Digital Commons Network^™

Multilingual Education And Education Policies In Taiwan Public Elementary Schools: Teachers’ Perspective And Experience, Chien-Yu Wu

Open Access Dissertations

The number of new immigrants and international marriages is increasing in Taiwan, resulting in growing interest in multicultural and multilingual education. The purpose of the present study was to explore public elementary school teachers’ perspectives and experiences regarding the implementation of education policies for new immigrants and their children through an in-depth analysis of a principal, teachers, and parent-teachers at two public elementary schools in rural Taiwan. I examined education policies that were established in response to concerns involving the new immigrants and their children in Taiwan. Using an interpretive phenomenology methodological framework, I obtained a deeper understanding of elementary …

Motivational Orientations Of American And Russian Learners Of French As A Foreign Language, Zoia Vinogradova

Open Access Dissertations

This study seeks to examine and compare motivational orientations of French learners across different dimensions: cultural background (USA vs. Russia), educational modality and age (college students vs. private courses learners), gender, and time of studying foreign language. 613 American and Russian learners of French completed the questionnaire addressing 10 motivational factors to study French language. Despite differences in nationality, age, educational background and learning experience, all groups of participants produced nearly identical motivational rankings. The rankings are topped by the Travelling orientation, which seems to be universally appealing, followed by the orientations within the Idealistic motivational cluster (Aesthetic Factors, Culture, …

En Torno A Los Orígenes Del Español. Estudio Sobre Las Secuencias Con Dos Nasales En Castellano., César Gutiérrez Miguel

Open Access Dissertations

The evolution of Latin sequences [min] to Spanish [mbɾ] has traditionally been accounted for through a syncope of the unstressed vowel, the rhotacism of the alveolar nasal and the later epenthesis of the voiced labial stop. This relative chronology is based on written records from the Middle Ages, in which spellings such as , and are found. However, from a phonetic perspective both the sound change [mn] > [mɾ] and [mɾ] > [mbɾ] are questionable. First, since consonant lenition is cross-linguistically more prone to happen in weak positions (i. e., coda and intervocalic) than in strong positions (i. e., onset), the rhotacism …

Functions Of Gender In Soca: An Historical And Lyrical Analysis Of St. Lucian Soca, Ekeama Sharon Goddard-Scovel

Open Access Dissertations

Soca’s music history negatively impacts female soca artists, especially when taking into account each island’s differing Carnival music history. Contrary to popular assumptions, soca (as well as calypso) did not develop similarly in every Caribbean island. Soca actually exemplifies a pan-Caribbean phenomenon that is regionally as well as gender specific. St. Lucia illustrates this phenomenon as it has a markedly different calypso history from Trinidad, which has long been called the land of calypso, and more recently the land of soca. I use St. Lucia as a departure point from which to dismantle the overarching Trinidadian narrative that many, including …

Victim, Perpetrator And Bystander Perspectives: Vatiations In Language Usage, Empathy And Violence Sensitivity, Grisel M. García-Ramírez

Open Access Dissertations

The aim of the current research is to understand how different perspectives in a violent event can affect empathy, violence sensitivity, and word usage. Participants (N=289 University of Rhode Island undergraduate students) were randomly assigned to the perspective (victim, bystander, and perpetrator) and media by which they learned about a violent event (watching a video or reading a news article), and were asked to answer a few open-ended questions about the event, followed by a short survey. Results showed that for the words in the categories of negative emotion, anger, first person pronoun, and affective process, participants assigned to the …

A Computational Intelligence Framework For Smart Grid, Yufei Tang

Open Access Dissertations

With the recent development of electronics technique and distributed generations, such as wind power, solar power and electric vehicles (EVs), modern power system is advancing towards a critical and promising intelligent generation known as the smart grid. During the upgrade to this new generation, stability and security concerns have also been raised with complex communication and control challenges. Even worse, because of the new constraints placed by the environmental and economical concerns, the system planning and operation is toward maximum utilization of the existing infrastructure with tight operating and stability margins. The decreased system stability margin together with the increased …

Examining The Nature Of The Association Between Phonological Memory And Early Reading Development, Lily Elizabeth Hall Stella

