Digital Commons Network^™

Opportunities For Incidental Acquisition Of Academic Vocabulary From Teacher Speech In An English For Academic Purposes Classroom, Eric Dean Dodson

Dissertations and Theses

This study examines an English for Academic Purposes (EAP) teacher's speech throughout one curricular unit of an intermediate grammar and writing course in order to better understand which high-value vocabulary students might acquire through attending to the teacher and noticing words that are used.

Vocabulary acquisition is important for English for Academic Purposes students, given the vocabulary demands of academic language. The Academic Word List (Coxhead, 2000) has been shown to include important vocabulary in written academic texts, and has become a standard part of English for Academic Purposes curricula and pedagogical materials. Although explicit vocabulary instruction is important, research …

Teaching And Learning For Intercultural Sensitivity: A Cross-Cultural Examination Of American Domestic Students And Japanese Exchange Students, Yoko Hwang Sakurauchi

Dissertations and Theses

Global student mobility has become a dynamic force in American higher education. Integrating international students into diverse campus environments provides domestic as well as foreign students with enriched learning opportunities. However, a diverse campus climate itself will not make college students interculturally competent. Intentional curricular design is critical for overcoming issues such as resistance and reinforcement of stereotypes, but the research literature is extremely limited on effective pedagogical strategies for cultivating college students' intercultural sensitivity.

This paper explicates a research study to investigate college students' development of intercultural sensitivity through an intentional course design utilizing Kolb's (1984) learning styles cycle …

Levels Of Altruism, Martin Zwick, Jeffrey Alan Fletcher

Complex Systems Faculty Publications and Presentations

The phenomenon of altruism extends from the biological realm to the human socio-cultural realm. This paper sketches a coherent outline of multiple types of altruism of progressively increasing scope that span these two realms and are grounded in an ever-expanding sense of"self." Discussion of this framework notes difficulties associated with altruisms at different levels. It links scientific ideas about the evolution of cooperation and about hierarchical order to perennial philosophical and religious concerns. It offers a conceptual background for inquiry into societal challenges that call for altruistic behavior, especially the challenge of environmental and social sustainability.

"Had Sh'er Haute Gamme, High Technology": An Application Of The Mlf And 4-M Models To French-Arabic Codeswitching In Algerian Hip Hop, Samuel Nickilaus Mclain-Jespersen

Dissertations and Theses

The historical nature of language contact between French and Arabic in Algeria has created a sociolinguistic situation in which French is permeated throughout Algerian society. The prevalence and use of spoken French in Algeria by native speakers of Spoken Algerian Arabic has been a topic of interest to researchers of codeswitching since the 1970s. Studies have been conducted on codeswitching in Algerian media such as television, radio, and music.

The hip hop scene has been active in Algeria since the 1980s. Algerian hip hop lyrics contain a multitude of switches into French. This study explores the structural makeup of the …

Faculty Senate Monthly Packet February 2014, Portland State University Faculty Senate

Faculty Senate Monthly Packets

The February 2014 Monthly packet includes the February agenda and appendices and the Faculty Senate minutes and attachments from the meeting held January 2014.

Research & Strategic Partnerships: Quarterly Review, Volume 1, Issue 2, Portland State University. Research & Strategic Partnerships

Portland State Research Magazine

In this second issue of RSP’s Quarterly Review, we turn our attention to the Innovation and Intellectual Property office (IIP), which connects university research to companies both large and small. IIP Director Joe Janda works closely with faculty, students and staff who seek to get their discoveries into the commercial marketplace through licensing and the creation of startup companies. For a relatively youthful research enterprise like Portland State University’s, IIP’s successes to date have been remarkable.

The Review also highlights Social Determinants of Health (SDH), an initiative that exemplifies Portland State University’s ability to link research to the interests of …

Dead Newspapers And Citizens’ Civic Engagement, Lee Shaker

Communication Faculty Publications and Presentations

Using data from the 2008 and 2009 Current Population Survey conducted by the United States Census, this article assesses the year-over-year change in the civic engagement of citizens in America’s largest metropolitan areas. Of special interest are Denver and Seattle, where the Rocky Mountain News and Seattle Post-Intelligencer closed during the intervening year. The data from the CPS indicate that civic engagement in Seattle and Denver dropped significantly from 2008 to 2009 – a decline that is not consistently replicated over the same time period in other major American cities that did not lose a newspaper. The analysis suggests that …

Characteristics Of Spoken And Written Communication In The Opening And Closing Sections Of Instant Messaging, Kenta Nishimaki

Dissertations and Theses

This study examines opening and closing segments in instant messaging (IM) and demonstrates how openings and closings differ between oral conversation and instant messaging as well as the factors that account for the difference. Many researchers have discussed the differences and similarities between spoken and written languages. Tannen (1980) claims that spoken and written languages are not distinct categories and there is a continuum between them. She also holds that interpersonal involvement is one of the factors that determine if a particular communication is closer to spoken communication or written communication.

