Linguistics Commons^™

The Efficacy Of Dynamic Written Corrective Feedback On Intermediate-High Esl Learners' Writing Accuracy, Soon Yeun Lee

Theses and Dissertations

This study investigated the efficacy of dynamic written corrective feedback (DWCF) on intermediate-high students' writing accuracy when compared to a traditional grammar instruction approach. DWCF is an innovative written corrective feedback method that requires a multifaceted process and interaction between the teacher and the students in order to help the students improve their writing accuracy. The central principle of DWCF is that feedback should be manageable, meaningful, timely, and constant. The research question was raised based on the positive effects of DWCF found in advanced-low and advanced-mid proficiency level students (Evans et al., in press; Evans, Hartshorn, & Strong-Krause, 2009; …

Developing And Studying The Effectiveness Of Efr Annotations For Chinese Language Learners, Amber Marie Chen

Theses and Dissertations

This project is intended to take the film To Live, directed by Zhang Yimou, and apply the Electronic Film Review (EFR) approach to it in a Chinese as a Foreign Language (CFL) setting. The Electronic Film Review project, developed by Alan K. Melby, is aimed at providing a superior language learning experience for Americans learning Chinese. Using feature films as a teaching tool has been found to stimulate and motivate students to achieve higher language levels, but in order for optimal learning to occur the material must be challenging yet accessible to the student. Most feature films, by themselves, …

An Evaluation Of A Curriculum For Basic Training In Tesol, Gordon Travis Wilson

Theses and Dissertations

A formal evaluation of BYU's Basic Training in TESOL course shows the strengths and weaknesses of the curriculum of this course. Interns take this course in preparation for international internships where they may be asked to teach English. However, the interns are generally not seeking majors or even minors in TESOL. Furthermore, most interns are not seeking any teaching major. Internship locations vary throughout the world and include, but are not limited to the following regions: Central and South America, Africa, Asia, Southeast Asia, and the Pacific Islands. This MA curriculum evaluation project reports findings of a formal evaluation of …

Update On Soar 9 And Sentence Processing, Deryle W. Lonsdale, Jeremiah Lane Mcghee, Ross Hendrickson

Faculty Publications

NLSOAR is in active development

NLSOAR can process several key types of sentences

NLSOAR updated to SOAR 9 as a prototype

Developing A Teachers' Handbook For Content-Based Instruction At Brigham Young University's English Language Center, Melinda Clement Hardman

Theses and Dissertations

In Winter semester of 2005 the English Language Center (ELC) began plans to implement a content-based program for students at its highest proficiency level in order to provide them with more effective preparation for academic studies in English. Since that time, the program has undergone various changes to provide a more stable, cohesive, and responsive curriculum. There is a need, however, for greater teacher support and training. This paper outlines the process I underwent to create a handbook that would provide needed guidance and training for teachers in this program. This project involved an in-depth needs analysis of teachers and …

Validation Of The Reading Level Achievement Test Of The English Language Center, Marina Vasilyevina Mikhaylova

Theses and Dissertations

This study investigated the validity of the Reading Level Achievement Test of the English Language Center (ELC) of Brigham Young University. Test validation is a complicated process that involves evaluation of various types of validity. It was beyond the scope of this study to investigate different types of validity of the Reading LAT. The present study was only focused on the exam's construct validity. In an effort to validate the LAT, various models of reading comprehension were examined with the purpose of defining the construct of academic reading comprehension. The TOEFL academic reading framework was chosen to be the construct …

Variability In L2 Acquisition Across L1 Backgrounds, Malena Weitze, Jeremiah Mcghee, C. Ray Graham, Dan Dewey, Dennis L. Eggett

Faculty Publications

For a number of decades now, a widely accepted belief of language acquisition researchers is the so called natural order hypothesis (Dulay, Burt, & Krashen, 1982; Ellis, 1994; Larsen-Freeman & Long, 1991). According to this hypothesis, certain grammatical morphemes emerge in a universal order in learners of English as a second language. Most of the data collection in this line of research was done in the 1970’s against a backdrop of theory which espoused the notion of L1 transfer to L2 acquisition on the one hand and a universal grammar perspective on the other. Most dealt with oral language production …

Domain-Independent Data Extraction: Person Names, Deryle W. Lonsdale, Carl Christensen

Faculty Publications

Extraction software and techniques yield good results with domain specific data extraction

Person names and information rarely domain specific

Identification and extraction difficult because of noisy data, lack of formatting

Variability In L2 Acquisition Across L1 Backgrounds, Dan P. Dewey, Malena Weitze, Jeremiah Mcghee, C. Ray Graham, Dennis Eggett

