<p> The current recommendation by The American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) is that communication in the target language should comprise at least 90% of instructional time in the second language classroom (ACTFL, 2012). This constructivist mixedmethod study contributes to the literature on the oral skills of practicing high school teachers and the oral skills training they receive in teacher preparation programs. Data for the study were collected in two phases, from nine face-to-face interviews, and from electronic survey respondents. Surveys were sent out to two hundred four teachers and responses were received from sixty-eight. </p><p> Identified themes that emerged from interview participants&rsquo; experiences were: 1) use of target language vs. English in class, 2) challenges target language teaching presented for teachers, and 3) teachers&rsquo; responses to these challenges. A twenty-one question electronic survey was created based upon these themes and sent out state-wide to high school Spanish teachers. </p><p> In a significant finding, while participants indicated an overall feeling of being sufficiently proficient in their own oral skills and supporting use of the target language as much as possible in classroom activities, slightly more than one-half of teachers surveyed reported they were not adequately prepared to teach in a Standards-based curriculum which emphasizes the use of target language. Findings also indicated that consideration should be given to providing additional professional development opportunities regarding knowledge of and implementation of the Standards, as well as creation of further opportunities for target language maintenance for currently practicing teachers and additional opportunities for pre-service teachers in their university programs to improve their oral proficiency. In addition, this study revealed that, in this state, the taking and passing of the Oral Proficiency Interview or not needing to do so did not significantly impact the amount of target language used in class by teachers or student. Regarding length of teaching career and use of Spanish in class, this study showed a higher use of the target language by both teachers newer to the profession and those more senior teachers with less Spanish use in class reported by teachers who had been teaching between six and ten years. </p><p> Suggestions for future research were offered such as expanding studies to include middle school and elementary school levels, conducting similar studies with teachers of other languages than Spanish, and investigating other state&rsquo;s teachers&rsquo; perspectives. Further data could provide more in-depth insights if the amounts of target language spoken for the various purposes were broken out into percentages by each level of language taught by instructors.</p><p>

The German /r/ sound is one of the most difficult sounds for American English (AE) speakers who are learning German as a foreign language to produce. The standard German /r/ variant [/R/] and dialectal variant [R] are achieved by varying the tongue constriction degree, while keeping the place of articulation constant [Schiller and Mooshammer (1995)]. The close articulatory proximity of these allophones provides an opportunity for testing the relationship between perception and production in L2 sound acquisition. / The aim of this dissertation is to investigate how well native German speakers, experienced AE speakers, and inexperienced AE speakers can discriminate and produce the difference between the uvular fricative [/R/] versus the uvular trill [R]. Predictions of the Speech Learning Model (SLM) framework will be used to predict English speakers results (Flege, 1995). Native German speakers participated in an imitation study and discrimination experiment. Two groups of AE subjects performed the same experiments in addition to a categorization test. The production studies revealed that native speakers can reliably produce the difference between uvular trills and fricative. / However, significant variation in trill production was observed among native German participants. Production scores among experienced AE speakers were more varied relative to native speakers, while inexperienced AE speakers achieved the lowest production scores. All three subject groups performed similarly well on the discrimination test, indicating that all three groups are presumably relying on the same acoustic cues to distinguish [R ] vs. [/R/]. Outcomes of the perception experiment confirmed that experienced AE listeners were more consistent and confident in their 'foreign r' category selection than inexperienced AE listeners. / Subsequent Spearman rank correlation analysis revealed a significant relationship between uvular fricative production scores and categorization/discrimination scores for experienced AE speakers, but not for the uvular trill. No significant relationships emerged for the uvular trill and uvular fricative among the group of inexperienced AE subjects. Outcomes for each L2 subject group are discussed with respect to predictions made by the SLM.

This is a study of the development of Chinese-language newspapers in Canada since the 1970s. In contrast to the assimilationist view, which sees the ethnic press as mainly a cultural institution, the present study examines the Chinese press as a business and explains the recent development of Chinese papers in Canada in terms of economic and social forces. More specifically, this thesis shows how the recent development of Chinese newspapers in Toronto is related to changes in market, capital, and competition. Based on evidence from field research in Toronto and from recent censuses, this study has three major findings. First, the Chinese newspaper market in Canada has expanded significantly after the 1970s because the size of the readership market has increased and its composition has also changed, thus raising newspaper consumption. The readership market, made up of a growing segment of affluent Chinese consumers, stimulates the expansion of the advertising market, which has been patronized by both Chineseand particularly non-Chinese firms which place advertisements to appeal to Chinese consumers. The growing readership and advertising markets have provided new business opportunities which help Chinese newspapers to grow. Second, the growth of Chinese newspapers in Canada has been directly associated with offshore Chinese investments. Attracted by the expansion of the Chinese newspaper market, media groups in East Asia have made three major investments in Canada since the 1970s. Each major development of the Chinese newspapers since the 1970s has been influenced by a major offshore capital investment. Third, competitions brought in more capital investments and improvement to Chinese newspapers with respect to news reporting, production, and advertising services. The competition among Chinese newspaper can be attributed partly to diverse readerships that demand more than one newspaper. Probably more important is that well financed media groups in East Asia target similar readerships in Canada, and as a result, there has been tense competition. This study concludes that changes in market, capital, and competition have played an important role in the development of Chinese newspapers in Canada after the 1970s. The study indicates the importance of economic forces in the study in immigrant cosmopolitan newspapers and it suggests the need to consider economic factors in addition to cultural causes in understanding expansion of ethnic press in Canada.

