Linguistics Commons^™

The Role Of Experience In Processing Foreign-Accented Speech, Fernando Llanos Lucas

Open Access Dissertations

The present study examines the perceptual accommodation of the bilabial stop-consonant voicing contrast (i.e., /b/ vs. /p/), in several English- and Spanish-accented contexts, by native Spanish listeners with different degrees of experience with accented speech. In a series of four experiments, we confronted three potential mechanisms for the perceptual accommodation of foreign-accented sounds. According to the first mechanism (phonetic relaxation), listeners accommodate foreign-accented sounds by relaxing the phonetic boundary between native speech sound categories. According to the second mechanism (phonetic calibration), listeners accommodate foreign-accented sounds by adjusting the location of native perceptual boundaries according to the phonetic realization of native …

It Is "Broken" And "Accented": Non-Native English-Speaking (Nnes) Graduate Students' Perceptions Toward Nnes Instructors' English, Hyo Jung Keira Park

Open Access Dissertations

This study investigates the perceptions of non-native English-speaking graduate students towards non-native English speaking (NNES) instructors’ accented English. Students (N=161) who were enrolled in an oral English course at Purdue University participated in a survey. Follow-up interviews were conducted with voluntary participants (N=9) to examine the perceptions of NNES graduate students towards NNES instructors in depth. The findings in the survey showed that more than one third of the participants experienced difficulty with their NNES instructors due to their limited intelligibility and restricted command of English. Furthermore, one third of the participants expressed that they would transfer to another section …

L2 Effect On Bilingual Spanish/English Encoding Of Motion Events: Does Manner Salience Transfer?, Heidi E. Parker

Open Access Dissertations

This study explores the potential effect of a second language (L2) on first language (L1) encoding of motion events. The domain of interest is MANNER and the goal is to investigate if the degree of manner salience can be restructured under the effect of a L2. Slobin (2004, 2006) proposes an expansion of Talmy’s (1985, 1991, 2000) binary typology and observes that the degree of manner saliencevaries cross-linguistically. The two languages investigated in this study, Spanish and English, are at divergent points along the cline of manner salience. In addition, Slobin (1996b) suggests dividing MANNER into tier one (T1) …

Revision And Re-Writing As Adaptation: Using Adaptation Theory To Encourage Student Recognition Of Rhetorical Situations, Alicia Claire Troby

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Many students don’t want to revise their writing, or do so in small, surface-level ways. This has been an issue many composition instructors have faced over the years, and there is a large body of scholarship about revision and the writing process by many in writing studies. From Nancy Sommers, Janet Emig, Donald Murray, and others, to more recent publications “post-process,” composition instructors and writing studies scholars are concerned about revision and the role it plays in students’ learning to write. As a strategy for teaching bigger-level revision, I implemented the use of adaptation theory (reading/watching and doing adaptation) as …

Acoustic And Perceptual Correlates Of L2 Fluency: The Role Of Prolongations, Jessica Liane Rohr

Linguistics & TESOL Dissertations - Archive

This dissertation examines the contribution of lengthened segments/syllables or prolongations to the utterance and perceived fluency of native and non-native speech via three related studies. First, utterance fluency was measured using speech samples collected from a narrative task and along nine temporal variables of fluency (mean length of run, speech rate, mean length of syllable, mean length of silent pause, and rates of silent pause, filled pause, self-corrections, repetitions, and prolongations) (Skehan, 2007; Bosker, 2014). Results showed native speakers spoke significantly faster and with fewer disfluencies than their non-native counterparts. Prolongations were further investigated for frequency, duration, syntactic and phonological …

Explaining Dynamic Interactions In Wiki-Based Collaborative Writing, Mimi Li, Wei Zhu

Writing & Linguistics: Faculty Publications (1990-2022)

This article reports a case study that examined dynamic patterns of interaction that two small groups of ESL students exemplified when they performed two writing tasks, i.e., Research Proposal (Task 1) and Annotated Bibliography (Task 2) in a wiki site. Group A demonstrated a Collective pattern in Task 1, but switched to an Active/Withdrawn pattern in Task 2. In contrast, Group B exhibited a Dominant/Defensive pattern in Task 1, but switched to a Collaborative one in Task 2. These patterns were substantiated by group members’ ongoing task approaches in terms of “equality” and “mutuality,” reflected via the analyses of language …

