School of Languages and Linguistics - Theses

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Integration of World Englishes into EFL Materials: A Case Study in the Brazilian Federal Network of Vocational, Scientific and Technological Education

Lima, Jefferson ( 2021)

The evolution of the English language into a global lingua franca and learners’ needs in the 21st century sociolinguistic landscape have drawn attention to calls for a paradigm shift in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL). With this concern in mind, integrating World Englishes (WE) into English as a Foreign Language (EFL) materials is considered important in order to better prepare learners for using English in international contexts and to foster curriculum innovation. Aiming to examine how this integration could be made into EFL materials, a case study was conducted in the Brazilian Federal Network of Vocational, Scientific and Technological Education, focusing specifically on EFL materials developed for the e-Tec Language without Borders Programme released by the Ministry of Education. Making use of an autoethnographic approach, recollections of conversations with four writers and modules 1 and 2 materials were analysed in search of suggestions for WE integration into the program materials. Main findings revealed that a wider range of English varieties were included in module 2 and that module 1 was more focused on American and British English, which is in line with traditional English Language Teaching (ELT) in Brazil. In spite of the representation of WE in the materials, no activities drawing learners’ attention to the different varieties of English used or attempting to raise students’ awareness of English as a global lingua franca were identified, except for a comparison between American and British English. Also, it was found that ideological divergences regarding English language use and teaching among materials writers impacted on the expected outcomes in terms of WE inclusion. Based on the findings, five suggestions were made to integrate WE into the materials: 1. Balanced integration/representation of WE; 2. Noticeable English varieties; 3. Complementary WE activities; 4. Authentic audios; and 5. Integration of writers and learners.
Middle morphology utilisation in Koine Greek

Cruickshanks, Amy Louise ( 2021)

Scholars of Greek have long been aware of the existence of middle morphology. Given it is a verbal inflectional category distinct from what has been termed active morphology, middle morphology is typically categorised as a voice marker, yet there is some debate as to its utilisation. In recent times, there have been two major approaches taken by researchers. The first is a semantic approach whereby middle morphology is viewed as significant in all its usages. The second is an oppositional approach whereby middle morphology is viewed as significant only where it is being used in opposition to active inflection for semantic and/or pragmatic purposes. In this thesis, middle morphology in Koine Greek is investigated to determine how well its utilisation can be accounted for by each of these approaches. The research is corpus based, focussing on all indicative mode verbs with middle inflection in the New Testament in the present, aorist and future tenses. In relation to the semantic approach, middle morphology is considered in regards to the semantic feature of Subject-affectedness. The findings show that although a majority of the verbs with middle inflection in the corpus can be associated with this feature, not all can. We also find, however, that a small number of the verbs which are not associated with the feature of Subject-affectedness in Koine Greek have older senses which do in fact have this semantic feature, signifying that the occurrence of middle morphology with these verbs is not arbitrary. In relation to the oppositional approach, five types of oppositional relationships are found to exist in the language: same participants – Subject switch, anticausative, activity target, possessive, and beneficiary. Of these five oppositional relationships, the most frequently attested is the same participants – Subject switch, seen with approximately 70% of verbs with a middle oppositive sense. Although the oppositional approach accounts for a smaller percentage of middle inflected verbs overall, the findings show that it is able to explain middle inflection for a proportion of verbs not accounted for by the semantic approach; in the majority of cases, however, verbs in Koine Greek with a middle oppositive sense can also be associated with the feature Subject-affectedness. The findings also show that some non-oppositive middle verbs in Koine Greek are attested in an oppositional relationship in an earlier language stage, whilst others are found to have a sense related to a middle oppositive sense either in Koine Greek or an earlier form of the language. These results indicate that the occurrence of middle morphology with these verbs is not arbitrary, but can be explained by semantic motivations or diachronic factors. This research shows that whilst neither a semantic approach nor an oppositional approach can account for all occurrences of middle morphology in Koine Greek, both approaches need to be considered together, along with diachronic language changes, to understand its utilisation.
An acoustic study of New Caledonian French vowels

