Digital Commons Network^™

Exploring Dialogue Journals As A Context For Connecting With And Supporting The Emotional Lives Of Fourth Graders, Samantha Simone Johnson

Theses and Dissertations

About 20 percent of school-aged children, 18 years and younger, struggle with mental health issues in America today. Mental health issues lead to greater rates of suicide, depression, loneliness, anxiety, and bullying that takes place in and out of schools. This exploratory multiple case study looks at how 10 fourth graders, five male and five female, use a weekly entry in a dialogue journal letter to their teacher to share their emotional lives. I explore how a dialogue journal can open up a space between students and teachers for emotional aspects of life and learning to be included in schools. …

Application Of A Self-Regulation Framework In An Esl Classroom: Effects On Iep International Students, Claudia Mencarelli

Theses and Dissertations

The present mixed methods study looks at the impact of a specific self-regulatory framework (WOOP) developed within the domain of mental contrasting with implementation intentions (MCII), and its effects on the self-reported self-regulation of learners in an intensive English program in the United States over the course of one 14-week semester. The research, which includes a total of 187 participants, compares self-reported self-regulation between students who used the framework and those who did not, and the impact the tool has on the different proficiency levels involved in the study. Furthermore, following a sequential explanatory design, the study aims to examine …

Dad Jokes, Kaylee Cox

Final Projects

A collection of Dad Jokes. The paper explores the elements of a dad joke and why it persists as a prominent tradition about fathers.

The Karen Gold Book Legend, Adrienne Powell

Final Projects

This paper highlights the relationships between The Book of Mormon and a Karen legend describing a golden book.

The Effect Of Language Learning Experience On Motivation And Anxiety Of Foreign Language Learning Students, Josie Eileen Thacker

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine how motivation and anxiety within learners studying a foreign language are affected by a participant's language requirement (whether a participant has a language requirement as part of their education), language class level, and language learning environment (those with traditional classroom verses significant in- country experience). The current study surveyed and analyzed the responses of 124 students currently enrolled in a language class at Brigham Young University. Self- reported survey results demonstrate the relationship between motivation and anxiety with relation to language class level, language learning experience, and language requirement fulfillment. Further analyses …

Translating Greek Mythology In Contemporary Chinese Science Fiction, Emily Olive Moore

Theses and Dissertations

Given its early connection to western science fiction, it is not entirely surprising that contemporary Chinese science fiction (csf) frequently references the "west" in general and Greek mythology in particular. The three works that I analyze in this paper are Xia Jia's "Psychology Game," Gu Shi's "Chimera," and Egoyan Zheng's The Dream Devourer. These three texts utilize Greek mythology in different ways, to different degrees, and with different purposes, and yet they all use Greek mythology to visually disrupt their respective texts. Xia Jia ends "Psychology Game" with a direct Greek-language quotation. Throughout "Chimera," Gu Shi quotes Chinese translations of …

Metalearning By Exploiting Granular Machine Learning Pipeline Metadata, Brandon J. Schoenfeld

Theses and Dissertations

Automatic machine learning (AutoML) systems have been shown to perform better when they use metamodels trained offline. Existing offline metalearning approaches treat ML models as black boxes. However, modern ML models often compose multiple ML algorithms into ML pipelines. We expand previous metalearning work on estimating the performance and ranking of ML models by exploiting the metadata about which ML algorithms are used in a given pipeline. We propose a dynamically assembled neural network with the potential to model arbitrary DAG structures. We compare our proposed metamodel against reasonable baselines that exploit varying amounts of pipeline metadata, including metamodels used …

Factor Structure Of The Jordan Performance Appraisal System: A Multilevel Multigroup Study Using Categorical And Count Data, Holly Lee Allen

Theses and Dissertations

Development of the Jordan Performance Appraisal System (JPAS) was completed in 1996. This study examined the factor structure of the classroom observation instrument used in the JPAS. Using observed classroom instructional quality ratings of 1220 elementary teachers of Grades 1-6 in the Jordan School District, this study estimated the factor structure of the data and the rater effect on relevant structural parameters. This study also tested for measurement invariance at the within and between levels across teachers of two grade-level groups (a) lower grades: Grades 1-3 and (b) upper grades: Grades 4-6. Factor structure was estimated using complex exploratory factor …

