Digital Commons Network^™

The Development Of Global Awareness In Elementary Students Through Participation In An Online Cross-Cultural Project, Allen C. Grant

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This study provided insights about how to develop online cross-cultural projects designed to foster global awareness in upper elementary-age students. Three schools, located in the southern United States, Mexico and Turkey, implemented a cross-cultural model as part of a comparative case study. The primary goal of this research was to gain an understanding of how these populations develop global awareness in an online environment. A second goal was to determine the necessary implications for practice when conducting online, cross-cultural projects in upper elementary classrooms. During eight weeks of implementation, students participated in cross-cultural groups as members of an online community. …

Semiotic Modeling: Relevance To Trumpet Performance And Musical Interpretation Using Paul Hindemith's Sonata For Trumpet And Piano, Craig David Heinzen

LSU Major Papers

This paper is about the use of semiotics for the purpose of improving technical efficiency and musical interpretation in brass performance. Semiotics is the study of signs. The field is rooted in linguistics and logic, but has widened its influences to musicology and music theory in the last several decades. This paper constructs a model which simplifies music performance. The model has two components that address physical demands and musical analysis. The first component is a mathematically-based visual representation of the air stream used in brass performance. The second component of the model uses a reductive analysis. This analysis is …

A Day In The Parc: An Interactive Qualitative Analysis Of School Climate And Teacher Effectiveness Through Professional Action Research Collaboratives, Shannon Lasserre-Cortez

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This study examines the effects Professional Action Research Collaboratives (PARCs) have on several variables including teacher effectiveness, school effectiveness, and school climate. Mixed methods including Interactive Qualitative Analysis and non-parametric Mann Whitney U statistics were used to explore these effects. PARC participation was found to have no significant effect on school climate or teacher effectiveness; however, PARC Schools demonstrated higher school effectiveness scores than Comparison Schools. This project also generated a systems relationship diagram of school climate in PARC schools using Interactive Qualitative Analysis, and this paper offers a criticism of this fledgling method of data collection and analysis. There …

Viewing Novels, Reading Films: Stanley Kubrick And The Art Of Adaptation As Interpretation, Charles Bane

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Greg Jenkins has observed that adaptation "is a presence that is woven into the very fabric of film culture." Although this statement is true, no definitive theory of adaptation exists. Critics and scholars ponder adaptation, yet cannot seem to agree on what makes an adaptation a success or a failure. The problem of adaptation stems from many sources. What, if anything, does a film owe the novel on which it is based? How, if possible, does a film remain faithful to its source? Is a film a version of a story or its own autonomous work of art? Who is …

Distribution Dynamics Of Complex Systems, Young-Pyo Jeon

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

A complex system is defined as a system with many interdependent parts having emergent self-organization; analyzing and designing such complex systems is a new challenge. A common observable structure of many complex systems is the network, which is connections among nodes, and thus inherently difficult to describe. The goal of this research is to introduce an effective methodology to describe complex systems, and thus we will construct a population balance (distribution kinetics) model based on the association-dissociation process to describe the evolution of complex systems. Networks are commonly observed structures in complex systems with interdependent parts that self-organize. How networks …

"Nos Frères D'Outre-Golfe": Spiritualism, Vodou And The Mimetic Literatures Of Haiti And Louisiana, Jean-Marc Allard Duplantier

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The nineteenth-century Francophone literatures of Haiti and Louisiana are often dismissed as pale imitations of literary trends in metropolitan France. This study revisits these literatures and explores how Creole writers used borrowed ideas and imitated styles to assemble "relational" Creole identities. Two interrelated spiritual practices-the mid-century craze for "table turning" commonly known as modern Spiritualism, and the syncretistic New World religion Vodou-structured these writers' mimetic methods, enabling them to speak as, and thereby subvert the hegemony of, their cultural forebears. In France, the mid-century interest in Spiritualism provided French fantastic literature with a useful system for producing the many "revenants" …

Performing Citizenship: Tensions In The Creation Of The Citizen Image On Stage And Screen, John William Wright

