Search results for "Apel"
showing 10 items of 460 documents
Bilingual speech comprehension in context : Predictive sentence processing in second language listening
2021
Master´s thesis in English (EN500) The project aims to extend our understanding of the relationship between language profile, proficiency and speech comprehension in English by investigating three-sentence contexts of mixed word order, low-constraint sentence and high-constraint sentence. Our concern in this study is whether context effects will behave differently in the first language (L1) than in the second language (L2). Norwegian natives with English as a second language (Norwegian-English bilinguals) performed in a word monitoring experiment which consisted of a within-language variable (mixed word order versus low-constraint versus high-constraint sentence conditions) with a between -…
Bilingual Spoken Word Comprehension: Effects of Sentence Context : A comparison of Norwegian-English bilinguals’ speech recognition in Norwegian and …
2021
Master´s thesis in English (EN500) This master thesis is part of a bigger master project aiming to expand our understanding of speech processing. In three sub-projects –speech production, speech comprehension, and word finding –six master students investigated the relationship between an individual’s language background and proficiency and their use of English as a second language. This thesis covers the comprehension part of the study, which investigated Norwegian-English bilinguals’ ability to use sentence contextual information when processing spoken language both in their native Norwegian and in English as a second language, and whether this ability was modulated by aspects of participa…
Tip-of-the-Tongue (TOT) States in Norwegian-English Bilinguals : Effects of Word Frequency, Cognate Status, Noun Type, and Bilingual Profiles
2021
Master´s thesis in English (EN500) This study investigates the effects of language, word frequency, cognate status, noun type, and different bilingual profiles on tip-of-the-tongue (TOT) states in Norwegian-English bilinguals. Furthermore, the study aimed to establish whether the weaker links hypothesis or the competition hypothesis could better account for the TOT phenomenon. TOTs were induced by using a word-finding experiment in which the participants were asked to read a definition and then report whether they knew the target word. According to the results, the participants knew more words in Norwegian and reported more TOTs in English. Frequency effects revealed that the participants k…
Effects of cognate status, noun type, frequency, and bilingual profile on the tip-of-the-tongue (TOT) phenomenon in Norwegian-English bilinguals
2021
Master´s thesis in English (EN500) This experimental thesis aimed to investigate the effects of cognate status, frequency, and noun type on the tip-of-the-tongue (TOT) phenomenon in Norwegian-English bilinguals, and how their performance in these conditions relates to individual differences in their bilingual profile such as second language(L2)English proficiency. A bilingual profile was created for each participant based on their answers on an amended version of the Language Experience and Proficiency Questionnaire (Marian, Blumenfeld & Kaushauskaya, 2007). The experimental part of this study included a TOT experiment in two parts: one English and one Norwegian. For both experiments, stimu…
Dyslexia in bilingualism : A case study of an English-Norwegian bilingual child with developmental dyslexia
2021
Master´s thesis in English (EN500) This study investigates the interactions between dyslexia and bilingualism, and aims to observe how dyslexia presents itself in a bilingual individual. The importance of language similarity, orthographic transparency and cognate effect is investigated through a set experiments and analysis of dyslexia assessment results. Data for this study is collected by means of qualitative(questionnaire and dyslexia assessment)and quantitative (RAN and word spotting tasks)methods based on a case study of an English-Norwegian bilingual with developmental dyslexia.
Muslim Otherness in Post-9/11 Novels A postcolonial outlook on the fictional representation of Muslim otherness in post 9/11 novels.
2020
Master´s thesis in English (EN501) The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001,led many Americans to vilify Muslims and Islam. Indeed, 9/11 bequeathed to the U.S. a new category of evil other, a decade and more after the “evil empire” of the USSR had been vanquished, and the cold war concluded. This thesis will investigate how this new other is represented in three post-9/11 novels, Mohsin Hamid’s The Reluctant Fundamentalist (2007), Amy Waldman’s The Submission (2011),and H. M. Naqvi’s Home Boy (2010). These novels will be examined partly through the lens of postcolonial theory, as represented by Edward Said, Mohammad Samiei,and Robert Young. This thesis will demonstrate how the selected n…
“We’re Using Up the Earth. It’s Almost Gone ”Apocalyptic fiction, environmental awareness,and critique of anthropocentric and capitalist society in M…
2020
Master`s thesis in English (EN501) This thesis explores Margaret Atwood’s novels Oryxand Crake (2003), The Year of the Flood (2009), and MaddAddam (2013),and their criticism of anthropocentric and capitalist society. The novels depicta world where the planet has reached its limits due to humanity’s overpopulation, greed, and exploitation of nature. This thesis analyzes the books with an ecocritical lens and views Atwood’s representation of the environment in her apocalyptic narrative. Through a close reading of the trilogy, the analysis considers the novels’apocalyptic characteristics in a world where a virus has annihilated the human population,and genetically engineered creatures are left…
Worlds Ablaze : The insidious traumata of the future anterior in Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 (1953) and Cormac McCarthy’s The Road (2006)
2021
Master´s thesis in English (EN501) This thesis examines the novels Fahrenheit 451 (1953) and The Road (2006), two future-set dystopian narratives that extrapolate on their contemporary and ongoing traumas. This paper explores the novels through the lens of trauma studies, testing whether the concepts of insidious trauma and the future anterior can be used in conjunction.
‘The Invisible Blood Pours Forth’ : Trauma in Margaret Atwood’s The Blind Assassin and Maria Padian’s Wrecked
2021
Master´s thesis in English (EN501) This thesis investigates Margaret Atwood’s The Blind Assassin (2000) and Maria Padian’s Wrecked (2016), and examine how the characters are affected by sexual trauma and rape culture. The novels depict a society that creates an environment for female trauma victims which causes them more pain and suffering. This thesis analyzes the books through a lens of trauma theory. The use of different narrations and narrators in the two novels provide new perspectives and understanding of trauma and how it can affect the people around the initial trauma victim. This thesis will examine how the selected novels are used to explore the connection between memory and traum…
‘Some degree of hope’ A queer reading of two young adult novels in post-agreement Northern Ireland
2020
Master´s thesis in English (EN 501) In 2018, a report published by Stonewall UK revealed that 52 per cent of LGBT individuals struggled with depression in the past year. The same year, an article claimed that Northern Ireland had the highest prevalence of mental illness and the highest rate of suicides in the UK. This thesis will explore how LGBTQ youths are portrayed in two literary fictions set in contemporary Northern Ireland. The Unknowns (2017) and Every Sparrow Falling (2019), both written by Shirley-Anne McMillan, are young adult novels that depict and comment on how LGBTQ youths are perceived in contemporary Northern Ireland. By reading these two novels through the theoretical frame…