This study investigates the politeness strategies employed by Saudi EFL teachers when expressing their disagreements on Twitter. It examines the factors affecting Saudi EFL teachers' choice of politeness and disagreement strategies. It compares Saudi EFL teachers' disagreement expressions with those of American ESL teachers on Twitter. Four…

This study provides insight on heritage language to Greek Americans. At an important juncture of acculturation in the United States, Greek Americans risk losing their rich cultural ancestry and language to assimilate fully as Americans. A survey at a national scale was conducted with adult Greek Americans (n=1652) from all 50 states. It was…

The Conceptual Metaphor Theory (Lakoff & Johnson, 1980) started a new approach to viewing metaphors in languages. Traditionally, metaphor is considered as one of the rhetorical devices. Conceptual metaphor, however, is an approach for us to understand abstract notions in terms of relatively concrete concepts. The HEART metaphor in Chinese…

Background: Bilingual speech production studies have highlighted that level of proficiency influences the acoustic-phonetic representation of phonemes in both languages (MacKay, Flege, Piske, & Schirru 2001; Zarate-Sandez, 2015). The results for bilingual speech production reveals that proficient/early bilinguals produce distinct acoustic…

Many studies evidence the flexibility of speech perception in the first language (L1), which allows rapid adaptation to unfamiliar foreign accents. Two influential studies by Bradlow and Bent (2008) and a follow-up study by Baese-Berk et al. (2013) found that increased variability as a function of the number of talkers and accents facilitated the…

The importance of input on language learning cannot be overstated. One method of providing input to learners at a level that is appropriate for them is called extensive reading, in which learners read an abundance of texts. In practice, for learners of English as a second or foreign language, these texts are often books that have been written and…

The purpose of this research was to explore the perceptions of non-Arab preschool teachers' experiences in assessing Arabic-English dual language learners (DLLs) in classrooms using a well-established, teacher scored authentic assessment of early childhood holistic development. Moreover, this study explored parents' experiences by discussing these…

This dissertation builds on existing heritage language research (e.g., Albirini 2014, 2018; Benmamoun & Albirini 2018) and examines the complex and challenging practices of an understudied, marginalized, and stigmatized group of Muslim Arabic heritage-speaking children (MAHSC) and their immigrant families in the US. It argues that the…

Some contrasts in the second language (L2) impose difficulty in processing for learners, especially when these contrasts are not used phonemically in a learner's first language (L1). This thesis is to examine how American English speakers learning Japanese discriminate and store information regarding the L2 contrasts as a part of their lexicon…

Although Spanish and Italian voiced stops are similar in articulatory (place of articulation) and acoustic (prevoicing) terms, there are important contrasts associated with these sounds in each language that may affect second language (L2) learners' acquisition. Spanish maintains an allophonic alternation between word-initial voiced stops and…

Second language (L2) phonological acquisition involves learning novel target-language sounds, variable forms of sounds that arise in different phonological contexts, and any phonotactic constraints that govern their appearance. Interlanguage (IL) grammars must adapt to represent sounds and constraints that are novel to the native language (L1)…

Linguistic ideologies are informed by social stereotyping to maintain the "standard" variety which is often interpreted as morally superior to "nonstandard" varieties. Consequently, these ideologies racialize "nonstandard" varieties, leading to even more negative stereotypes. One outlet of such stereotypes can be…

This dissertation investigates the occurrence of an intermediate stage, termed a covert contrast, in the acquisition of Mandarin Tone 2 (T2) and Tone 3 (T3) by adult speakers of American English. A covert contrast is a statistically reliable distinction produced by language learners that is not perceived by native speakers of the target language…

This research study examined the process by which non-English speaking students, whose first language is Arabic, learn mathematics in English. Teachers' adaptation was investigated to reflect the effect of change in instructional methods. The effect of communication between teachers, and exchanging ideas about the efficient practice procedure to…

Rater variation in performance assessment can impact test-takers' scores and compromise assessments' fairness and validity (Crooks, Kane, & Cohen, 1996). Rater variation can also undermine a test's validity and fairness; therefore, it is important to investigate raters' scoring patterns in order to inform rater training. Substantial work has…