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Many studies evidence the flexibility of speech perception in the first language (L1), which allows rapid adaptation to unfamiliar foreign accents. Two influential studies by Bradlow and Bent (2008) and a follow-up study by Baese-Berk et al. (2013) found that increased variability as a function of the number of talkers and accents facilitated the generalization of adaptation across talkers and accents by L1 listeners. However, very few studies have examined second language (L2) learners as listeners (Baese-Berk, 2018). Thus, little is known about perceptual flexibility in L2. Critically, there has been no study directly examining the effect of increased variability on adaptation to foreign accents by L2 listeners. My goal with this study is to address this research gap by closely following these studies with L2 listeners. I examine if variability facilitates adaptation to unfamiliar foreign accents by L2 listeners.To do this, I recruited 280 Japanese learners of English for a two-day experiment that consisted of a pre-test, treatment, and post-test. For the pre-test and post-test, I used a Mandarin talker and a Vietnamese talker. The participants were randomly assigned to seven groups and received different treatments: an identical-talker group, single-medium group, single-high group, single-low group, multi-talker group, multi-accent group, and control group. The identical-talker group had the same Mandarin talker as the tests. The rest of the groups had a different talker from the tests. The single-medium group featured one Mandarin talker with a similar level of intelligibility to the test talkers, while the single-high group had a high intelligibility Mandarin talker, and the single-low group had a low intelligibility Mandarin talker. The multi-talker group had five Mandarin talkers. The multi-accent group had five L2 accents that included the Mandarin accent but not the Vietnamese accent. The talkers in the multi-talker and multi-accent groups featured similar intelligibility levels to the single-medium talker. The control group had five American L1 talkers. In the pre-test, treatment, and post-test, the L2 listeners transcribed short sentences. Accuracy of word recognition was used as a measure of adaptation. The results showed no statistically significant improvements in any of the groups. Numerically however, the control group and the single-high group improved more than others for the Mandarin talker, while the single-medium and multi-talker groups improved more than others for the Vietnamese talker. The small improvements suggest possible differences in the mechanism of adaptation to foreign accents between L1 and L2, which may be modulated by listeners' proficiency. I discuss how speech perception theories and hypotheses that were developed within studies on L1 listeners and L2 phoneme acquisition theories may or may not explain the results. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

In this dissertation, I investigated how cognitive resources as well as formal, and informal language experience impact language learning in two studies. In the first study (Chapter 2), I examined the learning of Spanish grammatical gender by Chinese international students who were studying abroad in the US. The goal of that study was to uncover whether being immersed in their non-dominant language (English) to varying degrees and having ambient exposure to other languages in their environment would impact new language learning and modulate the relationship between cognitive control resources and learning. For the learning of grammatical gender, individual differences in the international students' degree of exposure to English predicted higher accuracy in learning. Moreover, international students' active use of an additional Chinese language modulated the relationship between cognitive control and reaction times for learning and generalization of grammatical gender in Spanish. These results suggest that both the learners' current immersion context, their past language knowledge, and their cognitive resources come to shape new language learning in a third language. In the second study (Chapter 3), I investigated whether prior knowledge of a tone language as an L1, individual differences in cognitive control and musical experience predicted the ability to perceive tones in a new language. Speakers of tonal native languages (Vietnamese or Bantu languages) and speakers of non-tonal native languages (English or Dutch) were asked to identify Mandarin tones. Critically, Vietnamese has a tone system that is similar to Mandarin because it uses the same two tonal cues as Mandarin (pitch height and pitch direction). On the other hand, Bantu languages are more dissimilar because they only use one of the tonal cues from Mandarin (pitch height). All participants had no prior knowledge of Mandarin, but all were L2 speakers of English, also a non-tonal language. L1 speakers of a tone system that was similar to that of Mandarin (Vietnamese) were more accurate in identifying the Mandarin tones relative to speakers of nontonal languages (Spanish or Dutch). However, L1 speakers of Bantu languages, which have a more dissimilar tone system to that of Mandarin, were less accurate in identifying Mandarin tones compared to speakers of nontonal languages. Higher levels of musical experience also predicted higher Mandarin tone identification, but only for Spanish and Vietnamese groups. Cognitive control abilities, as indexed by performance on the Simon task, did not predict tone identification. These findings are consistent with the claim that speech L2 perception is largely influenced by native language tuning to L1 phonetic cues and with previous research showing that experience tracking pitch in music confers benefits to tracking pitch in a linguistic context. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

This qualitative, phenomenological study investigated the perspectives of successful Limited English Proficient (LEP) students along with their parents and teachers. Narrative inquiry was used to collect data and template analysis was used to triangulate trends. A purposeful snowball sample of six 4 th grade students that have been identified as being successfully exited from ESL services were utilized for the study. The students were selected from three small West Texas school districts. There were three boys and three girls. Spanish was five students' native language while Vietnamese was one student's native language. Parent and student interviews were done separately. Information gleaned regarding parent involvement and student expectations was meaningful. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

As much as three quarters of the modern Vietnamese lexicon is of Chinese origin. The majority of these words are often assumed to have originated in much the same manner as late Sino-Korean and Sino-Japanese borrowed forms: by rote memorization of reading glosses that were acquired through limited exposure to spoken Sinitic. However, under closer scrutiny, this model fails to account for a broad range of features in the Vietnamese language. Through an examination of the intellectual, cultural, and political terms of Sino-Vietic contact from the 1st century B.C.E. through the 17th century C.E., as well as an analysis of the phonological forms of Sino-Vietnamese lexica that were transacted as a result, I formulate a new history of Sino-Vietic contact that differs sharply from the prevailing model. This new model departs from current concepts of Vietnamese linguistic history at three major points. First, rather than limited exposure to Sinitic language, Sino-Vietnamese phonological forms suggest that pervasive and sustained bilingual contact obtained over most of the first millennium, between the immediate ancestor of modern Vietnamese on one hand, and a local variety of Middle Chinese rooted in the river plains of northern Vietnam on the other. This requires the existence of a thriving, Sinitic speaking population in the regions of northern Vietnam that flourished over the course of the first millennium. Chapters 2, 4, and 6 are devoted to the three primary chronological layers of Sinitic vocabulary in modern Vietnamese, two of which resulted from the increasing bilingualism of this ethnolinguistically complex society. Second, based on new data from fieldwork I conducted in 2009-2010, I claim that the closest living relatives of modern Vietnamese--the so-called "Muròng" varieties--in fact do not constitute a linguistic subgroup of their own, but represent distinct languages as distantly related to each other as they are to Vietnamese. As discussed in chapter 5, this model of speciation bears significant consequences for our understanding of the life and death of Sinitic language in the region. Third, I argue that the emergence of a vernacular literary tradition in Vietnam, in the form of the logographic script called "Chur Nôm," was propelled by a desire to fuse local forms with the prevailing cosmopolitan mode (i.e. Literary Sinitic), and to synthetically reproduce the kind of diglossic social architecture that had developed in medieval China over the course of the Sui and Tang dynasties. Chapter 3 examines the roots of this Sinitic diglossia in the 7th century production of the immensely influential rime dictionary called the "Qieyun," while Chapter 7 investigates the rise of a vernacular literary tradition in Vietnam over the course of the second millennium, and shows how the elevation of vernacular language was justified by re-imagining it--not as a vulgar copy of Literary Sinitic, nor as a rising competitor--but simply as an extension of the domesticative and civilizing technology of Sinitic writing. By examining both the cultural and structural dimensions of language history, this dissertation provides unified account of the evolution of Vietnamese under various Sinitic influences which redefines our current understanding of Sino-Vietic contact over the last two millennia. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

Online learning, or e-learning, has become popular and grown rapidly in the past few decades, especially in higher education. In 2007, 66% of postsecondary degree-granting institutions in the United States reported offering online education. With advances in technology and the Internet, online education has the potential to reach a diverse group of nontraditional, adult working learners. The literature on the Asian American learners' perceptions of online learning remained limited and there is virtually nothing related to the Southeast Asian American (SAA) learners who are of Cambodian, Laotian, and Vietnamese descents. Having access to higher education becomes a critical issue for the workforce because current and future economic forces require workers to have at least some postsecondary or higher education degree. The SAA's enrollment in higher education remains low given the flexible alternative of online learning. Prior studies have demonstrated that positive perceptions of satisfaction and quality influenced learners' choice to enroll and persist in online learning. It has been demonstrated that the interactions between instructor-student, student-student, and student-content as well as learning styles influenced learners' perception of online education. In this quantitative study, a multiple regression analysis was conducted to investigate to what degree the combination of interactions within the online environment and learning styles predict degree of satisfaction with and perceived quality of online education for SAA university learners. This study was conducted at a university in Houston, Texas; the target population was SAA learners. Results found that the interactions between instructor and student and among themselves predict the perception of satisfaction (R[superscript 2] = 0.066 and p = 0.007). A combination of all interactions had significant predictive power on quality of online (R[superscript 2] = 0.78 and p < 0.0001). Learning styles did not have predictive power on perceptions (R[superscript 2] = 0.009, p = 0.214). The conclusion of this study was that the interactions between instructor-student, student-student, and student-content have significant predictive power on the perceptions of satisfaction and quality of online education. It is recommended that online course designers and instructors to enhance interactions through course activities. For further research, the sample size should be increased to improve generalization. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

