Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Multilingualism And Memory: Investigating Possible Differences In The Abilities Of Monolingual And Multilingual College Students, Clara E. Barned

Honors Projects

This study investigated whether there is a difference in the memories of monolingual and multilingual undergraduate students using simple memorization tasks. There were 46 participants, 30 of which were monolingual (only knew one language) and 16 of which were multilingual (knew two or more languages). There was found to be no significant difference between the performance of the two groups, with the data generating a p-value of 0.557. This study further suggests related avenues of research and ways in which the study could be improved in the future.

Pragmatic Deficits In Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder: Systematic Review And Meta-Analysis, Paige Kessler

Honors Theses

Background: Most studies have found pragmatic language skills to be poorer in attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) populations, but there is no conclusive evidence.

Aim: Our aim was to conduct a meta-analysis of pragmatic language abilities in ADHD populations to more definitively demonstrate the extent of pragmatic language deficits in these populations as compared to typically developing (TD) populations.

Methods and procedures: Journal articles were identified using the search terms ((attention deficit) OR (adhd)) AND (pragmatics). Identified studies were screened and reviewed for inclusion criteria, descriptive information, and outcome variables. A meta-analysis was conducted, and individual effect sizes and overall effect size …

Letter To The President: Longitudinal Critical Discourse Analysis Of Academic And Hip Hop Genres In A Rap Narrative Program, Debangshu Roygardner

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The objective of this study was to examine an in-school rap narrative workshop through critical discourse theory (Bamberg, 2012; Daiute, 2014). Twelve youth from a public school serving youth in urban Houston, TX were recruited from an in-school and after-school Hip hop/Rap narrative program to participate in a two-year cohort research study. The primary research question guiding the study was “How do young people participating in a school-based Hip hop/Rap program use a wide range of narrative genres for literacy and psycho-social development over two years in the program?”

The data-intensive study involved assessments of literacy and psycho-social development via …

L2 Effect On Bilingual Spanish/English Encoding Of Motion Events: Does Manner Salience Transfer?, Heidi E. Parker

Open Access Dissertations

This study explores the potential effect of a second language (L2) on first language (L1) encoding of motion events. The domain of interest is MANNER and the goal is to investigate if the degree of manner salience can be restructured under the effect of a L2. Slobin (2004, 2006) proposes an expansion of Talmy’s (1985, 1991, 2000) binary typology and observes that the degree of manner saliencevaries cross-linguistically. The two languages investigated in this study, Spanish and English, are at divergent points along the cline of manner salience. In addition, Slobin (1996b) suggests dividing MANNER into tier one (T1) …

Attachment Representations And Mother-Child Dialogue, Baiba Barene

Open Access Theses

With the emerging linguistic competencies of the child, dialogue becomes a regular part of mother-child everyday interactions, and may serve as one of the mechanisms of transmission of attachment in early and middle childhood. The goal of this study was to investigate the hypothesis about the co-constructive nature of children's knowledge of secure base script. Formation of the secure base script is a result of child-caregiver interactions that have been consolidated into a unit of knowledge available for use in attachment related situations. Individual attachment narratives and mother-child co-constructed narratives were collected from 86 mother-child dyads when children were 3.7 …

The Role Of Referentially Biased And Unbiased Contexts In The Processing Of Relative Clauses, William Battinich

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Two studies were conducted in order to examine the role of biased and unbiased contexts on the processing of object-extracted relative clauses (ORCs) (e.g., The child that the babysitter chased squealed with delight.) and subject-extracted relative clauses (SRCs) (e.g., The child that chased the babysitter squealed with delight.) In Experiment 1 ORCs and SRCs were embedded in licensing contexts that referentially supported the use of the relative clause (i.e., more than one child was present. In Experiment 2 ORCs and SRCs were embedded in context that biased towards either an ORC interpretation (e.g., One of the children was chased by …

Bilingualism And Social Cognitive Development: The Effect Of Dual-Language Acquisition On Nonverbal Communication, Melanie Elizabeth Ordinario Weil

Senior Independent Study Theses

No abstract provided.

Language Typology And Sentence Frame Effects On Motion Verb Interpretation In Grade Schoolers, Emma C. Kelty

Master's Theses

Most English descriptions of motion events express manner in the main verb and path in a prepositional phrase, as in “She skips out of the house”. However, the same event can be described differently if a different syntactic frame is used: “She exits the house”. While young children have been found to interpret novel motion verbs according to the syntactic frame information, adults have been found to rely somewhat more on the overall language pattern, or typology (Hohenstein et al., 2004; Naigles & Terrazas, 1998). Grade schoolers have not been examined in this paradigm, and their linguistic abilities suggest that …

Language Proficiency And Stress: Impact On Measured Intelligence And Anxiety For Latino Children, Marlene Baldizon De Naclerio

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

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Making The Most Of Volunteer Help: A Handbook For Parents And Teachers, Janet Lynn Bond

Graduate Theses

This project is concerned with the importance of parental involvement in children learning to read. Research shows children who view reading as an important and valuable process develop a more positive attitude toward learning to read. Children involved in reading activities at home learn to read earlier and have improved comprehension over children who have no experiences reading in the home. Parent involvement can take place in the home or at school as classroom volunteers. This project contains a volunteer handbook for parents and teachers. Included are characteristics of a volunteer, tips for teachers, suggested activities for the classroom and …

A Critique Of Language Learning And Theory In The Audio-Lingual Method Of Teaching English As A Foreign Language, Stephen Gregory Hanchey

MA TESOL Collection

In this paper I investigate the claims on which many present ESL methods are based and examine them in view of recent developments in both learning theory and linguistics. There are reasons to think that the audio-lingual method is grounded in inadequate theories of learning and linguistics; if so, this warrants experiments in new methods and re-examination of such currently acceptable teaching methods as repetition, imitation, and pattern practice. In particular, I examine the practices of the audiolingual method which are based on behaviorist and structural linguistic theories, especially those practices which are extensions of theories about child language acquisition, …