Digital Commons Network^™

Use Of Cultural Topics In Electronic Dialogue Journals In The Foreign Language Classroom, Katya Elizabeth Monge Jacome

Dissertations and Theses

The purpose of this study has been to determine what effect the difference in cultural and general topics has on the length, complexity, and quality of resulting entries in electronic dialogue journals. The data, which consisted of 132 electronic dialogue entries generated by eleven adult students in a second year university Spanish course over a period of four weeks, were measured for length, in terms of total words and total number of t-units; complexity, by dividing the total number of words by the total number of t-units; and quality, as assessed by the Jacobs profile (1981), which considers the following …

The American Of Japanese Heritage: Nisei (Second-Generation Japanese Americans) And Their School Education In The Pacific Northwest Before World War Ii, Misako Sadahiro

Dissertations and Theses

The Pacific Northwest opened a door of opportunity for people from all over the world. Among those who settled there to pursue the American dream were many Japanese and their descendants. Since the establishment of direct shipping line between the Pacific Northwest and Japan in the late nineteenth century, numerous Japanese immigrants crossed the Pacific Ocean to seek employment in the United States. As the number of lssei (first generation Japanese) increased, they began to organize institutions to help each other and improve their life in the New World. One of the most significant institutions was the Japanese Language School. …

Discourse Analysis: Backchanneling Behavior Of Advanced Speakers Of English/Japanese As A Second/Foreign Language, Keiko Ikeda

Dissertations and Theses

When a Japanese speaker or an American English speaker is engaged in an interaction in their second/foreign language (L2), they have choices in terms of language performance. They can maintain their behavior as what is conventional in their own first language/culture, what is expected in the partner's first language/culture, or what is believed to be the appropriate language behavior in the language in use (L2).

In this current study, backchanneling behavior is chosen to be one socio-pragmatic behavior that can be very different depending on language/culture. Data were collected in telephone conversations from a total of four listeners, all advanced …

Teacher Self-Disclosure From The Perspective Of International Students In The Communication Classroom: A Case Study, Darlene J. Geiger

Dissertations and Theses

Self-disclosure as an interpersonal concept was developed almost 40 years ago with the work of Sydney Jourard. Although the original definition included nonverbal forms of communication, the concept has evolved since then into an 'intentional act of sending verbal information about one's self. In contrast, the present study broadened the definition for self-disclosure to include nonverbal behaviors and took a new methodological approach to understanding the effects that self-disclosure can have for international students in the communication classroom context.

Teacher self-disclosure from the perspectives of international students is an unexplored area and therefore a phenomenological, qualitative case study approach utilizing …

International Students' Experiences In Higher Education: A Case Study Examining Uncertainty Reduction Theory In Communication Classrooms, Susan Kuhn

Dissertations and Theses

This was an exploratory case study which focused on international students' experiences in higher education. In particular, this study investigated the efficacy of uncertainty reduction theory in communication classrooms. The research asked four exploratory questions: (a) What are the students’ perceptions of the teacher/student relationship? (b) Do international students experience uncertainty in communication classrooms? (c) If uncertainty is experienced, what is its source(s)? (d) If uncertainty is experienced, do students seek to reduce it, and if so, how?

A phenomenological perspective was utilized in this study as the organizing, theoretical framework. Relevant literature on uncertainty reduction theory was reviewed as …

Learning, Motivation, And Self: A Diary Study Of An Esl Teacher's Year In A Japanese Language Classroom, Laura Ruth Hawks

Dissertations and Theses

Using a journal kept during a year in a second-year level Japanese language class, a diary study of an adult's foreign language experience was undertaken by an ESL teacher and graduate student. Kept as a means of releasing the anger, stress, and frustration that initially accompanied the learning experience, the journal provides a basis for the analysis of cultural, pedagogical, and personal variables that affected the learning process.