In this dissertation, I provide a new analysis of the Vietnamese vowel system as a system with fourteen monophthongs and nineteen diphthongs based on phonetic and phonological data. I propose that these Vietnamese contour vowels - /ie/, /[turned m]?/ and /uo/-should be grouped with these eleven monophthongs /i e epsilon a [turned a] ? ? [turned m] u o [open o]/ based on their similarities in phonetic and phonological behaviors. The phonetic characteristics of these vowels are studied acoustically using normalized and scaled acoustic values of 13,925 tokens, spoken by female Hanoian speakers from my speech corpus, "The Vietnamese Speech Corpus". Phonetic analysis shows that the eleven monophthongs and three contour vowels are similar in terms of formant frequency targets, formant dynamic trajectories, and duration. Phonologically, monophthongs and contour vowel can be rhymed with each other in poems, and the two elements within each contour vowel should be analyzed as two halves of one root node in the syllable structure. In chapters 1 and 2, I give the current analysis of the Vietnamese sound system, review different approaches to the acoustic features of vowels, and the phonemic status of diphthongs. In chapter 3, I give a detailed description of the Vietnamese Speech Corpus. In chapter 4, I show the difference in formant targets between monophthongs and glides, as well as the importance of duration in distinguishing vowels in Vietnamese. I also give evidence for the differences in duration between the diphthongs and the monophthongs-and-contour-vowels group. In chapter 5, I analyze the natural class of monophthongs and contour vowels in terms of feature geometry and give evidence from Vietnamese phonological processes to support the analysis of contour vowels as being in the same natural class as monophthongs. I also re-analyze Vietnamese triphthongs as diphthongs in this chapter. Finally, in chapter 6, I summarize the similarities and differences across the monophthongs, contour vowels, and diphthongs, and suggest possible future studies to test this hypothesis of the Vietnamese vowel system. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

The problem. This research study explores an important issue in the field of TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) and second language acquisition (SLA). Its purpose is to examine the relationship between Vietnamese students' L1 grammar knowledge and their English grammar proficiency. Furthermore, it investigates the extent to which English grammar proficiency and language transfer in Vietnamese speakers of English are influenced by linguistic factors (first and second language grammar proficiency levels) and non-linguistic factors (the effects of age at the onset of learning English and the length of U.S. residence). Method. This study examined the relationship between Vietnamese students' L1 grammar knowledge and their English grammar proficiency and their language transfer. These issues were further analyzed in relation to age at the onset of learning English, length of U.S. residence, and L1 and L2 grammar proficiency levels. Ninety one participants, age range of 18-65, were the Vietnamese-American students from universities and colleges in Southern California. Results. Through the questionnaires of demographic and educational backgrounds and the results of the test scores, participants' Vietnamese and English grammar proficiency and language transfer levels were reported. Their performance in three tests, Vietnamese and English grammar tests, Vietnamese-English translation test, and the questionnaire were analyzed to investigate whether there was the correlation between Vietnamese L1 grammar and English L2 grammar proficiency. Additionally, these results also examined English grammar learning and language transfer in relation to age at the onset of learning English, length of U.S. residence, and L1 and L2 grammar proficiency levels. Regarding the relationship between Vietnamese L1 and English L2 grammar proficiency, the study showed that there was no significant correlation between the Vietnamese students' L1 grammar proficiency test scores and their L2 English grammar proficiency test scores. Furthermore, L2 grammar proficiency and language transfer varied depending on age at the onset of learning English, L1 and L2 proficiency levels, and areas of language and linguistics. In the area of the effect of the length of U.S. residence on L2 grammar proficiency and language transfer, the study indicated the influence of length of U.S. residence only on language transfer and the variance depended on areas of language and linguistics. The quality of L2 input, rather than length of U.S. residence, may affect L2 grammar learning and language transfer as well, which may be an inspiration for future research. Other suggestions for future research are further provided. The results of this research study have several pedagogical implications: The study has an implication for retaining native language(s) as learning several languages simultaneously does not cause serious impediments, but rather fosters language interdependence. Additionally, further pedagogical implications of this study are of great importance because the results can be applied not only to Vietnamese L1 speakers, but also to ESL/EFL learners from various L1 backgrounds. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

Vietnamese (Vietic, Mon-Khmer, Austroasiatic) is monosyllabic and tonal. Most Mon-Khmer (MK) languages are multisyllabic and atonal. Evidence suggests that Vietnamese (VN) has had its tones less than one millennium, and that other languages (both MK and non-MK) are also acquiring tones, a process called "tonogenesis". Comparing VN's phonology to that of closely related languages, Haudricourt has identified several stages of tonogenesis. We know "that" Vietnamese tonogenesis included monosyllabization, loss of onset voicing distinctions, and loss of laryngeal codas, but "how" and "why", and in what order? And why do other languages follow similar paths? Usage-based phonology claims that language change is driven by articulatory reduction, which motivates similar paths of change across related and unrelated languages. If speakers use a word often, they conserve effort by saying it the "easy" way. And even if a word is reduced, its frequency helps listeners to perceive it. Frequent words reduce first, then infrequent words. I argue that tonogenesis can be given such an articulatory account, and I detail what such an account should include. Comparing VN's sound changes to those in other MK languages, and to reductive processes noted by vocal physiology and articulatory phonetics, I demonstrate that each change along the tonogenetic path is an articulatory reduction. There is much about past tonogenetic processes that we cannot test, but the most recent of those processes are still synchronically evident in comparisons of frequent to infrequent words. To show that a usage-based account of tonogenesis is supported by synchronic facts, I analyze the spontaneous conversations and directed readings of 16 VN speakers in Hanoi and near Saigon. Acoustic measurements reveal that (relative to infrequent words) VN's frequent words are reduced in three ways: they exhibit less negative spectral tilt, less duration, and less pitch excursion. The significance of each is explained. Empirical results support the usage-based, articulatory account that I propose. Future studies of sound change will gain useful diachronic insights by including considerations of usage frequency and articulatory reduction. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

Chinese speakers from Vietnam are a distinctive but hidden ethnolinguistic minority group in the San Gabriel Valley region of Los Angeles. Many variables present barriers to their full participation in society from both the values and norms of dominant American society and non-Chinese co-nationals from Vietnam as well as higher status co-ethnics from Hong Kong and Taiwan. In order to understand how Chinese-Vietnamese community college students form identities and adapt to the social context of the San Gabriel Valley, this dissertation looks at the relationships among language, ethnic identity, and education on 2 levels: the extent of multilingualism among Chinese speakers from Vietnam; and the meanings that Chinese-Vietnamese participants give to multilingualism is recorded through an analysis of narratives elicited through recorded, in-depth, semi-structured interviews. Results of the survey suggest that Chinese-Vietnamese participants tend to cluster in areas of higher concentrations of other ethnic Chinese and have a range of Chinese-Vietnamese ethnolinguistic identities related to geographical origin in Vietnam and to the socioeconomic backgrounds of their parents. Some attempt to strengthen their Chinese identities through the acquisition of Cantonese language skills, but the confluence of ethnicity, nationality, and class form barriers resulting in social isolation and an inability to claim coherent identities in social contexts outside the family. Schools in particular are the sites of many conflicts for many participants. This study questions many common assumptions about the relationship between class and ethnicity and points to the need for additional research on marginalized multilingual communities. Seven appendices with demographic and other data are included. (Contains 322 references.) (KFT)

The hypothesis was advanced that if the proverbs of a country could provide clues to its inhabitants' character which could be validated by reference to literature and commentaries of various types, an excellent guide would be available for educators. The information could be of value to teachers in that it would increase sensitivity to students, and it would serve as an aid in determining which aspects of American culture would pose the greatest problems for students. A systematic study was made, therefore, of a collection of 6,000-7,000 Vietnamese proverbs in the hope that the results would be of use to American teachers of Vietnamese students. Selected Vietnamese proverbs were considered as an outline of societal attitudes (the family, the society, religion and fate). Suggestions are given for researchers and teachers based on these findings. Appendix A contains an article by Walter Slote, "Adaptation of Recent Vietnamese Immigres to the American Experience: A Psycho-Cultural Approach." Appendix B is a booklet by Nguyen Kim Hong, "Vietnamese Themes: Understanding Cultural Differences between Americans and Vietnamese, Understanding Educational Differences between Americans and Vietnamese, and Tips to American Educators in Dealing with Vietnamese Students." (CFM)

