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The Red-Light District Of The Heart, Octavio Quintanilla Jr. May 2003

The Red-Light District Of The Heart, Octavio Quintanilla Jr.

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

This is a creative thesis, a collection of fifty-seven poems. The poems are divided thematically into four sections. Family, identity, and human relationships are some of the themes I write about. The critical introduction outlines the history of Chicano poetry and shows how my work fits within this context.


The Hollow Spot: A Collection Of Fiction, Jose Rene Martinez May 2003

The Hollow Spot: A Collection Of Fiction, Jose Rene Martinez

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

This is a creative thesis, specifically a collection of fourteen short stories and a critical introduction. Most of these stories showcase characters caught in times of change and turmoil. The critical introduction explores the influence that three contemporary writers, J. D. Salinger, Raymond Carver, and Michael Chabon, have had on my work. The purpose of this thesis is to provide an outlet for my creative energy.


Pronunciation Difficulties In The Consonant System Experienced By Arabic Speakers When Learning English After The Age Of Puberty, Ana Marina Do Val Barros May 2003

Pronunciation Difficulties In The Consonant System Experienced By Arabic Speakers When Learning English After The Age Of Puberty, Ana Marina Do Val Barros

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The current study investigates the difficulties Arabic speakers may encounter when pronouncing English consonants. All participants are adults who have been in contact with the American culture for at least four years. The results show that the Arabic speakers in this study had difficulties to pronounce eight English consonants. The results also demonstrate that the difficulties experienced by Arabic speakers may differ depending on the country they come from. For instance, a person from Kuwait may experience different problems with English consonants when compared to a person from Egypt. This study provides insights and assists ESL teachers with the development …


Teachers' Perceptions Of Communicative Language Teaching Use In Brazil, Marina Bandeira Aleixo May 2003

Teachers' Perceptions Of Communicative Language Teaching Use In Brazil, Marina Bandeira Aleixo

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) has been extensively discussed and researched. However little appears in the literature about CLT use in EFL environments, such as Brazil. Few studies explore CLT adaptation in EFL environments, and if they do, such studies are mostly in Asian countries (Li, 1998; Burnaby & Sun, 1998). This research investigates CLT use in high schools and language institutes in Southern Brazil. The data consists of written questionnaires, class observations, and in-depth interviews with teachers. Results showed that there are two main problems with CLT use in Brazil. One relates to the various constraints that exist in each …


How Do Adult Beginning Spanish Students Perceive Their Teacher's Written Feedback On Their Compositions?, Flavia Aoni Costa May 2003

How Do Adult Beginning Spanish Students Perceive Their Teacher's Written Feedback On Their Compositions?, Flavia Aoni Costa

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Most of the literature on written feedback to date has attended to feedback techniques and the effects of such approaches on students' writing skills. Little emphasis has been placed on students' perspectives on teachers' written feedback. For this reason, the present study investigated how adult beginning students react to their teacher's written feedback on their Spanish compositions. The study used qualitative methods of data collection---questionnaires for the students, interviews with teachers and students and participant observations---in order to explore their reactions and perceptions. The findings show that the general positive reaction students had in relation to their teacher's written feedback …


Hierarchical Processing In Spoken Language Comprehension., Matthew H Davis, Ingrid Johnsrude Apr 2003

Hierarchical Processing In Spoken Language Comprehension., Matthew H Davis, Ingrid Johnsrude

Brain and Mind Institute Researchers' Publications

Understanding spoken language requires a complex series of processing stages to translate speech sounds into meaning. In this study, we use functional magnetic resonance imaging to explore the brain regions that are involved in spoken language comprehension, fractionating this system into sound-based and more abstract higher-level processes. We distorted English sentences in three acoustically different ways, applying each distortion to varying degrees to produce a range of intelligibility (quantified as the number of words that could be reported) and collected whole-brain echo-planar imaging data from 12 listeners using sparse imaging. The blood oxygenation level-dependent signal correlated with intelligibility along the …


