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- All Subjects: Language
- Creators: Lafford, Barbara
- Creators: Pruitt, Kathryn
Description
This study investigates the effectiveness of the use of Concept-Based Instruction (CBI) to facilitate the acquisition of Spanish mood distinctions by second semester second language learners of Spanish. The study focuses on the development of Spanish mood choice and the types of explanations (Rule-of-Thumb vs. Concept-based) used by five students before and after being exposed to Concept-Based Instruction regarding the choice of Spanish mood following various modalities .The students in this study were presented with a pedagogical treatment on Spanish mood choice that included general theoretical concepts based on Gal'perin's (1969, 1992) didactic models and acts of verbalization, which form part of a Concept-Based pedagogical approach. In order to ascertain the effectiveness of the use of concept-based tools to promote the ability to use Spanish mood appropriately over time, a pre and post-test was administered to the group in which students were asked to respond to prompts containing modalities that elicit the indicative and subjunctive moods, indicate their level of confidence in their response, and verbalize in writing a reason for their choice. The development of these abilities in learners exposed to CBI was assessed by comparing pre and post-test scores examining both forms and explanations for the indicative and subjunctive modality prompts given. Results showed that students continued to rely on Rule-of-Thumb explanations of mood choice but they did expand their use of conceptually-based reasoning. Although the quantitative and qualitative analyses of the results indicate that most students did improve their ability to make appropriate mood choices (forms and explanations) after the CBI treatment, the increased use of conceptually-based explanations for their mood choices led to both correct and incorrect responses.
ContributorsBeus, Eric (Author) / Lafford, Barbara (Thesis advisor) / Beas, Omar (Committee member) / Cerron-Palomino, Alvaro (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
Description
ABSTRACT
The absence of the consonant sound /p/ in Libyan Arabic leads Libyan speakers of English to pronounce /p/ as /b/. This study examines how Libyan Arabic speakers distinguish the English /p/ and /b/ in their production of L2 English. The study also examines the effect of the production contexts and the learning environment on two groups of Libyan Arabic speakers' attainment of the English /p/ in the USA and Libya. The study collected voice recordings of word-initial /p/ and /b/ in isolated-words, minimal pairs, and sentences in English from both Libyan Arabic speakers and American English speakers. The study also collected Libyan Arabic stop consonants /b/, /t/, /d/, /k/, and /g/ from the Libyan participants. The voice recording data were collected using the WhatsApp mobile application from all participants and the Libyan Arabic participants were also asked to fill an online survey. Using voice onset time (VOT) as a measurement tool, this study measured the English and Libyan Arabic data through Praat software. The findings show that most Libyan Arabic participants distinguish between /p/ and /b/, but they did not have as high VOT averages as the American participants' /p/. It also reveals that the production context, especially in minimal pairs and sentence contexts, has an effect on their participants' production. However, the learning environment does not have an effect on the Libyan participants' pronunciation of /p/ in this study.
The absence of the consonant sound /p/ in Libyan Arabic leads Libyan speakers of English to pronounce /p/ as /b/. This study examines how Libyan Arabic speakers distinguish the English /p/ and /b/ in their production of L2 English. The study also examines the effect of the production contexts and the learning environment on two groups of Libyan Arabic speakers' attainment of the English /p/ in the USA and Libya. The study collected voice recordings of word-initial /p/ and /b/ in isolated-words, minimal pairs, and sentences in English from both Libyan Arabic speakers and American English speakers. The study also collected Libyan Arabic stop consonants /b/, /t/, /d/, /k/, and /g/ from the Libyan participants. The voice recording data were collected using the WhatsApp mobile application from all participants and the Libyan Arabic participants were also asked to fill an online survey. Using voice onset time (VOT) as a measurement tool, this study measured the English and Libyan Arabic data through Praat software. The findings show that most Libyan Arabic participants distinguish between /p/ and /b/, but they did not have as high VOT averages as the American participants' /p/. It also reveals that the production context, especially in minimal pairs and sentence contexts, has an effect on their participants' production. However, the learning environment does not have an effect on the Libyan participants' pronunciation of /p/ in this study.