I will analyze IM, which is best thought of …

Effects Of Ethnicity And Gender On Sixth-Grade Students' Environmental Knowledge And Attitudes After Participation In A Year-Long Environmental Education Program, Rachel Stagner

Dissertations and Theses

The goal of environmental education (EE) has always been to increase knowledge about the environment and to foster positive environmental attitudes. Increasingly, as the call for integrating EE programs into mainstream science curriculum intensifies, it is important to continue to evaluate the effectiveness of these programs not only through measures of change in knowledge and attitudes, but through the additional criteria of meeting the needs of different gender and ethnic groups.

The purpose of this research was to identify whether a watershed education program was meeting the needs of diverse learners within the context of a year-long, integrated, sixth-grade science …

Self-Efficacy In Low-Level English Language Learners, Laura F. Blumenthal

Dissertations and Theses

Accounting for differences in second language proficiency attainment is an important area of inquiry in the study of Second Language Acquisition (SLA). Accounts of the language acquisition process have generally come from cognitive or psychological perspectives, which view language learning as primarily an internal mental/emotional process, or from sociocultural or critical perspectives that emphasize the influence of the learner's social environment. Research on variability in language learning has also failed to take into account the learning experiences of low-level learners.

This study adopted a social-psychological perspective on language acquisition that focused on the role of self-efficacy in learning, and applied …

A Study Of Small Talk Among Males: Comparing The U.S. And Japan, Chie Furukawa

Dissertations and Theses

This study seeks to understand the social interaction of small talk in two different countries. Defining small talk as 'phatic communion' and 'social talk' as contrasted to 'core business talk' and 'work-related talk,' Holmes (2000) claims that small talk in the workplace is intertwined with main work-talk. Small talk can help build solidarity and rapport, as well as maintain good relationships between workers. Much of the research on small talk has been focused on institutional settings such as business and service interactions; thus, there is a need for research on non-institutional small talk between participants without established relationships.

This study …

Protocol For Culturally Responsive Organizations, Ann Curry-Stevens, Marie-Elena Reyes, Coalition Of Communities Of Color

Center to Advance Racial Equity Publications and Reports

Communities of color have long been marginalized in mainstream service delivery – invisible in terms of their access to resources and services, the adequacy of such services, and in the types of interventions available to members of the community. When available, organizations have been ripe with inequitable outcomes. Today, greater attention to racial equity exists, with local leaders of color having been able to leverage influence to ensure that stronger accountability exists among mainstream organizations in terms of how well communities of color are served, with heightened emphasis on the cultural responsiveness of the entire organization. At the request of …

Judy Malloy's Seat At The (Database) Table: A Feminist Reception History Of Early Hypertext Literature, Kathi Inman Berens

English Faculty Publications and Presentations

When Robert Coover anointed Michael Joyce the ‘granddaddy’ of hypertext literature in a 1992 New York Times article, it could scarcely have been imagined that this pronouncement would come to define the origin of electronic literature. This short article examines the human and machinic operations obscuring Judy Malloy's Uncle Roger, a hypertext that predates afternoon. Malloy's reputation was stunted because Uncle Roger was algorithmically invisible, a factor that became increasingly important as the Web's commercial capacities matured. afternoon's endurance can be traced to its ISBN, which made afternoon easy for readers to find and united disparate stewards in preserving access …

Curriculum Change 2014-2015, Portland State University

Bulletin & Curriculum Change Documents

No abstract provided.

Bulletin: General Catalog Issue 2014-2015, Portland State University

Bulletin & Curriculum Change Documents

No abstract provided.

