Digital Commons Network^™

Psychometrically Equivalent Bisyllabic Word Lists For Word Recognition Testing In Taiwan Mandarin, Alycia Jane Dukes

Theses and Dissertations

The aim of this study was to develop, digitally record, evaluate, and psychometrically equate a set of Taiwan Mandarin bisyllabic word lists to be used for word recognition testing. Frequently used bisyllabic words were selected and digitally recorded by male and female talkers of Taiwan Mandarin. Twenty normally hearing subjects were presented each word to find the percentage of words which they could correctly recognize. Each word was measured at 10 intensity levels (-5 to 40 dB HL) in increments of 5 dB. Logistic regression was used to include 200 words with the steepest logistic regression slopes in four psychometrically …

Speech Reception Threshold Materials For Taiwan Mandarin, Katie Bedke Slade

Theses and Dissertations

Speech reception threshold (SRT) tools have been developed to assist in the evaluation of hearing. This study was performed to develop, digitally record, evaluate, and equate Taiwan Mandarin trisyllabic words which can be used to measure the SRT. Eighty-nine commonly used trisyllabic words were chosen and digitally recorded by native male and female speakers. The words were then presented to 20 normally hearing subjects at 14 intensity levels (-10 to 16 dB HL) with 2 dB increments. Psychometric function slopes were calculated using logistic regression. Twenty-eight words with steep psychometric function were selected and digitally adjusted to match the mean …

A Correlational Study On How Reading Scores Are Affected By Complementing Learning And Teaching Styles In Multiple Kindergarten Settings, Leslie-Ann D. Monforto

Theses and Dissertations

The purposes of this correlational study were to (a) observe the learning styles of groups of kindergarten students and the teaching styles of their corresponding teachers; and (b) determine the effects that the matching of similar learning and teaching styles had on students' reading performances. It was hypothesized that students whose learning styles matched that of their teachers' teaching styles would do significantly better on their reading scores than those students whose learning styles did not match that of their teachers' teaching styles. Teacher and students were assessed using an adaptation of Howard Gardner's Multiple Intelligences Test to determine their …

Validating The Rating Process Of An English As A Second Language Writing Portfolio Exam, Robb Mark Mccollum

Theses and Dissertations

A validity study can be used to investigate the effectiveness of an exam and reveal both its strengths and weaknesses. This study concerns an investigation of the writing portfolio Level Achievement Test (LAT) at the English Language Center (ELC) of Brigham Young University (BYU). The writing portfolios of 251 students at five proficiency levels were rated by 11 raters. Writing portfolios consisted of two coursework essays, a self-reflection assignment, and a 30-minute timed essay. Quantitative methods included an analysis with Many-Facet Rasch Model (MFRM) software, called FACETS, which looked for anomalies in levels, classes, examinees, raters, writing criteria, and the …

Assessing Effects Of Iq On Sociable And Withdrawn Behaviors In Children With Language Impairment, Amanda Lyn Bradshaw

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to determine the influence of IQ on subtypes of sociable and withdrawn behaviors in children with language impairment (LI). Research has suggested that children with LI are more likely to experience difficulty with social interaction than their typically developing peers (Brinton & Fujiki, 1999; Rice, 1991). The Teacher Behavior Rating Scale (Hart & Robinson, 1996) was used to compare sociable and withdrawn behaviors in 19 children with LI and 19 children with typically developing language. IQ scores for each participant were obtained by administering the Universal Nonverbal Intelligence Test (Bracken & McCallum, 2003). These …

Ontology-Based Free-Form Query Processing For The Semantic Web, Mark S. Vickers

Theses and Dissertations

With the onset of the semantic web, the problem of making semantic content effectively searchable for the general public emerges. Demanding an understanding of ontologies or familiarity with a new query language would likely frustrate semantic web users and prevent widespread success. Given this need, this thesis describes AskOntos, which is a system that uses extraction ontologies to convert conjunctive, free-form queries into structured queries for semantically annotated web pages. AskOntos then executes these structured queries and provides answers as tables of extracted values. In experiments conducted AskOntos was able to translate queries with a precision of 88% and a …

Medical Model Influence In Counseling And Psychotherapy: Counseling Psychology Training Directors' Views, Dallas R. Jensen

Theses and Dissertations

The practice of counseling and psychotherapy is influenced by a number of ideologies, models, and paradigms. Among these, the medical model's influence is particularly salient. The ideology of the medical field pervades the theory, research, and practice of psychology and its influence deserves close examination. The few studies in this area that have been conducted are descriptive and basic in nature. The present study aimed to contribute richness and depth to conversations about medical model influence. By interviewing Counseling Psychology training directors and applying a qualitative analysis, this study provided the following themes that characterize views of the medical model's …

