Digital Commons Network^™

The Effect Of Cultural Competence On The Acquisition Of French T/V Pronouns, Stacey C. Latimer

Open Access Theses

The appropriate use of Tu/Vous French pronouns in everyday situations proves to be an ongoing challenge not only for native speakers but also for learners of the language. The complexity of the use of these pronouns goes beyond grammatical conjugation as it necessitates a consideration of the sociolinguistic and pragmatic situation with which one is presented. As a result, students with less exposure to T/V pronoun usage in the French culture will consequently have more difficulty in understanding the proper use of these pronouns. ^ Although some studies have looked at students' use of T/V pronouns in online interactions (Belz …

Cultural Readings Of Ojibwe Novelists, Jordan A. Horvath

Open Access Theses

This thesis examines the work of three Ojibwe novelists through the cultural lens of primarily Ojibwe literary and cultural critics. Novels by Louise Erdrich, Gerald Vizenor, and David Treuer are analyzed with the intent of highlighting aspects of the work in which a heightened understanding of Ojibwe cultural and literary practices, both historical and contemporary, may elevate a reader's engagement with the texts. In the analyzing of these texts, precedence is given to the work of Ojibwe critics such as Vizenor and Anton Treuer. This prioritization of Ojibwe literary theory and cultural knowledge will demonstrate that readers, particularly non-Ojibwe readers, …

Elementary Preservice Teachers' Beliefs About Teacher Effectiveness, Mauricio A Herron Gloria

Open Access Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to explore elementary preservice teachers' beliefs about effective classroom instruction and the characteristics and behaviors of effective teachers, and to examine how these beliefs may vary across teacher education. Participants were 24 students enrolled in a teacher education program at a large mid-west university in the United States. Data were collected using an intensive interview protocol consisting of semi-structured questions, and analyzed using grounded theory strategies (Charmaz, 2006, 2012). Using a constructive/interpretive framework (Lincoln & Guba, 2013), the analysis of the data indicated that participants' beliefs about teacher effectiveness dwell around 12 overreaching categories; …

An Acoustic And Perceptual Analysis Of Vowels Preceding Final /-S/ Deletion In The Speech Of Granada, Spain And Cartagena, Colombia, Miguel Angel Rincon Perez

Open Access Dissertations

The objective of this dissertation is to explore the phenomenon ofdesdoblamiento vocálico or tense-lax vowel alternation in eastern Andalusian Spanish, particularly, in Granada Spanish and in the Spanish of Cartagena, Colombia. In previous studies of Eastern Andalusian Spanish (Navarro Tomás, 1939; Alonso et al., 1950; Mondéjar, 1970; Salvador, 1964, 1977) it has been claimed that in this variety of Spanish, vowels preceding deletion of post-nuclear /s/ undergo an open-closed vowel alternation. As a result, this vocalic alternation may serve as a functional marker distinguishing singular from plural in nouns and person-number in certain verbal forms rendered homophonous by the …

How Do Moroccan Teachers Conceptualize Citizenship?, Tarik Saadi

Open Access Dissertations

Citizenship education plays a critical role in the development of civic attitudes and contributes to the appropriate delivery of a government's policy. However, there is a discrepancy in the literature in defining the meaning and understanding of citizenship concepts. This study is primarily qualitative in nature, using the method of phenomengraphy to investigate teachers' perceptions of citizenship in Morocco. The study recruited six elementary and secondary teachers from Casablanca and Rabat in Morocco to identify their understanding of citizenship. I adapted the three-phase interview approach proposed by Irving Seidman (1998) to frame the interviews with the teachers. The findings demonstrated …

Understanding How Adults Approach Technological Challenges: A Sequential Mixed Methods Research, Mariana Tafur Arciniegas

Open Access Dissertations

People from all backgrounds engage with technology in their everyday lives. There is, however, a gap in the public's understanding of technology and limited research on how engineers and non-engineers approach technological challenges. Prior studies have focused on the public's understanding of technology but limited research has been conducted on how people deal with technological challenges as part of their everyday lives. Studying how individuals with non-STEM backgrounds engage with technology will contribute a more comprehensive understanding of strategies for closing the technological literacy gap. Taking into account that technology developments rapidly occur, lifelong learning skills are another critical dimension …