This dissertation investigates cross-generational linguistic differences in the Canberra Vietnamese bilingual community, with a particular focus on Vietnamese as the heritage language. Specifically, it documents the vernacular and considers key aspects of this data from different theoretical perspectives. Its main contribution is an insight into a rarely studied heritage language variety in a contact community that has never been examined. The dissertation consists of five core chapters, organised into two parts. In the first part (Chapters 2-3), I describe how I documented the vernacular and created the Canberra Vietnamese English Corpus (CanVEC), an original corpus compiled specifically for this study that is also the first to be freely available for research purposes. The corpus consists of over ten hours of spontaneous speech produced by 45 Vietnamese-English bilingual speakers across two generations living in Canberra. In the second part of the study (Chapters 4-6), I put the corpus to use and investigate aspects of the cross-generational differences in Vietnamese as the heritage language in this community. In particular, I first probe the Vietnamese heritage language via its participation in the code-switching discourse (Chapter 4). In doing so, I focus on the applicability of the Matrix Language Framework (MLF) (Myers-Scotton, 1993, 2002) and its associated Matrix Language (ML) Turnover Hypothesis (Myers-Scotton, 1998) to the code-switching data in CanVEC. Since support for this prominent model has mainly come from language pairs that have different clausal word order or vastly different inventories of inflectional morphology, Vietnamese-English as a pair in which both languages are SVO and essentially isolating offers a tantalising testing ground for its application. Results show that the universal claims of this model do not hold so straight-forwardly. CanVEC data challenges several assumptions of the MLF, with the model ultimately only being able to account for around half of the CanVEC code-switching data. I further demonstrate that even when the ML is putatively identifiable and a cross-generational ML 'turnover' is quantitatively observed, the predictions do not reflect the direction of structural influence that we see in CanVEC. The MLF approach therefore sheds only limited light on cross-generational language shift and variation in this community. Given that null elements emerge as a distinct area of difficulty in Chapter 4, I take this aspect as the focal point for the next part of the investigation (Chapter 5), where I use the variationist approach (Labov, 1972 et seq.) to explore three cases where null and overt realisation alternates in Vietnamese: subjects, objects, and copulas. In doing so, I move away from the bilingual portion of CanVEC to examine the monolingual heritage Vietnamese subset directly. Results show that Vietnamese null subjects vary significantly across generations, while null objects and copulas remain stable in terms of use. As speakers also overwhelmingly prefer overt forms over null forms (∼70:30) across all the three of the variables of interest, I appeal to the generative interface-oriented approach (Sorace & Filiaci, 2006 et seq.) to next examine the distribution of overt subjects, objects, copulas (Chapter 6). These results converge with what was found for null forms: cross-generational effects were observed for pronominal subjects, but not pronominal objects and copulas. This finding also supports the importance of a distinction drawn in previous works between internal (syntax-semantics) and external (syntax-discourse/pragmatics) interface phenomena, with the latter being seemingly more susceptible to change. Ultimately, this dissertation highlights the empirical and theoretical value of studying rarely considered contact varieties, while deploying an integrated approach that acknowledges the multi-faceted complexity of the contact communities where these varieties are spoken.

PurposeThe overall purpose of this dissertation is to understand how social networks, through kinship-making and coalition building, shape the distress, anxiety, and well-being of advocates engaged in LGBTQ+ issues in Vietnamese American communities in Orange County, CA through queer and trans of color critique lenses. The specific aims are to (1) characterize advocates’ sociodemographic profiles; (2) elucidate diverse conceptualizations and practices of community organizing; and (3) evaluate the impacts of kinship network characteristics on the psychological and social well-being of these advocates. Methods The dissertation used a two-stage mixed paradigm (critical, constructivist, and post-positivist) and mixed methods (ethnography and social network analysis) case study design. Viet Rainbow of Orange County (VROC), an LGBTQ+ advocacy organization, was the primary community partner. The first stage used an exploratory sequential design where four months of ethnographic field work and semi-structured interviews established the sampling frame for the second stage. The second stage used a convergent design where qualitative data (eight months of ethnographic field work and semi-structured interviews) and quantitative data (egocentric social network collection and self-administered health questionnaires) were collected simultaneously. Thematic and narrative analysis of ethnographic field work and semi-structured interviews fully addressed Aims 1 and 2. Statistical network analysis, including network visualization and descriptive statistical analyses, fully addressed Aim 3. I integrated qualitative and quantitative findings in the discussion. Results Aim 1: 51 advocates participated in semi-structured interviews and participant observation (with observations lasting between four to twelve months). Advocates were majority Vietnamese (82%) and majority cisgender (62%), with 38% identifying as trans or non-binary and 39% identifying as queer. Five themes emerged: (1) the separation between queerness and Vietnameseness; (2) the impact of family of origin on gender identity formation especially for those socialized as Vietnamese daughters but who now identify as trans, non-binary, or gender non-conforming; (3) the political orientations of queerness and non-binaryness; (4) the significance of allyship, and (5) the intersection of religion with beliefs surrounding gender and sexuality. Aim 2: Drawn from the same 51 semi-structured interviews as Aim 1 and 12 months (January 2023 - 2024) of intensive participant observation, four themes surfaced: (1) organizing as a constellation, (2) non-profitization of radical politics, (3) politics of non-disposability, and (4) gestures to queer and trans Vietnamese political approaches. Aim 3: 38 participants completed cross-sectional egocentric network surveys (N = 628 alters, 666 total nodes). Larger networks and higher number of closer relationships tended to correlate with better mental health, while certain types of homophily, such as religion and gender, may provide protective health effects. Although specific associations between network structural characteristics and mental health were not statistically significant, they generally followed expected patterns, with social support density associated with better mental health and influence/conflict density linked to poorer mental health outcomes. Discussion The findings illuminate the complexities inherent in navigating intersecting identities and systemic oppressions within LGBTQ+ Vietnamese American communities. Intergenerational trauma and community support emerge as pivotal themes, highlighting the resilience fostered through supportive relationships despite the pervasive presence of trauma. Religion emerges as both a source of solace and struggle, underscoring the nuanced relationship between religious communities and mental well-being. Moreover, the exploration of gender identity and advocacy reveals discordant experiences, emphasizing the need for intersectional approaches in understanding and addressing the diverse needs within LGBTQ+ communities. This dissertation underscores the imperative of supporting grassroots social movements in promoting the well-being of LGBTQ+ Vietnamese Americans and in resisting and undoing community-level levers of oppression.

This dissertation attempts to think about time in the postcolonial novel, or what I call postcolonial temporality, which refers to both the conception of time, in relation historical progress—as perceived by its authors—as well as the time period in which a literary text is written and circulated, in conjunction with its country’s sociopolitical development. The central concern that prompted and animated this investigation is “Why do we read certain literatures and not others?” Of course, these other literatures I am referring to are works from the Vietnamese Francophone and Fil-Hispanic(Philippine literature in Spanish) traditions, which are often overlooked both in their respective countries, as well as in literature programs in the United States where these bodies of literature still remain marginal. Throughout this work, I argue that central to the question of why these works are not read, is a periodizing tendency from readers and academics to align literatures from postcolonial countries with the development of the nationalist state. Because of this temporal conception of the development of national literatures, works stemming from these countries that do not fit under market descriptions, or align with the outside conception of the country’s progress, are devalued and regarded anachronistic or aesthetically retroactive. Such is the case with Vietnamese Francophone and Fil-Hispanic literature, where the two countries’ social development have left these literatures without a viable readership. Beyond this practical obstacle towards readership, however, I also make the case that because of an implicit demand from politically left-leaning, postcolonial academics, postcolonial literary oeuvres that do not advance a concrete revolutionary or decolonial narrative are often sidelined, such as with the novels I investigate. Here, “Writing Other Times” refers to the way that Vietnamese Francophone and Fil-Hispanic authors utilize the former colonial European languages to address and contest colonial history, social displacement, and liberation from neocolonialism. Through the readings of Anna Moï, Linda Lê, Kim Lefèvre, Pham Duy Khiêm, Antonio Abad, and Jesús Balmori, I argue for a broader conception of the historical timeline in which these literatures are produced, as well as a more contextually based reading of how each narrative regards and situates itself within its country’s national formation. For me, to adequately appreciate these works it is necessary to think of postcolonial temporality as an other time that is parallel, adjacent, and antithetical to the development of the unitary cultural space as encapsulated by the nation state. Ultimately, this work aims to think about how we might listen to others and understand how they think of themselves, visions that, to me, are all dependent on not just another place, but of another time.

This thesis is a survey of four Vietnamese-American artists, whose queer identifications and disidentifications trouble easy categories of identity. The Vietnamese refugee and the queer figure have largely been overdetermined by minoritizing forces, which is to say that the refugee has been understood as a consequence of United States military intervention, and the queer figure has been understood as a corrupting, infectious monster. These identities themselves are not inherently challenging to the dominant mode of history, in which the heterosexual white male imposes his will on the world and contains these racial and sexual others in their categorical confines. However, it is in the mobilization of these identities in tandem that the works of Mimi Thi Nguyen, Hanh Thi Pham, Nguyen Tan Hoang, and Viet Le endeavor towards truth’s undoing. These artists and creators utilize convolutions of pop-cultural signs and signifiers, looking towards their respective stars, divas, and outlaws to embody an aesthetic of affect, rather than straightforward auto-ethnography. Mimi Thi Nguyen’s 1997 zine evolution of a race riot weaponizes Hanh Thi Pham’s unflinching self portrait, Misbegotten No More (1991-2) as the publication’s cover. This serves Nguyen not as an academic citation of queer Vietnamese women, but rather as a borrowing of Pham’s affective power recontextualized as a de-individualized punk feminist icon. This mobilized Pham’s rejection of gender and the state from the fine art sphere into the subcultural networks of D.I.Y. punk publication, where her iconography as a racial, gendered, and sexual outlaw was virally popular. Nguyen Tan Hoang’s auto-ethnographic documentary PIRATED (2000) on VHS tells the story of his departure from Vietnam at the age of 7, getting attacked by Thai Pirates, and ultimately saved by German Sailors. The film rips clips and music from the popular Vietnamese-American direct-to-video variety show Paris By Night, and intermingles it with pirated footage of The Crimson Pirate, Querelle, and his own self-made gay Asian pornography to make the trauma-porn of his narrative all the more erotic, and as a result, unbelievable. Finally, Viet Le’s photo series boy bang/gang band (2008) and his self-made music video loveBANG! (2008) explore the viral modes of popular media in the context of a post-Đổi Mới, or liberalized Vietnam. Boy bang specifically flirts with the repressed desire of the Vietnamese state and local audiences for metrosexual cosmopolitan Asian boy band masculinities. loveBANG! is a saccharine pop cultural spectacle through which its audience is invited to be distracted from traumatic Southeast Asian histories of Cold War conflict, interrupted development, and state censorship which nonetheless haunt the video’s backdrop. Though each of these artists are also active academics whose scholarly work otherwise builds histories of Southeast Asian, queer, and diaspora subjects, it is in their artistic work that queerness works beyond the gaps in the archive to produce pleasurable fantasies wherein history might be contested, rewritten, or forgotten.

