Digital Commons Network^™

An Examination Of The Occurrences Of Metaphor In Introductory Engineering Textbooks, Hartwell S. Francis

Dissertations and Theses

The aim of this study is to identify the use of metaphor in university-level introductory engineering textbooks. Engineering is an important field of study for foreign students in the United States. In order to determine the linguistic and cultural problems foreign students of this field may have, two introductory engineering textbooks are examined for occurrences of metaphors.

Two corpora of 20,000 words each drawn from introductory textbooks used at two four-year, public universities are examined for occurrences of metaphor. A combined semantic and pragmatic test for metaphor is applied to each word used in the corpora to determine if the …

Peer Correction By Non-Native Speakers Of English In Oral Group Work, Bill Stevenson

Dissertations and Theses

This research is observational and descriptive. Its primary purpose is to provide data on the extent to which, and how, Non-Native Speakers (NNSs) of English engage in error correction of their peers when participating in classroom oral group work. In addition, it shows to what extent these learners self-correct their own errors in the same situation. The over-arching focus of the study is to examine the role of second language learners to determine whether they possess the potential to play a more active and productive part in their own language learning. Nine beginning level adult university ESL students are the …

Computer Grammar Checkers And Esl Writers, Robert Lee Gaynor

Dissertations and Theses

The use of word processors has become common in writing instruction for students of English as a second language (ESL). Recent developments in microcomputer technology have increased the number of "tools" or writing aids that are incorporated into word processing programs. Among these are computer style and grammar checkers, programs that attempt to identify and diagnose stylistic, grammatical, and mechanical problems in writing.

This study examines the suitability of commercial grammar checking programs for use by ESL writers through descriptive analysis of program features and evaluation of accuracy. The programs evaluated are Grammatik 5, Microsoft Word 6.0 and Correct Grammar …

Case Study: How An East European Student Learns To Compose In English, Ruth Steinfeld Katon

Dissertations and Theses

Since the political climate in the former Soviet bloc has shifted, there is an influx of East Europeans to the United States. As these refugees enter the U.S. educational system in greater numbers, teachers must adapt to the special needs of this population. The intent of this study is to focus on the composing skills of a Polish student who enrolled in an English for Non-Native Residents (ENNR) program at an urban university. The investigation examines the contextual framework that supports the subject's literacy experiences by means of a longitudinal case study format Several ethnographic and experimental techniques are used …

"A Listening Child." The Language Life History Of An American Of Mexican Descent, Alexandra Guerra Alvarez

Dissertations and Theses

This case study presents the language life history of an American woman of Mexican descent. The informant describes the ways in which her two languages, English and Spanish, developed and have been used throughout her life. She narrates how living with two languages has affected her in each period of her life. The informant's language life history provides insight into the ways in which immigrants who come to the United States live and adapt to a new country, culture, and language. The informant's narrative is a testimony of a person divided between two languages and two cultures. The methods used …

Soviet Evangelical Students In Adult Esl Classes: A Case Study, Patricia Ann Wiggins

Dissertations and Theses

Soviet Evangelicals (a term inclusive of Pentecostals and other Christians of evangelical persuasion from former Soviet countries) are members of one of the most recent refugee-status groups to come to the United States. Being refugees, they are guaranteed, by the U.S. government, a degree of English language instruction. As a result, since 1989, adult ESL classes in the Pacific Northwest have had a large influx of Soviet Evangelical students. Because of the scant research as yet conducted on this student population, most ESL educators have had to rely on intuition and observations to interpret Soviet Evangelicals' needs, desires and behavior …

English Language Teaching And Curricula In The People's Republic Of China, Kirsten Nadia Ngan

Dissertations and Theses

Since China's open-door policy of 1978, an increasing number of Western language teachers have entered the People's Republic. Numerous reports criticizing Chinese teaching methods, books, curricula, and students have been written by teachers of English, the cause of which can, in many cases, be related back to teachers' different expectations about language curricula.

Dubin and Olshtain's (1986) curriculum framework was utilized in this study to examine the premises of language learning and teaching in China. A questionnaire was sent to teachers and students at seven schools in the People's Republic of China. The questionnaire included a brief needs analysis and …

A Linguistic Needs Assessment Of A Latino Community, Cybele Marie Higgins

Dissertations and Theses

Latino communities frequently face barriers in the midst of largely English speaking and mostly Anglo-American culture surrounding communities. These surrounding communities often may be somewhat resistant to adjusting to their changing populations.

