First and Second Language Acquisition Commons^™

Nonstandard Languages: The Outcasts Of The Language Revitalization Movement, Whitney Snowden

Senior Honors Theses

This thesis compares the failures of the creolization movement with the success of the language revitalization movement and seeks to determine which elements are missing from the former to make it as successful as the latter. Education policy, identity, and language ideology are all examined as contributors to the future success of creole inclusivity in education and society, as well as the potential benefits such a movement would include. Specifically examined are Siegel’s research on creole education and Armstrong’s work on language ideology.

Is Service-Learning The Answer? Preparing Teacher Candidates To Work With Ells Through Service-Learning Experiences, Sandra Rodriguez-Arroyo

Scholarship of Metropolitan Mission

In an effort to address the gaps in preparing teacher candidates (TCs) to work with English Language Learners (ELLs), service-learning experiences (SLE) were integrated into two courses within a teacher education program. This exploratory case study sought to explore the outcomes of teacher candidates (TCs) engaged in SLE with diverse students and families, particularly ELLs. Content analysis of students’ reflections provided insights of the impact of the SLE. Findings indicate that participating in service-learning with ELLs provides opportunities for TCs to engage in positive interactions that help to address misconceptions about students, families, and communities. TCs also began to confront …

Experiential Language Learning: A Short-Term Study Abroad Program To Quetzaltenango, Guatemala For Canton High School, Michelle Traub

Capstone Collection

Canton High School (CHS) is a 485 student, small upper-middle class public school located in Canton, Connecticut. The mission of the school involves preparing productive, tolerant and responsible citizens with the character and independence to embrace and contribute to the global world. However, CHS is limited in its ability to provide students with opportunities to connect with the world outside of Connecticut and the United States, both linguistically and culturally. Although the majority of Canton students take a language class freshman year, the number of students continuing on in learning a language drops every year thereafter. Many students state that …

Executive Control In Hispanic Children: Considering Linguistic And Sociocultural Factors, Miriam M. Martinez

Department of Psychology: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Executive control represents a collection of high-order cognitive processes that are associated with important child outcomes, including academic achievement and social competencies. Despite the burgeoning interest in examining the development of executive control, less is known about the development of these skills among ethnic minority children. Hispanic children are currently the largest ethnic minority group in the United States and their diverse sociocultural and linguistic backgrounds provide an excellent context to study the influence of linguistic and sociocultural factors on the development of child executive control. The purpose of the three complementary studies reported in this dissertation is to contribute …

Is Self-Sufficiency Really Sufficient? A Critical Analysis Of Federal Refugee Resettlement Policy And Local Attendant English Language Training In Portland, Oregon, Domminick Mcparland

Dissertations and Theses

Since the 1951 United Nations Convention, nations have dealt with refugee issues in various ways. In the United States, since the Vietnam War, there has been great debate and a significant amount of research on issues of refugee resettlement, with these discourses inherently involving issues of power and ideology. English language training and the promotion of economic self-sufficiency have been interventions used to integrate and assimilate refugees into American culture and society. These two interventions were the subject of the current investigation.

The purpose of this study was to look into the way federal refugee resettlement policy mandated by the …

Educational Engagement In Boston’S Vietnamese Community: Asian American Studies Program Student-Faculty-Alumni Engagement With Teachers, Students, And Families Of The Mather School (Bps) In Dorchester, Asian American Studies Program, University Of Massachusetts Boston

Office of Community Partnerships Posters

Founded in 1639, the Mather Elementary School in Dorchester is the oldest public elementary school in the US. In 2012, nearly 40% of Mather students were Vietnamese American from immigrant households. The Mather School’s Vietnamese Structured English Immersion (SEI) program is the largest in Boston. In 1993, Ngoc-lan (Loni) Nguyen, a Vietnamese refugee student in education and Asian American Studies at UMass Boston, was hired as a 4th grade bilingual teacher. Many of Lan’s students later attended UMass Boston where they reconnected educationally with the importance of Vietnamese American identity, community, and empowerment in AsAmSt courses. In 2007, Lan visited …

“We Give Way:” 6 Narratives Of The Academic Negotiation Between English And Afrikaans At The University Of Stellenbosch, Alexis K. Boyer

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The negotiations between the African National Congress (ANC) and the National Party in 1992 led to the creation of South Africa’s eleven national languages including English and Afrikaans. This paper discusses the intricate relationship between these two languages at the University of Stellenbosch. This project attempts to understand how undergraduate and postgraduate students have negotiated the rise of English as a universal academic language and the maintenance of Afrikaans as Stellenbosch’s core language of instruction. The project works to determine how students view the changes to the policy and how those changes affect them, looking particularly at the effect of …

The Lived Experiences Of Native Louisiana French Speakers Entering English-Only Elementary Schools In Lower Bayou Lafourche, Jolynda H. Strandberg

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this hermeneutic phenomenological study was to investigate the lived experiences of native Louisiana French speakers entering English-only elementary schools in lower Bayou Lafourche, Louisiana. Native Louisiana French speakers entering English-only elementary school was defined as those whose home language was Louisiana French prior to entering elementary school. While language attrition for non-English speakers and Louisiana French culture had been explored, the in depth, lived experiences of native Louisiana French speakers entering English elementary schools were unexplored (Blyth, 1997; Ryon, 2002; Sexton, 2000). Understanding how entering English-only schools affects student perceptions and identity was important in determining school …

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 …

American Sueño: Hispanic Immigrants' Cultural Adaptation In American Small Cities, Tatiana Almeida

