Digital Commons Network^™

College Students' Perceptions Toward Native And Non-Native Chinese And Spanish Instructors, Xiaoce Ye

Theses and Dissertations

Since the recognition of the distinction between native and non-native language teachers in English Language Teaching (ELT), research has focused on understanding the strengths and weaknesses of both types of instructors. However, limited attention has been given to students' perceptions of native teachers (NSTs) and non-native foreign language teachers (NNSTs) beyond English instruction. This thesis delves into college students' perceptions of native and non-native Chinese and Spanish language instructors in language education, extending beyond the native/non-native English teacher debate. Drawing from existing literature on language teaching, this study contextualizes preferences and biases to provide an understanding of student perceptions. Employing …

A Corpus Study Of The Effects Of Information Packaging On The Position Of Siempre And Nunca In The Spanish Verb Phrase, Rebekah Geddes

Theses and Dissertations

In Spanish, time adverbs show variability in their position with respect to the modified verb. This thesis investigates the effect of information packaging on the position of VP time-adverbs of frequency. Data were drawn from the Davies WEB Dialects Corpus. Two high-frequency verbs (dar and decir), as well as some of their less frequent near-synonyms (expresar, declarar, mencionar vis-à-vis decir, and ofrecer, entregar, and regalar vis-à-vis dar) were examined in relation to the adverbs siempre and nunca. The data show that when VP adverbs are part of sentence focus and do not have any special emphasis, they are found in …

Manuel Ponce: Father Of Mexican Nationalistic Music, Guillermo Sanchez Gutierrez

Theses and Dissertations

The influence of Manuel Ponce (1882-1948) in early 20th-century Mexico serves as a precursor to the emerging nationalistic sounds sought after the 1910 revolution. Despite the challenges posed by Mexico's music education system, Ponce's private tutelage enabled him to achieve European standards, marking a significant progress in the broader efforts of 19th-century Mexican musicians to attain proper musical training. Ponce's method of creating an authentic Mexican sound involved reconstructing folklore music, blending it with European styles, and aligning himself with the Indigenismo movement. His compositional trajectory, marked by trips to Europe and distinct musical periods such as Romanticism, Nationalism, and …

The Journey Toward Ascension: Understanding The Narratives Of Latinx Women In K-12 School Principalship, Manuela Jimenez

Theses and Dissertations

This study explored the unique leadership journeys of Latinx women holding principal positions in K-12 schools across New Jersey. The research findings revealed that these women's career paths were significantly influenced by their social identity characteristics, specifically as female Latinx individuals. The study serves as a crucial reminder to challenge and eliminate negative perceptions and biases towards Latina school principals and their leadership growth and methodologies. The study focused on the leadership journeys of Latinx women holding principal positions in K-12 schools in New Jersey. The findings also showed that their career paths were aided by their social identity characteristics …

Reverberation Of Ecocritical Concerns In The Novels Of Kazuo Ishiguro, Bavetra S

Theses and Dissertations

Kazuo Ishiguro, one of the most celebrated contemporary writers, has authored eight novels. As a Noble Laureate of 2017, his works are constantly under academic scrutiny. One of the best-explored themes in the works of Ishiguro is memories and emotions. No writer of meritable artistic integrity can ever stay away from the pressing issue of his age. Intriguingly, Ishiguro's works seem to lack engagement with environmental issues. The extensive study of Literature reiterates the point that Ishiguro's works are explored solely for a diminished ratio in terms of environmental challenges.

