Digital Commons Network^™

Comparison Of Two Word Learning Techniques And The Effect Of Neighborhood Density For Late Talkers, Shari L. Deveney, Cynthia J. Cress, Robert Reid

Special Education and Communication Disorders Faculty Publications

The investigators compared two techniques for teaching expressive vocabulary to late talkers: modeling with an expectant pause and modeling with an evoked child production. They also explored the influence of neighborhood density on children’s real word learning. Three late talkers (ages 25–33 months) received two alternating vocabulary treatments (expectant pause and evoked production) in the home. Two participants were identified as having an expressive language delay, and one participant was identified as having an expressive and receptive language delay. During the expectant pause treatment, the clinician paused several seconds after each target word model, looking at the child expectantly. In …

Language Learners, Inequality Regimes, And Secondary Schooling: Dilemmas Of The New South, Karen Gober

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This paper explores the structure of the secondary education system in Northwest Arkansas and how it shapes the culture of education for newly arrived Latino immigrants. Significant achievement gaps remain between non-Hispanic white students and Latinos within secondary education. Uncovering possible causes for this gap is necessary in order to allow equal educational opportunity for all students. While prior researchers debate the method of language instruction as a barrier to education, there has been little attention to the relationship between organizational structure and levels of achievement. In-depth interviews with teachers and administrators reveal a consistent theme: large amounts of time …

Middle-Earth's War On Terror: A Post-9/11 Reception Study On The Works Of J.R.R. Tolkien, James William Peebles

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis investigates how Americans can and do interpret Tolkien's works in light of 9/11 and its proximity to Peter Jackson's film adaptations hitting theaters.

The Impact Of Intolerance Of Uncertainty On International Students' Intercultural And Intracultural Conflict Management, Yekaterina Syrtsova

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study investigates the role of intolerance of uncertainty in international students' conflict management in intracultural and intercultural settings. International students at a large U.S. university were surveyed and their responses were analyzed using quantitative methods. Analyses indicated that the higher the intolerance of uncertainty scores, the higher the use of dominating and avoiding strategies. The results in this study also revealed that when controlling for sex, the higher the individuals' intolerance of uncertainty score, the lower their preference for integrating-compromising strategy. Finally, there were limited differences between the ways international students handle conflict with conflict partners from their own …

Effects Of Licensed And Unlicensed Negation On The Activation Of Negated Concepts, Kevin Autry

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Research on the activation of negated concepts has demonstrated situations in which negated concepts are less active than non-negated concepts (e.g., MacDonald & Just, 1989) as well as situations where negated and non-negated concepts are equally active (e.g., Autry & Levine, 2012, in press). Based on the pragmatic inference hypothesis (Levine & Hagaman, 2008), the present experiments tested the hypothesis that the activation level of negated concepts is a function of the context in which they occur. In two experiments, the activation level of target concepts was measured following licensing or non-licensing contexts using lexical decision and reading times. Although …

Teaching The Universal Language Of Creativity: A Guide To Training., Carlie R. Arnone

Creativity and Change Leadership Graduate Student Master's Projects

Teaching the Universal Language of Creativity: A Guide to Training.

The purpose of education in any regard is to provide knowledge and information, to teach something. Parents, educators, and professionals alike are experiencing some difficulty in education, in that they are not being properly taught how to nurture some particular needs of individuals with developmental disabilities, specifically on how to use creativity to do so. Educators, parents, and professionals in the field need to start advocating for a balance between strict regulations and creativity. In the recent years, there has been quite the push for creativity and innovation in businesses, …

Sovereign Silence: Immoral Trafficking (Prevention) Act And Sex Work In Sonagachhi, Simanti Dasgupta

Sociology, Anthropology, and Social Work Faculty Publications

Drawing upon ethnographic work with a grassroots sex workers’ organization in Calcutta, Durbar Samanwaya Samiti (Durbar), this article analyzes the relationship between subalternity and silence. I discuss how sex workers, especially new entrants, use silence as a subaltern strategy to resist state and non-state surveillance intended to oppose trafficking. The increased surveillance is a direct result of the global anti-trafficking narrative, led mainly by the United States, in which developing countries, like India, adopt measures to avoid being downgraded in the United States’ Trafficking in Persons Report. I contend that these national and international efforts have led to a quandary …

"Hey, Y'Guys!": A Diachronic Usage-Based Approach To Changes In American English Address, Ben Sienicki

Linguistics ETDs

This dissertation adopts a functional, usage-based perspective on language to highlight key changes in American English address over the past century, especially the development of 'you guys' and its expansion across second-person plural contexts. Based on data from the Corpus of Historical American English and the Corpus of Contemporary American English (among other corpora), the study tracks the increasing usage, gradual restructuring, semantic generalization, and shifting registers of 'you guys', including the interactions of those changes as the form has grammaticalized. This work offers an explanation, therefore, as to why 'you guys' has been uniquely reshaped into a pronominal unit …

