Papers by Katherine O Christoffersen
SEMAS, 2022
Uruguayan Portuguese, a variety of Portuguese which occurs in contact with Spanish in northern Ur... more Uruguayan Portuguese, a variety of Portuguese which occurs in contact with Spanish in northern Uruguay along the Uruguayan-Brazilian border, has been perceived to be a mix of Portuguese and Spanish, in which speakers are either unable to separate languages or engage in code-switching for pragmatic purposes. Here, we analyze in-group communication using visual and verbal data extracted from video recordings of conversations among bilinguals in northern Uruguay, in order to investigate whether all language mixing is random or if speakers engage in pragmatically meaningful code-switching. We identify instances where Portuguese was inserted into Spanish segments with the intention to shift the frame from serious to non-serious, and offer a sequential analysis of code-switches which, together with gestures and prosody, clearly function to perform irony, sarcasm, disparagement, and teasing. This analysis illustrates how speakers draw on their bilingual repertoire to enact playful roles, adding to previous literature that has shown that despite prolonged bilingualism, the distinction between cognate languages is available for the manipulation of discourse functions, such as the construction of humor.
White Paper for NEH Grant PW-269430-20, 2021
The project 'Bilingual Voices in the U.S.-Mexico Borderland: Technology-Enhanced Transcription an... more The project 'Bilingual Voices in the U.S.-Mexico Borderland: Technology-Enhanced Transcription and Community Engaged Scholarship' piloted technologically-aided transcription methods for two sociolinguistic corpora, supported by the NEH HCRR Planning Grant PW-269430-20. The team aimed to explore and test out several transcription methods in two corpus development internship courses at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) and the University of Arizona (UA) during Spring 2021. Due to the extremely time-consuming nature of manual transcription, the team hoped to find a sustainable option for technologically-aided transcription within the context of community engaged scholarship courses for the Corpus Bilingüe del Valle (CoBiVa) which documents the language of the Rio Grande Valley and the Corpus del Español en el Sur de Arizona (CESA) which documents Spanish in Southern Arizona. Beyond this goal, the team also developed plans for the long-term preservation of these collections. (For more details on the preservation plans, please see the Final Performance Report.
Journal of Bilingual Education Research and Instruction, 2021
This study examines how translanguaging pedagogy (García & Lin, 2017), or the leveraging of stude... more This study examines how translanguaging pedagogy (García & Lin, 2017), or the leveraging of students’ full linguistic repertoires, is implemented in two asynchronous online sociolinguistics courses at a Hispanic Serving Institution. After describing the courses’ translanguaging design, we present a mixed methods analysis of student code-switching on Flipgrid video discussion boards and reflection papers. Out of 125 reflection papers, 36.0% include code-switching, while the analysis of Flipgrid video discussions shows that code-switching increased throughout the semester, from 3.6% in Week 1 to 38.6% in Week 2. Student reflection papers describe the significance of translanguaging in the course, while also examining aspects of critical linguistic awareness. These results demonstrate the importance of planned as well as moment-by-moment decisions for the implementation of translanguaging pedagogy. Furthermore, we suggest that in order to reach its full potential as a transformative agent of social justice, translanguaging pedagogy should be complemented with critical language awareness.
International Multilingual Research Journal, 2019
In the US/Mexico borderlands, local language varieties face frequent discrimination and delegitim... more In the US/Mexico borderlands, local language varieties face frequent discrimination and delegitimization, described by Anzaldúa (1987) as ‘linguistic terrorism.’ The present study uses the three-level positioning framework (Bamberg & Georgakopoulou, 2008) to analyze how young adults in the Rio Grande Valley (RGV) in south Texas construct borderland identities by positioning themselves with respect to ‘linguistic terrorism’ in sociolinguistic interviews. In their narratives, young adults enact, ascribe, and accept but also reject, subvert, and reconstitute language ideologies, including national identities, raciolinguistic ideologies, and standard language ideologies. An understanding of these multiple and contradictory borderland positionalities holds important implications for critical language awareness as a way for language educators to counter ‘linguistic terrorism’ in both physical and metaphorical borderlands.