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

What does it mean to be a “citizen” of the United States? In the simplest of terms, citizenship is a limited position of identity, relegated to a narrow definition of legal and geographical position for an individual. But to be a “citizen” in America means far more than that – it becomes an accepted image of our collective identity which seeks an historical and political supremacy that allows America, and its citizens, to claim ideological status over anyone who is not a part of that nationalistic frame. The citizen has, for us, become a set of understood rights and privileges, …

The Choral Music Of Anthony Burgess And A Conductor's Study Of Four Anthony Burgess Choral Pieces, Randall L. Hooper

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Anthony Burgess, primarily known for his literary career, was also a prolific composer. Composition and music was his first love and passion. At the present time, there is no study specifically on the choral music of Anthony Burgess and there have been only a few performances of his music. The primary goal of this paper is to consider the choral compositions of Anthony Burgess. In a comparison of the works list produced by Anthony Burgess in This Man and Music, a works list complied by Paul Phillips and the inventory of holdings in the Burgess collection at the Ransom Center, …

Grammatical Morphology Of Children Reared In Poverty: Implications For Specific Language Impairment, Sonja L. Pruitt

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

In the current study, the past tense systems of children reared in poverty were examined. Guiding the study was Rice and Wexler’s (1996) Extended Optional Infinitive (EOI) account, which makes a number of predictions about the past tense systems of children with specific language impairment (SLI). The goal of the current study was to determine if these predictions apply to other children with weak language systems, such as those reared in poverty. The participants included 15 six-year-olds from low-income backgrounds (LSES), 15 age-matched peers from middle-income backgrounds (AM), and 15 language-matched peers from middle-income backgrounds (LM). All were African American …

Media Use, Linguistic Preference And Social Capital In The Hispanic Community, Misti Mcdaniel

LSU Master's Theses

While considerable research had been devoted to the study of social capital, limited information is available assessing the connection between linguistic preference and social capital among ethnic groups. Research indicated the American Latino community exhibits levels of social capital similar to the greater United States populous. Latinos who preferred English-language media, however, exhibited higher levels of social capital than those who used Spanish-language media. Finally, Latinos who held a linguistic preference for English held higher levels of social capital than individuals who preferred Spanish.

Learner-Centered E-Learning: An Exploration Of Learner-Centered Practices In Online And Traditional Instruction In Higher Education, Helen Bourgeois Ware

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This study examined the perceptions of students and instructors in regard to learner-centered pedagogy and web-based learning at a regional public university in a southern state. The study focused on recommendations for online learning, studies of learner-centered pedagogy, and online learning practices such as collaboration, problem-based learning, reflection, asynchronous communication, and authentic learning and assessment. The research examined the students’ perceptions of learner-centered practices in online and traditional courses of the same instructors throughout one semester. The students’ perceptions were compared with the instructors’ perceptions of learner-centered practices in the courses. The qualitative investigation examined each instructor’s pedagogical beliefs about …

Development Of Spanish L2 Competence In A Synchronous Cmc (Chat Room) Environment: The Role Of Visually-Enhanced Recasts In Fostering Grammatical Knowledge And Changes In Communicative Language Use, Francisco Ramon Lluna-Mateu

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Taking into consideration some gaps observed in SLA research –noticing, recasts, input enhancement (IE),…– and in CALL/CMC research, a study was conducted among 12 advanced FL Spanish learners to assess whether and how, by communicating with a Spanish native speaker in 5 chat-room sessions, their language competence would develop in the following areas: 1) communication strategies; 2) communicative acts; and 3) grammatical knowledge of verb tense-aspect-mood (TAM) assignation. Subjects were assigned to a specific feedback condition/group (A: +recast, -enhancement; B: +recast, +enhancement; and C: no feedback) under which their TAM errors were treated in the sessions. Few research studies have …

Jack Kerouac's Spontaneous Prose: A Performance Genealogy Of The Fiction, Justin Thomas Trudeau

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This study analyzes Jack Kerouac’s writing method of spontaneous prose and articulates how the method can be understood as performative writing. Kerouac’s “Essentials of Spontaneous Prose,” On the Road, Visions of Cody, and Doctor Sax are explored to evaluate both the successes and failures of the author’s attempts to break literary boundaries and create a new writing method based upon spontaneous tenets. These three novels, which were written in succession from 1950 to 1953 when Kerouac was in his most productive period, represent both the emergence and dissent of the author’s use of performative writing. To explicate the cultural genesis …