Lewis, Eleanor Mary ( 2021)

This thesis presents an acoustic phonetic investigation of the realisation of vowels in New Caledonian French (NCF). The primary aims of this study were to ascertain the phonemic vowel inventory of the variety, and to describe these vowels’ acoustic phonetic features. Speech data for this project were collected at the University of New Caledonia (in the capital, Noumea), during a data collection trip undertaken in 2014. Twelve speakers of NCF, all undergraduate students at the university, were recorded performing a series of speech elicitation tasks. Three experiments were carried out as part of this study. The first focuses on the realisation of oral vowels, with particular interest paid to the mid vowel series (close-mid /e, ø, o/ and open-mid /ɛ, œ, ɔ/), and the open vowels (/a, ɑ/), which had been highlighted as areas of interest in past studies of NCF. Results of this study confirm that, overall, this variety seems to contain only a single series of phonemic mid vowels, which are realised as close-mid or open-mid variants according to the complementary loi de position. There is also evidence of only a single open vowel in NCF; however, contrary to previous reports, this appears to be realised as a central rather than back vowel here. The study’s second experiment concerns the realisation of the nasal vowels /ɛ̃, œ̃, ɑ̃, ɔ̃/. As proposed by previous researchers, the NCF nasal vowel inventory is generally reduced to only two phonemes, one front (i.e. merger of /ɛ̃/ and /œ̃/) and one back (merger of /ɑ̃/ and /ɔ̃/). The remaining phonemes have phonetic qualities of approximately [ɐ̃] (near-open, central, unrounded) for the front vowel, and [ɔ̝̃] to [õ̞] (raised open-mid to lowered close-mid, back, rounded) for the back vowel. The study’s final experiment investigates the realisation of the special oral vowel schwa. The experiment’s aims were to report how often schwa is realised in different word positions in NCF, and to outline its acoustic phonetic characteristics when it is realised. Results suggest that schwa is systematically present in word-initial syllables, alternates with zero in medial syllables, and is very rarely realised word-finally. Overall, NCF schwa is more similar in quality to the close-mid front rounded vowel [ø] than the open-mid [œ]. Initial-syllable schwa is spectrally indistinguishable from [ø], but differs from open-mid [œ] in the frequencies of F1– F3. Medial-syllable schwa is lower in F2 and F3 than initial-syllable schwa, and also differs from both comparison vowels in the frequency of at least one formant (F3 for [ø]; F1 and F2 for [œ]). All three experiments also reveal a substantial degree of interspeaker variation, including in the number of phonemic contrasts maintained, as well as the finer phonetic detail of the vowels’ realisation. This finding underscores the diversity present within NCF, and suggests that future sociophonetic studies are warranted to further explore this variation. This study contributes to our knowledge of NCF – which remains an understudied variety – and of regional variation in French phonetics and phonology more generally.
Language Ideological Debate over the Spread of English in global contexts: A French Perspective

De Saint Léger, Diane Suzanne ( 2021)

