Digital Commons Network^™

Russia At War: Chechnya, Georgia, And Theories Of Foreign Policy, Tyler J. Pack

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

The conflicts in Chechnya and Georgia are for Russia the seminal policy events of the turbulent post-­‐Soviet era. Learning about Russian conflict policy thinking with respect to these cases should help to illuminate broader Russian foreign policy objectives and tendencies. Even though the Chechen Wars were by nature domestic conflicts, I believe that trends and patterns from that case, combined with insights from the Georgian conflict, can help identify strengths and weaknesses of major Russian foreign policy theories.

Though there are many such theories, I see that most fall into one of two broad categories. While there is some overlap, …

A Sociocultural Approach To Esl For Adult Learners, Whitney Putnam

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

The following portfolio is a collection of work submitted for the Master of Second Language Teaching (MSLT) program at Utah State University. Within this portfolio is the author's personal philosophy on effective language teaching written with a college-level ESL classroom in mind. Following the teaching philosophy are different artifacts and reflections, all related to the philosophy on teaching, but separate in topic. The three artifacts demonstrate the author's understanding of the role of language, culture, and literacy in a second language classroom. Also included in this portfolio is an annotated bibliography containing the scholarly works which support the writings here.

Teaching Communication In The Chinese As A Foreign Language Classroom, Xia Wu

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

This portfolio is a collection of the author’s teaching beliefs and approaches regarding Chinese as foreign language teaching, which she developed during her time in the Master of Second Language Teaching program. The centerpiece of the portfolio is the author’s personal teaching philosophy. It is followed by three artifacts. The language artifact analyzes one of the complexities encountered by learners in the Chinese as a foreign language classroom: the three particles 的 (de), 地 (de), 得 (de). The culture artifact illustrates the difference between American and Chinese language teachers. The literacy artifact talks about using literature circles in the CFL …

Comparison Of Two Approaches To Improving Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency For School-Aged, English Language Learners: Two-Group, Pretest/Posttest Design, Tanja A. Dalton

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

This preliminary study was designed to examine which of two interventions (standard practice or narrative based) was associated with better improvement in cognitive academic language proficiency, or literate language, for school-age children learning as a second language(English Language Learners; ELLs). We hypothesized that narrative-based intervention would yield better outcomes than the standard practice intervention because it provided children with contextual cues, redundancy, and predictability, which should promote learning and generalization.

We employed a pre/post test design and included 18 children (ELLs) who were at-risk for language and learning problems to test the hypothesis that narrative-based language intervention would yield better …

The Role Of Pragmatic Competence In Second Language Acquisition, Leah J. Reigle

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

This portfolio is the culmination of the author’s years spent observing and studying language in the pursuit of a Master’s degree in Second Language Teaching at Utah State University. Included here is the author’s personal teaching philosophy on effective language instruction, written with a college-level EFL classroom in mind. In addition, and relating to this teaching philosophy, are three additional artifacts addressing the significance of pragmatics in second language acquisition. These artifacts demonstrate the author’s understanding of the roles of culture, language, and literacy in a second language classroom. An annotated bibliography supporting the author’s perspective and philosophy on language …

Developing Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency (Calp) In Diverse Classrooms, Kristen M. Lillywhite

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

The process of second language acquisition was studied by examining the distinction between basic interpersonal conversation skills (BICS) and cognitive academic language proficiency (CALP). This distinction, originally proposed by linguist Jim Cummins, relates to current trends in the U.S public education system. A review of the literature was conducted and integrated with information obtained by interviewing local language arts teachers. The primary goal of the study was to learn how public school teachers conceptualize second language acquisition and literacy instruction. The thesis also addresses how the BICS/CALP distinction can be applied in real classroom settings. Teachers reported that low student …

Crossing Borders: Cultural And Linguistic Passages In The Poetry Of Pat Mora And Gary Soto, Amber Christine Bowden

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

Poets Pat Mora and Gary Soto have long been a presence in anthologies citing their multicultural content, yet their work has not been placed as part of the classroom canon. By leaving their work out of the classroom, we have lost the benefit of their diverse poetry. As the demographics of Utah shift, including works such as Mora and Soto’s becomes more essential for student success. In a close textual analysis of seventeen poems by Mora and Soto we can see that each poet uses a variety of themes to frame their verse. Not only does an overall analysis show …

