Digital Commons Network^™

Demystifying Open Access Workshop, Rose Fortier, Heather G. James, Martha G. Jermé, Patricia Berge, Rosemary Del Toro

Library Events and Research Institutes

Among the avenues for sharing research and scholarship, open access journals offer an increasingly viable and important option. However, it can be challenging not only to identify these journals but also to evaluate their quality and reach, as well as to weigh the benefits of publishing in them.

To help demystify this process, Raynor Memorial Libraries offered a workshop on evaluating open access journals. Aimed at faculty, graduate students, and others interested in publishing their academic work, the workshop offered an overview of current open access options for sharing research, criteria to help assess the rigor and reliability of open …

Law, Rhetoric, Strategy: Russia And Self-Determination Before And After Crimea, Christopher J. Borgen

International Law Studies

The article considers how and why Russia has used international legal arguments concerning self-determination in relation to its intervention in Ukraine. Of what use is legal rhetoric in the midst of politico-military conflict? The article reviews the laws of self-determination and territorial integrity and considers Russia’s changing arguments concerning these concepts over the cases of Kosovo, South Ossetia, and Ukraine. Inasmuch as international law is the vocabulary and the grammar of modern diplomacy, States may use legal rhetoric with multiple audiences in mind. While the shifts in Russia’s arguments may be due to strategic needs in specific conflicts, the legal …

Teaching Pronunciation Communicatively To Cape Verdean English Language Learners: Sao Vicente Variety, Jacira Monteiro

Master’s Theses and Projects

The thesis is based on the researcher’s observation that pronunciation is underestimated in teaching English in Cape Verde in Sao Vicente Island. The Cape Verdean school program does not focus on pronunciation but it gives importance to grammar learning. As a result students show several difficulties in pronunciation which, although these are recognized by teacher, are nevertheless ignored in the teaching process. This paper primarily explains the phonological systems of English and CVSV, highlighting the difference between them; and critiques current approaches to teaching EFL, in general, pronunciation and specifically to Cape Verdean English language learners. The thesis concludes suggesting …

The Effects Of Listening Comprehension On English Language Learners Writing Performance While Taking Notes, Juary De Brito

Master’s Theses and Projects

The main goal of this investigation is to examine the effects of listening comprehension on English Language Learners` (ELLs) writing performance while taking notes. A total of 30 ELLs were administered a questionnaire in order to find out the difficulties they face when taking notes. The results indicates that student face various difficulties when taking notes, citing speech rate and different range of accent as the main problems. It was concluded that during the note taking process students could perform better if they were exposed first to any teaching materials like a power point or a hand out to improve …

Board Of Trustees Minutes Regular Meeting May 13, 2015, Central Washington University

Board of Trustees Meeting Minutes

No abstract provided.

Wittgenstein And The Problem Of Abusive Language, Alexander S. Coppins

Philosophy Honors Projects

These days, more and more social movements are focusing on changing the ways we speak. As a result of these movements, words that were once commonplace until quite recently are being pushed out of our language because of their power to hurt people. This tells us that political groups recognize the power of words to greatly damage us. In this paper, I explore Wittgenstein’s philosophy of language in order to shed light on how we can use language to insult each other. Both the early and the later Wittgenstein are able to account, in some respects, for how we understand …

Using Ipads In Vocabulary Instruction For Elementary English Language Learners, Rachel Janice

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine if English language learners (ELLs) would increase their vocabulary scores in the areas of word recognition, word meaning, and word application when iPads were used during vocabulary instruction. Five at risk third graders enrolled in the school's ELL program participated in the study. All students demonstrated weak English vocabulary skills in the tests during the baseline. During the intervention, 36 vocabulary words selected from the 3rd grade's Dolch word list were taught using flashcards and practiced using the iPad application: Learning Touch Sight Words Pro. All students were assessed weekly and their …

Names Are Words: A Study Of Age, Gender, Class And Race, Alexandria Michelle Baker

Communication & Leadership Dissertations and Theses

Just over 4 million babies are born in the United States each year, and as many people know each baby eventually gets a name. In an extension of research demonstrating both Symbolic Interaction Theory and the Coordinated Management of Meaning, through the use of semantics and pragmatics, the present study examined what names communicate about age, race, gender and class. Using data obtained from the first group of participants in Survey 1(i.e. names of each individual and their demographics), Survey 2 participants, a random sampling of Americans, were asked to look at 14 names and determine what those names communicated. …

Spartan Daily, May 13, 2015, San Jose State University, School Of Journalism And Mass Communications

Spartan Daily (School of Journalism and Mass Communications)

Volume 144, Issue 42

Volume 52, Number 39: May 13, 2015, University Of North Dakota

University Letter Archive

No abstract provided.