Before Dna, John L. Sorenson, Matthew Roper Jan 2003

Before Dna, John L. Sorenson, Matthew Roper

Journal of Book of Mormon Studies

Critics of the Book of Mormon often cite genetic evidence in their attacks on the historicity of the text, saying that the lack of any Near Eastern–American Indian DNA links conclusively proves that no emigration ever occurred from the Near East to the Americas. Their simplistic approach—that the Book of Mormon purports to be a history of the entire American Indian race—is not supported by archaeological or Book of Mormon evidence. The authors pose and respond to questions about the geographical scene, the spread of Book of Mormon peoples, Latter-day Saint traditions about the scenes and peoples of the Book …


What's In A Word? Etymology!, Cynthia L. Hallen Jan 2003

What's In A Word? Etymology!, Cynthia L. Hallen

Journal of Book of Mormon Studies

Scriptural records are important in preserving the words of prophets as well as the language of our ancestors. An etymological study of the important words in scriptures can link us to the thoughts and feelings of people who lived in the past. An example is the word heart, which has meaning both as an essential body part and as a metaphor for one’s thoughts and feelings.


Secret Combinations And Flaxen Cords: Anti-Masonic Rhetoric And The Book Of Mormon, Paul Mouritsen Jan 2003

Secret Combinations And Flaxen Cords: Anti-Masonic Rhetoric And The Book Of Mormon, Paul Mouritsen

Journal of Book of Mormon Studies

Some critics of the Book of Mormon claim that Joseph Smith drew certain terminology from his nineteenth-century environment. In particular, they suggest that terms such as secret society and secret combination may reflect anti-Masonic rhetoric from the period or even that the term flaxen cord has Masonic overtones. This article traces many varied uses of secret combination in nineteenth-century writings that have nothing to do with the Masons. The appearance of these terms in the Book of Mormon does not weaken the historical claims of the Book of Mormon.


Sabbatical In Mexico, Robert Frost Jan 2003

Sabbatical In Mexico, Robert Frost

Sabbaticals

No abstract provided.


"Some Of Us Are Learning Spanish And Some Of Us Are Learning English": A Comparison Of Second Language Programs In Texas, Lore Carrera-Carrillo Jan 2003

"Some Of Us Are Learning Spanish And Some Of Us Are Learning English": A Comparison Of Second Language Programs In Texas, Lore Carrera-Carrillo

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

Dual language education programs are gaining momentum throughout the United States as exemplary means of educating both language minority and language majority students. There is considerable evidence that learning through the native language has many advantages for language minority students. Specifically, it allows them to gain important content knowledge in their native language that will make the English they encounter more comprehensible as they enhance their overall cognitive and social development. Additionally, dual language education facilitates the development of both basic and advanced literacy in two languages for language majority students; Research results demonstrate that dual language education programs can …


Reading The Personal: Toward A Theory And Practice Of Self -Narrative In Student Writing, Megan Fulwiler Jan 2003

Reading The Personal: Toward A Theory And Practice Of Self -Narrative In Student Writing, Megan Fulwiler

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation examines students' personal essays as rhetorical projects of self-representation. The debate over the role of personal writing in composition studies has created a binary opposition between a modernist transcendent notion of self and a postmodern discursive subject. As a result, the complex issues of self and representation in student work is often dismissed in favor of what is traditionally called "academic discourse." The concept of "narrative identity" provides a way to identify the strategies that student writers use to establish ethos, assert agency, and negotiate codes of belonging within multiple social communities. Chapter 1, "Situating Personal Writing," considers …


(Un)Examined Assumptions And (Un)Intended Messages: Teaching Students To Recognize Bias In Legal Analysis And Language , Lorraine Bannai, Anne Enquist Jan 2003

(Un)Examined Assumptions And (Un)Intended Messages: Teaching Students To Recognize Bias In Legal Analysis And Language , Lorraine Bannai, Anne Enquist

Seattle University Law Review

This article discusses how law school, specifically through legal writing courses, can address cultural bias and its effect on legal analysis and language. Part I addresses why the law school curriculum should aid students in recognizing expressions of bias in legal analysis and language. Part II discusses how bias typically appears in legal language, as well as how it may infect legal analysis and argument, and suggests ways of teaching students to recognize it in a legal writing course. Part III addresses challenges that may be faced in teaching the material, including suggestions for handling discussions of potentially sensitive subjects.


