Digital Commons Network^™

On Communicative Competence: Its Nature And Origin, Mary Lou Emerson

Dissertations and Theses

The purpose of this thesis is to trace the lineage of the term communicative competence (CC) and to provide a framework for understanding the term CC, a controversial term introduced by Hymes (1972). This pager argues that the term CC is only meaningful if it includes competence in the same sense as Chomsky (1980) defines it--underlying knowledge of the rules of language severed from ability. Although Chomsky discusses competence in terms of grammar, he suggests that there may be underlying knowledge of language use-pragmatic competence. In the end, I will attempt to demonstrate the possibility that there is a competence …

“Where Girls Will Be Boys And Boys Will Be Girls”: The Spatial Perceptions And Place-Bound Identity Of The Drag Community In Portland, Oregon, Courtney Sullivan Villegas

Dissertations and Theses

Space is socially and culturally constructed. As such, experiences in and perceptions of the environment vary on the basis of culture and position in society. These perceptions influence the creation of places, especially places designed to make people feel accepted and at home. The building of such places and of community networks between these places is most important among groups who find themselves outside of societal norms.

This research examines these notions of space and place through a focus on the drag community in Portland, Oregon in order to determine whether spatial perception contributes to the construction of a place-bound …

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. …

Alcoholic Knowledge: An Interpretive Study, Daniel (Dance) Grant Taylor

Dissertations and Theses

This thesis is an example of Norman K. Denzin's postpositive research model of interpretive interactionism. This research model is meant for examining the micro-level social interactions that occur when the personal troubles of individuals interface with the public policies and institutions that have been created to respond to those particular kinds of troubles.

The original intent of this thesis was to locate the meaning of abstinence (from alcohol) held by a set of purposefully selected alcohol treatment providers in the Portland metropolitan area. The original hypothesis of this thesis proposed that individual understandings of abstinence would be affected by …

The Maximization Of Organizational Resource Utilization, Erich Pfeifer

Dissertations and Theses

This study investigated the relationship that exists between organizational structure and levels of organizational resource utilization. Literature establishes that levels of organizational resource utilization can be impacted by the usefulness of the structures designed to facilitate their access and use.

A case study was developed to demonstrate these principles in action. It focused on one organization, Portland State University, and the utilization of one resource, film and video in classroom teaching. These films and videos, as previously acquired resources, represent the learning potential they bring to students at Portland State University. The structures that connect instructors with this resource were …

Designing And Tailoring School/University Partnerships: A Straightjacket, Security Blanket, Or Just A Loose Coat?, Dannelle D. Stevens, Robert B. Everhart

Education Faculty Publications and Presentations

Formalized partnerships between colleges or universities and public schools have gained in popularity even though their impact remains uncertain. Such partnerships, existing under a variety of terms (the most common of which is Professional Development Schools [PDS}), are meant to bring together the resources and the expertise of the university and those of one or more public schools. PDSs typically center on three fundamental domains of activity: the preparation of new educational professionals, the continuing professional development of current staff, and the collaborative field-based research on issues of common interest.

This paper focuses on the process by which such partnerships …

Diy, Community, And Technology: The Impact Of Technology On Community Cohesion In The Portland Indie Rock Production Culture, Jeffrey Ross London

Dissertations and Theses

The purpose of the present study was to determine whether differences exist between those steeped in the practice of the use of the computer in music production and those reared in a mostly analog environment. In addition, this study aimed to develop theory concerning who may be in or out of the technology revolution in music. The areas of inquiry included the artists' situated perceptions of the quality, production aesthetic, and community role of the computer.

Subjects were selected using a snowball sample of those producers with an interest in the topic area. As the research developed, subjects were chosen …

Bend Community Survey: Fall 1999, Deborah A. Howe, William A. Rabiega

Center for Urban Studies Publications and Reports

The City of Bend enters the new millennium following an unprecedented decade of development. Population was estimated at 47,635 in May of 1999. The city more than doubled its area with its 1998 annexations. Many public and private projects were built during the past decade, and many are in planning stages or under construction at this time. Given this history, it is prudent for city government to determine how well Bend’s citizens feel public services are performing, how they feel about communication with their government, and what their concerns are about Bend’s future course.

This document reports a community survey …

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

Faculty Senate Monthly Packets

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

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

Bulletin & Curriculum Change Documents

No abstract provided.

