Students (completed)
The following are some past research students who were members of the
Research Centre for Languages and Cultures.
Beata Webb
Possession in Polish Discourse
2007
Linguistic possession deals with the ways the concept of possession is
expressed in a language. Linguistic possession is a complex phenomenon
difficult to define due to its high variability within particular
languages and cross-linguistically. Possession has attracted much
attention from linguists, particularly in the last 20 years, but studies
of possession in Polish are few and far between. This thesis has two
broad aims: firstly, to study the syntactic structures encoding
possession in Polish written discourse in order to examine possessive
constructions employed in a variety of contexts, and secondly to examine
the semantic features of the possessive constructions in Polish as they
appear in a corpus of actual written language use. Results showed that
only a few possessive constructions are commonly used to express
possession semantically, with attributive possession being most commonly
used, then predicative, external and lexical. Findings also showed that
Polish makes several distinctions in the way it encodes possession.
Thus, Polish differentiates between inalienable and alienable, permanent
and non-permanent, physical and temporary possessive notions.
Masanori Matsumoto
Persistence in Japanese Language Study at Tertiary Institutions in
Australia
2006
This study investigates how learner’s motivation affects their
persistence in or termination of the learning of Japanese. It was
assumed that there are many motivational variables, such as the purpose
of study, the strength of commitment, their attitudes towards the target
language and languages in general, their cultural/linguistic background,
their interest in Japanese language and culture, gender, and the
learning environment, which may affect learner’s persistence
differently, depending on their level of study. Results from
questionnaires administered at the being and the end of students’ course
of study showed that motivation is not something fixed in the learners’
minds, but may change during the process of learning, and that
motivational factors vary according to levels of language proficiency.
Five important factors were identified: continuous appraisal of
student’s progress, the student’s sense of investment in their language
study, development of culture-based intrinsic interest in the language,
the learners’ self-efficacy and how this relates to the real demands of
their study and students’ cultural/linguistic distance from Japanese,
educational background and gender and how these factors affect their
sustaining motivation.
Marie-Claire Gilberte Patron
“Un Année Entre Parenthèses” — French Academic Sojourners in Australia:
The Impact of Social and Cultural Dimensions of Acculturation and
Repatriation on Perceptions of Cultural Identity
2006
This thesis has now been published as: Marie-Claire Patron (2007)
Culture and Identity in Study Abroad Contexts: After Australia, French
without France.
The phenomenon of French Academic Sojourners coming to Australia is
relatively recent, as in the past, French students have traditionally
been involved in European exchange programmes. When sojourners enter a
new society with distinctive cultural norms and values, it stands to
reason that identity changes as a result from intercultural contact
between visitors and host society members, as identity transformations
occur in response to temporal, cultural and situational contexts.
Adjustment to an unfamiliar culture necessitates changes in cognition,
attitudes and behaviour, without which culture shock and acculturative
stress may occur. This dissertation was based on three themes: culture
shock, reverse culture shock and cultural identity issues. Of
significance was the notion of perceived identity because the issues in
this study revolved around the way respondents think about themselves
rather than developing an external view of other’s identities. Results
showed that although students had chosen to live outside of France, they
still saw themselves in terms of ‘Frenchness’. Results also showed that
students were largely ill-prepared for their journey to Australia.
Clearly, pre-departure preparation from participating institutions and
the individuals themselves, both on a linguistic and psychological level
can be seen to impact significantly on the adaption experiences of
academic sojourners.