Revision of the author's Thesis (doctoral)--Universidad de Granada, 2001. / Includes bibliographical references (p. [305]-324) and index.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2007. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

The purposes of this thesis are to present a study of Jose S. Alvarez, known as Fray Mocho, and his works with particular attention paid to Memorias de un vigilante; to make a study of lunfardo, the slang of Buenos Aires - its origin, its nature, and its influence on language and literature; and to show the important place of Fray Mocho in the history of lunfardo. To accomplish these purposes, in Chapter I, I have undertaken to present a brief sketch of the life of Fray Mocho. Then I attempt to make a brief introduction to his literary work and place it into the literary history of Argentina. Chapter II contains first a discussion of the nature of and importance of Memorias de un vigilante and then a linguistic study, with definitions and etymologies, of the lunfardo vocabulary Fray Mocho gives in "Mundo lunfardo". This is a link with Chapter III which is a study of lunfardo and its historical and sociological background as well as a discussion of the sources of its vocabulary, and the nature of the language. This study of lunfardo closes with a discussion of the influence of lunfardo has had on literature and the spoken language. The conclusion is an attempt to bring together Fray Mocho and lunfardo and show his important place in the history of slang. / Arts, Faculty of / French, Hispanic, and Italian Studies, Department of / Graduate

Speakers of Spanish in the United States are living perhaps the most interesting linguistic experience in the entire Hispanic world. The present study deals with the theme of the Spanish language in contact with English and the problems related with social bilingualism. The first part of Chapter I recounts the principal incidents in the history of Spanish expansion, and outlines the route of the advance of the Spanish language throughout the American continent. The second part of Chapter I presents statistical tables pertaining to immigrants, and explains the geographic and demographic distribution of Hispanics in the United States. Chapter II is a linguistic study of the varieties of Spanish found in the United States, along with lexical examples from daily use, and grammatical characteristics. Chapter III provides an academic classification according to the sociolinguistic and sociocultural factors which affect the Spanish language. Chapter IV presents the linguistic deviations produced by factors at the phonological, morphological, syntactical, lexical, semantic and grammatical level. Chapter V concentrates on the bilingual element of U.S. society. Three tables demonstrate the distribution of English and Spanish according to the sociolinguistic context and the type of text involved. In addition, three studies are presented to deepen our knowledge of bilingualism, as well as its causes and consequences. The conclusion must take into account the fact that it will not be possible to assimilate Hispanics as easily as has been done with people of other cultures in the United States, since the group renews itself continuously through the presence of recently arrived Hispanic immigrants, and those who have recently returned. / Arts, Faculty of / French, Hispanic, and Italian Studies, Department of / Graduate

This thesis examines the acquisition of the aspectual properties of the Spanish se in transitive constructions by L2 learners of Spanish. Based on a parameterized distinction of the telic features in English and Spanish, this study investigates whether second language (L2) learners are able to reset the aspectual value of the English parameter to that of Spanish in their interlanguage grammar. Results indicate that L2 learners' responses to a picture interpretation task vary according to proficiency levels. Low-intermediate and intermediate learners did not differentiate between telic and atelic constructions whereas advanced learners successfully acquired the telic properties of the transitive se constructions. Results were interpreted in the light of current theories of second language acquisition and the mental representation of aspect in interlanguage.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2006. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Today's global culture makes communication through writing in a foreign language a most desirable tool to expand personal and professional relations. However, teaching writing is a complex, time-consuming endeavor in any language. Foreign language teachers at every level struggle to fit writing into an already full curriculum and need the most effective methods and tools with which to teach. Technology may provide a viable scaffold to support writing instruction for teachers and students. The purpose of this research was to determine any benefits of weekly/structured, in-class, computer-assisted grammar drill and practice on the composition quality and quantity of intermediate university Spanish learners. A related purpose was to determine whether students who participated in such practice would access a computer-based writing assistant differently during writing than students without the treatment. The research design was a nonequivalent groups pretest-posttest design. Fifty-two subjects' compositions were graded with both holistic and analytic criteria to analyze composition quality and quantity, and statistical analyses assessed interactions of treatment and effects. The computer-based Atajo writing assistant, which could be accessed during composition, had a logging feature which provided unobtrusive observation of specific databases accessed by each student. There were no statistically significant differences found between the two groups in overall composition scores or in subscale scores. Improvements across time were observed in composition performance for both the experimental and control groups. The implementation of computer-based grammar and vocabulary practice did show a small to moderate positive effect; that is to say, students who received weekly, structured computer grammar and vocabulary practice had higher scores for composition quality and quantity on the posttest measure and accessed the databases less than the control group. The consistent positive trends in the composition data results intimate that over a more extended period of time, computer-based grammar instruction might enhance the quality and quantity of written composition in the foreign language classroom.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Un estudiante que empieza a aprender el español en la universidad sin experiencia previa generalmente no tiene un vocabulario amplio en el tercer año de la carrera cuando va a tener que hacer un curso de literatura. Este estudio investiga el reto que enfrenta el estudiante cuando empieza a estudiar la literatura hispánica. Se enfoca en los siguientes aspectos de este tema: 1) la brecha que existe entre el vocabulario limitado de un estudiante de segunda lengua y el vocabulario amplio de un hablante nativo; 2) en qué consiste un vocabulario mínimo; 3) cómo el leer extensivamente ayuda a desarrollar el vocabulario; 4) la necesidad de utilizar y saber utilizar el diccionario para aumentar el vocabulario; 5) la literatura infantil y juvenil como un recurso útil para desarrollar el vocabulario y 6) un análisis de unos libros escritos para niños de varias edades.

Although English and Spanish both have the voiceless stops /ptk/, they differ in VOT; English has long-lag voiceless stops and Spanish has short-lag. This difference means that native English-speaking learners of Spanish are likely to transfer the long voice lag typical of their first language (L1) to Spanish voiceless stops. This study measured the VOT of 20 native English-speaking learners of Spanish, each with a length of residence (LOR) in a Spanish-speaking country of almost 2 years. The study participants were found to produce voiceless stops intermediate to the averages of their L1 (American English) and L2 (Spanish), with some speakers producing voiceless stops with the range observed for Spanish. A significant main effect on VOT was found for all the variables of linguistic context tested: place of articulation, word-initial vs. -internal position, stress, preceding segment and following segment. A significant main effect was also found for speech style, percentage of communication done in Spanish with native Spanish speakers while abroad, years of formal L2 instruction prior to stay abroad, and time spent each week speaking Spanish with native speakers since their return home. While the extra-linguistic variables are correlated with more target-like VOT, the amount of communication done in the L2 with other native English L2 learners of Spanish was correlated with longer VOTs, i.e. less target-like VOTs, possibly due to reinforcement of L1 transfer habits.

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