Digital Commons Network^™

Intergenerational Poverty In The United States, Monica Privette-Black

Ballard Brief

Though the United States is one of the highest-income countries in the world, there are still hundreds of thousands of citizens living below the poverty line. More children live below the poverty line than any other age group. The racial demographic and distribution of modern-day poverty can be traced back, in part, to policies such as gentrification and redlining. School system failures and a lack of access to social capital also contribute to the prevalence of intergenerational poverty. The consequences of intergenerational poverty include food insecurity, birth and developmental issues, unsafe living conditions, and increased risk of violence, incarceration, and …

Dynamic Assessment Of Narrative Language For Diverse School-Age Children With And Without Language Disorder: A Large-Scale Psychometric Study, Anahi Kamila Derobles

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine and cross-validate how well a dynamic assessment of language can accurately identify a large sample of school-age students with a representative ratio of language disorder. The participants included 362 school-age children with and without language disorder from kindergarten to sixth grade in Utah, Colorado, and Wyoming. Each participant received a battery of assessments including a dynamic assessment of narrative language. The dynamic assessment investigated in this study demonstrated good to excellent levels of sensitivity and specificity. The results of this study also determined that, in concurrence with previous dynamic assessment research, posttest …

Tessellated Pictures And Traditional Piety, Matthew K. Higham

Theses and Dissertations

Nearly 300 years before the rise of a ‘Christianized,’ Eastern Roman Empire, generations of inhabitants in the Eastern Mediterranean and Near East had witnessed a considerable variety and evolution of religious thought. As a result of the expansion of Christian sects throughout the Near East and Mediterranean, in 325 CE, Emperor Constantine I convened a theological council to unite his vast kingdom in the East under a single religious creed. While revisions to the text of the first ‘Nicene Creed’ and subsequent councils would be organized, many dissenting factions refused to relinquish their long-held beliefs and traditions. Some of these …

From Captive To Captor: Hannah Duston And The Indian Removal Act, Olivia Cronquist

Theses and Dissertations

In 1697 Massachusetts settler Hannah Duston was taken captive by a group of Abenaki Indians. Duston and her companions escaped captivity by using a tomahawk to kill ten of her captors. Within her captivity narrative, Duston inhabits the role of captor rather than captive, providing a literary framework for reading and understanding the process of Indian Removal in the nineteenth century. Like white captives in the early colonial period, Native Americans in the nineteenth century faced pressure to assimilate, forced marches through unfamiliar territory, and acts of shocking violence like the Wounded Knee Massacre. During this time period, the United …

Processing Nihilism: The Struggle For Valuative Supremacy In Javier Marí­As' Berta Isla, Kristen A. Brimhall

Theses and Dissertations

Nihilism is a popular and heavily studied topic which is prominently displayed in Javier Marí­as' novel Berta Isla. In this article, both Nietzschean and Heideggerian concepts of nihilism will be identified and analyzed within the context of Marí­­as's novel. Through textual analysis, the origin of nihilism will be explored as it relates to the will to power and valuative schema of the individual. It will be suggested that nihilism stems from valuative thinking induced by the herd-mentality of a community and that the fulfillment of such is the acceptance of absolute truth grounded in being and becoming.

"Al This Loude Fare:" The Echo Of Renown In Chaucer's The House Of Fame, Madeline Nicole Anderson

Theses and Dissertations

This paper approaches The House of Fame through the emerging lens of sound studies and discusses how Chaucer used the developing sonic theories of his day and other literary works as a catalyst for his discussion of fame in his dream vision. Chaucer's poem shows the fragile and uncontrollable characteristics of lasting fame by comparing it to the Boethian metaphor of sound functioning similarly to rippling water. The construction of The House of Fame ultimately becomes an example of this medieval sonic theory as it engages with, incorporates, and echoes themes and ideas from other texts. In exploring the process …

The Effects Of Dynamic Written Corrective Feedback On The Accuracy And Complexity Of Writing Produced By L2 Graduate Students, Lisa Rohm

Theses and Dissertations

What started as a discussion of the efficacy of explicit grammar instruction has over time led to a debate about the need for and effectiveness of written corrective feedback (WCF) within the field of English language teaching (ELT). Dynamic written corrective feedback (DWCF) is a relatively new strategy developed by Dr. Norman Evans to provide WCF to English as a second language (ESL) students through systematic, coded feedback. While previous studies on DWCF have looked at its effects among other groups, few studies have examined DWCF in the context of ESL students studying at the graduate level. This study analyzes …