This thesis examines the functions of the particle thì in Vietnamese. The previous literature mainly describes thì as a phrasal particle; the inter-clausal thì receives one previous description (Clark, 1992a), but the collected data in this thesis revealed that thì is predominantly used sentence-initially. Among 155 collected tokens of thì, 48 (31%) occurs phrasally, 38 (30%) occurs inter-clausally, and 69 (44%) occurs sentence-initially. The phrasal thì is analyzed as a topic and/or contrastive topic marker (Cao, 1991/2004; Clark, 1992a), or “a discourse template marker” (Tran, Forthcoming). The inter-clausal thì is considered “an inchoative conjunction” (Clark, 1992a). A description and an analysis of the sentence-initial thì remain unaddressed. Thus, this thesis furthers the literature on thì by providing a description of the particle and an analysis of its functions, with focus on the sentence-initial thì. The analysis shows that the sentential thì is best treated as a Discourse Marker (DM), in the spirit of Fraser (2009). With adaptations from Fraser’s framework, the category of DMs provides a unified analysis that can dissect the usages of both the inter-clausal and sentence-initial thì. More specifically, the sentential thì is a Contrastive Discourse Marker (CDM), Elaborative Discourse Marker (EDM), and Logical Discourse Marker (LDM) that signals various semantic relationships between surrounding propositions. The CDM thì indicates a contrastive relationship; the EDM thì is subcategorized into Sequential and Non-sequential EDM and conveys additional details; the LDM thì connects three types of logical relationships: Abductive, Inductive, and Deductive. The framework of DMs allows for a systematic understanding of the patterned usages of thì.

This thesis investigates the development of children’s self-identification in minority bi-ethnic migrant families in relation to their multilingual and multicultural practices, within the context of exogamous families in Australia. While these bi-ethnic partnerships implicitly or explicitly implement policies and strategies to encourage the use of home languages, there is scant understanding of the dynamic interrelation between the development of identity in multi-ethnic children and their language development in changing social environments. Bi- and multilingual children’s language acquisition, family language policy and identity issues have been extensively studied internationally. However, these studies do not systematically investigate the connections between identity development in multilingual children, their respective family’s linguistic and cultural input, and their social environments. This thesis examines family language practices and socio-environmental factors impacting young children’s identity construction, to complement previous research on Australian bilingual children. It seeks to contribute to the current debate between essentialist (psychological) versus non-essentialist (socio-linguistic) identity issues by examining children’s expression of self in response to the three languages in their environment, including their families’ referential practices. It also observes the effects of different social contexts and changing circumstances on children’s self-identification. The design of this research is longitudinal, as it aims to gather data from two Australian Cantonese-Vietnamese families over three years. The key finding of this study is that children construct their identity in a dynamic and context-bound way. Results identify three major influencing factors as playing a role in the children’s self-identification: 1) family language input and practices; 2) family ideologies, cultural practices, and family networks, as well as the migrant community and 3) peers and the childcare/school environments. This thesis contributes new empirical data to existing research on family language policy and adds new language pairs to the field of heritage language maintenance and child identity in the Australian context. The data suggests that self-identification develops in a context-bound way parallel to the context-bound language development proposed in Qi and Di Biase (2020). It reveals that children’s self-identification grows not merely under the influence of their family’s linguistic and cultural practices, but also adjusts to changing circumstances and pressures from peers and adult role models in the dominant environment. These findings may play a role in the preservation of heritage languages and family wellbeing.

To respond to the rapid development of industrialisation, modernisation and development of a knowledge-based-economy, Vietnamese citizens are encouraged to engage in lifelong learning to adapt to work and life changes (Hossain, 2016, MOET, 2017, 2020a). With the aim of fulfilling the nation’s education goals in the early 2000s, the Vietnamese government proclaimed the English language a compulsory foreign language for all learners throughout the nation, stating that Vietnamese citizens must master English-language skills to access a wide range of professions, compete in new labour markets and advanced technologies, and engage in nation- building and global community integration (Bui & Nguyen, 2016). Also, the Vietnamese government continues to encourage the use of technology in education, specifically for teaching and learning of foreign languages (MOET, 2020c; Prime Minister of Vietnam, 2017). One of the most important policies issued by the government is a favourable framework that supports the application of information and communications technology (ICT) to education and language learning (MOET, 2007, 2008a, 2008b, 2008c, 2016). Supported by these government policies, the introduction of ICT in education in Vietnam has been increasing, but still faces challenges in different contexts and institutions (Pham, Tan, & Lee, 2019). While a wide range of studies has examined language learning using technology in Western countries and in the Asia-Pacific Region, studies in Vietnam are still limited. This study explored learners' EFL learning experiences in gaining communicative competence, including (but not limited to) grammatical, sociolinguistic, discourse and strategic competencies within technology- enhanced language learning (TELL) environments. This study also aimed to discover how these learners' learning experiences, in their lifelong learning contexts, influenced not only their ability to communicate in English, but their professional knowledge and practice as well. The study’s findings showed that learners had little to no chance to experience foreign-language learning using technology in their previous education settings. As they began learning English using technology, they acknowledged the convenience and effectiveness of learning in TELL environments and showed improvement in their communicative capacity in English for their professional purposes. Although they faced challenges regarding time, support, and learning strategies, they showed a strong desire to learn, and to belong to particular imagined communities. The study adds to the existing literature by using a narrative approach underpinned by a social constructivist worldview to interpret the lifelong learning context of Vietnamese adult learners. Understanding these learning experiences helps contribute to assisting Vietnamese learners in their lifelong learning journey, supporting their learning approaches to enhance their communicative capability and contributing to their quest to access high-quality and robust learning resources. Also, this study has the capacity to add to the broader understanding of the use of technology in learning, assisting Vietnamese educators and educational institutions in updating and building relevant curricula for language learners, particularly adult learners. Thus, this study holds the potential to support and contribute to the achievement of governmental and local goals for language education in the current Vietnamese context. This narrative inquiry was grounded in a qualitative study (Mirhosseini, 2020) using language-learning histories, learners' diaries and semi-structured interviews as data-collection methods (Barkhuizen, Benson, & Chik, 2013).

There are presently nearly 26 million refugees who have been forcibly removed from their homes as a result of war, mass violence, and political instability. These families in exile endure numerous adverse mental health effects during mass conflicts as well as after resettlement in the host country, affecting the individual and their family members and reverberating to generations. A small number of studies have begun to examine intergenerational trauma among Southeast Asian American refugee and immigrant families, including Vietnamese American families. This study sought to further explore the effects of intergenerational trauma through the second-generation Vietnamese American’s (SGVA) perspective. I employ interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) as the primary inquiry method to explore SGVAs’ perceptions of parental trauma’s effect on parenting. Eleven participants (8 mothers and 3 fathers) were recruited through a purposive sampling method and were interviewed for an hour to two hours through a semi-structured questionnaire. Data analysis yielded six themes of silence and disclosure, multiple traumas as part of daily life, SGVAs’ lived experience, first-generation Vietnamese Americans’ (FGVA) parenting shaped by culture and war, meaning-making of their family’s experience, and SGVAs’ multiple parenting strategies. The superordinate themes include the integral role of silence, the absence and desire for affection, and the contested spaces with multiple realities. The data offer insights into the lived experiences and meaning making of both affected generations. It explores how trauma continues to live on, manifests, and metabolizes the pain and suffering along with ways to cope and spaces to navigate in the world. The themes are discussed with provisions for clinical practice, policy, and further research.

