Digital Commons Network^™

Back Vowel Distinctions And Dynamics In Southern Us English, Joseph A. Stanley, Margaret E. L. Renwick

Faculty Publications

We investigate low/back vowels /u, oʊ, ʊ, ɔ, ɑ/ in Southern American English (SAE).

Research on SAE has analyzed changes in position over generational time.

Most work on trajectories is limited to impressionistic coding (“loss of upgliding”) or reduces trajectories to summary statistics (vector length, rate of change).

We analyze both the position and the shape of back vowels’ formant trajectories in apparent time, using new data from the Digital Archive of Southern Speech (DASS).

Improving Nmt Quality Using Terminology Injection, Deryle W. Lonsdale, Duane K. Dougal

Faculty Publications

Many organizations use domain- or organization-specific words and phrases. This paper explores the use of vetted terminology as an input to neural machine translation (NMT) for improved results: ensuring that the translation of individual terms is consistent with an approved multilingual terminology collection. We discuss, implement, and evaluate a method for injecting terminology and for evaluating terminology injection. Our use of the long short-term memory (LSTM) attention mechanism prevalent in state-of-the-art NMT systems involves attention vectors for correctly identifying semantic entities and aligning the tokens that represent them, both in the source and the target languages. Appropriate terminology is then …

Contextual Information In Social How-To Questions That Initiate Documentation, Matt Baker

Faculty Publications

This study introduces social question-and-answer (SQA) documentation to technical and professional communication scholarship. It conceptualizes SQA as interactive, user-generated documentation and describes contextual information types within social how-to questions that initiate documentation. It also explores whether contextual information associates with answers that complete the interactive documentation. Results reliably describe 15 information types based on content analysis of 3,529 contextual information types from 500 questions. Exploratory statistical analysis suggests that askers may increase answerability by including less speculative thought, more error messages, and less general situation information. To facilitate complete SQA documentation, the study calls for additional research into question content …

Full Issue

The Bridge

No abstract provided.

"Russian Overseas Flagship" И Языковая Ситуация В Казахстане, Элеонора Д. Сулейменова

Russian Language Journal

The image of Kazakhstan as a multilingual country is associated with the metonymic identification of its constituent ethnic groups and 117 local languages. The dynamics of the linguistic situation (1970-2019) indicate a strong tendency towards linguistic homogeneity. Ethnic groups at demographic risk, divorced from their historic homelands, are immersed in a rapid shift towards the Russian language. The demonstrated vitality of the languages of individual ethnic groups is related to the specifics of their respective proficiencies in Kazakh and Russian. Evidence of the emergence of a regional variant of the Russian language is cited and carefully reviewed, but found to …

Особенности Курса «Язык Научной Презентации», Сандугаш Сансызбаева

Russian Language Journal

The present study, Features of the Course ‘The Language of an Academic Presentation,’ reports on the results of an advanced two-semester course on public speaking and professional presentation skills for American undergraduates participating in the capstone Flagship Program at Al-Farabi Kazakh National University. The article describes the impact of this course on the development of student skills in the design, preparation and presentation of both academic and professional public presentations in Russian, including a focus on the use of culturally appropriate public speaking strategies and behaviors. The study is based on the experience of three years of practice in teaching …

Developing Level-3 Skills In A Multilingual Environment: The Russian Overseas Flagship Second Decade

Russian Language Journal

No abstract provided.

Using Accelerometer And Gyroscope Data In Common Mobile Devices To Assess Credibility, Joseph S. Valacich, Jeffrey L. Jenkins, Michael D. Byrd, David Kim, Manasvi Kumar, Parker A. Williams

Faculty Publications

An observational study examined the efficacy of using accelerometer and gyroscope (i.e., orientation) data from standard mobile devices to assess response credibility. Study participants played twenty rounds of a card game where they self-reported whether they won or lost each round. Participants received a base payment but could gain increased “bonus” payments by cheating. After the card game, participants were asked a “Yes-No” question whether they cheated while their orientation data was captured. We predicted that people concealing information about an adverse behavior (i.e., cheating), would result in differences in both absolute magnitude changes in acceleration and in rotation, as …

Too Busy To Be Manipulated: How Multitasking With Technology Improves Deception Detection In Collaborative Teamwork, Nathan W. Twyman, Jeffrey G. Proudfoot, Ann-Frances Cameron, Eric Case, Judee K. Burgoon, Douglas P. Twitchell