Theoretical Approach In A Case In Diachronic Phonetism: Betacism And Its Repercussions In Modern Spanish (Acercamiento Teórico A Un Caso De Fonetismo Diacrónico: El Betacismo Y Sus Repercursiones), Eva NúÑEz-MéNdez

World Languages and Literatures Faculty Publications and Presentations

This research deals with the loss of distinction between the bilabial and labiodental sounds, /b/and /v/, in Spanish using a theoretical and linguistic diachronical perspective. The phonetic evolution of these sounds and their confusion dates back t0 the roots of the Spanish language in the Peninsula territories, especially in the north, in close geographic contact with the Basque. This confusion was already taking place in Vulgar Latin and, specifically, in the Vulgar Latin spoken in the Peninsula. This lack of distinction evolved slowly until the seventeenth century when both sounds lost their phonemic contrast. Differences between the …

Models Of Oil Wood Coating Materials Selection According To Technological, Operational, Ecological And Economic Criteria, Larysa Yaremchuk, Tetyana Olyanshyn, Volodymyr Maksymiv, Liliya Stepanivna Hogaboam

Engineering and Technology Management Faculty Publications and Presentations

This article presents the use of system analysis methodology and Graph Theory for validation of the relationships among descriptive factors, which impact the selection of oil materials for wood finishing. Matrix analysis was used to determine the results of the pair wise comparisons of factor weights and optimization of the factor values. Modelling theories have been developed, which allow for construction of models of primary impacts of the factors on oil materials selection in protective and decorative wood coatings creation.

“Now Everyone Knows I’M A Serial Killer” Spontaneous Intentionality In Conversational Metaphor And Story-Telling, L. David Ritchie, Elena Negrea-Busuioc

Communication Faculty Publications and Presentations

Drawing on data from a series of informal conversations about public safety and police-community relations, we distinguish between a speaker’s generalized communicative intentions with respect to metaphor use and story-telling, based on what Chafe (1994, p. 145) calls “unifying ideas that persist in semiactive consciousness” and the spontaneous intentions that arise within the short-term focus or spotlight of consciousness and guide the production of actual utterances. Although speakers occasionally enter a conversation with a fixed intention to express an idea with a particular metaphor, tell a particular story in a particular style, or accomplish some other speech act, such as …

Gyalthang Southern Khams Tibetan: A Case Study Of Language Attitudes And Shift In Shangri-La, Simon Peters

Anthós

I begin by offering some highlighting certain aspects of Tibetan language variation with particular attention to the local Gyalthang variety. In the following section I introduce Gyalthang’s touristic Old Town and the language situation there, exploring how the highly divergent nature and mutual unintelligibility of Tibetan language varieties inform stakeholder language attitudes. I place Gyalthang Tibetan into the UNESCO framework for assessing language vitality to explore the interactions of these attitudes and the implications they have for the maintenance of the local Tibetan variety. I conclude with a discussion of what language shift in Gyalthang reveals about language shift in …

Rebirth And The Body: Ca Conrad And The Book Of Frank, Sean Hennessey

Anthós

There are many ways to look at the word "body." It can signify a physical body or a body of work; it can be the framework of a text (the body of the piece) or it can represent an organized group of people (a regulatory body). Taken as a whole, each of these facets of the word seem to signify a singularity that is created by the collective sum of its parts—the body is made up of limbs, trunk and head; a body of work is a collection of an artist’s output; the body of a text is made up …

Selected Critiques Of The Philosophical Underpinnings Of The Neoclassical School, Thomas Howell

University Honors Theses

This inquiry seeks to establish the importance of the critiques levied by Thorstein Veblen and Tony Lawson against the orthodox economics of a century ago and today. This paper puts forward the notion that Neoclassical school and its sub set known as marginal utility theory are constructed upon shaky philosophical and methodological foundations that include the hedonistic conception of man, Benthamite Utilitarianism, static equilibria, and the use of the mathematical deductivist method far beyond its scope of effectiveness. Writing in two different time periods, Veblen and Lawson comment upon the same essential methodological maladies and put forward alternative methodologies and …

Cultural Competency: A Quantitative Analysis Of Cultural Awareness In U.S. Healthcare, Jordan Nomie

University Honors Theses

A growing issue in healthcare in the United States is whether consideration and attentiveness of physicians and other healthcare providers towards a patient’s culture has an effect on the treatment process. An anthropological term, cultural competency, describes a medical professional’s respect and integration of the patients’ cultural beliefs and practices throughout the treatment process in order to reduce cross-cultural health disparities and to improve overall satisfaction. Although there is significant literature outlining a theoretical need for increased implementation of these practices, little work has been done to address actual quantitative evidence supporting or refuting the articulated need. The goal of …

What's On Your Mind? : A Generational Comparison Of Language Use On Online Social Networking Platforms, Samantha Stidham

University Honors Theses

This thesis explores the connections between user age and unique linguistic features used when communicating on Facebook and other online social networking platforms, in the form of a literature review. It includes a detailed history of computer-mediated communication, along with an analysis of all of Facebook’s features and how they contribute to communication via the site. The language features common to each age group (young adults/teens, adults, and seniors) are detailed, analyzed from Schwartz et al’s work Personality, gender, and age in the language of social media: The Open-Vocabulary Approach, along with making the argument that teens and seniors—the …