This study examines the importance of teaching culture in foreign language education. Different goals for teaching culture are reviewed, emphasizing the advantages and implications of having the Standards for Foreign Language Learning Preparing for the 21st Century (1996, 1999, 2006). A historical overview of varied approaches to teaching culture is presented, starting with the traditional facts-oriented approach, and leading to modern approaches that focus on developing critical thinking skills. The report analyzes the use of videos in foreign language teaching, highlighting their many advantages. Empirical studies supporting the use of videos in teaching culture are reviewed. The literature review indicates that videos have only been used to teach cultural facts so far. In response, a pedagogical model based on videos is proposed that encourages a critical-thinking approach to culture. The model is explained using a video-based lesson for intermediate level learners. / text

<p> Although it is assumed that students who study abroad will return with improved oral proficiency, a review of research findings revealed that oral gains are not guaranteed for all. The literature review addressed the need to investigate the quality of study abroad (SA) programs as it relates to fostering students&rsquo; oral proficiency. This study investigated the ways in which an SA program in Ecuador fostered undergraduate students&rsquo; oral proficiency through interviews and documentary research. Data analysis of interviews with the program&rsquo;s staff and documents revealed that the program facilitated oral proficiency through Spanish classes, the Oral Proficiency Interview (OPI)-preparation class, native speaker interaction, intentionality, and outings. A survey capturing students&rsquo; perceptions of the program indicated that students found the OPI-preparation class to be the most helpful and outings to be the least helpful in their oral proficiency development. Overall, students reported that they found the program to be quite effective in helping them improve orally and that they were satisfied with their progress. Finally, a comparison of pre- and post-OPIc results revealed that all students had gained one proficiency level at the conclusion of the program. The present study provides implications for SA programs and higher education institutions for assisting students with their oral proficiency development while abroad. It also gives recommendations for future research of proficiency-based SA programs.</p>

<p> Since the early 2000s, foreign language practitioners and researchers have shown an increasing interest in exploring the affordances of multimodal telecollaborative environments for the linguistic and intercultural development of their students. Due in part to their inherent complexity, one-on-one desktop-videoconferencing contexts have not been widely explored. To this end, this study investigates if and how American students of French engaged in a telecollaborative exchange with a class of French students are able to develop their Intercultural Communicative Competence (ICC) through online interaction and the completion of a collaborative task. Adopting a case study approach, the video-recorded sessions of three dyads are analyzed in conjunction with data from background surveys, autobiographies, journal entries, and email exchanges. To observe ICC development, we use a combination of a priori categories based on the &laquo; Attitude &raquo; component of Byram's (1997) model and a set of emerging themes (Boyatzis, 1998) gathered from the data. This choice of methodology provides an in-depth picture of the participants' production of Attitudes, that is, the willingness to show value to their partners or prioritize self over the course of the exchange. The results of the study indicate that one-on-one desktop-video conferencing can support the development of ICC and that task work bears upon the types and production of Attitudes. In addition, it is found that the production of Attitudes is not proficiency-dependent. The results also further suggest that there are differences in the way male and female participants engage in intercultural interaction.</p>

<p> Digital Game-Based Learning (DGBL) is an innovative educational approach that is becoming increasingly popular among researchers and practitioners in technologically advanced countries in the West, but is largely unknown or ignored in the instruction of Foreign Languages (FL) in Japanese higher education. This is problematic because more interest in research and implementation among faculty in Japan would likely contribute to the development of DGBL and improve the quality of FL education. The purpose of the present study was to better understand the lack of interest in DGBL in Japan by employing Everett Rogers' Innovation Diffusion Theory to explore the perceptions of relative advantage, compatibility, complexity, trialability, and observability of DGBL among FL faculty in Japanese higher education. A concurrent mixed-methods approach was employed to collect data through an online self-completion questionnaire and asynchronous email interviews. The results indicate that while most faculty members believe that DGBL would have a beneficial impact on learner motivation, they are unconvinced that it offers real learning outcomes. Further, participants were divided as to whether the approach would be compatible with course learning objectives, and many regarded it as suitable primarily as supplemental learning material. Faculty members with a research interest in Computer-Assisted Language Learning (CALL) expressed a willingness to try the approach, but at the same time pointed out that there were few opportunities to do so.</p>