Open Access Dissertations

Considerable research has been conducted examining the contribution of early phonological memory (PM) skills on later reading ability, whereas little has investigated whether early reading performance influences later PM, or whether there is a bi-directional relationship between these variables. A secondary dataset was used, containing a sample of 54 children tested across three time points during the fall of first grade (Time 1), spring of first grade (Time 2), and spring of second grade (Time 3), to assess the nature of the relationship between reading performance and PM. (Two simple PM measures were used in this study: pseudoword repetition and …

The Color Of Grammar And The Surface Of Language: 20th Century Avant-Garde Poetics In Gertrude Stein, Mina Loy, And Blaise Cendrars, Sarah E. Kruse

Open Access Dissertations

The study here arises from a long held interest in the philosophical works of Ludwig Wittgenstein and a preoccupation with the role and function of ordinary language. Examining the late work of Wittgenstein, and focusing on his last work, Remarks on Color, I connect the place of color within language and its fundamental role in our visual perception with an earlier idea of Wittgensteinian grammar. Grammar for Wittgenstein is not sets of rules or even descriptive rules as in linguistics, but a certain use and function of language that is as varied and multiple as humans are themselves. For Wittgenstein, …

World Class(Ed) Talk: The Reflective Discourse Of Pell Grant Students About Their Study Abroad Experience, Thomas J. Hospod

Open Access Dissertations

As American higher education proceeds with the internationalization process of the undergraduate curriculum, college and university campuses continue to advocate for higher levels of study abroad participation among the student population. Originating from a tradition that perceived involvement as a luxury for a select few, these experiences are now commonly viewed as a means for the general student body to develop the knowledge and the 21st century skills required to fully engage the global context in which we live. Despite the continued expansion in the number of students participating, the general profile of participants has remained stubbornly similar, with individuals …

Kindergarten Story Retell: Considering The Influence Of Vocabulary On Quality Of Production, Sarah Hardy

Open Access Dissertations

The purpose of the present study was to examine kindergarten student performance on a story retell task across at-risk and typically achieving groups (Intervention, Control, Reference) and language status (English-only, English-language learners). Additionally, the current study examined the relationship between vocabulary knowledge and the quality of production on a Story Retell task. Kindergarten students (n = 540) from twenty-two schools across Rhode Island, Connecticut, and Oregon completed a vocabulary program approximately 20 weeks in duration, including an additional vocabulary intervention for students in the Intervention group. Each student was assessed on vocabulary knowledge measures before and after completion of the …

Framework For The Automated Disassembly Of Electronic Waste Using The Soar Cognitive Architecture, Nicholas M. Difilippo

Open Access Dissertations

An experimental study was conducted to investigate the feasibility of integrating the cognitive architecture Soar with a robotic system to aid in the disassembly of electronic waste (e-waste). This study was broken up into different parts, first, to examine how well the different sensors and tools that composed the system worked before finally integrating the cognitive architecture Soar to assess how it improved the systems performance. Due to the increasing amounts of e-waste and the adverse effects it has on human health, a robotic system that can aid in the disassembly of e-waste is essential.

The first part in this …

You Are What You Eat: Investigating Food Discourse And Digitally-Mediated Identities, Katelyn Leigh Burton

Open Access Dissertations

My dissertation, You Are What You Eat: Understanding Food Discourse and Digitally-Mediated Identities, investigates the rhetorical nature of digital identity creation and management and the role of food discourse within these practices. According to Pierre Bourdieu (1984), “Taste classifies, and it classifies the classifier. Social subjects, classified by their classifications, distinguish themselves by the distinctions they make, between the beautiful and the ugly, the distinguished and the vulgar” (6)… and perhaps also between the delicious and the unappetizing, fast food and haute cuisine. Within this project, I use a rhetorical lens to explore digital identity constructions within the food …

Examining The Role Of Phonological Memory In Math And Reading Development, Stephanie Tang

Open Access Dissertations

Although much research has supported the role of phonological memory with reading and math achievement, there has been mixed results within each academic domain pertaining to when in development and with what subskills. Additionally, the major focus of most research has been on the causal influence of phonological memory on reading abilities without considering potential reciprocal relations. Therefore, the purpose of the present study was to: a) evaluate the contributions of phonological memory to reading and math skills development; and b) examine if reading influenced the development of phonological memory.

