Digital Commons Network^™

Form Or Function First In Foreign Language Classrooms?, Senta Görtler

Dissertations and Theses

The study was inspired by continuous discussion in the field of second language acquisition and teaching on the role of grammar instruction in successful language learning. Traditionally foreign language and second language classrooms have been taught with a pedagogical focus on language structure. More recently there has been support for second language classrooms focusing on content, function, or communication rather than form. The purpose of this quasi-experimental study was to compare the effectiveness of an innovative function-based classroom with a traditional form-based classroom.

During a ten-week period, one class of Intermediate German was taught in a form-based classroom while another …

Effects Of Professional Interpreter Services On The Utilization Of Health Care Services Of Different Language/Cultural Groups, Amanda Fleming Petrik

Dissertations and Theses

Immigration has affected the number of U.S. residents who speak little or no English. These residents have limited English proficiency. Research studies have indicated discrepancies in medical interpretation and medical care. However, differences in health care between the language/ cultural groups are rarely recognized as health discrepancies.

This research project is a quasi-experimental design, testing differences between the four major language groups in the greater Portland, Oregon area. These four major language/cultural groups speak Chinese, Vietnamese, Spanish and Russian.

A secondary data analysis was used to compare the differences in utilization of emergency room services, routine services, and urgent care …

The Nature Of Selection In A Cohort Of Sixth Graders: Homogeneity Of Children’S Friends And Peer Groups With Regard To School Motivation, Tanya L. Fantaski

Dissertations and Theses

This study suggests that the structure and function of children's peer and friendship groups differ. Participants were an entire cohort of sixth grade students (N = 366) from 13 classrooms in a small upstate New York town. Children reported about peer groups, friendships, and their own (behavioral and emotional) engagement. Binomial z-tests were used to identify the peer group structure across all 13 classrooms. Friendship groups were identified from reciprocal nominations of (a) very best friends, (b) best friends, (c) good friends, and (d) friends also friends in class, in school, and outside of school. Group motivational averages were computed …

Who's In The Pew? A Study Of Religious Disengagement Among Young Adults, Jodi Brekhus

Dissertations and Theses

This investigation sought to understand religious disengagement among young adults in the U.S. Specifically, it addressed the following questions: How can the trend toward religious disengagement among young adults in the 1990s be explained?

In an attempt to answer these questions, several existing models and perspectives which attempt to explain the social causes of religious disengagement among young adults were presented. These are the following: age-based, social learning, traditional beliefs, the family-life cycle, religious innovation, localism and deprivation.

These models and perspectives were combined to create several hypotheses, which were then tested with data collected from General Social Survey (GSS). …

Attitudes At The Bank : A Survey Of Reactions To Different Varieties Of English, Sean Wilcox

Dissertations and Theses

In the modem world of international communication, it is more common for speakers of different varieties of English to come into contact with each other on a daily basis. This can occur not only in face to face communication, but in telephone communication as well.

This study investigates the attitudes towards a non-native or Expanding Circle (ECE) variety of English held by telephone customer service representatives at a large American financial institution. The central question of this study asks whether or not these telephone representatives will rate a speaker of a Korean-accented variety of English higher or lower than a …

Black Women's Health: A Content Analysis Of The Journal Of The American Medical Association, The American Journal Of Public Health, And The New England Journal Of Medicine (1989-1998), Tonia Marie Burkett

Dissertations and Theses

According to the National Vital Statistics Report (1998), Black women age 45-64 are ten times more likely than white women of the same age to die from diseases of the heart. They are five times more likely to die from diabetes. The goal of this study was to examine how articles published in leading medical journals between 1989 and 1998 accounted for such differences in health outcomes among Black and white women.

The explanatory content of the articles was analyzed and coded according to four types of attributions: genetic/biological, cultural/behavioral, structural/socioeconomic and alternative. Each type of explanation derives from different …

The Effects Of An Outdoor School Program On 6th-Graders’ Empathy And Attitudes Towards Nature, Carolyn Ann Occhipinti

Dissertations and Theses

Past research in environmental psychology and education has shown that outdoor experiences such as wilderness adventure camps and environmental education programs may result in increases in participants' self-esteem, sense of connectedness to the natural world and environmental awareness. Developmental research has suggested a link between high self-esteem and increased levels of empathy.

The present study was intended to explore possible effects of nature experiences on empathy development, and to add to our understanding of the relationship between people and the natural environment by measuring four aspects of children's subjective experiences: empathy, self-esteem, sense of connectedness to the natural world, and …

The Early Years In African American Education: A Life History Approach To Evaluating Control Theory, Beverly Diane Logan

Dissertations and Theses

The concern of this study is educational achievement, disproportionately low among inner-city African-American students. Because education is so highly valued, particularly among African-Americans, underachievement is considered deviation from cultural norms.

