The Latino population of which English Language Learners (ELLs) is a subset, has demonstrated substantial growth in recent years (U.S Census Bureau, 2008), highlighting the need for normative information regarding their language skills. However, requisite to obtaining normative information is determining appropriate norming methods. The principal purpose of the present study was to ascertain appropriate norming procedures for the language variables: Mean Length of Utterance (MLU), Number of Different Words (NDW) and Words Per Minute (WPM) in English and Spanish narratives of Spanish-speaking ELLs. The issues were 1) whether age or grade norms should be used as an index of language development, 2) whether cross-sectional or longitudinal data should be utilized, and 3) whether the inclusion or exclusion of children with missing data or grade repeats affects the language measures. It was hypothesized that due to the syntactic and lexical differences that are present across languages, there would be a different developmental schedule of development for the language variables in the English and Spanish of ELLs. Participants were typically developing kindergarten to second grade Spanish speaking ELLs enrolled in transitional bilingual programs. A total of 605 children comprised the cross-sectional dataset and a total of 679 children were included in the longitudinal dataset. From these initial datasets, additional datasets were created to provide separate age and grade groups (for the cross-sectional and longitudinal datasets) as well as three different longitudinal datasets. Narratives in English and Spanish were elicited from each child using a story retell procedure. Analyses were carried out using Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA), Univariate Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and Repeated Measures Analysis of Variance procedures. Results of both cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses indicated that age and grade are comparable indices of time for studying MLU, NDW, and WPM. Results also indicated that longitudinal data is superior to cross-sectional data for examining the language variables and that including or excluding subjects with missing data or grade repeaters does not significantly affect MLU, NDW, and WPM scores. Additionally, results confirm the findings from the research literature that MLU, NDW, and WPM are valid variables for studying narrative development. / Communication Sciences

One of the most researched challenges in learning Spanish is the acquisition and use of the past aspect, namely, the preterit and imperfect. L2 learners encounter this challenge due to differences in how native English and Spanish speakers view past events. Numerous studies on the Spanish past aspect have analyzed L2 learners’ past aspectual selections through two hypotheses: the lexical aspect hypothesis (LAH), which claims that lower-level L2 learners are guided by the lexical semantics of the verb in their selections of past aspect; and the discourse hypothesis (DH), which claims that as L2 learners become more proficient, they make past aspectual selections to foreground and background information. The present study uses both hypotheses to analyze past aspectual selections in beginner, intermediate, and advanced L2 learners as well as native speakers. By doing so, it was possible to analyze how past aspectual selections differ across proficiency levels on the basis of lexical aspect and narrative grounding. 75 L2 learners and 20 native Spanish speakers produced two uncontrolled, written narratives. The first was a film-retell based on a five minute clip of “Alone and Hungry” from Modern Times and the second was a personal narration of a favorite vacation. All verbs within each narrative were coded for lexical aspect: atelic states and activities as well as telic accomplishments and achievements. Next, foregrounded clauses (preterit) were separated from backgrounded clauses (imperfect) in order to capture how narrative structure played a role in past aspectual selections. The researcher and a second coder determined the accuracy of use of the preterit and imperfect. Quantitative data consisted of contingency tables and chi-square analyses for the film-retell task and the personal narrative task separately that captured total use of preterit and imperfect morphology for the LAH. It also captured correct use of preterit and imperfect for the DH. Finally, type-token ratios (TTRs) were used to assess the lexical variety of verbs on the basis of grammatical aspect, lexical aspect, and proficiency level for the fill-retell task. The results revealed that for the film-retell and personal narrative tasks, there was support for the LAH. Participants across proficiency groups were guided by the LAH when making past aspectual selections. There was also partial support for the DH in that participants across proficiency groups consistently selected preterit morphology for atelic states and activities, even if the lower-level proficiency groups made more errors in their past aspectual selections. However, showed very little evidence of correct use of imperfect morphology with telic achievements and accomplishments. Additionally, analysis of type-token ratios (TTRs) showed that participants across proficiency groups repeatedly used high-frequency verbs to complete their narratives. This was particularly noticeable for state and activity verbs within the beginner group. Task type appeared to be a major influence in participants’ selections of past aspect for the film-retell task. Participants were influenced by the numerous sequential scenes of the film task, which accounted for the high frequencies of preterit to mark bounded events, but much lower frequencies of imperfect to mark unbounded events. For the personal narrative, frequencies of the preterit were higher than imperfect across each lexical class. When assessing both film-retell and personal narratives, participants produced very few contexts for imperfect with achievement and accomplishment verbs. Participants either did not have the knowledge to do so or felt that their own narrations of “Alone and Hungry” and their personal narrative was sufficient to complete the task. / Spanish

