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When West Meets East: Communicative Language Teaching In China, Rong Li Dec 2007

When West Meets East: Communicative Language Teaching In China, Rong Li

Theses and Dissertations

With radical social change and educational reform taking place in China since 1976, the English teaching system there has been changing accordingly. The Chinese Traditional Method (CTM) is giving way to the Western Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) approach. This research is a study of both Chinese and expatriate English teachers who are involved in classrooms and affected by reforms. The goal of this research study is to identify the extent to which Chinese and expatriate English teachers use CLT in China, to discover the possible factors that prevent them from using CLT and to explore an English teaching method that …

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A Process-Based Call Assessment: A Comparison Of Input Processing And Program Use Behavior By Activity Type, Kathryn Rimmasch Dec 2007

A Process-Based Call Assessment: A Comparison Of Input Processing And Program Use Behavior By Activity Type, Kathryn Rimmasch

Theses and Dissertations

In an effort to better understand the mental processing connected to different kinds of CALL activities, this study collected data on time subjects spent, as well as buttons subjects clicked while doing 10 different CALL activities accompanying a beginning French text book. In addition, a group of subjects thought out loud as they completed the same activities. These subjects were recorded on video, their thinking out loud was transcribed and the transcriptions were coded according to how they indicated they were dealing with the language input. The frequencies of coded categories were compared to see if there were connections between …

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Mayanwiki: An Online, Consensus-Based Linguistic Corpus Of The Mayan Hieroglyphs, Robbie A. Haertel Dec 2007

Mayanwiki: An Online, Consensus-Based Linguistic Corpus Of The Mayan Hieroglyphs, Robbie A. Haertel

Theses and Dissertations

The writing system used by the ancient Maya civilization has intrigued researchers and aficionados for centuries. Now that it has mostly been deciphered, the emphasis in the field of Mayan epigraphy has shifted to a study of the system of phonological, morphological, and grammatical rules that once governed the language that the hieroglyphs encode. One of the most important resources for linguistic study of this type is a comprehensive, electronic corpus of texts to investigate phraseology, frequency information, and collocations. Because Mayan linguistic epigraphy is in the early stages, a publicly available, editable corpus would be an invaluable resource in …

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A Corpus Of Second Language Attrition Data, Derrell R. Smith Dec 2007

A Corpus Of Second Language Attrition Data, Derrell R. Smith

Theses and Dissertations

This report addresses the lack of progress in the field of Second Language Attrition (L2A). Review of L2A history and literature show this to be cause by lack of appropriate data. Five criteria for appropriate data are suggested and a corpus of L2A data (57,000 words, spoken Spanish) which meets the criteria is presented. The history of the corpus is explained in detail, including subject selection, instruments and methods of collection, and markup -- XML was used to annotate the corpus with nineteen categories of speech errors, adapted from Nation's (2001) "Learning Vocabulary in Another Language." An example analysis of …

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Byu Students' Beliefs About Language Learning And Communicative Language Teaching Activities, Sarah C. Bakker Dec 2007

Byu Students' Beliefs About Language Learning And Communicative Language Teaching Activities, Sarah C. Bakker

Theses and Dissertations

Learner beliefs, which contribute to attitude and motivation, may affect language learning. It is therefore valuable to investigate the malleability of learner beliefs, and to determine whether potentially detrimental beliefs can be ameliorated. This study examines how instruction of the principles of Second Language Acquisition (SLA) affects students' beliefs about classroom activities and their beliefs about language learning in general. The 68 first-year German students at Brigham Young University who participated in this study were asked to rate the effectiveness of three activities typical of communicative language teaching: Dialogue activities, Peer Interview activities, and Information-gap activities. They were also asked …

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A Qualitative Analysis Of Brigham Young University's Golden Age Theater Production And Outreach Course, Sheila Jan Barton Nov 2007

A Qualitative Analysis Of Brigham Young University's Golden Age Theater Production And Outreach Course, Sheila Jan Barton

Theses and Dissertations

The present research consists of a comparative study of Brigham Young University's Golden Age Comedia (GAC) and Golden Age Theater Production (GATP) courses. The two courses cover much of the same academic material, but one of the differences between the two approaches to the teaching of Golden Age literature is that the GATP course incorporates a theater production and outreach component. Although this outreach program has been seen as intuitively and anecdotally effective, there has been no prior attempt to document student motivation for choosing this course over the traditionally taught course (GAC), nor to discover any of the outcomes …

