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Morphological Decomposition In Heritage Language Speakers, Juliet Thuy Phuong Huynh

Linguistics & TESOL Dissertations - Archive

This dissertation investigates the grammatical processing in a heritage language (HL), or the first language (L1) in a home or minority setting that has become a non-dominant language, and a more dominant second language (L2). Five experiments were conducted to examine (i) whether grammatical processing in L1 Vietnamese (Experiments 1 and 2) and L2 English (Experiments 3, 4, and 5) is different in Vietnamese HL speakers from those who are late Vietnamese-English bilinguals, and, if there is a difference, (ii) how it differs between these two types of bilingual speakers. In order to test the grammatical processing, morphological decomposition of …

Expertise And Expression In Second Language Acquisition: An Embodied Perspective, Mia Burnett

Senior Theses

In directing our attention to mundane aspects of the human experience, we can discover new ways of interacting with and understanding the world. One such formative experience, regularly seen as mundane in much of the world, is learning a second language. It is no exaggeration to say that second language acquisition is one of the processes which most influences and drives our globalized world, and yet we understand and study this process relatively little.

Continuing the trends of naturalizing phenomenological inquiry, this project attempts to evaluate phenomenological approaches to skill acquisition alongside second language acquisition theory and research through an …

Brechas En La Enseñanza De La Cultura Del Español Como Segunda Lengua, Elizabeth Mary Maldonado

Master's Theses

Esta investigación analiza el contenido cultural de cuatro libros de texto de español como L2 (segunda lengua) a nivel principiante publicados en los últimos siete años. La cultura suele estar presentada con poca profundidad por dos razones: hay más enfoque en conceptos de gramática y vocabulario y es un reto encontrar recursos auténticos a nivel principiante. Para investigar este problema, uso como guía las directrices del Método Comunicativo (MC) de Lee y VanPatten (2003) de la enseñanza de cultura. Además investigo si los libros presentan actividades con la cultura integrada, si es material que enseña "Cultura" o "cultura" y si …

Learner Persistence In English For Speakers Of Other Languages (Esol) Programs, Elyse Waksman

Sustainability and Social Justice

Persistence – or continued, intense study – is a common challenge for adults in English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) programs because of various institutional, situational, and dispositional factors. The current state and federal funding standards for adult ESOL programs are driven by human capital theory, and therefore most funders require demonstrated employment outcomes for students. These top-down objectives do not always align with English learners’ own motivations and goals. ESOL organizations must consider the complexities of these interacting forces to develop effective persistence strategies for their constituents. This case study of an ESOL organization in central Massachusetts is …

Grammatical Gender Acquisition In L2 Spanish, Alanna Quinn, Mónica Cabrera

Honors Thesis

Grammatical gender, identified as “one of the most difficult structures that non-native speakers need to acquire” (Alamry & Sabourin, 2017) does not exist in English. L1 English speakers learning L2 Spanish must acquire this new grammatical feature. This thesis investigates this acquisition.

A literature review synthesizes the findings of studies on L2 acquisition of Spanish grammatical gender, and includes an overview of the structure and function of gender within both English and Spanish, as well as a variety of L2 acquisition process hypotheses. An analysis of four introductory Spanish textbooks is offered regarding their presentation of grammatical gender. The findings …

Speech Perception In “Bubble” Noise: Korean Fricatives And Affricates By Native And Non-Native Korean Listeners, Jiyoung Choi

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The current study examines acoustic cues used by second language learners of Korean to discriminate between Korean fricatives and affricates in noise and how these cues relate to those used by native Korean listeners. Stimuli consist of naturally-spoken consonant-vowel-consonant-vowel (CVCV) syllables: /sɑdɑ/, /s*ɑdɑ/, /tʃɑdɑ/, /tʃ^hɑdɑ/, and /tʃ*ɑdɑ/. In this experiment, the “bubble noise” methodology of Mandel at al. (2016) was used to identify the time-frequency locations of important cues in each utterance, i.e., where audibility of the location is significantly correlated with correct identification of the utterance in noise. Results show that non-native Korean listeners can discriminate between …

