Over the past 30 years, there has been little consensus on the benefits of peer review (PR) with respect to the teaching of expository writing in English to non-native speakers. Lu & Bol (2007) reported on several ESL writing instruction studies (Chaudron, 1983; Mangelsdorf, 1992; Paulus, 1999) that suggested peer feedback was as good as, and in some cases better than teacher feedback in helping revise and improve students' papers (p. 101). Brammer & Rees (2007), however, reported, "We frequently hear students complain bitterly that peer review is a waste of time or blame their peers for `not catching all the mistakes' and students do not stay on task during the peer review process" (p. 71). The literature also identifies social issues that can negatively affect the outcome of face-to-face PR, such as students being easily biased or not honest when providing feedback due to friendship, gender, race, interpersonal relationships, or personal preferences (Carson & Nelson, 1996; Ghorpade & Lackritz, 2001; MacLeod, 1999; Nilson, 2003; Zhao, 1998). To maximize the benefits of PR and reduce social interferences, this study incorporated anonymous electronic-peer review with 25 EFL students enrolled in an expository writing class in Spain. The goal of this dissertation is to explore the relationship between students' attitudes towards peer review and one) the amount and type of corrections a student makes to an essay in anonymous electronic-peer review, and two) the amount and type of corrections a student incorporates into his/her original essay after receiving feedback from a peer. The participants completed several Likert questionnaires, participated in PR training, wrote two drafts of an essay and were interviewed. The interviews provided data not only on the corrections mentioned above, but also how the participants viewed the experience, the effects PR had on their writing, insecurities about their English writing skills, and confidence they had in themselves and their peers based on perceived target language competence. Findings include discussion on perceptions and implications of electronic peer review on EFL learners' ability to provide helpful feedback and the willingness of the students to participate in peer review again in the future.

Recent progress in the discipline of computer applications such as the advent of web-based communication, afforded by the Web 2.0, has paved the way for novel applications in language learning, namely, social networking. Social networking has challenged the area of Computer Mediated Communication (CMC) to expand its research palette in order to account for the way individuals engage in processes of learning and socialization, the way they interact, and the way they construct and perform their identities. With this in mind, it is necessary to examine the new material conditions, social arrangements, and the communicational landscape of Social Networking Sites (SNS). This study focuses on SNSs for language learning (SNSLL) and examines the particular case of Busuu. Drawing on theoretical tenets of sociocultural and ecological approaches combined with multimodal social semiotics, this research aims to analyze the views of language and learning that are enacted through the semiotic design of Busuu. It also purports to examine the types of identities wherein users are positioned through the compositional elements of this participatory online environment. The research design is informed by the principles of a qualitative case study and autoethnographic research. The data collected for this study consist of documentary information obtained from Busuu and the autoethnographic accounts of the researcher, who participated as a member of the Busuu community for 10 weeks. Results indicate that overall Busuu is an ecological system composed of sub-systems of nested views about language, learning, and users in which multiple timescales, spatiotemporal, and discursive resonances of various theories work in synergy. Thus, the semiotic spaces of Busuu combine structural, interactional and ecological views of language. Similarly, Busuu crystalizes views of learning that echo behaviorist, cognitivist, and constructivist theories. The website enacts different identities, positioning users as learners and teachers/tutors who are members of an imagined community. The study draws implications about the need for theoretical coherence and pedagogical alignment among the different components of the language curriculum (e.g. language and learning views, instructional activities) of Social Networking Sites for Language Learning.

In our post-9/11 globalized society, the bifurcated governance structure that has traditionally dominated foreign language (FL) departments is no longer desirable. According to the 2007 Modern Language Association (MLA) report entitled "Foreign Languages and Higher Education: New Structures for a Changed World," these departments need to strive to create "educated speakers who have deep translingual and transcultural competence" (p. 3). Whereas the report outlined in detail the implications this goal would have on undergraduate education, it made only two references to FL graduate students: programs should "provide substantive training in language teaching and in the use of new technologies" (p. 7) and should "enhance and reward graduate student training" (p. 8). This relative lack of attention is indicative of an undervaluation of graduate student teaching and professional development, despite the substantial percentage of university-level instruction provided by FL Teaching Assistants (TAs) (Laurence, 2001) now and in the foreseeable future. The goal of this dissertation is to better understand the current state of TA professional development, by exploring the perspectives of the TAs themselves. Previous studies (e.g., Brandl, 2000; Gonglewski & Penningroth, 1998) have surveyed and interviewed TAs about their professional development experiences. The present study updates and expands upon these studies, both in the scope of the questions asked and the range of participants. The first article explores the place and role of technology in the professional development of TAs by using data from the syllabi of teaching methodology courses (N = 31). The second article uses data from online questionnaires (N = 94) and Skype interviews (N = 16) to understand what TAs think they need to be successful in their current and future teaching positions, what professional development opportunities they participate in, and which factors limit their participation in some of them. The last article presents data from the same questionnaires and interviews about which professional development opportunities TAs consider to be helpful, what they find helpful about each activity, and what recommendations they have for improved professional development. All three studies address implications for graduate student education.

