Digital Commons Network^™

A Preliminary Investigation Of Velopharyngeal Timing In Normally Developing Preschool Children And Those With Speech Sound Disorders, Taylor Danielle Snodgrass

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

As children acquire speech and language, they also begin to develop speech motor control. A widely accepted theoretical model for explaining speech acquisition and motor modifications necessary for appropriate speech is the Directions Into Velocities of Articulators (DIVA)model.This model posits that individuals plan and produce speech (feedforward system). If errors in speech are identified, they are modified since the DIVA Model includes a feedback system that is sensitive to such perturbations made during speech production (feedback system). This feedback system functions to make positive changes to one’s motor programming for speech. Literature suggests that children gain stability …

Technology Use By Teachers Of Deaf And Hard-Of-Hearing Students, Nichole K. Zirzow

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This nationwide study explored the types and frequency of technology used by

teachers of deaf and hard-of-hearing (d/hh) students to design and deliver instruction, as

well as the types and frequency of technology being used by teachers of d/hh students to

promote communication and collaboration. It also examined the extent of professional

development in the area of technology use with d/hh students, and the related challenges

experienced by these teachers. The following research questions guided this study.

Research question 1. What kinds of technology do teachers of d/hh students use

to design and deliver academic content-based learning activities? With what …

Homeland And Ethnic News Consumption Among Ghanaians In The Washington Metropolitan Area, Kwabena Boateng Bediako

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Among the many applications of the Internet is its use for news. Ghanaian immigrants, like others living away from their country of birth, use the Web to access news from home via ethnic media in their host country or homeland media or both. Employing online surveys and telephone interviews, this study explores the daily use of online media by Ghanaians resident in the Washington metropolitan area to obtain news about their native country. It assesses how factors like demography, length of stay abroad and devices used affect time spent daily on the Internet looking for news as well as the …

Mandarin -Guo Under Control: An Experimental Study, Wei Zhou

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This thesis examines the experiential aspectual marker -guo under control in Mandarin. The status of -guo under control has been a subject of controversy, involving two important theoretical questions. The first question concerns whether -guo under control is syntactically associated with the matrix verb or the embedded verb. The second question deals with whether, in terms of interpretive effects, -guo under control triggers actuality entailments. This thesis addresses the latter question through an interpretive judgment test conducted among 260 native Mandarin speakers. In the test, three control verbs (changshi ‘try’, guli ‘encourage’, and zuzhi ‘oppose’) were selected, each of …

The /H/ Phenomenon: Overgeneralised Or Confused? The Nigerian Yoruba-English Speakers As A Case Study, Oluwabukola Omolara Bamidele

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

In this thesis, I examined why the Yoruba speakers of the English language have difficulty in pronouncing word-initial glottal fricative in English. /h/ dropping and /h/ insertion is not expected as the Yoruba language supposedly have the glottal fricative in its sound inventory. I gave a brief introduction to Yoruba phonetics, a brief history about the contact between English and Yoruba language, and what other researchers have written about the /h/ dropping and insertion phenomenon.

The research question was why the Yoruba-English speakers delete and insert the glottal fricative at the word-initial position. I started by investigating the nature of …

Bridging The Gap: Utilizing Socratic Inquiry Facilitation In Cross-Cultural Communication And Conflict Exploration, Mikaela G. Zimmerman

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The objective of this research is to explore the possibilities for improving governmental relations (local, national, and international) using microcosms of cross-cultural dialogues facilitated with Socratic Inquiry methodology and their potential to project situational similarities into more formal political conversation. Using twenty-five recorded dialogues from The Pennsylvania State University’s Center for Public Diplomacy (World in Conversation), I have broadly observed the role of Socratic Inquiry facilitation in cross-cultural dialogues whose content varies across a span of contentious social topics. By generally accounting for a range of relevant social factors such as gender, body language, conversational tools, and proxies for empathy, …

The Effect Of Phonetic Training On The Perception And The Production Of L1-Related Difficult Sounds In Esl, Moonjung Jang