Faculty Publications

Deception is an unfortunate staple in group work. Guarding against team members’ deceptive tactics and alternative agendas is difficult and may seem even more difficult in technology-driven business environments that have made multitasking during teamwork increasingly commonplace. This research develops a foundation for a nuanced theoretical understanding of deception detection under these conditions. The intersection of information technology multitasking and deception detection theories is shown to produce various and sometimes competing ideas about how this type of multitasking might affect truthfulness assessments in real-time teamwork. A laboratory study involving a collaborative game helped evaluate the different ideas using manipulated deception …

Design Principles For Signal Detection In Modern Job Application Systems: Identifying Fabricated Qualifications, Nathan W. Twyman, Steven J. Pentland, Lee Spitzley

Faculty Publications

Hiring a new employee is traditionally thought to be an uncertain investment. This uncertainty is lessened by the presence of signals that indicate job fitness. Ideally, job applicants objectively signal their qualifications, and those signals are correctly assessed by the hiring team. In reality, signal manipulation is pervasive in the hiring process, mitigating the reliability of signals used to make hiring decisions. To combat these inefficiencies, we propose and evaluate SIGHT, a theoretical class of systems affording more robust signal evaluation during the job application process. A prototypical implementation of the SIGHT framework was evaluated using a mock-interview paradigm. Results …

Systematizing The Use Of The Aspectual Distinction By Level Of Proficiency: A Case Of Spanish As A Heritage Language, Earl K. Brown, Laura Valentin-Rivera

Faculty Publications

The language of early bilingual Spanish-English speakers in the United States is often distinct from that of monolingually raised native speakers of Spanish. This study analyzes the usage of the aspectual distinction in the past tense among 23 early Spanish-English bilingual speakers and 9 monolingually raised native speakers of Mexican Spanish. The participants engaged in a role-play in order to elicit a past-tense verbal form, either preterite or imperfect, for 15 test items. The results show that as level of proficiency in Spanish increases, the level of consensus with the responses of the monolingually raised native speakers of Spanish increases. …

On The Rhetorical Grotesque: A Mode For Strange Times, Richard Benjamin Crosby

Faculty Publications

This essay argues that the successful political careers of certain populist leaders rhetorically enact what scholars have long recognized in art, literature, and entertainment as the grotesque. The grotesque provides a theoretically rich means for describing the vulgar and chaotic public behaviors that take strong hold among anti-elite audiences at certain points in history. By closely reading comments from political leaders cast in the grotesque mold, including Silvio Berlusconi, Hugo Chavez, and Donald Trump, this essay explains not only what the grotesque is, but also when and how it is likely to find traction in a political culture ripe for …

Line, Please? An Analysis Of The Rehearsed Speech Characteristics Of Native Korean Speakers On The English Oral Proficiency Interview—Computer (Opic), Troy L. Cox, Gweneth Gates, Teresa Reber Bell, William Eggington

Faculty Publications

Two assumptions of speaking proficiency tests are that the speech produced is spontaneous and the the scores on those tests predict what examinees can do in real world communicative situations. Therefore, when examinees memorize scripts for their oral responses, the validity of the score interpretation is threatened. While the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) Proficiency Guidelines identify rehearsed content as a major hindrance to interviewees being rated above Novice High, many examinees still prepare for speaking tests by memorizing and rehearsing scripts hoping these "performances" are awarded higher scores. To investigate this phenomenon, researchers screened 300 …

Processing Adjunct Control: Evidence On The Use Of Structural Information And Prediction In Reference Resolution, Jeffrey Jack Green, Michael Mccourt, Ellen Lau, Alexander Williams

Faculty Publications

The comprehension of anaphoric relations may be guided not only by discourse, but also syntactic information. In the literature on online processing, however, the focus has been on audible pronouns and descriptions whose reference is resolved mainly on the former. This paper examines one relation that both lacks overt exponence, and relies almost exclusively on syntax for its resolution: adjunct control, or the dependency between the null subject of a non-finite adjunct and its antecedent in sentences such as Mickey talked to Minnie before ___ eating. Using visualworld eyetracking, we compare the timecourse of interpreting this null subject and overt …

Solving Russian Velars: Palatalization, The Lexicon And Gradient Contrast Utilization, Jeffrey R. Parker, Andrea D. Sims

