Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Language Shift And Maintenance Among Danish Immigrants In The Us, Karoline Kühl

The Bridge

The destination of most participants in the mass emigration from Denmark around the turn of the twentieth century was North America. In total about 400,000 to 450,000 Danes immigrated to the United States between 1820 and 2000, the majority between 1880 and 1920 (Grøngaard Jeppesen 2005, 265ff., 323). Danish immigration to the United States was, generally speaking, a story of socioeconomic success due to rapid assimilation based on both sociodemographic factors and attitudes. Between 1870 and 1940, when most Danish immigrants settled in the United States, the group included, to a larger degree than most other European groups, young, unmarried …

Rawah, Rawah, Brandi Kilmer

TSOS Interview Gallery

No abstract provided.

Growing Up In Junction City, Oregon. A Memoir., Lois Christiansen Eagleton

The Bridge

I grew up in a Danish world in America. It seemed that all of my relatives and most of our family friends were Danes. Though my parents did not speak much Danish at home, mainly because their families had come from different parts of Denmark and they could not agree on pronunciation, I learned when I went to college that I had a few Danish words in my vocabulary that I had no idea were not English.

Idiris, Idiris, Tsos

TSOS Interview Gallery

Idiris is an 18-year-old Somalian refugee now living inUtah. He describes his life, mentioning that he only lived in Somalia for six years then moved to Ethiopia, where he stayed for seven and a half years.His life inEthiopia was peaceful and happy in comparison to Somalia, where Idiris and his family witnessed continuous violence. Idiris’s father eventually learned of the opportunities and education available in America and decided to move his family there for a better life, leaving behind family and friends. Coming to America, Idiris and his family did not know what their new home would be like. They …

Social Narrative And Sustainability Of A Danish Diaspora Community In The American Midwest, Craig A. Molgaard, Amanda L. Golbeck

The Bridge

This longitudinal study (1972-2015) focuses on the largest Danish American speech community in the United States of America, which is in Audubon, Cass, Pottawattamie, and Shelby Counties in western Iowa (the towns of Elk Horn, Kimballton, Audubon, Harlan, Exira, and Atlantic). The sociolinguistic mechanisms (code switching, speech acts, storytelling) of Danish social and cultural narrative are identified and examples are provided. We examine the social aspects of sustaining identity and heritage in a now globally linked community, and note lessons learned for other communities seeking to sustain their heritage in a healthy and productive fashion.

“We Believe That God Speaks Danish.” Assimilation Vs Identity In Sanpete County, Utah, Claus Elholm Andersen, Elizabeth Peterson

The Bridge

Most accounts hold that Danes in America assimilated rapidly and effectively into mainstream culture…but was that always the case? This article focuses on a small community in Utah that was home to a large proportion of Danes and other Scandinavians. A close examination of this community reveals that the assimilation process was not always as straightforward a process as we oft en hear.

The Danish-Born American Newly Arrived In The Cities, Carl Antonsen

The Bridge

To begin this little essay, which can only amount to a few scattered remarks because of its place and its general nature, I want to repeat some of what I was able to say in a speech in Aarhus on Danish-American Day on July 4, 1909:

“Speaking as I undoubtedly am on this occasion to those whose longing to travel has been or soon will be focused on America; I cannot emphasize strongly enough that the United States is not a paradise, not the utopia about which C.H. Winther and H.C. Andersen sang. America is the Promised Land only for …

Dealing With The "Third Enemy": English-Language Learning And Native-Language Maintenance Among Danish Immigrants In Utah, 1850-1930, Lynn Henrichsen, George Bailey, Jacob Huckaby

The Bridge

In the latter half of the nineteenth century, over 22,000 Scandinavians joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (hereafter referred to as the church or the LDS church) and migrated to Utah.1 Well over half of these Scandinavians, 12,350 (not including children age 12 and under), were Danes.2

This influx of people who spoke a language other than English and came from a cultural background different from that of the original Anglo-American settlers of Utah presented some perplexing challenges. Even Brigham Young, the territorial governor and LDS church president, found them difficult to resolve. According to local folklore, …

The Greater Challenge: Staying Home Or Emigrating?, Inger Wiehl

The Bridge

This presentation poses the challenge of emigrating versus that of staying home, exemplified by a Southern Jutlander who stayed home during the years of Prussian rule between 1864 and 1920 and one who left for America during those years. It begs the larger question of who endures more, those who leave or those who stay behind, a salient issue underlying all emigration and any significant parting. Put in classical terms: Who faces the greater challenge Odysseus or Penelope? He endures any number of dangers on his way back from Troy; she stays by her loom and keeps home intact for …

The Danish Interest Conference, Thorvald Hansen

The Bridge

On January 1, 1963 The American Evangelical Lutheran Church ceased to exist as a separate entity. The AELC was the new name that had been assumed by the Danish Evangelical Lutheran Church in America in 1954. Therefore, what really came to an end in 1963 was the Danish Evangelical Lutheran Church, which hereinafter shall be referred to simply as the Danish Church.

