...critical analysis of the topic in the book “Academic Writing: Making the transition” by Steve Marshall. The book has a number of definitions for the term Bilingual. Edwards (1994), states that virtually all people were bilingual in nature. He stated that anyone who can communicate few words of another language is bilingual. This is to say that for example, if someone went on holiday to another country and could exchange a simple greeting in the foreign language, then he would be considered to be bilingual. The writer of the article states that the definition by Edwards is far from what most people consider to be bilingual because most people define bilingualism as the ability to fluently speak two languages. The problem with the Marshall’s statement is that he has not explained how he found out that most people define Bilingualism to be the ability to speak two languages fluently. He simply assumes this without giving conclusive evidence. It would have been better if he would have conducted a research or had the opinions of people on what they considered to be bilingual and would conclude based on the response by the people. Edwards’s definition is also ambiguous because the assumption that simply speaking a word of a foreign language makes one bilingual makes almost all people of the world bilingual because most people know few words of a foreign language and this would mean that everyone is bilingual. The definition by Bloomfield’s (1933) that being bilingual requires...
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...Bilingual Education By C. Mori When I started my investigation about bilingual education I never thought the debate about it would be as controversial and passionate as it is. But considering the numbers of English Language Learners (ELLs) in the U.S. public school, approximately 5.5 million, which represent about 11% of total number of students, and the percentage of drop outs, about 30% of ELLs, it is understandable that public opinion puts some pressure on the U.S. public school system to adopt the most efficient and adequate system for this growing minority group. The number of ELLs abandoning school has remained high for a long period of time generating serious doubts about the functionality and effectiveness of bilingual education and other programs. Two have been the main reasons attributed for this desertion from classes: the low socioeconomic level of ELLs and language differences. In this context, dual language, one modality of bilingual education, is showing to be able to make students excel in their academic performance and revert negative statistics Currently, in the United States there are two major approaches about how to teach English to those children whose primary language is different from English. The first approach is by immersing them in English only classes. This program was first implemented in California with proposition 227 in 1998 and continued to other states like Arizona and Massachusetts where bilingual education was...
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...Spanglish in the cinema Juan Ramón Abarca García 12-068-391 4th Semester juan.abarcagarcia@stud.unibas.ch 19th December 2014 Table of contents 1.-Introduction, aim and scope..........................................................................................3 2.-Literature review...........................................................................................................3 2.1.-Code-switching...............................................................................................3 2.2.-Spanish in the United States...........................................................................5 2.3.-Spanglish........................................................................................................6 3.-Data and methodology..................................................................................................8 4.-Analysis.........................................................................................................................9 5.-Conclusion...................................................................................................................13 6.-Transcription conventions...........................................................................................14 7.-Transcription...............................................................................................................15 8.-Bibliography....................................
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...ENGLISH ONLY COURT CASES INVOLVING THE U.S. WORKPLACE: THE MYTHS OF LANGUAGE USE AND THE HOMOGENIZATION OF BILINGUAL WORKERS’ IDENTITIES KARI GIBSON University of Hawai‘i Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act protects against discrimination in employment on the basis of race, color, sex, religion and national origin. However when the judicial system has examined English only workplace policies in light of Title VII, it has generally determined that such policies are not discriminatory if an employee is able to speak English. Although plaintiffs have argued that language is inextricably linked to national origin and cultural identity, the courts have stated that the use of a language other than English is detrimental to the morale of monolingual English speakers and a single language is necessary to ensure workplace harmony and proper management. This paper examines the court cases where English Only workplace policies have been challenged, and identifies the prevalent myths and ideologies held by businesses and the courts about language use, identity, and bilingual speakers. Through the process of homogeneism, linguistic diversity is rejected as monolingual English speakers are able to create and enforce rules that favor themselves as they construct the identity of “American” in their own image. Language is a central feature of human identity. When we hear someone speak, we immediately make guesses about gender, education level, age, profession, and place of origin....