Faculty Publications

For a number of decades now, a widely accepted belief of language acquisition researchers is the so called natural order hypothesis (Dulay, Burt, & Krashen, 1982; Ellis, 1994; Larsen-Freeman & Long, 1991). According to this hypothesis, certain grammatical morphemes emerge in a universal order in learners of English as a second language. Most of the data collection in this line of research was done in the 1970’s against a backdrop of theory which espoused the notion of L1 transfer to L2 acquisition on the one hand and a universal grammar perspective on the other. Most dealt with oral language production …

The Relative Importance Of Lexical Frequency In Syllable- And Word-Final /S/ Reduction In Cali, Colombia, Earl K. Brown

Faculty Publications

The literature on phonological variation and change abounds with studies about syllable- and word-final /s/ reduction in Spanish. In fact, “the aspiration and deletion of /s/ in dialects of Spanish may be the most extensively treated of all sound changes being investigated from an empirical, variationist perspective” (Ferguson, 1990, p. 64). Many factors have been shown to significantly affect this linguistic phenomenon. Terrell (1979) finds word length to be a significant factor in his Cuban data, with more deletion in polysyllabic words than in monosyllabic ones. Additionally, Terrell shows that redundant plural markers in noun phrases (that is, all but …

T-Glottalization In American English, David Eddington, Michael Taylor

Faculty Publications

In word-final prevocalic position (e.g., right ankle), there are various possible phonetic realizations of /t/ in American English: [t], [r], [?]. The present study focuses on the linguistic and social factors associated with the use of the glottal stop. Datat were gathered by having participants repeat sentences they were presented auditorily (e.g, She twisted her right ankle). The particular pronunciation of /t/ in the presented sentences was masked with a tone. Logistic regression analysis identified three significant factors: (1) glottal stops were favored by following front vowels; (2) younger female speakers were most likely to use glottal stops, which …

Methods Of Scoring Elicited Imitation Items: An Empirical Study, Deryle W. Lonsdale, Dan P. Dewey, Jeremiah Lane Mcghee, Aaron Johnson, Ross Hendrickson

Faculty Publications

NNS oral proficiency test for English

NNS listen to, repeat back isolated English sentences (60/test)

Responses are recorded and scored later by human evaluators

Rationale: subjects can’t process linguistic vocabulary, structures they don’t know yet

Incremental Processing And Resource Usage, Deryle W. Lonsdale, Jeremiah Lane Mcghee, Ross Hendrickson, Carl Christensen

Faculty Publications

Within the community engaged in Soar-based cognitive modeling (Newell, 1990), some work has focused on parsing natural language input text. An early version of the system (Lewis, 1993) performed syntactic analysis based largely on the Government & Binding (aka Principles & Parameters) framework, including X-bar theory for constituency.

Developing Writing Fluency Through Synchronous Computer-Mediated Communication, Rossana Camacho

Theses and Dissertations

Drawing from sociocultural theory, this research investigated the effects of synchronous computer-mediated communication (SCMC) in the development of writing fluency. Likewise, the study aimed at confirming previously cited affective benefits linked to SCMC. Measuring fluency in words per 30 minutes, the study compared pre and post-test essay scores of two groups of ESL learners (a control group and a SCMC group) in two intermediate levels. Two evaluation questionnaires were also administered to the SCMC group in order to obtain students' opinions of this technology-based medium, and to analyze change in their perceptions. The SCMC group outperformed the control group in …

Effects Of Lexical Simplification And Elaboration On Esl Readers' Local-Level Perceived Comprehension, Beth Ann Brewer

Theses and Dissertations

This study examines the effects of single word modification on the perceived comprehension of individual sentences. A test was created by randomly selecting sentences from a college level American history textbook. Each sentence was analyzed using Nation's Range program, and the lowest frequency verbs were selected for modification. Each target verb was simplified (replaced with a higher frequency equivalent) or elaborated (left in the sentence, but followed by a parenthetical definition). Subjects received both treatment types and unmodified control items in a fifty-sentence test. Each sentence was rated by the subjects, as it was read, according to the amount of …

The Effects Of Homography On Computer-Generated High Frequency Word Lists, Athelia Graham

Theses and Dissertations

This study investigated the significance of semantics in computer-generated word frequency counts in response to a call for new word lists (Read, 2000; Gardner, 2007). Read claims that no corpus projects to date have produced any "definitive, stand-alone word-frequency lists" (p. 226). Many researchers are wary of the fact that the concept of a word is never clearly defined in most studies that have dealt with word frequency counts. It is clear from the research that one universally acceptable construct for the concept of word does not exist. In fact, many past word frequency counts only examine word forms without …

