Digital Commons Network^™

Protecting The Civil Rights Of English Language Learners Today: A Study Of The Recent Doj And Ocr Investigations Of Selected School Districts In The United States, Omobola Oyeleye

Department of Educational Administration: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The purpose of the study was to examine the circumstances and practices that led to OCR and DOJ investigations in seven selected school districts, and to determine the emerging themes from the details of the settlement agreements between the school districts and the United States. The themes developed through this study were aimed at providing a framework for school officials all across the nation, assisting them to examine their practices and align the practices with the results of the recent investigations and settlement agreements.

Representing the intermingling of the field of law and education, the study addressed the question: What …

Self-Efficacy For Metalinguistic Control And Its Relationship To Writing Quality, Michael S. Dempsey

College of Education and Human Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Currently influential models of writing processes, such as Flower and Hayes (1980) and Hayes (1996) do not attend explicitly to metalinguistics—writers’ ability to monitor and control linguistic skills. Dimensions of metalinguistic ability—metaphonology, metasyntax, metasemantics, metapragmatics, and metatext—arguably are central to the writing process and to writers’ success as they compose. The purpose of this study was to discover if a relationship existed between metalinguistic self-efficacy and (1) ratings on essays written by participants and (2) participants’ self-reported average grade on college papers. Essays were rated using two rubrics, one analytic and the other holistic, which were developed from metalinguistic constructs. …

Combined Erp/Fmri Evidence For Early Word Recognition Effects In The Posterior Inferior Temporal Gyrus, Joseph Dien, Eric S. Brian, Dennis L. Molfese, Brian T. Gold

Center for Brain, Biology, and Behavior: Faculty Publications

Two brain regions with established roles in reading are the posterior middle temporal gyrus and the posterior fusiform gyrus. Lesion studies have also suggested that the region located between them, the posterior inferior temporal gyrus (pITG), plays a central role in word recognition. However, these lesion results could reflect disconnection effects since neuroimaging studies have not reported consistent lexicality effects in pITG. Here we tested whether these reported pITG lesion effects are due to disconnection effects or not using parallel ERP/fMRI studies. We predicted that the Recognition Potential (RP), a left-lateralized ERP negativity that peaks at about 200–250 ms, might …

Coming Full Circle, Suzanne Crawford O’Brien

University of Nebraska Press: Sample Books and Chapters

Coming Full Circle is an interdisciplinary exploration of the relationships between spirituality and health in several contemporary Coast Salish and Chinook communities in western Washington from 1805 to 2005. Suzanne Crawford O’Brien examines how these communities define what it means to be healthy, and how recent tribal community–based health programs have applied this understanding to their missions and activities. She also explores how contemporary definitions, goals, and activities relating to health and healing are informed by Coast Salish history and also by indigenous spiritual views of the body, which are based on an understanding of the relationship between self, ecology, …

Herta Müller, Bettina Brandt, Valentina Glajar

University of Nebraska Press: Sample Books and Chapters

Two languages—German and Romanian—inform the novels, essays, and collage poetry of Nobel laureate Herta Müller. Describing her writing as “autofictional,” Müller depicts the effects of violence, cruelty, and terror on her characters based on her own experiences in Communist Romania under the repressive Nicolae Ceauşescu regime.

Herta Müller: Politics and Aesthetics explores Müller’s writings from different literary, cultural, and historical perspectives. Part 1 features Müller’s Nobel lecture, five new collage poems, and an interview with Ernest Wichner, a German-Romanian author who has traveled with her and sheds light on her writing. Parts 2 and 3, featuring essays by scholars from …

Ell High School Students Of Mexican Ancestry: A Phenomenological Study Of Language Ideologies, Kristine Sudbeck

The Nebraska Educator: A Student-Led Journal

The formation of languages and dialects is frequently considered a social process (Gal & Irvine, 1995). As such, humans form their own ideologies about particular language varieties, placing values on certain ones in a given context more than others (Greenfield, 2010). The development of a person’s language ideology can be influenced by the profit of distinction, which Pierre Bourdieu (1984) describes as the “noted margin of difference for usefulness and prestige of a particular language” (p. 55). It is through the process of misrecognition (Bourdieu, 1984) that a particular language is “recognized as legitimate and appropriate for discourse in official …

Articulatory Distinctiveness Of Vowels And Consonants: A Data-Driven Approach, Jun Wang, Jordan R. Green, Ashok Samal, Yana Yunusova

School of Computing: Faculty Publications

Purpose: To quantify the articulatory distinctiveness of 8 major English vowels and 11 English consonants based on tongue and lip movement time series data using a data-driven approach.

