Alexander Lorenz | University of South Carolina Upstate (original) (raw)
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Papers by Alexander Lorenz
USC Upstate Student Research Journal, 2022
The following paper focuses on the Ukrainian immigrant community living in the Upstate region of ... more The following paper focuses on the Ukrainian immigrant community living in the Upstate region of South Carolina and the vast differences in immigrant experiences of former and more recent Ukrainian Immigrants. Ukrainians have been migrating to the US since the late 1800s, but unfortunately, there are few studies available on this ethnic group. To give readers a background on the topic, this paper first documents the history of Ukrainian immigration to the US by describing and comparing the four waves of Ukrainian migration to the United States. The following section introduces a questionnaire, created to collect data on the Ukrainian immigrants living in Upstate, South Carolina. This questionnaire was created based on recent studies, and several Ukrainian immigrants from within the community were individually interviewed. Topics of geographics, religion, language, and community involvement are covered in the questionnaire. The questionnaire results are used to explore the characteristics of 4th wave Ukrainians in the US. The results support the hypothesis that 4th wave Ukrainians differ significantly from the previous waves of Ukrainian immigrants, in characteristics including push and pull factors, religion, culture, and language.
This dissertation would have not been possible without my advisers and numerous mentors. I would ... more This dissertation would have not been possible without my advisers and numerous mentors. I would like to thank Dr. Per Urlaub for always believing in me. He guided me throughout the process of becoming a teacher-scholar. Our professional relationship is indescribable and our friendship long-lasting. Dr. Hans Boas has been an influential mentor throughout my graduate studies. He showed me how to successfully conduct research studies independently and write for multiple audiences. Dr. Katie Arens has guided me through various projects since day one. Her availability and honesty helped me find my niche in the ever-changing field of Germanic Studies. The work of Dr. Elaine Horwitz inspired me to dedicate my academic life to the study of individual differences of language learners. Her advice and feedback during the beginning stages of this project was crucial for the outcomes of my study. Dr. Marc Pierce has been very helpful throughout the process of writing this dissertation. His critical examination of my work pushed me to continuously improve my work. I would also like to thank Dr. Cori Crane for guiding me through graduate school and giving me feedback on my projects throughout the years. She introduced me to exploratory practice, which sparked my interests to study the effects of various grammar teaching approaches on language learners and learning outcomes. I would like to thank Dr. Janet Swaffar for showing me how to successfully conduct questionnaire studies and for always giving me advice on various projects.
Die Unterrichtspraxis/Teaching German, 2020
This best-practices piece addresses the language-culture divide contributing to curricular bifurc... more This best-practices piece addresses the language-culture divide contributing to curricular bifurcation in many collegiate language departments and presents a lesson plan to help language instructors bridge the gap. The lesson on public transportation is designed for first-semester L2 German students and focuses on a guided reading of a music video advertisement—the BVG spot “Is mir egal,” featuring Kazim Azboga (2015). The instructor and the L2 learners, using these guided reading strategies (Kern, 2000; Paesani et al., 2016), collectively unpack the text and make meaning—culturally, linguistically, and in between. This article presents data in the form of written student reflections on the video advertisement and guided reading strategies, as well as teacher observations. The lesson is designed according to the FLLITE Project (Foreign Languages and the Literary in the Everyday—www.fllite.org), dedicated to the free usage of the Open Education Resources (OER) movement, thus allowing instructors to adapt it to their specific needs.
To know a word receptively and productively, second language (L2) learners must have knowledge of... more To know a word receptively and productively, second language (L2) learners must have knowledge of a word’s form, meaning, and use, including grammatical functions and collocational patterns (Nation, 2001). Frame semantics (Fillmore, 1982) provides a useful model to help L2 learners deepen their lexical knowledge. A functional and construction grammar developed to explain form-function pairings, the model views “frame” as a meaningful linguistic structuring device evoked by sets of related lexical items. These diverse lexical units exist along a continuum, theorized in Construction Grammar, from individual to multi-word to abstract schematic constructions. Building on recent studies that explore frame semantics’ potential for L2 vocabulary acquisition (e.g., Atzler, 2011; Boas, 2013; Boas, 2016), this study investigates how beginning and intermediate L2 learners of German (n=65) perceive and report interacting with a frame-based dictionary, the German Frame-Semantic Online Lexicon (G...
Not only does the use of eComma in my German classroom encourage students to take learning into t... more Not only does the use of eComma in my German classroom encourage students to take learning into their own hands, but it also gives students the opportunity to learn from one another in a low-risk online environment.
