LURA 2021

Die Zusammenhangsform – A Case for Dependency

Anonymous — Wed, 05 May 2021 07:58:02 +0000

Die Zusammenhangsform – A Case for Dependency Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 05/05/2021 - 01:58

Germans are pragmatic… linguistically.

Name: Kelton Jay Hevelone
Course: Semantics (LING3430)
Advisor/Professor: Dr. Zygmunt Frajzyngier
LURA 2021

A couple years ago when I was on my year abroad in Germany, I noticed a specific linguistic form come up time and time again in the conversations I was having with my friends and classmates. Strangely, the multi-word structure was something I had not ever learned in my various German classes throughout the years. It is composed of the verb “to be” (sein); am (an + dem), meaning ‘on the’ or ‘at the’; and a nominalized verb in its infinitive form. In simpler terms, it followed this structure: sein (‘to be’) + am (‘on the’) + Verb. Take the example below from the Kleines Wörterbuch der Verlaufsformen im Deutschen database for an illustration of its use in everyday speech (Engelberg et al., 2013):

(1) Beim Tanzen bin ich meist heftig am Flirten.

at-def dance.nmlz-inf cop.pres.1sg 1sg most fervently on-def flirt.nmlz-inf

‘While (at) dancing, I am very actively/fervently flirting.’

Linguists and grammarians have labeled this structure as the am-Progressive or die Verlaufsform in the German literature. Until this point, there has been consensus that the form represents an emerging progressive aspect, i.e. a linguistic structure which presents the verb as ‘ongoing’ during a point in time (Duden, 2009). If true, it would function similarly to the ‘be verb-ing’ structure in English, which also bears the title of ‘progressive aspect’ (e.g. I am going, he is running, they are sleeping). Inspired by the work of Frajzyngier et al. (2008) on the English progressive, I break from the linguistic tradition and propose a new analysis for the so-called am-Progressive’s nature in German.

Rather than being progressive or even aspectual at all, the am-Progressive functions as a pragmatic dependency marker. These markers are linguistic forms which instruct the listener to interpret the sentence at hand in relation to something. The listener must then connect that sentence to some reference point in order to understand its meaning. This reference point can either come from the speakers’ surrounding environment or from the discourse itself between those speakers. Therefore, sentences which use a pragmatic dependency marker complete their meaning within context, being impossible to understand in its absence.

In Example 1 above, the main verb of the sentence (“bin…am Flirten” – ‘am flirting’) is intended to be interpreted in relation to the locative phrase, beim Tanzen (‘while (at) dancing’). Without this phrase, an absence of context arises because no other part of the sentence can be leveraged for the necessary frame of reference. Either the sentence would have to be interpreted with the discourse up until this point, or it would automatically be interpreted in context of the surrounding environment, i.e. as something that is happening in the present moment. This can be verified by the fact that the sentence would be confusing in the case that (1) there was no preceding discourse context, (2) there is no locative phrase (beim Tanzen) and, (3) the speaker is not actively “flirting” in that moment. Imagine a friend randomly saying after a long pause of no conversation: “I am actively flirting,” while not actually flirting with anyone. The listener, or you, would not know what to interpret that statement with regards to. The am-Progressive is then pragmatically dependent. It requires that something, i.e. some reference point, lest the sentence become utterly nonsensical.

While the present tense allows for interpretation with the surrounding environment, the past and future do not have this luxury. We, as humans, cannot be physically surrounded by a past or future environment because we only ever experience time in the present moment. It would follow that a pragmatic dependency marker cannot conclude a discourse in either the past or future tenses, because it would stand in isolation. There is no physical surrounding environment nor discourse context to interpret it with. This is exactly what we find. Notice how the following sentence comes across as ‘incomplete’ if it were to be the last thing a person said:

(2) Ein Lehrer war vor Kurzem am Reisen.

indf teacher.m cop.pst.3sg before short.nmlz-dat.n on-def travel.nmlz-inf

‘A teacher was recently traveling.’

The natural reaction to this sentence would be an anticipation for more information – information that could be leveraged to interpret the meaning of the sentence. But in a void of subsequent discourse context, there is nothing else available to interpret the sentence with. It exists almost as non-language. Words with missing meaning. Semantically well-formed, but pragmatically desolate. This restriction on the structure’s usage provides additional evidence that the am-Progressive is not in fact a progressive aspectual form, but rather a pragmatic dependency marker.

I propose then that pragmatic dependency is the nature of the so-called am-Progressive. Perhaps, a more suitable term would be “die Zusammenhangsform” (the interdependency form), since its true character speaks of relation rather than continuance.

Bibliography

Duden Verlag. 2009. Die Grammatik: Unentbehrlich für richtiges Deutsch (8. Auflage). Mannheim: Dudenverlag. Engelberg, Stefan, Stephanie Frink, Svenja König, Peter Meyer & Agata Sokolowski. 2013. Kleines Wörterbuch der Verlaufsformen im Deutschen. Mannheim: Institut für Deutsche Sprache. Available at https://www.owid.de/wb/progdb/start.html.
Frajzyngier, Zygmunt, with M. Bond, L. Heintzelman, D. Keller, S. Ogihara, and E. Shay. 2008. Towards an understanding of the progressive form in English: The imperative as a heuristic tool. In W. Abraham and E. Leiss (eds.), The Aspect -ModalityInterface in Typology. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company, 81-96.

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Education Language Planning in Tanzania: A Complex Balance of Cultural Considerations

Anonymous — Tue, 04 May 2021 23:29:12 +0000

Education Language Planning in Tanzania: A Complex Balance of Cultural Considerations Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 05/04/2021 - 17:29

Educational language policies in Tanzania have responded to a complex web of often-contradictory pressures throughout the country’s history, serving as a powerful insight into the country’s struggles balancing development of a cohesive national identity with the desire to integrate into an English-dominated economic world.

