DigitalCommons@C.O.D.

This study examined the acquisition patterns of the prototypical and epistemic semantic meanings of German modals. It investigated whether different instructional approaches (cognitive instruction approach based on force dynamics and metaphoric extensions, traditional translation based instruction) have the potential to foster modal verbs acquisition, and which of the two approaches was more effective. Thirty-three, fourth semester learners of German as a foreign language were subjected to one of the experimental conditions. Findings were compared to a control condition, which did not receive any instruction. Learning gains were measured by means of a multiple choice meaning recognition test that assessed students’ gains of receptive knowledge of the prototypical and epistemic senses of German modals. Results revealed that when students received cognitive instruction, they gained greater prototypical and epistemic semantic knowledge when compared to the students who received traditional translation based instruction or were part of the control condition. Most importantly, it was shown that the cognitive instruction approach had greater effect on meaning retention of modal verbs senses

Nikolova, Miglena

English

Teaching German Modal Verbs through Cognitive Linguistics Insights

Cochran, Danny

Danny Cochran Reads a Passage from The FIre Next Time, by James Baldwin

Kelley, Jennifer

Jennifer Kelley reads  Joker, Joker, Deuce  by Paul Beatty

Pitts, Erika

Erika Pitts reads a selection from Why I Love Black Women, by Michael Eric Dyson

Fortier, Mardelle

The Prairie Light Review
Volume 40 | Number 2 Article 9
Spring 5-1-2018
Miles To Go
Mardelle Fortier
College of DuPage
Follow this and additional works at: https://dc.cod.edu/plr
This Selection is brought to you for free and open access by the College Publications at DigitalCommons@COD. It has been accepted for inclusion in
The Prairie Light Review by an authorized editor of DigitalCommons@COD. For more information, please contact orenick@cod.edu.
Recommended Citation
Fortier, Mardelle (2018) "Miles To Go," The Prairie Light Review: Vol. 40 : No. 2 , Article 9.
Available at: https://dc.cod.edu/plr/vol40/iss2/9
Prairie Light Review 10
Miles to Go
 I stop the old Ford, bare hands red and shivering with cold. The wind 
picks up speed from the frozen lake. Yet, I am grateful for these woods, so 
non-judgmental and so dark I can imagine anything. Their fir branches lace 
my weary body in a cocoon of dreams, outside time.
 Snowflakes soothe my nerves, as I wander down a deserted path, 
winding toward the lake. How wondrous it is to be free of people, and their 
prodding. My parents have always insisted: You can never earn your living as 
a writer. Go milk the cows.
 I’ve trampled through blizzards or gentle snow, falling around me in a 
bridal veil. Yes, I’ve stayed on the farm, fighting with scratchy hens for eggs, 
while staying married to storytelling.
 Maybe I’d have done nothing but bake cookies and churn cream, but 
Grandma was a scribbler. Brushing prickly needles from watering eyes, I re-
call that Grandma penned her prose during long winters, when the crops had 
been gathered. She was the only one to nurture my writing: You can do it. Be 
braver than me—send stuff out.
 Before she died, Grandma helped me set up a table in the attic, 
made of discarded crates. I could look out the window at trees…
 …as I now gaze at graceful pines, laden with pure blankets, shelter-
ing me from jeering humanity. I have always enjoyed little-trodden paths, like 
this. Whose path is it, whose woods? I’ve a vague recollection they belong 
to Mr. Lauster, from the village. At school, his daughter wore fancy duds. She 
sniffed at my homemade jumper, and at my poetry (“what, no cash?”). The 
Lausters wouldn’t be out here in the moonless dark, to know I’m trespassing, 
alone with the elves. Their faces twinkle in timeless dreaming shadows, shift-
ing with the breeze. 
 I pull my wool coat tighter and sigh with exhaustion as my legs turn 
limp. Sometimes I’m tempted to trudge so far I turn numb, lose bodily aches, 
sink into a soft bank, and gently fall asleep. I’ve milked each day to find time
1
Fortier: Miles To Go
Published by DigitalCommons@COD, 2018
Spring 201811
and ideas to write. I’ve had to battle for each precious egg, unique and frag-
ile. How hard it was to endure social disapproval without Grandma’s dark, 
gleaming eyes. Now I stand watching the icy lake, a glassy mirror. My face is 
pale, my dark eyes a smudge. I grow older. I will never be more than a minor 
talent.
 Slowly, I turn and gaze behind me at the vanishing path. Snow covers 
my footprints—yet they remain, as do the few poems I’ve had accepted and 
published. I’m so tired, my heavy boots drag. Yet this deep silence undis-
turbed by clocks refreshes me. Maybe by putting one foot in front of the 
other, I can make it back to the car, make it home. I must keep going for 
Grandma.
 As my fingers stiffen, I recall Grandma when I last saw her; Sis and I 
sat on her bed. I hugged her, asked my sister to mirror me. Grandma started 
a plot about travellers, and looked to us—first one, then the other—to con-
tinue it. Sis did her best, though hadn’t invented a story since childhood. We 
kept on, hearts pounding, till Grandma’s eyes closed.
 Grandma didn’t insist, but deep down I know she wanted her story-
telling to continue. Sis is too busy with her brood of kids.
 Stepping into the car, I rev the motor. It coughs, stops. I push, try 
several times, groaning. Finally, I guide the ancient rattletrap down the long 
country road. Barely seen in the ghostly snow, apparently eternal, it reminds 
me of many old tales.
 Miles to go                      And miles to go before I sleep
-Mardelle Fortier
Next Page:
“Infared Storm”
Francis Keller
Photography
2
The Prairie Light Review, Vol. 40, No. 2 [2018], Art. 9
https://dc.cod.edu/plr/vol40/iss2/9


