This present study investigates the development of second language (L2) Chinese learners’ writing by 1) subjective ratings of essay quality, 2) a battery of objective measures representing the general syntactic complexity as well as specific syntactic features, and 3) the sources of verb phrase complexity used by learners of different institutional levels. This study first compares the subjective ratings of the essays written by learners across four institutional levels and then uses Cumulative Linked Model to examine the contribution of the objective measures of linguistic features to the essay ratings. This study further identifies a number of sources used by learners to construct complex verb phrases, which is an important contributor of the essay rating, and compares the amount of usages by learners at different institutional levels. The purpose of the study is to better understand L2 Chinese learners’ syntactic development in writing from multi-dimensional perspectives, and to identify the most crucial elements that determine the quality of writing. This study recruits 105 L2 Chinese college learners to write a narrative essay and an argumentative essay according to the prompts. Each of the writing sample is rated by two independent raters according to the holistic ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines, as well as the analytic rubric which was adapted from the ESL Composition Profile for this study. The derivation of syntactic complexity measures was based on the rank scales of lexicogrammar in Systemic Functional Linguistics (Halliday & Matthiessen, 2014), involving 12 features at the levels of clause complex, clause, and verb phrase, some of which represent constructions unique to Chinese. A series of statistical tests, including Kruskal-Wallis tests, Dunn’ tests, Spearman’ correlation tests, and CLM are performed to answer that research questions. The findings show that 1) learners’ overall writing quality measured by holistic and analytic ratings do not show significant differences across the first several academic years; 2) higher-level learners are more heterogeneous in writing ability than lower-level learners; 3) phrasal complexity contributes more to the essay quality than clausal complexity; 4) syntactic complexity features that learners develop fastest hardly overlap with those that contribute most to the essay rating; 5) complex verbal phrases come from 10 different sources and the composition of complex verbal phrases remain stable across the groups; and 6) essay types makes significant differences in terms of holistic and analytic ratings, use of syntactic complexity features, as well as their contribution to the essay ratings. From the pedagogical view, this study points out that instruction should focus more on complexity at the phrasal level, especially nominalization and complex verb phrases, that play a more important role to determine the writing quality. Some of the current focus in instruction may not necessarily lead to better quality or higher proficiency in Chinese writing.

Several researchers (e.g., Allen & Paesani, 2010; Maxim, 2009; MLA Report, 2007) argue that the language-literature divide limits language development in many foreign language departments and that the speaking skill is the most affected by this common two-tiered curriculum (Swender, 2003). This study investigates the implementation of the concept of collaborative dialogues in an upper-division Francophone literature and culture course to support the oral proficiency skills of the participants. It addresses research questions pertaining to (1) how they constructed their group conversations in terms of language and content, (2) the connections between their dialogues and whole-class discussions, and (3) their perspectives about their group conversations. Both whole-class discussions and weekly group dialogues, which took place outside of class, were video-recorded. The participants took an oral proficiency test at the beginning and at the end of the study and shared their opinions about the dialogues in two questionnaires and in stimulated recalls. The analysis of the data sources shows that the majority of participants focused heavily on content during their conversations. This finding differs from previous research on collaborative dialogues, which hosted many interactions about language and supported language learning. Based on their analytical abilities and proficiency levels, the participants of this study either reviewed previous class discussions or extended them by exploring additional material and adding prior knowledge to their arguments. Extending class discussions during outside-of-class dialogues was a scaffolding activity which better prepared the participants to contribute to subsequent class discussions. Questionnaires and stimulated recalls suggest that the participants enjoyed participating in weekly group conversations because it supported their comprehension of difficult class concepts and materials and helped them develop confidence speaking.

This dissertation study examined a broad question of whether computer-based grammar tutorials are effective and welcome tools to review grammar for language learners by investigating effects of three different modes of such tutorials on learners' knowledge and satisfaction. For this study, I developed experimental tutorials in three different modes (a static text with a voice-over narration, an animated text with a voice-over narration, and a recording of a real teacher) for two target structures of German grammar (regular verb conjugation and separable-prefix verbs). In total, there were more than 100 Elementary German students at two Midwestern universities, who participated in different stages of the study. The participants represented a mostly homogeneous group with characteristics that are common for college-level learners. There were two parallel experiments in this study that employed identical methods but focused on two different target structures. Thus, both experiments examined the effect of the three study tutorials on learners' knowledge and satisfaction, but Experiment 1 focused on the regular verb conjugation, whereas Experiment 2 focused on the separable-prefix verbs. For each experiment, the participants completed a pretest, worked with the assigned tutorial mode, completed a posttest, and filled out a number of questionnaires. The results of the analysis demonstrated that the study tutorials helped learners to significantly improve their knowledge of grammar; however, the mode of the tutorial did not make a difference. Likewise, all modes of tutorial received similar satisfaction ratings; however, additional qualitative analysis suggested that a considerable number of the participants preferred the animated mode. The findings of the study demonstrate that computer-based grammar tutorials can be effective and welcome tools to review grammar for language learners. Moreover, tutorials of this type can be a viable method of achieving the desired balance between the form- and meaning-focused activities in language classrooms. Also, such tutorials appeal to learners because they support more individualized learning.