* “Chó bò” is the approximate Vietnamese homonym for “trouble.” Bluntly translated, “chó~bò” is a “dog~cow” or “dog~crawl.” This absurdist linguistic joke for many Vietnamese people learning English represents a capacity to make trouble. This PhD thesis comprises original research and artistic work made with my family. As people from the Vietnamese diaspora, our experiences are formed by dispersals and estrangements as settler-colonists in Australia. Our daily encounters in the realms that this thesis is focused – contemporary art, academia, and family enterprise, are folded into distinct systems of colonial power and violence. I often make work with my family in video-performance and the documentary medium. Our inter-generational, political, and language differences add to the conceptual complexity of what it means to collaborate, make art, produce archives, and confront our position as recent settler-colonisers in Australia. This thesis aims to address how our artistic collaborations utilise linguistic and archival approaches to articulate the systemic racism we encounter as people from a refugee background, but who are also embedded in the colonial infrastructures of our new home. Aligning with thinkers including Gloria Anzaldúa and her critique of coloniality, to Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak and Hito Steyerl on minoritarian forms of translation, and Sara Ahmed on racism in the university - this thesis describes how collaborations with my family can trouble the contradictions of colonial power enacted on our human relationships. Reconnecting with individual members of my family through art, I have gained a better understanding of my language and culture, as well as finding important artistic and political connection to my peers. Collaborating with my family has forced me to rub against the researcher-participant/research subject binary, the archival visibility of being invisible, the rhetoric of institutional inclusion, and the weight of being displaced and displacing colonisers on this continent. The work we have produced together methodologically uncovers and critiques the opaque confrontations of institutional power, racism, and colonial violence embedded in the everyday. As a family, we continue to make uncomfortable pronunciations like “chó bò,” producing the epistemic trouble needed to face the colonial realities of our resettlement. ARTWORK WEBSITE: https://chobotrouble.com/

Since the first group of refugees who fled Vietnam after the Fall of Saigon in 1975 arrived in the United States, Vietnamese migrants have become significantly involved in the expansion of the ethnic business of professional nail care. As the numbers of new migrants from Vietnam who find employment in the nail industry continue to grow, this study seeks to understand the experiences of first-generation immigrant Vietnamese who went through a training program to become professional manicurists. This research draws on data collected from interviews with 22 manicurists-in-training and six months of ethnographic fieldwork at a major beauty college in Southern California. I argue that the manicurists-in-training understood their future work in the nail industry as a form of independent entrepreneurial labor rather than contracted labor, which allowed them to move freely within the ethnic business network of nail care around the United States for their entrepreneurial work as manicurists. As these manicurists-in-training went through the program, they carved out new forms of entrepreneurial selves, which were discussed in terms of liberation from exploitation and compliance with the law. These two understandings of the self work in tandem within the state’s neoliberal project, which seeks to produce subjects capable of self-government and self-realization (Rose, 1999, p.142). The training program was designed to produce compliant entrepreneurial subjects while also promising freedom in the form of autonomy (Rose, 1999). The program’s training practices were not about beauty but about “rendering moral” (Leshkowich, 2012), or producing good, disciplined and compliant entrepreneurial migrants. The training site showed tension between the state’s neoliberal entrepreneurial project, (which aimed to produce self-sufficient and liberated individuals who also comply with the law) and the Vietnamese migrants’ cultural sensibilities (which are linked to socialist-oriented collectivist understandings of the self). Students mitigated this tension by realigning the neoliberal logics of individual self with the collectivist understandings of the self exemplified in Vietnamese moral parenthood. This research offers an understanding of the stakes for migrants in engaging in an “ethnic business” such as the nail care profession.

The thesis investigates how native language phonological and phonetic factors affect non-native lexical tone perception and imitation, and how cognitive factors, such as memory load and stimulus variability (talker and vowel context variability), bias listeners to a phonological versus phonetic mode of perception/imitation. Two perceptual experiments and one imitation experiment were conducted with Thai tones as the stimuli and with Mandarin and Vietnamese listeners, who had no experience with Thai (i.e., naive listeners/imitators). The results of the perceptual experiments (Chapters 5 and 6) showed phonological effects as reflected in assimilation types (Categorised vs. UnCategorised assimilation) and phonetic effects indicated by percent choice and goodness ratings in tone assimilation, largely in line with predictions based on the Perceptual Assimilation Model (PAM: Best, 1995). In addition, phonological assimilation types and phonological overlap of the contrasts affected their discrimination in line with predictions based on PAM. The thesis research has revealed the influence of cognitive factors on native language influences in perception and imitation of non-native lexical tones, which contribute differently to different tasks. The findings carry implications for current non-native speech perception theories. The fact that non-native tone imitation deviations can be traced back to native phonological and phonetic influences on perception supports and provides new insights about perception-production links in processing non-native tones. The findings uphold the extrapolation of PAM and ASP principles to non-native tone perception and imitation, indicating that both native language phonological and phonetic influences and their modulation by cognitive factors hold implications for non-native speech perception/learning theories, as well as for second language instruction.

Background: Pain associated with childbirth is severe and women from culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) backgrounds tend to have less than optimal access to pain management during this period. This lack of access is a concern, as in Victoria, Australia, one in three pregnant women has been born overseas. Many are from India or Vietnam and speak languages other than English. At the same time, there is little research in Australia considering childbirth pain from the perspectives of immigrant women. Aims: The aim of this study was to explore the experiences of childbirth pain (including during pregnancy, birth and the postpartum) from the perspective of Indian and Vietnamese women living in Australia. Design: A qualitative approach, using interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA), was employed to explore participants’ pain experiences. IPA was chosen because it moves beyond pure description to explore the deeper meaning of experiences. Methods: Twenty-four pregnant women born in India or Vietnam participated in two in-depth interviews (prenatal and the postpartum). Findings: Two core themes, a culture in transition and universal experiences, emerged through the trajectory of pregnancy, birth and the postpartum. Cultural factors influenced participants’ information seeking, responses to labour pain, and decision making about pain relief. Similar factors shaped the postpartum experiences, with participants deciding whether to follow cultural customs that were aimed at preventing pain in later life. Ultimately, decisions about childbirth pain were informed by a fusion of personal choice and cultural customs within the background of a new environment. The second theme indicated that women, regardless of ethnicity and culture, had similar experiences. All desired reassurance as the birth approached. Women who had positive psychosocial support during birth and were satisfied with their experience of pain felt empowered. When women felt inadequately supported and fearful, they made decisions which later led to regret, disappointment and dissatisfaction with their experience of childbirth. Conclusion: Overall, this study has provided new insights into the experience of childbirth pain. Specifically, women from India and Vietnam experienced a transition in culture whilst preparing for and managing childbirth pain. It is anticipated that the knowledge gained from this study will enrich our understanding of this experience and generate better awareness of pregnant Indian and Vietnamese women’s needs related to childbirth pain. This thesis provides foundational information to support healthcare professionals to understand the dynamic landscape in which women from CALD backgrounds prepare for and manage childbirth pain. This understanding will inform future decisions. Ultimately, this information may help to inform care and to provide meaningful support for immigrant women.

My project focuses on the Viet Rainbow of Orange County (VROC), a community-based and volunteer-run 501(c)(3) non-profit organization founded by an intergenerational group of LGBTQ and allied Vietnamese Americans. Through an ethnographic approach (semi-structured interviews and participant-observation), I explore how VROC members reconfigure and reimagine the concept of a Vietnamese family as the basis for their community organizing efforts to create an equitable Vietnamese diaspora. How might we view this familial mode of organizing as a potential protective health factor for these traditionally abject bodies? My work aims to examine how VROC as an organization fosters a culture of health through members’ queering of family and kinship. Furthermore, I look at how participation in VROC impacts LGBTQ and allied Vietnamese Americans’ sức khỏe (translated as health).

Carers from a non-English speaking background (NESB) require the support services offered by the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) to enable them to offer competent care to their loved ones. Yet, access to disability support services offered by NDIS remains low among NESB carers. Specifically, language barriers and technological limitations appear to be key factors that limit access to NDIS services. Presently, literature that has examined how the two factors curtail access to NDIS services is scant. This quantitative study aims to address this literature gap by examining how these two factors combined limit access to NDIS services based on data drawn from a sample of NESB carers, specifically Vietnamese carers, using a structured survey questionnaire. Findings from the study offer insight into how both language barriers and technological limitations affect access to NDIS services, and also act as a stepping-stone towards addressing the challenges faced by NESB carers, thus enabling them to determine what makes a ‘good life’ for their loved ones.

Since 1975, subjects from Vietnam have been resettling around the world in mass numbers, re-positing Vietnamese subjectivities, histories, language, and rituals beyond the nation state. Even outside of Vietnam, many Vietnamese in the diaspora have been affected by Vietnam’s postwar and economic reforms. After 1975, the new socialist government deemed the Vietnamese in exile to be the false Vietnamese who betrayed the country (phản bội). Their culture was dismissed as being yellow and sickly (ủy mị), and their historical presence was erased for reasons of being associated with colonialism and western imperialism. Even today, the Vietnamese refugees are still shunned from Vietnam and cannot be repatriated as Vietnamese citizens. Without a government, the Vietnamese in exile lost their political identity. In Vietnam, the Vietnamese refugees are conflated with American imperialism, whereas in the United States, they are conflated as communist “gooks.” Consequently, Vietnamese popular music became instrumental for many Vietnamese to record and retell alternative histories about the Vietnam War and the old southern Republic of Vietnam. Due to its cultural capital, Vietnamese popular music offer a platform for expressing and fashioning shared memories and subjectivities. Contrary to the perspective that Vietnamese popular songs point to the Vietnamese as being brainwashed by colonialization and imperialism or refugees trapped in their own trauma and nostalgia, I argue that these songs show advantageous and strategic modes of negotiation in contemporary Vietnamese global cultural politics. Likewise, as Vietnamese popular music became more politically acceptable in Vietnam, many queer and transgendered performers began using popular music to raise more awareness about queer rights. Ultimately, Vietnamese popular music has been a cultural instrument of expressing social power and critique for subjects bereft of institutional leverage. The soundscape of Vietnamese popular music is an invaluable framework for understanding the interconnected sites and levels of cultural exchange in Vietnam and the diaspora. Not only does it show that Vietnamese subjects and culture are transnational and global, but it also maps them topographically with slopes of power-relations.

