Digital Commons Network^™

Peer Response Groups In The Esol Classroom : A Study, Karin Dorothy Krueger

Dissertations and Theses

This qualitative study is introduced through a discussion of peer response groups and the researcher's interest in them. The guiding question of whether peer response groups are as useful for teaching writing ESOL classrooms as in first language classrooms is stated along with supplementary research questions. These are fol lowed by a review of relevant theories and summaries of peer response group hi story, social and cultural factors, and research done on peer response groups in first and additional language classrooms.

Sojourner Adjustment : A Diary Study, Susan Elizabeth Hemstreet

Dissertations and Theses

The focus of the ethnographic diary study is introduced and contextualized in the opening chapter with a site description. The thesis examines the diaries written during a sojourn of over two years in Japan . and proposes to answer the question, "How did the sojourner's initial maladjustment subsequently develop into satisfactory adjustment?"

Multiple Code Switching In An Okinawan Speech Community: An Ethnographic Perspective, Izumi Kawamitsu

Dissertations and Theses

The ethnography of communication is a mode of inquiry which investigates relationships between language and culture in a particular speech community. Based on the ethnographic perspective, this study examines a certain way of speaking at a specific historical moment in a specific community. The major focus is two disc jockeys who are characterized as "trilingual" speakers (Japanese-English-Okinawa dialect) and their code switching activities in an Okinawan local radio program.

The three-month field study took place on the island of Okinawa. Data were collected from observations at the two radio stations, transcriptions of the program, and interviews with the DJs, the …

The Relationship Between The Use Of Graphophonic Strategy And The Success In English Vocabulary Learning For Chinese Students, Ching-Chih Christine Huang

Dissertations and Theses

For Chinese EFL learners, the skill of vocabulary learning is one of the most essential elements in their English learning process. Many Chinese students transfer their familiar character-learning strategies, which include shape identification and rote memorization, in their English word-learning process. As a result, they may spend time and effort associating the shape, the sound, and the meaning of an English word before they learn and memorize it. Since they do not take advantage of the correspondence between the print and the sound, their vocabulary-learning process seems to be less effective.

Faculty Senate Monthly Packet December 1991, Portland State University Faculty Senate

Faculty Senate Monthly Packets

The December 1991 Monthly packet includes the December agenda and appendices and the Faculty Senate minutes and attachments from the meeting held November 1991.

The Effects Of Captioned Videotapes On The Listening Comprehension Test Scores Of Esl Students, Yuan-Chyuan Andy Lin

Dissertations and Theses

This study was meant to provide some empirical evidence to confirm or disconfirm the assumption that the use of captioned videotapes will enhance the listening comprehension of second language students. This study compared the listening comprehension test results of intermediate English as a Second Language (ESL) students using videotapes with and without captions. Two episodes of an educational program were selected for the study. Students viewed one episode with captions and a second episode without captions. A total of sixty-four students participated in this study. Thirty-two students in Class 1 watched Video I with captions first and then watched Video …

The Importance Of Phonological Practice And Other Strategies For Vocabulary Recall And Comprehension, Kristi Allyn Dubois

Dissertations and Theses

This study looks at English as a Second Language (ESL) students' use of vocabulary learning strategies and whether use of specific strategies is related to success in vocabulary recall and comprehension tests. The primary part of the study focuses on the hypothesis that phonological practice with new words will aid long-term recall and comprehension of these words. An empirical experiment with an experimental and control group was designed to test this hypothesis. The secondary section of the study discusses how often subjects reported using the vocabulary learning strategies categorized by Rebecca Oxford in Language Learning Strategies: What Every Teacher Should …

An Investigation Of English Spelling Problems Of Arabic-Speaking Students, Deborah Georgette Keim

Dissertations and Theses

In this two-part study, English spelling errors of Arabic speaking students are investigated. Specifically, an empirical study is done to document and investigate exactly what kinds of English spelling errors Arabic-speaking students actually make. Then these data are analyzed and spelling error patterns are discovered. Next, a study is done to determine if the presence of spelling errors in written work has a significant negative effect on readers' evaluations of this writing.