Lesbian Gender Identities: An Expansion Of Bern's Sex-Role Inventory, Sheilagh Van Belthowing

Dissertations and Theses

The central research question of the current study had to do with self - an stereotypically- gendered identities of lesbians. The purpose was to determine the nature and form of gender identity and gender stereotypes among women who self-identify as lesbians, and more specifically, to determine whether or not “gender” means the same to lesbians as it does to heterosexual women. Identity measures were Bern’s (1974) Sex-role Inventory (BSRI) and a butch-femme rating scale. The sample consisted of 65 women who self-identified as lesbian. The lesbians in the current sample did identify more strongly with masculine attributes (Masculinity scale mean …

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 …

Tribal Constructs And Kinship Realities : Individual And Family Organization On The Grand Ronde Reservation From 1856, Aeron Teverbaugh

Dissertations and Theses

This project examines marriage and residence patterns on the Grand Ronde Reservation between 1856 and the early 1900s. It demonstrates that indigenous cultural patterns continued despite a colonial imagination that refused to see them. Members of the Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde continued to live in family groups much as they had in the pre-reservation era. They continued to exhibit patterns of marriage and kinship that were described in the ethnographies and by the earliest explorers in the Oregon area.

The Presentation Of Gender-Based Sexuality Scripts In Sex Education Films, Patricia Anne Drew

Dissertations and Theses

The manifest purpose of sex education films is to transmit factual information about sexuality to schoolchildren. However, films additionally contain covert messages informing students of proper and improper sexual roles. Films can reinforce patriarchal gender-differentiation within the sexual realm or, alternately, films can promote commensurate, non-patriarchal gender scripts for sexuality. This paper researches the ideological gender messages set within and transmitted by sex education films. Although sex education films represent only a small part of the sexual culture, the trends revealed in the films may indicate general parameters of US sexual culture.

The data set for this content analysis consisted …

Just For Money? : An Exploratory Study Into The Motivations Of Nude Dancers, Elaine Vance

Dissertations and Theses

Women working as nude dancers have been depicted both in academia and popular literature either as victims of patriarchal exploitation and economic oppression, or as empowered women choosing the most profitable form of work out of the limited options provided for them. This study explores these opposing motivational factors for the entrance and continuance of nude dancing, integrating the theoretical framework of Sex Positive feminism with Strauss and Corbin's (1990) grounded theory approach. Sex Positive feminism asserts that sex work is neither oppressive nor exploitative but rather can be a consensual and legitimate avenue resulting in an increase in women's …

Strategic Directions For Service-Learning Research: A Presidential Perspective, Judith A. Ramaley

Public Administration Faculty Publications and Presentations

Discusses service learning research, emphasizing: why institutions are interested in service learning; service learning to promote community involvement; college presidents' role in promoting service learning; creating the capacity for change; and a research agenda. Emphasizes how much can be gained from communication between higher education researchers, program managers, and campus leaders, with the scholar/president as the bridge between them.

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

Faculty Senate Monthly Packets

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

Harrowing Heroines And Communist Plots: Krest'ianka And Rural Policy, 1946-1949, Rachael Preiss Susman

Dissertations and Theses

After World War II, women became very important to the Soviet plan to reassert control over the countryside and reestablish agriculture in those areas hard hit by war. This happened because long term migration trends to the city and wartime casualties had made women the majority in the countryside. There was a need for them to exceed their previous contributions to agriculture, even as they struggled to cope with wartime losses.

State propaganda encouraged rural women to regard employment in agriculture as their patriotic duty. This study analyzes one publication aimed at rural women, Krest'ianka, and examines the following …

Income Distribution, City Size, And The Role Of Public Transportation, Thomas W. Sanchez

Center for Urban Studies Publications and Reports

This article presents an income inequality analysis for all 1990 U.S. metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs). The analysis is concerned with whether public transportation has a detectable influence on levels of urban income equality. Because public transportation systems are generally designed to link residences with employment locations, higher levels of transit service provision, all other factors being equal, should be associated with higher employment rates and more uniform distributions of economic gains. The research presented here was influenced by an analysis originally performed by Haworth, Long, and Rasmussen (1978). Along with there study, few analyses have tried to evaluate policies that …

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.