The introspective and longitudinal nature of the study provides not only a description of the learning environment and teaching method over time, but also illuminates otherwise unobservable aspects of the learning experience, …

Faculty Senate Monthly Packet April 2000, Portland State University Faculty Senate

Faculty Senate Monthly Packets

The April 2000 Monthly packet includes the April agenda and appendices and the Faculty Senate minutes and attachments from the meeting held March 2000.

Portland Dialect Study - High Rising Terminal Contours (Hrts) In Portland Speech, Rebecca A. Wolff

Dissertations and Theses

This study reports on the use of an intonation contour used in declarative clauses that is referred to in at least some of the literature as a "High Rising Terminal Contour" (HRTs). The intonation pattern is characterized by a final rise, which is similar to the pitch change used in yes-no questions. The purpose of this study is to document the use of this intonation pattern by residents of Portland, Oregon, in order to see what light it can shed on the HRT's status and function, especially among the young to see if it can be implicated in language change. …

Survey Of Support For And Opposition To English Only Legislation In The Greater Portland Region, Leah Ann Woodruff

Dissertations and Theses

The politics of language is something that all ESL instructors will deal with at some point in their careers. The English Only Movement is an important part of the current trend in language legislation. As ESL instructors we need to understand what motivates people in our communities to support or oppose such legislation, so that we can better prepare our students to operate in that community. Many articles have been written on the English Only Movement, but the vast majority of them are from a historical or politically partisan view. Little research has been done in regard to why this …

The Relationship Between Chinese Character Recognition Strategies And The Success Of Character Memorization For Students Of Mandarin Chinese, Hui-Yen Emmy Chen

Dissertations and Theses

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between beginning Chinese language students' character memorization and the strategies they used for the recognition of Chinese characters. In the experiment, a new character teaching approach, the phonetic-ideograph strategy, was introduced to all the subjects during two quarter terms. Subjects participated in the study were divided into two groups depended upon their language backgrounds: the phonographic group and the morphographic group. All the subjects in the phonographic group were English speakers and subjects in the morphographic group were Japanese speakers. All the subjects received the same treatment in the study. …

The Effect Of Using Averaged Versus Custom Real-Ear To Coupler Difference Values In The Desired Sensation Level Approach To Prescribing Hearing Instrument Gain, John Aaron Coverstone

Dissertations and Theses

Because there are many variables and much missing information when fitting young children with hearing instruments, it is necessary to rely on prescriptive procedures such as the Desired Sensation Level (DSL) Method to create target 2cc gain values for ordering and fitting hearing instruments. Inherent in creating 2cc targets is a conversion process known as a real-ear to coupler difference (RECD) measurement. The DSL algorithms make allowances for averaged data to be used in lieu of this measurement.

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the validity of using averaged real-ear to coupler difference values included in the DSL …

Bulletin: General Catalog Issue 2000-2001, Portland State University

Bulletin & Curriculum Change Documents

No abstract provided.

A Comparison Of The Child Directed Speech Of Traditional Dads With That Of Stay-At-Home Dads, Judith Nancarrow Barr

Dissertations and Theses

The speech that mothers use when addressing adults has consistently been shown to exhibit modifications when the conversation partner is their language-learning child. Fathers adopt similar changes in the structural linguistic aspects of their Child Directed Speech (CDS), but their patterns of discourse remain more of a challenge for the child. This contrast in parental language is thought to be beneficial to the language-learning child: a mother's language focuses on the child as a conversation partner, whilst a father's more demanding language is considered a "Bridge" between the mother's and that of adults in the outside world. With family roles …

Effects Of Three Training Components In An Aac Intervention For An Adult With Severe Broca’S Aphasia, Bradley Josef Hendershott

Dissertations and Theses

Individuals with severe nonfluent aphasia may lose functional verbal communication. With the loss of fluent speech, one may also lose the capacity to share in the casual conversation that enriches our lives. A rehabilitative course that seeks to stimulate restoration of verbal abilities can be lengthy with uncertain outcomes. Fortunately, Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) interventions have shown promise in treating aphasia by providing non-verbal means of communicating. Communication aids designed around specific topics and comprised of words and pictures have been used by persons with aphasia to participate in conversations. Such aids have shown promise in facilitating successful conversation …

