Linguistics

​Why should we care about the Millennial generation?
Managers, the military, and religious leaders are all asking themselves how they can adapt to this generation who represent the largest work force. So far no one has been asking the Millennials how they see things.
New Children of the Light can serve as a window into the lives and minds of young people coming of age in the 21st century. 
​I have simply asked 16 young Quakers to tell us who they are and who they want to become.

Iraqi Arabic is the language that has an influence on other languages around it such as Kudish especially Sorani dialect. The purpose of this study is to document the loanwords that are borrowed by Sorani Kurdish. The researcher met two graduate students at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale (SIUC) whose native language is Sorani Kurdish. Then he let them to elicit the Arabic words that are used in their native language. The findings reveal that there are a lot of Arabic loanwords that are used in the casual speech of Sorani Kurdish. Many factors have led to Sorani Kurdish to borrow loanwords; these factors are prestige which relates to religion, politics, and the need to borrow because of the lack of the lexical items in Sorani Kurdish.

Despite the growing use of media in the classroom, the effects of using of audio versus video in pronunciation teaching has been largely ignored. To analyze the impact of the use of audio or video training on aural discrimination of vowels, 61 participants (all students at a large American university) took a pre-test followed by two training sessions on a vowel contrast (/i/-/I/). One group received audio training and the other group received video training. The groups then took a post-test and delayed post-test to determine the impact of the training. Students' reactions to the two training types were also obtained through a questionnaire. Results showed that while both groups improved significantly from the pre-test to both post-tests, there was no statistically significant difference between the video and audio groups. Results show that reactions were more favorable to the video training.

Despite ESL students frequently reporting a need or desire to work on their pronunciation in English, pronunciation is often downgraded as a teaching goal and often pushed aside in favor of other skills (Kelly, 1969; Lang, Wang, Shen, & Wang, 2012). Students that want to practice outside of class are likely to feel at a loss because they struggle to monitor their own speech and may not be able to get the feedback necessary to make improvements to their pronunciation. Students need skills, strategies, and resources that will allow them to work on their pronunciation on their own, less reliant on a teacher or school for pronunciation training. In effect, students need to learn to become autonomous learners of pronunciation. Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) has great potential as a technology to help students get feedback on their pronunciation, allowing them to be more autonomous pronunciation learners. This study seeks to examine the effect of ASR on students’ autonomous learning beliefs and behaviors.

Three groups, a control group (TRAD, n=15) which received traditional face-to-face (F2F) instruction, an experimental group (STRAT, n=17) which received traditional F2F instructions, but also minimal strategy training in ASR, and a second experimental group (HYBRID, n=16) which received hybrid instruction (half F2F with minimal strategy training and half working with ASR) were given a three-week pronunciation workshop on consonants and vowels of English known to be problematic for ESL students. Changes in beliefs of autonomy were measured through pre- and post-workshop surveys with Likert scale items as well as semi- structured interviews. Autonomous learning behaviors were monitored through self-reports of behavior during the course with language learning logs and after the course with a delayed post- workshop survey. Students explained choices to continue or stop working with ASR during a focus group at the end of the study.

Results showed that STRAT and HYBRID both significantly increased their beliefs of autonomy from the pre- to post-workshop survey (for STRAT p=.006 and for HYBRID p=.013), while TRAD did not (p=.727). Students primarily pointed to ASR as the reason that they felt more capable of practicing their pronunciation on their own, stating that the ASR was useful for feedback because they could not hear their own errors when speaking. HYBRID reported significantly more time spent on autonomous pronunciation learning than STRAT and TRAD after the pronunciation workshop (p=.011). HYBRID also reported significantly more use of dictation software for pronunciation practice after the workshop than STRAT (p=.041).

Jennifer Jenkins, in numerous publications (e.g., 2000; 2002; 2006), has proposed a syllabus for teaching English pronunciation that takes into consideration the new role of English as an International Language (EIL), or English as a Lingua Franca (ELF). In these publications, she proposes a “lingua franca core” in which some pronunciation features are considered core, or necessary for intelligibility, and some features are considered non-core, or not necessary for intelligibility. She proposes that word stress not be considered part of the core for three reasons: because word stress does not pose intelligibility issues, because word stress is too complex to be teachable, and because word stress patterns are variable among Native Speaker (NS) dialects of English. This paper will argue from other research that each of these issues may be seen as an argument for rather than against word stress being considered a core feature, thus suggesting a more important role for word stress in ELF.

This paper examines preliminary results on a research study about Spanglish in the Rio Grande Valley (RGV) in South Texas, an area of rich linguistic diversity. Little research has been conducted about perceptions of Spanglish in this area and research is needed to understand the societal role of Spanglish for this predominantly Hispanic area.

