Digital Commons Network^™

Perspectives On Curriculum Construction At The Postsecondary Level: Contexts, Approaches, Principles, Heidi Byrnes

Russian Language Journal

A curriculum is an attempt, wrote Stenhouse three decades ago (1975, 4), to communicate the essential principles and features of an educational proposal in such a form that it is open to critical scrutiny and capable of effective translation into practice.

If one applies that notion of curriculum to the foreign language field in general, and to second- or foreign-language learning in U.S. colleges and universities in particular, one is immediately confronted with a dilemma: how can we speak of a foreign-language curriculum at the college level when a principled approach that is open to scrutiny and that builds on …

Learners And Teachers: The Application Of Psychology To Second-Language Acquisition, Madeline Ehrman

Russian Language Journal

The successful acquisition of second languages depends as much on good psychology as it does on sound linguistics. Both teaching and learning can be enriched by understanding and applying basic psychological principles.

The speaking and reading performance of second-language learners has received a great deal of attention in areas of applied linguistics such as conversation analysis, speech production analysis, oral testing research, classroom interaction analysis, and task-based learning research.(Ellis, 1994). In addition to linguistic variables, researchers have examined psychological determinants of learner achievement in speech performance, among them “individual difference variables.” These relatively stable learner characteristics—including language aptitude, motivation, and …

A Diabolical Disneyland In Zion: The Mormons And The Mx, Jacob W. Olmstead

Theses and Dissertations

In September 1979 President Jimmy Carter publicly announced his decision to support the deployment of the MX missile and mobile basing scheme in Utah and Nevada. Despite local opposition and the close proximity of the proposed base to its headquarters, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons) remained silent until 5 May 1981, when the First Presidency issued a statement opposing the MX plans. The purpose of this work is to narrate the history of the development of the Mormon position regarding the deployment of MX missile in the Great Basin and evaluate the response to the statement …

Differences In Levels Of Voter Turnout Among The Mexican States, David R. Hansen, Errol L. King, Samuel H. Peterson

Sigma: Journal of Political and International Studies

No abstract provided.

Theories Of Presidential Decision Making: Wilson, Roosevelt, And The Soviet Union, Jeremy Lloyd

Sigma: Journal of Political and International Studies

No abstract provided.

The State Of The Art In Language Assessment: Notes For The Third Millennium, Bernard Spolsky

Russian Language Journal

In the 2000 years during which human abilities have been assessed formally, tests and examinations have grown more powerful. A century ago, critics launched a strong attack on examinations, citing their “inevitable uncertainty,” but a growing testing industry and governmental cries for “accountability” have managed a stubborn defense. More recently, appreciation of the complexity of notions such as “language proficiency” and acceptance of the resulting impossibility of finding a single measure of those notions have led testing experts to a realization that assessing language knowledge is multipart and intricate—and more likely to be served by profiles than by simple scores.

Passive Decisions And Potent Defaults, James J. Choi, David Laibson, Brigitte C. Madrian, Andrew Metrick

Faculty Publications

Default options have an enormous impact on household choices. Such effects have now been extensively documented in the literature on 401(k) plans (Madrian and Shea 2001; Choi et al. 2002b, 2004). Defaults have been shown to affect participation, savings rates, rollovers, and asset allocation. For example, Choi et al. (2004) study three firms that use automatic enrollment. When employees at these firms are automatically enrolled in their 401(k) plan, only a tiny fraction opt out, producing participation rates exceeding 85 percent regardless of tenure. But when employees at these firms were not automatically enrolled, participation rates were significantly lower, ranging …

Measuring Organizational Safety And Effectiveness At Nasa, Daniel S. Wong, Vinit M. Desai, Peter Madsen, Karlene H. Roberts, Anthony Ciavarelli

Faculty Publications

Many project managers may be fully aware of the safety risks within their organizations. What they may not know, however, is that many of these risks are caused by the underlying safety culture of the organization rather than human individual differences in the organization. This article argues that managers can mitigate safety risks by obtaining a better understanding of their organizations’ culture. The researchers created a management metric that enables engineering/project managers to identify positive and negative aspects of safety that are tied to their organizations’ cultures. The article presents a process that managers can use to increase safety and …

The Integration Of Spiritual And Religious Issues In Racial-Cultural Psychology And Counseling., Timothy B. Smith, P Scott Richards