Metacognitive Instruction In L2 French: An Analysis Of Listening Performance And Automaticity, Shannon Becker

Open Access Dissertations

The goal of the present study was to investigate the instructional potential of metacognitive strategies to improve listening comprehension and the automaticity of listening processes. Metacognition can be described as focusing attention on the cognitive processes one is currently using. In the classroom, metacognitive listening instruction means guiding learners in applying metacognition to learning by monitoring the mental strategies they use while listening, evaluating the relative success of these strategies, and planning for future listening experiences. I argue that providing students with these tools to monitor and regulate the perceptual and cognitive processes involved in listening contributes significantly to building …

Language, Writing, And Social (Inter)Action: An Analysis Of Text-Based Chats In Macedonian And English, Mira Bekar

Open Access Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to investigate the text-based chatting practices of a particular community of native Macedonian speakers who chat both in Macedonian and in English (as their foreign language). Much research in computer-mediated communication (CMC) over the last decade has been done in English as L1. Some of the few studies which explored CMC cross-linguistically include the comparison of French vs. English (Werry, 1996), Japanese vs. English (Nishimura, 2003b), Spanish vs. English (del-Teso-Craviotto, 2006), Serbian vs. English (Radic, 2007) and Turkish vs. English (Savas, 2010). In these studies, a number of different language features (e.g., orthography, code …

Difficulty As A Concept Inventory Design Consideration: An Exploratory Study Of The Concept Assessment Tool For Statics (Cats), Dana L. Denick

Open Access Dissertations

The ability for engineering students to apply mathematic, scientific and engineering knowledge to real-life problems depends greatly on developing deep conceptual knowledge that structures and relates the meaning of underlying principles. Concept inventories have emerged as a class of tests typically developed for use in higher education science and engineering courses. Concept Inventories (CIs) are multiple-choice tests that are designed to assess students' conceptual understanding within a specific content domain. For example, the CI explored within this study, the Concept Assessment Tool for Statics (CATS) is intended to measure students' understanding of the concepts underlying the domain of engineering statics. …

Negotiated Interaction In The Learning Of Written Discourse Conventions, Brian A Guthrie

Open Access Dissertations

This study examines how two Japanese students learning to write in English negotiate the variations in written discourse conventions they encounter in an all-English program at a university in Japan. Textbooks, samples of the students' essays, and written feedback from instructors were analyzed, and interviews were conducted with the students in order to demonstrate the varieties of descriptions and interpretations of written academic introductions the students encountered in their first year of study at the university. Using an approach to learning that draws from ecological theories of composition, alternative approaches to second language acquisition, and actor-network theory, the students' academic …

Governance And Organizational Sponsorship As Success Factors In Free/Libre And Open Source Software Development: An Empirical Investigation Using Structural Equation Modeling, Aleksandr Blekh

CCAC Theses and Dissertations

Recent advances in information technologies and subsequent explosive growth of computer software use in practically all aspects of everyday life provide tremendous opportunities and benefits for improving people's lives. However, significant proportion of software projects represents cancelled, abandoned or otherwise failed projects. This situation exists not only in commercial software products or government information systems, but also in an increasingly popular and important domain of free/libre and open source software (FLOSS).

The problem of failures in software development projects requires identification and understanding of the factors of success and their interrelationships. Practice and previous research suggest that governance of software …

The Federal Question In Patent-License Cases, Amelia Smith Rinehart

Indiana Law Journal

The patent law has long recognized a patent owner’s ability to license some interest in the patent by granting to others permission to tread upon the patent owner’s property rights without legal consequence. When one of the parties to a patent license decides to seek remedies from the other party for a license harm, the resulting litigation may be a patent-infringement case with a contract issue or a contract case with a patent issue. In most cases, the patent owner brings her suit against the licensee in federal court, alleging that the licensee breached the license contract and, as a …

Gaps And Changed Circumstances In Energy Contracts: The Devil In The Detail, William W. Park

Faculty Scholarship

Energy contracts have long been vexed by questions about the role of gap filling by arbitrators and judges, along with the effect of changed circumstance on the parties’ obligations. Each challenge continues to resist facile analysis as differing legal standards interact with subtleties of contract language and factual matrixes. In the face of these challenges, arbitrators must seek a delicate equilibrium between legitimate respect for bargains and an equally legitimate recognition of expectations that genuine gaps be filled and dramatically changed circumstances receive appropriate consideration. In aiming for counterpoise, common sense normally pays greater dividends than ideology or dogmatism.