Faculty Publications

The complexity of an inflection class system is the average extent to which elements in the system inhibit motivated inferences about the realization of lexemes’ paradigm cells. Research shows that systems tend to exhibit relatively low complexity in this sense. However, representations of inflectional systems tend to include only affixal and regular patterns, leaving questions about how irregular patterns and non-affixal ‘layers’ of inflectional exponence affect the complexity of a system. We address these questions by exploring four layers of inflectional exponence of Russian nouns, including irregular patterns within each layer. Our data show that the Russian noun system exhibits …

Reading Academic Citations: How Professors And Graduate Students Read For Different Purposes, Grant Eckstein, Sarah Miner, Katie Watkins, Judy James, Mornie Sims, Allison Wallace Baker, Larissa Grahl

Faculty Publications

Citations provide truncated yet socially complex information about sources in academic texts which students are obliged to read, comprehend, and then ultimately produce as part of an academic discourse community. While researchers have observed a developmental process whereby students produce citations during source-based writing, little work has investigated the reading stage when students visually encounter citations. In this study, we explored academic reading behaviors by examining eye movements of 27 graduate students and 18 professors as they read 6 authentic research texts for various purposes (summary, analysis, synthesis). Results of factorial ANOVAs showed no differences between students and professors but …

Why Is Bribery Pervasive Among Firms In Sub-Saharan African Countries? Multi-Industry Empirical Evidence Of Organizational Isomorphism, Nnaoke Ufere, James Gaskin, Sheri Perelli, Antoinette Somers, Richard Boland Jr.

Faculty Publications

Motivated by the prevalence and persistence of corruption in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) despite high-profile anticorruption efforts, and by calls for more research on unethical organizational behavior by firms in Africa, we investigated the link between bribery in 12 SSA countries and the phenomenon of organizational isomorphism, long used to explain legitimate, but rarely, illegitimate firm practices. Analysis of 5989 SSA firms in three distinct industries known for high levels of bribery reveals direct positive relationships between bribery and its perception as frequently practiced in specific industries (“mimetic isomorphic effect”); institutional constraints on businesses (“coercive isomorphic effect”); and local market rivalry …

A Note In Favor Of Rereading Great Works, Including The Scriptures, Daniel C. Peterson

Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship

When I was young, I learned an important lesson that has stayed with me through my life. This lesson has led me, on many occasions, to reread great works by great authors. The scriptures are no exceptions, and rereading them can be beneficial to any reader.

Full Issue

Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship

No abstract provided.

David O. Mckay And Progressive Education Implementation For The Sunday School, Mary Jane Woodger

Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

In 1897 David O. McKay graduated from the University of Utah with a Normal (Teaching) Certificate. He would become the first president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to have a college education and to have previously been a professional educator. This educational background would permeate every position McKay would hold in the hierarchy of the Church.

Teaching In The Savior’S Way: True Principles In Both Spiritual And Secular Learning, Damon L. Bahr

Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

While I was serving as a stake president in 2012, members of the coordinating council of which I was a member were assigned to teach the leadership of their respective stakes about the new Come, Follow Me youth curriculum, the first explicit, curriculum-based embodiment of Teaching in the Savior’s Way. In my preparations for fulfilling this assignment, I observed that teaching in his way is not just a teaching “method,” but rather a perspective on teaching and learning. I also noticed there were a number of similarities between teaching in the Savior’s way and the pedagogy I had been …

St. Roch Military Marches In Wallonia: Memory, Commemoration, And Identity, 1866-1940, Erik Hadley

Quidditas

Ritualized public processionals known as military saint marches thrive in popular memory and define local identity in Francophone Belgium (Wallonia). The annual processionals involve thousands of marchers dressed in Napoleonic-era military uniforms, carrying authentic muskets and escorting a statue of St. Roch, the patron saint of disease protection. Many of these marchers trace family participation through multiple generations and two St. Roch marches received UNESCO recognition as examples of “Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity” in 2012. While participants claim there is no historical rupture between the modern marches and the processionals celebrated prior to the French Revolution, there is a …

Managing Dynamic Written Corrective Feedback, Rachel Anna Messenger, Norman W. Evans, K. James Hartshorn

