Digital Commons Network^™

The Electronic Polis: Media Democracy And The Invasion Of Iraq, Jeff Lewis, Kirsty Best

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

[First paragraph]

The American-led victory in Baghdad was announced to the world with scenes of Iraqi citizens dragging down the statues of the deposed tyrant. Like the spectacle of World Cup Soccer or the Olympic Games, the image was transmitted live through the global media network to the billions of people who had been closely watching the three week invasion. President Bush shared in the celebration, announcing the dawn of a new age for freedom and democracy in the Middle East. This new democracy, the president proclaimed, would bring stability and prosperity to the region through the obliteration of terrorism …

Not Thinking Like A Nonlawyer: Implications Of "Recogonization" For Legal Education, Robert J. Morris

Journal of Legal Education

No abstract provided.

The Development Of Language Choice In A German Immersion School, Miranda Kussmaul Novash

Dissertations and Theses

When bilinguals converse with one another, they make choices about which language to speak. Many different factors have been shown to influence adult bilinguals' language choice, including interlocutor, setting, discourse content and discourse function. Less, however, is known about the factors influencing the language choice behavior of young bilinguals. Although case studies have provided into the type of language choice behavior exhibited by individual children, there is a lack of knowledge of the course of development from the language choice behavior of early childhood bilinguals to the more complex behavior of adult bilinguals.

This thesis examines the developmental pattern of …

Espace Francophone Et Politiques Linguistiques : Glottophagie Ou Diversité Culturelle?, Zacharie Petnkeu Nzepa

Présence Francophone: Revue internationale de langue et de littérature

This paper is illustrative of the conflict of languages in a sociolinguistic landscape. It asserts that in French-speaking world, notably Black Africa and the West Indies, politics in collusion with French language policies work for the imperceptible, but gradual disappearance of vernaculars on behalf of the prestige of French language. The International Organization of "Francophonie" is depicted as being instrumental in the ongoing strategy. The article ends up suggesting criteria for a harmonious cohabitation of languages in the above-mentioned ommunities.

Nl-Soar Update, Deryle W. Lonsdale

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

「アメリカの日本語教育」 [Japanese Education In The U.S.]. 『月間日本語 ５月号』, Seiichiro Inaba

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Word Order In Biblical Hebrew Poetry, Sherry Lynn Fariss

Linguistics & TESOL Dissertations - Archive

Syntacticians generally focus on prose texts of a language when studying word order rather than examining poetry. The general consensus is that the stylization of poetry exercises too great an influence on the text to allow for regular word order. In their study of pragmatics, particularly in obsolete languages, Herring (2000) and Hock (2000) demonstrate that even in poetry syntactic patterns can be seen in different genres or text types. Herring's contention in Old Tamil poetry is that the more poetic the genre, the more word order variation can be expected. By the same token, the more informational the genre, …

The Structure Of Nominalization In Burmese, Paulette M. Hopple

Linguistics & TESOL Dissertations - Archive

Nominalized sentential elements have long been observed in Tibeto-Burman languages, but the role and extent of nominalized patterns have not been explored as a base of formative structuring. This dissertation examines nominalization patterns in Burmese from the word to text level and posits a complex information packaging role of postposition particles in erecting a structure of predictable and iteratively patterned nominals which function to reduce information overload and facilitate online parsing. Burmese has been characterized as a predominantly verbal language (U Pe Maung Tin 1956). A complementary view is presented in which ontological objects created via a grammatical system of …

The Word Out : A Stylistic Analysis Of Rap Music, Claudia Coscarello

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Rap music is a particular socioculturally bound music phenomenon that was conceived on the streets and birthed within the African-American communities in the urban boroughs of New York City during the 1970's. It was developed as a particular kind of linguistic self expression in the form of music for African- American youth. Rap music is a display of ethnic creativity and cultural pride which gives expression to a speech community's voice as it declares the stark reality of urban life.