Secondary data was used from the Reading Development and Reading …

“A Peculiar Power Of Perception”: Scottish Enlightenment Rhetoric And The New Aesthetic Of Language, Rosaleen Greene-Smith Keefe

Open Access Dissertations

This dissertation is an inquiry into the ways rhetoric, as the study of the art of language use, and literature, as the art of written language, were coherently theorized in Enlightenment Scotland to articulate the complex nature of language and its inherent relationship to the human mind and its faculties. The chapters contained in this manuscript dissertation are previously published studies in eighteenth-century Scottish rhetorical theory, examining the multiple and sometimes contradictory legacies of this important body of work on language pedagogy, philosophy of mind and language, and political theory. These studies offer new grounds for examining the legacies of …

A Photovoice Study Of The Relationships And Tensions Among The Home, Community, And School Linguistic And Social Practices Of Cambodian And Guatemalan Youth, Erin L. Papa

Open Access Dissertations

Cambodians and Guatemalans have a similar history of forced migration to the United States to escape state-supported violence, genocide, starvation, and poverty (Smith-Hefner, 1993; Menjívar, 2008), yet the U.S. Government has treated each group differently, granting refugee status to Cambodians, but forcing most Guatemalans to enter the U.S. without proper documentation (Feuerherm & Ramanathan, 2016). Although Guatemalan and Cambodian youth make up a significant portion of the Eagle City Public Schools (ECPS) population, their linguistic and social strengths and concerns often go unrecognized due to the essentializing (Delgado & Stefancic, 2001) of the two groups into the aggregate racial categories …

Evaluating The Implementation Quality And Utility Of Response To Intervention Practices, Paige Hamilton-Read

Open Access Dissertations

The current study investigated the extent to which eight elementary schools in one cooperative education district implemented the five essential components of Response to Intervention (RtI), and explored the relationship between fidelity of implementation and student reading outcomes measured by oral reading fluency (ORF). Various RtI models exist because there is no single method to implement RtI appropriately. The majority of available studies examining fidelity of RtI implementation have focused on the individual components of RtI. However, when implemented as intended, RtI is a coherent system of coordinated components. Consequently, it is important to study the implementation of RtI as …

John Dewey's Letters From Asia: Implications For Redefining "Openness" In Rhetoric And Composition, Karen Pierce Shea

Open Access Dissertations

Particularly in his early 20^th century writings, the American pragmatist philosopher John Dewey advocated open-mindedness as a critical value for education. Rather than a passive kind of tolerance that is acquired through intellectual consideration alone, Dewey recommended open-mindedness that is attained through a combination of contemplation and embodied experience. A close reading of Dewey’s personal correspondence from Japan and China between 1919-1921, previously unexplored to this degree, highlights the profound impact that experiencing the different cultures had on Dewey’s understanding of difference compared to considering them from afar.

In particular, this study sought to investigate how Dewey’s experiences in …

Exploring Black/White Biracial Female Therapists’ Perceptions And Meaning-Making In The Context Of Providing Therapy, Anna Wheatley Scarbriel

Open Access Dissertations

Individuals born to parents from two or more different racial groups are one of the fastest growing population groups in the United States, with Black/White biracials making up the largest proportion therein. This diversification has permeated the field of psychology and counseling, and people of mixed race will increasingly be clients, colleagues, supervisors, and supervisees. It is imperative that the field of counseling and psychology turn attention not only to serving/treating mixed race clients, but also to providing training and supervision to mixed race professionals. In particular, much work remains to better understand the significance and impact of a mixed …

From Text To Context: Literacy Practices Of Native Speakers Of Arabic In Arabic And English, Ghada Gherwash

