Vietnamese and the NP/DP parameter

This paper investigates the place of Vietnamese in the NP/DP typology as formulated by Bošković (2005, 2008, 2009, 2010). We show that Bošković’s NP/DP parameter breaks down into at least three separate parameters. In many languages, these three parameters line up in a consistent manner and conspire to give the impression that there is a single macro-parameter at work. However, due to its mixed status, Vietnamese reveals that there are in fact three smaller parameters (nominal, clausal, and quantificational) at work, and that these are independently fixed (as [–DP], [+TP], and [–movement], respectively). Moreover, Vietnamese can in general be classified as a topic-prominent language, a classification which requires more research but which plays an important role in determining the behavior of Vietnamese with regard to many of the syntactic properties discussed

The absence of classifiers in numeral classifier constructions in Vietnamese

Vietnamese is a so-called obligatory numeral classifier language. Nevertheless it is possible to have direct combination between a numeral and a bare noun in the absence of a go-between classifier. The goal of this squib is to investigate the seemingly unusual cases of such Numeral-N phrases

Syntax of Vietnamese Aspect

The aim of this thesis is two-fold: to develop an articulated Vietnamese clause structure in two syntactic domains: VP-external and VP-internal in the spirit of generative grammar, and to see how this functional architecture is supported empirically from the perspective of second language acquisition. To address theoretical issues, on the one hand, it brings together interesting semantic and syntactic contrasts of aspectual morphemes in Vietnamese, i.e., the distributional and interpretative independence of Vietnamese tense and aspect as well as the way they interact with other syntactic phenomenon such as negation, quantification and definiteness. On the other hand, it reveals to what extent the mechanisms that Vietnamese recruits to encode aspect are different from those employed in Indo- European languages and other areally-related languages, especially including Chinese. Based on a detailed semantic-syntactic investigation of Vietnamese aspect, the thesis sets out the properties that need to be acquired by Chinese learners. It distinguishes between those properties which are acquirable without difficulties and those that are ‘problematic’ in order to verify the proposed Vietnamese functional clause. It also sets out to validate some recent hypotheses in the realm of second language acquisition. The thesis is organized as follows. Chapter 1 sets out the theoretical approach of the thesis. Chapter 2 systematically reviews a set of semantic and syntactic studies on aspect that are relevant to the discussion. Chapter 3 lays out previous research on Vietnamese tense and aspect as points of departure for my proposals. Chapters 4 and 5 are devoted to an analysis of how tense and aspect are realized in Vietnamese both pre- and post-verbally. Chapter 6 provides a brief comparison between Vietnamese and Chinese aspectual systems, focusing on the particular properties investigated in the following chapter. Chapter 7 presents a set of experiments examining Chinese learners’ acquisition of Vietnamese aspect-related constructions, these shed light on current generativist hypotheses about second language acquisition. Chapter 8 concludes the thesis

A preliminary study on effects of Graphic Organizers on reading comprehension

This study investigates whether Graphic Organizers (GOs) are effective for various groups of undergraduate students at the University of Texas-Pan American on their reading comprehension. Thirty-five research participants were classified into groups by their language background (NSE, G 1.5 and ESLLs); levels of reading proficiency (low, middle, high); and levels of graphic skills (low, middle, high). The findings are based on between- and within-group comparisons of mean scores in the pretest and the posttest taken by the students. The GO tasks scores helped to consider correlations between students’ levels of graphic skills and their reading comprehension performance. Results revealed GOs benefited low skilled readers and high graphic skills ones in their reading comprehension but not learners of different language backgrounds

THE EFFECTS OF CONCEPT MAPPING ON EFL STUDENTS’ READING COMPREHENSION

This study is aimed to investigate the effects of using concept mapping on EFL learners’ reading comprehension and to examine their attitudes towards the implementation of concept mapping in reading lessons. The participants in this study were sixty-four first-year EFL students. These students were assigned into two groups: the experimental group and the control group. Both groups received the same number of sessions on reading lessons in the reading course but the intervention with concept mapping was only administered to the experimental group. The data were collected from the pre-test and post-test, and questionnaire. The findings indicated that there was a significant difference in the students’ reading comprehension: the students in the experimental group outperformed those in the control group. The study also indicated the positive attitudes of the students towards the use of concept mapping in reading lessons. They enjoyed learning reading using concept mapping and perceived using concept mapping as beneficial in reading lessons.  Article visualizations

Closing the Gap: Achieving Equitable Healthcare Outcomes for Kaiser Permanente Members

The University of San Francisco provides a comprehensive Master of Public Health curriculum to deliver a wide breadth of public health knowledge. The MPH program not only equipped me with the skills and knowledge necessary to be successful, it also allowed me to find my passion. The well-established coursework and knowledgeable professors have instilled within me a passion to achieve health equity for everyone, regardless of their social, economic, or environmental disadvantages. I incorporated this mission into my practicum experience and completed over 400 hours at Kaiser Permanente to focus on eliminating health disparities for the patients, families, and communities that Kaiser serves. Kaiser Permanente has been actively pursuing multiple possibilities in the organization to close the disparities gap and achieve equitable care for everyone. My work involved designing and launching a pilot program to provide cultural competency training for health professionals, creating a strategy to address health disparities at the very beginning of the program planning process, and to effectively foster collaborative relationships with multiple KP departments. This fieldwork report will provide an overview of the projects I focused on, the public health problem that my work addressed, the core competencies that I utilized, and my overall experience as a Kaiser Permanente intern

Wh-questions in Japanese: Challenges for Vietnamese L2 learners

The study explored how Vietnamese learners of Japanese handle structural differences in wh-questions. Despite both being wh-in-situ languages, the divergent word order poses challenges for Vietnamese learners. The research involved 65 high school students with 2.5 to 13 years of Japanese learning. Survey results showed a positive correlation between Japanese proficiency and performance. Students were more accurate when Japanese wh-questions mirrored Vietnamese word order, especially in ‘why’ and ‘when’ questions. Difficulties arose when structures differed. Advanced learners could acquire L2 wh-questions with parametric values distinct from L1, but native-like interpretations in Japanese remained challenging. The study advocates for explicit classroom instruction on Japanese wh-question word order, particularly with scrambled sentences, to enhance accuracy and improve overall teaching effectiveness

'To be tensed or not to be tensed?' The case of Vietnamese

In this paper, we scrutinise the interpretation and distribution of a number of morphemes that serve as means of expressing temporal/aspectual relations in Vietnamese, investigating whether they should treated as genuine tense and aspect markers. The main goals of the study are two-fold: (i) empirically, to offer a comprehensive description of Vietnamese tense and aspect, in both pre-verbal and post-verbal domains; (ii) theoretically, to offer new pieces of evidence supporting the claim that Tense and Aspect exist as independent functional categories in Vietnamese

YES-NO QUESTIONS AND THE VIETNAMESE CLAUSE STRUCTURE

Despite lively discussion in the literature on Vietnamese, the behavior of question markers is still elusive. The aim of this paper is to provide a comprehensive and systematic view of Vietnamese question particles integrating novel generalisations concerning their distributional and interpretational properties. We also show how this description leads us to a deeper understanding of Vietnamese clause structure in general