Digital Commons Network^™

Khmer Phonetics & Phonology: Theoretical Implications For Esl Instruction, Alex Donley

Senior Honors Theses

This thesis develops an approach to English teaching for Khmer-speaking students that centers on Khmer phonetics and phonology. Cambodia has a strong demand for English instruction, but consistently underperforms next to other nations in terms of proficiency. A significant reason for Cambodia’s skill gap is the lack of research into linguistic hurdles Khmer speakers face when learning English. This paper aims to bridge Khmer and English with an understanding of the speech systems that both languages use before turning to the unique challenges Khmer speakers must overcome based on the tenets of L1 Transfer Theory. It closes by outlining strategies …

Can Adolescent Girls' Safe Space Clubs Effectively Run Solar-Powered Mobile Phone Charging Stations In Rural Sierra Leone?, Nadia Assad, Sarah Blake

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

Access to electricity in rural Sierra Leone is scarce. Estimates on the proportion of households having regular access to electricity range from 1 to 5 percent. Along with mobile phones, which are now common even in settings where phone lines never reached, new energy technologies are beginning to fill in where traditional infrastructure is absent. Solar technologies hold promise for expanding access to electricity while offering sustainable alternatives to expensive, nonrenewable sources for powering lights, phones, tools, and appliances. Recognizing that there is important learning to be done in connecting adolescent girls’ clubs and solar technologies, the Population Council conducted …

Keeping Girls In Schools To Reduce Child Marriage In Rural Bangladesh—Research Brief And Baseline Highlights, Sigma Ainul, Md. Noorunnabi Talukder, Md. Irfan Hossain, Forhana Rahman Noor, Iqbal Ehsan, Sajeda Amin, Ubaidur Rob

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

Bangladesh has made considerable progress in improving access to education at all levels for the last two decades. Despite these impressive gains, Bangladesh continues to face challenges of student dropout at the secondary level. Girls drop out of school earlier than boys because of child marriage. Targeted policies and interventions designed to improve mainstream educational attainment and decrease child marriage may be the effective and sustainable way to address both issues. The Population Council implemented the project “Keeping Girls in Schools to Reduce Child Marriage in Rural Bangladesh.” An intervention research study, the project tests a life-skills and tutoring support …

Low Perceived Risk: A Challenge To Adoption Of Preventive Behaviors For Covid-19?, Population Council Institute

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

India, with 13,387 cases reported as of April 17, currently accounts for just 0.6% of the COVID-19 cases worldwide. The nationwide lockdown may have helped contain the initial COVID-19 outbreak. However, until testing rates improve, the size of the outbreak remains unclear, and the risk of spread remains. It is critical to ensure ongoing adherence to current social distancing and handwashing behaviours to protect the population from a larger outbreak. An ongoing COVID-19 knowledge, attitudes and practices study implemented by the Population Council Institute in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh sought to assess the extent to which study participants felt personally …

Migration And Covid-19: Uttar Pradesh And Bihar, Population Council Institute

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

To control the spread of COVID-19 in India and to aid the efforts of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, the Population Council and other nongovernmental organizations are conducting research to assess residents’ ability to follow sanitation and social distancing precautions under a countrywide lockdown. The Population Council COVID-19 study team is implementing rapid phone-based surveys to collect information on knowledge, attitudes, and practices, as well as needs, among 1,237 young people. As noted in this brief, Uttar Pradesh (UP) and Bihar are two of the highest out-migration states in India. Migration is mostly to metropolitan areas in Delhi, …

Where The Heart Is A Collection Of Nonfiction Essays On The Meaning Of Home In The Age Of Movement, Alyssa Raymond

Honors Program Theses and Projects

When I first decided to do this thesis project, I wanted to focus on travel, telling stories of my time living and traveling abroad. I wanted to write real accounts of my travels to show how ugly and difficult it could be sometimes, in hopes of showing a less romanticized and more realistic account of traveling. However, after I began writing I discovered another theme present. I found different meanings of home that I’ve held whilst traveling become a big part of the project. As I’ve learned traveling affects my own definition of home, I found it important to include …

Covid-19-Related Knowledge, Attitudes, And Practices Among Decisionmakers Of Indigenous Municipalities In Guatemala: Study Description, Angel Del Valle, Hannah Briggs, Benjamin Chang, Aiken Chew, Brian Medina, Gabriela Muñoz, Thoai Ngo, Elizabeth Vásquez, Corinne White, Ramón Zamora

