Digital Commons Network^™

The Interplay Between Language And Culture In J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle-Earth, Mackenzie Wangberg

Masters Theses

The construction of detailed languages was a lifelong passion of J.R.R. Tolkien. While creating the world of Middle-earth, he assigned different languages to the various cultures which inhabit this fantasy landscape. He carefully matched languages and cultures to try to elicit particular responses from his audience. It is well known that J.R.R. Tolkien wanted certain languages of Middle-earth to sound beautiful and others to sound ugly. Research so far, however, has not answered why the specific phonemes, or sounds, which Tolkien chose for these languages might cause the specific reactions he intended. I have used Tolkien’s influences to explain why …

Qosqo: A Documentary Approach To The Preservation Of Andean Culture, Emma Wheeler Volz

Student Works

This thesis and creative project aspire to follow the well-worn path of documentary filmmaking. The written portion of this thesis includes background information on Incan history and the Southern Andean language of Quechua that informed and developed into my film, Qosqo. The short documentary is a hybrid between traditional and experimental non-fiction filmmaking, exploring Cusco, Peru’s spirituality through the sage perspective of a native Cusqueñan woman, Norma Sanchez de Incaroca.

The film is a personal reflection of Norma’s experience with the Quechua language, a historically marginalized and currently endangered language. Her reflections are framed within the context of Cusco’s …

‘The Ultimate Share Of Babel’: Silence In Mohammed Abdalbari’S (1985) Crescents, Hussain Laghabi

Comparative Literature M.A. Essays

The essay analyses the value of silence from a Sufi perspective as well as the absence of the "homeland" incarnated by the fall or retreat of cultural and historical landmarks such as Babylon, Andalusia, and Pharaonic Egypt in the poetry of the Sudanese poet Muḥammad ‘Abdālbārī’s (b. 1985). That exploration of silence and absence entails a poetic transformation (the creation of a new world) which calls for clarification. In order to do so, the present paper elaborates a comparison of ‘Abdālbārī with some key elements of Martin Heidegger's poetics, as well as other elements of the literary and conceptual background …

Validating A Predictive Early Kindergarten Dynamic Assessment Of Word Level Reading And Language, Taylor Jordan Cena

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine the preliminary psychometrics to revisions to the decoding subtest of the Predictive Early Assessment of Reading and Language (PEARL) dynamic assessment and to further examine the predictive validity of the language subtest of the PEARL. Specific aims were to (a) determine if kindergarten students made gains on the PEARL decoding subtest from pretest to a delayed standard posttest and to a delayed novel posttest, indicating that floor effects were mitigated, (b) to examine if there was variance in the delayed standard posttest and novel posttest scores, (c) to determine if there was …

Words Matter: The 7th Edition Apa Publication Manual And Bias-Free Language Use In Counselor Education, Gregory S. Phipps, Sarah N. Baquet, Jehan Hill, Juan Pantoja-Patiño, Yoon Suh Moh, Kalesha Jenkins

Journal of Counselor Preparation and Supervision

The use of culturally sensitive, bias-free language is a key aspect of research and practice for counselor educators. This article discusses the recent changes to the 7th Edition of the American Psychological Association Publication Manual regarding bias-free language and its impact on counselor education and supervision. In addition, we provide several case study scenarios to assist counselor educators in their work with specific student groups impacted by the 7th edition changes.

Investigating English-Language Dialect-Adjusted Models, Samiha Datta

Computer Science Senior Theses

This thesis describes several approaches to better understand how large language models interpret different dialects of the English language. Our goal is to consider multiple contexts of textual data and to analyze how English-language dialects are realized in them, as well as how a variety of machine learning techniques handle these differences. We focus on two genres of text data: news and social media. In the news context, we establish a dataset covering news articles from five countries and four US states and consider language modeling analysis, topic and sentiment distributions, and manual analysis before performing nine experiments and evaluating …

Reading Recovery Teacher Understandings About Language And Early Literacy Acquisition, Kelly L. Mcdermott

Educational Studies Dissertations

This study investigated Reading Recovery teacher understandings about language and early literacy acquisition by applying a constructivist grounded theory design. Participants were Reading Recovery teachers working across three varied districts in Massachusetts (N=33). The purpose of the study was to engage Reading Recovery teachers in surveys, focus groups, interviews, and observations to understand the degree to which Reading Recovery teacher participants value varied student language patterns. Addressing biases faced upon school entry by children who speak differently than their teachers is essential. When students are identified for early literacy intervention, an asset-based frame is critical to ensure accelerated growth. The …