The use of demonstrative adverbs is a function of making reference to a real or abstract location. In German, there are three principle demonstrative adverbs that are used spatially--hier, da, and dort. This thesis provides an overview of the primary theories proposed in the literature to explain the German hier/da/dort system of reference and examines those claims from the context of a study of L2 learners and L1 speakers combined with a corpus-based analysis of the frequency, distribution, and use of the demonstrative adverbs, both in isolation and in unison. The evidence from learner data, native speaker interpretations and grammaticality judgments, adult use corpora, and L1 child corpora all point to da as playing a more significant role than dort in the three-way spatial adverb system of German. Evidence from multiple sources points to the default hier `here' counterpart, there-like equivalent being da. While da is not always used to indicate a non-speaker location, this flexibility is not an indication of its primary or default role. Context often provides semantic information, and even if used in a semi-neutral manner, the use of da often suggests the possibility of a dort-type non-speaker location or of an abstract location/third location. The flexibility that da has in being used in non-contrastive locations or idiomatic expressions to refer to the location of the speaker does not discount the role da has as a primary means of indicating spatial differences in opposition to hier. The presence of dort enables a third location to be identified with a distinct spatial adverb, while hier appears to be highly restricted in its usage. Evidence from child L1 learners is congruent with this analysis. The frequency of da in child L1 learner speech cannot simply be explained by phonetic production, and the child L1 corpora show that dort is only chosen when da and hier are already present (three or more locations are referenced). Native speaker survey data concerning the three spatial adverbs under investigation indicate that locational situation affects the acceptance and interpretation of all three adverbs including da. Da is not shown to be a superfluous double, as it is neither consistently accepted at or near 100%, nor is its acceptance consistently near that of dort or hier. There is evidence that native speaker grammaticality judgments show regional variation when da is used to indicate a speaker location, with northern speakers tending to prefer hier and southern speakers tending to prefer da. L2 speakers show a greater variation from native speakers with respect to their acceptance and interpretations of da as compared with that of hier and dort. Non-native speakers were more likely to accept hier and less likely to accept da than were the native speakers in this study. Elementary, intermediate, and advanced L2 learners showed a significant difference in their acceptance rates of da in at least 50% of the items, while the group of highly-proficient L2 speakers of German showed a significant difference in their acceptance of da in only one item.

A typological implicational universal based on a diverse sample of the world's languages describes a hierarchy for interrogatives. The universal hierarchy states that in any given language, inversion in Yes-No questions (YNQs) implies inversion in information questions (WHQs in English), which, in turns implies the fronting of the information word pronoun to sentence-initial position. Several researchers have proposed that typological implicational universals such as this one for interrogatives may constrain not only the primary languages on which they are based, but also the interlanguages of second language learners. This study, a partial replication of one by Eckman, Moravcsik, and Wirth (1989), examined second language acquisition data to determine whether constraints of the interrogative universal were evident in the interlanguages of learners of English as a second language. It was hypothesized that learners' control of WH-word fronting would exceed their control of WHQ inversion, which, in turn, would exceed their control of YNQ inversion. Data were elicited in oral interviews with 32 Japanese-speaking learners of English. The task of the subjects during the interviews was to ask questions in order to discover the story partially told by a grid of puzzle-like drawings. The interviews were tape-recorded, the recordings transcribed, and the transcribed interrogative forms analyzed. Two methods of data analysis showed strong support for the hypothesis. A third method of analysis revealed that seven subjects produced patterns of interrogatives not predicted by the universal; six of the exceptions could be resolved using an argument also used by Eckman et al. (1989) in explaining their exceptions.

This paper explores educator perceptions of gifted and talented (GT) English language (ELL) students. This study identifies barriers for identification and service for GT/ELL students and highlights ways to support students through current efforts for students who fit these criteria. Educators from two elementary schools were interviewed in this qualitative study. The schools were chosen due to their high population of ELL students. The roles of professional development (PD) and best practices for identification of underrepresented students are discussed. Five main themes emerged from interviews of educators that work with GT/ELL students. The themes are obstacles, perception, referral, professional development, and, modification.

