Browsing by Subject "Spanish"

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    Acquiring Variable L2 Spanish Intonation in a Study Abroad Context
    (2013-06) Trimble, John
    This dissertation identifies and describes some of the major ways second language (L2) Spanish intonation changes over time in a study abroad context. It focuses on the intonation of two specific utterance types: broad focus declaratives and absolute interrogatives. Additionally, it explores a few important factors in how L2 intonation changes over time, namely: intonational characteristics of learners' first and second languages, task style/formality, and interaction with native Spanish speakers. The methodology employed combines traditional methodological approaches of intonational phonology and second language acquisition to analyze the data of nine English speaking learners of L2 Spanish who spent a semester in the Andes of Venezuela, a region known for its distinct absolute interrogative intonation. The results indicated that the L2 Spanish intonation of most learners was considerably different at the end of the semester abroad. Seven of nine learners adopted a new most frequent intonational pattern for broad focus declaratives. One learner also adopted a new preferred contour for absolute interrogatives. The learners were also dramatically more consistent in their use of particular patterns for each of the two utterance types investigated. A few learners showed evidence of an expanded pitch range. These changes resulted in an interlanguage intonation that was remarkably more like the target language and less like the learners' first language. Additionally, task formality or style was shown to be a significant variable related to variation in L2 Spanish intonation. At the end of the semester, the learners used the target dialect specific absolute interrogative pattern significantly more often in the informal task than they did in the formal one. Finally, native speaker interaction was another variable shown to have a significant effect on the development of target dialect intonational features. The proportion of time the learners reported speaking Spanish and English significantly interacted with change in dialect specific pattern use over time. Moreover, the three learners who showed the most L2 intonational development expressed what appear to be signs of high levels of social integration into the target language community.
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    The acquisition of Spanish vowels by native English-Speaking students in Spanish immersion programs.
    (2010-06) Menke, Mandy R.
    Native-like pronunciation is necessary for membership into some social groups and to be considered a legitimate speaker of a language. Language immersion education aims to develop bilingual individuals, able to participate in multiple global communities, and while the lexical, syntactic, and sociolinguistic development of immersion learners is well documented, their phonological skills are not. This study set out to address this gap by investigating immersion learners' pronunciation of Spanish vowels, a sound class known to lead to a foreign accent, comparing the vowel productions of native English-speaking learners in one-way (foreign language) immersion and two-way (bilingual) immersion programs to those of their native Spanish-speaking peers and their teachers. A total of 85 immersion students participated in this study. A cross-sectional sample of students from each of the program/language groups was taken; students from each of four grade levels (first, third, fifth, and seventh) participated. Students completed an animal picture sorting task in pairs during which their speech was audio and video recorded. Up to twenty tokens of each of the five Spanish vowels, for a possible total of 100 tokens per subject, were isolated and examined via spectrographic analysis in order to measure first and second formant values. The tokens examined for each vowel were balanced for their occurrence in stressed and unstressed syllables. Students also completed a written questionnaire in order to gather data about extralinguistic factors (i.e., attitudes and motivation) that have been shown to influence pronunciation. The findings indicate that the vowel productions of immersion learners differ from those of native Spanish-speaking peers. In general, the vowel space of the learner groups is larger than that of the native speaker peer group. Over time, the number of differences between one-way NES learners and native speakers increase while the number of differences between two-way NES learners and native speakers decrease. This finding suggests that there may be an effect of program model; however, differences in the ethnic background and exposure to Spanish outside of school between the two learner groups may also play a role and thus make it difficult to attribute differences solely to the effect of program model. Differences in attitude between the groups do not reach statistical significance and do not correlate with more native-like vowel pronunciations.
