<p>The purpose of this study was to examine the implicit language attitudes of college-level instructors toward accented English and the effect of gender, teaching experience, and home language background on those attitudes. The auditory multifactor Implicit Association Test (IAT) was used to measure the implicit attitudes toward Standard, Chinese, Hispanic, and Korean accented English. For the current study, audio stimuli were embedded into the multifactor IAT, which became available for the first time in 2014. The auditory multifactor IAT generated implicit preference scores of six pairs of accented English: Standard vs. Chinese, Standard vs. Hispanic, Standard vs. Korean, Chinese vs. Hispanic, Chinese vs. Korean, and Hispanic vs. Korean accented English. </p><p> Participants (<i>N</i> = 93) included college instructors at an urban university in Florida. Statistical analysis results suggested that college instructors in this study exhibited some bias towards speakers of Hispanic-accented English, but no bias toward the other five. However, analysis of the frequency distributions of the responses showed bi-polar accent biases did exist. It was possible that the similar numbers for the polar opposites balanced each other in the statistical results of no bias. Gender and home language background had no effect on implicit preference scores. The years of teaching experience had significant effect in Hispanic vs. Korean-accented English, but not in the other five accented language pairs. However, close examination of the beta coefficient per year indicated that the relationship was weak even though the effect was significant. </p><p> Faculty, administrators, and students could use test results as a topic of discussion in faculty development, teaching assistant training, student services, and diversity training in higher education institutions. The discussions might help awareness of hidden-yet-present accent bias and prevent potential prejudice toward other accented English speakers. </p><p> The administrators need to be aware that preferences do exist toward accented English speakers. These preferences&mdash;or biases&mdash;toward an accent may be important in selecting instructors. </p>

This study analyzes the accommodation strategies of Arabic-speaking Sudanese immigrants to Cairo toward the dominant Cairene Arabic variety. Accepted wisdom across much of variationist sociolinguistics views phonology in dialect contact scenarios as highly mutable and readily altered, while imputing to morphology a far greater degree of “staying power;” however, analysis of the Cairo-based fieldwork reveals a situation in which speakers freely accommodate to morphological forms, while adapting in only minimal and restricted ways to phonological differences. This finding, discussed in relation to both structural and social motivating factors, has the potential to inform conceptions of both the synchronic mechanics of dialect interaction and diachronic understandings of inheritance and stability across linguistic domains. / text

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Most discussions of English phonology argue that rhoticity and r-sandhi are necessarily in complementary distribution, citing the diachronic path that led to the loss of rhoticity and the resulting synchronic r ~ Ø alternations in non-rhotic dialects. However, some accounts suggest that ‘it would not be surprising to discover cases of intrusive-r in rhotic dialects’ (Harris 1994, see also Carr 1999, Uffmann 2007). In order to investigate how non-rhoticity and r-sandhi could be transmitted by dialect contact, this thesis uses data from speakers in five communities in Greater Manchester and East Lancashire. The locations are equally spaced along a twenty-mile route from Prestwich (a suburb of Manchester, where speakers are non-rhotic) to Accrington (a post-industrial mill-town which is on an ‘island of rhoticity’ (Britain 2009)). I show that individual speakers have variable levels of both rhoticity and r-sandhi, which matches research on early New Zealand English (Hay & Sudbury 2005). Beyond this key fact, I discuss several other aspects of the relationship between r-sandhi and rhoticity, including the phonological and dialectological significance of the patterns in the data. First, linking-r and intrusive-r have different distributions in my data, despite the typical claim that they are synchronically the same process. This supports the idea that speakers are sensitive to a difference between words with and without an etymological r: I attribute this to the influence of orthography and to sociolinguistic salience of intrusive-r. Second, the nature of my sample population allows me to consider both change in apparent time and variation across geographical space. An apparent time comparison of the distribution of non-rhoticity and intrusive-r in the five Lancashire locations shows that these features are spreading by wave diffusion: they reach nearby locations before they reach locations further away. However, there is also a pattern of urban hierarchical diffusion in which the most isolated and rural location, Rossendale, lags behind Accrington in its loss of rhoticity. This is examined in the light of local patterns of travel for work and leisure, which suggest that although Accrington is further than Rossendale from the non-rhotic ‘sea’ of surrounding speakers, socially constructed space is more significant than Cartesian distance in determining the amount of linguistic contact between speakers from different locations. Third, I show that levels of rhoticity are increasing for some young speakers in Rossendale, which supports the hypothesis that a local linguistic feature can have a ‘last gasp’ under pressure from a competing non-local feature before its eventual loss. However, the same speakers are also adopting intrusive-r more quickly than speakers from neighbouring areas and this is significant: while earlier research has suggested that the presence of hyperdialectal non-etymological r (e.g. lager [laôg@~]) can be an indication of a loss of rhoticity in progress, the East Lancashire data show a different situation, where non-etymological r is for the most part restricted to sandhi contexts. This shows that rather than r-colouring becoming part of the realisation of certain vowels (e.g. sauce [sO:ôs]), intrusive-r is becoming adopted as a hiatus-filling strategy: a phonological process is being used by some rhotic speakers independently of the loss of contrasts (e.g. Leda ~ leader) which caused it to emerge in non-rhotic dialects. I discuss these results in terms of sociophonology, which I use to convey the idea that the phonological process of hiatus-filling r-sandhi can spread through dialect contact, with a mixed phonological system emerging as a result. Although the data suggest a correlation between the loss of rhoticity and the development of r-sandhi, the nature of the overlap means that a phonological model must allow for speakers to have both features, even if rhoticity is eventually lost completely. Hay & Sudbury (2005) argue that the gradual development of linking and intrusive-r leading to their convergence to a single synchronic phenomenon ‘is not a process that can be well described by any categorical, phonological grammar’. I show that the current situation in East Lancashire speech can be described by existing phonological models with underlying representations and associated surface forms. These existing models do not rule out a parallel distribution for rhoticity and intrusive-r, in which individual speakers can have both features. This thesis provides some new dialectological data for an under-researched area of North West England, a discussion of phonological means of accounting for patterns in these data, and a discussion of the influence of socio-cultural spatiality on linguistic behaviour.

