Digital Commons Network^™

Artificial Intelligence And Translation: Exploring Current Applications, Limitations And Future Potential Of Language Models Through Japanese-English Translation, Loklin Elias Nord

Undergraduate Theses, Capstones, and Recitals

This thesis highlights the recent improvements and capabilities of Large Language Models (LLMs), specifically their ability to produce translations between different languages. The continued up-scaling of model sizes has led to breakthroughs in the level of their observed intelligence, allowing them to produce translations that are similar in quality to highly skilled human translators. However, to facilitate the reasoning processes that LLMs now possess, their demand for computational power and the supporting hardware and resources has increased proportionally. Considering the impacts of this technology on the environment, energy resources, and its accessibility, my research explores the possibilities of smaller, highly …

Translating Higher Education Into Vietnamese: An Applied Linguistics Approach To Language Equity And Higher Education Access, Z.W. Taylor, Alan Do, Jase Kugiya, Tuan Le

Journal of Southeast Asian American Education and Advancement

One growing population of non-native English speakers in the U.S. education system are native Vietnamese speakers, yet no studies have examined how higher education communication could be made more accessible for Vietnamese speakers. As a result, this case study reports on human and machine translational linguistics work conducted in partnership with the University of Iowa focused on simplifying and translating English enrollment management information into Vietnamese. Findings suggest that the institution increased the clarity and accessibility of enrollment management information by using second-person pronouns, shorter sentence structures, clearer diction, and explanations of institution-specific jargon. Moreover, analyses of machine and human …

Intercultural And Discrepancy Differences Between Arabic And English Language And Its Role In Language Richness (Comparison Study), Hanan Ahmed Abdu Rajhei

Journal of Arts and Social Sciences

This study aims to identify the morphological and derivational characteristics of both Arabic and English and to identify the factors contributing to the linguistic richness in either language. The research problem centers on the following main question: What role does the morphological and derivational variation between Arabic and English play in linguistic richness? This main question gives rise to the following sub-questions: What are the morphological and derivational characteristics of Arabic and English? Which morphological and derivational features distinguish Arabic from English and contribute to its greater linguistic richness? The study sought to examine the morphological and derivational characteristics of …

Language Proficiency And Moves In Turkish And English Research Abstracts, Engin Evrim Önem

Khazar Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences

The primary function of the abstract within a research article is to convince readers of the study's significance, encapsulating specific details such as its purpose, methodology, results, and discussions and/or conclusions. Notably, scholarly attention has been directed towards the rhetorical structures employed in abstracts found in scientific journals, as authors are believed to employ diverse structures to present their articles in an engaging manner that captures readers' interest. The varied rhetorical structures used in research article abstracts are often referred to as ``moves''. This study investigated the impact of language proficiency and translation on these moves. Six Ph.D. students from …

Bilingualism And Literacy Development: A Systematic Review Of English-Italian Bilingual Children, Francesca Cocilovo

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2020 - Present

This systematic review examines the cross-linguistic effects of English-Italian bilingualism on the early literacy development of children ages 4 to 10. Nine studies published between 1995 and 2021 are included following a systematic search, screening, and quality appraisal process. Evidence supports that cross-linguistic transfer effects influenced grammar, metalinguistic, reading fluency, comprehension, spelling, vocabulary, writing, and memory skills across English and Italian. English-Italian bilingualism generally results in neutral or positive literacy outcomes. However, case-by-case variations appear depending on orthographic depth, bilingual presentation, language exposure, and reading status. Children with reading difficulties are particularly sensitive to orthographic differences during second-language acquisition. Although …

Words And Phrases That Matter: A Corpus Analysis Of Vocabulary And Phraseological Coverage In Myanmar's High School English Textbooks, Kaung Hla Zan

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

"Myanmar’s high school education relies on centralized EFL textbooks as the primary source of English input for a significant population of Myanmar youth. Following curriculum reforms aiming for communicative competence, this study provides a corpus-based evaluation of the lexical and phraseological composition of Grades 10 to 12 (high school) textbooks. Using a multi-list approach, this study profiled the textbooks against the New General Service List (NGSL) and the Academic Vocabulary List (AVL) for vocabulary coverage. To determine the frequency and coverage of academic phrases, the textbooks were profiled against three lists of academic bundles identified by Simpson-Vlach and Ellis (2010), …