Beyond Words: An Empirical Study Of Context In Contract Creation, Deborah A. Schmedemann Jan 2003

Beyond Words: An Empirical Study Of Context In Contract Creation, Deborah A. Schmedemann

Faculty Scholarship

This article reports on an empirical study into how judges interpret contracts. In general, the study demonstrates that key participants do look to context for guidance on issues of contract creation. Part II summarizes the modem legal perspective on these questions, as stated in the Restatement (Second) of Contracts, as posited in the scholarly debate about relational contracts, and as exemplified in case law regarding employment contracts. Part III describes a study designed to capture the thinking on these questions of participants in an employment contract. Part IV presents the results obtained from respondents who represented the parties to the …


From Cousin Joe To The Comoros: Orthography And The Politics Of Choice In Africa And African America, Harriet Joseph Ottenheimer Jan 2003

From Cousin Joe To The Comoros: Orthography And The Politics Of Choice In Africa And African America, Harriet Joseph Ottenheimer

Ethnic Studies Review

This paper explores issues of orthographic representation in two different projects, in two different locations, and draws some general conclusions about the role of an outsider linguistic anthropologist in working with individuals and their data. One project involved helping Cousin Joe, a blues singer from New Orleans, to edit his autobiography for publication. The other project involved developing a bilingual, bidirectional, Shinzwani-English dictionary for the Comoro Islands. Each project required an awareness of-and sensitivity to-the cultural and political implications of orthographic decisions.


The Suppression Of Diversity, Adrian J. Lottie, Phyllis A. Clemens Noda Jan 2003

The Suppression Of Diversity, Adrian J. Lottie, Phyllis A. Clemens Noda

Ethnic Studies Review

Is it a systematic strategy or a mutation of millennial ferver that drives the escalating challenges to the civil rights of this nation's racial, linguistic, and national origin minorities? Increasing juridical, legislative, and popular assaults on affirmative action policies coupled with the sometimes less heralded emergence of a de facto U.S. language policy are sweeping through the states. These activities draw on a consistent repertoire of approaches from the invocation of the very language and concepts of the civil rights movement to the isolationist "buzz-words" of early twentieth century advocates of "Americanization." In an effort to legitimize their efforts this …


Effects Of Concurrent Motor, Linguistic, Or Cognitive Tasks On Speech Motor Performance, Christopher Dromey, April Benson Jan 2003

Effects Of Concurrent Motor, Linguistic, Or Cognitive Tasks On Speech Motor Performance, Christopher Dromey, April Benson

Faculty Publications

This study examined the influence of 3 different types of concurrent tasks on speech motor performance. The goal was to uncover potential differences in speech movements relating to the nature of the secondary task. Twenty young adults repeated sentences either with or without simultaneous distractor activities. These distractions included a motor task (putting together washers, nuts, and bolts), a linguistic task (generating verbs from nouns), and a cognitive task(performing mental arithmetic). Lip movement data collected during the experimental conditions revealed decreases in displacement and velocity during the motor task. The linguistic and cognitive tasks were associated with increased spatiotemporal variability …


Reticent Romans: Silence And Writing In La Vie De Saint Alexis, Le Conte Du Graal, And Le Roman De Silence, Evan J. Bibbee Jan 2003

Reticent Romans: Silence And Writing In La Vie De Saint Alexis, Le Conte Du Graal, And Le Roman De Silence, Evan J. Bibbee

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Apart from discourse and yet somehow part of it, silence is a powerfully ambiguous linguistic phenomenon that blurs the lines between presence and absence. Eluding the material aspects of oral and written language, it is only perceptible as the gaps or spaces between words. Nonetheless, it plays a role in all linguistic productions: although silence itself cannot be directly communicated, it can influence communication. In a literary text, silence may takes on many different guises, including rhythmic hesitations, rhetorical omissions, and poetic oppositions that mimic the audible gaps of spoken language. The visual, aural, and fictional interaction of all these …


When You Speak Of God, Do You Think Of God As A Man Or A Woman?: Inclusive Language And God's Concept, David Lawrence Fisher Jan 2003

When You Speak Of God, Do You Think Of God As A Man Or A Woman?: Inclusive Language And God's Concept, David Lawrence Fisher

ATS Dissertations

No abstract provided.


