Matching Items (542)

Let Me Know When You Change Your Mind

DescriptionThis creative project contains three short stories about people who disagree. Each story explores the idea of disagreement and argumentation from a different point of view and a unique perspective.
ContributorsDunnigan, Aidan (Author) / Irish, Jennifer (Thesis director) / Viren, Sarah (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Department of English (Contributor)
Created2024-05

Perception of Different Varieties of English Among International University Students

Description
This paper examines how different varieties of English are perceived by international university students. Previous studies on English varieties (Hiraga 2005, Zhang 2009) found that people are more likely to associate prestige varieties of English with good character qualities, and other studies (Deuber & Leung 2013) have found similar patterns…

This paper examines how different varieties of English are perceived by international university students. Previous studies on English varieties (Hiraga 2005, Zhang 2009) found that people are more likely to associate prestige varieties of English with good character qualities, and other studies (Deuber & Leung 2013) have found similar patterns when testing people’s media perceptions. The aforementioned studies also found that some local varieties would rank lower based on perceived distance or social stigma. To follow up on these studies, I designed one that tested these findings against a heterogeneous cohort of international university students, and expanded the range of varieties studied as well as synthesizing the individual speaker contexts of Hiraga and Zhang (2005, 2009) with the media context of Deuber & Leung (2013). Despite some difficulties, the study found that the patterns described in the original studies, especially regarding prestige, held even in a group of participants of indeterminate nationality.
ContributorsCastillo, Micah Adrian (Author) / Matsuda, Aya (Thesis director) / James, Mark (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Department of English (Contributor)
Created2024-05