Improving The Oral Narrative And Expository Language Of Kindergarten Students And Reducing The Matthew Effect, Taylor Camille Magleby

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of a tier-2 combined oral narrative and expository language intervention on kindergarteners' narrative and expository skills in comparison to an alternate decoding intervention and no treatment control condition. This study included 54 kindergarten students. After being administered the PEARL Kindergarten Screener at the beginning of the school year, eight students were found as at-risk for future reading comprehension difficulty and were matched to nine students not-at-risk, and all assigned to a language treatment group. Additional students not-at-risk for future reading comprehension difficulty were randomly assigned to an alternate decoding treatment …

The Practice Of Belonging: Can Learning Entrepreneurship Accelerate And Aid The Social Inclusion Of Refugees In The United States, Jabra F. Ghneim

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examines the role that culinary entrepreneurship communities of practice, using Lave and Wenger's Legitimate Peripheral Participation (LPP) model (Lave & Wenger, 1991), can lead to better social and economic inclusion for Middle Eastern Muslim refugee chefs in Utah. The life history approach was used to construct life histories for two Middle Eastern Muslim refugee chefs in Utah who joined the Spice Kitchen Incubator (SKI) program. SKI is a community of practice funded by the International Rescue Committee to assist refugee chefs in the resettlement process. This was an exploratory study, and given the limited number of cases reviewed, …

Norming A Dynamic Assessment Of Narrative Language For Diverse School-Age Children With And Without Language Disorder: A Preliminary Psychometric Study, Ashley Elizabeth Frahm

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to investigate preliminary psychometric normative data of an English dynamic assessment of narrative language for a group of diverse school-age students with and without language disorder. This study included 364 diverse students with and without language disorder ranging from kindergarten through 6th grade. Students were confirmed as having a language disorder if they had an existing active IEP for language, and scores below a certain cutoff point on a nonword repetition (NWR) task and the narrative language measure (NLM). English language proficiency was investigated, and students were classified as being a dual language learner …

Ecological Perspectives On Study Abroad For Language Learning, Matthew Thomas Bird

Theses and Dissertations

The field of study abroad for language learning has drawn extensively on related fields such as applied linguistics and psychology to conceptualize learners' experiences, which then informs how practitioners go about designing programs for those learners. Research has encouraged practitioners to increase learners' access to the target language (e.g., through speaking partners, content courses), but it has also become clear that while access might be necessary, it does not guarantee learner engagement and growth. This dissertation explores two unique conceptual frameworks for understanding language learners and presents empirical research that demonstrates the kinds of findings that these frameworks can produce. …

A Self-Study Of The Shifts In Teacher Educator Knowledge Resulting From The Move From In-Person To Online Instruction, Celina Dulude Lay

Theses and Dissertations

Given the competing contexts of teacher education, it is important to uncover what teacher educator knowledge concerning curriculum design and development emerges in design, implementation, and instruction during the transition from in-person to online contexts. Yet, there is little research that uncovers teacher educator knowledge in curriculum making generally, and more specifically, how this knowledge is carried forward or changed as teacher educators create and enact online teaching. Because transitions are an important time to uncover tacit and embodied understanding, in this self-study of teacher education practice (S-STEP), I examined my own teacher educator knowledge during planning, teaching, and reflecting …

Spatial Resolution Of Quantitative Electroencephalography And Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging During Phoneme Discrimination Tasks: An Abbreviated Meta-Analysis, Emily Jean Jacobs

Theses and Dissertations

Phonological processing, the ability to recognize and manipulate the sounds of one's native language, is an essential linguistic skill. Deficits in this skill may lead to decreased social, educational, and financial success (Kraus & White-Schwoch, 2019). Additionally, phonological disorders have been shown to be highly variable and individualized (Bellon-Harn & Cradeur-Pampolina, 2016) and therefore difficult to treat effectively. A better understanding of the neural underpinnings of phonological processing, including the underlying skill of phonemic discrimination, could lead to the development of more individualized and effective intervention. Several studies, some using quantitative electroencephalography (qEEG) and others using functional magnetic resonance imaging …

Quantifying Speech Pause Durations In Speakers With Nonfluent And Fluent Aphasia, Brooke K. Thomas

Theses and Dissertations

This study investigates pause duration between and within utterances in the speech of 20 people with different degrees and types of aphasia: 15 with fluent aphasia and five with nonfluent aphasia. It also examines within utterance pause durations as a function of utterance position. Using aphasia speech samples collected in a previous study by Harmon (2018), Praat acoustic analysis software was used to segment words and periods of pause and measure pause duration within and between utterances. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, including pause duration mean, standard deviations, and interquartile range. Speech pauses were also categorized by the …