The Effects Of Computer-Based Metacognitive Strategy Training For Adult Second Language Learners, Heidi D. Hyte

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of a metacognitive language learning strategy training program that was implemented into computer-assisted language learning (CALL) software on second language learners' independent use of metacognition and language learning strategies (LLS). Questions under investigation included what effect this metacognitive training had on learners' independent use of metacognition, the differences in use of metacognitive strategies between fast and slow language learners, and the effect of learners' perceptions of metacognition on their use of LLS and specific metacognitive strategies.

The subjects included 239 missionaries learning Spanish as a second language at the Missionary …

Learner Concerns At The Missionary Training Center In The Technology Assisted Language Learning Program, Elaine T. Lindsay

Theses and Dissertations

Chapelle (1997) states the following as a vital question to be asked with respect to computer assisted language learning, “How good is the language experience in CALL for L2 learning?” (n.p.) In order to truly answer this question, investigators need to look to the learner and his concerns. In planning curriculum or designing a program, teachers and administrators normally look toward learner needs. However, these educators are also known to fully implement a new program, at times, without consideration of learner concerns. This appears to be especially true with the use of technology in the second language classroom. Research is …

Learning To Learn: The Training Of Missionaries In Language Learning Strategies At The Missionary Training Center, D. Brian Kohler

Theses and Dissertations

Language learning strategies (LLS) are specific actions, behaviors, steps, or techniques that learners use to improve their rate and level of L2 development. This thesis details the development and validation of a LLS training program designed to measure if training in LLS increases LDS missionaries' awareness of LLS as potential language learning tools. Specifically, it explores the question as to whether missionaries trained in LLS use and intend to use LLS more frequently, more appropriately, and with a greater range than those not trained in LLS.

The development of the LLS training program involved selecting a set of 48 specific …

A Bilingual Editor, Thorvald Hansen

The Bridge

Editors are, in a sense, people in the middle. They stand between those who write and those who read. They must be conscious of the wishes and the feelings of both groups without sacrificing their own or the publication's integrity. They must have a reasonable familiarity with language and grammar, as well as reason and logic. They must often act as a judge without letting their own inclinations and preferences take the limelight. When their work is with a bilingual publication the problems are compounded.

Christmas Letter To My Daughter In Denmark, Cynthia Norris Graae

The Bridge

Twenty years ago, when I was a student (from the USA) at Someroille College, Oxford, a Danish student at Someroille invited me to her home for Christmas. My father had visited Denmark when he was fifteen, and the next year was a host to a Danish student at his home in Portland, Maine. I'd grown up with stories about his trip and his Danish guest, and I gladly accepted this invitation. Recently, my fifteen year old daugh- r ter spent a school year in Denmark. She lived with a family and studied at a Danish-speaking school, although she spoke almost …

Right Place, Right Time: The William S. Knudsen Story, Robert Vanderkloot

The Bridge

"You talk funny." The little boy stood awkwardly, the peak of his cap pointed sideways, looking up at the tall, thin young man seated on the top step of the main entrance to the eight-story apartment building which covered the entire block at 152nd Street and Eighth Avenue.

The Danish Dip, Edna H. Hong

The Bridge

My first reaction to our son's Danish school teacher was one of dismay, for I was still under the dismal domination of the American veneration of youthiness. Somehow the keen, kind blue eyes and the lean, lithe body of the grey-haired gentleman who rose at his elevated desk to greet me when I entered the school room, accompanied by my wretched, reluctant, rebellious, ready-to-bolt nine year old, did not tranquilize the depressing discovery that the teacher Theodore was to have his first year in a foreign school was an old man - at least sixty!

Danes Came To Central Wharton County In 1894 Bringing Church, Language, Culture, John L. Davis

The Bridge

The grass reached to the bottoms of the wagons when the first group of Danes came to central Wharton County, Texas, in 1894. Land had been bought by J. C. Evers, an agent for the Danish Folk Society, to be resold to immigrants. The Dansk Folkesamfund was interested in founding an agricultural settlement in which the Danish culture and language, and the Lutheran church, might be preserved. Like many people who came to Texas, the settlers were looking for a new place to live - a place they could farm and raise their children .