Master of Arts / Department of Modern Languages / Mary T. Copple / The formation of English past tense by EFL (or ESL) learners has been the object of much second language acquisition research. This study investigates the production and marking of English past tense verbs by 55 adult Afghan EFL learners who use Pashto or Dari as their first language. The participants were first required to produce the past tense while responding to a questionnaire about their daily activities, and then completed a correction task in which sentences with verb errors appeared. The collected data was analyzed based on verb regularity (Pinker & Ullman 2002, Jaeger et al. 1996, Hoeffner 2000, Housen 2000) and the sequential inflection of events or non-events based on inherent lexical aspect (Vendler 1967, Salaberry 2000, Bardovi-Harlig & Reynolds1995, Tickoo 2001, 2005). Results show that the participants were more accurate in marking and producing regular verbs than irregular verbs for the past tense in both experimental tasks. When examining the role of regularity of the verb in the sequential marking of lexical aspect, it was discovered that past tense production of irregular verbs was influenced by the lexical aspectual verb type as non-events exhibited lower accuracy rates for past tense inflection.

The relationship in a bilingual conversation between language choice and identity has been the subject of research in different disciplines such as sociolinguistics, psycholinguistics, and second language acquisition among others. The purpose of this research was to understand why and how language alternation occurs in bilingual interviews and its potential connection with identity. The data analyzed was from interviews from Proyecto Latino@, a previous research on Latin@ high school students’ experiences in schools and their academic engagement and/or disengagement. Participants’ narratives of their experiences indicated that code-switching is a result and a process of cultural adaptation. Code-switching in this research presented ways in which participants re-created their own concept of identity. Bilinguals of the Proyecto Latin@ portrayed a multiple identities construction –Spanish- English – when code-switching.

The focus of this research is to examine the book club as a social context for literacy development. Students in book clubs perceive literature authentically in ways of reading, writing and talking through a variety of interactions. Meanwhile, teachers, by observing students’ learning in book clubs, reflect on their language teaching and lead to an innovation of literacy instruction in schools, which can bridge to a community instructional change for language teachers. In this research, I observed, videotaped, audio-taped, and interviewed high school students and the teacher in an urban Canadian high school, who were involved in English classroom book clubs which replaced the traditional instructional mode of teaching literature, trying to figure out a structure for a classroom book club by comparing to an extracurricular book club and by analyzing the diverse reading experiences of students both in and outside of school.

The relationship in a bilingual conversation between language choice and identity has been the subject of research in different disciplines such as sociolinguistics, psycholinguistics, and second language acquisition among others. The purpose of this research was to understand why and how language alternation occurs in bilingual interviews and its potential connection with identity. The data analyzed was from interviews from Proyecto Latino@, a previous research on Latin@ high school students’ experiences in schools and their academic engagement and/or disengagement. Participants’ narratives of their experiences indicated that code-switching is a result and a process of cultural adaptation. Code-switching in this research presented ways in which participants re-created their own concept of identity. Bilinguals of the Proyecto Latin@ portrayed a multiple identities construction –Spanish- English – when code-switching.

The focus of this research is to examine the book club as a social context for literacy development. Students in book clubs perceive literature authentically in ways of reading, writing and talking through a variety of interactions. Meanwhile, teachers, by observing students’ learning in book clubs, reflect on their language teaching and lead to an innovation of literacy instruction in schools, which can bridge to a community instructional change for language teachers. In this research, I observed, videotaped, audio-taped, and interviewed high school students and the teacher in an urban Canadian high school, who were involved in English classroom book clubs which replaced the traditional instructional mode of teaching literature, trying to figure out a structure for a classroom book club by comparing to an extracurricular book club and by analyzing the diverse reading experiences of students both in and outside of school.

The study investigated the role of identity investment in the context of an English/Mandarin transitional bilingual education (TBE) program in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. Fifteen students from Grades 1 to 3 and one teacher in the program participated in my research. Students were individually interviewed about how they viewed their identities along a continuum ranging from “Canadian” to “Chinese-Canadian” to “Chinese”. Students’ scores on bilingual vocabulary and reading measures were analyzed together with data provided by parents on language use and literacy practices at home. The research revealed that students manifested a range of identity configurations depending on language use at home and these identity configurations were related to students’ performance on the bilingual language and literacy measures. The findings, although tentative due to the small sample size, suggest that teachers should focus on affirming students’ bilingual and bicultural identities as a means of encouraging the development of bilingual proficiency.

The study investigated the role of identity investment in the context of an English/Mandarin transitional bilingual education (TBE) program in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. Fifteen students from Grades 1 to 3 and one teacher in the program participated in my research. Students were individually interviewed about how they viewed their identities along a continuum ranging from “Canadian” to “Chinese-Canadian” to “Chinese”. Students’ scores on bilingual vocabulary and reading measures were analyzed together with data provided by parents on language use and literacy practices at home. The research revealed that students manifested a range of identity configurations depending on language use at home and these identity configurations were related to students’ performance on the bilingual language and literacy measures. The findings, although tentative due to the small sample size, suggest that teachers should focus on affirming students’ bilingual and bicultural identities as a means of encouraging the development of bilingual proficiency.

