Linguistics Commons^™

Pax Populi: Utilizing Technology And Education As A Means To Achieve Peace, Anand Balar

Engagement & Service-Learning Summit

This project of Pax Populi was presented to the students in the Honors course called Beyond Afghanistan taught by Dr. Brite as an opportunity to do service learning. The goal of Pax Populi as taken from their mission statement is to “put the tools of peacemaking into the hands of ordinary people through initiatives that advance peace through education and economic development within a framework of human rights.”

The tool we used in this case was Skype web conferencing to communicate with an Afghan tutee the students were individually partnered up with to teach English skills to whether they be …

Using Corpus To Facilitate Vocabulary Teaching In The Data-Driven Learning Classroom, Ge Lan

Purdue Linguistics, Literature, and Second Language Studies Conference

The synthesized paper covers the topics of “corpus linguistics” and “language instruction and pedagogies”. I would like to do a presentation to highlight the key points in my paper.

The Design And Research Potential Of Crow In Language Research And Teaching, Jie Gao, Sherri Craig

Purdue Linguistics, Literature, and Second Language Studies Conference

The proposal describes Crow’s developing background, preliminary structure, and research potentials. Possible scenarios and samples will be presented, opening ground for further contributions and suggestions. Crow serves as an example of how interdisciplinary projects could be launched, meanwhile integrating the use of corpus and database in language teaching and research.

Language Ideologies Of Tertiary Teachers In China: A Deeper Look Into English Educational Language Policy In Chinese Universities, Carrie Anne Thomas

Purdue Linguistics, Literature, and Second Language Studies Conference

No abstract provided.

Passport To Privilege: English For Survival In Pakistan, Sham Haidar

Purdue Linguistics, Literature, and Second Language Studies Conference

This qualitative study focuses on students, teachers, and administrators in different schools, from high to low SES, perceptions about the importance of English in academic, professional, and social life. Most study participants consider English competence a prerequisite for survival in Pakistan due its symbolic power and pragmatic need in life.

Error Types In Esl Writing In The United Arab Emirates, Hadi Banat

Purdue Linguistics, Literature, and Second Language Studies Conference

This study investigates the error types in second language writers’ papers at an institution in the United Arab Emirates. Morphological, syntactic, lexical, linguistic and semantic problems were highlighted and interpreted through error analysis and by comparing the linguistic systems of L1 and L2.

Effects Of Online Repetition Practice With Animated Visual Aid On The Acquisition Of Japanese Pitch Accent And Special Moras, Natsumi Suzuki, Mayu Miyamoto

Purdue Linguistics, Literature, and Second Language Studies Conference

This preliminary study examines the effectiveness of online repetition practice using an animated visual aid, "Karaoke Style", in promoting acquisition of Japanese pitch accent and special moras that could be applied to the curriiculum without using any class time.

A Reconceptualization Of Identity In Sla And Writing Research, Zhaozhe Wang

Purdue Linguistics, Literature, and Second Language Studies Conference

In this article, I argue for a reconceptualization of identity in SLA and writing studies that would problematize and complicate the current notion of identity as a property with or without clearly-defined boundaries and that views the construction and negotiation of identity as unidirectional.

Tonal Alignment And Segmental Timing In English-Speaking Children, Afua Blay

Purdue Linguistic Association Symposium

Tonal alignment has been shown to be sensitive to segmental timing. This suggests that development of the former may be influenced by the latter. The developmental literature reports that English-speaking children do not attain adult-like competence in segmental timing until after age 6. While this suggests that the ability for alignment may be mastered after this age, this possibility is speculative due to paucity of data. Accordingly, the present study sought to determine whether 7- and 8-year old English-speaking children exhibit adult-like alignment and segmental timing in their speech. Seven children (ages 7 and 8) and 10 adults (ages 19 …

Dialect Influence On California Chicano English, Laura Kompara

Purdue Linguistic Association Symposium

Chicano English is a distinct U.S. English dialect common in California and the Southwestern United States. As Spanish immigrants from Mexico moved to the United States, especially throughout the 1990s, they learned English but carried some of the sounds and grammatical constructions from Spanish with them. Chicano English has become its own variety of English with organized linguistic patterns and must not be confused with English of second-language learners. This paper offers an accessible background piece to Chicano English in California and the ways that this dialect is changing due to contact with the surrounding dialects. The linguistic patterns of …

The Interaction Of Palatal Coarticulation And Palatal Harmony In Kazan Tatar, Jenna Conklin