Masters Theses

This study investigated certain aspects of the cross-cultural adaptation process of Spanish-speaking Hispanic immigrants residing in small cities in the United States. Using Young Yun Kim's cross-cultural adaptation theory as a theoretical framework, the researcher investigated the journey those sojourners undergo and how their cultural identities are shaped throughout the process. The two questions that guided the research were: (1) What are the difficulties that Hispanics that migrate to small cities in the United States encounter? (2) What are the mechanisms (media usage, language acquisition, habits, life style etc.) utilized by them in order to adapt to the new environment? …

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 …

Cultural Brokering And Bicultural Identity: An Exploratory Study, Jorida Cila, Richard Lalonde, Zohrah Haqanee

Western Migration Conference Series

Abstract: Cultural brokering refers to a process where individuals mediate between two parties that are experiencing some type of cultural misunderstanding. Our exploratory study indicates that cultural brokering is a diverse experience that spans the boundaries of one’s family and includes various norms, values and traditions.

The Challenge Of Successful Integration For Francophone Immigrants Within Minority Communities, Suzanne N. Huot, Belinda Dodson, Debbie Rudman

Western Migration Conference Series

A critical ethnography was undertaken to explore the integration experiences of French-speaking newcomers from visible minority groups residing with the London, Ontario Francophone minority community. Findings highlight a complex negotiation process involving learning the tacit social norms characterizing the host society.

Análisis De “Proyecto Mirlo”: Aprendiendo A Acoger Al “Desconocido”, Abigail Bissette

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

During the fall and early winter of this year, I volunteered with a program called, “Proyecto Mirlo,” which is a small part of a larger organization, “Caritas,” whose focus is providing support to marginalized groups of people in Spanish society. Proyecto Mirlo is a subsection that provides free language classes for immigrants, as well as food and, in extreme cases, financial help. In my volunteer work, I taught basic Spanish classes to an eighteen-year-old immigrant from Senegal. As my student grew in his language proficiency, I grew in my teaching proficiency, especially on the discovery of teaching resources that I …

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 Identity In Language Acquisition: A Cross- Generational Perspective., Darlene Annette Snider

MA TESOL Collection

In this paper I will reflect on the role of identity as it relates to second language acquisition. My hypothesis is that second language acquisition can be slowed or even halted when students cannot adapt to the culture of the language they are studying. Student’s facing cultural conflict tend to distance themselves from the community thereby creating barriers in the learning process. This hypothesis is based upon my own experience as a third generation Canadian. I believe the effective classroom will work to reduce cultural conflict by affirming the learner’s cultural identity and sense of self as they explore the …

The Effects Of Acculturation On The L2 Learner, Raya C. Longto

MA TESOL Collection

This paper deals with the deconstruction of a novel (A Sprig of Lemon Blossom) written on the subject of Acculturation. Since the latter half of the twentieth century the world has traveled at an incredible speed towards globalization. Given this reality the number of people who constantly travel abroad for a variety of career and work related purposes is growing by the hour. Under the circumstances the theme of acculturation has become crucial as without an adequate form of this phenomenon people cannot function to the best of their abilities. The deconstruction of this novel addresses the three-fold process of …

Don’T Be Afraid To Communicate With Americans: Research About Low Self-Esteem Japanese Students In The United States. How Esl Teachers Can Build Students’ Self-Esteem In The Class., Mami Tanaka

MA TESOL Collection

This project is a research paper about low self-esteem Japanese students who have a hard time communicating with Americans in spite of the fact that their English ability is high enough. It is based on my private teaching experience with one of many Japanese students in Boston. This paper is composed of two sections. The first section shows that low self-esteem can be one of the main obstacles to foreign language acquisition for Japanese students. The second section is about what we can do as ESL teachers.

English Teachers In The Former G.D.R. Ten Years After The Wende: What’S New?, Renée Flibotte-Lüskow

MA TESOL Collection

English teachers who work in public schools in the eastern part of Germany are doing a very different type of job than they were ten years ago. Although the physical setting and the subject matter is still the same, they are teaching in a new school system based on the West German model. Their personal and professional relationships with the people they work with are different now, and attitudes toward the language they teach have been altered by the political and social changes. This paper seeks to identify interviews conducted in a certain region during a short time span. It …

Ua35/11 Student Honors Research Bulletin, Wku Honors Program

WKU Administration Documents

The WKU Student Honors Research Bulletin is dedicated to scholarly involvement and student research. These papers are representative of work done by students from throughout the university.

• Padilla, Anne. First and Second Language Acquisition: A Comparison
• Scott, Angela. Salted and Unsalted Snacks: Taste Preferences of Second Grade Students in a Rural Area School
• Fuqua, Nancy. Acceptance by High School Students of Muffins Containing Supplemental Soy Polysaccharides
• Mans, Glee. Preference Levels of High School Freshmen for Four Cheese Food Products
• Denney, Pam. Consumer Acceptance of UHT Choclate Lowfat Milk
• Harris, Carla. Jacques-Louis David: Raphael of the Sansculottes
• Vaughn, James. Corporate Reorganization …

Workbook Of Letters, Ruthanne Brown

MA TESOL Collection

No abstract provided.

The Americanization Of Czech Surnames, J. B. Dudek

Nebraskiana Publications: Resources and Materials on the 37th State

An essay on issues surrounding the alteration of Czech surnames in the United States of America in the late 1800s and early 1900s.

J. B. Dudek was born in Nebraska and was the rector at St. John's Nepomuk Roman Catholic Church in Yukon, Oklahoma, United States. He was educated at Benedictine Abbey at Sacred Heart, Oklahoma, and at Kendrick Seminary in St. Louis, Missouri, United States.