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

Indigenous communities are often socially and economically marginalized which makes them particularly vulnerable to the impact of COVID-19. The Population Council has a longstanding partnership with indigenous communities in Guatemala through the "Abriendo Oportunidades" program. To understand the knowledge, perspectives, and needs related to the COVID-19 pandemic, we will conduct key informant interviews with indigenous community leaders and frontline workers. Phone-based surveys will be carried out with approximately 130 key informants in the municipalities of Chisec, Patzún, San Andrés Semetabaj, San Juan Ostuncalco, San Juan Sacatepéquez, San Pedro Carchá, Santa María Chiquimula, Totonicapán, Uspantán and Sololá in April 2020. These …

Evidence Around Engaging Men In Hiv Prevention And Treatment, Julie Pulerwitz, Ann Gottert, Jerry Okal, Sanyukta Mathur

HIV and AIDS

No abstract provided.

Student Perceptions Regarding The Use Of Purposive English In A Spanish As A Foreign Language Classroom, Kacey Booth

Dissertations

In modern American society, diversity is both challenged and celebrated, and inclusion is imperative. This ideology begins in the classroom. Oftentimes, this celebration of diversity, more specifically linguistic diversity, is most visible in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) classes and similar bilingual educational programs. In TESOL programs, students’ international identities are highlighted and students are often instructed using multilingual educational resources to scaffold their acquisition of English. Historically, foreign language teaching also utilized dual-language instructional methodologies. Such archaic teaching methodologies have since been replaced by more modern and immersive sociopsycholinguistic approaches such as Communicative Language Teaching. Such …

Fascist Aesthetics From 1940 To Contemporary Times, Anna M. Gellerman

Publications and Research

Movies and literature all over the world share some common aesthetics: militarization, romanticization of death, beauty of perfection, and even purity. What most don't think about is how these tropes rose to popularity due to Nazi Germany's propaganda films. This work describes these fascist aesthetics, and uses famous publications from the 1940s until now to paint just how common these themes are.

Exploring The Overlap: Women Now’S Feminist Humanitarian Support And The Community Of Practice, Judith Bruce, Aisha Dennis

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

This conversation took place between Judith Bruce, Senior Associate and Policy Analyst of the Population Council, and Aisha Dennis, former Program Director for Women Now for Development. Women Now for Development’s mission is to initiate programs led by Syrian women that protect Syrian women and children across socioeconomic backgrounds and empower women to find their political voice and participate in building a new, peaceful Syria that respects and safeguards equal rights for all its citizens. Aisha’s impressive breadth of expertise includes conflict resolution and the application of international law through strategic litigation, as well as practical experience in supporting Syrian …

The George Eliot Archive: Current Reception & Comparison Of Dh Projects 2020, Mackenzie Burch, Beverley Rilett

UCARE: Research Products

• Current legal gray area for digital collections: An exception for public libraries and archives as educational tools exists for copyright infringement, but digital archives are not currently protected by this exception unless they can prove that the content is transformative.

• Benefits of archiving scholarship together: Grouping like scholarship together regardless of genre or authorship allows for unique cross-purpose or interdisciplinary connections to be drawn from the collection.

• Humanists of today must devote time and resources to the educational tools and platforms of tomorrow: Without the successful building and completion of means to ensure digital archives can be …

Nairobi Informal Settlements: Covid-19 Knowledge, Attitudes And Practices—Preliminary Findings, Karen Austrian, Timothy Abuya

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

To control the spread of coronavirus, the Kenyan Ministry of Health COVID-19 Taskforce has implemented initial prevention and mitigation measures. Of concern are the densely overcrowded, poor urban slums where sanitation and social distancing measures are near impossible. COVID-19 would spread rapidly and be devastating under these conditions. To inform the Taskforce strategy, the Population Council COVID-19 study team utilizes rapid phone-based surveys to collection information on knowledge, attitudes and practices among ~2,000 heads of household sampled from existing prospective cohort studies across five Nairobi urban slums. Iterations of the survey will be conducted every 1-2 weeks. Baseline findings on …

Kenya: Covid-19 Knowledge, Attitudes And Practices—Preliminary Findings, Population Council

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

To control the spread of coronavirus, the Kenyan Ministry of Health COVID-19 Taskforce has implemented initial prevention and mitigation measures. Of concern are the densely overcrowded, poor urban slums where sanitation and social distancing measures are near impossible. COVID-19 would spread rapidly and be devastating under these conditions. To inform the Taskforce strategy, the Population Council COVID-19 study team utilizes rapid phone-based surveys to collection information on knowledge, attitudes and practices among ~2,000 heads of household sampled from existing prospective cohort studies across five Nairobi urban slums. Iterations of the survey will be conducted every 1-2 weeks. Baseline findings on …

Satori 2020, Shannon Laurance, Sara Severson, Hailey Seipel, Mike Desch, Annette Deyo, Nicole Tompos, Jena Archer, Megan Martin, Abbey Johnson, Carly Weber, Sara Severson, Mike Desch, Kimberly Coffee, Dahlia Garofalo

Satori Literary Magazine

The Satori is a student literary publication that expresses the artistic spirit of the students of Winona State University. Student poetry, prose, and graphic art are published in the Satori every spring since 1970.