Context Of Learning And Second Language Development Of Spanish Vowels, Avizia Long, Megan Solon, Silvina Bongiovanni

Faculty Publications

The present study explored development in Spanish vowel production during a short-term study abroad program. The production patterns of a group of learners studying abroad in a 4-week program in the Dominican Republic were compared in terms of overall vowel quality, tendency to diphthongize /e/ and /o/, and vowel duration to those of a similar group of learners studying in the at-home context. Results revealed no significant changes or differences between groups in vowel quality or diphthongization, but a significant improvement (i.e., reduction) in vowel duration for /a/, /o/, and /u/ for the at-home group only. Findings are discussed in …

The Social Factors Of Fossilization, Ashley Brigham

MA TESOL Collection

The notion of fossilization has been one of the most controversial, yet enduring topics in second language acquisition (SLA) theory since its first appearance in Selinker’s 1972 seminal article “Interlanguage.” In the past, work regarding fossilization sought to either support or challenge its existence, to determine the putative causes and to predict what linguistic items were prone to becoming fossilized. Initially, the possible causes which enjoyed the most attention were first language interference and the learner’s age and length of residency in the target language community. Now, however, with the current climate of SLA acknowledging that both learning and non-learning …

Perception Of American–English Vowels By Early And Late Spanish–English Bilinguals, Miriam Baigorri, Luca Campanelli, Erika S. Levy

Publications and Research

Increasing numbers of Hispanic immigrants are entering the US and learning American–English (AE) as a second–language (L2). Previous studies investigating the relationship between AE and Spanish vowels have revealed an advantage for early L2 learners for their accuracy of L2 vowel perception. Replicating and extending such previous research, this study examined the patterns with which early and late Spanish–English bilingual adults assimilated naturally-produced AE vowels to their native vowel-inventory and the accuracy with which they discriminated the vowels. Twelve early Spanish–English bilingual, 12 late Spanish–English bilingual, and 10 monolingual listeners performed perceptual-assimilation and categorical-discrimination tasks involving AE /i,ɪ,ɛ,ʌ,æ,ɑ,o/. Early bilinguals …

Loanwords In Context: Lexical Borrowing From English To Japanese And Its Effects On Second-Language Vocabulary Acquisition, Andrew Michael Sowers

Dissertations and Theses

Research has shown that cognates between Japanese and English have the potential to be a valuable learning tool (Daulton, 2008). Yet little is known on how Japanese learners of English produce cognates in context. Recently, studies have argued that cognates can cause a surprisingly high number of syntactic errors in sentence writing activities with Japanese learners (Rogers, Webb, & Nakata, 2014; Masson, 2013). In the present study, I investigated how Japanese learners of English understood and used true cognates (words that have equivalent meanings in both languages) and non-true cognates (words where the Japanese meaning differs in various ways from …

Effects Of Multimedia Instruction On L2 Acquisition Of High-Level, Low-Frequency English Vocabulary Words, Euna Cho

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The present study examined the effects of multimedia enhancement in video form in addition to textual information on L2 vocabulary instruction for high-level, low-frequency English words among Korean learners of English. Although input-based incidental learning of L2 vocabulary through extensive reading has been conventionally believed to be appropriate for high-frequency words, intentional or explicit vocabulary learning is suggested to be more sensible or realistic for the acquisition of low-frequency academic words. Multimedia support in foreign language instruction has revealed benefits in promoting direct teaching and explicit learning of L2 vocabulary; moreover, adding textual information to video seems to boost students’ …

An Analytical System For Determining Disciplinary Vocabulary For Data-Driven Learning: An Example From Civil Engineering, Philippa Jean Otto

Dissertations and Theses

Data-driven learning (DDL), an inductive teaching approach in which students learn through corpus interaction, has gained recent traction as way to teach specialized vocabulary in English for Specific Purposes (ESP) classes. There is little research, however, that addresses how to choose specialized vocabulary for teaching with DDL.

This study addressed this gap in research by exploring the potential of a three-part analytical, corpus-based system for determining vocabulary to teach with DDL for a specific context of language use. This system included (1) identifying words that were significantly more frequent in a specialized expert corpus than in a corpus of general …

Lexical Bundles In Applied Linguistics And Literature Writing: A Comparison Of Intermediate English Learners And Professionals, Kathryn Marie Johnston

Dissertations and Theses

Lexical bundles (fixed sequences of three to four words) have been described as building blocks of discourse, both written and spoken (Biber & Barbieri, 2007), and as a useful mechanical device for creating writing that is suited for its academic field (Hyland, 2008). Having noticed that the academic theses of my students at Longdong University in Qingyang, China seemed very different from professional writing in their fields, I created a thesis project that addressed the question of how professionals in their fields were using bundles and how the learners' use of these bundles in terms of frequency, structure, and function …

Wiki-Based Collaborative Creative Writing In The Esl Classroom, Rima Elabdali

Dissertations and Theses

Despite the growing number of L2 studies examining digitally-mediated collaborative writing, the vast majority of these studies have focused on academic writing tasks. This study examined the dynamics and perceptions of groups of ESL students who used wikis to write collaborative short stories. The study also compared the short stories written in groups with posttest short stories written individually in terms of creativity, accuracy, and complexity. The study involved nine students taking a Creative Writing course in an intensive English program at a large university in the U.S. It followed a multiple case study design; the students were divided into …

Measuring Fluency: Temporal Variables And Pausing Patterns In L2 English Speech, Soohwan Park

Open Access Dissertations

This paper examines temporal variables and pausing patterns in L2 English speech to investigate fluency as a measurable component of oral proficiency. Fluency can be defined as ‘speed and smoothness of oral delivery’. We can measure the speed of oral delivery through calculating temporal variables such as speech rate and mean syllables per run where ‘run’ is the vocal chunk between silent pauses. The smoothness of oral delivery can be measured through examination of pausing patterns by classifying the placement of pauses. Pauses may be placed in expected positions such as clause/phrase boundaries or in unexpected positions. Pause placement in …

Examining The Role Of Corrective Feedback On Learners' Modified Output Of The Spanish Past Tense In Face-To-Face And Telecollaboration Contexts, Arnaldo Robles

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

In the field of Second Language Acquisition (SLA) there has been a demand for further research to look into how corrective feedback (CF) can aid adult second language (L2) learners’ language performance and development. More specifically, to what degree elicitations with prompts (i.e., a form of explicit correct feedback) can affect the modified output of adult learners of Spanish during task performance. Additionally, how face-to-face and telecollaboration environments might play a role in learner’s modified output. Therefore, this dissertation study examines the effects of elicitations with prompts by measuring learners’ modified output in producing the Spanish past tense – the …

The Phenomenology Of Second Language Acquisition: Poiesis And The Emergence Of The Multilingual Subject, Courtney E. Scarborough

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

This study explores relationships between second language acquisition (SLA), poetic language, and embodied cognition and its connection to second language speakers’ linguistic self-formation, or their distinct ways of speaking and thinking. In particular, this study examines processes by which second language (L2) learners’ subjective realities are constructed and demonstrates that these processes are inherently poetic, emerging from a combination of the constraining structures of the language system and second language speakers’ phenomenological experiences. The context of the study is a poetry-making activity the researcher designed and took place in the English Department Writing Center at California State University, San Bernardino. …

Identity And Investment In The Community Esl Classroom, Jennifer Marie Sacklin

Dissertations and Theses

After Norton Peirce's (1995, Norton, 2000) groundbreaking work in conceptualizing identity as "multiple, changing, and contradictory," many researchers have explored language learners' identities. However, few studies of identity have been conducted within the "overlooked and understudied" (Mathews-Aydinli, 2008) context of adult community ESL (English as a Second Language), and even fewer studies have focused on LESLLA (low-educated second language and literacy acquisition) learners in mainstream community ESL programs.