Teaching Second-Grade Students To Write Expository Text, Angenette Cox Imbler

Theses and Dissertations

Writing is necessary to participate in public discourse. Much of today's communication is based on information, yet many students do not adequately learn how to write expository text. Learning to write is difficult, but expository text can be especially difficult as it requires knowledge of both a subject and special text structures. The purpose of this study was to give teachers a research-proven method for teaching students to write expository text and to give more information on how to evaluate students' writing. In this quasi-experimental quantitative research design, the expository writing of students before and after receiving a new science …

Domestic Vs. Foreign Immersion Experiences: Listening Comprehension Of Multiple Dialects In Spanish, Nathan Thomas Adams

Theses and Dissertations

Study abroad has been shown to improve students' linguistic and cultural competence, but students who gain their fluency abroad may struggle to adapt to the plethora of regional dialects they encounter in their studies and interactions after they've returned from their study abroad. The researchers of this study posited that learning Spanish in a domestic immersion context may improve a student's flexibility or tolerance for dialectal variation in regard to listening comprehension. Using a detailed survey and multi-dialectal listening assessment, the researchers examined the degree to which Spanish language learners, in this case 183 missionaries, were exposed to a variety …

Facilitating Listening Comprehension Via Rich Media, Zane Harker

Instructional Psychology and Technology Graduate Student Projects

This project explores using authentic L2 media and question prompts to facilitate an independent online listening comprehension practice and reflective self-evaluation with an emphasis on developing metacognitive awareness. Metacognitive tips and scaffolding are based on the factors identified in the Metacognitive Awareness for Listening Questionnaire (Vandergrift, Goh, Mareschal, & Tafaghodtari, 2006). The lesson structure is based on a practical guide to classroom receptive skills development by language pedagogy scholar Chantal Thompson (n.d.). Scalability is a focus, with some prompts being reusable across multiple media items. The client for the project is the Missionary Training Center of the Church of Jesus …

Ranking Aspect-Based Features In Restaurant Reviews, Jacob Ling Hang Chan

Theses and Dissertations

Consumers continuously review products and services on the internet. Others have frequently relied on those reviews in making purchasing decisions. Review texts are usually free-form and associated with a star rating on a 5-point scale. The majority of restaurants receive a 3.5 or 4 star rating on average, so a standalone star rating does not provide adequate information for readers to make a decision. Many researchers have approached the problem with sentiment analysis to classify a sentence or a text as expressing a positive or a negative review. Sentiment analysis, even at the fine-grained level, can only provide classification of …

The Layered Frames Of Performed Tabletop: Actual-Play Podcasts And The Laminations Of Media, Brendan Decicio

Theses and Dissertations

Despite their sudden growth in popularity, the role-playing actual-play podcasts have either been ignored or grouped with the genre of audio drama in prior scholarly works. Examination using frame analysis shows, however, that these podcasts are distinct in their engagement of the audience on multiple, simultaneous levels; levels which correspond with well-known media genres such as Documentary, Fiction, and Game Play. Each frame has its own layer of identities, conduct, and avenue for appealing to audiences just as these genres have their own distinct appeals. Through the combinations of these frames, familiar tropes and techniques such as Short-Form Improv and …

Representation Of The National Trauma In Train To Busan: Based On A Semiotic Approach, Junshik Shik Yun

Theses and Dissertations

The object of this project is to dissect the filmic elements in Train to Busan (2016) to analyze how the film represents the Sewol Ferry incident, a national disaster occurred in South Korea, and how the audience is able to engage with the trauma. As the first zombie blockbuster created in South Korea, Train to Busan adapted the elements of the zombie genre that has been delineated repeatedly. The film inherited the traits of zombies, representation of government and media, and feature of human characters from the genre created in Hollywood. Additionally, national characteristics had been added through reflecting the …

Social-Emotional Learning In High School: A Mixed-Methods Evaluation Of The Strong Teens Program, Oscar Olaya

