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Julius Caesar And The Rhine River: The Evolution Of A Border During The Gallic Wars, Todd Roman

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis descusses the use of the Rhine River by Julius Caesar in his commentaries, De Bello Gallico, covering the Gallic Wars of approximately 58 to 52 B.C., to identify the peoples and territories separated by its current. This thesis addresses the issue of how Caesar understood this division of space, what criteria he employed to support his use of the river, and his protrayal of these matters within his account. It seeks to clarify the foundation of a major national border of western history in the context of its initial involvement in the context of the Roman Late …

Social Outcomes Of Students With Language Impairment: An Eight-Year Follow-Up Study, Meghan A. Baldridge

Theses and Dissertations

This study re-examined the language and social skills of four females with language impairment who were initially studied eight years ago (Brinton, Fujiki, Montague, & Hanton, 2000; Fujiki, Brinton, Isaacson, & Summers, 2001). Language measures included the Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals-Fourth Edition (Semel, Wiig, & Secord, 2003) and a thirty minute language sample. Social measures included the UCLA Loneliness Scale-Version 3 (Russell, 1996), parent, teacher and student forms of the Social Skills Rating System (Gresham & Elliott, 1990), and an interview with each participant's teacher or speech-language pathologist. Results of the current assessment were compared to results from the …

A Family Literacy Curriculum For Community Esl Courses, George William Clair Bailey

Theses and Dissertations

This project describes the piloting of a family literacy curriculum developed for use in a community ESL course. The purpose of this curriculum was to teach family-literacy-oriented English to students in the community ESL courses that are part of Brigham Young University's TESOL Teacher Training Course (TTTC) held at the University Parkway Center on BYU's campus. Students in BYU's TESOL Graduate Certificate program are required to complete a one-semester teaching practicum in the TTTC program. This program regularly offers English courses that enroll approximately 100 ESL students from the local community who are non-native speakers of English. These ESL students …

Navajo Baskets And The American Indian Voice: Searching For The Contemporary Native American In The Trading Post, The Natural History Museum, And The Fine Art Museum, Laura Paulsen Howe

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines the display of Navajo baskets and examines some of the possible meanings Navajo baskets can reveal. Acknowledging that the meaning of a work of art changes when it is placed in different environments, the thesis explores what meanings are revealed and what meanings are concealed in basket displays in three venues: the trading post, the natural history museum, and the fine art museum. The study concludes that the fine art museum has the most potential to foster a dialogue about the contemporary Navajo, whose identity is a product of continuity and change. Chapter one discusses the basket's …

Learning Russian Case Endings Through Model Sentences, Sara Lyn Jensen

Theses and Dissertations

The current study examines aspects of the Russian language that are particularly challenging for English-speaking students. It focuses on the complexity of Russian's grammatical morphology, specifically Russian case endings. In this study, methods and theories from the field of Second Language Acquisition (SLA) are reviewed to support a study aide designed by the author to help students with the acquisition of Russian case endings. The proposed study aide consists of 24 sentences composed of high-frequency Russian words. The 24 sentences contain all regular (approximately 75) Russian case endings. The purpose of the model sentences is to teach case forms using …

An Evaluation Of Brigham Young University's Local Tesol Internship Program, Laura Kathleen Steeby

Theses and Dissertations

An evaluation of BYU's Local TESOL Minor Internship program shows the strengths and weaknesses of this academic internship program. Students are required to complete 150 hours of TESOL-related work outside of their courses. The interns volunteer in different English-teaching programs in the area. Internship hours include the time in the classroom, preparation, materials development, as well as the time in the Linguistics 496R course. The interns are required to have most of their minor classes finished before they complete their internship so that their internship can be a capstone to and an application of what they have learned thus far. …

A Correlation Of Pronunciation Learning Strategies With Spontaneous English Pronunciation Of Adult Esl Learners, Grant Taylor Eckstein