Evaluation Of A High School Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol (Siop) Implementation, Samuel L. Ray

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Many school systems across the USA have implemented sheltered instruction observation protocol (SIOP) strategies to help their English language learners (ELLs) master core content while they learn English. Most studies have reported positive results from using SIOP strategies with ELLs. Elementary and middle school studies were available, but studies of SIOP implementation in a comprehensive high school were lacking. This action research project was initiated by teacher leaders (department chairs) and the school principal. It included a year of combined SIOP training and implementation. After the first academic year of utilizing SIOP school-wide, an anonymous electronic survey was used to …

Teaching Across Borders: Business As Usual?, Bobbe Mcghie Allen

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The quest to comprehend how cultural differences can impact learning is one of those intriguing challenges that continue to beguile some scholars and educational leaders even at a time that is characterized as globalized. This dissertation is a qualitative case study about teaching to culturally diverse populations and is primarily based on the interviews of seven accountants designated as instructors and the direct observation of those instructors while teaching accounting principles to other accountants. The English language was used despite the fact that all participants, including the instructors, spoke English as a second or third language and came from diverse …

Novel Application Of Neutrosophic Logic In Classifiers Evaluated Under Region-Based Image Categorization System, Wen Ju

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Neutrosophic logic is a relatively new logic that is a generalization of fuzzy logic. In this dissertation, for the first time, neutrosophic logic is applied to the field of classifiers where a support vector machine (SVM) is adopted as the example to validate the feasibility and effectiveness of neutrosophic logic. The proposed neutrosophic set is integrated into a reformulated SVM, and the performance of the achieved classifier N-SVM is evaluated under an image categorization system. Image categorization is an important yet challenging research topic in computer vision. In this dissertation, images are first segmented by a hierarchical two-stage self organizing …

Counseling And Psychotherapy With Clients Of Middle Eastern Descent: A Qualitative Inquiry, Sara Boghosian

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

It is becoming increasingly important for clinical and counseling psychologists to have multicultural competence skills for treating an increasingly diverse client population. The psychology literature related to culturally competent treatment with persons of Middle Eastern descent is currently limited. In this study, qualitative methodology was utilized to explore the mental health attitudes and psychotherapy experiences of clients of Middle Eastern descent. Participants described culturally influenced mental health attitudes. Major themes included the severity of stigma associated with mental illness, the importance of family in responding to mental illness, and the process of grieving in Middle Eastern cultures. Study findings suggest …

Understanding The National Science Foundation Career Award Proposal Genre: A Rhetorical, Ethnographic, And System Perspective, David M. Christensen

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

With tightening university budgets, never before has the activity level of research grant proposal writing been more intense. With increased proposal numbers, including for the National Science Foundation's (NSF) prestigious CAREER award, has also come increased competition and decreased funding rates. This dissertation has searched for successful and unsuccessful characteristics from funded and unfunded CAREER proposals.

The research focused on a study of two key subjects: 1) a corpus of 20 texts that included 12 funded proposals and 8 unfunded proposals from across NSF programs, and 2) an ethnographic analysis comprised from interviews with 14 NSF program officers (PO) from …

The Utah Statesman, April 29, 2011, Utah State University

The Utah Statesman

Weekly student newspaper of Utah State University in Logan.

Modeling Teacher Ratings Of Online Resources: A Human-Machine Approach To Quality, Mimi Recker, Heather Leary, Andrew Walker, Anne R. Diekama, Philipp Wetzler, Tamara Sumner, James Martin

Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences Faculty Publications

In education, the scalable deployment of media-rich online resources supports peer production in ways that promise to radically transform teaching and learning (CRA, 2005; Pea et al., 2008). Online educational repositories such as the Digital Library for Earth Systems Education (DLESE.org) and the National Science Digital Library (NSDL.org) collect and curate online learning resources created for a wide range of educational audiences and subject areas (McArthur & Zia, 2008). Through a simple, web-based authoring tool, called the Instructional Architect (IA.usu.edu) teachers locate and share educational resources and activities in an IA project. These IA projects can then be viewed, copied, …

How Does Psi Chi Journal Of Undergraduate Research Measure Up?, Melanie M. Domenech-Rodriguez