This study examines the legitimisation of discourse used in national debates concerning language. It explores this phenomenon from the point of view of France as a case study. The focus of this investigation corresponds to the moment when France, otherwise known for its strong form of language protectionism, proactively engaged in language reform in the tertiary sector to remove obstacles in the implementation of English Medium of Instruction (MOI). This reform was put forth in 2013 on the occasion of a broader reform of the tertiary sector (known as loi sur l'enseignement superieur et la recherche or loi ESR or Loi Fioraso). Article 2 of the ESR bill constitutes the specific focus of this study. It sought to abolish restrictions imposed by the Toubon Law, which had enforced the sole use of French in various public domains including higher education since 1994 (Chansou, 1997; Henry, 2008). This period constitutes an important symbolic if not material milestone in France because it marked a clear institutional departure from forms of language protectionism pursued by the French government since the 70s and that the 1994 Toubon Law exemplified (Chansou, 2003). As such, the debate provides a privileged window to observe and capture how the local and national were legitimised in light of new power centres and scrutinise discursive adjustments (if any) made by detractors or proponents of the reform to suit new global realities and legitimise change or the status quo (Duchêne & Heller, 2012). The debate is thus envisaged as a manifestation of unresolved tension between modernist understanding of language, which construes the language-nation as indissociable, and globalisation processes associated with neo-liberal ideals of deregulation, enhanced flexibility and competitivity. The conceptual framework is located at the confluence of a discourse-historical approach or DHA, a branch of critical discourse analysis (CDA) that takes into account the broader socio-political and historical context, and linguistic anthropology, from which the field of language ideology is derived. The study is based on a 126,737-word corpus manually assembled by the researcher, using a combination of techniques derived from corpus linguistics (i.e. calculation of frequency, keyness, dispersion, collocation) and manual analyses to trace recurrent as well as emerging narratives in the data or indeed reveal absences. The study demonstrates that rather than a ‘simple replacement of the old primary scale’ that the nation state represents with a new one, ‘complex, unstable and contested relationship and tensions among different scales’ (p.112) intermeshed in discourse to legitimise change in contemporary contexts of globalisation. The way in which particular scales and ideals of language are mobilised in language legitimisation discourse is theorised in a model of language ideologies, which explicitly links language ideals with orientation to power. Implications can inform new approaches in analysis and inform debates surrounding the role of national languages in globalisation contexts.
Investigating Online Collaborative Writing Among Arabic L2 Students

Almalki, Hanan Salem J ( 2021)

Collaborative writing (CW) activities have captured the attention of second language instructors and researchers over the past two decades, reporting their potential benefits for the second language (L2) learners. With the growing interest in web 2.0 tools and their affordance for collaboration, online collaborative writing tools (e.g., Google Docs) have been increasingly implemented in second language classrooms. To date, most of the studies that examined the nature of students’ interaction and collaboration in online collaborative writing mode have been conducted in English as L2 classes or European languages over a short period of time. This longitudinal study aimed to investigate the nature of students’ online interaction when completing CW tasks in Arabic as a second language (ASL) classes in Saudi Arabia. This study was conducted in two Arabic language institutes in Saudi Arabian universities. Thirty-one ASL students participated in this study which was implemented online outside the regular classrooms over a 15-week semester. The participants formed eight pairs and five triads and jointly completed four collaborative writing tasks (two argumentative and two descriptive). The participants were required to complete each task over two weeks using Google Docs for writing their texts, supplemented with WhatsApp chat for their discussion. The study used a convergent mixed methods design that involved the collection of qualitative and quantitative data from online and offline sources (comments, history revision, texts in Google Docs, WhatsApp chat, interviews, questionnaire, observation notes, DocuViz). Drawing on Storch’s (2002) model of dyadic interaction, I investigated patterns of interaction that the ASL students formed during their online collaborative writing activities. Data analysis identified five patterns of interaction: cooperative, collaborative, active/passive (active/passive/passive for triads), facilitator/contributor (facilitator/contributor/contributor for triads), expert/novice). The findings show that pairs and triads formed relatively stable patterns of interaction across the four CW tasks and most pairs formed more collaborative patterns in the last CW task. Cooperative and collaborative patterns were the predominant patterns of interaction. The findings also identified salient features associated with each pattern of interaction. This study also examined the relationship between the size of the group (pairs vs triads) and language learning. The findings showed that pairs and triads focused on language, content, and structure related episodes during their online interaction. However, triads produced more language-related episodes (LREs) and were able to correctly resolve most of their LREs than pairs. The findings also revealed that pairs and triads used the two online tools (Google Docs and WhatsApp) simultaneously to foster their online collaboration. Students deliberated over language in Google docs while the WhatsApp chats showed more discussion of content and structure-related issues. Multiple factors emerged from the interview data to explain students’ online behaviour and the patterns of interaction. Using Sociocultural theory and Activity Theory that informed this study, these factors were categorized as individual, tools, group, task-related factors and were discussed. The study concludes by proposing several implications for theory and L2 learning pedagogy. Particularly, this study provides new insights into learners’ interaction in synchronous and asynchronous online collaborative L2 writing activities, and the opportunities that provide for language learning.
The role of translation technology in translator education and employment: A multi-stakeholder approach to curriculum development

