Digital Commons Network^™

The Effects Of Task Demands And Word Frequency On Language Source Encoding, Elva Natalia Strobach Oronoz

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Source memory effects have been relatively unexplored in bilingual memory. Bilinguals have to perform certain source encoding operations to successfully determine the appropriate language from context. These operations have not been examined from a long-term memory perspective, and are not incorporated into models of source monitoring. Further, language source information is not incorporated into the major models of bilingual language processing. Five experiments examined bilingualsâ?? language source monitoring for low- and high-frequency words in English and Spanish. Each experiment placed different processing demands on participants. In Experiment 1, participants studied a mixed-language word list, then were subsequently tested for language …

The Impact Of Accented English On Speech Comprehension, Benigno Valles

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

ABSTRACT

In the context of shifting demographics in the United States and with an increasing multicultural workforce, the verbal exchange of information is vital especially between health care providers and patients. Although English is the official language in the United States, many individuals from different national origins speak English with some degree of accent. Before we can address health care provider/patient communication, it is necessary to investigate the potential impact of accented English on speech comprehension and its implications on basic communicative interactions. The verbal exchange of information between health care providers and patients is important in diagnostics, treatment, patient …

The Effects Of Baby Sign Training On Child Development, Bethany Iris Urquidi

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Introduction: Baby sign has gained the attention of many researchers and parents. Relatively little is known about the use of baby sign and the impact it has on the development of children. As the use of baby sign increases in popularity, research studies have had limited and inconsistent results regarding its influence. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to measure the effects of baby sign training on the overall development of normally hearing children while improving on the limitations of current studies (between group study). Methods: Participants in the study included 22 children, ages 6 months to 2 years; …

Laboratories For Inequality: State Experimentation And Educational Access For English-Language Learners, Matthew P. O'Sullivan

Duke Law Journal

Given increased state hostility to minority-language use and states' ever-changing, though at times inadequate, methods of accommodating English-language learners, federal intervention is necessary to protect vulnerable linguistic minorities. But, fueled by the Supreme Court and Congress since the early 2000s, the federal government has increasingly accorded greater deference to state legislatures and local school districts in the area of English-language learner (ELL) education. This growing acceptance of "deference not deserved" ignores evidence of state failure in education of ELLs and irresponsible state experimentation with the rights of students with limited English proficiency. It also marks a decided departure from historical …

Children With Sli Exhibit Delays Resolving Ambiguous Reference, Julie M. Estis, Brenda L. Beverly

University Faculty and Staff Publications

Fast mapping weaknesses in children with specific language impairment (SLI) may be explained by differences in disambiguation, mapping an unknown word to an unnamed object. The impact of language ability and linguistic stimulus on disambiguation was investigated. Sixteen children with SLI (8 preschool, 8 school-age) and sixteen typically developing age-matched children selected referents given familiar and unfamiliar object pairs in three ambiguous conditions: phonologically distinct word (PD), phonologically similar word (PS), no word (NW). Preschoolers with SLI did not disambiguate, unlike typically developing age-matched participants, who consistently selected unfamiliar objects given PD. School-age children with SLI disambiguated given PD. Delays …

A Culturally Appropriate Cognitive Assessment Screening For Bhutanese Refugees, Holly Milligan

Master's Theses and Capstones

Background: As the incidence of cognitive impairment continues to rise, timely and accuratediagnoses are essential. Aim: The aim of this quality improvement project was to evaluate the standard cognitiveassessment screening for Bhutanese refugees in a medical home, and compare an alternative,validated, and potentially more culturally appropriate tool. Also, an assessment of provider,nurse and interpreter satisfaction with the two tools was performed. Method: Mixed methods including qualitative observations and quantitative satisfaction surveysrelated to the implementation of a culturally appropriate cognitive assessment tool. Results: When assessed with the standard tool, all 10 people screened positive for cognitiveimpairment. However, when using the alternative …

Youth Digital Cultural Consumption And Education, Monica Pini, Sandra I. Musanti, Teresa Cerratto Pargma

Bilingual and Literacy Studies Faculty Publications

Media and technological devices function as socializing agents during children’s leisure and entertainment time. Drawing from the theory of cultural consumption, a socio educational approach to students’ digital practices, and media literacy, this qualitative study seeks to explore and describe students’ cultural consumption profile. The authors explore the representations and meanings of digital practices of public school students of a predominately working class neighborhood situated in the periphery of Buenos Aires, Argentina. Findings highlight different aspects of youth cultural consumption profile. Two themes were identified: a) children use computers for a multiplicity of different activities enacting multitasking practices; and b) …

Classroom Labels That Young Children Can Use: Enhancing Biliteracy Development In A Dual Language Classroom, Irasema Salinas-González, Iliana Alanis, María G. Arreguín-Anderson