Psychology Faculty Publications

Understanding the complexities inherent in descriptions of research journals can take significant time and energy, and in the end leave the average psychologist and psychology student wondering—what does it all mean? Why does this matter? In this column, I attempt to provide information to illuminate how journals are described and why we care. Additionally, I will review how our own journal, Psi Chi Journal of Undergraduate Research, measures up on these criteria. In short, Psi Chi Journal of Undergraduate Research is a scholarly journal that is peer-reviewed and indexed. Let’s explore these areas so you will feel very excited about …

The More They Read, The More They Can Read, Nolan Weil

Languages, Philosophy, and Communication Studies Faculty Publications

We learn to read by reading, but improvement requires consistency and takes time. Extensive reading is not the silver bullet. Multiple approaches are necessary to promote high levels of L2 reading proficiency, but extensive reading is a vital component.

The Utah Statesman, February 7, 2011, Utah State University

The Utah Statesman

Weekly student newspaper of Utah State University in Logan.

One Adolescent's Construction Of Native Identity In School: "Speaking With Dance And Not In Words And Writing", Amy Wilson-Lopez, M. D. Boatright

Teacher Education and Leadership Faculty Publications

This case study describes how one eighth-grade student, Jon, asserted Native identities in texts as he attended a middle school in the western United States. Jon--a self-described Native American, Navajo, and Paiute with verified Native ancestry--sought to share what he called his Native culture with others in his school wherein he was the only Native American, despite his perception that schools have historically suppressed this culture. To study how the texts that Jon designed in school may have afforded and constrained the expression of Native identities, the authors collected three types of data over the course of eight months: (a) …

Two Studies Of Tierii Literacy Development: Throwing Sixth Graders A Lifeline, A. W. Graves, L. Duesbery, Nicole Pyle, R. Brandon, A. Mcintosh

Teacher Education and Leadership Faculty Publications

Two experimental studies at one urban middle school investigated the effects of the combination of Tier I and Tier II evidence-based reading instruction compared to Tier I alone on struggling sixth-grade readers (N = 109). All participants received free or reduced-price lunch, and 95% were considered English learners at some point in their school history. In both studies, Tier II intervention consisted of intensive instruction in word analysis, fluency building, comprehension, and vocabulary for 30 hours across 10 weeks. Results of both studies taken individually and combined indicated significant differences in favor of the intervention groups on oral reading …

“Like The Hajis Of Meccah And Jerusalem”: Orientalism And The Mormon Experience, Richard V. Francaviglia

Arrington Annual Lecture

Richard V. Francaviglia is a historian and geographer who has studied the peoples and landscapes of the American West for more than forty years. He is past president of the Society for the History of Discoveries and former director of the Center for Greater Southwestern Studies and the History of Cartography at the University of Texas at Arlington. As Professor Emeritus, he now lives in Salem, Oregon, where he conducts research and teaches occasional courses in Religious Studies at Willamette University. His many publications include Go East, Young Man: Imagining the American West as the Orient; Believing in Place: A …

Valera’S Morsamor As Anti-Orientalist Fiction, Thomas R. Franz

Decimonónica

A recent study of Morsamor (1899) maintains that Valera’s last novel is anti-Muslim, anti- African, and anti-Hindu and contains a large quantity of trendy, negative “Orientalismo” calculated to justify a resurgence of Spanish imperialism over African and Eastern peoples (Torres-Pou 21–31). According to this interpretation, Morsamor is a “regenerationist” text intended to inspire a restoration of national pride through depiction of Spain’s military prowess during the Ages of Conquest and Exploration and the proposition that European cultural “superiority” was due to the alleged Hegelian-type accumulation of possibilities inherent, but lamentably truncated, in its Oriental origins (22–23). Thus Morsamor (Miguel de …

The Utah Statesman, December 8, 2010, Utah State University

The Utah Statesman

Weekly student newspaper of Utah State University in Logan.

Conservation From The Bottom-Up: Human, Financial, And Natural Capital As Determinants Of Resilient Livelihoods In Kigoma Rural, Tanzania, Yared J. Fubusa

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Rhetoric of "community-based conservation" has gained prominence among development specialists and environmentalists, yet such projects are often implemented from the top-down in Africa. This dissertation contends that only a bottom-up approach can foster resilient livelihoods and environmental stewardship.