Impact Of Dual Immersion Program On The Academic Achievement Of Elementary School Students, Juliana G. Carreto

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

This study examines the impact of the dual immersion program on the academic achievement of elementary school students in reading, mathematics, and Spanish. Through literature reviews, classroom observations, and interviews with teachers and a principal, the results indicate that students in the dual immersion program do well and often outperform those in the traditional program. Besides student engagement and interest in learning, students in the dual immersion program gain problem-solving, memory, and critical thinking skills, as well as proficiency in both English and Spanish, despite their initial struggles in the 90/10 model. As a result, the dual immersion program positively …

Reading Cache Valley Rhetorics: Towards A Composition Pedagogy Of Place, Dax Gove

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

“Reading Cache Valley Rhetorics: Towards a Composition Pedagogy of Place” proposes that place—one’s immediate locale—is an essential element of ecocritical writing pedagogy. There are constant interacting rhetorical constructions of meaning within any given place across texts from the different groups who have lived there. In these local texts, the evidence of a rhetorically mediated reality is evident in the stark differences between natures and cultures—meaning is rhetorically constructed, down to the meaning of place and people. This project reads texts local to the author’s immediate locale, Cache Valley, Utah, from white LDS settler and Indigenous Shoshone rhetors in order to …

The Integration Of Spanglish Throughout Texas, Alexa Garcia, Renata Taboada, Dariela Galindo, Julianne Pena

Posters - 2026

Code switching is the combination of two or more languages spoken due to the proximity of communities (Zentella, 1997). Code switching is very common in areas with a majority Hispanic community (Devan et al., 2024). Although Spanglish is highly controversial, it is widely used through multiple parts of Texas (Stavans, 2008) Spanish in San Antonio is very different than Mexico Spanish according to Mexican-Americans (Gillespie-Duelos, 1975)

Korean Words In The Oed: Race, Gender, And The Modern English Speaker, Elaine W. Chun

Faculty Publications

This article examines representations of the Modern English Speaker of Korean (MESK) in the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), as lexicographers listened to and documented the language of this figure over the past century. I show that, until the early twenty-first century, the most salient type of MESK was the Koreanist, a white, masculine expert on and translator of Korean, the language of a racial other. By contrast, more recent Korean entries, influenced by the global spread of hallyu, have invoked the Korea Fan, a figure that potentially unsettles longstanding ideologies of language, race, and gender. I …

Eng 1002g-006 College Composition Ii, Ashley Tacke

Spring 2026

No abstract provided.

Eng 2901-002 Structure Of English, Jad Smith

Spring 2026

No abstract provided.

Eng 2901-001 Structure Of English, Jad Smith

Spring 2026

No abstract provided.

Eng 3902-001 Second Language Acquisition, Melissa Caldwell

Spring 2026

No abstract provided.

Eng 4801-001 Integrating The English Language Arts, Melissa Ames

Spring 2026

No abstract provided.

Eng 5021-600 Responding To And Evaluating Student Writing, Rachael Ryerson

Spring 2026

No abstract provided.

An Analysis Of The Impact Of Cognitive Writing Strategies On High School Writing Scores In A Suburban Tennessee District, Bethany A. Wilson

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

The 2011 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) writing assessment revealed that only 27% of eighth and 12^th graders are proficient in writing. The federal No Child Left Behind and Every Student Succeeds Acts have put pressure on schools to demonstrate proficiency on reading and math tests, leaving minimal time for instruction in other subjects, including writing. In addition to the pressure of standardized testing, teachers also find themselves underprepared to teach writing and overwhelmed by the demands of large teaching loads. While researchers have reported benefits associated with cognitive writing strategies since the 1960s, instructional demands have prevented …

"More Boldly I Shall Go:" Jacobites, Hanoverians, And The Fabrication Of Nostalgia, 1745-1766, Jacob Louis Shropshire