Pragmatic Elements In Efl Learners’ Request E-Mails To Teachers: A Study Of Learners’ Communicative Success, Hamzah Ahmad A. Kuriri

Language, Literacy, and Sociocultural Studies ETDs

Language is a tool for communication. People use it when they converse with each other. One way to comprehend what is being said is based on understating the intended meanings of the conversation, or what is called the underlined meanings (pragmatics). Pragmatic studies how different meanings are conveyed, depending on the utterances provided. A case study to investigate the phenomenon of pragmatics is selected as the methodology to specifically examine English as a foreign language (EFL) instructors’ perceptions of EFL students’ e-mails sent to their instructors. Qualitative methods are used to examine data for a period of almost three months …

Other Oceans, Other Skies, Sharlene Lee

MFA in Visual Art

I create immersive installations, performances, and time-based media artworks that delve into stories of belonging, feminism, and language as power. These stories offer a potential for transformation from viewer to participant and a shift in how our world is seen and experienced. Through an exploration of perception and affect, I challenge dominant narratives, prompting a contemplation of contemporary power struggles for control.

In this text, I examine the impact of historical borders and migration on my life while also investigating questions of home, shared values, and rituals that contribute to one’s sense of belonging. I also highlight my commitment to …

My Kinship With The Trees, C. Daniela Shapiro

MFA in Illustration & Visual Culture

This paper explores facets of patriarchy affecting women and the natural world. The paper suggests a cultivation of allyship and relationality between women and nature due to a shared experience of objectification within patriarchy. The separation of women from nature through origin stories, science, religion, language, and advertisement will be discussed. Examples from the graphic memoir Running without Moving are employed to emphasize this philosophy, including first person accounts.

Bruce Maddy-Weitzman, Amazigh Politics In The Wake Of The Arab Spring, Paul A. Silverstein

Journal of Amazigh Studies

N/A

Perspectives On Non-Prescription Antibiotic Use Among Hispanic Patients In The Houston Metroplex, Lindsey Laytner, Patricia Chen, Susan Nash, Michael K Paasche-Orlow, Richard Street, Roger Zoorob, Barbara Trautner, Larissa Grigoryan

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

BACKGROUND: Non-prescription antibiotic use includes taking an antibiotic without medical guidance (e.g., leftovers, from friends/relatives, or purchased without a prescription). Non-prescription use contributes to antimicrobial resistance, adverse drug reactions, interactions, superinfection, and microbiome imbalance. Qualitative studies exploring perspectives regarding non-prescription use among Hispanic patients are lacking. We used the Kilbourne Framework for Advancing Health Disparities Research to identify factors influencing patients' non-prescription use and organize our findings.

METHODS: Our study includes Hispanic primary care clinic patients with different types of health insurance coverage in the Houston metroplex who endorsed non-prescription use in a previous survey. Semistructured interviews explored the factors …

Tied Together, Eiko Nishida

Theses and Dissertations

The paper is about a site-specific installation that questions a viewer’s norms and perspectives, through the use of multilingual newspapers as a sculptural material.

Negotiating Arabic: Diglossic Language And Intercultural Proficiency In American Education, Natalie C. Parsons

International Studies Honors Projects

Diglossia refers to the coexistence of High (H) and Low (L) varieties within a language (Ferguson 1959). Arabic, a diglossic language, struggles with this division. Native speakers of Arabic communicate via their dialects (L). Teaching Arabic as a Foreign Language (TAFL) in the US focuses on Modern Standard Arabic (H), neglecting the dialects. US government investment in Arabic as a critical language since 9/11 has continued to prioritize the instruction and professionalization of the H variety, suppressing intercultural proficiency. Arabic Language curricula in the US must evolve to teach meta-linguistic awareness between the H and L forms of Arabic.

The Conceptual Compression Of Space And Time As Intimated In The Depiction Of The Horse In China, Circa 1250 Bce-Ce 400., Robert Jones

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examines the horse in ancient China, from before its domestication in the 13th century BCE to the fourth century CE. The revolutionary utilization of the mounted horse influenced contemporary concepts of time and space. The topics include the history of equid domestication in Eurasia, horse-drawn vehicles and riding, the introduction of the horse-drawn chariot from Shang China to its decline in Eastern Zhou; the rise of cavalry in China in the fourth century BCE; and the administrative, martial, symbolic and religious roles given the horse up to the Han dynasty; the early Chinese world view as dictated by …

Of Word And Stone: The History Of Medieval Spain Through The Lens Of Architecture And Language, Samantha Hernandez