Examining Middle School Students Learning Language Arts Skills In Context, Erica L. Dinkins

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether the embedded language approach is effective in teaching the traditional language arts curriculum, and whether it holds any advantages over the more traditional approach. Twelve teachers in ten different schools taught language skills using the embedded language approach, while twelve matched teachers explicitly taught the same skills using traditional workbook practice activities for six weeks. Treatment efficacy was assessed using gain scores between pretest and posttest using a battery of informal and standardized measures. In addition, weekly comprehension probes were administered to examine whether language arts skills taught during the week …

Hurricane Katrina: A Content Analysis Of Media Framing, Attribute Agenda Setting, And Tone Of Government Response, Brigette Lynn Brunken

LSU Master's Theses

This study content analyzed print media coverage of government response from four newspapers in the five weeks immediately after Hurricane Katrina, looking for common frames, attribute agenda setting, and tone. In addition, it assessed week-to-week differences throughout coverage. Findings indicate that the order of Semetko and Valkenburg's (2000) common frames changed, emphasizing human interest first. Conflict, attribution of responsibility, economic consequences, and morality frames followed. Media's use of attribute agenda setting was evident throughout coverage, primarily emphasizing the issues, relief and rescue, economic, negative timeliness, and rebuilding and repairing. Media's tone of government response was moderately neutral with federal tone …

Ontology-Based Methodology For Error Detection In Software Design, Allyson M. Hoss

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Improving the quality of a software design with the goal of producing a high quality software product continues to grow in importance due to the costs that result from poorly designed software. It is commonly accepted that multiple design views are required in order to clearly specify the required functionality of software. There is universal agreement as to the importance of identifying inconsistencies early in the software design process, but the challenge is how to reconcile the representations of the diverse views to ensure consistency. To address the problem of inconsistencies that occur across multiple design views, this research introduces …

The Abc's Of Hiv: When "Just Say No" Is Not Enough-Queer Critique Of Aids Policy, Lisa Laura Ladwig

LSU Master's Theses

This paper will critique the United States' AIDS policy, both domestic and international. I demonstrate how queer theorists have used Jacques Lacan's concepts of "jouissance" and the "unconscious desire" to suggests ways in which the current policy has dangerous implications for real people, for public health, and human rights. I reveal how the problem of rising HIV infection is not due to the lack of availability of safer-sex information, but rather it is a problem of execution: the Religious Right's ideology inscribed in our public health policy. Finally, I wish to expose how people in this country and others are …

Anti-Americanism: An Exploration Of A Contested Concept In Western Europe, Gregory Johnston

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Despite its popular currency and salience, anti-Americanism is understudied and misunderstood by social scientists. Even within academia, studies of anti-Americanism are often polemic, and logically or methodologically flawed. Focusing on Western Europe, we argue that anti-Americanism is a public opinion phenomenon, and present a definition of anti-Americanism based on social psychology, and demonstrate how cognitive psychological processes shape anti-Americanism. We outline several predictors of anti-Americanism, processes of internal cognition, responses to international political events, patterns of interpersonal communication and information diffusion, and the contextual role of ideology. We also observe the important implications European anti-Americanism has for support international institutions, …

Zachary Richard's "Faire Récolte": A Translation From The French, Michael D. Bierschenk

LSU Master's Theses

In the second half of the twentieth century, the Cajun language, which had been entirely oral for most of its history, began to emerge as a productive literary language. One of the prominent new authors of the period was Zachary Richard, also an important Cajun musician. One of his collections of poetry, Faire récolte (Les Éditions Perce-Neige, 1997), is translated here. This thesis also includes a translator's note that briefly explores the broad themes of the poems and the methods used in translating them.

Green Theatre: Proto-Environmental Drama And The Performance Of Ecological Values In Contemporary Western Theatre, Kurt Gerard Heinlein

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The aim of this study is to illustrate the purpose and potential of theatre that promotes a proto-environmental agenda, or Green Theatre, in re-orienting Western behavior and mores in a direction that creates positive socio-environmental change. In correlation, this dissertation will examine the objectives and performance modes of several educational and professional theatre entities that house a distinctly unique Green agenda. The primary performances featured will include Peter Schumann’s Bread and Puppet Theatre, Blue Man Group’s Tubes, performances by Koko the signing lowland gorilla, and Playmakers of Baton Rouge’s production of Habitat Cats.