Bookreview: Welten
Prisca Augustyn and Nikolaus Euba’s newly released beginning collegiate German text- book Welten ... more Prisca Augustyn and Nikolaus Euba’s newly released beginning collegiate German text- book Welten is a companion to the authors’ popular intermediate-level textbook Stationen (3rd ed., 2014). While Stationen focuses on cities in the German-speaking world, Welten focuses on 12 individuals who represent both various regions in German-speaking Europe and different ways of living (depicted primarily through their professional identities). By centering the con- tent around these 12 fictional characters, the book exposes learners to diverse perspectives of everyday life in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, as well as to a variety of accents and speech patterns.
Scholarly Publications by Alexander Lorenz
![Research paper thumbnail of Alles offen: Öffentliche Verkehrsmittel und Weltoffenheit [It’s all open: Public transportation and cosmopolitanism]](https://attachments.academia-assets.com/60731854/thumbnails/1.jpg)
](Foreign Languages and the Literary in the Everyday (FLLITE), 2017
https://fllite.org/alles-offen-offentliche-verkehrsmittel-und-weltoffenheit/ Students watch, dec... more https://fllite.org/alles-offen-offentliche-verkehrsmittel-und-weltoffenheit/
Students watch, decode, and transform a music video/advertisement for the Berlin public transportation system in which the protagonist, a rhythmic BVG employee, promotes tolerance and multiculturalism by not caring about anything. In doing so, students analyze and transform humorous content; use the describe, analyze, and relate framework to ground interpretations in observations and textual evidence; and question genre conventions. Students will consider Berlin’s liberal reputation through social and individual reflection.
Die Unterrichtspraxis, 2020
This best-practices piece addresses the language-culture divide contributing to curricular bifurc... more This best-practices piece addresses the language-culture divide contributing to curricular bifurcation in many collegiate language departments and presents a lesson plan to help language instructors bridge the gap. The lesson on public transportation is designed for first-semester L2 German students and focuses on a guided reading of a music video advertisement—the BVG spot “Is mir egal,” featuring Kazim Azboga (2015). The instructor and the L2 learners, using these guided reading strategies (Kern, 2000; Paesani et al., 2016), collectively unpack the text and make meaning—culturally, linguistically, and in between. This article presents data in the form of written student reflections on the video advertisement and guided reading strategies, as well as teacher observations. The lesson is designed according to the FLLITE Project (Foreign Languages and the Literary in the Everyday—www.fllite.org), dedicated to the free usage of the Open Education Resources (OER) movement, thus allowing instructors to adapt it to their specific needs.
USC Upstate Student Research Journal, 2022
The following paper focuses on the Ukrainian immigrant community living in the Upstate region of ... more The following paper focuses on the Ukrainian immigrant community living in the Upstate region of South Carolina and the vast differences in immigrant experiences of former and more recent Ukrainian Immigrants. Ukrainians have been migrating to the US since the late 1800s, but unfortunately, there are few studies available on this ethnic group. To give readers a background on the topic, this paper first documents the history of Ukrainian immigration to the US by describing and comparing the four waves of Ukrainian migration to the United States. The following section introduces a questionnaire, created to collect data on the Ukrainian immigrants living in Upstate, South Carolina. This questionnaire was created based on recent studies, and several Ukrainian immigrants from within the community were individually interviewed. Topics of geographics, religion, language, and community involvement are covered in the questionnaire. The questionnaire results are used to explore the characteristics of 4th wave Ukrainians in the US. The results support the hypothesis that 4th wave Ukrainians differ significantly from the previous waves of Ukrainian immigrants, in characteristics including push and pull factors, religion, culture, and language.
This dissertation would have not been possible without my advisers and numerous mentors. I would ... more This dissertation would have not been possible without my advisers and numerous mentors. I would like to thank Dr. Per Urlaub for always believing in me. He guided me throughout the process of becoming a teacher-scholar. Our professional relationship is indescribable and our friendship long-lasting. Dr. Hans Boas has been an influential mentor throughout my graduate studies. He showed me how to successfully conduct research studies independently and write for multiple audiences. Dr. Katie Arens has guided me through various projects since day one. Her availability and honesty helped me find my niche in the ever-changing field of Germanic Studies. The work of Dr. Elaine Horwitz inspired me to dedicate my academic life to the study of individual differences of language learners. Her advice and feedback during the beginning stages of this project was crucial for the outcomes of my study. Dr. Marc Pierce has been very helpful throughout the process of writing this dissertation. His critical examination of my work pushed me to continuously improve my work. I would also like to thank Dr. Cori Crane for guiding me through graduate school and giving me feedback on my projects throughout the years. She introduced me to exploratory practice, which sparked my interests to study the effects of various grammar teaching approaches on language learners and learning outcomes. I would like to thank Dr. Janet Swaffar for showing me how to successfully conduct questionnaire studies and for always giving me advice on various projects.
Die Unterrichtspraxis/Teaching German, 2020
This best-practices piece addresses the language-culture divide contributing to curricular bifurc... more This best-practices piece addresses the language-culture divide contributing to curricular bifurcation in many collegiate language departments and presents a lesson plan to help language instructors bridge the gap. The lesson on public transportation is designed for first-semester L2 German students and focuses on a guided reading of a music video advertisement—the BVG spot “Is mir egal,” featuring Kazim Azboga (2015). The instructor and the L2 learners, using these guided reading strategies (Kern, 2000; Paesani et al., 2016), collectively unpack the text and make meaning—culturally, linguistically, and in between. This article presents data in the form of written student reflections on the video advertisement and guided reading strategies, as well as teacher observations. The lesson is designed according to the FLLITE Project (Foreign Languages and the Literary in the Everyday—www.fllite.org), dedicated to the free usage of the Open Education Resources (OER) movement, thus allowing instructors to adapt it to their specific needs.
To know a word receptively and productively, second language (L2) learners must have knowledge of... more To know a word receptively and productively, second language (L2) learners must have knowledge of a word’s form, meaning, and use, including grammatical functions and collocational patterns (Nation, 2001). Frame semantics (Fillmore, 1982) provides a useful model to help L2 learners deepen their lexical knowledge. A functional and construction grammar developed to explain form-function pairings, the model views “frame” as a meaningful linguistic structuring device evoked by sets of related lexical items. These diverse lexical units exist along a continuum, theorized in Construction Grammar, from individual to multi-word to abstract schematic constructions. Building on recent studies that explore frame semantics’ potential for L2 vocabulary acquisition (e.g., Atzler, 2011; Boas, 2013; Boas, 2016), this study investigates how beginning and intermediate L2 learners of German (n=65) perceive and report interacting with a frame-based dictionary, the German Frame-Semantic Online Lexicon (G...
Not only does the use of eComma in my German classroom encourage students to take learning into t... more Not only does the use of eComma in my German classroom encourage students to take learning into their own hands, but it also gives students the opportunity to learn from one another in a low-risk online environment.
Bookreview: Welten
Prisca Augustyn and Nikolaus Euba’s newly released beginning collegiate German text- book Welten ... more Prisca Augustyn and Nikolaus Euba’s newly released beginning collegiate German text- book Welten is a companion to the authors’ popular intermediate-level textbook Stationen (3rd ed., 2014). While Stationen focuses on cities in the German-speaking world, Welten focuses on 12 individuals who represent both various regions in German-speaking Europe and different ways of living (depicted primarily through their professional identities). By centering the con- tent around these 12 fictional characters, the book exposes learners to diverse perspectives of everyday life in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, as well as to a variety of accents and speech patterns.
Foreign Languages and the Literary in the Everyday (FLLITE), 2017
https://fllite.org/alles-offen-offentliche-verkehrsmittel-und-weltoffenheit/ Students watch, dec... more https://fllite.org/alles-offen-offentliche-verkehrsmittel-und-weltoffenheit/
Students watch, decode, and transform a music video/advertisement for the Berlin public transportation system in which the protagonist, a rhythmic BVG employee, promotes tolerance and multiculturalism by not caring about anything. In doing so, students analyze and transform humorous content; use the describe, analyze, and relate framework to ground interpretations in observations and textual evidence; and question genre conventions. Students will consider Berlin’s liberal reputation through social and individual reflection.
Die Unterrichtspraxis, 2020
This best-practices piece addresses the language-culture divide contributing to curricular bifurc... more This best-practices piece addresses the language-culture divide contributing to curricular bifurcation in many collegiate language departments and presents a lesson plan to help language instructors bridge the gap. The lesson on public transportation is designed for first-semester L2 German students and focuses on a guided reading of a music video advertisement—the BVG spot “Is mir egal,” featuring Kazim Azboga (2015). The instructor and the L2 learners, using these guided reading strategies (Kern, 2000; Paesani et al., 2016), collectively unpack the text and make meaning—culturally, linguistically, and in between. This article presents data in the form of written student reflections on the video advertisement and guided reading strategies, as well as teacher observations. The lesson is designed according to the FLLITE Project (Foreign Languages and the Literary in the Everyday—www.fllite.org), dedicated to the free usage of the Open Education Resources (OER) movement, thus allowing instructors to adapt it to their specific needs.