Digital Commons Network^™

Analysis Of Patterns In Handwritten Spelling Errors Among Students With Various Specific Learning Disabilities, Laura Ann Winkler

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Students diagnosed with specific learning disabilities struggle with spelling accuracy, but they do so for different reasons. For instance, students with dysgraphia, dyslexia, and oral-written language learning disability (OWL-LD) have distinct areas of weakness in cognitive processing and unique difficulties with the linguistic features necessary for accurate spelling (Silliman & Berninger, 2011). This project considered the spelling errors made by such students to determine if their unique learning profiles lead to distinct misspelling patterns.

Academic summaries handwritten by 33 students diagnosed with dysgraphia (n=13), dyslexia (n=15), and OWL-LD (n=5) were analyzed for type/complexity and …

A Feminist Contestation Of Ableist Assumptions: Implications For Biomedical Ethics, Disability Theory, And Phenomenology, Christine Marie Wieseler

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation contributes to the development of philosophy of disability by drawing on disability studies, feminist philosophy, phenomenology, and philosophy of biology in order to contest epistemic and ontological assumptions about disability within biomedical ethics as well as within philosophical work on the body, demonstrating how philosophical inquiry is radically transformed when experiences of disability are taken seriously.

In the first two chapters, I focus on epistemological and ontological concerns surrounding disability within biomedical ethics. Although disabled people and their advocates have been quite vocal regarding their views on disability and in critiquing bioethicists’ approaches to issues that affect them, …

A New Materialist Approach To Visual Rhetoric In Photoshopbattles, Jonathan Paul Ray

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this project is to examine the visual rhetoric of one online community. Drawing heavily from the work of Laurie Gries (2015), I track the evolution of an image as it circulates through a forum of photo manipulators in the group “PhotoShopBattles.” While Gries’ work traced the evolution of the iconic Obama Hope poster and its iterations in various media, this project restricts its observations to the images posted to one webpage, focusing on one evolutionary chain. By narrowing the focus to one internet forum page that evolved over the course of one week, we can observe linear …

Do Early Elementary Teacher Ratings Of Classroom Behavior Predict Similar Outcomes Across Demographic Groups? An Examination Using The Early Childhood Longitudinal Study Kindergarten Cohort (Ecls-K), Amira Conservilla Mattison

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Research suggests that how teachers perceive the behavior of individual children in the early years of elementary school has important implications for the school success of those youth over time (Darney et al., 2013; Hibel et al., 2010; Jimerson et al., 1997; Reinke et al., 2008). This may be because children who are of concern to teachers are often identified for practices such as grade retention and/or special education placement. Although these practices are intended to help children, they have not been shown to be associated with long-term positive outcomes. Rather, youth who are subject to these practices experience negative …

Preservice Teachers Engaged In Professional Learning Community To Explore Critical Literacy, Vanessa Casciola

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

As demographics change, our school populations are ever changing. Preservice teachers (PSTs) need to be aware of how to meet the needs of all of their future students. Teacher education programs have been charged with the duty of preparing these PSTs for the diverse school population they will encounter. This qualitative multiple case study focused on the influence of specific work with PSTs in the inquiry process within a learning community to make sense of critical literacy. The following research questions guided this study: (1) How do elementary PSTs engaged in practitioner inquiry make meaning of critical literacy instruction within …

Venezuela, From Charisma To Mimicry: The Rise And Fall Of A Televised Political Drama, Rebecca Blackwell

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In this paper, I build on the assumption that collective emotional experience plays an important role in sustaining the group identity central to nation-making processes inspired by charismatic leaders. This analysis is based on a case study of the Venezuelan government after the death of Hugo Chávez. I examine ways in which elements of the leader’s narrative are used by his successors after his death. I also argue that the current political actors of the bureaucratized Revolutionary Government of Venezuela are attempting to sustain popular support by reaffirming a national identity that resonated among the masses largely due to the …

Subtext Of Decisions: Literacy Practices In The Context Of Coding, Julia Hagge

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In this dissertation I present findings from a qualitative case study of five early adolescents engaged in an online programming community. As a researcher, I was interested in how early adolescents designed digital media as they learned how to code within an online programming community known as Scratch. My research was guided by two questions: (1) What are the literacy practices and processes embedded in the design and collaboration of products created within an online programming community? (2) In what ways do participants make decisions in the design of their projects created in Scratch? The data collected for …

How Presidents Can Become "Hip" By Using High Definition Metaphors Strategic Communication Of Leadership In A Digital Age, Mirela Camelia Stimus

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The aim of this interdisciplinary research was to see whether American presidents can reach Millennials more effectively in the digital age while publicly advancing the legislative agenda of their administration. The rationale is that presidents need to gain public support to pressure Congress into passing their legislation; while doing that, they can capture the public’s interest in politics and educate civically the most inattentive audience. To accomplish the task, strategic messaging adequate to digital media is necessary. Millennials appear as having modest interest and knowledge of politics despite their intense presence on digital media. On the other hand, they represent …

Guest Editors’ Introduction: Genocide Studies, Colonization, And Indigenous Peoples, David B. Macdonald, Tricia Logan

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

No abstract provided.