For close to three decades, rap music has maintained its position at the forefront of the youth culture across the …

Review Of The Korean Alphabet Of 1446, David J. Silva

Linguistics & TESOL Faculty Publications & Presentations - Archive

Perhaps the most noteworthy product of Korean civilization, han'guil is a source of pride among Koreans: not only does it embody a sense of national uniqueness, but it is also a valuable tool against illiteracy. While this great cultural achievement has merited considerable attention in Korea, detailed English-language accounts of han'guil are scarce. Most prominent among this small body of work is Gari Ledyard's 1966 dissertation, "The Korean Language Reform of 1446," since republished (with modest revisions) in 1998. Two recent volumes about the Korean script are now looking to claim space alongside Ledyard's text: The Korean Alphabet of 1446, …

Artifacts And Cultures-Of-Use In Intercultural Communication, Steven L. Thorne

World Languages and Literatures Faculty Publications and Presentations

This article develops a conceptual framework for understanding how intercultural communication, mediated by cultural artifacts (i.e., Internet communication tools), creates compelling, problematic, and surprising conditions for additional language learning. Three case studies of computer-mediated intercultural engagement draw together correlations between discursive orientation, communicative modality, communicative activity, and emergent interpersonal dynamics. These factors contribute to varying qualities and quantities of participation in the intercultural partnerships. Case one, "Clashing Frames of Expectation -- Differing Cultures-of-Use," suggests that the cultures-of-use of Internet communication tools, their perceived existence and on-going construction as distinctive cultural artifacts, differs interculturally just as communicative genre, pragmatics, and institutional …

Innovating Superheroes, Alvise Mattozzi

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

[Introduction]

Superhero comics have changed. They have passed through a Golden Age and Silver Age, they have been transformed, cancelled, revived, killed, deconstructed, reconstructed, revisited, etc. My aim is to account for part of these changes and show how superhero comics have been innovated. In order to track these changes I chose to compare different versions of a few DC Comics series, such as Doom Patrol, Swamp Thing, Shade, that had been cancelled and then revived and are known to have introduced relevant changes between the earliest and the subsequent versions.

Before tackling the series mentioned, I …

To Be Or Not To Be Ideophonically Impoverished, Janis B. Nuckolls

Faculty Publications

This paper addresses a current debate over the universality of ideophones, a class of expressions that are used to simulate, through performative foregrounding, the salient processes and perceptions of everyday life experience. Using data from Quechua-speaking Runa in Amazonian Ecuador, I argue for a view of ideophones as a type of cultural discourse through which speakers align themselves with nonhuman life forms and forces of nature. This alignment is suggested by the special performative properties of ideophones, which collapse the distinction between a speech event and a narrated event, thus compelling a speaker to become an action, event, or process, …

Memory-Based Tone Recognition Of Cantonese Syllables, Michael William Emonts

Theses and Dissertations

Speech recognition has only recently been applied to Cantonese. Considerable effort, however, has been spent in recognizing Mandarin, the standard dialect of Chinese. Prior to this thesis, the only published work on monosyllabic Cantonese tone recognition is from Tan Lee et al. (1993,1995). This thesis is the first of its kind in that it explores memory-based learning as a viable approach for Cantonese tone recognition. The memory-based learning algorithm employed in this thesis outperforms the highly respected and widely used neural network approach. Various numbers of tones and features are modeled to find the best method for feature selection and …

On Extraction From Nps, William D. Davies, Stanley William Dubinsky

Faculty Publications

This paper sheds new light on the conditions governing extraction from NPs. A close examination of wh-extraction out of object NPs reveals that previously unnoticed semantic factors play a greater role than has been recognized. In particular, we find that NPs lacking 'participant' structure do not permit wh-extraction at all, and that certain NPs permit extraction even when they are definite. At the same time, the prohibition on wh-extraction from subject NPs is shown to be a purely syntactic phenomenon which arises from the particular way in which the Extended Projection Principle is satisfied in English.

Quality Delivery Of Online Translation Course, Dermot Campbell

Conference papers

This presentation covers the rationale for a distance delivery of a German-English translation course, the difficulties and advantages of remote delivery and the application of colour-coded feedback to promote learner discussion.