Effects Of Implementing Kinesthetic Activities In The Classroom, Amanda R. Coppola

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects kinesthetic lessons could have on academic achievement as well as learner attitudes. Subjects included 72 fifth grade science students from a suburban elementary school in Southern New Jersey. There were two control groups and two experimental groups. Throughout the three-week study, the experimental groups were presented with kinesthetic lessons, visual instruction and auditory instruction. The control groups received only visual and auditory instruction. Students completed one quiz and one test during the study, along with two Likert-type attitudinal questionnaires, which were completed both before and after the study. Independent samples …

Hearing Health In Utah Special Olympics Athletes Compared To Special Olympics Athletes Worldwide: A Prevalence Study In Individuals With Intellectual Disabilities, Lisa Moses Mullins

Theses and Dissertations

The Special Olympics Healthy Athletes initiative promotes wellness of the athletes with intellectual disabilities and education for medical professionals. Healthy Athletes has created a hearing screening program, Healthy Hearing, to help athletes with intellectual disabilities get the otological and audiological care they need. This program promotes a healthy hearing lifestyle and educates medical professionals regarding the need of health care for the intellectually disabled population. The physiologic, otologic, and audiologic abnormalities often occurring in the intellectually disabled population bring special attention for the need to determine the prevalence rate of hearing loss among the athletes participating in Special Olympics events. …

Library Access To Hispanic Books In Bridgeton, New Jersey, Donna Pettit

Theses and Dissertations

The Hispanic population is rapidly growing in Bridgeton, New Jersey. As the needs of the patrons change, hopefully the libraries are meeting those needs. The purpose of this study was to examine nine public libraries and public school libraries in Bridgeton, New Jersey to determine if they provided access to both Spanish-language and English books in their collections, books that reflect ethnic identities, backgrounds, history, and the culture of the Hispanic and specifically Mexican American population. The study surveyed nine libraries in Bridgeton using a combined bibliography of 78 award winning fiction Hispanic books. The researcher visited and checked each …

Enhancing The Knowledge Level Of Student Nurses About The United States And Guatemala, Lucy A. Meyer

Theses and Dissertations

This descriptive study determined the knowledge level of student nurses before and after an educational presentation. Thirty-two freshman student nurses in the Nursing 298 class took part in this study. Participants were given a questionnaire that measured their knowledge level regarding the impacts of culture, poverty, homelessness, and psychiatric illness in the United States and the third world country of Guatemala.

Data for each of these areas was analyzed and a significant increase in the level of knowledge was noted between pre-test and post-test results. Relevant findings indicated that the average test score on pretests taken prior to the educational …

Digital Evidence Photography: Historical Perspective And Law Enforcement Policy, Jean Youshefski

Theses and Dissertations

This study examines the contents of police department policies pertaining to the use of digital photography. Content analysis findings are compared with evidentiary requirements of admissibility in a court of law to determine if the policies address these pertinent issues. A history of evidence photography illustrates how judges have assimilated the use of photographic technology for evidentiary purposes and applied common rules of evidence to the process. The works of J. Mnookin (1998), C.C. Scott (1942), and case texts from the National Reporter System were used extensively as historic references. Current literature about suggested standard operating procedures for the use …

Perceptions Of Administrators Regarding English Language Learner Needs In Schools In North Dakota, Rebecca Annette Ulven

Theses and Dissertations

Over the last decade, there has been an increasing influx of English language learners (ELLs) having little or no formal English language instruction coming to large and small schools across North Dakota. Many North Dakota administrators and teachers have had no training in how to effectively meet the needs of ELL students and their families. The present study was designed as a follow-up to recent research suggesting negative administrator attitudes regarding ELLs may be creating a school ethos that transmits negative attitudes among other school personnel.

The purpose of this study was to explore North Dakota administrator attitudes/perceptions and knowledge …

Automated Grammatical Analysis Of Language Samples From Spanish-Speaking Children Learning English, Nicole Redd

Theses and Dissertations

Research has demonstrated that automated grammatical tagging is fast and accurate for both English and Spanish child language, but there has been no research done regarding its accuracy with bilingual children. The present study examined this topic using English and Spanish language samples taken from 254 children living in the United States. The subjects included school-aged children enrolled in public schools in the United States in grades 2, 3, or 5. The present study found high automated grammatical tagging accuracy scores for both English (M = 96.4%) and Spanish (M = 96.8%). The study suggests that automated grammatical analysis has …

A Study Of Islamic Leadership Theory And Practice In K-12 Islamic Schools In Michigan, Adnan Ibrahim Aabed

