Digital Commons Network^™

Ethnic-Racial Socialization Experiences Of Mexican American Youth, Katherine J. Bingham, Elizabeth A. Cutrer-Párraga, Timothy B. Smith

Faculty Publications

Research has shown that ethnic–racial socialization (ERS) predicts education and mental health outcomes for adolescents. However, limited research has evaluated the ERS experiences of Latinx students. The current study examined ERS experiences of Mexican American youth in four focus group interviews that were transcribed and analyzed at both the individual and group level using interpretive phenomenological analysis. Main themes included feeling like an outsider, navigating discrimination, encountering social/emotional difficulties, and achieving a positive identity. Each theme contained two to three subcategories that provide further insight into the Mexican Americans' ERS experiences. Participants reported within-group discrimination, motivation to disprove stereotypes, and …

Effects Of Cognitive And Social Demands On Linguistic Production For People With Moderate, Mild, Or No Aphasia, Tyson G. Harmon, Emily Mcdonald, Kyle Steele

Faculty Publications

Background

Most everyday communication occurs in situations where cognitive and social demands are present. These types of situations may compound language deficits for people with aphasia (PWA). An understanding of the language interference that may occur from cognitive and social demands is an important precursor for assessment and intervention that addresses everyday communication situations.

Aims

To determine how cognitively and socially demanding conditions affect micro- and macrolinguistic production for people with moderate, mild, or no aphasia during narrative discourse and to compare effects among groups.

Method

Thirty participants with mild (n = 9), moderate (n = 9), or no (n …

Effects Of Cognitive And Social Demands On Linguistic Production For People With Moderate, Mild, Or No Aphasia, Tyson G. Harmon, Emily Mcdonald, Kyle Steele

Faculty Publications

Background: Most everyday communication occurs in situations where cognitive and social demands are present. These types of situations may compound language deficits for people with aphasia (PWA). An understanding of the language interference that may occur from cognitive and social demands is an important precursor for assessment and intervention that addresses everyday communication situations.

Aims: To determine how cognitively and socially demanding conditions affect micro- and macrolinguistic production for people with moderate, mild, or no aphasia during narrative discourse and to compare effects among groups.

Method: Thirty participants with mild (n = 9), moderate (n = 9), or no (n …

Assessing Virtual Reality’S Influence On Honesty In Reporting, Jeffrey Pickerd, Nathan Waddoups, David A. Wood, Xiaomei (Grazia) Xiong

Faculty Publications

Organizations, businesses, and society are exploring and adopting virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR). VR is expected to boost the global economy by $1.5 trillion by 2030. In this study, we focus on the effect of VR on an important accounting variable—reporting honesty. We examine reporting honesty across two tasks, various measures, and various populations, that are commonly used in existing research. In our initial experiment, participants misreported more in a dice rolling task when performing it in a VR setting than in a non-VR setting. However, in a second and third experiment attempting to replicate and extend our …

In Theory: Дезинформация, Sidney Eric Dement

Russian Language Journal

This essay explains the debates and theoretical insights of the emerging transdisciplinary field of Disinformation Studies as a potential set of tools for designing and implementing curricula that include new media or other discussions of propaganda and censorship in the Russian language classroom. I argue that the terminology elucidated in Disinformation Studies can provide both an engaging lesson in Russian language as well as a pedagogically strategic focus on concepts that can motivate students to continue the study of Russian language and Russia-related disciplines. Section 2 provides a summary overview of representative works in the field of Disinformation Studies that …

Building Social Media Literacy In The Russian Language Classroom, Kelly Knickmeier Cummings

Russian Language Journal

This article presents ways to teach media literacy (ML) skills in Russian language classrooms with particular focus on developing proficiencies to navigate social media (SM) where information disorder is a critical concern. Because of its numerous configurations and applications, SM is understood broadly as “the creation and exchange of user-generated content.” After outlining critical concerns surrounding SM use, the discussion focuses on three conditions that affect the development of ML skills when trying to engage meaningfully online: cognitive vulnerabilities, unreliable narrators, and populist rhetoric. Developing an awareness of how these three conditions on SM impact decision-making and behavior online equips …

Russian Authoritarian Discourse Of The 20th And 21st Centuries As A Subject Of Study In The University Classroom, Yulia Denisova

