A focal concern amid Canadian French immersion students upon completion of their secondary school studies is a shared belief and feeling that they are limited in their ability to communicate with francophone communities (Howard, 2007; Schaffer, 2013; The Globe and Mail, Friesen, 2013). Furthermore, it has been widely discussed that French immersion students are finding themselves in the midst of language identity crisis, unable to find a place among either of the dominant monolingual groups (Roy, 2010). This case study examined the potential persistence of language identity crisis in three French immersion students who extended their French as a second language education by pursuing post-secondary education in a French immersion program at a large bilingual university. The study reveals the linguistic identity construction of these students by clarifying how each participant positioned (Davies & Harré, 1990) herself towards Francophone language and culture. It exposes the factors which influenced the linguistic positioning of the participants and comments on patterns in the factors which affected their linguistic identity in particular.

The purpose of the current study was to investigate the relation of language and cognitive factors to biliteracy development among EFI first grade children. Variables of interest included phonological awareness, print awareness, level of operativity, English/French verbal ability, and influences in the home environment (e.g. socioeconomic status, parent's level of education, time spent on reading activities). A battery of language, cognitive and reading tests was administered in Fall and again in Spring of the first grade to sixty-eight preliterate Anglophone children. A parent questionnaire yielded information pertaining to socioeconomic status, and reading related leizure activities in the home. A teacher questionnaire provided details which described the various classroom environments of the children in the study. Results of correlational analyses indicate that phonological and print awareness both form a significant, positive relationship with French and English reading. Level of operativity and level of English verbal ability did not correlate significant with any measure of reading. The pattern of correlations between French verbal ability tasks and French/English reading was inconsistent. Four of the six French verbal measures correlated significantly, but weakly with French reading and only one measure formed a significant positive correlation with English reading. Analyses of scatterplots which showed the relation of phonological abilities to reading suggest that phonological awareness is a necessary, but not sufficient skill for learning to read. Several children who had mastered a French phonological test could not decode French words; however, there were no children who were good readers who did not score above the sample mean on at least one measure of phonological awareness. Step-wise multiple regression analyses of sample performance on measures of reading and phonological awareness indicate print awareness is the best predictor of reading achievement in French and English. Scores on phonological measures were able to account for residual variance after print awareness had entered the equation. Limitations and implications of the study are discussed and recommendations for further research are presented. / Arts, Faculty of / Psychology, Department of / Graduate

M.A. / The language needs for non-mother tongue speakers of Afrikaans. The study of Afrikaans by non-mother tongue speakers of Afrikaans is not as simple as it sometimes appears. The aim of this study is to identify the specific language needs of individual learners and whether the course complies with all the requirements or meets all their expectations. The study concentrates specifically on the adult learner who is part of the ABET- programme at RAU. The study further tries to investigate any shortcomings by ways of quantitative and qualitative empirical research. The study seeks to make a valuable contribution by its recommendations to other institutions intending to introduce similar courses. Finally, possible further area of research that need to be explored are highligted.

Also covers linguistic error hierarchy.

This study investigates student and instructor perceptions of the causes and effects of anxiety and motivation's effect on a student's ability to learn a second language. The study focused on the participant's perceptions of the causes and effects of anxiety, and relationships between anxiety and motivation, in both short-term and long-term learners.