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    Assessment of Cleft Palate Articulation and Resonance in Familiar and Unfamiliar Languages: English, Spanish, and Hmong
    (2008-10) Cordero, Kelly Nett
    Linguistic diversity is increasing in the patients seen for cleft palate treatment and there are not enough providers who speak multiple languages. There are no published studies which directly investigate the ability to assess cleft palate articulation and resonance in a language not spoken by the examiner. The aim of this study was to determine whether listeners could make accurate judgments about articulation and resonance in languages they do not speak and to determine how experience level and familiarity with a language affect these ratings. Binary (presence/absence) and visual analog scale (VAS) judgments were obtained for hypernasality, misarticulations, speech acceptability, and overall velopharyngeal dysfunction (VPD) of English, Spanish, and Hmong samples from naïve listeners, generalist speech-language pathologists (SLPs), and specialist SLPs. The speech samples were obtained from 22 speakers, nine with a history of VPD and 13 controls. The ratings were completed by 24 native English listeners, eight at each level of experience (naïve, generalist SLP, specialist SLP). Overall, the listeners were more accurate for determining the presence/absence of misarticulations, speech acceptability, and VPD in English compared to Hmong. Hypernasality and VPD ratings in English were more accurate than in Spanish and ratings of misarticulations were more accurate in Spanish than Hmong. VAS ratings of hypernasality were highly correlated with the nasalance values from oral phoneme reading passages. Statistically significant correlations were present for overall and group ratings in English. Less consistent correlations were observed in Spanish and no significant correlations were present in Hmong. Overall, listeners judged English ratings to be easier to make, and were made with more confidence, compared to Hmong. Overall, the SLP specialists tended to find the ratings in all languages easier to make and were more confident than naïve listeners. Many of the expected differences for ratings based on listener experience and language familiarity were observed. There were advantages for all listener groups in English when compared to Hmong. These differences were inconsistent and weaker when Spanish was compared to English. The experience advantage for listeners was most apparent in English and Hmong.
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    Assessment of cleft palate articulation and resonance in familiar and unfamiliar languages: English, Spanish, and Hmong.
    (2008-10) Cordero, Kelly Nett
    Linguistic diversity is increasing in the patients seen for cleft palate treatment and there are not enough providers who speak multiple languages. There are no published studies which directly investigate the ability to assess cleft palate articulation and resonance in a language not spoken by the examiner. The aim of this study was to determine whether listeners could make accurate judgments about articulation and resonance in languages they do not speak and to determine how experience level and familiarity with a language affect these ratings. Binary (presence/absence) and visual analog scale (VAS) judgments were obtained for hypernasality, misarticulations, speech acceptability, and overall velopharyngeal dysfunction (VPD) of English, Spanish, and Hmong samples from naïve listeners, generalist speech-language pathologists (SLPs), and specialist SLPs. The speech samples were obtained from 22 speakers, nine with a history of VPD and 13 controls. The ratings were completed by 24 native English listeners, eight at each level of experience (naïve, generalist SLP, specialist SLP). Overall, the listeners were more accurate for determining the presence/absence of misarticulations, speech acceptability, and VPD in English compared to Hmong. Hypernasality and VPD ratings in English were more accurate than in Spanish and ratings of misarticulations were more accurate in Spanish than Hmong. VAS ratings of hypernasality were highly correlated with the nasalance values from oral phoneme reading passages. Statistically significant correlations were present for overall and group ratings in English. Less consistent correlations were observed in Spanish and no significant correlations were present in Hmong. Overall, listeners judged English ratings to be easier to make, and were made with more confidence, compared to Hmong. In addition, the SLP specialists tended to find the ratings in all languages easier to make and were more confident than naïve listeners. Many of the expected differences for ratings based on listener experience and language familiarity were observed. There were advantages for all listener groups in English when compared to Hmong. These differences were inconsistent and weaker when Spanish was compared to English. The experience advantage for listeners was most apparent in English and Hmong.
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    Boletín del Programa Latino de Extensión para la Educación Financiera, 2015, Vol 9, Número 3
    (University of Minnesota Extension, Center for Family Development, 2015-05) Lamas, Jose; Meraz, Antonio A; Baack, A; Mendoza, Francisca; Katras, Mary Jo
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    Boletín del Programa Latino de Extensión para la Educación Financiera, 2015, Vol 9, Número 4
    (University of Minnesota Extension, Center for Family Development, 2015-07) Mendoza, Francisca; Alba Meraz, Antonio; Lamas, José; Botzek-Linn, Deb
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    Boletín del Programa Latino de Extensión para la Educación Financiera, 2015, Vol 9, Número 5
    (University of Minnesota Extension, Center for Family Development, 2015-09) Alba Meraz, Antonio; Hendrickson, Lori; Burk, Gabriela; Lamas, José
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    Boletín del Programa Latino de Extensión para la Educación Financiera, 2015, Vol 9, Número 6
