Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Digital Commons Network™

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Brigham Young University

Discipline
Keyword
Publication Year
Publication
Publication Type
File Type

Articles 3121 - 3150 of 5550

Full-Text Articles in Entire DC Network

Having Fun While Speaking French: A Foreign Language Housing Case Study, Donna Lee Andrus Jul 2012

Having Fun While Speaking French: A Foreign Language Housing Case Study, Donna Lee Andrus

Theses and Dissertations

As the need for foreign language education increases, various types of immersion programs are on the rise within the United States. This study presents foreign language housing as an under-researched type of immersion program that can be a valuable component of university language departments. Using the framework of situated learning and communities of practice, this study provides an in-depth look at lower proficiency (LP) student perspectives and experiences within Brigham Young University's French House. Data were collected through a preliminary questionnaire, a semester-long period of observations, and multiple interviews with select participants. A comparison of all three sources revealed that …

Go to article

Using Language Corpora To Enhance Grammatical Proficiency In Chinese, Hsiao-Chien Chen Jul 2012

Using Language Corpora To Enhance Grammatical Proficiency In Chinese, Hsiao-Chien Chen

Theses and Dissertations

School curriculum and pedagogy change over time and are affected by changes in technology. One little used technology in foreign language classrooms is the electronic language corpus. In corpus-based linguistics, language corpora are often used as tools to analyze and observe various language features, including discourse, pragmatics, and syntax. However, language corpora can also act as a tool to assist language teachers by providing greater exposure to features of the language. Using language corpora is especially helpful in exposing learners to so-called authentic language used in a target language culture. Moreover, students can gradually enhance their language proficiency by using …

Go to article

Courtroom Discourse As Verbal Performance: Describing The Unique Sociolinguistic Situation Of The American Trial Courtroom, Seth William Wood Jul 2012

Courtroom Discourse As Verbal Performance: Describing The Unique Sociolinguistic Situation Of The American Trial Courtroom, Seth William Wood

Theses and Dissertations

Individual events within courtroom discourse, such as lawyer-witness interactions have been studied extensively, particularly within a framework of powerful vs. powerless language (Adelsward, 1987; Archer, 2006; Bogoch, 2000; Eades, 2010; Fuller, 1993; Gnisci & Bakeman, 2007; Hobbs, 2007; Keating, 2009; Penman, 1990; Philips, 1984; Roberts, 1990). However, this thesis will show that courtroom discourse is sufficiently unique to warrant a distinct framework. It will also explore the explanatory power of a Courtroom Discourse Verbal Performance framework influenced by Verbal Art as Performance (Bauman, 1977). In particular this work will create a framework (Courtroom Discourse Verbal Performance) that explains the sociolinguistic …

Go to article

The Correlation Of Arab Ells' Academic Reading Fluency In Arabic And English, Jonathon C. Mccollum Jul 2012

The Correlation Of Arab Ells' Academic Reading Fluency In Arabic And English, Jonathon C. Mccollum

Theses and Dissertations

Educational and economic developments in the Persian Gulf have increased the need for academic English reading fluency in the rising generation of college-bound students. A discussion of the literature on the linguistic properties of Arabic diglossia and orthography affirms the challenge that Arabs confront in L1 literacy. Because of the difficulties encountered in Arabic literacy, the transfer of L1 skills to L2 emerges as a salient issue for English instruction in the Arab world. The following study of Arab ELLs' academic reading fluency in Arabic and English investigates a hypothesized positive correlation between L1 and L2 reading abilities. Quantitative and …

Go to article

Who Wrote Bacon? Assessing The Respective Roles Of Francis Bacon And His Secretaries In The Production Of His English Works, Noel B. Reynolds, G. Bruce Schaalje, John M. Hilton Jul 2012

Who Wrote Bacon? Assessing The Respective Roles Of Francis Bacon And His Secretaries In The Production Of His English Works, Noel B. Reynolds, G. Bruce Schaalje, John M. Hilton

