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Haitian Linguistic And Cultural Practices: Critical Meaning-Making Spaces For Haitian Learners, Marie L. Cerat

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation is concerned with the effects of the exclusion of Haitian linguistic and cultural practices in the education of Haitian learners. Through qualitative data collection and analysis, a set of texts and narratives in the Haitian Creole language, Rara and Vèvè practices were inventoried, reviewed and described. Moreover, a series of focus groups and ethnographic interviews were conducted with Haitian adolescents and Haitian parents with school age children living in New York. These interviews revealed that Haitians deeply value their cultural knowledge, and view them as resources for knowledge preservation and knowledge production. Textual analysis also shows that Haitians …

Narrating Power And Injustice: How Young People Make Sense About Fairness, Svetlana Jovic

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Our concrete embodiments as members of a specific class, race, and gender, as well as our historical situations play important roles in shaping our perspective of the world. The goal of this dissertation was to explore how different socioeconomic circumstances shape adolescents’ sense-making about fairness and their capacity to relate to different actors in a social situation including an instance of injustice. Additionally, the study explored the systematic shift in youth’s sense-making – their capacity to adjust one’s ways of knowing and being, depending on the perspective they assume and different others they address. I used narrative methodology to explore …

The Nature Of Introspection, Adriana Renero

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

My dissertation proposes a new model of introspection by examining those aspects of the nature of introspection that have been neglected in the contemporary literature, such as the ones determining variables or mental phenomena in accordance with specific cases of introspection. I assert that these neglected aspects are the very ones which provide a precise account of the way we are aware of our mental life and help us arrive at self-attributions. I begin by raising issues already extant in the epistemology of introspection, and not only argue against skeptical doubts about the reliability of introspection but also provide empirical …

Learning Apps For Rigor And Relevance, Richard D. Jones, Kelly A. Burlison

Faculty and Staff Publications & Presentations

No abstract provided.

Political Science And The Marcos Dictatorship, Patricio N. Abinales

Social Transformations Journal of the Global South

This essay examines the position of political science as a discipline during the Marcos dictatorship. It explores the variations in political scientists’ approach to Marcos. Some approved and justified authoritarian rule, while others tried to elevate the political events to the level of “theory.” There was hardly any critique of the dictatorship in part because political scientists’ interpretation of the world did not dovetail with realities on the ground. Studies critical of martial law came from somewhere else, spearheaded by former political detainees who dabbled in dependency theory and did field research, leaving the discipline catching up with these non-political …

Political Wishful Thinking Versus The Shape Of Things To Come: Manuel De Pedrolo’S "Mecanoscrit" And “Los Últimos Días” By Àlex And David Pastor, Pere Gallardo Torrano

Alambique. Revista académica de ciencia ficción y fantasía / Jornal acadêmico de ficção científica e fantasía

Despite almost forty years separating Manuel de Pedrolo’s novel Mecanoscrit del segon orígen (1974, trad. Typescript of the Second Origin) and the brothers Àlex and David Pastor’s film “Los últimos días” (2013, US tit. “The Last Days”), it is not difficult to find several socio-political areas of intersection which converge on a biological issue at the end of both works: the pregnancy of one of the characters at the end of each story.

Yet, such an interpretation would be rather limited as it ignores the socio-political landscape from which each work originated. Published in the aftermath of the first …

Introduction. "Typescript Of The Second Origin": Paradoxes Of Catalan Literature, Sara Martín

Alambique. Revista académica de ciencia ficción y fantasía / Jornal acadêmico de ficção científica e fantasía

No abstract provided.

Reception Of "Mecanoscrit" By Secondary School Students: A Case Study, Anna Moreno-Bedmar

Alambique. Revista académica de ciencia ficción y fantasía / Jornal acadêmico de ficção científica e fantasía

És ben sabut que Manuel de Pedrolo ha Estat dels ONU autors MÉS llegits pèls Lectors catalans joves durante dècades, sevamajoria Gràcies a su més emblemàtics llibre de ciència ficció, Mecanoscrit del segon origen (1973), que originalment no hi ha a els dirigeixen. Independentment de les Raons, l'escriptor De La regi de Segarra a Catalunya ÉS VA Fer famòs Quan EL llibre VA Ser Triat bany les Aules de Primària i la notícia ÉS VA estendre rapidament Entre a els mestres A la fi dels anys i Setanta Vuitanta. A partir d'Llavors és va Fer muden popular. Originalment és tractava …