    (University of Minnesota Extension, Center for Family Development, 2015-11) Burk, Gabriela; Lamas, José; Mendoza, Francisca M; Olson, Kathleen A; Meraz, Antonio A
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    Boletín del Programa Latino de Extensión para la Educación Financiera, 2016, Vol 10, Número 1
    (University of Minnesota Extension, Center for Family Development, 2016-01) Johnson, Betsy; Lamas, José; Mendoza, Francisca M; Meraz, Antonio A
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    Boletín del Programa Latino de Extensión para la Educación Financiera, 2016, Vol 10, Número 2
    (University of Minnesota Extension, Center for Family Development, 2016-03) Burk, Gabriela; Putz, Taylor; Katras, Mary Jo; Lamas, José; Mendoza, Francisca M; Butler, Sarah L
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    Boletín del Programa Latino de Extensión para la Educación Financiera, 2016, Vol 10, Número 3
    (University of Minnesota Extension, Center for Family Development, 2016-05) Alvarez de Davila, Silvia; Nunez Garcia, Milena; Meraz, Antonio A; Lamas, José
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    Contacto De Lenguas E Identidad Regional: La Variación De Las Vocales Medias En El Castellano De Galicia
    (2020-06) de la Fuente Iglesias, Monica
    This dissertation examines the variety of Spanish spoken in Galicia (northwestern Spain), which has been in close contact with Galician, the regional language, since the 13th century. Specifically, it focuses on the variation of the mid vowels /e, o/ in Spanish, as both languages differ in their vowel system: Galician has four mid vowels (/e, ɛ, o, ɔ/), whereas Spanish has only two (/e, o/). Using a variationist approach, this dissertation quantitatively investigates the use and distribution of Galician and Spanish mid vowels and the effect of linguistic and social factors. The data (6,771 vowels) come from individual sociolinguistic interviews with 64 participants from a semi-urban community. The results show that overall the use of Galician mid vowels in stressed and unstressed position in Spanish is more likely in the speech of Galician-dominant speakers, female speakers, speakers who have completed primary and secondary education, and speakers who work in manufacturing. These results are interpreted using Flege’s Speech Learning Model and by assuming a linguistic repertoires perspective that connects variation to social-indexical meaning. Differences were found between the stressed and unstressed vowel system that could be due to a language change. Using a sociophonetic perception approach, this dissertation also investigates the social meanings associated with the production of Galician or Spanish mid vowels in Galician Spanish. The results demonstrate that speakers who use Galician vowel variants in Spanish are perceived as having less leadership and charisma, more positive social traits, lower education, and are more likely to have Galician as a habitual language, a rural origin, a different way of speaking than participants, and as having learned Spanish at school than those who use Spanish vowel variants. These findings align with some correlations that were found to be statistically significant in the quantitative analysis of production. They also demonstrate that speakers are highly attuned to the social meaning conveyed through the phonetic variation of the Galician mid vowels and that they employ the Galician or Spanish features to signal their identity and to socially evaluate and position other speakers.
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    The Development of Castilian Dialectal Features During a Semester Abroad in Toledo, Spain
    (2013-05) George, Angela
    While students typically are able to increase their proficiency level and increase their use of categorical features while studying abroad, less is known about the development, or lack thereof, over time of variable features. The current study examines the development of three geographically variant features, specific to the dialect of North-Central Castilian Spanish: the informal second person plural form vosotros, the interdental fricative [θ], and the uvular fricative [χ] in 25 adult speakers of English learning Spanish. During a 13-week semester abroad in Central Spain, the participants--all undergraduate majors or minors of Spanish--completed four tasks at the beginning, middle, and end of the semester to elicit the 3 dialectal features. In addition, the learners completed questionnaires about their background, language contact, and attitudes toward Castilian Spanish. To expand on the answers in the questionnaire, the participants completed a semi-structured interview with the researcher. The results showed a significant increase from the beginning to the middle of the semester in the production of vosotros (9% to 18%) and [χ] (9% to 13%), but no significant change from the middle to the end of the semester. On the other hand, the use of [θ] remained about the same throughout the semester, around 7%. The social factors correlated with the increased use of the features were stronger motivation to learn Spanish, less contact with English and fewer weekend trips, more dialectal awareness, and a stronger desire to speak Castilian Spanish. This study adds to the growing amount of research on the acquisition of variable features by learners of Spanish in a study abroad environment. It also examines social and linguistic factors correlated with the use of salient dialectal features. It fills a gap in previous research by examining the relationship between social factors, such as language attitudes, and the production of variable features, as previously noted by Geeslin (2011). Finally, it also provides insight into the acquisition of a dialect in one's second language by study abroad learners.
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    A dynamic approach to social interaction: Synthetic immersive environments & Spanish pragmatics.
    (2008-05) Sykes, Julie M.