Verb Aquisition In Students Of English As A Second Language: Language Learning Background And Attitudes, Erin Kyles Rogers

LSU Master's Theses

In order to determine how learner background and learner attitudes affected English as a Second Language students’ verb production, eleven ESL learners participated in both oral and written tasks. They were given written surveys to determine what was emphasized more in learning English in their home countries: speaking or writing. Another survey was administered to determine which of these activities that they liked best. Next, the subjects watched a movie clip, wrote about it, and then spoke about it. Their written and spoken total amount of verbs produced and total amount of verbs used correctly were compared and analyzed to …

Writing As A Cultural Negotiation: A Study Of Mariama Bâ, Marie Ndiaye And Ama Ata Aidoo, Catherine Afua Kapi

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Critical review of the existing literature on African women writers clearly shows that nowhere is the question of writing as a cultural negotiation posed, discussed or much less addressed. This is a lacuna that this dissertation addresses for the first time by proposing a re-reading of the selected works of Ama Ata Aidoo, Mariama Bâ and Marie NDiaye through the new prism of writing as part of cultural negotiation. In doing so, the dissertation goes beyond the paradigm of binary oppositions that undergirds the critical literature on writing by Sub-Saharan women in favor of the innovative concept of negotiation. In …

Exploring Implicit Versus Explicit Methods Of Teaching Phonemic Awareness Instruction To Kindergarten Students, Sue Antoinette Abshire

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This research explored whether there was a difference between two methods of phonemic awareness instruction. Two groups of kindergarten students were selected. One group received an implicit method of phonemic awareness instruction. A second group received an explicit model of phonemic awareness instruction. Of particular concern were these questions: What is the impact of phonemic awareness instruction on reading achievement? How does phonemic awareness instruction delivered via an implicit instructional method differ from an explicit, scripted method of instruction in their respective impact on reading achievement? Triangulation between the qualitative and quantitative data support the finding that an explicit method …

Repression And Reduction: The Apparatchik's Discourse In The Works Of Ammianus Marcellinus, Denis Diderot, Victor Serge And George Orwell, Jason Paul Juneau

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

In monopolizing political power, the state claims to possess the best idea towards leading a society and solving its problems. While these claims may vary according to regime, all face the eventual failure of expectation on the part of its subjects. No regime can master all the variables in running the country, and so it must convince their subjects otherwise of its legitimacy, despite the reality of their failure. The apparatchik’s discourse is the interaction of the state’s discourse and that of its institutions. This discourse is used to uphold the state’s legitimacy through the expertise of its institutions. The …

Easy's Gettin' Harder All The Time: The Computational Theory And Affective States, Jason Megill, Jon Cogburn

Faculty Publications

We argue that A. Damasio's (1994) Somatic Marker hypothesis can explain why humans don't generally suffer from the frame problem, arguably the greatest obstacle facing the Computational Theory of Mind. This involves showing how humans with damaged emotional centers are best understood as actually suffering from the frame problem. We are then able to show that, paradoxically, these results provide evidence for the Computational Theory of Mind, and in addition call into question the very distinction between easy and hard problems in the contemporary philosophy of mind. © Blackwell Publishing Ltd. 2005.

Charlestonians In War: The Charleston Battalion, William A. Spedale

Civil War Book Review

Hometown heroes

A Carolina war chronicle

Ernst Mayr And The Complexity Of Life, Dominique G. Homberger

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Front Matter

1650-1850: Ideas, Aesthetics, and Inquiries in the Early Modern Era

No abstract provided.

Forgery As Performance Art The Strange Case Of George Psalmanazar, Jack Lynch

1650-1850: Ideas, Aesthetics, and Inquiries in the Early Modern Era

No abstract provided.

Some Aspects Of Jonathan Swift's Perspective On Language, W. K. Percival

1650-1850: Ideas, Aesthetics, and Inquiries in the Early Modern Era

No abstract provided.