Linguistics Commons^™

Pedagogía De Hablantes De Herencia: Implicaciones Para El Entrenamiento De Instructores Al Nivel Universitario, Lina M. Reznicek-Parrado

Department of Modern Languages and Literatures: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This study researches the differences in pedagogical needs between learners of Spanish as a Foreign Language (FL learners) and learners of Spanish as a Heritage Language (HL learners) at the university level. By using the UNL Modern Languages and Literatures Department as an illustrative case and based on an analysis of the Heritage Language student profile in the context of the United States, this study seeks to explore arguments in favor of providing training for university-level instructors of Spanish that responds to the specific pedagogical needs of Heritage Language Learners.

The relevancy of this study is not only based on …

Six Principles Of Self-Regulated Learning: Developing Self-Regulated Language Learners, Andrea Michelle Gonzalez

Theses and Dissertations

Self-regulation is an important aspect of learning, and all teachers want to instill this ability in their students. However, students often feel confused or inadequate when it comes to being in charge of their own learning. This is especially true in intensive English programs where students expect the teacher to provide them with the information they need to pass tests and advance to higher levels. While the teacher's role cannot be overlooked, encouraging self-regulated learning is also vital to students' success in learning. The author saw a need for this in the intensive English program where she is teaching. She …

Development Of A New Experiment Demonstrating Categorical Perception, Kelsey Montzka

Student Research Initiative

In this project, we have created an online portal containing a multi-faceted demonstration of categorical perception. We utilized the 2I2AFC (two-interval, two alternative forced choice) stimulus presentation method which should elicit more categorical results from students, helping to better demonstrate the phenomenon (Gerrits & Schouten, 2004), and provided different acoustic cues illustrating CP. In addition to illustrations of CP for F2 formant transition, the new online portal is used to illustrate voice onset timing (VOT; the cue that distinguishes between the sounds [b] and [p]), as well as how contextual factors and participants’ linguistic backgrounds affect CP. The contextual factors …

Language Learning, Ecological Validity, And Innovation Under Conditions Of Superdiversity, Steven L. Thorne

World Languages and Literatures Faculty Publications and Presentations

This article describes three pedagogical proposals oriented toward moving language learning to the center of higher education, and further, to emphasizing the importance of both continued first (L1) and additional/foreign (L2) language learning as central to academic and professional success. The first project, titled Language-Integrated Knowledge Education (or LIKE), aims at making explicit the linguistic resources necessary for full participation in written and spoken academic contexts, in both students' first as well as (potentially) multiple foreign languages. The second project describes the benefits and rationale for broadening the use of online intercultural exchange within foreign language education as well as …

Misheard Me Oronyminator: Using Oronyms To Validate The Correctness Of Frequency Dictionaries, Jennifer G. Hughes

Master's Theses

In the field of speech recognition, an algorithm must learn to tell the difference between "a nice rock" and "a gneiss rock". These identical-sounding phrases are called oronyms. Word frequency dictionaries are often used by speech recognition systems to help resolve phonetic sequences with more than one possible orthographic phrase interpretation, by looking up which oronym of the root phonetic sequence contains the most-common words.

Our paper demonstrates a technique used to validate word frequency dictionary values. We chose to use frequency values from the UNISYN dictionary, which tallies each word on a per-occurance basis, using a proprietary text corpus, …

Bilingual Stroop In English Speakers With Russian As A Second Language: Exploring The Model Of The Bilingual Mind, Aleksandra Bril, Rebecca Green

FIVE: The Claremont Colleges Journal of Undergraduate Academic Writing

No abstract provided.

A Novice Teacher's Shoebox: A Volunteer Efl Teacher Training Curriculum, Piret Luik

Theses and Dissertations

This MA thesis presents the development of an online Pre-Missionary Training Centre (MTC) Teacher Training curriculum for missionaries of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints going to Mongolia to teach English. The thesis summarizes relevant literature on curriculum development and teacher preparation including a comparison of three prevalent curriculum development models - the ADDIE, Richards' principles, and Nation and Macalister. Thereafter, the process through which the online Pre-MTC Teacher Training was developed is outlined followed by the presentation of the curriculum. The implications, limitations and suggestions for improvement are then discussed.