By blending lifewriting e.g. diaries/journals, creative non-fiction, poetry, and autoethnography and technology e.g. social networking, such as YouTube, I study my own life, and advocate for a method, theory, and approach to teaching language, culture, and identity in the ESL classroom that also uses both. I call this Transautomedia. I combine analysis (theory), application (original research projects), and activism (vigorous action in support of my cause). This is written (semi) linearly, but is also an art installation in the form of a website called The Human Archive Project (THAP), a Trans-Space, not bound by language, genre, discipline, or identity. On THAP I research my hybrid identity and ask: In what ways did being brought up simultaneously Jewish and Muslim help shape my hybrid identities? How do language, religion, culture, community, power, class, and gender contribute to my complicated and changing identities? I also write about myself since I am discussing writing about the self and since my own struggles with my hybrid identity can serve as an example of the kinds of issues that ESL (and all L2) learners face as they attempt to build their new identity in another language, another culture. Additionally, my dissertation includes two projects: Reclaiming Lithuania, a Vlog series about my Lithuanian Jewish identity, and Baubie, a memoir about the death of my Holocaust survivor grandmother. Finally, this dissertation also includes a pedagogical aspect. I create a syllabus with activities for The ESL classroom using lifewriting and technology, and how-to's on such things as website design.

In the age of multi-literacies, contemporary theories and devices are required to decipher increasingly complicated challenges which are presented by the digital technological revolution. Some of the existing approaches and frameworks of could inspire us but are not well equipped to address the complexities and multi-perspectives of the eccentric challenges that scholars face on diverse issues. Therefore, I present the critical semiotic order theory (CSOT) as a new eclectic theory to analyze discourse and moving and still images critically, semiotically and using systematic orders simultaneously.The theory has four hypotheses: 1) the positive and negative order hypothesis; 2) the zero value order hypothesis; 3) the chaos order hypothesis; 4) the semiotic indices order hypothesis. The theory was applied to three movies, and was successful in unearthing numerous perceptions and some were microscopic semiotic communicative indices and related them to polycentric Occidental ideologies.Hollywood has made over a thousand movies negatively stereotyping (NS) Arab/Muslim identities and voices (AMIVs) and the images in the vast majority are demeaning (Shaheen, 2009: 2). This research sets to find out whether the misconstruction of Arab/Muslim identities and voices (AMIVs) in three Hollywood movies are ordered, patterned, systematic, and related to ideologies and agendas of polycentric Western individuals, agencies, institutions and governments.The three movies showcase dozens of discursive microscopic critical semiotic orders and patterns of NS of AMIVs in discourse and still and moving image such as being: angry, dangerous, dirty, primitive, uncivilized, dishonest, cowards, fanatics, slaves, extremists, savages, liars, sorceress, killers, terrorists, mad dogs, child terrorists, suicide bombers, etc. The racism touches Arab/Muslims' (A/Ms) characteristics, personalities, races, cultures, traditions, histories, stories, folklores, costumes, images, etc.The analysis showed that there was a systematic pattern and order of NS of AMIVs within and across the three movies, and the NS is related to ideologies and agendas of polycentric Western individuals, agencies, institutions and governments for socio-cultural, socio-economic and socio-political investments in a vast complex web that some of it can go to hundreds of years in making. Nowadays, NS of AMIVs is done by many Westerners for various ideological agendas and investments, and they have appointed themselves as judge, jury and prosecutor.

