This qualitative study gave insight on the benefits that a university literature course for future Spanish teachers could contribute to preservice teachers as part of their preparation program. Nine university students participated in this study as they were the ones enrolled in this first-time offered university literature course for Spanish teachers. Data were collected from pre- and post-questionnaires, journals, and course observations. The findings suggested that the preservice teachers grew in pedagogical content knowledge, literary content, resources and strategies, and felt an overall sense of preparedness to use literary sources in their future classrooms

La temprana obra de Alberto Fuguet (Chile, 1964-) presenta las múltiples facetas de los adolescentes y adultos jóvenes chilenos. Entre las muchas realidades expuestas, el fracaso social es, quizás, uno de los más representados, ya que se exterioriza repetidamente en las experiencias de los personajes y las páginas de las obras están impregnadas con una sensación de pérdida y vacío. Esta tesis se centra en la colección de cuentos Sobredosis (1990) de Alberto Fuguet, con especial énfasis en el cuento "Pelando a Rocío." Este análisis literario estudia como el texto despliega el fracaso social experimentado por la generación chilena de finales del siglo XX. Se propone una interpretación que resalta esta frustración generacional a través de la fragmentación de los personajes que se presentan a lo largo del cuento. El primer capítulo se enfoca en los protagonistas, principalmente los jóvenes, y en el comportamiento y las actitudes que demuestran a lo largo de sus interacciones sociales y personales, las cuales son superficiales e indiferentes. El segundo capítulo exhibe la fragmentación mediante la división física y simbólica que existe en la ciudad de Santiago, siendo la urbe el protagonista del segundo capítulo por medio de su limitante estructura. La fragmentación de los protagonistas del texto, tanto los individuos como la ciudad, apunta directamente al fracaso experimentado por la generación representada en este texto. Esta tesis menciona el contexto socio-histórico chileno, con especial énfasis en la historia del país durante la década del setenta, en base a la importancia de este contexto en la formación y en el desarrollo de los personajes. Este estudio presenta el problema social y generacional que resultó en la producción de individuos apáticos, representados en los protagonistas del texto.

Language acquisition research frequently concerns itself with linguistic development and result of the acquisition process with respect to a first or subsequent language. For some, it seems tacitly assumed that a first language, once acquired, remains stable, regardless of exposure to and the acquisition of additional language(s) beyond the first one in childhood. Research on language attrition (language loss) questions the validity of this assumption and raises questions that will not only help in describing and explaining the nature of linguistic attrition, but also shed light on the mental (cognitive) representation of human language. The goal of this dissertation is to contribute to the general program of research that investigates possible domains of first language attrition and its cause(s). More specifically, I endeavor to test the predictions and theoretical tenability of the Interface Hypothesis (Sorace and Filiaci 2006) as applied to language attrition (e.g. Tsimpli et al 2004). The Interface Hypothesis claims that certain linguistic properties, namely those at external interfaces such as the syntax/discourse interface, are especially vulnerable to optionality in language acquisition (see Sorace and Serratrice 2009). For attrition, it predicts that, upon sufficient exposure, linguistic properties that are dependent on interfaces between the linguistic computational system and external domains of cognition (such as pragmatics and discourse structure) are more vulnerable to erosion than those that lie internally to the linguistic system (e.g. syntax/semantic interface) or those that are purely syntactic in nature. Within this framework, attrition is hypothesized to either be due to direct interference from the L2 or due to linguistic processing deficits that are a byproduct of being bilingual. The comprehensive nature of this case study, which tests the L1 grammar of an adult native speaker of Spanish after 25 years of uninterrupted naturalistic exposure to Brazilian Portuguese across the different property types, not only allows for an examination of possible domains of attrition (e.g. external interfaces, internal interfaces, syntax) but also allows for teasing apart of the cause of attrition by combining both untimed and timed methodologies. Although the main focus of this dissertation is to test the limits and explanatory value of the Interface Hypothesis, the data will also be examined in light of other theories such as Paradis' (2004) Activation Threshold Hypothesis and Jakobson's (1940) Regression Hypothesis to determine the extent to which various theories might best explain the data to be obtained.

