Past student theses
Our MA TESOL students choose a wide variety of thesis topics reflecting their wide variety of interests. Theses may focus on specific language teaching applications, teacher or learner experiences, sociolinguistics, discourse analysis, language and the brain, or many other areas. Below is a sampling of Portland State MA TESOL theses from the last several years. See all PSU theses at PDXScholar.
Grammatical Errors by Arabic ESL Students: An Investigation of L1 Transfer through Error Analysis. Author: Aisha Saud Alasfour. Date: 07/2018
Verb Stem Alternation in Vaiphei. Author: Jesse Prichard. Date: 07/2018
Foreign Language Anxiety, Sexuality, and Gender: Lived Experiences of Four LGBTQ+ Students. Author: James Donald Mitchell. Date: 03/2018
College Student Rankings of Multiple Speakers in a Public Speaking Context: a Language Attitudes Study on Japanese-accented English with a World Englishes Perspective. Author: John James Ahlbrecht. Date: 02/2018
Multilingualism and Multiculturalism: Opinions from Spanish-Speaking English Learners from Mexico, Central America, and South America. Author: Cailey Catherine Moe. Date: 11/2017
Escalating Language at Traffic Stops: Two Case Studies. Author: Jamalieh Haley. Date: 09/2017
Loanwords in Context: Lexical Borrowing from English to Japanese and its Effects on Second-Language Vocabulary Acquisition. Author: Andrew Michael Sowers. Date: 09/2017
An Analytical System for Determining Disciplinary Vocabulary for Data-Driven Learning: an Example from Civil Engineering. Author: Philippa Jean Otto. Date: 03/2017
Lexical Bundles in Applied Linguistics and Literature Writing: a Comparison of Intermediate English Learners and Professionals. Author: Kathryn Marie Johnston. Date: 03/2017
Teacher and Student Perceptions of World Englishes (WE) Pronunciations in two US Settings. Author: Marie Arrieta. Date: 01/2017
Wiki-based Collaborative Creative Writing in the ESL Classroom. Author: Rima Elabdali. Date: 12/2016
The Effect of Extended Instruction on Passive Voice, Reduced Relative Clauses, and Modal Would in the Academic Writing of Advanced English Language Learners. Author: Audrey Bailey. Date: 08/2016
A Study of the Intelligibility, Comprehensibility and Interpretability of Standard Marine Communication Phrases as Perceived by Chinese Mariners. Author: Lillian Christine Holland. Date: 08/2016
Identity Construction and Language Use by Immigrant Women in a Microenterprise Development Program. Author: Linda Eve Bonder. Date: 06/2016
"That's the test?" Washback Effects of an Alternative Assessment in a Culturally Heterogeneous EAP University Class. Author: Abigail Bennett Carrigan. Date: 05/2016
Perspectives on the College Readiness and Outcome Achievement of Former Intensive English Language Program (IELP) Students. Author: Meghan Oswalt. Date: 09/2015
Empowering All Who Teach: A Portrait of Two Non-Native English Speaking Teachers in a Globalized 21st Century. Author: Rosa Dene David. Date: 06/2015
The Cognitive Development of Expertise in an ESL Teacher: A Case Study. Author: Lyndsey Roos. Date: 06/2015
Identity and Investment in the Community ESL Classroom. Author: Jennifer Marie Sacklin. Date: 06/2015
Sound Effects: Age, Gender, and Sound Symbolism in American English. Author: Timothy Allen Krause. Date: 05/2015
A Corpus Based Analysis of Noun Modification in Empirical Research Articles in Applied Linguistics. Authors: Jo-Anne Hutter. Date: 02/2015
Latino Men Managing HIV: An Appraisal Analysis of Intersubjective Relations in the Discourse of Five Research Interviews. Authors: Will Caston. Date: 11/2014
Explorations into the Psycholinguistic Validity of Extended Collocations. Author: J. Arianna Morgan. Date: 09/2014
The Impact of Wiki-based Collaborative Writing on English L2 Learners' Individual Writing Development. Author: Gina Christina Caruso. Date: 08/2014
Emerging Lexical Organization from Intentional Vocabulary Learning. Author: Adam Jones. Date: 08/2014
Self-Efficacy in Low-Level English Language Learners. Author: Laura F. Blumenthal. Date: 01/2014
L1 Influence on L2 Intonation in Russian Speakers of English. Author: Christiane Fleur Crosby. Date: 07/2013
The First Year: Development of Preservice Teacher Beliefs About Teaching and Learning During Year One of an MA TESOL Program. Author: Emily Spady Addiego. Date: 06/2013
The Role of Expectations on Nonnative English Speaking Students' Wrtiting. Author: Sara Marie Van Dan Acker. Date: 06/2013
Hypothetical Would-Clauses in Korean EFL Textbooks: An Analysis Based on a Corpus Study and Focus on Form Approach. Author: Soyung Yoo. Date: 03/2013
English Loan Words in Japanese: Exploring Comprehension and Register. Author: Naoko Horikawa. Date: 01/2013