How Word Characteristics Affect Language-Mediated Eye Movements In Preschoolers With Varying Language Ability, Shelby Nicole Slocum

Theses and Dissertations

Children with lower language abilities, including children with Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) are at risk for persistent reading difficulties. Previous studies have demonstrated that children with lower language abilities display eye movements different from their typically developing peers while hearing nouns in a naturalistic storybook reading context. This study examined how language ability and various lexical characteristics interact with 4- and 5-year- olds' eye movements during a naturalistic storybook reading task. We used eye-tracking technology to measure eye movements of 49 preschoolers with variable language skill. The children looked at storybook pictures on an eye tracking computer while they listened …

From Trump Tower To Trump White House: The Rhetoric Of Donald Trump's 'Winning' Brand, Benjamin Metcalf

Theses and Dissertations

Donald Trump's rhetoric of winners and losers has prompted dangerous division in the United States. It is well understood that Trump's divisive discourse appealed to white, blue-collar Americans who had become disillusioned with the political establishment. This study explores how Trump persuaded this audience by transitioning business communication principles, highlighted by his signature 'winners and losers' theme, into politics. Trump's use of the reality television show, The Apprentice, as a branding platform had the rhetorical effect that catapulted Trump's unique 'winning' brand back into the public's consciousness. While the principles of business rhetoric Trump used in The Apprentice were clearly …

Eliminating Forced Labor In American Corporations And Their Supply Chain: Existing Solutions And Failures, Breann Hunt

Brigham Young University Prelaw Review

The author of this article examines current judicial precedent pertaining to human rights violations perpetrated in the supply chains of American companies. The author argues that existing legislation is insufficient to prevent firms from profiting from forced labor. The author demonstrates the effect of forced labor upon the competitive landscape and illustrates the damage done to ethical companies forced to compete with low-priced competitors. By analyzing existing research on competitive injury and Antitrust regulation, the author thus proposes that there be a synthesis of third party research capabilities and legislation that would help prove competitive injury due to forced labor …

“Thou Wast Chosen Before Thou Wast Born”: An Egyptian Context For The Election Of Abraham, Stephen O. Smoot

Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

Arguably the most important doctrinal contribution of the Book of Abraham is its teaching about the premortal existence of humankind. As John Gee has recognized, “The largest effect that the Book of Abraham has had on Latter-day Saint thought is its concept of the premortal existence and the purpose of life. Although other Latter-day Saint scriptures discuss the premortal existence, the Book of Abraham provides the clearest explanation of this key Latter-day Saint doctrine.” The importance of the Book of Abraham’s teaching about the premortal existence is confirmed by surveying the LDS Scripture Citation Index, which reveals that General Authorities …

How Many Ways Can You Vocalize Emotion? Introducing An Audio Corpus Of Acted Emotion, Logan Ricks Kowallis

Theses and Dissertations

Emotion recognition from facial expressions has been thoroughly explored and explained through decades of research, but emotion recognition from vocal expressions has yet to be fully explained. This project builds on previous experimental approaches to create a large audio corpus of acted vocal emotion. With a large enough sample size, both in number of speakers and number of recordings per speaker, new hypotheses can be explored for differentiating emotions. Recordings from 131 subjects were collected and made available in an online corpus under a Creative Commons license. Thirteen acoustic features from 120 subjects were used as dependent variables in a …

The Effects Of Dynamic Written Corrective Feedback Frequency On Esl Writing Accuracy, Fluency, And Complexity, Suzanne H. Rice

Theses and Dissertations

Dynamic written corrective feedback is a strategy that raises student awareness of the patterned errors they make in their writing. Teacher feedback provides the location and type of error made in the form of error codes. Multiple studies have shown it to significantly improve the grammatical accuracy of student writing. This research examines the effects of the frequency of teacher feedback, on student written accuracy, fluency, and complexity whether daily or every-other-day. The total number of minutes students write for is also questioned since it is directly related to the amount of feedback students receive. This is done to make …

Connected: A Return To Ecological Awareness In Traditional And Modern Media, Jacob Reese

Undergraduate Honors Theses

This thesis responds to the claim that traditional literary forms and narrative structures have contributed to the global climate crisis by perpetuating anthropocentric viewpoints and reinforcing the modern fixation on progress in industrial cultures. Ecocritics argue that by creating an unrealistic separation between humans and their environment in their narratives, artists are allowing the ecologies and spaces which create a cohesive world to become a mere setting for the social or psychological human drama rather than serving as an integral part of the narrative. With these criticisms in mind, this thesis provides an analysis of three pieces of traditional and …