While it has been recognized that L2 word learning is facilitated for cognates (De Groot & Keijzer 2000), approaches to cognate acquisition have focused on the similarity of L1- L2 forms, overlooking regular patterns in differences between items. For example, English phone [dʒ] regularly corresponds to the Spanish phone [x]: agent [eɪdʒɛnt]- agente [axente], voyage [vɔɪədʒ]- viaje [bjaxe]. The current studies test whether L1 English, L2 Spanish learners acquire and utilize regular cognate sound correspondences. Experiment 1 compared accuracy for cognate forms that include or do not include regular correspondences. Subjects learned the English names of 20 monsters. Afterward, they saw each monster's image and heard its name in English, then recalled and produced the monster's (cognate) name in Spanish. Results revealed higher accuracy for items containing regular cognate correspondences. Subjects with higher proficiency showed greater differences in accuracy between regular and irregular items. In Experiment 2, subjects heard a novel word in either English or Spanish and invented a plausible cognate in the other language. Their modifications to the word forms were analyzed. Analyses revealed that subjects’ modifications were not random, but rather demonstrated convergence on dominant modification strategies. Higher proficiency correlated with greater convergence on dominant strategies. Together, these results demonstrate that L1 English, L2 Spanish learners have knowledge of regular cognate correspondences and can utilize correspondences to learn or invent new cognate forms. Furthermore, because this knowledge is acquired gradually by the L2 learner, cognate processing is not consistent across proficiency levels or between individual learners.

El proposito de esta tesis es de examinar la intertextualidad que aparece en la novela Tunisima, de Elena Poniatowska y analizar hasta que punto ella ha usado diferentes voces. Elena Poniatowska durante diez anos recopilo material para su obra. En ella relata la vida de la fotografa y revolucionaria, Tina Modotti, durante los anos 1929 a 1942. La novela Tinisima tiene treinta y siete secciones a lo que la he divido en tres partes. Cada una de esas partes tiene que ver con la vida de los companeros de Modotti que toman mas importancia en el desarrollo de la obra. En la primera parte Julio Antonio Mella es presentado, ahi vemos una intertextualidad historica no solo de Mexico sino de otros paises. La segunda parte introduce a Edward Weston y por ella desf ilan un gran numero de personas de la sociedad mexicana de esa epoca. Poniatowska hace esto usando como palimpsesto el The Daybooks of Edward Weston. En la ultima parte hace una intertextualidad tanto oral como historica porque ahi refine varias entrevistas de gente que conocio a Tina, especialmente la de Vittorio Vidali. Cada parte tambien trata de los problemas politicos que habian en diferentes paises tanto americanos como europeos. Poniatowska ha tornado en cuenta cuidadosamente todos los detalles de la vida de Tina Modotti y los ha traspasado a su novela con una reunion de voces que no han salido exclusivamente de su pluma pero si ha usado su imaginacion para unir todas esas voces.

This longitudinal study focuses on the language production of two siblings, aged 6 and 9 at the beginning of the data collection period, who have been brought up in a bilingual family in New York. The parents of the two girls are native speakers of German and Spanish, respectively, and English for them is the language of education and the larger community. The study specifically examines the phenomenon of code switching, or transitioning between languages, either within one sentence or within one speech situation. I examine the extent to which these switches are caused by deficiencies in vocabulary in a specific language, and seek to identify other possible causes for such transitions. The data collected mainly through recording and transcription of the children's speech within the family home allowed me to identify a number of sociopragmatic functions most commonly fulfilled by producing mixed utterances, such as referring to a specific person, including or excluding someone from the conversation, changing the interlocutor or the topic or explaining or insisting on a certain idea. Lexical need was also an important cause of code switching, although it did not prevail over the other categories. The distribution in the amount and function of code switches turned out to be in a dynamic state, with both quantitative and qualitative changes observed throughout the study period. The age difference between the children and the relationship between the younger and elder sibling were additional factors which influenced their language choice. I conclude that code switching, especially in the case of child speech, should be considered a fluid and multifaceted phenomenon which represents the speaker's role in the conversation and reflects multiple social and pragmatic functions; while elements of two (or more) languages are often combined for purely lexical reasons, this is only one aspect of trilingual code switching, which allows the speaker, consciously or not, to explore the three languages as ways of establishing his or her personality and looking at reality both within and outside the means of each particular language.

