English Language and Literature Commons^™

Extranormal Sorcery In Toni Morrison's Song Of Solomon, Harleyquinn Wahl

EWU Masters Thesis Collection

No abstract provided.

The Acceptance Of Womanhood: Gender Performance And Self-Actualization In L.M. Montgomery's Anne Of Green Gables, Anne Of Avonlea, And Anne Of The Island, Lauren M. Hinshaw

EWU Masters Thesis Collection

There is a pervasive cultural conception of what it is to be a woman, and in literary criticism that preconceived notion of womanhood becomes the basis for a majority of feminist critique; however, because of the particularities of human experience, gender is a highly variable aspect of identity that is reliant on both internal and external factors. According to Judith Butler, among these factors is the means by which a given individual performs their gender. Performances that portray gender are not consistent from one individual to the next; rather, various masculinities and femininities can simultaneously exist as accurate representations of …

Realism As Weaponry: Challenging Victorian Ideals Of Femininity In Mary Elizabeth Braddon's Lady Audley's Secret And Wilkie Collins' Armadale, Taylor Aalgaard

EWU Masters Thesis Collection

No abstract provided.

Navigating The Labyrinth Of House Of Leaves Through A Postmodern Archetypal Literary Theory, Samuel K. Hval

EWU Masters Thesis Collection

No abstract provided.

The Value Hierarchies Of J.R.R. Tolkien And His Legacy: A Reimagining Of Fantasy Fiction And The Propagation Of Colonial Racism, Alexander Richburg

EWU Masters Thesis Collection

J.R.R. Tolkien’s impact on modern fantasy fiction is remarkable. However, while some of the changes to the genre ushered in by Tolkien’s work are positive, other aspects of his legacy are more problematic. Tolkien’s The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion are based on his colonial worldview. They are biographical in that Tolkien draws heavily from his life experience to tell his stories. The biographical influence manifests in a hierarchical representation of everything from trees and their ancestry to the elves, humans, dwarves, hobbits, and orcs that populate his fiction. The hierarchies are value structures and the …

"Trying Hard To Keep Her From Feeling Outdoors": Race, Ability, And Eugenics In Early Morrison, Grace Caraway

EWU Masters Thesis Collection

No abstract provided.

"It's Odd, Isn't It?": Irony, Breakdown, And Self-Healing In Doris Lessing's The Golden Notebook, Rachel M. Goodner

EWU Masters Thesis Collection

No abstract provided.

Animistic Poetics: William Carlos Williams' Paterson And Animistic Ecology, Kurtis Ebeling

EWU Masters Thesis Collection

No abstract provided.

"To Find Healing In My Wounds": The Transformation Of Memory And Trauma Into Art In J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord Of The Rings, Graysen S. Russell

EWU Masters Thesis Collection

No abstract provided.

Facing The Horror Of Uncertainty: Using Female Slashers As A Model For Thinking About And Practicing English Literature And Composition, Rose Hall

EWU Masters Thesis Collection

No abstract provided.

Capital Games: The Bourdieuxian Movements Of Heathcliff And Nelly Dean In Neo-Victorian Revisitations Of Wuthering Heights, Ryan S. Wise

EWU Masters Thesis Collection

No abstract provided.

Bell Hooks’ “Enactment Of Non-Domination” In The “Practice Of Speaking In A Loving And Caring Manner”: An Autoethnography Of A Saudi “Widow’S Son”, Braik Aldoshan

EWU Masters Thesis Collection

The Prophet Mohammed lost his parents when he was a child, and because he was an orphan, he believed that anyone caring for an orphan would hold a special place in the hereafter. Often when children in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia lose the father, as the author did, there is a stigma attached to the boy with no father, and a tremendous hardship is placed on the family. Having married at age 11 to her third cousin 10 years her senior and giving birth to three children, and expecting another child, his mother became a widow. He analyzes his …

Teaching The Biography Of Pearl S. Buck: Developing Collaborative Reading Strategies For Multilingual Writers, Nichole S. La Torre

EWU Masters Thesis Collection

The present study is action research with a narrative inquiry approach, and seeks to determine the benefits and challenges of using a collaborative method to teach reading comprehension strategies in English 112: Composition for Multilingual Students. As Kenneth Bruffee (1984; 1991), Margaret Mount (2014), Chiu-Hsin Lin (2007) and others have determined, there are many challenges English language learners face when reading college-level texts. This study sought to determine whether the use of collaboration would facilitate the learning of reading strategies and self-monitoring of reading skills.