Purdue Linguistic Association Symposium

Vowel harmony and vowel-to-vowel coarticulation are long-distance assimilatory processes wherein certain vowels trigger systematic changes in adjacent vowels; harmony effects phonological change, resulting in phonemic alternation, while coarticulation effects phonetic change. This study examines the coarticulatory processes present in disharmonic words in Kazan Tatar, a language with left-to-right palatal harmony. While right-to-left palatal coarticulation is found to be widespread, left- to-right palatal coarticulation is virtually nonexistent in Tatar. It is hypothesized that gradient and categorical processes sharing the same triggers, targets, target feature, and direction cannot coexist; the diachronic implication for Tatar is that, once coarticulation was phonologized into harmony …

Uses Of Someone: Beyond Simple Person Reference, Yu-Han Lin

Purdue Linguistic Association Symposium

This study looks at how the non-recognitional reference form “someone” is used to refer to a known referent when a recognitional, such as a first name or a descriptive recognitional (Stiver, 2007), is available (Sacks & Schegloff, 1979). In a conversation, when participants have shared knowledge about who a referent is, the occurrence of “someone” connotes more than a simple reference to the referent. While there is little previous research concerning the use of a non-recognitional to complete particular social actions, in this study, I show how “someone” can be employed to accomplish disaffiliative actions such as complaints, accusations and …

The Role Of Antonymy On Semantic Change, Ashley M. Kentner

Purdue Linguistic Association Symposium

The role of antonymy in semantic change is investigated via the etymology of sets of English antonyms. The results show a developmental pattern wherein two words sharing an antonym tend to exhibit similar trajectories of semantic development. Metaphorical extension is proposed as the primary mechanism that produces this regularity with antonymy playing a secondary role. These results further support semantic change as regular, even in contexts not involving grammaticalization, and that furthermore, metaphor is not peripheral to language use. (See Lakoff & Johnson, 1980; Traugott & Dasher, 2002; Hopper & Traugott, 2003.) There are also implications for formal and cognitive …

The Interaction Of Gradient And Categorical Processes Of Long-Distance Vowel-To-Vowel Assimilation In Kazan Tatar, Jenna T. Conklin

Open Access Theses

Vowel harmony and vowel-to-vowel coarticulation are long-distance assimilatory processes wherein certain vowels trigger systematic changes in adjacent vowels; harmony effects phonological change, resulting in phonemic alternation, while coarticulation effects phonetic change. This thesis offers a novel acoustic analysis of the coarticulatory processes present in disharmonic words in Kazan Tatar, a language with left-to-right palatal harmony. While right-to-left palatal coarticulation is found to be widespread, left-to-right palatal coarticulation is virtually nonexistent in Tatar. It is hypothesized that gradient and categorical processes sharing the same triggers, targets, target feature, and direction cannot coexist; the diachronic implication for Tatar is that, once coarticulation …

"Schitworde": Analysis Of Linguistic Taboo In The History Of The Semantic Field Of Excrement, Julisa R. Edwards

Open Access Theses

Currently, scholarship in the field of linguistic taboo concentrates on the history of cursing, the usage of cursing in society, methodologies for collecting data on cursing, and the history and use of particular terms. However to date, there has been no examination of the semantic shifts of taboo terms, nor has there been any analyses of the history of the semantic fields of which these terms have membership, and so this study serves as a model for analyzing taboo terms according to etymological and semantic field history. This analysis reveals the interplay between language, culture, and taboo terminology because it …

Sentence Final Particles In Shanghainese: Navigating The Left Periphery, Ethan C. Myers

Open Access Theses

The purpose of the present study was to provide a modern syntactic analysis of Shanghainese, the regional language spoken in Shanghai, China. While Shanghainese has received significantly less exposure in the published literature compared to other regional counterparts, there is much that the language can contribute to the overall study of human language. In spite of the fact that Shanghainese has been experiencing a decline in first language learners in recent generations, this thesis aims to increase its exposure in the academic discourse and enforce the legitimacy of its standing as a distinct, living language and as a valuable piece …

English Vocabulary Teaching In Chinese Junior High Schools, Jinghong Zhang

Open Access Theses

Vocabulary learning is an important and indispensable part of the English language learning process. In this paper, the author tried to examine the vocabulary teaching practice in Chinese junior high schools. A questionnaire was used to investigate the problem from the perspectives of in-service teachers. Besides, the National English Curriculum (MOE, 2011) served as another important source of data in this study. The data revealed that progress has been made in English vocabulary teaching in Chinese junior high schools. Teachers are utilizing a wider range of educational resources and vocabulary teaching strategies during their instruction. The methods to assess vocabulary …

