This study investigates the uses of English in advertising in Brazil and the attitudes of Brazilians towards the use of different difficulty levels of English in advertising. Using a two part, mixed-methods approach, drawing from quantitative and qualitative methods, I utilized a corpus study to examine English uses in Brazilian magazines and a…

This dissertation explores the missiological opportunities, challenges and implications of growing multilingualism among people who are fluent in two or more languages. I look at the cognitive value of language and how languages shape people's world views. World views influence peoples' perceptions and way of processing and understand information.…

As the population of students from linguistically diverse backgrounds in American schools increases, teacher educators must critically examine their own knowledge and practice in order to prepare pre-service teachers to be linguistically responsive educators. LaBoskey's (2004) self-study framework and critical, social constructivist, and social…

A great deal of scholarly research has addressed the issue of dialect mapping in the United States. These studies, usually based on phonetic or lexical items, aim to present an overall picture of the dialect landscape. But what is often missing in these types of projects is an attention to the borders of a dialect region and to what kinds of…

The problem: The purpose of this study is first to explore the perceptions and attitudes of ESL instructors regarding pragmatics instruction in second language classes. Second, this study is also designed to add to the scholarly literature regarding the importance of pragmatics instruction in developing second language communicative competence.…

The purpose of this dissertation was to conduct a sociocultural linguistic study on Ethiopian immigrants in the Denver metropolis. It specifically examined language practice of Ethiopian immigrants at home and in church. The study centered on three Ethiopian Orthodox parish churches, taken as separate communities of practice. The study was…

Language shift is the process by which a speech community in a contact situation (i.e. consisting of bilingual speakers) gradually stops using one of its two languages in favor of the other. The causal factors of language shift are generally considered to be social, and researchers have focused on speakers' attitudes (both explicit and unstated)…

The contact between Dominicans and Puerto Ricans is targeted for study as much for its linguistic import as for its social context. Dominican and Puerto Rican Spanish are considered varieties of Caribbean Spanish that differ only by a few phonological and syntactic patterns and a small number of lexical items. Although both varieties are heavily…