Low Textbook Cost Syllabus For Eng 2150 (Writing Ii), Maxine Krenzel

Open Educational Resources

Welcome to English 2150, a writing and reading intensive course that will introduce you to the practice and process of conducting original research. This class will walk you through the research process step-by-step, from drafting an initial research question, to reading and analyzing archival and secondary sources, and eventually mapping out your findings in a final research portfolio. You will learn over the course of the semester that the research process begins with simply asking a question that addresses a topic or issue that impacts you in some way; it is my hope that by the end of the semester, …

Strengthening Social And Behavior Change Monitoring And Evaluation For Family Planning In Francophone West Africa, Leanne Dougherty, Martha Silva, Kathryn Spielman

Reproductive Health

Francophone West Africa has the highest fertility rates in the world and low contraceptive prevalence. In reponse, the Ouagadougou Partnership was established to encourage family planning (FP), but efforts have focused on service delivery and commodity procurement with fewer investments in demand creation through social and behavior change (SBC) approaches. A recent study found that in countries with a high desired ideal number of children, FP progress is limited without investing in efforts to increase demand. There is a growing body of evidence suggesting that SBC can directly increase contraceptive use by addressing intermediate outcomes such as attitudes, social norms, …

A Diagnostic Assessment Of The Health System’S Response To Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting Management And Prevention In Kenya, Samuel Kimani, Chantalle Okondo

Reproductive Health

Female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C) is a cultural practice associated with health consequences and rights violations. In Kenya, health sector–led FGM/C-related interventions are anchored in the legal and policy instruments and guidelines adapted from global/regional frameworks, as well as interventional tools approved by the World Health Organization. Despite the existence of the instruments, guidelines, and tools that should direct a robust health system response to FGM/C, the practice persists and quality of care of services for women and girls with FGM/C-related complications has not been ascertained. Evidence on whether the health sector implements relevant FGM/C-related legal and policy frameworks to address …

Evidence Review And Analysis Of Provider Behavior Change Opportunities, Emily Zimmerman, Vivien Caetano, Rachel Banay, Jana Smith

Reproductive Health

This paper reviews the evidence on the promise of behavioral economics to improve health outcomes through service provider interventions in five critical health areas. This analysis utilizes the limited existing evidence to suggest where and how behavioral economics interventions may be most effective and where further research may contribute most.

Strengthening Social And Behavior Change Monitoring And Evaluation For Family Planning In Francophone West Africa, Leanne Dougherty, Martha Silva, Kathryn Spielman

Reproductive Health

This report summarizes findings from a mapping of family planning investments, technical approaches and indicators, identifies indicator gaps, and makes recommendations to governments, donors, researchers and implementers to improve social and behavior change activity measurement in Francophone West Africa.

Great Starts: Karen Suarez Jimenez '20, Karen Suarez Jimenez

2020

From time to time, we like to showcase a new SNC grad who’s entered the workplace or grad school. Success stories like these are pretty common. Karen Suarez Jimenez '20 shares her story.

Translanguaging In The Multilingual Classroom Of A National-Type (Chinese) Primary School In Malaysia, Yi Ning Tracy Lee

Student Works (2020-2029)

In the multiracial and multilingual classroom of a Malaysian National-Type (Chinese) Primary School (SJKC), students as well as the teacher often make use of their wide linguistic repertoire to interact with each other more effectively. Although the Ministry of Education Malaysia has stressed that English should be used as the sole medium of instruction (EMI) and communication during English lessons in school, the use of translation and switching between languages undeniably still occur to help students make sense of what they are learning. This paper aims to explore how translanguaging is used among students during English lessons and how a …

The Translation Of Rhetorical Questions In The Holy Quran Into English, Najjar Ibrahim I.I.