The Influence Of Production Accuracy On Suprasegmental Listening Comprehension, Adriana Romanini

Theses and Dissertations

One of the major questions in second language (L2) phonological learning is whether perception precedes (and therefore guides) production. This question is important for knowing what types of training most benefit L2 learners. While most theories assume that perception always precedes production (e.g., Best, 1995; Flege, 1995), several recent studies have found that production may precede perception (e.g., Baker & Trofimovich, 2006; Beach, Brunham, & Kitamura, 2001; Goto, 1971; Sheldon & Strange, 1982; Underbakke, 1993), demonstrating that this complex relationship may differ depending on how and when the L2 is learned. The current study seeks to further explore this relationship …

Semantic Role Agency In Perceptions Of The Lexical Items Sick And Evil, Nathan G. Simmons

Theses and Dissertations

Inspired by an ongoing debate in the clinical sciences concerning the value of evil as a label for human behavior (Mowrer 1960, Staub 1999, Wellman 2000, Williams 2004 etc.), this thesis examines the semantic role of AGENT in the lexical items sick and evil. Williams makes the argument that the label evil removes responsibility from the doctor, whereas, the label sick empowers the doctor in bringing about a cure. While this view is not universally accepted in the field, it does bring to light an interesting question in applied linguistic semantics as to the assignment of agency with respect to …

Semantic Role Labeling With Analogical Modeling, Warren C. Casbeer

Theses and Dissertations

Semantic role labeling has become a popular natural language processing task in recent years. A number of conferences have addressed this task for the English language and many different approaches have been applied to the task. In particular, some have used a memory-based learning approach. This thesis further develops the memory-based learning approach to semantic role labeling through the use of analogical modeling of language. Data for this task were taken from a previous conference (CoNLL-2005) so that a direct comparison could be made with other algorithms that attempted to solve this task. It will be shown here that the …

Religious Networks As A Sociolinguistic Factor: The Case Of Cardston, Benjamin Joseph Chatterton

Theses and Dissertations

Religious affiliation and its inherent membership in an associated social network as a sociolinguistic factor is examined in the community of Latter-day Saints (LDS) in Cardston, Alberta. Building on Meechan's 1998 findings that the LDS community in the area used Canadian Raising in a different set of phonotactic environments than the surrounding non-LDS English speakers, the study aims to determine if the LDS community uses other Canadian speech features differently or less frequently and if any Utah features (defined as Utah English in the literature, being the language of LDS English speakers in Utah) have continued from the settling of …

The Effects Of Second Language Status On The Comprehension And Perception Of Direct And Indirect Speech In Written Teacher Feedback, Rachel E. Hansen

Theses and Dissertations

This study explores how native and nonnative English speakers understand and perceive directness types in written teacher feedback (WTF). Currently research suggests that indirect speech in WTF will encourage students to think and maintain politeness between teacher and student (Benkendorf, 2001; Riley, 2003; Thonus, 1999; Vassileva, 2000). However, research also indicates that indirect speech may be more difficult to interpret than direct speech (Champagne, 2001; Holtgraves, 1999), which suggests that indirect speech used in WTF may be difficult for students to interpret and use to improve their compositions (Ferris, 2007; Hyland & Hyland, 2001). This difficulty may be even more …

Elicited Imitation As An Oral Proficiency Measure With Asr Scoring, Deryle W. Lonsdale, C. Ray Graham, Casey Kennington, Aaron W. Johnson, Jeremiah Lane Mcghee

Faculty Publications

This paper discusses development and evaluation of a practical, valid and reliable instrument for evaluating the spoken language abilities of second-language (L2) learners of English. First we sketch the theory and history behind elicited imitation (EI) tests and the renewed interest in them. Then we present how we developed a new test based on various language resources, and administered it to a few hundred students of varying levels. The students were also scored using standard evaluation techniques, and the EI results were compared to more traditionally derived scores. We also sketch how we developed a new integrated tool that allows …

Japanese Vocabulary Acquisition By Learners In Three Contexts, Dan Dewey

Faculty Publications

This study is an investigation of the development of vocabulary knowledge during study abroad (SA), intensive domestic immersion (IM) and academic year formal classroom (AY) learning. Freed (1999) has emphasized the importance of knowing how stateside IM and AY experiences compare with SA and of determining the specific shared and unique linguistic benefits of each of these contexts. While few in number, comparisons between these contexts have been made (e.g., DeKeyser, 1986; Dewey, 2004; Freed, 1995b; Freed, Segalowitz & Dewey, 2004; Lafford, 1995; Milton & Meara, 1995). Only one study was found (Freed et al., 2004) comparing all three contexts …