abstract: Creativity is increasingly cited as an educational goal in many international contexts and as a facet of academic and economic success. However, many myths surround creativity that impede its facilitation in the classroom: it is an individual talent, not teachable, and not relevant to adult life outside of artistic domains. Further, perceptions of creativity are largely informed by treatment in North American contexts. In second language instruction, linguistic creativity in particular faces greater hurdles for recognition and value, as language learners’ creative language use is often treated as error. In this paper, I argue that creative pedagogies and second language instruction can inform each other; creative pedagogy can lead to greater recognition of the creative power of language learners, and second language research can provide a cultural lens through which to gain understanding of how creativity is enacted in language. To argue that creativity facilitates language learning and is a necessary component of proficiency, I employ B. Kachru’s (1985) notion of bilingual creativity to demonstrate the ubiquity of linguistic creativity in the lives of bilingual language users. With support from Carter (2016) and G. Cook’s (2000) works on everyday creative language and language play, respectively, I demonstrate the value of linguistic creativity for language learning and language socialization. I end by suggesting five guidelines for second language instructors interested in implementing a creative pedagogy framework: (1) promote reflection and noticing in learning and creativity, (2) offer authentic models of linguistic creativity, (3) provide emotion language and multiple methods for emotional expression in interaction, (4) allow for a fusion of L1 and L2 linguistic and cultural knowledge, and (5) respond actively to opportunities for collaborative creativity. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Linguistics and Applied Linguistics 2020

abstract: Technology (i.e. the WhatsApp mobile application) can play a positive role in a student’s language and culture learning when it is used in collaboration with a language curriculum that uses a modular framework. When technology tools are used in an intensive language learning environment, those mobile devices will allow students certain affordances (like modifying, authoring, and reviewing content) as well as opportunities to work independently (e.g., create their own content to demonstrate cultural understanding) and/or to reflect upon cross-cultural issues that impact their intercultural sensitivity (Lee, 2011). Barker (2016) adds that cultural discussions performed during a student’s language learning process can lead to intercultural sensitivity development and learning if done communicatively and in engaging environments. In this study, participants intensely interacted in a three week immersion experience where they used WhatsApp to communicate with each other, with their instructors, and with their host families by completing tasks in three modules that were a part of an Advanced Spanish Conversation and Culture Course. The argument in this study is that if WhatsApp is well integrated into the course activities and curriculum of an upper level Spanish university course while abroad, the students will use more innovative ways to communicate, thus, allowing for more intercultural sensitivity growth. In this study, the author analyzed the intercultural sensitivity development and Spanish language use of twelve university level students as they learned Spanish in a 13 week study abroad program abroad in Segovia, Spain. The goal of the study was to gauge how effectively the students communicated with one another while simultaneously measuring their intercultural sensitivity growth to see if the integration of the mobile app, WhatsApp, had any effect on their intercultural learning capabilities. The author analyzed data from twelve learners’ interactions while they studied abroad in a country that they were mostly unfamiliar with. As a result of WhatsApp’s various modalities and capabilities, the findings showed that all of the 12 students showed modest intercultural sensitivity growth along the Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity Scale (Bennett, 1993) to assist them in more effectively communicating in the target language about the host culture. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Spanish 2020

<p>“Generation Z” multilingual writers are caught up in a globalized/globalizing and superdiverse linguistic and cultural contact zone as well as a neoliberal political and institutional environment. To understand how they inhabit their idiosyncratic literate worlds and practice their differences, I aligned myself with an ethnographic case study approach and investigated four writers’ ecologically situated and distributed literacy practices and experiences on and off the campus of an internationalized U.S. university. Through a conceptual framework I call “affordancescape” (a spatiotemporally stabilized ecological representation of structural, semiotic, experiential, social, bodily, and material relations that enable the human actors to rhetorically act and react) and methodology I name “trans-scape tracing,” I conducted semi-structured interviews and observations, videotaped writing ecologies, analyzed multimodal artifacts. Then, I reconstructed the four writers’ literate worlds that are always emerging and knotworked, rhetorically powerful, and rich in ecological affordances. These literate worlds define, bound, afford, constrain, tie and untie, mediate and remediate these writers’ practices of rhetorical differences.<br></p><p>The following three overarching research questions guided my data collection and analysis:<br></p><p>1.What does it mean to be “different” in the international multilingual students’ own terms? How do they practice self-perceived differences through various literate activities?<br></p><p>2.What are the ecological affordances that enable these students to practice their differences? How are these affordances knotworked? How do their practices of difference position nd reposition themselves?<br></p><p>3.How do we move toward a new understanding of international multilingual students’ practices of difference through literate activities?<br></p><p>Ultimately, I argue it is imperative to (re)examine international multilingual students’ practices of difference through literate activities against the global context characterized by the resurgence of nationalism and growing transnational migration, and the local institutional context characterized by internationalization and neoliberal corporatization, as the global and local trends deeply affect students’ bodily experiences in small and large ways. In Chapter One, I lay out in broad strokes the global and local contexts, the emerging issues, and the current scholarly responses to the issues. In Chapter Two, I introduce the analytical framework that I call “affordancescape.” Chapter Three is dedicated to the description of the research methodology that builds on the approach of ethnographic case study, which I call “trans-scape tracing,” as well as detailed data collection and analysis procedures. Chapter Four through Seven constitute the narratives of individual cases: Janus, Manna, Bohan, and Yang. In Chapter Eight, the last chapter, I revisit the individual cases through a holistic lens and provide suggestions for a new understanding of students’ practices of difference.<br></p><p><br></p>