Theses and Dissertations

Effective leadership in Islamic schools involves the incorporation of Islamic principles in the leadership behaviors and practices. With so much literature about the need of Islamic leadership in Islamic institutions in the United States, the problem addressed by the study was whether school principals in Islamic schools exhibited and led these schools according to the principles of Islamic leadership. The study described leadership approaches used by school principals in Islamic schools and how those leadership approaches were influenced by Islamic leadership principles, comparing the Islamic leadership principles derived from the literature with the leadership principles of principals of Islamic schools. …

Supporting Second Language Acquisition In Head Start Classrooms, Laurie E. Coleman

Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

A Grammatical Description Of The Early Classic Maya Hieroglyphic Inscriptions, Daniel A. Law

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this thesis is to describe the grammatical system of Classical Ch'olti', the language of the Classic Maya hieroglyphic inscriptions, as attested in inscriptions of the Early Classic (approximately AD 200-600). Around 300 Lowland Maya Hieroglyphic inscriptions have been dated to the Early Classic or before, nearly one third of these remain unpublished. Previous work on the monumental inscriptions of the Early Classic (Mathews 1985; Proskouriakoff 1950) has examined Early Classic monuments primarily as works of art. Mora-Marin (2001) examined the language of inscriptions found on early portable texts, a small subset of the corpus here examined. In …

A Computer-Based Course To Teach Speech Acts: Prototype For The Technology Assisted Language Learning Program, Laura Morales Dorlando

Theses and Dissertations

The following report discusses the design and formative evaluation of a prototype for a computer-based course to teach speech acts as part of the Technology Assisted Language Learning (TALL) program. The report includes a literature review on speech acts and current methods and strategies for language teaching and instructional design. Next, there is a description of the lessons and the design process, as well as a summary of the formative evaluation. Following is the prototype of the lesson on apologies. The report concludes with a discussion of the project's limitations and suggestions for future research.

Coalition Modeling In Humanitarian Assistance Operations, Sung Wan Bang

Theses and Dissertations

Multinational operations are carried out to achieve military and diplomatic objectives in various regions. Such operations derive a great deal of benefits from sharing budgets, political legitimacy, sharing each national experience and technological resources, and so forth. However, a coalition, one structure of multinational operations, often involves serious challenges in such areas as command and control, logistic support, communication and language, training, and intelligence and information due to its ad hoc characteristics. This research reviews general problems in a coalition operation, and develops the Coalition Operation Planning Model to assist coalition commanders or staff in producing an efficient operational plan. …

Risk-Based Decision Model For Determining The Applicability Of An Earned Value Management System In Construction, Mark D. Workman

Theses and Dissertations

New policy mandated by the Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics has lowered the dollar thresholds of contracts requiring earned value management (EVM). This policy directed that a "risk-based decision" be made to determine if EVM should be used on firm-fixed price contracts under $20 million. Although not previously applicable to Military Construction (MILCON) building projects or other Air Force Civil Engineer (CE) managed contracts, the new threshold requires that CE projects be evaluated for risk. Therefore, the focus of this research was to analyze the risk factors associated with construction contracts in an attempt to build a …

Exploring Cultural Competence In The Lived Experience Of Instructional Designers, Paul Clinton Rogers

Theses and Dissertations

There has been a limited amount of research concerning culture and online education. Although human beings have the ability to transcend past and current environments, helping professions are recognizing the influence of cultural epistemologies on themselves and those they intend to serve. The purpose of this study was to explore the nature of additional challenges and concerns present when designing online instruction in a cross-cultural context. The data collected in this study stands as preliminary work to creating a substantive theory regarding the importance of cultural influences in the thinking, practice and lived experience of instructional designers, specifically those who …

The Dominant Listening Strategy Of Low-Proficiency Level Learners Of Mandarin Chinese: Bottom-Up Processing Or Top-Down Processing, Chao-Chi Yang

Theses and Dissertations

Listening comprehension has been the forgotten skill in second language acquisition. However, in recent years, more and more studies have focused on listening comprehension and now acknowledge its importance in language acquisition. Empirical studies have explored how listeners use the two main listening processes (top-down processing and bottom-up processing). In this study, 31 low-proficiency level Mandarin Chinese as a foreign language (CFL) learners from Brigham Young University took the Chinese Computer Adaptive Language Test (CCALT) and listened to four listening passages, measured by idea unit analysis and local and global question types. The data from these measurements suggest that low-proficiency …

The Relationship Between Social Behaviors And Working Memory In School-Age Children With Language Impairment, Melanie Diane Javid

