Digital Commons Network^™

Methods Of Scoring Elicited Imitation Items: An Empirical Study, Deryle W. Lonsdale, Dan P. Dewey, Jeremiah Lane Mcghee, Aaron Johnson, Ross Hendrickson

Faculty Publications

NNS oral proficiency test for English

NNS listen to, repeat back isolated English sentences (60/test)

Responses are recorded and scored later by human evaluators

Rationale: subjects can’t process linguistic vocabulary, structures they don’t know yet

Social Or Academic Language Intervention? You Don’T Have To Choose, Lee Robinson

Faculty Publications

Students with a variety of types of language impairments exhibit deficits that affect both social interactions and academic performance. Two types of theory of mind underlie social and academic language skills: interpersonal and intrapersonal. In this article, the authors describe strategies for developing interpersonal and intrapersonal theory of mind abilities with the goal of promoting the inferencing skills essential for comprehension of social and academic language.

To Give Is Better Than To Receive: The Benefits Of Peer Review To The Reviewer’S Own Writing, Wendy Baker, Kristi Lundstrom

Faculty Publications

Although peer review has been shown to be beneficial in many writing classrooms, the benefits of peer review to the reviewer, or the student giving feedback, has not been thoroughly investigated in second-language writing research. The purpose of this study is to determine which is more beneficial to improving student writing: giving or receiving peer feedback. The study was conducted at an intensive English institute with ninety-one students in nine writing classes at two proficiency levels. The ‘‘givers’’ reviewed anonymous papers but received no peer feedback over the course of the semester, while the ‘‘receivers’’ received feedback but did not …

Dialect Identification: The Effects Of Religion Of Origin And Amount Of Experience, Wendy Baker-Smemoe, David Eddington, Lyndsey Nay

Faculty Publications

This study examines whether two factors, region of origin (i.e., being from either Utah, Western states, or non-Western states) and amount of experience for those not native to Utah (having less than one, more than one but less than five, or over five years living in Utah), influence how well listeners are able to distinguish between Utah and non-Utah speakers and what phonetic characteristics they use to do so. The results suggest that the more similar the listener’s dialect is to Utah English, the better his or her ability to identify Utah speakers. Moreover, it was found that listeners from …

Laryngeal Level Amplitude Modulation In Vibrato, Christopher Dromey, Lorie Reese, J. Arden Hopkin

Faculty Publications

Objectives: The goal of this investigation was to test a new methodology for measuring amplitude modulation (AM) at the level of the vocal folds during vibrato in trained singers, because previous research has suggested that AM arises in large part as an acoustic epiphenomenon through an interaction of the harmonics in the laryngeal source with the resonances of the vocal tract as the fundamental frequency oscillates.
Study Design: A within-subjects model was used to compare vocal activity across three pitch and three loudness conditions.
Methods: Seventeen female singers with a range of training and experience were recorded with a microphone …

Intra-Speaker Variability In Palatometric Measures Of Consonant Articulation, Christopher Dromey, Marybeth Sanders

Faculty Publications

Electropalatometry is a useful clinical and research tool for measuring linguapalatal contact. The goal of this study was to examine intra-speaker variability in performance. Twenty individuals spoke VCV nonsense words using a schwa in the initial position, the 15 palatal consonants, and three corner vowels, /ɑ/, /i/, /u/. A variability index was created to examine speaker consistency.
Different aspects of articulation (i.e. place, manner, voicing, coarticulation) were compared. Significant differences for variability were found for place of articulation in the /i/ vowel context and for manner of articulation in the /ɑ/ vowel context. Also for the /ɑ/ vowel, significant differences …

The Relationship Between Nonword Repetition Performance And Social Behaviors In 7- To 11-Year-Old Children With Language Impairment, Bethany Lynne Hillary

Theses and Dissertations

Recent literature has suggested a link between verbal working memory and language impairment (LI) in children. There is limited research, however, about the link between verbal working memory and social behaviors in children with LI. This study was designed to explore the relationship between social behaviors (measured by the Teacher Behavior Rating Scale; Hart & Robinson, 1996) and verbal working memory abilities (measured by a 3-, 4-, and 5-syllable nonword repetition task) in children with LI. Thirty-six children (18 with LI and 18 typically developing) aged 7 to 11 years participated in the study. Children with LI were rated by …

Developing Writing Fluency Through Synchronous Computer-Mediated Communication, Rossana Camacho

Theses and Dissertations

Drawing from sociocultural theory, this research investigated the effects of synchronous computer-mediated communication (SCMC) in the development of writing fluency. Likewise, the study aimed at confirming previously cited affective benefits linked to SCMC. Measuring fluency in words per 30 minutes, the study compared pre and post-test essay scores of two groups of ESL learners (a control group and a SCMC group) in two intermediate levels. Two evaluation questionnaires were also administered to the SCMC group in order to obtain students' opinions of this technology-based medium, and to analyze change in their perceptions. The SCMC group outperformed the control group in …

