Department of Spanish

Reading Robert Phillipson's Linguistic Imperialism in a graduate seminar in World Englishes at Purdue University prompted intense discussion and debate not only of the issues of language dominance and spread that the author raised, but also of the rhetorical style and strategies that he chose to present a story of linguistic oppression. This article documents the reactions of seminar participants to how Phillipson presented his argument and their conclusion that the rhetorical choices he made seriously affected their ability to find his story convincing. In particular, participants – representing English language speakers in Brazil, Greece, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, and the USA – identified problems with the author's claims and credibility, style and tone, and terminology and coverage. They also discovered that this book, which they expected to be a narrative of hegemony, was instead an illustration of the use of narrative as a hegemonic tool.

Reading Robert Phillipson's Linguistic Imperialism in a graduate sem-inar in World Enghshes at Purdue University prompted intense discus-sion and debate not only of the issues of language dominance and spread that the author raised, but also of the rhetorical style and strat- ...

This descriptive study investigates the self-reported reading habits and levels of ability in reading of ten heritage speakers of Spanish enrolled in Spanish classes at Purdue University. Participants also read a four page magazine article in Spanish which had an input flood of 47 tokens of the present subjunctive and were asked to answer comprehension questions and present subjunctive recognition questions. The researcher hoped that through this focus-onform reading article the participants would have a positive change in recognition of the grammatical form which is undergoing simplification in U.S. Spanish. Results for this small sample warrant more explicit focus-on-form instruction and activation of background knowledge, even on a familiar topic, for heritage speakers.

This descriptive study investigates the self-reported reading habits and levels of ability in reading of ten heritage speakers of Spanish enrolled in Spanish classes at Purdue University. Participants also read a four page magazine article in Spanish which had an input flood of 47 tokens of the present subjunctive and were asked to answer comprehension questions and present subjunctive recognition questions. The researcher hoped that through this focus-onform reading article the participants would have a positive change in recognition of the grammatical form which is undergoing simplification in U.S. Spanish. Results for this small sample warrant more explicit focus-on-form instruction and activation of background knowledge, even on a familiar topic, for heritage speakers.

Hybrid structures composed of exfoliated expanded graphite (EG) and iron oxide nanocrystals have been produced by an ex situ process. The iron oxide nanoparticles coated with meso-2,3-dimercaptosuccinic acid (DMSA), or poly(acrylic) acid (PAA) were integrated onto the exfoliated EG flakes by mixing their aqueous suspensions at room temperature under support of 1-ethyl-3-(3-dimethylaminopropyl)carbodiimide (EDC) and N-hydroxysuccin-nimide (NHS). EG flakes have been used both, naked and functionalized with branched polyethylenimine (PEI). Complete integration of two constituents has been achieved and mainteined stable for more than 12 months. No preferential spatial distribution of anchoring sites for attachement of iron oxide nanoparticles has been observed, regardless EG flakes have been used naked or functionalized with PEI molecules. The structural and physico-chemical characteristics of the exfoliated expanded graphite and its hybrids nanostructures has been investigated by SEM, ...