Theses and Dissertations

Children with language impairment (LI) have notable social problems (Brinton & Fujiki, 2004). Research has shown that children with LI often have deficits in working memory (Kirchner & Klatsky, 1985; Stark, Poppen, & May, 1987). The relationship between working memory and social behaviors has not been clearly defined. This study examined this relationship in children with LI and typical age-matched peers by asking participants to repeat nine nonwords and correlating these results with social behaviors as rated by teachers. The Teacher Behavior Rating Scale (TBRS; Hart and Robinson, 1996) was used to compare social behaviors of 19 school-age children with …

The Effect Of Repeated Textual Encounters And Pictorial Glosses Upon Acquiring Additional Word Senses, Michael S. Hilmo

Theses and Dissertations

This study investigated the effects of multiple textual encounters of words and textual encounters of words supplemented with pictorial glosses upon the ability of a learner of French to infer additional word senses—senses of target words that were not previously encountered. Twenty-nine participants were randomly divided into two groups, Groups A and B, and were subjected to two treatments, one in which the subjects encountered target words textually twice (Repeated Textual Encounters, RTE) and one in which the subjects encountered target words once textually and once pictorially (Pictorial Encounter, PE). Before the administration of the two vocabulary-learning treatments the participants …

The Finest Entertainment: Conscious Observation On Film In Adaptations Of Henry James' The Portrait Of A Lady, The Wings Of The Dove, And Washington Square, Rachael Decker Bailey

Theses and Dissertations

The works of Henry James are renowned for their dense sub-text and the manner in which he leaves his reader to elucidate much of his meaning. In the field of adaptation theory, therefore, James presents somewhat of a problem for the film adaptor: how does one convey on screen James' delicate implications, which are formative to the text without actually existing on the printed page? This project not only works to answer that question, but it also addresses a more serious question: what does adaptation have to offer to the student of literature? In the case of Henry James, the …

Surface Realization Using A Featurized Syntactic Statistical Language Model, Thomas L. Packer

Theses and Dissertations

An important challenge in natural language surface realization is the generation of grammatical sentences from incomplete sentence plans. Realization can be broken into a two-stage process consisting of an over-generating rule-based module followed by a ranker that outputs the most probable candidate sentence based on a statistical language model. Thus far, an n-gram language model has been evaluated in this context. More sophisticated syntactic knowledge is expected to improve such a ranker. In this thesis, a new language model based on featurized functional dependency syntax was developed and evaluated. Generation accuracies and cross-entropy for the new language model did not …

A Meaning-Based Instruction To Enhance Literacy Learning In A Dual-Language Kindergarten Classroom, Megan Melissa Fife

Theses and Dissertations

Concerns among educators continue to grow with the increased enrollment of Second Language Learners (SLL) in classrooms throughout the United States. This influx has stressed the boundaries of current methods of literacy instruction, which are not designed to meet the needs of these at-risk students. Literacy instructional methods need to be remediated through early intervention, followed by effective literacy instruction that is designed to meet the specific needs of SLL. Effective literacy instruction overcomes differences in culture and background by using meaning-based instruction coupled with engaging and varied contexts. This study evaluated the effectiveness of incorporating meaning-based instructional activities into …

Reducing Uncertainty In Effects-Based Operations, Wilburn B. Mclamb

Theses and Dissertations

Known as the fog of war, uncertainty has been prevalent in the conduct of military operations throughout human history. Intelligence collection efforts are tasked to reduce this uncertainty through the collection of information. Utilizing Shannon's entropy as a measure of the expected information gain due to an intelligence collection effort, a methodology is developed to prioritize and allocate intelligence assets in an efficient manner. Incorporated in this methodology are target priority and the requirement to reassess dynamic targets. The application area for the methodology is Effects-Based Operations. A generalized state model is developed to conduct adversary system-of-systems analysis. This model …

Speech Recognition Using The Mellin Transform, Jesse R. Hornback

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this research was to improve performance in speech recognition. Specifically, a new approach was investigating by applying an integral transform known as the Mellin transform (MT) on the output of an auditory model to improve the recognition rate of phonemes through the scale-invariance property of the Mellin transform. Scale-invariance means that as a time-domain signal is subjected to dilations, the distribution of the signal in the MT domain remains unaffected. An auditory model was used to transform speech waveforms into images representing how the brain "sees" a sound. The MT was applied and features were extracted. The …

Using Augmented Virtuality To Improve Human-Robot Interactions, Curtis W. Nielsen

Theses and Dissertations

Mobile robots can be used in situations and environments that are distant from an operator. In order for an operator to control a robot effectively he or she requires an understanding of the environment and situation around the robot. Since the robot is at a remote distant from the operator and cannot be directly observed, the information necessary for an operator to develop an understanding or awareness of the robot's situation comes from the user interface. The usefulness of the interface depends on the manner in which the information from the remote environment is presented. Conventional interfaces for interacting with …