The continuing failure of our education system to meet the needs of minority group students, who continue to walk through classroom doors in increasing numbers, provided the initial impetus for this research project. Researchers, academics, and school practitioners need to examine carefully 'taken for granted' patterns of talk and behaviour that occur in schools every day, because for many children, these are not effective. This study is situated in a mainstream primary school classroom where children from diverse language and cultural backgrounds work and learn together. The importance of the interaction that occurs between teachers and children is discussed and numerous studies which focus on the role of discourse in students' language learning are critiqued. The fact that students in mainstream primary schools must learn language while using language for content learning, is considered to be of paramount importance, and so discourse that occurred during small group mathematics lessons provided the major source of data for the project. An aspect of this discourse, language functions of student initiated interactions, was examined in depth. A combination of quantitative and qualitative methods was used to look beyond the surface level of classroom discourse in an attempt to better understand why children interact as they do, or why they remain silent, appearing to be on the periphery of the learning opportunities which are designed to help them to succeed. Classroom observations and individual interviews provided insights into the complex and competing forces which shape the talk that occurs between students and their teachers. It was revealed that successful students have effective relationships with teachers, regardless of whether or not they share the same cultural background. These successful students are able to deploy a range of thinking and learning strategies. The importance of making the 'culture of the classroom' explicit is highlighted, along with the fact that teachers feel constrained by the demands of an overcrowded curriculum and the need to address individual learning needs of all of their students. Implications for classroom practice along with teacher training and professional development are proposed.

The continuing failure of our education system to meet the needs of minority group students, who continue to walk through classroom doors in increasing numbers, provided the initial impetus for this research project. Researchers, academics, and school practitioners need to examine carefully 'taken for granted' patterns of talk and behaviour that occur in schools every day, because for many children, these are not effective. This study is situated in a mainstream primary school classroom where children from diverse language and cultural backgrounds work and learn together. The importance of the interaction that occurs between teachers and children is discussed and numerous studies which focus on the role of discourse in students' language learning are critiqued. The fact that students in mainstream primary schools must learn language while using language for content learning, is considered to be of paramount importance, and so discourse that occurred during small group mathematics lessons provided the major source of data for the project. An aspect of this discourse, language functions of student initiated interactions, was examined in depth. A combination of quantitative and qualitative methods was used to look beyond the surface level of classroom discourse in an attempt to better understand why children interact as they do, or why they remain silent, appearing to be on the periphery of the learning opportunities which are designed to help them to succeed. Classroom observations and individual interviews provided insights into the complex and competing forces which shape the talk that occurs between students and their teachers. It was revealed that successful students have effective relationships with teachers, regardless of whether or not they share the same cultural background. These successful students are able to deploy a range of thinking and learning strategies. The importance of making the 'culture of the classroom' explicit is highlighted, along with the fact that teachers feel constrained by the demands of an overcrowded curriculum and the need to address individual learning needs of all of their students. Implications for classroom practice along with teacher training and professional development are proposed.

In this comparative study of the expression of futurity in the Spanish of Mexicans in the United States and the sociolinguistically understudied city of Xalapa, Mexico, I explore the distribution of the variants of futurity: the morphological future (MF), the periphrastic future (PF) and the simple present (SP) and the constraints conditioning their occurrence. The data were extracted from sociolinguistic interviews with two socially stratified groups of consultants from each community under study. I conducted statistical regression analyses to test the effects of five social and nine linguistic constraints. The results indicate that the PF registers the highest rate of occurrence with a frequency of 67.6% and the MF is disappearing at the expense of the other variants. In comparison to other studies, Orozco (2007a), Lastra & Martín Butragueño (2010), Claes & Ortíz-López (2011), Gutiérrez (1995) and Blas Arroyo (2007, 2008) found that the PF is the most favored variant at the expense of the others. When comparing the tendencies of these communities with those under study, it becomes apparent that the Mexicans in Baton Rouge and Xalapa are at a more advanced level toward the preferential use of the PF. The type of verb, as reported in previous studies (cf. Orozco 2005, 2007), is the linguistic constraint that most strongly influences the expression of futurity. Regarding the social constraints, in Louisiana and Xalapa, for example, both age and level of education condition the use of the future. Gender, however, shows no significant effect, which differs from what occurs in Barranquilla and New York (Orozco 2007b, Forthcoming), Mexico City (Lastra & Martín Butragueño 2010) and Puerto Rico (Claes & Ortíz López 2011). In general, the significant linguistic factors are consistent with the findings of other speech communities with regard to the type of verb and reflect the universality of the process of grammaticalization. The lack of statistical significance for gender suggests that women and men have similar sociolinguistic behavior. This opens the possibility of exploring other linguistic variables in these and other Mexican communities to determine whether the social trends that are found are limited to the expression of futurity or to the communities under study.