This thesis, based on a case study of an adult LESLLA learner in a community ESL class, analyzes how this student's identity, the social context of her life, and the classroom space …

Gestures As Mimetic Forms Of Identity In Post-Secondary Italian As A Foreign Language Classrooms: A Sociocultural Perspective, Ilaria Nardotto Peltier

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This study investigates the use of mimetic gestures of identity by foreign language teachers of Italian and their students in college classes as a form of meaning-making. All four of the teachers were found to use a variety of Italian gestures as a regular aspect of their teaching and presentation of self. Students and teachers also were found to mirror each other’s gestures. None of the teachers had been video-recorded before the study and all were surprised to see the degree to which they appeared to be Italian, although at the same time all believed this to be an important …

Order Of Acquisition: A Comparison Of L1 And L2 English And Spanish Morpheme Acquisition, Kyle A. Mcferren

Senior Honors Theses

This paper examines the order of acquisition for grammatical morphemes in Spanish and English first and second language learners. Brown’s first morpheme order study, conducted in 1973, laid the foundation for what would become one of the most common types of study conducted within the field of second language acquisition. The four orders of acquisition relevant here are examined and compared in order to support the roles of salience, morphophonological regularity, complexity, input frequency, and native language transfer in first and/or second language acquisition. The conclusion is that these five determinants work interdependently in determining the difficulty of acquiring a …

Incidental Vocabulary Learning In Second Language Acquisition: A Literature Review, Falcon Restrepo-Ramos

World Languages & Cultures Department Publications

This literature review aims to analyze previous studies that address the incidental learning of vocabulary in second language acquisition. The articles included in this literature review look into the understanding of vocabulary learning through incidental means, the relationship of reading and incidental vocabulary learning, and the strategies and tasks that promote the incidental learning of vocabulary. The findings show that L2 learners develop much of their vocabulary by incidental means through exposure to words in informative contexts. Moreover, this exposure is promoted by reading, and enhanced through multimodal glosses. Further research may focus on listening for higher lexical retention rates, …

The Effect Of Short-Term Study Abroad On Second Language Spanish Phonetic Development, Silvina Bongiovanni, Avizia Y. Long, Megan Solon, Erik Willis

Faculty Publications

This study explores the impact of study abroad (SA) on second language Spanish phonetic development. Twenty-seven English-speaking learners of Spanish, 15 who were participating in a 4-week SA program in the Dominican Republic and 12 who were studying at their home (AH) institution, were recorded 5 weeks apart (at the approximate beginning and end of their respective programs). Recordings were analyzed acoustically, and four groups of segments were examined: word-initial /p t k/, intervocalic /b d ɡ/, intervocalic /ɾ/ and /r/, and word-final /l/. Productions at Time 1 and Time 2 as well as between the SA and AH groups …

Emerging Lexical Organization From Intentional Vocabulary Learning, Adam Jones

Dissertations and Theses

The role that vocabulary learning plays in second language acquisition has been receiving increased attention from both teachers and researchers. However, there is still much that is not known about the processes through which new words become functioning components of the mental lexicon. This study used a word association test (WAT) to investigate how new words are initially integrated into the lexicon immediately after being studied for the first time. This initial lexical organization of new words was compared with the existing lexical organization of well-known items. In addition, this study investigated how sentence writing, thought to encourage deeper levels …

Second-Language English Fluency Change In Native-Speaker Context, John Zehnder

Journal of Undergraduate Research at Minnesota State University, Mankato

This study examines the influence of social context on oral proficiency change among English language learners on the campus of an American university. Speech samples were taken from 2 rounds of interviews with 9 East Asian women. These were analyzed using the phonetic analysis program Praat in order to determine each speaker’s rate of stressed syllables at the beginning and end of the study. The change in these rates was used as a proxy for fluency change. This was then compared with each speaker’s social context. The results suggested that English language learners improve their fluency when they have at …

