Bilingual, Multilingual, and Multicultural Education Commons^™

Investigating The Production And Perception Of Lexical Stress In English As A Second Language: A Cue-Weighting Approach, Natalia Irene Minjarez Oppenheimer

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The Cue-Weighting Transfer Hypothesis states that (a) listeners weight acoustic cues according to how informative they are in signaling a lexical contrast in their L1, and (b) that listeners transfer their cue weightings from the L1 to the L2, using those cues that are important in the L1 to perceive lexical stress in the L2 (Tremblay et al., 2021). Most of the Spanish-English bilinguals in our region are highly proficient in both languages, but differ in their language dominance spectrums. That is, they can handle both languages with ease, but are usually more dominant in one of them. Because of …

The Nawat Language Revitalization In El Salvador And How Its Digital Activism Transcends Borders, Sergio J. Mendoza Gallardo

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In this research project I seek to show how digital activism for Nawat revitalization can transcend beyond the Salvadoran borders. The goal is to show how the revitalization of Nawat can have a better chance to be successful thanks to technology. Nawat is the last indigenous language in El Salvador, and its position within Salvadoran society has been uncertain for many years. Thus, I aim to show how technological efforts can help revitalize Nawat language with the efforts that are already being done. Although El Salvador has had a dark ethnic history regarding indigenous people, there are actions being taken …

Student Centered Language Teaching: A Focus On Student Identity, Rachel Mano

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

This portfolio is a compilation of essays that describe what the writer has come to see as essential topics in second language acquisition. It begins with a professional environment piece, and then a teaching philosophy statement focused on student identity and interaction in the classroom. This is followed by an essay on observations of teaching. The next two sections focus on pragmatic resistance among advanced learners and the importance of preparing learners for peer interaction. The portfolio concludes with an annotated bibliography outlining the main concepts associated with Communicative Language Teaching, a method that is commonly employed in second language …

Cùng Với Nhau Chung Tay: A Collaborative Project With Vietnamese American Youth, Khanh Le

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The purpose of my research is to document, remember and reflect on the experiences of Vietnamese Americans. To create a space in which Vietnamese American youth can co-labor (García, 2020) and co-produce knowledge to disrupt the silence surrounding their lived experience in the U.S., I drew across methodological traditions for this collaborative project. In doing so, I seek to answer the following questions:

1. How do Vietnamese American youth view/narrate their lives and relationships to the past and the present in the U.S. and Vietnam?
2. What do youths’ narratives communicate about their transtrauma?

This collaborative project drew from translanguaging and …

Yo Soy Rumano (I Am Romanian): An Autobiography Exploring The Effects Of Memory And Trauma On The Formation Of The Self, Andrei Bucaloiu

Honors Theses

I came to the United States from Romania with my parents when I was two years old. This moment of cultural, linguistic, and geographic separation occurred before I was able to consciously recall it, yet it constitutes a traumatic experience, in the Freudian and Lacanian sense, that defines my positionality and serves as a primary space in which I seek to develop who I am. However, regardless of how much I have developed my ability to communicate in English, it is not the language of my emotional affect. At the same time, profound expression in Romanian is not possible for …

Creating An Integration Framework For The European Union? Comparing The Role Of Language In Integration Policy Regarding Education And Labor Participation Rates In Germany And Sweden, Kate Elizabeth Persson

Honors Theses and Capstones

No abstract provided.

Alleviating Oral Communication Anxieties In College French Classes: The Impact Of Professor-Student Connections, Claude Cassagne

Doctorate in Education

Oral communication anxiety (OCA) is a challenge for many college students studying a foreign language. This phenomenon has yielded many studies explaining OCA exists, relating it to personality traits and concluding educators play a large role in either reducing or aggravating such anxieties. However, research is lacking in the role professor-student rapport and connections play in affecting OCA. Thus, the purpose of this qualitative study was to seek student perception on (through their worldviews), and recommendations for, professor teaching practices as it relates to anxiety and rapport-building. The participants are and were students of French in an undergraduate private liberal …

Investigando Los Éxitos Y Las Dificultades De Implementar Un Programa De Inmersión Dual A Través De Las Perspectivas De Tres Administradores, Victoria E. Slaybaugh

World Languages and Cultures

This Modern Languages and Literatures senior project investigates and analyses the successes and struggles of implementing a dual immersion program through interviews with three dual immersion principles. In interviewing three highly experienced administrators, ample information was collected on why some programs are prosperous while others see little success. Each individual principal had unique and valuable input, especially with regard to why their respective schools changed programs from 50/50 to 90/10, why they implemented K-12, and even why they chose to eliminate the program entirely. Using supplemental studies to more thoroughly examine the historical and social context of dual immersion, this …

Kinesthetic Language: A Dialect Of Kinesics, Terrill Suzanne Corletto

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Human communication requires the disciplines regarding physical fitness, codified language, and the performing arts to overlap, and exist symbiotically. Within the realm of artistic performance, the three disciplines working together deliver a deliberate message in a way unique to performing artists. The general tendency to compartmentalize sports, communication, and the performing arts into their pigeonhole categories of Kinesiology, Linguistics, and Theatre Arts is impractical, particularly for performing artists simply because all of the disciplines are mutually dependent in the context of all kinesthetic communications.

