21334 research outputs found
Sort by
Measures for a Funeral
Get PDFThis is a film review of Measures for a Funeral (2024), directed by Sofia Bohdanowicz
Task-Based Needs Analysis for Medical Spanish
No full textTask-Based Needs Analysis for Medical Spanish
Key Words: Medical Spanish, Spanish for Specific Purposes, Task-Based
Over the last thirty years, the popularity of Spanish for Specific Purposes (SSP) courses has surged at U.S. universities (Klee, 2015), highlighting the urgent need for research that can underpin effective teaching practices and material development. Efforts have been made to create research-based curricula for Business Spanish classes adopting a Task-Based Language Teaching approach, however, the medical field continues to be under-researched. This project revisits the studies carried out by Serafini and Torres (2015), and Martin and Adrada-Rafael (2017) in the area of Business Spanish and replicates them in the context of Medical Spanish courses. The main objective is twofold: 1) to carry out a needs analysis of Medical Spanish students, and 2) to create a semester-long curriculum for a Medical Spanish course. By performing a needs analysis to develop a task-based Medical Spanish curriculum, instructors are able to incorporate the perspective and experience of working professionals in the medical field, as well as design course content that is relevant for students and easily applied in a professional setting. The data collection for this project took place in three higher education institutions and consisted of three phases. In Phase 1, a small sample of medical professionals, students in health sciences, and instructors of Medical Spanish were asked to identify a list of real-life, non-linguistic tasks that need to be accomplished by someone working in the medical field. In Phase 2, a larger sample of students in health sciences answered a questionnaire where they rated the frequency and difficulty of each task identified during the first phase, on a 5-point Likert-scale. In Phase 3, researchers examined and classified the target tasks into the domains of reading, writing, listening, and speaking. This classification informed the creation of major target task categories that served as the structure for the Medical Spanish curriculum and informed the design of course objectives and class materials.
Klee, C. A. (2015). Content-based programs and Spanish for the professions. In M. Lacorte (Ed.), The Routledge handbook of Hispanic applied linguistics (pp. 184–201). New York: Routledge.
Martin, A. & Adrada-Rafael, S. (2017). Business Spanish in the real world: A task-based needs analysis. L2 Journal, 9(1):39-61.
Serafini, E. J., & Torres, J. (2015). The utility of needs analysis for nondomain expert instructors in designing task‐based Spanish for the professions curricula. Foreign Language Annals, 48(3): 447–472
“From Left to Right”: the Influence of Political Orientation on the Language Attitudes of the Population of Palma toward Catalan and Spanish
No full textFollowing the restoration of Spanish democracy in the 1970s, the institutions of the Balearic Islands crafted a legal framework for Catalan and Spanish. This framework not only recognizes them as official languages in the region but also strives for the normalization and promotion of Catalan as the minority and historic language of the archipelago. The establishment of this legal framework, however, and the consequent implementation of certain language policies, has been accompanied by a process of polarization in the Balearic society in terms of language attitudes, particularly in Palma, the capital city (Aguiló-Mora & Lynch, 2017; Calafat Vila & Calero-Pons, 2019; Castell et al., 2023; Ibáñez Ferreté, 2014; Tudela Isanta, 2021). Likewise, it seems that in recent years these language attitudes have become associated with certain political orientations, to the point of turning the linguistic situation in the Balearic Islands into a constant political debate (Amorós, 2017; Colmenero, 2018; Colom, 2023; Crespí, 2023; Galvín, 2017; Garau, 2023; Gentili, 2013; Manresa, 2015; Mateos, 2023; Olaizola, 2013; Pellicer, 2023; Sánchez, 2023). Consequently, this study explores the relationship between political orientation and the language attitudes of the population of Palma toward Catalan and Spanish. Data from 99 participants aged 18 to 71 were collected through an online questionnaire organized in three sections: the first one on demographics, the second one on language uses, and the third one on language attitudes. Data were analyzed using linear regression in R (R Core Team 2023). Results revealed a significant association of political orientation on the language attitudes of the population of Palma toward Catalan and Spanish, as well as three main findings regarding this association. First, a clear political division was found between progressive and conservative participants; second, differing attitudes towards Catalan and Spanish reflect their social and cultural positions in the community; and third, individuals’ language attitudes need not always align with usage patterns. Together, the results of the present study highlight the significant association between political orientation and language attitudes, as well as their impact on the promotion and implementation of certain language policies
Characterizing Frequency Shifts in Bilingual Expressions of Futurity among US Spanish Speakers
No full textStudies on both bilingual and monolingual Spanish speakers have described a growing preference for the Periphrastic Future (PF) and the decline of the Morphological Future (MF) and Present Indicative (PI) over time (e.g., Orozco 2007; Jaque 2012). 1a-1c below shows examples of these forms to express futurity. This change has been proposed as accelerated in in regions of contact with English (Téllez-Pérez 2019) as well as among younger speakers (Orozco 2007). This study utilizes data from two online corpora to address demographic gaps left by previous studies on bilingual expressions of futurity by featuring data from Caribbean and Central American speakers. Furthermore, whereas previous studies have focused on analyzing the speech of older participants, this data characterizes the speech practices of younger (age) participants to add additional support to the hypothesis that preference for PF is a change in progress among bilingual US speakers (Orozco 2007). (a) Correré mañana. (MF)
Run-FUT tomorrow
‘I will run tomorrow.’