This study focused on determinants of household resilience within a poverty-stricken agricultural community near Gombe Stream National Park (GSNP) in western Tanzania. The research purpose was to explore: 1) relationships between villagers and GSNP management; 2) how groups and individuals view priority livelihood problems and solutions; 3) various attributes of households; and 4) perceived trends for household resilience and how these are …

Worry And Rumination: Measurement Invariance Across Gender, Janet A. Carter

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The present study examined the factor structure of the Penn State Worry Questionnaire (PSWQ), the Student Worry Questionnaire-30 (SWQ-30), the Anxious Thoughts Inventory (AnTI), the Ruminative Responses Scale (RRS), and the Rumination-Reflection Questionnaire (RRQ). The present study also examined the measurement invariance between men (n = 186) and women (n = 316) in a university sample. Different models for each measure were identified through a review of the literature, and the models were examined through confirmatory factor analyses. The best-fitting models for each measure were retained for subsequent model modification to improve fit and for invariance testing across …

Can The "Peasant" Speak? Forging Dialogues In A Nineteenth-Century Legend Collection, William Pooley

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The folklore collections amassed by Jean-François Bladé in nineteenth-century southwestern France are problematic for modern readers. Bladé's legacy includes a confusing combination of poorly received historical works and unimportant short stories as well as the large collections of proverbs, songs, and narratives that he collected in his native Gascony. No writer has ever attempted to study any of Bladé's informants in detail, not even his most famous narrator, the illiterate and "defiant" Guillaume Cazaux.

Rather than dismissing Bladé as a poor ethnographer whose transcripts do not reflect what his informant Cazaux said, I propose taking Bladé's own confusion about authenticity …

Transportation Network Resiliency: A Fuzzy Systems Approach, Nayel Urena Serulle

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Every day the dependence on transportation grows as local, regional, national, and international independence increases. Resilient transportation systems are needed to secure the highest possible level of service during disruptive events, including natural and man-made disasters. Because of limited resources, decision makers need guidance on how, when, and where to invest to improve resiliency of their networks. The research objective is to develop a method to assess and quantify resiliency, at pre-event conditions, using a fuzzy inference approach. This research expands previous work, refining key variable definitions, adjusting model interactions, and increasing transparency between metrics. This thesis presents the method …

Environmental And Developmental Indicators In Early Childhood: Relations To Second-Grade Reading Comprehension, Gina A. Cook

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Reading success has been linked to high school completion, future job success, and future generations of children who can read. Unfortunately, children who are unable to read on grade level by the end of first grade are at a great disadvantage and unlikely to catch up later. Without the ability to read and comprehend text, all aspects of schooling become progressively more difficult and the challenge of poor reading ability can be so difficult to overcome that many poor readers will not complete high school. For these reasons, it is important to identify early experiences in a child's family environment …

Novel Approaches To Image Segmentation Based On Neutrosophic Logic, Ming Zhang

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Neutrosophy studies the origin, nature, scope of neutralities, and their interactions with different ideational spectra. It is a new philosophy that extends fuzzy logic and is the basis of neutrosophic logic, neutrosophic probability, neutrosophic set theory, and neutrosophic statistics.

Because the world is full of indeterminacy, the imperfection of knowledge that a human receives/observes from the external world also causes imprecision. Neutrosophy introduces a new concept , which is the representation of indeterminacy. However, this theory is mostly discussed in physiology and mathematics. Thus, applications to prove this theory can solve real problems are needed.

Image segmentation is the first …

Integrating Digital Technologies In The German Language Classroom: A Critical Study Of The Technology-Integration Experiences Of Three Secondary German Teachers, Stephen Van Orden

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

German language teachers are gaining increased access to smart classrooms and digital technologies that offer teachers and students greater access to authentic cultural and language materials and enable more student target language communication. Teaching with technology changes the teaching and learning environment in many ways. Little is known about how integrating technology into the daily German-language-teaching curriculum changes the implicit power structures embedded in all classroom interactions. Because of the central, decision-making role of the teacher, this study uses a critical theory of technology lens to examine the daily technology integration experiences of three secondary German language teachers. This study …

The Utah Statesman, November 17, 2010, Utah State University

The Utah Statesman

Weekly student newspaper of Utah State University in Logan.