Writer Identity Construction Of Thai Efl Students: A Phenomenological Study, Kittika Limpariwatthana

Language, Literacy, and Sociocultural Studies ETDs

ABSTRACT

This empirical study uncovered Thai English as a Foreign Language (EFL) writer identity construction and revealed how Thai culture plays a role in the development using a sociocultural perspective. Data collection for analysis includes interviews with nine Thai college students, a group interview, English writing essays, and artifacts they provided throughout a 15-week English writing course. The focus of this study was to gain insight into the phenomenon of identity construction among EFL writers from perceptions of their lived experiences.

Based on the description of identity development, the research findings focus on two different ways the participants perceived their …

Highly Complex Syllable Structure: A Typological Study Of Its Phonological Characteristics And Diachronic Development, Shelece Easterday

Linguistics ETDs

The syllable is a natural unit of organization in spoken language. Strong cross-linguistic tendencies in syllable size and shape are often explained in terms of a universal preference for the CV structure, a type which is also privileged in abstract models of the syllable. Syllable patterns such as those found in Itelmen qsaɬtxt͡ʃ ‘follow!’ and Tashlhiyt tsskʃftstt ‘you dried it (f)’ are both typologically rare and theoretically marginalized. This dissertation is an investigation of the properties of languages with highly complex syllable patterns. The aims are (i) to establish whether these languages share other linguistic features in common such that …