Spanish and Portuguese Language and Literature Commons^™

An Evaluative Study Of The Returned Missionary Class At Brigham Young University, Arwen Tanis Wyatt

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis reports on an evaluative study of the first 300-level Spanish class at Brigham Young University. The information gathered describes the history of the class and changes in curriculum and goals over the years. It also describes students who have taken the class: native Spanish speakers, heritage speakers, returned missionaries, students from lower-levels, students with a background in another Romance language, and presents information as to how well the class has met the needs of each group of students, as well as suggestions to better meet student needs. Results indicate that there is a general satisfaction with the first …

Latin-America, Mauricio E. Novoa

Student Publications

A poem describing the Prince George's County and Montgomery County Latin American communities in Maryland.

Understanding Mood Selection For Nominal Clauses Headed By El Hecho De Que In Spanish, George P. Myers, Dr. Jeffrey S. Turley

Journal of Undergraduate Research

In A Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics, David Crystal semantically defines the mood of a verb as the “attitudes on the part of a speaker towards the factual content of the utterance, e.g. uncertainty, definiteness, vagueness, possibility.”1 While Crystal’s definition may give the mood of a verb an orderly appearance, more than one grammarian has appropriately compared understanding the factors leading up to mood selection to untangling a large ball of knotted string. With considerable credibility, most grammarians claim to have organized much of the tangle; however, few can explain how to separate the subjunctive mood from the indicative …

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 …

Nine-Film Festival Celebrates Latin American, Spanish Cinema, Lawrence University

Press Releases

Presentations by noted South American filmmakers Solveig Hoogesteijn of Venezuela and Raphael Alvarez of Brazil highlight Lawrence University’s second Latin American and Spanish Film Festival April 10-14.

With a theme of music, the festival features nine international films, each shown in Spanish with English subtitles. All nine films, screened in the Warch Campus Center cinema, are free and open to the public.

Aprender Con Aventuras (Learning Through Adventures), Camille L. Bethea, Peter Elbaum, Katie Haney

Arthur Vining Davis High Impact Fellows Projects

This project focuses on developing learning modules that combine grammar and culture for beginning and intermediate level high school Spanish classes. The objective of this project is to make grammar more interactive for students, while at the same time highlighting the cultural richness and diversity of the Spanish-speaking world. This approach reflects the current ACTFL standards for foreign language learning (preparing for the 21^st century) and the South Carolina Academic Standards for Modern Languages. Ms. Haney wanted to make learning grammar more enjoyable and accessible to her students. She was also interested in exploring ways of using technology more …

¡Hablemos Con Más Fluidez! Increasing Oral Proficiency, Begona Caballero-Garcia, Benjamin Green, Lindsay Knox

Arthur Vining Davis High Impact Fellows Projects

Students that study a foreign language in high school generally graduate with a solid base in reading and writing the language; however, speaking it remains a struggle. This project was designed to develop a series of activities and a framework on which future activities can be based. The activities are meant to engage students and help them practice speaking so as to increase their oral proficiency. By doing such activities two or three times a week, students can become more accustomed to speaking a foreign language and will gain confidence. They will also have practice using vocabulary relevant to the …

Buscando La Identidad Nacional Española En La Novela Castilla, Amy Brownstein

Pitzer Senior Theses

Esta tesina examina cómo la novela Castilla, escrita por José Martínez Ruiz (Azorín) ilustra la búsqueda de una identidad española al principio del siglo XX, empleando las teorías freudianas de la melancólica, las teorías de Henri Bergson sobre el índole del tiempo y las aproximaciones al fenómeno de la modernidad. En el año 1898, España perdió su posición imperial y esta novela explora el estado de la sociedad española en consecuencia de este cambio. Por examinar las tradiciones españolas y la literatura del Siglo de Oro desde la perspectiva de la modernidad, Azorín revela una identidad española esencial que …

Another Look At The Present Perfect In An Andean Variety Of Spanish: Grammaticalization And Evidentiality In Quiteño Spanish, Jenny Dumont

Spanish Faculty Publications

The existence of an extensive body of literature on the Present Perfect (PP), both Spanish-specific (cf. Alarcos Llorach 1947, Copple 2011, Escobar 1997, Gili Gaya 1972, Howe 2013, Rodríguez Louro 2009, Schwenter 1994, Schwenter & Torres Cacoullos 2008, inter alia) and cross-linguistic studies (cf. Bybee, Perkins, & Pagliuca, 1994, Comrie 1976 Harris, 1982, Squartini & Bertinetto 2000, inter alia), attests to the complexity of accurately describing the uses, meanings and functions of the PP. Among the studies of the PP in Spanish, two main approaches are employed. In one approach, the grammaticalization, analysis of temporal and aspectual uses of the …

Learning Context Matters: Communication Strategy Development Through Spanish Interaction, Sonya Hildebrand