This thesis focuses on runaway daughters from Vietnamese American refugee immigrant nuclear families and asks, “Why do the daughters choose to leave the household?” I attempt to answer this question using a critical refugee studies framework in combination with intersectional feminist studies, specifically erin Ninh’s Ingratitude: The Debt Bound Daughter of Asian American Literature. I position the runaway parallel to the refugee as both figures try to escape institutions that produce that produces docile and subservient bodies, i.e., the family and nation. My thesis analyzes these themes through two contemporary memoirs, The Best We Could Do by Thi Bui and The Gangster We Are All Looking For by lê thi diem thúy, both of which have a runaway daughter who attempts to escape the filial pressures of a Vietnamese refugee family. My thesis analyzes why these young women reject the forced gifts of life and obligation from their parents.The title is a play on words. The first part is the imperative “Run away,” which is a command to the girl to run away from the nation as a refugee. It is only later that she runs away from her family, which makes her a “runaway daughter.”

A systematic scientific investigation of starch digestibility and glucose response of the most commonly consumed Vietnamese rice varieties, rice and wheat products have not been studied yet. Starchy staples were investigated for their physicochemical properties, in vitro starch digestibility and ex-vivo glucose response using a Caco-2 cell model. The potential of using black rice as an alternative to white rice was also studied. Eleven rice starches were analysed for amylose content, swelling power, gelatinisation (DSC) and pasting (RVA) properties, degree of crystallisation (XRD), and short range order structure (FTIR). Raw and cooked rice (white and brown) were analysed for their in vitro starch digestibilities to explore the relationship with physicochemical properties. Cooked rice grains and twelve rice and wheat products were studied for their RDS, SDS and RS. Anthocyanins from black rice were identified, quantified and purified using HPLC-PDA/mass spectrometry before being subjected to measuring α-glucosidase, glucose uptake and transport. Digestibility of rice starch with amylose contents ranging from 0.2-28.4% was independent of physicochemical properties when cooked in limited water. Vietnamese cooked white rice was high in RDS (82.5%) but low in SDS (10.5) and RS (7%). Cooked brown rice was of slightly lower starch digestibility, though statistically significant (p < 0.05), compared to white rice. A typical rice-based meal with a high proportion of carbohydrate (67.5%) resulted in 20% higher starch digestibility compared to a 55% carbohydrate diet. Rice and wheat products had significantly lower starch digestibility (p < 0.001) compared to white rice. Rice and wheat product hydrolysates had significantly lower (p < 0.001) glucose response and GI (67.2 vs. 82.3) compared to white rice. Black rice contained anthocyanins (191 mg/100g). Cya-3-Glu and Pn-3-Glu were major anthocyanins which significantly inhibited α-glucosidase (32% maltase, 57% sucrase, at a concentration of 1000 µg/mL), glucose uptake (IC50 = 2300 and 2328 µM) and transport (IC50 = 2639 and 2413 µM). Anthocyanin mixture (93% Cya-3-Glu, 7% Pn-3-Glu), showed high sucrase inhibition (66% at a concentration of 1000 µg/mL), glucose uptake (IC50 = 1662 µM) and glucose transport (IC50= 1781 µM) measured by using Caco-2 cell models and ᴅ-[U-14C]glucose as a tracer.

M*A*S*H is an iconic, eleven season (1972-1983), American television series that was produced on the tail end of the Vietnam War during a period of upheaval for the American public. Set in Korea during the Korean War, M*A*S*H was a satire on the war in Vietnam. As a result, M*A*S*H presents numerous Asian (Korean) characters throughout the series, but often in limited, stereotypical roles. Despite producing America's most watched final season episode; "Goodbye, Farewell, and Amen," and being granted several Emmy nominations and awards, M*A*S*H has all but evaded lengthy academic study. This thesis primarily uses newspapers, both local and national, to understand how Asian stereotypes are presented in M*A*S*H with relationship to American society. Through the analysis of seven Asian-centered character roles, including; farmer/villager, houseboy/housekeeper, prostitute, war bride, peddler/hustler, orphan, and enemy, I explore the foundations of these stereotypes as well as how they were being utilized to reassure Americans of their own communal, Cold War, beliefs in a time of distress. I explore how these roles change and adapt over the course of the series and what may be motivating these changes, such as the Asian-American, Civil Rights and women's rights movements, and changing Cold War ideologies and objectives.

ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATIONFactors Affecting Medication Adherence among Vietnamese Immigrantswith Latent Tuberculosis Infection: A Mixed DesignbyFayette Nguyen TruaxDoctor of Philosophy in NursingUniversity of California, Los Angeles, 2016Professor Adeline M. Nyamathi, Chair Completion of latent tuberculosis infection (LTBI) treatment among foreign-born Asians in the United States (US) is suboptimal, thus leading to high rates of reactivation tuberculosis (TB) among this population. Approximately 77% of TB cases in the US are from reactivation TB and foreign-born Asians have a higher reactivation rate compared to Blacks, Hispanics and Whites. In Orange County (O.C.), the annual TB case rate continues to remain steady at 6.0 cases per 100,000 in 2014 with foreign-born persons from Vietnam leading with a TB rate of 49.7%, Mexico at 14.4% and the Philippines at 12.6%. Overall the high number of active TB cases among Vietnamese immigrants, coupled with low LTBI treatment completion rate of approximately 50.1% in the overall Asian population, presents an important challenge to the national strategy of eliminating TB (Li et al., 2010). At this time, there is limited data on Vietnamese immigrants with LTBI in the US. The purpose of this mixed methods study is to identify the factors related to LTBI treatment acceptance and completion in addition to exploring the decision-making process of LTBI treatment adherence among Vietnamese immigrants. Predictors for phase 1 included: socio-demographic characteristics, basic health history, behavioral survey scores measured by Morisky Medication Adherence Scale (MMAS-8), Champion Health Belief Model Scale (CHBMS-29) and the Self-Efficacy for Appropriate Medication Use (SEAM-9). Significant predictors for multivariate analysis for treatment acceptance included individuals with a history of smoking and recent contact with an infectious TB case. For treatment completion, the top two most significant predictors in the univariate analysis included age group between 18-44 years and current employment. No significant predictors were identified in the multivariate analysis for treatment completion. There were also no significant correlations identified between the psychosocial measurements (SEAM-9, CHBMS-29, MMAS-8) and treatment completion. In phase 2, a decision-making grounded theory model entitled “The Decision-Making Model for Latent TB Infection Treatment Acceptance and Completion” was developed from the stories and testimonies of 17 Vietnamese participants. Three primary decision-making points were identified that was critical to the development of the proposed model: treatment acceptance, treatment initiation and treatment completion. Three categories emerged from participants’ data that were directly related to the decision to accept LTBI treatment, “beliefs”, “TB awareness” and “trust in healthcare”. Findings revealed the only category to influence treatment initiation was “barriers” to scheduling. Lastly, the decision to maintain adherence and complete treatment were strongly influenced by self-determination, medication side effects, and having family support. Based on this study’s findings, target screening of Vietnamese immigrants at highest risk for latent TB reactivation should be done more frequently in private community clinics and focus on reducing barriers to treatment acceptance, initiation and completion.

Abstract: This dissertation investigates disyllabic compound words in Vietnamese, an isolating tone language, using corpus linguistics and psycholinguistic experimental paradigms. Chapter 2 reports the construction of two corpora and a database of wide range of lexical variables. Chapter 3 discusses a visual lexical decision experiment with Vietnamese speakers, and Chapter 4 details the results of a visual lexical naming experiment, again with Vietnamese speakers. This dissertation supports the psychological status of the word as a single whole in non-decompositional model for reading Vietnamese compounds. The dissertation also documents the advantages of working with behavioral data from a single-subject with wide range of items. Finally, this dissertation demonstrates the involvement of phonology in silent reading through an analysis of the effects of lexical tone in the visual lexical decision task.

The following report describes the conception, pre-production, production and post-production of Minh Trinh’s short-narrative thesis film. The report contains a deep discussion of the origin of the story, the writing process and the rationale behind the director’s artistic choices for the film.