Mi mamá es cuatro pies: A study of the use of calques in Hondurans and Salvadorans in Southern Louisiana Keywords: calques, language proficiency, bilingual, lexical borrowing, arrival age In this study, I explored calques among Hondurans and Salvadorans in Southern Louisiana. The study has a total of twenty-four Spanish-English bilinguals separated into three groups based upon their age of arrival to the United States. Similar to but modified from that of Silva-Corvalán (1996), group I, is comprised of participants who arrived to the United States after the age nineteen. The participants in group II immigrated to the United States between the ages of eleven and eighteen, while the participants in group III were born in the United States or immigrated to the United States before the age of ten. The following research questions motivated this study: 1. Is there a difference in the frequency of calque use among the three arrival groups? 2. Is there a difference in calquing frequency between sequential and simultaneous bilinguals? 3. Does dominant language significantly influence calque frequency? (i.e., English dominant, Spanish dominant or dominant in both) 4. How do the social factors contribute to the frequency of calque use? 5. How do the linguistic variables of the collocation of calque, the word prior to calque and the word after the calque contribute to the use of calques? In this study each participant completed two tasks; t an open-ended sociolinguistic interview and a question-answer activity. An analysis using Goldvarb X was performed and the social factors that condition the use of calques are age, formal instruction in English, socioeconomic status, and dominant language and the linguistic factors of word class of the word prior to the calque, collocation, and word class of the calque affect calque frequency. It was also discovered that the participants who moved to the U.S between the ages of eleven and eighteen produced the most calques, while those who moved to the U.S after the age of nineteen produced the least.

My thesis examines the literary portrayal of women in Dominican politics as historical figures/actors and how Dominican women have also used the medium of literature to draw attention to these lesser known heroines and inspire future participation and involvement in public life. The creation of fiction out of history, through which authors imagine the inner lives and feelings and motivations of Dominican women protagonists, can add a new dimension to the study of women and gender in the Dominican Republic, especially when written by Dominican women authors. More specifically, I will explore the following issues and areas: 1) how the works revise or expand on the traditional interpretation of political activism 2) how the works honor women historical actors, giving them a voice and 3) what the works reveal about the gendered nature of political activism. The novels I will be analyzing are Julia Alvarezs novels In the Name of Salome and In the Time of Butterflies, as well as Charamicos by Angela Hernandez. These works are based on real women activists who have been fictionalized in the novels, such as Salome Urena de Henriquez and the Mirabal sisters, as well as imagined or fictional women who are not based on specific Dominican women, but rather a fictionalized compilation created to embody the experiences of many, such as the characters in Charamicos. My analysis of the literary representation of womens activism draws from the fields of gender, political, historical and literary studies, however Joan W. Scotts discussion of her-story and social history, as well as Paul Ricoeurs theories on the relationship between memory and history are especially useful. In conclusion, I show that these novels have created a space for the imagined experiences of these women and given them a voice which was lacking, since these women activists have been left hidden in the pages of history, without detailed autobiographies or much more than a paragraph even in recent historical publications. I will also explore future research considerations that would build on the work in this thesis and further contribute to the expansion of the field of Dominican womens studies.