Lewis Honors College Capstone Collection

University studies in the Spanish language are often times confined to the classroom. However, more and more programs have been implementing civic engagement in the Hispanic community into the curriculum to create a service-learning experience. This study sought to determine the effectiveness of service-learning in enhancing communication techniques. Twenty undergraduate students at the University of Kentucky were surveyed at the onset and the conclusion of one semester while simultaneously serving the Hispanic community. The students, on average, increased the frequency of communication techniques after a semester of service-learning. Students who participate in a service-learning program often times see a result …

Patterns Of Spanish-English Code-Switching In Children's Literature In The Us: The Use Of Español In Books Para Niños, Megan Rae Vasatka

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

Spanish-English code-switching is a prevalent and significant form of communication in bilingual and bicultural communities. Authors who wish to reflect and validate cultural and linguistic diversity in their written works may incorporate code-switching in their texts. The purpose of this study is to explore the growing trend of the inclusion of the Spanish language in English-based books written for children in the United States. In order to better understand how code-switching is utilized by authors of varying Spanish language proficiency, fourteen non-native Spanish speakers were surveyed and seventeen examples of their children's books that include Spanish-English code-switching were analyzed in …

Por Un Amor, Yasmin Ramirez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

A memoir explores the themes of family, love, and loss between a granddaughter and grandmother. The story, based in El Paso, takes the reader through the stages of the granddaughter's life.

Lecciones Quijotescas De La Vida: Teoría Y Práctica - Quixotic Life Lessons: Theory And Practice, Julia Kennedy

Senior Independent Study Theses

This study focuses on the life lessons in Don Quijote de la Mancha, written by Miguel de Cervantes in 1605 (First Part) and 1615 (Second Part). Literary classics can be applicable in current situations to teach valuable life lessons to people in any culture, society, and at any age. The goal was to first analyze and later modify certain episodes in the novel to teach several important, age-appropriate values to children: friendship, acceptance, gender equality, and knowing oneself. Short fables were written about each value using characters and episodes from the novel. During February, using the fables as a central …

Language, Politics, And History: An Introductory Essay, José Del Valle

Publications and Research

This book chapter examines different articulations of language and history and introduces a new configuration that focuses on the political dimension of language.

Spanish Tutoring Center—A Peer Review Of Teaching Project Inquiry Portfolio, Lola Lorenzo

UNL Faculty Course Portfolios

In this Portfolio I have one assessment of the Tutoring Center in Spanish during his first year of work. This center has one on-line component that students can use and also one face to face. I provide information about the type of students that use the Tutoring Center and also the reflection of the Graduate Students working in the Tutoring Center.

Officialization And Linguistic Acculturation Of Spanish In The United States Catholic Church, Antonio Medina-Rivera

World Languages, Literatures, and Cultures Faculty Publications

The present investigation brings to light some of the changes associated with the use of English and Spanish in the US Catholic Church. The first part is an examination of the process of officialization from a historical perspective, acknowledging the impact of some groups or associations in the use of vernacular la!_lguages within the Church. The second part examines the role of acculturation during this process of officialization; and the final section analyzes the use of inclusive language in the Church, as an attempt to have a more gender-balanced institution. These three elements serve to provide a more complete perspective …

Enhancing Listening And Spoken Skills In Spanish Connected Speech For Anglophones, Elena Paz Vizcaya

Doctoral

Native speech is directed towards native listeners, not designed for comprehension and analysis by language learners. Speed of delivery, or economy of effort, produces a speech signal to which the native listener can assign the correct words. There are no discrete words in the speech signal itself therefore there is often a linguistic barrier in dealing with the local spoken language.
The creation, development and application of the Dynamic Spanish Speech Corpus (DSSC) facilitated an empirically-based appreciation of speaking speed and prosody as obstacles to intelligibility for learners of Spanish. “Duologues”, natural, relaxed dialogues recorded in such a manner that …

Mapa Provisonal De La Literatura Hispanoamericana De Entre Siglo (Xx-Xxi): Una Mirada Al Camino Literario Actual, Claudia Lorena Márquez-Reséndiz

Dissertations

Globalization has dramatically transformed many aspects of our life. Media and technology have advanced significantly in the last two decades. At the same time, migration has increased at an unprecedented pace. Literature reflects and expresses the social, economic, political and cultural factors that are occurring at any given time. My dissertation focuses on a novelistic production of the late twentieth and early twenty-first century. This body of literature carries within a particular structure of feeling that has emerged in our global era.