This case study is a linguistic needs assessment of a Latino community in a small city and neighboring town in the Northwest. Discussed are experiences, needs, and opinions of thirty Latina mother participants in regards to living in this community. Participants, all of whom were monolingual Spanish or limited English proficiency recent immigrants, were recruited through a social service agency serving low income Latinos.

The study used observation, …

Conversational Structure In Electronic Mail Exchanges, Linda I. Godson

Dissertations and Theses

Electronic mail has become a widely used medium of communication in academia, government, and business. It is unique as a communication medium because it makes conversations across time, space, and organizational levels possible. The ability of electronic mail to "forward" a message allows for the creation of chains that preserve the entire conversation for each participant. This appears to be a new linguistic form in which the interactive features of spoken conversation are realized using electronically transmitted text.

The purpose of the present study was to determine the extent of the similarities and differences between spoken conversation and electronic mail …

The Use Of Global Issues In A University Esl Classroom: The Students' Perspective, Kelley Denise Fitzpatrick

Dissertations and Theses

There is increasing interest on the part of ESL educators in the inclusion of contemporary, global issues in their classrooms. Theory about content-based ESL, as well as trends in education, generally, lend support to such enthusiasm. However, ESL educators may be erroneously assuming that their interest in this material is shared by their students. Global issues can also be controversial. Their inclusion in the classroom has the potential to create an uncomfortable, and therefore ineffective, learning atmosphere in a multicultural ESL setting. This qualitative case study examined the use of global issues as the content material in a university-based ESL …

A Comparison Of The Cohesion In The Expository Discourse Of The Optimally-Healthy Young-Old And The Optimally-Healthy Oldest-Old, Penni Gay Siemens

Dissertations and Theses

The group of people aged 85 years and older is the fastest growing chronological population on the United States (Neal et al., 1993), and while a considerable amount of research has focused on the language of the elderly (those over 65 years), relatively little study has focused specifically on those aged 85 and older. This study is valuable in that it includes a large sample of optimally healthy people aged 85 and older. This sample of the optimally-healthy oldest-old will help define what changes, if any, are a function of age alone and what changes are clinical (associated with some …

Modeling Music With Grammars: Some Examples From Balinese Kotekan, Janet Tom Cowal

Dissertations and Theses

What is the relationship of music and language? Analogies and comparisons of music and language are plentiful in various types of literature. For researchers in the cognitive sciences, the importance of organization, patterning, and structuring of sounds is a common theme in analyzing both language and music. With the success of generative grammars for languages, a number of researchers have used similar kinds of grammars to describe or model particular aspects of music. In addition, researchers are interested in possible universals in musical grammars. However, while grammars of non-Western musics have been written, most of the work has been based …

Adult Esl Writing Journals: A Case Study Of Topic Assignment, Kathryn Elaine Brunette

Dissertations and Theses

Over the past ten years, the use of student writing journals has become increasingly widespread in the TESOL field. Such journals serve a wide variety of purposes: a cultural diary, a free writing exercise, a forum for reaction or comment on readings or classroom discussions, in addition to a form of teacher/student dialogue. The main purpose of this study has been to determine the relationship of topic assignment to the quantity and quality of resulting entries. The data, 144 journal entries generated by ten adult ESL students over a period of ten weeks, were measured for length, in terms of …

The Mediation Of U.S. American Culture In The Esl Classroom, Steven Fredolph Roberts

Dissertations and Theses

The concept of cultural mediation is one that all ESL teachers must deal with as an inherent part of their employment. Yet, relatively little of the current literature has examined how teachers actually perceive this aspect of their work once they have left the teacher preparation program behind. This question provided the main rationale for the present study. The current study, an adaptation of DeFoe (1986), examined the mediation of U.S. American culture in the ESL classroom by means of a written survey of 42 teachers from ten community colleges, both in the Portland/Vancouver metropolitan area and from around the …

Planning For Academic Success: Survey Of University Professors' Assessments Of Non-Native Students' Language Skill Needs, Carol Bondurant Sloan

Dissertations and Theses

The purpose of this study is to examine which language skills university professors believe are most essential for academic success in Portland State University classes. The study can shed light on a question for future research: Do current academic ESL classes at Portland State University teach the necessary skills to help international students maximize their second-language learning potential in university-level courses. Enrollment statistics for 1993 I 94 show 53 percent of the 815 international students declared majors in two programs: the school of Business Administration and the school of Engineering and Applied Science. This study asked 31 instructors from business …

Vocabulary Learning For Short-Term Esl Students: A Comparison Of Three Methods, Michael William Bess

