Digital Commons Network^™

Communicating Vision : A Linguistic Analysis Of Leadership Speeches, Debrah J. Martin

Dissertations

Leadership literature contains ample recommendations that leaders need to have a vision and be competent in visioning. A small subset of that literature recommends that leaders communicate their visions. There are few resources, however, that guide leaders how to communicate their visions. This study consists of an application of Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL), including Genre Theory, and an extension of SFL, Appraisal Theory, on four visionary speeches in the field of political discourse—Lincoln‘s Gettysburg Address, Churchill‘s ―We Shall Fight on the Beaches,‖ Kennedy‘s inaugural, and Martin Luther King Jr.‘s ―I Have a Dream‖—to discover how these leaders were able to …

Evaluation Of Verbal Behavior In Older Adults, Amy Gross

Dissertations

Older adults make up a large and increasing portion of the population (U.S. apply those assessments to the evaluation of verbal behavior in older adults with and without dementia. The research addressed two questions. First, in what way do verbal behavior problems differ between older adults with and without dementia? Second, does language deteriorate in a pattern compatible with Skinner's analysis of functionally independent verbal operants? Thirty-one participants were categorized into Control (n=15) and Dementia (n=16) Groups based on their score on the Dementia Rating Scale-2. Verbal behavior assessments were administered to participants on two occasions, separated by one week. …

The Bandi Of Northwestern Liberia: A Study Of Change And Continuityin Bandi Society To 1964, Samuel Benedict Ngovo

Dissertations

Relying on oral accounts and archival and published sources, this dissertation employed interdisciplinary methodology to examine change and continuity in traditional Bandi systems to 1964. It focuses on traditional Bandi social, religious, economic and political systems that changed and those that persisted as a result of contacts with neighboring ethnic groups, Islam, Christianity, and the Liberian state.

The Bandi of northwestern Liberia are divided into six subgroups. Nevertheless, the six subgroups of Bandi share common traditional values. The Bandi people belong to the Mande-linguistic group and share common traditional values with neighboring Mande speakers such as the Loma and Mende. …

Reading, Writing, And Repetition: Performance On Nonword Measures Bystudents With And Without Language-Learning Disabilities, Patricia J. Tattersall

Dissertations

The central purpose of this three-paper dissertation was to explore the ability of school-age children with and without language-learning disabilities (LLD) to apply sound/word level structure knowledge when performing speaking, spelling, and reading tasks. Data came from a larger investigation that used stratified sampling to create two ability groups—children with typical language (TL) and with LLD—comparable in terms of age (range 6 through 18 years), sex, race/ethnicity, and socioeconomic status.

The central purpose of this three-paper dissertation was to explore the ability of school-age children with and without language-learning disabilities (LLD) to apply sound/word level structure knowledge when performing speaking, …

Leadership For Social Change: Learning From Latina/Chicana Activist Educators, Marcia Venegas-García Phd

Dissertations

An examination of the literature in the field of Leadership Studies exposes a void in understanding activism as leadership among Latinas/Chicanas. The contemporary theories of scholars including James MacGregor Burns (1978) and Joseph C. Rost (1993) suggest there may be shared qualities between specific concepts of leadership and the everyday working practices of Latina/Chicana activist educators. Yet, academics within the field of Leadership Studies have little knowledge of this relationship or the unique ways in which Latina/Chicana educators engage as leaders, activists and agents for change, specifically in educational communities. Research into women's studies, ethnic studies, and Chicana feminist studies …

The Application Of Fuzzy Logic In Determining Linguistic Rules And Associative Membership Functions For The Control Of A Manufacturing Process, Marcus Foley, John Mcgrory

Dissertations

Fuzzy logic is a form of multi-valued logic derived from fuzzy set theory. Its methodology aims to provide a definitive solution from information that may be construed as ambiguous, imprecise or noisy. Classical set theory studies the properties of sets, while fuzzy set theory investigates the degree to which an element can be related to a set. The aim of this project is to develop a control strategy for a specific technical challenge relating to the food processing sector based on the deployment of fuzzy logic control concepts. Specifically, in this paper the author is concerned with the ability to …