Interlanguage pragmatics research has contributed a great deal to our understanding of L2 pragmatic use but less to our understanding of L2 pragmatic development, although developmental issues are also its primary research goal. Additionally, previous studies have been confined to a rather small set of speech acts, under-researching such face-damaging acts as criticizing and responding to criticism even though these may be more challenging for L2 learners. The present study examines pragmatic development in the use of criticizing and responding to criticism by a group of Vietnamese EFL learners with a view to shedding light on the pragmatic properties of these speech acts. IL data were collected from 12 high beginners, 12 intermediate learners, and 12 advanced learners, via a written questionnaire and role play, and analyzed with reference to L1 and L2 baseline data collected from 12 Vietnamese and 12 Australian NSs via the same methods. Metapragmatic data were collected via retrospective interview. Four main findings are discussed. Firstly, the learners criticized and responded to criticism very differently from the NSs. This difference might have adversely affected how the learners negotiated their intentions expressed via speech act realizations. Secondly, there was little evidence of any proficiency effect on the learners' use of these two speech acts. This was probably because pragmatic development was limited by the EFL context, as the learners had had insufficient exposure to the target norms. Thirdly, there was evidence of pragmatic transfer in the learners' production. This transfer was affected by the learners' perception of L1-L2 proximity and assumption of L2 reasonableness. Finally, the retrospective interviews with learners suggested four main sources of influence on their pragmatic decision-making: insufficient L2 pragmatic knowledge, transfer of communication and learning, processing difficulty, and learning experience. The present study lends support to a number of SLA theories, including Bialystoks' processing model and Meisel et al.'s complexification hypothesis. It found that the major challenge for learners in L2 pragmatic acquisition is to gain control over processing. It also found an acquisitional order of modality markers which was dependent upon their structural complexity and the processing demands involved in producing them. / Subscription resource available via Digital Dissertations only.

Interlanguage pragmatics research has contributed a great deal to our understanding of L2 pragmatic use but less to our understanding of L2 pragmatic development, although developmental issues are also its primary research goal. Additionally, previous studies have been confined to a rather small set of speech acts, under-researching such face-damaging acts as criticizing and responding to criticism even though these may be more challenging for L2 learners. The present study examines pragmatic development in the use of criticizing and responding to criticism by a group of Vietnamese EFL learners with a view to shedding light on the pragmatic properties of these speech acts. IL data were collected from 12 high beginners, 12 intermediate learners, and 12 advanced learners, via a written questionnaire and role play, and analyzed with reference to L1 and L2 baseline data collected from 12 Vietnamese and 12 Australian NSs via the same methods. Metapragmatic data were collected via retrospective interview. Four main findings are discussed. Firstly, the learners criticized and responded to criticism very differently from the NSs. This difference might have adversely affected how the learners negotiated their intentions expressed via speech act realizations. Secondly, there was little evidence of any proficiency effect on the learners' use of these two speech acts. This was probably because pragmatic development was limited by the EFL context, as the learners had had insufficient exposure to the target norms. Thirdly, there was evidence of pragmatic transfer in the learners' production. This transfer was affected by the learners' perception of L1-L2 proximity and assumption of L2 reasonableness. Finally, the retrospective interviews with learners suggested four main sources of influence on their pragmatic decision-making: insufficient L2 pragmatic knowledge, transfer of communication and learning, processing difficulty, and learning experience. The present study lends support to a number of SLA theories, including Bialystoks' processing model and Meisel et al.'s complexification hypothesis. It found that the major challenge for learners in L2 pragmatic acquisition is to gain control over processing. It also found an acquisitional order of modality markers which was dependent upon their structural complexity and the processing demands involved in producing them. / Subscription resource available via Digital Dissertations only.

Interlanguage pragmatics research has contributed a great deal to our understanding of L2 pragmatic use but less to our understanding of L2 pragmatic development, although developmental issues are also its primary research goal. Additionally, previous studies have been confined to a rather small set of speech acts, under-researching such face-damaging acts as criticizing and responding to criticism even though these may be more challenging for L2 learners. The present study examines pragmatic development in the use of criticizing and responding to criticism by a group of Vietnamese EFL learners with a view to shedding light on the pragmatic properties of these speech acts. IL data were collected from 12 high beginners, 12 intermediate learners, and 12 advanced learners, via a written questionnaire and role play, and analyzed with reference to L1 and L2 baseline data collected from 12 Vietnamese and 12 Australian NSs via the same methods. Metapragmatic data were collected via retrospective interview. Four main findings are discussed. Firstly, the learners criticized and responded to criticism very differently from the NSs. This difference might have adversely affected how the learners negotiated their intentions expressed via speech act realizations. Secondly, there was little evidence of any proficiency effect on the learners' use of these two speech acts. This was probably because pragmatic development was limited by the EFL context, as the learners had had insufficient exposure to the target norms. Thirdly, there was evidence of pragmatic transfer in the learners' production. This transfer was affected by the learners' perception of L1-L2 proximity and assumption of L2 reasonableness. Finally, the retrospective interviews with learners suggested four main sources of influence on their pragmatic decision-making: insufficient L2 pragmatic knowledge, transfer of communication and learning, processing difficulty, and learning experience. The present study lends support to a number of SLA theories, including Bialystoks' processing model and Meisel et al.'s complexification hypothesis. It found that the major challenge for learners in L2 pragmatic acquisition is to gain control over processing. It also found an acquisitional order of modality markers which was dependent upon their structural complexity and the processing demands involved in producing them. / Subscription resource available via Digital Dissertations only.