Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Making The Old New: The Recontextualization And Traditionalization Of Tree Spirits In Video Games, Alexandria Ziegler

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

Folklorists study the active rituals between humans and deities, as well as the inactive participation between them in narrative. However, they do not study the active participation that comes in the form of video games between them, though with shifts in society, this new way of engaging through digital forms is widespread and accessible. In my research, I studied Russian and Japanese tree spirits in a variety of video games to understand this new form of engagement with ancient deities. These video games are Okami, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Black Book, and The Witcher 3: The …

Chinese Gardens: Solutions For Urban Nature Deficit, Zachary K. Warner

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

Research shows that time spent in nature is good for human health and well-being. However, as the world’s population becomes more concentrated in urban areas regular time in nature, especially extended time, is becoming more difficult to have. On the other hand, Chinese gardens can provide one solution to this problem because they have a unique way of providing a naturalistic space within a small area. Despite this fact, there aren’t many Chinese style gardens outside of China. Therefore, the objective of this thesis was to identify possible barriers to using Chinese garden design principles and construction techniques, then address …

What Does It Take To Learn A Language? Strategies For Teaching Esl And Japanese, Andrew Mikesell

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

ABSTRACT

This portfolio reflects what the author believes to be effective tools and methods for teaching a second or foreign language. The first section includes the author’s teaching philosophy which addresses teacher and student roles, communicative and meaningful tasks, learning environments, and the importance of literacy development. Following the teaching philosophy are three research perspective papers which discuss the use of digital storytelling as a tool for developing language proficiency, how blogs can be used to help students develop writing skills in their second language, and alternative approaches to teaching and learning kanji, which are one of three sets …

Best Practices In Second Language Teaching: A Holistic Doctrine Based On Research And Experience, Tarin Christopher Griswold

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

This portfolio is an amalgam of the author’s teaching philosophy which is deeply rooted in the theoretical foundations of second language teaching pedagogy, and further honed through firsthand teaching and observation experiences garnered during the course of his MSLT program. The target languages focused on in this portfolio are English and Japanese.

The primary components of this portfolio are: 1) the author’s teaching philosophy statement (TPS), 2) language, literacy, cultural, and research strand artifacts, 3) annotated bibliographies, and 4) target language lesson plans developed and taught by the author which bring key concepts in the TPS and artifacts to fruition …

Teaching Chinese As A Foreign Language: A Foreigner's Perspective, Frederick J. Poole

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

This portfolio reflects the author’s beliefs on effective methods for teaching Chinese as a second language. The first section includes the author’s teaching philosophy, which focuses on communicative language teaching, developing literacy, integrating culture into instruction, and employing technology to facilitate learning. Following the teaching philosophy are three artifacts that were written throughout the Master of Second Language Teaching (MSLT) program. First, the language artifact presents a study conducted by the author regarding three different approaches to teaching beginners of Chinese. Second, the literacy artifact is a proposal for a study that examines the effect of reading Chinese via an …