994). Like these studies, the present study incorporates linguistic and extralinguistic …

Variación Diacrónica Del Léxico Disponible Dominicano, Orlando Alba

Faculty Publications

Este artículo ofrece un análisis cualitativo y cuantitativo de la evolución histórica del léxico disponible de los dominicanos. Una investigación longitudinal ha permitido comparar datos recogidos en 1990 con otros obtenidos con la misma metodología en 2008. Los resultados indican que hay grandes diferencias en la variabilidad léxica exhibida par unos centros de interés, que experimentan cambios importantes, en comparación con la de otros, que parecen inmunes a la variación. Por otra parte, se descubre un incremento de la diferencia que separa a los dos grupos extremos de la escala social al cabo de poco rnenos de 20 años. En …

The Experiences Of Hispanic International Students As Interviewees In A Cross-Cultural Interview Project, Ren S. Carbutt

Theses and Dissertations

In the field of world language education, it has long been affirmed that language and culture are inseparable. It has also often been asked how teaching language and culture in an inseparable way is to be accomplished. One solution that has been proposed is ethnographic interviews. Other studies have demonstrated that interviewing native cultural informants is beneficial for language students. This study examined whether such interviews are also beneficial to the native informants. The participants in this project, sixteen native speakers of Spanish, were each interviewed three times by a pair of Spanish students who employed ethnographic techniques as a …

Traducción De Un Documental Para Televisión Con Una Visión Integradora Destinada A Una Audiencia Diversa, Fernando Dealba

Theses and Dissertations

Este proyecto consiste en la traducción de un guión de documental para televisión de carácter informativo y motivacional, adaptada a la diversidad de población de hispanoparlantes con diversidad de modalidad de habla. También, por encargo del cliente, el documental será adaptado en su traducción a una amplia audiencia diversa en cuanto a características socioculturales. Para realizar traducción, se utilizará una visión integradora aplicada a las diferentes teorías de la traducción. A pesar de tener en cuenta a los hispanoparlantes del mundo, la población a la que se dirige en particular el proyecto es la población hispanoparlante que convive en Estados …

Designing Pre-Tests For An Intermediate-Level University Spanish Course, Carl D. Gutke

Theses and Dissertations

Testing, at times, can be a complicated matter. It takes a lot of time, precision and trial and error to adequately create a valid and reliable test. When creating a test, we should be aware of the impact that it is going to have on our teaching and whether it will be positive or negative. The goal of this project was to create four good intermediate Spanish diagnostic pre-tests that could be taken at the Brigham Young University Humanities Computer Testing Laboratory. The purpose of these pre-tests was to ascertain the grammatical strengths and weaknesses of our Fall Semester 2012 …

The Effect Of The Semantic Depth Of Spanish Verbs On Processing Demands Of Filler-Gap Relationships In Noun Clauses, Ashlee Marie Jessen

Theses and Dissertations

This study explored the relationship between syntax and semantics in an effort to provide evidence against a strict theory of the Autonomy of Syntax. The evidence was provided by an acceptability survey given to 20 native, adult Mexicans who ranked both declarative and wh-questions which manifested a filler-gap relationship where the gap was located in an embedded noun clause. The main verbs were controlled for semantic depth by being ranked within verbal categories according to external evidence of markedness or semantic depth. The primary hypothesis was that semantically deeper verbs would add to the already increased strain on working memory …

Lo Grotesco Y La Identidad Nacional En Huasipungo Y El Chulla Romero Y Flores De Jorge Icaza, Ernesto Raul Gonzalez

Theses and Dissertations

Este estudio busca analizar lo grotesco y su relación con la identidad nacional en las dos novelas más importantes de Jorge Icaza: Huasipungo (1934) y El Chulla Romero y Flores (1958). Estas obras exploran los temas de la animalización y la máscara social dentro del contexto de la sociedad ecuatoriana de la primera mitad del siglo XX para denunciar el abuso de los indígenas y el trauma del mestizo por tener sangre indígena. Estos dos conceptos se conectan con la noción de la construcción de una verdadera identidad nacional a través del indigenismo y el reconocimiento de la ascendencia nativa.