The Ingredients Of Comparison: The Semantics Of The Excessive Construction In Japanese, Xiao Li

Publications and Research

Excessives (e.g., this pair of pants is too long) are often considered as a ‘degree construction’ in the literature, presumably because it is assumed that their semantics involves a comparison of degrees. This paper takes a cross-linguistic look at the excessive construction in Japanese and raises the question of whether degrees are a necessary ingredient in the semantics of comparison. Unlike any degree morpheme in English, -sugi ‘to exceed’ can combine with either a gradable adjective (e.g., naga ‘long’) or a non-gradable verb (e.g., yomi ‘to read’) to form an excessive construction. In each case, a semantically different type of …

Professor Jack Hoza Recognized For Teaching Excellence, Kassidy Taylor

UNH Today Archive

No abstract provided.

Perspectives Of Chaos: Determining Meaning Through Interpretation, Benjamin M. Schmidt

Theses

None provided

Freedom From Equality: Democratic Education And The Failure Of The Nclb, Andrew X. Fleming

Student Research Symposium

Deeply rooted societal concerns about what role democratic ideals should play within systems of education, and how much sway the federal government should hold over educational institutions, have been at the forefront of American educational policy for decades. These questions have more recently been brought into the limelight once again within the context of the implementation of charter schools and the controversial No Child Left Behind act, and its subsequent failure. The expressed goal of this paper is to provide an examination of what philosophies and ideals of so-called "democratic education" are have played major roles in developing the discourse …

Deception Detection In Clinical Interview, Olivia Preston, Melissa Lewis

Student Research Symposium

The objective of Forensic Assessment of Client Truthfulness (FACT) measure is to detect deception in forensic psychology consultations. A statistically significant tool using verbal content analysis was created, based a synthesis of previous research in the field. This presentation reviews the research project and highlights one phase of the study where ratings true and deceptive statements in cases of accused sex offenders or insanity defense claimants were compared. Multiple ANOVAs, t-tests, and factor analyses were conducted. When FACT scores were dichotomized, 86% of the ratings characterized the true statements as true, and 81% of the ratings categorized the false statements …

A Minority Within A Minority: A Kurdish Refugee In Portland, Oregon, Seth Thomas

Student Research Symposium

This paper is a narrative approach to the experience of Kurdish refugees in Portland, Oregon, focusing specifically on the experiences of Nihad Abdul Rahman, a 40 year old Kurdish refugee born and raised in Baghdad. Nihad arrived in Portland on January 18th, 2015, five years after beginning his refugee application process with the International Organization of Migration (personal communication, February 23, 2015). The qualitative nature of this paper is expressed through the indefinite article of the title: “A Kurdish Refugee.” Nihad receives refugee assistance from Lutheran Community Services Northwest (LCSN), a non-Profit NGO in Portland, Oregon that is one of …

Sound Effects: Age, Gender, And Sound Symbolism In American English, Timothy Krause

Student Research Symposium

This mixed-method study investigated the correlation of sound symbolic associations with age and gender by analyzing data from a national survey of 292 American English speakers. Subjects used 10 semantic differential scales to rate six artificial brand names that targeted five phonemes. Subjects also described the potential products they imagined these artificial brand names to represent. Quantitative analysis alone provided insufficient evidence to conclude that age or gender affect sound symbolism in American English. While 26 out of 60 scales showed a monotonic shift among the means of the three age groups, only three were statistically significant. The evidence of …

My Embodied Multiracial Experience, Catherine C. Miller

Creative Arts Therapies Theses

While there is some research on dance/movement therapy (DMT) and people of Color, there is no research specifically on the use of DMT with multiracial people. This heuristic study explored the embodied experience of being multiracial and how that experience could inform the practice of DMT to better meet the possible needs of multiracial clients. The researcher was a 24 year old multiracial female graduate student. Data collection lasted for 12 weeks and consisted of experiences in which the researcher’s multiracial heritage was highlighted. Data was collected through three self-interviews and artistic journaling. The researcher used Forinash’s adapted form of …

Literature Of The First Encounters: Using Self-Immersion In The Scholarly Study Of First Encounter Texts To Develop A Fifth Grade Text Set, Angela Skrabec

Honors Program Theses and Projects

This interdisciplinary research project integrated training and techniques from two disciplines: English and Elementary Education. The purpose of the project was to immerse myself in the scholarly study of First Encounter (encounter between the natives and English settlers in the New World) texts in order to create a fifth grade text set, a selection of approximately 20-25 quality children’s books that represent a diverse range of reading levels and genres. My research entailed reading a variety of First Encounter literatures and using New Historicism to analyze each as part of my English scholarship. In addition, after reviewing research on literacy …

The Effects Of Elementary School Teachers’ Instructional Practices On The Self-Confidence Of College Students With Dyslexia, Christina Miceli

Honors Program Theses and Projects

When learning to cope with dyslexia, it is not uncommon for a child to develop a lack of self-confidence when falling behind academically in comparison to his or her same-aged peers. The teaching style and method of instruction in the classroom directly affects a dyslexic student’s self-confidence (Burden, 2009). Teacher responses collected through a questionnaire and voice recorded interviews were compared to college students with dyslexia’s survey and interview responses. This research determined there are discrepancies that exist among students self-identified with dyslexia, their descriptions of the impacts of elementary school teachers, and the perceptions of the strategies, attitudes, and …

Executive Committee - Agenda, 5/12/2015, Academic Senate

Academic Senate Agendas

No abstract provided.