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This study investigates how Jacobites and Hanoverians constructed competing forms of nostalgia, identity, and political meaning in the decades after the rebellion of 1745. Although the defeat of Prince Charles Edward Stuart at Culloden ended any realistic hope of a Stuart restoration, it sparked a cultural struggle in which both supporters and opponents of the Stuarts depicted the Highlander as a symbol of heroic resistance or barbarism. A psychic struggle emerged as a result, and the Highlander became beloved by Jacobites and loathed by Hanoverians. These representations circulated through paintings, engravings, clothing, glassware, newspapers, pamphlets, and verse, which became central …

Eng 2100 - Writing 1 - Writing As Being, Jonathan Toro

Open Educational Resources

This is an Open Educational Resources (OER) syllabus for ENG 2100 - Writing 1 - Writing as Being. In this course, students will examine how their identities and communities shape their understanding of themselves and the world around them—how it affects the way they move and think in the spaces they occupy. Through the usage of personal narrative and critical writing, the students will study how language, culture, community, and socio-historical contexts influence their ways of knowing and being. Then, they will utilize these influences—the very systems that affect them in tremendous ways—to write themselves into being.  All course materials, …

How Do Emirati University Students Develop Their Academic Biliteracy? A Mixed-Method Study, Eman Kamel Rababa

Thesis/ Dissertation Defenses

Framed by Hornberger’s continua of biliteracy model, this study investigated the developmental dynamics of academic biliteracy among Emirati university students. The research employed a sequential mixed-methods design, conducted across three public universities in the UAE. In the initial qualitative phase, interview data were collected from 30 students. Informed by these findings and the extant literature, a quantitative survey was then developed and administered to a sample of 299 students from various disciplines. The qualitative data were analyzed using reflexive thematic analysis, while the quantitative data were examined using advanced statistical analyses, including structural equation modeling. Three primary themes emerged from …

A Detailed Investigation Into Word-Order In The Modification Of Pronouns, Kelli Hesseltine, Joseph C. M. Davis

Publications and Research

This study builds upon Hesseltine and Davis ([2020]. “The Communicative Function of Adjective-Noun Order in English.” WORD 66 (3): 166–193. https://doi.org/10.1080/00437956.2020.1793499), which examines word order in modification in English and proposes the Assertion of Characterization hypothesis. To communicate an assertion of an entity’s traits, speakers employ two different meanings: weaker, signaled by the order AB as in long (A) hair (B), and stronger, signaled by BA as in hair (B) long (A). The attribution of the characterization is thus made less or more assertively. This work focuses on examples where the characterized entity, the B, is a form traditionally …

How Do Emirati University Students Develop Their Academic Biliteracy? A Mixed-Method Study, Eman Kamel Rababa

Dissertations

Framed by Hornberger’s continua of biliteracy model, this study investigated the developmental dynamics of academic biliteracy among Emirati university students. The research employed a sequential mixed-methods design, conducted across three public universities in the UAE. In the initial qualitative phase, interview data were collected from 30 students. Informed by these findings and the extant literature, a quantitative survey was then developed and administered to a sample of 299 students from various disciplines. The qualitative data were analyzed using reflexive thematic analysis, while the quantitative data were examined using advanced statistical analyses, including structural equation modeling. Three primary themes emerged from …

Exploring The Experiences Of Three Saudi Mothers Returning To Saudi With Their Bilingual Children, Fatimah H. Almuthibi

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative interview study explored the experiences of three Saudi mothers who returned to Saudi Arabia with their bilingual children after living with their children in English-speaking countries for educational and academic purposes. Bronfenbrenner’s Bioecological Theory is the theory that served as the guiding framework for the study, shaping the direction of the study and informing both the analysis and discussion of the data. The purpose of the study was to gain a deeper understanding of this unique phenomenon and to address a gap in the existing literature since there are very few studies that focus on the post-return experience …

Noun Phrases In English And Albanian Languages: A Contrastive Approach, Erëza Rushiti, Arta Toçi

UBT International Conference

This paper presents a contrastive analysis of noun phrases in English and Albanian. It focuses on their syntactic structures and key distinctions. Employing a qualitative approach, the research uses descriptive and comparative methods to analyse data from grammar and syntax books in both languages. The study examines simple and complex noun phrases, particularly the use of definiteness, premodifiers, and postmodifiers. The findings reveal that while both languages share similarities in using indefinite noun phrases, they diverge in marking definiteness: English uses definite articles, whereas Albanian incorporates definiteness through morphological changes. These differences reflect broader grammatical tendencies and offer insights for …

Fostering Efl Students’ Writing Strategy Using Metacognitive Instruction, Hanan N/A Al Sultan Dr.