<p> This study seeks to examine and compare motivational orientations of French learners across different dimensions: cultural background (USA vs. Russia), educational modality and age (college students vs. private courses learners), gender, and time of studying foreign language. 613 American and Russian learners of French completed the questionnaire addressing 10 motivational factors to study French language. Despite differences in nationality, age, educational background and learning experience, all groups of participants produced nearly identical motivational rankings. The rankings are topped by the Travelling orientation, which seems to be universally appealing, followed by the orientations within the Idealistic motivational cluster (Aesthetic Factors, Culture, Knowledge, and Ideal Self). The Pragmatic motivational cluster (Instrumental orientation, which is sometimes coupled to Emigration and Friendship dimensions) is by far less important. This disposition is also confirmed by the qualitative data. With regard to specific orientations it has been found that US learners score consistently higher in Sociability motivation, whereas Russians score higher in the Peers&rsquo; Encouragement and Aesthetic categories. In regard to gender differences, this study shows that male students appear to be more personable, e.g. among American learners males consistently outscore females in the Friendship category. Referring to age differences, it was found that the overall level of motivation tends to decline with age.</p>

A research report submitted to the Wits School of Education, Faculty of Humanities, University of the Witwatersrand in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Masters in Applied English Language Studies by combination of coursework and research. Johannesburg, 2015 / This research project explores the linguistic experiences and the effects of these on the identities of two first-year ESL university students. Using a sociolinguistic framework, it explores the links between language and identity. The data for this study comes from examination essays written based on a first-year Sociolinguistics module in the English I course in the Wits School of Education and interviews conducted with two students. The analysis of this data reveals how these students’ linguistic identities, structured by their different backgrounds, facilitate and constrain the ways in which they adapt to university life. Both students focused on in this research shift in their identities as they attempt to adapt to the increasing number of different fields they encounter at university. Linguistic identity shifts are also evident as they re-enter the old fields in the communities in which they grew up. The two students must work to negotiate these differing identities both within and outside of the university. Bourdieu’s concepts of habitus, capital and field, guide this discussion and help to illustrate how students struggle to negotiate their identity. This study shows that owing to a conflict of capital and the fact that habitus is deeply entrenched layers of linguistic dispositions, linguistic identity is difficult to shift. Despite the fact that the University of the Witwatersrand is a super-diverse environment, with students bringing different kinds of linguistic capital to the various fields within this environment, this research projectargues that students struggle to find a place for themselves within this variety. It shows that the participants seek out affinity groups within which they feel they have sufficient linguistic capital. However, within these groups there is jostling for a linguistic identity as, in the face of policing and linguistic prejudice, they struggle to assert their sense of self in relation to their developing linguistic identities. KEYWORDS: linguistic identity, Discourse, field, habitus, capital, policing, prejudice, investment, voice.