    In an effort to better understand how innovative technologies can be used to enhance second language acquisition, this study investigates the role that online immersive spaces, specifically, synthetic immersive environments (SIEs), can play in enhancing advanced language learners' pragmatic performance (i.e., their ability to perform requests and apologies in Spanish). SIEs are engineered spaces which integrate the many benefits of online gaming to produce explicitly, educationally-related outcomes in simulated, relevant, interactional contexts. The results of this study address two important components of the use of SIEs for L2 pragmatic acquisition. First, utilizing a synthesis of 120 hours of in-game behavior, survey data, and one-on-one participant interviews, this study analyzed how three potentially beneficial attributes of the SIEs were used and perceived by the participants (i.e., individualized experience, varied participant roles, and "low-risk" practice space). The results demonstrate that in-game behavior can be categorized into four distinct types of individualized experiences. Furthermore, there was not a high level of experimentation with participant roles in this study; however, the data revealed an increased importance placed on experimentation upon completion of the unit. Finally, quest completion was viewed as the primary indicator of success with quest resets carrying a connotation of failure for the majority of the students. In addition, results indicate a marked difference between actual learning outcomes (measured by pre/post DCTs) and perceived outcomes on the part of the learners. In terms of both speech acts, the DCT data revealed little change from pre- to posttest, except in the case of perspective for the apologies scenarios. The perception data exhibited an overall perceived benefit for all eight scenarios surveyed, with statistically significant improvements in the scenarios most closely emulating those that were present in the SIE. Implications for future design, implementation, and research projects are also discussed
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    Frequency and Variation in L2 Spanish Present Tense Indicative Verbal Inflectional Morphology
    (2023) Zilmer, Caleb
    This mixed methods study draws upon theoretical perspectives from usage-based linguistics (UBL) and variationist sociolinguistics to explore four learners’ use of second language (L2) Spanish present tense indicative verbal inflectional morphology (i.e., simple present conjugations). The study compares the frequency and distribution of students’ use of these forms to the frequency and distribution of the same forms in the input they received, both from the teacher and from each other, as well as whether students use the forms variably based on context of subject expression.Data collection took place in a 2nd year high school Spanish foreign language classroom that employed communicative teaching methods. Audio-visual recordings of the interactions of the four focal students and the teacher were transcribed using multimodal conversation analysis conventions. Data were coded for participant, the lexical verb, the particular verb inflection used, the type of accompanying subject expression, and whether the inflection agreed with the subject expression. Analysis consisted of token and type frequency counts, Pearson correlation and chi-square statistics, and person-number agreement between the inflection and the accompanying subject expression. Findings show that all four focal students and the teacher used the third person singular ([3rd-Sing]) inflectional morpheme far more than any other morpheme. In addition, while the teacher’s type and token frequencies appear to be fairly even across inflectional categories, there appears to be greater variation in students’ type and token frequencies, particularly for inflections other than [3rd-Sing]. Type and token frequencies also show that, while focal students used most verbs with only one inflection, they used a few verbs with multiple inflections. Verbs that students used with multiple inflections also appear to be the verbs they used most frequently, and also many of the same verbs that the teacher used most frequently and with multiple inflections. Results of a Pearson correlation statistical analysis show that some focal students’ use correlates with the teacher’s use, and results of a chi-square analysis show that students use inflections variably based on linguistic context of subject expression. The students’ use of some inflection-subject expression pairings appear to have higher person-number agreement than some other inflection-subject expression pairings. These findings suggest that adolescent L2 learners acquire present tense verb forms based largely on frequency in the input. The four focal students appear to have been at different stages in the acquisition of verbal inflections: one student’s use appears to have been largely formulaic in nature; two other students appear to have had some grammatically productive use of inflectional morphology with a handful of verbs; and another student appears to have had grammatically productive use of inflectional morphology more or less as a system across verbs. All four focal students appear to have used present tense inflectional forms variably based on semantic redundancy with subject expression. In more semantically redundant contexts, they appear to have used structural subject expressions—particularly overt subject pronouns (OSPs)—more frequently, and with comparatively low rates of agreement with the verb inflection. In less redundant, null subject contexts, they appear to have used present tense verbal inflectional morphemes with comparatively higher rates of agreement with the apparent subject. Theoretical implications of the study are that cognitive and contextual factors in SLA appear to be deeply intertwined during the acquisition process. Pedagogical implications are that teachers should consider the relative frequency and redundancy of certain forms in the input to inform instructional design.