In Latin American literary history, writing has been primarily a male-dominated activity. It is not until the second part of the nineteenth century, when the first generation of women writers appeared, that the act of writing novels, essays, and poetry allowed them to have a voice in the public sphere. Through their writings, women authors redefined women's roles in a society strongly influenced by patriarchal beliefs. This dissertation focuses on three authors from the Peru and Argentina: Clorinda Matto de Turner (1852-1909), Mercedes Cabello de Carbonera (1842-1909) and Juana Manuela Gorriti (1818-1892), and has two principal aims. The first is to demonstrate that, through the act of writing, these women writers crossed the boundaries from the private sphere of the home to the public arena of political action. I argue that, once they entered the public space, they openly expressed their opinions about how to improve the social situation of women, concentrating most of their efforts on supporting women's education as a path to social and economic independence. As a second aim, I analyze a set of novels in depth to show that by representing women as subjects in their novels, these nineteenth-century women writers contradicted the patriarchal-liberal ideology that defined women primarily as objects. Some of the existing research on nineteenth-century women writers argues that their representations of women reinforced patriarchal beliefs, since female characters were still kept within the limits of the domestic realm. However, my research shows that there was an important resistance to patriarchal-liberal constraints in Matto, Cabello and Gorrriti' writings. Applying the theory of scholars such as Mary Poovey, Bridget Aldaraca, and Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar, I show that even though women characters in these novels do not leave the house to participate completely in public life, they start to exert control over their own lives and become more independent. Thus, I demonstrate that women writers portrayed their female characters as the initiators of political action with direct implications in the public sphere. Women characters also protest against the marginalized conditions of other social and ethnic groups. Female characters reinforce the need for a secular education for women, which can provide them with knowledge in the sciences and arts, and hence with means to become professionals. Women characters and their authors move between the private and the public spheres in order to make their voices heard. This was a real challenge for women in a century that witnessed many changes in social and political life; however, none of those changes aimed at providing women the rights of independence and full participation in the public sphere.

This dissertation examines the historical and political vision of Mexico in the following plays: Felipe Ángeles by Elena Garro (1916-1998); El eterno femenino by Rosario Castellanos (1925-1974); La paz ficticia by Luisa Josefina Hernández (1928) and Tlacaélel, Felipe Carrillo Puerto: Una flor para tu sueño y El sueño de la Malinche by Marcela del Río (1932). The main objective of this study is to fill in the criticism void about theatre written by women in Mexico (especially their historical theatre). Another very important objective is to show how these historical plays propose the need to change the current political and social structures that have been in place for centuries so that every individual is treated equally regardless of race, sex or social-economical class. These four women playwrights redeem not only female historical characters but also the values embedded in various social movements such as the Yaqui tribe rebellion at the end of the 19th century, the Mexican Revolution and the expropiation of the lands to the people of Spanish extraction who had stripped them from the indigenous people in the Yucatán Peninsula at the beginning of the 20th century. Since these playwrights set their own historical characters’ perspective in contrast to the perspective of them that official history has offered, this approach can be analyzed as a dialogical form, of one conscience opposite another one. Therefore, the study employs the tool for analysis provided by Mikhail Bakhtin in The Dialogic Imagination and Estética de la creación verbal. The ideological divisions presented in Del Rio’s play Felipe Carrillo Puerto: Una flor para tu sueño, are analyzed from Lucien Goldmann’s concept of a utopian world. The heroes of the social movements in three of the plays: La paz ficticia, Felipe Ángeles and Felipe Carrillo Puerto: Una flor para tu sueño allows the application of Georg Lukacs’ theory about the novel to be applied to theatre, because each one of these protagonists can be described very well with the term “problematic individual.” The significance of intertextualities present in the play El eterno femenino by Rosario Castellanos is analyzed from the perspective of Gerard Genette in his book Palimpsests.

This senior thesis project examines how the educational system in Ecuador affects the youth of the country. It al so explores the aspirations mothers have for their children in terms of obtaining an education as well as their opinions about the current educational system in Ecuador. The investigation consisted of conducting interviews with both indigenous mothers who live in the countryside and mothers who live in the city of Quito. 1 chose to study two different demographics because I was curious if there were differences within the two groups on these issues. Moreover, 1 used my own observations as well as literary works to help me corroborate the information 1 received from the mothers to help me draw my conclusions. As 1 finished my interviews with 4 mothers from Cotacachi and 4 mothers from Quito, 1 found that the adolescents do differ in the way they access education, and how mothers perceive the educational system. Through data and interviews, 1 gathered that access to education as well as level of school attained by indigenous mothers and children is much lower than that of those in Quito. Nonetheless, there were similarities between the two groups in that they both had high aspirations for their child's educational future. Even though there are problems and inequalities in the educational system in Ecuador, the mothers expressed some hope as the government has made some positive changes.

Not withstainding the adverse criticism given the prose works of Gertudis Gomez de Avellaneda by such men as Fitzmaurice-Kelly as less notable, I have found her novels and tales to be worthy of consideration. They are extremely romantic, some being full of the fantastic and grotesque, while others are historical similar to those of Sir Walter Scott. These romantic novels have a genuine and natural charm which makes them very pleasing to read. Most of them have been called sentimental tras , but still they contain numerous qualities of romanticism at its best. It will be my duty and pleasure to bring out these characteristios as Avellaneda portrayed them and thus prove that there is something more to her novels and tales than most critics believe.