Linguistics Commons^™

Opportunities For Incidental Acquisition Of Academic Vocabulary From Teacher Speech In An English For Academic Purposes Classroom, Eric Dean Dodson

Dissertations and Theses

This study examines an English for Academic Purposes (EAP) teacher's speech throughout one curricular unit of an intermediate grammar and writing course in order to better understand which high-value vocabulary students might acquire through attending to the teacher and noticing words that are used.

Vocabulary acquisition is important for English for Academic Purposes students, given the vocabulary demands of academic language. The Academic Word List (Coxhead, 2000) has been shown to include important vocabulary in written academic texts, and has become a standard part of English for Academic Purposes curricula and pedagogical materials. Although explicit vocabulary instruction is important, research …

Interpreting Standard Usage Empirically, Jacob F. Frandsen

Theses and Dissertations

Writers, editors, and everyday language users look to dictionaries, style guides, usage guides, and other published works to help inform their language decisions. They want to know what is Standard English and what is not. Commentators have been prescribing and proscribing certain usages for centuries; however, their advice has traditionally been based on the subjective opinions of the authors. Recent works have analyzed usage by relying wholly or partly on statistical and descriptive data rather than traditional opinion alone; however, no work has presented statistical usage data in a user-friendly and consistent format. This study presents a statistically based methodology …

March 19, 2014: New Issue Of Comparative Drama, Department Of English

Gleanings: Department of English Blog Archive

No abstract provided.

Automatic Readability Detection For Modern Standard Arabic, Jonathan Neil Forsyth

Theses and Dissertations

Research for automatic readability prediction of text has increased in the last decade and has shown that various machine learning methods can effectively address this problem. Many researchers have applied machine learning to readability prediction for English, while Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) has received little attention. Here I describe a system which leverages machine learning to automatically predict the readability of MSA. I gathered a corpus comprising 179 documents that were annotated with the Interagency Language Roundtable (ILR) levels. Then, I extracted lexical and discourse features from each document. Finally, I applied the Tilburg Memory-Based Learning (TiMBL) machine learning system …

March 18, 2014: Grad Student Featured In New Publication From The Newberry, Department Of English

Gleanings: Department of English Blog Archive

No abstract provided.

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 …

Students’ Experiences In Interdisciplinary Problem-Based Learning: A Discourse Analysis Of Group Interaction, Rintaro Imafuku, Ryuta Kataoka, Mitsuori Mayahara, Hisayoshi Suzuki, Takuya Saiki

Interdisciplinary Journal of Problem-Based Learning

Interdisciplinary problem-based learning (PBL) aims to provide students with opportunities to develop the necessary skills to work with different health professionals in a collaborative manner. This discourse study examined the processes of collective knowledge construction in Japanese students in the tutorials. Analyses of video-recorded data elicited from three multidisciplinary cohorts and their learning portfolios provided insights into their participation and introspection during the discussions. The results indicate there were two patterns of knowledge construction: (a) co-constructions between students from different disciplines and (b) elaborations between students from the same discipline. Their learning processes were mediated by their cultural assumptions, professional …

Affect-Marked Lexemes And Their Relational Model Correlates, Robert Moore

Faculty Publications

Four categories of affect-marked lexemes are prominent in a variety of languages, suggesting thereby that all four may be universal, cross-cultural categories: slang, swearwords, honorifics and terms of endearment. Each of these categories (as well as the closely associated ones of nicknames and pet names) is "designed" to serve specific social functions. Data from China and the U.S. indicate that these lexemic categories overlap with each other both functionally and in terms of the specific lexemes that comprise them (Moore et al. 2010). However, they can be distinguished in terms of their prototypical forms and functions. Furthermore, the prototypical functions …

A Modified Approach To The Implementation Of Dynamic Written Corrective Feedback, Brooke Elizabeth Eddington

Theses and Dissertations

Grammatical accuracy in second language (L2) writing is one of the key issues that English as a Second Language (ESL) learners struggle with, both in intensive English language programs and continuing after their university matriculation. Numerous instructional methodologies exist that center around the concept of error correction—how can or should ESL instructors correct grammatical errors in L2 students' writing to best facilitate improvements in written linguistic accuracy? Error correction in L2 writing has been a controversial issue for over a decade (e.g., Ferris, 1999; Truscott, 1996), and in an effort to contribute to an understanding of this controversial topic, this …

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 …

The Use Of Play In Speech And Occupational Therapy, Jodi Ehrenkranz, Caroline Laferla

