Digital Commons Network^™

A Spatiotemporal Map Of Reading Aloud, Oscar Woolnough, Cristian Donos, Aidan Curtis, Patrick S Rollo, Zachary J Roccaforte, Stanislas Dehaene, Simon Fischer-Baum, Nitin Tandon

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Reading words aloud is a fundamental aspect of literacy. The rapid rate at which multiple distributed neural substrates are engaged in this process can only be probed via techniques with high spatiotemporal resolution. We probed this with direct intracranial recordings covering most of the left hemisphere in 46 humans (26 male, 20 female) as they read aloud regular, exception and pseudo-words. We used this to create a spatiotemporal map of word processing and to derive how broadband γ activity varies with multiple word attributes critical to reading speed: lexicality, word frequency, and orthographic neighborhood. We found that lexicality is encoded …

Michael’S Mouth, Peter Olshavsky

Architecture Program: Faculty Scholarly and Creative Activity

“Michael’s Mouth” examines the virtuoso performance of small mouth sounds (“um,” “ah,” etc.) in MOS’ 2006 video, Alternate Ending 1: The Glimmering Noise. In this performance, “Michael” deftly uses non-words to advance a non-discursive argument about architecture as a form of attention in the post-critical imaginary.

Sped 874: Language Arts And Literacy For Students Who Are Deaf/Hard Of Hearing, Anne E. Thomas

UNL Faculty Course Portfolios

This portfolio documents the process I used to critically analyze the structure, teaching methods, assessment, and students learning in SPED 874 Language Arts and Literacy for Children who are Dear/Hard of Hearing. This is a course that students in the Deaf Education Program at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) take while pursuing a master’s degree and/or graduate endorsement in Deaf Education. This portfolio documents how I aligned the course objectives, content, and activities to the Council for Exceptional Children - Initial Specialty Set for Teachers of the Deaf/Hard of Hearing (CEC-DHH). I share the results of one method I use …

Contributions Of Semantic And Phonological Working Memory To Narrative Language Independent Of Single Word Production: Evidence From Acute Stroke, Rachel Zahn, Tatiana T Schnur, Randi C Martin

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Neuropsychological case studies have provided evidence that individuals with semantic, but not phonological, working memory (WM) deficits have difficulty producing phrases containing several content words. These findings supported the claim of a phrasal scope of planning at the grammatical formulation stage of production, where semantic WM supports the maintenance of lexical-semantic representations as they are inserted into slots in phrasal constituents. Recent narrative production results for individuals at the acute stage of stroke supported the role for semantic WM in phrasal elaboration while suggesting a role for phonological WM at a subsequent phonological encoding stage in supporting fluent, rapid speech. …

The Relationship Between The Field-Shifting Phenomenon And Representational Coherence Of Place Cells In Ca1 And Ca3 In A Cue-Altered Environment, Jeremy Miciak, Yusra Ahmed, Phil Capin, David J Francis

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Few studies have systematically investigated the reading skill profiles of English Learners (ELs) in late elementary school, a critical developmental period for language and literacy and the most common grades for initial identification with specific learning disabilities (O’Connor et al., 2013). We investigated the reading skill profiles of 331 ELs in 3rd and 4th grades, including ELs with and without risk for dyslexia due to significant deficits in word and pseudo-word reading accuracy and fluency. We utilized latent profile analysis and factor mixture modeling to investigate: (1) the nature and distribution of reading skill profiles; (2) whether these …

Educational Language Policy: An Examination Of Race And Language In Policy Discourse, Dionne L. Davis

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Linguistic diversity is an integral thread in the tapestry of America. As such researchers how linguistic differences across ethnoracial groups can be understood as resources rather than problems. The aim of this study was to examine ideologies concerning race/ethnicity and language in the discourse of educational language policies that guide multilingual approaches to education. The design of this study was critical discourse policy analysis, and the framework was a combination of Critical Language and Race Theory, also known as LangCrit (Crump, 2014), and Raciolinguistics (Alim, 2016; Flores and Rosa, 2015). The research questions were: (1) How are ideologies about the …

Identifying Problem Frames In Design Conversation, Senthil Chandrasegaran, Peter Lloyd, Almila Akdag Salah

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Design thinking concepts such as framing, storytelling, and co-evolution, have been widely identified as part of design activity though generally have been evidenced from manual coding of design conversations and close reading of transcripts. The increase in easy-to-use computational linguistic methodologies provides an opportunity not only to validate these concepts, but compare them to other kinds of activity in large datasets. However, the process of systematically identifying such concepts in design conversation is not straightforward. In this paper we explore methods of linguistic analysis for revealing problem frames within design process transcripts. We find that frames can be identified through …

