Reading and Language Commons^™

Effects Of Language Status, Community Advice, And Parent Beliefs On Heritage Language Maintenance In The U.S.: A Scoping Review, Jasmine Loeung

University Honors Theses

This scoping review examines the effects of language status, community advice to parents, and parents' beliefs on heritage language maintenance within a U.S. context. A total of 34 articles met the inclusion criteria. Four key themes were identified as follows: (1) status of a language in society affects maintenance, (2) parents' beliefs about the impact of the heritage language affect family language practices, (3) community advice impacts parents' beliefs and practices, (4) other factors affecting maintenance of the heritage language across generations. Overall, HL maintenance was observed as a dynamic relationship between a variety of factors, with individuals as well …

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.

Hailey's Hearing Aids, Hailey Marie Garcia

Whittier Scholars Program

Individuals from the deaf and hard-of-hearing community are likely to experience more anxiety and depression due to defective cognitive, social, communicational, and emotional skills (Azizi et al., 2019). The word “disability” is embedded with historical negative connotations with phrases such as “deaf and dumb” because if they were deaf or mute then they were automatically labeled as inferior (Horovitz, 2007). Since the 18th century, the DHH community has been seen as incapable, even inhuman, hence the development of emotional deficiencies that bleed into one’s perception of society and their self esteem (Gallaudet, 1886).

How do you navigate a hearing world …

Lacan And The Algorithm, Clint Burnham

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

Exploring the development of algorithms in Lacanian theory, specifically the "R schema" in the 1950s, I argue that psychoanalysis, read through contemporary debates about the "algorithmic cult" of Netflix and other avatars of popular culture, can be said to reveal the inhuman, machinic essence of subjectivity. The etiology of algorithms, mathemes, and other formulae and diagrams in Lacan’s oeuvre has been under-studied, in part because for some readers they are not as attractive as his more bravura flourishes of word play as exegetical excess, and in part because they derive largely from the ‘hard’ structuralist moment of his work in …

Multilingualism And Memory: Investigating Possible Differences In The Abilities Of Monolingual And Multilingual College Students, Clara E. Barned

Honors Projects

This study investigated whether there is a difference in the memories of monolingual and multilingual undergraduate students using simple memorization tasks. There were 46 participants, 30 of which were monolingual (only knew one language) and 16 of which were multilingual (knew two or more languages). There was found to be no significant difference between the performance of the two groups, with the data generating a p-value of 0.557. This study further suggests related avenues of research and ways in which the study could be improved in the future.

The Role Of Word Knowledge In Error Detection: A Challenge To The Broken-Error-Monitor Account Of Dyslexia, Lindsay N. Harris, Benjamin Creed, Charles A. Perfetti, Benjamin Rickles

Faculty Peer-Reviewed Publications

Dyslexic children often fail to correct errors while reading aloud, and dyslexic adolescents and adults exhibit lower amplitudes of the error-related negativity (ERN)—the neural response to errors—than typical readers during silent reading. Past researchers therefore suggested that dyslexia may arise from a faulty error-detection mechanism that interferes with orthographic learning and text comprehension. An alternative possibility is that comprehension difficulty in dyslexics is primarily a downstream effect of low-quality lexical representations—that is, poor word knowledge. On this view the attenuated ERN in dyslexics is a byproduct, rather than a source, of underdeveloped orthographic knowledge. Because the second view implies a …

The Effectiveness Of A Caregiver Delivered Phonics Intervention For At-Risk Students, Iwalani Dela Paz-Miller

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

Reading skills are important for students' academic success. Phonics specifically is a foundational skill which is necessary for reading fluency and overall reading proficiency. Additional support outside of the classroom can be beneficial for those struggling and at-risk. There are various strategies and interventions that can help students' gain important academic skills. In addition to various reading skills and interventions, parents and caregivers can help implement interventions within the home setting to support students in their academic growth. Overall, the research has documented the effectiveness of reading intervention delivered by parents and caregivers, but there is little research on caregiver …

Material Encounters: Making Memory Beyond The Mind, Ariel Wills

Masters Theses

Can acts of making carry the memories of our embeddedness within the world? This thesis explores how making things can nurture a sense of kinship that cuts across the organic and inorganic, erasing the distinction between living and dead, material and spiritual. Through handwork such as art-making, sewing, knitting, cooking, woodworking, and beyond, the burden of remembering and of archiving is shared across human and non-human bodies, cultivated through practices of making, and through the materials themselves. By recounting the stories of my family’s experience as Jewish immigrants in the United States, I aim to reveal how their domestic practices …

Effect Of Covid-19 On Elementary Students' Use Of Language Online, Emma Polen

Undergraduate Research and Scholarship Symposium

The COVID-19 pandemic ushered in an unprecedented period of online communication among children. This paper aims to exemplify how the reliance on digital communication platforms compelled by COVID-19 affected elementary students’ use of language. Within the study, children used primarily visual language on digital sites with friends. There were two main forms of primary research in this study. The first consisted of a survey of 16 parents of elementary school children in my school district. The second was an observation of Zoom chat room activity among three eight-year-olds. Both methods of conducting research build on the existing understanding that digital …

What's In A Label? Unpacking The Meaning Of Achievement Labels From Tests, Francis O'Donnell