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

A considerable amount of research has been conducted on the influence of first languages’ phonological features in pronunciation of a second language. While it has been accepted that pronunciation is one of the most significant aspects in the acquisition of a second language, many studies have not considered whether explicit phonetic training in pronunciation would help English as Second language Learners to improve their pronunciation on particular English sounds that can be confused due to L1 influence. The present study will explore whether Korean ESL learners are able to perceive the particular pairs of the different phonetic sounds (i.e., /p/-/f/, …

Listening For The Cosmic Other: Postcolonial Approaches To Music In The Space Age, Paige Zalman

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

As government programs such as NASA and SETI seek signs of intelligent life in space and privately-funded programs such as SpaceX finalize plans to colonize Mars in the coming decades, representations of space and extraterrestrial life in American culture have become increasingly relevant. Focusing on Jóhann Jóhannsson’s musical score for Denis Villeneuve’s science-fiction film Arrival (2016), Terry Riley’s Sun Rings (2002) for string quartet, chorus, and recorded space sounds, and former International Space Station Commander Chris Hadfield’s “Songs about Space” Spotify playlist, my research problematizes the ways in which composers, musicians, and even astronauts depict alterity through music and reinforce …

Acoustics Of Vowel Articulation In Flute Playing, Jose Fernando Ramirez

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Through an experiment and series of acoustic analysis, this thesis evaluates if vowel articulation modifies flute sound. It is an initial investigation in a sequence of research on linguistics solving major questions in flute performance and teaching, and is a continuation of a previous pilot project called “Acoustics and Perception of Speech Sound on the Flute,” where participants attempt to distinguish vowel articulation of the mouth while playing the flute. In this thesis, the flute sound is tested acoustically to provide evidence of how vowels alter the timbre. To this end, a professional flutist recorded A=440 Hz in the three …

How Does The Pronunciation Of Native Languages Affect Beginning Singers? A Research Focusing On Native Mandarin Chinese And American English Speaking Singers, Ruobing Zhao

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The classical style of singing is taught at music institutions around the world as a mainstream artform. The main languages of classical vocal repertoires are Italian, German, French and English, which means most classical singers need to sing in non-native languages. When people learn a new sound from a foreign language, they often search for reference points within their native language(s), which usually is the reason behind singers performing with incorrect accents or diction.

This research focuses on beginning singers whose native language is either Mandarin Chinese or American English. This research introduces the romanization system and basic pronunciation rule …

Breaking And Remaking The Mason-Dixon Line: Loyalty In Civil War America, 1850-1900, Charles R. Welsko

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Between 1850 and 1900, Americans redefined their interpretation of national identity and loyalty. In the Mid-Atlantic borderland of Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and West Virginia this change is most evident. With the presence of a free state and slave states in close proximity, white and black Americans of the region experienced the tumult of the Civil War Era first hand. While the boundary between freedom and slavery served as an antebellum battleground over slavery, during the war, the whole region bore witness to divisions between the Union and Confederacy as well as to define what loyalty and nation meant. By exploring …

Los Ritmos Latinoamericanos Como Estrategia De Resistencia En La Ópera La Ruta De Su Evasión (2017) De Abya Yala Y Carlos Castro, Pamela Zamora Quesada

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

In this Master’s thesis I examine the most recent Costa Rican opera The Path of Avoidance (2017), produced by the Cultural Association for Performing Arts Abya Yala, directed by Roxana Ávila and composed by Carlos Castro, based on the homonymous novel of Yolanda Oreamuno (1948).Through a semiotic analysis, I will discuss how the innovative manner of incorporating Latin American rhythms such as salsa, bolero, vals criollo, bossa nova and tango is a musical strategy which promotes a problematization of the gender dominant discourse and patriarchal context. Simultaneously, these rhythms offer a way of resistance on the direct or psychological violence …

Predictors Of Perceived Multicultural Competence Among Neuropsychological Trainees, Hannah K. Greenbaum

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Multicultural competence is necessary to provide psychological services to an increasingly diverse population (Sue, 2001). It is established that multicultural competence is important for training in psychology (Bodin et al., 2014; Diaz-Santos & Hill, 2016). Despite increased interest in recent years, multicultural competence in neuropsychology has not progressed in parallel with the focus of multiculturalism in psychology broadly (Rivera Mindt, Byrd, Saez, & Manly, 2010). Little is known about multicultural assessment, and it is not yet known what factors in training contribute to perceived multicultural competence in neuropsychological trainees (Elbulok-Charape, Rabin, Spadaccini, & Barr, 2014). The primary purpose of this …

Dp Internal Codeswitching By Spanish And English Bilinguals In The Us, Yurena Castaño-Nuñez

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Codeswitching studies the boundaries that exist at all linguistic levels when a speaker switches between two or more languages in a single moment of speech.