Katharsis & Tragic Pathos, Jared L. Wait-Molyneux

University Honors Theses

This project is bound up with the old question of what gives tragedy its lasting appeal. The majority of contemporary criticism on tragedy focuses on aspects having to do with the democratic polis. Many of these studies take this musical genre as primarily a means for exposing Athenian civic ideology and norms in social behavior. But this does not account for continued interest in Greek drama. To answer the question at hand, more attention needs to be paid [to] pathos and katharsis, by students and critics of Greek tragedy, as these are vital aspects of the tragic experience, both within …

Research Thesis Essay Of Findings From Campus Language Capacity Survey 2012-2014 Done In Collaboration With The Heritage Language Initiative, Laura Van Doren

University Honors Theses

This paper presents the findings of the Campus Language Capacity Survey 2013, a study conducted as an online survey to investigate heritage language usage at Portland State University. Heritage language is defined as “an indigenous or immigrant language other than English.” The survey was sent to 15,000 randomly selected participants from the PSU student, staff, and faculty body; over 1,000 responses were collected. There was a 10% response rate with 119 participants self-identified as heritage language speakers and/or learners. These participants are individuals in the PSU community who have ties to their heritage community. The top five heritage languages named …

The Sovereign Wolf: Feudal Tension And Noble Animal Changes In William Of Palerne, Charis Woodward

Anthós

Translated into Middle English from the twelfth century octosyllabic French Guillaume de Palerne, William of Palerne was commissioned by Sir Humphrey IX de Bohun, and composed by poet William, whom we know little about (Bunt, ll. 166). The problem with reading William of Palerne lies not within the constructed alliterative long lines, but in knowing howto read it. The intended audience for the translation of William of Palernehas been a topic of debate since the early nineteenth century. William writes his poem "in ese of Englysch men in Englysch speche" as stated in his introduction (ll. 168). …

Learning To Read (Gender): Children’S Animation And The New Heterosexism, Kaelyn Flowerday

Anthós

This paper examines and compares two American animated productions targeting elementary and middle school children, and in doing so aims to elucidate the handling of gender in similar television programs and feature films of the past three decades. These animated works are treated here as a Foucauldian apparatus, one predicated on the force of systematically structured observation, which functions to manipulate power relations in the favor of hetero- and cis-male order. The Disney feature Beauty and the Beast supplies a case for investigating the heterosexist discourses of these contemporary animated media. However, as will be shown, comparatively feminist animated works …

Protocol For Culturally Responsive Organizations: Literature Review And Standards For Performance, Marie-Elena Reyes, Ann Curry-Stevens

Center to Advance Racial Equity Publications and Reports

At the request of the Coalition of Communities of Color, the Center to Advance Racial Equity (CARE) was asked to assist in the development of a Protocol for Culturally Responsive Organizations (also called the Protocol) that it would use to improve the quality of services available to communities of color in mainstream health and human services. To achieve this, we have researched the literature available that provides evidence of the effectiveness of various interventions. Priority has been given to the literatures on culturally-responsive service delivery (which has been thin) and culturally-competent services (which while abundantly written about, relatively little exists …

For The Hard Of Hearing: A Catholic Novelist Confronts Modernity, Louis Benjamin Maltese

University Honors Theses

In the early part of the 20th century German Catholic theologian and cultural critic, Romano Guardini, published The End of Modernity, outlining the conceptual shift of self-identity and cosmology from Antiquity to Modernity. Characterizing modernity as turning upon a false self-identity termed “mass man.” This false image of life furthers the individual person’s fragmentation, and deafens their ability to hear the Catholic voice. Walker Percy’s familiarity with Guardini is most explicit in The Last Gentleman where Percy represents the difficulty of hearing the call of Catholicism. Recently, Paul Elie and Dana Gioia have pointed out the lacking literary presence …

Network Analysis-Based Psychoeducation For Gad, Corinna Scott

University Honors Theses

Psychoeducation, providing essential information for a client about psychological and physiological processes, is typically the first step in cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) but its content and implementation is currently underdeveloped. Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) is a prevalent mental disorder in the United States. Often, persons with GAD and their primary care providers and family do not recognize or understand the meaning of their symptoms because of the diffuse and imprecise nature of the diagnosis. This thesis aims to investigate a systems network analysis of generalized anxiety disorder to explore suggestions for enhancing psychoeducation as an initial intervention for GAD clients. A …