Joe Bogumill and Jordan Lee
LING 3545 World Language Policies
Advisor: Dr. Raichle Farrelly
LURA 2021

Educational language policies in Tanzania have responded to a complex web of often-contradictory pressures throughout the country’s history, serving as a powerful insight into the country’s struggles balancing development of a cohesive national identity with the desire to integrate into an English-dominated economic world. Tanzania was formed in 1964 when the recently independent nations of Tanganyika and Zanzibar united under the leadership of President Julius Nyerere. Tanganyika was incredibly linguistically diverse, with over a hundred different languages from multiple linguistic families spoken, while Zanzibar was a relatively more homogeneous island with heavy influences from Arabic traders. Creating a united national identity out of the various ethnic groups that found themselves living within these new borders was, and remains, a major issue for post-colonial African nations. As part of the nation-building process, Nyerere chose Kiswahili to be the national language to both promote a sense of African identity, and to challenge the prominence of English, a colonial language (Harries, 1969). This created differences in the social and cultural capital carried by each language, with Kiswahili as a language marking Tanzanian and East African identity, and English as a global language associated with economic opportunity.

Through our research on language education policies, we found that Tanzanian language education policy aligns ideologically with nationalist planning, though it does not serve the Tanzanian populace well by failing to provide desired levels English proficiency and neglecting development of ethnic community languages. In primary school, Kiswahili is the primary language of instruction, and English is taught as a subject. In order to be accepted into secondary schools, students must then pass state exams, which are conducted in English. This creates a barrier between primary and secondary education that makes it difficult for many students to continue their education. If a student doesn’t belong to a family with English-speaking social connections, or access to additional tutoring in English, it’s very unlikely that they’ll be able to pass these exams and continue beyond a middle school-level of education. Despite an increasing literacy rate throughout the country, these gatekeeping mechanisms disproportionately hinder educational access for girls, children with disabilities, and children from rural or poor backgrounds (World Bank, 2015). English-medium national exams after minimal exposure to English both in- and outside the classroom particularly affect social groups who cannot afford private English medium education or tutoring.

However, even English proficiency does not automatically enable future educational and career opportunities. One study of a secondary school in northern Tanzania found that fewer than half of students were employed or pursuing higher education four years after graduation (Vavrus, 2002). Furthermore, while the education system itself limits access to English learning, many positions in tourism, travel, and banking require only English proficiency, but not necessarily a high level of education (Billings, 2009). Furthermore, many Tanzanians speak an ethnic community language (ECL) in addition to Kiswahili and English. The education system, however, fails to recognize this multilingual situation by not permitting the use of ECLS in teaching or in governmental communication, and by enforcing a dichotomized bilingual education that compartmentalizes Kiswahili and English. Especially for children from ECL-speaking homes and communities, the abrupt change from Kiswahili to English hinders day-to-day learning, and students are unable to make full use of their linguistic abilities on national exams. Ultimately, current language policies in education reflect English’s linguistic capital as a connection to future opportunities, but have not translated into significant improvement of educational and economic prospects for many Tanzanians.

Language acquisition planning requires reform to more equitably serve linguistic communities throughout the country. Possible suggestions to better recognize the existing linguistic situation in Tanzania and foster linguistic diversity while forwarding national and economic opportunity include offering national exams in Kiswahili and English, or using them as benchmarks rather than gatekeepers for pursuing further education. Furthermore, the state could offer English language learning opportunities outside of the formal school system for sectors that don’t require specialized training, such as tourism. Finally, having less compartmentalized mediums of instruction and allowing for the use of ethnic community languages in the classroom could help bridge linguistic gaps for many students and increase the sense of national and community pride. While Tanzanian language planning faces the challenge of balancing national, cultural, educational, and economic concerns, we believe changes such as these would promote a more equitable linguistic landscape throughout the country.

Bibliography

Billings, S. (2009). Speaking Beauties: Linguistic Posturing, Language Inequality, and the Construction of a Tanzanian Beauty Queen. Language in Society, 38(5), 581-606. Retrieved September 17, 2020, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/20622683
Harries, L. (1969). Language Policy in Tanzania. Africa: Journal of the International African Institute,39(3), 275-280. Retrieved September 18, 2020, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/1157997
Vavrus, F. (2002). Postcoloniality and English: Exploring Language Policy and the Politics of Development in Tanzania. TESOL Quarterly, 36(3), 373-397. doi:10.2307/3588418
World Bank. (2015). Tanzania: Engaging the Private Sector in Education. SABER Country Report, 1-35. https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/bitstream/handle/10986/22987/SABER0engaging0port000Tanzania02015.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y

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Learning English in the Context of Educational (In)Equality

Anonymous — Tue, 04 May 2021 23:23:31 +0000

Learning English in the Context of Educational (In)Equality Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 05/04/2021 - 17:23

In the United States, there is a lot of variance concerning quality of education, and who receives it. Low-income groups and students of color are impacted the most by discrepancies in education, so who better to learn about these issues than the students themselves?

By: Jenna Lowe and Giovanna Martinez
Course: Teaching Second Language (L2) Oral Skills and Communication (LING 4620)
Advisor: Professor Raichle Farrelly
LURA 2021

In the United States, there is a lot of variance concerning quality of education, and who receives it. Low-income groups and students of color are impacted the most by discrepancies in education, so who better to learn about these issues than the students themselves? In our curriculum design project for our TESOL L2 Oral Skills class, we, in collaboration with Debbie Landman, designed three lesson plans that aimed to instruct high-school-age, intermediate-level English learners in listening, speaking, and pronunciation skills. All of these lessons are taught using the educational approach of content-based instruction (CBI), with a content focus of educational equality, or lack thereof. The cohesive lesson plans allow students to work on their language skills while also learning about major cracks in our education system.

When we were presented with this project for our Oral Skills class, we were assigned into groups based on our interests. Meeting over Zoom for the first time, we discussed what parts of the education system make this a social justice issue and why the three of us chose to pursue this issue. As a group, we decided to present three main issues that seem to have an observable impact on our education system. Related to the first issue of private and public schools, we found so many discrepancies in how class sizes are managed, cost, and teacher treatment. When introducing Affirmative Action as our next topic, we looked up numerous videos and articles to be able to provide the students with information that was still at an appropriate English learning level for English learners. Our reaction to researching this topic was to see it like scales, because of the balance of the benefits and disadvantages as well. The last lesson plan focuses on low-income and high-income schools, because there is a disconnect with the school districts since they rely so heavily on property taxes. Researching all of these topics opened our eyes even wider to what our education system looks like, and that the money that is funneled through tuition and taxes can make or break a child’s education in many cases.