This study explores relationships between second language acquisition (SLA), poetic language, and embodied cognition and its connection to second language speakers’ linguistic self-formation, or their distinct ways of speaking and thinking. In particular, this study examines processes by which second language (L2) learners’ subjective realities are constructed and demonstrates that these processes are inherently poetic, emerging from a combination of the constraining structures of the language system and second language speakers’ phenomenological experiences. The context of the study is a poetry-making activity the researcher designed and took place in the English Department Writing Center at California State University, San Bernardino. Data was collected from a total of four participants through video and audio recordings of the poetry-making activities. Data analysis incorporated multimodal methods associated with conversation analysis and intertextuality. Findings demonstrate that poetic features the L2 participants deploy are crucial to their sense-making and linguistic self-formation. The author encourages readers to consider the importance of creativity and self-expression in second language learning as it occurs in social activity.

What is the relationship of music and language? Analogies and comparisons of music and language are plentiful in various types of literature. For researchers in the cognitive sciences, the importance of organization, patterning, and structuring of sounds is a common theme in analyzing both language and music. With the success of generative grammars for languages, a number of researchers have used similar kinds of grammars to describe or model particular aspects of music. In addition, researchers are interested in possible universals in musical grammars. However, while grammars of non-Western musics have been written, most of the work has been based on Western tonal systems. The purpose of this research is to analyze, in an information processing, linguistic framework, a non-Western musical system for which there is currently no formal grammar in the literature, and to describe an aspect of it in the form of a grammar. Kotekan, the system of interlocking parts in Balinese game/an music, is examined in this study. This study is based on library research, scores, tapes, and communication with experts in Balinese music. A number of previously written grammars for musical systems are examined, as well as literature concerning various types of formal grammars. Balinese kotekan data is collected, in the form of literature, scores, and tapes. Portions of the data are described in the form of a grammar. The rules are then tested on new data, that is, portions of other Balinese pieces. The natures of and the relationship between music and language can be examined more closely through the use of an information processing, linguistic framework. Grammars are a precise and formal way of describing structure and regularities in linguistic and musical systems, and of describing aspects of competence. Linguistic and musical grammars share some features and differ in others. The grammar for Balinese kotekan presented in this study exhibits features that are similar to other musical grammars. The system can be described as a hierarchy of constraints from global tendencies to specific rules for various types of kotekan. In addition, there are deep and surface structures, variation related to structure, ranked or preference rules, spatio-motor considerations, and the need for context-sensitive rules. The structure of po/os and sangsih (the interlocking parts of kotekan) as individual lines is described by context-free phrase structure rules. The relationship between pol os and sangsih is described by transformations. The grammar presented is a starting point for a complete grammar of Balinese kotekan.

Research in Second Language Acquisition indicates that using English outside of the classroom is an important part of the language learning process. However, studies done on university level ESL and EFL students indicate that students use English minimally when outside of the classroom. This thesis furthers the research on English use outside of the classroom in order to more fully understand all types of language learners and the link between language proficiency and out-of-class English use.

Within the population of adult English-language learners in the United States, the largest portion is comprised of Spanish speakers from Mexico and Central and South America. At the same time, Spanish is the second-most commonly spoken language in the U.S., and an increasing presence in U.S. media and culture. This puts English learners from this demographic in a unique position with respect to language and culture acquisition and the experience of working towards their goals within U.S. society at large. The purpose of this study is to explore motivations and beliefs about language and culture held by a small number English-language learners belonging to this huge, diverse community. Drawing on theory from the fields of second language acquisition and sociolinguistics, a survey eliciting opinions about cultural affiliation and language standards was created and versions in either English or Spanish were distributed to volunteers from this population living in Oregon. Fifty-two surveys were returned. The responses to the surveys were then compared with one another to examine any connections between participant beliefs about language value, cultural affiliation, and learning strategy preferences. Statistical comparisons were also carried out to determine whether certain orientations correlated with one another. Analysis of the survey responses showed that while affiliation to United States culture was variable, all participants maintained at least a moderate feeling of affiliation to their home countries, despite twenty-seven, or just over half, of them having lived in the U.S. for over ten years. However, all but one of the participants were also interested in learning about U.S. culture and thirty-nine believed in the possibility of being part of more than one culture at a time. Participants were more likely to prefer collaborative strategies for learning about culture, but for learning language they preferred individual strategies, and had a general low estimation of the utility of non-standard forms of language, including non-standard English and Spanglish. A moderate negative correlation (Spearman p=.521) that was statistically significant (p=.001) was found between the degree to which participants had a multicultural affiliation and their beliefs about the importance of knowing non-standard forms of English. While the participating sample is too small and opportunistic for the findings to be generalizable, from the results of the surveys it can be concluded that: multicultural affiliation is something that can be (and is) experienced to varying degrees by some language learners in this population sample; individual learning strategies seem preferred for learning language; and non-standard English is not considered as valuable as standard English. Additionally, a negative correlation between multicultural affiliation and the perceived importance of knowing non-standard English is suggested. These findings may have implications for language instructors and others who wish to investigate the motivations, priorities, and language beliefs of adult English students from this particular demographic.