ContributorsGarib, Ali A. A (Author) / Pruitt, Kathryn (Thesis advisor) / Renaud, Claire (Committee member) / González López, Verónica (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014
Description
Current research shows a positive relationship between the use of written synchronous computer-mediated communication (SCMC) and oral production (Isenberg 2010; Kern 1995; Payne & Whitney, 2002). No prior investigations specifically analyze the effect of SCMC on the conjugation of simple present tense verbal forms in narratives produced by learners of Spanish in online environments. This semester-long study addressed this issue by systematically analyzing the effect of written SCMC on the oral production of present-tense verb conjugations in two different oral tasks by students in two different intermediate level online Spanish courses. Written chat (WC), a type of synchronous group discussion, was used in the treatment group in order to examine the crossover effects of written SCMC on present tense forms in oral production tasks among intermediate Spanish students in online courses. Both online groups engaged in 30 minutes of concentrated interaction with the instructor and other students each week. The control group engaged in 30 minutes of oral interaction per week while the experimental group was exposed to 15 minutes of oral chat and 15 minutes of WC in the 30 minute session of interaction. Specifically, this study employed a pretest/posttest quasi-experimental design and tested the differential effects of a combination of oral and written SCMC online interaction and SCMC solely oral online interaction on the acquisition of Spanish present tense verb forms. The findings show a significant difference in oral gains among the experimental group.
ContributorsRiley, Holly Kristen (Author) / Lafford, Barbara (Thesis advisor) / García, Carmen (Thesis advisor) / Elorrieta, Jabier (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
Description
ABSTRACT This thesis analyzes the Spanish (SPA) and English (ENG) code-switching (CS) at Latino Vibe (LV), a bilingual radio station in Phoenix; Arizona from a sociolinguistic perspective. Using Gumperz's (1982) Conversational Functions of CS, Myers-Scotton's (1993) Markedness Model, and Bell's (1984) Audience Design model, this thesis intends to evaluate which one of these sociolinguistic models is the most accurate to explain the SPA-ENG CS at LV. In January 2009, the data were collected in a two week period of programming of the show "José y Tina en la mañana" (José and Tina in the morning), and then transcribed. This qualitative study consisted in analyzing the same subset of the data, corresponding to ten days. The model with the greater predictably of the types of CS and their causes would be considered the most appropriate for the data studied. The results show that CS is common and that codeswitched utterances are the most representative at LV. The conclusion also states that out of the three models, Gumperz's accounts better for the data than the other two. It explains more clearly the reasons why LV announcers code-switch in particular social contexts, and the important role of these switches during their interaction in this bilingual radio station. KEYWORDS: Code-switching, bilingual radio, Spanish-English
ContributorsBocanegra, Olga Lucía (Author) / Cerron-Palomino, Alvaro (Thesis advisor) / García, Carmen (Committee member) / Lafford, Barbara (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
Description
Although pragmatic analyses based on empirical data have been conducted throughout most of the Spanish-speaking world, Central America remains the most underrepresented region. This study examines the pragmatic strategies used by female Spanish speakers of Nicaragua and Panama in an advice-giving context. The data consists of eighteen role-plays recorded in Masaya, Nicaragua and Panama City, Panama in June and July of 2011. In the role-play situation, the interlocutor (fixed-role) requests advice from the participant, her best friend, regarding a serious issue in her marriage. The participant's advice-giving strategies are classified according to a categorization adapted from Blum-Kulka's request strategy taxonomy. This allows for a statistical analysis of how these strategies correspond to the three elements of Spencer Oatey's rapport management approach: behavioral expectations, face sensitivities and interactional wants. The results indicate strong similarities between participants from Nicaragua and Panama, both electing to respect all components of the association principle and to violate the equity principle, especially its autonomy control component. These results suggest that, at least in this advice-giving context between intimates, both Nicaraguan and Panamanian Spanish speakers prefer to impose their opinions and suggestions rather than respect the person's right to be treated fairly (i.e. equity principle) as well as to maintain a rapport-enhancing orientation rather than preserve their right to associate with others (i.e. association principle). The results of the pragmatic analysis show similarities with other research on directives in the Spanish-speaking world, including empirical studies in the Dominican Republic, Cuba, Venezuela and Spain. Specifically, these cultures are all associated with direct strategies and less mitigation, positive politeness, conventional indirectness and high involvement.