Method: Tongue and lip movements of 8 vowels and 11 consonants from 10 healthy talkers were collected. First, classification accuracies were obtained using 2 complementary approaches: (a) Procrustes analysis and (b) a support vector machine. Procrustes distance was then used to measure the articulatory distinctiveness among vowels and consonants. Finally, the distance (distinctiveness) matrices of different vowel pairs and consonant pairs were used to derive articulatory vowel and consonant spaces …

The Mayaarch3d Project: A 3d Webgis For Analyzing Ancient Architecture And Landscapes, Jennifer Von Schwerin, Heather Richards-Rissetto, Fabio Remondino, Giorgio Agugario, Gabrio Girardi

Department of Anthropology: Faculty Publications

There is a need in the humanities for a 3D WebGIS with analytical tools that allow researchers to analyze 3D models linked to spatially referenced data. Geographic Information Systems (GIS) allow for complex spatial analysis of 2.5D data. For example, they offer bird’s eye views of landscapes with extruded building footprints, but one cannot ‘get on the ground’ and interact with true 3D models from a pedestrian perspective. Meanwhile, 3D models and virtual environments visualize data in 3D space, but analytical tools are simple rotation or lighting effects. The MayaArch3D Project is developing a 3D WebGIS—called QueryArch3D—to allow these two …

Understanding The Language Of The Occupy Movement: A Cognitive Linguistic Analysis, Theresa Catalano, John W. Creswell

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Faculty Publications

In the expanding area of narrative inquiry, researchers often battle with the decision of how to analyze/interpret data. The aim of this article is to propose the use of cognitive linguistics as a tool in narrative analysis using as a case illustration interviews conducted in October/November 2011 with participants in the Occupy movement (Occupy). Results expose important metaphors/metonymies that reveal much about the perception of the movement by its inceptors. Not only did the analysis present the movement as a war and a force against government corporations, oppression, and inequality, but it was also seen as a strong structure and …

Science As A Second Language: Integrating Science And Vocabulary Instruction For English Language Learners, Stephanie Wessels

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Faculty Publications

In recent years, educators have become ever more aware of the critical role that vocabulary knowledge plays in the academic lives of their students. Vocabulary knowledge is fundamental to the comprehension of text and is most effective when it relates new words to students’ existing vocabulary and background knowledge. Effective vocabulary instruction provides multiple exposures through rich and varied activities that are meaningful and relevant to English learning (EL) students (Marzano 2004). This helps them gain ownership and understanding of the words, instead of just learning them well enough to pass a test. Nagy and Scott (2000) noted that “knowing …

Word Recognition From Continuous Articulatory Movement Time-Series Data Using Symbolic Representations, Jun Wang, Arvind Balasubramanian, Luis Mojica De La Vega, Jordan R. Green, Ashok Samal, Balakrishnan Prabhakaran

School of Computing: Conference and Workshop Papers

Although still in experimental stage, articulation-based silent speech interfaces may have significant potential for facilitating oral communication in persons with voice and speech problems. An articulation-based silent speech interface converts articulatory movement information to audible words. The complexity of speech production mechanism (e.g., co-articulation) makes the conversion a formidable problem. In this paper, we reported a novel, real-time algorithm for recognizing words from continuous articulatory movements. This approach differed from prior work in that (1) it focused on word-level, rather than phoneme-level; (2) online segmentation and recognition were conducted at the same time; and (3) a symbolic representation (SAX) was …

Occupy: A Case Illustration Of Social Movements In Global Citizenship Education, Theresa Catalano