(b) Voy a correr mañana. (PF)
go-PRS to run-INF tomorrow
‘I’m going to run tomorrow.’
(c) Corro mañana. (PI)
Run-PRS tomorrow
‘I run tomorrow.’
Data were collected via Corpus: MIAMI and the Corpus of Spanish in Southern Arizona. 1025 tokens of future expression were extracted, identified as MF, PF, or PI and coded for: (1) temporal distance, (2) presence or absence of a temporal adverb, (3) verb type, (4) grammatical person and number, (5) clause type, (6) speaker age and (7) speaker heritage/nationality. Data were analyzed using mixed-effects logistic regression analysis in R and compared to previous studies examining both bilingual and monolingual expressions of futurity.
My findings reveal verb type and presence or absence of a temporal adverb to be significant linguistic factors predicting expression of futurity with a possible interaction between the two factors. Comparisons of the frequencies of PF, MF, and PI to previous studies suggest that MF and PI are becoming increasingly restricted in their use to express future time while PF appears to be undergoing a process of grammaticalization to become the unmarked form of future time expression in the speech of US Spanish-English bilinguals
Analyzing the gap in mood choice of L1 and advanced L2 Spanish speakers with expressions of emotion in the past tense
No full textStandard Spanish grammar states that mood selection following expressions of emotion requires the subjunctive (e.g.,¡Qué bueno que estés aquí!). While this rule consistently accounts for the present tense, it falls short in the past tense; that is, there are many first language (L1) Spanish speakers who utilize the preterit in these expressions. While previous research has investigated mood variation after expressions such as no sé si, quizás, caso de que, etc., and in relation to hypotheticality, among L1 speakers, and between L1 and L2 speakers, to my knowledge, no current research has focused on expressions of emotion in the past tense. Also, textbooks teach these expressions as the same in the present and past tense by requiring the present perfect subjunctive (PPS) (e.g., haya estado) or the past subjunctive (PS) (e.g., estuviera).