“Could Fulfillment Ever Be Felt As Deeply As Loss?”: A Postcolonial Examination Of The West’S Influence On India As Reflected By Kiran Desai’S Portrayal Of Twentieth Century Female Education In The Inheritance Of Loss, Ambreen Hooda

English Honors Theses

Drawing upon cultural, historical, and postcolonial methods, I analyze how Kiran Desai’s The Inheritance of Loss reflects twentieth century India, an India heavily influenced by the West. This analysis seeks to answer questions the effects of colonization and whether or not the formal education the main female character inherits is worth what she loses in the process. One of the two main storylines in Desai’s novel focuses on Sai, an educated teenage girl in Kalimpong, India. Buried within the flashbacks of her story is that of Bela “Nimi” Patel’s, Sai’s grandmother. Shortly after Nimi’s wedding, her husband, Jemubhai, leaves to …

The Universal Design Paradigm: An Examination Of Real-Time, C-Print, Meaning-For-Meaning Transcription And Individual Differences In Learning, Amanda Boone

HIM 1990-2015

The intent of this thesis is to guide further research and discussion of C-Print, meaning-for-meaning transcription and its applications to today’s dynamic classroom settings under a Universal Design Paradigm. Evidence suggests that providing these captions can benefit Deaf and Hard of Hearing populations and also that concise, textual representations of information increase retention for average learners in multimedia settings. Individual differences were considered and low internal control participants did significantly better on exams when material was captioned compared to when it was not. They also tended to outperform high internal control participants on captioned material exams.

The Relationship Among Previous Exposure To War And Conflict, Acculturation, And Identity Formation Among Adolescent Refugees, Jessica Guler

HIM 1990-2015

This thesis examines the relationship among previous exposure to war and conflict, acculturation, and identity formation among adolescent refugees. It was hypothesized that US acculturation would mediate the association between exposure to war and conflict and identity development among adolescent refugees. Participants included 33 adolescent refugees (16 males and 17 females) ranging in age between 11 and 17 years (M = 14.61, SD = 1.48), who were recruited through a refugee resettlement service provider located in Orlando, Florida. Country of origin included Cuba (n = 25), Iraq (n = 4), Jordan (n =1), Haiti (n =1), Colombia (n =1), and …

Toward A Model Of Team Decision Making Under Stress, Alyssa Marshall

HIM 1990-2015

Today's organizations are increasingly relying on teams, rather than individuals, to complete tasks in the workplace. For some teams, these tasks require them to make high stakes decisions under stressful conditions. In military, medical, and emergency response fields, for example, workers are regularly asked to make decisions under high time pressure, uncertainty, and risk. The purpose of this study is to summarize previous team decision-making perspectives and create a model for team decision-making under stress. A literature review was conducted to examine the current state of team decision-making research. Several existing models of the team decision-making process were identified, representing …

Levinas On The 'Origin' Of Justice: Kant, Heidegger, And A Communal Structure Of Difference, Olga Tomasello

HIM 1990-2015

The way we understand community fundamentally structures the way we approach justice. In opposition to totalizing structures of justice founded upon an ontological conception of community, Emmanuel Levinas conceives the possibility of a political or social structure of difference. I argue that the conceptions of community presented by Kant and Heidegger, either as a harmonious, unified being in common, or as a common-identity disclosed beneath the ontological horizon of being-with, necessarily leads to violence. This violence is reflected in the forms of justice instantiated by these philosophies, which privilege the ‘light’ of the universal over the particularity of individuals in …

From Hip To Hypocrisy : An Exploration Of The Hipster And The Cooptation Of Style., Melissa Rothman

College of Arts & Sciences Senior Theses

No abstract provided.

Some Place To Be That's Not On The Map : Chuck Palahniuk's Demarginalization Of The Gothic Monster., Morgan Blair

College of Arts & Sciences Senior Theses

No abstract provided.

Screen Time, How Much Is Too Much? The Social And Emotional Costs Of Technology On The Adolescent Brain, Katherine Lynn Deweese

Dissertations, Masters Theses, Capstones, and Culminating Projects

Screen time no longer means just the amount of time one spends in front of the television. Now it is an aggregate amount of time spent on smartphones, computers as well as multitasking with different devices. How much are the glowing rectangles taking away from adolescent social and emotional health? How is it changing how students learn and how they communicate with the world? How much is too much? The purpose of this study is to determine whether the 1-1 student-to-iPad pilot at an affluent public school in the greater San Francisco Bay Area is helping students succeed in their …

Creating A Successful Educational Environment For The Latino/A Community: Building Home- School Communication, Talyha Romo

Senior Theses

California has a large population of Latino/a students, and for most of them Spanish is their native language. The problem is the miscommunication between Latino/a families and educators in the school setting. Teachers often do not understand Spanish and are unable to communicate with parents or students. Latino/a families are not aware of the ways to support their children, given this lack of ability to communicate. A review of the literature reveals the cultural and language barriers that teachers face. Teachers also lack support within their school in providing appropriate instruction for Latino/a students and in communicating with Latino/a families. …