ContributorsPlatz, Ryan (Author) / García, Carmen (Thesis advisor) / Cerron-Palomino, Alvaro (Committee member) / Lafford, Barbara (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
Description
This investigation's goal was to add to the small body of research on pragmalinguistic acquisition of L2 Spanish. Specifically, it centered on the production of complaints in Spanish. Data was collected via a written Discourse Completion Task (DCT) of a complaint-provoking situation presented in a website voiceboard to two non-native speaker (NNS) students groups of different proficiency levels and to a native speaker (NS) control group. The lower proficiency group was comprised of 11 NNS enrolled in a 200 level beginning/intermediate Spanish grammar class and the advanced proficiency group of 11 NNS enrolled in a 400 level advanced Spanish conversation and composition class. Neither group contained any participants who had studied abroad or lived in a Spanish-speaking country for more than 3 months. The control group consisted of 10 NSs of Spanish who were all natives or current residents of Northern Mexico. Data from the DCT was categorized into strategies which were organized into Head Acts and Supporting Moves, Deference and Solidarity Politeness systems, according to the frameworks of Blum-Kulka, et al. (1989) and Scollon and Scollon (1983), respectively. The results of the analysis revealed that all three groups of participants have overarching similarities in the use of multiple Head Acts, some used several times throughout a response, to realize a complaint and used some Supporting Moves to mitigate these Head Acts. The lower proficiency group diverged from the advanced proficiency group and NS control group in that lower proficiency students not only used a fewer total strategies and strategy types, but also preferred Head Acts and Supporting Moves that expressed discomfort or dislike over strategies that expressed criticism, or requested a solution from the listener, these being the primary strategies preferred by the advanced proficiency and control group participants. It was also found that the percentage of Supporting Moves decreased with the raise in proficiency level, also. After a discussion of the results, pedagogical implications are given based on these results to help students notice and acquire pragmalinguistcally appropriate responses to complaint-provoking situations.
ContributorsMorningstar, Kira (Author) / Lafford, Barbara (Thesis advisor) / García Fernandez, Carmen (Thesis advisor) / Elorrieta, Jabier Elorrieta (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
Description
Advertisements intend to persuade the reader to invest money or time in a product or service. Newspapers contain advertisements that are space-limited, thus necessitating a concise and convincing message that will influence readers. Nord (2008) analyzed conative function (Jakobson 1960) as a persuasive tool in a corpus of Spanish, English, and German advertising texts. A portion of Nord's study focused on sender attitude indicators directed at addressees as a key element of conative function, and analyzed address forms among several attitude indicators found in print advertisements. The current study analyzed 604 Spanish newspaper advertisements in Arizona and Florida, focusing on possible independent factors related to the probability of the occurrence of various address forms. These factors included: the type of product being advertized and its cost, the nature of the advertisement, the location of the advertisement in the newspaper (main section, sports, etc.), intended audience (including age and sex), geographic region of the newspaper, and each newspaper as compared to others. These variables were categorized and statistically analyzed using a quantitative design. The study provided results indicating a strong statistical relationship between the presence of address forms and product type, a moderate relationship with audience age, and a mild relationship with product cost. Various similarities and differences were also found when comparing the data geographically.
ContributorsBorba, Andrew (Author) / Cerron-Palomino, Alvaro (Thesis advisor) / Lafford, Barbara (Committee member) / Shepherd, Michael (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
Description
This linguistic ethnography follows three journalism students (Petra, Penélope, and María) as they engaged in experiential language learning (EX-LL) via collaboration with community members during their Spanish for Specific Purposes (SSP) internship sites in the fields of journalism and medicine within the local Metro Phoenix community. Data were collected over the course of a 15-week semester via ethnographic methods (field notes, interviews, observations, and participant-reported data) to explore how the interns (i) took advantage of their SSP internship experiences to engage in identity work that exceeded the goals of the program and how they (ii) implemented their strategic knowledge via communicative strategies (CSs) during breakdowns in communication with community members related to their SSP internship sites/the social function of such strategies.
In order to answer the first research question, the data were analyzed via open and focused coding (Dyson & Genishi, 2005), followed by discourse analysis (Gee, 2005) informed by Critical Applied Linguistics (Pennycook, 2001) and Positioning Theory (Davis & Harré, 1990). To answer the second question, all instances in which the interns implemented communicative strategies were analyzed based upon the categorization repertories established by Dörnyei and Scott (1995a, 1995b, 1997), Lafford (2004), and Tarone and Yule (1987). To go beyond understanding what the interns were saying to why were they saying it, discourse analysis was used (Gee, 2005).
The findings show that Petra, Penélope, and María appropriated their SSP internship to engage distinct, yet interrelated language- and ethnic/racial-based identity work. Each intern utilized language (and extra-linguistic elements, such as corporeal expression) to position themselves in different ways within social discourse. Furthermore, this identity work influenced which CSs they utilized, as the social function of many of these strategies was to maintain and/or protect their desired identities.