Global Learning Outcomes Of A Domestic Foreign Language Immersion Program, Kathleen Ann Godfrey

Dissertations and Theses

There is a critical need for college students to receive an education that fosters global learning in preparation for life in an increasingly interdependent and interconnected world. Universities recognize this need and endeavor to provide a range of programs that target global knowledge and skills, and meet the needs of traditional and non-traditional students. Domestic foreign language immersion programs can contribute to student global learning and development by providing students with an opportunity to participate in a rich global learning experience in the U.S. While some researchers have investigated impacts of domestic foreign language immersion on language proficiency, few studies …

Phonological Parameters Of Indigenous And Asl Country Name-Signs, Carolyn J. Stephens

Journal of Interpretation

This investigation was guided by the following research questions: What are the American Sign Language (ASL) and indigenous signs for each country in the world? What phonological features do they exhibit? Are these features consistent with previous research on ASL? The research presented in this article is the result of a project that provides a comprehensive online compilation of country-name signs. A website was created to display both written descriptions and videos of the signs, and 180 countries with 314 total variations were identified, documented, recorded, coded and analyzed. A thorough literature review was conducted and an analysis of phonological …

Participation Framework And Footing Shifts In An Interpreted Academic Meeting, Annie R. Marks

Journal of Interpretation

Students training to become sign language interpreters are often faced with the challenge of negotiating boundaries with the deaf and hearing consumers with whom they interact. Many interpreter-training programs have traditionally taught students that it is most appropriate to maintain “neutrality” in our interactions and in our interpretations. (Metzger, 1999). The objective of this study is to add to limited amount of research that examines footings in interpreted interaction. Metzger (1999) performed one of the only studies of participation framework and footings in American Sign Language-English interpreted encounters. This study is a replication of her initial work and aims to …

May 14, 2013: Summer Seminar Series On Digital Research, Department Of English

Gleanings: Department of English Blog Archive

No abstract provided.

May 12, 2013: Dissertation Seminar For Lit Scholars At Newberry (5/15/13 Deadline), Department Of English

Gleanings: Department of English Blog Archive

No abstract provided.

Predicate Structures, Gesture, And Simultaneity In The Representation Of Action In British Sign Language: Evidence From Deaf Children And Adults, Kearsy Cormier, Sandra Smith, Zed Sehyr

Communication Sciences and Disorders Faculty Articles and Research

British Sign Language (BSL) signers use a variety of structures, such as constructed action (CA), depicting constructions (DCs), or lexical verbs, to represent action and other verbal meanings. This study examines the use of these verbal predicate structures and their gestural counterparts, both separately and simultaneously, in narratives by deaf children with various levels of exposure to BSL (ages 5;1 to 7;5) and deaf adult native BSL signers. Results reveal that all groups used the same types of predicative structures, including children with minimal BSL exposure. However, adults used CA, DCs, and/or lexical signs simultaneously more frequently than children. These …

Delay Of Principle B In Spontaneous Speech, Kelcie Burns Reid

Honors Scholar Theses

There is a debate over whether children exhibit a delay in the development of Principle B, one of three chief binding principles. The present study examines spontaneous speech data from nine children and identifies Principle B errors in third person pronouns. The study uses spectrographic analysis on a sample of utterances to determine the frequency of cliticized pronoun use. The results found that children do not make Principle B errors in spontaneous speech, and that they do not use shortened pronoun forms more often than fully pronounced pronouns.

Semantic And Phonological False Memories In Adults' First And Second Language, Amber Victoria Sapp

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

I explored second language acquisition in adults by examining false memories for semantically and phonologically related word lists in both the participants' first language and second language. I expected less proficient bilinguals who are initially acquiring their second language would make more phonological false memory errors, like children learning their first language. In contrast, I anticipated that more proficient bilinguals would make more semantic false memory errors in the DRM paradigm as the semantic stores for their two languages overlap more fully. Forty-one English-Spanish bilinguals (High Proficiency: n = 17; Low Proficiency: n = 24) completed a false memory task …

Locating Linguistic Power Relationships: A Glimpse Into Transnational Feminist Dialogue Through Comparison Of Major Feminist Publications In The Us And China (2000-2012), Shuli Han

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

Does the use of English as a universal language in the transnational feminist dialogue empower women globally? In what way does English shape the flow of conversation by circulating some feminist knowledge while neglecting others? Through conducting content analysis research on major feminist publications in both China and the US, this thesis probes the limitations of English as “Lingua Franca” through comparing authors, topics, and the use of references in the Collections of Women’s Studies (CWS), the most prestigious feminist journal in China, with Signs, one of the core feminist journals in the US. Through the comparison …