The purpose of this paper is to define and discuss several concepts and the ways in …

Afro-Americano: The Transracialization Of The African-American Spanish Speaker, John M. Flanagan

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Transracialization is not a biological term connoting the change of one’s skin tone to become a member of a different race. Its definition has its roots in racialization—the ideological process that describes how one assembles ideas about groups based on their race and decides, for example, what a ‘Black’ person is and how ‘Black’ people speak. Thus, transracialization is a linguistic term that describes the political and sociocultural act of recontextualizing one’s phenotype with the use of language, and in so doing, upending the observers’ stereotypical expectations of who one is (Alim 2016). This dissertation deals with how Spanish influences …

Spatial Distribution Of Chinese Language Education And Historical Development Of Chinese Language Pedagogy In Higher Education In The United States, Jing Zhao

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This capstone project includes two major components: an interactive digital map that displays the geographical distribution of Chinese language programs in colleges and universities in the United States, their program starting years, the types of such universities and colleges, and their names and states; and a multimedia essay on the evolution of Chinese language pedagogy in colleges and universities in the United States. Data has been collected on the program start year, school names, states where schools are located, school types, and whether the school had been funded by two federal sponsored language programs: the National Defense Education Act in …

Morphological Production Accuracy Patterns In Younger And Older Spanish-English Bilingual Children, Isabel Angelica Cano

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Clinicians require a model of typical bilingual language development. Morphological production accuracy patterns vary in Spanish-English (S-E) bilingual children considering differences in the exposure and use of their two languages compared to their monolingual peers. The purpose of the current study was to examine morphological production accuracy patterns in thirty younger (3- to 4-years old) and older (5- to 6-years old) S-E bilingual children utilizing English and Spanish Morphosyntax subtests from a bilingual language screener. Across development, older bilingual children were more accurate on all forms in both English and Spanish than younger bilingual children. Across languages, all S-E bilingual …

Barriers To Bilingual: How Students Participate In Spanish And English Classes, Bailey Strahan

Masters of Education in Teaching and Learning

While participation has been linked to achievement in the classroom, various external factors can change students’ willingness to participate. In this study the researcher sought to discover what participation looks like in regards to one of these factors, language. Additionally the researcher wanted to discover what students and teachers in a bilingual program thought of their own participation in regards to language. Through the use of surveys, interviews, and observations over the course of several weeks, the researcher was able to determine that many factors including student motivation, preferences, resources available, and misunderstanding all contribute to their willingness to participate …

Why Study Language? Discussing Language And Its Influence On Gender Discrimination, Katelyn Eisenmann

Honors Projects

An applied research project, with the culminating piece being a panel discussion that focused on the ways in which language use and structure contribute to attitudes and perceptions of gender within our society, and the politics that surround concepts of gender.

Implications Of Dual Language Scoring Of The Preschool Language Scale-Fifth Edition Spanish For Bilingual Preschool-Aged Children, Callie Mae Mathis

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Purpose: Spanish versions of standardized tests used in language evaluations are not well studied. The purpose of this study is to further examine the appropriateness of the Preschool Language Scale, Fifth Edition Spanish (PLS-5S) in a U.S./Mexico border community by comparing the Dual language scores versus the Spanish only scores and comparing the normative sample of the PLS-5S to the population of El Paso, TX.

Method: Twenty-three bilingual preschool aged children in the El Paso area completed the Spanish Edition of the PLS-5S. The parents and teachers of the participants completed two language proficiency questionnaires (Bilingual Input Output Survey; BIOS …

How Do We Teach All Students In Monolingual Classrooms? A Study Of Transfer And Translingualism, Norma Denae Dibrell

Theses and Dissertations

I take the work of Lorimer and Nowacek in “Transfer and Translingualism,” as a starting point to address these questions. In “Transfer and Translingualism” they argue that transfer and translingualism “both index movement among contexts, practices, or meaning” while “neither suggests a neutral carrying over of knowledge from one context or language to another” (260) and thus acknowledge prior knowledge and prior experience. Lorimer and Nowacek call for transfer researchers to look at language diversity “beyond recognition of difference to the matrices of power that regulate that difference” and to ask questions about how to measure transfer (261-262). Consequently, in …

Language, Literacy And Project Based Learning: An Ethnographic Case Study Of A New Tech Classroom In A High School On The Us/Mexico Border, Nora Lee Paugh