Russian Language Journal

The ability of students to recognize and interpret various forms of propagandist speech within the context of authoritarian discourse is crucial for effective information literacy education. This article emphasizes the need to introduce a specialized section within university courses on Russian cultural history for foreign students learning Russian. We propose naming this section “Russian Authoritarian Discourse: Features of Propaganda Language.” Focusing on the relationship between language and social structures and exploring the typology of linguistic situations shaped by social factors, the proposed section is grounded in a sociolinguistic approach. The article presents practical tools for analyzing real-life and immediately relevant …

Students As Co-Creators Of A Russian Media Literacy Course, Katya Jordan, Jennifer Bown

Russian Language Journal

This paper reports on a 4th-year Russian course designed around information, media and technology literacy and focused on developing Advanced-level proficiency. The goals of this course include development of 21st century skills, with an emphasis on information and media literacy. This inquiry-based course follows the core principles of Open Architecture Curricular Design (Leaver & Campbell, 2015), including the use of a theme-based syllabus designed around authentic texts and learner involvement in the selection and delivery of content. The course focuses on current events and uses current authentic materials available through Russian-language news outlets. Students act as co-creators as they select …

Teaching Media Literacy Through Task-Based Instruction, Snezhana Zheltoukhova

Russian Language Journal

This article explores ways to apply the TBLT approach to teaching media literacy as part of an L2 Russian bridge course module. The primary goal of a bridge course is to equip students with the learning skills and tools needed to navigate various online resources, facilitating the transition from language-based instruction to content-based upper-level courses. The TBLT method aligns well with the dual objectives of teaching media literacy while simultaneously improving target language proficiency. In this article, I discuss a set of tasks designed to help students navigate Russian-language media and recognize various propaganda techniques. Additionally, I address some pedagogical …

Tracking Current Events In The Russian-Language Classroom, Cori Anderson, Daniel Brooks

Russian Language Journal

Given weaponized disinformation about recent US elections and the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine, media literacy has become an essential part of a 21st-century liberal arts education, in line with the AAC&U’s Essential Learning Outcomes. By including news media in the language classroom, instructors can introduce students to the products and practices of the target culture and enhance their comprehension of Russian-language texts. We describe a current events blog project, appropriate at any level of instruction, with specific examples from second- and sixth-semester university-level Russian-language courses. Students follow current events in the Russian-speaking world on a topic of their choosing, …

Teaching Critical Media Literacy In An Advanced-Level Classroom Through The Eyes Of Journalism As A Profession, Alexandra Shapiro

Russian Language Journal

This paper presents an approach to promoting social media literacy in a Russian language class. The instruction was conducted within a university setting for Flagship students in their third year of Russian studies. The course focused on teaching professional Russian to students at the Intermediate Mid to Advanced levels. It is modular and covers several topics, including journalism, law, and human rights, among others. The overall aim of the course was to help students develop critical thinking skills, expose them to Russian language and culture, and enable them to stay informed about current events while discussing a wide range of …

Constructing A Course On Russian Media Analysis For Learners At Ilr 3+/4 Proficiency, Olga Mukhortova

Russian Language Journal

The proficiency movement of the 1980s and ‘90s in foreign language teaching and learning demonstrated that U. S. students can attain Intermediate-level proficiency by the end of a four-year post-secondary course of study. Language programs can now pay more attention to enabling students to reach the Advanced1 and Superior levels (ACTFL, 2012; Interagency Language Roundtable (ILR); Martin, 2020, p. 43). One can observe the particular demand for ILR 3/4 speakers from the U. S. government in the diversity of state-sponsored initiatives in foreign languages aiming for Superior-level (ILR 3/3+) and higher proficiency. Understandably, the need for speakers of Russian at …

Digital Dissidence: Russian Foreign Agents And The Media Of Opposition, Matthew Mangold

Russian Language Journal

Over the last ten years the Russian state has veered steadily toward authoritarianism, passing new socially repressive laws and harnessing television and radio to state propaganda and disinformation about Ukraine and the west. At the same time, platforms like Vimeo and Youtube have made uploading, sharing, and viewing digital content in high-quality formats more accessible to author-producers and viewers globally. These social changes have been followed by a movement of independent, fact-grounded digital storytelling built on documentary forms and deft investigative reporting that reveals the Russian state’s negligence, corruption, and efforts at social control. This article addresses the digital environment …

Book Review: Teaching Languages With Screen Media: Pedagogical Reflections, Michael Lavery

Russian Language Journal

Herrero and Suarez’s edited volume Teaching Languages with Screen Media explores a range of innovative approaches to incorporating screen media in foreign language instruction. Although none of the authors’ contributions discuss teaching Russian as a foreign language, the book offers a broad theoretical overview of screen studies as well as case studies drawing from diverse contexts (teaching Spanish, French, and English in secondary and university-level education) that can inform the teaching of any modern foreign language.