Miles To Go

Chen, Jenny

The Prairie Light Review
Volume 40 | Number 2 Article 13
Spring 5-1-2018
Betrayal
Jenny Chen
College of DuPage
Follow this and additional works at: https://dc.cod.edu/plr
This Selection is brought to you for free and open access by the College Publications at DigitalCommons@COD. It has been accepted for inclusion in
The Prairie Light Review by an authorized editor of DigitalCommons@COD. For more information, please contact orenick@cod.edu.
Recommended Citation
Chen, Jenny (2018) "Betrayal," The Prairie Light Review: Vol. 40 : No. 2 , Article 13.
Available at: https://dc.cod.edu/plr/vol40/iss2/13
Prairie Light Review 16
Betrayal
This is my father.
He is weary and wasted.
He is peering deep
into the lens
with those dull,
lifeless eyes.
His bags droop down
his aging face
resembling oozing wax
from a dying candle.
He is hiding something
but his voice is weighed
down by pain and regret.
He is too afraid to speak.
 
Here is my mother.
She is calm and blissful.
Her broad, gleaming smile
shouts out the happiness
within her.
She is wearing her
wedding ring on her left hand,
while the other tightly grasps
on to my father’s,
joined together like
two links in a chain.
She is clueless and naive.
She does not know that
my father will soon
break her heart.
My mother will become enraged.
She will slap his face.
She will toss the ring
across the room.
My father will then leave.
He will get into another
woman’s car.
We won’t ever see him again.
He will be gone.
 
This is me.
I’m in the corner.
I’m playing with
my barbie doll.
My life will no longer
feel perfect.
Things will get tough.
He does not know that
I will never forgive him.
-Jenny Chen
1
Chen: Betrayal
Published by DigitalCommons@COD, 2018


Betrayal

Grey, John

The Prairie Light Review
Volume 40 | Number 2 Article 15
Spring 5-1-2018
Arthur
John Grey
College of DuPage
Follow this and additional works at: https://dc.cod.edu/plr
This Selection is brought to you for free and open access by the College Publications at DigitalCommons@COD. It has been accepted for inclusion in
The Prairie Light Review by an authorized editor of DigitalCommons@COD. For more information, please contact orenick@cod.edu.
Recommended Citation
Grey, John (2018) "Arthur," The Prairie Light Review: Vol. 40 : No. 2 , Article 15.
Available at: https://dc.cod.edu/plr/vol40/iss2/15
Prairie Light Review 18
Arthur
He came from darkness 
and, from there,
it was on to places darker still.
His road was all obstacles
and thick fog that filled 
the landscape overnight.
That was him, sleeping by the riverbank
or resting on the fire escape.
Then it’d rain and it was time to go.
But he always stayed anyhow.
He didn’t sing his own song.
That was up to others.
But there were these rants.
Even a painted lady who shared his makeshift bed.
And I once saw him pick up a guitar
and play a tune.
Something he’d learned 
before he started drinking.
And with all the sobbing and sorrow
of a recent widower.
But mostly he fed on cheap wine
until he floated like a dead fish.
And he never knew the right time.
His was always year zero.
He left a stain here and there.
And, with him, welfare’s work was all in vain.
Couldn’t take the monotony.
It was worse than the humidity,
worse even than hard thirst.
When cornered, Arthur could
raise his tail and rattle like a snake.
And it’s not that he didn’t yearn for paradise.
But he wanted nothing pointed out to him.
No one pushing his life and trying to move it elsewhere.
He came from darkness after all.
It didn’t need any fancy enhancements.
And he was always headed 
to where the bleakness matched his mood.
He fell sometimes.
He bled a lot.
And yes, he died face down in the gutter.
In case you’re wondering, Arthur never wrote a poem.
To the end, he kept the secret 
of what we need to know.
-John Grey
“When Time Moves On”
Alana Sadah
Photography
1
Grey: Arthur
Published by DigitalCommons@COD, 2018


