Anthropological Linguistics and Sociolinguistics Commons^™

Ideology, Access, And Status: Spanish-English Bilinguals In The Foreign-Language Classroom, Michael E. Rolland

Graduate Student Publications and Research

Spanish language teaching in US higher education is today generally divided between ‘foreign language’ courses for novice learners and ‘heritage language’ courses for Hispanic/Latinx students with some knowledge of the language. However, ‘heritage’ students are a linguistically diverse group, and are also often enrolled at institutions where heritage courses are not offered. Little research to date has studied ‘heritage’ speakers enrolled in ‘foreign’ language courses. For this study I conducted semi-structured interviews to explore the affective and ideological characteristics of bilingual students enrolled in elementary Spanish courses. As the literature suggests, I find that these students have a generally low …

Subject Pronoun Expression In Second Language Learners: A Corpus Study, Falcon Restrepo-Ramos

World Languages & Cultures Department Publications

No abstract provided.

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 …

A Case For An Ecological Approach And Against Language Commodification In Elt, Vinicius O. Souza

MA TESOL Collection

This paper aims to provide an alternative approach to the English language education practiced in many developing countries which can help reverse their current low-proficiency status, as revealed by standard international examinations such as the PISA scores and others. The author argues that this can be best accomplished by adopting an ecological approach to teaching which promotes language learning as emergent and socially situated phenomena, two concepts largely neglected by current teaching methods. In fact, many of these countries have long been dominated by an extremely commodified and cognitivist ELT market, where business interests have taken precedence over pedagogical considerations. …

English In South Asia And Pedagogical Implications, Brittany R. Ehret

Senior Honors Theses

English at present maintains a significant role as a second or foreign language in the region of South Asia as well as globally. In a discussion of this topic, it is important to explore a brief history of the expansion of English and its origins in South Asia. It is also essential to provide a background of South Asian English and its unique linguistic characteristics as well as its use in different contexts of South Asia. The perspectives of linguists and educators who are native to the region of South Asia should be included as much as possible in this …

Genetic Characteristics Of An Ancient Nomadic Group In Northern China, Haijing Wang, Lu Chen, Binwen Ge, Ye Zhang, Hong Zhu, Hui Zhou

Human Biology Open Access Pre-Prints

Nomadic populations have played a significant role in the history of not only China but also in many nations worldwide. Because they had no written language, an important aspect in the study of these people is the discovery of their tombs. It has been generally accepted that Xiongnu was the first empire created by nomadic tribe in the 3rd century B.C. However, little population genetic information is available concerning the Donghu, another flourishing nomadic tribe at the same period because of the restriction of materials until Jinggouzi site was excavated. In order to test the genetic characteristics of ancient people …

The Hegemony Of English In South African Education, Kelsey E. Figone

Scripps Senior Theses

The South African Constitution recognizes 11 official languages and protects an individual’s right to use their mother-tongue freely. Despite this recognition, the majority of South African schools use English as the language of learning and teaching (LOLT). Learning in English is a struggle for many students who speak indigenous African languages, rather than English, as a mother-tongue, and the educational system is failing its students. This perpetuates inequality between different South African communities in a way that has roots in the divisions of South Africa’s past. An examination of the power of language and South Africa’s experience with colonialism and …

Choice, Coercion, Capabilities And Conflict: Multilingualism, Human Development And Peacekeeping In A Globalized World, Megan R. Thompson

Honors Projects

The development of English into an international lingua franca is not an inevitable result of globalizing forces. Instead, the “triumph” of the English language and the consequent decline of the world’s linguistic diversity cannot be viewed in isolation of its parallel history of conquest, violence, power and exploitation. Today, the languages privileged by the powerful—not only English, but also other dominant languages or standard varieties of those languages—determine access to social, economic and political mobility. This fact renders any discussion of language “choice” irrelevant—when a choice yields the sacrifice of basic human capabilities on one hand and the denial of …

Acquisition Of The Non-Generic Definite Article By Spanish Learners Of English As A Foreign Language, Christina Isabelli, Rachel Slough

Scholarship

This study explains the acquisition of the non-generic uses of the English definite article the by L2 learners. Chilean university students completed a questionnaire containing deleted obligatory uses of the. in all, four identified categories showed to have different accuracy rates. Of the four categories, the one most similar to the L1 was the least difficult to acquire while the most different resulted as the most difficult. This concurs with other research and can be explained by L1 rules that are transferred to the L2. The other two categories did not show the same acquisition rate as compared to previous …

Observing Census Enumeration Of Non-English Speaking Households In The 2010 Census: Spanish Report, Christina Isabelli, Yuling Pan, Lubkemann Stephen

Scholarship

This study was part of an ethnographic research project in the 2010 Census Assessment and Research Program to observe the 2010 Census Nonresponse Followup interviews with households that speak a language other than English, in areas of the U.S. with heavy concentrations of residents with limited English proficiency. A multilingual research team consisting of seven sub-teams in the seven primary languages (Arabic, Chinese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, and Vietnamese) was commissioned to carry out the research in the 2010 Census.

