Matching Items (8)
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- All Subjects: Linguistics
- All Subjects: Bridging Activities
- Genre: Masters Thesis
- Creators: Van Gelderen, Elly
Description
The use of blogging tools in the second language classroom has been investigated from a variety of theoretical and methodological perspectives (Alm, 2009; Armstrong & Retterer, 2008; Dippold, 2009; Ducate & Lomicka, 2008; Elola & Oskoz, 2008; Jauregi & Banados, 2008; Lee, 2009; Petersen, Divitini, & Chabert, 2008; Pinkman, 2005; Raith, 2009; Soares, 2008; Sun, 2009, 2012; Vurdien, 2011; Yang, 2009) and a growing number of studies examine the use of microblogging tools for language learning (Antenos-Conforti, 2009; Borau, Ullrich, Feng, & Shen, 2009; Lomicka & Lord, 2011; Perifanou, 2009). Grounded in Cultural Historical Activity Theory (Engestrom, 1987), the present study explores the outcomes of a semester-long project based on the Bridging Activities framework (Thorne & Reinhardt, 2008) and implemented in an intermediate hybrid Spanish-language course at a large public university in Arizona, in which students used microblogging and blogging tools to collect digital texts, analyze perspectives of the target culture, and participate as part of an online community of language learners with a broader audience of native speakers. The research questions are: (1) What technology is used by the students, with what frequency and for what purposes in both English and Spanish prior to beginning the project?, (2) What are students' values and attitudes toward using Twitter and Blogger as tools for learning Spanish and how do they change over time through their use in the project during the semester course?, and (3) What tensions emerge in the activity systems of the intermediate Spanish-language students throughout the process of using Twitter and Blogger for the project? What are the underlying reasons for the tensions? How are they resolved? The data was collected using pre-, post-, and periodic surveys, which included Likert and open-ended questions, as well as the participants' microblog and blog posts. The quantitative data was analyzed using descriptive statistics and the qualitative data was analyzed to identify emerging themes following the Constant Comparative Method (Glaser & Strauss, 1967). Finally, three participant outliers were selected as case studies for activity theoretical analysis in order to identify tensions and, through their resolution, evidence of expansive learning.
ContributorsAlvarado, Margaret (Author) / Lafford, Barbara (Thesis advisor) / González, Verónica (Committee member) / Cerron-Palomino, Alvaro (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2015
Description
Nonlinguists’ attitudes towards language are a major factor in the process of language change. Therefore, linguists are interested in examining how language varieties are perceived. Several studies around the world have demonstrated that ideologies play a major role in shaping how people perceive certain dialects, how social meanings are associated with these varieties, and how linguistic communities are shaped in part by these beliefs. However, little attention has been given to language attitude in the Arab region, and in the Saudi context particularly. Moreover, none of the attitudinal studies in the region have tried to investigate Najdis’ attitudes towards their own dialects. Using a conceptually presented attitudinal approach, this study bridges the literature gap by examining 1041 Najdis’ language attitudes towards two of the main dialects there: The Najdi Urban and Najdi Bedouin varieties. The study answers the following questions: How do Najdis perceive the Najdi Urban and Bedouin dialects, and what are the frequently associated characteristics with these varieties? The results of the quantitative analysis show that Najdis’ language attitudes can be discussed with and reduced to two themes: modernity and traditionality. The Urban Najdi dialect was perceived as modern. Contrarily, the Bedouin Najdi dialect was considered traditional. Each social group tended to rate their dialect higher than the other group did in both factors, indicating in-group loyalty. Also, both groups showed high levels of linguistic security.
ContributorsAlothman, Ayoub (Author) / Adams, Karen (Thesis advisor) / Van Gelderen, Elly (Committee member) / Prior, Matthew (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2021
Description
The purpose of this thesis is to provide an in-depth examination of the syntactic rules and pragmatic structures that govern the construction of Thai nominal phrases. There is a current debate among linguistic researchers of the Thai language (and others within the Tai-Kadai family) contemplating whether the inherent syntactic structure of nominal phrases projects a Determiner Phrase [DP] or a Noun Phrase [NP] (Birmingham, 2020; Jenks, 2011; Piriyawiboon, 2010; and Singhapreecha, 2001). An examination of the grammatical and pragmatic features that dictate the formation of Thai nominals, as well as an investigation of the prevailing linguistic theories focused on nominal phrase construction supporting each structure, has been conducted and is presented within this thesis. This extensive research, performed to address the dilemma “Does the Thai language project a DP or an NP?”, has resulted in the conclusion that the Thai language, with its free word-order and its fascinating pragmatic structures, projects an underlying NP phrase structure that allows for an optional determiner, used to indicate specificity.
ContributorsBirmingham, Sabrina A (Author) / Van Gelderen, Elly (Thesis advisor) / Pruitt, Kathryn (Committee member) / Peterson, Tyler (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2021
Description
Temporal features and frequency of pauses have been studied extensively in the literature, but the interest in the syntactic location of pauses is a more recent development. While previous research has studied the pause patterns of L1 and L2 speakers as well as the effects of pause location on perceptions of fluency, these studies have all utilized a binary approach the categorization of pauses as occurring either between or within clauses or major constituent boundaries. This research attempts to take a look at pause placement with a finer distinction of pause location, including junctures that occur between and within phrases. To accomplish this, two experiments were conducted. The first experiment gathered read-aloud speech samples from native, non-native, and heritage speakers of Mandarin Chinese, which were then manipulated in Praat to contain only a single pause that occurred either between or within phrases. The samples were presented to native Chinese speakers to assess for perceptions of fluency as affected by the pause location condition. Findings of this preliminary pilot study did not find a significant correlation between pause location and perceptions of fluency at the phrasal level. The second experiment gathered spontaneous speech samples from the same speaker population as Experiment 1. The pauses that occurred in the samples were coded according to a system developed by the author to account for eight different syntactic junctions, and the percentage of pause at each location was calculated. Analysis showed a significant correlation with pause location and percentage of pauses (p < 0.01), as well as a statistically significant interaction between the effects of speaker status and pause location on percentage of pause (p = 0.011). The findings of this study are limited due to the small population size, but research in this fine-grained analysis of pause location within a clause has implications in the fields of L2 acquisition, psycholinguistics, and natural language processing.