Architecture Undergraduate Honors Theses

Medieval Spain is a unique summation of religious and cultural communities. Through the built forms of Al-Andalus, there is unique preservation of societal imprints that parallel the formation of the Castilian language. These two mediums—architecture and language—are a telling of the culture and history of the region. By first observing the historical formation of Spanish, and in turn the various communities which inhabited the Iberian Peninsula, one may find many correlations with architecture created at the same time. After understanding the historical making of the Spanish language, it is important to analyze the language itself and how it differs from …

Even Lawyers Do Not Like Legalese, Eric H. Martinez, Francis Mollica, Edward Gibson

Faculty Scholarship

Significance

¿Cómo Se Dice...? The Spanish Use Of Hispanic College Students, Christopher Castaneda

Honors Theses

The Spanish language is very prominent in the United States. Millions of Spanishspeakers live there, and the use of the language in their day to day lives has augmented the presence of it in an otherwise Anglophone country. However, there are certain factors that may influence how often Spanish speakers actually use their language in this country. This study sought to analyze two: the existing anti-Hispanic attitudes in the United States and the parental/caretaker level of education of Spanish-speaking people. This study aimed to conduct an analysis of college-aged Hispanic students in order to conclude the extent to which those …

Right Neural Substrates Of Language And Music Processing Left Out: Activation Likelihood Estimation (Ale) And Meta-Analytic Connectivity Modelling (Macm), Lauren C. Keith

Master's Theses and Capstones

Introduction: Language and music processing have been investigated in neuro-based research for over a century. However, consensus of independent and shared neural substrates among the domains remains elusive due to varying neuroimaging methodologies. Identifying functional connectivity in language and music processing via neuroimaging meta-analytic methods provides neuroscientific knowledge of higher cognitive domains and normative models may guide treatment development in communication disorders based on principles of neural plasticity.

Methods: Using BrainMap software and tools, the present coordinate-based meta-analysis analyzed 65 fMRI studies investigating language and music processing in healthy adult subjects. We conducted activation likelihood estimates (ALE) in language processing, …

Systemic Theoretical Instruction: Tense And Aspect In Italian A Sociocultural Study Of American Learners Of Italian, Charles Joseph Panarella, Jr.

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

University-level language and second-language classrooms typically use general rules of thumb to teach grammar without considering its conceptual aspects and cultural origins. These general rules of thumb are normally taught using a communicative approach to language teaching which typically places little emphasis on immediate corrective feedback and learner development. Most assessments are static in nature and focus on right and wrong answers rather than their origins (i.e., learner development and microgenesis). The lack of corrective feedback and lack of considering affective factors have the potential to negatively influence language acquisition in terms of motivation and self-efficacy. In addition, foreign language …

Influence Of Jesuit Linguistic Manipulation On Guaraní Gender Norms In Colonial Paraguay, Anna Rumpz

History Undergraduate Honors Theses

Language was just one of the ways that colonizers and natives had to interact in unfamiliar ways post-Columbus. Histories of colonization often emphasize the physically brutal aspects, such as disease, slavery, or warfare, but colonization is a holistically violent process that adversely impacts societies on multiple levels. In particular, this thesis focuses on the link between culture and language, with respect to Jesuit Spanish-Guaraní lexicons, as a framework to understand changes to gender roles and sexuality within the Jesuit missions of the early seventeenth century.

Critical Role Of The Ventral Temporal Lobe In Naming, Kathryn M Snyder, Kiefer J Forseth, Cristian Donos, Patrick S Rollo, Simon Fischer-Baum, Joshua Breier, Nitin Tandon

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

OBJECTIVE: Lexical retrieval deficits are characteristic of a variety of different neurological disorders. However, the exact substrates responsible for this are not known. We studied a large cohort of patients undergoing surgery in the dominant temporal lobe for medically intractable epilepsy (n = 95) to localize brain regions that were associated with anomia.

