This linguistic ethnography follows three journalism students (Petra, Penélope, and María) as they engaged in experiential language learning (EX-LL) via collaboration with community members during their Spanish for Specific Purposes (SSP) internship sites in the fields of journalism and medicine within the local Metro Phoenix community. Data were collected over the course of a 15-week semester via ethnographic methods (field notes, interviews, observations, and participant-reported data) to explore how the interns (i) took advantage of their SSP internship experiences to engage in identity work that exceeded the goals of the program and how they (ii) implemented their strategic knowledge via communicative strategies (CSs) during breakdowns in communication with community members related to their SSP internship sites/the social function of such strategies.

In order to answer the first research question, the data were analyzed via open and focused coding (Dyson & Genishi, 2005), followed by discourse analysis (Gee, 2005) informed by Critical Applied Linguistics (Pennycook, 2001) and Positioning Theory (Davis & Harré, 1990). To answer the second question, all instances in which the interns implemented communicative strategies were analyzed based upon the categorization repertories established by Dörnyei and Scott (1995a, 1995b, 1997), Lafford (2004), and Tarone and Yule (1987). To go beyond understanding what the interns were saying to why were they saying it, discourse analysis was used (Gee, 2005).

The findings show that Petra, Penélope, and María appropriated their SSP internship to engage distinct, yet interrelated language- and ethnic/racial-based identity work. Each intern utilized language (and extra-linguistic elements, such as corporeal expression) to position themselves in different ways within social discourse. Furthermore, this identity work influenced which CSs they utilized, as the social function of many of these strategies was to maintain and/or protect their desired identities.

Drawing on these insights, a variety of implications are offered from four viewpoints: implications for (i) EX-LL-based research: colonized versus humanizing research, (ii) critical community collaboration inside and outside of EX-LL, (iii) CSs and communicative competence, and (iv) EX-LL/Languages for Specific Purposes pedagogy and internship design.

The study of Spanish instructors’ beliefs is a recent development and the body of work is

small with little research conducted on their insights on the acquisition of any grammar form. Still, Spanish grammar includes the notoriously difficult subjunctive, a grammatical irrealis mood that is affixed to verbs. A national survey was conducted on Spanish professors and instructors (N=73) who teach at institutions randomly selected from a representative sample of American institutions of higher education. The survey was conducted to inquire on their beliefs regarding the most complex forms in Spanish, the causes of the subjunctive difficulty, and their preferred methods of teaching the form. The results first indicate that participants rated the subjunctive the most difficult grammar form. They attributed the cause of difficulty to be primarily interference from the first language and its abstractness. For instructing the subjunctive, participants generally supported form-oriented instruction with a metalanguage approach that focuses on forms. However, the participants disagreed greatly on whether meaning-focused instruction was valuable and dismissed drilling instruction of the subjunctive. Data from the participants provides a distribution of overextended tense, moods, and aspects in lieu of the Spanish subjunctive. However, instructors indicated that their students’ competence of the subjunctive was higher than their performance and that comprehension was not necessarily reliant on correct usage of the subjunctive as it was for proficiency. Moreover, they provided qualitative data of effective methods and pedagogical challenges of the subjunctive. This study illuminates some of the contributing factors of subjunctive difficulty and preferred pedagogical approaches for teaching it. It also has implications that meaning may not be obstructed if students do not use subjunctive.

This study examined the development and acquisition of second language (L2) sounds by adult students enrolled in a communicative language program. The investigation explored the acquisition of L2 phones by analyzing the voice onset time (VOT) of word-initial voiceless stops in Spanish by native English speakers. A total of 40 subjects participated in the study and were divided into three groups; one group of students enrolled in a first semester course, another group of students enrolled in a third semester course, and the last group enrolled in a fifth semester course. The duration of VOT was compared between groups reading from a word list consisting of 60 words during the 13th to 15th weeks of the semester. Significant differences in VOT were found between the first and fifth semester groups, as well as the third and fifth semester groups suggesting that accurate acquisition of L2 phones and the formation of new phonetic categories are possible for late L2 learners in accordance with the Speech Learning Model.

The present study investigates the role lexical access plays in the oral fluency of intermediate second language (L2) learners. In order to do this, I utilized a picture-naming task (PNT) in the target language to assess lexical access and generated spontaneous L2 speech through two narration tasks to assess oral fluency. The response times from the PNT were correlated with the two fluency measures analyzed from the narration tasks, the frequency of filled pauses and the overall rate of speech. The results revealed that intermediate learners with faster PNT response times used fewer filled pauses in spontaneous L2 speech but did not reveal a significant relationship between intermediate learners' PNT response times and their rate of speech.

ABSTRACT

Spanish is a null subject language that admits the expression or omission of lexical subjects. As well, the expression of the subject argument may take place pre or post verbally (Española, R. A., 2009). This variation of the subject’s position is not a random phenomenon; it tends to depend on syntactic and semantic preferences and restrictions.

This investigation analyzes pre and post verbal nominal and pronominal subject position in the colloquial speech of Spanish-English bilinguals of Mexican descent in the Phoenix, Arizona metropolitan area. The phenomenon’s analysis considers linguistic factors such as the syntactical and semantically classification of the verb type as copulative, transitive and intransitive; the subject only in the third person, the number as singular and plural, new or given information in the discourse, and the participants’ self evaluation of their bilingual dominance in one language (Dunn, & Fox Tree, 2009). As well, social extra-linguistic factors are considered such as gender, age group, educational level and time in the USA.

Goldvarb X (Sankoff, Tagliamonte & Smith, 2005) was the multivariable analysis program used for the ranking of the linguistic and extra-linguistic factors that tend to influence the subject’s position.

The formulated hypotheses were that post verbal subject placement will occur in sentences with inaccusative verbs, and where the participants in their discourse give new information. As well, the participants with English bilingual dominance and the participants born or arrived in the USA before their eleventh birthday will reflect a higher index of pre verbal subjects.

This community of speakers favored the subject in preverbal position with copulative, transitive and inergative verbs; however preferred the subject in post verbal position with inaccusative verbs. As well, the post verbal position of the subject also was favored when new information was introduced in the discourse. The age factor proved to be significant with the older age Spanish dominant group, selecting the post verbal position significantly more than the middle age Spanish dominant and young age English dominant groups respectively. This could be interpreted as a reflection of an initial movement in the direction of the SV order of the dominant language.