Digital Commons Network^™

Investigating Open Education And Promotion & Tenure In The United States, Becky L. Thoms, Dylan Burns, Joshua J. Thoms

Library Faculty & Staff Presentations

There are many avenues for researchers and practitioners working in higher education to become involved in the open education movement via their research (e.g., publishing in or editing open access (OA) journals), teaching (e.g., creating, adopting, or adapting open educational resources (OER) and/or engaging in open pedagogy and open educational practices), or service activities (e.g., serving on university, college, or departmental open education committees). However, the value assigned to these efforts by administrators in colleges and universities throughout the United States (US) is not always clear (Jhangiani, 2017). This points to a possible disconnect between faculty members' work in open …

Critical Theoretical Frameworks In Engineering Education: An Anti-Deficit And Liberative Approach, Joel A. Mejia, Renata A. Revelo, Idalis Villanueva, Janice Mejia

Engineering Education Faculty Publications

The field of engineering education has adapted different theoretical frameworks from a wide range of disciplines to explore issues of education, diversity, and inclusion among others. The number of theoretical frameworks that explore these issues using a critical perspective has been increasing in the past few years. In this review of the literature, we present an analysis that draws from Freire’s principles of critical andragogy and pedagogy. Using a set of inclusion criteria, we selected 33 research articles that used critical theoretical frameworks as part of our systematic review of the literature. We argue that critical theoretical frameworks are necessary …

Transnational Civic Education And Emergent Bilinguals In A Dual Language Setting, Marialuisa Di Stefano, Steve P. Camicia

Teacher Education and Leadership Faculty Publications

Inclusion is a fundamental aspect of social studies education in general and democratic education in particular. Inclusion is especially important when we consider the possibilities for transnational civic culture and education. The theoretical framework of this study is based upon concepts of positionality, identity, and belonging as they are related to student understanding of communities. A dual-language, third-grade classroom provided the site for this ethnographic study. Data included participant observations, interviews with the teacher and students, and artifacts of student work. Findings illustrate how the students in the study understood the complexity of their identities at a young age and …

The Absolutist Monarch In Taïa's Le Jour Du Roi And Laroui's "Tu N'As Rien Compris À Hassan Ii": Probing The Limitations Of Reader Reception Theory, Christa Jones

Languages, Philosophy, and Communication Studies Faculty Publications

This article discusses the representation of the monarch in Abdellah Taïa’s novel Le Jour du Roi (2010) and Fouad Laroui’s “Tu n’as rien compris à Hassan II” (2004), focusing on the act of reading and the historical context of Hassan II’s reign. A close reading of Taïa’s novel and Laroui’s short story will reveal narrative strategies used to fictionalize sovereignty. Laroui uses humor and irony to criticize the regime of Hassan II, while Taïa uses oneiric elements to capture the arbitrary nature of monarchy and the notion of absolute royal power as theorized by Achille Mbembe. Both writers criticize Hassan …

Texas In The Southwestern Fur Trade, 1718-1840., J. Ryan Badger

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

Much has been written about the North American trade dealing in beaver and otter pelts. The drive to acquire valuable hides drove the early colonial economy and served as one of the industries which pushed Americans to expand their national reach beyond the Rocky Mountains, the British, Scots, and Russians to move southward from Canada and Alaska, and the Spanish to assert their claim to the North. Admittedly, the Spanish were latecomers to the fur trade and often lacked the population and practical experience to pursue trapping as a nationalized industry, however, the portion of North America they laid claim …

Teaching A Second Language: Communication, Culture, And Collaboration, Diannylín Núñez De Paulino

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

This portfolio presents the author’s perspectives on the effective use of language teaching techniques, practices, and tools. The first section demonstrates the author’s teaching philosophy, which includes her perceptions as a foreign language instructor and learner, teaching observations of various foreign language instructors, and self-reflections about teaching. The following section contains three research papers, which explore foreign language anxiety, effectiveness of co-teaching a foreign language class, and refusals across different cultures. The last section consists of three annotated bibliographies in which the author analyzes journal articles and book chapters about communicative language teaching, the role of culture in the Spanish …

Breaking Traditions: Teaching Efl In The Dominican Republic, Farlin Paulino

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

This portfolio is a compilation of the author’s beliefs in regard to effectively teaching English as a Foreign Language and Spanish as a Second language. This work was completed for the Master of Second Language Teaching (MSLT) program at Utah State University. All the work compiled in this portfolio centers on the teaching philosophy statement, which contains what the author believes to be the most important aspects of teaching a second language. In the first section of the portfolio, the author presents the experiences that made him pursue the profession of teaching languages, his personal philosophy of teaching shaped by …

