This experimental study aims to test the effectiveness of three different techniques designed to support the learning problems associated with generalizing an L1 phoneme with allophonic variation (/l/ ¡æ /©©/ word finally) to all L2 environments, learning that an L1 allophone (/t/, /d/ ¡æ flap word-medially before an unstressed syllable) has phonemic status in the L2, and learning an L2 phoneme that does not exist in the L1 (/r/). All the experimental groups received equal exposure to the three target segments. The only difference between the groups was the treatment. The treatment exercises included equal exposure to the three target segments, but exclusively covered either articulatory practice, contrasting environments for the same sound or English-Spanish pairs. Each treatment was predicted to be optimally effective for one segment in particular, based on the learning problem associated with each of the three segments included in the study. The effectiveness of each treatment was measured quantitatively based on improvements in test scores measuring pronunciation accuracy. The 53 study participants were native speakers of English enrolled in first-semester Spanish at the University of Pittsburgh. Subjects were divided into three experimental groups and one control group. With the exception of the control group, course instructors engaged students in daily imitation drills over a four-week period. Results were evaluated by means of a word list recording for the pretest and posttest. The main and interaction effects of time, treatment and position for each of the target sounds were analyzed using a 3-way ANCOVA. A second set of 3-way ANCOVAs measured the effects of time, position and test item frequency for each sound. None of the outcomes supported the hypotheses that predicted each treatment would be maximally effective for one of the target sounds. A variety of factors, such as variation in instruction, may have influenced overall improvements in accuracy. It is possible that the treatments might have produced significant outcomes had the treatment been longer. Despite the lack of statistically significant outcomes, the results suggest that explicit instruction in pronunciation can have a positive effect on pronunciation accuracy.

The use of group work in the second language classroom has become common with the introduction of Communicative Language Teaching. The focus on group work has led to a body of research analyzing differences in student speech in the group work and teacher-fronted environments. The present study focused on differences in pronunciation accuracy in these two environments, and the influence that language anxiety may have on these differences. The results show that pronunciation accuracy does not differ between the two environments. In addition, there was no significant relationship between pronunciation accuracy and anxiety in the group work environment. However, there was a significant negative correlation (r = -.562, p = .012) between language anxiety and pronunciation accuracy in the teacher-fronted environment. This suggests that language anxiety only has negative effects on pronunciation during teacher-fronted activities.

In this study, I examine the sociological, socio-psychological, and psychological domains of two Quichua-speaking communities—one urban and one rural—in Imbabura, Ecuador. The goal of the study is to determine the ethnolinguistic vitality (EV) of these two groups, and, ultimately, to predict whether a situation of language maintenance or language shift will prevail. Previous studies of EV have considered one of these three domains, but very few have considered all three. Furthermore, none has sought to measure ethnolinguistic vitality in the Quichua context. This study examines the role of various factors, particularly the individual network of linguistic contacts, in the survival of a particular language and ethnic group. Giles, Bourhis, and Taylor introduced the notion of ethnolinguistic vitality—defined as "that which makes a group likely to behave as a distinctive and active collective entity in intergroup situations" (1977, p. 308)—in the late 1970s as a theoretical framework for analyzing intergroup relations within a contact situation. Those with little vitality eventually cease to exist as distinctive linguistic groups within the intergroup setting. Allard and Landry (1987) developed a macroscopic model, including Giles et al.'s notions of objective (sociological level) and subjective (psychological level) EV, and adding to them the notion of individual networks of linguistic contacts (socio-psychological level) to mediate between the other two levels. This macroscopic model is the one I have followed in this study. To examine the sociological level, I used census and descriptive data. To investigate both the socio-psychological and the psychological levels, I used quantitative and qualitative approaches. I employed questionnaires, orally administered to a sample of 100 Indigenous persons between the ages of 18 and 25, and six elite interviews with Indigenous leaders. The findings of this study reveal the importance of the individual network of linguistic contacts for maintenance of a stable bilingual situation. At the same time they reveal the pervasive influence of the dominant language and culture, which threatens to undermine efforts to maintain and revitalize the ethnic language. Only with considerable planning and effort will these two communities be able to maintain Quichua in a stable bilingual situation.

Talmy (1975; 1985) proposes that most of the worlds languages can be divided into two classes regarding their expression of Motion Situations. The difference between these languages lies in the additional elements with which Motion is combined in the verb root. Spanish, for instance, typically describes the Motion and the Path in the verb root, while English conflates Motion and Manner in the verb. Speakers of a language must therefore focus their attention on different aspects of a Motion Situation in order to effectively describe it in their language. Prior research has attempted to discover whether L2 speakers can learn a new way of experiencing Motion Situations in order to describe them later. The consensus is that this is a difficult change to make at most levels, even for near-native speakers. This thesis looks at some fundamental elements of how native speakers of English develop their ability to express motion at two early stages of learning Spanish. The productive ability of beginning and low-intermediate Spanish L2 learners was analyzed against native speakers during the narration of a wordless picture book as well as filling in blanks of a Spanish representation. The results show that beginning students use many light manner verb constructions including phonologically null light verbs. Similarly, low-intermediate students revert to English when the production of a Motion Situation requires the conflation of Motion and Path instead of Manner. These findings suggest that Talmys typological framework may not explore issues with L2 transfer deeply enough. Instead, a finer-grained analysis can explain some results that are not predicted by Talmys typology. It is suggested that this style of analysis continue to be used to better describe the early process of L2 Spanish acquisition.

This paper contributes to the literature on the transferability of grapho-morphological awareness (GMA) for L2 learners by analyzing L2 learners morphology knowledge at the word and text level. GMA helps readers to identify grammatical categories, infer meanings of unfamiliar words, and access stored lexical information (Koda, 2008). Previous research indicates that L2 GMA is influenced by L1 GMA (Fender 2003; Hancin-Bhatt & Nagy, 1994; Koda, 2000; Ramirez, et. al., 2010; Schiff & Calif, 2007). In this paper, native speakers of Spanish (n=30) and native speakers of English learning Spanish as an L2 (n=46) completed four tasks: two timed lexical decision tasks (LDT) in English (only English speakers) and Spanish; three short passages followed by multiple choice questions; a cloze task; and an interview to discuss their answers. L2 learners show a native-like word recognition pattern (Clahsen & Felser, 2006a, 2006b), providing evidence for a language-specific morphological processing. L2 learners could recognize and decompose words into morphemes and lexemes through the different tasks, which implies that they neither ignore morphology nor follow a whole-word reading approach. However, this ability did not always help them to access the right word meaning. Also, orthographically similar words from L1 and L2 interfere with word recognition of inflected and derived words. Despite showing interference in inflected words during the timed LDT, they show a greater control during the interviews. However, derivational morphology is more difficult for L2 learners since they do not know derivational constraints either implicitly or explicitly. The results suggest that intermediate L2 learners with an alphabetic writing system in their L1 can go beyond transfer in an alphabetic L2, and that the relationship between proficiency and GMA might be reciprocal (Kuo & Anderson, 2008).

Thesis ( Ph.D.) -- University of Texas at Arlington, 2008.

Thesis (Ed. D.)--University of California, Davis, 2002. / Joint doctoral program with California State University, Fresno. Degree granted in Educational Leadership. Also available via the World Wide Web. (Restricted to UC campuses).

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2004. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 86-94). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2004. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 86-94). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1981. / Typescript. Vita. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 254-273).