Theses and Dissertations

Strong Teens is a curriculum designed to help students develop the social-emotional skills needed to manage challenges and become successful socially and academically (Carrizales- Engelmann et al., 2016). Strong Teens has shown promise among adolescents, but this was the first study to evaluate the newly updated version of the intervention in a high school setting. The curriculum was implemented by a special education teacher with students at-risk for emotional and behavioral disorders. A mixed method design was used to evaluate outcomes with 16 ninth grade students. Overall findings suggest that Strong Teens was effective at improving students' social emotional knowledge …

¿Existe Un Español Antillano?, Orlando Alba

Faculty Publications

El objetivo fundamental de esta exposición consiste en demostrar, con el apoyo de más de 80 audio-clips y desde una perspectiva sociolingüística, que, a pesar de las conocidas semejanzas existentes en su modo de hablar, Cuba, República Dominicana y Puerto Rico mantienen su propia identidad lingüística.

Cada isla manifiesta su propia idiosincrasia lingüística, tanto en el terreno objetivo, de la actuación, como en el subjetivo, de la percepción. En el plano objetivo, existen estructuras sintácticas y unidades léxicas que actúan como elementos distintivos. Asimismo, son notables las discrepancias fonéticas cuantitativas y cualitativas entre los dialectos de cada país. A esto …

Full Issue

Swiss American Historical Society Review

No abstract provided.

Pierroz, Philippe, Quand Des Valaisan Colonisaient Le Wisconsin, Robert Sherwood

Swiss American Historical Society Review

For much of the history of the United States, the role of the Swiss immigrants has been reduced to that of a bit player. The traditional history books usually follow immigration patterns along linguistic lines, and the Swiss immigrants did not follow these linguistic lines. Therefore, the Swiss Romand, the Swiss Germans, and Swiss Italians often get labeled as either French, Germans, or Italians when they arrived in the United States.

Where Are The Sons Of Tell? A Brief History Of The Formative Years Of Swiss Biathlon, 1957-1964, Robert Sherwood

Swiss American Historical Society Review

Despite the lack of international success in biathlon, the sport has a long history in the Swiss Confederation. Biathlon, which combines the long-distance endurance of Nordic skiing and the precision marksmanship of rifle shooting, would seem a perfect match for the Swiss. In the 2010s, the Gasparin sisters (Elisa, Aita and Selina), along with Benjamin Weger, have helped Switzerland start to realize its potential as a player in the world of biathlon. But in the early years of the sport, the Swiss were not at the top of the list for strong biathlon nations. The reasons for this lack of …

China’S Rural Statistics: The Contemporary Chinese Village Gazetteer Data Project, Yuanziyi Zhang

Journal of East Asian Libraries

In July 2018, the East Asian Library (EAL) of the University of Pittsburgh Library System (ULS) initiated the Contemporary Chinese Village Gazetteer Data (CCVG Data) project to create a series of open-access online datasets of China’s rural statistics selected from the library’s collection of Chinese village gazetteers. The current datasets contain data from 1,000 village gazetteers in 18 categories. As an ongoing project, the goal is to reach 2,500 to 3,000 villages. A database that allows effective and efficient ingesting, querying, manipulating, and displaying CCVG data will be available for use by the end of 2020. This article serves as …

Language Matters: Examining The Language-Related Needs And Wants Of Writers In A First-Year University Writing Course, Grant Eckstein, Dana Ferris

Faculty Publications

All writing involves complex linguistic knowledge and thoughtful decision-making. But where do students acquire the linguistic tools needed to write effectively? Many students come from diverse backgrounds and may need additional support and/or instruction in language and grammar. In order to better understand this situation, we conducted a qualitative multiple-case study to examine the experiences of 12 students in a first-year university-level composition course to understand the extent of their diverse learning backgrounds and language needs and expectations. We synthesized information from surveys, interviews, and written texts into narratives about each student’s attitudes toward language and writing and also examined …

The Goodness Of God And His Children As A Fundamental Theological Concept In The Book Of Mormon, Noel B. Reynolds

Faculty Publications

The phrase goodness of God does occur occasionally in the Hebrew Bible, but has not been considered by Old Testament scholars. to be a key piece of Israelite theology. Rather, it has been interpreted as just another way of talking about God’s acts of hesed or loving kindness for his covenant people and is usually interpreted in the context of the covenants Israel received through Abraham and Moses. The Book of Mormon, on the other hand, presents an explicit divine plan that existed before Abraham—even before the creation of the earth—which had as its purpose making eternal life possible for …

Front Matter

BYU Studies

No abstract provided.