Building Morality: A New Strategy For Creating Human-Like Moral Psychology In Artificial General Intelligence, Christopher Barr

Lawrence University Honors Projects

Humanity seems well on its way to creating artificial general intelligence, or AGI, within the next century. Such a creation poses great existential risk to humanity, as an AGI of suitable power could conceivably wipe us all out, either by accident or through actual malevolence, and this threat has lead many to search for a solution to the “Control Problem”. Current theories propose various kinds of rule-based solutions, like Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics, supposing that a rule-based system would be sufficient for creating a cooperative AGI. I argue that this is not the case; rather, what is necessary is …

Translation As A Rhetoric Of Meaning, Jose M. Davila-Montes

Writing and Language Studies Faculty Publications

From early romanticism to more recent post-structuralist and post-colonial studies, all the possibilities and impossibilities that are inherent in translation have fueled debate about authorship, intent, readership, functional equivalence, world view, the building of national literatures, power differentials, ethics, and gender issues—among many others. And, of course, about the nature of “meaning,” as the alleged sole legal tender of “all things translation.” Translation has less often been scrutinized as a form of rhetorical transaction: fundamentally, all translations are attempts, in and of themselves, to persuade their readership about some degree of correspondence with their source. However, the relationship between Translation …

Languaging At Work: The Language Socialization Of Support Staff In The Healthcare Workforce, Kristen E. Schlapp

Graduate Masters Theses

This thesis presents findings from an ethnographic study of adult English Language Learners (ELLs) who are support staff employees in a large metropolitan hospital and are taking integrated English as a Second Language (ESL) classes at their work site. This research is rooted in a theoretical framework that intersects studies on discourse (Fairclough, 1995; Gee, 2008), language socialization (Burdelski & Cook, 2012; Flowerdew, 2013; Vickers, 2007), and agency and identity development (Norton, 1997, 2006, 2010; van Lier, 2008) to discuss the experience of adult ELLs who enter an English-dominant healthcare workplace. The teacher-researcher used ethnographic methods to examine: (a) the …

Modern Languages Department Offers New Doctoral Program, Michael Newsom

University of Mississippi News

Degree will prepare graduates to work in industry or run higher education programs

Form And Function: Optional Complementizers Reduce Causal Inferences, Katy Carlson, Hannah Rohde, Joseph Tyler

Faculty Research at Morehead State University

Many factors are known to influence the inference of the discourse coherence relationship between two sentences. Here, we examine the relationship between two conjoined embedded clauses in sentences like The professor noted that the student teacher did not look confident and (that) the students were poorly behaved. In two studies, we find that the presence of that before the second embedded clause in such sentences reduces the possibility of a forward causal relationship between the clauses, i.e., the inference that the student teacher’s confidence was what affected student behavior. Three further studies tested the possibility of a backward causal relationship …

A Fuzzy Logic-Based Text Classification Method For Social Media, Keyuan Wu

Theses

Social media offer abundant information for studying people’s behaviors, emotions and opinions during the evolution of various rare events such as natural disasters. It is useful to analyze the correlation between social media and human-affected events. This study uses Hurricane Sandy 2012 related Twitter text data to conduct information extraction and text classification. Considering that the original data contains different topics, we need to find the data related to Hurricane Sandy. A fuzzy logic-based approach is introduced to solve the problem of text classification. Inputs used in the proposed fuzzy logic-based model are multiple useful features extracted from each Twitter’s …

The Study Of The Use Of Picture Descriptions In Enhancing Communication Skills Among The 8th-Grade Students—Learners Of English As A Foreign Language, Pamela I. Lavalle, Mark Briesmaster

i.e.: inquiry in education

Teachers of English as a foreign language (EFL) encourage students to take a more active role in the oral activities in the classroom through different strategies. This study examines the use of picture descriptions as a strategy to develop and enhance communication skills among the 8th-grade students attending a private English School in Chile. To that end, action research (AR) was attempted with the use of quantitative and qualitative methods to determine whether the use of picture descriptions can improve the students’ oral skills in English as a foreign language. The findings of the study suggest that the students’ communication …