In the field of second language acquisition, a great deal of work has been done on first (L1) to second language (L2) transfer of linguistic patterns from various levels of language, ranging from syntactic (i.e., Clahsen & Felser, 2006; Dussias, 2003; Nicol et al., 2001) and lexical (i.e. Jiang, 2004; Kroll & Tokowicz, 2001) to sound patterns at the segmental level (i.e. Flege, 1987; Flege & McKay, 2004; see work of Flege and colleagues). However, an area that has previously received less attention is that of L2 intonation, especially that of native speakers of a non-intonation language (some exceptions: Chen, 2007; McGory, 1997; Nguyen et al., 2008). The present study seeks to fill that gap, considering the L2 English intonation patterns of native speakers of Mandarin, a tone language. This work was approached from an experimental phonetic perspective, though it draws from theoretical work on intonation of both phonological and phonetic nature (intonational phonology of Ladd, 2008; see work of Ladd and colleagues, and PENTA of Xu & Xu, 2005; see work of Xu and colleagues). A series of production experiments was undertaken with native English speakers as a control group, and Mandarin speakers of higher proficiency (university students in America). Experiments treated stress patterns at the lexical level through production of target items in narrow focus, as well as treating the changes seen in such target items at different intonational points in sentences, elicited in a broad focus production experiment. In addition, the intonational patterns of questions vs. statements and contrastive focus were investigated. Because Mandarin is a lexical tone language, its speakers may tend to produce lexical items similarly regardless of their intonational situation, implementing a sort of lexical tonal transfer strategy. Even lexical tone languages have complementary intonation patterns, however, and these may also be transferred to English (Chen, 2007; Gussenhoven, 2004; Liu, 2009; McGory, 1997; Xu & Xu, 2005). In fact, results do indicate evidence of transfer at the tonal level, where it appears that a rising tone 2 is mapped onto English stressed syllables, and a falling tone 4 is mapped onto post-stressed syllables. Results also indicate intonational transfer, with a lack of sentence-final lowering in broad focus statements, as well as pitch patterns that can lead to an overall higher register in yes/no questions and post-focal lowering in contrastive focus questions.

During the production of language, speakers tend to use the same structural patterns from one utterance to the next if it is possible to do so. For example, if a speaker uses a passive or dative construction, he/she is relatively more likely to use the same construction again in the next utterance (e.g., Bock, 1986; Bock & Loebell, 1990; Hartsuiker & Kolk, 1998): the sentence structure "persists".The current study investigates syntactic persistence in first and second language speakers of English and Korean using within-language primes (Experiments 1A, 1B, and 2) and across-language primes (Experiment 3). The target structures were transitive alternate structures (active and passive) and dative alternate structures (double object dative/DAT-ACC dative and prepositional dative/ACC-DAT dative). The experimental paradigm involved repetition of an auditory stimulus, followed by picture description. Overall, syntactic priming effects were found, although various magnitudes were observed as a function of structure; strong effects were found for "shared" syntactic constructions across languages (e.g., active vs. passive) and weak priming effects were found for syntactic constructions not shared (e.g., double object dative vs. prepositional dative) between English and Korean. Other asymmetrical priming effects were observed, reflecting differences between Korean and English such that reliable priming effects were found from L1 to L2, but not from L2 to L1 for Korean-as-L2 speakers (English-as-L1) These patterns of asymmetrical priming imply that cross-linguistic differences might interfere with syntactic persistence in production process unless speakers are highly advanced proficient bilinguals. Also, the present study showed that syntactic priming appears to be sensitive to the order of case-marked phrases in the cross-language priming condition. This finding indicates that the order of case-marked arguments is involved in syntactic repetition. It shed lights on further universal accounts of syntactic priming.

In recent years, a great deal of research on second language (L2) acquisition has been concerned with non-target production of L2 learners, addressing issues such as native language (L1) transfer into L2 and the nature and source of developmental errors. Previous studies have mostly focused on the analysis of discrete L2 segments (Flege 1987, 1999; Major & Kim 1996), rather than on L2 phonological patterns. This study, however, examines the production of sequences of sounds in Russian L1 and L2 from both the phonetic and phonological perspectives.This dissertation investigates native and non-native production of real and nonsense words containing obstruent clusters in which a phonological phenomenon known as regressive voicing assimilation is required. In Russian, forms like lodka `boat' are rendered orthographically with a voiced obstruent which is pronounced as a voiceless one when followed by a voiceless obstruent. The results of the experiments reveal several production patterns in L1 and L2 speech as well as gradiency in devoicing which are further analyzed within the stochastic Optimality Theory framework. Categorical production is accounted for by the re-ranking of L1 and L2 constraints; whereas, gradiency in production is viewed as a result of the re-ranking of constraints within phonetically detailed constraint families.

