Master of Arts / Department of Modern Languages / Abby Franchitti / The role of first language (L1) has been controversial in foreign language (FL) learning and teaching. This study examines the relationship between L1 use and gender and level of education of EFL teachers as well as gender and EFL proficiency level of learners in an Afghan university setting. It also investigates the relationship between FL use and learner anxiety by learner gender and EFL proficiency level. The study hypothesized that female FL teachers use the L1 more than male teachers in FL classrooms. Second, low FL proficiency learners consider L1 use as necessary in FL classrooms. Third, low FL proficiency students experience more anxiety with the exclusive use of FL than higher level learners. Fourth, female learners experience more anxiety than male students with the exclusive use of FL by learners and teachers. Twenty EFL teachers participated in the study by completing a 19-item questionnaire and sixty EFL learners by completing a 27-item questionnaire about their views towards L1/FL use and learner anxiety. The data, analyzed through SPSS software, included calculating frequencies and percentages, computing correlations, and conducting independent-samples t-tests to compare the mean difference between the variables. The first hypothesis was not supported as male teachers reported using the L1 more than female teachers. The study also revealed that male teachers with BA and MA degrees used the L1 more than female teachers with BA degrees. In contrast, female teachers with MA degrees used the L1 more than male teachers with BA and MA degrees and also more than female teachers with BA degrees. The results supported hypothesis two. More elementary learners considered the use of L1 as necessary than intermediate and advanced students. The findings also supported hypotheses three and four. Elementary learners as well as female students experienced more anxiety with the exclusive use of FL than intermediate and advanced level students and male learners. The principal conclusion indicated a significant positive correlation between the exclusive use of FL and learner anxiety.

Master of Arts / Department of Modern Languages / Earl K. Brown / Considerable research exists on the various uses of modals of obligation in English, while the number of studies on Spanish modals is limited. The research of Fairclough (2000) looks at the variation and changes of the Spanish modals DEBER 'should' and TENER QUE ‘to have to’ spoken in Houston. Another study was conducted on modals and their variation in San Juan, Puerto Rico by Jose Santos (1994). However, most of the research does not include the verb NECESITAR 'to need'. This study examines and compares the uses of the modal verbs TENER QUE and NECESITAR. First, this paper presents previous research on modality, the changes and usage of modals in English, and the limited research on Spanish modals. Then the researcher examines the results of data collected using Twitter in order to determine for what main verbs TENER QUE and NECESITAR act as modal verbs, the frequency with which the Twitter users in the Spanishspeaking capitals in Central and South America use these verbs, and in what tense do these two modals occur most often. After discussing the results of the data collection, the study includes a brief discussion on the implications for teaching modals of obligation in Spanish to second language learners. This study finds overall that TENER QUE is preferred over NECESITAR. However, some verbs collocate with NECESITAR more than the average suggesting that patterns of collocations play a key role in determining the use of NECESITAR.

Master of Arts / Modern Languages / Earl K. Brown / Considerable research exists on subjunctive versus indicative mood patterns of use by both native and L2 speakers of Spanish. Though intermediate level textbooks expose L2 learners to the various tenses of the subjunctive mood, literature has shown that students still struggle with its implementation in their discourse, and various reasons are offered. Little has been done to analyze the prescribed uses that textbooks offer to students regarding mood selection and how these prescribed uses may differ from what Spanish speakers do in real life. The paper first offers a brief explanation of L2 learners’ mood selection in Spanish, followed by a description of Spanish moods and the realis/irrealis dichotomy that is often placed at the center of Spanish mood selection in the literature. Following this, the study offers an analysis of six intermediate level Spanish textbooks’ prescribed uses of two past subjunctive tenses (present perfect and imperfect), as prior research has shown an overlap in the functions of their indicative counterparts. The textbook analysis is then compared to a corpus composed of messages sent on the social media platform Twitter, containing one of six emotive phrases as main clauses, with three in present, three in preterit. The results show that Spanish-speaking users of Twitter employ the prescribed subjunctive mood more often when the verb in the main clause is expressed in the preterit instead of the present, though no such tendency is discussed in the textbooks. The results also reveal an overlap in the functions of the past tense subjunctive moods. The present perfect subjunctive (i.e. haya trabajado ‘has worked’) is used in the subordinate clause nearly 40% of the time with emotive verbal main clauses expressed in the preterit, where the imperfect subjunctive would normally be expected according to prescriptive norms. This pattern of use is not discussed in any of the analyzed textbooks. A discussion of the limitations of the study, implications for textbook writers and further research then follow.