Theses and Dissertations

In the last thirty years, language learning strategies have been used in the field of English as a Second Language (ESL) to help learners autonomously improve their English listening, speaking, reading, and writing. However, language learning strategies have not been applied to pronunciation learning in a large scale manner. This study attempted to bridge this gap by investigating the usage of pronunciation learning strategies among adult ESL learners. A strategic pronunciation learning scale (SPLS) was administered to 183 adult ESL learners in an Intensive English Program. Their scores on the SPLS were compared with their scores of spontaneous pronunciation on …

A Web-Based Tool For Oral Practice And Assessment Of Grammatical Structures, Heather Colleen Torrie

Theses and Dissertations

The grammar course objectives at Brigham Young University's English Language Center (ELC) are a list of grammar structures for each level that students are expected to be able to master. These objectives currently are only measured by pencil-paper grammar tests, providing information regarding receptive grammar ability only. Therefore, there is a need for an oral grammar assessment to measure productive grammar ability, providing diagnostic and achievement information about the specific grammar objectives. This project is a web-based oral grammar assessment tool that enables teachers to assess students' mastery of the structures covered in the ELC grammar classes. The core of …

The Effect Of Second Language Instruction On Acquisition Of Relative Clauses In The Russian Language, Valentina Nikolayevna Dunn

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this research was to test the predictions of the Accessibility Hierarchy (AH) theory (Keenan & Comrie, 1977) applying it to the Russian language. According to this theory, relative clauses (RC) are acquired in a fixed unidirectional order: from subject (S) - the highest (unmarked) and more susceptible to relativization position - to object of comparative (OCOM) - the lowest (marked) and less susceptible to relativization position. Since some researchers (Hamilton, 1994) claim that the AH is multidirectional rather than unidirectional, this study takes into consideration these findings as well. The present study attempts to determine (a) if …

Loneliness And Use Of Coping Mechanisms Among U.S. Military Personnel Deployed To The Middle East, David Abraham Shwalb

Theses and Dissertations

Considering that the greatest fear of deploying military personnel is separation from family, an obvious and overlooked psychological phenomenon that merits further investigation is loneliness. In this study, 131 US troops completed the UCLA Loneliness Scale, Anxiety Control Questionnaire, and a leisurely activity participation scale to predict loneliness with participation in non-work activities in the presence of another moderator (locus of control) and various demographic factors. As hypothesized, the results indicated that 1) the best non-work activity predictors of loneliness were emailing friends and listening to music, 2) external locus of control was positively correlated with loneliness and internal locus …

The Development Of A Literacy Curriculum For Adult Liberian Refugees, Kristen Marie Kohler

Theses and Dissertations

From 2003 to 2006, Tucson, Arizona became the new home of many Liberian refugees. Because of civil war in their homeland and ensuing years spent in refugee camps, these refugees had not had many opportunities for literacy development. Tucson had several literacy and ESL programs available; however, none of these programs was meeting the Liberians' particular needs. For my project, I designed and implemented a literacy curriculum for the Liberian refugees in Tucson. In preparation for developing my curriculum, I not only took coursework but also thoroughly reviewed the literature on literacy learning and instruction for first language learners, second …

The Effect Of Language Ability Of Internalizing Students On Improvement In Strong Kids: A Social And Emotional Learning Curriculum For Students In Grades 4-8, Shelby Carrera Hansen

Theses and Dissertations

This study assessed the influence of language on the ability of children identified as being at risk for internalizing behavior disorders to successfully participate in a social skills intervention program. Fourth and fifth grade students participated in Strong Kids: A Social and Emotional Learning Curriculum in Grades 4-8, a program which promotes emotional resiliency. The Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals-Fourth Edition (CELF-4) and Children's Communication Checklist-Second Edition (CCC-2) were both completed to obtain a global language score and pragmatic language score. The Teacher's Report Form (TRF), a shortened 10-item version of the Internalizing Student Symptom Scale (ISSC), and a 20-item …