Thesis (Ed.D.)--Boston University / PLEASE NOTE: Boston University Libraries did not receive an Authorization To Manage form for this thesis or dissertation. It is therefore not openly accessible, though it may be available by request. If you are the author or principal advisor of this work and would like to request open access for it, please contact us at open-help@bu.edu. Thank you. / The study examined ultimate attainment m postpuberty second language acquisition and the Critical Period Hypothesis as an explanation for non-nativeness. A grammaticality judgment task acted as an assessment instrument; a subject was considered to be native-like if the individual's subtest score was greater than or equal to the mean ratings of 90% of the control group members. The native-like subtests were totaled into a nativeness score. The study consisted of 6 research questions and followup interviews with the highest scoring and lowest scoring subjects. As a methodological innovation, the selection of Finnish-born spouses of native English speakers (N=104) as subjects controlled background variables (amount and quality ofL2 exposure, amount ofL2 and Ll use, education and language learning); 80% had studied EFL. 55 subjects had age on arrival of 2:16 years and had lived in USA/Canada for 20-60 years. 88% of the control group (N=40) obtained the nativeness score 6 or 5. The grammaticality judgments of 38% of Finnish-born subjects were indistinguishable from the judgments of the control group and contradicted the Critical Period Hypothesis as an only explanation for native-like ultimate attainment. The findings also indicate that Age on Arrival and Age English as a Foreign Language Began are separate age of exposure measures. The best logistic regression model with 11 binary variables predicted nativelikeness with 76.9% accuracy; the significant predictors were Age English as a Foreign Language Began, US Education, and Length of Exposure, but not Age on Arrival. However, the youngest age on arrival group (12-15 years) outperformed all other subject groupings. Their performance did not decline with aging; the nativeness scores of other subjects declined as Age at Testing increased after the peak performance age. ANOV As for Age English as a Foreign Language Began, Length of Exposure, Total Years of Education, and Age at Testing were significant for the 104 and 55 subject groupings. The n-shaped relationship between the nativeness score and Length of Exposure explains their low correlation. Age at Testing impacted on ultimate attainment by confounding with education and other background variables (prior foreign language study, second language proficiency on arrival, multilingualism, etc.). / 2999-01-01

This study examines the effects of speech style, syllable stress, and proficiency level on the production of the second-language (L2) Spanish vowels /e/ and /o/. The study addresses traditional descriptions of L2 Spanish (e.g. Stockwell & Bowen, 1965), which claim that English-speaking learners, unlike native speakers (NSs), reduce vowels in unstressed syllables and diphthongize /e/ and /o/ in stressed syllables. Additionally, it adds to previous research by investigating how speech style affects L2 Spanish vowels, how these effects change by course level, and how they compare to NS style-shifting. Data was gathered from 55 adult learners of Spanish (SLs) at three course levels, as well as 10 NSs of Spanish using two elicitation tasks at different levels of formality. A total of 7,740 word-medial tokens of /e/ and /o/ was extracted, and vowels' F1, F2, duration, and diphthongization were measured using Praat. ANOVA tests were run to determine the main and interaction effects of participant group, elicitation task, and syllable stress on these four response variables for each vowel. Significant main effects as well as interaction effects were found for group, task, and stress on the F1 and F2 of /e/ and /o/, as well as interaction effects, providing evidence that the SLs and NSs centralized their unstressed vowels, that /e/ and /o/ became more raised and peripheral as course level increased, and that the SLs at all levels peripheralized their vowels in formal speech. / Master of Arts

This study was conducted to identify combinations of self-efficacy enhancing strategies and language learning strategies and to align them with Gagne's Nine Events of Instruction (1985). If worked together, these combinations can be used by educators to encourage students studying abroad to acquire second language skills in a shorter amount of time. This design and development study conducted model research through model development and model validation. The considerations were created and supported by current research in the literature and validated by experts from these three areas and revised based on their recommendations. / Doctor of Philosophy / This study was conducted to establish instructional considerations that combine strategies that show, in the literature, to have an effect on second language acquisitions such as self-efficacy enhancing strategies and language learning strategies and apply these strategies in everyday instructions using Gagne's Nine Events (1985). It is hoped that the proposed considerations, after revised by expert reviewers, can be utilized when teaching second language learning skills to international students who seek higher education degrees and have limited time to acquire these skills. The considerations were created and supported by current research in three areas of the literature: self-efficacy enhancing strategies, language learning strategies, and Gagne's Nine Events (1985) and validated by experts from these three areas.

J. R. Stroop' s landmark 1935 article about interference in color naming is often used to study bilingualism. Despite the vast amount of research regarding the Stroop effect and bilinguals, a number of issues are still under debate. This research attempts to further the investigation of the Stroop effect by looking at English speakers at various levels of learning German. Specifically, the pattern of interference for beginners, intermediates, and advanced German learners was examined. As expected, it was found that regardless of proficiency level, interference occurred in the monolingual English and German conditions, but interference was more robust in the English monolingual condition. Between languages interference was also observed. The results provide support for Magiste's ( 1984, 1985) language proficiency hypothesis.