The Impact Of Background Noise On The Communicative Experience Of People With Mild To Moderate Aphasia: A Qualitative Study, Riley Robertson Hegewald

Theses and Dissertations

This study examined how retelling stories with a variety different background noise conditions affected the communicative experiences of people with aphasia (PWA). Participants included 11 adults with mild to moderate aphasia and 11 age- and gender-matched controls. Participants participated in a semi-structured interview immediately following the experimental measure where they were asked open-ended questions regarding their experience retelling stories and how those experiences related to their everyday lives. Results revealed three themes related to how participants responded to communicating in noise: (a) cognitive reactions, (b) emotional reactions, and (c) social reactions. The findings suggest that PWA exert more effort when …

Effects Of Background Noise On The Spoken Language Of Young And Older Adults During Narrative Discourse, Erin Lecheminant

Theses and Dissertations

This study examined how different background noise conditions affected the spoken language production of young (18-25) and older (60-85) adults when performing a story retell task. Participants included 10 female and 10 male young adult (YA) participants, as well as 10 female and 10 male older adult (OA) participants. Participants retold stories in a silent baseline and five background noise conditions (conversation, monologue, phone call, cocktail, pink noise). Speech fluency and language production measures (cohesive and coherent utterances, lexical-phonological errors, grammatically correct words, Moving Average Type Token Ratio (MATTR), speech rate, and disfluent words) were compared between groups and across …

Streets Of Grievance: Everyday Poetics And Postcolonial Politics In Urban Algeria, Stephanie Victoria Love

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation analyzes the intersections of language, settler-colonial and postcolonial politics, and urbanism in North Africa (Algeria). It is an urban and linguistic ethnography of Oran, Algeria’s second-largest city, based on sixteen months of ethnographic, linguistic anthropological, and archival research conducted in Arabic and French. I show how contemporary Oranis mobilize language as a key resource in contemporary urban politics, which are inextricably tied to French colonialism’s material remnants, rubble, and legacies. In contemporary Oran, the connection between the colonial past and the postcolonial present remains palpable, even sixty years after independence; however, while the postcolonial Algerian state has long …

The Language-Dream Relationship In Multilinguals, Brittany Dishaun Burkes

Dissertations

According to the United States Census Bureau, the United States alone is host to around 350 languages. When it comes to investigating languages in dreams by multilinguals, some studies have focused heavily on only two languages—Spanish and English. The purpose of this study was to add to the understanding of how language use relates to the dream content of multilinguals. This study recruited the assistance of nine polylingual individuals. The participants were instructed to record their dreams in the languages in which they occurred for 2 weeks. After 2 weeks, the participants translated their dreams into English in order for …

Half The Picture: Word Frequencies Reveal Racial Differences In Clinical Documentation, But Not Their Causes, Jacqueline A Penn, Denis Newman-Griffis

Department of Medicine Faculty Papers

Clinical notes are the best record of a provider's perceptions of their patients, but their use in studying racial bias in clinical documentation has typically been limited to manual evaluation of small datasets. We investigated the use of computational methods to scale these insights to large, heterogeneous clinical text data. We found significant differences in negative emotional tone and language implying social dominance in clinical notes between Black and White patients, but identified multiple contributing factors in addition to potential provider bias, including mis-categorization of some healthcare vocabulary as emotion-related. We further found that notes for Black patients were significantly …

Runaman Tukuy: Language Revitalization Strategies For Runasimi Heritage Learners, Allison B. Bejar

Master's Projects and Capstones

The legacies of colonization remain a pervasive force in society and actively work against Indigenous communities and their right to their languages, knowledge systems, and cultural practices. More specifically, the colonial legacy of linguicide has endangered and marginalized thousands of Indigenous languages all over the world. This field project focuses on Quechua language revitalization and aims to better understand and contribute to Indigenous language and identity scholarship. This field project is informed by a brief qualitative study through participant interviews with six Quechua heritage learners and educators. The study explores the limitations and possibilities of formal Quechua language learning, reiterates …

Like, It’S Important: The Frequency And Use Of Like In Autism Spectrum Disorder, Rebekah Jones

Masters Theses, 2020-current

Background & Aims: Discourse markers, such as well or like serve a variety of functions to support conversational reciprocity: filling pauses, aiding word-finding, holding conversational turns, and providing information about pause length. Previous research shows that individuals with ASD use discourse markers less frequently than neurotypical (NT) peers; however, the discourse marker like has been left out of that research, despite its ubiquitous use by NT individuals, and despite the fact that like serves important pragmatic functions that are not encoded by any other discourse marker. Specifically, like signals to the listener that the content of upcoming speech is 1) …