The Poverty Of Language In Education : A Social Class Perspective On An Unequal Institution, Julio J. Cardona Jan 2003

The Poverty Of Language In Education : A Social Class Perspective On An Unequal Institution, Julio J. Cardona

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

What is the poverty of language? In researching this topic, many researchers who study linguistics and sociolinguistics have reported that language acquisition is affected by social class. Researchers have reported that the lower and working class struggle more frequently in the attainment of Standard or "Cash" English when compared to upper or middle-class students. After reviewing several sources, I find that problems with the "poverty of language in education" include low requirements for cognitive skills in the workplace, lack of reading and writing skills attained by the working class, and the minimal funding of education in working class neighborhoods. Many …


Graphic Organizers, Activity, And The Positioning Of Language And Learners: An Ethnographic Case Study, John Allan Unger Jan 2003

Graphic Organizers, Activity, And The Positioning Of Language And Learners: An Ethnographic Case Study, John Allan Unger

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

There were two main purposes for this research and one parallel purpose. One main purpose was to investigate how learners of English in an EFL/ESL context, who were also teachers of English and/or learning to be teachers of English, perceived and responded to different types of graphic organizers and associated activities. These graphic organizers and activities were presented at a university in Northern Thailand through an advanced reading comprehension course for preservice and inservice teachers taught by the primary researcher. The second main purpose was to explore, synthesize, and apply theories of mediated activity and research methods originating from or …


Language In Las Vegas: Esl Training Programs In Las Vegas Casino Hotels, Craig Hamilton Hermann Jan 2003

Language In Las Vegas: Esl Training Programs In Las Vegas Casino Hotels, Craig Hamilton Hermann

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

The study was focused on ESL training for employees within the Casino hotel industry in Las Vegas, Nevada. The overall purpose of the study was to explore the degree to which ESL training programs were being implemented within and/or in use by the casino hotel industry in Las Vegas. While the a review of the literature had suggested that ESL efforts were being employed by the industry, little was known as to overall parameters of the efforts being undertaken with respect to the size, content, and modes of delivery. Therefore, the research questions underlying the study were as follows: (1) …


The Impact Of Full-Day And Half-Day Kindergarten On The Language Arts Achievement Scores Of First-Grade Students, Stefanie M Kujaczynski Jan 2003

The Impact Of Full-Day And Half-Day Kindergarten On The Language Arts Achievement Scores Of First-Grade Students, Stefanie M Kujaczynski

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

Full-day kindergarten programming is an increasing trend in early childhood education settings. Many school districts are beginning to offer such programs based on the needs and opinions of teachers and parents. These districts are making substantial financial commitments to this programming prompted by the belief that full-day kindergarten will produce greater academic gains for children, more specifically at-risk children; This study investigated the impact of full-day and half-day kindergarten program enrollment on the language arts achievement scores of 237 first grade children considered to be at risk for academic failure. Gender differences and program enrollment differences were the primary categories …


A Multi-Platform Application Suite For Enhancing South Asian Language Pedagogy, Tao Bai, Christopher K. Chung, Konstantin Läufer, Daisy Rockwell, George K. Thiruvathukal Jan 2003

A Multi-Platform Application Suite For Enhancing South Asian Language Pedagogy, Tao Bai, Christopher K. Chung, Konstantin Läufer, Daisy Rockwell, George K. Thiruvathukal

Computer Science: Faculty Publications and Other Works

This interdisciplinary project explores the potential for handheld/wireless (H/W) technology in the context of language education within and beyond the classroom. Specifically, we have designed and implemented a suite of multi-platform (desktop/laptop, handheld, and browser) applications to enhance the teaching of South Asian languages such as Hindi-Urdu. Such languages are very difficult to learn, let alone write, and H/W devices (with their handwriting/drawing capabilities) can play a significant role in overcoming the learning curve. The initial application suite includes a character/word tracer, a word splitter/joiner, a smart flashcard with audio, contextual augmented stories for reading comprehension, and a poetic metronome. …


A Study Of Subject Omission In The Spoken Language Of Indonesian Primary School Children Aged 6 To 12 In Jakarta, Endang Sutartinah Soemartono Jan 2003