Faculty Publications

A new movement has begun. Spirituality and religion are being integrated into racial-cultural psychology and counseling. This chapter will review the literature that is the basis of that movement. We first describe the historical forces alluded to by Trimble (2000) that until only recently have minimized the relevance of religion and spirituality to psychological research and practice. We then summarize the potential benefits and concerns about incorporating spiritual and religious perspectives into research and practice that have been suggested in publications of the past 30 years. To demonstrate that religion and spirituality are central to racial-cultural psychology and counseling, literature …

Recognition Of Affective Prosody By Speakers Of English As A First Or Foreign Language, Christopher Dromey, Jose Silveira, Paul Sandor

Faculty Publications

Adults who were fluent in English, and who grew up speaking English or one of 21 other languages listened to words spoken with angry or neutral intonation. We measured the accuracy with which the listeners identified the intended emotion. English mother tongue (EMT) polyglots scored higher than other mother tongue (OMT) listeners, whereas EMT monoglots did not. Women were significantly more accurate than men across the three listener groups. There was a modest inverse correlation between accuracy and age. The learning of a second language may have helped the EMT polyglots develop additional perceptual skills in decoding speech emotion in …

The Book Of Breathings In Its Place, Kerry M. Muhlestein

Faculty Publications

Michael D. Rhodes's publication on the Hor Book of Breathings is an unusual book in many ways. It is a scholarly Egyptological work, dealing with an understudied type of text from an understudied era of Egyptian history, appearing in the midst of a series that has been dedicated to the exploration of a book considered to be scripture by the Latter-day Saints. Additionally, it deals with what many have incorrectly considered to be a text that can be used to test the revelatory ability of the founder of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latterday Saints.

Hans Jorgen Pedersen: The Founder Of Danebod, Thorvald Hansen

The Bridge

He served as pastor in a number of congregations. He was president of three Folk Schools, two of which he founded. He was a good businessman and was able to finance some of his undertakings. Yet he seemed never to stay at any one thing for very long. He easily became discouraged and he seems to have been that type of person for whom the grass is always greener somewhere else. Nonetheless, in the thirty years of his activity in America, Hans Jorgen Pedersen made a significant contribution to the life of the Danish Lutheran Church among the immigrants.

From The Farm To The Faculty: The Educational Odyssey Of Paulus Falck, Johan Windmuller

The Bridge

During the last quarter of the nineteenth century, thousands of immigrants from Denmark settled in the American Midwest. Some of them brought with them educational concepts and religious convictions they hoped to pass on to future generations; to do so they created a variety of educational and religious institutions scattered across several Midwestern states. What follows is a study of Paulus Falck, who passed through several of these institutions.

“Indian Participation In The Rocky Mountain Fur Trade.”, Jay H. Buckley

Faculty Publications

The Eastern Shoshones represent one of the most influential Indian groups in the histories of Wyoming and the Rocky Mountain fur trade. Before European contact their ancestral lands covered most of western Wyoming. After acquiring horses in the early eighteenth century, the eastern bands adopted the nomadic lifestyle and culture of the buffalo hunting Plains’ tribes. Leaving their lands between the Great Basin and Wind River Mountains, Shoshones ventured eastward via South Pass onto the plains to hunt bison. Th is expansion eastward brought contact with European traders offering horses, guns, and other manufactured goods that altered Shoshone life-ways and …

Sex-Related Acoustic Changes In Voiceless English Fricatives, Shawn L. Nissen, Robert Allen Fox

Faculty Publications

This investigation is a comprehensive acoustic study of 4 voiceless fricatives (/f q s Ý/)in English produced by adults and pre- and postpubescent children aged 6–14 years. Vowel duration, amplitude, and several different spectral measures (including spectral tilt and spectral moments) were examined. Of specific interest was the pattern of normal development of the acoustic properties of fricatives and the nature of sex-specific patterns of fricative articulation in prepubescent children. Little evidence of amplitude or duration differences was found between speakers that was related to sex of the speaker. However, significant sex-specific differences in fricative articulation were found in all …

Psychometrically Equivalent Mandarin Bisyllabic Speech Discrimination Materials Spoken By Male And Female Talkers, Shawn L. Nissen, Richard W. Harris, Lara-Jill Jennings, Dennis L. Eggett, Holly Buck