The Case Of Brown, Sara Ellingsworth

Colloquy Undergraduate Research Journal

The world is understood through the formation of categories, of defining what something is and what something is not, totalizing an experience, person, or word in order to come to an understanding of its essential meaning. Associations color one’s thoughts whether they are fully acknowledged or not. Without exploring the associations, accumulated through personal experience, that determine one’s view of another individual, there is a danger of marginalizing that person, instead of allowing them to fully inhabit their identity. In the following, I aim to expose the ways in which Richard Rodriguez uses Jacques Derrida’s concept of deconstruction as a …

Classifier Constructions As Procedural Signs In American Sign Language, Stephen Perry Jones Ii

Theses and Dissertations

In this thesis I will be analyzing what has typically, in sign language literature, been termed classifiers and classifier constructions. I will be approaching them from the pragmatic perspective by applying Relevance Theory to explain their usage as representations that manipulate and modify their referents. The data comes from texts signed by native users of American Sign Language and are from academic lectures, interviews, narrative, and course curriculum. I have found that Relevance Theory adequately describes why and when classifiers constructions are used and that they function as a procedural referring expression.

Functional Morphology And Performance Of Ecological Systems With Extreme Pressures: Waterfall Climbing And Predator-Prey Interaction In Amphidromous Gobioid Fishes, Takashi Maie

All Dissertations

Understanding the functional capacity and performance of organisms provides a strong foundation for recognizing the forces that are responsible for their form, and how they might adapt to variable or changing environmental conditions. Amphidromous stream goby fishes live in a habitat subject to two potentially extreme selective pressures: (1) predation on juvenile fish returning to freshwater from the ocean, and (2) the demand to climb waterfalls to reach adult breeding habitats. Recognizing these selection pressures, I present studies evaluating (1) the mechanisms underlying the functional capacity for adhesive performance, and (2) the risk that predation imposes on amphidromous gobies. Specifically, …

April 26, 2013: Postcolonial Environments/Transnational Aesthetics At Notre Dame (5/3/13), Department Of English

Gleanings: Department of English Blog Archive

No abstract provided.

Facilitating Language Learner Motivation: Teacher Motivational Practice And Teacher Motivational Training, Shelby Werner Thayne

Theses and Dissertations

This study investigated the connection between teacher use of motivational strategies and observable learner motivated behavior in an adult Intensive English Program (IEP) in the United States. The question of whether teachers would find value in being specifically trained in the use of motivational strategies as part of teacher educations programs was examined. Eight teachers and 117 students were observed over the course of 24 classes using a classroom observation instrument, the motivation orientation of language teaching (MOLT), originally developed by Guilloteaux and Dörnyei (2008) and modified by the current researchers. The MOLT observation scheme allowed for real-time coding of …

April 23, 2013: Happy Shakespeare's Birthday, Department Of English

Gleanings: Department of English Blog Archive

No abstract provided.

April 22, 2013: Comparative Drama Is Pleased To Announce The Publication Of Our Spring 2013 Issue, Volume 47.1., Department Of English

Gleanings: Department of English Blog Archive

No abstract provided.

April 19, 2013: Nagle Essay On Queer Temporality Published, Department Of English

Gleanings: Department of English Blog Archive

No abstract provided.

Exploring Different Factors Of Language Development, Elizabeth Scribner

2013 Awards for Excellence in Student Research & Creative Activity - Documents

The purpose of this paper is to explore the different factors that affect language development and examine successful intervention strategies. It includes descriptions of home exposure and involvement, bilingualism and culture awareness, as well as the importance of early intervention. Teaching opportunities and coaching features are also explored. Language is a feature every individual should have the opportunity to explore, and can be done in a variety of different ways. The term 'language' does not necessarily refer to English; it can be applied to most languages and language users. Language is needed for both, receptive and expressive functioning. Receptive includes …

April 15, 2013: Mfa/Phd Festival: Wmu Creative Writing Program, Department Of English

Gleanings: Department of English Blog Archive

No abstract provided.

April 12, 2013: "Tony's Tigers": Please Support The Relay For Life Team In Honor Of Dr. Anthony Ellis, Department Of English

Gleanings: Department of English Blog Archive

No abstract provided.

April 11, 2013: Please Share The Following With Your Students, Subscribers And Associates:, Department Of English

Gleanings: Department of English Blog Archive

No abstract provided.

Multilingual Extraction Ontologies, Dr. Deryle Lonsdale

Journal of Undergraduate Research

On December 29, 2009 we were informed that our application for a 2010 MEG grant was approved. This final report sketches the accomplishments attained during the project’s timeframe since then.

April 8, 2013: Wmu Offers Summer Writing Workshops For Teachers, Kids, Department Of English

Gleanings: Department of English Blog Archive

No abstract provided.