Student Works (2020-2029)

The current study deals with Quranic rhetorical questions that carry specific rhetorical functions and their two English translations. The analysis is based on twenty four Quranic rhetorical questions and their two English translations: “the Koran Interpreted” by Arberry (1955/1996) and “the Noble Quran: English translation of the meanings and commentary” (1996) by al-Hilali and Khan. The study aims to (1) find out the types of grammatical shifts that have occurred in the two English translations (2) examine the effects of such shifts on the context of situation especially tenor and mode of the rhetorical questions translated into English. To achieve …

The Importance And Role Of English In Development Of The World Economy, Umida Yuldashova Senior Teacher

Philology Matters

The article gives an idea of the role and significance of the English language as a means of communication in the world economy. Demand for a foreign language in a market economy and its perceived needs, economic examples of outstanding and frequent shortcomings of specialists in the field of language proficiency and at the same time, many of the problems and indicators of language proficiency in the countries of the world are given. It is noted that the development of foreign language skills in education based on effective methods and practices. To date, a number of studies have been conducted …

Advantages Of Application Of Complex Modular Teaching Technology In The English Language Classes, Sarvinoz Abdieva Phd

Philology Matters

This article is devoted to the advantage of applying the technology of integrated modular training in English classes, since the development and modernization of higher education in modern conditions has made it the goal of comprehensive formation of professional competence for a future teacher. New priorities in education are prompting teachers to search for new modern effective teaching technologies that enable achieving higher learning and upbringing results, introducing new educational technologies in the educational process.
The best practices of the teachers of many educational institutions confirm their desire for an active search and use of pedagogical technologies in working with …

Two Implementation Models Of Workers' Health Education Programs In Egypt: What Works? What Doesn't Work?, Nahla G. Abdel-Tawab, Norhan Bader, Elizabeth Tobey, Aparna Jain

Reproductive Health

This brief presents findings from two models of workers’ health education programs implemented by the Evidence Project/Population Council in Egypt. The two interventions aimed to increase family planning (FP) service demand among young people aged 18–35 in Port Said and urban Souhag. In Port Said, male and female factory workers who were trained as peer educators shared family planning/reproductive health (FP/RH) information with fellow factory workers, distributed communication materials, and provided referrals to infirmary nurses trained in FP counseling. In Souhag, male and female peer educators were trained to provide integrated FP/RH and livelihood workshops to job seekers. Results of …

Acoustic Characteristics Of Word-Final American English Liquids Produced By L2 Adult Speakers, Judith A. Espinal

LSU Master's Theses

In this study, the acoustic differences between native English speakers’ (L1) and native-Korean speakers’ (L2) production of American English liquids /ɹ/, /l/ and /ɹl/ were examined among 14 Korean speakers and 13 English speakers. Temporal measures included (1) relative timing of maximum constriction and (2) duration of vocalic nuclei. Spectral measures included (1) Euclidean distance between /ɹ/ and /l/ and (2) frequency difference between F2 and F3. The results indicated a significant interaction between speaker group and phonetic stimuli. That is, L2 speakers produced a similar degree of constriction across semivowels, whereas L1 speakers produced varying degrees of F2-F3 constrictions …

Abriendo Futuros: A Program For Rural Indigenous Girls In Yucatan, Mexico, Fabiola Romero, Ludivine Cicolella, Silvana Larrea, A. Fallone, Isabel Vieitez Martínez

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

The Abriendo Futuros (AF) program builds on the Council’s global experience of designing and implementing successful girl-centered programs in Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and Latin America and the Caribbean. AF aims to improve the living conditions of Mayan girls (10–18 years) and contribute to the achievement of gender equity in the Yucatan. The program’s community-focused strategy seeks to empower girls through interpersonal communication and participatory workshops. Girls in selected communities are divided into age groups (10–14 and 15–18) that meet weekly with a mentor in safe spaces. The program’s mentors are young women aged 20–30 from the communities, who …

Lemay Interviews Berry Grass About ‘Hall Of Waters’, Ohio University College Of Arts & Sciences

All Forum Articles

No abstract provided.

The Community Health System In Bangladesh: An Overview, Frontline Health Project

Reproductive Health

This brief provides an overview of the community health system in Bangladesh. Bangladesh is divided into eight administrative divisions, 64 districts, and 545 subdistricts, known as upazilas. Each rural area within an upazila is divided into union parishads and mouzas, which are further divided into villages. The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has an extensive health infrastructure that is pluralistic and follows the country’s administrative pattern. Union parishads are the smallest administrative unit in rural areas. At the lowest administrative level, traditional healers, nonqualified allopathic practitioners, and community health workers (CHWs) are typically the only providers available. This brief …