Faculty Publications

The purpose of this study was to develop, digitally record, evaluate, and psychometrically equate a set of Mandarin bisyllabic word lists for use in measurement of speech discrimination. Familiar bisyllabic words were digitally recorded by male and female talkers of Standard Mandarin. Percentage of correct word recognition was measured for each word at ten intensity levels ( /5 to 40dB HL) in 5 dB increments using 20 normally hearing subjects. Using logistic regression, 200 words with the steepest logistic regression slopes were included in four psychometrically equivalent word lists of 50 words each, and eight half-lists of 25 words each. …

Pricing In The New Economy: Lessons From The Period Of The E-Commerce Bubble, Phillip J. Bryson

Faculty Publications

The New Economy increased U.S. productivity sharply after 1995. The latest economics literature on the topic, which generally forecasts a secure future for the information economy, is reviewed. The down side of the New Economy were the strategies, especially the pricing strategies of NASDAQ and virtual firms. The critique of Michael Porter regarding the non-strategic price cutting common to those firms is reviewed. Traditional models by Sweezy and Baumol, which focus on pricing in imperfectly competitive industries, are applied to provide a cogent theory as to why those firms made mistakes that were once viewed as common for neophyte industries.

Attitudes Toward Abortion Among Religious Traditions In The United States: Change Or Continuity?, John P. Hoffmann, Sherrie Mills Johnson

Faculty Publications

Abortion continues to be a highly contentious issue in the United States, with few signs of abatement. The goal of this paper is to specify how variable positions about abortion across religious traditions have led to differential shifts in attitudes among their members. Based on culturally relevant events, position papers, and other religious media, the guiding hypotheses propose that Evangelicals have become increasingly opposed to abortion for elective reasons; yet changes in attitudes regarding abortion for traumatic reasons are due primarily to cohort shifts. Data from the cumulative General Social Surveys (1972–2002) are used to test the hypotheses. The first …

Shared Experience Building Around The Family Crucible Of Cancer, W. David Robinson, Jason S. Carroll, Wendy L. Watson

Faculty Publications

This study was designed to gain a greater understanding of the effects cancer has on families while simultaneously developing family therapy interventions that are helpful for families experiencing the crucible of cancer. On the basis of an action research paradigm, the authors designed an intensive case-analysis protocol involving reflective interviewing to learn about the personal perspectives of family members who participate in therapeutic treatment for cancer. An integration of reflective insight by the families, their therapist, and the research team ultimately revealed that cancer families face an ongoing struggle (a) between feelings of isolation and connectedness, (b) to make meaning …

Theorizing About Marriage, Jason S. Carroll, Stan J. Knapp, Thomas B. Holman

Faculty Publications

Since its inception in the 1920s, research on marriage relationships has attracted widespread attention within a variety of disciplines and has held a central position in the scientific study of families. However, despite marriage scholarship's long tradition and broad interdisciplinary base, a number of scholars believe that this area of research has reached a crossroads at the beginning of the 21st century. This pivotal moment is seen as largely the result of a lack of explicit theory development in the marriage field. In fact, during the past decade several leading marriage scholars have called for the development of broad integrative …

Dietary Isoflavones Alter Regulatory Behaviors, Metabolic Hormones And Neuroendocrine Function In Long-Evans Male Rats, Edwin D. Lephart, James P. Proter, Lihong H. Bu, Trent D. Lund, Kenneth Setchell, Gina Ramoz, William R. Crowley

Faculty Publications

Phytoestrogens derived from soy foods (or isoflavones) have received prevalent usage due to their 'health benefits' of decreasing: a) age-related diseases, b) hormone-dependent cancers and c) postmenopausal symptoms. However, little is known about the influence of dietary phytoestrogens on regulatory behaviors, such as food and water intake, metabolic hormones and neuroendocrine parameters. This study examined important hormonal and metabolic health issues by testing the hypotheses that dietary soy-derived isoflavones influence: 1) body weight and adipose deposition, 2) food and water intake, 3) metabolic hormones (i.e., leptin, insulin, T3 and glucose levels), 4) brain neuropeptide Y (NPY) levels, 5) heat production …

Representations Of Anglo-Saxon England In Children's Literature, Kirsti A. Bobo

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis surveys the children's literary accounts of Anglo-Saxon history and literature that have been written since the mid-nineteenth century. Authors of different ages emphasize different aspects of Anglo-Saxon culture as societal need for and interpretation of the past change. In studying these changes, I show not only why children's authors would choose to depict the Saxons in their writing, but why medievalists would want to study the resulting literature.

