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The work deals with the geopolitical evaluation of the development in Latin America through local geopolitical production of Spanish-speaking countries. The aim is to draw attention to the missing voice of Latin America in the global arena at the beginning of the 21st century. The thesis focuses firstly on the formulation of examined hypotheses and the definition of the studied area, and clarifies basic concepts and definitions. After the theoretical introduction and familiarization with the key concepts, the thesis moves into the area of Latin America where the thesis introduces the geopolitical development from both theoretical and practical point of view. The thesis aims to provide a comprehensive overview of the current geopolitical dynamics of the region. According to the established hypothesis, it aspires to either refute or confirm whether Latin America is able to deal with several internal problems and establish itself in the international system at the beginning of the millennium.

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This study examines the experiences of Spanish-speaking Latino/a parents in their attempts to obtain school-based speech and language services for their children; the impact of these experiences on parents; and parent perspectives on how school-based speech-language pathologists can co-create collaborative relationships. Through a detailed analysis of a focus group and individual interviews of 31 Spanish-speaking parents of children in the REAAD! (Reaching Educational Achievement and Development) Literacy Enrichment Program at a university in Los Angeles, California, this study provided a space for parents to share their experiences and offer insights regarding what shaped their experiences. Through the theoretical lens of dis/ability critical race theory (DisCrit), Latino critical race theory (LatCrit), and Yosso’s community cultural wealth model, parents’ stories were collected, transcribed, and analyzed. Parents consistently expressed their hope for their children to have a better life than the one they had, one that was attainable through education. Unfortunately, in their quest for educational supports, parents were often met with systematic roadblocks that denied their children resources and supports. Parents in this study were keenly aware of the struggle to support their children in the face of deficit views of their family based on the intersection of their language, race, and ability levels. More often than not, parents utilized the assistance of sympathetic teachers and speech-language pathologists to obtain services for their children. For parents in the study, having a school professional who they believed demonstrated corazón (heart) made all the difference in their ability to advocate for their children.

Latine children with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) have poor access to healthcare, developmental therapy, and support services, and often experience poor care quality when services are accessed. Improving service quality for Latine families of children with IDD is critical to promote service engagement; however, little is known regarding how to improve their care quality. This mixed-methods research explored how service quality is evaluated, including the cultural and contextual processes underlying perceptions of care quality for Latine families of children with IDD. Twenty-six participants (10 Latina mothers, 16 service providers) completed qualitative interviews, and providers completed quantitative burnout-engagement measures. Study 1 used qualitative methods to identify indicators of positive service quality and offer guidance to promote service quality for Latine families of youth with IDD. The most important indicator of service quality was providers' ability to build trusting relationships with families, which included using effective communication approaches, creating connectedness, and demonstrating commitment to families. Trusting relationships were valued over providers’ clinical expertise and cultural background. Study 2 qualitatively explored the culturally-driven expressions of service satisfaction among Latine parents of children with IDD. Participants described how Latine parents use overt expressions to convey service satisfaction, while expressions of dissatisfaction are subtle and easy for providers to overlook. Latine parents’ subtle expressions of dissatisfaction are often guided by Latine cultural values (e.g., simpatía) that prioritize interpersonal agreeableness and family bonds. Study 3 used mixed-methods to characterize IDD providers’ work burnout-engagement profiles and how burnout-engagement affects service delivery. Quantitatively, providers endorsed experiencing elevated work-related exhaustion, meaningful involvement with families, and personal achievement within their service roles. Qualitatively, providers described how this burnout-engagement profile impacts their service delivery, including how work-related exhaustion limits their ability to provide quality care, particularly for underserved patient populations. Together, findings suggest that Latine cultural values regarding prioritizing friendly, courteous personal relationships shape Latine parents’ service preferences and behaviors, and that IDD service providers’ well-being affects service delivery quality. This research contributes to our foundational understanding of “service quality” while highlighting targets of future intervention efforts to improve care for Latine families of children with IDD.