The researcher has identified the lack of critical attention on …

"Pasted Up And Printed Out": Watchmen As Ontographic Network, Thomas B. De Groff

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons' 1986-87 comic book series Watchmen according to its network structure, paying particular attention to page layout and the establishment of or deviation from the nine-panel "waffle iron" grid. This reading aims to better understand the comic book form, connecting the work of comics theorist Theirry Groensteen to certain elements of actor-network theory and Ian Bogost's notion of the ontograph--a map of being that emphasizes the interobjectivity of networked nodes. This thesis explores the ontographic nature of the comic book form more generally before tracing the meta-textual ontograph in Watchmen. The thesis then …

"A Love That Transcends Hunger": Choice And Edenic Imagery In Contemporary Queer Poetry, Aubrey Dickens

Theses and Dissertations

Contemporary poets such as Richard Siken are known for their sexual and explicitly queer nature. Others have debated the spiritual dimension of queer poetry such as Siken's, with individuals such as Marta Figlerowicz arguing that though one of Siken's poems calls itself a litany, it does not match all the rules of a litany due to not being clearly devotional. Using an outside-in analytical approach to Richard Siken's "Snow and Dirty Rain," Kayleb Rae Candrilli's "There is a Point at Which I Tire of My Own Fear," and Jericho Brown's "Eden", I argue that spirituality can be found in explicit …

Portuguese As L3: Student And Teacher Perceptions Of The Role Of Spanish In Portuguese Learning, Caroline Diniz Ainsworth

Theses and Dissertations

This research looks at a beginning Portuguese course for Spanish bilinguals in a United States university to analyze the perceptions that Spanish bilinguals and their teacher have about the facilitative and non-facilitative aspects of Spanish on the learning of Portuguese as a third language. The study investigates four main areas of language learning: vocabulary, general grammar, sentence structure, and pronunciation. Findings show that students and their teacher perceive Spanish as facilitative for Portuguese learning, but not in all areas.

Is Dual Language Immersion Inclusive? Insights From Enrollment Data, Autistic Student Experiences, And Developmental Screening, Dakin Fjeldsted Stovall

Theses and Dissertations

The rapid expansion of Dual Language Immersion (DLI) programs, now offered in over 300 Utah schools, necessitates a detailed investigation into how these programs accommodate diverse student populations, particularly those with developmental differences. A comprehensive three-part approach was employed for this evaluation. The first study evaluated DLI enrollment patterns by surveying over 300 Utah parents. Latent Class Analysis (LCA) was used to uncover factors influencing enrollment decisions and characteristics of students participating in DLI programs. This study revealed that developmental ability, socioeconomic need, and parent value toward DLI immersion significantly predicted enrollment; practical recommendations are provided to improve the accessibility …

Transferable User-Friendly Machine Learning For Normal Boiling Point Prediction, Frank Tafadzwa Mtetwa

Theses and Dissertations

The estimation of thermophysical properties of chemical compounds holds considerable importance across a multitude of fields, ranging from material science to process design. Among these properties, the normal boiling point (NBP) stands out as a pivotal parameter in scientific and engineering contexts, as it elucidates the state of a substance under standard conditions commonly encountered in nature. Additionally, NBP is extensively documented in various reference materials and databases. Given its paramount importance and widespread availability, prediction methodologies for other properties such as critical temperature, liquid density, vapor pressure, surface tension, liquid viscosity, liquid thermal conductivity, and flash point often rely …

Resonance: A Methodology And Pedagogy For Socially Just Storytelling, Helen Plevka-Jones

Theses and Dissertations

Through a close analysis of Valeria Luiselli’s Lost Children Archive and a comparative analysis of the intertexts it references, this dissertation argues that literary scholars and literacy pedagogues can learn from sound studies and archival practices together to achieve more socially just reading, writing, and teaching. The novel narrates a family traveling across the United States, not only experiencing their own journey but also learning about past forced migrations upon the same land and present attempted migrations into the country. As they encounter and interact with different print, audio, and visual artifacts, the characters achieve a more inclusive and complex …

The Role Of Instructors In Fostering A Sense Of Belonging For Native Hawaiian And Pacific Islander University Students, Kehaulani Oleole Malzl

Theses and Dissertations

An alarmingly high level of Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander (NHPI) college students in the United States end up dropping out of secondary education institutions. One important predictor of academic success and retention at the secondary level is student sense of school belonging. This thesis explores NHPI college students' perceptions of how their university instructors foster or undermine their sense of school belonging. A snowball sample of 97 NHPI students participated in 18 focus groups that included students from various islands and ethnicities in Oceania who were attending one U.S. university in the Pacific Rim. Focus group data were transcribed …