Psychology and Child Development

Sensory Processing Disorder and speech impairment affect millions of children in the United States. Sensory Processing Disorder (SPD) affects a child’s development leading to difficulties with “detecting, modulating, interpreting, and/or organizing sensory stimuli” (Miller, Nielsen & Schoen, 2012, p.804). Furthermore, these children may find it difficult to self-regulate their behavior. Speech impairment is typically described as speech sound disorders (SSD), which involves a child having difficulties with communicating or correctly producing their native language (Brumbaugh, Smit, Nippold & Marinellie, 2013). Brumbaugh et al. (2013) also found that these children were likely to develop a poor self-image which provides even more …

Expanding Audiences For Online Writing Labs: Owls In The English As A Foreign Language Context, Joshua Paiz

Purdue Writing Lab/Purdue OWL Graduate Student Presentations

This presentation from the 2014 Conference on College Composition and Communication (CCCC) discusses online writing labs (OWLs), specifically the Purdue OWL, in the traditionally-defined English as a foreign language (EFL) context. The ELF context often presents unique challenges for the teaching of English writing, including challenges of finding appropriate resources. This may lead EFL writing practitioners to rely on the information presented by OWLs to supplement their teaching. However, many OWLs were originally designed for the so-called native speaker (North American, UK, Australian, New Zealand) audience. This raises the question of whether or not OWLs are meeting the needs of …

February 27, 2014: Mellon Summer Institute In English Paleography, Department Of English

Gleanings: Department of English Blog Archive

No abstract provided.

"Had Sh'er Haute Gamme, High Technology": An Application Of The Mlf And 4-M Models To French-Arabic Codeswitching In Algerian Hip Hop, Samuel Nickilaus Mclain-Jespersen

Dissertations and Theses

The historical nature of language contact between French and Arabic in Algeria has created a sociolinguistic situation in which French is permeated throughout Algerian society. The prevalence and use of spoken French in Algeria by native speakers of Spoken Algerian Arabic has been a topic of interest to researchers of codeswitching since the 1970s. Studies have been conducted on codeswitching in Algerian media such as television, radio, and music.

The hip hop scene has been active in Algeria since the 1980s. Algerian hip hop lyrics contain a multitude of switches into French. This study explores the structural makeup of the …

February 24, 2014: Adapting Shakespeare Among Alabamans, Department Of English

Gleanings: Department of English Blog Archive

No abstract provided.

An Empirical Test Of Analogical Modeling: The K/Ø Alternation, C. Anton Rytting, Dr. Royal Skousen, Deryle Lonsdale

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Turkish is an agglutinative language, meaning that each word consists of a word stem followed by a variable number of suffixes. Sometimes, the addition of suffixes causes the stem to change its form. For example, stem-final velar consonants (i.e., /k/ and /g/) tend to be deleted between a stem vowel and a suffix vowel:

Stress Management: Corpus-Based Insights Into Vernacular Interpretations Of "Stress", Laurel Smith Stvan

Linguistics & TESOL Faculty Publications & Presentations - Archive

Examination of the term stress in naturally occurring vernacular prose provides evidence of three separate senses being conflated. A corpus analysis of 818 instances of stress from non-academic texts in the Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA) and the Corpus of American Discourses on Health (CADOH) shows a negative prosody for stress, which is portrayed variously as a source outside the body, a physical symptom within the body and an emotional state. The data show that contemporary speakers intermingle the three senses, making more difficult a discussion between doctors and patients of ways to ‘reduce stress’, when stress might be …

Analogical Modeling Of Japanese Loanword Formation From English, Nate Blaylock, Dr. Deryle Lonsdale

Journal of Undergraduate Research

The topic of this research, by way of review, was to try to predict, using the Analogical Modeling of Language (AML) method, the formation of Japanese loanwords from English. In other words, given an English word, how would a Japanese person pronounce it if they adopted it into Japanese. (Ice cream being pronounced aisu kurimu, for example). It was intended to be a test of the strengths and weaknesses of AML for this kind of a task (it has already been attempted by others using other methods).

The Ch’Olti’ Link Language, Craig M. Warren, Dr. John Robertson

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Perhaps one of the greatest achievements of the Mayan Civilization was their development of a writing system. Remnants of this highly sophisticated writing system can be found beautifully etched on temples and other ancient structures scattered throughout parts of Southern Mexico and Central America.

February 12, 2014: Awards, Awards, And More Awards! March 21, Department Of English

Gleanings: Department of English Blog Archive

No abstract provided.