(i) En el restaurante he pedido la big hamburguesa.

‘At the restaurant I have ordered the big hamburger.’

(ii) Juan conoce la highway para llegar a Washington D.C.

‘Juan knows the highway to get to Washington D.C.’

(iii) A Carmen no le gustan los pantalones cortos. A ella le gustan los long ones.

‘Carmen doesn’t like short pants. She likes the long ones.’

This thesis concentrates on the study of switches between adjectives and Noun …

An Assessment Of Emotional-Force And Cultural Sensitivity The Usage Of English Swearwords By L1 German Speakers, Sarah Dawn Cooper

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This study examines the usage of English swearwords by L1 German speakers and poses the following three questions: (1) Which English swearwords do native-speakers of German use? (2) In which situations do German speakers use English swearwords? Why do they use English swearwords instead of their German counterparts? (3) What emotional weight do they apply to swearwords in English (i.e. How taboo are they)? In an effort to understand Germans’ use of swearwords today, potential attributing factors were assessed and evaluated in a 15-question survey comprised of both qualitative and quantitative components that was taken by 403 participants from Germany …

Growing Up Between Two Worlds: A Portrait Of Second-Generation American A Multimedia Project, Dalia Ahmed Elsaid

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This professional project is a multimedia project focusing on stories of three second-generation Americans in West Virginia. The project is disseminated using a website. It includes content curated by the project author (photos, videos, written stories, data visualization) and information selected by the participants themselves. The content will add to the information available on different cultural communities in West Virginia in general, and on second-generation Americans in particular. It is hoped the project, through its portrayals of these individuals and their immigrant families, will help to dispel and counter some of the stereotypical depictions of immigrants. With this goal in …

Two Case Studies Of Middle School Parents And Their Engagement With Schools Who Participate In Positive Behavior Support, Kathryn Work-Poggi

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Positive Behavior Support (PBS) promotes the importance of all staff, school locations, and instructional settings emulating and purposefully teaching the same targeted behavioral expectations. One way to achieve this is to decisively partner with parents and jointly teach positive behavioral conduct and cultivate consistent behavioral expectations across home and school. The purpose of this study was to determine degrees of parent involvement within the confines of a qualitative case study to assess the perceptual nuances that parents experience with their child's middle school using the PBS process. Six parents across two middle schools employing PBS voluntarily shared their perceptions of …

Recollection, Tiera Tanner

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This written thesis is the accompanying documentation of my Masters of Fine Art thesis exhibition --- recollection. This exhibition presented a collection of oil paintings of created over three years in the graduate program through the College of Creative Arts at West Virginia University. My personal experiences during this time directly affected the paintings displayed through this exhibition, including marriage, deployment, and the birth of my first child. Each of my created works references a photograph of a family member or myself. These images capture moments in time and can reflect a narrative to the audience, along with ideas of …

A Study Of The Judgment Accuracy Of Repeated /R/ Stimuli By Graduate Clinicians, Lauren Glover

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

No abstract provided.

100 Days In Appalachia: Publication Building Toolkit, Kassandra Taylor

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This is an analysis of the multimedia news outlet 100 Days in Appalachia. It is an attempt to examine the publication in order to further understand the purpose, the successes and the contributions it has made to journalism. 100 Days in Appalachia is delivering groundbreaking journalism from the heart of the region Appalachia, to help change perceptions about a part of the country that is widely misunderstood. This analysis will use 100 Days in Appalachia as a guideline to develop a journalists' toolkit for other communities throughout the United States to create a publication. It will also use information and …

The Margins Of Myddle: Poverty And Community In A Shropshire Parish, C. 1601-1800, Betsy L. Morgan-Cutright

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

No abstract provided.