Exploring How To Reduce Ethnocentrism Through Critical Analysis Of Foreign News Reports In Foreign Language Learning, Rosemarie Jensen Bybee

Theses and Dissertations

In today's globalized world, more interaction exists among people from diverse cultural backgrounds. It is essential to be open-minded about cultural diversity to prevent speculative assumptions about others and to be able to interact positively with various people--one approach to addressing this problem might be through language teaching and learning. This exploratory study focused on critically analyzing foreign news reports to improve students' understanding of other cultures and reduce possible ethnocentric views. Results from the revised Generalized Ethnocentrism (GENE) scale pre-post survey indicate a slight decrease in students' ethnocentrism scores from the beginning to the end of the semester. Also, …

Imperial Anarchy, Cultural Exchange And Cultural Sabotage In Amitav Ghosh’S Ibis Trilogy, Siva Vidhya M

Theses and Dissertations

The present study aims at analysing three sequential novels written by Amitav Ghosh. The novels are set in the backdrop of colonized India, so the research begins by examining the imperial anarchy that leads to cultural exchange and cultural sabotage. Amitav Ghosh is an Indian born writer, famous for both his fictions and non-fictions.

Most of his works are based on colonization and its aftermath. The major focus of the novels selected for the research is also colonization especially the opium production in India. The author portrays the opium production and its evil effects on people and environment. The three …

Planning, Outcomes, Oversight: A Linguistic Analysis Of New Jersey Statutes And Reports From 1970 To 1999, Sharon E. Mccann

Theses and Dissertations

Between the decades of 1970 through 1999, there were major shifts in higher education in New Jersey. Utilizing a grounded theory approach this dissertation created a database of legislation, hearings transcripts, and education reports. Searching this database for commonly used terminology, this dissertation was seeking a pattern in language use that could demonstrate the incursion of neoliberal economic terminology into the way high education was discussed during these years. A grounded theory exploration, this dissertation does not claim to have achieved a proven connection between the language shift and decisions made by education leadership. All it can demonstrate is that …

Development Of Deep Neural Architecture For Continuous Sign Language Video Generation, Natarajan B

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation presents a deep neural network based sign language video generation framework for translating the multilingual sentences into sign videos. This thesis addresses the challenges persist with the sign language video generation such as (i) Handling longer sequences of input sentences and new words (ii) Pose estimation with higher accuracy (iii) High quality photo realistic sign gesture video generation (iv) Improving realism in sign video generation. Hence, the thesis focuses four contributions to address the above issues.

The first contribution of this thesis automates the translation of multilingual sentences into sign glosses without manual intervention by incorporating Hybrid Neural …

Sustainability In Civil And Construction Engineering, Connotations, Paradigms, And Perceptions, Xiaomei Wang

Theses and Dissertations

Over the last four decades, the concept of sustainability has evolved significantly, gaining prominence since the Brundtland report in 1987. Operating at the intersection of built and natural environments, Civil and Construction Engineering (CCE) projects and designs inherently impact the natural surroundings. In this context, the concept of sustainability serves not only as a guiding principle to mitigate depletion but also as a pathway to achieving balance among diverse societal needs so every creature can survive and thrive. Despite considerable efforts in this domain, the definition of sustainability within the CCE discipline remains elusive. Paradoxically, the popularity and vagueness of …

"Hey, Guys": How Youtubers Attempt To Fix Their Mistakes With Apologies And Transparasocial Relationships, Callie Day Tenney

Theses and Dissertations

YouTube apology videos from social media influencers offer a compelling perspective on personal accountability, the intricate bond between creators and viewers, and a way to take a closer look into them. This study employs the situational crisis communication theory and expands upon the trans-parasocial relationship model to elucidate how YouTubers leverage these theoretical frameworks in their apology videos. Through a qualitative thematic analysis of 30 videos spanning the last eight years on YouTube, this research seeks to identify common apology strategies, linguistic patterns, nonverbal cues, and technical aspects to uncover recurring themes and consistencies. The analysis found strong themes of …