Negotiating Generational Conflict And Identity Formation As A Way To Self Actualization In Contemporary Arab American Women's Literature, Hassan Ali Abdullah Al-Momani

Dissertations

This study focuses on identity formation in three contemporary Arab American women's novels: Alicia Erian's Towelhead, a text written specifically for young adults, Laila Halaby's West of the Jordan, a novel that has been read and embraced by Arab American young adults, and Evelyn Shakir's Remember Me to Lebanon, a text that features a number of Arab American young adult protagonists. Central to my project is the question of how Arab American female protagonists negotiate a space for themselves within the power structure of their families and their communities in order to forge bi-cultural identities. The first and second chapters …

Memory And Language: Evidence Of Relationships From Three Studies Of School-Age Children, Michele A. Anderson

Dissertations

The purpose of this three-paper dissertation was to explore the relationship between performance on verbal memory and language assessment tasks in school-age children. Study one used data from whole-class administration of three language assessment tasks to 2nd, 4th, 6th, and 9th graders (N= 187). Studies two and three used data from individualized administration of language assessment and verbal memory tasks to comparable samples of children between the ages of 6 and 18 years with typical language (TL) and language impairment (LI) (n = 37 per group).

The first study addressed practical and theoretical questions regarding memory and language demands of …

Contemporary Arab-American And Middle Eastern Women's Voices: New Visions Of "Home", Abdullah Kheiro A. Shehabat

Dissertations

esponding to an increase in the literary output of Arab-American and Middle Eastern women in the post September 1 ll Attacks, I examined three exemplary memoirs: Leila Ahmad's A Border Passage, Zainab Salbi's Between Two Worlds, and Marjane Satrapi's The Complete Persepolis. This study examines these memoirists' journeys back and forth from their homes of origin to their host homes in the West. In addition to charting how these memoirists break their silence and liberate themselves from authoritarian patriarchal culture and institutionalized religion, I discussed how they construct new feminist identities expressed through the creation of what …

Soviet Holocaust Survivors: An Ethnographic Study, Marina Shafran

Dissertations

The purpose of the current study was to help understand the lives, worldview, and meaning making of Soviet Holocaust survivors currently residing in the United States. Ethnographic interviews were conducted to explore survivor's childhood, family life, religion, political views, work, and social life. These areas were examined during the following time periods: pre-WWII, during WWII, and post-WWII.

From the collected and analyzed data I was able to offer an insight into the experiences of five Soviet Holocaust survivors under the Soviet regime. I described the struggles that the survivors experienced during the Holocaust, the losses they had suffered, and the …

Differentiated Instruction In The Secondary Classroom: Analysis Of The Level Of Implementation And Factors That Influence Practice, Duane Kiley

Dissertations

Differentiated instruction is designing and implementing instruction to meet the needs of every student. Differentiated classrooms adjust to individual student’s needs through a combination of practices proven effective in teaching at the student’s point of learning acquisition.

The purpose of this study was to determine the extent to which secondary teachers differentiate instruction and whether selected independent variables influence teachers’ use of differentiated instruction. Academic teachers were surveyed to determine the extent to which they utilized differentiated instructional strategies. Focus group meetings were conducted to delve deeper into understanding the information received from the teacher survey. Statistical analysis of the …

A National Study Of Parental Involvement: Its Trends, Status And Effects On School Success, Alandra Washington

Dissertations

Parental involvement has been emphasized as a mechanism for improving our public schools. In this study the author inquired into (a) the trend and status of parental involvement and (b) whether parental involvement is associated with schools meeting accountability measures. Secondary analyses were conducted on multiple waves of nationally representative data collected by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) School and Staffing Surveys (SASS). Descriptive statistics, discriminant function analysis, logistic regression, among others, were used for the study.