An Evaluation Framework For Call, K. James Hartshorn, Benjamin L. Mcmurry, Richard Edward West, Peter Rich, David D. Williams, Neil J. Anderson

Faculty Publications

Searching prestigious Computer-assisted Language Learning (CALL) journals for references to key publications and authors in the field of evaluation yields a short list. The American Journal of Evaluation—the flagship journal of the American Evaluation Association—is only cited once in both the CALICO Journal and Language Learning and Technology (Blyth & Davis, 2007). Only two articles in these journals have cited Robert Stake, Robert Yin, Daniel Stufflebeam, Michael Scriven, or Michael Patton, five of the most influential evaluators of our generation. Prestigious CALL journals lacked references to formal evaluation literature, which provides a wealth of information regarding effective evaluation processes. …

Voice In Bugis: An Rrg Perspective, Douglas C. Laskowske

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis describes the voice system of Bugis (also known as Buginese), a Western Austronesian language of South Sulawesi, Indonesia. Using Role and Reference Grammar as a theoretical framework, I analyze the Bugis voice system as symmetrical in the sense of Arka (2003), with two distinct transitive constructions: actor voice, in which the actor is the privileged syntactic argument (PSA) and undergoer voice, in which the undergoer is the PSA. This contrasts with previous analyses, which have classified Bugis as lacking a symmetrical voice system (Hanson 2003; Jukes 2006). The choice between the two transitive voices in Bugis is determined …

An Acoustic Study Of Kope, Northeast Kiwai, Papua New Guinea, With Preliminary Tonal Analysis, Julia Martin

Theses and Dissertations

Kope is a dialect of Northeast Kiwai, a language of Papua New Guinea. It exhibits contrast for length on vowels, and a two-level tonal contrast. Measurements were taken from a recording of one speaker, and subjected to statistical tests to determine the relationship between variables of tone, phonemic length, duration, F0, and the first and second formants.

The most consistent effect found is higher F1 on HI-toned vowels, and indeed some measure of correlation between F0 and F1. Another effect, less consistent but still present, is the interaction of length with F2. Duration is found to be heavily influenced by …

Japanese Dialect Ideology From Meiji To The Present, Nao Okumura

Dissertations and Theses

The intent of this study is to examine the trajectory of ideology regarding standard Japanese and dialects from the historical perspective, and also to discuss the cause of the post-war shift of the ideology. Before the war, the government attempted to disseminate hyojun-go aiming at creating a unified Japan in the time when many countries were developing to be nation states after industrial revolution. After the Pacific war, the less strict-sounding term kyotsu-go was more often used, conveying an ideology of democratization. Yet despite the difference in the terms, speaking a common language continues to play a role of unifying …

Latent Semantic Indexing In The Discovery Of Cyber-Bullying In Online Text, Jacob L. Bigelow

Computer Science Summer Fellows

The rise in the use of social media and particularly the rise of adolescent use has led to a new means of bullying. Cyber-bullying has proven consequential to youth internet users causing a need for a response. In order to effectively stop this problem we need a verified method of detecting cyber-bullying in online text; we aim to find that method. For this project we look at thirteen thousand labeled posts from Formspring and create a bank of words used in the posts. First the posts are cleaned up by taking out punctuation, normalizing emoticons, and removing high and low …

Detection Of Cyberbullying In Sms Messaging, Bryan W. Bradley

Computer Science Summer Fellows

Cyberbullying is a type of bullying that uses technology such as cell phones to harass or malign another person. To detect acts of cyberbullying, we are developing an algorithm that will detect cyberbullying in SMS (text) messages. Over 80,000 text messages have been collected by software installed on cell phones carried by participants in our study. This paper describes the development of the algorithm to detect cyberbullying messages, using the cell phone data collected previously. The algorithm works by first separating the messages into conversations in an automated way. The algorithm then analyzes the conversations and scores the severity and …

Fact Or Fiction? Exploring Assumptions About Esl Writers, Alissa J. Hartig

Applied Linguistics Faculty Publications and Presentations

No abstract provided.