Master of Arts / Department of Modern Languages / Earl K. Brown / How to teach phrasal verbs to L2 learners of English has been the subject of debate in Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) courses and materials alike. These multi-part verbs, consisting of a verb and one or more particles, convey a new lexical meaning different from their individual parts. Further complicating this is the fact that some transitive phrasal verbs can be separated from their particles to varying degrees by a direct object. Though variables affecting verb-particle separation lie below the level of consciousness for most native speakers, they make the acquisition of particle placement difficult for L2 English language learners. Additionally, the presentation of these verbs in EFL textbooks and university English language programs (ELPs) is inadequate. TEFL textbooks tend to place emphasis on the lexical acquisition of phrasal verbs, ignoring separable versus non-separable distinctions. However, native English speakers separate phrasal verbs from their particles about 66.5% of the time in spoken conversation. In order to determine whether traditional textbook problems associated with phrasal verb presentation persist, I analyzed eleven TEFL textbooks used in Kansas State University’s ELP. I also administered a grammaticality judgment survey in order to find out whether L1 Spanish speakers of L2 English view separation of transitive phrasal verbs and their particles to be grammatical. L1 Spanish Speakers of L2 English are disadvantaged by the fact that their native language is verb-framed, meaning that it does not make use of particles in the same way that English does. It is for this reason that native Spanish-speakers of L2 English constitute the experimental group in this study. The results of the TEFL textbook analysis reveal that none of the eleven textbooks analyzed could stand alone in the classroom to effectively teach phrasal verbs. The results of the grammaticality judgment survey show that L1 Spanish speakers of L2 English differ at a statistically significant level from L1 American English speakers in their acceptability of phrasal verb-particle separation. These findings have pedagogical implications for TEFL instructors, textbook writers, and English language programs, and demonstrate the need for more extensive and authentic phrasal verb instruction.

Master of Arts / Modern Languages / Mary T. Copple / Due to the fact that some English as a foreign language students lack motivation to learn English, this report will discuss how to promote their motivation by structuring appropriate lesson plans; giving students authentic L2 input; designing meaningful and communicative activities; choosing the right type of question to create learning opportunities; and using the guided inductive instructional approach for grammar teaching. Also, it will discuss how to prepare to be a 21st century teacher. The second part of this report contains detailed lesson plans for a unit on pets in which pedagogical theory is put into practice. This unit is mainly designed for low intermediate level English learners. The objectives of this lesson plan not only aim for improving students’ English language skills but also developing their animal and environmental protection awareness.

Master of Arts / Department of Modern Languages / Douglas K. Benson / In this report, I present my personal teaching philosophy and the instructional practices that I believe best contribute to a successful second language classroom. Comprising the teaching philosophy chapter are sections concerning: the role of the instructor, the three parameters of post-method pedagogy, the maximization of learning opportunities and minimalization of perceptual mismatches, the need for negotiated interaction, the promotion of learner autonomy, the teaching of higher order thinking skills, the advantages of contextualized input, and the development of students' cultural consciousness. The instructional practices chapter describes my approach to grammar instruction, vocabulary instruction and the implementation of authentic texts. To conclude, I offer a model five-day lesson plan, complete with structured pedagogical activities, contextualized to the theme of food, which will integrate the ideas and concepts discussed in the philosophy and practices chapters.

Master of Arts / Department of Modern Languages / Mary T. Copple / This study investigates the effectiveness of visuals in the language classroom. Two types of visual aids commonly used in the language classroom, video and still pictures, are used to elicit narratives from L2 English speakers, and these narratives are subsequently compared. The data come from eleven international students from a university English Language Program, who voluntarily participated in two separate 15-minute interviews. In each interview session, they were shown either a series of pictures or a video, both depicting a story. Upon completion of the presentation of each visual, participants were asked a prompt question and their narration of the events portrayed in the visuals recorded. The narratives were transcribed and analyzed in order to test (1) if still pictures and video are equally effective in eliciting elaboration in the narratives, defined in this case, as the number of new referents introduced and the number of adjective and verb types produced; and (2) if exposure to still pictures and video elicit narrations of similar length. Both kinds of visuals stimulated learners to create narratives and elaborate on what had been shown in them. The video task elicited narratives roughly 10% longer than the picture task in regards to the raw number of words. When linguistic factors were compared, participants introduced new referents at comparable rates in both tasks while they employed 10% more verb types in the video task. Additionally, the series of still pictures prompted participants to employ a much higher number of adjective types. These observations suggest that a series of still pictures are an effective alternative for video for eliciting narratives. This study provides support for the use of still pictures as an equivalent to videos in situations where videos are less accessible in language classrooms (due to lack of technological access).

Master of Arts / Department of Modern Languages / Douglas Benson / The purpose of this report is to demonstrate mastery of content in the Spanish MA program in Second Language Acquisition at Kansas State University. After graduation from this program, I plan to pursue a career as a high school Spanish teacher. As evidence of content mastery, this report contains my philosophy of education, which emphasizes communicative competence in the Spanish classroom. I discuss best teaching practices in presenting and practicing Spanish vocabulary and grammar with students. The use of the target language and the integration of culture and the four language skills is designed to further my students’ development through the progression of the lesson plan, from warm-up, to input, to the activity sequence, to closure. This report also contains a rationale, or how my philosophy of education directly and specifically applies to my teaching, for a unit plan including daily lessons and related appendices on the subject of the Spanish Civil War, and outlines student learning outcomes for this unit, such as the ability to compare their home culture to the culture of the second language as well as the ability to relate art and literature to the events of the war. The topic of my unit plan is of particular interest to my students and me as wars and violence are a present reality in our world. The secondary focus of my unit plan involves the significant detrimental effects of the Spanish Civil War and well as its specific consequences in the lives of women and children.