Student Attitudes Towards English Grammar, Evalyn H. Bassett

Honors Theses

The literature on English grammar is mostly on its history, standardization, educational implementations, how ideologies shape its frequency of usage, and how it is perceived by students learning English as a second language. This study seeks to address a gap in the literature that reviews the attitudes of college students towards English grammar as their first language and how these attitudes correlate with any past experience with English grammar up to this point. To gain a better understanding of student’s attitudes towards English grammar, an online mixed-methods survey was distributed to graduate and undergraduate students in all departments of the …

Formations Of The Mayan Diaspora In Guatemala And The Us: Land, Migration, And Linguistic Ideologies As The Markers Of Diasporic Separation., Daniel Antipov

Theses and Dissertations

This work examines the phenomenon of diaspora formation among the indigenous Guatemalan population as a major identity marker in the new Guatemalan immigrants in the US. This work provides: definition of diaspora, its historical frames, juxtaposition of the self and the Other, and separation and differentiation of the indigenous languages

Strong Linguistic Relativity: A Continental Sense Of Language And Being, Ava Totah, Brian Treanor

Honors Thesis

The theory of linguistic relativity can be divided into two hypotheses: the strong argument and the weak argument. The strong argument, often called linguistic determinism, posits that one’s native language determines one’s thought in an inescapable manner. The so-called “Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis” demonstrates this, though many modern linguists now believe this principle – and linguistic determinism in general – to be implausible. The weak argument for linguistic relativity states that one’s native language merely influences their worldview, such that it struggles to maintain a connection that is more than trivial. In this work, I seek a “third option” that is both …

Early Intervention Access And Use: The Impact On Outcomes, Brooklynn Schelling

Communication Sciences and Disorders: Student Scholarship & Creative Works

The purpose of this research paper was to investigate the factors that influence a person’s access to and use of early intervention (EI) services. In the literature, there are demonstrated short- and long-term benefits for populations with disorders or delays associated with EI. Speech-language pathologists are one of many professionals that may work with EI clients, and they should be especially interested in ensuring that all individuals receive necessary services. Previous research suggests that race, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status impact access to EI. This study examines possible methods of increasing access to EI for populations that are less likely to …

Is Health Literacy A Defined Risk Factor? A Literature Review Of Health Literacy As It Relates To Immigrant Populations In The U.S., Kelly Zdanuczyk

Sustainability and Social Justice

Throughout its lifespan the definition of health literacy in the United States has been ambiguous and disagreeable. This discrepancy has created disparity among health outcomes for vulnerable populations who are classified with lower degrees of health literacy and thus have a harder time interacting with the healthcare system. This paper will review published peer-reviewed literature on the topic of health literacy as it relates to immigrant populations in the United States and explore the ways in which low health literacy results in negative health outcomes. The literature review finds the discrepancies among health literacy, as it pertains to immigrant communities …

..., Claire Alfonso

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Words are fickle, easily misunderstood, and often put us at a loss... but we all have so much we feel we need to express. This begs the question: Is there any safe way of communication? Can anything ever really be communicated how you mean it? Will you ever see the reflection of what you feel, think, and dream outside of yourself? In response to this existential dilemma, I imagine an alternative language of images, sounds, color, feelings, and non-identification. My thesis is a meditation on the issues with standard language and the idea of alternative language. In my argument I …

Children’S Social Judgments Of Others On The Basis Of Dialect-Specific Vocabulary, Madison Myers-Burg

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Many studies suggest that young children prefer speakers who speak similarly to them. Children demonstrate social preferences for speakers of their own native language over speakers of a non-native language as well as for speakers of a familiar accent over speakers of an unfamiliar accent. Recent research suggests that young children will similarly show preference for speakers who use familiar dialect-specific vocabulary over speakers who use vocabulary specific to an unfamiliar dialect. The current study investigated potential motivations behind young children’s preferences for familiar dialect-specific vocabulary. Fifty participants ages fifty-one months to ninety-five months (Mage =72.6 months) viewed an animated …

Votes And Voices: Minority Languages And Electoral Substate Nationalism In Spain And The United Kingdom, Valeryn Shepherd

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Substate nationalist political parties are a key component of the electoral politics of Spain and the United Kingdom. The demographic support that these parties receive is often tied to speakers of regional languages. In this paper, six regions in the two countries - Scotland, Catalonia, the Basque Country, Wales, Northern Ireland, and Galicia - are examined using geographic data analysis to determine whether communities with a high level of minority language speakers are more likely to vote for substate nationalist parties. In most of the cases, I find that there is a strong connection between the two.