Full Issue

BYU Studies

No abstract provided.

Isolation Among Generation Z In The United States, Abby Bowler

Ballard Brief

Americans between the ages of 7 and 22 experience much higher rates of loneliness than other generations. Factors such as social media usage contribute to feelings of loneliness. which are compounded by the vulnerability and peer exclusion often experienced during adolescence. Social isolation leads to detrimental effects on both the physical and mental health of teenagers who experience it. Such effects include decreased sleep efficiency, a weakened immune system. and depression. Further. those who are lonely and isolated are more likely to participate in risky behavior such as substance abuse. Leading practices for treating isolation among adolescents (or its causes …

Philipp Ammon. Georgia Zwischen Eigenstaatlichkeit Und Russische Okkupation (Georgia Between Nationhood And Russian Occupation), Andrew Andersen

Comparative Civilizations Review

The book provides detailed analysis of political, historical, religious and cultural roots of the ongoing conflict between Russia and Georgia, which started more than 200 years ago in what is now a strategically important area of the world – the South Caucasus. That region, which includes Georgia alongside Armenia and Azerbaijan, serves as a natural corridor through which Western countries can get access to the vital hydrocarbon resources of Central Asia, bypassing Russia. At the same time, after the disintegration of the USSR, the South Caucasus turned into one of the “hot zones” where polar ideologies and economic interests of …

John Vincent Bellezza. The Dawn Of Tibet: The Ancient Civilization On The Roof Of The World, Constance Wilkinson

Comparative Civilizations Review

The Dawn of Tibet: the Ancient Civilization on the Roof of the World by John Vincent Bellezza is a unique work by an intrepid explorer-scholar who, purely from his own inspiration, spent decades doggedly tracking down traces of the prehistoric Zhang Zhung civilization, a Metal Age culture (famed for making iron weapons of war) and a polity that dominated the remote northwestern plateau of Upper Tibet until the 7th century CE.

William Of Rubruck: Cosmopolitan Curiosity And Restraint In An Age Of Conquest And Mission, Duncan Weaver

Comparative Civilizations Review

William of Rubruck’s account of journeying to Mongolia (1253-55) remained relatively elusive in scholarly and popular discourses. A Franciscan friar, his mission helped tentatively acquaint two (literally/figuratively) distant civilizations, Latin Christendom and the Mongol Empire. We may assess the extent to which a critical reading of Rubruck can propel knowledge of a Christian Eastward mission. Rubruck’s account was found to evince a degree of restraint and cosmopolitan curiosity that not only went against the grain of Christendom’s exceptionalism and expansionism, but also enabled the pursuit of a rudimentary inter-civilizational dialogue.

Using Church History Documents In Your Classroom, Keith A. Erekson

Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

Each of the standard works was compiled from previous historical documents. The Bible emerged from letters and writings selected and evaluated over hundreds of years. Joseph Smith received revelations for more than a decade before some were published in the Doctrine and Covenants. Members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles selected some of Joseph Smith’s other writings for inclusion in the Pearl of Great Price. Mormon and Moroni abridged Nephite records to prepare the plates that Joseph Smith translated as the Book of Mormon.

Adapting A Picture Description Task For Grammatical Analysis In English–Spanish Bilingual Preschool Children, Vanesa Smith, Isabel Cano, Lisa Lozada, Connie Summers

Faculty Publications

The purpose of this study was to assess the use of an adapted picture description task described by Eisenberg and Guo to explore the morphosyntactic error patterns of English–Spanish preschool simultaneous bilingual learners. Language samples were collected from 28 bilingual preschool children aged 3 to 5 years. Language samples were elicited in both English and Spanish using a series of pictures and elicitation questions/prompts. Twenty-one participants produced a language sample in only one language (16 in English and 5 in Spanish) and seven participants produced language samples in both languages. Language samples were analyzed for grammaticality and error types. There …