<p> Learning to read in a foreign language can be a difficult task for some students. For at-risk students, for example, students with learning disabilities, the process can be arduous and painstaking. This study explored and compared the reading strategies, preferred foreign language learning styles, perceived foreign language strategy use, actual strategy use and metacognitive awareness of at-risk students in a Modified Foreign Language Program (MFLP) of postsecondary Spanish with those of non at-risk students in a non-MFLP. </p><p> This study followed a mixed-method design consisting of two parts. In the first part, preferred learning style and perceived strategy use data were collected via the Learning Style Survey and Survey of Reading Strategies. The second part of the study consisted of 11 case studies based on semi-structured interviews and think-aloud protocols in which the participants completed a reading task in the target language. </p><p> The major findings for part one are: MFLP and non-MFLP students did not differ in terms of their preferences for sensory/perceptual stimuli. Both groups had a significant preference for Visual over Auditory and Tactile/Kinesthetic stimuli. MFLP and non-MFLP students did not differ significantly in their perceived use of foreign language reading strategies. Both groups indicated a statistically significant preference for the use of cognitive (PROB) strategies, then metacognitive (GLOB) strategies followed by support (SUP) strategies. The relationship between preferred learning style and perceived GLOB strategy use was significant only for the MFLP group. </p><p> The second part of the study consisted of a think-aloud protocol. The major findings are: Both groups used strategies that were in line with their preferred learning style. The MFLP participants, however, relied much more heavily on the use of visual input to help extract meaning from unknown context. While both groups reported a high use of PROB, only the non-MFLP students used them with any regularity during the reading task. The MFLP group relied heavily on the use of support strategies (e.g. dictionary) to extract unknown meaning during the reading task. Non-MFLP students combined metacognitive strategies with cognitive strategies far more frequently than MFLP students. </p>

<p> This dissertation investigates the acquisition of Spanish diphthongs by adult native speakers of English. The following research questions will be addressed: 1) How do adult native speakers of English pronounce sequences of two vowels in their L2 Spanish at different levels of acquisition? 2) Can OT learnability models, specifically the GLA, account for the pronunciation of L2 diphthongs? If so, what constraints do learners use and how do these constraints interact? If not, what other model(s) might offer an improved analysis of L2 diphthongs? Participants completed two production tasks, a Nonsense Word task and a Question &amp; Answer task. The participants were divided by level of acquisition &ndash; Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced &ndash; and there was a Native Speaker Control group. After the data was collected, F2 values and duration of vowel sequence were measured and used to categorize the pronunciations as monophthongs, diphthongs, or hiatus. It was found that the use of diphthongization increased with level of acquisition in the data for the Question &amp; Answer task. Data from the Nonsense Word task did not reveal the same pattern; instead, the level of diphthongization was more or less equal across all levels of acquisition and with the Native Speaker Control group. The OT account was able to explain most of the data in this study. The GLA proved successful in demonstrating how constraints interact in the pronunciation of L2 diphthongs. However, there were L2 pronunciations for which OT could not account. It is suggested that linguistic models based on lexical frequency may offer insight into how to account for these pronunciations. </p>

<p> This study examines proposals made during planning talk&mdash;a speech act that has received little attention in previous literature&mdash;to determine the applicability of the stages of second language (L2) pragmatic development posited by Kasper and Rose (2002). Although Kasper and Rose suggest that formulas play a prominent role in L2 pragmatic development, few studies have considered the applicability of their stages to a non-formulaic speech act. The current study investigated proposal production in the planning talk of 69 participants: 46 learners of Spanish enrolled at five levels of instruction in a seven-week Spanish immersion program, 12 native Spanish speaking instructors in the same program, and 11 native English speaking undergraduate students at the same institution enrolled during the academic year. The L2 learners worked in groups of two or three as they planned three different role-plays during the seventh week of instruction. The native speakers met with the researcher in groups of two or three to complete the same role-plays in their first language (L1). A total of 1809 proposals and 351 supporting moves were produced in approximately four hours of planning talk. Analysis of transcriptions focused on the realization of the head-act strategies, deictic centering, internal and external modification, and the influence of the conversational context on the production of proposals. Results of this cross-sectional analysis suggest that learners do not pass through a formulaic stage when producing proposals in planning talk. The results also suggest that the learners' production of proposals exhibits a u-shaped curve as they adhere to L1 English norms at intermediate levels of proficiency before reflecting L1 Spanish norms at more advanced levels of instruction. L1 English influence was observed in the level of directness of the head-act strategies, the use of deictic centering, internal and external modification, and the influence of the conversational context. Results point to a new framework involving three universal stages of L2 pragmatic development in which L1 influence and pragmatic expansion are more salient. </p>