Massively multiplayer online games (MMOs) present an interesting area for linguistic and social research, being a setting for of computer-mediated communication (CMC) that is task-oriented in nature and often requires high level of cooperation between players. This study investigates how Spanish-speaking players of the MMO Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn use the linguistic phenomena of discourse markers, laughter and politeness to structure their communication and their community. Through analysis of in-game conversations gathered from a community of said players, this study demonstrates how each of these phenomena work together to build a community based on inclusive language and positive reinforcement.

The rituals acts of reciprocity celebrated during the indigenous carnival in the Andes creates communion within the community, and the sacred. In particular, this work focuses on the symbolic meaning of the rituals offerings; celebrated throughout the Andes during the Carnival season, from November to a movable period between February and March. These rituals of reciprocity are dyadic contracts that aid in the cohesiveness of their indigenous experience functioning as agents of their indigeneity; and are a vital part of maintaining and revitalizing their traditions. Using an interpretative and a historiography approach; it is possible to explore the symbolic meaning of the ritualized acts of reciprocity, in particular how the offerings of blood, music, and earth elements convey and sacralized the space, creating an axis mundi unifying the sacred, communal and policies of a community during the celebrations. Los actos ritualistas de reciprocidad celebrados en los Andes durante los carnavales indígenas, establecen una comunión entre la comunidad, lo político, social y sagrado. Particularmente este trabajo analiza el significado simbólico de las ofrendas durante el periodo de carnaval, es decir entre noviembre y una fecha movible entre febrero y marzo. Estos rituales recíprocos son contratos diádicos celebrados entre lo profano y lo sagrado, y son agentes vitales para el mantenimiento de la experiencia de la indigeneidad. Usando un método interpretativo e historiográfico se exploran los significados de las ofrendas de reciprocidad, en particular, las de sangre, música y elementos de tierra. Para argumentar que estos elementos conllevan a la sacralización del espacio de la celebración del carnaval convirtiéndola en un axis mundi.

Many 20th century Puerto Rican writers focused on establishing a national identity through their works. Although the island has very diverse culture, some aspects of Puerto Rican identity have been ignored entirely or inaccurately represented in popular and literary culture. In this thesis I use Nuestra señora de la noche and La amante de Gardel by Mayra Santos-Febres to examine how the writer depicts race and gender based issues in Puerto Rico. With post-colonial theory and otherness theory, I examine how Santos-Febresa descendant of colonized Puerto Rican peopledecolonizes the Afro-Caribbean woman through her writing techniques and reconstructs the image of the Afro-Puerto Rican woman in her texts. Instead of reproducing negative stereotypes, through her characters Santos-Febres creates a new Afro-Puerto Rican woman who exists and thrives outside of the restrictive social norms.

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For at least a century, applied linguists have been researching and developing an ever evolving concept of how to approach and teach culture in the foreign language (FL) classroom. Frequently, we find researchers stating why culture should be taught, offering their own definitions of culture, and suggesting methods for practical implementation. A common goal in this process has been finding a cohesive definition of culture that would unite the field in the implementation of methods that would naturally follow. While great strides have been made in the development of theories, definitions, and suggested methods, there exists a lag between researchers’ discoveries and the application of the concept in teachers’ lessons. This paper will briefly review the history of culture research in the FL field, offer analysis of potential reasons for the lag in implementation, and conclude with an overview of challenges in the practical field. / text

This research project is concerned with the prediction of foreign language learning success. Previous research into the importance of language aptitude for foreign language learning is surveyed, and the two areas of memory and motivation are proposed as worth further study. A number of memory tests and motivation measures, devised for the present study, are described. These measures are used with Armed Forces personnel, university students, and schoolchildren, in order to examine the relationships between these "predictor" tests, and the achievement (criterion) tests used to evaluate learning in the different settings. The results are analysed using correlational, factor, regression, and cluster analysis. The results indicate that the ability to integrate and learn material of unfamiliar structure, and the ability to extract and remember the propositional meaning of sentences both have significant and marked correlations with foreign language learning success. Associative memory is found to have significant but lower correlations with achievement scores, while primary memory measures appear to have little importance. Intelligence and grammatical sensitivity are also found to have marked relationships with achievement scores. The motivational measures only had weak correlations with the criterion test scores. Several aspects of foreign language learning prediction are discussed. There is consideration of the general role of aptitude in foreign language learning, and recent attempts proposing that such an aptitude is only of limited significance are rejected. There is also discussion of the Importance of aptitude for language teaching methodology. Finally, the componens of aptitude are described as they are currently understood, and suggestions for further research are provided.

<p> In the field of foreign language learning, there is much literature regarding the necessity of concurrent language and cultural competence acquisition, particularly in the 21^st century global community. The United States is the only industrialized nation in the world that does not require advanced foreign language study of its scholars. There is considerable resistance of individuals to foreign language acquisition and cultural adaptation, under the assumption that &ldquo;everyone else&rdquo; will speak English and will conduct business the same way we Americans do. While it is true that English is the most commonly used language used in international business, it is an indicator of an educated society that the citizens speak the languages and appreciate the cultures of their counterparts from other countries. Study Abroad programs have been increasing in popularity, particularly those eight weeks long or less. There is significant literature on the benefits derived from semester and year-long study abroad programs, but is scarce regarding the long-term benefits of short-term study abroad. This present qualitative study analyzed the reflections of a number of adults who have participated in at least one short term study abroad, to discover what their perceptions are regarding the long term benefits, in terms of language acquisition and increased cross cultural competence, of short term study abroad. The 13 participants had taken at least one short-term study abroad program, some of them as long as 20 or 30 years ago. Their reflections were strongly worded in favor of the life-changing benefits they still enjoy as a result of those programs, some as short as 10 days. They all reported a surge in personal growth and cross-cultural competence. Those who had a language component reported strong growth in fluency and culturally accurate usage, which has been carried forward in their personal and/or professional life. Some even reported a career change as a result of the study abroad. Further research could take the form of a mixed-methods longitudinal study of individuals, comprised of pre- and post-trip surveys and interviews, with further surveys and interviews after a period of several years.</p>

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