Effects Of Setting On Japanese Esl Students' Interaction Patterns, Noriko Yamamoto

Dissertations and Theses

Japanese ESL students are often evaluated negatively by their teachers because of their quiet verbal behavior in the classroom; yet, this study suggests that such silence may be situation specific. The purpose of this study is to describe characteristics of eight Japanese ESL students' production and interaction by comparing with those of four non-Japanese students, across three settings: teacher-fronted, group work, and NS-NNS conversation.

Psychology, Culture And Female Texts: Brigitte Schwaiger's Wie Kommt Das Salz Ins Meer, Julienne Eden Busic

Dissertations and Theses

In recent years, there has been extensive debate in the area of literary criticism, much of it focused on real or imagined differences between male and female texts. French feminist theorists, Helene Cixous and Luce Irigaray, to name a few, argue that biological differences necessitate textual differences, while others reject this essentialist position, considering it just another means for perpetuating the notion of female inferiority. Many linguists assert that women use language differently than men, and that texts reflect these differences. But in order to analyze the origin of any textual differences, it is necessary to look beyond biology and …

The Function Of Phrasal Verbs And Their Lexical Counterparts In Technical Manuals, Brock Brady

Dissertations and Theses

This study investigates the use of phrasal verbs and their lexical counterparts (i.e. nouns with a lexical structure and meaning similar to corresponding phrasal verbs) in technical manuals from three perspectives: (1) that such two-word items might be more frequent in technical writing than in general texts; (2) that these two-word items might have particular functions in technical writing; and that (3) frequencies of these items might vary according to the presumed expertise of the text's audience.

The technical manual was studied because it is the fundamental genre of technical writing and is applicable to a wide audience. Both "lay" …

Intercultural Communication Competence And Intercultural Adjustment Of Japanese Business Sojourners And Their Spouses, Muneo Hotta

Dissertations and Theses

The purpose of this thesis was to examine the relationship among intercultural communication competence, attitudes toward the U.S. culture, and linguistic skills in English for Japanese business sojourners and their spouses living in the United States.

Nasality In Kisi, George Tucker Childs

Applied Linguistics Faculty Publications and Presentations

This paper presents the various manifestations of nasality in Kisi, a Mel language belonging to the Southern Branch of (West) Atlantic. In this language, as in many West African languages, nasality plays a prominent role in the language's sound system and grammar. Nasality in Kisi is realized phonetically on both consonants and vowels and phonologically on consonants. There are even cases of 'spontaneous nasalization', situations in which there is no nearby nasal segment to contribute the nasal feature. Nasality may also function in the morphology and is used expressively for emphasis. The findings reported here will be of use to …

A Study Of Qualitative Miscue Analysis Scoring Systems For Identification Of Instructional Reading Levels, Sylvia Estelle Dean

Dissertations and Theses

The purpose of this descriptive study was to determine the accuracy and practicality of May's Poor Reader (PR) scoring system for the informal reading inventory (IRI), an individual assessment device designed to determine a student's instructional reading level. The PR is a qualitative scoring system developed by Frank May that examines only two miscues (defaults and meaning-denigrating substitutions) in arriving at an estimate of instructional reading level. The predictor variable, PR, was compared for accuracy and practicality with five other predictor variables consisting of four traditional quantitative scoring systems and an additional qualitative system of May's; PR was also compared …

Written Narrative Texts Of Language Impaired And Normal Adolescents, Kevin Jon Penner

Dissertations and Theses

Classroom teachers frequently refer adolescents to speech language pathologists for language skills evaluations. Many of the traditional evaluation tools of the speech-language pathologist focus on the student's oral language skills. The first indication to the classroom teacher that there may be a language problem, however, is usually from the student's written classwork. Very few written language assessment tools are available which give speech language pathologists information regarding linguistic units which can be viewed as communication acts. This paper focuses on one particular discourse unit - the written narrative. Narratives are a natural form of thought and demonstrate how a person …