Human Development and School Services Faculty Publications

This article focuses on biliteracy development of English and Spanish through the practical strategy of systematically labeling the classroom within the context of daily classroom activities and providing children with various opportunities to use the words throughout the day. Using the foundational work related to classroom labels from Pinnell and Fountas (1998, 2010), the authors adopt a definition indicating that a label consists of one or a few words on a card placed on or below an object or a spot in the classroom. Providing young dual language learners opportunities to use language in both the spoken and written form …

Participation Of Beneficiaries In Community Health Care Program: The Case Of Tanghpre Parish, Kachin State, Myanmar, Peter Mahka Myo Aung, Josefina T. Dizon, Maria Ana T. Quimbo, Angelina R. Bustos

Journal of Public Affairs and Development

This study determined the perception on the participation level of village people as beneficiaries of a community health care project, which served as a development strategy in four villages of Tangphre Parish in Kachin State, Myanmar. A total of 62 beneficiaries including one project staff served as respondents of the study. Data were collected through a combination of individual survey and key informant interviews. Results of the survey were analyzed using descriptive statistics.

Results showed that the perceived level of participation was moderate in all phases. Project activities such as health prevention trainings; support for basic needs; and provision of …

Neural Network Fault Diagnosis Of A Trolling Motor Based On Feature Reduction Techniques For An Unmanned Surface Vehicle, Wathiq Abed, Sanjay Sharma, Robert Sutton

School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics

This article presents a novel approach to the diagnosis of unbalanced faults in a trolling motor under stationary operating conditions. The trolling motor being typically of that used as the propulsion system for an unmanned surface vehicle, the diagnosis approach is based on the use of discrete wavelet transforms as a feature extraction tool and a time-delayed neural network for fault classification. The time-delayed neural network classifies between healthy and faulty conditions of the trolling motor by analysing the stator current and vibration. To overcome feature redundancy, which affects diagnosis accuracy, several feature reduction methods have been tested, and the …

A Methodological Investigation Of The Intermodal Preferential Looking Paradigm: Methods Of Analyses, Picture Selection And Data Rejection Criteria, Luche C Delle, Samantha Durrant, Silvana Poltrock, Caroline Floccia

School of Psychology

No abstract provided.

Creating The Cognitive Form Of Phonological Units: The Speech Sound Correspondence Problem In Infancy Could Be Solved By Mirrored Vocal Interactions Rather Than By Imitation, Piers Messum, Ian S. Howard

School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics

No abstract provided.

Learning To Teach English Learners: Instructional Coaching And Developing Novice High School Teacher Capacity, Felice Atesoglu Russell

Faculty Articles

The number of English learners (ELs) in our schools continues to increase, and at the same time, the academic achievement of ELs consistently lags behind the achievement of native-English-speaking peers (Goldenberg & Coleman, 2010). These second language learners bring with them a set of special needs for teaching and learning, especially for mainstream content area teachers, who often have little or no specialized training for meeting these needs (Bunch, 2010). Although there is not yet extensive empirical work focused on how mainstream content teachers at the secondary level typically teach ELs or how they learn to more effectively teach these …

A Comparative Assessment Of Electrophysiological And Behavioral Performance In Individuals With Aphasia Responding To Spoken And Written Sentence Length Commands, Sha-Renae Alexander

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The aim of this study is to investigate whether deficits in processing affect auditory and reading comprehension in the same manner. This study compared the behavioral and electrophysiologic performance of four individuals with aphasia and four participants with no brain damage responding to spoken and written sentence length commands using a modified version of the Revised Token Test (McNeil & Prescott, 1978). Electrophysiological responses were recorded from the scalp using event related potentials (ERP). The latency and amplitude of the N400 ERP component were measured and analyzed. Behavioral reaction times and correct responses were collected and examined. Performance differences between …

Acculturation, Psychological Distress, And Smoking In Latinos Living With Hiv/Aids, Jessica Armendariz

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

In the United States smoking cigarettes is the leading cause of preventable death, and smoking is of particular health concern among people living with HIV. Depression has been consistently linked to smoking in the literature, and data indicate that acculturation to the U.S. is associated with increased depression among Latinos.

This study examined if acculturation moderates the impact of depression on smoking behavior among Latinos living with HIV through the mediating effect of social support. The results may extend to the sociopsychological construct of culture. We studied 300 Latinos who live with HIV on the U.S./Mexico border.

Results demonstrated there …

Challenges In Assessing College Students' Conception Of Duality: The Case Of Infinity, Grace Olutayo Babarinsa-Ochiedike

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Interpreting students' views of infinity posits a challenge for researchers due to the dynamic nature of the conception. There is diversity and variation among students' process-object perceptions. The fluctuations between studentsâ?? views however reveal an undeveloped duality conception. This study examined college students' conception of duality in understanding and representing infinity with the intent to design strategies that could guide researchers in categorizing students' views of infinity into different levels.