by Luk Anne. / Publication date from spine. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1995. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 167-174). / Abstract --- p.i / Acknowledgements --- p.iii / Chapter: / Chapter 1. --- Introduction --- p.1 / Chapter 2. --- Ethnography of Communication --- p.5 / Chapter 2.1. --- Definition --- p.5 / Chapter 2.2. --- Previous Studies --- p.8 / Chapter 2.3. --- Reasons for Conducting the Research --- p.16 / Chapter 3. --- The Theoretical Framework and Its Application --- p.21 / Chapter 3.1. --- Saville-Troike's Model --- p.21 / Chapter 3.2. --- The Application of Saville-Troike's Model --- p.31 / Chapter 4. --- Language usage in Advertisements --- p.44 / Chapter 4.1. --- Linguistic and Advertising --- p.44 / Chapter 4.2. --- The Different Techniques of Foregrounding --- p.46 / Chapter 4.3. --- Justifications of Using the Techniques of Foregrounding --- p.53 / Chapter 5. --- Methodology --- p.56 / Chapter 5.1. --- Research Design --- p.56 / Chapter 5.2. --- Data Collection --- p.57 / Chapter 5.3. --- Data Analysis --- p.68 / Chapter 6. --- Findings --- p.72 / Chapter 6.1. --- Interpretations of the Advertisements --- p.74 / Chapter 6.2. --- Linguistic Preference in Advertisements --- p.82 / Chapter 6.3. --- The Role of Language in Advertising --- p.92 / Chapter 6.4. --- Attitude of English advertisementsin Chinese Magazines --- p.113 / Chapter 7. --- Discussion --- p.120 / Chapter 7.1. --- Interpretations of the Advertisements --- p.121 / Chapter 7.2. --- Linguistic Preference in Advertisements --- p.125 / Chapter 7.3. --- The Role of Language in Advertising --- p.127 / Chapter 7.4. --- Attitude towards English advertisements in Chinese Magazines --- p.133 / Chapter 7.5. --- Relations of Social Background factors to the different Aspects of Studies --- p.133 / Chapter 7.6. --- Interactions of the different components in Advertising --- p.153 / Chapter 7.7. --- Limitations of the Study --- p.157 / Chapter 8. --- Conclusion --- p.160 / Chapter 8.1. --- Summary and Conclusion --- p.160 / Chapter 8.2. --- Implications --- p.162 / Chapter 8.3. --- Recommendations for Further Research Studies --- p.165 / References and Bibliography --- p.167 / Appendices --- p.175

<p> Words are a human medium for relaying any and all psychic states, from mundane to profound, and as a medium of description language also is considered an archetype. In the practice of psychotherapy the practitioner and client must find common linguistic ground in order to collaborate effectively and facilitate the therapeutic process. This thesis utilizes hermeneutic, alchemical hermeneutic, and heuristic methodologies&mdash; interweaving mythology, philosophy, psychology, and literature&mdash;as a means of emphasizing the poetic nature of the soul and a multifaceted approach to what James Hillman referred to as "soul-making." The research is guided by the principal question: How does language shift the imaginative landscape and deepen experience? Hermes is present in this work as a mythological figure as well as the archetypal representation of shape-shifting, uncertainty, and the ability to move in and out of literal and nonliteral realms, emphasizing the importance of metaphor in the therapeutic encounter.</p><p>

<p> Voter-identification (ID) proponents claim that requiring voters to present photo-ID cards prevents fraud. Supported by a comprehensive empirical review, voter-ID opponents argue that significant voter fraud is nonexistent and that such restrictive laws suppress turnout of historically disenfranchised peoples. By analyzing testimonial letters to a state-legislature committee hearing, I show how repeating the false truth-claims can produce wide acceptance, through outright deception and cognitive biases. Focusing on the State of Kansas, my paper asks, &ldquo;How do proponents of strict voter-ID laws frame their cases for relevant legislation?&rdquo; and &ldquo;Where does the research originate that they cite in state legislative hearings to support their claims?&rdquo; From a content-analysis method of tallying critical words, phrases, and concepts, I tailored a discourse-analysis (DA) discipline. While analyzing grammatical structures, I focused more on the specific social, cultural, and political significances. Using terms and phrases such as &ldquo;Those&rdquo; &ldquo;diseased&rdquo; &ldquo;Others&rdquo; are &ldquo;stealing <i>Our</i> way of life,&rdquo; the political DA reveals that voter-ID proponents dehumanize the alleged perpetrators of voter fraud (often referenced as &ldquo;illegals&rdquo;). My five primary findings reveal how voter-ID proponents bolster their claims: arguing that their opponents willfully undermine democracy with voter fraud; fostering solidarity, dividing &ldquo;Us&rdquo; from the fraudulent voting &ldquo;Others&rdquo;; cultivating racism; manipulating legislators with urgent warnings; and buttressing their arguments with anecdotes, biased sources, and demonstrable lies. By revealing the persuasive powers of such discursive techniques, my paper provides a qualitative, critical nuance to the quantitative studies that address voter fraud.</p><p>

Thesis (M. Phil.)--University of Hong Kong, 2010. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 174-187). Also available in print.