I explore this gap by presenting an empirical study that investigates mood choice in expressions of emotion with past tense verbs in L1 and advanced L2 Spanish speakers. Pilot results with three language tasks using expressions of emotion in the past tense showed the following noteworthy findings: 1) when completing a sentence, L1 speakers used the preterit 27.78% of the time, while L2 speakers never used the preterit; 2) with multiple choice, L1 speakers chose the preterit 37.00% of the time while L2 speakers chose the preterit 11.11% of the time; finally, 3) on a scale of 1 (Very Unacceptable) to 7 (Very Acceptable), L1 speakers ranked sentences with the preterit at 6.44 (SD=1.20) while L2 speakers ranked the same sentences at 4.07 (SD=1.91). L2 speakers, many of whom were language teachers, favored the PPS or PS forms throughout all tasks. Also, when analyzing the L1 speakers, results showed that speakers from Spain were more closely aligned with L2 speakers in comparison to other countries, revealing a potential dialectal influence of grammar in L2 curriculum. These results inspired the in-progress larger data collection process, allowing for a more in-depth exploration of this understudied feature of mood variation and the work to bridging the gap between real-world language use of L1 speakers and L2 teaching and learning
Recruiting, retaining, and advancing women in policing: Lessons learned from the IAWP Gender-Responsive Policing Summit
No full textDespite persistent support for increasing gender diversity in US policing, women remain underrepresented. Yet, barriers to women in policing are not universal. Many police organizations in the USA and internationally have implemented promising gender-responsive approaches. The International and Nebraska Associations of Women Police (IAWP/NAWP) and UN Women convened a Gender-Responsive Policing Summit to share successful efforts to improve recruitment, retention, promotion, and wellness of women in policing. Researchers conducted systematic observations of Summit sessions, paying particular attention to solutions offered to advance gender-responsive policing. This instrumental case study summarizes lessons learned based on multistage inductive coding of Summit observation notes. Themes emerged around strategic planning and data use, leadership and promotion, health and wellness policies, associations, and support initiatives. This study provides real-world strategies police agencies can use to improve gender diversity, informed by police professionals committed to improving women’s experiences in policing on an international scale
Sex Matters The Impact of Skin Tone on Perceived Levels of Attraction
Get PDFResearch finds that individuals of dark complexions are more likely to face prejudice or be discriminated against in a variety of contexts. Referred to as colorism, skin-tone-based discrimination has major implications for various life outcomes. Research on social interactions suggests that lighter skin tones are associated with a higher level of physical attractiveness, which is of particular interest for this study. This study uses quantitative survey data collected from undergraduate and graduate students from across the United States to explore the relationship between colorism, gender, and perceived physical attraction via a modified version of Harvey, Tennial, and Bank’s In-Group Colorism Scale (ICS). Analyses measured the relationship between a participant’s own skin tone, which was self-assessed via comparison to images modeled after make-up swatches, and results on a subscale of the ICS which measures attraction to lighter skin tones. Our results suggest that gender has a significant impact on perceived physical attractiveness, with male-identifying participants placing more weight on the significance of skin tone when determining physical attraction. Implications for future research and translational implications are also discussed
The State of the Art in Root System Architecture Image Analysis Using Artificial Intelligence: A Review
Get PDFRoots are essential for acquiring water and nutrients to sustain and support plant growth and anchorage. However, they have been studied less than the aboveground traits in phenotyping and plant breeding until recent decades. In modern times, root properties such as morphology and root system architecture (RSA) have been recognized as increasingly important traits for creating more and higher quality food in the “Second Green Revolution”. To address the paucity in RSA and other root research, new technologies are being investigated to fill the increasing demand to improve plants via root traits and overcome currently stagnated genetic progress in stable yields. Artificial intelligence (AI) is now a cutting-edge technology proving to be highly successful in many applications, such as crop science and genetic research to improve crop traits. A burgeoning field in crop science is the application of AI to high-resolution imagery in analyses that aim to answer questions related to crops and to better and more speedily breed desired plant traits such as RSA into new cultivars. This review is a synopsis concerning the origins, applications, challenges, and future directions of RSA research regarding image analyses using AI
Internal Funding Newsletter, Academic Year 2023-2024
Get PDFThe University of Nebraska at Omaha is committed to providing students and faculty unique, hands-on opportunities, internships, service learning, applied research, and other collaborative activities that enhance time in and out of the classroom. The 2023-2024 Academic Year saw many exciting opportunities for us to invest into even more programs promoting research and creative activity. This year\u27s programs provided over $800,000, more than double the funding in 2022-2023, for student and faculty projects
Strategic Space Cooperation: U.S. Space Command and the National Guard’s State Partnership Program
Get PDFIn 2022, the U.S. Space Command (USSPACECOM) and the National Guard\u27s State Partnership Program (SPP) began pursuing security cooperation objectives while integrating the space domain into greater deterrence efforts. As the newest combatant command (CCMD) with space as its Area of Responsibility (AOR), USSPACECOM has global strategic partnership interests and recognizes the value of the enduring relationships inherent in SPP. This cooperation allows the National Guard to offer its strong relationships, space expertise, and industry knowledge to USSPACECOM. This provides a foundation for USSPACECOM\u27s security cooperation efforts. This article discusses the SPP\u27s role in supporting USSPACECOM\u27s engagement strategy and the partnership’s potential implications for deterrence, U.S. national security and international relations. It will also recommend enhancements for the betterment of Department of Defense (DoD) space security cooperation objectives