Data for the study were collected from N=238 college students enrolled in Calculus sequence courses (Pre-Calculus, Calculus I through Calculus III) at one of the southwestern universities in the U.S. …

At The Intersection Of Deferred Action For Childhood Arrivals, The Migration Trust Network And Labor, Mario Javier Chavez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This study unpacks the intersection of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, the Migration Trust Network and Labor. I use 9 in-depth qualitative interviews to address how such policies are affecting the labor acquisition and labor outcomes of DACA recipients. The Migrant trust network remained important for DACA recipients, although in a more indirect and macro-level way than described in Flores-Yeffal (2013). In particular, DACA recipients relied on the collective efficacy embedded within the community to facilitate their job search. Additional, migrant trust networks function differently according to the DACA recipients' level of education, but to fully benefit from the advantages …

Parental Perception On The Impact Of Continued Use Of Baby Sign On Stress And Parent-Child Interaction: Follow-Up Survey One Year Post Hoc Of A Baby Sign Workshop, Brenda G. Compean

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Introduction: Past research has indicated that teaching baby sign language to infants can be stressful for parents. Thus, a previous study to test this assertion was conducted. A baby sign workshop was conducted and consisted of teaching the parents approximately 200 signs and information on implementation. Results indicated that parents did not report stress as a result of using baby sign with their children. The current case study administered a modified version of the baby sign workshop survey one year post hoc. Purpose: To observe continued use of baby sign, as well as parental perception of the impact of baby …

La Lutte Pour L'Azawad: Mnla Public Relations Responses To Conflict In Northern Mali, 2011-2014, Sean Neil Curtis

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This Thesis examines the Internet public relations content of Mali's Tuareg rebel group, the Mouvement National de la Liberation de L'Azawad (MNLA). Content analysis grounded in speech act securitization theory is applied to the 259 posts on the MNLA's primary French language website in order to determine if MNLA website posts correlate with the events occurring in the northern Mali conflict. The data reveals that various characteristics of MNLA statements do correlate with events in the conflict. What the MNLA says provides important insight into the organization and the conflict itself. The identified correlations allow for MNLA rhetoric and activity …

#Blacklivesmatter: The Investigation Of Twitter As A Site Of Agency In Social Movements, Joseph Lawrence Flores

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

As an extension of mediated communication practices, social media sites have continued to increase the complexities of understanding how they not only affect the real world, but how they continue to effect communication practices in general. Due to the fact that social media sites exist as a mass mediated platform with high amounts of interpersonal communication elements, social media has become an important object of research when understanding how they can provide voice and agency to those who exist outside of traditional media power structures. By observing events in Ferguson, Missouri and Baltimore, Maryland involving police and unarmed civilians, activists, …

Dual Language K-2 Latina Teachers: Juxtaposing Linguistic Identities And Pedagogical Practices On The U.S.-Mexico Frontera, Brenda Oriana Fuentes

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This ethnographic study explored the linguistic identities and pedagogical practices of Latina bilingual-certified K-2 teachers in a dual language (DL) program in the U.S.-Mexico border area. Drawing on sociocultural theory, methods of data collection and analysis focused on linking DL Latina teachers' identity formation with both their conceptions of teaching and their actual pedagogical practices related to language use. The findings from this study painted a portrait of how DL teachersâ?? languages, literacies, and identities intertwined to shape their pedagogical practice. The linguistic backgrounds of DL teachers on the border were shaped by country of origin and languages, schooling experiences, …

Physical Engagement As A Way To Increase Emotional Rapport In Interactions With Embodied Conversational Agents, Ivan Gris Sepulveda

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

One of the major goals in research on embodied conversational agents (ECAs) is to increase the believability and perceived trustworthiness of agents. To improve the efficacy of the interaction between humans and ECAs, I focus on the development of rapport, which is a complex and extensive behavioral state of affinity, synchronicity, coordination and mutual understanding that is difficult to model, measure and interpret. I present our AGENT Framework and our ECA, Adriana, which is capable of speech recognition and gesture recognition over long periods of time. Our current system provides up to 60 minutes of human-ECA interaction in a jungle-survival …

High School Mathematics Teachers' Connective Knowledge Of The Challenges And Possibilities In Implementing The Flipped Learning Model: An Embedded Mixed-Methods Study, Karla Huereca

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The impact of technology advancements in our current society continues to transform the ways in which we interact with each other, and the educational field has not been exempt from this transformation. Integration of technology in schools has influenced educators to seek new ways of teaching that adapt to the needs of students who are impacted by a digital wave. That is the case of a new instructional approach, which is being known as the Flipped Learning Model (FLM). The FLM intends to use pre-recorded video lessons to teach outside the classroom and incorporate homework and problem solving inside the …