Revitalizing The Ethnosphere: Global Society, Ethnodiversity, And The Stakes Of Cultural Genocide, Christopher Powell Ph.D.

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

This paper uses the concepts of ethnosphere and ethnodiversity to frame the stakes of cultural genocide in the context of the emerging global society. We are in an era of rapid global ethnodiversity loss. Global ethnodiversity is important because different cultures produce different solutions to the subjective and objective problems of human society, and because cultures have an intrinsic value. Rapid ethnodiversity loss is a byproduct of the expansion of the modern world-system, and Lemkin’s invention of the concept of genocide can be understood as a dialectical reaction to this tendency. The current phase of globalization creates pressures towards global …

Proceedings Of The International Interdisciplinary Business And Economics Conference: Volume 6, Cihan Cobanoglu, Serdar Ongan

University of South Florida (USF) - M3 Publishing

This is the sixth volume of the International Interdisciplinary Business and Economics Conference Proceedings Series.

ISSN: 2372-5885

Commencement Convocation Program, Usf, Graduate, May 7, 2016, University Of South Florida

USF Graduation and Convocation Programs

Honorary Doctor of Marine Science - Samuel Philander

Commencement Convocation Program, Usf, Health, May 6, 2016, University Of South Florida

USF Graduation and Convocation Programs

President's Fellow Medallion - Ernest P. Boger II; Honorary Degree of Engineering - Trustee John Ramil; Honorary Doctor of Education - Jamie Merisotis; Outstanding Graduate - Vanisaben Patel; King O'Neal Scholars - Sophie Allen, Patrick Bagge, Joanne Ballard, Zein Barakat, Phuong Can, Jordan Carbono, Emily Hansel, Klya Hoffer, Kyle Hollis, Morgan Macey, Ahmed Mohamed, Catherine Nguyen, Priyanshi Patel, Anne Pucciarelli, Cynthia Schwartz, Vyshakh Shibu, Daniel Sirmons, Mckinzie Step, Heather Stewart, Kristina Vorndran, and Kelly Wise

Commencement Convocation Program, Usf, Baccalaureates, May 6, 2016, University Of South Florida

USF Graduation and Convocation Programs

Honorary Doctor of Pharmacy - James Martinez; King O'Neal Scholar - Kyla Hoffer

Velar–Vowel Coarticulation In A Virtual Target Model Of Stop Production, Stefan A. Frisch, Sylvie M. Wodzinski

Communication Sciences and Disorders Faculty Publications

Velar–vowel coarticulation in English, resulting in so-called velar fronting in front vowel contexts, was studied using ultrasound imaging of the tongue during /k/ onsets of monosyllabic words with no coda or a labial coda. Ten native English speakers were recorded and analyzed. A variety of coarticulation patterns that often appear to contain small differences in typical closure location for similar vowels was found. An account of the coarticulation pattern is provided using a virtual target model of stop consonant production where there are two /k/ allophones in English, one for front vowels and one for non-front vowels. Small differences in …

The Relative Effects Of Processing Instruction And Traditional Output Instruction On The Acquisition Of The Arabic Subjunctive., Youness Mountaki

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The role of input and output in the acquisition of language has been a source of controversy in Second Language Acquisition (SLA) research. This present study aimed to investigate the relative effects of processing instruction (PI) as a type of input-based instruction and traditional instruction (TI) as a type of output-based instruction. Specifically, this experiment examined whether PI and TI bring about any improvement in comprehension and production of the Arabic subjunctive by beginner-level learners of Arabic. The PI instructional technique was based on the principles of input processing suggested by VanPatten (1993, 2002, 2004). It has three main elements: …

Foreign Language College Achievement And The Infusion Of Three Selected Web 2.0 Technologies: A Mixed Method Case Study, Eulises Avellaneda

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Web 2.0 technologies such as blogs, Google Docs, and YouTube have become ubiquitous in today’s world of second and foreign language learning and have been the object of study (Wang & Vásquez, 2012), yet there is still a need to examine quantitatively and qualitatively how these tools impact the proficiency achievement levels of learners who use them. The purpose of this study was to explore the impact that blogs, Google Docs, and YouTube had on the achievement of college learners of Spanish as a foreign language. A mixed methods design was adopted.