Full reference information:
McCrocklin, S. & Tiburcio, A. (2016). Spanglish in the Rio Grande Valley of South Texas. In J. Berry (Ed.). Special Events Monograph of the NAAAS and Affiliates: Proceedings from the International Research Forum of the National Association of Hispanic and Latino Studies (pp. 308-328). South Padre Island, TX: University of Texas- Rio Grande Valley.

This paper presentation examines beliefs among parents about Spanglish in the Rio Grande Valley (RGV) in South Texas, an area of rich linguistic diversity. Little research has been conducted about perceptions of Spanglish and what role it should have for children in this area, and research is needed to understand the societal role of Spanglish for this predominantly Hispanic area.
    Spanglish is used as a common way to refer to the linguistic phenomena of code-switching between English and Spanish (Antonio Martinez, 2010; Gardner-Chloros, 2009). Beyond just the linguistic features, Rell and Rothman (2007) described the symbolic meaning of Spanglish as a way for second-generation Mexican-Americans who “live between two cultures” (p. 245), to construct and reflect their identity. Research has shown that children that are raised with two languages are likely to code-switch from an early age (Cantone, 2007). Their mixing of languages is likely to be less structured and rule-governed that in adults, however (Cantone, 2007). Some children may not even be aware of when or if they are code-switching (Antonio Martinez, 2014).
    While linguistic research in the RGV has examined Spanish language use and maintenance (Amastae, 1982; Anderson-Mejías, 2005), more research is needed on Spanglish use in the Rio Grande Valley of Lower South Texas. In particular, how do bilingual parents in the Rio Grande Valley of South Texas perceive the role of Spanglish for their children? In what ways do they perceive it as beneficial? What methods or actions do parents use (or plan to use) to ensure that their children use or avoid Spanglish?
    Spanish-English bilinguals that lived in the Rio Grande Valley of South Texas were recruited to take an online survey. This analysis focused on participants who also reported having children (n=61). Participants ranged in age from 21-63 and had achieved varying levels of education. The survey included 44 questions. Questions, which utilized multiple question formats (open text boxes, multiple choice, Likert scale), determined demographic information, perceptions of Spanglish, and desired role of Spanglish in the household.
    Most of the participants agreed or strongly agreed that they want their children to be bilingual (95%).  Eighty-five percent of participants agreed with the statement that they use or plan to use English and Spanish at home. Around half (45%) also reported that they want to enroll them in a bilingual program. There is noticeably less support for Spanglish, however. Parents were generally split on whether they wanted their children to speak Spanglish. However, 22% thought that Spanglish doesn’t have any benefit for their children. The most recurrent concern about children using Spanglish is that it is not the proper way to speak English or Spanish. Further, 75% didn’t want Spanglish to be taught at school while 49% of the participants intended to correct their children when they speak Spanglish at home. The majority of participants believed that their children will not be able to succeed if they speak Spanglish. For 32% of the parents, Spanglish has no relevance in the United States or its future.  Around a third of the parents commented that the benefits of Spanglish for their children are the increased ability to communicate with the community or establish their own identity. For many of these parents, 26% of participants, Spanglish has a future and they believe that it should be taught as it is a cultural issue.

Despite growing evidence that ASR-dictation practice provides benefits for L2 pronunciation learners (Liakin, Cardoso, & Liakina, 2014; McCrocklin, 2019; Mroz, 2018, Wallace, 2016), there is little research into the ways students engage in ASR-dictation practice. This study examines learners' perceptions of the ASR-generated transcript as feedback and strategy use during practice. Participants (N = 15) dictated 60 sentences to Google Voice Typing in Drive while being audio recorded. Following a mis-transcription, participants thought-aloud, discussing their interpretation of the transcript, utilized strategies and resources, and tried the sentence again with Google. Data analysis included qualitative analysis of think-aloud comments and quantitative analysis of both strategies used and improvement in dictation accuracy for subsequent attempts. Results showed that participants used the transcript to identify individual words with errors, but also hypothesized about segmentals and articulatory features causing errors. The most frequent strategy to improve production was covert rehearsal of target words, followed by listening to dictionary recordings of targets. Possibly novel pronunciation learning strategies were also documented, however. Participants were able to improve the accuracy of the transcript in subsequent attempts, earning a perfect transcription by the third attempt in the majority of cases (91%).

Research has shown that language teachers' beliefs are often difficult to change through education. Experiential learning may help, but more research is needed to understand how experiential approaches shape perceptions. This study compares two approaches, conversation partners (CONV) and structured language learning experiences (SLLE), integrated into a course in language acquisition. Participants (n = 32) completed a pre-and post-questionnaire that included: demographic questions, Likert scales on beliefs, ranking of second language acquisition (SLA) factors, and open-ended questions. Results showed differences from pre-to post-questionnaire for both groups for four Likert scale items (e.g., the importance of exact pronunciation) and six language learning factors (e.g., motivation). Further, both groups grew to recognize more factors. Slight differences emerged between groups on two items, the importance of intelligence and dominance in SLA. Qualitative analysis showed that, while CONV reported no changes in beliefs, SLLE reported finding language learning to be more difficult than believed. Further, SLLE wished to have more of the project, while CONV did not.