Faculty Publications

In an earlier study that identified previously unrecognized writings of the young 15 Thomas Hobbes, questions were raised about the authorship of some of Francis Bacon’s published works. This article reports a follow-up study in which two independent statistical analyses of Bacon’s English works both conclude that, whereas Bacon’s autographic writings show clearly that they are authored by the same person; almost none of his published works can be matched statistically 20 with the autographs. The most likely explanation for this dramatic finding is that Bacon’s well-known reliance on secretaries may have been sufficiently extensive that his writing patterns are …

Go to article

Students' Perspectives On Language Use Outside The Classroom In An Intensive English Program, Elena Vladimirovna Shvidko Jul 2012

Students' Perspectives On Language Use Outside The Classroom In An Intensive English Program, Elena Vladimirovna Shvidko

Theses and Dissertations

The purposes of this study were to 1) explore student attitudes toward the English-only environment in an intensive English program, and 2) find factors that either promote or inhibit students' desire to use English in their communication with compatriots in school. Qualitative research methods employed were a) a student questionnaire (with a total of 158 participants), b) semi-structured interviews with students (total 6 participants), and c) four student focus groups (with a total of 62 participants). The study was conducted at the English Language Center (ELC) at Brigham Young University. The participants were students of four native language groups (Spanish, …

Go to article

Fluency Features And Elicited Imitation As Oral Proficiency Measurement, Carl V. Christensen Jul 2012

Fluency Features And Elicited Imitation As Oral Proficiency Measurement, Carl V. Christensen

Theses and Dissertations

The objective and automatic grading of oral language tests has been the subject of significant research in recent years. Several obstacles lie in the way of achieving this goal. Recent work has suggested a testing technique called elicited imitation (EI) can be used to accurately approximate global oral proficiency. This testing methodology, however, does not incorporate some fundamental aspects of language such as fluency. Other work has suggested another testing technique, simulated speech (SS), as a supplement to EI that can provide automated fluency metrics. In this work, I investigate a combination of fluency features extracted for SS testing and …

Go to article

The Effect Of Repeated Reading Aloud On The Speaking Fluency Of Russian Language Learners, Evgenia Nikolayevna Stroh Jul 2012

The Effect Of Repeated Reading Aloud On The Speaking Fluency Of Russian Language Learners, Evgenia Nikolayevna Stroh

Theses and Dissertations

The current study examines the effect of repeated reading aloud upon speaking fluency. Because there is little evidence in the literature that the practice of repeated reading aloud can have a positive effect upon speaking fluency, the primary goal of this study was to investigate this relationship further. For the purposes of the study, speaking fluency was defined as fluidity and smoothness of speech with little pausing and hesitation. It is measured by evaluating the following fluency features: speech rate, number of pauses, length of pauses, phonation/time ratio, and articulation rate. The repeated measures experimental design of the study involved …

Go to article

Gay Marriage In The Utah And California Media: A Content Analysis Of Newspaper Frames Used In The Coverage Of Proposition 8, Michael Todd Hollingshead Jul 2012

Gay Marriage In The Utah And California Media: A Content Analysis Of Newspaper Frames Used In The Coverage Of Proposition 8, Michael Todd Hollingshead

Theses and Dissertations

This study is a content analysis of news frames used in the coverage of Proposition 8 by newspapers in Utah and California, spanning the three months prior to its passage in November 2008, to the three months after its passage. A total of 401 news stories from five newspapers were analyzed to examine which of five news frames (attribution of responsibility, human interest, conflict, morality, and economic consequence) were used most predominantly and if the use of those frames varied by newspaper. Conflict was the most predominantly used frame, followed by attribution of responsibility, morality, economic consequence and human interest. …

Go to article

Implementation And Evaluation Of Curricular Changes In The Undergraduate Tesol Internship Program At Brigham Young University, Lydia Ripplinger Jul 2012

Implementation And Evaluation Of Curricular Changes In The Undergraduate Tesol Internship Program At Brigham Young University, Lydia Ripplinger