Our three lesson plans focus on students’ listening, speaking, and pronunciation skills. The first lesson plan introduces the topic of public and private education systems. While investigating these two systems in the first lessons, they are also developing their listening skills through an assortment of activities. In the second lesson plan students explore the topic of affirmative action including the perceived pros and cons of this initiative. They engage with the content through articles and videos. Lesson two allows students to build on what they have learned in lesson one to be able to present their ideas and have an in-class debate to improve their speaking skills. Our last lesson plan targets pronunciation, and vocabulary that was in the previous two lesson plans is reintroduced through guided worksheets to target the stress patterns in words that are familiar to both the student and topic. This lesson’s topic is high income vs. low income and builds upon the two previous lessons that the students have been introduced to.

All three of these topics concern things that often directly impact ESL students, which can be sensitive material. Social justice issues, in general, are often sensitive topics, but it is important for students to interact with real-world problems. Many teachers think the ESL classroom is purely a space for language learning, but incorporating social justice gives many benefits. First, it opens up the floor for students to ask questions that might not have easily accessible answers. Students might have already noticed discrepancies between their education and others’ or how people are treated differently. Addressing social justice in the ESL classroom makes the information they want available to them. Second, it gives students the opportunity to think critically about problems that impact them. Rather than letting them observe and accept the inequalities they see, ESL teachers can advocate for their students and encourage them to advocate for themselves. Being students ourselves, this area of social justice was incredibly interesting to research and adapt.

The full set of lessons can be found here: https://sites.google.com/colorado.edu/teaching-l2-oral-skills/thematic-units/educational-inequality/lesson-plans

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Language Policy in Action: A Swiss Study

Anonymous — Tue, 04 May 2021 23:17:45 +0000

Language Policy in Action: A Swiss Study Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 05/04/2021 - 17:17

Language serves those who use it, so who controls the language of an entire country? And how does policy affect its speakers?

Evi Judge
Course: World Language Policies (LING 3545)
Advisor: Professor Raichle Farrelly
LURA 2021

Language is something people use on a day to day basis, and it is incorporated in many different modalities, including but not limited to: oral, signed, written, imagery, and other representations. Humans' desire to communicate is innate, and we find ways to express ourselves at all costs—sometimes failing to see the complexities that underlie language use. Among these complexities, social and cultural influences often steer the pathways for language use in society—often leveraging one at the expense of another. In World Language Policies, students explored these nuances of language policy around the world, and how different communities structure their policies. An interesting case that I chose to study was Switzerland, a uniquely quadrilingual country in Europe.

Freedom of language use may seem like a given to many, including those living in such a multilingual country as Switzerland. Constitutionally, the country has three official languages: French, German, and Italian, and a fourth national language, Romansh. Despite the multilingual identity of Switzerland, there still remain restrictions in Swiss culture regarding language use and ideologies.

In comparing Switzerland's language policy to the United States', one can draw similarities between the Swiss' treatment of German and French to the US' treatment of English and Spanish. As the Secretary General Philippe Schwab commented, "[One] Italian-speaking member of the Council of States is in the habit of saying that he speaks Italian in Parliament when he is addressing his constituents, French when he wants everyone to listen to him, and German when he wants everyone to understand" (2014). This German language preference is not unlike the preference for English in the United States, despite our country having a large and growing Spanish-speaking population. However, the definition of both countries' language tolerance diverges along this point too: where Switzerland has a dejure language policy, the United States maintains a de facto language policy—that is, the policy is not written into the constitution explicitly. Since Switzerland’s language policy is explicitly written in the constitution, there remains a stronger protection of its languages compared to the U.S..

The Romansh language is an interesting element of Switzerland's language policy, as the language was made a national language but still stands as a minority language. Romansh was made a national language, in part, to preserve its status as a language (Swiss Const. art 70). Still, it remains that Romansh is spoken in a remote part of Switzerland, most notably in the Grisons region.

Despite the challenge of having four national languages, the Swiss are unified by their identity as a multilingual country, which is embedded in their history. As language is often perceived as a commodity—as capital—it is also used as leverage or a distinguishing feature that a country shows at its borders. As language is used to draw these borders, nationalism and nationalistic tendencies form—people become divided by this very real language barrier. For instance, during the two world wars, Switzerland needed something to hold its people together when the country's two largest ethnic groups stared at each other down the barrels of their guns. Both communities aligned themselves with their respective nations and threatened to disrupt Switzerland’s neutrality (Giudici and Grizelj, 2016). The Swiss government and elites saw their country in dire need of paradigm shift and immediately began pushing a new type of nationalism—one not only bound by language, but also a sense of pride in being a multilingual nation. This "multilingual Swissness" is part of what held the country together and kept the country neutral during wartime.

Language policy serves those who enact it and impacts those who use the language, so it's important to be aware of whose beliefs and ideologies are reinforced when decisions about language use are being made. Switzerland, as a case study, presents a unique environment for language policy: four national languages have been set through explicit policy, but the inner workings of the communities speaking these languages have allowed French and German to sit atop a language hierarchy. The government merely recognized the country's strength in being multilingual, and so, they officialized that strength by writing it into the constitution. The important takeaway from Switzerland's multilingualism is that having many languages in a society is not easy, but in working with the speakers of different communities, it is still possible to respect people's expression through language.

References

Bourdieu, P. (1991). Language and Symbolic Power. Harvard University Press.
Giudici, A., & Grizelj, S. (2016). National unity in cultural diversity: How national and linguistic identities affected Swiss language curricula (1914–1961). Paedagogica Historica, 53(1-2), 137-154.
Hega, G. M. (2010, July 01). Regional Identity, Language and Education Policy in Switzerland. Retrieved November 01, 2020, from https://www-tandfonline-com.colorado.idm.oclc.org/doi/abs/10.1080/0305792012005320
Schwab, P., (2014). The Swiss Parliament as a plurilingual forum. Inter-Parliamentary Union. https://www.parlament.ch/centers/documents/en/discours-philippe-schwab-aGp-geneve-2014-10-10-e.pdf
Spolsky, B. (2004). Language policy. Cambridge University Press.