Book Review: Task-Based Instruction For Teaching Russian As A Foreign Language, Izolda Savenkova

Russian Language Journal

Svetlana V. Nuss' and Wendy Whitehead Martelle's (editors) Task-Based Instruction for Teaching Russian as a Foreign Language stands as an invaluable resource, offering task-based practices beneficial for both novice and experienced instructors of Russian as a second and foreign language. The contributing authors provide excellent examples of classroom activities supplemented with suggestions on how to design task-based syllabi. It is noteworthy that the team of authors is extraordinarily diverse, encompassing educators from various kinds of educational institutions and engaged in different language teaching formats. This work is of great interest not only to practical teachers, but also to researchers in …

Book Review: Colloquial Russian: The Complete Course For Beginners, Liz Ewaskio

Russian Language Journal

Colloquial Russian: The Complete Course for Beginners, now in its fifth edition, has been updated to reflect the diversity of the Russophone world, including modernized language, as well as new characters (whose storylines run through the textbook) “to highlight the diversity of speakers of Russian, both within Russia and beyond” (p. xi). Part of Routledge’s Colloquial Series, this traditional textbook is intended for adult learners and students working on their own or with an instructor. Colloquial Russian is designed to bring students up to the GCSE level (the British equivalent of the American GED) and includes advanced-level grammar, such …

Book Review: Любимые Советские Фильмы На Уроке Рки, Ekaterina Talalakina

Russian Language Journal

Любимые советские фильмы на уроке РКИ is the perfect example of the material for the linguo-cultural approach to language learning. The book is designed for Russian as foreign language students at the Advanced Low level of language proficiency and above. The book is built around the exploration of ten popular Soviet movies in the entertainment genre. Each movie is covered in a separate chapter, including the necessary language and culture-related details to promote language acquisition and facilitate comprehension of the cultural references.

Rlj Volume 73, Number 2 Special Issue

Russian Language Journal

No abstract provided.

Teaching Media Literacy Through Narrative In An Advanced Russian Listening Course, Karen Evans-Romaine

Russian Language Journal

Teaching information and media literacy has become more important than ever before. This article will describe how students of Russian at the Intermediate High through Advanced levels acquire information and media literacy through narratives in a course focused on development of listening and speaking skills through the Advanced proficiency spectrum. The course, designed for undergraduate students from a variety of majors in a Russian Flagship program and for graduate students from various disciplines, enables students to develop listening comprehension and speaking skills at the Advanced level through narratives. In addition, the course teaches students how to analyze and formulate arguments, …

Book Review: Authenticity Across Languages And Cultures: Themes Of Identity In Foreign Language Teaching And Learning, Aselle Almuratova

Russian Language Journal

The word “authenticity” and its derivatives have become almost a catch-all in language pedagogy. While language teachers strive to use authentic materials in their teaching and attempt to prepare students for authentic communicative situations, few teachers of Russian are aware of the connection between personal and cultural authenticity, as the term itself is not clearly defined in the field of Russian as a Foreign Language (RFL) and is often seen as self-explanatory. The authors of the current volume explore the conceptualization of the word “authenticity” in Second Language Acquisition (SLA) more broadly, bringing together authors from different languages; however, this …

An Integrated Model For Teaching Information, Media, And Language Literacy, Maria Shardakova

Russian Language Journal

This paper explores the connection between the rise of critical approaches to teaching media in Russian language classrooms and the political events of the last decade, during which Russia has increasingly positioned itself as an adversary to the Western world. The Russian state’s systematic weaponization of its media, severe restrictions on freedom of speech, and suppression of independent voices have created an environment where propaganda permeates all forms of social and public expression. This saturation has led information consumers to dismiss media content as manipulation, sometimes overlooking voices of resistance. As a result, it is crucial to equip students with …

Inference Methods For Token-Level Topic Assignments With Fixed Topics, Stephen Cowley

Theses and Dissertations

Topic modeling, an unsupervised technique used to gain high-level understanding of a large collection of documents, often involves two major goals: The discovery of topics used in the corpus (topic-discovery) and the assignment of topics to individual words (token-level topic assignment). While Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) normally performs both of these steps simultaneously, some situations require only the token-level topic assignments, using fixed topics. We evaluate three topic assignment strategies using fixed topics -- Gibbs sampling, iterated conditional modes, and mean field variational inference -- to determine which should be used when only token-level topic assignment is needed. Among these …

Full Issue

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

No abstract provided.