The Effect Of Cultural Competence On The Acquisition Of French T/V Pronouns, Stacey C. Latimer

Open Access Theses

The appropriate use of Tu/Vous French pronouns in everyday situations proves to be an ongoing challenge not only for native speakers but also for learners of the language. The complexity of the use of these pronouns goes beyond grammatical conjugation as it necessitates a consideration of the sociolinguistic and pragmatic situation with which one is presented. As a result, students with less exposure to T/V pronoun usage in the French culture will consequently have more difficulty in understanding the proper use of these pronouns. ^ Although some studies have looked at students' use of T/V pronouns in online interactions (Belz …

An Acoustic And Perceptual Analysis Of Vowels Preceding Final /-S/ Deletion In The Speech Of Granada, Spain And Cartagena, Colombia, Miguel Angel Rincon Perez

Open Access Dissertations

The objective of this dissertation is to explore the phenomenon ofdesdoblamiento vocálico or tense-lax vowel alternation in eastern Andalusian Spanish, particularly, in Granada Spanish and in the Spanish of Cartagena, Colombia. In previous studies of Eastern Andalusian Spanish (Navarro Tomás, 1939; Alonso et al., 1950; Mondéjar, 1970; Salvador, 1964, 1977) it has been claimed that in this variety of Spanish, vowels preceding deletion of post-nuclear /s/ undergo an open-closed vowel alternation. As a result, this vocalic alternation may serve as a functional marker distinguishing singular from plural in nouns and person-number in certain verbal forms rendered homophonous by the …

Metacognitive Instruction In L2 French: An Analysis Of Listening Performance And Automaticity, Shannon Becker

Open Access Dissertations

The goal of the present study was to investigate the instructional potential of metacognitive strategies to improve listening comprehension and the automaticity of listening processes. Metacognition can be described as focusing attention on the cognitive processes one is currently using. In the classroom, metacognitive listening instruction means guiding learners in applying metacognition to learning by monitoring the mental strategies they use while listening, evaluating the relative success of these strategies, and planning for future listening experiences. I argue that providing students with these tools to monitor and regulate the perceptual and cognitive processes involved in listening contributes significantly to building …

Language, Writing, And Social (Inter)Action: An Analysis Of Text-Based Chats In Macedonian And English, Mira Bekar

Open Access Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to investigate the text-based chatting practices of a particular community of native Macedonian speakers who chat both in Macedonian and in English (as their foreign language). Much research in computer-mediated communication (CMC) over the last decade has been done in English as L1. Some of the few studies which explored CMC cross-linguistically include the comparison of French vs. English (Werry, 1996), Japanese vs. English (Nishimura, 2003b), Spanish vs. English (del-Teso-Craviotto, 2006), Serbian vs. English (Radic, 2007) and Turkish vs. English (Savas, 2010). In these studies, a number of different language features (e.g., orthography, code …

Heritage Language Maintenance And Use Among 1.5 Generation Khmer College Students, Ravy S. Lao, Jin Sook Lee

Journal of Southeast Asian American Education and Advancement

Most studies of heritage language maintenance have reported a steep attrition in heritage language use among the 1.5 and 2nd generation children of immigrants, in particular among East Asian groups. However, not much is known about the role of heritage languages and the patterns of language maintenance within refugee communities. This study focuses on heritage language use and maintenance among 1.5 generation Khmer college students. The findings show that Khmer students report a high frequency of heritage language use within the home with their parents as well as outside of the home with their co-ethnic peers. The data reveal that …

English Language Learning Kindergartners' Dynamic Responses To Picturebook Reading, Jiyoung Yi

Open Access Dissertations

This study explores the nature of English language learning by kindergartners as they engage in multimodal literacy practices in response to picturebook readings in a mainstream classroom. Three focal Spanish-speaking kindergartners and their classroom teacher took part in this study. Data were collected daily for four months in a half-day morning kindergarten program. The participants' verbal and nonverbal classroom interactions during picturebook readings were coded and analyzed to characterize the nature of ELL kindergartners' multimodal responses to picturebook readings. Findings indicate that the classroom instruction did not fully address the differences in the focal children's levels of English language proficiency. …

Lessons Learned: Insights Into One Teacher’S Experience Working With Karen Refugee Students In The United States, Daniel J. Gilhooly