Hao, Yu ( 2021)

Improvement in the quality of machine translation has led to transformations in the way we translate and teach translation. So does this mean that human translators will be supplanted by automated translation? And if so, should we stop training tomorrow’s professionals? If translation technology is here to stay while translator education continues, how can we adapt to the technology-driven external changes? This mixed-methods study sets out to explore the potential impact of translation technology on postgraduate education in the field of written translation. It does so from the perspective of three social actors: translation technology teachers, incoming Master students, and recent Master graduates. Through a multiple-stakeholder approach to curriculum development, three studies are conducted: 1) a syllabus critique, 2) a survey of students’ motivations and perceptions, and 3) a graduate employment survey. The data are mainly based on case studies conducted with respect to the Master of Translation program at the University of Melbourne. As a starting point, the research examines the current status of higher education in translation technology in Australia and New Zealand. Analysis of technology syllabi and teachers’ responses reveals that most translation programs offer translation-technology courses to train translators who become not only competent and critical in the use of technology but can do things that machines cannot do. While there is less consensus on how much emphasis to place on ‘technology’ in the curriculum or on the specific technology-related topics covered, most translation-technology teachers agree that teaching approaches need to be adapted to specific teaching contents – there is no one sure way to teach technology. In the second study, entry-level students’ questions about translation give other perspectives on technological advances. In addition to interests in tools that enhance productivity and in efficient ways to use technology, the Master students also requested information about the current market, pay, as well as other career options they can pursue with a degree in Chinese-English translation. Despite students’ growing interest, these professional issues seemed to be marginalised in the current translation curricula in Australia and New Zealand. The third study shows that recent graduates of the Master of Translation program at the University of Melbourne have secured employment in the face of potentially disruptive technologies. Based on the employment pattern identified in the survey, postgraduate translator education is serving more than just the translation industry: it also serves a much broader range of language-oriented industries, as well as higher education itself. According to a skill-based analysis of graduates’ feedback on the translation skills required in their workplaces, graduates with different career paths had significantly different opinions about the value of different skill types. While not all graduate groups placed a high priority on technology-related translation skills, the graduates generally all valued fundamental translation (including advanced language skills) and soft human skills. Thus, we are still right to place traditional translation skills and advanced language skills at the core of the curriculum, and a diversified curriculum should allow some flexibility in customising learning plans in order to accommodate different needs. Interactive teaching activities and materials can also enhance the acquisition of generic skills. These results should be applicable not just to the Master program at the University of Melbourne but also to other translator-education institutions that find themselves in similar situations. This empirical research hopefully helps identify the ways translator education can adapt to technological advances and bring teaching closer to the demands of both students and the professional world.
“Camouflage” as an affective and counterhegemonic strategy in Pedro Lemebel’s literature

Uribe Ugalde, Julio Cesar ( 2021)