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Split-Half Reliability Of Mlu And Mlu2 In Two Methods Of Utterance Segmentation, Alyse Diana Kemeny Nov 2007

Split-Half Reliability Of Mlu And Mlu2 In Two Methods Of Utterance Segmentation, Alyse Diana Kemeny

Theses and Dissertations

Concerns regarding Mean Length of Utterance (MLU) has led to adaptations of this method of analysis. A recent study by Johnston (2001) introduced an alternative to MLU called MLU2. The current study investigates the split-half reliability of MLU and MLU2 as well as another alternative, Median Length of Utterance (Med-LU). Split-half reliability was found for these methods when segmented into Phonological and Communication Units. Split-half reliability of MLU2 was generally higher than that of MLU, and both were higher than Med-LU. The study suggests that MLU2 may also be a valuable tool for clinicians in analyzing child language.

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Psychometrically Equivalent Cantonese Bisyllabic Word Recognition Materials Spoken By Male And Female Talkers, Brooke Kristin Conklin Nov 2007

Psychometrically Equivalent Cantonese Bisyllabic Word Recognition Materials Spoken By Male And Female Talkers, Brooke Kristin Conklin

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to create psychometrically equivalent word lists in the language of Cantonese for word recognition testing. Frequently used bisyllabic Cantonese words were recorded by a native female and male talker. The word lists were evaluated by administering the word recognition lists to 20 native speakers of Cantonese with normal hearing. Each list was presented at 10 different intensity levels ranging from -5 to 40 dB HL in 5 dB increments. Logistic regression was used to determine the words with the steepest logistic regression slopes. The 200 words with the steepest slopes were then formulated into …

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The Relationship Between Reported Out-Of-Class English Use And Proficiency Gains In English, Denisa Krizanova Cundick Nov 2007

The Relationship Between Reported Out-Of-Class English Use And Proficiency Gains In English, Denisa Krizanova Cundick

Theses and Dissertations

This study investigated the relationship of out-of-class English use and proficiency gains. It also explored the relationship of gender, proficiency level and native language and the possible effect of these demographics on out-of-class English use and language gains in English. Though some studies have shown that those who spend more out-of-class time using the target language have higher language gain (Seliger, 1977), other studies have not found this to be true (Day, 1985; Freed 1990; Spada, 1986). Some reasons for the discrepancy in findings may be differences in the length of the time data is collected, samples of study participants …

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The Impact Of Swiss Exile On An East German Critical Marxist, Axel Fair-Schulz Nov 2007

The Impact Of Swiss Exile On An East German Critical Marxist, Axel Fair-Schulz

Swiss American Historical Society Review

Among many East German Marxists, who had embraced Marxism in the 1930s and opted to live in East Germany after World War II (between the 1950s until the end of the GDR in 1989), was a commitment to the Communist party that was informed by a more nuanced and sophisticated Marxism than what most party bureaucrats were exposed to.

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Inter- And Intra-Subject Variability: A Palatometric Study, Marybeth Corey Sanders Oct 2007

Inter- And Intra-Subject Variability: A Palatometric Study, Marybeth Corey Sanders

Theses and Dissertations

Electropalatometry (EPM) has proven to be a useful clinical and research tool for measuring tongue-to-palate contact. The goal of this study was to determine whether the development of a database of standardized palatometric articulation files is feasible by examining the variability which exists within and between speakers. Twenty standard American English dialect speakers were fitted with palatometer pseudopalates. Test stimuli were VCV nonsense words using a schwa in the initial position, the 15 palatal consonants, and three corner vowels, /a/, /i/, /u/. From these palatometric recordings a variability index was created to examine intra- and interspeaker variability. Different aspects of …

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Adtrees For Sequential Data And N-Gram Counting, Robert Van Dam, Dan A. Ventura Oct 2007

Adtrees For Sequential Data And N-Gram Counting, Robert Van Dam, Dan A. Ventura

Faculty Publications

We consider the problem of efficiently storing n-gram counts for large n over very large corpora. In such cases, the efficient storage of sufficient statistics can have a dramatic impact on system performance. One popular model for storing such data derived from tabular data sets with many attributes is the ADtree. Here, we adapt the ADtree to benefit from the sequential structure of corpora-type data. We demonstrate the usefulness of our approach on a portion of the well-known Wall Street Journal corpus from the Penn Treebank and show that our approach is exponentially more efficient than the naïve approach to …

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Jaroslav Krejci, The Paths Of Civilizations: Understaning The Currents Of History, Tseggai Isaac Oct 2007

Jaroslav Krejci, The Paths Of Civilizations: Understaning The Currents Of History, Tseggai Isaac

Comparative Civilizations Review

No abstract provided.