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Number Agreement of the Copula in English

Anonymous — Tue, 04 May 2021 23:13:19 +0000

Number Agreement of the Copula in English Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 05/04/2021 - 17:13

Linguists and students alike are taught that the verb agrees with the subject, but is this always true?

Evi Judge
Course: Semantics (LING 3540)
Advisor: Professor Zygmunt Frajzyngier
LURA 2021

Huddleston and Pullum (2005) write “the verb agrees with the subject” (p. 31), and for quantificational nouns “the form of the verb depends on the … NP [noun phrase] that is complement to the preposition of ” where “[t]he meaning of number is such that the embedded NP must be plural” (p. 89). Thus, the conclusion that Huddleston and Pullum draw is that the verb agreeing with quantificational NPs must agree with the plural complement of the quantificational noun.

Provided this claim about verb agreement, the following phenomenon becomes a puzzle:

a) the number of X is

b) the number of X are

c) a number of X is

d) a number of X are

Note, that the above X denotes any countable noun (e.g. people, books, cats, etc.). The aim of this article is to briefly explore the role of the copula and the articles used with the phrase “number of X”. In the phrases “the number of X” and “a number of X” both the singular and plural form of the copular verb ‘be’ seem to be used. The question then is whether or not one form of the copula is preferred over the other form. To study this “agreement preference”, the frequency of each phrase was recorded from the Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA). Based on the frequency tokens of each phrase, in the following, I will propose a tentative hypothesis for copular agreement as an independent coding means. The following frequencies were recorded from COCA:

a) the number of X is | 702 frequency tokens

b) the number of X are | 54 frequency tokens

c) a number of X is | 46 frequency tokens

d) a number of X are | 624 frequency tokens

The evidence that (a) and (d) are the most frequently occurring forms contradicts the proposal that verbs agree with their subject. Furthermore, this contradiction of copular agreement raises another issue—namely, does the copula or the determiner code what the head and modifier of a quantificational NP is?

The preference for phrases containing ‘the’, as in “the number of X”, to take ‘is’ stems from the head being “the number”. This is due to the word ‘number’ being singular, indicating that the copula would also prefer to be singular (i.e. to take the form ‘is’). The modifier in the phrase “the number of X” is in fact “of X”. “of X” merely specifies what “the number” refers to. Without the modifier, one would be liable to ask, “The number of what?”.

This is the opposite from phrases containing the indefinite article ‘a’—as in, “a number of X”—where the head of such a phrase is “of X” and the modifier is “a number”. Since the object of the preposition will be plural, Huddleston and Pullum’s rule that the following verb will be plural applies. The impact of having the whole phrase "number of X" with either determiner 'the' or 'a' is essential for making sense of what is being said. If either part of the phrase "a/the number" or X-alone was stated, one may expect a wh-word question. For example, if one were to state, "Wow, the number has really shot up." The response may be, "What shot up? (Number of what?)" Likewise, if one were to say, "Testing sites have really expanded." Another person may ask, "How many testing sites have expanded?" These scenarios illustrate the dependency of the components in the phrase "number of X"—regardless of the determiner used, 'number' aims to describe something, that something being X. And X, while it can stand alone as a noun, needs the context of 'number' to describe a quantity.

The above analysis contradicts Huddleston and Pullum’s proposal in two ways: 1) the complement of the NP dictates the (following) copula's form, and 2) the determiner codes the head and complement within an NP. I have addressed the issue posed in (1), as the preferred copular change witnessed between “the number of X is” and “a number of X are” disproves that X’s plurality will predict the copula's form. The proposition in statement (2) is more difficult to tease apart.

What then, in these phrases, is the role of the article? Examine the following:

a) The number of testing sites is expanding.

b) The number of testing sites are expanding.

c) A number of testing sites is expanding.

d) A number of testing sites are expanding.

If one were to omit the copula (‘is’ or ‘are’) in all of the sentences above, one would not be able to discern what is “expanding” in the sentence. The copula, not the determiner, provides this information. Sentences in the form of (a) and (d) are preferred because the copula is less ambiguous in those sentences; whereas, in sentences (b) and (c), I suggest that the meaning of the sentence (i.e. what is expanding) is less easy to decipher. Furthermore, I propose that the meaning in sentence (b) is more akin to sentence (d) due to the use of ‘are’, and it follows that sentence (c) is more akin to sentence (a) because of ‘is’.

Huddleston and Pullum (2002) state that the indefinite article, when preceding ‘number’, indicates number-transparency (p. 350); however, when the definite article is used before ‘number’, a non-transparent number (i.e. a precise number) is understood. Thus, one is able to substitute a precise number in for the phrase “the number of ”—and if performed on sentence (b), the sentence would become “Five testing sites are expanding” further support the idea that (b) codes the same meaning as sentence (d), only (d) has some indeterminate amount of testing sites expanding.

The conclusion: verb agreement is not solely driven by the preceding subject. The articles ‘a’ and ‘the’ do affect verb agreement. This analysis supports the claim that verb agreement is an independent coding means (Frajzyngier, 1997).

References

Davies, M. (2005). Retrieved November 15, 2020, from https://www.english-corpora.org/coca/
Frajzyngier, Zygmunt. 1997c. Pronouns and agreement: systems interaction in the coding of reference. Atomism and binding. ed by. Hans Benis, Pierre Pica, and Johan Rooryck. 1997. Dordrecht: Foris, 115-140.
Huddleston, R. D., & Pullum, G. K. (2005). A Student's Introduction to English Grammar. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 13-14, 37, 82-92.
Huddleston, R. D., & Pullum, G. K. (2002). Nouns and noun phrases. In The Cambridge Grammar of the English language (pp. 326-340). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

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Exploring Protest Movements & Black Lives Matter - An L2 Oral Skills Course

Anonymous — Mon, 03 May 2021 22:03:48 +0000

Exploring Protest Movements & Black Lives Matter - An L2 Oral Skills Course Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 05/03/2021 - 16:03

Black. Lives. Matter.

Author: Ella Steckler
Course: LING 4260 - L2 Oral Skills
Advisor/Professor: Raichle Farrelly
LURA 2021

The movement for Black lives is not new, but recent surges in violence against Black people has led to action in the last few years. According to the Black Lives Matter site, the movement “is an ideological and political intervention in a world where Black lives are systematically and intentionally targeted for demise. It is an affirmation of Black folks’ humanity, our contributions to this society, and our resilience in the face of deadly oppression.”