Social control theory attempts to explain why people conform to social norms in spite of pressures toward deviance. Many adverse pressures encountered in inner-city environments and persistent features of institutional racism toward blacks in school make underachievement understandable. Hirschi's (1969) control model, therefore, seemed most appropriate for examining black student achievement.

Control theory holds that individuals conform to cultural norms when their behavior is controlled through established social bonds, which …

Effects Of Adapted Storybooks On Vocabulary Acquisition Of Children Who Have A Severe Speech Impairment (Ssi), Wendy Ann Peterson

Dissertations and Theses

Research has shown that children who are typically developing have the ability to rapidly learn (fast map) and receptively identify novel vocabulary words presented in the context of storybooks. It has also been shown that repeated exposure to the stories increases the amount of information, or the number of vocabulary words, acquired by the child. Furthermore, studies have shown that children learn more when they are actively rather than passively involved in the learning process. However, little is known about how children who have a severe speech impairment (SSI) fast map new vocabulary in storybook reading contexts, or how active …

The Effects Of Interracial Contact On Whites' Racial Attitudes Toward African Americans, Lindsay K. Hixson

Dissertations and Theses

Whites' racial attitudes are influenced by a variety of factors. Research offers varied findings on the extent to which interracial contact promotes positive racial attitudes. Previous researchers have not explored the process by which whites acquire positive racial attitudes. This thesis is an attempt to fill this gap in the literature.

The purpose of this thesis is to explore the conditions that lead to positive white racial attitudes. It is primarily concerned with the conditions that encourage whites to become empathetic to the social positions of African Americans. For the purpose of this research, empathetic refers to individuals having a …

Language Attitudes And Academic Achievement: A Study Of Mexican Immigrant Esl Students In The Northwest, Julie Ann Cheshire

Dissertations and Theses

As the population of Mexican immigrant learners continues to increase in the Northwest, an understanding of the cultural, social and psychological realities of these students' lives becomes an ever more important issue for professional language educators, classroom teachers, and school administrators. Our understanding of the needs of these learners will have an important effect on how prepared they are to participate in academic situations and community life.

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between language attitudes and ESL learning among young adult Mexican-immigrant learners in one community education program in the Northwest. Learners' values and beliefs …

Interrupting Generational Poverty: Experiences Affecting Successful Completion Of A Bachelor's Degree, Donna Marie Beegle

Dissertations and Theses

The problem addressed in this study can be stated thus: There are extremely limited numbers of students from the lowest economic class graduating from our nation's institutions of higher education. The challenge to institutions of higher education is how to improve access, support, and successful completion of higher education for students experiencing the most extreme poverty barriers.

Weber's (1946) social-class theory was selected to determine the meanings and interpretations of students from poverty backgrounds in regard to their success and perceived barriers to success in completing college. This theoretical construct is based on the idea that collectively held meanings arise …

Understanding Volunteerism: An Exploratory Study Of The Theory Of The Commons, Richard L. Fey

Dissertations and Theses

Volunteerism in the United States has a history dating back to this countries origin. This form of giving originated out of the Great Awakening in the early 17th century. Previous studies on the nature of volunteering have had many different disciplines of research attempting to explain why organizations and individuals spend time in civic service.

In 1992, Roger A. Lohmann wrote The Commons as an attempt to create a bridge between the varying theoretical perspectives on volunteerism. Lohmann suggested that the reason for so many different theoretical approaches is largely due to divisions along disciplinary lines, rather than a practical …

Media Construction, Reality Engineering, And The Forest Park Murder Victims, Patrick O'Reilly

Dissertations and Theses

Media portrayals of social problems both reflect and shape public perceptions of those problems. Such coverage can have bona fide consequences for what is actually done to combat a particular social problem. Using a constructionist approach, which focuses on how problems are defined and framed by claimsmakers, this study analyzes coverage of a local murder case by The Oregonian, the only major newspaper in the state of Oregon. The case involved the serial murders of three women, each of whose bodies was dumped in a large forested park in the city of Portland.

The analysis includes the content of coverage …

A Test Of The Mediating Effects Of Coping Strategies On The Relationship Between Perceived Control In The Workplace And Work-Family Fit, Jeff S. Johnson

Dissertations and Theses

Past research has shown that perceived employee control in the workplace is negatively related to work-family conflict and positively related to favorable physical and mental health outcomes. However, previous research has neglected to examine many antecedents to work-family positive spillover. Coping strategies used in response to work and family role demands and the resultant work-family outcomes have also not been addressed in previous research. This study investigated how perceptions of control in the workplace relate to work-family conflict, work-family positive spillover, and the use of coping strategies. In order to understand these relationships and clarify the processes of coping with …

Cooking In Eden: Inventing Regional Cuisine In The Pacific Northwest, Amy Jo Woodruff

