IULC Indiana University Linguistics Club

Second language fluency and cognition: The study of Spanish second language development in an overseas immersion program and an at-home foreign language classroom

Time: 09:35am - 10:35am 

Place: Ballantine Hall 004

Lorenzo Garcia-Amaya

This dissertation investigates the development of oral fluency and L2-specific measures of cognitive abilities for two groups of L2 learners of Spanish (L1 English) in two different learning contexts: a 7-week overseas intensive immersion program (IM) in León, Spain and a 15-week domestic foreign language classroom in an at-home (AH) context at a large Midwestern institution in the United States. In total, 56 native speakers of English participated in the study – 27 in the IM program and 29 in the AH program. All learners performed a video-retell oral production task in addition to a detailed language contact profile and a proficiency test, and IM learners performed three cognitive tasks designed to elicit L2-specific measures of lexical access, lexical retrieval, and attention control. Data collection was longitudinal for both learner groups. Overall, the findings show significantly greater fluency gains for IM learners over AH learners, which can be attributed to the significantly greater amount of exposure of IM learners to the L2, as indicated in the language contact profile. In terms of cognitive tasks, IM learners show significantly faster Spanish lexical access over time, but significantly slower English lexical access over time. However, no significant longitudinal differences were seen for IM learners regarding lexical retrieval in Spanish (which requires articulation and morphophonological and phonetic encoding in addition to lexical access). The results have implications for models of speech production and processing and their applications to L2 acquisition; they also prove the methodological importance of collecting data in situ instead of after learners’ return to their country of origin. Finally, this dissertation is designed to account for the role of context of learning in second language acquisition.

In category: Second language acquisition

On the Compatibility between SLA Corpus and Variationist Research

Time: 02:30pm - 03:30pm 

Place: IMU State Room East

Joseph Collentine

On the Compatibility between SLA Corpus and Variationist Research

In category: Second language acquisition

Analyzing YouTube comments

Time: 11:00am - 12:00pm 

Place: Memorial Hall (MM) 401

Shahab Khan, Markus Dickinson, and Sandra Kuebler

We have started working on automatically performing a linguistic analysis of comments on YouTube, with the aim of eventually classifying videos. We will report some early work on normalizing the text and attempts at parse revision.

In category: Computational linguistics

L643 (Advanced Syntax) student presentations, Day 1

Time: 11:15am - 12:05pm 

Place: Ballantine Hall 147

Everyone is invited. If possible, please notify Dr. Yoshihisa Kitagawa beforehand so that your handout can be prepared.

11:15-11:40
Dative Alternation in Mandarin and Part-of-speech Assignment for gei
Yunwen Su

11:40-12:05
Analysis of Adjective Word Order in Spanish
Joe Ducey

In category: Morphosyntax and semantics

Individual Differences in Second Language Acquisition Final Project Colloquium

Time: 04:00pm - 07:15pm 

Place: Sycamore 200

4:00 - 4:20 pm
Investigating instructor stated beliefs about pronunciation instruction
Lisa Baldwin & Avizia Y. Long

4:25-4:45 pm
Individual differences and subject pronoun variation in L2 Spanish
Bret Linford

4:50-5:10 pm
Instructors’ linguistic knowledge when teaching Spanish as a foreign language
Rosa M. Piqueres Gilabert & Rocío Martínez Galiano

5:15-5:35 pm
Analysis of L2 Spanish learners’ self-reported anxiety, willingness to communicate, and motivation
Patrick Moore

5:40-6:00 pm
Comparing physiological and questionnaire data of anxiety in the foreign language classroom
Sophia Rammell

6:00 - 6:20 pm
Motivation in heritage learners of Spanish
Beth Herring

6:25-6:45 pm
The study abroad experience and learner motivation
Melissa Whatley

6:50-7:10 pm
The interaction between explicit L2 phonological instruction and learning style and their effects on the improvement of L2 speech perception
Rob Bedinghaus

In category: Second language acquisition

Studies in the History of the English Language / Germanic Linguistics Annual Conference

Time: 09:00am - 10:30am 

Place: Oak, Maple, and Walnut Rooms (Indiana Memorial Union)

http://www.indiana.edu/~glacshel/program.php

In category: Unclassified

Studies in the History of the English Language / Germanic Linguistics Annual Conference

Time: 11:00am - 12:30pm 

Place: Oak, Maple, and Walnut Rooms (Indiana Memorial Union)

http://www.indiana.edu/~glacshel/program.php

In category: Unclassified

L643 (Advanced Syntax) student presentations, Day 2 (Serbo-Croatian Day)

Time: 11:15am - 12:30pm 

Place: Ballantine Hall 147

Everyone is invited. If possible, please notify Dr. Yoshihisa Kitagawa beforehand so that your handout can be prepared.

11:15-11:40
Sentential Negation in Serbo-Croatian and Czech
Muamera Begovic

11:40-12:05
Agreement Patterns in Italian and Macedonian
Melissa Witcombe

12:05-12:30
Control in Serbian Subjunctive Complements
Marija Jankovic

In category: Morphosyntax and semantics

A Grammar of Hidatsa

Time: 12:00pm - 01:00pm 

Place: Distinguished Alumni Room, IMU

Dissertation defense of Indrek Park

This dissertation describes the grammar of Hidatsa, a Siouan language spoken by about 100 people living on Fort Berthold Indian Reservation in North Dakota. The dissertation follows a traditional descriptive form used in documenting undescribed languages, proceeding from phonology to morphology to sentence structure. The grammar is presented within the framework of Dixon's (1997) Basic Linguistic Theory.

In most respects, Hidatsa is a typical Siouan language. The Siouan characteristics include a limited phoneme inventory, split-intransitivity and the encoding of participant information on the verb, extensive deverbal nominalization and compounding, an elaborate set of modal and aspectual suffixes and clitics, two types of possession (alienable and inalienable), motion and posture verbs, etc.