This thesis explores the transgressive representations of gender in the works of Emilia Pardo Bazán. In her short story Cuento primitivo (1893) and her novels Memorias de un solterón (1896), La quimera (1905), and Dulce dueño (1911), the myths and images that surround the figures of New Woman, femme fatales, and dandies expose the fear fin de siècle Spanish society felt toward these models that did not conform to the gender stereotypes expected of them. Their straying from the established norm was seen as the symptom of decadence and the herald of the destruction of the race. Each of the characters are marginalized in some way because of their gender or because they do not conform to the established gender order. Therefore, much of the theory used in this thesis is drawn from feminist sources including Elaine Showalter, Gilbert and Gubar, Laura Mulvey, and Hélène Cixous. I also incorporate psychoanalytic theory and its relationship to the preoccupation concerning masculinity and degeneration from the work of Freud, Neil Hertz, and Max Nordau. My analysis of the representation of these transgressive figures extends to art as well as many of the cultural myths or images that surrounded these men and women can be found in the paintings of the time, such as those from Santiago Rusiñol, Franz von Stuck, and Hermen Anglada-Camarasa. As a response to this problem of fin de siècle Spanish decadence, Pardo Bazán offers Spanish society a fairly unusual solution. She proposes a combination of the traditional in the form of the Catholic faith and the modern in the form of equality of the sexes. It is through this unique combination that she is able to integrate these foreign, subversive images of gender into Catholic Spanish society. She particularly celebrates the New Woman who demands to be seen as equal to man. Yet, the New Woman is foreign concept that she does not merely import to Spain; instead, she adapts her to fit within her culture. At the same time, she can promote a modern Spanish society without strict gender hierarchy yet still retain the essential Spanish-ness of Catholicism.

This thesis analyzes postmemory, feminism, and women's writing seen in three contemporary novels written by women about women who lived and defied traditional gender roles during the Spanish Civil War and the Francisco Franco dictatorship. I discuss how these female characters and real-life women were marginalized for defying women's roles, while facing extreme injustices. They refused to adhere to the norms that the patriarchal discourse imposed on them during the era and never gave up in the fight to express their voice. I discuss the novels, La voz dormida by Dulce Chacón, Donde nadie te encuentre by Alicia Giménez Bartlett, and Su cuerpo era su gozo by Beatriz Gimeno. Each novel is written in the 21st century by female writers who did not experience the same tragedies as the characters in the novels. However, the writers give a voice to these women through the use of postmemory. The novelists rediscover the women's experiences through their writing and give them the voice that the women were denied throughout their lives. The women I discuss are all marginalized because they are women and do not conform to the established gender roles that their society has imposed. The women in La voz dormida were marginalized because they dared to fight as soldiers alongside men against Franco's forces. La Pastora in Donde nadie te encuentre was marginalized because she was born an intersexual who is also a member of the Maquis, a group also opposing Franco's forces. Finally, I speak about two lesbians who are marginalized and punished due to their sexuality and independent lifestyle. I use feminist, lesbian, and queer theory by citing philosophers such as Hélène Cixous, Adrienne Rich, Judith Butler, Monique Wittig, and Raquel Platero Méndez among others. I also include theory from Michel Foucault and scholars who write about postmemory such as Sarah Leggott and Marianne Hirsch. Through these concepts of postmemory, feminism, and women's writing, these novels finally give voice to several women who defied the roles imposed on them during the Spanish Civil War and Franco's dictatorship.