Dissertations and Theses

This study examines how regional cuisine is being self-consciously constructed in the Pacific Northwest and discusses the ways in which it contributes to identity in the region. I identify the characteristics--foods, dishes, and culinary practices--of this "new" Northwest cuisine, as well as social and cultural values associated with it, and explore how together they create a sense of regional distinctiveness and loyalty. Because this type of regional cuisine is closely associated with the professional cooking community, I look to restaurants in Portland, Oregon that self-identity as representative of the Pacific Northwest and to regional cookbooks, in order to pinpoint the …

Fort, Da: The World Of Play, Kevin Marc Ginger

Dissertations and Theses

The theoretical and contextual placement of my work is informed by child development psychology. The intention is to evoke and analyze what children do, not to imitate. My use of faux fur, comforting blankets and the form of play balls all function to create objects and environments that lend themselves to absurdity, humor, and of course child-like play.

"fort, da" is titled in spirit from Sigmund Freud's observation of a child throwing a toy with an accompanying statement fort, German for "gone." The child then delights in retrieving the object while exclaiming da or "here." The anxiety …

On Communicative Competence: Its Nature And Origin, Mary Lou Emerson

Dissertations and Theses

The purpose of this thesis is to trace the lineage of the term communicative competence (CC) and to provide a framework for understanding the term CC, a controversial term introduced by Hymes (1972). This pager argues that the term CC is only meaningful if it includes competence in the same sense as Chomsky (1980) defines it--underlying knowledge of the rules of language severed from ability. Although Chomsky discusses competence in terms of grammar, he suggests that there may be underlying knowledge of language use-pragmatic competence. In the end, I will attempt to demonstrate the possibility that there is a competence …

Alcoholic Knowledge: An Interpretive Study, Daniel (Dance) Grant Taylor

Dissertations and Theses

This thesis is an example of Norman K. Denzin's postpositive research model of interpretive interactionism. This research model is meant for examining the micro-level social interactions that occur when the personal troubles of individuals interface with the public policies and institutions that have been created to respond to those particular kinds of troubles.

The original intent of this thesis was to locate the meaning of abstinence (from alcohol) held by a set of purposefully selected alcohol treatment providers in the Portland metropolitan area. The original hypothesis of this thesis proposed that individual understandings of abstinence would be affected by …

Sleight Of Hand: A Mystery Unveiled, Claudia Mederos

Dissertations and Theses

This thesis is an exploration in painting via approximately one hundred small works in acrylic, gouache, and graphite on paper. The written discussion clarifies my approach to this body of work: how it was conceived, the use of materials, as well as its purpose.

More specifically, I look toward the contemporary proliferation of visual media along with the concept of "art for art's sake" as influences. Surrealism and the revelation of the subconscious mind through painting are central topics. A tendency toward introspection, and subliminal sexuality along with the subconscious direction of mind, are brought to light by the use …

“The Way Of The Scientist Deepens Beauty By Increasing Understanding”: Teaching Physics As An Aesthetic Form, Claudine Indigo Kavanagh

Dissertations and Theses

Educators have struggled to find an appropriate and efficacious method to engage students of science in their classrooms and lecture halls, This investigation presents a theoretical foundation for the use of aesthetic criteria when teaching physics in high school or undergraduate settings and suggests that this may be an effective learning tool. The relationship between science aesthetics and science literacy is pursued here. Included in this study are discussions of the applications of aesthetic judgement by theoretical physicists in the 20th century and and methods for bringing a dialogue concerning natural philosophy and beauty in the science classroom. While many …

Discourse Analysis: Backchanneling Behavior Of Advanced Speakers Of English/Japanese As A Second/Foreign Language, Keiko Ikeda

Dissertations and Theses

When a Japanese speaker or an American English speaker is engaged in an interaction in their second/foreign language (L2), they have choices in terms of language performance. They can maintain their behavior as what is conventional in their own first language/culture, what is expected in the partner's first language/culture, or what is believed to be the appropriate language behavior in the language in use (L2).

In this current study, backchanneling behavior is chosen to be one socio-pragmatic behavior that can be very different depending on language/culture. Data were collected in telephone conversations from a total of four listeners, all advanced …

Learning, Motivation, And Self: A Diary Study Of An Esl Teacher's Year In A Japanese Language Classroom, Laura Ruth Hawks

Dissertations and Theses

Using a journal kept during a year in a second-year level Japanese language class, a diary study of an adult's foreign language experience was undertaken by an ESL teacher and graduate student. Kept as a means of releasing the anger, stress, and frustration that initially accompanied the learning experience, the journal provides a basis for the analysis of cultural, pedagogical, and personal variables that affected the learning process.