Journal of Arabic Sciences and Humanities

This study aims to enhance the writing strategy skills of Saudi female EFL students by integrating metacognitive instruction into essay writing tasks. With a one-group quasi-experimental design, the research included 34 participants. A pretest and post-test were conducted, followed by a questionnaire to explore participants’ experiences with the intervention. The instructional approach emphasised students’ awareness and regulation of metacognitive processes during writing – specifically planning, monitoring, and evaluating. Data were collected and analysed using a sequential mixed-methods explanatory design, beginning with quantitative analysis and followed by qualitative insights to enrich interpretation. The findings revealed a statistically significant improvement in students’ …

District Vulnerability Index For Pakistan (Dvip): Harnessing Multisectoral Data To Inform Equitable Policy And Climate Action, Population Council

Climate and Environmental Changes

Pakistan’s highly heterogeneous population faces significant development challenges, including unequal resource distribution and disparities in access to services, which create varying levels of vulnerability across communities. While existing studies have primarily examined vulnerability through climate, economic, or other disaster lenses, they often overlook underlying structural and systemic factors. This study aims to address that gap by developing an index that incorporates domains of vulnerability typically underrepresented in analyses of Pakistan.

Developing A Dynamic Bilingual Space In An Early Childhood Korean Heritage Language Classroom Through Multimodal Translanguaging Pedagogy, Kyungjin Hwang

Theses and Dissertations

Drawing on translanguaging theory and multimodal literacy, this dissertation examines how a multimodal translanguaging pedagogy can create a dynamic bilingual space in a Korean heritage language classroom in the southeastern United States. Using a teacher-research design and thematic analysis of classroom video recordings and student artifacts, the study explored ten instructional modules with Korean-American children aged five to six. It first identified the core components of the pedagogy, its framework, curriculum content, and teacher strategies, and then analyzed how children flexibly used Korean and English across modes such as speaking, writing, and drawing. Findings revealed diverse translanguaging forms and functions. …

Young Feminist Organizing In The State Of Yucatán, Mexico: A Case Study, Natalia Tenorio, Sonia Cruz, Esperanza Basurto, Anel Bobadilla, Paulina Márquez, Ricardo Regules

Adolescents and Young People

As part of the Participatory Action Research (PAR) Study on Young Feminist Organizing in Mexico and Kenya, this case study was conducted in the Yucatán, Mexico to understand the particularities of the feminist movement and organization led by young women in this state. The case study included in-depth interviews and focus groups with representatives of feminist organizations and collectives, civil society organizations, and public institutions. These were conducted in Mérida, the capital of the state of Yucatán, as described in the methodological note.

This brief summarizes the current issues that mobilize young feminists in the state of Yucatán, their forms …

Emotional Metaphors In Mandarin And English: Fear And Surprise, Jing Yang

Linguistics ETDs

This paper explores the relationship between emotion and experience from a cognitive perspective to fulfill two purposes. First, it seeks to identify the commonalities and differences in emotional metaphors across vastly different languages and the reasons behind these variations. Second, it aims to contribute to typological research in emotion studies beyond established areas such as color, time, and space using innovative approaches. Specifically, this study focuses on fear and surprise to categorize their source domains using lexical and corpus-based methods. Examples were collected from constructions and the corpus, and patterns of FEAR and SURPRISE metaphors in Mandarin were compared with …

Classics Into Comics: Transformation Of Children’S Literature Classics Into Comics And Translating Them Into Other Languages, Amal Rakan Alkhaldi Dr.

Journal of Arabic Sciences and Humanities

The study investigates how Oliver Twist, written by Charles Dickens in 1839, has been adapted into comic form and translated into other languages. It concerns the communicative problems and techniques of meaning-making in text and image. Translating nonsequential multimodal narratives is complex, requiring consideration of cultural context and image semantics to maintain coherence across text and visuals in the target language. The paper also explores how translators overcome these challenges to maintain the essence of the narrative while presenting it in different forms that will appeal to its various readers. Studying the Oliver Twist comic adaptation and translation aids translation …