The analyses on the trend and status of parental involvement indicated that there was a statistically significant increase in parental involvement …

Teaching Reading In The Secondary Content Area Classroom:Teacher Attitudes And Predictors, Sara L. Norton-Ejnik

Dissertations

Strategic teaching of reading occurs at the elementary level, and students are expected to "read to learn" once they enter high school. The majority of the nation's secondary students do not have all the requisite skills to read and learn from high school texts and materials, and even drop-out rates have been attributed to students' inability to keep pace with the literacy skills demanded by the secondary curriculum. No Child Left Behind legislation now mandates secondary school reading initiatives, from high stakes testing to remediation. Despite the national focus on secondary reading, teachers in America's secondary schools are not teaching …

Religious Tolerance And Its Relationship To Spiritual Maturity And Religious Orientation Among Seventh-Day Adventists In Jamaica, Meric Dale Walker

Dissertations

Purpose. Although the Seventh-day Adventist (Adventist) Church promotes love of God and love for fellowmen, there is a perception that its members are generally intolerant of persons who do not hold religious beliefs that are similar to theirs. The purpose of this study was to investigate the extent to which spiritual maturity and religious orientation are related to religious tolerance among Seventh-day Adventists in East Jamaica Conference.

Method. The Jamaican Adventist Religious Life Profile, the questionnaire used to collect data in this study, consists of the Intrinsic/Extrinsic–Revised Religious Orientation Scale; the Spiritual Maturity Index; and the Religious Tolerance …

Katapausis And Sabbatismos In Hebrews 4, Erhard Gallos

Dissertations

Problem. Enthusiasm for the subject has not resulted in a general consensus regarding the meaning of “rest” in Heb 4. The dissertation studies the meaning of katapausis and sabbatismos in Heb 4 together with its relation to the neglected gatherings in Heb 10.

Method. The study consists of an analysis of those passages in which the rest motif is found explicitly (Heb 3-4) as well as the unit (Heb 10) which exhibits cohesion to the rest motif in Heb 4, giving special attention to the use of the term katapausis in the Septuagint, sabbatismos in Christian and non-Christian literature, and …

Biblical Sources In The Development Of The Concept Of The Soul In The Writings Of The Fathers Of The Early Christian Church, 100-325 C.E., Thomas W. Toews

Dissertations

The topic of the human soul has seen renewed interest in recent years. Studies have been produced that have looked at the soul in light of modern science and medicine along with a continued focus on the thoughts of the ancients on this topic. The early Church Fathers played an important role in mediating the thoughts of the ancients to more recent times. Because of this role, it is important to understand what function the Scriptures had as a source of authority in this process.

In light of this, the following study researches and analyzes the usage of the two …

A Comparative Analysis Of The Origin And Divine Causation Of Death In Ancient Near Eastern Literature And In The Old Testament, Lazarus Castang

Dissertations

The present dissertation attempts a comparative analysis of both the origin of death in the creation accounts and the divine causation of death in the main flood accounts in the ancient Near Eastern (ANE) literature and the Hebrew Old Testament (OT). Both literatures are examined for their implicit or explicit conceptions of the origin and divine causation of death. The origin of death in the ANE literature is located in the Egyptian Osirian myth and the Mesopotamian Enki-Ninmah myth, Enûma Elish, Epic of Gilgamesh, and the Adapa legend. The divine causation of death is studied in the Eridu Genesis, Atra-Hasis …

The Sabbath In The Pentateuch: An Exegetical And Theological Study, Mathilde Frey

Dissertations

Many studies have explored the seventh-day Sabbath in the Pentateuch from historical-critical, theological, and historical perspectives. However, systematic contextual exegesis and close reading of the pentateuchal Sabbath texts have been neglected. This dissertation investigates literary features of these passages in their respective contexts and develops an integrated Sabbath theology from the viewpoint of the Pentateuch as a whole.