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This ethnographic case study sought to understand how English Language Learners used their language and literacy practices within a project based learning (PBL) classroom to complete their PBL tasks. Studies revealed the impact of how English language learners within a PBL learning environment were able to use their language and literacy as a social practices that led to successful student engagement (Call & Sotillo, 1995; Campbell, 2012). This study was conducted at Wilson High School, located along the US/Mexico border. The focus of the case study was a 9th grade combination English/World Geography class of the school's inaugural New Tech …

Latino Mothers’ Responsiveness And Bilingual Language Development In Young Children From 24 Months To 36 Months, Rica Ramirez

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This longitudinal study examined the role maternal responsiveness had on shaping Spanish and English language development in bilingual two year-old children. Because children who are bilingual language learners are oftentimes coming from low socioeconomic families it is essential that we investigate the ways in which they develop language in order to better serve this population. Maternal responsiveness is one source in which we can examine early language development of young bilingual children. Eight Latino mother-child dyads were observed and assessed at three time points. Each observation was coded for maternal responsive behaviors. Regression and multilevel modeling was used in order …

Fragmentation And Multiplicity In Cuban-American Identity: In Cuba I Was A German Shepherd By Ana Menéndez And Memory Mambo By Achy Obejas, Daimys E. Garcia

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Maria Lugones offers a new way of perceiving the world, which makes visible that fragmentation is not a valuable and transgressive understanding of identity, as Western philosophy and some political theory suggests. What Lugones believes in, as a strategy of resistance to the dominant gaze, is multiplicity – mestizaje. Using Lugones’s framework, this thesis will look at the different aspects of Cuban-American characters in In Cuba I was a German Shepherd by Ana Menéndez and Memory Mambo by Achy Obejas. Each novel offers insight into how characters develop and understand themselves (and others) when they use language that shows that …

Traditional Methods Versus Tprs: Effects On Introductory French Students At A Medium-Sized Public University In The Midwestern United States, Rishani Samari Merinnage De Costa

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

The purpose of this study was to measure the effectiveness of introducing a Teaching Proficiency through Reading and Storytelling (TPRS) approach in a French immersion classroom in comparison with a method which does not incorporate a story context within the lesson. This research was conducted in an introductory college level classroom setting. It is hypothesized that the language skills of the students in the experimental group using the TPRS method would show greater improvements on measures of listening, vocabulary, culture, grammar and writing abilities than those taught using methods which do not incorporate the story context. The research utilized a …

Interpreting, Stephanie Jo Kent

Doctoral Dissertations

What do community interpreting for the Deaf in western societies, conference interpreting for the European Parliament, and language brokering in international management have in common? Academic research and professional training have historically emphasized the linguistic and cognitive challenges of interpreting, neglecting or ignoring the social aspects that structure communication. All forms of interpreting are inherently social; they involve relationships among at least three people and two languages. The contexts explored here, American Sign Language/English interpreting and spoken language interpreting within the European Parliament, show that simultaneous interpreting involves attitudes, norms and values about intercultural communication that overemphasize information and discount …

The Incorporation Of Communicative Language Teaching Into The Elaboration Of Interactive Software For Esl/Efl Learning, Vladia Borges

Master's Theses, Dissertations, Graduate Research and Major Papers Overview

Investigates the extent to which currently available ESL/EFL software programs develop language skills according to the principles of Communicative Teaching and an interactive approach to computer use for language learning. An ESL/EFL software evaluation instrument was developed, tested for its reliability and validity, and then used to evaluate fifteen software programs. Results indicated that only two programs incorporated more than seventy percent of the technological, pedagogical, and individualization features associated with the principles of Communicative Language Teaching and an interactive approach to computer use for language learning.

Latin American Legends And Exercises For Beginning And Intermediate High School Students Of Spanish, Jeanne Joyce Jensen

MA TESOL Collection

This paper is a collection of Latin American legends for beginning and intermediate high school students of Spanish. It begins with an introduction including why I chose this subject. Following the introduction, the legends begin. There are ten legends from various Latin American countries and time periods. Before each legend is a short explanation in English about the country and how the story relates to it. Finally, there are sample exercises to be used in the classroom with the legends.

Friday Night At The Mayaguez Mall: A Rationale With Examples On The Use Of Drama In The Notional-Functional Classroom, Stephen Newman

MA TESOL Collection

Three recent intensive courses teaching EFL in Puerto Rico and ESL in Brattleboro provided the author with practical experience using drama activities in connection with the application of notional-functional syllabuses. These experiences are described and the choice of a "functional" approach is justified. Functions are explained and an overview of drama is given. Seven practical drama activities for a variety of language levels and situations are presented. A discussion of the pedagogical aspects of practicing functions through drama follows, wherein such considerations as the role of the teacher, the development of the student, lesson planning, giving directions and aims are …