Memory, State Violence, And Revolution: Mexico's Dirty War In Ciudad Juárez, Vanessa Claire Johnson

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

After the uprising that took place in Madera, Chihuahua on September 23, 1965, the first armed challenge to the state since the Mexican Revolution, the north became a region of historical significance for understanding the subsequent "Dirty War" that spanned from the late 1960s to the early 1980s. Ciudad Juárez was a key locale in which a wide variety of revolutionary groups conducted both open and clandestine activities. Attempting to rouse the masses, a dedicated few organized protests, counter-meetings, popular assemblies, and launched a prepa popular to reorganize and democratize education. The Mexican state responded to these events with repression, …

The Window To The Bilingual Mind: Eye Movements Reveal Psycholinguistic Grain Unit Sizes Of Bilingual Spoken Word Recognition, Yu-Cheng Lin

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Although there are common phonological units across different languages, previous studies have shown that individual differences of language proficiency affect sound unit preferences in monolingual and bilingual speakers. The cross-language lexical activation of phonological representations in bilingual minds can provide a great opportunity for testing hypotheses about how this key factor modulates the cross-linguistic phonological transfer across languages. In this study, I used the eye-tracking technique and quantitative methods (i.e., growth curve analysis and multilevel regression) to examine how individual differences in language proficiency affect cross-language phonological unit size transfer in Chinese-English bilinguals. Participants heard a spoken word and were …

The Contribution Of Mild Traumatic Brain Injury/Concussion To The Development Of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Symptoms, Kylie Lauren Marshall

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

A controversial issue is whether TBI is a necessary precursor to the development of PTSD symptoms, or if the two variables are mutually exclusive. Recent rodent-models reveal that a stressful environment cannot cause PTSD symptoms directly without TBI, yet it is unknown if PTSD symptoms can develop following a TBI. This study provides a potential analogue to study this relationship by evaluating the effects of sports-related concussion. Purpose: This study investigated two questions, 1) Is there a significant difference in the frequency of PTSD symptoms reported by athletes at baseline (BL) testing and post-concussion (PC) testing over time? 2) Is …

The Moderating Effect Of Resilience Factors On Bully Victimization And Subsequent Psychological Adjustment Problems Among Adolescent Girls, Alexandra Hayley Quinn

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

Bully victimization is linked to poor psychological adjustment, low self-esteem, and social withdrawal in children and teens. However, little research to date has examined the unique experiences of adolescent girls, the specific contributions of various subtypes of bullying, and the utilization of comprehensive instruments to examine the constructs of psychological adjustment and bully victimization. Further, researchers studying these issues have called for more studies to examine buffering factors that may protect teen girls from the psychological insults associated with peer victimization. This study advances research in the field by utilizing standardized self-report measures to examine the relationship between bully victimization …

The Experience Of Sibling Death In Childhood: A Qualitative Analysis Of Memoirs, Katrin Neubacher

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

This qualitative study explored the experience of the death of a sibling in childhood. Seven memoirs written by individuals who lost a sibling in childhood were analyzed using Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis. Themes focused on the child’s lived experience of sibling loss, parental and familial function, and factors identified as supporting the child’s grieving and functioning. Where relevant, an in-depth review of the existing literature of relevant psychological research and theories supported and expanded on the themes identified in the narratives. As the purpose of this research was to inform a model for understanding the life and grief of a bereaved …

The Effects Of Baby Sign On Child Development, Joanna Scott

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Introduction: Although the popular media supports the use of baby sign for enhanced developmental outcomes of children, empirical research verifying the actual effects of baby sign on the areas of communicative, cognitive, social, and physical development, is limited. Advocates of baby sign suggest pre-lingual symbolic communication may result in accelerated development whereas critics claim definitive conclusions cannot be drawn because of flawed methodology in the research. Purpose: The purpose of the present study was to explore whether baby sign has an impact on the developmental growth of children. Methods: Using a between groups research design, assessment data were obtained from …

A Comparison Of Maze Frequency And Type Across Language And Speaker: A Look At English And Spanish Narrative Retells, Melissa Silver

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Background: Mazes, as they are referred to in the language literature, are disfluencies that do not add meaning to an utterance including filled pauses, whole word revisions, part word revisions, part word repetitions and whole word repetitions. Extensive research has been conducted on mazes in monolingual and bilingual children, yet the research has not been extended to adults' narrative retell production.

Aims: The current study analyzes monolingual English, monolingual Spanish, and bilingual English and Spanish narrative retells to compare the percent of maze use and type of maze use amongst groups.

Methods & Procedures: The narrative retells of thirty-nine bilingual …