Taking Mormons Seriously: Ethics Of Representing Latter-Day Saints In American Fiction, Terrol Roark Williams

Theses and Dissertations

My paper examines the ethics of representing Mormons in serious American fiction, viewed through two primary texts, Bayard Taylor's nineteenth-century dramatic poem The Prophet and Maureen Whipple's epic novel The Giant Joshua. I also briefly examine Walter Kirn's short stories “Planetarium” and “Whole Other Bodies.” Using Werner Sollors' and Matthew Frye Jacobson's writings on ethnicity as foundational, I argue in that Mormonism constitutes an ethnicity, which designation accentuates the ethical demands of those who represent the group. I also use W.J.T. Mitchell's theories of representation as the basis of my arguments of the ethics of representing ethnicity. As ethical theorists, …

Scandinavia After The Fall Of The Kalmar Union: A Study In Scandinavian Relations, 1523-1536, Kenneth Steffensen

Theses and Dissertations

As the Kalmar Union came to an end in 1523 the balance of control and power shifted in Scandinavia. Due to the tyranny of Christian II, Sweden rebelled and broke away under the leadership of Gustav Vasa while Norway remained in union with Denmark. Although Danes and Norwegians shared common traits and identifiers; including religion, language and cultural aspects, they had a stronger sense of identity to their own country rather to the union. Because of their political and economic influence in Norway prior to 1523, Danish nobles had increased Norwegian's sense of being Norwegians rather then Danish. Frederik I, …

Narrative Skills In Children With Spina Bifida And Hydrocephalus, Melissa Ann Halliday

Theses and Dissertations

This study examined how 22 children with spina bifida and hydrocephalus (SBH) and 22 matched control children with the same vocabulary age (VA) performed on story retelling and story generation tasks. The children were asked to retell two stories of different lengths (Stein and Glenn's Melvin, the Skinny Mouse and The Tiger's Whisker) and generate two stories from different stimuli (wordless picture book and verbal story starter). Analyses were conducted in terms of global narrative organization (story structure), local connection of ideas (cohesion), and productivity (number of words and utterances). Two-way ANOVAs were conducted to analyze how the stories and …

How Can Learning Centers Be Used To Support Classroom Instruction And Promote Critical Thinking In A Kindergarten Classroom?, Amelia M. Pellegrino

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine how learning centers can be used in the Kindergarten classroom to support regular classroom instruction and encourage students to think critically. This qualitative study used observations, interviews, surveys, student work samples, photographs, and discussions to collect information about the effectiveness of learning centers in the classroom. Sixteen Kindergarten students participated in learning center activities planned and implemented by the researcher to examine how the learning centers related the curriculum and whether the activities encouraged students to think critically about the content. The researcher found that the Kindergarten students showed improvement in their …

Patterns Of Anticipatory Coarticulation In Adults And Typically Developing Children, Kurtt R. Boucher

Theses and Dissertations

Coarticulation is the kinematic and spectral overlap between adjacent sounds during speech production. Coarticulation patterns in typical adults have been well established; however, the manner in which coarticulation is developed in children is still unclear. Research has provided conflicting views, showing that children exhibit more, less, or an equal degree of coarticulation when compared to adult speakers. Considering the divergent findings present in the literature regarding coarticulation in children, the purpose of the present study is to further investigate anticipatory coarticulation in typically developing young children between the ages of three and six years. This study focuses on the acoustic …

An Investigation Of An After-School Science Enrichment Program, Jennifer Lyn Jamison

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to investigate an after-school science enrichment program and its components. The study was conducted in a middle school in the Evesham Township School District located in the Burlington County region of South Jersey. The participants included sixty-one students taken from the four sessions of the science program, three teachers of the program, twenty parents of the students, and the program director. Data sources included interviews held with each of the participants, anecdotal notes recorded in a teacher research journal, and student artifacts. I found positive results in the operation of the program, because of …

