Linguistics Programme
Linguistics at the University of Otago is part of the Department of English in the Division of Humanities.
The Linguistics Programme offers not only a full undergraduate programme, Honours, MA and PhD, but also a number of courses in second language acquisition, and teaching of English as a second language with a view to meeting the rapidly increasing demand for teachers of English here in New Zealand and overseas.
Recent Deposits
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/Ju:z/ are in the paddock eating grass : a study of the acceptance of grammatical variants among adolescents from Southland and Otago
A field experiment was undertaken to determine the usage of various grammatical and morphological variants in the speech of adolescents in the provinces of Otago and Southland, New Zealand. Eleven schools throughout the ... -
God in the Machine: Depicting Religion in Video Games
This thesis shows that Dark Souls uses representations of fictive religion to comment on real religion. These representations are rooted in the affordances of the video game medium, meaning that even as Dark Souls comments ... -
‘Troy’ and ‘Trouthe’ in the Troilus and Criseyde stories of Chaucer, Henryson, and Shakespeare
The story of Troilus and Criseyde constitutes a metanarrative. This thesis is concerned with versions of the story written by Geoffrey Chaucer, Robert Henryson, and William Shakespeare. In these three tellings, characters ... -
The Reception of Sean O'Casey's Early Works in New Zealand (1924–47): A Social, Cultural, and Political Reading of the Archive
This thesis recovers the New Zealand reception history of Sean O’Casey, the Irish working-class playwright who rose to prominence at the Dublin Abbey Theatre in the aftermath of the Irish revolutionary period. Until now, ... -
University Study Abroad in New Zealand: Identity, Ideology, and Investment in English Language Learning
Study abroad experiences are often seen as being good for, or even necessary for, attaining a high level of second language (L2) proficiency. However, not all students achieve the same level of L2 proficiency from their ... -
Pronunciation of L2 English in Afrikaans speakers who have relocated to Aotearoa-New Zealand
An ever greater number of South Africans are relocating to New Zealand and now comprise the fifth largest group of migrants in the country. Among this group, there are first language (L1) Afrikaans speakers who bring with ... -
Constructing Novel Iconic Signs Through Gesture
The origin of language has been a mystery for many years, with many possible theories offered as an explanation. One of the strongest theories states that human spoken language originated after the development of a gestural ... -
Sie or du? Developing Sociopragmatic Capacity in German through Concept-Based Pragmatics Instruction
The present study set out to investigate the extent of the development of sociopragmatic capacity at two different instructional levels of New Zealand university learners, as evident in learners’ understanding of German ... -
Motivation, Learner Attrition, and the L2 Motivational Self System: A New Zealand Study of Heritage and Non-Heritage University Language Learners
It has been said that, if sufficiently motivated, anyone can learn a second language (Corder, 1967). But it is also true that no one succeeds in learning a second language (L2) if they stop. This study investigated motivation ... -
Investigating and Enhancing Willingness to Communicate and Motivational Self-System of Yemeni Rural EFL Learners
A major problem in second language (L2) learning and teaching is learners’ low willingness to communicate (WTC). WTC refers to the extent to which an individual is ready to initiate communication with others. Some L2 ... -
Relativization in Korean: Formal Restrictions and Functional Solutions
This study is about how Korean deals with restrictions in relative clause (RC) formation by using constructions that are functionally similar to an RC. Korean is regarded as a language that uses the pronoun-retention ... -
Of Beauty and Its Other: Janet Frame's Ethical Aesthetics
In this thesis, I argue that Janet Frame's experimental aesthetics are the manifestation of an ethical impulse that runs throughout her oeuvre. In making such an argument, I contribute to the recent scholarship that places ... -
An exploration of ESL learners' emergent beliefs about academic group work and peer review at a New Zealand university
This qualitative study explored ESL learners’ emergent beliefs about academic group work and peer review at a New Zealand university. The thesis focuses on learners’ beliefs about the factors that are necessary for successful ... -
Samuel Beckett and the Emergence of the Nominalist Ethic
In this thesis, I argue that Samuel Beckett’s 1932 encounter with late-medieval Nominalism in Wilhelm Windelband’s History of Philosophy (1901) was a decisive factor in the emergence of his mature aesthetic. Beckett’s early ... -
Intercultural Communicative Language Teaching: Enhancing awareness and practice through cultural portfolio projects
Recommended in language education curricula around the world, intercultural communicative language teaching (ICLT) is also promoted by the New Zealand Ministry of Education for teaching and learning languages at secondary ... -
Being-in-Light at the Early Modern and Reconstructed Theatres
Being-in-Light explores how people experienced light in the sixteenth and seventeenth century, and to what extent these experiences impacted upon theatrical experience and practice in the period. Furthermore, it considers ... -
The Relationships Among Learning Styles, Learning Strategy Use, and English Proficiency of Chinese EFL University Students: A Mixed Methods Study
This study investigates the multi-dimensional learning style preferences, learning strategy use, and English proficiency of Chinese EFL students studying at a university in the north-eastern part of China, with a focus on ... -
'Neither here nor there, and therefore home': A Poetics of Migration in Contemporary Irish Poetry
This thesis proposes a reading of the migration impulse in contemporary Irish poetry, arguing for a distinctive nexus of memory and an ethic of reinvention. It sets out how contemporary poets reinvent inherited tropes of ... -
Maisin: A grammatical description of an oceanic language in Papua New Guinea
Maisin: a grammatical description of an Oceanic language in PNG is a descriptive study of the Maisin language, spoken in Collingwood Bay, on the north coast of Oro Province, Papua New Guinea, with particular treatment of ... -
Grounded narrative inquiry into language teacher cognition: Stories and case studies on English language teaching in South Korea
This thesis contributes to the field of language teacher cognition (LTC) research by investigating LTC and development in South Korea (Korea, hereafter), where English is taught by non-native English speaking teachers ...