Bilingual Second-Gen

What influences the language use of bilingual Americans with immigrant parents?

These student-led thesis projects examine cross-language influences, heritage language change between generations of immigrants and their children, participation of ESL speakers in local dialect features, and confidence in each language among second-generation bilingual Americans. 

Papers & Presentations

(*student authors)

• *Vang, M. (2022). Second-generation Hmong Americans' self-confidence and self-perceived competency communicating in English in a variety of settings. Senior honors thesis, Oklahoma State University.
• *Vang, M. (2023, April). Second-generation Hmong Americans’ self-confidence and self-perceived competency communicating in English in a variety of settings. Poster, Undergraduate Research Symposium, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK.
• *Vang, M. (2022, July/Aug/Sept). Second-generation Hmong Americans’ self-confidence and self-perceived competency communicating in English in a variety of settings. Poster (research proposal), National McNair Research Conferences: UCLA, Baylor, Maryland, Kansas City.

 

• *Dokhtzeynal, S. (2020). Second-generation Persians’ participation in the Oklahoma dialect. Toronto Working Papers in Linguistics, 42, University of Toronto.
• *Sheikhbahaie, M. (2020). A sociophonetic analysis of Farsi vowel systems among heritage speakers and immigrants of Persian ethnicity in Oklahoma. Toronto Working Papers in Linguistics, 42, University of Toronto.
• *Dokhtzeynal, S. (2020). Second-generation Persians’ participation in the Oklahoma dialect. Master's thesis, Oklahoma State University.
• *Sheikhbahaie, M. (2020). A sociophonetic analysis of Farsi vowel systems among heritage speakers and immigrants of Persian ethnicity in Oklahoma. Master's thesis, Oklahoma State University.​
• *Dokhtzeynal, S., & *Sheikhbahaie, M. (2020, March). Persian immigrant parents’ awareness of heritage Farsi. Georgetown University Round Table, Washington, DC/Online. 

People

Students:

• Shima Dokhtzeynal
• Masoud Shiekhbahaie
• Mary Vang

Student Corner

Project ideas: 

• Look at past student work; consider doing a similar study with a similar population.
• Ask for details on student-collected data.