Intrasentential Vs. Intersentential Code Switching In Early And Late Bilinguals, Kelly Ann Hill Zirker

Theses and Dissertations

Significant research has been done regarding the influence of age of acquisition (i.e., the age at which one is exposed to a second language (L2)) on L2 learning (e.g., Johnson & Newport, 1989; Bialystock & Hakuta, 1999). Some researchers have shown that bilinguals who have learned their second language early in life may differ in their fluency from bilinguals who learned their second language later in life (White & Genesee, 1996; Flege, 1999). Specifically, studies have suggested that bilinguals who have not acquired their L2 by puberty will never acquire native-like proficiency (Lenneberg, 1967); however, others claim that there is …

Acceptance Or Denial: What Matters Most In College Admissions, Lori Ann Getler

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to investigate the perceptions of selected college admissions officers regarding the most important criteria of a high school senior's application for admission into 4-year public undergraduate colleges and universities in New Jersey. The researcher surveyed admissions officers at eight 4-year public undergraduate colleges and universities in New Jersey. A total of 21 admissions officers participated in the survey. Participants were administered a Likert-scale survey that measured the weight given selected criteria contained in the application for admission to their institution. Surveys were statistically analyzed to determine the means, percentages and frequencies regarding the selected …

Therapists' Perceived Influence Of Language: Second Language Spanish Speaking Therapists With Native Spanish-Speaking Clients, Cameron D. Mount

Theses and Dissertations

Experiences of the bilingual client in therapy have received attention in the literature but accounts of the experience of the bilingual therapist are strikingly sparse. The purpose of this study was to focus on the bilingual therapist's perception of the impact of language on the therapeutic process. To achieve this goal, the researcher interviewed therapists who speak Spanish as a second language and work with native Spanish-speaking clients. Data analysis was completed using ethnographic research methods, which resulted in the emergence of three themes. The first theme included therapists' perceived obstacles to second-language therapy. Each of the participants in the …

Carlo Cattaneo: The Religiosity Of A Relunctant Revolutionary, Carolyn Bennett Ugolini

Theses and Dissertations

Carlo Cattaneo (1801-1869) would have been a remarkable man in any time period. He was interested in everything, and as a man of ideas was involved in the astonishing technological and stimulating political events of the nineteenth century. He encouraged the building of railways as a way to unite the Italian peninsula, and he was involved in connecting Italy to the rest of Europe through the St. Gothard Tunnel. An innovator of gas lighting in his native Milan, the great Lombard thinker was a prolific writer, and kept prodigious notes and copies of his correspondence. His economic and scientific involvement …

Interactions Among Italian Preschool-Age Children: Aggression, Victimization, And Sociometric Status, Shawna J. Marshall

Theses and Dissertations

This study examined social interactions between Italian preschoolers based upon sociometric status groupings. The sample consisted of 267 Italian preschoolers (mean age 64 months) taken from early childhood classrooms in southern Italy. Drawing on previous research, preschoolers' physical and relational aggression and physical and relational victimization as measured by peer nominations were analyzed. Structural equation modeling using Mplus was used to test the model, and SPSS 15 was used to run analyses of variance (ANOVAs) to examine the interaction between sociometric status and preschoolers' behaviors toward peers. Findings generally support previous research with American children as well as cross-cultural research …

Beyond Fidelity: The Translation Process In Two Adaptations Of Juan Marsé’S El Embrujo De Shanghai, Jessie Louise Christensen

Theses and Dissertations

In the past, the study of film adapted from literature has focused largely on the question of fidelity. This thesis explores new ways to look at the relationship between literature and film by showing how concepts from the field of translation studies, particularly literary translation, can enrich the study of adaptation theory. An application is made to the case of Spanish novelist Juan Marsé’s work El embrujo de Shanghai, which has been adapted to film by Fernando Trueba and to screenplay by Victor Érice. Rather than taking a hierarchical approach to the novel and its two variations, a comparative approach …