Metaphoric Extension As A Basis For Vocabulary Teaching In English As A Second Language, Dennis L. Bergmann

Dissertations and Theses

This thesis addresses the problem of teaching and learning vocabulary in English as a Second Language (ESL), and proposes that a vocabulary based on the process of metaphoric extension could be taught directly. Despite the fact that an inadequate vocabulary is one of the main obstacles for intermediate-level ESL students, both ESL teachers and applied linguists have emphasized other aspects of English more than the study of vocabulary teaching and learning. Consequently, ESL students have few strategies for learning vocabulary other than reliance on the dictionary, and the predominant strategy for teachers is to present words rather unsystematically in the …

A Study Of The Perceptual Learning Style Preferences Of Japanese Students, Elizabeth Ann Hoffner

Dissertations and Theses

This study was based on a study by Joy Reid (1987) on the perceptual learning style preferences of English as a Second Language (ESL) students. The purpose of this study was to identify the perceptual learning style preferences of three groups of students: Japanese students studying in the US, Japanese students studying in Japan, and American students studying in the US. The perceptual styles studied were visual, auditory, kinesthetic, and tactile, with the additional styles of group and individual learning also being studied. The learning style preferences were identified so as to determine the relationship between style and the variables …

Telling Stories (Out Of School) Of Mother Tongue, God's Tongue, And The Queen's Tongue: An Ethnography In Canada, Joan Ratzlaff Swinney

Dissertations and Theses

Histories give little attention to language dominance in school and community -- to the fact that the past one-hundred years of "One People, One Language, One School" attitudes, policies, and goals in Anglo-American schools and communities have brought with them the demise of Native-American languages, the disappearance of linguistic differences due to immigrant origin, the disvalue or stereotype of linguistic patterns derived from regional and ethnic variation, and the insistence on English as a mark of linguistic and intellectual virtue. Telling Stories (0ut of School) of Mother Tongue, God's Tongue, and the Queen's Tongue: An Ethnography in Canada gives attention …

Analysis Of English Articles Used By Japanese Students, Noriko Iwasaki

Dissertations and Theses

English articles are perhaps the most difficult grammatical items for Japanese students to master. However, because these are among the most frequently occurring grammatical items in English, Japanese students must concern themselves with them.

Patterns Of Rhetoric/Patterns Of Culture : A Look At The English Writing Of Japanese Students, Suzanne Raschke

Dissertations and Theses

That a link exists between language and culture has long been accepted; however, not only the extent, but also the exact nature of that link remains unclear. In recent years, rhetoricians have raised questions about how culture affects the patterns of organization and other rhetorical features of writing. At present, the search for answers to these questions is made difficult by the cultural bias imposed by the language of any analysis of writing that may be undertaken and by a lack of criteria that can be used in performing such an analysis.

Percentage Of Phonological Process Usage In Expressive Language Delayed Children, Sherri Lynn Miller

Dissertations and Theses

Language delay and phonological delay have been shown to coexist. Because they so often co-occur, it is possible that they may interact, sharing a relationship during the child's development. A group of children who were "late talkers" as toddlers, achieved normal development in their syntactic ability by the preschool period. Because their language abilities are known to have increased rapidly, data on their phonological development could provide information on the relationship between phonological and syntactic development.

The purpose of this study was to compare the percentage of phonological process usage of the eight most commonly used simplification processes in four-year-old …

Introduction, Lawrence Wheeler

Anthós Journal (1990-1996)

Introduction to the Summer 1991 edition of Anthos/Undergraduate Research Journal.