The quantitative data were collected from students (N=75) …

An Altered Sense Of Magnitude: Exploring How The Visual Presentation Of Time, Space, And Numbers Can Influence Consumer Judgments And Behaviors, Marisabel Romero

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Consumers are constantly evaluating quantitative information, such as the prices of different products, the time spent on an activity, or the distance covered during one day. Substantial research in psychology has demonstrated that judgments of quantity in one dimension (e.g., numbers) influence subsequent judgments on another dimension (e.g., time). The present research contributes to a growing body of work by exploring how the shared representation of time, space, and numbers affects consumer perceptions and behaviors.

My first dissertation essay explores how the organization of time on a spatial plane affects temporal judgments, product evaluations, and intertemporal discounting (i.e., time-space interaction). …

An Analysis Of Social Justice In Teacher Education Using W. B. Gallie's Framework, Patricia Banta

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Essentially contested concepts result in continual disagreement over their meaning and use because important consequences flow from these disputes. Evidence of the contested nature of the concept social justice, in the context of teacher education, is documented in academic literature. Empirical evidence of the contested nature of the term is found in the transcripts of National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE)’s 2006 reauthorization hearing. Scholars note the complex nature of social justice and that teacher educators and colleges of education frequently use the term (e.g. Hytten & Bettez, 2011; North, 2008; Zollers, Albert, & Cochran-Smith, 2000). This study …

Perceptions Of College Instructors Toward Accented English Measured By The Auditory Multifactor Implicit Association Test, Eunkyung Na

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine the implicit language attitudes of college-level instructors toward accented English and the effect of gender, teaching experience, and home language background on those attitudes. The auditory multifactor Implicit Association Test (IAT) was used to measure the implicit attitudes toward Standard, Chinese, Hispanic, and Korean accented English. For the current study, audio stimuli were embedded into the multifactor IAT, which became available for the first time in 2014. The auditory multifactor IAT generated implicit preference scores of six pairs of accented English: Standard vs. Chinese, Standard vs. Hispanic, Standard vs. Korean, Chinese vs. …

The Impact Of Diversity On Student Engagement And Academic Success, Latosha C. Thomas

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The aim of this study is to examine the impact of diversity on student engagement and academic success within a university setting. Understanding the impact of diversity at postsecondary institutions is important because the population of the United States is becoming increasingly diverse, a trend that is also reflected in educational institutions. Previous research has largely focused on diversity among the study body (i.e. admissions) and in the classroom (i.e. curriculum). However, the current study focuses on student experiences with diversity outside of the classroom. Student interactions with peers from diverse backgrounds were measured using the Experiences With Diversity Index …

International Teaching Assistants In The Us University Classroom: A Mixed-Methods Study Of Individual Differences And L2 Pragmatic Competence, Erhan Aslan

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

International teaching assistants (ITAs) are considered advanced English users with relatively high standardized language proficiency test scores. However, they may experience difficulties during their interactions with undergraduate students. Some of these difficulties may arise from affective factors such as ambiguity, stress, and adjustment and can impact language use. From an individual differences perspective, a second language user with high communication anxiety may have difficulty comprehending or producing appropriate pragmalinguistic forms. Using a mixed-methods approach, this study examined the underlying factors in ITAs communication anxiety and willingness to communicate in the US classroom and how these factors explained their pragmatic competence, …

Attention Demands Of Language Production In Adults Who Stutter, Nathan D. Maxfield, Wendy L. Olsen, Daniel Kleinman, Stefan A. Frisch, Victor S. Ferreira, Jennifer J. Lister

Communication Sciences and Disorders Faculty Publications

Objective: We investigated whether language production is atypically resource-demanding in adults who stutter (AWS) versus typically-fluent adults (TFA).

Methods: Fifteen TFA and 15 AWS named pictures overlaid with printed Semantic, Phonological or Unrelated Distractor words while monitoring frequent low tones versus rare high tones. Tones were presented at a short or long Stimulus Onset Asynchrony (SOA) relative to picture onset. Group, Tone Type, Tone SOA and Distractor Type effects on P3 amplitudes were the main focus. P3 amplitude was also investigated separately in a simple tone oddball task.