Dissertations and Theses

Long-term studies with both native and non-native speakers of English have shown that vocabulary can be learned passively or "incidentally" simply through the act of reading, even through reading for pleasure. Generally, studies of incidental vocabulary learning have tested subjects' knowledge of words learned after reading novels or other longer works of prose fiction. Eighty-four students from a short-term ESL program participated as subjects in this study. Subjects were divided into three treatment groups and one control group. All subjects were given a 100-i tern word-recognition pretest, containing 45 test words and 55 dis tractors. The three treated groups were …

Adult English As A Second Language Literacy Programs In The Non-Profit Sector Of Multnomah County, Oregon, Susan Edna Binford

Dissertations and Theses

The present study identified and described the general education English as a Second Language (ESL) programs in Multnomah County, Oregon, offered by nonprofit organizations, in order to promote a more coordinated effort to meet the needs of the community. The study asked the following questions: 1) What are the non-profit organizations providing general adult ESL instruction in Multnomah County, Oregon?; 2) What are the nature and characteristics of these adult ESL education programs, including methods of recruiting, assessing, and tracking students?; 3) What are the methods of recruiting, training, and tracking volunteer teachers?; and 4) What, if any, ESL resource …

Simultaneous Interpretation (Si): An Information Processing Approach And Its Implications For Practical Si, Doris Maria Ecker

Dissertations and Theses

Simultaneous interpretation (SI) is a special kind of translation where the interpreter listens to a speaker, processes the spoken (or signed) source language message and produces an equivalent output in a target language, i.e., the interpreter produces one part of the message in the target language while simultaneously listening to the next part of the message in the source language. This thesis examines the process of simultaneous interpretation from an information processing point of view and describes the implications of such an approach for practical SI. Following an overview of research issues in SI literature, a definition of SI is …

A Comparison Of The Effects Of Different Video Imagery Upon Adult Esl Students' Comprehension Of A Video Narrative, Scott Alan Thompson

Dissertations and Theses

This study was meant to provide empirical evidence to support or challenge the assumption that a nonfiction video narrative will be better comprehended by students of ESL if it includes a variety of relevant visual information compared to only seeing a single speaker or "talking head" reciting a narration. The overarching goal of this study was to give teachers of ESL greater knowledge and confidence in using video materials to develop the listening skills of their students. It compared two video tapes which contained the identical soundtrack but different visual information.

The first tape (also called the "lecture tape") showed …

Questions-Asking Strategies Of Aphasic And Normal Subjects, Sharla Rae Harvey

Dissertations and Theses

Problem-solving abilities of individuals with aphasia have received limited attention in their assessment and remediation. At this time, there is substantially more information available on the linguistic performance of persons with aphasia than on their cognitive processing performance. Assessment of problem-solving abilities in this population has typically used tasks with low verbal loadings. However, both linguistic and cognitive competence are required for effective communication and activities of daily life.

The purpose of the present study was to determine if mild-to-moderate subjects with aphasia differed in their question-asking strategies as compared with normal subjects. A modification of Mosher and Hornsby's (1966) …

Lexico-Semantic Influence In Interlingual Transfer, Guy-Luc Achille Levesque

Dissertations and Theses

The present study replicates research by Tomoko Takahashi (1984) on lexico-semantic patterns used by students in an acquisition poor environment. The purpose of the current study was to determine how an acquisition rich environment affects learners' use of four lexico-semantic patterns: congruence occurs when the L1 definition of a lexical item forms a one-to-one correspondence with the L2 lexical item; convergence occurs when the L1 lexical item has broader applications than the L2 lexical item; divergence occurs when the L2 lexical item has broader applications than the L1 lexical item; and semantic gap occurs when the L1 lexical item has …

The Schooling Of Vietnamese-American High School Students In Oregon: Their Perspectives, Minh Van Tran

Dissertations and Theses

Research on the education of Vietnamese-Americans is very limited, and mainstream media continue to project Vietnamese students either as high achievers or gang affiliated (Castro, 1983; Davis & McDaid, 1992). This kind of projection can mask the real issues that Vietnamese students are facing. Based on Cummins' (1979) Contextual Interaction Theory, this study examined the views of Vietnamese-American high school students in Oregon regarding their schooling under four major areas: Community Background Factors, Educational Input Factors, Instructional Treatment, and Student Input Factors. In particular, this study examined factors, within the above four areas, pertaining to the schooling of Vietnamese-American high …

The Relationship Between Cognitive Skills Measured By Piagetian Tasks At Age 2 And Linguistic Skills Measured By An Expressive Language Test At Age 4 In Normal And Late Talkers, Rebecca Jayne Laplante