The study of bilingualism and working memory is a relatively new area in the United States. It is important to conduct research on bilingualism in order to prepare our educators, parents, speech pathologists and businesses to accommodate the rising bilingual population. This study compares the working memory span of three groups: French-English bilinguals, English speakers learning French, and English monolinguals. Working memory is the short-term storage of information that is processed in a variety of cognitive tasks including language comprehension (Baddeley, 1986). According to some theories, bilinguals have weaker working memory than monolinguals (Service, et al, 2002); however I would like to challenge that theory with a unique method to test working memory. Therefore, the premise of this study is that people beginning to learn a second language may have cognitive deficit in working memory, and, as they reach a higher proficiency of the second language, their working memory will strengthen to accommodate both languages. The main hypothesis of the study is the working memory span of the true bilinguals will be significantly higher than monolinguals and second language learners. Fifty-nine participants were tested by this unique method of measuring ones working memory span. French and English word lists appeared on the computer screen and were spoken through the computer speakers -- each word was presented one at a time for one second. After all the words from each list were presented, participants recalled all the words they remembered by writing them down or saying them into a recorder. The amount of words recalled correctly was recorded as working memory span. The results were analyzed using a repeated measures analysis on the factors of the method of presentation, recall, language and condition. The results from this experiment allow me to conclude that there is correlation between working memory and bilingualism. The bilingual group recalled significantly more words than the French learners and monolinguals. Therefore, the conclusion can be drawn that bilinguals have the largest working memory store. The French learners had a smaller working memory span in French than in English. The success of the working memory span tests depended on expertise in the language as the monolinguals did not recall the French lists as well as the other groups. Additional analyses were done on the methods of presentation and recall which yielded significant results. It is one-step closer to understanding a bilingual mind.

This research aims to find out how a small sized school in western Sweden, where the experience regarding second language students is not very high, accept the challenge to find and use teaching methods adapted to the students. It will investigate what specific methods or theaching materials are used and why they have been chosen, all this with a focus on literacy learning. The method applied is qualitive interviews. Four teachers have been interviewed from three different grades. In the result and discussion the empiricism according to the four issues about teaching materials and choice of methods is presented. The results show that the teachers more or less use specific methods and materials. Among these are genre pedagogy and copying as methods for second language students learning swedish writing skills. The materials presented include something called ”ZickZack” and ” my words” and are used mainly during Swedish class.

As digital games have grown into a global cultural force during the last few decades, computer-assisted language learning (CALL) researchers and second and foreign language (L2) educators have begun reconsidering games as potential L2 teaching and learning (L2TL) resources (Reinhardt, in press). One particular game genre, massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs) have gained particular attention among CALL researchers and L2 educators. MMORPGs distinguished themselves from earlier game genres in their ability to allow players to cooperate and compete with each other on a large scale, even around the world. They are perceived to offer the opportunity for a great deal of contextualized interaction in a learner's target language, including interaction with native speakers (Peterson, 2010). Participating in MMORPG playing could promote social-interactional language use (e.g. Peterson, 2012a, 2012b; Rama et al., 2012; Zheng et al. 2012), sometimes even intercultural interactions (e.g. Thorne, 2008), and L2 learner's willingness to communicate (Reinders & Wattana, 2014). In addition to player-to-player communication, the texts embedded in MMORPGs and the texts circulated in the player communities online illustrate multiple genres, complex structures, and features of interactive discourse (Thorne, Fischer & Lu, 2012). MMORPGs seem to present a diverse and linguistically complex environment for L2 learners. However, empirical research on how L2 learners engage with a variety of game discourses in MMORPG playing is still limited. In an attempt to better understand how MMORPG playing can be used to enhance L2TL, this dissertation examines L2 learners' engagement with game discourses within and around a MMORPG. Grounded within an ecological framework of language learning (van Lier, 2004), this dissertation investigates the interaction of game-learner-context through a mixed method approach, including quantitative (e.g. survey) and qualitative (e.g. case study) methods. Through analysis of the languaging patterns of eight ESL learners who played a MMORPG for eight weeks, the study seeks to understand how game mechanics, learner agency, and practices of the player community influence L2 learner-players' engagement with a variety of game discourses. Findings show that these L2 learner-players, with diverse backgrounds in language learning and digital gaming, engaged with a variety of game discourses as they played the MMORPG. Their engagement with game discourses was greatly influenced by the game mechanics and their personal goals in the game. Comparison of the languaging patterns of two learner-players further reveals the individual variations of game-mediated L2 languaging, which can be attributed to learner-player's L2 ability, gaming experience, gaming preference, L2 learner status, and the social norms of the player community. Taken as a whole, the study points to the significance of game-learner-context interplay in shaping game-mediated L2 language learning and use. It has implications for using MMORPGs in L2LT, designing MMORPGs for language learning, and the nascent field of game-mediated L2LT research.

This paper seeks to provide a comprehensive overview of current literature regarding technological tools such as Wikis for their use in second language collaborative writing instruction. Some trends that have been identified in technology use for collaborative writing in the second language classroom are that students generally enjoy the technology coupled with group work, and that scaffolding between more and less advanced learners tends to occur when using these online tools. Some areas remain unclear, however, with varying results in several studies as to the quantitative effects on second language acquisition of implementing Wikis and other online tools in group writing exercises. Additionally, freeloading has been observed in various studies, which presents second language teachers with a dilemma when deciding whether to incorporate new technological tools for group work in their classrooms. Finally, this paper provides some ideas for future research directions as well as some practical suggestions and implications for foreign language teachers who wish to utilize Wikis and other collaborative online tools. / text