Chilean writer, performer and radio presenter Pedro Lemebel (1952-2015) represents a unique voice in Chilean contemporary popular literature and culture. Born and raised in deprived conditions – declaring himself pobre and maricon – Lemebel imprinted the essence of marginality into his composition, becoming an icon of otherness during Chile’s transition years. Scholarly production engaged with Lemebel’s cultural work is vast. Although most studies have concentrated on the author’s queer and political discourse as expressed in his earliest and most canonical production, a new trend to investigate other themes and less explored areas of his oeuvre has lately arisen, focusing – for example – on his references to films (Rufinelli 2020), photography (Contreras 2020) and music (Campuzano 2017, Mateo del Pino 2020, Party & Achondo 2020) among other topics. This thesis has identified that one aspect not fully covered by previous research, and which requires attention is the articulation of popular songs and popular biographical narratives in Lemebel’s literature, what we could call the “cultural residues” of his composition (Richard 2004). Apparently, such references would have a descriptive or secondary role in the author’s work, being overshadowed by the vigour of his queer and political voice. Yet, in this thesis, I will aim to demonstrate that they are indeed insightful and relevant, as they would unveil a strategy to reach a low- and middle-income readership in a process identified as affective and counterhegemonic. However, this dual tactic would not be apparently visible. On the contrary, it would be “camouflaged,” expected to be located, deciphered and construed by a reader with “cultural competence” (Bourdieu 1984), one who might share the writer’s same socio-cultural and geographical background. This dissertation seeks to analyse and interpret in which ways popular both songs and biographical narratives might be strategically embedded in Lemebel’s literature. To what extent do such references portray an affective or counterhegemonic aim? Is this strategy visible in his cronicas only, or also in his poem and novel? What is the meaning behind the songs cited in his cronicas? Are biographical narratives exemplary or non-exemplary? I will aim to answer these and other questions by analysing the strategy of “camouflage” in Lemebel’s least studied production: his poem “Manifiesto (hablo por mi diferencia)” ([1986] 1996), his novel Tengo miedo torero (2001), his late manuscripts Serenata cafiola (2008), Hablame de amores (2012), and Mi amiga Gladys (2016), as well as the cronicas radiales he read on his show “Cancionero” on Chilean Radio Tierra station between 1994 and 2002.
Design and validation of an L2-Chinese interactional competence test

Dai, David Wei ( 2021)

This thesis documents the design and validation of a computer-mediated interactional competence (IC) test for L2-Chinese speakers. Adopting an argument-based approach to test validation, the researcher designed the test following a task-based needs analysis (TBNA), eliciting the perspectives from L2-Chinese speakers, L1-Chinese teachers and L1-Chinese interactants on what L2-Chinese speakers struggle the most with interpersonal interaction in L2 Chinese. Findings from the TBNA informed the design of a nine-item IC test that targets test-takers’ ability to manage disaffiliative social actions, is delivered on a mobile-phone application, covers three sub-language use domains (everyday life, work and study) and includes three degrees of interactiveness in terms of task methods (1st pair part voice messaging, 2nd pair part voice messaging and live video chat). The specification of the IC test construct and development of the rating scale were based on everyday-life domain experts’ indigenous criteria on IC. 36 domain experts listened to and commented on 22 pilot test-takers’ performances on the test. A thematic analysis on domain experts’ interview transcripts and written comments returned five indigenous categories that formed the five rating categories in an indigenous IC scale. Analysing pilot test-taker discourse through Conversation Analysis and Membership Categorisation Analysis, the researcher theorised the a-theoretical indigenous rating scale into a theorised IC scale, which has disaffiliation management, affiliative resources, morality, reasoning, and role enactment and orientation as its five rating categories. 105 test-takers participated in the main testing study, whose performances were rated in a fully-crossed design by two raters using the theorised IC rating scale. Many facet Rasch analysis on rating results showed that item performance, rater reliability and rating scale functioning were satisfactory. Correlational analyses on test-takers’ IC test performance and an external measure of proficiency revealed that proficiency has limited predictive strength on IC. Lower proficiency L2 speakers could outperform higher proficiency L2 speakers and even L1 speakers. This suggests that IC is an ability that needs to be taught and assessed separately from proficiency for L1 and L2 speakers alike. The extrapolative power of the IC test was ascertained through a self-assessment questionnaire and a peer-assessment questionnaire. Test-takers’ self assessment and peer assessment were correlated with their test performance, the results of which showed that the IC test can reasonably predict test-takers’ IC in non-assessment, real-life settings. Test-takers’ attitude towards the test was also elicited in the questionnaire, which was favourable and supported the use of IC items in general proficiency testing. Although the role-play IC test in this thesis is based on L2 Chinese, findings from this thesis are potentially applicable to other test tasks and target languages due to the highly theorised nature of the IC construct, which is not specific to any context, language, or task type. The theorised IC rating scale embodies a holistic IC construct that goes beyond the mechanics of interaction and ventures into the affective, moral, logical, and categorical dimensions of interaction. This IC model is theoretically robust as it is consistent with other more holistic models on interpersonal interaction such as Dell Hymes’s original conceptualisation of communicative competence and Aristotle’s three artistic proofs. Future research can adapt the current IC test and localise the theorised IC scale to see if findings from this study still obtain when applied to other target languages, task types and assessment contexts.
Morpheme boundary phonotactics in Australian languages