Teacher Perceptions Of Their Preparation To Meet The Needs Of Secondary English Learners With Limited Formal Education, Kristina Marie Herman Hill

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Theses and Dissertations

As more immigrants and refugees make the Upper Midwest their home, many English Learner (EL) teachers are struggling to meet the various needs of students with limited or interrupted formal education (SLIFE), especially at the secondary level. The purpose of this study was to examine secondary teacher perceptions of their preparation to meet the unique needs of SLIFE and to examine what types of preparation would have been helpful to them. Sixteen secondary EL teachers who work with SLIFE were surveyed and four were interviewed to share their perceptions of their preparation. The overall result of the survey was that …

Spartan Daily, May 12, 2015, San Jose State University, School Of Journalism And Mass Communications

Spartan Daily (School of Journalism and Mass Communications)

Volume 144, Issue 41

“Look Pon Likkle Chiney Gal”: Tessanne Chin, The Voice, And Digital Caribbean Subjects, Tzarina T. Prater

Anthurium: A Caribbean Studies Journal

This article takes up the participation of Caribbean digital subjects on YouTube, specifically the ways in which Tessanne Chin’s ascendancy and eventual win of the fifth season of NBC’s reality TV singing competition show, The Voice, provided the occasion for the Caribbean digital subject to challenge discourses of stereotype, nation, and history. I take the YouTube sensation, The Dutty Berry Show, as a nodal point at which reductive and competing discourses clash and the Caribbean digital subject and Digital Griot emerge.

'Talking Back' In Post-Colonial Discourse In Staceyann Chin’S The Other Side Of Paradise, Julie Morrissy

Anthurium: A Caribbean Studies Journal

My analysis of Staceyann Chin’s memoir The Other Side of Paradise addresses the notable anxiety in post-colonial scholarship around the construction of binary divisions in representations of the post-colonial subject. Drawing on theorists such as Stuart Hall, Chandra Talpade Mohanty, Ien Ang, and bell hooks, this paper explores Chin’s negotiation of identity throughout her life as a half-Chinese, half-black female growing up in post-colonial Jamaica. Her struggle reflects both the complexities of the multicultural nature of Jamaican society and the aftereffects of colonialism. By disrupting the primary and secondary discourses that surround her youth, Chin succeeds in establishing an authorial …

Forging An Anonymous Voice In The Spanish-Language Mass Media Of The United States, Hannah Artman

Open Access Theses

Most "standardized" languages have a corresponding geo-political center, where the language of society offers a location to the linguistic norms and standards of the language in question. The purpose of this study is to identify the linguistic center for Spanish used in Spanish-language media in the United States. Some have dubbed this neutral accent, “Walter Cronkite Spanish” and argue that it is the discrete "Mexicanization" of the Spanish language (Ahrens 2004). The first is a reference to the legendary anchorman who was one of the first in broadcast media to attempt to eliminate all traces of an identifiable regional accent. …

The Statesman, V. 58, I. 29, Stony Brook University

Stony Brook Statesman-Sucolian

v. 58, i. 29

The Foumban "Constitutional" Talks And Prior Intentions Of Negotiating: A Historico-Theoretical Analysis Of A False Negotiation And The Ramifications For Political Developments In Cameroon, Fonkem Achankeng

Journal of Global Initiatives: Policy, Pedagogy, Perspective

This paper links the nationalist conflict in postcolonial Cameroon to the prior intentions of the parties at the 1961 Foumban “Constitutional” Talks characterized by a false negotiation experience. I argue that the political developments in the Cameroon post-Foumban and the tensions that have led to outcomes such as the desire of British Southern Cameroons to “restore independence and sovereignty” resulted from the fact that the parties at the Foumban Constitutional conference had divergent prior intentions of the meeting, including false negotiating. In exploring the 1961 Foumban Talks, the framework through which the two former and separate UN Trust Territories under …

Relationship Between Oral Language And Reading Comprehension For English Learners: A Systematic Review, Jenna Lee Varghese

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Theses and Dissertations

This systematic review documents one teacher’s search for reasons why transitional readers at her elementary school seem to be stagnant in their reading progress, particularly in the area of reading comprehension. The relationship between English oral language proficiency and English reading comprehension for English learners at the transitional stage of reading is explored in depth. Additional factors that make it difficult for transitional readers to move through this stage are identified and discussed. A thorough review and synthesis of the current research is provided, offering many answers to the questions posed. Instructional implications and recommendations for mainstream teachers are shared.

Creating Picture Books That Feature Children Parented By Same-Sex Partners, Kira Lenore Fischler

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Theses and Dissertations

The research question addressed in this project is, how can an author create a picture book for children featuring families parented by same-sex partners that provides windows into and mirrors of the lives of those families? This capstone captures the journey of one teacher as she creates a picture book for children that is culturally responsive to the Lesbian/ Gay/Bisexual/Transgendered (LGBT) community. It presents research on the effects absent narratives have on marginalized populations and how schools respond to children from LGBT families, as well as the different typologies of picture books, guidelines for developmental appropriateness, and advice on the …