When Curriculum Comes To Life: Making French Language ( L2 ) Acquisition A Lived Experience And The Effect Of Students' Progression Towards Proficiency, Julia Marie Martin

Theses and Dissertations

The main purpose of this study was to investigate the Interactive Comprehensive (IC) Method in World Language pedagogy as it is expressed in the DJ DELF IC Curriculum, created by Steven ÉTIENNE Langlois. The IC Method and DJ DELF readers and curriculum were created in response to the 2013-2014 Ontario French as a Second Language (FSL) curriculum reform. This study conducts a qualitative case study to gain a better understanding of how the IC Method through the DJ DELF readers and curriculum affects curriculum effectiveness, language acquisition, and student engagement. These codes were taken into consideration to gain a deeper …

Teachers' Belief, Values, And Practices In Collaborative Writing Conferences With Emerging Bilingual Students, Megan Hodgman

Theses and Dissertations

Emerging bilingual (EB) students are present in many mainstream secondary writing classrooms; however, little existing research addresses how best practices designed in other contexts help these students. One such practice is writing conferences. This study analyzed the responses of five middle school English Language Arts (ELA) teachers about their writing conference practices with EB students. Teachers' responses suggested that these teachers were unsure what writing conferences should look like and what to expect from EB students. When teachers prioritized what they saw as most beneficial, their writing conferences seemed more collaborative. These findings suggest that administrators, teachers, and teacher educators …

Neural Correlates Of Emotion Word Processing In Bilinguals: An Fnirs Study, Daniela Andrea Ortega Manchego

Theses and Dissertations

Despite increasing interest in the interface between emotion word processing and bilingualism, the representation of valence during emotion word processing in the bilingual brain remains unclear. In the present study, we used functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) to investigate the neural correlates of written emotion words in a first (L1) and a second (L2) language. Native English (16) and native Chinese (16) bilingual participants rated emotion words in their first and second language while we recorded their brain activity. Our results show distinct neural processing patterns between L1 and L2, with the former eliciting increased overall activation in the dorsolateral prefrontal …

Comics About Organs: Social Support And Graphic Medicine In The Awkward Yeti, Jacob Gibb

Theses and Dissertations

Comic strips have always been a medium for more than humor. Many comic strips published on social media sites address mental health issues. Despite their popularity, the field of graphic medicine, which examines the intersection of health care and comics, has seen little to no examination of how these comics function on social media. Utilizing the popular comic The Awkward Yeti, this research examines how the rhetorical devices of comics make them an ideal medium for communicating about mental health issues and providing social support to social media users. This study conducts a content analysis of 15 Instagram posts from …

Inservice Professional Development For Educators In A Democracy: Moving From Theory To Practice, Rachel Lynn Wadham

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation presents research that addresses the question of how professional development influences inservice teachers' professional identity. In three journal articles, specific inquiries address research questions drawn from this broader conversation. In article one, we answered the question of what unifying characteristics democratic educators exhibit in their pedagogies and methods. By conducting an integrative literature review, we find that those who indicate that they are democratic educators used four major pedagogical categories including inquiry methods, artistic methods, oral methods, and student-centered methods. In the second article, we addressed the question of how professional development influences teachers' professional civic identities. In …

Comparing Asian Immigrants Offending Rates With Other Immigrants., Shamim Ara Pia

Theses and Dissertations

Asian Americans are the fastest-growing population in the United States (U.S). They are characterized by parental attachment, school commitment, neighborhood involvement, and belief. The association between Asian immigrants and crime is multifaceted and requires an in-depth investigation. This study aims to compare the offending rates of Asian immigrants with those of other immigrants, such as immigrants from Europe, Central and South America, Australia, and Africa based on Travis Hirschi’s social bonding theory. The data for this study are drawn from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health), which is a nationally representative study of students in …

Key Behaviors And Expressions Of Secondary Administrators And Leadership Teams As Culturally Responsive School Leaders, Belinda Azela Talonia