Ius Soli, Ius Sanguinis, Ius Linguae, Or Ius Mundi: Living, Understanding, And Building Transnational Citizenship In A Transnational Multilingual Family In The U.S, Natalya Kuznetsova

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Through the case of a multilingual Estonian family of sojourners in the U.S., this ethnographic study examines the ways in which a multilingual family lives, understands, and constructs their transnational experiences, negotiating their language practices and identities in the context of their family space and globally. With an intention to respond to and to reflect the complexity of the phenomenon of language ecology in a multilingual transnational family, the study draws on and merges three conceptual frameworks: language socialization, family language policy, and transnational social spaces. Through the analysis of ethnographic observations, recordings of naturally occurring conversations, interviews with family …

A Long Short-Term Memory Neural Network For Improved Twins' Voice Differentiation, Stallone Bruno-Ray Sabatier

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Although successfully implemented in certain situations, the reliability of speaker recognition (SR) decreases due to speaker and channel variability present between enrollment and evaluation samples, as well as the available length of speech utterances. The issue of speaker variability becomes more pronounced when the number of speakers in the evaluation set increases, as there is a higher probability that two voices may sound more alike. The differentiation of intra-twin pairs' voices can be beneficial to general SR because inclusion can simulate this effect. This is due to the fact that their shared voice similarities are comparable to the potential inter-speaker …

Study Of The Resonance Spectrums Of The Flute And The Effect Of Different Stable Vowels On Formant Tuning With Violin And Clarinet, Alyssa M. Schwartz

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

"In the long history of scientific investigation of musical instruments, the flute has been given particular attention, primarily because of its apparent simplicity. Yet many of the physical factors that determine its behavior have not been well documented." This is especially true when it comes to modern understanding of the way in which changes in the shape of the oral cavity affect the resonance spectrum of the flute.;Creating different monophthongs, or stable-vowel positions, while playing the flute changes the spectral slope and strength of the overtones in the flute tone. This affects the ability of the flute to successfully blend …

Understanding The Novice Decision-Making Process In Forensic Footwear Examinations: Accuracy And Decision Rules, Madonna A. Nobel

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The reproducibility of experienced-based forensic pattern interpretation is founded on the notion that domain-specific knowledge can be successfully distributed and applied among experts within a group. This assumption persists, even when the examination is complicated by variations in case circumstances, such as impression clarity and totality, as well as media, substrate, collection mechanism and enhancement. While it is further theorized that many of these factors (as well as additional confounding factors) are at play during an examination, the manner and extent to which these sources of variability affect the examination of footwear evidence remain unclear. In order to explore this …

A Method Of Teaching English Speaking Learners To Produce Mandarin-Chinese Tones, Hui Shi

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Learning Mandarin Chinese tones is a big challenge for English speaking learners. The average tonal production accuracy is reported to be about 70 percent for intermediate-level learners and 40 percent for beginning-level Chinese learners. The Chinese tonal proficiency significantly influences the learners' communicative effectiveness, including listening and speaking, but research often overlooks tonal production. This study proposed and tested a novel method of teaching English-speaking learners to pronounce Mandarin Chinese tones. This teaching method includes a Chinese tones bookmark, and a 30--50 minutes in-class training module. The research undertook five cycles of Design-Based Research (DBR) implementations with 31 public school …

Using Artistic Process To Provide Outlets Of Communication, Understanding, And Healing To Improve The Well Being Of Selected Learners, Sarah Allen

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Public schools in America follow a carefully structured pattern tied directly to the societies and cultures from within. While this structure may create a positive and familiar learning environment for some, others who are unfamiliar with the societal and cultural norms within public school structures, may be left behind. Some learners have simple language barriers that exclude them from activities as well as others during the school day; some choose silence out of fear or embarrassment from unknown circumstances; while others are labeled as Special Education and are not able to speak to others verbally as a "normal" child would. …

It Takes A Village: Collaborative Social Justice Through Choral Musicking, Natalie Shaffer

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

No abstract provided.

An Examination Of Cardiovascular Health Among Afro-Caribbean Immigrants In New York City, Sabena C Thomas

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

No abstract provided.

(De)Homogenizing Diaspora: An Analysis Of Indian Tamil Identities In The Us, Christabel Devadoss

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

No abstract provided.