An Analysis Of Neighborhood Vitality: The Role Of Local Civic Organizations, Irina V. Sharkova, Thomas W. Sanchez

Center for Urban Studies Publications and Reports

This paper addresses the issue of neighborhood vitality from the perspective of social capital building. Numerous studies have shown that social capital - a complex of networks, norms, and social trust that promotes citizens involvement in local affairs - is crucial for the continuous well-being of communities. Among many political, economic, and cultural factors influencing social capital, the spatial dimension is most often overlooked. Yet the accessibility of places promoting social interactions and interpersonal communication between local residents should have a direct effect on the vitality of a neighborhood. Among these civic places are formal institutions - churches and locally …

Nativism In American Political Culture, Julie M. Wacker

Dissertations and Theses

The purpose of this discussion is to dispel the notion that the United States is and always has been a polity grounded in egalitarian ideals and open political processes. We should not ignore or make light of injustices such as slavery, segregation, Eurocentric immigration policies, and social and economic discrimination that have played a major part in our history. If only for the sake of historical accuracy, we should not dismiss these trends as temporary lapses in judgment in an otherwise open and plural society.

Yet some scholars do make the claim that we are a country founded on the …

The Sculpture Of Presence, Michael William Schmunk

Dissertations and Theses

My work was presented in the Autzen gallery. It consisted of seven individual sculptures. The materials used in the sculptures were steel and wood. The sculptures were placed in the gallery with regard to their spacing to each other and the walls, the effect of their reflections on the floor, and the utilization of the architecture (one leaned against the wall, another leaned on the cement windowsill). The gallery lighting was manipulated to create shadows that gave additional affect to the sculptures. The particular manner of presentation heightened each sculpture's effect of expressing a psychological presence to the viewer by …

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

Faculty Senate Monthly Packets

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

Another Look At The Portrayal Of Minorities And Women In Prime-Time Television, Tellisa Amos

Dissertations and Theses

This study updates a 10-year longitudinal study investigating TV's portrayal of minorities and women on prime time television. Prior studies focused on the types of roles held by performers. This study extends prior research, examining not only the types of roles held by performers, but also networks' preference for women and minorities and the genre that most often feature women and minorities.

Data were collected for a consecutive five-week period from February 19, 1997 to March 14,1997. From this sample 40 dramas and 115 situation comedies were recorded and coded. Programming was taken from shows that aired in the Pacific …

Law And Order, Abuse Of Power: A Study In Light And Shadow, Daniel J. Shea

Dissertations and Theses

In this installation piece, I am creating an environment, a stage if you will, to inform viewers through visual images, shadows and projections, to bear witness to an injustice through the machinations of the state. Philosophically and metaphorically, the piece is a walk through Plato's cave in search of the truth of things formerly perceived as shadows; it is also an allusion to illusions that are both transparent and opaque. It is a critique of "justice" and the administration thereof. There are elements of two and three dimensions employing drawing, painting, etching, photography, sound and a video projection. Materials include …

A Sociological Exploration Of Schisms In The Church Of Jesus Christ Of Latter-Day Saints: 1830-1985, Krista Lynn Smith

Dissertations and Theses

This thesis examined schisms in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1830-1985, concentrating on the relationship of religious organizational development and propensity to schism. It was hypothesized that as a religious group institutionalizes, it experiences crises that increase the likelihood for schism. This study used the LDS Church as a case study to analyze how organizational development correlates with schismatic activity.

It was found that a church is most safe from schismatic movements when the church is organizationally stable, but before major accommodation has taken place. For the LDS Church, this occurred from 1850-1890 when the church …

The Value Of Independence In Old Age, Paula C. Carder

Dissertations and Theses

Why is independence a central theme for proponents of assisted living facilities? How do assisted living providers respond to this theme? These questions are pursued in an ethnographic study centered on Oregon's assisted living program. Assisted living facilities (ALF), defined and monitored by Oregon's Senior and Disabled Services Division (SDSD), are a type of housing for disabled, primarily elderly, persons. Oregon Administrative Rules (OAR-411-56) define independence, requiring ALF providers to support resident independence.

Using social worlds theory as a sensitizing concept, assisted living is treated as a distinct social world. The activities of key groups, including SDSD staff, an ALF …

Acorn Foraging As A Means To Explore Human Energetics And Forge Connections To Local Forests, Jeffrey J. Gerwing, Pamela Lockwood, Christopher Uhl

Environmental Science and Management Faculty Publications and Presentations

Jeffrey Gerwing, Pamela Lockwood, and Christopher Uhl describe a rather unusual ecology laboratory/field exercise that utilizes abundant oak habitats of central Pennsylvania. For those readers not blessed with an abundant supply of oaks nearby, perhaps other species could be substituted. The exercise is unusual in two ways. It offers a new undergraduate ecology activity, and it offers opportunities for students to relate other disciplines to their science course.

In "the good old days" of higher education each discipline offered its menu of courses and expected students to make appropriate connections among the courses of their major, minor, and general education. …