Arthur

Crawford, Ronda

The Prairie Light Review
Volume 40 | Number 2 Article 18
Spring 5-1-2018
Face For Radio
Ronda Crawford
College of DuPage
Follow this and additional works at: https://dc.cod.edu/plr
This Selection is brought to you for free and open access by the College Publications at DigitalCommons@COD. It has been accepted for inclusion in
The Prairie Light Review by an authorized editor of DigitalCommons@COD. For more information, please contact orenick@cod.edu.
Recommended Citation
Crawford, Ronda (2018) "Face For Radio," The Prairie Light Review: Vol. 40 : No. 2 , Article 18.
Available at: https://dc.cod.edu/plr/vol40/iss2/18
Spring 201821
A Face for Radio
 I believe smart women with interesting things to say shouldn’t have 
to take pictures but they do. I learned early that what I think no matter how 
relevant or intriguing is going to be heard at a volume that is filtered through 
how light reflects or is absorbed by my skin. That these judgments are made 
sometimes in millimeter measurements of shapes and angles, which is why 
I hate taking pictures, but only of myself. It’s the long odds, that out of 50 
pictures only one will be good. 1 in 50. I set a reminder to myself to make a 
list of all the things that have such odds.
 Once, as part of an exercise, I was asked what my ideal job would 
be, and I said radio personality. No one would care if I wore makeup or if I 
had on pants. I could verbalize all the witty and intelligent thoughts that float 
through my head without judgement, and someone would actually give me 
money to do this. But the best part is no one would know what I looked like. 
And when I met people, they would always be surprised and say things like 
I didn’t expect you to have freckles or be tall or black or wear glasses. And I 
would laugh because my face would be an unexpected gift that would shat-
ter all preconceived notions, because no one would think that I look like this.
-Ronda Crawford
1
Crawford: Face For Radio
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Face For Radio

Cortes, Leslie

The Prairie Light Review
Volume 40 | Number 2 Article 21
Spring 5-1-2018
Golden Hour Star
Leslie Cortes
College of DuPage
Follow this and additional works at: https://dc.cod.edu/plr
This Artwork is brought to you for free and open access by the College Publications at DigitalCommons@COD. It has been accepted for inclusion in
The Prairie Light Review by an authorized editor of DigitalCommons@COD. For more information, please contact orenick@cod.edu.
Recommended Citation
Cortes, Leslie (2018) "Golden Hour Star," The Prairie Light Review: Vol. 40 : No. 2 , Article 21.
Available at: https://dc.cod.edu/plr/vol40/iss2/21
Spring 201823 1
Cortes: Golden Hour Star
Published by DigitalCommons@COD, 2018


Golden Hour Star

McKenty, Natalie

The Prairie Light Review
Volume 40 | Number 2 Article 34
Spring 5-1-2018
Seeing Through Your Eyes
Natalie McKenty
College of DuPage
Follow this and additional works at: https://dc.cod.edu/plr
This Artwork is brought to you for free and open access by the College Publications at DigitalCommons@COD. It has been accepted for inclusion in
The Prairie Light Review by an authorized editor of DigitalCommons@COD. For more information, please contact orenick@cod.edu.
Recommended Citation
McKenty, Natalie (2018) "Seeing Through Your Eyes," The Prairie Light Review: Vol. 40 : No. 2 , Article 34.
Available at: https://dc.cod.edu/plr/vol40/iss2/34
1McKenty: Seeing Through Your Eyes
Published by DigitalCommons@COD, 2018


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Teaching German Modal Verbs through Cognitive Linguistics Insights

Danny Cochran Reads a Passage from The FIre Next Time, by James Baldwin

Jennifer Kelley reads Joker, Joker, Deuce by Paul Beatty

Erika Pitts reads a selection from Why I Love Black Women, by Michael Eric Dyson

Miles To Go

Betrayal

Arthur

Face For Radio

Golden Hour Star

Seeing Through Your Eyes

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