Open Access Dissertations

Previous studies that looked at the written product of native speakers of Arabic in their second language (L2), English, have identified traces of Arabic rhetoric (L1), mainly Classical Arabic, in their writing (e.g., Atari, 1983; Kaplan, 1966; Ostler, 1987). These studies focused primarily on the L2-written texts, where the written product is used to make inferences about the rhetorical structures of the writers’ L1. The results from these studies portrayed the native-Arab writer’s text as highly influenced by Classical Arabic. This was evidenced by “foreign” rhetorical structures that Arab writers employ when producing texts in their L2 that are considered …

The Cultural Adaptation Of The Clinician-Administered Ptsd Scale For Spanish-Speaking Latinos With Limited English Proficiency In The United States, Maria Jose Rendon

Open Access Dissertations

In this study, I conducted an empirically-based adaptation of the Clinician-Administered PTSD Scale for DSM-5 (CAPS-5; Weathers, Blake, Schnurr, Marx, & Keane, 2013b) for Spanish-speaking Latinos with limited English proficiency (LEP). The sample utilized cross-cultural equivalence guidelines posited by the Cultural Equivalence Model (Canino & Bravo, 1994; Flaherty et al., 1988) to achieve content, semantic, and technical equivalence between the Spanish adaptation of the CAPS-5 and its original English version. This process entailed seven steps: (a) the forward translation by a native Spanish speaker, (b) revision by a panel of bilingual Latino mental health professionals (n = 3), (c) revision …

Pubertal Maturation And Depressive Symptoms Among Developing Young Women: Examining The Moderating Influence Of Parent-Daughter Relationship Quality., Courtney L. Whitt

Open Access Dissertations

Given the heightened incidence of depression among girls of pubertal age, this study sought to examine the interrelationships between pubertal advancement, the nature and stability of parent-daughter relationship quality, and depressive symptomology. Grounded in an Integrated Life Course model, and drawing upon diathesis-stress, stress-buffering, and family life cycle perspectives, an essential aim of this research was to identify risks and resources in the parent-daughter relationship that may actualize or attenuate the emergence of depressive symptomology in puberty. Study hypotheses were examined in a diverse, nationally representative sample of girls, ages 12 to 16, who participated in the National Longitudinal Study …

A Journey Through Reality. Towards An Anthropo-Semiotics Of Travel Representation: Literature, Photography, Cinema. 1861-1961, Benoît Mauchamp

Open Access Dissertations

This study inquires about the aesthetics of reality at the edge of modernity, through different media and from a traveling perspective. Based on a definition of the journey as an experience of reality and a "decentering" of the mind, it examines the works of three subjective and Parisian realities and proposes a comparative media analysis, ranging from the preface to the Spleen de Paris, written in 1861, to the release of Chronique d’un été in 1961. Through a close analysis of Baudelaire’s poetry, Atget’s photography and Rouch’s cinematography, I approach these narratives as textual and visual productions that foreground the …

Immigrant Residential Concentration And Ethnic Economy As Correlates Of Violent Crime Rates: Can Ethnic Enclave Theory Help Solve The Immigrant Paradox?, Feodor Alexeiivitch Gostjev

Open Access Dissertations

A large number of studies show that immigrant residential concentration is associated with lower crime rates. These findings challenge public opinion which consistently links immigration with higher crime rates and the predictions made by some social scientists regarding the life chances of immigrants in America. The negative association between immigration and crime is often referred to as the immigrant paradox. Recently, immigrant enclave theory has emerged as the key explanation of the immigrant paradox. This theory was originally developed by sociology of immigration scholars. In this dissertation I argue that criminologists have failed to properly integrate immigrant enclave theory into …

Social Determinants Of Depression Among Hispanic Women, Giovanna Cecilia De Oliveira

Open Access Dissertations

Depression is the number one cause of disability in the world, affecting over 350 million people. It is characterized by mood changes, alteration in self-attitude, cognitive functioning, sleep, appetite, and energy level, and causes impairment in social and occupational functioning and a decrease in the quality of life of the depressed person, family, and friends. Across different societies and social contexts throughout the world, depression affects significantly more women than men. The situation is similar in the U.S., where women are 70% more likely than men to experience depression during their lifetime. The age of onset of depression in women …