Preface, Christopher Oscarson

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

Quite often, we take writing for granted. The sublime simplicity of mere symbols or scratches on a page escapes our attention as we search for more significant sources of meaning in a memory that can be only fleeting and fragmentary at best. But what could be more fundamental to our source of self and community than language and, by extension, writing? Human beings could not be saved from living in an eternal present if they lacked the ability given them by language to reflect. Community with others can be formed only if there is a means of preserving and sharing …

Postmodern Philosophy And Its Influence On Modern Museum Theory And Development, Mauri Liljenquist

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

History legitimizes its role in society through the benefits it provides for the public. The idea of history in the ivory tower, while it appeals to some historians and scholars, can never be sufficient to justify the field. Instead it is what emerges from the ivory tower and how that product influences and affects the outside world that determines the value of historical endeavors. The dissemination of history to the public is one of the most significant aspects of the profession. Accuracy and integrity in research and writing are the primary responsibilities of the historian. Following these, the next most …

Predicting Speaking Proficiency With Fluency Features Using Machine Learning, Ethan D. Erickson

Theses and Dissertations

This study investigates the interplay between temporal fluency measures, self-assessment, and language proficiency scores in novice- to intermediate- level language learners of Spanish and French. Analyzing data from 163 participants, the research employs both traditional linear regression and advanced XGBoost machine learning models. Findings demonstrate a moderate positive correlation between self-assessment and Oral Proficiency Interview by Computer (OPIc) scores, underscoring the dependable self-awareness of learners. Notably, XGBoost performs as well as linear regression in predicting OPIc scores and has more potential, underlining the efficacy of advanced methodologies. The study identifies Mean Length of Utterance (MLU) as a crucial predictor, highlighting …

Bridging The Gaps: Characterizing Alzheimer's Disease In Native Hawaiian And Pacific Islander Populations, Justina P. Tavana

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation addresses critical gaps in dementia research in Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander (NHPI) communities. Focusing on Samoan and Tongan communities, the study successfully adapted and validated the AD8 informant interview and the Clinical Dementia Rating (CDR) scale in native languages, establishing these instruments as reliable tools for detecting cognitive impairment in these populations. The research process prioritized meaningful community engagement and forged partnerships with indigenous professionals, ensuring alignment with and responsiveness to the specific needs of the community. These invaluable connections were the foundation of making this difficult work possible. Subjects assessed with these adapted instruments were enrolled …

Portuguese Language Use Among First Generation Brazilian Immigrants In Utah County: Some Considerations About Language And Ethnic Identity, Simone Pizzio

Theses and Dissertations

The current study presents an investigation of the Portuguese language use among first generation Brazilian immigrants in Utah County. The research was carried out with 54 first generation immigrants. Several studies have shown that ethnic identity is related to shared cultural characteristics such as practices, beliefs, and languages (Liebkind, 2010; Pennycook, 2010; Reyes, 2010; Souza, 2016). This study explores the relationship between language and ethnic identity by analyzing the attitudes toward the Portuguese language, the contexts and factors that influence language choice, and the purposes for which the Portuguese language has been used by this selected group of immigrants. The …

Revisiting Marshallese Causative Constructions Using Lexical Aspect, Damon Hatch Swain

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis reexamines causative constructions found in Marshallese; an Austronesian language spoken in the Republic of the Marshall Islands. Both Bender, Capelle & Pagotto (2016) and Willson (2008) hint that lexical aspect is a necessary predictor of causative behaviors in Marshallese, but offer no explanations. The primary focus of this thesis is to examine lexical aspect's influence on causative derivations. This project shows that Marshallese stative verbs display two distinct causative constructions: stative causatives and causative abstract nouns. The Marshallese causative prefix, ka-, tends to exhibit common crosslinguistic patterns of causative constructions as laid out by Dixon and Aikenvald (2000). …

Designing Secondary Level Physics Course’S Instruction Over Lms, Jimita Pokharel

Instructional Psychology and Technology Graduate Student Projects

This project aimed to revamp the science course delivery at a private school in the Tanahun district of Nepal, with a primary focus on transitioning from conventional in-person instruction to a blended learning model. The specific target was the 10th-grade physics curriculum, encompassing Units 1–4. The existing teaching methodology relied on paper-based materials and face-to-face lectures, lacking any online teaching or learning components. This transformation sought to address this gap, recognizing the increasing significance of online education in adapting to unforeseen challenges such as the COVID-19 pandemic and aligning with the advancements in the global educational landscape.