Planning An Employee Spanish Training Program At The Community College Level, Melissa A. Wright

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to research the process of planning and creating an employee Spanish training program. The researcher determined employees' previous knowledge of the language and culture as well as training preferences utilizing two surveys (n = 120) and a personal interview (n = 15). Surveys were statistically analyzed using SPSS software to determine frequencies, percentages, means and standard deviations and the interviews were analyzed using a content analysis procedure. Research on adult learning theories, program planning theories and exemplary Spanish training programs complemented the quantitative and qualitative data collected.

The study revealed that CCC employees had …

A Cross-Cultural, Multilevel Study Of Inquiry-Based Instruction Effects On Conceptual Understanding And Motivation In Physics, Meiko Negishi

Theses and Dissertations

Student achievement and motivation to learn physics is highly valued in many industrialized countries including the United States and Japan. Science education curricula in these countries emphasize the importance and encourage classroom teachers to use an inquiry approach. This dissertation investigated high school students? motivational orientations and their understanding of physics concepts in a context of inquiry-based instruction. The goals were to explore the patterns of instructional effects on motivation and learning in each country and to examine cultural differences and similarities. Participants consisted of 108 students (55 females, 53 males) and 9 physics teachers in the United States and …

Hybrid Concatenated-Formant Expressive Speech Synthesizer For Kinesensic Voices, Nishant Chandra

Theses and Dissertations

Traditional and commercial speech synthesizers are incapable of synthesizing speech with proper emotion or prosody. Conveying prosody in artificially synthesized speech is difficult because of extreme variability in human speech. An arbitrary natural language sentence can have different meanings, depending upon the speaker, speaking style, context, and many other factors. Most concatenated speech synthesizers use phonemes, which are phonetic units defined by the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). The 50 phonemes in English are standardized and unique units of sound, but not expression. An earlier work proposed the analogy between speech and music ? ?speech is music, music is speech.? The …

Pullout And Inclusion Programs For Esl Students:A Study Of Reading Achievement, Lishu Yin

Theses and Dissertations

The enrollment of English as a Second Language (ESL) students from Pre-K through Grade 12 increased 65% over a 10-year period from the 1993-1994 to the 2003-2004 school year. The number of ESL students in 2003-2004 was 10.1% of the total public school enrollment. ESL students are placed in different educational programs. Pullout programs have served low readers including English language learners (ELL). In the last 10 years, inclusion programs have gradually replaced pullout programs in some states. Little research has been conducted on the effectiveness of ESL programs on reading achievement. This study compared the improvements in reading of …

An Empirical Investigation Of Trying And Trust Toward Mobile Banking Adoption: A Crosscultural Analysis Of Chinese And United States Users, Xin Luo

Theses and Dissertations

In the era of e-commerce and m-commerce, money has become bits of data stored on computers and moves around the world as bytes of information on data communication networks. Mobile and wireless is rapidly changing the way personal financial services are designed and delivered. Mobile banking is one of the new access methods for banking services via new delivery channels consisting of the Internet and mobile technologies. Innovative technologies have changed the nature of selling and buying financial services in the new electronic banking paradigm. Customers are increasingly given the option to provide services for themselves via electronic delivery channels. …

A Comparison Of Multiple Intelligence Preferences And Performance On Standardized Tests, Suzanne Marie White

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to look for correlations between levels of preference for multiple intelligences and performance rates on standardized tests, as determined by utilizing the Teele Inventory of Multiple Intelligences and standardized test scores. The research was conducted in small rural elementary school in southern New Jersey where the researcher was the art teacher. The sample consisted of the entire fifth grade class (n= 64) who provided parental consent and had the necessary test scores available. Students completed the Teele Inventory of Multiple Intelligence by viewing a series of paired images of panda bears involved …