Ontology Generation, Information Harvesting And Semantic Annotation For Machine-Generated Web Pages, Cui Tao

Theses and Dissertations

The current World Wide Web is a web of pages. Users have to guess possible keywords that might lead through search engines to the pages that contain information of interest and browse hundreds or even thousands of the returned pages in order to obtain what they want. This frustrating problem motivates an approach to turn the web of pages into a web of knowledge, so that web users can query the information of interest directly. This dissertation provides a step in this direction and a way to partially overcome the challenges. Specifically, this dissertation shows how to turn machine-generated web …

Nowhere To Hide: Finding Plagiarized Documents Based On Sentence Similarity, Nathaniel Gustafson, Yiu-Kai D. Ng, Maria Soledad Pera

Faculty Publications

Plagiarism is a serious problem that infringes copyrighted documents/materials, which is an unethical practice and decreases the economic incentive received by authors (owners) of the original copies. Unfortunately, plagiarism is getting worse due to the increasing number of online publications on the Web, which facilitates locating and paraphrasing information. In solving this problem, we propose a novel plagiarism-detection method, called SimPaD, which (i) establishes the degree of resemblance between any two documents D1 and D2 based on their sentence-to-sentence similarity computed by using pre-defined word-correlation factors, and (ii) generates a graphical view of sentences that are similar (or the same) …

A Population Genetic Study Of Middle Eastern Populations Using Dys 458 Microvariants And Cohen Modal Haplotypes, Enass Nabeel Tinah

Theses and Dissertations

A comprehensive population study in the Middle East was conducted using different genetic markers in order to establish a wider genetic profile of the Middle Eastern populations. The main goal of this study was to analyze DNA from samples collected from different locations, and produce genetic motifs and patterns that could be used to identify and distinguish the target populations. This information will allow us to analyze the ancestry of these populations, their interactions through time and space, and the effects these interactions have on the populations' structure. We have collected around 1300 individual samples from different populations in the …

The Ability Of Children With Language Impairment To Understand Emotion Conveyed By Prosody In A Narrative Passage, Chelsea Celeste Voorhees

Theses and Dissertations

Several recent studies indicate that children with Language Impairment (LI) have difficulty recognizing and inferring meaning from emotional prosody. The present study is a replication investigating the ability of children with LI to recognize emotion conveyed by prosody in an orally presented narrative passage. Twenty-two children with LI and twenty-two age matched peers ranging from age 7;0 to 10;11 (M= 9.11, SD= 2.54) were selected to participate. Participants listened to recordings of a seven sentence passage read by actors to express happiness, anger, sadness, and fear. The children's task was to identify which emotion the speaker portrayed. Scores obtained from …

Value Conflicts In Psychotherapy: Psychology Graduates' Perspectives, Shannon Vincent Wilde

Theses and Dissertations

Although psychotherapy has been viewed historically as value-neutral, developments over the last half-century have led to the generally accepted position that values are inescapable in therapy. However, many questions remain as to how values should be managed in psychotherapy in order to protect client autonomy. These issues are of particular concern to training programs, which bear the responsibility of instructing new psychologists in ethical values management and of helping trainees manage personal values when those values are in conflict with those of their clients or with the values of the field in general. One aspect that has not previously been …

Altered States Of Style: The Drug-Induced Development Of Jack Kerouac's Spontaneous Prose, Eric M. Izant

Theses and Dissertations

Jack Kerouac's spontaneous prose method was inspired in part by his use of drugs while writing. While there is abundant biographical evidence that Kerouac used drugs frequently, little attention has been paid to their effects on the development of his style. This thesis attempts to demonstrate that the altered states of consciousness produced by Kerouac's drug use should be considered in conjunction with historical, cultural, and biographical forces in tracing the evolution of Kerouac's creative growth. As a member of the Beat Generation, Kerouac used drugs both as a social statement of rebellion and for artistic insight. In fact, he …

Marital Problems And Marital Satisfaction: An Examination Of A Brazilian Sample, Nalu De Araujo Nunes

Theses and Dissertations

The objective of this study is to examine the types of problems faced by Brazilian couples in the sample, the gender differences in the perception of marital problems, and the associations between marital problems and marital satisfaction. The sample used in this study was part of the third wave of data collection of a longitudinal study of 126 families living in Porto Alegre, a city in southern Brazil. The RDAS was the instrument used to assess marital satisfaction. Marital problems were identified by asking participants to check the problems they perceive in their marriage from a list of common marital …

Psychometrically Equivalent Thai Monosyllabic Word Recognition Materials Spoken By Male And Female Talkers, Chela Williams