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...simultaneously. Some argue that it is too much to expect ELLS to learn academic content and a second language, when they have not gained literacy in their first language. Others contend ELLs students fall too far behind academically in transitional bilingual programs, and they need to learn English quickly enough and fluently enough in order to participate in academic courses in mathematics, reading/language arts, social studies, and science). In the late 1990s, bilingual education came under attack for failing to do an adequate job of developing English proficiency in ELLs in an effective and timely manner. In 1998, California voters passed Proposition 227, making it so that English language learners were to be taught “overwhelmingly in English” and would spend at least one year in Sheltered English Immersion (SEI) learning both English language development (ELD) and content instruction utilizing “specially designed academic instruction in English” (SDAIE). The goal was for Limited English Proficient (LEP) students to quickly gain English proficiency through in SEI classes so they could transition into mainstream classes and successfully participate and learn academic content with the general school population. The law would allow bilingual education under certain conditions: after the student spent 30 days in a English immersion class, if the child is younger than 10...
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...THE ROLE OF LANGUAGE CODESWITCHING IN INCREASING ADVERTISING EFFECTIVENESS AMONG MEXICAN-AMERICAN YOUTH by MELISSA MAIER BISHOP Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of The University of Texas at Arlington in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT ARLINGTON December 2006 Copyright © by Melissa Maier Bishop 2006 All Rights Reserved ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS A wise professor told me before starting my PhD work to not forget my distractions. Therefore, this work is dedicated to my three favorite distractions—my husband Jeff and my two sons, Abel and Peyton. Thank you, Jeff, for all of your encouragement, your support, and your shoulder to lean on and your ear to listen during the past five years as we’ve come together on this journey. Thank you, Abel and Peyton, for sharing me with my studies and for often keeping me company while I studied for my exams and wrote my papers. Thank you also to my wonderful committee who were all so encouraging and patient with me, especially my Chair, Dr. Mark Peterson. Your excitement for my ideas inspired me as well as your belief in me. You have an unselfish and self-sacrificing nature that shines through you, and you are a gift to all of your students. Many thanks also to Dr. Roger Dickinson, who was a great support to me over the past five years and a big reason I decided to join the program in the first place. Thanks to my parents and to Jeff’s parents...
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...Chicago’s School Having bilingual education in nursery school across Illinois is a valuable practice for children because it is important to acquire two languages with eloquence. Bilingualism is often related to immigration, and this element has developed particular views of approaches to bilingual education in the Chicagoland area. The most important is the distension of the young non-Native English speakers in the early learning. When the children are 3-5 years old going to preschool, Chicago public school places them into bilingual classes because they are identified as dual language learning. By using different theories from the sociological perspective, the set of interrelation of social and pedagogical purposes can be understand from the bilingual classes of preschool in Chicago. First, functionalist perspective emphasizes the interconnection between the different parts that are involved in bilingual education, and how they work together to produce a negative or positive influence. Second, the home culture as the standard focuses its viewpoint by criticizing the value of foreign culture by using the home culture inside the bilingual language and its benefits. Finally, conflict perspective focuses how society presents itself by using power and conflict over the resources and rules of the bilingual classes. Therefore, the sociology perspective can explain the increased demand concerning the bilingual movement. The request of the expansion of the bilingual programs in preschool...
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...Bilingual Education and the Success of Boston’s Latino Youth The success of Latino students in the Boston Public School system is undoubtedly and inextricably linked to the success of the district, in partnership with state government, combining both proven and innovative strategies in delivering English language instruction to the city’s students. At 43% of total enrollment, Latino students are the largest and fastest-growing demographic in Boston Public Schools (Handy). And while a majority of Latino students speak English proficiently, census records show that in the City of Boston half of all Latinos were born outside of the United States; 30% of Latinos in the Boston Public School system are English Language Learners (Uriarte, Chen, and Kala 9), and, not surprisingly, the majority (57% in 2012) of Boston’s students classified as Limited English Proficient, speak Spanish (Uriarte). Simply put, there is no way to ensure that schools are working to the best capacity for the district’s largest ethnic group without also ensuring that proper systems are in place to educate English Language Learners, who are disproportionately Latino. Unfortunately, this has not always been the easiest of tasks, and a ballot initiative of over a decade ago would come to undermine much of the needed progress in the Boston Public Schools. November 5, 2002 may seem like a distant memory for some, but on that day, the result of that year’s election would come to have a resounding impact on Massachusetts’...