Evidence And Interpretation In The Archaeology Of Jamaica, E. Kofi Agorsah

Black Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations

One of the most challenging statements in the Archaeology of the New World is the one made by James Deetz, an eminent Archaeologist, that: "The personalities of prehistory will remain forever nameless and without faces", (Deetz 1977). Any one with background training in prehistoric Archaeology of the Old ~rid would at first glance at the statement view it with scorn. I was no exception to this reaction. But when I started updating myself on archaeological studies in the Caribbean I started giving the statement a serious thought especially having come across Clinton Black's description of the first Jamaicans as "a …

Women In African Traditional Politics, E. Kofi Agorsah

Black Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations

This article attempts to trace, by use of archaeological, historical and cultural evidence, certain structural features of African political systems that provide specific roles for women and the significance of these structures for African politics (compare Canham 1949; Badu 1965; Adu 1949; Busia 1951). It will be shown that in some cases the bases for the development of such political structures continue to exist in some African political systems of modern times. Examples from Egypt, Sierra Leone, Ghana, Nigeria and other countries are used in the discussion to emphasize the significance of some of the roles played by women in …

Programs For At-Risk Students In The Washington County (Oregon) Schools: A Policy Study, John Young

Dissertations and Theses

This study develops recommendations for school district administrators and policy makers regarding policies and programs for students at risk of school failure. The study develops a descriptive picture of policies and programs for at-risk students in Washington County school districts and evaluates those policies and programs against criteria for effective policies and programs in order to understand the degree to which such policies and programs implemented in Washington County school districts correspond to criteria associated with effective practices reported in the literature. The study identifies 23 such criteria and numerous indicators associated with each. Data collection, analysis and evaluation were …

Faculty Senate Monthly Packet December 1990, Portland State University Faculty Senate

Faculty Senate Monthly Packets

The December 1990 Monthly packet includes the December agenda and appendices and the Faculty Senate minutes and attachments from the meeting held November 1990.

Politics And Education: The Nicaraguan Literacy Crusade, Teresa Squires Osborne

Dissertations and Theses

The Nicaraguan Literacy Crusade of 1980, carried out in the aftermath,of a long and destructive revolution, was able, in five months time, to decrease the nation's illiteracy rate from 50 percent to 13 percent. The newly fonned Nicaraguan government, recognizing the political nature of education, viewed its Literacy Crusade as a major step· in the development of a "new", post-revolutionary Nicaragua.

As a means of comparison, two other literacy campaigns are also examined: the Cuban campaign of 1961, and the UNESCO-sponsored Experimental World Literacy Programme, in place from 1965-1973.

The Cuban campaign served as a precursor to the Nicaraguan effort. …

Cross-Cultural Differences In Written Discourse Patterns : A Study Of Acceptability Of Japanese Expository Compositions In American Universities, Hiroko Kitano

Dissertations and Theses

Since Kaplan started the study of contrastive rhetoric, researchers have investigated Japanese and English compositions and have found some differences between them. However, few studies have investigated how these differences are perceived by native English readers when the different rhetorical patterns are transferred to English writing.

Drawing from Hinds' study, this research focuses on the following: how the Japanese style of writing is evaluated by Japanese and American readers, especially in academic situations, how Japanese rhetorical patterns are perceived by American readers, and how a change of organization affects the evaluation by American readers.

An Evaluation Of The Academic Success Of Students Who Participated In The English For Non-Native Residents Program At Portland State University, Linda Carol Andrews Dunn

Dissertations and Theses

Many programs exist across the United States to prepare non-native English speaking students for academic work. The effectiveness of these programs has been the subject of various research projects, with mixed results. Some have found that the programs they have examined seem to have led to higher achievement among participants. Others have found that it is difficult to show any effect. However, the amount of time and resources devoted to such programs warrants continuing efforts to evaluate their success.

This study compares the academic records of non-native English speaking students who were enrolled in the English for Non-native Residents Program …

Burns'eko Etxekoandreak: Basque Women Boarding House Keepers Of Burns, Oregon, Paquita Lucia Garatea

Dissertations and Theses

The migration of the Basques to the Pacific Northwest at the turn of the century was due to a number of factors including economic, cultural and political. The Basques constitute a distinct ethnic group from northern Spain and southern France, whose origins have not yet been determined by historical, linguistic, or archaeological studies. From ancient times, the Basques have fought to maintain their cultural identity and political freedom against invaders, developing in this struggle a strong sense of racial group solidarity. The lack of opportunity for advancement and the obligation to serve in the military were added reasons for the …