METHODS: We performed a multivariate voxel-based lesion-symptom mapping analysis to correlate surgical lesions within the temporal lobe with changes in naming ability. Additionally, we used a surface-based mixed-effects multilevel analysis to estimate group-level broadband gamma activity during naming across a subset of patients with electrocorticographic recordings and …

Benefits Of Using The Montessori Method To Teach Literacy To Tk-2, Taylor Holter

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

The focus of this senior capstone is to examine the benefits of using the Montessori method to teach literacy to TK-2 grade children. This encompasses children ranging from ages four to eight. Through the use of literature review on how the Montessori method developed, reviews of records, and interviews with Montessori professionals, the result findings indicate that the use of the Montessori method to teach literacy does indeed benefit TK-2 children. In addition, children educated in the Montessori method have a deeper understanding of literacy and possess the knowledge and skills of reading and writing when introducing the concepts of …

From “Calling” To “Just Talking": An Exploration Of Changing Relationship Terminology As A Linguistic Societal Phenomenon, Leora Wasserman

Undergraduate Honors Theses

This thesis will explore the correlation between societal and linguistic change,
specifically relating to the usage of the colloquialism “Just Talking” in 21st Century courtship vernacular. The usage of this term seems to be relatively new and does not appear in many scientific articles. In 2019, at the beginning of the research project which prompted this paper, there were no scientific articles that attempted to discuss this phenomenon. Since then, only two articles on the subject have been published. This thesis will attempt to understand why this term is being used and how it relates to the terms which have …

Development Of Tom In Autistic Youth: The Potential Impact Of Language, Jaydel Hernandez

Honors Scholar Theses

Theory of Mind (ToM) includes the ability to attribute mental states (e.g., “happy”, “confused”) to oneself and others (Wimmer & Perner, 1983). Typically developing (TD) children demonstrate high performance on ToM tasks, while children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) may encounter difficulties with ToM (Peterson et al., 2005). The role of language in ToM development is unclear, as Perner et al. (1998) claimed that school-age children’s language levels did not impact their ToM ability but did not formally assess language. However, de Villiers and Pyers (2002) reported relationships between ToM and complex syntax. The current study elaborates on the existing …

Spatiotemporally Distributed Frontotemporal Networks For Sentence Reading, Oscar Woolnough, Cristian Donos, Elliot Murphy, Patrick S Rollo, Zachary J Roccaforte, Stanislas Dehaene, Nitin Tandon

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Reading a sentence entails integrating the meanings of individual words to infer more complex, higher-order meaning. This highly rapid and complex human behavior is known to engage the inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) and middle temporal gyrus (MTG) in the language-dominant hemisphere, yet whether there are distinct contributions of these regions to sentence reading is still unclear. To probe these neural spatiotemporal dynamics, we used direct intracranial recordings to measure neural activity while reading sentences, meaning-deficient Jabberwocky sentences, and lists of words or pseudowords. We isolated two functionally and spatiotemporally distinct frontotemporal networks, each sensitive to distinct aspects of word and …

The Importance Of Implementing Literacy Strategies In A Mathematics Classroom, Lauren Tecca, Joanna Weaver, John Chen

Honors Projects

The purpose of this ACTION research study is to explore the influence of literacy on mathematical proficiency levels. The correlation will use the data to formulate some strategies for the classroom in order to increase confidence in both subject areas.

Considering The Social-Emotional Well-Being Of Multilingual Learners: A Comparative Case Study Across Program Models, Amy J. Heineke, Elizabeth M. Vera, Wenjin Guo, Joseph Kaye, Joseph Elliott

Education: School of Education Faculty Publications and Other Works

This multiple-case study probes the social-emotional well-being of elementary and middle-grade students labeled as English learners who were enrolled in different bilingual program models in the midwestern United States. Using ecological systems theory, this qualitative study probes students’ social-emotional well-being across schools and within different bilingual program models, seeking to determine the structures and practices that nurture positive facets or perpetuate negative facets of student well-being. Findings indicate that interactions with peers and adults in schools influence students’ social-emotional well-being, with program-model variations, community demographics, and societal discourse shaping these in-school experiences, relationships, and sentiments. Implications center on critical consideration …

Does Culture Impact Academic Anxiety In University Students?, Angie J. Marroquin

Honors Theses

University students may experience academic anxiety when attending an institution of higher education. For this study we recruited a diverse population of college students with different cultural backgrounds to investigate if specific groups are more impacted by these experiences. The purpose of this study is to determine whether cultural factors (cultural inclusion, country of origin, language) influence academic anxiety in college students. A survey was distributed to Eastern Kentucky University students. The results indicated that cultural inclusion had the greatest impact on academic anxiety. Country of origin and language did not influence academic anxiety according to results.

Language As A Factor In Aviation Accidents And Serious Incidents: A Handbook For Accident Investigators Ed. 3, Elizabeth Mathews, Joan Carson, Anthony Brickhouse, Enrique Valdes

Handbooks

In an increasingly multicultural and multilingual aviation industry, it is important that accident investigators understand the complex role of language in maintaining safe operations. This Handbook supports investigators to systematically identify language factors in aviation accidents and serious incidents.