Theses and Dissertations

This MA project consists of the implementation and evaluation of the effectiveness of intended improvements to the TESOL minor internship program at Brigham Young University (BYU). The majority of changes implemented and evaluated in this study were suggested by Marisa Ontiveros in her 2010 MA thesis, An Evaluation of the Learning Outcomes and Curricular Organization of the Brigham Young University Undergraduate TESOL Internships Course. The present report summarizes relevant literature that led to the current project, including a discussion of the importance of internships in general, information regarding the significance of TESOL internships, and a summary of the BYU …

Go to article

Pedagogical Exchange In A Common Digital Space, Paul Lane Sebastian Jul 2012

Pedagogical Exchange In A Common Digital Space, Paul Lane Sebastian

Theses and Dissertations

Language acquisition in the digital realm is currently being explored by members of the second language acquisition community. Social networks in particular are well suited to provide the modern language learner and educator with collaborative tools. This study explores the potential of the Facebook group utility in assisting university language learners from a variety of language proficiency levels in their language learning endeavors. Participants represented four different Spanish classes at the university level. The results of the study indicate that resource sharing, student collaboration, and continuous learning are among the more fascinating benefits for pedagogical exchange in the selected common …

Go to article

Healing The Cartesian Split: Understanding And Renewing Pathos In Academic Writing, Travis Washburn Jul 2012

Healing The Cartesian Split: Understanding And Renewing Pathos In Academic Writing, Travis Washburn

Theses and Dissertations

There have always been rogues who dared to go against the traditional "intellectual" writing style of science and academia, a style that seems bent on transcending the "merely personal." Those who take this risk are embracing the rhetorical tradition of pathos, one that goes as far back as Aristotle. Current academic trends support a genre devoid of pathos and lacking true ethos—a deviation from classic rhetoric, and one that supports the Cartesian split of mind-body dualism. Neurological studies done by Antonio Damasio and others suggest that a holistic view is a more accurate picture of how a human soul functions. …

Go to article

Operationalizing Expert Knowledge And Stakeholder Preferences In Integrated Natural Hazard Risk Assessment, Sebastian Scheuer, Dagmar Haase Jul 2012

Operationalizing Expert Knowledge And Stakeholder Preferences In Integrated Natural Hazard Risk Assessment, Sebastian Scheuer, Dagmar Haase

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Integrated natural hazard risk assessment aims at capturing the impacts and diverse consequences of natural hazards on different types of elements at risk (i.e. evaluation criteria). Typically, a risk assessor selects such evaluation criteria relying on expert knowledge. Moreover, legal frameworks, best-practice guidelines as well as manifold requirements by stakeholders should be considered in the assessment process. This is also true for risk mapping. In order to provide useful deliverables for stakeholders, their preferences in regard to content and visualization have to be borne in mind. Developing tools to assist risk assessment may focus on some or all of these …

Go to article

End Matter, Religious Educator Jul 2012

End Matter, Religious Educator

Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

No abstract provided.

Go to article

Modelling And Simulating Social Vulnerability Under The Influence Of Climate Change In The Cordillera Blanca (Peru), Thaís López-Inojosa, Martina Neuburger, Sebastian Medina-Plascencia Jul 2012

Modelling And Simulating Social Vulnerability Under The Influence Of Climate Change In The Cordillera Blanca (Peru), Thaís López-Inojosa, Martina Neuburger, Sebastian Medina-Plascencia

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

The objective of this research is to develop and simulate a model of theecosocial concept of populations’ vulnerability under the impact of environmentalchange in the Peruvian Cordillera Blanca, through a social vulnerability indicator.Numerous studies provide evidence for the impact of climate change on nature,water scarcity, and social problems; people living near glaciers are particularlyaffected by these natural hazards. The Peruvian Cordillera Blanca, an area withone fourth of the world’s tropical glaciers and its population are highly at risk. Theapplications of fuzzy algorithms to research works in this area, and even more tosocial and ecological aspects, is a new approach to …