Ten students participated in this study, including nine undergraduate students and one graduate-level Saudi teaching …

An Autoethnography Of A Novice Esl Teacher: Plato’S Cave And English Language Teaching In Japan, Kevin Lemberger

EWU Masters Thesis Collection

This autoethnography documents the author’s one-year experience teaching English in Honjo, Japan. The author details daily life in the public schools and introduces World Englishes. Chapter 1 includes definitions and examples of autoethnography as well as the author’s background, which qualified him for employment in Japan. Chapter 2 is a literature review of research on varieties of English and how they are evolving and being used in classrooms in Japan. The author suggests that Baudrillard’s simulation and Plato’s Allegory of the Cave provide a framework for analyzing current teaching methods and materials being used in the national core curriculum in …

A Triple Case Study Of Two Saudi And One Italian Language Learners' Self-Perceptions Of Target Language (Tl) Speaking Proficiency, Jena M. Robinson

EWU Masters Thesis Collection

This triple case study examined the diverse ways in which two Saudis and one Italian English language learner (ELL) came to speaking proficiency according to his or her own perceptions and observations. The researcher conducted interviews of the two Saudi ELLs face-to-face and the one Italian ELL through Skype by asking 15 open-ended questions related to their English language learning experiences (narrative inquiry) specifically related to speaking proficiency from their beginning learning through the present. This study was not intended as a contrastive analysis.

The researcher was a monolingual English speaker with beginning experience in Korean and Spanish, and was …

Teaching The Biography Of Laura Ingalls Wilder: Fostering A Media Literacy Approach For Multilingual Writers, Kelly G. Hansen

EWU Masters Thesis Collection

"In creating this thesis, the culmination of writings from teaching English composition to multilingual writers, contributed to my research. This action research study focuses on how to foster a media literacy approach when teaching multilingual writers. The literature focus unit was based on the biography of Laura Ingalls Wilder using the book, Laura Ingalls Wilder: A Photographic Story of a Life (Stone, 2009). The research conducted for this study took place during the winter quarter of 2015 within English 112, which is a composition class offered at Eastern Washington University (EWU) for multilingual writers. During this time, questionnaires, journal responses, …

Hunter S. Thompson And Gonzo Journalism As Literature, Michael P. Kiernan

EWU Masters Thesis Collection

No abstract provided.

"Don't Wake Me, My Desk Is Far Too Comfortable": An Autoethnography Of A Novice Esl Teacher's First Year Of Teaching In Japan, Delaney Holland

EWU Masters Thesis Collection

"This thesis explores and analyzes a first year ESL teacher's experience teaching at an all-girl's private school in Nishinomiya, Japan. Chapter 3 is divided into 15 sections that tell the teacher's story of living and teaching in Japan. This chapter includes description, dialogue, concurrent diary excerpts, photos, and theory. Chapter 4 analyzes these experiences and discusses the lessons the author learned while reflecting on her teaching in Japan. The main lesson learned was the importance of practicing cultural relativity--that is, opening one's mind and realizing that there is more than one way to live, teach, and see the world. Chapter …

Beyond Fascism: W.B. Yeats’S A Vision And The Complexities Of His Authoritarian Politics, Justin Abel

EWU Masters Thesis Collection

No abstract provided.

Written Corrective Feedback In The L2 Writing Classroom, Daniel Ducken

EWU Masters Thesis Collection

In 1996, a highly influential essay entitled “The Case against Grammar Correction in L2 Writing Class”, by John Truscott of National Tsing Hua University in Taiwan, appeared in the June edition of Language Learning. In his essay, Truscott argued that empirical research, second language acquisition (SLA) theory, and practical concerns show written grammar correction (WCF) in the L2 writing classroom to be both “ineffective” and “harmful,” and that, therefore, it “should be abandoned” (p. 327). Since the time that Truscott originally expressed his concerns, much recent SLA theory and empirical research have indicated the potential efficacy of written corrective feedback …

Reflections On Teaching And Host Mothering Chinese Secondary Students: A Novice Esl Teacher’S Diary Study And Autoethnography, Diane Thames

EWU Masters Thesis Collection

In the summer of 2012, 29 students ages 12-17 came from China to Spokane with a special three-week teaching program for intensive English language instruction and community field trips. Since they were middle and high school students, they had been studying English from four to 13 years in their home country. A mixed methodology of retrospective diary study, case study, and critical and autoethnography helped me to refine my teaching for this population and to prepare others to teach English to Chinese adolescents in the United States. The purpose of the present study, therefore, was to (1) describe the experience …