The introspective and longitudinal nature of the study provides not only a description of the learning environment and teaching method over time, but also illuminates otherwise unobservable aspects of the learning experience, …

A Longitudinal Assessment Of Temperament In Octopus Bimaculoides, David Loyd Sinn

Dissertations and Theses

Cephalopods, including Octopus spp., are highly intelligent molluscs that play major roles in many marine food webs, both as top-level feeders (Ambrose, 1984) as well as by constituting a major source of protein for the animals above them (Lang, Hochberg, Ambrose, & Engle, 1997). They also are fascinating organisms for behavioral studies, with elaborate repertoires of behavior based on plasticity and learning (Wells, 1962a; 1962b; 1978) which in complexity rivals that of the vertebrates. The study of individual differences in behavior is a facet of behavioral research that has recently gained attention in the literature (Gosling & John, 1999). Traditionally, …

A Model Of Antecedents Of Work-Family Conflict For Dual-Earner Couples In The Sandwiched Generation: A Longitudinal Study, Yueng-Hsiang Emily Huang

Dissertations and Theses

This dissertation integrates theory and research in the examination of the antecedents of work-family conflict for dual-earner couples in the sandwiched generation. In a continuation of Frone, Yardly and Markel's (1997) study, this dissertation uses longitudinal data to test the mediating effects of job and family satisfaction variables on the relationship between the antecedent variables and work-family conflict, and between work-to-family conflict and family-to-work conflict. Because Frone et al.'s 1997 model was examined using cross-sectional data, this dissertation provides a more stringent test of the model of the work-family interface. Two waves of mailed surveys were collected from 234 couples …

Diy, Community, And Technology: The Impact Of Technology On Community Cohesion In The Portland Indie Rock Production Culture, Jeffrey Ross London

Dissertations and Theses

The purpose of the present study was to determine whether differences exist between those steeped in the practice of the use of the computer in music production and those reared in a mostly analog environment. In addition, this study aimed to develop theory concerning who may be in or out of the technology revolution in music. The areas of inquiry included the artists' situated perceptions of the quality, production aesthetic, and community role of the computer.

Subjects were selected using a snowball sample of those producers with an interest in the topic area. As the research developed, subjects were chosen …

Structural Conflict Prevention: Examining Well-Being, Justice And Security In Northern Ireland, 1967-1973, Loreene N. O'Neill

Dissertations and Theses

Recent exploration into methods of preventing the escalation of conflicts, which are inherent in any society, to violent or deadly conflict suggests that social and political structures are an important factor in averting armed conflict. The Carnegie Commission on the Prevention of Deadly Conflict has recommended through their research that three areas are important in the structural prevention of deadly conflict: They are Well-Being, Justice and Security.

The purpose of this thesis is to examine the usefulness of the structural prevention model in the context of an actual conflict. To this end, the conflict in Northern Ireland 1967-1973 has been …

Mediator Personality Type And Perceived Conflict Goals In Workplace Mediation: A Study Of Shared Neutrals, Karin Alayne Waller

Dissertations and Theses

The focus of this thesis was around two questions: "Do mediators commonly share a personality typology?" and "Does personality type affect mediators' perceptions of disputants' goals?" The findings of this study have several implications for conflict management and its practitioners. For instance, consideration of one's own personality type can lead to deeper understanding of one's own biases and help develop mediator neutrality. Studies about mediation practitioners can also provide information about this under-represented group for use in career counseling, as well as in public education.

This research suggests that 71% of this group of mediators shared preferences in both the …

Predictors Of Task And Contextual Performance: Frame-Of-Reference Effects And Applicant Reaction Effects On Selection System Validity, John Hunthausen

Dissertations and Theses

An employment process suprasystem contains human resource-related systems such as training, recruitment, performance appraisal, and personnel selection. Similarly, a personnel selection system consists of interdependent subsystems that work together to manifest its properties (e.g., the acquisition of qualified and high-potential individuals). Finally, each of these complex subsystems (e.g., applicant reactions to selection methods) have interdependent elements (e.g., procedural and distributive justice) that work together to manifest the properties of the subsystem (e.g., applicant fairness perceptions).

This dissertation takes such a systems approach to understanding the complexities of a personnel selection system to explore the interactions among three of its subsystems: …

The Relationship Between Chinese Character Recognition Strategies And The Success Of Character Memorization For Students Of Mandarin Chinese, Hui-Yen Emmy Chen

Dissertations and Theses

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between beginning Chinese language students' character memorization and the strategies they used for the recognition of Chinese characters. In the experiment, a new character teaching approach, the phonetic-ideograph strategy, was introduced to all the subjects during two quarter terms. Subjects participated in the study were divided into two groups depended upon their language backgrounds: the phonographic group and the morphographic group. All the subjects in the phonographic group were English speakers and subjects in the morphographic group were Japanese speakers. All the subjects received the same treatment in the study. …