Go to article

Eldewas - Online Early Warning System For Landslide Detection By Means Of Dynamic Weather Nowcasts And Knowledge Based Assessment, O. Krol, T. Bernard Jul 2012

Eldewas - Online Early Warning System For Landslide Detection By Means Of Dynamic Weather Nowcasts And Knowledge Based Assessment, O. Krol, T. Bernard

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

In many alpine and low mountain regions landslide events occur more frequently during the last years induced by a growing number of hazards. Since these events often cause high material damage with corresponding costs and/or even personal injury, there is an increasing demand of early warning systems in order to minimize the impact of the events. Currently static hazard index maps are used which indicate areas with a high disposition for landslide. These hazard index maps are derived from information about slope, land use, geotechnical structure, etc. Depending on crisp criteria (e.g. threshold parameters) several disposition classes are derived. Since …

Go to article

Agent-Based Simulation Of Stakeholders' Negotiation Regarding Land Development Scenarios Using A Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process, Majeed Pooyandeh, Danielle J. Marceau Jul 2012

Agent-Based Simulation Of Stakeholders' Negotiation Regarding Land Development Scenarios Using A Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process, Majeed Pooyandeh, Danielle J. Marceau

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

This paper describes an agent-based model (ABM) that was developed to simulate the negotiation process of stakeholders over different land development scenarios in the Elbow River watershed in southern Alberta, an area subject to considerable urbanization pressure due to its proximity to the fast growing City of Calgary. In this initial phase of development, the stakeholders represented as agents include representatives of a Municipal District and two non-profit organizations. The modeling framework contains three main components: a web interface designed to facilitate the interactions of the users with the system, a PostgreSQL database in which data regarding the stakeholders’ preferences …

Go to article

Towards Integrated Model Building With Semantically Annotated Components, Oliver Schmitz, D. Karssenberg, Jean-Luc De Kok Jul 2012

Towards Integrated Model Building With Semantically Annotated Components, Oliver Schmitz, D. Karssenberg, Jean-Luc De Kok

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Integrated models are valuable tools for research and decision support as they allow a comprehensive analysis of environmental systems. Component–based software frameworks aid in their development by a more straightforward construction and coupling of generic components. Formal descriptions of model components and their relationships by means of ontologies ease the clarification of the embedded knowledge. However, existing approaches do not adequately cover the development and assessment phases of integrated models. Here, we define invariant characteristics of process–based spatio– temporal systems and introduce an ontology to semantically describe model components and their interactions. We address the role of the ontology during …

Go to article

Automatic Runoff Coefficient Estimation For Urban Drainage Modeling Using Google Maps Information And Fuzzy Classification., Neiler Medina, Arlex Sanchez, Zoran Vojinovic Jul 2012

Automatic Runoff Coefficient Estimation For Urban Drainage Modeling Using Google Maps Information And Fuzzy Classification., Neiler Medina, Arlex Sanchez, Zoran Vojinovic

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

In the process of designing sewer and stormwater systems, there are numerousrepetitive tasks that require not only substantial time for their execution but alsothey are very much dependent on judgment and experience of the designengineer. Such examples are catchment delineation, identification of runoffcoefficients and definition of dry and wet weather flow parameters. Dealing withsuch aspects in real-life projects can sometimes be very time consuming andconsequently the time left for the design work may be limited. The present paperprovides contribution in this direction by evaluating the possibility for using highresolutionsatellite imagery data from Google Maps in an automated fashion. Thepaper describes …

Go to article

System Dynamic Modelling For Conflicts Analysis In Groundwater Management, R. Giordano, Marcela Brugnach, Michele Vurro Jul 2012

System Dynamic Modelling For Conflicts Analysis In Groundwater Management, R. Giordano, Marcela Brugnach, Michele Vurro