Long Term English Language Learners: Failure Is Not An Option, Jennifer Diaz-Zamora

Dissertations, Masters Theses, Capstones, and Culminating Projects

There is a sizable number of English Language Learners (ELL) that are not succeeding in schools and are academically “falling through the cracks.” The purpose of this thesis is to gather information that identifies reasons why students are not succeeding academically and which strategies individual teachers can implement to help these students attain academic success. The literature reveals that Long Term English Language Learners have lower levels of literacy and tend to drop out more frequently compared to native English speakers. This is a qualitative study using a focus group at a middle school. Data were collected from individuals in …

Improving Behavior And Reading Levels: Students’ Response To Two Years Of Participation In A Teacher Administered Elementary Level School-Wide Positive Behavioral Interventions And Supports Program, Gregory W. Betts, John W. Hill, Jeanne L. Surface

Educational Leadership Faculty Publications

The purpose of this quasi-experimental within-group study was to determine the impact of a teacher administered All Children Experiencing Success, School-Wide Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports program on students’ measured externalizing behavior categories and reading instructional levels. Third-grade, fourth-grade, and fifth-grade students were identified at pretest with moderate (n = 18), mild (n = 22), and low (n = 46) disruptive externalizing behaviors. Students participated for two school years in this highly structured program designed to improve the culture, context, and curriculum of the research elementary school. The null hypothesis was rejected in the direction of student Universal Behavior Screen …

Analysis Of Social Dominance In The Green Anole, Jordan Mckenzie Bush

Biology Honors Theses

Dominance relationships are an important aspect of the social organization of many species. Male dominance often results in successful territory defense and/or access to potential mates, and thus is a central component in establishing social rank. In this study, I used mathematical models to consider social interactions of the green anole lizard (Anolis carolinensis) in both territorial and hierarchical contexts. I then identified the behavioral and morphological traits associated with dominance in this species.

I first analyzed a series of ranking algorithms to evaluate their effectiveness as a novel approach to quantifying animal social status. I found that all eight …

Islamic Feminism In The Time Of Democracy, Karina Garcia

Student Works

No abstract provided.

Weighted Words: The Implications Of Naming On Gay Unions, Emily Rose Grandolfo

Student Works

No abstract provided.

Unrestricted Warfare: The Rise Of A Chinese Cyber-Power, Robert John Guanci

Student Works

No abstract provided.

Hear No Evil, Speak No Evil, Slurp No Evil: How The Recent N.Y. C. Ban On Sugary Drinks Will Stifle First Amendment Rights If Un-Fizzled, Jason Lawrence Stern

Student Works

No abstract provided.

Historical, Religious And Scholastic Prohibition Of Usury: The Common Origins Of Western And Islamic Financial Practices, Joshua Vincent

Student Works

No abstract provided.

Eeg Measurement Of Neural Oscillations At High And Low Frequencies Across Languages, Lauren Nicole Stewart

Health, Human Performance and Recreation Undergraduate Honors Theses

The comprehension and understanding of language depends upon two critical things: first, the acoustic integrity of the linguistic signal that is sent and received as well as the knowledge of the phonology and meaning that is in a given language. However, little is known about how brain rhythms that track these properties involved in comprehension and understanding. A 14 channel telemetric headset measuring electroencephalography (EEG) was used in this study to track the brain’s response at both high (30-50Hz) and low frequencies (3-30Hz) while language samples at varying levels of intelligibility were presented to a native Spanish speaker under the …

Indeterminacy, Value Pluralism, And Tragic Cases, David Wolitz

Buffalo Law Review

No abstract provided.

Gaia’S Navy: The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society’S Battle To Stay Afloat And International Law, Gerry Nagtzaam

William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review

This Article critically examines the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society and its self-appointed role to protect oceanic life. In Part I, the Article examines the history of this radical environmental group, the role performed by its charismatic leader, Paul Watson, its organizational structure, its strategies and tactics, its governing philosophy, and its attitudes to violence. Part II provides a history of the various direct actions carried out by the group; it examines the organization’s ongoing confrontations with the Japanese whaling fleet, documents the current legal travails the group and its leader are experiencing, and asks whether its methods are counterproductive to …

Missed Opportunity: Excluding Carbon Emissions Markets From Comprehensive Oversight, Leo Mensah

William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review

No abstract provided.

The Impact Of The National Ems Curriculum In Florida's Emt-B Educational Programs, Ilia Y. Matos

Graduate Student Dissertations, Theses, Capstones, and Portfolios

The Florida EMS Program Office has implemented state-mandated changes to the EMT-B curriculum, which embed the development of critical thinking skills for students and the requirement of hiring faculty with degrees to teach courses. This is the first and only qualitative study to be conducted in Florida after the 2009 changes to the EMS rules, which mandated that instructors teaching EMT-B courses hold at least a 2-year degree from an institution whose accreditation is recognized by the United States Department of Education (S. Res. 645-1.012, 2008).

This study sought to verify how effective the curriculum is being delivered by credentialed …