The dominant language in the United States is English but there are different minority languages spoken such as Spanish. Today, Spanish can be found in every state and territory of the United States. In Texas, the city of San Antonio is in intense contact with Spanish, partly because of the long history between Texas and Mexico and the constant influx of Hispanic immigrants. This thesis studies the attitude toward Spanish in San Antonio, investigating the uses of Spanish and English and the social factors (age, generation, education, gender, etc.) that affect the use of Spanish. Through a questionnaire designed to determine attitude and given to 150 participants, the attitude in San Antonio is in conflict due to the intense contact between the two languages and the social pressure from the dominant language on the minority community. En los Estados Unidos la lengua más dominante es el inglés pero se encuentran diferentes idiomas minioritarios como el castellano. Hoy en día se encuentran hablantes de castellano en todos los estados y territorios de la Unión Americana. En Texas, la ciudad de San Antonio está en contacto intenso con el castellano debido a la larga historia del estado con México y la constante inmigración de hispanos. Esta tesis investiga la actitud hacia el castellano en San Antonio, estudiando los usos del castellano y el inglés y los factores sociales (la edad, la generación, la educación, el género, etc.) que afectan el uso del castellano. A través de un cuestionario diseñado para averiguar la actitud y dado a 150 participantes, la actitud en San Antonio está conflictiva debido al contacto intenso entre los dos idiomas y la presión de la sociedad dominante a la comunidad lingüísticamente minoritaria.

Hispanics are not only the largest language minority in the United States, but also in U.S. prisons. An increasing number of primarily Spanish-speaking defendants face the legal and linguistic challenges of a U.S. courtroom. Constitutional and statutory protections have been put in place to guarantee that non-native English defendants have access to a court interpreter during their trial. Yet, under these protections it is left to the presiding judge to determine whether a court interpreter is truly needed. Thus, the judge has to determine if the comprehension of the non-native English defendant is sufficiently inhibited as to require language assistance during trial. What methods do judges use in order to determine the English proficiency of a primarily Spanish-speaking defendant? How good does the English of a non-native English defendant have to be in order to stand trial without an interpreter? Are the language needs of Hispanics truly an issue in U.S. courts? Would guidelines on how to determine English language proficiency facilitate the judges work? In order to answer these questions, one hundred surveys were sent to federal and state criminal court judges in four states (CA, FL, NY, TX). The analysis of the responses returned by the judges showed that language issues of Hispanics are an important issue in U.S. courts. In addition, the answers provided by the judges revealed that non-native English defendants must be able to understand broadly, or everything that is said at trial, and that they must be able to answer questions in whole sentences in order to be able to stand trial without an interpreter. With regard to methods that judges use in order to determine the English proficiency of a non-native English defendant, the data showed that most judges choose to appoint an interpreter, if one is requested by the defendant. Also, many judges ask the defendant directly whether he/she needs an interpreter. As most judges responded that the request by the defendant is sufficient for him/her to receive an interpreter, they do not agree that a set of guidelines to determine the English proficiency of the defendant would facilitate their work.

The subject of Maya music is by no means a new field of study for Hispanic cultural scholars or Mesoamerican anthropologists. For example, the archeological reports of Dr. Norman Hammond and Dr. Paul Healy have greatly increased the information in this area of study. The instrumentation utilized by ancient Maya musicians and the raw materials that were the essence of their production have been the major themes in these previous publications. However, these perspectives exclude the sound of music and aspects of ancient Maya society. This thesis has been planned to examine ancient Maya music according to archaeology, society and the sound of music. The first chapter of this study will deal with the known facts surrounding Maya musical instrumentation based on the more popular studies published by Hammond, Healy and other prestigious scholars. The purpose of the first chapter will be to introduce the main forms of instrumentation: idiophones, membranophones and areophones. Then, the second chapter will involve the most popular known exhibition of Maya musical performance, the Bonampak frescoes of Chiapas, Mexico. The analysis of these frescoes will include the sound of the instruments of this performance to draw conclusions about musicians and hierarchy. Next, the third chapter will pertain to ancient flutes and ocarinas, the most common instruments surviving today. I will use the sound and physical characteristics to identify which musical instruments were status symbols. My fourth chapter will deal with the recreation of Maya music that occurs in media productions such as Patricia Amlin's "Popol Vuh: The Creation Myth of the Maya". Master flute makers such as Robin Hodgkinson and Guillermo Martinez will be discussed along with their work to give insights public perception of ancient Maya music. The final chapter will be a summary that will reiterate issues surrounding the instruments, sounds and the musical hierarchy of the Maya. This last chapter will demonstrate how the sound of ancient Maya instruments has been used to further the classification and information known about this musical culture.