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

In most Mediterranean countries groundwater is the primary sources for irrigation. Nowadays, water scarcity is a limiting factor for sustainable growth. Designing and implementing effective groundwater protection policies is of outmost importance. Many times the best efforts to solve water management problem actually make it worse due to unanticipated side effects. Avoiding policy resistance requires to expand the boundaries of the system model, so that to incorporate the different actors and their problem definitions. Ambiguity is considered in this work as a distinct type of uncertainty that results from the simultaneous presence of multiple valid and sometimes conflicting ways of …

Go to article

Using A Fuzzy-Logic Approach To Model A Reservoir And Transfer System Under Climate Change Conditions, Josef Schmid, Ralf Ludwig, Markus Muerth Jul 2012

Using A Fuzzy-Logic Approach To Model A Reservoir And Transfer System Under Climate Change Conditions, Josef Schmid, Ralf Ludwig, Markus Muerth

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Embedded in an international project, a management model is developed for assessing climate change impacts on the Water Transfer System in Franconia, Germany. Based on expert knowledge, standard rules operating this system are defined and implemented in a fuzzy-based modelling system. Demands of stakeholders are identified as being core functionalities in the model. First climate change impact assessments were done, driving the management model with outputs from a hydrological model forced by dynamical climate model data

Go to article

Communicating River Level Data And Information To Stakeholders With Different Interests: The Participative Development Of An Interactive Online Service, Kit (C. J. A) Macleod, Somayajulu G. Sripada, Antonio A. R. Ioris, Koen Arts, René Van Der Wal Jul 2012

Communicating River Level Data And Information To Stakeholders With Different Interests: The Participative Development Of An Interactive Online Service, Kit (C. J. A) Macleod, Somayajulu G. Sripada, Antonio A. R. Ioris, Koen Arts, René Van Der Wal

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Increasing the effectiveness of how river level data are communicated to a range of stakeholders (individuals, groups and communities) with an interest in river level information is likely to result in greater use of data collected by regulatory agencies. A range of interest groups, like those involved in recreational pursuits such as angling and canoeing, require certain but different information on changes in river levels state to allow effective scheduling of their activities. A range of options have been developed for communicating river level data to different audiences, but those fail to address group heterogeneity and information demands. To a …

Go to article

Faith As A Holy Embrace, Duane Boyce Jul 2012

Faith As A Holy Embrace, Duane Boyce

Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

No abstract provided.

Go to article

Reliability Of The Mean Length Of Utterance Measure In Samples Of Children's Language, Katherine Marie Bigelow Jun 2012

Reliability Of The Mean Length Of Utterance Measure In Samples Of Children's Language, Katherine Marie Bigelow

Theses and Dissertations

Mean length of utterance (MLU) is widely used in child language sample analysis as a way to quantify language development. The current study examines the split-half reliability of MLU and two alternative measures: MLU2 and median length of utterance (MdLU). The effects of utterance segmentation into phonological units (P-units) or communication units (C-units) on reliability were also studied. Sixty conversational child language samples were used which included ten children with language impairment. All measures were found to have high levels of split-half reliability, with MLU and MLU2 having higher levels of reliability than MdLU. There was no significant difference between …

Go to article

Evaluation In Computer-Assisted Language Learning, Benjamin L. Mcmurry Jun 2012

Evaluation In Computer-Assisted Language Learning, Benjamin L. Mcmurry

Theses and Dissertations

Evaluation of Computer-assisted language learning (CALL) needs to be scrutinized according to the same standards of evaluation as other professional materials. Evaluation can be divided into two distinct, yet similar, categories: formal (following a prescribed evaluation model) and informal. The aim of this dissertation is two-fold. The first purpose is to benefit the field of CALL by situating CALL evaluation in the context of frameworks used formal evaluation. The second purpose is to discover informal evaluation practices of CALL practitioners. First, with regard to formal evaluation of CALL materials, practices and insights from the field of evaluation would help CALL …

Go to article

The Development Of Two Units For Basic Training And Resources For Teaching English To Speakers Of Other Languages: "Working Successfully With Young Learners" And "Working Successfully With Very Young Learners", Heidi Healy Jun 2012