In Real Time: From Theory To Practice In A Critical Race Pedagogy Classroom, Van T. Lac

i.e.: inquiry in education

This qualitative research study employs a teacher action research methodology to study how a teacher develops and implements a critical race pedagogy (CRP) curriculum. CRP pairs the liberatory practices of critical pedagogy (Friere, 1970), such a problem-posing classroom and praxis, with the maxims of critical race theory (Delgado & Stefancic, 2000). Situated in a high school teacher pipeline program, this study details how a teacher-researcher developed a curriculum focused on teaching about racial injustice and educational inequality to a group of minoritized youth interested in the teaching profession. The research outlines key levers in her classroom, such as building a …

Catalan: The Renaissance Of Europe’S “Stateless” Language: A Paradigm For The Irish Language Revival?, Aidan Collins

The ITB Journal

This paper looks at the history of the struggle to keep Catalan – the “stateless” language - alive. Throughout the period of Franco, Catalan suffered almost devastating oppression. It came close to extinction and was kept alive by language enthusiasts determined to preserve an integral part of the Catalan culture. As a result, Catalan today not only survives but flourishes, reaping the benefit of benevolent and progressive government programs. Have we, in Ireland, a lesson to learn from the success of Catalan?

Access To Academic English: The Development Of A Meta- Linguistic Curriculum, Dawn Duffin

The ITB Journal

One of the greatest barriers to the deaf student's continuing and further education is the accessing of course texts and research papers. A native ISL user will not necessarily have acquired fluency in accessing written information in English during the course of his or her previous educational experience. At university the deaf student cannot hope that more than a percentage of course materials will be translated into ISL onto video tape and so often loses insight into the chosen course normally gained through the range of reading of text required by third level study if her or she lacks skill …

Voice Activated Command And Control With Speech Recognition Over Wireless Networks, Tony Ayres, Brian Nolan

The ITB Journal

This paper presents work conducted to date on the development of a voice activated command and control framework specifically for the control of remote devices in a ubiquitous computing environment. The prototype device is a Java controlled Lego Mindstorm robot. The research considers three different scenario configurations. A recognition grammar for command and control of the robot has been created and implemented in Java, in part in the recognition engine and in part on the robot. The physical topology involves Java at each node endpoint, that is, at the handheld PC (iPaq), the PC workstation, the Linux server and onboard …

Statistical Language Models For Graphical Object Recognition, Laura Keyes, Andrew O'Sullivan, Adam Winstanley

The ITB Journal

This paper explores automatic recognition and semantic capture in vector graphics for graphical information systems. The low-level graphical content of graphical documents, such as a map or architectural drawing, are often captured manually and the encoding of the semantic content seen as an extension of this. The large quantity of new and archived graphical data available on paper makes automatic structuring of such graphical data desirable. A successful method for recognising text data uses statistical language models. This work will investigate and evaluate similar and adapted statistical models (Statistical Graphical Langauge Models, SGLM) to graphical languages based on the associations …

Editorial, Brian Nolan

The ITB Journal

I am delighted to introduce the tenth edition of the ITB Journal, the academic journal of the Institute of Technology Blanchardstown. The aim and purpose of the journal is to provide a forum whereby the members of ITB, visitors and guest contributors from other third level colleges can publish an article on their research in a multidisciplinary journal.

Towards A Linguistically Motivated Irish Sign Language Conversational Avatar, Irene Murtagh

The ITB Journal

Avatars are life-like characters that exist in a virtual world on our computer monitors. They are synthetic actors that have, in more recent times, received a significant amount of investigation and development. This is primarily due to leverage gained from advances in computing power and 3D animation technologies. Since the release of the movie “Avatar” last year, there is also a broader awareness and interest in avatars in the public domain. Ishizuka and Prendinger (2004) describe how researchers, while endeavouring to develop a creature that is believable and capable of intelligible communication, use a wide variety of terms to describe …

The Precore Slot In Icelandic: A Topological Analysis Of V2-Clause Structure Within Role And Reference Grammar, Judith Gottschalk