Wynyard, Tula ( 2021)

This thesis considers the relationship between intra-morphemic and inter-morphemic phonotactics in Australian languages. A priori, we might posit that in a given language, the same segmental restrictions would apply within morphemes and across morpheme boundaries, but the consonant clusters found in these environments in Australian languages contradict this assumption. Drawing on data from grammars of 12 languages across the continent (Bardi, Bunuba, Djambarrpuyngu, Gurr-goni, Kayardild, Kugu Nganhcara, Martuthunira, Ngiyambaa, Ungarinyin, Warlpiri, Wubuy and Yidiny), this study highlights both the norms and extremes of phonotactic behaviour in Australian languages. Two approaches are employed in this thesis to determine the extent to which inter-morphemic clusters conform to intra-morphemic phonotactic patterns. The first approach examines static phonotactic constraints, using implicational and frequency-based markedness generalisations and feature-based constraints to survey the surface clusters that occur intra-morphemically and inter-morphemically. The second approach investigates live phonotactic constraints at work on underlying clusters across morpheme boundaries. Using evidence from hardening and lenition alternations, epenthesis and deletion strategies, and loanword adaptation, I show how the surface realisation of consonant clusters across morpheme boundaries is determined by the resolution (or lack thereof) of phonotactic violations. The static and live constraints analyses are complemented by a quantitative study of a corpus in Wubuy, which demonstrates how frequently these clusters are attested in natural speech. The results of this study reflect a continuum of phonotactic patterns: at one end, the languages that allow a far wider range of permitted clusters across morpheme boundaries than morpheme-internally; at the other end, languages where cluster resolution strategies, surprisingly, enforce stronger restrictions inter-morphemically than intra-morphemically.
Small stories in everyday Mandarin conversations

Lv, Zexin ( 2021)

Small stories approach is a relatively recent narrative research framework. It is proposed to foreground the narrative activities that have been under-represented in the prototypical Labovian research paradigm. By definition, small stories are typically fragmented narratives that are not confined within a single speech event and do not encompass a neat categorization of beginning–middle–end. However, even though small stories approach has gained more and more attention in the field of narrative research, few studies have applied this framework in non-European languages including Mandarin. To address this research gap, the present study aims to provide a preliminary yet comprehensive narrative analysis of Mandarin small stories. More specifically, this research focuses on the prevalence, structures and co-construction of small story narratives in Mandarin. To achieve this aim, 21 Mandarin-speaking Chinese students were recruited in Melbourne, Australia. Each participant was assigned into a three-person focus group to have a conversation about their experiences of living in Melbourne since March 2020. All small stories emerged in these sessions were identified with predetermined codes, discourse markers, story prefaces and temporal related clauses. The results show that small stories do exist in Mandarin, and they constitute 45.75% of the conversational data. These small stories occur in various story types which have previously been reported in English and Greek. Therefore, this study generates a datapoint for future cross-linguistic research on the typology of small stories. The findings of this study also reveal the strategies Mandarin speakers use to introduce small stories, establish temporal settings in the story worlds and perform co-construction of small stories. These detailed structural analyses not only enrich our understanding of small stories in Mandarin but also provide a working template for Mandarin narrative researchers to investigate this phenomenon further. Furthermore, this study opens a novel path for researchers to study those formerly under-represented narratives in Mandarin, and more importantly, to tap into the lived experience underlying them (e.g., identity analysis).

School of Languages and Linguistics - Theses

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