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / El teatro es un género mixto en el sentido que combina el lenguaje con elementos plásticos o espectaculares junto con una gran variedad temática y así se presta como vehículo que abarca los cinco estándares nacionales de la enseñanza de una segunda lengua: comunicación; cultura; conexiones; comparaciones; comunidades. El aprendizaje de una segunda lengua a través de la actuación dramática tiene beneficios para el aprendiz de índole personal y de carácter social. El aprendizaje se realiza mediante el uso de lenguaje auténtico, cuidadosamente metido en contexto y enmarcado en la matriz de la pragmática...

While language aptitude and motivation are considered to be important contributors to second language (L2) attainment, two major gaps in the past research have been (1) a lack of nonlinear models stemming from a naïve and tacit assumption that learning outcomes are linearly related to their predictors, and (2) a lack of unified and integrative understanding of key individual differences (ID) variables (Dewaele, 2009; Larsen-Freeman, 1997). Despite changes in conceptualization of language development as a dynamic system comprised of nonlinear and interconnected subsystems (e.g., CDST), an integrative understanding of ID variables in L2 acquisition remains lacking. The purpose of this dissertation study was to examine motivation and aptitude and their relationship to second language acquisition. Specifically, the study set out to validate a number of theoretical claims made by energy conservation theory for second language acquisition (ECT-L2A) and its attempt to unify key ID variables under one model (Han et al., 2017a). ECT-L2A predicts, inter alia, that aptitude and motivation are positively related to L2 achievement but their effects diminish with increase in proficiency. This is visually represented as a nonlinear and asymptotic L2 learning trajectory vis-à-vis aptitude and motivation. In the current study, two hundred and three adult Spanish-speaking learners of L2 English (N=203) of wide range of proficiency were measured on their level of aptitude (LLAMA_F), motivation (Attitude Motivation Test Battery) and attainment (grammaticality judgment test). The data were analyzed using correlations (PPMC, partial, dis-attenuated), R-squared measures, and fitted with orthogonal distance regression via total least-squares method. The results of correlation analyses and regression showed that as predicted, aptitude contributed positively towards attainment, but its effect diminished with increase in proficiency. On the other hand, while all participants were motivated to learn, motivation decreased with increases in attainment throughout L2 development. Motivation’s effect on achievement became asymptotic and its contribution towards target language (TL) mastery diminished. When aptitude and motivation were combined as a single unit, the learning trajectory closely resembled the curve predicted by ECT-L2A. Based on these findings, two general interpretations concerning motivation and aptitude were presented: 1) changes in motivation and aptitude with respect to attainment and 2) their differential efficacy towards native-like proficiency during L2 development. Finally, implications regarding the universality and the versatility of ECT-L2A are discussed under the broader call for more mathematical models in future SLA research.