The Development Of Two Units For Basic Training And Resources For Teaching English To Speakers Of Other Languages: "Working Successfully With Young Learners" And "Working Successfully With Very Young Learners", Heidi Healy

Theses and Dissertations

Many thousands of people with varying degrees of preparation teach English as a second or foreign language to many millions of people around the world. Some of these teachers are novice, volunteer teachers, who have not received any professional-level training. These novice teachers help to meet the demand for English teachers by often teaching for little remuneration or in non-ideal teaching conditions. These teachers can benefit from receiving training in how to teach English as a foreign language. Basic Training and Resources for Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (BTRTESOL) is a program that is being created to provide …

Go to article

Improving Student Engagement: An Evaluation Of The Latinos In Action Program, Jose Elder Enriquez Jun 2012

Improving Student Engagement: An Evaluation Of The Latinos In Action Program, Jose Elder Enriquez

Theses and Dissertations

Hispanic students make up 12% of the enrollment in Utah elementary and secondary schools but only 3.4% of the enrollment at Utah's colleges and universities, according to Alemán and Rorrer (2006). The intervention Latinos in Action (LIA) seeks to increase high school completion and college graduation rates among emergent bilingual Latinos by involving them as paraprofessional literacy tutors for younger Spanish-speaking students. This dissertation, written in article-ready style, reports on two studies of the program. Study 1, a survey of 128 high school students, found that those involved in the service and literacy program scored higher than their bilingual Latino …

Go to article

The Development Of Interactive Technology For Conveying Symbols, Signs, And Meaning For Beginning Learners Of Arabic, Samuel Joseph Chester Smith Jun 2012

The Development Of Interactive Technology For Conveying Symbols, Signs, And Meaning For Beginning Learners Of Arabic, Samuel Joseph Chester Smith

Theses and Dissertations

This study explored how a computer-assisted second-language instructional method introduced basic Arabic vocabulary and grammar and affected vocabulary acquisition. This instructional method used audio, text and animated images to introduce the vocabulary and grammar in a meaningful step-by-step presentation. Volunteers from Brigham Young University and Brigham Young University-Idaho were randomly assigned to either a control group or an experimental group to participate in interactive Arabic language computer programs. The control group received Arabic instruction by means of computerized flashcards, while the experimental group received Arabic instruction by means of animated images. Following the treatment, the volunteers completed an online posttest …

Go to article

Nothing To Be Done: The Active Function Of Samuel Beckett's Text, Deleah Vaye Emery Waters Silva Jun 2012

Nothing To Be Done: The Active Function Of Samuel Beckett's Text, Deleah Vaye Emery Waters Silva

Theses and Dissertations

Fintan O'Toole states: "Plays survive not by being carefully preserved, not by being exhibited from time to time in theatrical museums, but by being tried and tested, taken apart and reassembled" (Game Without End).One of the great misconceptions and critiques of Samuel Beckett is of his presumed unrelenting control over his works. Artists, hoping to creatively collaborate with Beckett as they move his texts to performance, feel limited by his strict enforcement of that which he has written in his texts. Traditional relationships and functions allow directors to interpret an author's text. Not so with Beckett. Beckett demands …

Go to article

Explicitly Teaching Multiple Modes Of Representation In Science Discourse: The Impact On Middle School Science Student Learning, Ryan Nixon Jun 2012

Explicitly Teaching Multiple Modes Of Representation In Science Discourse: The Impact On Middle School Science Student Learning, Ryan Nixon

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of explicitly teaching multiple modes of representation (MMR) on middle school students' understanding of science content and their use of MMR on a science unit test. Participants in this quasi-experimental study were seventh- and eighth-grade students enrolled in science courses taught by three different middle school science teachers. Half of the students received explicit instruction in MMR in addition to their regular science instruction; the other half received only regular science instruction. Ordinary least squares multiple regression analysis was used to determine the relationship between gain scores on unit assessments, …

Go to article

First Prev Next Last