In Professor Farrelly’s course on Teaching Second Language Oral Skills, students are challenged to develop a unit for an English language classroom based on a social justice issue. The units are designed for an open educational resource (website) for use by teachers who hope to grapple with social justice issues in their classrooms. The units consist of activities for students to practice listening, speaking, and pronunciation skills in context. (Explore the site here.)

The tragic deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and countless other Black people at the hands of law enforcement influenced my group to construct a unit on the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement. We wanted to create a unit promoting awareness around systematic racism. This is an important topic, especially for students learning English and studying American culture.

Our unit consists of three lessons focused on a topic that both educates students on the movement and sparks critical thinking that can be applied outside the classroom. The lessons are: “The History of the Movement,” “The Issues of Today,” and “Protests and Violence.”

In our first lesson, we introduce the roots of the movement because students may not have a full understanding of the subject. These units are for learners around the world, and establishing context in these lessons demonstrates a key TESOL principle -- namely, building on students' existing background knowledge and prior experiences.

One activity on the history of the BLM movement is a timeline activity to practice listening comprehension. Students watch a video about the origin of the BLM movement and organize flashcards with key events in chronological order. In doing so, students are able to demonstrate comprehension and metacognitive skills, like self monitoring. Another goal of this activity is to have students name prominent legal cases in the early history of the BLM movement. This activity allows students to practice listening skills while building their knowledge base about prevalent issues in the US. Throughout the unit, students will build upon this background knowledge as they spark discussions and form opinions about the BLM movement.

In our second lesson called “Issues of Today”, we created an activity where students create their own PSA about a case using Adobe Spark, a digital storytelling tool. For this activity, students are asked to research a specific case that contributed to the BLM movement and make their own 1-3 minute long PSA to present to the class. The objectives of this activity are to have students research an instance of violence against a member of the Black community in the U.S, present the narrative of the victim who experienced racism, and describe the public response following the incident. They conclude their PSA with an effective public service announcement about the BLM movement. This activity promotes skills in English pronunciation and vocabulary while also providing students with knowledge of a specific case of the BLM movement. Another TESOL principle is to scaffold student learning with clear guidelines and models. We created this video as an example of what their video might be like.

In our final lesson plan, we created an activity focused on encouraging students to discuss a particular issue of the BLM movement. Students receive a political cartoon and have 10 minutes to explain the picture, its implications, and their opinions on the ideas discussed with a partner. These cartoons cover issues ranging from biased media coverage, rioting, and “All Lives Matter” counter protests. This activity promotes English conversation practice as well as gives students an opportunity to express their interpretation of BLM artwork and provide their opinions on these issues.

Overall, this unit encourages students to practice oral skills like listening, speaking and pronunciation in English while also providing students with cultural background knowledge on a core social justice movement in the U.S.. Our hope is that students would conclude this unit with greater awareness of social justice issues in the U.S. today, and be prepared to express their opinions and take action for the causes of the BLM movement, thus sparking change in our communities.

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Choosing Verb Markers in Korean

Anonymous — Mon, 03 May 2021 21:46:53 +0000

Choosing Verb Markers in Korean Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 05/03/2021 - 15:46

How do language features such as formality and honorifics affect the use of a given language in everyday conversation?

By: Devin Lohner
Course: Semantics (LING3430)
Advisor: Professor Zygmunt Frajzyngier
LURA 2021

In Korean, honorifics and different levels of formality have a great impact on the choices speakers make in everyday conversation. My project explores the usage of the Korean future presumptive verb marker “-겠다” (-getda) and the considerations speakers make in order to choose to use this marker during speech. Please note that while “-겠다” (-getda) is called “future presumptive,” it does not mark future tense. To determine the use and meaning of “-겠다” (-getda), I will compare it to three other Korean verb markers which have similar functions: the ‘expected’ future marker “-(으)ㄹ 게요” (-(eu)l geyo), the marker “것 같다” (geot gatda) which codes “I think it is…” or “it seems like”, and the verb marker “-데요” (-deyo), which has similar meanings.

In most conversation, the future presumptive marker “-겠다” (-getda) is used in order to soften speech and to express a personal opinion. When the honorific speech form “존댓말” (jondaenmal) is used in Korean, the speaker expresses their respect for their interlocutor’s higher status. Thus, the verb ending “-겠다” (getda) is often used in honorific speech in Korean. As we can see in the following example, in which the speaker is addressing a camera, “-겠다” (-getda) is used to mark a consideration and respect for the interlocutor’s opinion.

(speaking to the camera)

S1 : 아 밤 되면 진짜 이쁘긴 하겠다.

a bam doe-myeon jinjja ibbeu-gin ha-getda.

ah night be-if really pretty-ADJ do-FUT.PRESUMPTIVE

It’d be even better at night.

A speaker rarely wants to offend their interlocutor based on a difference in opinion, therefore the marker “-겠다” (-getda) is used in order to be polite and indicate respect toward their interlocutor.

It is also important to note that using the “-겠다” (-getda) verb ending can change the fundamental meaning of the verb itself, along with changing the semantic meaning of the sentence it is in. For example, in the following conversation:

S1: 긴장 돼?

ginjang dwae?

nervous be

Are you nervous?

S2: 긴장 돼.

ginjang dwae.

nervous be

I am nervous.

S1: 진짜?

Jinjja?

really

Really?

S2: 응, 왠지 모르겠어.

eung, waenji moreu-gesseo.

yes somehow not know-FUT.PRESUMPTIVE

Yeah, I don’t know why.

Speaker 2 chose to use the verb “모르겠다” (moreugetda) in order to express that he personally does not know why he feels nervous. If speaker 2 had chosen to use the verb “모르다” (moreuda) without the “-겠다” (-getda) ending, he would have indicated that he does not know the base answer to the question of whether or not he feels nervous. It would change the meaning to something like “I don’t know if I am nervous.”

In contrast, by choosing to use a verb ending “-(으)ㄹ 게요” (-(eu)l geyo) over any others, a speaker might be trying to code in their account for their interlocutor’s opinion on a matter. In the example below, speaker 2 uses the expected future verb marker “-(으)ㄹ 게요” (-(eu)l geyo) in order to express something like “I’ll build the house, however if you say otherwise I will not.”