Theses and Dissertations

Secondary administrative and leadership teams continuously search for practices that bolster cultural proficiency to address increasingly diverse student cohorts. This qualitative case study identifies the culturally responsive school leadership (CRSL) behaviors and expressions of 24 high school administrative and leadership team members in a suburban school district in Utah. Data reveals how each team demonstrates the behaviors and expressions of CRSL framework and how these behaviors and expressions position each school on the culturally proficient continuum. Superimposing the CRSL behaviors and expressions on the cultural proficiency continuum provides a current reality for administrative and leadership teams to assess their tipping …

Acculturation Strategy Of The First-Generation Immigrants: A Study On The Muslim Parents In The United States, Eshrat Rahman

Theses and Dissertations

This study aims to investigate the acculturation strategy of the first-generation immigrant Muslim parents in the US. This study is guided by segmented assimilation theory and data for the study was collected by employing qualitative research method. I conducted in-depth interview with twelve first-generation Muslim immigrant parents in the McLean County, Illinois to collect data for the study. The participants responded to a number of open-ended questions relating their cultural and Muslim identity, practice of their Islamic faith in your family and outside and raising their children in a different cultural environment. The finding of this study shows that the …

Navigating Democracy: Perspectives On Western-Style Democracy In Africa, Matthew Edor

Theses and Dissertations

This study examines the compatibility of Western-style democracy with the socio-cultural landscapes of Africa. Utilizing Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) within Fairclough’s three-dimensional framework and incorporating Afrocentric perspectives, the study highlights how language, power dynamics, and sociocultural practices shape the discourse on democracy in Africa. Pan-Africanism and (neo)colonialism emphasize the quest for African self-determination and the need for indigenous governance structures. The study suggests a Pan-African government structure rooted in collective values and cultural autonomy as a potential alternative to Western-style democracy. While acknowledging the limitations and challenges, the study underscores the significance of contextualizing democracy within African realities and calls …

S ( M ) Othering: A Rhetorical Analysis Of Republican Motherhood, Caroline King

Theses and Dissertations

This study examines seven Republican rhetors who utilize motherhood as a rhetorical strategy in speeches between the years of 1972 and 2020. Specifically, speeches, newsletters, and debate transcripts are analyzed using four theoretical lenses to curate an archetype of the “Republican Mother” – a concept constructed of an amalgamation of the historic “mother of the republic” from the nation’s conception and the ideological values assigned to women within the Republican party, such as traditional gender and spousal roles. I argue that it is the unique combination of womanhood, motherhood, and Republicanism that creates a unique rhetorical strategy seen in these …

Peer Cybervictimization ( Pcv ) Among University Students In Bangladesh And Institutional Disciplinary Body ( Idb ) Under Routine Activity Theory ( Rat ), Selimul Quader

Theses and Dissertations

Research on cybervictimization of Bangladeshi students is scarce, but the research that does exist suggests a high prevalence of victimization followed by low extent of reporting. None of the extant research exclusively studied peer cybervictimization (PCV) in relation to students’ knowledge of the university authority, hereinafter the institutional disciplinary body or IDB. As per the added propositions of Routine Activity Theory (RAT) (Felson, 1995), the IDB can potentially contribute to guardianship building by alerting students about handlers-managers in the university premises and thereby reduce PCV among students. Thus, the knowledge of (the presence of) the IDB can respond to the …

Prosodic Speech Rate, Utterance Duration, Interruption Rate, And Turn-Taking Latency In Autistic And Neurotypical Adults, Grace Madeline Bell

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine the following prosodic elements: speech rate, turn-taking latency, number of interruptions, and utterance duration across two groups' neurotypical and autistic young adults. Furthermore, the end goal of this study is to help provide a baseline and clinical application of prosodic differences between autistic and neurotypical adults. Speech samples were collected from 11 neurotypical and 11 autistic young adults from the ages of 18-26. Speech samples were recorded responses from a 10-minute interview between two research assistants and the autistic or neurotypical individual. Using Praat software, speech samples were analyzed and used to …