A Study Of Subject Omission In The Spoken Language Of Indonesian Primary School Children Aged 6 To 12 In Jakarta, Endang Sutartinah Soemartono

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

This study investigates the occurrence of subject omission in spoken Indonesian spoken as a first language by primary school children in grades one to six and aged between six and twelve years in Jakarta. It also investigates the developmental stages of subject omission, and the effects of age, gender and degree of formality on the occurrence of empty or null subjects. Since the acquisition of language is ongoing during the students' primary schooling, this study also considers how null subjects in Indonesian may have an impact on learning and teaching at school. The omission of subjects occurs independent or matrix …


Continuity And Given-New Status Of Discourse Referents In Adzera Oral Narrative, David Edward Howard Dec 2002

Continuity And Given-New Status Of Discourse Referents In Adzera Oral Narrative, David Edward Howard

Linguistics & TESOL Theses - Archive

This thesis analyzes the encoding of discourse referents in oral narratives in Adzera, an SVO Austronesian language of Papua New Guinea. First, it classifies overt referents on a given-new continuum according to Prince's (1981) taxonomy of assumed familiarity, looking at the forms and positions used to introduce new entities into a discourse. Then it applies Givón's (1983, 1995) quantitative approach to measure the continuity of referents, whether overtly manifested or semantically implied as verb arguments. This study largely confirms the findings and predictions of Prince and Givón regarding the introduction of new information and the relative continuity of various forms …


Secondary Palatalization In Isthmus Mixe: A Phonetic And Phonological Account, Julia Irene Dieterman Dec 2002

Secondary Palatalization In Isthmus Mixe: A Phonetic And Phonological Account, Julia Irene Dieterman

Linguistics & TESOL Dissertations - Archive

This dissertation is a study of the process of palatalization in Isthmus Mixe, in which every consonant in the inventory has a palatalized counterpart. This type of palatalization occurring as a secondary [i]-like articulation, simultaneous to the primary articulation of the consonant (Bhat 1974, Ladefoged 1993), is defined as secondary palatalization by Keating (1993). Occurring word initially in Isthmus Mixe, the feature of secondary palatalization alone represents the grammatical third person morpheme, palatalizing the initial consonant of the noun or verb. There are also verbal suffixes that consist solely of secondary palatalization, indicating clause-type markers (Dieterman 1995, 1998), and a …


Trends. The Psychology Of Self-Preemptive Language And Action: Iraq And Weapons Of Mass Destruction, Ibpp Editor Oct 2002

Trends. The Psychology Of Self-Preemptive Language And Action: Iraq And Weapons Of Mass Destruction, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

This Trends article discusses the difficulties the Bush Administration encountered when attempting to sell the invasion of Iraq to the rest of the world. Language, action, and global perceptions are discussed.


Bilingualism: Language, Memory And Applied Issues, Jeanette Altarriba Aug 2002

Bilingualism: Language, Memory And Applied Issues, Jeanette Altarriba

Online Readings in Psychology and Culture

Bilingualism, or the knowledge of more than one language, is quite prevalent throughout the world. However, much of the cognitive literature that exists on language processing and memory retrieval has included participants who are monolingual speakers. The current chapter introduces the ways in which bilingualism has been investigated in the areas of autobiographical memory, memory recall, and communication in applied settings. The notion of code-switching or language-mixing is introduced as a strategic means through which bilingual memory may be fruitfully investigated.


An Analysis Of Tum-Taking In The Montessori Classroom To Illustrate The Classroom Discourse Practices And The Way In Which These Practices Impact The Independent Learning Experience Of Students, Kay Burke Jul 2002

An Analysis Of Tum-Taking In The Montessori Classroom To Illustrate The Classroom Discourse Practices And The Way In Which These Practices Impact The Independent Learning Experience Of Students, Kay Burke

Student Work

The purpose of this research was to investigate the ways in which Montessori classrooms promote independence in the student. The system of turn-taking between teacher and student and between students in a Montessori classroom was employed in order to ascertain the ways in which classroom discourse impacts the independent learning experiences of the students. The method of research utilized was qualitative rather than quantitative. Classroom discourse in a Montessori classroom was observed and recorded, using an audio-recorder. The students were grouped according to age, six through nine years and first through third grades. The data indicate that within the Montessori …