S1: 들어와 들어와 들어와.

deureowa deureowa deureowa.

come in come in come in

Come in come in come in.

S2: 집은 내가 만들게.

jib-eun nae-ga mandeu-lge.

house-TOP 1SG-SUB make-FUT.EXPECTANT

I’ll build the house.

S1: 우리 집이야.

uri jib-iya.

1PL house-be

It’s my house.

The verb marker “-데요” (-deyo), while also used to soften speech and add a level of politeness, is used for a different function than that of “-겠다” (-getda). This verb marker is used to express the speaker’s background knowledge on the subject as well as to code for a response in the affirmative from the interlocutor.

S1: 아이언맨이 있는 것 같은데요.

aieonmaen-i it-neun geot gat-eundeyo.

iron man-SUB be-TOP thing same-CONNECTIVE.ENDING

I think that’s Iron Man.

S2: 아이언맨!

aieonmaen!

iron man

Iron Man!

In this example, speaker 1 chooses to use the “-데요” (-deyo) ending in order to express that he expects an affirmative response from his interlocutor. The use of this marker also indicates that speaker 1 is willing to adjust his stance on what he speaks about based on the response he receives from his interlocutor. While both “-데요” (-deyo) and “-겠다” (-getda) are used in order to soften speech and express a personal opinion or knowledge, “-겠다” (-getda) does not typically code for any type of change in the statement, where “-데요” (-deyo) does.

While the marker “것 같다” (geot gatda) does code a similar meaning to “-겠다” (-getda), the latter is only used on verbs, where the former is used on nouns as well as verbs in noun form, as seen in the following example:

S1: 봐 물 위에 떠 있는 거 같지?

bwa mul wi-e ddeo it-neun geo gat-ji?

look water above-LOC float be-TOP thing same-CONNECTIVE.ENDING

Doesn’t he seem to be floating on the water?

S1: 오오오 그지 물 위에 있는 거 같지.

ooo geuji mul wi-e it-neun geo gat-ji.

ooo right water above-LOC be-TOP thing same-CONNECTIVE.ENDING

Doesn’t he? He seems to be floating on the water.

The speaker in this example chooses to use the marker “것 같다” (geot gatda) marker over “-겠다” (-getda) in order to code his opinion and the “it seems like” functionality into the verb “있다” (itda), meaning “to be”. The verb “있다” (itda) is changed into the noun form “있는” (itneun) in order to be modified by “것 같다” (geot gatda), which is not necessary when using the “-겠다” (-getda) marker.

Using the future presumptive marker “-겠다” (-getda) thus indicates that while the speaker intends to be polite to their interlocutor, they are still mostly concerned with expressing their own opinion on a matter, unlike with the markers “-데요” (-deyo) and “-(으)ㄹ 게요” (-(eu)l geyo). The use of “-겠다” (-getda) also allows the speaker to mark this politeness and softening on verbs, where “것 같다” (geot gatda) marks this on nouns only.

Korean speakers are constantly taking into account the background, status, and opinions of their interlocutors in order to have effective conversations with them. Using the future presumptive verb marker “-겠다” (-getda) is just one way Korean speakers do this.

Bibliography:

채널 NCT DAILY. 2019, May 4. JUNGWOO X MIAMI : Wyndwood Walls & Peruvian food mukband (Feat. JOHNNY) | NCT 127 HIT THE STATES. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mdrRZ4P7bwM.

채널 NCT DAILY. 2019, July 11. NCT 127 X VANCOUVER : Crushing on Vancouver (Feat. Mysterious Hand) | NCT 127 HIT THE STATES. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4hemezVsyyY&t=670s.

채널 NCT DAILY. 2019, June 16. Welcome to my hometown & Sleepover with DY, MK | Johnny’s Communication Center (JCC) Ep. 10. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XDd5yGt_cRA&t=624s.

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America’s War on Japanese Heritage Education

Anonymous — Mon, 03 May 2021 21:39:05 +0000

America’s War on Japanese Heritage Education Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 05/03/2021 - 15:39

How have ideologies about language in the US led to the suppression of Japanese heritage language education?

Student: Cole Cantor
Course: LING 1000 - Language in U.S. Society
Mentor: Katherine Arnold-Murray
LURA 2021

How have ideologies about language in the US led to the suppression of Japanese heritage language education? In a 1919 letter regarding the annual Federal Survey of Education, Superintendent of Public Instruction in Hawaii, Vaughan MacCaughey, wrote “The bulk of Hawaii’s school population attends Japanese Language schools six days per week, throughout practically the entire year. The teachers in these schools are all aliens and are imported from Japan. They have little or no knowledge of American institutions or ideals” (cited in Asato, 2003). One would assume that based on the United States’ underlying philosophy of freedom, those who immigrate here would have the right to teach their children about their people’s language and heritage. However, in a country that desires white, English dominance in its educational systems, the connection that many people try to form with their heritage can be threatened and compromised.

Despite the diverse ethnic, cultural, and linguistic backgrounds of people living in the US, American society overall has perpetuated a standard language ideology, which has established monolingual public education systems educating children in one specific “standard” variety of English (Lippi-Green, 2012). This led to the suppression of the teaching and use of languages other than English, as the US education system’s policies demand cultural and linguistic assimilation. Heritage language schools are established with the object of teaching children of American immigrants about their culture and language so that they can form a more meaningful connection with their family and ethnic history.

Before World War II, Japanese language education in the US was spearheaded by the Issei Nikkei, “issei” meaning first generation and “nikkei” being a term used to refer to any generation of Japanese immigrants.

“Issei”, or first-generation Japanese immigrants
https://reference.jrank.org/japanese/Issei.html

By 1920, 43% of Hawaii’s population identified as Japanese, most having immigrated from late Meiji-era Japan in search of work after suffering financial ruin from Japan’s governmental reconstruction (Tamura, 1993). The Nikkei of Hawaii wanted a way to teach their children about their Japanese heritage and language, and established heritage schools around the islands to do so. The American Bureau of Education soon took notice, and designed the 1919 Federal Survey of Education to investigate 163 Japanese heritage language schools in Hawaii that the government complained were teaching ‘Anti-American values’, like Buddhism, to their Japanese-American students. Xenophobic accusations like this have been aimed at immigrants throughout America’s history, and are often linked to judgements about language. Subsequently in 1920, Hawaii’s territorial legislature passed a series of laws and regulations aimed at abolishing Japanese language schools. In 1927, however, a group of Issei parents and community leaders challenged these malicious laws, and the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals declared them unconstitutional (Tamura, 1993).