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Faculty Publications

Due to the complex nature of global understanding and practice of citizenship, it is essential to understand how to educate for a responsive public sphere with active and emancipated citizens. This study aims to clarify how social movements (through a case illustration of Occupy) are representative of global citizenship goals while illuminating Occupy’s main goals and dynamic nature. Data collection consisted of 45 interviews conducted at four different Occupy locations in the United States. Interviewee comments entwined with key elements representative of global citizenship education are outlined, and findings indicate not only how social movements can be an integral part …

Geometry And Evolution Of Fold Structures Within The High Folded Zone: Zagros Fold-Thrust Belt, Kurdistan Region, Iraq, Mjahid Zebari

Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Understanding the deformation style within the Zagros Fold-Thrust Belt is crucial for understanding the convergence between the colliding Arabian and Eurasian plates and nature of structures that trap hydrocarbons within the belt. The Zagros Fold-Thrust Belt has propagated ~250 km southwest-ward in Northern Iraq. In this study, deformation style of a number of fault-related folds within a part of the belt has been considered. The research intends to understand the geometry and formation mechanisms of these folds, via constructing models for the deformation geometry of folds and associated thrusts at depth using field data and seismic lines and detecting their …

Toward An Interactive Directory For Norfolk, Nebraska: 1899-1900, Robert B. Allen

University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries: Presentations

We describe steps toward an interactive directory for the town of Norfolk, Nebraska for the years 1899 and 1900. This directory would extend the traditional city directory by including a wider range of entities being described, much richer information about the entities mentioned and linkages to mentions of the entities in material such as digitized historical newspapers. Such a directory would be useful to readers who browse the historical newspapers by providing structured summaries of the entities mentioned. We describe the occurrence of entities in two years of the Norfolk Weekly News, focusing on several individuals to better understand the …

The Role Of The Parent In Fostering Cultural Awareness, Kimberly A. Blitch

College of Education and Human Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Past research indicates that the cultural constructs of race and ethnicity are socialized and that that socialization process begins in early childhood. This qualitative case study sought to learn more about the parental role in fostering children’s cultural awareness as well as parents’ collaboration experiences with childcare providers with regard to the fostering process.

Five parents of children (ages two-to-five years) from an ethnically and racially diverse preschool were participants. Participant interviews were conducted and The Scale of Ethnocultural Empathy (SEE) and The Parent-Teacher Relationship Scale (PTRS) measure were administered. A three-tiered coding system was used to analyze text data. …

From Francophonie To World Literature In French, Thérèse Migraine-George

University of Nebraska Press: Sample Books and Chapters

In 2007 the French newspaper Le Monde published a manifesto titled “Toward a ‘World Literature’ in French,” signed by forty-four writers, many from France’s former colonies. Proclaiming that the francophone label encompassed people who had little in common besides the fact that they all spoke French, the manifesto’s proponents, the so-called francophone writers themselves, sought to energize a battle cry against the discriminatory effects and prescriptive claims of francophonie.

In one of the first books to study the movement away from the term “francophone” to “world literature in French,” Thérèse Migraine-George engages a literary analysis of contemporary works in …

The Ideologies Behind Newspaper Crime Reports Of Latinos And Wall Street/Ceos: A Critical Analysis Of Metonymy In Text And Image, Theresa Catalano, Linda R. Waugh

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Faculty Publications

This study illustrates how metonymy in image and text work together to produce dominant ideologies in US media discourse, through careful, multidisciplinary analysis of over 25 articles in online US newspapers from the years 2004 to 2011 that reported crimes committed by Wall Street/CEOs and Latino migrants. Using critical discourse analysis/ studies, multimodal analysis, and cognitive linguistic frameworks, we examine examples of metonymy, which combine to negatively “Other” Latinos and (re)produce positive representations of Wall Street/CEOs. While work in critical metaphor analysis shows how metaphor plays a crucial role in the depiction of participants and events, we argue that metonymy …

Anti-Immigrant Ideology In U.S. Crime Reports: Effects On The Education Of Latino Children, Theresa Catalano

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Faculty Publications

This article investigates the link between how Latino migrants are represented in U.S. crime reports, the formation of immigration laws/policies, and the effects on children of Latino migrants in U.S. schools. From a framework of cognitive linguistics and critical discourse analysis, I examine crime reports in U.S. online newspapers depicting crimes allegedly committed by Latino migrants in the years 2008–2010. The analysis exposes linguistic strategies such as the use of metaphor and metonymy to construct a negative representation of Latino migrants. I conclude with a discussion of the indirect effects on Latino schoolchildren.