However, Hidatsa has also developed various idiosyncratic properties, the unique combination of which sets it apart from other related languages. The most important hitherto undescribed traits include, but are not limited to, the pitch-accent system and ergative case marking on independent noun phrases. There is also an elaborate set of utterance-final obligatory modal particles that has been cited widely yet analyzed erroneously in theoretical linguistic works.

All the linguistic data on which the dissertation is based were collected directly from the speakers of Hidatsa on Fort Berthold Indian Reservation. The grammar includes descriptions of all attested derivational and inflectional morphemes and is illustrated with numerous examples and paradigms.

The grammar of Hidatsa sheds light on an inadequately described member of the Siouan language family. It resolves various misconceptions about the structure of Hidatsa that have affected the development of linguistic theory and offers new insights into the typology of languages.

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All faculty and graduate students are encouraged to attend. As a courtesy, if you are planning on attending, please send an e-mail to the chair of the dissertation committee, Robert Botne to let him know you plan to be there.

A reception will be held immediately following in Ballantine Hall 004.

In category: Unclassified

Studies in the History of the English Language / Germanic Linguistics Annual Conference

Time: 02:00pm - 03:30pm 

Place: Oak, Maple, and Walnut Rooms (Indiana Memorial Union)

http://www.indiana.edu/~glacshel/program.php

In category: Unclassified

Studies in the History of the English Language / Germanic Linguistics Annual Conference

Time: 04:00pm - 05:30pm 

Place: Oak, Maple, and Walnut Rooms (Indiana Memorial Union)

http://www.indiana.edu/~glacshel/program.php

In category: Unclassified

Lexical Diffusion and Grammar

Time: 05:30pm - 06:30pm 

Place: Frangipani Room (Indiana Memorial Union)

Marc van Oostendorp

Plenary lecture for Studies in the History of the English Language / Germanic Linguistics Annual Conference
http://www.indiana.edu/~glacshel/featured_speakers.php

In category: Sociolinguistics and pragmatics

Studies in the History of the English Language / Germanic Linguistics Annual Conference

Time: 09:00am - 10:30am 

Place: Oak, Maple, and Walnut Rooms (Indiana Memorial Union)

http://www.indiana.edu/~glacshel/program.php

In category: Unclassified

Studies in the History of the English Language / Germanic Linguistics Annual Conference

Time: 11:00am - 12:30pm 

Place: Oak, Maple, and Walnut Rooms (Indiana Memorial Union)

http://www.indiana.edu/~glacshel/program.php

In category: Unclassified

Second language learners' perception of word-final vowels

Time: 01:30pm - 03:00pm 

Place: PSY 128 (conference room)

Sophia Rammell

For learners of Spanish, word-final vowel perception is important to indicate subject and mood of the verb. Specifically, the word-final vowel marks the subjunctive mood, a mood distinction which differs from learners’ native language of English. Learners’ perception of the subjunctive in written input as well as their oral production have been widely studied in second language literature, but perception studies using spoken input from native speakers are lacking. The proposed study will measure accuracy in perception of word-final vowels using three tasks of varying difficulty: a paragraph completion task, a sentence completion task, and a syllable completion task. Learners will hear the stimuli in both noise and quiet conditions. The study will investigate whether the task’s cognitive load affects perception in word-final vowels and if learners differ in accuracy by mood, final vowel, or noise condition. The proposed investigation will fill in gaps in second language acquisition literature about the perception of the subjunctive mood by learners, and it will also incorporate effects of background noise in order to show real-world applications to perception of word-final vowels.

In category: Second language acquisition

Studies in the History of the English Language / Germanic Linguistics Annual Conference

Time: 02:00pm - 03:30pm 

Place: Oak, Maple, and Walnut Rooms (Indiana Memorial Union)

http://www.indiana.edu/~glacshel/program.php

In category: Unclassified

Studies in the History of the English Language / Germanic Linguistics Annual Conference

Time: 04:00pm - 05:30pm 

Place: Oak, Maple, and Walnut Rooms (Indiana Memorial Union)

http://www.indiana.edu/~glacshel/program.php

In category: Unclassified

Ambisyllabicity

Time: 05:30pm - 06:30pm 

Place: Frangipani Room (Indiana Memorial Union)

Donka Minkova

Plenary lecture for Studies in the History of the English Language / Germanic Linguistics Annual Conference
http://www.indiana.edu/~glacshel/ featured_speakers.php

In category: Phonetics and phonology

Studies in the History of the English Language / Germanic Linguistics Annual Conference

Time: 09:00am - 10:30am 

Place: Oak, Maple, and Walnut Rooms (Indiana Memorial Union)

http://www.indiana.edu/~glacshel/program.php

In category: Unclassified

Studies in the History of the English Language / Germanic Linguistics Annual Conference

Time: 11:00am - 12:30pm 

Place: Oak, Maple, and Walnut Rooms (Indiana Memorial Union)

http://www.indiana.edu/~glacshel/program.php

In category: Unclassified

Studies in the History of the English Language / Germanic Linguistics Annual Conference

Time: 02:00pm - 03:30pm 

Place: Oak, Maple, and Walnut Rooms (Indiana Memorial Union)

http://www.indiana.edu/~glacshel/program.php

In category: Unclassified

Complex Systems and the History of the English Language

Time: 04:00pm - 05:00pm 

Place: Frangipani Room (Indiana Memorial Union)

Bill Kretzschmar

Plenary lecture for Studies in the History of the English Language / Germanic Linguistics Annual Conference
http://www.indiana.edu/~glacshel/ featured_speakers.php

In category: Sociolinguistics and pragmatics