The objectives of this research were to identify: (1) how language and socio-cultural factors affect the enumeration of non-English-speaking populations …

The English Experience: An Examination Of Philippine English Use Among Filipino Immigrants In The United States, Nicholas Macias-Williams

Theses Digitization Project

The present study aims to discover how a variety of world English, like Philippine English, serves Filipino immigrants who use it here in the United States. In order to conduct this investigation, a series of one-on-one interviews with ten Filipino immigrants was conducted. This thesis examines the attitudes of a group of adult Filipino immigrants to the U.S. towards the English language vis-a-vis their Filipino languages, and their experiences using English in the Philippines and the U.S.

Acquisition Of Spanish Gender Agreement In Two Learning Contexts: Study Abroad And At Home., Christina Isabelli

Scholarship

The goal of this study is to describe the acquisition rate for gender acquisition in Spanish and to show whether individual variability and language contact may affect this rate. The participants were intermediate second language Spanish (first language English) learners in the study abroad and at-home contexts over a 4-month period. The participants received grammaticality judgment tests coded for morphological class of the modified noun as well as attributive and predicative adjectives. Data were also collected on social behavior and language contact in Spanish and English in order to explain data outcome. The findings suggest that no difference exists between …

How Esol Teachers Become Aware Of Communicative Peace, Josette Leblanc

MA TESOL Collection

This paper examines the implications that the relationship between teacher language awareness and communicative peace may have on educational programs for teachers of English for speakers of other languages (ESOL). The evaluation begins by analyzing proposals set out by the applied peace linguist Francisco Gomes de Matos, who suggests that ESOL teachers should teach communicative peace as an element of communicative competence, and also that education programs should provide training to support this approach. By juxtaposing current literature on structural and linguistic violence with Gomes de Matos' classroom techniques, the hypothesis is made that teachers who would teach communicative peace …

The Role Of Pragmatics In Second Language Teaching, Roberto Eduardo Echeverria Castillo

MA TESOL Collection

This research paper explores the application of pragmatics in second language teaching. It presents pragmatics as a discipline that may be taught and learned utilizing the experiential learning cycle. The paper explores challenging pragmatic experiences and how the cycle was used to overcome them. Additionally, it proposes a model to teach pragmatics, illustrated by a lesson based on an episode of a television show. Finally, the paper ends with my personal view of this project, and its applications on my learning of English and to my language teaching.

Self-Perceived Personality Shift On Non-Native English Speakers, Yalin Lee

Theses Digitization Project

This qualitative study is conducted to investigate how language learners are socialized into the target speech comunity, and also, whether they perceive the shift in personality when using the target language to interact with different social groups in different social contexts. A two-month case study was done to inspect the language socialization process of 10 out of 14 NNES (non-native English speaking) students enrolled in Level Three Composition Class in IEP (Intensive English Program) at CSUSB in 2006 Summary. The data for this current study was collected through audio taping, interviews, and the journals of the student participants.

Health Perceptions Of Low-Income, Immigrant Spanish-Speaking Latinas In The United States., Donna Hartweg, Christina Isabelli

Scholarship

The health outcomes and health practices of immigrant Latinas tend to decrease with acculturation to U.S. culture. The purpose of this pilot study was to investigate health perceptions of first- and second generation, low-income, Spanish-speaking women from Mexico and Central America to learn their views of health and also to identify any differences between subcultures. This investigation was the first phase of a larger study to understand the relationship of physical activity to health, as Latinas define it. Seven focus groups were conducted in Spanish with women, ages 25 to 64, by country of origin. Fifteen themes emerged, with more …

Study Abroad Social Networks, Motivation And Attitudes: Implications For Second Language Acquisition., Christina Isabelli

Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The Role Of Asynchronous Computer Mediated Communication On Enhancing Cultural Awareness, Elizabeth Zeiss, Christina Isabelli

Scholarship

This study investigates the effect of CMC participation on language learners’ willingness to learn more about the target culture through study abroad. Also, it seeks to discern whether CMCactivities improve language learners’ self-perception that they have learned more about the target culture. An experimental group of 23 U.S. university students engaged in CMC with Mexican university students with a control group of 38 students from the U.S. university. We administered a questionnaire grouped thematically around seven topics. The data suggest that CMC may have a more positive effect on the acquisition of cultural awareness of students that engage in CMC …

Ich Rede, Wie Ich Mich Wohl Fühle: Language And Ethnic/Cultural Identity Among German-Born Young Adults Of Turkish Descent In Berlin, Emily R. Jenkins

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

My study consisted of ethnographic interviews with young adults ages 19-28, who were born and raised in Germany to parents emigrated from Turkey. My main research question was, “What role does language play in the subjects’ conception of ethnic/cultural identity?” Specifically, I focused on the role of language in how subjects identify with or distinguish themselves from: (1) the ethnic/cultural majority in their country of residence, i.e. Germans; (2) the ethnic/cultural majority in their parents’ country of origin, i.e. Turks in Turkey; and (3) others of similar immigration background, i.e. other German-born people of Turkish descent. Originally I only intended …

Review Of Bilingual Aesthetics: A Sentimental Education, By Doris Sommer (2004), Mohanalakshmi Rajakumar

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

No abstract provided.

Development Of Oral Communication Skills Abroad., Christina Isabelli

Scholarship

This study examines the impact of a semester study abroad experience in Argentina on the second language acquisition of three American university Spanish learners. The goal is to measure development of two aspects of oral communication skills: fluency and performance in the oral functions of narration, and description and supporting an opinion.