Beyond The Looking-Glass: The Intensity Of The Gothic Dream In Nineteenth-Century British Literature, Anne N. Nagel

Department of English: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The dream is a contested space in terms of allegory and affect, the non-conscious intensity associated with feelings and emotions. Readers tend to express disappointment when a narrative turns out to be “just a dream,” yet the dream is uniquely capable of evoking powerful affective intensity. Yet most scholarship approaches the literary dream through representational interpretation, which not only overlooks the intensity of affect, but dampens it. The dreamer cannot interpret the dream while engrossed in dreaming. By taking into consideration the perspective of the dreamer, this thesis moves beyond the reflective lens of symbolic interpretation to explore the intensity …

Pedagogía De Hablantes De Herencia: Implicaciones Para El Entrenamiento De Instructores Al Nivel Universitario, Lina M. Reznicek-Parrado

Department of Modern Languages and Literatures: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This study researches the differences in pedagogical needs between learners of Spanish as a Foreign Language (FL learners) and learners of Spanish as a Heritage Language (HL learners) at the university level. By using the UNL Modern Languages and Literatures Department as an illustrative case and based on an analysis of the Heritage Language student profile in the context of the United States, this study seeks to explore arguments in favor of providing training for university-level instructors of Spanish that responds to the specific pedagogical needs of Heritage Language Learners.

The relevancy of this study is not only based on …

The Roma And Wall Street/Ceos: Linguistic Construction Of Identity In U.S. And Canadian Crime Reports, Theresa Catalano

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Faculty Publications

Discriminatory practices against Roma (also known as Romanies) occur on a daily basis in many countries around the world through media discourse. This paper investigates the representation of Romanies in U.S. and Canadian online newspaper crime reports and compares this representation to Wall Street/CEOs in crime reports demonstrating how identity of both groups is constructed through a variety of linguistic and non-linguistic strategies. Drawing on Mayr and Machin’s (2012) critical linguistic analysis of the language of crime, this multimodal study incorporates a variety of tools such as Critical Discourse Analysis and Cognitive Linguistics in order to dig below the surface …

Insectography: Insects In The World Of Fiction, Erin Bauer

Department of Entomology: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This is a comprehensive list of fictional works (films/TV episodes, video games, children’s books, and novels) originally published or produced in the United States between 1950 and 2012 about or including insects, spiders, related arthropods (many times anthropomorphized or mutated) and/or entomologists as main characters and playing a major role in the plot. Although the list encompasses both entertaining and educational works, it does not include textbooks or other non-fictional works or “fictionalized” accounts of real processes. For example, books such as Hope for the Flowers, where the story is told from the perspective of the main character, a …

Individual Discourse, Language Ideology And Spanish Transmission In El Paso, Texas, Isabel Velázquez

Spanish Language and Literature Papers

This paper reports the results of an analysis of the use of metaphors, metonyms, referential strategies, and expressions of deixis used by a group of middle-class bilinguals in the border city of El Paso, Texas, when speaking about use of Spanish and English in their city and in their home. A total of 234 metaphors referencing processes, institutions, and ethnic groups related to Spanish/English use were included. The goal of this study was to analyze how speakers conceptualized language use and language users in their community, and to examine if and how individual discourses map onto larger linguistic ideologies. The …

Individual Articulator's Contribution To Phoneme Production, Jun Wang, Jordan R. Green, Ashok Samal

School of Computing: Conference and Workshop Papers

Speech sounds are the result of coordinated movements of individual articulators. Understanding each articulator’s role in speech is fundamental not only for understanding how speech is produced, but also for optimizing speech assessments and treatments. In this paper, we studied the individual contributions of six articulators, tongue tip, tongue blade, tongue body front, tongue body back, upper lip, and lower lip to phoneme classification. A total of 3,838 vowel and consonant production samples were collected from eleven native English speakers. The results of speech movement classification using a support vector machine indicated that the tongue encoded significantly more information than …