An Analysis Of It-Clefts Within A Role And Reference Grammar Framework, Emma Pavey

Work Papers of the Summer Institute of Linguistics, University of North Dakota Session

The it-cleft construction (e.g. "It was Bill that I saw") is generally accepted to be a marked syntactic bi-clausal option which expresses a simple semantic proposition; in terms of information structure, the construction places an element in focus position, within a copular matrix clause. This element receives an exhaustive interpretation; that is, in the case of (1), it is Bill, and only Bill, that was seen. These clefts lack a straightforward mapping between their syntactic, semantic and pragmatic structures and as a result are a prime construction to illustrate the advantages of Role and Reference Grammar which is able to …

Evidence That Demands A Verdict?, David J. Weber

Work Papers of the Summer Institute of Linguistics, University of North Dakota Session

Source—Meaning—Receptor (SMR) theories of translation, such as "dynamic equivalence" and "meaning-based" theories, shifted focus from the equivalence of FORM to the equivalence of MEANING. SMR theories were a significant advance and have been the basis for many modern English translations.

However, SMR theories were formulated when the dominant theory of communication was the code model. Consequently they presumed that meaning was determined almost entirely by a text (utterance) itself. This theory is now rejected in favor of theories that understand interpretation as the inferential product of the interaction of the text with (mind-mediated) context. These newer theories shift the focus …

Positive Orientation Towards The Vernacular Among The Talysh Of Sumgayit, Calvin F. Tiessen

Work Papers of the Summer Institute of Linguistics, University of North Dakota Session

This thesis looks at the identification of positive vernacular orientation in the Talysh community of the city of Sumgayit, Azerbaijan, for the purpose of gaining a greater understanding of its causes. Positive vernacular orientation is described in three areas of sociolinguistic behaviour: patterns of vernacular language use, vernacular language proficiency and frequency of vernacular-speaking individuals in social networks. Variation in vernacular orientation is shown to pattern itself according to differences in generation and time of arrival or birth in Sumgayit.

What Do You Mean? Finding Answers To Complex Questions, Anne R. Diekema, Ozgur Yilmazel, Jiangping Chen, Sarah Harwell, Elizabeth D. Liddy, Lan He

School of Information Studies - Faculty Scholarship

This paper illustrates ongoing research and issues faced when dealing with real-time questions in the domain of Reusable Launch Vehicles (aerospace engineering). The question- answering system described in this paper is used in a collaborative learning environment with real users and live questions. The paper describes an analysis of these more complex questions as well as research to include the user in the question-answering process by implementing a question negotiation module based on the traditional reference interview.

Using L1 And L2 Effectively In The Foreign Language Classroom, Claire Millous

MA TESOL Collection

Drawing on research and the author's experience, this paper presents descriptions and prescriptions regarding the controversial issue of use of L1 (first language) and of L2 (target language) in the foreign language classroom. In the context of her own practice, the author discusses and evaluates techniques and principles that include the use of the use of L1 as well as those that exclude it. This project will examine various interactions among the teacher, the learner, and the content as they relate to LllL2 use in the classroom. Awareness of the variables involved is the foundation for the teacher’s continual adjustment …

Making Connections With Dialogue Journals, Catherine Elliott

MA TESOL Collection

This paper makes a case for the use of dialogue journals in the second language classroom. In Part One the author examines the research of experts in the fields of second language acquisition and writing instruction and presents their findings as a rationale which supports the use of dialogue journals. In Part Two the author draws from her own experience in the classroom to illustrate how dialogue journals can be used effectively with second language learners.

Listen To The Beat: Activities For English Pronunciation, Victor Yevmenov

MA TESOL Collection

Suggested in this work is a set of activities for learners of English as a foreign language developed with a special focus on suprasegmentals of connected speech such as rhythm, stress patterning, weak forms, linking, assimilation and elision of sounds. It is designed to meet the needs of teachers of English working with groups of adult and young adult learners whose native language is syllable-timed.