This study utilized the moving-window self-paced reading paradigm to investigate the processing of English morphemes by native speakers of English, Chinese, and Korean. The morphemes belonged to three distinct theoretical types: Stratum 1 derivation ({-ALADJ}, {-ITY}, and {-OUSADJ}), Stratum 2 derivation ({-NESS}, {-FULADJ}, and {-ERAGENT}), and inflection ({-SPL}, {-EDPAST}, and {-S3RDSGPRES}). Participants were presented with either (1) fully grammatical sentences which contained words featuring these morphemes or (2) ungrammatical sentences in which one word form lacked one of the morphemes when it was obligatory (e.g., Canada is one of the most *prosper and developed countries in the world). Half the sentences were presented with a concurrent working memory load, which consisted of remembering the result of a simple calculation (e.g., subtracting 3 from 95) while processing a sentence and reporting the number immediately thereafter. Reading times for the target word and the three words immediately following it were used as the main dependent variable. The background measures included a C-Test of English proficiency, a reading span task, a digits-forward task, a digits-backward task, and a detailed background questionnaire. In agreement with previous research, it was found that morphological violations tended to cause slowdowns in processing. Conversely, the presence of a concurrent memory load tended to cause speedups. Native speakers differed from non-native speakers by: (1) showing an early sensitivity to violations of Stratum 2 derivational morphology; (2) exhibiting a delayed response to violations of Stratum 1 derivation; and (3) not slowing down after violations of inflectional morphology. In addition, native speakers were the only group exhibiting no relationship between morphological processing on one side and short term-memory, working memory, and C-Test scores on the other. Overall, the similarity between native and non-native speakers was the greatest in the processing of Stratum 1 derivation. Crucially, the temporal pattern of the Korean participants’ responses to morphological violations in English placed them in an intermediate position between the English and Chinese native speakers, which was interpreted as evidence of L1 – L2 transfer in morphological processing. Notably, this transfer occurred between an agglutinative L1 and an unrelated mixed-type L2.

This study utilized the moving-window self-paced reading paradigm to investigate the processing of English morphemes by native speakers of English, Chinese, and Korean. The morphemes belonged to three distinct theoretical types: Stratum 1 derivation ({-ALADJ}, {-ITY}, and {-OUSADJ}), Stratum 2 derivation ({-NESS}, {-FULADJ}, and {-ERAGENT}), and inflection ({-SPL}, {-EDPAST}, and {-S3RDSGPRES}). Participants were presented with either (1) fully grammatical sentences which contained words featuring these morphemes or (2) ungrammatical sentences in which one word form lacked one of the morphemes when it was obligatory (e.g., Canada is one of the most *prosper and developed countries in the world). Half the sentences were presented with a concurrent working memory load, which consisted of remembering the result of a simple calculation (e.g., subtracting 3 from 95) while processing a sentence and reporting the number immediately thereafter. Reading times for the target word and the three words immediately following it were used as the main dependent variable. The background measures included a C-Test of English proficiency, a reading span task, a digits-forward task, a digits-backward task, and a detailed background questionnaire. In agreement with previous research, it was found that morphological violations tended to cause slowdowns in processing. Conversely, the presence of a concurrent memory load tended to cause speedups. Native speakers differed from non-native speakers by: (1) showing an early sensitivity to violations of Stratum 2 derivational morphology; (2) exhibiting a delayed response to violations of Stratum 1 derivation; and (3) not slowing down after violations of inflectional morphology. In addition, native speakers were the only group exhibiting no relationship between morphological processing on one side and short term-memory, working memory, and C-Test scores on the other. Overall, the similarity between native and non-native speakers was the greatest in the processing of Stratum 1 derivation. Crucially, the temporal pattern of the Korean participants’ responses to morphological violations in English placed them in an intermediate position between the English and Chinese native speakers, which was interpreted as evidence of L1 – L2 transfer in morphological processing. Notably, this transfer occurred between an agglutinative L1 and an unrelated mixed-type L2.