Teacher quality has become a critical area of concern in Vietnamese education. Recently, new professional standards for teachers in secondary schools have been developed, piloted, and implemented. This study explores the perceptions of teachers, school principals, and other administrators about the new teacher professional standards, the accompanying standards-based teacher evaluation system, and opportunities for improving teacher professionalism that might lead to increases in student learning. This case study utilized qualitative and quantitative data collected in Dong Thap, a Southern province in Vietnam. Quantitative data were from surveying 285 participants including 218 teachers, 54 principals, and 13 other administrators. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) was utilized to determine if there were differences in perceptions among the three role groups on several key policy components. Follow-up qualitative data were collected from: (1) a focus group with nine principals, (2) semi-structured interviews with 29 teachers and five principals, and (3) notes from fieldwork and open-ended questions of survey. Data transcripts were assigned in ATLAS.ti for coding and analyzing by describing and grouping into themes to answer research questions. Findings suggested teachers, school principals, and administrators support efforts to upgrade teacher professional standards and standards-based teacher evaluation. In general, administrators and principals hold more positive views toward both the process of implementing standards (i.e., the fairness of the standards-based evaluation process, its likely impact on teaching) and the types of evaluation (i.e., personnel, inspection, merit, standards-based) affected by the new policy. Regarding social aspects of the new policy (i.e., social trust, available channels of communication, teachers norms and commitment to new procedures), there were also differing perceptions associated with role groups. In general, regarding social trust, means for all three role groups were relatively low; however, principals and other administrators held more favorable views regarding social trust than teachers. The same pattern was true for perceptions about channels of communication. In contrast, regarding norms, expectations, and sanctions, teachers held significantly more positive views than either other administrators or principals. This suggests teachers perceive they are committed to fulfilling the requirements of the policy, especially regarding increased meetings. Lower means on norms from administrators suggest some skepticism from administrators regarding teachers' willingness and commitment to comply with the new teacher evaluation policy. Implications suggest some differences in view regarding the new standards-based evaluation policy, the current types of evaluation covered by the policy, as well as the nature of social relationships within schools that might support changes in practice regarding evaluation practices and increased teacher professionalism that leads to improved student outcomes. Building on the initial findings of this study would be worthwhile in terms of further understanding: (a) norms and social trust among teachers, (b) the interconnectedness of the implementation of the teacher professional standards policy in the context of other standards-based policies for school effectiveness, and (c) increasing linkages between the school and community with respect to school goals and results.

This research investigates the roles of Information Communication Technology (ICT) in the knowledge transfer process in small businesses in Vietnam. In doing this, it examines how knowledge is transferred in small businesses and what benefits the knowledge transfer process provides small businesses. The study also explores factors affecting knowledge transfer including small business characteristics and ICT related factors. An ICT oriented knowledge transfer framework is proposed to assist small business owner/managers in formulating and implementing an ICT strategy for knowledge transfer.

This dissertation is the first study on the acquisition of the numeral classifier system in Vietnamese, covering the development of both the syntactic and semantic aspects of classifiers and employing both longitudinal and cross-sectional data. Naturalistic longitudinal data were collected over a period of 6--9 months from four children from monolingual families living in Vietnam, who were ages 1;9, 1;11, 2;4, and 2;5 at the study's start, to determine which classifiers emerged first and to trace the early development of classifier phrases. To investigate later syntactic and semantic development, cross-sectional data were collected from 38 children between the ages 2;10 and 5;7, at a daycare center in Saigon, Vietnam. The first goal was to increase our knowledge of strategies that children use in the acquisition of their native language. The second aim was to compare the Vietnamese results to data from other Asian languages for which classifier acquisition data exists, primarily Cantonese, Mandarin, and Thai. Two cross-linguistic strategies that this study confirms are: the use of the general classifier as a syntactic placeholder and default classifier, and the overgeneralization of acquired classifiers to nouns that require classifiers that children have not yet acquired. Three cross-linguistic findings consistent with this study include: children perform better with non-numeral than numeral classifier phrases; children only slowly acquire specific shape, function, and arrangement-based classifiers, while mastering the general and the animal classifiers early; and children have early knowledge of a set of core classifiers. Errors made by children cross-linguistically that this study confirms are classifier omission in a numeral noun phrase and the use of double classifiers. However, the findings for Vietnamese differ from those for other languages in that Vietnamese-speaking children show a lower rate of general classifier use and a higher rate of correct specific classifier use. Unexpected findings include the children's unexpected tendency to omit the classifier with disyllabic nouns, and the very prevalent occurrence of a noun together with a classifier in the youngest children's speech, suggesting that early classifiers and their nouns are often acquired as amalgams.

The purpose of this longitudinal study was to mathematically model first and second language trajectories and interactions among developing sequential bilingual school-age children. Language data were collected in four waves, with a one-year interval between each wave. Participants (N = 34, mean age of 7.3 at Wave 1) lived in the US, spoke Vietnamese as a first and home language (L1) and began learning the majority community language, English (L2), in early childhood. Children completed measures in the L1 and L2 at lexical, grammatical, and discourse subsystems each year for four consecutive years. Multivariate hierarchical linear models were calculated to examine the shape and rates of change for the two languages nested within individual children. Associations within and between languages were examined across different language subsystems at each wave and over time in a series of correlational and longitudinal analyses. Results showed (a) positive growth across all language subsystems for the L1 and L2 with relatively more rapid gains in the L2, (b) moderate to strong positive associations between languages at each wave and over time, (c) bidirectional cross-linguistic transfer, and (d) changes in the nature of L1-L2 relationships with age. Findings are interpreted within a Dynamic Systems framework in which a child's language system emerges from multiple interactions across cognitive, social and language systems as well as interactions within and between languages (de Bot, Lowie, & Verspoor, 2007; Kohnert, 2007).

The last 40 years have seen a large influx of Vietnamese immigrants to the United States (U.S.) as a result of the Vietnam War. The Vietnamese now constitute one of the fastest growing Asian and Pacific Islander populations in the U.S. Breast cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer in Vietnamese American women, with incidence rates steadily increasing in this immigrant population. Early detection of breast cancer through mammography screening and clinical breast examination is critical for reducing breast cancer morbidity and mortality. However, Vietnamese American women are less likely to be screened than non-Hispanic white women. This dissertation investigates social network characteristics and their relationship to breast cancer screening behavior in Vietnamese American women aged 40 and older within a community-based breast cancer screening intervention study based in Santa Clara County, California. Because this intervention study was embedded in the framework of interpersonal relationships, it presents an ideal opportunity and optimal approach to exploring how social networks influence breast screening behavior in an underserved population.A positive association between social network integration and breast cancer screening was found for recent receipt of a clinical breast examination (CBE) but not for mammography. Women in the highest tertile of social network integration were more likely to receive a CBE than women in the lowest tertile (OR = 1.20, 95% CI: 1.07-1.33). This dissertation also examined perceived availability of different types of social support (emotional, instrumental, informational, affectionate, and positive social interaction) and the relative contributions of each type of support to recent use of mammography and CBE. Findings indicate that Vietnamese American women generally perceived moderate to high levels of available social support across all types. Instrumental support was the single most important social support predictor for recent use of mammography (OR = 1.05, 95% CI: 1.02-1.08). Because breast cancer screening is only optimally effective for early detection if women adhere to annual screening guidelines, this dissertation also examined breast cancer screening norms as one type of social network influence on intention to receive screening in the future. Results showed no associations between social influence and intention to receive a mammogram or CBE within the next 12 months. Findings from this analysis suggest challenges in measuring both social influence and screening intention constructs in Vietnamese American women and warrant further methodological investigation in developing more culturally appropriate, accurate, and comprehensive measures. Overall, findings from this dissertation have laid the necessary groundwork for identifying new opportunities for future research on social networks and health. Such research will enable us to gain a better understanding of ways in which social networks can inform more effective interventions and programs to close the gap in breast cancer health disparities.

Despite the growing need for communicative English skills suited to employment in the fast developing context of Vietnam and government policies stating the will to upgrade delivery of English language within the education system, traditional grammar translation teaching methods still prevail. Many educators are unclear about the concept of “communicative teaching” and its implementation within the Vietnamese context where overly large classes, poor equipment, out of date teaching materials, inadequately trained teachers, and written grammar-focused government examinations are the norm. As a result, young people are increasingly turning to private English language centres to help fill their communicative English gap in the hope of gaining employment in the newly developing sectors. However, as this study shows, despite the overwhelming desire of these students to learn in ways that assist them to practice spoken English, few of these private centres are able to satisfy their stated wishes due to teachers’ lack of knowledge and experience, and concern for the government grammar and vocabulary based examinations required for certification of English. In this context, this thesis aims to help fill the gap by designing an ideal model of an English language center suited to delivering world class communicative English language courses in the specific context of Vietnam.

Pronunciation instruction in the English as a Second Language (ESL) classroom often focuses exclusively on production and fails to address students’ perception problems. This report attempts to explain why L2 learners struggle to perceive and produce segments accurately in their L2 and what can be done to help L2 learners overcome these problems. Accordingly, the report explores how L1 experience and segmental differences between Vietnamese and English contribute to these English language learners’ perception and production problems. The report also considers instructional methods that can be used to help ESL learners overcome their perception and production challenges and recommends several approaches for addressing segments that are often difficult for Vietnamese learners.

The role that culture and trauma plays in shaping mental health outcomes continues to dominate debate in the field of transcultural and post-conflict mental health. The broad aim of this thesis is to investigate key issues relevant to these two factors in relation to the Vietnamese. A meta-analysis of international epidemiological research indicated that countries of North and South East Asia appear to manifest low rates of mental disorder compared to English-speaking countries. A meta-regression analysis of research undertaken specifically with refugee and conflict-affected populations, confirmed a robust association between torture and general trauma and risk to mental disorder. The thesis then examines data from three population-based mental health surveys: 1,161 Vietnamese-Australian residents in the state of New South Wales; 3,039 Vietnamese resident in the Mekong Delta region of Vietnam; and 7,961 Australian-born persons drawn from a national survey. All surveys applied the Composite International Diagnostic Interview, with the Vietnamese surveys also applying the Phan Vietnamese Psychiatric Rating Scale, an indigenously-derived measure of mental disorder. The ICD-10 classification system yielded lowest rates amongst Vietnamese in the Mekong Delta, intermediate amongst Vietnamese in NSW; and highest rates amongst the Australian-born population. The Phan Vietnamese Psychiatric Rating Scale added a substantial number of cases in both Vietnamese samples. The findings suggest that sole reliance on a western-derived measure of mental disorder may fail to identify a cases of mental disorder across cultures. Trauma remained a substantial risk factor for mental disorder amongst Australian Vietnamese accounting for a substantial portion of the total burden of mental disorder in that population. The implications of these findings in developing a more refined model for understanding the mental health consequences of mass trauma across cultures are discussed.