Over the years, research has investigated language in communities, schools and homes, community p... more Over the years, research has investigated language in communities, schools and homes, community programs and to a lesser degree research investigates language use in religious communities. In particular, there is a lack of research on religious language and literacy practices in Hispanic communities, especially those in the United States, although incipient work has revealed the importance of religious literacy among women Mexican immigrants (Farr, 2000) and for the socialization of children into a Mexican identity (Baquedano-López, 1997). Given the hostile local sociopolitical environment of Spanish in the state of Arizona in the Southwestern United States, the church is one of the few contexts in which Hispanic communities maintain Spanish, especially Spanish literacy. The present study investigates a Spanish-speaking church in the Southwest of the United States through ethnographic and participant observation methods. Observations, field notes and transcribed audio-recordings of literacy practices in this context over the course of one year were analyzed based on dominant Discourses (Gee, 2008) and language socialization. The analysis demonstrates how a dominant Discourse of " holiness " is produced and reproduced within the community adherence to authoritative texts and socialization into specific community literacy practices such as scripture reading, directing worship services and interpretation of Biblical stories.
In recent years, research on multiword lexical units has influenced second language acquisition r... more In recent years, research on multiword lexical units has influenced second language acquisition research, but little work has been done on light verbs, especially comparing the use of light verbs in English and Brazilian Portuguese. This paper presents a comparative analysis of the syntactic and semantic aspects of dar and 'give' through the semantic continuum, event type, denominal verbs and incorporation. This study finds that distinct and varied semantic uses of light verbs present a unique challenge to second language learners in terms of both their understanding and their production. Furthermore, this study analyzes the semantic-syntactic interrelationships and suggests implications for teaching English and Portuguese light verbs to second language learners.
The aim of this paper is to present a contrastive analysis of three high frequency words, sempre ... more The aim of this paper is to present a contrastive analysis of three high frequency words, sempre 'always', mesmo 'even/really', and bem 'well', in order to inform the instruction of Brazilian Portuguese speakers in the English as a Foreign Language (EFL) classroom. This work is largely inspired by Ambar, (2008) who compares these same three adverbs' semantic and syntactic expression in European and Brazilian Portuguese. A multifactorial approach to the analysis of these English/Brazilian Portuguese words demonstrates how the syntax (word order) and semantics (meaning) are inextricably linked and interdependent. While this paper focuses on adverbs, the analysis extends to include the analysis of mesmo as intensifier and adjective in order to clarifying this issue for English language instruction. The findings reveal that in order for Portuguese speakers to avoid common errors influenced by their first language (L1), they will need to understand these syntax-semantic relationships. For example, sempre 'always' in Portuguese allows an additional 'correlation of events' interpretation, four distinct interpretations of mesmo 'really/even' in Portuguese translate to four different English words, and an evaluative reading of bem 'well' requires a change in emphasis and intonation in English. A discussion of these results suggests that pedagogical practices which focus on both form and meaning are key for successful adverb use by second language learners.
Over the past four decades, code-switching (CS) has been established as a mark of high linguistic... more Over the past four decades, code-switching (CS) has been established as a mark of high linguistic competence among adult simultaneous (2L1) bilinguals, those who acquired two 'first' languages before age three. The status of CS among second language (L2) learners, who learned one language after age three, is much less clear; children represent an especially understudied population in this line of inquiry. This study aims to address this research gap and presents a comparison of child 2L1 bilinguals and child L2 learners in kindergarten, first and second grade of a Spanish immersion program. Twelve hours of recorded spontaneous classroom speech were analyzed for grammatical categories, switch points, and conversational strategies of CS. The results of this study show that the grammatical patterns and conversational strategies of child L2 learner CS strongly parallel those of 2L1 child bilinguals, pointing toward a high level of linguistic competence. Based on these findings, it is suggested that proficiency rather than language background may be a greater factor in CS patterns. Furthermore, evidence of the strategic use of CS by 2L1 and L2 learners alike suggests the potential benefit of an alternative bilingual pedagogy, which normalizes the use of CS as a linguistic resource instead of the more commonly evoked 'deficit perspective' on L2 learner CS.
Books by Katherine O Christoffersen
by Luis Goncalves, Mary Risner, Débora Racy Soares, Matilde Scaramucci, Ana Carvalho, Katherine O Christoffersen, James Hussar, Jamile Forcelini, Alan Parma, Antonio Marcio da Silva, Rachel Mamiya Hernandez, and Sumiko Haino The Portuguese Language Journal (PLJ) was founded in 2006 to promote and improve the teaching of... more The Portuguese Language Journal (PLJ) was founded in 2006 to promote and improve the teaching of Portuguese as a world language. PLJ also aims to provide a venue to encourage collaboration, research, and exchange of ideas among Portuguese language instructors.
In 2016, the PLJ became the professional academic journal of the AOTP – American Organization of Teachers of Portuguese.
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Papers by Katherine O Christoffersen
Books by Katherine O Christoffersen
In 2016, the PLJ became the professional academic journal of the AOTP – American Organization of Teachers of Portuguese.
In 2016, the PLJ became the professional academic journal of the AOTP – American Organization of Teachers of Portuguese.