Academic Reading And Writing At The College Level: Action Research In A Classroom Of A Homogeneous Group Of Male Students From Saudi Arabia, Margaret Mount

EWU Masters Thesis Collection

This thesis is the culmination of two years of working with and teaching English composition to primarily international students from Saudi Arabia whose first language is not English. For the purposes of this study, I will identify students whose first language is not English as English Language Learners (ELLs). I have decided to use this term because in many cases, English is not a student’s second language but their third or fourth. The research for this study uses a mixed methods and action research framework and was conducted in my English 101-SL (Second Language) class during the Winter of 2014 …

Clothing In An American Tragedy: A "True Picture Of Life", Rachel L. Flynn

EWU Masters Thesis Collection

No abstract provided.

Using Media To Teach Grammar In Context And Unesco Values: A Case Study Of Two English Teachers And Students From Saudi Arabia, Sultan Albalawi

EWU Masters Thesis Collection

No abstract provided.

Transformative Pedagogy For Social Justice Education: Teaching Technical Communication Students To Bridge With Anzaldúan Theories Of Social Change, Carlos Munoz

EWU Masters Thesis Collection

This thesis discusses the growing challenge facing teachers of technical communication in preparing educators with the knowledge, skills, and perspectives to effectively work with an increasing diverse student population, especially with those students whose cultural, racial, language, professional, and ethnic backgrounds are different from the educator’s background. Therefore, Anzaldúan theory offers another productive way of bringing together theory and practice to address the challenge of seeing and practicing technical communication’s critical and civic aspects within diverse communities. This essay provides insight into how Anzaldúa theories for social change might fulfill civic objectives.

Peer Editing In Composition For Multilingual Writers At The College Level, Benjamin J. Bertrand

EWU Masters Thesis Collection

"The goal of the present study was to investigate the effectiveness of a guided peer editing activity for multilingual college freshman. This was an example of action research that began winter quarter 2013. The study used an activity where peer writers and responders identified and corrected errors in essays. Writers then choose which suggestions were errors to change and which did not need change. The study took place at Eastern Washington University in an English 112 class. English 112 is English for Academic Purposes (EAP) which is an English composition class. It took a total of four class periods in …

"The Worry That You Are Yourself": Darl's Unforgivable Neurodiversity In As I Lay Dying, Neal Hallgarth

EWU Masters Thesis Collection

"This paper is concerned with the character of Darl Bundren and the repeated motif of madness in William Faulkner's As I Lay Dying. Possible psychiatric explanations for Darl's madness, including linguistic evidence for his psychotic breakdown, are explored. The paper does not agree with the critical use of words such as "insane" or "crazy" as the book itself questions the verity of such labels. Critical analyses concerning Darl tend to be sympathetic but use derogatory language when defending the character. Articles related to the relatively new idea of neurodiversity will counter the backhanded sympathy with which the critics regard Darl. …

Developing A Pedagogy Of Pluralistic Linguistic Expression In The First Year Composition Classroom, April Dawn Ridgeway

EWU Masters Thesis Collection

"Over the past 40 years, the field of composition has recognized of the importance of legitimizing students' linguistic diversity in the composition classroom. However, a framework for a pedagogy of linguistic diversity does not yet exist. This thesis seeks to provide such a framework by identifying a new genre of academic writing entitled Pluralistic Linguistic Expression (PLE). First, this thesis begins with the research question, how do educators respect students' linguistic diversity in writing while still teaching them rhetorically appropriate discourse? A review of the historical approaches to PLE and the current pedagogical research provides a framework for further discussion. …

Teaching English In The Philippines: A Diary Study Of A Novice Esl Teacher, Jeffrey Lee Svoboda

EWU Masters Thesis Collection

"In this diary study, the writer explores the similarities and differences between teaching English at the college level in the Philippines and the United States while completing internships in the summers of 2011 and 2012. His students were in their first or second year of university classes and were working towards a Bachelor of Science in Elementary Education, a Bachelor of Science in Secondary Education, or an AB in English. As part of the critical ethnography, the diarist considers cultural influences that affect the language learning. He includes three lessons he designed and taught as well as his impressions of …

The Loathly Lady From Archaic To Modern Tales, Kirsten M. Dresker

EWU Masters Thesis Collection

No abstract provided.