The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of talker and listener dialect on the validity and reliability of word recognition scores from two sets of Mandarin speech audiometry materials. Four lists of bisyllabic words in Mainland Mandarin and Taiwan Mandarin dialects were administered to 16 participants of each dialect with normal hearing across two test sessions. The performance on materials presented in the native dialect was compared to performance on non-native dialect assessment to determine validity and reliability of test materials. Statistical analysis indicated significant differences between word recognition scores across test sessions, talker and listener dialect, and among lists. However it is unclear if such differences constitute clinically significant differences.

Previous second language (L2) acquisition research has assumed that L2 learners from a common first language (L1) have the same problems in an L2, ignoring the potential impact of a speaker's L1 dialect on L2 acquisition. This study examines the effects of L1 dialect on the acquisition of L2 German vowels. In particular, this thesis investigates two questions: 1) Do speakers from L1 dialects with vowel mergers perceive or produce vowel contrasts in the L1 and/or L2 differently than speakers from dialect areas without the same mergers? and 2) Are subjects' patterns of L1 perception or production paralleled in the L2? This thesis focuses on the vowel contrasts "pin"-"pen," "fail"-"fell," and "pool"-"pull"-"pole," which are merged (i.e., neutralized) in some environments in the Mississippi dialect, such that words like "him" and "hem" are heard or produced as the same word. Two groups of subjects participated: students from The University of Mississippi (the merging group) and students from Brigham Young University (BYU) (the non-merging group). Subjects completed a perceptual task and a production task. The perception task was a forced-choice identification task in which subjects heard English and German words and indicated which word they heard. In the production task, subjects read aloud German and English sentences. Results indicate that BYU subjects were significantly better than UMiss subjects at perceiving many vowel contrasts in English and German. Additionally, some perceptual patterns seemed to transfer to the L2, e.g., /ɪn/ and /ɛn/, were identified with similar accuracy in English and in German. In production, the groups differed significantly from each other in their production of many vowel contrasts, while acoustic analysis found no production mergers for either group in English or German. In two case studies, perception results and production results (as found by native speaker judgments), showed that vowel contrasts merged in English were also problematic in L2 German, though the problematic vowel was not necessarily the same. In sum, the UMiss speakers with mergers in their L1 dialect appeared to face different challenges than the BYU speakers when perceiving and producing German vowel contrasts. Results have implications for the L2 classroom and L2 research, suggesting that instructors may need different teaching strategies for speakers from merging dialects.

The present study explored the outcomes of delivering training to Spanish speakers in either their native dialect or in Standard Spanish in the context of a self-running, narrated PowerPoint presentation on a health topic, "The Importance of Vaccinations." The training outcomes that were examined included learning scores; attitudes toward the training; and attitudes toward employment with organizations that employed the same or different dialect-speaking employees, supervisors, and trainers. In addition to examining the effects of ethnicity upon outcomes, this study also examined the effect of age, education level, time in the U.S., and familiarity with the locally dominant subgroup's dialect. Overall, results showed mixed support for the effect of presenting training to participants in their native dialect, as compared to the non-native dialect. The results of this study are discussed in terms of the theoretical implications for acquiring a better understanding of the cognitive and affective factors underlying the role of training language in the learning process. Practical implications for training design are presented within the context of cognitive load theory and the need for a theory-based approach to delivering training to non-English speakers. Implications for organizational efforts toward employee attraction and retention are discussed.

This study explores the linguistic characteristics of the Arabic dialect spoken in Ḥayy ə-s-səryān, also known as the ‘Syriac Quarter’ in Aleppo city, within the context of the city's diverse demographic makeup. The Aleppo dialect, a Levantine dialect spoken by various religious and social groups, is used by Christians and Muslims as their everyday language. The Jewish population, historically present in Syria, gradually left the city in the twentieth century. The Aleppo dialect among Christians and Muslims is classified into different types, considering factors like origin and migration. Previous studies by Sabouni and Behnstedt have examined the Muslim and Christian varieties, respectively, but Sabouni did not consider the Christian variety of the dialect and Behnstedt had limited focus on the Syriac Quarter dialect. This research aims to address this gap by analyzing and comparing various dialectal varieties in Aleppo, with a particular emphasis on the Syriac Quarter variety. In addition, the thesis examines the substratum of Aramaic in the dialect of Aleppo. The methodology involves the researcher's recordings of individuals from Aleppo's original Christian and Syriac Quarters. Transcriptions from scholars like Sabouni and Behnstedt were also utilized, with modifications for consistency. The researcher, a native speaker of the Aleppo dialect born in the Syriac Quarter, conducted interviews with individuals from both communities. Christians and Muslims in old town Aleppo initially shared linguistic similarities, residing in common quarters like al-Jallum. Over time, Christians moved to new areas, leading to separate residential zones. An Aramean group migrated from present-day Urfa (historical Edessa/Urhoy) in the early 20th century. The Edessan Syriacs arrived in Aleppo in 1924 and settled in the district that later became known as the Syriac Quarter, experiencing a multilingual environment. They adopted colloquial Arabic influenced by Syriac, Armenian and Turkish.  This research discusses the evolving linguistic landscape in Aleppo due to migrations and cultural interactions. The study explores linguistic variations in the Aleppo dialect, shedding light on the influences shaping its diverse forms.

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This dissertation will demonstrate that a variety of Dominican Spanish in contact with St. Thomas English Creole (STTEC) revealed many features which are consistent with Dominican Spanish in other contact environments and some new features which are emerging as the result of uniquely STTEC influences. The most notable feature is the appearance of the vowel [ɛ] in Dominican Spanish, which in STTEC is highly indexical to St. Thomian identity. In the present sociolinguistic analysis, it was found that the variability of [ɛ] was significantly influenced by the following phonological segment, syllable stress, the language of the token, and the speakers’ social network ties and self-ascribed identity. This dissertation also includes a socio-historical background of St Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands, a description of St Thomas English Creole, and a history of immigration patterns of people from the Dominican Republic to St Thomas, U.S.V.I. / Spanish

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