Centers Of Cultural Gravity: Cultural Translation In Nublares, William Foster Carr

Theses and Dissertations

In the novel Nublares, Antonio Pérez Henares presents a caveman who typifies the modern, fragmented subject. The protagonist, Ojo Largo, a hybrid child of various cultures, crosses the boundaries between those cultures and negotiates the in-between space as a cultural translator. The concept of the fragmented, hybrid self reflects modern cognitive science. Daniel Dennett's Multiple Drafts model of consciousness presents a fragmented self characterized by "disaggregated agency," a subject consisting of the center of gravity between disparate mental processes and accumulated "narratives." Taking this model as point of departure, this thesis finds a consensus between three novels of prehistory, …

Pedagogical Exchange In A Common Digital Space, Paul Lane Sebastian

Theses and Dissertations

Language acquisition in the digital realm is currently being explored by members of the second language acquisition community. Social networks in particular are well suited to provide the modern language learner and educator with collaborative tools. This study explores the potential of the Facebook group utility in assisting university language learners from a variety of language proficiency levels in their language learning endeavors. Participants represented four different Spanish classes at the university level. The results of the study indicate that resource sharing, student collaboration, and continuous learning are among the more fascinating benefits for pedagogical exchange in the selected common …

Factors Affecting The Acquisition Of Pronunciation: Culture, Motivation, And Level Of Instruction, Joshua D. Tanner

Theses and Dissertations

Studies have looked at various factors that affect pronunciation including phonetic context (e.g., Canfield 1940), style variation (e.g., Diaz-Campos 2006, Gonzales-Bueno 1995, Major 2004, Shively 2008, Zampini 1994), L1 transfer (e.g., Major 2001), and experience abroad (e.g., Diaz-Campos 2004, 2006, Lafford 2006, Stevens 2001). Motivation has been shown to affect language learning in general (Gardner 1985) but its role in pronunciation has yet to be explored. The relationship between cultural sensitivity and the acquisition of pronunciation has also been relatively understudied. The current study further explores the relationship between these variables and pronunciation. Many studies have shown that students' pronunciation …

Manifestaciones Únicas En Cuerpos Particulares. Lo Extraño De La Caracterización Femenina Y Del Cuerpo Humano En La Esposa De Martin Butchell De Bruno Estañol, Morella Ruscitti

Theses and Dissertations

En la vasta cuentística latinoamericana, es la del mexicano Bruno Estañol una de las pocas que presenta el fenómeno de lo extraño, la caracterización femenina y el tratamiento del cuerpo humano no sólo con un enfoque particular, sino como elementos recurrentes y de gran importancia para el desarrollo y evolución de las tramas y también de los personajes que participan en ellas. Su escritura invita a reflexionar en la manera tan particular en la que los personajes femeninos se comportan, afectando contundentemente el devenir de los acontecimientos en cada uno de los cuentos. Igualmente, el tratamiento que le da el …

Vowel Quality And Language Contact In Miami-Cuban Spanish, Brandon M. Rogers

Theses and Dissertations

The current study investigated vowel quality in Miami Cuban Spanish, looking specifically at the influence of English on the Spanish vowel system. The vowel production of eleven Miami Cubans from three generations is investigated. Subjects include six males and five females. Three different elicitation instruments were used. The first was a brief sociolinguistic interview, the second was a story that the participants were asked to read aloud. Carrier words were embedded into the story in order to obtain multiple samples of both stressed and unstressed vowels. For the third instrument, subjects were asked to read a list of words with …

Panorama Sociolingüístico Del Caribe Hispánico Insular, Orlando Alba

Faculty Publications

El presente artículo ofrece una visión panorámica del español en el Caribe hispanico insular. Después de repasar brevemente los temas de investigación más relevantes, se describen los puntos de contacto entre las tres Antillas y se realiza una serie de precisiones sociolingüísticas. Estas puntualizaciones permiten destacar las peculiaridades, poniendo en evidencia que, a pesar de las conocidas semejanzas existentes en su modo de hablar, Cuba, la República Dominicana y Puerto Rico mantienen su propia identidad dialectal. La personalidad lingüística de cada una de las islas se revela tanto por medio de un análisis de las diferencias objetivas, como de la …

Acquisition Of Spanish Voiceless Stops In Extended Stays Abroad, Mary Williams Crane

Theses and Dissertations

Although English and Spanish both have the voiceless stops /ptk/, they differ in VOT; English has long-lag voiceless stops and Spanish has short-lag. This difference means that native English-speaking learners of Spanish are likely to transfer the long voice lag typical of their first language (L1) to Spanish voiceless stops. This study measured the VOT of 20 native English-speaking learners of Spanish, each with a length of residence (LOR) in a Spanish-speaking country of almost 2 years. The study participants were found to produce voiceless stops intermediate to the averages of their L1 (American English) and L2 (Spanish), with some …

Better Speakers Make More Friends: Predictors Of Social Network Development Among Study-Abroad Students, J Wyatt Brockbank