Becoming A Teacher: Integrating Strategies, Activities, And Objectives, Juana Andrade Batalla

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

This portfolio reflects the perspectives that the author believes are effective in second language teaching. The first section comprises the author’s teaching philosophy which includes creating a favorable classroom environment, facilitating learning through a communicative approach, and applying activities with appropriate and specific objectives. Following the teaching philosophy are three research papers: the use of fairy tales to promote a communicative approach together with other academic skills in second language teaching, the importance of teaching pragmatics, and the significance of helping Hispanic students develop confidence through Dual Language Immersion. The last section of this portfolio contains three annotated bibliographies about …

Changes In Cultural Capital For Native English And Native Spanish-Speaking Families' Children Who Do And Do Not Participate In An Elementary Spanish Dual Immersion Program, Allen Smithee

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This study is framed in Bourdieu’s theory of capital, which asserts that the choices we make are usually designed to help us become better off economically; that economic capital is, to some degree, exchangeable with other types of capital (e.g., social and cultural); and that other types of capital can be exchanged for economic capital. The purpose of this study was to understand which forms of capital native English-speaking and native Spanish-speaking families believed they would acquire by choosing to participate in or not participate in Spanish dual language immersion.

In this study I interviewed four native Spanish-speaking students who …

A Complicated Peace: Nationalism And Antisemitism In Interwar Poland, Joanna Dobrowolska

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This thesis examines the roots of antisemitic rhetoric expressed by Polish nationalists between 1918 and 1939. I argue that nationalist rhetoric and political campaigns during this period focused on calling for Poles to defend themselves against Jewish economic and political domination. The first half of this work utilizes pamphlets, books, newspaper articles, and other written works wherein Polish nationalists, in particular members of the National Democratic Party(NDP), expressed a fear of Polish Jews and called for their eviction from the country. Fear that Poland, a country that had been partitioned by surrounding empires for the past two centuries, would not …

“[Taking] Responsibility For The Community”: Women Claiming Power And Legitimacy In Technical And Professional Communication In India, 1999-2016, Breeanne Matheson

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Though the field of technical and professional communication has long been saturated with the narratives of Euro-Western males, technical and professional communication as a field has a responsibility to expand the lens of study to include the experiences of global and nontraditional practitioners. This study examines the experiences of Indian women working as practitioners, building power and legitimacy in a globalized economy. Drawing from interviews with 49 practitioners as well as an analysis of historical documents, this study examines the methods that Indian practitioners have used to build power and legitimacy by founding professional organizations, leveraging their educational opportunities, and …

Instructional Support For Vocabulary Acquisition Among Young Dual Language Learners, Theresa L. Kohlmeier

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This dissertation examined a combined approach to teach novel vocabulary in English and Spanish for dual language learners prior to an English storybook read- aloud in a preschool setting. The 6-week intervention study was conducted in a Head Start program in the U. S. Mountain West with 60 dual-language preschoolers randomly assigned to small groups to receive the vocabulary intervention, using images and word definitions from researcher-trained teachers, teacher assistants or parent volunteers.

The experimental design included pre- and posttest assessments of target and general receptive vocabulary in English and Spanish, as well as language exposure, instructional quality, and fidelity …

Comparison Of Stimulus Delivery Methods Via An Ipad To Teach The Expressive Labeling Of Action Verbs To Children With Autism, Amy M. Heaps

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Delays in communication are one of the defining characteristics of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Educators have begun using technology to teach students with ASD to label different items. However, more research needs to be conducted with technology (such as iPads and other tablets) to find the most effective teaching procedures. We wanted to find the most effective way to teach children with ASD age-appropriate action verbs, such as drawing and painting. Five preschool-aged students with ASD participated in this study. We taught these participants to label action verbs using pictures and short video clips, to test which method was the …

Expanding To The Edges: Central Numic Dual Number, John Mclaughlin

English Faculty Publications

The Central Numic (Uto-Aztecan) dual number marking system on nouns and pronouns is of interest because even though most of the component morphemes involved in the system are reconstructible to Proto-Numic, the system itself is not. Indeed, while the reconstructible Proto-Numic system is rudimentary, the Central Numic system is robust and has expanded to the point that there are few environments where dual is not marked on equal footing with singular and plural. The Central Numic system is of further interest because it involves cycles of grammaticalization and not just a single diachronic event. This contrasts with the other two …

Pull The Andon Rope On Working Memory Capacity Interventions Until We Know More, Sandra Laing Gillam, Sarai S. Holbrook, Jamie Mecham, Daylene Weller

Communicative Disorders and Deaf Education Faculty Publications

Purpose: The purpose of this article is to discuss the current state of interventions for improving working memory (WM) capacity language, and academic skills and to provide suggestions for speech language pathologists working with students who have WM capacity limitations.