Alignment To The Actions Of A Robot, A-L Vollmer, Kj Rohlfing, B Wrede, A Cangelosi

School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics

Alignment is a phenomenon observed in human conversation: Dialog partners’ behavior converges in many respects. Such alignment has been proposed to be automatic and the basis for communicating successfully. Recent research on human–computer dialog promotes a mediated communicative design account of alignment according to which the extent of alignment is influenced by interlocutors’ beliefs about each other. Our work aims at adding to these findings in two ways. (a) Our work investigates alignment of manual actions, instead of lexical choice. (b) Participants interact with the iCub humanoid robot, instead of an artificial computer dialog system. Our results confirm that alignment …

News Feeds Clustering Research Study, Haytham Abuel-Futuh

CCAC Theses and Dissertations

With over 0.25 billion web pages hosted in the World Wide Web, it is virtually impossible to navigate through the Internet. Many applications try to help users achieve this task. For example, search engines build indexes to make the entire World Wide Web searchable, and news curators allow users to browse topics of interest on different structured sites. One problem that arises for these applications and others with similar goals is identifying documents with similar contents. This helps the applications show users documents with unique contents as well as group various similar documents under similar topics. There has been a …

The Protection Of Performers Under U.S. Law In Comparative Perspective, Daniel Gervais

IP Theory

The majority opinion of the Ninth Circuit panel in Garcia v. Google, Inc. stands for the proposition that an actor has copyright in her performance. The case was described as horrific and generated a significant amount of traffic on listservs and social media.

In the opinion, Chief Judge Kozinski made three key points. First, that there was originality in the performance, as required under Feist. The Feist court found that creative choices were necessary to generate sufficient originality to warrant copyright protection. Using Feist as backdrop, the Garcia majority found that:

An actor’s performance, when fixed, is copyrightable if …

Celebrating Faculty Creative Works 2014, University Of Texas At Arlington Library, Ut Arlington Office Of The Provost

Faculty Creative Works-Archive

The University of Texas at Arlington Libraries and the Office of the Provost are pleased to host the seventh Celebration of Faculty Creative Works, an exhibition showcasing the books, art, music, media, patents, conference activities, and journal contributions made by UT Arlington faculty in 2014.

The Commodified Self In Lina Meruane's Fruta Podrida, Mary Lusky Friedman

INTI: Revista de literatura hispánica

No abstract provided.

Collection Development Policy, Electrical Engineering And Computer Science, Ven Basco

Libraries' Documents

No abstract provided.

Literacy Intervention For Adolescents: A Review Of Spanish Language Heritage Instruction, Heidi Palms

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Theses and Dissertations

This study is a systematic review of current research regarding Spanish language heritage instruction with a focus on middle and high school. With substantial evidence in the field at the elementary level indicating that literacy development of L1 supports the literacy development of L2, this study seeks to determine what current research shows regarding Spanish heritage instruction in middle and high school. Is there evidence of literacy gains in L2 English due to L1 Spanish instruction during adolescence? The final selection of studies from the systematic review includes a broad range of methodology, and correspondingly produces a broad range of …

Knowledge Of Stroke Symptom And Risk Factors And Acculturation Among Cambodian Immigrants Living In Southern California, Samantha N. Sangsanoi-Terkchareon

Dissertations

The purpose of this quantitative study was to describe and examine the relationships between age, gender, educational level, health insurance status, and income to level of acculturation and knowledge of stroke symptom and risk factors recognition among Cambodian immigrants (n=200) living in Southern California. The data were analyzed using Pearson correlation, Kendal Tau, Chi-Square, and multiple regression to the determine relationship between depend and independent variables. The results of this study were that Cambodian participants’ mean age was 46.07 (SD= 17.51), average years of education were 8.95 (SD=5.26) and the mean number of people in each household was …

"English-Only Or Ethnocentrism? Toward A Sociological Understanding Of English-Only Case Law", Ian Peacock, Pablo Tapia

Brigham Young University Prelaw Review

No abstract provided.