Theses and Dissertations

Social network development has been studied in the social sciences for the last several decades, but little work has applied social network theory to study-abroad research. This study seeks to quantitatively describe factors that predict social network formation among study-abroad students while in the host countries. Social networks were measured in terms of the number of friends the students made, the number of distinct social groups reported, and the number of friends within those groups. The Study Abroad Social Interaction Questionnaire was compared against these pre-trip factors: intercultural competence, target-language proficiency, prior missionary experience, gender, study-abroad program, neuroticism, extroversion, agreeableness, …

Educating Mexico In Emilio Fernández's Río Escondido And Rosario Castellanos's Balún Canán, David Scott Dalton

Theses and Dissertations

Following the bloody Revolution of 1910-1917, Mexican leaders took a great interest in rebuilding their devastated, war-torn country. In an attempt to further national unity, the post-Revolutionary regime sought to construct a unified, national identity. Many officials, such as José Vasconcelos, Mexico's first Secretario de Educación, viewed education as one of the keys to redeeming the nation. These government officials, empowered by their ideals and their sense of civic duty, worked to extend educational benefits to even the most overlooked segments of Mexican society. This thesis will examine two fictional texts that consider these efforts to transform and unify …

Thawing The Frozen Heart: Turning To Antonio Machado To Overcome The Silence In El Corazón Helado By Almudena Grandes, Richard A. Henricksen

Theses and Dissertations

In an attempt to demonstrate Spain's obligation to recover its ignored historic memory, Almudena Grandes evokes the poetry of a man whose past itself has been manipulated, misused and partially forgotten: the great poet Antonio Machado. In this study I examine the use of the famous "two Spain" imagery from Machado's "Españolito" as a tool for subverting many erroneous concepts about the war that, according to Grandes, are still prevalent in Spanish society. I also examine how this "two Spain" conflict demonstrates the crossroads that faces the third generation of Spaniards after the Civil War: that of collectively remaining in …

Portuguese As A Foreign Language: Motivations And Perceptions, Desiree Oliveira

Theses and Dissertations

Portuguese enrollments have been on a continuous rise at universities in the United States. Due to this increase it is important that teachers and department administrators understand what the motivations of Portuguese students are. This study reports on the findings of a survey conducted with lower-level Portuguese students at Brigham Young University regarding their motivations to study the language and compares these motivations with those of students of French, German, Italian, and Spanish. In addition, the study reports on students' perspectives on Portuguese in contrast to their perspectives on these other four European languages. Other issues considered include Portuguese students' …

Language Anxiety Among Heritage Speakers Of Spanish On The Texas-Mexico Border, Leigh A. Cherry

Theses and Dissertations

There is an increased need for bilingual education programs throughout the U.S. as a result of the increasing bilingual population, especially Spanish-English bilinguals. With the implementation of such programs there also exists the need to be aware of issues that affect bilinguals and their language learning experience. One of these issues that has been investigated among foreign language learners, but less among bilinguals, is the issue of language anxiety. This case study reports the findings gathered from classroom observations, a language survey, focus group interviews and teacher interviews in order to better understand the issue of language anxiety among heritage …

Relaciones Y Autoidentidad En En Silencio, La Lluvia De Silvia Molina, Analize Chavez

Theses and Dissertations

Silvia Molina utiliza muy frecuentemente la historicidad para que los personajes de sus novelas se reencuentren. Sin embargo, este trabajo se concentra principalmente en la identidad y las relaciones en la novela En silencio, la lluvia (2008). La autora también se basa en la cultura, primero para darla a conocer a sus lectores y, segundo, para que la protagonista realice una introspección n. El propósito de este estudio es demostrar cómo los personajes femeninos buscan su autoidentidad. Principalmente se demostrará que las relaciones forman una parte integral para que la protagonista busque su autoidentidad. Finalmente, se determinará si la protagonista …

Composition And Formation Of Social Networks During Study Abroad Programs And Bidialectalism And Language Attitudes: A Case Study Of A Bolivian-Argentine Family In The United States, Benjamin J. Schilaty

Theses and Dissertations

Students who participate in study abroad programs have the opportunity to interact with native speakers in a variety of settings. "Composition and Formation of Social Networks during Study Abroad Programs" explores the kinds of social networks that students form while abroad focusing on the areas of host families, church, school, community, and friends from the program. The kind of network that students form is heavily influenced by the nature of their program. Students from the same program often have social networks similar to those of their peers in the same program. Students who went abroad generally made friends in categories …