Japanese Vocabulary Acquisition By Learners In Three Contexts, Dan P. Dewey

Faculty Publications

This study is an investigation of the development of vocabulary knowledge during study abroad (SA), intensive domestic immersion (IM) and academic-year formal classroom (AY) learning. Its focus was the growth of vocabulary knowledge in Japanese--a language where little SA research has been conducted to date. Unlike most studies addressing vocabulary development, it was centered strictly on vocabulary acquisition. Following the example of one of the most insightful comparative studies of vocabulary learning abroad and at home to date (Laufer & Paribakht, 1998), it included multiple measures of vocabulary knowledge to assess possible subtle differences in vocabulary acquisition between the SA, …

Assessing The Costs Of Machine-Assisted Corpus Annotation Through A User Study, Deryle W. Lonsdale, Eric K. Ringger, Marc A. Carmen, Robbie A. Haertel, Kevin Seppi, Peter J. Mcclanahan, James Carroll, Noel Ellison

Faculty Publications

Fixed, limited budgets often constrain the amount of expert annotation that can go into the construction of annotated corpora. Estimating the cost of annotation is the first step toward using annotation resources wisely. We present here a study of the cost of annotation. This study includes the participation of annotators at various skill levels and with varying backgrounds. Conducted over the web, the study consists of tests that simulate machine-assisted pre-annotation, requiring correction by the annotator rather than annotation from scratch. The study also includes tests representative of an annotation scenario involving Active Learning as it progresses from a naïve …

The Phonetic Context Of American English Flapping: Quantitative Evidence, Dirk Elzinga, David Eddington

Faculty Publications

The phonetic context in which word-medial flaps occur (in contrast to [th]) in American English is explored. The analysis focuses on stress placement, following phone, and syllabification. In Experiment 1, subjects provided their preference for [th] or [ɾ] in bisyllabic nonce words. Consistent with previous studies, flaps were preferred before stressless syllables and [th] before stressed syllables, but the following phone also exerted a small degree of influence. Experiments 2 and 3 tested whether [th] or [ɾ] are associated with a particular syllable position in bisyllabic words. They demonstrate that [th] is favored in onsets, while [ɾ] is not consistently …

Assessing Clinical Trial Eligibility With Logic Expression Queries, Deryle W. Lonsdale, C. Tutison, Craig G. Parker, David W. Embley

Faculty Publications

This paper introduces a system that processes clinical trials using a combination of natural language processing and database techniques. We process web-based clinical trial recruitment pages to extract semantic information reflecting eligibility criteria for potential participants. From this information we then formulate a query that can match criteria against medical data in patient records. The resulting system reflects a tight coupling of web-based information extraction, natural language processing, medical informatic approaches to clinical knowledge representation, and large-scale database technologies. We present an evaluation of the system and future directions for further system development.

Deictic Selves And Others In Pastaza Quichua Evidential Usage, Janis B. Nuckolls

Faculty Publications

This article clarifies the perspectival, deictic nature of evidentiality in Pastaza Quichua, a dialect of Quechua spoken in Amazonian Ecuador. I examine the discourse patterning of what have been called the direct and in direct experience morphemes and argue that a source-based characterization of these morphemes cannot be supported by the data. Using insights from liana Mushin's notion of epistemological stance, I outline the Quechua evidential system, identifying perspectives that may be divided into three main categories: the speaking self of a speech event, the speaking self of a narrated event, and a variety of stances that may categorized by …

Mayanwiki: An Online, Consensus-Based Linguistic Corpus Of The Mayan Hieroglyphs, Robbie A. Haertel

Theses and Dissertations

The writing system used by the ancient Maya civilization has intrigued researchers and aficionados for centuries. Now that it has mostly been deciphered, the emphasis in the field of Mayan epigraphy has shifted to a study of the system of phonological, morphological, and grammatical rules that once governed the language that the hieroglyphs encode. One of the most important resources for linguistic study of this type is a comprehensive, electronic corpus of texts to investigate phraseology, frequency information, and collocations. Because Mayan linguistic epigraphy is in the early stages, a publicly available, editable corpus would be an invaluable resource in …

A Corpus Of Second Language Attrition Data, Derrell R. Smith

Theses and Dissertations

This report addresses the lack of progress in the field of Second Language Attrition (L2A). Review of L2A history and literature show this to be cause by lack of appropriate data. Five criteria for appropriate data are suggested and a corpus of L2A data (57,000 words, spoken Spanish) which meets the criteria is presented. The history of the corpus is explained in detail, including subject selection, instruments and methods of collection, and markup -- XML was used to annotate the corpus with nineteen categories of speech errors, adapted from Nation's (2001) "Learning Vocabulary in Another Language." An example analysis of …