The Age of Renovation in Vietnam has been marked by an explosion of interest in the past. In this dissertation, I describe the moral landscape of memory in a Red River Delta village called Dinh Bang, just north of Hanoi, the site of a major temple called De&grave;n Do devoted to an early imperial dynasty. My research focuses on an elderly generation who personally participated in the transformations of colonialism, war, socialism and Renovation. To understand their sense of the past and its moral bearing on the present and future, I explore their poetry, their collectively-authored village history, their ancestral rites and their efforts to restore De&grave;n Do. In Dinh Bang, three closely-related ways of remembering have emerged as central to early 21st century memory practices, described idiomatically as remembering the debt [nho' o'n], recording the meritorious contributions [ghi cong] and returning to the source [ve&grave; nguo&grave;n ]. Together they comprise an ethic of gratitude towards ancestors which I argue is constitutive of both relatedness and a relational moral personhood. Situated within the comparative field of socialist and postsocialist studies, this study draws on ethnographic research and historical analysis to map the complex connections amongst memory, morality and memory-saturated places in Dinh Bang.

Gender is an important factor throughout the immigration process---not only as part of the immigration experience itself but also because the costs and benefits associated with immigration differ between women and men. In this dissertation, I investigate gender differences in reasons for immigration, and in their associated consequences for labor market outcomes and perceived social mobility for three Asian immigrant groups, Vietnamese, Filipino, and Chinese. I use survey data from the 2004 National Latino and Asian American Study (NLAAS). My analyses consist of three parts: (1) I examine gender differences in reasons for immigration within and across Asian ethnic groups, (2) I estimate the effects of reasons for immigration on labor market outcomes and perceived social mobility, and (3) I evaluate the extent to which the estimated effects of reasons for immigration vary by gender, ethnicity, and education. I find that not only reasons for immigration but also their associated consequences differ greatly by gender and ethnicity. The associations between one reason for immigration (i.e., migrating to join other family members) and economic well-being also vary by level of education. Support from a family network provides a strong explanation for the positive association of migrating to join other family members with labor market outcomes for less-educated Asian immigrant men, and the positive association of migrating for family reunification with perceived social mobility for less-educated Asian immigrant women. Highly-educated Asian immigrant women (but not highly-educated Asian immigrant men) who migrated to join other family members are more likely to experience institution/policy barriers and perceive greater downward social mobility among Chinese and Filipinas, in particular. The lack of such an effect on highly-educated Asian immigrant men is inconsistent with results reported in ethnographic studies. The study has implications for designing effective social service programs for Asian immigrants and further examining government policies related to immigrants and immigration. I conclude that more attention needs to be devoted to the different immigration paths and special circumstances experienced by women. Policies and programs should be designed to both promote women's education and employment opportunities and to increase their access to family services.

The present study aims to find out more about the function and potential of community based Vietnamese language radio in Melbourne. The research took place in three stages. The first stage explored broad patterns of media consumption among Vietnamese-Australians. The second stage required the profiling of all existing community radio based Vietnamese language programs in Melbourne. The final stage involved an in-depth discussion with members of the Vietnamese community based around a "radio scenario", where a sample of participants were asked to assume the role of radio producer for an imagined three hour Vietnamese language program to be broadcast on a community radio station.

Vietnamese immigrants and refugees have made their home in Boston, especially in Dorchester's Fields Corner neighborhood, since the end of the Vietnam War. Still one of the Hub's youngest immigrant groups, the Vietnamese have helped define the "New Boston," a term used to describe a city where white residents are now in the minority. This paper explores the triumphs and challenges, past and present, facing the Vietnamese community as they march steadily toward economic security, political recognition, and acculturation.

There is increasing concern about hepatitis C virus (HCV) and potential HIV transmission among ethnic Vietnamese injecting drug users (IDUs) in Australia. To date ethnic and cultural differences in vulnerability to blood-borne viruses (BBV) have received little attention and few studies have attempted to explore the role of cultural beliefs and values in influencing injection risk behaviour. This study aimed to systematically explore the cultural beliefs and behavioural practices that appear to place ethnic Vietnamese IDUs at increased risk of BBV infection, identify barriers to this group accessing health and preventive programs, and document antibody HIV and HCV prevalence and associated risk behaviours. The first component of the research consisted of an ethnographic study designed to explore underlying explanatory models of health and illness employed by Vietnamese IDUs and identify cultural influences on risk behaviours and vulnerability to BBVs. These data were subsequently used to inform the development of the instrument used in the second component – a cross-sectional survey and collection of capillary blood samples designed to assess risk behaviours and antibody HIV and antibody HCV prevalence. Analysis of data from both components indicates that cultural beliefs and practices influence risk-taking and health-seeking behaviours and suggests pathways through which this influence occurs. Relevant cultural characteristics include those pertaining to spiritual and religious beliefs, the role of the family and traditional Vietnamese family values, cultural scripts of self-control and stoicism, the importance of “face” and non-confrontational relationships, trust and obligation, and a reluctance to discuss problems with outsiders. Vulnerability to BBVs is influenced by these cultural characteristics, together with Vietnamese IDUs’ perceptions of risk, knowledge about HIV and HCV, and situational and environmental factors. Main factors contributing to the under-utilisation of health services include the use of self-managed care practices, ambivalence surrounding Western medicine, long waiting times, concerns in relation to confidentiality, stigmatisation of drug use, and limited knowledge of BBVs. The data indicate a need for interventions based on understanding of culturally specific meanings and contexts of health, illness and risk in order to better meet the needs of this vulnerable group.

On 2 August 1964, while patrolling in the Gulf of Tonkin, the U.S.S. Maddox was attacked by the North Vietnamese Navy. Then on 4 August both the U.S.S. Maddox and the U.S.S. C. Turner Joy were also allegedly attacked. These events were used by President Johnson to secure authority from the United States Senate, by a vote of 88-2, to take actions he deemed necessary to protect United States military personnel, national security interests, and United States allies. In this thesis, the Gulf of Tonkin incidents will be summarized and the ensuing Senate debates analyzed with a specific focus on the dissenting position of Senators Ernest Gruening (Democrat-Alaska) and Wayne Morse (Democrat-Oregon), the only members of Congress to vote against the resolution. There has been much written about the Gulf of Tonkin incident and the Congressional debate; however, there has been little focus on the continued arguments of these two senators from 1964-1968. This continuing debate over Vietnam deeply divided the Senate into three main groups who each held distinct opinions on the support they should give Johnson in relation to the issue. One group compromised of Hawks believed that the president should be given full support in taking whatever action he deemed necessary, even if it led to war. A strong response after all would discourage other enemies from attacking the United States. A second group believed that the president needed to be supported at this time, especially since the United States had been attacked. They also held the view that the United States foreign policy needed to be re-evaluated once the conflict was resolved. How far could the United States extend itself before it became spread too thin and thus ineffective? The third group did not believe that the United States should be involved in Vietnam at all. While the Senate finally ruled to support the president's request for the resolution and continued to fund the war once it had become Americanized, it was those who opposed the resolution and were overruled who made the most valid argument.

Using the models of the native proposed by such postcolonial scholars such as Homi Bhabha, Gayatri Spivak, and Rey Chow, this dissertation attempts to find a new model of the native woman as she is represented in postcolonial Francophone Vietnamese literature and contemporary literature from Vietnam. Most postcolonial models of the native concentrate upon a mythical image of the native. As Albert Memmi argues, the legitimacy of colonization depends on the colonized's acceptance of his own portrait as it is painted by others. I examine the ways in which this image is constructed from cliches and stereotypes that are enforced upon the native by the dominant culture in which she exists (either France or Vietnam). I further propose the alter/native of viewing the native as nothing more than simulacrum: the imaginary (or image-inary) native. The imaginary native is aware of the constructed and simulated nature of her own identity as native as such, and uses this awareness to destabilize the very system that attempts to enforce it (her identity as native) upon her. In exposing her own constructedness, her own status as a product of culture, the imaginary native at the same time refuses and escapes the gaze of authority (be it colonial or native), which can no longer lay a claim upon her. In this way, the imaginary native is granted the agency that previous models of the native have lacked. In this dissertation I examine several figurations of native Vietnamese women in an attempt to locate this alter/native in the works of contemporary Vietnamese women writers, both those who write in French---namely Kim Lefevre, Linda Le, and Anna Moi---and those who write in Vietnamese, including Pha&dotbelow;m Thi&dotbelow; Hoai, Ly Lan, Le Minh Khue, and Cong Ton Huye&grave;n.