Kimi Kondo (1998) notes that Japanese speakers in Hawaii, US education policy encourages subtractive language assimilation, while for English monolinguals, it encourages additive foreign language learning. Problems like this are now deeply rooted in the American education system, and leave immigrant communities feeling isolated and confused. One group impacted by these problems was the “Shin-nisei”, or new second generation of Japanese people living in America, as they didn’t have many options for accelerated learning programs to strengthen their existing Japanese language backgrounds. Kondo finds that US education programs teaching Japanese as a foreign language were inefficient for these speakers, while Japanese language schools also had declined in popularity and support. This trend is yet another result of the American effort to make English the national language despite the US not having an “official” language (Lippi-Green, 2012).

“Shin-nisei”, or new second-generation Japanese immigrants
https://www.nichibei.org/2011/03/connecting-over-coffee-shin-issei-and-shin-nisei-discus s-cultural-nuances/

Although much of the history behind Japanese heritage education in the US revolves around repression and forced assimilation, Japanese immigrants have persisted and continued to establish heritage schools. Many of these schools are designed to supplement Japanese-American students’ public education and are typically only open on weekends. Educational approaches differ by school, but the overall goal of these schools is to connect children of Japanese immigrants to their language and culture, an opportunity they don’t have in their regular schooling (Doerr, 2010).

Without a well-established heritage education system, immigrant communities in America are under more pressure to assimilate into a culture that may not align with their values. Because heritage education upholds the freedom to understand and express one’s own culture, language, and values, awareness and funding for these vital programs, such as those in Hawaii, are critical.

Works Cited

Asato, Noriko. "Mandating Americanization: Japanese Language Schools and the Federal Survey of Education in Hawai'i, 1916–1920." History of Education Quarterly, vol. 43, no. 1, 2003;2017;, pp. 10-38.
Doerr, Neriko, and Kiri Lee. "Inheriting "Japanese-ness" Diversely: Heritage Practices at a Weekend Japanese Language School in the United States." Critical Asian Studies, vol. 42, no. 2, 2010, pp. 191-216.
Kondo, Kimi. "The Paradox of US Language Policy and Japanese Language Education in Hawaii." International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, vol. 1, no. 1, 1998, pp. 47-64.
Lippi-Green, Rosina. English with an Accent: Language, Ideology and Discrimination in the United States. Taylor & Francis, 2012.
Tamura, Eileen H. “The English-Only Effort, the Anti-Japanese Campaign, and Language Acquisition in the Education of Japanese Americans in Hawaii, 1915-40.” History of Education Quarterly, vol. 33, no. 1, 1993, pp. 37–58.

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To Yeet or Not to Yeet?: African American Slang Beyond Vine

Anonymous — Mon, 03 May 2021 20:20:19 +0000

To Yeet or Not to Yeet?: African American Slang Beyond Vine Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 05/03/2021 - 14:20

The combination of language and gesture in yeet Vines may help us understand how African American slang becomes incorporated into the lexicons and identities of non-African American speakers.

Name: Caeli McCusker
Course Title: Language and Digital Media (LING 3800)
Advisor: Prof. Kira Hall
LURA 2021

Research on the use of language in digital media has shown us how slang that originates on one platform can quickly spread across other platforms to become used more broadly as Internet slang. The recently defunct platform called Vine, a video sharing site allowing users to create short videos of 6-7 seconds, is an important source of Internet slang. Slang terms like yeet, on fleek, and gucci all found their origins in Vine. My research project for Professor Kira Hall’s course “Language and Digital Media” aimed to understand why Vine slang spreads so easily. One reason is that Vine videos are easily quotable for their short nature and are also often comedic: they live on when people quote them for reasons of humor in everyday conversation. But there is another reason why Vine slang spreads so easily, and this has to do with how these terms are tied to a particular body movement or gesture in the Vine videos that include them.

Consider, for example, the two Vines below, which feature speakers using the term yeet in different ways. The first video, uploaded in 2014 and thought to be the “original” yeet Vine, suggests that yeet is a word you yell when throwing your arms in a downward movement. The second video, uploaded four years later, suggests that yeet is a word you yell when throwing an object. Notice how both uses of yeet, in spite of these seemingly different meanings, are associated with a body movement that involves throwing the arms downward. My research suggests that the tying of slang to a movement of the body, as in these videos, contributes to the widespread circulation of these terms.

Original “Ya Yeet” Vine, uploaded to YouTube Apr 2, 2014 https://youtu.be/xUEqDQOjAlA
Other original “Yeet” vine, uploaded to YouTube Feb 28, 2018 https://youtu.be/JqdDrYuefEQ

This leads me to the question of how these terms circulate beyond the communities originally associated with their use, such as African American speakers in the case of yeet. When I was researching how the word yeet was used on Twitter, I discovered that speakers fall into two groups of users: those who reference the slang term’s African American English (AAE) origins and those who attribute no connection to the term’s AAE origins. The latter group is exemplified by the two tweets below. The first tweet references the Vine user in the 2018 video above and asks whether she received appropriate compensation, implying that she was responsible for coining the term, while the second tweet makes comic use of the term’s later association with throwing an object. Interestingly, the users who seem unaware of the term’s AAE origins are also more likely to use yeet for reasons of humor, as in the second tweet. How did yeet travel beyond its original formulation and become part of the “communicative repertoires” (Rymes, 2012) of a broader set of speakers?

The association of gesture and meaning is powerful for remembering. Digital media scholar Stefka Hristova (2013) explored this link in her analysis of the role played by bodily hexis in the “Doing a Lynndie” gesture that circulated on a video-sharing site after the Abu Ghraib torture controversy. A term from sociologist Pierre Bourdieu, bodily hexis is a way of “standing, speaking, walking, and thereby feeling and thinking” that is given meaning by cultural norms. As with the yeet poses below, the movement repeatedly seen in the Vine is memorable and leads to reproductions in new contexts, also known as “recontextualization” (Baumann and Briggs, 1990). In other words, the circulation of yeet is importantly tied to the gestures that coordinate with it. Once imprinted on the body through gesture, yeet is easily recontextualized in new formats in ways that move beyond the meaning of the term displayed in the original Vine.