Method: Meta-analyses, systematic reviews, randomized controlled trials and non-randomized comparison studies investigating the role of WM interventions for improving WM capacity language, and academic skills are reviewed. Strategies for improving WM are discussed.

Results: The use of interventions designed to improve WM capacity and other cognitive skills is currently not supported by the research. Direct working memory interventions should be …

What Does Hidden Curriculum In Engineering Look Like And How Can It Be Explored?, Idalis Villanueva, Laura Gelles, Marialuisa Di Stefano, Buffy Smith, Renetta G. Tull, Susan M. Lord, Lisa Benson, Anne Therese Hunt, Donna M. Riley, Gery W. Ryan

Engineering Education Faculty Publications

This work in progress paper describes the initial stages of a project which aims to characterize the mechanisms of hidden curriculum (HC) in engineering and identify methods for exploring this phenomenon. To effectively study the complex nature of HC, this work brings together researchers with a range of expertise (sociology, engineering education, engineering, statistics, policy analysis, curriculum and instruction) to develop a holistic approach to explore HC in engineering. This work describes the process of gathering input from this multidisciplinary team as well as the literature to develop a mixed-method instrument and model to explore the mechanisms behind HC in …

Others’ Publications About Ehdi: October 2017 Through April 2018

Journal of Early Hearing Detection and Intervention

No abstract provided.

Two Ears Are Better Than One: An Examination Of The Decision-Making Process Of Cochlear Implant Audiologists When Deciding On Bilateral Sequential Or Bilateral Simultaneous Cochlear Implants For Their Pediatric Patients, Donald M. Goldberg, Frayne Poeting

Journal of Early Hearing Detection and Intervention

No abstract provided.

Track Star + Thing Power: Be[Com]Ing In The Literacy Workshop, Kortney Sherbine

Teacher Education and Leadership Faculty Publications

This paper explores the intra-actions between and assemblages among classroom materials, a teacher's chair and a seven-year-old boy during a second grade literacy workshop. I consider the ways in which the relationships between the human and more-than-human produced multiple ways of being and, in particular, new modes of competence for a child whose classroom literacy practices were often considered illegitimate or unremarkable. Drawing on posthumanist and more-than-human philosophies of difference, I suggest that the child's affective relationships with materials and his teacher's willingness to engage in a nomadic pedagogy produced new opportunities for him to experience and demonstrate his literate …

Judgments Of Intelligence And Likability For Young Adult Female Speakers Of American English: The Influence Of Vocal Fry And The Surrounding Acoustic-Prosodic Context, Michelle Parker

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

Objective: There is little consensus about how the use of the voice quality feature, vocal fry, in the speech of college-aged American women influences listener judgements of the speaker. This study investigates how vocal fry influences the judgement of speaker intelligence and likeability in this population, while taking into account the surrounding acoustic-prosodic context, specifically speech rate and voice pitch.

Method: Speech samples were obtained from eight American English speaking females who presented with different combinations of voice pitch (low or high), speech rate (slow or fast), and vocal fry (presence or absence). Listener judgements from 463 adults (262 males; …

Values, Mushfaking, And Literacy In Disability: Applying James Paul Gee’S Discourse Theory To The Deaf And Mental Health Communities, Adrienne Griffiths

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

The disability community has been a historically marginalized group and continues to be. Many advocates for inclusive language feel uncomfortable around the disability community because they are uncertain how to act and speak. There are two forms of language syntaxes that people primarily use to refer to someone with a disability: People-first language and Identity-first language. People-first language identifies someone first, then refers to their disability, such as “person with autism.” The second framework, Identity-first language, includes referring to someone’s disability first, then by another attribute. In other words, “autistic person.”

Both forms of language syntaxes have many reasons as …

Does Talker Familiarity Or Time Of Testing Facilitate Sentence Recognition When Listening In Noise?, Madison S. Buntrock

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

At the most elementary level, the speech signal is comprised of two parts: linguistic information and indexical information. The linguistic information is the phonetic information of the signal and indexical information is speaker specific and is the paralinguistic information of the signal. Part of this indexical information is talker specific characteristics; which have been shown to help people understand speech. The talker specific characteristic we looked at was talker familiarity. Talker familiarity has been shown to help babies segment speech and adults listen in noise and recall stories. We looked at talker familiarity to see if it would benefit typically …

Talking Stories: An Analysis Of Haolewood's Attempts To Tell Hawai'i'S Stories Through Movie Trailers, Pono R. Suganuma