In chapter 1, an overview of literature on the biblical Sabbath introduces the topic and describes the methodology of the study. Chapters 2 to 5 explore specific contextual, stylistic, and linguistic elements of the pentateuchal Sabbath pericopes, which contribute to expression of …

The Seduction Of Feminist Theory, Erin Amann Holliday-Karre

Dissertations

My dissertation, "The Seduction of Feminist Theory," comes out of my research on South African fiction and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and focuses broadly on feminist theory and the question of female power. Traditionally feminist theory has sought to empower women by insisting on their equality to men and by allowing their voices to be heard. But in trying to understand why women did not speak about their personal victimization at the TRC hearings, and why so many women characters in South African fiction are unable or unwilling to speak, I have come to see that women do not …

Education Language Policy Process In Multilingual Societies: Global Visions And Local Agendas In India, Nigeria And Unesco, Desmond I. Odugu

Dissertations

In linguistically heterogeneous societies, language planning constitutes core institutional practice for maintaining social cohesion as well as unique cultural identities. This critical sociolinguistic and comparative analysis examines education language policy process in India, Nigeria and UNESCO to understand the entrenchment of marginalizational language policies in spite of recent paradigm shifts in relevant scholarship. These include the shift from monolingualism to multilingualism as ideal for individuals and societies, perception of multilingualism no longer as a problem but a resource, heightened interrogation of ideological and political dimensionalities of language decisions in society, and an intensification of commitment to language policy and planning …

Restoring The Balance: Setting Aside Naturalism In Favor Of Personhood In Extreme Cases, Brian Joseph Buckley

Dissertations

This dissertation addresses a simple question: Is an anencephalic child a person? These children are born with only a brain stem, and, as such, cannot experience any type of consciousness. If personhood is understood as an articulable moral category, particularly distinct from DNA membership, reasonable evidence would be required to attribute any such moral category in these cases. That is, to claim that children who may never think or feel are persons carries a philosophical burden that extends beyond mere Homo Sapiens membership. This dissertation accepts that burden and answers that anencephalic children are persons. To do this, I first …

Post-Correctional Education Interventions: A Phenomenological Case Study Of Empowerment Education Curriculum For Formerly Incarcerated African American Males, Rolanda Jean West

Dissertations

This phenomenological case study describes how a Post-Correctional Education Intervention (PCEI) was developed for a local community-based organization that had recently constructed a transition house for formerly incarcerated adults who converted to Islam while incarcerated. The PCEI was an eight-week course curriculum with 60 hours of direct instruction that included social justice, health and wellness and critical thinking teaching modules and affective teaching and learning methodologies. This research contains experiential data used to assess how a PCEI affected the identity and self-concept of the participants of a reentry program designed to create an atmosphere of empowerment.

Limited English Proficient Mothers' Perceptions Of The Transition Process From Early Intervention Programs To Preschool Programs: Cultural And Linguistic Barriers, Celia Arresola

Dissertations

This study explored the satisfaction level of limited English proficient (LEP) mothers with the transition process from early intervention programs to preschool special education programs in a culturally and linguistically diverse Illinois public school district. The research focused on understanding if LEP parents of students with disabilities perceived that their own cultural and linguistic diversity affected the overall transition process. It also reviewed the mothers' perceptions about the cultural and linguistic considerations provided to them during the transition process, including the provision of translated materials and interpreters during meetings. The research indicated the level of satisfaction experienced during the transition …

Incompatible: The Construction Of The Homosexual Subject In American Mainline Protestantism, John Joseph Anderson

Dissertations

Many American mainline Protestant denominations discriminate against gays and lesbians or have discriminated against them in recent history by denying ordination to "self-avowed practicing homosexuals." This dissertation analyzes such ordination policies and their enforcement in ecclesial courts in three denominations, the United Methodist Church, the Presbyterian Church (USA), and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Moving from a theoretical framework that integrates Michel Foucault's theories of discourse and subjectivity with Christian body theology, this dissertation argues that the language of the "self-avowed practicing homosexual" discursively produces a homosexual subject that does violence to gays and lesbians in these churches.