Some Complexities In English Article Use And Acquisition, Victoria Somogyi

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Along with preposition use, native-like article use is one of the greatest difficulties for learners of English, particularly for those learners whose first languages do not have articles. And unlike many other areas involved in the mastery of the language, articles continue to present a challenge for advanced learners. A significant number of article usages are complex in that they are neither simple to explain (in that the does not encode definiteness or contextual uniqueness) nor strictly idiomatic. This paper a) provides an overview and critique of the scholarship on articles and their acquisition, b) takes a detailed look at …

Ethnic Group Affiliation And Second Language Acquisition, Sarah Franklin, Dr. Wendy Baker-Smemoe

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Over the past forty years a significant amount of research has explored how to improve second language (L2) acquisition, most of which has examined factors that influence this ability. Little research, however, has examined how ethnic group affiliation (defined as how closely you feel attached to your native culture and language) affects this learning, especially in bilingual communities. It is hoped that the current research will not only help in understanding the many factors that influence L2 acquisition, but may also demonstrate how ethnic group affiliation can be used to preserve endangered languages throughout the world.

A Study Of Second Language Acquisition Of Glottal Ejectives Through A Comparative Phonetic Analysis Of Mayan Q’Eqchi’ Native Speakers And English L2 Learners Of Q’Eqchi’, Karl Olaw Christian Wagner, Dr. Wendy Baker Smemoe

Journal of Undergraduate Research

The research the grant from the Office of Research and Creative Activities has allowed me to perform has been a wonderful opportunity that has helped me to take my undergraduate work to a higher level. To be able to apply the linguistic knowledge I’ve gained in the classroom in real research, even research abroad at that has been of great worth to me. The entire process has been a learning experience and continues to be so as I finish my work on this project. This process, from the first rough sketches of a possible research project to the current work …

The Effect Of Age On Second Language Acquisition In Older Adults, Charisse Alaine Major

Theses and Dissertations

A primary purpose of second language (L2) research is to determine what factors hinder or help L2 acquisition. One aspect that has a strong effect on L2 proficiency is learners' age of onset of acquisition (AOA) (Johnson & Newport, 1989). These studies and others suggest that younger learners are more adept than older learners at learning an L2, especially to a near-native level. However, some older learners can become quite proficient in an L2 (Ioup, et al. 1994; Bialystok, 1997; Bongaerts, 1999), although learners who have acquired the L2 over the age of 30 are rarely studied. Why is it …

Evaluating And Automating The Annotation Of A Learner Corpus, Alexandr Rosen, Jirka Hana, Barbora Stindlova, Anna Feldman

Department of Linguistics Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

The paper describes a corpus of texts produced by non-native speakersof Czech. We discuss its annotation scheme, consisting of three interlinked tiers,designed to handle a wide range of error types present in the input. Each tier correctsdifferent types of errors; links between the tiers allow capturing errors in word orderand complex discontinuous expressions. Errors are not only corrected, but alsoclassified. The annotation scheme is tested on a data set including approx. 175,000words with fair inter-annotator agreement results. We also explore the possibility ofapplying automated linguistic annotation tools (taggers, spell checkers and grammarcheckers) to the learner text to support or even …

Second Language Gesture And Acculturation In Study Abroad Contexts, Christie Marie Gardner

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Motivationis an integral part of learning; Gestures are an important aspect of human communication, and culture plays a significant role in shaping all of these human elements. This study explores the relationship betweensocial, cultural-historical activityand second language(L2) gesture acquisitionas student motivations both drive, and emanate from, the L2 learning process. Six American students participating in a study-abroad program in Chile were evaluated at three different levels of L2 proficiency (beginning, intermediate, and advanced) for L2 gesture articulations and motivational developments. During the semester-long investigation, three audio-video recorded interviews were conducted to observe L2 gestural behaviors, and two e-mail logs were …