The Study Of Morphological Awareness For English Learners, Jane Beeninga

Dissertations, Theses, and Projects

English Learner (EL) students in American schools are becoming increasingly common, but there does not seem to be enough support for these students. This is causing EL students to fall behind in content areas such as reading (Richards-Tutor et al., 2016). The purpose of this study was to investigate what barriers are keeping EL students from succeeding in reading. After identifying a need for vocabulary instruction, the researcher will be conducting a morphological awareness intervention to improve EL students’ ability to figure out unknown words. Morphological awareness is the understanding of a word’s smaller units such as prefixes, suffixes, and …

Metaphor And Atonement : A Conceptual Metaphor Study Of The Sacrificial Prescriptions In Lev 1-16, Bradley James Haggard

ATS Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Image, Text, And Sound Through The Arabesque In Thoreau's Walden, Lupina Farhana

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

This essay looks at Thoreau’s Walden through the lens of the motif of the Arabic arabesque. It first considers the arabesque in a playful paradigm, that interrupts, crosses, and breaks boundaries through a Derridean parergon. However, this event results in an overturning of the binary that had, for centuries, deemed merely the center to hold the highest of importance. Art historian Cordula Grewe utilizes Derrida’s parergon to analyze the poems of Goethe in the context of an arabesque frame which gives the sensation of sound by imitating the repeatedly playful consonants of the text written in the center. Thus, text, …

Rethinking Metaphor In The Rhetoric Of Alzheimer's Disease, Evelyn Saru Jimmy

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This dissertation examines the metaphors that early onset Alzheimer's blog authors use to make meaning of their experiences living with Alzheimer's disease (AD). To complicate the study, I also compare whether early onset Alzheimer's blog authors use the same metaphors with those who serve as caregiver to late-stage AD patients. This research project is situated within the overlap fields of Disability Studies (Dolmage, 2006; Lewiecki-Welson, 2003; Yergeau, 2014; Kerschbaum, 2014), Rhetoric of Health and Medicine (Segal, 1997: Price, 2011; Molloy, 2015) Rhetoric of Mental Health (Chrisman, 2008; Uttapha, 2017, Reynold, 2008), and Technical Communication (Meloncon, 2014). Following the principles of …

Student Centered Language Teaching: A Focus On Student Identity, Rachel Mano

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

This portfolio is a compilation of essays that describe what the writer has come to see as essential topics in second language acquisition. It begins with a professional environment piece, and then a teaching philosophy statement focused on student identity and interaction in the classroom. This is followed by an essay on observations of teaching. The next two sections focus on pragmatic resistance among advanced learners and the importance of preparing learners for peer interaction. The portfolio concludes with an annotated bibliography outlining the main concepts associated with Communicative Language Teaching, a method that is commonly employed in second language …

Testimonios Of First-Generation, Multilingual, Latina Doctoral Students At The U.S.-México Border, Cynthia Carolina Terán López

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This qualitative study is developed with the idea that the socialization experiences of Latina doctoral students are found in the socially constructed institutional culture of a university at the U.S.-México border. Furthermore, Latina doctoral students are considered active agents in their development as scholars and co-creators of culture. Thus, this study looks at Latina doctoral students’ ways of knowing as assets used to shape their experiences in a way that benefits and empowers them. Specifically, the study expands on the existing research on socialization experiences at the doctoral level to explore the understudied significance of language and being a first-generation …

Effects Of Parent Intervention Via Tele-Practice On Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder In Rural Mississippi, Erin Bowens

Honors Theses

Background

The present study explored the use of parent intervention via tele-practice for children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) and how effective that intervention was in increasing the child’s language and communication skills and the parents’ strategy use in the rural state of Mississippi.

Methods

Two dyads of participants were used. Dyad 1 included a mother and her 4-year-old son with high-functioning ASD, and Dyad 2 included a mother and her 4-year-old daughter with severe ASD. Standardized tests were administered to gather data about the children’s diagnoses. The study included four phases across four months, including pre-test, intervention, post-test, and …

Unlearning Your Colonial Course Description To Transform Your Learning Culture, Zen Parry

Experiential Learning & Teaching in Higher Education

Education has undergone multiple transformations with preset syllabi and modes of presentation to learners. Within the learning models utilized today, critical discussions on issues in higher education, social, economic, environmental, and racial justice settings have become important and at times, media headlines. Reading through course descriptions in an academic catalog or brochure will inform you about what the curriculum offers and what it does not. The course description wording brings into question two issues: whether the language used affects the understandability and relatability of the content by students of the course or, the course description represents the perspective of the …