ContributorsKennedy, Mary Kathryn (Author) / Van Gelderen, Elly (Thesis advisor) / Pruitt, Kathryn (Committee member) / Prior, Matthew T (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2021
Description
Academic recommendation letters are an essential component of institutional gatekeeping practices, yet few scholars have explored their use in the context of nationally competitive scholarships and fellowships. Using a mixed-methods framework, this study uses Hyland’s (2005a) taxonomy to analyze the frequency, form, and function of hedges and boosters across fifty-one recommendation letters submitted for a nationally competitive undergraduate STEM scholarship. Of the eighty-nine terms that occurred in the letters, there were thirty-seven boosting terms and fifty-one hedging terms (41% boosters and 59% hedges). Despite the higher rate of hedges, the majority of these terms were not used to express doubt. Results show that letter writers for prestigious programs use a combination of hedges and boosters alongside their status and expertise within the academy to sponsor promising undergraduate researchers. This study expands our understanding of recommendation letters outside of graduate-level selection processes and answers Hyland’s (2005b) call for more mixed method approaches and use of discourse analysis across academic genres.
ContributorsSalgado, Catherine (Author) / Prior, Matthew (Thesis advisor) / Van Gelderen, Elly (Committee member) / James, Mark A. (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2021
Description
Natural languages go through two major cycles in their diachronic change. A high synthetic marking characterizes the first cycle, and a high analytic marking characterizes
the second. This thesis investigates an emerging analytic passive in Modern Standard
Arabic (MSA), representing the analytic cycle. This construction is designated
periphrastic passive since two grammatical morphemes mark the passiveness. The older
morphological passive construction in Classical Arabic (CA) and MSA, representing the
synthetic cycle, is juxtaposed with the periphrastic passive. Given the inconsistent
passive characterization in the literature, the comparison between the two passive forms
is couched in the prototypical passive analysis.
This thesis seeks to show that the periphrastic passive in MSA has
grammaticalized to perform the passive function. It argues that the main verb in the
periphrastic passive, i.e., tamma/yatimmu, has grammaticalized to a passive auxiliary.
The corpus data of CA and MSA about tamma/yatimmu complementation, the subjectverb agreement, and the frequency of tamma/yatimmu show the grammaticalization of the
periphrastic passive. The lexical source of the auxiliary tamma/yatimmu, i.e., ‘finish,’ is
also attested to perform the passive function in Colloquial Icelandic (CI). The
commonality between the lexical sources in the two passive constructions in MSA and CI
suggests that the lexical source ‘finish’ could serve as a lexical source of passive
constructions.
ContributorsAlasmari, Abdullah Abdulrahman (Author) / Van Gelderen, Elly (Thesis advisor) / Pruitt, Kathryn (Committee member) / Hussein, Lutfi (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2022
Description
This paper examines the function of grammar and pragmatics in testimonies and cross-examinations, specifically in sexual assault cases in the United States. Past research demonstrates a society’s view of sexual assault, particularly as a means of control, is reflected in cross-examination methodologies, which propagates into the laws surrounding sexual assault. This aims to investigate the impact the shift in societal perspective on sexual assault has on the cross-examination methodologies and ultimately the laws surrounding sexual assault in the United States. The incorporation of Conversation Analysis (CA) is used as a framework to evaluate the court transcripts. The framework is coupled with guidelines previously used to examine sexual assault cross-examinations in other countries. It is imperative to apply this to the United States as the view on sexual assault differs. The cross-examination and testimony transcripts in three court cases are examined. The guidelines for grammar include transitivity, use of adverbials and modals, nominalizations and subjects of unaccusatives, while the pragmatics focus on strategic questioning, presupposition, and selective reformulation. The findings in this qualitative study demonstrate the lack of progress the United States judicial system has made in terms of sexual assault. While the societal perspective shifts, the cross-examination methodology and the language of the laws remain constant, despite increase in awareness and supporting Acts. Given the small scope of research conducted in the United States, more research is necessary, along with reformation of the court proceedings and laws surrounding sexual assault.
ContributorsTodd, Jillian (Author) / Van Gelderen, Elly (Thesis advisor) / Neal, Tess (Committee member) / O'Connor, Brendan (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2023
Description
Screenplays and novels are similar in that they both tell a story. However, the two are not the same. Screenplays and novels have a significantly different function and purpose from one another. With that being said, this thesis conducts a register analysis to discover the prominent linguistic differences in each register. Overall, this study finds that novels and screenplays do in fact have linguistic features that differ from one another. The linguistic features distinctive to a screenplay are: shorter sentences, more non-standard sentences, and more nouns. Longer sentences, independent clause coordination constituents, phrasal constituents, and reduced predicate adjective phrases are the linguistic features present in the novel.
ContributorsLuna, Elaina (Author) / Van Gelderen, Elly (Thesis advisor) / James, Mark (Committee member) / Long, Elenore (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2022