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

This study investigated how Native Hawaiians and Hawai'i are represented by the media, specifically in movies and their accompanying trailers. Thirty movie trailers from movies released between 1939 and 2016 were analyzed. These movies represented the various movie genres of romantic comedy, thriller, war, animation, drama, historical, and more. The aim of the study was to compile evidence of various themes such as stereotyping, white-washing and language pronunciation within movie trailers in order to validate or extend conceptually the theoretical framework or theory about the lack of accurate representation of Native Hawaiians. This is a feasibility study that could help …

The Successful Foreign Language Classroom: Affect, Empathy, And Engagement, Emily Mower

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

This portfolio is the culmination of the author’s work in the Master of Second Language Teaching program at Utah State University. Throughout this collection the author shares her personal views and experiences from teaching secondary and postsecondary beginning Spanish courses, supporting her claims with existing research. The portfolio consists of three sections: (1) teaching perspectives, (2) research perspectives, and (3) annotated bibliographies.

The objective of this work is to identify hindrances to the progress of foreign language teachers and learners, and best practices to stimulate their success. On the basis that language learning can promote cross-cultural understanding, these findings are …

A Systematic Review Of Language Therapy In Pediatric Brain Tumor Survivors, Ari Watt

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

Purpose: Brain tumors and associated treatments in children have been shown to cause long term neurological damage. While there is a large body of research focusing on treating associated cognitive deficits, relatively little research has focused on improving linguistic ability in this population. This systematic review identified and summarized the available evidence related to language treatment for pediatric brain tumor survivors.

Methods: A systematic electronic database search resulted in the identification of four relevant treatment studies, two position papers and one online forum. A data extraction manual and form was used to methodically extract study information related to participant demographics, …

The Relationship Between Narrative Proficiency And Syntactic Complexity Of Spontaneously Generated Stories Elicited From Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder (Asd), Megan Israelsen

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to determine whether a narrative program designed to increase narrative language proficiency was associated with improved syntactic complexity for 5, school-aged children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD).

Method: A multiple-baseline across participants design was employed. Children participated in a narrative intervention for 45 minutes, twice weekly for a period of time ranging from 19 to 33 sessions. Spontaneously generated narratives were collected after every other intervention session and analyzed for narrative and syntactic complexity.

Results: Results indicated that during baseline, three of the student’s spontaneous stories contained syntactically complex utterances that were comparable …

Determinants And Mechanisms Of National Identity Shift In Tanzania, Alexander C. Wendt

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

Since gaining independence in 1961, Tanzania has enjoyed high levels of national identification, far higher than other states in east Africa. Yet, between 2005 and 2015, the Afrobarometer survey recorded a decline in the national identity and an increase in ethnic identities in Tanzania. These changes are striking because of the successful nation-building policies implemented by former president Julius Nyerere. In addition, during the same period of 2005-2015, states bordering Tanzania have increased their level of national identification. This thesis reviews the literature on how changes in institutions, economic modernization, and conflict create incentives for political competition that may in …

Contexts And Perspectives For Foreign Language Learning And Teaching, Kimberly Paige Fallis

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

This portfolio highlights what the author believes are important facets and implementations of second language teaching and second language learning. This portfolio is grounded in two elements: second language acquisition theory and the author’s first-hand observations as a student in the Master of Second Language Teaching (MSLT) program. The target languages focused in this portfolio are English and French.

This portfolio is divided into three main sections. The first section contains the author’s teaching philosophy statement with focuses on student and teacher roles, tasks in the classroom, and the author’s experiences teaching English. After the teaching philosophy statement, there are …

A Grounded Case Study Of Parental Perceptions Surrounding Formalized Special Education Processes, William Eric Strong

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

In this dissertation, I explore, through qualitative means, the perceptions of parents related to discourse (what is said and not said) within formalized and required processes of special education. These processes are federal requirements that parents of children with disabilities or suspected disabilities encounter as their children progress through the school system. The processes purportedly protect the rights of children with disabilities. The goal of the process is to help children with disabilities make academic gains by providing scaffolds that meet their individual needs.

During this process, parents of children with disabilities become empowered or disempowered by discourses focused on …

Examining The Effect Of A School-Based Treatment On Anxiety For Latino Students, Emilie J. Larsen

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This study examined the efficacy of a brief culturally and instructionally modified cognitive behavioral therapy program for five anxious Latino/a youths ages 8-11 years in an elementary school setting. Each student exhibited anxiety in a classroom setting as reported by their teachers and parents or guardians. A noncurrent multiple baseline design was implemented using A-B replications to assess the effects of baseline and treatment on daily self-report student distress ratings as well as daily teacher rated distress, academic engagement, and work completion. All participants completed the Revised Children’s Manifest Anxiety Scale-2 pre- and post-treatment as well as a Children’s Intervention …