This study was designed to determine if a bilingual career education module could be developed for predominately Spanish-speaking students. Data to justify the need for this type of career education module were gathered after a review of existing materials and literature in the areas of bilingual education, career education, and vocational education.

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The linguistic landscape of Canadian workplaces is becoming more diverse as organizations employ individuals who come from various countries and speak different native languages. As language is an important marker of identity and group membership, language-based identities are powerful in shaping workplace experiences. Guided by both the ethnolinguistic identity theory (ELIT: Giles et al., 1977; Giles & Johnson, 1987) and communication accommodation theory (CAT: e.g., Dragojevic et al., 2016; Gallois et al., 2005; Giles & Ogay, 2006), this study explores the experiences of Spanish-speaking Latin Americans working in the Canadian National Capital Region in relation to their linguistic identities, coping strategies, and intergroup interactions. A thematic analysis of 24 semi-structured interviews shows that participants experience a dynamic shift in their identity in which they move between feelings of self-doubt and a sense of confidence and comfort in their workplaces. This shift occurs as they navigate the cognitive and emotional experiences of working in a nonnative language. Factors that influence this identity shift include social comparisons, positive implications associated with their native linguistic identity, negative evaluations, and empathy in the workplace. This study also provides a detailed description of the intrapersonal, interpersonal, and interactional coping strategies that participants enact to navigate their workplaces. In terms of intergroup interactions, the participant’s experiences, their evaluations, and reactions to accommodative or nonaccommodative behaviours from native speaking peers in their workplaces are explored. The final pages of this study include some recommendations for human resource practitioners.

Cette thèse a deux objectifs principaux. En premier lieu, on voudrait offrir un aperçu des connaissances académiques actuelles, tant théoriques qu'empiriques, des processus d’accommodation linguistique entre interlocuteurs, au sens général, et des caractéristiques rythmiques de la langue espagnole, en particulier. En second lieu, on présente deux études empiriques conçues pour analyser l’influence de la régularité rythmique au niveau des phrases et de l’arrangement phonologique sur les processus d’accommodation linguistique. Dans l'ensemble, les données rassemblées dans cette thèse indiquent que les phrases avec un rythme régulier, disposées en groupes accentuels, produisent une plus grande ressemblance entre les hispanophones en matière de rythme et de l’étendue de la F0, par rapport aux phrases avec un rythme irrégulier et aux phrases disposées en pieds accentuels. De plus, certains faits connus concernant les femmes ayant une moyenne de F0 supérieure, une étendue de F0 plus large, et un débit de parole plus lent quant aux hommes ont également été observés au cours de la première expérience. En outre, une valeur inférieure de la moyenne de F0 et une étendue de F0 plus étroite ont été observées lors de l’utilisation de phrases avec un rythme régulier et de phrases disposées en groupes accentuels, par rapport aux conditions expérimentales opposées. En ce qui concerne la tâche de perception, les phrases des dyades mixtes ont été notées de manière plus similaire les unes aux autres par rapport aux phrases des dyades de femmes et des dyades d’hommes (parmi d'autres résultats trouvés). / This thesis has two principal aims. In the first place, we would like to offer an overview of the current academic knowledge, both theoretical and empirical, of the processes of linguistic accommodation between interlocutors, in a general sense, and of the rhythmic characteristics of the Spanish language, in particular. In the second place, we present two empirical studies designed to analyze the influence of sentence-level rhythmic regularity and phonological phrasing on the processes of linguistic accommodation. Taken together, the data gathered in this thesis indicate that regular rhythmic sentences, arranged in accentual groups, generate a greater amount of resemblance between Spanish speakers in terms of rhythm and F0 range, with respect to irregular rhythmic sentences and sentences arranged in accentual feet. Moreover, a lower value of F0 mean and a narrower F0 range were observed during the use of both regular rhythmic sentences and sentences arranged in accentual groups compared to the opposite conditions. In addition, some known facts related to women having a higher F0 mean, a wider F0 range, and speaking slower regarding men were also found during the first experiment. As for the perceptual task, sentences of mixed dyads were rated more similar to each other with respect to sentences of female only and male only dyads (among other patterns found).