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    Healthy People in Healthy Homes Final Report 2017
    (2018) Alba Meraz, Antonio; Shanker, Vidhya
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    The Interaction Between Word Order and Verb Type in L2 Spanish and L1 English Sentence Processing
    (2020-07) Simonsen, Russell
    This study of second-language (L2) sentence processing responds to the following two questions: (1) Can L2 learners become nativelike processors?; and (2) Is L2 processing influenced by first-language (L1) processing or knowledge? These questions were addressed by examining L2 Spanish speakers’ and L1 English speakers’ sensitivity to the interaction between word order and verb type in self-paced reading (SPR) tasks. The results of two Spanish SPR tasks revealed that beginner and intermediate L2 learners’ sentence processing and accurate interpretation of sentences were influenced primarily by changes in word order, which is non-nativelike behavior. The processing of advanced L2 learners and native Spanish speakers, however, was affected by the interaction between word order and verb type. Word order as an isolated variable seems to affect sentence processing less as Spanish proficiency increases. An English sentence completion task and an English SPR task demonstrated that there is an interaction between word order and verb type that resembles the one in Spanish. Overall, the results suggest that L2 Spanish learners can perform similar to native speakers when processing sentences with variable word order and verb type. Also, because there is more crosslinguistic similarity between English and Spanish at the intersection of word order and verb type than previously thought, claims that L1 English is a source of negative language transfer or that L1 English knowledge cannot aide in the L2 acquisition of Spanish should be made with more hesitation.
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    Interdental /s/ in Salvadoran Spanish: Finding Linguistic Patterns and Social Meaning
    (2017-01) Iraheta, Ana
    This dissertation provides a description of the internal and external factors that affect the pronunciation of /s/ as interdental [Ɵ] in Salvadoran Spanish as well as its social meaning. Using a variationist and an ethnographic approach, data was collected from 32 participants in a community located in the eastern region of El Salvador. The data was collected and analyzed in order to answer the following research questions: (1) What are the internal linguistic factors that condition the pronunciation of /s/ as interdental? (2) What are the external factors, both social and stylistic, that condition the pronunciation of /s/ as interdental? (3) What social meanings, if any, do speakers associate with the interdental variant of /s/? The first and second questions were answered performing mixed effects models and pairwise comparisons. Results indicate that word/syllable position, following segment, word function and morphological status are linguistic factors that affect the pronunciation of /s/ as [Ɵ]. Specifically, there are more probabilities of observing the interdental in syllable onset position both word medially and word initially. The use of the interdental is also more common when followed by non-high vowels. The interdental rarely occurs in coda position and when it does, the following segment is typically a pause. It is also more likely to occur in content words than in function words almost exclusively with non-morphemic value. The social factors affecting the interdental are occupation and age group. Specifically, [Ɵ] is more likely to be observed in preteenagers and in adults over the age of 55 and less likely to be observed in the speech of professionals and civil servants. It was also found that the interdental is more commonly observed in casual style than in more formal styles. Overall, the interdental appears to be a stable sociolinguistic variable in this community. A qualitative analysis was performed to answer the third research question. It was determined that the interdental is perceived as a stigmatized variant, yet at the same time speakers embrace it as a marker of local identity.
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    The L2 Acquisition of Buenos Aires Spanish Intonation During a Study Abroad Semester
    (2014-05) Thornberry, Philip
    The present longitudinal study describes and categorizes the primary changes in L2 Spanish intonation over time by 11 learners studying abroad in Buenos Aires, Argentina for one academic semester. Via the autosegmental metrical model of analysis, this dissertation classifies intonational contours for absolute interrogatives and declarative statements at the beginning and end of the semester in a variety of speech styles. It also isolates extralinguistic factors, such as attitudes and degree of social interaction, that promote or hinder acquisition of Spanish intonational norms. Results show that learner absolute interrogative intonation is considerably different from that of their native Buenos Aires Spanish-speaking peers. At the beginning of the semester, the learner contour is classified as L*+H L* H%, which is marked by a final rising F0 movement. This contrasts with the native Buenos Aires Spanish preference L+H* L+¡H* L%, which is most notable for a final falling F0 contour. By the end of the semester, 9 of the 11 learners continue to produce the non-native-like rising intonation in all speech contexts. However, two learners--Eve and Samantha--begin to approximate native norms by producing an interrogative contour characterized here as L*+H L*+H L% in all speech contexts. The learner declarative contour changes very little over time, regardless of speech context. It is analyzed as L*+H L* L%. All 11 learners produce this contour at the beginning and end of the semester. However, Eve and Samantha periodically demonstrate a handful of native-like declarative intonational characteristics when speaking in the informal speech contexts, such as the long fall melody (Kaisse, 2001), early prenuclear peak alignment, and low phrase tones. The analysis of extralinguistic factors reveals that the learners developed generally favorable attitudes towards porteños, which might promote acquisition of native intonational norms. However, learner exposure to the target language was limited by sporadic and superficial interaction with native speakers. Eve and Samantha, the learners who evidenced the most change in intonation over time, stood out from the rest of the learners by developing more robust, supportive relationships with native Spanish-speaking contacts.