Taking Credit And Avoiding Responsibility: The Causes And Career Consequences Of Managers’ Strategic Disclosures, Yamin Hao

Open Access Dissertations

This paper provides evidence on the determinants and career consequences of managers’ strategic causal explanations (attributions) for firm performance. Using new textual analysis algorithms, I identify abnormal attributions and find that managers appear to strategically attribute favorable firm performance to internal factors and poor firm performance to external factors. More importantly, I find that strategic external attributions of poor performance are associated with lower CEO cash-compensation sensitivity and forced turnover likelihood. These findings suggest that managers’ career-related incentives affect their disclosure choices. I also find that abnormal attributions are mitigated by greater analyst following, better corporate governance and greater peer …

Rewriting The Past: The Influence Of Written Emotional Expression On Psychosocial Outcomes, Physical Symptoms, Medication Adherence, Cd4 Cell Count, And Viral Load In Hiv., Courtney Biondi Kelsch

Open Access Dissertations

Psychosocial factors play a role in HIV progression. Expressive writing (EW) interventions have demonstrated positive effects on psychosocial and disease-related outcomes in HIV. Linguistic properties of written essays have been related to psychological outcomes, although such research is sparse in the HIV literature. This project examines the relationship of word usage to psychosocial and disease-related factors in HIV. As part of a larger randomized, controlled trial of EW, this project examined the subset of subjects (n = 121) randomized to write about trauma. Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC) software was used to analyze word usage (pronouns, positive, negative, social, …

The Effects Of Moderate-Intensity Aerobic Exercise On Cognition And Arousal In Extrovert And Introvert Personality Types, Deborah Riquelme

Open Access Dissertations

The present study examined differences in cognitive function between extrovert and introvert personality groups using a modified flanker task that included easy (congruent) and more difficult (incongruent) trials, at rest and during exercise. Dependent variables included amplitude and latency of the N100 component of event-related potentials, and behavioral measures included accuracy and reaction time. Fifteen extroverts and 14 introverts, ages 18-30 (22 women and 7 men), participated in the study. Although there were no significant differences in cognitive function between personality groups for any measures, cognitive function improved from rest to exercise for the entire sample as indexed by decreased …

Visual Narratives And Metaphors As Tools For Teaching In The Foreign Language Classroom: A Sociocultural And Critical Perspective, Mónica Alexandra Durán

Open Access Dissertations

This dissertation studies the teaching of visual and metaphorical representations as thinking tools in second language (L2) classrooms from a Sociocultural Theory (SCT) framework. It explores metaphorical representations in narrative and visual texts to advance the practice of appropriating new language abilities to produce a new text that is contextualized and meaningful to learners of Spanish as a Second Language. By providing L2 Learners early in the process with accessible conceptual and representational tools, they may gain a personally significant awareness of the richness of language and of the power of their communicative abilities beyond everyday interactions. Creative writing and …

Perceived Barriers To Higher Education Among First-Generation And Non-First-Generation Latino Male High School Students, Roopa Parasuraman Dominguez

Open Access Dissertations

First-generation Latino male students face challenges related to enrollment in college. The purpose of this study was to present a comparison of the intent to pursue a bachelor’s degree between first-generation (FG) and non-first-generation Latino male high school students (NFG). Secondary data obtained from the National Center for Education Statistics High School Longitudinal Study first follow-up in 2012 was analyzed to determine whether there were differences between FG and NFG students in terms of their social and cultural capital: family perceptions of the importance of college, knowledge of financial aid, academic and social involvement, and academic preparation. Results from a …

The Effect Of Auditory Pitch Range On Sustained And Selective Attention: A Comparison Of Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder And Typically-Developing Children, Hyun-Jung Lee

Open Access Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of pitch range (i.e., high vs low) in a simple, musical context on sustained and selective attention in children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and typically-developing (TD) children. This study also explored the effect of different types of distracting sounds on selective attention in both groups. Existing research indicates that music-based interventions or background music during cognitive tasks can promote attention in children with ASD. However, no published study has yet explored the effects of specific musical elements, such as pitch range, on attention in children with and without ASD. …