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...In linguistics, code-switching occurs when a speaker alternates between two or more languages, or language varieties, in the context of a single conversation. Multilinguals—speakers of more than one language—sometimes use elements of multiple languages when conversing with each other. 1. Carol Myers-Scotton : Studies on codes witching, the use of two or more languages in the same conversation. 2. John J. Gumperz : On code-switching, as a speaker’s use of more than one language within a single conversation is known. This work, like his analysis of the Heathrow impasse, centered on the idea of using linguistics in the service of social justice. Though earlier accounts of code-switching had suggested that it was largely a random phenomenon — a speaker, the thinking went, might use a smattering of English followed by a smattering of Spanish in an amorphous linguistic soup — Professor Gumperz showed that this switching, however unconscious, had specific triggers, including the need to encode information about the social relationships underpinning the discourse. But though sociolinguistics as a whole embraces spoken language and the printed word, he concentrated on face-to-face verbal exchanges. 3. Maria Cecilia Velásquez : The relationship in a bilingual conversation between language choice and identity has been the subject of research in different disciplines such as sociolinguistics, psycholinguistics, and second language acquisition among others. 4. Richard...
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...Acknowledgment to Gary Burris and Lynne Adair For their invaluable assistance with the project This material is available in alternative format by request. Contact Bilingual Education at 360-753-2573, TDD 360-664-3631. The Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction complies with all federal and state rules and regulations and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, disability, age or marital status. Table of Contents (click on page number for access) Introduction......................................................................................................................... 1 Executive Summary ............................................................................................................ 3 Chapter One Language Acquisition and the Language Learner .......................................................... 7 Section One: How Does First Language Develop? .................................................... 7 Section Two: How Does Second Language Develop? ............................................... 9 Foundational Theories ............................................................................................ 9 Creative Construction ......................................................................................... 9 Error Analysis ................................................................................................... 10 Interlanguage...............................................
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...The Role of Translators-Interpreters in Contemporary Society in the US and in Europe: Luxury or Necessity? Dr. Eduardo González University of Nebraska at Kearney Judging by appearances, the US has everything it needs in terms of meeting present-day requirements for language services in all spheres of modern life. There are immigrants from everywhere, millions of bilingual or polyglot people, excellent universities and colleges and so forth. However, the results as to having qualified translators and interpreters fall quite far from the possibilities. This work will attempt to give a general view of the problem and a brief analysis of possible solutions. The Past First England, then the US, have been for at least the last three centuries the most powerful countries in the world. England had a very early Industrial Revolution and its development of machines and ships led to its vast overseas empire. Even during the centuries when Spain was the most powerful nation and its ships traveled the entire world, its war crafts and equipments could not match the British fleet and armies. For a while there was France, with its beautiful Revolution for liberty, equality and fraternity, spreading the power of the bourgeoisie all over Europe. Then arose Napoleon, the Revolution’s emperor, trying to conquer new lands and colonies for France. In the long run, he was no match for the British power either. His ships were blockaded and destroyed at sea and his weary armies were finally crushed at...
