RESEARCH Victoria Fernandez Ramirez

Second semester LIDILE

RECORD
Linguistic fact: Second semester LIDILE students maintain their speech
patterns and style when speaking to someone else in the
second language as in their mother tongue.
Area of study: Sociolinguistics, discourse analysis, language use (second
language acquisition)
Description: Second semester LIDILE students tend to maintain their speech
patterns and style when using English. This includes
mannerisms, body language and facial expressions, and
“crutches”, regardless of the topic or register of the discourse.
Type of research: Qualitative
Topic of research: Pragmatics
Purpose of research: The results of this investigation could bring to light evidence
that our way of thinking when using L1 does not change much
when we use L2. Also, language teachers could use this
information to help students raise their self-cofidence when
using either language.
Hypothesis or Research HYPOTHESIS:
Question: Students replicate unconsciously their mannerisms and speech
patterns in their second language.
RESEARCH QUESTIONS:
1. Does this phenomenon affects the student’s self-
confidence when using the second language?
2. Is there translation involved when trying to express
the same idea in the second language?
3. Is it possible to replace or omit these mannerisms?
4. Is it necessary to omit these mannerisms?
5.
Subjects: 32 second semester LIDILE students
Context: University of Guadalajara- CUCSH (Centro Universitario de
Ciensas Sociales y Humanidades) Class 93-M
Data Gathering:  Video recording
 Tape recording
 Observation guide
 Individual tally chart
Data analysis process: 1. Students will be divided in four groups: A, B, C and D.
2. Group A and group B will be given different academic
topics to discuss. Group C and group D will be given
different non-academic topics to discuss.
3. Group A will be asked to discuss the topic in their
native tongue. Group B will have to do so as well but in
their second language.
4. Group C will be asked to discuss the topic in their
 native tongue. Group D will have to do so as well but in
their second language.
5. Afterwards, the process will be repeated as follows:
5.1 Group A will discuss a similar topic to the first one
but using their second language.
5.2 Group B will discuss a similar topic to the first one
but using their first language.
5.3 Group C will discuss a similar topic to the first one
but using their second language.
5.4 Group D will discuss a similar topic to the first one
but using their first language.
6. All results will be recorded accordingly.
7. This data will provide the answers to: whether or not
the register, topic, vocabulary and language used
affects at all the core of the discourse.