The …

Predictors Of Acculturative Stress For International Students In The United States, Christopher Sullivan

Dissertations

International students in the United States are confronted with a wide range of challenges and difficulties as they move to a new country and need to adapt to a new cultural, social, andacademic environment. This study examined the relationship between acculturation orientation, or how these cultural changes are addressed, sources of social support, and the level of acculturative stress these students experience. Data was collected using an on-line survey from international students at six public universities in Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas, and Iowa. Statistical analysis was conducted on the data collected from the 648 students who participated in the study. Descriptive …

Perceptions Of Effective Instruction In Community Colleges: A Student View, Stephen Kent Biermann

Dissertations

ABSTRACT Stephen K. Biermann PERCEPTIONS OF EFFECTIVE INSTRUCTION IN COMMUNITY COLLEGES: A STUDENT VIEW This qualitative study was designed to identify key elements of effective instruction as perceived by community college students. Since the majority of research pertaining to effective instruction has been primarily conducted using a quantitative format, it is important to consider other methodologies for future research. The use of qualitative research helped capture student dialogue in its fullest, unhindered by the constraints of a survey tool or scale. The students involved in the study voluntarily participated in either individual interviews or focus groups and commented upon various …

The Cultivation And Practice Of Spiritual Care Expertise In An Inpatient Palliative Care Setting, Gail Elaine Pittroff

Dissertations

Caregivers involved in palliative care seek to understand problems and challenges at end of life through research to determine the best care for patients and their families. Spiritual care is a key component of quality end of life care, yet there is a paucity of research on spiritual care in inpatient settings at end of life in nursing literature. The purpose of this study was to examine the personhood and spiritual care practices of inpatient palliative nurse consultants. This study describes expert nurse’s experience of delivering spiritual care for patients and families at end of life in inpatient palliative care …

Teaching, Learning, And Writing In The Third Space: A Study Of Language And Culture Intersecting With Instruction, Susan Toma-Berge Edd

Dissertations

The purpose of this dissertation was to compare the characteristics and attributes of an effective first grade teacher of writing to English learners through the lens of the "third space." The "third space" represents a place where sociocultural theory interacts with language and culture, and authentic, integrated literacy instruction. Because there is no empirical evidence to support the theory of the "third space" the observation and interview data were analyzed using literature that draws on three areas of study: English learners, first grade literacy, and urban schools. The key findings from this study produced three themes that came about by …

"I Unsex'd My Dress": Lord Byron's Seduction Of Gender In "The Corsair", "Lara", And "Don Juan", Alexis Spiceland Lee

Dissertations

The goal of this project is to posit a theory of how Byron’s texts, specifically through the development of his hero, construct gender and sexuality as styles of seduction that resist easy classification by binary systems. I propose that Byron’s works characterize gender through ironic performances of seduction that, because they reveal that binary structures lack a stable core, dissolve systemic differentiation and thus fatally complicate any attempt to force the individual into rigid categories of gender or sexual identity. Byron’s works deploy seduction as a tactic of ironic representation of both gender and sexual practice that is necessarily multiplicitous …

Recasting Genre In Tennessee Williams's Apprentice Plays, Christina Ilona Hunter

Dissertations

This dissertation investigates Tennessee Williams’s earliest full-length plays, also known as the apprentice plays—Candles to the Sun, Fugitive Kind, Not About Nightingales, Spring Storm, and Stairs to the Roof—by comparing, contrasting and contextualizing them in relation to Daniel Chandler’s generic criteria of drama; namely, narrative, characterization, setting, topics, iconography, and staging techniques. The present study also draws upon an extensive body of scholarship pertaining to genre theory, Williams’s cultural contemporaries, and the historical and psychological backdrop of Depression-era America. In these early plays, Williams diverged sharply from the dramatic generic conventions of his day, manipulating them in new …