The Influence Of Cultural Backgrounds On The Interpretations Of Literature Texts Used In The Esl Classroom, Barbara Jostrom Gates

Dissertations and Theses

This study was a detailed descriptive investigation into the different interpretations and perceptions that are evoked by readers of United States literature, based on their cultural backgrounds and experience. Grounded in research that advocates for the convergence of culture and literature in the language classroom and a research design based on reader-response theory, this study explored the responses of two groups of students from the University of Portland: international students, the majority of whom were English as a Second Language (ESL), and U.S. citizens, all of whom were native speakers of American English.

Through a reader-response style questionnaire modeled after …

Recent Geographical Research On Indians And Inuit In The United States And Canada, Robert Rundstrom, Douglas Deur, Kate Berry, Richard Winchell

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

A geographical survey on Indians and Inuit in the United States and Canada..

Error Correction Preferences Of Latino Esl Students, John Burrell

Dissertations and Theses

The present study looked at the error correction preferences of 172 adult Latino ESL students. It was a modified replication of a study which looked at the error correction preferences of Japanese university students. A questionnaire was used to gather the data. The questionnaire measured the participants' general preferences for error correction, attitudes towards peer correction, the desired frequency of correction in five aspects of language and preferences for specific types or methods of error correction.

The study found a very positive attitude towards error correction by the teacher. There was a positive attitude towards peer correction, but only from …

An Evaluation Of Earobics I In Improving Phonological Awareness In 6- And 7-Year-Old Boys Who Are At-Risk For Reading Disabilities, Wendy Goughnour Gunter

Dissertations and Theses

Earobics Pro PLUS Step I (Earobics I) is a software program designed to increase the auditory processing and phonological awareness skills of children when used in conjunction with traditional intervention. Phonological awareness is the ability to manipulate the sounds of a language and has been shown in previous studies to have a strong relationship with reading ability. Phonological awareness can be taught, and studies have been conducted in an effort to determine effective methods for teaching phonological awareness. No studies have been published on Earobics I to this date.

In this study, the effectiveness of Earobics I was analyzed with …

Jorge Guillén - Entry 1, Eva Núñez-Méndez

World Languages and Literatures Faculty Publications and Presentations

Entry. Jorge Guillén. Encyclopedia of Literary Translation, 1: 731-32. Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers, London, U.K. Jorge Guillén was a Spanish poet, a member of the Generation of '27, as well as a university teacher, scholar and literary critic.

Juan Ramón Jiménez - Entry 2, Eva Núñez-Méndez

World Languages and Literatures Faculty Publications and Presentations

Entry. Juan Ramón Jiménez. Encyclopedia of Literary Translation, 1: 593-94. Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers, London, U.K. Juan Ramón Jiménez was a Spanish poet and prolific writer who received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1956 for his lyrical poetry, and an advocate of the French concept of "pure poetry."

Chinese Numeratives And The Mass/Count Distinction, David Goodman

Dissertations and Theses

This study investigates the mass/count distinction for lexical nouns, and how this is formalized morphosyntactically in language. English is one language in which a grammaticized mass/count distinction can be seen--though there are varying explanations regarding what this distinction actually signifies. Chinese, on the other hand, is a language which might appear to be missing a formalized mass/count distinction. However, I postulate that Mandarin Chinese does in fact have a syntactic-distributional diagnostic available for teasing apart mass nouns from count nouns.

The diagnostic that I propose for finding a mass/count distinction among lexical nouns in Mandarin lies in the distribution of …

Human History As A Natural Science. Review Of: Guns, Germs, And Steel: The Fates Of Human Societies By Jared Diamond, Robert Costanza

Institute for Sustainable Solutions Publications and Presentations

Book review of Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies. Jared Diamond. W. W. Norton, New York, 1997.

