School of Social Sciences, Humanities, and Arts

Abstract Writers’ use of modality, an interpersonal linguistic resource commonly used for expressing probability, reveals key information about their claims. Most research on modality addresses L2 English learners, leaving a gap in research in advanced language development in other languages. This paper addresses this gap by studying how heritage language (HL) speakers of Spanish express doubt and probability in Spanish and how the lexicogrammatical features they use across genres reveal how they express these meanings. Drawing on Systemic Functional Linguistics and pragmatics, this study examines modality in 125 texts written in Spanish by HL students in the U.S., including narratives, expositions, article reviews, personal responses, and research papers. The results reveal that students use the most modality resources in personal responses and the least in reviews. This work offers insights about the interpersonal resources writers choose to express their argumentative stance and the socio-pragmatic competence in writing among HL students.

Joan Torres-Pou. Asia en la España del siglo XIX. Literatos, viajeros, intelectuales y diplomáticos ante Oriente. Rodopi: Ámsterdam-New York, 2013. 218 pp. Print.

Clase política, compadrazgo y hampa cultural en la formación del canon literario dominicano (1996-2012)

Disembodied and Deportable Labor at the U.S. Mexico-Border:

Representations of the Mexican Body in Film

Beyond the Hyphen: Representation of Multicultural Japanese Identity in Maximiliano Matayoshi’s Gaijin and Anna Kazumi Stahl’s Flores de un solo día

González Sánchez, Carlos Alberto. New World Literacy: Writing and Culture Across the Atlantic, 1500-1700 . Trans. Tristan Platt. Lewisburg, Pa: Bucknell University Press; Lanham, Md; Co-published with Rowman & Littlefield Pub. Group, 2011. 295pp. Print.

Hacia una redefinición del desarraigo: diálogos narrativos entre Mozambique y Venezuela