Journal of Response to Writing

Error correction for English language learners’ (ELL) writing has long been debated in the field of teaching English to speakers of other languages (TESOL). Some researchers say that marking all errors in students’ papers with written corrective feedback (WCF) is not manageable, while others think it is manageable. This study examines the manageability of the innovative dynamic written corrective feedback (DWCF) strategy, which has a more comprehensive approach to error feedback, and asks what factors influence the manageability of the strategy (including how long marking sessions take on average) and what suggestions experienced teachers who use DWCF have. The strategy …

«Человек» – Центральная Тема Языковой Подготовки На Продвинутом Уровне, Татьяна Пшенина

Russian Language Journal

As students progress from advanced to the professional level, it is critical that their control of speech acts increasingly approximates that of native speakers. The article The Person: A Central Theme in an Advanced Russian Language Course provides an example of one of the methodologies used in the Russian Overseas Flagship program for addressing these goals. Instructional units require student reflection and critical thinking (e.g. constructing of mental maps) to help them in expressing ideas and concepts in a way that meets the linguistic, socio-pragmatic and intercultural requirements of the range of personal and professional situations in which they find …

Maximizing Target Language Use Outside The Classroom: The Advanced-Level Student Of Russian As Digital Consumer, Alexander M. Groce

Russian Language Journal

The article examines recent trends in digital and social media consumption among domestic foreign language students and Russian Overseas Flagship students, analyzing a number of approaches for seeding Russian-language material within students’ everyday extracurricular digital practices. The goal of the project has been to encourage language learners to strengthen their own skills at identifying Russian media sources of personal or professional interest and incorporating habits of media consumption into their language-learning experience. The recommendations provided are informed by the results of a survey distributed among American students of Russian in Kazakhstan during the period from 2017 to 2019. The survey …

Full Issue

Russian Language Journal

No abstract provided.

Казахстанская Модель Академической Программы «Флагман», Людмила Екшембеева

Russian Language Journal

The article The Kazakhstan Model of the Russian Flagship Academic Program examines the current model of the Russian Flagship Capstone Program as implemented in Kazakhstan. This study analyzes the application of core principles of the Flagship overseas training model as well as necessary adaptations required by the distinctively multi-cultural environment of the host country. Among core adaptations, two new courses were introduced: Kazakh language and intercultural communications. In order to foster greater inclusion of capstone participants within the host culture, students are encouraged to study and reflect on both implicit and explicit meanings of the linguistic and cultural texts they …

“That Which They Most Desired”: The Waters Of Mormon, Baptism, The Love Of God, And The Bitter Fountain, Matthew L. Bowen

Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship

Paronomasia in the Hebrew text of Exodus creates narrative links between the name Miriam (Mary) and the “waters” (mayim) of the Re[e]d Sea from which Israel is “pulled” and the nearby “bitter” waters of Marah. Nephi sees Mary (Mariam), the mother of Jesus, associated with the “love of God,” and thus to both “the tree of life” and “the fountain of living waters” (1 Nephi 11:25) vis-à-vis “the fountain of filthy water” (1 Nephi 12:16). Mormon was named after “the land of Mormon” (3 Nephi 5:12). He associates his given name with “waters,” which he describes as a “fountain of …

Factors That Facilitate Or Impair Kinesic And Vocalic Nonverbal Behaviors During Interpersonal Deception, Judee K. Burgoon, Lauren M. Hamel, J. Pete Blair, Nathan W. Twyman

Faculty Publications

Nonverbal demeanor has long been thought to be a high-fidelity display window into a person’s inner self. At the same time, nonverbal behaviors are thought by laypeople to be reliable indicators of dissembling. In the realm of deception, both of those beliefs are true—and false. Humans can choose to reveal their personal identity, affiliations, attitudes, and behavioral inclinations through their nonverbal presentation of self. But, as the adaptive creatures that they are, humans also use their nonverbal actions to fabricate, conceal, and evade. In this respect, deception can disguise the true self and yet can also betray the truth. In …

Measuring Language Development Through Self-Assessment, Troy L. Cox, Dan Dewey

Faculty Publications

Talk to any cyclist or runner, and they can name instances when the universe seems to conspire against them with headwinds that hinder their progress. It is easy to identify and often blame external forces for causing us to fail. Conversely, we often attribute success to our own ability, being blissfully unaware of the tailwinds that assist us. This blindness to headwind/tailwind asymmetry (Davidai & Gilovich, 2016) in viewing one’s own performance is not limited solely to endurance athletes but can be found in other areas of self-assessment. Performance rarely occurs in a vacuum. There are typically external forces that …