Feedback-Related Negativity, Decision-Making, And College Binge Drinking, Laura C. Wahlstrom

Department of Psychology: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Despite increased prevention efforts, binge drinking remains a prevalent issue among college students. Myriad negative consequences are associated with binge drinking (e.g., academic impairment, injury, legal trouble); however, it appears a subset of individuals do not alter future drinking to reduce their risk. This suggests that some binge drinkers are less sensitive to alcohol-related negative outcomes, which may stem from individual differences in neurocognitive functioning. The present study draws from a reinforcement learning theory framework to explain disparities in learning from negative outcomes. Specifically, an electrophysiological measure associated with diminished responsiveness to negative consequences (i.e., feedback-related negativity; FRN) and a …

Lexiconic: Reading The Edifice, Amanda L. Mejstrik

Architecture Masters of Science Program: Theses

Language has undergone an evolution similar to architecture. Both have been defined through multiple styles which have a tendency to change and reestablish themselves based on popular culture, eventually permeating through society, while subsequently losing momentum and necessity. In the same way that architecture has transitioned through time based on a societal importance of efficiency, economy, and effectiveness, language begins to assume a new oratory standard.

Old English begat Middle English begat Modern English

Victorian Style begat Modernism begat Structural Expressionism

These entities have become representative of our culture throughout the ages and have reached a point of abbreviation so …

Between Worlds: Students' Lived Experiences And Perspectives On Math, Science, And Technology Education Between Mexico And The United States, Estefania Larsen

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Theses and Other Student Research

As the world becomes increasingly globalized, education systems are striving to meet the needs of students. With globalization comes high amounts of migration, and some students may experience education in two or more countries. Early exposure and success in science, math, engineering, and technology (STEM) education are thought to be vehicles for entering high-status careers. Through interviews with U.S.-Mexico transnational students, this study uses a qualitative, text-analysis approach to understand students’ lived experiences and perceptions on STEM education between the U.S. and Mexico. Although these transnational students have the opportunity to foster bilingual and bicultural skills, results show students may …

Many Worlds Converge Here: Vision And Identity In American Indian Photography, Alicia L. Harris

School of Art, Art History, and Design: Theses and Student Creative Work

Photographs of Native Americans taken by Frank A. Rinehart at the Trans-Mississippi and International Exposition in 1898 were then and continue to be part of the construction of indigenous identities, both by Anglo-Americans and Natives. This thesis analyzes the ramifications of Rinehart’s portraits and those of his peers as well as Native American artists in the 20^th and 21^st centuries who have sought to re-appropriate these images to make them empowering icons of individual or tribal identity rather than erasure of culture.

This thesis comprises two sections. In the first section, the analysis is focused on the historical …

The Relationship Of Preservice Teachers To English Language Learners In Mainstream Classrooms, Susan F. Alford

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Theses and Other Student Research

The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship of preservice teachers by examining their attitudes and perceptions to English Language Learners in the mainstream classroom. An ever-increasing population of ELLs in U.S. classrooms has challenged the preparation of preservice teachers to meet the specific needs of this group of students. Preservice teachers’ attitudes toward their ability to connect with ELLs, their self-efficacy toward preparation to teach ELLs, and their attitudes toward language use in the classroom were probed. The research design included both quantitative and qualitative inquiries. A survey was administered to preservice teachers in three teacher preparation …

Transparency: The Unspoken Design Element -- How Levels Of Visibility Affect Adult Learning And Sharing, Erica M. Bartels

Architecture Masters of Science Program: Theses

Adult learning and sharing environments, specifically high school, college, and workplace facilities, maintain a similar purpose in terms of meeting the needs of the institution and its users. For each of these three project types, the design team develops a plan for users that are capable of social, cognitive maturity while engaging in the creation of new knowledge or ideas. With abundant discussion available on the design variations of these spaces, such as open vs. closed delineations; individual and group work; online or unplugged, it is necessary to dig deeper into the environmental psychology at play amidst the built environment …