Portland State Magazine, Portland State University. Office Of University Communications

Portland State Magazine

PSU’s alumni magazine, published 2-3 times a year. In this issue: The Willamette River can be made safe to drink, say researchers, but who wants to?; the technology for a super fast, home, Internet connection is brand new, in demand, and taught at Portland State; new help is finding the right word and the right career in writing; performing jazz drives this alumna to local night spots and to the recording studio; alumni and faculty support a program that links at-risk children with long-term mentors; and more.

The Universal Nature Of Hatred: Keith Stimely And The Culture Of Holocaust Denial, Linda Maizels

Dissertations and Theses

A partial accounting of the discord beneath the seeming conformity of opinion within the insular community of the proponents of Holocaust denial was documented and preserved by Keith Stimely, a Holocaust denier who donated his personal papers to the University of Oregon Special Collections Library in 1991. The thesis uses the Stimely Collection to emphasize the universal nature of the hatred and animosity inherent in the denial movement.

Chapter One surveys revisionist historiography concerning both world wars and the manner in which the deniers appropriated the trappings of revisionism in their attempt to rewrite the history of the Nazi genocide …

An Ethnographic Study: Building An Identity Through The Stories Of An Italian-American Family, Gloria Marie Tottten

Dissertations and Theses

Storytelling involves the active utilization of both past experiences and future possibilities, which is sustained through interaction, and could not exist without its past and future counterparts. It is the vehicle through which all intertwine.

This implies that communication is a very important element in the formation of an individual's identity - and to the meaning given to the storytelling practices. As a family member tells a story, other members listen, question, and request more about particular aspects of the story. By talking and listening, family members produce a narrative together, a story.

The purpose of this study was to …

Faculty Senate Monthly Packet February 1999, Portland State University Faculty Senate

Faculty Senate Monthly Packets

The February 1999 Monthly packet includes the February agenda and appendices and the Faculty Senate minutes and attachments from the meeting held January 1999.

Bulletin: General Catalog Issue 1999-2000, Portland State University

Bulletin & Curriculum Change Documents

No abstract provided.

Critical Multiculturalism And The Globalization Of Capital: Some Implications For A Politics Of Resistance, Ramin Farahmandpur, Peter Mclaren

Educational Leadership and Policy Faculty Publications and Presentations

Despite the historic defeat of Marxism and constant attempts by so-called progressive educators to exorcize any residual Marxist discourse from the literature on multiculturalism, the contradictions of capital playing themselves out in the theater of contemporary social relations are beckoning Marx's spectre to return and further trouble those theories proclaiming that the "end of ideology" is upon us and that all we need to do in order to rescue humanity is to heed the clarion call of diversity. Too often overlooked in the debates over multiculturalism at present engulfing the academy are the myriad ways in which globalization is shaping …

Class Identity And The International Division Of Labor: Sri Lanka's Migrant Housemaids, Michele Ruth Gamburd

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

In 1996, 408,000 Sri Lankan women, nearly 10% of the country’s working-age women, worked abroad, many of them in the oil producing countries of the Persian Gulf. In this paper I compare the influence of international migration on local hierarchies of class and gender in two villages in southern Sri Lanka: a Sinhala-speaking Buddhist village where I did my doctoral dissertation research in 1992-4, and a Tamil-speaking Muslim village where I spent some time during the summer of 1997. I discuss the challenges of using ‘class’ as a unit of analysis in a non-Western setting where gender identities, family ties, …

Innovation In The Writing Center: A Diffusion Study, Talisman Kate Benton Saunders

Dissertations and Theses

An innovation is an idea, object, or practice that is perceived by a certain group as being new. To study the process by which an innovation is introduced to a certain target group and the results of the effort to convince the group to adopt the innovation is to study the diffusion of that innovation. This often involves examination of the social events and communication patterns among and between the stakeholders, change agents, and target group(s). The diffusion model is relevant and useful to many disciplines. It has many practical uses and applications for policymakers in that it offers the …