Implications Of A Reverse Inclusion Program For Students With Moderate To Severe Disabilities, Linda Kaempfer Baker

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

Reverse Inclusion is an intermediary step to full inclusion. Reverse Inclusion is a program of scheduled interaction with typically developing students from the general education population working with students with moderate to severe disabilities in a self-contained special education classroom. This action research study reviews the potential benefits of a Reverse Inclusion Program to general education or typically developing third grade students. Reverse Inclusion is designed to foster positive peer interaction and positive peer support along with modeling desirable school appropriate behaviors among the participating students. Key findings of this study include: 1) regularly scheduled, structured contact between typically developing …

Participation Of Latino Spanish-Speaking Families In The Iep Process, Guadalupe Zamora

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

This study explored the Latino Spanish-Speaking parents’ perception of the Individualized Educational Plan (IEP) process and looked into barriers, and misconceptions that contributed to the lack of Latino Spanish Speaking parent participation. Both qualitative and quantitative data were collected over a five-week period with parents of middle school students in our mild to moderate program. Key findings: difference in the average participation rate between Latino Spanish-speaking parents and English-only parents, Latino Spanish-speaking parents answer more questions than they ask questions, parents believe participation is simply attending meetings, and for Latino Spanish-speaking parents information presented in initial meetings is very confusing …

Teaching Vocational Gardening Skills To An Adolescent With Severe Autism, Sun Kim Garcia

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

This research project examines the efficacy of teaching specific vocational gardening skills that are tied directly to real world job skills for an adolescent with severe autism. This study sought to determine if visual activity schedules paired with prompting increases independent achievement of gardening skills identified as essential to successful performance at a garden center job site for an adolescent with severe autism. Current research shows that the majority of adults with autism spectrum disorder are either unemployed or underemployed (Gerhardt & Lainer, 2011); however, when individuals with ASD participated in supported employment their quality of life improved, reduced their …

The Development Of English And Chinese Oral Language Through Drawing For Primary Grade Students, Minzhi Yu

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

This research explored how the drawings of five-to seven-year-old children reflect their interests and emotions. This research also evaluated the role these drawings played in their literacy education and development. Two groups of students were compared in regards to the impact drawing had on their literacy development. The experimental group received the drawing intervention while the control group received literacy instruction only. Teachers were interviewed to ascertain whether the intervention affected the students’ literacy development, as well as to gain insight into children’s thinking emanating from their drawings. It was found that the students who used drawing as a complement …

Zoom: The Changing Nature Of Middle School Shared Instructional Leadership On The Way To The Common Core, Ann M. Yanchura

Dissertations

The complexities, diversity, and nuances of schools today require the shared leadership of the best and brightest that education has to offer. All across the country, school districts are embarking on the challenging journey toward higher and better standards and performance found in the adoption of the Common Core State Standards. This dissertation describes the early CCSS implementation efforts of the middle schools in a Midwest suburban district. In particular, it examines the instructional leadership that was shared among the administrators and literacy coaches who led the adoption and implementation of the new Standards. The research was conducted during their …

Jewish Studies At West Chester University: Programs And Potentials, Ann Lieberman Colgan

Interdisciplinary Studies and Academic Support Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Department Of Philosophy News, Spring 2015, Illinois State University, Department Of Philosophy

Philosophy Alumni Newsletter

Newsletter of the Illinois State University Departmetn of Philosophy

Signs & Symbols, Vol. 14, Spring 2015, Illinois State University, Department Of Sociology And Anthropology

Signs & Symbols

Newsletter of the Illinois State University Department of Sociology and Anthropology