Code-switching (switching between languages) is a common linguistic behavior in bilingual speech directed to infants and children. In adult-directed speech (ADS), acoustic-phonetic properties of one language may transfer to the other language close to a code-switch point; for example, English stop consonants may be more Spanish-like near a switch.…

The purpose of this dissertation is three-fold: to further the understanding of grammar learning strategies (GLS) that students at an American university use when they engage in language study sessions on their own, in technology-enhanced language learning (TELL) outside of the classroom; to examine how previous language learning experience (PLLE)…

The cybersecurity landscape in the United States has rapidly evolved, marked by risk and novel threats (Georgescu, 2021; Siraj et al., 2021). Today, security mindsets are "widely accepted in the computer security community as … essential … for successful cybersecurity practice" (Peterson, 2021, para. 1), valuable to aspiring…

To date, most classroom-based research into the learning of a third language (L3) in the US has examined patterns of acquisition among various groups of bilinguals. Situated mainly within the context of "Portuguese for Spanish Speakers" (PSS), studies typically group learners based on the sequence / age of onset of their main background…

Foreign language enrollments in U.S. higher education are falling at an unprecedented rate since the 1980s. This mixed methods case study sought to investigate this phenomenon by examining the motivational and attitudinal profiles of 89 beginning-level learners of foreign languages (Spanish, French, Arabic, Japanese) and the contextual factors…

This case study investigated the effect of reading interventions on special education English language learner (ELL) students. This study implemented teaching intervention strategies to assist the study participants struggling with reading and comprehension skills. I observed these participants using reading interventions. The purpose of this…

As the United States becomes ever more pluralistic and globalization makes the world more closely connected, it has never been more necessary to build an educational system that helps students grow into competent world citizens who can communicate effectively in languages other than English. Despite the growth of foreign language education in the…

At a time of heightened discourse on multilingual education in the United States, there is a need to question what is meant by the term and how its understandings may be perpetuating harmful power asymmetries. Specifically, California has declared its goal of supporting multilingual education from kindergarten through twelfth grade, yet the…

The interaction between root (i.e. non-epistemic) modal verbs and functional heads like tense and aspect has been investigated in a wealth of recent literature, particularly in the context of counterfactual conditionals (Iatridou, 2000; Arregui, 2009; a.o.) and actuality entailments (Bhatt, 1999; Hacquard, 2006). In this work, I continue this…

Discourse markers (DMs) are linguistic forms characterized by their use as conversation organizers or pause fillers (Fox Tree, 2010). Although used frequently in both speech and writing, DMs are not often taught in L2 classrooms, despite incorrect usage causing potential misunderstandings (Polat, 2011). Additionally, L2 learners have been observed…

This dissertation investigates language-specific acoustic and aerodynamic phenomena in language contact situations. Whereas most work on second language and bilingual phonology has focused on individual consonants and vowels, this project examines patterns of coarticulation in the two languages of Spanish-English and French-English bilingual…

Do assimilationist restrictions on a minority language lead to greater national unity or a more rebellious minority population? Under what conditions might short-term backlash to language assimilation evolve into greater national unity in the long term? While much of the literature on ethnic politics implicitly treats language simply as an…

The dominant discourse on midwifery has been characterized by myths that have been constructed and perpetuated through oral and written discourse. The purpose of this research is to engage in a critical analysis of that discourse, with special focus on Hispanophone, Anglophone, and Francophone contexts in the Caribbean from colonial times to the…

International Baccalaureate (IB) is an organization originally developed in 1968 to provide a high-quality, consistent curriculum across international schools. In the intervening years, it has grown to have a broader reach and impact, offering four curricular programs that serve over one million students among 4500 schools within six continents.…

This is a longitudinal case study of two groups of students (24 students in total) from the Foreign Languages Department of the University of Puerto Rico-Rio Piedras. This research deals with the acquisition of the French adverbial pronouns "en" and "y" through two different teaching approaches, the implicit-inductive teaching…