Drawing on these insights, a variety of implications are offered from four viewpoints: implications for (i) EX-LL-based research: colonized versus humanizing research, (ii) critical community collaboration inside and outside of EX-LL, (iii) CSs and communicative competence, and (iv) EX-LL/Languages for Specific Purposes pedagogy and internship design.
In order to answer the first research question, the data were analyzed via open and focused coding (Dyson & Genishi, 2005), followed by discourse analysis (Gee, 2005) informed by Critical Applied Linguistics (Pennycook, 2001) and Positioning Theory (Davis & Harré, 1990). To answer the second question, all instances in which the interns implemented communicative strategies were analyzed based upon the categorization repertories established by Dörnyei and Scott (1995a, 1995b, 1997), Lafford (2004), and Tarone and Yule (1987). To go beyond understanding what the interns were saying to why were they saying it, discourse analysis was used (Gee, 2005).
The findings show that Petra, Penélope, and María appropriated their SSP internship to engage distinct, yet interrelated language- and ethnic/racial-based identity work. Each intern utilized language (and extra-linguistic elements, such as corporeal expression) to position themselves in different ways within social discourse. Furthermore, this identity work influenced which CSs they utilized, as the social function of many of these strategies was to maintain and/or protect their desired identities.
Drawing on these insights, a variety of implications are offered from four viewpoints: implications for (i) EX-LL-based research: colonized versus humanizing research, (ii) critical community collaboration inside and outside of EX-LL, (iii) CSs and communicative competence, and (iv) EX-LL/Languages for Specific Purposes pedagogy and internship design.
ContributorsVollmer Rivera, Alexis Ann (Author) / Lafford, Barbara (Thesis advisor) / O'Connor, Brendan (Committee member) / Bernstein, Katie (Committee member) / Beaudrie, Sara (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2018
Description
This thesis covers second language acquisition in regards to age, examining the difference between elementary and high school students. The primary language of all the students tested was English. The second language being tested in this study is German. The general age range in the elementary students observed was 7-12 years old. The high school students' ages were between 14-18 years old. The environment consisted of a physical education atmosphere, which includes: gyms, outside recreational areas, fitness equipment, fields, etc. Methods used to conduct this study were visual and auditory/verbal approaches. No direct instruction was provided to the students, they were assessed based on their ability to absorb the information when provided to them indirectly in a traditional classroom atmosphere. In addition, direct instruction is also not conducive to a physical education setting as it has the potential to detract from the necessary lesson content.
ContributorsMarch, Ashley Taylor (Author) / Pangrazi, Connie (Thesis director) / Gilfillan, Daniel (Committee member) / School of International Letters and Cultures (Contributor) / College of Health Solutions (Contributor) / Division of Teacher Preparation (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2017-05
Description
This thesis offers a contrastive analysis of the causative alternation phenomenon in English and Standard Arabic variety. This phenomenon has received a lot of attention in the literature on argument structure. It has traditionally been presented in terms of the causativization of inchoative verbs/unaccusatives. It is argued here that this analysis conflicts with the way the causative alternation is molded in Arabic. Causative alternation in Arabic is not only limited to inchoative verbs, but it incorporates unergative verbs as well, which play a vital role in this alternation. The implication of this observation is that the different syntactic behaviors between English and Arabic may reflect people’s different perception of events and lead to different syntactic computation. Therefore, this thesis highlights the role of this subset of intransitives/anti-causatives in the Arabic causative alternation and answers one of the highly considered questions on the causative alternation; that is, which version of the alternation is the lexical base, and which one is derived? This thesis also reveals that there is some significant difference between English and Arabic in terms of the alternatability of unaccusative verbs. Therefore, this study shows that most of the Arabic unaccusative verbs, except denominal verbs, have a causative alternant. This thesis also addresses the vital role of the Arabic verbal template in clarifying this phenomenon. In sum, this thesis provides an overview of the semantic, syntactic, and morphological properties of Arabic verbs undergoing the causative alternation. Besides employing the researcher’s native-speaker intuition, the English/Arabic Lexicon Dictionary and Arabicorpora are consulted to support the validity of the argument.
ContributorsAl-qadi, Mona (Author) / Gelderen, Elly v. (Thesis advisor) / Adams, Karen (Committee member) / Pruitt, Kathryn (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2015