Dissertations and Theses

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between cognitive skills as measured by Piagetian tasks at approximately 2 years of age and expressive and receptive language scores from tests administered to the same children 2 years later. The questions this study sought to answer were: 1. Is there a significant difference in the performance of normal children and late-talking children on Piagetian cognitive assessment at age 2? 2. Is there a significant relationship between the cognitive scores at age 2 and language scores at age 4 in each of the two diagnostic groups? Sixty-four subjects participated in …

The Effectiveness Of Semantic Mapping On Reading Comprehension, Sharon Fredricks

Dissertations and Theses

It is the goal of all reading instructors to use techniques that will enhance reading comprehension. This is certainly no less so in the second language classroom. Studies have shown that readers possess schemata for text structure that is activated during the reading process. It has also been shown that a reader's textual schemata may be culturally influenced and that second language students may possess textual schemata that conflicts or interferes with the structure of the text making comprehension more difficult. For this reason, second language learners may benefit from explicit instruction in text structure and content relationships. Semantic mapping …

The Identity In Crisis: A New Approach To The Culture Shock Experience Of University Exchange Students, Christina Maria Luther

Dissertations and Theses

The relationship of language and culture is explored in this thesis for the purpose of better understanding why all sojourners, regardless of preparation, experience some degree of culture shock. The author begins with a review of literature on culture shock establishing that the native language of sojourners is not considered to be of any consequence to the sojourning experience. The fields of intercultural communication, social psychology and psychology are then explored to establish the link between language and culture and to introduce the notion of linguistic identity. Evidence found in each of these fields leads the author to conclude that …

The Natural Approach And The Audiolingual Method: A Question Of Student Gains And Retention, Jeffrey Robert Richards

Dissertations and Theses

The purpose of this study was to determine the difference in the short term and and long term second language (L2) gains of first year Spanish students exposed to the Audiolingual Method (ALM) and the Natural Approach. The experiment consisted of two randomly selected groups which were exposed to four presentations. Two of these presentations delivered content material following a Natural Approach lesson design while the other two delivered content material following an ALM lesson design in such a way that both groups were exposed to two ALM lessons and two Natural Approach lessons. All subjects were pre-tested prior to …

Adult Esl Students: Traits And Goals - A Case Study, David Miles Wilkinson

Dissertations and Theses

This study was conducted to examine the traits and goals of students enrolled in the ESL program at Clark College in Vancouver, Washington over the past two academic years (1992 and 1993). The study looks at the degree of awareness that these students have of further educational opportunities in the academic and vocational areas, and the degree to which the ESL program at Clark College engenders this awareness. Data was collected from two cohorts of students enrolled in the ESL program on two separate occasions, each approximately one year apart. The goals of the study included the following: ( 1) …

Cultural Bias In The Assessment Of Phonological Processes In Conjunction With The App-R, Sharon Elise Soliday

Dissertations and Theses

Normal phonological development is characterized by phonological processes in preschool children. These processes are sound error patterns, in relation to the adult target, that are expected within the speech of normally developing children. As children grow older, they "outgrow" these developmental errors.

Within the black English dialect, speakers may use a combination of these processes and not be considered phonologically impaired within their linguistic community.

The purpose of this study was to assess and compare phonological process usage in the speech of lower socioeconomic black and white preschoolers.

The APP-R in conjunction with the CAPP was administered to two groups …

The Study Of Malaysian Learners' Strategies While Studying A Second Language, Phoebe Christina Leong

Dissertations and Theses

In the past, the process by which language acquisition took place was largely ignored. Learning strategies were found to reveal much of the processes that occurred in a learner. In recent years, however, there was a greater emphasis in discovering learner's strategies because of the important role it played in helping the learner control his learning. Most researchers (e.g., Rubin 1975, Stern 1974, O'Malley 1985) emphasize not only the importance of learner strategies in helping the student direct his own learning, but they also emphasize the usefulness of transferring strategies used by successful learners to less successful learners. In order …

Cognitive Development Of Bilingual Korean-Americans In An Oregon School District, Kimiko Okada King

Dissertations and Theses

This research examined whether bilingualism would accelerate or hinder the cognitive as well as academic development of the Korean American individuals in an Oregon school district by analyzing the standardized test scores at grades 3, 5, 7, and 9. Eleven monolingual and 27 bilingual students released the Survey of Basic Skills (SBS) as well as Cognitive Abilities Test (CogAT) scores for this study.

The analyses of the test scores revealed that the Korean-American students in this school district were performing at a much higher level against the national norm (the 50th percentile), or the school district norm (the 75th percentile). …