When terms like yeet are recontextualized in new contexts, such as Twitter, the meaning of these terms is moved even further from the original source. In linguistics, the phenomenon by which terms move away from an original source and have a weakened link with the source material is called indexical bleaching (Squires, 2014). Users who hang onto the original context of yeet often do so because they identify with the term’s Black creators and its origins in AAE. However, the indexical bleaching of words like yeet allows such vocabulary to be incorporated into the mainstream seamlessly without recognition to the Black community.

The humorous use of embodied slang terms such as yeet is a case in point. As sociolinguists have shown, when AAE is spoken by non-AAE speakers it is often used in a “mock” way—for comedic effect rather than as a legitimate way of speaking. The AAE-originating Vine slang I researched is often used in this way to establish communicative repertoires that make their users appear funny and laidback. However, there is another group of users out there who feel deeply that the AAE origins of these terms should be acknowledged. The reliance of a term like yeet on gesture may help us understand why words with AAE origins continue to populate Internet slang and humor, without this acknowledgment.

Bibliography

Bauman, R., & Briggs, C. L. (1990). Poetics and performances as critical perspectives on language and social life. Annual Review of Anthropology, 19(1), 59–88. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.an.19.100190.000423
Hristova, S. (2013) “Doing a Lynndie”: Iconography of a Gesture, Visual Anthropology, 26:5, 430-443, DOI: 10.1080/08949468.2013.833830
Squires, L. (2014). From TV Personality to Fans and Beyond: Indexical Bleaching and the Diffusion of a Media Innovation. Journal of Linguistic Anthropology, 24(1), 42-62. doi:10.1111/jola.12036

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Digital Intimacy in ASMR Videos on YouTube

Anonymous — Mon, 03 May 2021 20:05:38 +0000

Digital Intimacy in ASMR Videos on YouTube Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 05/03/2021 - 14:05

Can YouTube videos be intimate?

Alexis Schlagenhauf
Language In Digital Media (LING 3800)
Advisor: Dr. Kira Hall
LURA 2021

Can YouTube videos be intimate? ASMR video content may very well show that they can be. ASMR is a non-scientific term that stands for ‘Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response’, which specifically refers to a pleasurable, relaxing tingling sensation in the back of one's head, caused by certain sounds or stimuli. There are a wide variety of potential ASMR ‘triggers,’ such as tapping and especially quiet or whispering voices. On YouTube, an ASMR community has sprung up, where ASMR creators (dubbed ASMRtists by the community) produce videos intended to trigger viewers’ ASMR response, or simply to relax or calm the audience. However, researchers such as Joceline Andersen (2014) have found another important part of these ASMR videos, which is intimacy. Andersen has argued that the connection between the video creator and each viewer is an intimate connection, just not in the way we would traditionally use the term. In this way, ASMR videos use a form of nonstandard, digitally-mediated intimacy in order to create the connection and even the ASMR effect.

My project, titled “Digitally Mediated Intimacy in ASMR Role-Play Videos,” addresses how these videos create this remediated form of intimacy. While other work on ASMR videos has shown certain methods that are commonly used in ASMR videos, such as embodied touching and domesticity, this paper focuses on adjacency pairs as the main unit of intimacy, as described by Gottman and Driver (2005). An adjacency pair is a unit of speech between two speakers in which the first utterance calls for a second response from another party. For example, a question followed by an answer, or a greeting followed by another greeting. Gottman and Driver’s work on marriage conflict describes a certain adjacency pair as a unit of intimacy, known as bids for intimacy. “Digitally Mediated Intimacy in ASMR Role-Play Videos” looks at these bids for intimacy in ASMR videos with one caveat, that the ASMR videos are only half of the conversation, and thus only feature half of each adjacency pair, with the second pair part implied by the creator in order for the viewer to be, or at least feel like, an active participant in the creation of intimacy. Below I include two examples of how these bids work from one ASMR video by Gentle Whispering, who is one of, if not the, most popular ASMR creators on YouTube.

From Sleep-inducing Haircut ASMR | Shampoo | Page Flipping | Scissors by Gentle Whispering ASMR:

“Have you tried this before? It’s so delicious so {yummy/healing}. (long pause) Okay” (Gentle Whispering ASMR, 2018).
“[Long pause while clipping scissors] Yes I know it's a relaxing sound isn’t it a little [clips scissors twice] sound like that I agree.” (Gentle Whispering ASMR, 2018).

In the first example we see a bid for intimacy in the form of a question which Gentle Whispering askes to the viewer. She then waits for a little bit, which acts as a space where an imagined listener utters an imagined response for the second part of the bid. Gentle Whispering then confirms that she “heard” the response by uttering “Okay.” The second example is also similar, however rather than Gentle Whispering initiating the bid for intimacy, the imagined second party does, and all that is actually present in the video is Gentle Whispering agreeing with the listener that hair clipping sounds are relaxing. By having these one sided conversations, the listener is able to feel like they are participating in an intimate conversation with the ASMRtist, even though a premade video which thousands of other people also watch.

YouTube commenters on these ASMR videos show clearly that the viewers are aware of these pairs, and indeed feel like participants in this pre-recorded, implied conversation, as they even express the feelings of intimacy created in them by each video.

This work is just a baseline explanation of certain techniques ASMR creators use in order to create the ASMR feeling and intimacy in their videos. There are a wide variety of different kinds of ASMR videos which are understudied, as is the whole community. However, this paper shows how the internet is changing our ideas of intimacy, romance, and more through digitally-mediated remediation.

Works Cited

Andersen, J. (2014). Now You’ve Got the Shiveries. Television & New Media,16(8), 683-700. doi:10.1177/1527476414556184

Gottman, J. & Driver, J. (2005). Dysfunctional Marital Conflict and Everyday Marital Interaction, Journal of Divorce & Remarriage, 43:3-4, 63-77, doi:10.1300/J087v43n03_04

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