An Automated Tool For Comparing Phonetic Transcriptions, Dallin J. Bailey, Marisha Speights Atkins, Ishaan Mishra, Sicheng Li, Yaoxuan Luan, Cheryl Seals

Faculty Publications

Many computerized tools for comparing phonetic transcriptions have been proposed and shared in the past; however, previous tools are relatively difficult to access and incorporate into clinical and research practice, or require users to learn additional phonetic symbol systems. The purpose of this project was to develop and test a readily available web-based application for quantitatively comparing phonetic transcriptions that are input using International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) symbols. A web-based computer application was developed to allow for IPA phonetic transcription comparison. A point-and-click keyboard was developed to provide support for character input of the full IPA, as well as most …

Effects Of Background Noise On Speech And Language In Young Adults, Tyson G. Harmon, Christopher Dromey, Brenna Nelson, Kacy Chapman

Faculty Publications

Purpose: To investigate how different types of background noise that differ in their level of linguistic content affect speech acoustics, speech fluency, and language production for young adult speakers when performing a monologue discourse task.

Method: Forty young adults monologued by responding to open ended questions in a silent baseline and five background noise conditions (debate, movie dialogue, contemporary music, classical music, pink noise). Measures related to speech acoustics (intensity and frequency), speech fluency (speech rate, pausing, and disfluencies), and language production (lexical, morphosyntactic, and macro-linguistic structure) were analyzed and compared across conditions. Participants also reported on which conditions they …

Second Languange Acquisition Of /S/ -Weakinging In A Study Abroad Context, Earl K. Brown, Alicia Harley, Bret Linford

Faculty Publications

This study examines the second language (L2) development of variable /s/-weakening in the spontaneous speech of L2 learners of Spanish who studied abroad in either Dominican Republic, where /s/-weakening is widespread, or central Spain, where /s/-weakening is much less common. Learners’ realizations of /s/ were coded impressionistically and acoustically by measuring voicing, center of gravity, and duration. The results show that regardless of the study abroad location, students did not change the amount of sibilance they produced over time. However, they became more nativelike with respect to /s/-voicing and duration. Additionally, whereas some linguistic factors were found to significantly constrain …

Exploring The Louisiana Purchase And Its Borderlands: The Lewis And Clark, Hunter And Dunbar, Zebulon Pike, And Freeman And Custis Expeditions In Perspective [Part 2], Jay H. Buckley

Faculty Publications

Simply conducting expeditions was not enough to define the boundaries of the Louisiana Purchase. To be useful, the knowledge of Louisiana that Jefferson’s and Wilkinson’s soldiers and scientists gained from observation and inquiry needed to be interpreted and published. Jefferson’s “Message from the President” delivered to Congress on February 19, 1806, made some of their findings available to the public for the first time. His report informed the world that the Lewis and Clark and Hunter-Dunbar expeditions had collected a wealth of scientific information. It contained Lewis and Clark’s interim report written during the winter of 1804-1805, information documenting Hunter …

Seamus Heaney And The Role Of The Political Poet, Alex Coleman

Criterion: A Journal of Literary Criticism

No abstract provided.

Anemia Management In Rural Haitian Children: A Mixed Methods Study, Marc-Aurel Martial, Kathy A. Sward, Janice M. Morse, Andrew R. Wilson, Cempaka S. Martial, Debra S. Penney, Elie Nicolas

Faculty Publications

Introduction: We examined factors influencing anemia outcomes in rural children following implementation of a prevention program. Method: Mixed methods study of children, parents, and clinicians utilized statistical modeling and content/ ethnographic analysis. Retrospective chart abstraction evaluated treatments administered and measured hemoglobin in children aged 6 to 59 months (n = 161). Prospective interviews/questionnaires examined parent (n = 51) and clinician (n = 19) perceptions. Results: Anemia prevalence decreased by 21.2%. Predictors of increased hemoglobin were clinic visit number and age at first visit. Once anemia improved, children were likely to remain improved (P = .65). Despite favorable program perceptions, stakeholders …

Poetic Maturity, Identity, And A Troublesome Future In “Personal Helicon”, Taylor Bitton

Criterion: A Journal of Literary Criticism

No abstract provided.

Full Issue Fall 2020

Criterion: A Journal of Literary Criticism

No abstract provided.

"Was Is Not Is": "Give Unto Them Beauty For Ashes" (Isaiah 61.1-3), Katey Workman

Criterion: A Journal of Literary Criticism

No abstract provided.