A Discourse Analytic Approach To Accusations Of Infidelity In Romantic Couples' Natural Conversations, Neill Korobov

The Qualitative Report

This study uses a discourse analytic approach to examine how twenty young adult heterosexual romantic couples (ages 19-26) formulate accusations and insinuations of infidelity in their unstructured natural conversations. The analyses demonstrate how accusations of infidelity among romantic partners work to pursue and avert relational trouble. They indirectly index local interactional breaches that may, if left unattended, lead to non-affiliative interactional outcomes. Unlike mainstream psychological work that would treat talk about infidelity as a sign of emotional insecurity or jealousy, the present study posits that accusations of infidelity may function as a brief but effective way for one partner to …

D-Place: A Global Database Of Cultural, Linguistic And Environmental Diversity, Kathryn R. Kirby, Russell D. Gray, Simon J. Greenhill, Fiona M. Jordan, Stephanie Gomes-Ng, Hans-Jörg Bibiko, Damián E. Blasi, Carlos A. Botero, Claire Bowern, Carol R. Ember, Dan Leehr, Bobbi S. Low, Joe Mccarter, William Divale, Michael C. Gavin

Biology Faculty Research

From the foods we eat and the houses we construct, to our religious practices and political organization, to who we can marry and the types of games we teach our children, the diversity of cultural practices in the world is astounding. Yet, our ability to visualize and understand this diversity is limited by the ways it has been documented and shared: on a culture-by-culture basis, in locally-told stories or difficult-to-access repositories. In this paper we introduce D-PLACE, the Database of Places, Language, Culture, and Environment. This expandable and open-access database (accessible at https://d-place.org) brings together a dispersed corpus of …

Words Matter: Discourse And Numeracy, Samuel L. Tunstall

Numeracy

Here I discuss elements of critical discourse analysis (CDA) and their importance in relation to quantitative literacy (QL). Through an overview of theory, synthesis of research, and examples, I argue that the discursive nature of textbooks has a nontrivial impact on students' mathematical dispositions - an important component of QL. In particular, texts are a means of disseminating the culture of mathematics, one which has a tendency to paint mathematics as esoteric and male-dominated. Such a characterization has profound implications for the numeracy community, one of which is that we cannot assume that changes in curriculum are sufficient for effecting …

Intersections Between Law And Language: Disciplinary Concepts In Second Language Legal Literacy, Alissa J. Hartig

Applied Linguistics Faculty Publications and Presentations

International mobility among graduate students of law presents unique challenges for the teaching and learning of Legal English. Master of Laws (LL.M.) students, for example, often bring both prior legal training and professional experience from their home jurisdiction to their graduate studies abroad. Taking a closer look at the experience of these students as they engage with genres associated with another legal system provides insight into broader issues of intersections between language and content in English for Legal Purposes. This article draws on case studies of four LL.M students from China and Saudi Arabia, a civil law jurisdiction and an …

Fun Bilingual-Bimodal Ebooks For Deaf Children, Donna Jo Napoli, E. R. Mirus

Linguistics Faculty Works

Ebooks provide new ways to advance developing literacy among deaf children. While some aim to promote literacy through explicit pedagogical techniques, the new ebooks described here aim only to offer stories that are fun to share, encouraging learning through interaction that naturally fosters language and preliteracy skills. Reading for pleasure is recognized as valuable for hearing children; it needs to be recognized as such for deaf children. We present the rationale for these ebooks and give examples of how they advance preliteracy skills, in the hopes that those raising and educating deaf children will use them, offered gratis on the …

A Corpus-Based Comparison Of The Academic Word List And The Academic Vocabulary List, Jacob Andrew Newman

Theses and Dissertations

Research has identified the importance of academic vocabulary (e.g., Corson, 1997; Gardner, 2013; Hsueh-chao & Nation, 2000). In turn, many researchers have focused on identifying the most frequent and salient words present in academic texts across registers and presenting these words in lists, such as The Academic Word List (AWL) (Coxhead, 2000). Gardner and Davies (2014), recognizing the limitations of the AWL, have developed a new list known as The Academic Vocabulary List (AVL). This present study examines the appearance of the 570 AWL word families and the top 570 AVL word families in the Academic Textbook Corpus (ATC) – …

Aid Effectiveness: Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières How Does The Paris Declaration Measure Aid For A Single, Neutral Development Group?, Jasmine West

Ursidae: The Undergraduate Research Journal at the University of Northern Colorado

No abstract provided.