Results: P3 morphology was similar between groups in the simple task. In …

Situated Directives In Italian L2 Service-Learning Encounters, Kristin Cardellio

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Interaction with local speakers of a second language (L2) in a naturalistic setting during study abroad is beneficial to language learning in many respects; particularly in the development of pragmatic competence, or the awareness and ability to use the appropriate language for a specific social context (Kinginger, 2011; Magnan & Back, 2007; Schauer, 2009; Shively, 2011). Service-learning - volunteering in the local community combined with an academic pursuit - during study abroad provides the opportunity for meaningful interaction between language learners and local speakers of the L2 in authentic and collaborative settings (Overfield, 2007). This study examines the interactions of …

The Construction Of Latino Im/Migrant Families In U.S. News Media: Parents’ Responses And Self-Representations, Jason Edward Miller

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Latino im/migrants are often portrayed in negative and stereotypical ways in mainstream U.S. media. This dissertation utilizes Ethnographic Content Analysis to analyze news segments about Latino im/migrants from Fox News, MSNBC and Univisión between 2010 and 2012 and digital storytelling with a group of Latino im/migrant parents in central Florida.

First, I questioned if a Spanish-language news media source constructed Latino im/migrant family-focused stories differently than mainstream English-language sources. Utilizing Critical Race Theory as a theoretical lens, I conclude that English and Spanish-language news stations portray Latino im/migrants in different ways. Fox News portrays Latino im/migrants in a generally neutral …

"The Afro That Ate Kentucky": Appalachian Racial Formation, Lived Experience, And Intersectional Feminist Interventions, Sandra Louise Carpenter

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines selections of Appalachian women’s personal narrative as well as Affrilachian Poetry written by Kentuckians Bianca Spriggs and Nikki Finney. This project’s goal lies in resisting oppression and erasure of Appalachian culture’s heterogeneity. Contrary to constructions of Appalachians as lazy, complacent, and white, many Appalachians organize communities of resistance from within the region itself. Challenging these representations, I argue that Appalachian feminists as well as Affrilachian poets create countercultures that disrupt monolithic, colonialist, and unquestioned constructions of Appalachia.

Quantifying The Association Between Active Tuberculosis Incidence And Migrant Farm Worker Populations Among Florida Counties, 2009-2013: An Ecological Study, Ryan Nicolas Ortega

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Nearly 20 studies conducted in the last 40 years indicate that tuberculosis (TB) represents a major health concern among migrant farm worker (MFW) populations, but their role in the transmission of TB within the broader community is poorly understood. To this end an ecological study was undertaken which examined 67 Florida counties between years 2009 through 2013. Its aims were as follows: (1) to describe the demographic, geographic, and temporal distribution of the incidence of active TB, (2) to examine the effect of agriculturally relevant seasonal periods on the incidence of active TB, and (3) to quantify the strength and …

To Utopianize The Mundane: Sound And Image In Country Musicals, Siyuan Ma

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Many consider music, songs, and dance performance as utopian signifiers for cinema, but few has entered the utopian discourse of country musicals, a small genre of cinema usually known as country music films. By closely scrutinizing Pure Country (1992), this thesis aims to reveal how country music—as music numbers and as background cues— integrate and connect the fragmented on-screen world for the country musicals so as to offer audiences a fullness of utopian experience, and how this utopian effect are culturally significant for American audiences due to country music’s unique mechanism of constructing utopia and nostalgia in its past-orientations, sentimentalities, …

Solid Metaphor And Sacred Space: Interpreting The Paradigmatic And Syntagmatic Relations Found At Beth Alpha Synagogue, Evan Carter

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

With the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE, more than an iconic symbol of Jewish identity was destroyed. As the epicenter of religious life for Jews within the land of Israel, the Temple stood as both a symbol for religious hope and as the physical embodiment of Judaism. Yet, in the centuries that would follow synagogue’s like the one found at Beth Alpha would come to fill its absence.

In this thesis I will demonstrate how the use of Christopher Tilley’s theory of the solid metaphor helps us to better understand both the art and architecture of the …

Motivation Of Adult, Auditioned Community Choirs: Implications Toward Lifelong Learning, David James Redman

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Knowledge of motivation factors can assist conductors and music educators at all levels in planning and implementation of musical goals. The purpose of this study was to identify motivational factors to join the choir and maintain membership in the choir as well as the role of stress/anxiety in maintaining choral membership. In addition, the role of musicianship was evaluated in terms of music aptitude and vocal ability. Participants (N=135) from four adult, auditioned community choirs participated in this study. Data was collected using Advanced Measures of Music Audiation, Singing Coach, measure of vocal ability and a questionnaire relating to topics …