In chapter one, I undertake the reading of three novels that discuss and question the concept of "national" …

The Making And Breaking Of A Language: The French And Spanish Effect Upon The Catalan Regional Language, Margaret Emilyn Cychosz

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

Almost four hundred years ago, the French and Spanish governments divided the Catalan border regions located between their respective countries. The subsequent centuries have seen the expansion and development of the Catalan language in Spain and the demise of the Catalan language in France, where it has nearly deteriorated to disuse. Is this a reflection upon the French and Spanish culture or was it simply governmental policy? If so, what did the central governments of Madrid and Paris do in the centuries following the division that resulted in this contrasting development of Catalan? What effect did the usage of Catalan …

Whores & More: Selected Stories By Hernán Migoya, Nikki Noreen Settelmeyer

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This is a collection of short stories written by Hernán Migoya from the books, Todas putas and Putas es poco. The stories have been translated from the original Spanish to English. The selected stories demonstrate the humor, style, and neurosis typical of Migoya's writing.

El Verso Poderoso: Los Beneficios De La Enseñanza De La Poesía En El Aula De Una Segunda Lengua, Ann Emmerling

Honors Theses and Capstones

No abstract provided.

Sabbatical Leave Proposal And Report, Melissa Leach

Sabbaticals

I propose a renewed emphasis on my Spanish language skills -reading, writing, speaking and listening- through: 1) speaking with native speakers; 2) immersion in Spanish media -magazines, newspapers, television, movies, etc.; 3) travel to Spanish speaking countries; and 4) a journal project in my target language. These activities will refresh and improve my Spanish and give me newfound connections with the Spanish speaking world and its cultures, making me a better Spanish teacher.

Mother’S Social Network And Family Language Maintenance, Isabel Velázquez

Spanish Language and Literature Papers

Abstract This article reports the results of a social network analysis (SNA) performed on the mother’s primary network of interaction in 15 Mexican American families in the city of El Paso, Texas, the neighborhood of La Villita, in Chicago, and the city of Lincoln, Nebraska. The goal of this study was to examine potential opportunities for Spanish use by her children as well as sources of information and influence that might shape her views about the benefits and drawbacks of linguistic maintenance in her family. The network features of primary language of exchange, density, strength of ties, level of integration …

"Una Conversacion Con Borges": Notas A Una Entrevista De Jose Donoso, Maria Laura Bocaz-Leiva

Modern Languages & Literatures Articles

En dos de los cuadernos de trabajo de Jose Donoso contenidos en el archivo de la Universidad de Iowa se encuentra un conjunto de anotaciones autografas en las que se hace evidente que el escritor no se encontraba trabajando en uno de sus proyectos literarios, sino en una entrevista a Jorge Luis Borges. Tras el hallazgo en el ano 2007 trate por diversos medios de encontrar la version publicada de este texto, ya que la importancia del entrevistado asi como la precaria situacion en la que se encontraba Donoso para entonces --sin trabajo, con poco dinero, apenas en los inicios …

Chilean Cultural Identity: A Case Study Of Contemporary Mapuche Poetry, La Identidad Cultural Chilena: Un Caso De Estudio De La Poesía Mapuche Contemporánea, Christopher Culbertson

Senior Independent Study Theses

The topic is approached in three different manners: hybrid theory, academic perspectives, and poetry analysis. An application of hybrid theory facilitates the understanding of cultural identity within Chile. A discussion by three Chilean professors reveals the important themes of geographic location, generation, and language in both the production and reception of written contemporary Mapuche poetry. An analysis of selected of written Mapuche poetry depicts the unique conceptualizations of identity by contemporary Mapuche poets. As a result, this independent study shows how written contemporary Mapuche poetry is an appropriate indicator of the evolution of Mapuche hybrid identity.

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, …

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 …

Spanish Translation Of Sze-Man Lam's “All About Sexuality: Gender Studies In Pedro Almodovar's Films”, Kurt Ryan Schultheis

World Languages and Cultures

I started researching possible senior project options with the idea in mind of writing a scholarly paper about the films of Pedro Almodóvar. When I looked at all that had been written about him already, I suddenly felt overwhelmed. It seemed that everything that could possibly be said about Almodóvar had already been said, and what could I possibly have to add? Then I found Sze-man Lam's Master of Arts thesis that she wrote in 2004 at the University of Hong Kong. As I read it, I thought, “This is the paper that I wanted to write!” I had all …

Argentina Y El Mercosur: Una Relación Compleja, Daniel B. Sprague

Ӓҫcéñt

Ha habido dudas desde su nacimiento y continúan habiéndolas hoy, pero el Mercado Común del Sur ha sobrevivido. Argentina, uno de los padres del mercado común, ha sobrellevado su propia lucha desde la creación del mercado. [excerpt]

Teaching Spanish To Beginning Spanish Students, Amy Baldini

World Languages and Cultures

During my time in college and studying abroad, I have developed a passion for languages.  As a result, I plan on teaching Spanish in High School.  Therefore, my senior project will involve tutoring beginning-level Cal Poly students in Spanish and evaluating the difficulties that students encounter while learning a second language.  I will tutor for a minimum of 30 hours and complete a write-up which summarizes my experience.  In this write up, I discuss the tutoring sessions and the different obstacles and successes I encounter.  I will also discuss what tutors must consider when tutoring students.  I will outline my …