My second chapter looks at children's historical fiction and nonfiction, charting the trends which appear in the literature written between 1850 and the present day. I survey the changes made …

Effects Of Video Modeling On Skill Acquisition In Learning The Golf Swing, Joshua L. Smith

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of video modeling on skill acquisition in learning the golf swing. One-hundred-eight college students participated in this study. All participants were pre-tested via videotaping to determine initial skill level. The pre-test videotaping was analyzed using DartTrainer software. Each participant was randomly assigned to one of three groups (1) control (2) single-view or (3) multi-view. Participants in the control group viewed a compact disc (CD) with a putting demonstration repeated 40 times. The participants in the single-view group viewed a CD with a front view only demonstration repeated 40 times of …

A Biomechanical Analysis Of Sprinters Vs. Distance Runners At Equal And Maximal Speeds, Tyler D. Bushnell

Theses and Dissertations

In the sport of track and field, sprinting and distance running represent two major categories of athletes. Sprinting is associated with power and speed, whereas distance running focuses on the economy of movement. With distance running there are elements of sprint technique that overlap. With distance events, there comes a time near the end of the race where economy gives way to speed. If the distance runners knew how to alter their technique in a way to become more sprint-like, this process could possibly be more successful. PURPOSE: This study compared the differences in technique between sprinters and distance runners …

Vol. 06 No. 2 Journal Of Microfinance, Journal Of Microfinance

Journal of Microfinance / ESR Review

No abstract provided.

Impact Of Microfinance Programs On Children's Education: Do The Gender Of The Borrower And The Delivery Model Matter?, Nathalie Holvoet

Journal of Microfinance / ESR Review

This article highlights the effects particular features of microfinance programs have on childhood education. Using data from a South India household survey, the article examines how microfinance impacts schooling and literacy, how credit enters the household, and who brings it in. Regression results show that, in the case of direct bank-borrower credit delivery, it does not matter whether credit enters the household through the mother or the father. However, large differences occur when mothers obtain credit through women's groups. Analysis indicates that combined financial and social-group intermediation leads to higher educational inputs and outputs, mainly for girls. Individual interviewis with …

The Transformation Of The Microfinance Sector In India: Experiences, Options, And Future, M. S. Siriaram, Rajesh S. Upadhyayula

Journal of Microfinance / ESR Review

This paper discusses the growth and transformation of microfinance organizations (MFO) in India. Issues that have triggered transformation include size, diversity, sustainability, focus, and taxation. Transformation experiences in India are few. To move to the mainstream, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) choose from three popular forms of organizations: non-banking finance companies (NBFCs), banks, and cooperatives. It appears that there is no ideal path for spin-off. Regulatory changes are needed to allow MFOs to graduate to other legal forms as they grow organically. NGOs must be permitted to invest in the equity of MFOs, as is the case in Bolivia and Africa. Norms …

The Long Term Effects Of Short-Wave Diathermy And Long-Duration Static Stretch On Hamstring Flexibility, Daniel Joseph Graham

Theses and Dissertations

Objective: To compare changes in hamstring flexibility from treatments of pulsed short- wave diathermy and prolonged stretch versus sham diathermy and prolonged stretch and control and to observe how long those changes last.

Background: Heat and stretch techniques have been touted for years. To date, the effect of short-wave diathermy and hamstring stretching has not been thoroughly studied. Because diathermy heats a large area and penetrates deep into the muscle, use of this device prior to or during hamstring stretching may increase flexibility and these gains may last longer.

Study Design: A randomized, counterbalanced 3x2x6 repeated measures design. The 3 …

Pride In Our Progress: An Examination Of The John F. Kennedy Administration's Record Concerning Civil Rights And Environmentalism, Benjamin Mudrick

Sigma: Journal of Political and International Studies

No abstract provided.

The Precedent Of A President: Theodore Roosevelt And Environmental Conservation, Hilary Jan Izatt

Sigma: Journal of Political and International Studies

No abstract provided.