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Differential Item Functioning Analysis Of The Herrmann Brain Dominance Instrument, Jared Andrew Lees Sep 2007

Differential Item Functioning Analysis Of The Herrmann Brain Dominance Instrument, Jared Andrew Lees

Theses and Dissertations

Differential item functioning (DIF) is present when examinees who have the same level of a trait have a different probability of correctly answering a test item intended to measure that trait (Shepard & Averill, 1981). The following study is a DIF analysis of the Herrmann Brain Dominance Instrument (HBDI), a preference profiling instrument developed by Herrmann International to help individuals identify their dominant preferences and then classify their level of dominance into four preference quadrants. Examinees who completed the American English version of the instrument were classified as the reference group and examinees of the International English version were classified …

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The Dead Sea Scrolls: A Roundtable Discussion Celebrating The Sixtieth Anniversary Of Their Discovery, Part 1, Richard Neitzel Holzapfel, Donald W. Parry, Dana M. Pike, David Rolph Seely Sep 2007

The Dead Sea Scrolls: A Roundtable Discussion Celebrating The Sixtieth Anniversary Of Their Discovery, Part 1, Richard Neitzel Holzapfel, Donald W. Parry, Dana M. Pike, David Rolph Seely

Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

No abstract provided.

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Provincial Development In China: Lessons From Eu Regional Policy Experience, Phillip J. Bryson, Keren Sun Sep 2007

Provincial Development In China: Lessons From Eu Regional Policy Experience, Phillip J. Bryson, Keren Sun

Faculty Publications

Regional development in the Chinese provinces and in the regions of the EU countries are evaluated and compared. Development efforts in southern Italy, northeast England and eastern Germany are reviewed along with EU, Community-wide regional development programs. Equity concerns suggest promotion of regional policy, but the pursuit of maximum national economic growth would avoid it, since it sacrifices some economic growth. The impact of FDI and domestic investments on individual Chinese provinces is compared with their impact in Europe. There is an implicit contrast between public sector regional development programs and more effective private foreign direct investments.

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Beyond Democracy: The Effects Of The Electoral System Of Environmental Performance, Austin Baird, Rachel Bodily, Angela Merriam Sep 2007

Beyond Democracy: The Effects Of The Electoral System Of Environmental Performance, Austin Baird, Rachel Bodily, Angela Merriam

Sigma: Journal of Political and International Studies

No abstract provided.

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Staff Spotlight, Religious Educator Sep 2007

Staff Spotlight, Religious Educator

Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

No abstract provided.

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Diverse Students' Perceptions Of Cultural Congruity And Environment At A University, Effie J. Thacker Aug 2007

Diverse Students' Perceptions Of Cultural Congruity And Environment At A University, Effie J. Thacker

Theses and Dissertations

The Culturally Responsive Special Education/English as a Second Language (ESL) program was designed to assist students from diverse backgrounds in being academically successful in a large western private university. Utilizing the Cultural Congruity Scale (CCS) and University Environment Scale (UES), this study analyzed the perceptions of 28 students who are ethnically diverse and enrolled in the Culturally Responsive Special Education/ESL Program. The data will be used to evaluate the program's success in addressing the barriers that have historically kept students who are ethnically diverse from succeeding in higher education. Participating students completed CCS and UES surveys questioning their perceptions regarding …

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Arlecchino's Journey: Crossing Boundaries Through La Commedia Dell'arte, Janine Michelle Sobeck Aug 2007

Arlecchino's Journey: Crossing Boundaries Through La Commedia Dell'arte, Janine Michelle Sobeck

Theses and Dissertations

La commedia dell'arte is a recognized, vibrant theatrical form that emerged in Italy during the Renaissance. However, while great attention has been given to the particulars of the genre (performance techniques, important troupes, leading players), there lacks a study behind the reasoning for its vast international popularity. In this thesis, I explore why this particular genre was able to cross cultural and linguistic boundaries, finding a dedicated and enthusiastic following in most European countries for over 200 years. After analyzing commedia dell'arte's original development in the Italian peninsula, examining the predominating Carnival ideology and the ability of the troupes to …