The ITB Journal

This paper aims to present an analysis of the precore slot [PrCS] in Icelandic within the theory of Role and Reference Grammar [RRG] (cf. Van Valin 2005). Based on the analysis of the PrCS in German by Diedrichsen (2008), an analysis of simple main declarative active voice sentences in Icelandic will be presented. The topological model of Danish sentence structure developed by Diderichsen (1945, 1964), which was adopted for Icelandic in Thráinsson (2007), will be used to analyze the layered structure of the clause [LSC] in Icelandic. It will be shown that the PrCS in V2-languages, such as Icelandic, has …

Participation In Third Level Education: Issues For Non-Native Speakers Of English, Ruth Harris, Ruth Harris Dr

The ITB Journal

In 2008, as part of a SIF (Strategic Innovation Funding) project on Widening Participation in Third Level Education, under the DRHEA (Dublin Regional Higher Education Alliance), the Institute of Technology in Blanchardstown received funding to investigate issues relating to English language literacy levels and access to and achievement at third level education. The overall aim of the project was to evaluate the issues, develop effective interventions and provide guidelines for best practice with a view to increasing the participation of diverse groups in third level education. Non-native speakers of English were identified as a primary group whose participation and success …

Editorial, Brian Nolan

The ITB Journal

I am delighted to introduce the 21st edition of the ITB Journal, the academic journal of the Institute of Technology Blanchardstown.

Using Learning Styles To Optimise Lecturer And Learner Experience And Results In An Institute Of Education, Dawn Duffin, Geraldine Gray

The ITB Journal

The past decade of social policy making and legislative change in Ireland has led to a ‘broader range of individuals’ accessing higher education (ITB, 2006, HEA 2005, Duffin forthcoming). This means that class groups contain a greater range of diversity of learning behaviours than hitherto. The process of accommodating this range of learning behaviours within curriculum development and assessment poses a challenge for lecturers and students alike. This paper suggests how understanding the relationship of learning styles to cognitive processing can provide sound research support to the use of learning styles profiling to create conditions for optimal achievement in terms …

N + N Compounds In German: An Analysis Within Role And Reference Grammar, Judith Gottschalk

The ITB Journal

The aim of this paper is to analyze German N + N compounds consisting of nominal roots [hence N + N compounds] within the theory of Role and Reference Grammar [RRG] (Van Valin and LaPolla 1997, Van Valin 2005). The basis for this analysis of German N + N compounds is the Layered Structure of the Word [LSW] as developed in Nolan (2010). The LSW is analogous to the Layered Structure of the Clause [LSC] and the Layered Structure of the Noun Phrase [LSNP] as they are used in RRG. Besides the description of German N + N compounds, this …

Construction Grammar As Applied To Core English Modality, Kelli Slimp

The ITB Journal

The current study seeks to apply Construction Grammar to the phenomenon of modality. To facilitate a thorough application and analysis, examples of both epistemic and root modal verbs of English are considered. Specifically, those verbs of English chosen for the current study are CAN/MAY and MUST/SHOULD. Motivation for these choices is provided as well as a brief look at the other types of modal verbs existent in the language. In applying Construction Grammar to modality, the research poses the following hypotheses: 1) there are varying types of modality in English; 2) these modal variations are realized uniquely and; 3) an …

The Noun Phrase In Bamunka: Towards A Complexity Analysis, Ciara Browne

The ITB Journal

A member of the the Grassfields Bantu family, the Bamunka language of Western Cameroon is spoken by approximantely 31, 000 speakers. Having begun the process of transcribing the lanaguge into written form just six years ago the principles and intricacies of its grammatical system are becoming evident. This paper will look in particular at the noun phrase in Bamunka and draw some conclusions as to the distribution of complexity found therein.

Personality Variable Of Self-Esteem And Efl Reading Comprehension, Zari Saeedi

The ITB Journal

The contribution of psychology to the process of learning, in general, and language learning, in particular, is so pervasive that there is hardly an aspect of language learning/teaching which could not be related to psychology. Among the psychological variables involved in language pedagogy, personality factors can have great significance. The aim of the present study is to determine if there is any association between the crucial personality factor of selfesteem (self-concept) (along with the sex variable) and the reading comprehension achievement of English major university students. The instruments used were Beck Self- Concept Scale (1967), the TOEFL (Test of English …