Praxis: Do I Practice What I Believe? A Course In Research In The Language Classroom For The English Language Teacher Education Program At Universidad Centroamericana, Nicaragua, Sarah Renata Wright

MA TESOL Collection

I have asked myself to describe my teaching beliefs and analyze my teaching practice in order to see if the two are congruent and if in fact I do have a teaching praxis. This is a professional paper about course development based on a classroom research project. First, through a discussion of theories, experiences, and observations I describe my teaching beliefs. Second, I describe the Research in English Language Teaching course that I designed and taught to a group fourth year student teachers at the Universidad Centroamericana in Nicaragua. This description is based on a selection of student writings, lesson …

Let’S Play Cards. Grammar Is Fun. (How And Why I Have Taught English To My Students), Tomi Yukimune

MA TESOL Collection

In Japan, most students have to memorize grammar rules to pass entrance examinations to high schools as well as universities. As speaking skills are not required in those exams, many students regard grammar as nothing but rote learning. However, grammar is not dried bones but a vivid creature, which can be formed by students. Grammar can be learned with the four skills (speaking, listening, reading, writing), which is addressing diverse learning styles. It can be taught with stories, poems, plays, songs, games, puppets, picture books, and playing cards. Once students learn the rules of grammar, they will be able to …

Multiple Intelligences In The Efl Classroom: A Perspective In Context, Irena Vodopija- Krstanoviæ

MA TESOL Collection

This paper examines the implication of Multiple Intelligences Theory for learning styles in the EFL classroom. The multiple intelligence profiles of students and teachers at two secondary schools were obtained in order to determine their strengths and weaknesses in the different intelligences. In addition, the teachers’ and learner’s preferences for EFL activities catering for the intelligences were defined. Furthermore, the frequency of use of the EFL activities was examined in order to determine how the various intelligences were actually addressed in the teaching and learning processes. The research was conducted in Rijeka, Croatia, thus providing insights into a specific cultural …

Designing And Teaching A Culture Course In Korea: Developing Cultural Awareness In The Korean University Classroom, Melanie Van Den Hoven

MA TESOL Collection

This Independent Professional Project outlines my process of becoming aware of the interrelationship of language and culture in the Korean University language classroom and the issues surrounding teaching culture in Korea at the turn of the millenium. My decisions, reflections and realizations made as an expatriate EFL teacher based in Seoul, Korea, which helped to address these concerns, are fully presented. This paper reflects on the “culture bumps” inherent in my living and teaching context, and the cultural adjustments made both in the classroom and out. It also explores the major theoretical influences that have been helpful in designing a …

Promoting Student Self-Evaluation Of Their Learning Process, Diane Steigerwald

MA TESOL Collection

This paper describes classroom research on promoting student initiative through self and peer correction, record keeping, goal setting and evaluation. Promoting Student Self-Evaluation of Their Learning Process starts with a look at the author’s experience of self-initiative and authentic interaction among her students which sparked her awareness and began the transformation of her teaching beliefs and approaches. The old belief centered on the need to be the authority in control. The new belief focuses on empowering the students to see themselves as authorities. The paper then describes the forms and activities used in an adult high-intermediate English as a Second …

Dilemmas Of Politics And Spontaneity In The Contemporary Teaching Of Languages “La Sal De La Vida”, Patricia Pedroza

MA TESOL Collection

This document describes my philosophy of teaching. My primary interests are in Pedagogical Psychodrama and Feminist Pedagogy. This document is a compilation of my experiences, insights, and dilemmas in my practice of teaching Spanish as a second language and also in teaching feminist classes.

The Effects Of Acculturation On The L2 Learner, Raya C. Longto

MA TESOL Collection

This paper deals with the deconstruction of a novel (A Sprig of Lemon Blossom) written on the subject of Acculturation. Since the latter half of the twentieth century the world has traveled at an incredible speed towards globalization. Given this reality the number of people who constantly travel abroad for a variety of career and work related purposes is growing by the hour. Under the circumstances the theme of acculturation has become crucial as without an adequate form of this phenomenon people cannot function to the best of their abilities. The deconstruction of this novel addresses the three-fold process of …