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Syntactic Attrition In L2 Mandarin Speakers, Shu Pei Wang Aug 2007

Syntactic Attrition In L2 Mandarin Speakers, Shu Pei Wang

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to explore how syntactic skill was maintained or lost by L2 Mandarin Chinese learners over time. In addition, this study endeavored to discover how a learner's L1 affects the attrition process of word order in Mandarin Chinese. To find out how certain Chinese syntactic structures were subject to attrition over time and how syntactic errors could be attributed to L1 transfer, five types of Chinese syntax that either resembled English, were very different from English, or had no counterpart in English were selected. They included subject-verb-object sentences, modifiers before modified, time and other adverbial …

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Authentic Out-Of-Class Communication In Study Abroad Programs: Success Defined By Continued Motivation And Cultural Appreciation, Erin Fairlight Olsen Aug 2007

Authentic Out-Of-Class Communication In Study Abroad Programs: Success Defined By Continued Motivation And Cultural Appreciation, Erin Fairlight Olsen

Theses and Dissertations

The benefits of study abroad experience in second language acquisition have evolved from unchallenged assumption to the focus of rigorous study in the past several decades. The benefits of out-of-class contact with natives have likewise been questioned. Despite conflicting evidence of its benefit, students frequently cite out-of-class conversations with natives as among the most beneficial aspects of their language acquisition experience. Reviewing the extant literature, this study narrows in on authentic communication-that is, meaningful out-of-class contact with natives, in which students are able to genuinely express themselves and their personality-as a previously unanalyzed element of study abroad research. It is …

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A Comparative Study Of Muhammad And Joseph Smith In The Prophetic Pattern, Todd J. Harris Aug 2007

A Comparative Study Of Muhammad And Joseph Smith In The Prophetic Pattern, Todd J. Harris

Theses and Dissertations

As early as 1831, critics attacked Joseph Smith by comparing him to Muhammad. Over time, the comparison deepened as critics and scholars observed doctrinal and political similarities between Mormonism and Islam. Later, scholars compared Joseph Smith to Muhammad because both had generated a new religion and there seemed to be several similarities in the lives of Joseph Smith and Muhammad. These and other comparisons between the two men and their religions have been made from 1831 to the present, yet there have been few thorough, non-polemic examinations of Joseph Smith and Muhammad in the typology of prophethood. While notable similarities …

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Understanding The Feelings, Perceptions, And Attitudes Of Students Who Participate In A Service Study Abroad Program, Jennifer Jean Jackson Aug 2007

Understanding The Feelings, Perceptions, And Attitudes Of Students Who Participate In A Service Study Abroad Program, Jennifer Jean Jackson

Theses and Dissertations

This study was designed to understand the experience of being a service study abroad student. It examined feelings, perceptions and attitudes that developed as students from Brigham Young University participated in a service-centered study abroad program to Guadalajara, Mexico. The study enumerates participants' initial, developing, and final impressions during service study abroad and shows that students go through an extensive process of discovering, reformulating, and solidifying their attitudes and perceptions as they interpret their experiences. The study examined factors related to language and culture, but focused on the service component of the program. It found that service study abroad participants …

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The Relationship Between Pragmatic Language And Behavior Subtypes In Typically Developing Children, Lisa Jeppson Christensen Aug 2007

The Relationship Between Pragmatic Language And Behavior Subtypes In Typically Developing Children, Lisa Jeppson Christensen

Theses and Dissertations

This study examines the relationship between syntactic and pragmatic language and reticence, solitary-active passive withdrawal, solitary-passive withdrawal, prosocial skills, and likeability. The Children's Communication Checklist (CCC-2), a language checklist, and Teacher Behavior Rating Scale (TBRS), a behavior checklist, were completed by three 2nd-grade teachers and three 4th-grade teachers about each of their students. Factor analysis was used to determine two composite language measures from the CCC-2 scales. The results of two hierarchal regression analyses indicated that social behaviors were significant predictors of pragmatic language, but not structural language. In particular, solitary-passive withdrawal and reticence were significant predictors of pragmatic language …