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to develop, digitally record, evaluate, and psychometrically equate a set of Thai monosyllabic word lists to use in the measurement of word recognition ability. A native male and female talker from Thailand, who were judged to have a standard Thai dialect, participated as talkers in digitally recording familiar Thai monosyllabic words. Twenty native Thai participants were used as subjects to determine the percentage of correct word recognition for each word at 10 intensity levels ranging from --5 to 40 dB HL in 5 dB increments. The 200 words with the highest raw scores were …

The Relationship Among Emotion Understanding, Language, And Social Behavior In Children With Language Impairment, Lara Lynn Goldie

Theses and Dissertations

This study examines the influence of emotion understanding, language, and working memory on reticence and prosocial behavior in children with language impairment (LI). The Comprehensive Assessment of Spoken Language (CASL; Carrow-Woolfolk, 1999) and The Universal Nonverbal Intelligence Test (UNIT; Bracken & McCallum, 2003) were administered to 39 children with LI and 39 typical age-matched peers. A nonword repetition task and two tasks measuring emotion understanding were also administered. Each of the participant's classroom teachers completed The Teacher Behavioral Rating Scale (TBRS; Hart & Robinson, 1996). Structural equation modeling was used to estimate models of the data using a maximum likelihood …

An Investigation Of The Technological, Pedagogical And Content Knowledge Framework In Successful Chinese Language Classrooms, Su-Ling Hsueh

Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative case study investigates whether technological, pedagogical and content knowledge (TPCK) is balanced and integrated in Chinese language classrooms. Three expert Chinese teachers in technology-enhanced classrooms, as well as their students, were observed and studied. Four and a half months of data were collected in the form of classroom observations, interviews, reflective journals, and document analysis. Four basic findings were derived from the study. First, the TPCK framework reflected an observable instructional process for communication between teachers and students. However, teachers did not knowingly integrate technology, pedagogy and content in technology-enhanced classrooms. Second, content was the focal point during …

Effects Of Lexical Simplification And Elaboration On Esl Readers' Local-Level Perceived Comprehension, Beth Ann Brewer

Theses and Dissertations

This study examines the effects of single word modification on the perceived comprehension of individual sentences. A test was created by randomly selecting sentences from a college level American history textbook. Each sentence was analyzed using Nation's Range program, and the lowest frequency verbs were selected for modification. Each target verb was simplified (replaced with a higher frequency equivalent) or elaborated (left in the sentence, but followed by a parenthetical definition). Subjects received both treatment types and unmodified control items in a fifty-sentence test. Each sentence was rated by the subjects, as it was read, according to the amount of …

The Effects Of Homography On Computer-Generated High Frequency Word Lists, Athelia Graham

Theses and Dissertations

This study investigated the significance of semantics in computer-generated word frequency counts in response to a call for new word lists (Read, 2000; Gardner, 2007). Read claims that no corpus projects to date have produced any "definitive, stand-alone word-frequency lists" (p. 226). Many researchers are wary of the fact that the concept of a word is never clearly defined in most studies that have dealt with word frequency counts. It is clear from the research that one universally acceptable construct for the concept of word does not exist. In fact, many past word frequency counts only examine word forms without …

An Analysis Of Document Retrieval And Clustering Using An Effective Semantic Distance Measure, Nathan Scott Davis

Theses and Dissertations

As large amounts of digital information become more and more accessible, the ability to effectively find relevant information is increasingly important. Search engines have historically performed well at finding relevant information by relying primarily on lexical and word based measures. Similarly, standard approaches to organizing and categorizing large amounts of textual information have previously relied on lexical and word based measures to perform grouping or classification tasks. Quite often, however, these processes take place without respect to semantics, or word meanings. This is perhaps due to the fact that the idea of meaningful similarity is naturally qualitative, and thus difficult …

The Influence Of Production Accuracy On Suprasegmental Listening Comprehension, Adriana Romanini

Theses and Dissertations

One of the major questions in second language (L2) phonological learning is whether perception precedes (and therefore guides) production. This question is important for knowing what types of training most benefit L2 learners. While most theories assume that perception always precedes production (e.g., Best, 1995; Flege, 1995), several recent studies have found that production may precede perception (e.g., Baker & Trofimovich, 2006; Beach, Brunham, & Kitamura, 2001; Goto, 1971; Sheldon & Strange, 1982; Underbakke, 1993), demonstrating that this complex relationship may differ depending on how and when the L2 is learned. The current study seeks to further explore this relationship …

An Evaluative Case Study Of A Mathematics Program At A Deaf School In Ghana And An Ecological Explanation For Challenges Preventing Deaf Students Access To Quality Education, Hilary Ann Melander