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...Data Collection Project Topics Students in Sociolinguistics I are expected to choose from among these topics listed below. Why? Because it is difficult, as a beginning researcher who may never have conducted fieldwork before, to design a good project that will yield meaningful results and anticipate known pitfalls in one short academic quarter. (It’s much more important to design a good study than to conduct a novel study. So, it is fine to simply do one of these projects.) See what the syllabus has to say about the evaluation of this project here. If you really think you have a GREAT project idea, different from any below, that you want to pursue, you must obtain permission to do it. You will be asked to show that you really know: 1) your research question, 2) the limitations and advantages of your proposed methodology, 3) how your research is situated within a tradition of sociolinguistic research. General Calendar: The notations for WEEKS show a recommended schedule for working on the project without having a frantic rush at any one time. 1. WEEK 2: In class this week, you will choose a presentation. Carefully consider making your data collection project tied to this presentation. This is because you want to have a good understanding of some of the extant research on your topic around which you can structure your project. Previous research also gives you 1) good insight into how to narrow a topic of appropriate size for focused...
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...ESL Program Analysis Aretha Austin Grand Canyon University EED-544 Prescriptive Reading and Assessment January17, 2011 Introduction Research in educational and literature setting points out that English language learners (ELLs) are learners who have limited proficiency in the English language. They are learners that have been identified as a subgroup of people that is growing fast. Throughout the United States, school districts educate over 10 million English language learners that not only differ in language but behaviourism and culture as well. Studies indicate that the learners speak numerous languages; Spanish is the language spoken by more than 65% of the (ELLs). As these numbers continue to increase, many school systems are encountering pressure and challenges that are forcing them to incorporate programs ad or modify lesson plans in order to educate the English language learners. Over the past two years, in the state of Alabama, more than twenty thousand English language learners K-12 grade have made significant progress in academic; with a 72% graduation rate. The Top Five Languages represented by ELs in Alabama’s K-12 Program are 18115 Spanish, 526 Korean, 456 Vietnamese, 429 Arabic, and 309 Chinese. The six K-12 schools in the Russell County School District/my local school, offers about 25 ELLs education in English as a Second Language, in addition, assistance in reading, math and writing. The county also offers after school tutoring in basic skills...
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...Before I started my research in Code-Switching, I had very little knowledge of what code switching actually was. Through my research, I came to find that code means language; switching means alternating between. Right as I started my research, I started to notice that authors spell “code switching” in different ways. For example, they use it as two words, with a hyphen between them, or as one word. The different ways to spell code switching is a perfect example of the meaning of the word/s itself. Switching languages can mean a variety of things. As the articles I annotate below indicate, language switching can occur without notice, between dialects of a language, between different languages, and so on. Due to its broadness, it is important to focus on a topic of interest when researching code switching. I decided to focus on the advantages and benefits that Code Switching provides. The articles I reviewed give reasons why code switching happens, and some articles present many explanations. However, the main reasons as put forth by Arnfast and Jorgensen (2003), imitate the three main reasons that code switchers give for using their skill. These reasons are: to fill in linguistic gaps for words, acquisition or maintenance of social power, and social acceptance. After much research and by reading several studies of these approaches, I came to the conclusion that code switching is used rarely for one purpose. It is also doubtful that the users are completely aware of all the reasons...
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...in other multilingual contexts, code-switching has gained a foothold as a verbal mode of communication among Malaysian bilingual speakers. It occurs in both formal and informal contexts of communication. Empirical research has shown that the practice of alternating or mixing languages is not only common, but serves important communication strategies (Heller, 1992; Myers-Scotton, 1992). This study examines the purposes of code-switching and how it is used to achieve the speakers’ communicative intents in Bahasa Melayu (BM)-English bilingual conversations Data were collected through audio-recording of speakers’ speech during organizational training sessions. The data were analyzed according to the situations that triggered the code-switching. The findings show that speakers employed code-switching to organize, enhance and enrich their speech. Keywords: code-switching, discourse functions, communication device Introduction Code-switching, which may be defined as the alternation between two or more languages in a speaker’s speech, occurs naturally in the scheme of bilinguality. Studies have reported that code-switching often happened subconsciously; ‘people may not be aware that they have switched, or be able to report, following a conversation, which code they used for a particular topic’ (Wardaugh, 1998, p. 103). However, although bilingual speakers claim that code-switching is an unconscious behavior, research has also shown that it is not a random phenomenon. As attested...
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