Journal of Southeast Asian American Education and Advancement

This study is informed by funds of knowledge and culturally responsive teaching studies that aim to explore and legitimize the cultural knowledge immigrant children bring to their communities and schools. Consequently, this paper specifically addresses issues related to the educational experiences of Karen children and their parents from one American teacher/researcher who has worked with the Karen for the past four years. In aggregate, this paper addresses issues germane to Karen education including; (1) background information on Karen educational experiences prior to resettlement, including a review of their journey from Thailand to the U.S.; (2) important characteristics of Karen culture; …

Chinese Undergraduate Students’ Preference For Chinese Tas And American Tas In The U.S. Context, Ruochen Li

Open Access Theses

This study researches and compares Chinese undergraduate students' (N=70) perceptions of and preferences for American TAs and Chinese TAs, and identifies factors that play significant roles in influencing Chinese students' perceptions and preferences. Multiple independent variables were measured, including age; gender; years at Purdue; years in the U.S.; GPA; overall TOEFL score; experiences with Chinese TAs; effectiveness of Chinese TAs; effectiveness of American TAs; English ability of Chinese TAs; and native speaker preference, ethnic identity, and level of acculturation, among which ethnic identity and level of acculturation are the major variables the current study aims to examine. Preference for Chinese …

Relationships Between Lexical Proficiency And L2 Oral Proficiency, Yunjung You

Open Access Dissertations

Lexical proficiency is strongly correlated with L2 productive language ability (Crossley, Salsbury, & McNamara, 2011; Laufer & Nation, 1995). While many studies have investigated the relationship between lexical proficiency and L2 writing ability, not many studies have been conducted in terms of spoken language. Also, few studies have focused on how non-native English speakers with different L1 backgrounds differently or similarly develop lexical proficiency in L2 speaking. Based on this background, the present study is conducted with three purposes: 1) to compare the effectiveness of measures of lexical proficiency in terms of their ability to predict the quality of L2 …

A Sociosemantic Examination Of Secondary English Teacher Written Feedback, Ryan Angus

Open Access Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to provide a functional linguistic based description of teacher writing comments in secondary ELA classrooms. Based within a case study methodology, this study used analytical tools from Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) and Legitimation Code Theory (LCT) in order to discover the various meanings that teachers make through their commenting practices. The findings of the study show that teacher comments focus on the content of the student writing, but also, significantly, help teachers to discursively realize various teacher identities. It was also found that teacher comments tended to either be concrete in their reference to …

Disentangling Fluency, Comprehensibility And Coherence: Toward A Better Understanding Of Oral Proficiency Profiles, Haiying Cao

Open Access Dissertations

This study is an empirical attempt to examine how removal of all possible disfluency markers can help disentangle proficiency components assessed by the Oral English Proficiency Test (OEPT) in order to help build empirical foundations for establishing OEPT profiles. Silent and filled pauses, false starts and repetitions were removed from 50 test recordings in WAVEPAD SOUND EDITOR. Five trained OEPT raters rated the original and edited speeches. Statistical analyses addressed three research questions: 1) do fluency, comprehensibility and coherence ratings significantly change after the disfluency manipulation; 2) do correlations between fluency, comprehensibility, coherence and coherence subcomponents change after the disfluency …

Relationship Between Holistic Rating Of Chinese Esl Speakers' Monologue Responses To Question Prompts In Placement Testing And Their Lexical Frequency Profiles, Xiao Yang

Open Access Theses

The study examines the relation between the holistic scores of three groups of Chinese ESL speakers and their lexical frequency profiles, based on their monologue responses to testing prompts. The theoretical framework of vocabulary acquisition and word frequency in vocabulary testing are discussed, and several previous studies that use VocabProfile to assess second language vocabulary are analyzed. These serve as the theoretical and methodological basis for conducting the current study, which adopts two schema in VocabProfile to first profile the word frequency in the speakers' monologue responses, and then look into the offlist words that are not captured by the …

Attachment Representations And Mother-Child Dialogue, Baiba Barene

Open Access Theses

With the emerging linguistic competencies of the child, dialogue becomes a regular part of mother-child everyday interactions, and may serve as one of the mechanisms of transmission of attachment in early and middle childhood. The goal of this study was to investigate the hypothesis about the co-constructive nature of children's knowledge of secure base script. Formation of the secure base script is a result of child-caregiver interactions that have been consolidated into a unit of knowledge available for use in attachment related situations. Individual attachment narratives and mother-child co-constructed narratives were collected from 86 mother-child dyads when children were 3.7 …