Research has shown that language teachers’ beliefs are often difficult to change through education. Experiential learning may help, but more research is needed to understand how experiential approaches shape perceptions. This study compares two approaches, conversation partners (CONV) and structured language learning experiences (SLLE), integrated into a course in language acquisition. Participants (n = 32) completed a preand post-questionnaire that included: demographic questions, Likert scales on beliefs, ranking of second language acquisition (SLA) factors, and open-ended questions. Results showed differences from preto post-questionnaire for both groups for four Likert scale items (e.g., the importance of exact pronunciation) and six language learning factors (e.g., motivation). Further, both groups grew to recognize more factors. Slight differences emerged between groups on two items, the importance of intelligence and dominance in SLA. Qualitative analysis showed that, while C...

This article introduces an approach that middle-school teachers can follow to help their students carry out linguistic-based literary analyses. As an example, it draws on Systemic Functional Grammar (SFG) to show how J.K. Rowling used language to characterize Hermione as an intelligent female in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Using a simplified SFG analysis, the authors show how teachers can help students find and use language data that can support their intuition about characters or can uncover other patterns in the text. This type of SFG analysis approach can be particularly useful for English language learners and struggling readers as it provides students with useful tools for text analysis. Disciplines Bilingual, Multilingual, and Multicultural Education | Educational Methods | Language and Literacy Education Comments This article is published as McCrocklin, S., & Slater, T. (2017). A model for teaching literature using systemic functional grammar. Texas Journal of Liter...

Research has shown that language teachers’ beliefs are often difficult to change through education.  Experiential learning may help, but more research is needed to understand how experiential approaches shape perceptions. This study compares two approaches, conversation partners (CONV) and structured language learning experiences (SLLE), integrated into a course in language acquisition. Participants (n = 32) completed a pre- and post-questionnaire that included: demographic questions, Likert scales on beliefs, ranking of second language acquisition (SLA) factors, and open-ended questions. Results showed differences from pre- to post-questionnaire for both groups for four Likert scale items (e.g., the importance of exact pronunciation) and six language learning factors (e.g., motivation). Further, both groups grew to recognize more factors. Slight differences emerged between groups on two items, the importance of intelligence and dominance in SLA. Qualitative analysis showed that, wh...

Despite the growing use of media in the classroom, the effects of using of audio versus video in pronunciation teaching has been largely ignored. To analyze the impact of the use of audio or video training on aural discrimination of vowels, 61 participants (all students at a large American university) took a pre-‐test followed by two training sessions on a vowel contrast (/i/-‐/ɪ/). One group received audio training and the other group received video training. The groups then took a post-‐test and delayed post-‐test to determine the impact of the training. Students’ reactions to the two training types were also obtained through a questionnaire. Results showed that while both groups improved significantly from the pre-‐test to both post-‐tests, there was no statistically significant difference between the video and audio groups. Results show that reactions were more favorable to the video training.

As students' academic language ability grows, they are expected to move from summarizing or retelling works of literature to studying texts critically. With this comes the demand for more developed literacy skills or, as those working from a systemic functional linguistic perspective would argue, an increase in the students' resources for making meaning in an ever-widening variety of contexts (Derewianka, 2001). English language arts (ELA) teachers in the United States today are challenged with the task of developing this literacy to meet Common Core State Standards (National Governors Association Center for Best Practices and Council of Chief State School Officers, 2010). Specific standards for literacy development include teaching students to understand how to uncover what is important in a text and to describe and argue the explicit evidence and inferences that support their opinions as well as to analyze the connection between an author's word choice and the meaning of the text. Throughout the schooling years, teachers are required by the Common Core to move students from enjoying literature in the younger grades to studying literature from middle school onwards, and in doing so teachers must aim to develop students' ability to argue and support ideas and opinions in literature classrooms as well as develop literacy skills across all areas of the curriculum. In other words, ELA teachers have the challenging task of helping students engage in literature while also developing literacy skills for use across the curriculum. This can be an especially ambitious task when their students are also learning the English language. Disciplines Educational Assessment, Evaluation, and Research | Language and Literacy Education Comments This is a manuscript of a chapter published as Slater, T., & McCrocklin, S. (2016). Learning to use simplified systemic functional grammar to teach literary analysis. In L.C. de Oliveira & M. Shoffner (Eds.), ELA teachers and ELL students: Preparing English language arts teachers to teach English language learners. London, UK: