The present study investigates to what extent students, who originate from outside of the Randstad area, accommodate their accent, during their studies here, to Leiden students who have studied in...Show moreThe present study investigates to what extent students, who originate from outside of the Randstad area, accommodate their accent, during their studies here, to Leiden students who have studied in Leiden for a longer time. Moreover, a linguistically marked feature, the ''Gooise r'' is also said to be employed in Leiden and cultivated among these Leiden students. Both of these phenomena were investigated through qualitative interviews. This was researched via the following questions. 1. To what extent do students who come from outside of Leiden accommodate their accent to their peers and why? a. What did they alter? b. To what extent do students possess the so-called Gooise ''r''? c. What are the social and or linguistic connotations of the Gooise ''r'' in Leiden student circles? d. Do they align with existing academic and popular media ones? It turned out that these students accommodated their accent and language to their peers in varying degrees. Possible reasons were their social network, intergroup relations, remarks and preventing miscommunication. The ''Gooise r'' was also present among the majority of the participants. They associated its usage with posh Leiden students or posh people in general, middle class ''Leids'' or working class ''Leienaren''. They all attributed its usage to the Randstad region.Show less
The discussion on the existence of a bilingual advantage in executive functioning is still going on to this day. But even if this advantage does exist, can we speak of a true advantage? In other...Show moreThe discussion on the existence of a bilingual advantage in executive functioning is still going on to this day. But even if this advantage does exist, can we speak of a true advantage? In other words, how does this advantage resonate in real-life? This study translated executive functions into real-world competences and tested whether bilinguals score better on these as well as on their school performances. Results show very little to no evidence of the existence of a bilingual advantage in real life. The most likely explanations are that there either is no advantage or the advantage is very small and therefore masked by other factors influencing executive functioning and bilingualism.Show less
This dissertation focusses on the gay identity construction in an online environment. The performativity of identity and the existence of a separate gay culture are discussed. Gay identity can be...Show moreThis dissertation focusses on the gay identity construction in an online environment. The performativity of identity and the existence of a separate gay culture are discussed. Gay identity can be constructed regardless of sexuality. 1.Can gay slang construct gay identity on a social media platform such as twitter and what context or demographics might be relevant to do so? 2.How gay are the terms coded according to the respondents of the NRE compared to the other 4 sources? 3.Can anyone participate in gay culture? This will be examined by looking at how and who use 10 slang terms on Twitter selected from Rupaul's Drag Race. Next to this a Natural Response Elicitation is also conducted, a questionnaire posted on Reddit with three questions per term regarding users, meaning and context. There were several results concerning the meaning of the terms, the users and the context of the usage. All these led to see which terms could, and in which context, construct gay-identity. And in turn, whether outsiders can participate in gay culture. The main conclusion is that the meaning given to the terms, the users of the terms and the context in which they are used are relevant in order to perform gay-identity through gay linguistic expressions.Show less