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Assessment Of Genetic Diversity In The Usda And Cip-Fao International Nursery Collections Of Quinoa (Chenopodium Quinoa Willd.) Using Microsatellite Markers, S. A. Christensen, D. B. Pratt, C. Pratt, P. T. Nelson, M. R. Stevens, Eric N. Jellen, Craig E. Coleman, Daniel J. Fairbanks, A. Bonifacio, Michael J. Maughan Aug 2007

Assessment Of Genetic Diversity In The Usda And Cip-Fao International Nursery Collections Of Quinoa (Chenopodium Quinoa Willd.) Using Microsatellite Markers, S. A. Christensen, D. B. Pratt, C. Pratt, P. T. Nelson, M. R. Stevens, Eric N. Jellen, Craig E. Coleman, Daniel J. Fairbanks, A. Bonifacio, Michael J. Maughan

Faculty Publications

Quinoa (Chenopodium quinoa Willd.) is a staple food crop for millions of impoverished rural inhabitants of Andean South America where it has been cultivated for millennia. Interest in quinoa, due largely to its superior nutritional characteristics, is fuelling a growing export market and has led to an increased focus on genetic research and the development of quinoa breeding programmes throughout South America. The success of these breeding programmes will rely heavily on the development of core germplasm collections and germplasm conservation. We report the development of a set of fluorescence-tagged microsatellite molecular markers that can be used to characterize genetic …

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Liahona: "The Direction Of The Lord": An Etymological Explanation, Jonathan Curci Jul 2007

Liahona: "The Direction Of The Lord": An Etymological Explanation, Jonathan Curci

Journal of Book of Mormon Studies

Adding to three previous sites proposed as Nephi’s Bountiful, Phillips argues in defense of another candidate—Mughsayl. He evaluates all the candidates and describes the corresponding areas. He proposes that Lehi and his family were not alone during their travels or time in Bountiful and lists ten reasons in support of his proposal of Mughsayl as the land of Bountiful. The merits of Mughsayl include its tributaries, its ability to sustain a large herd of camels and other domesticated animals, and its location on a trade route between Salalah and the Hadramaut region of Yemen.

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Service And Temple In King Benjamin's Speech, Donald W. Parry Jul 2007

Service And Temple In King Benjamin's Speech, Donald W. Parry

Journal of Book of Mormon Studies

Prior to the Babylonian invasion of Jerusalem in 586 BC, Lehi took his family into the wilderness. Around the same time, another group of Jews fled to Elephantine in Egypt. Ludlow evaluates the Nephite group, the Elephantine colony, and the Jews in postexilic Jerusalem to show how the Nephites compared religiously with other Jewish groups. Social relationships, the Sabbath and festivals, priesthood officials, and temples played important roles in all three communities, with the importance and function of each varying among the three. On the other hand, scriptural texts strongly aided the reformation of Jerusalem and played an important role …

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Mughsayl: Another Candidate For Land Bountiful, Wm. Revell Phillips Jul 2007

Mughsayl: Another Candidate For Land Bountiful, Wm. Revell Phillips

Journal of Book of Mormon Studies

King Benjamin’s speech focuses almost entirely on service, repeating four variations of the word—servants, serve, served, and service—fifteen times in only eighteen verses. Benjamin gave the discourse in such a manner that his audience could have understood service in multiple ways. Given the significant temple setting for the discourse and the references to temple service in the Old Testament, Parry seeks to highlight the emphasis on temple service. To further strengthen his focus on temple service, Benjamin links service to the concept of blood on garments and his need to wash his garments of his people’s blood, bringing to mind …

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Social Outcomes Of Students With Language Impairment: An Eight-Year Follow-Up Study, Meghan A. Baldridge Jul 2007

Social Outcomes Of Students With Language Impairment: An Eight-Year Follow-Up Study, Meghan A. Baldridge

Theses and Dissertations

This study re-examined the language and social skills of four females with language impairment who were initially studied eight years ago (Brinton, Fujiki, Montague, & Hanton, 2000; Fujiki, Brinton, Isaacson, & Summers, 2001). Language measures included the Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals-Fourth Edition (Semel, Wiig, & Secord, 2003) and a thirty minute language sample. Social measures included the UCLA Loneliness Scale-Version 3 (Russell, 1996), parent, teacher and student forms of the Social Skills Rating System (Gresham & Elliott, 1990), and an interview with each participant's teacher or speech-language pathologist. Results of the current assessment were compared to results from the …

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