Theses and Dissertations

The two purposes of this study are first, to provide an evaluation of an after-school basic mathematics program at the Demonstration School for the Deaf Junior Secondary School (DemoDeaf) in Mampong-Akuapim, Ghana. Second, it provides an ecological discussion exploring why DemoDeaf students do not have access to quality education. I designed and piloted the math program in 2005 and 2007 as an action researcher and volunteer with the Non-Government Organization (NGO), Signs of Hope International. The program was developed after finding six students in one JSS class could not count to one-hundred and all other students struggled with addition and/or …

The Effects Of Experience On The Perception Of German Rounded Vowels By Native Speakers Of American English, Bradley J. York

Theses and Dissertations

This study examines the effects of experience in German on the categorical perception of German rounded vowels, namely /uː/, /ʊ/, /oː/, /ɔ/, /yː/, /ʏ/, /øː/, and /œ/, by native speakers of American English (AE). Of special interest is whether more experience in German leads to more accurate perception of German front rounded vowels, namely /yː/, /ʏ/, /øː/, and /œ/, which do not have correlates in American English and are well known to cause perceptual problems for native AE speakers (Strange, Bohn, Trent, & Nishi, 2004). Subjects in this study were students at Brigham Young University that were divided into 4 …

Semantic Role Agency In Perceptions Of The Lexical Items Sick And Evil, Nathan G. Simmons

Theses and Dissertations

Inspired by an ongoing debate in the clinical sciences concerning the value of evil as a label for human behavior (Mowrer 1960, Staub 1999, Wellman 2000, Williams 2004 etc.), this thesis examines the semantic role of AGENT in the lexical items sick and evil. Williams makes the argument that the label evil removes responsibility from the doctor, whereas, the label sick empowers the doctor in bringing about a cure. While this view is not universally accepted in the field, it does bring to light an interesting question in applied linguistic semantics as to the assignment of agency with respect to …

The Church Of Jesus Christ Of Latter-Day Saints Enters Albania, 1992-1999, Nathan D. Pali

Theses and Dissertations

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints entered Albania in 1992. Albania was a unique and difficult place to establish the LDS Church. Under the communist dictatorship of Enver Hoxha religion was systematically eliminated from Albania and replaced with atheism. Additionally, missionaries were twice evacuated in the first decade in the country and the Book of Mormon was not available in Albanian until 1999. Despite these setbacks the LDS Church grew at a steady rate in Albania due to native Albanian interest and individual attention by missionaries.

Lean Six Sigma As A Source Of Competitive Advantage, Alessandro Giorgio Cavallini

Theses and Dissertations

Anecdotal data affirms that companies applying Lean Six Sigma in their operations not only deliver higher quality products and services, but also obtain superior financial results. The goal of this research was to empirically verify anecdotal data. The study proposed to analyze a group of publicly traded manufacturing companies with the intent of verifying if a correlation exists between companies being lean and the attainment of superior returns on investments. The researcher performed a series of statistical tests comparing key Financial Performance Indicators (FPI) extracted from annual reports (10-K) from a large pool of companies. The outcome of this study …

A Transnational Study: Young Adult Literature Exchanged Between The Us And Germany, Kristana Miskin

Theses and Dissertations

Both young adult literature and transnational literature occupy transitional spaces and defy simple classifications. Their commonalities naturally suit the two sets of literature for concurrent study. However, the field is underdeveloped, particularly in the United States. With a concentration on the exchanges taking place between the U.S. and Germany, this thesis addresses the need to assemble primary materials and pertinent critical commentary into a single place available to educators, scholars, and researchers to acquire background on transnational YAL themes. The thesis delineates methods used in conducting and compiling research on U.S.-German YAL exchange and highlights the translation and publication concerns …

Rethinking The Historical Lens: A Case For Relational Identity In Sandra Cisneros's The House On Mango Street, Annalisa Wiggins

Theses and Dissertations

My thesis proposes a theory of relational identity development in Chicana literature. Gloria Anzaldua's Borderlands/La Frontera offers an interpretation of Chicana identity that is largely based on historical models and mythology, which many scholars have found useful in interpreting Chicana literature. However, I contend that another text, Sandra Cisneros's The House on Mango Street, not only illustrates the need for an alternative paradigm for considering identity development, but in fact offers such an alternative. I argue that Cisneros shows a model for relational identity development, wherein the individual develops in the context of her community and is not determined solely …

Book Review: The Boat Is Full: Swiss Asylum Denied, Richard Hacken

Swiss American Historical Society Review

Das Boot ist voll (sometimes translated as "The Lifeboat is Full"), directed by Markus Imhoof, is a notable accomplishment in Swiss cinema of the late 20th century. It received the Silver Berlin Bear for Outstanding Single Achievement in 1981 at the Berlin International Film Festival, and the following year it was nominated for an Academy A ward in the category of Best Foreign Film. These honors presumably sprang not merely from recognition of Imhoof' s courage in recalibrating the past, in putting an alternate face on the Holocaust, and in documenting Swiss refugee policies during the Second World War. These …