Leadership Academy: Linguistics Abstracts
CHRISTINA CHARRON (Maria Jaramillo), 2006
A COMPARISON OF THE COST OF HIGHER EDUCATION: WHAT ARE WE REALLY PAYING FOR?
Although a college-level education can be received at both public and private institutes of higher learning, when it comes down to it, is the student is paying mainly for the name of his or her college, rather than the quality of education? A comparison between Endicott College, a small private college located in the northeastern part of Massachusetts, and Fitchburg State College, a small State college located in the northern part of Massachusetts, tested the hypothesis that the quality of education does not vary much between these schools. Although areas of concentration and services varied in some areas such as housing accommodations and parking, there were also many areas in which the two schools had similarities. These similarities include the forms of accreditation, NCAA intercollegiate sports, dining services, etc. However, because of state dictated course work as well as other factors required for graduation, it seems that the colleges varied little in the academic format. The determining factor when comparing these two schools is the effort of the student, not the public or private sector.
BRIDGET TUCKER (Keyvan Karbasioun), 2007
OTRAS LENGUAS: THE WORLD OF A BILINGUAL CHILD
Multilingualism has become very important in this country; President Bush has called for more bi- and –multilingual people to help combat the war on terror. Businessmen take night classes in Japanese to be able to communicate with potential buyers or sellers, while high school students get to choose between taking classes in Spanish or French or German. However, there is another group of people whose amazing ability to pick up new languages has long been ignored: children. This thesis examined the advantages and disadvantages facing bi- and multilingual children. Interviews were conducted with a variety of people: bi- and multi-lingual children, adults who grew up speaking another language, foreign language teachers, and child development specialists. Extensive research (the Internet, journals, and books) on the pros and cons of teaching foreign languages to children revealed that there are many physical reasons why children are able to pick up new languages so quickly, and that there is a certain age that it becomes more difficult for them to learn. Unfortunately, the research also turned up some problems that multilingual children may have.
MAO YANG (Maria Jaramillo), 2008
SECOND LANGUAGE LEARNING
Over the years there have been a growing number of Asians and Hispanics living in the United States. As young Asian and Hispanic children are raised in the United States they all have the opportunity to learn the American language as well as their first language whether it is at home, at school, from family and/or friends. This project researches the English, Spanish and Hmong languages in order to discover the differences in language development with regards to pronunciation, grammar, and syntax. Using research from different texts and personal knowledge, findings show that understanding as well as visual interpretation of sound symbol relationship among the usage of letters within the three languages increases a child’s knowledge of the separate languages along with assisting children in learning how to speak, read and write words and sentences whether in English, Spanish, or Hmong. These findings will provide an understanding of the similarities and differences among the languages in relation to letters and letter orders to create certain words.
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