Doctoral Dissertations

As a result of federal accountability policies, achievement level labels from statewide assessments are ascribed to public school students 17 times between grades 3 and 12. Depending on students’ performance and state of residence, they may be labeled inadequate or in need of support, below proficient or approaching expectations, level 3 or on track—to name a few examples. These labels are delivered through individual reports for students and parents as well as group reports for teachers. In spite of their widespread use, research on how achievement level labels are interpreted is minimal. The aim of this …

A Longitudinal Test Of Mexican Teen Mothers’ Cultural Characteristics And Children’S Language Skills Via Mothers’ Language, Arlenis A. Santana

Theses and Dissertations

The current study includes 204 Mexican teen mothers and their children from a larger study who were interviewed when children were 3 years old (Wave 4; W4), 4 years old (W5), and 5 years old (W6). The current study is guided by the integrative model of developmental competencies (García Coll et al., 1996), which suggests that parents’ adaptive cultural characteristics and exchanges with their children inform children’s developmental competencies. Thus, the current study examined whether teen mothers’ adaptive cultural characteristics (i.e., familism values, language competency pressures, and involvement in Mexican culture and U.S. mainstream culture) at W4 informed mothers’ Spanish …

Challenging Girlhood, Mary Ann Harlan

School of Information Student Research Journal

No abstract provided.

Trespassing Physical Boundaries: Transgression, Vulnerability And Resistance In Sarah Kane’S Blasted (1995), Paula Barba Guerrero, Ana Mª Manzanas Calvo

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

Sarah Kane’s Blasted has been analyzed from various perspectives that address the layers of destruction it exposes. From the questioning of its title and meaning, to the unravelling of the protagonists’ abusive relationship, the analyses have emphasized the depiction of vulnerability as the defining human trait that Jean Ganteau observes in contemporary British literature. However, a key aspect has been overlooked in the critical response to the play: for Kane vulnerability does not equal helplessness, but rather stands in opposition to it. Hence, this article concentrates on how Blasted formulates a new understanding of vulnerability that fits Judith Butler’s later …

Accio Empathy: Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire Through The Lens Of Cognitive Literary Studies, Elise Horning

Regis University Student Publications (comprehensive collection)

In this thesis, I examined the literariness of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (GF), calling upon research from the field of cognitive literary studies. Cognitive literary studies is a field in academia that merges scholarship from literary studies and psychology, and one of the main goals of this field is to investigate the impact that literature has on the cognitive and emotional development of the reader. A large portion of my thesis project included a close-reading analysis of the chapter “Flesh, Blood, and Bone,” as my goal was to hypothesize whether GF can be classified as …

Meera Atkinson. The Poetics Of Transgenerational Trauma. Bloomsbury, 2017., Katie Lally

Studies in 20th & 21st Century Literature

Review of Meera Atkinson. The Poetics of Transgenerational Trauma. Bloomsbury, 2017.

The Effects Of Decoding Instruction On Oral Reading Fluency For Older Students With Reading Delays, Gaige J. Johnson

Dissertations

Struggling older readers often have difficulty with early decoding skills (Tolman, 2005; Toste, Williams, & Capin, 2017). If they are unable to master decoding, they may have difficulty with more complex skills, such as passage reading fluency. The current study extends research on reading fluency for older students by evaluating the combined effects of a phonics procedure and a fluency-building strategy on their reading fluency. Participants were older students with below grade level reading performance who had deficits in oral reading fluency and decoding. Dependent variables were the number of correctly sorted word patterns and the number of correct words …

Self-Referential Features In Sacred Texts, Donald Haase

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines a specific type of instance that bridges the divide between seeing sacred texts as merely vehicles for content and as objects themselves: self-reference. Doing so yielded a heuristic system of categories of self-reference in sacred texts based on the way the text self-describes: Inlibration, Necessity, and Untranslatability.

I provide examples of these self-referential features as found in various sacred texts: the Vedas, Āgamas, Papyrus of Ani, Torah, Quran, Sri Guru Granth Sahib, and the Book of Mormon. I then examine how different theories of sacredness interact with them. What do Durkheim, Otto, Freud, or Levinas say about …

Open Ears, Open Mind, Open Heart: Active Listening, Mia Nguyen

Service-Learning | Student Scholarship

Active listening is the act of listening with all senses– the body, the mind, and the soul. It means empathizing with another person and finding that place within ourselves where we can listen beyond our initial judgements and personal feelings. It is listening beyond words and allowing our souls to understand, connect, and accept one another. Active listening sparks internal purity eliminating all types of judgement and allowing us to truly take in what another person has to offer. It is “an experience of language as a bodily felt process” in which we have a felt understanding rather than a …

How To Be The Perfect Asian Wife!, Sophia Hill

Art and Art History Honors Projects

“How to be the Perfect Asian Wife” critiques exploitative power systems that assault female bodies of color in intersectional ways. This work explores strategies of healing and resistance through inserting one’s own narrative of flourishing rather than surviving, while reflecting violent realities. Three large drawings mimic pervasive advertisement language and presentation reflecting the oppressive strategies used to contain women of color. Created with charcoal, watercolor, and ink, these 'advertisements' contrast with an interactive rice bag filled with comics of my everyday experiences. These documentations compel viewers to reflect on their own participation in systems of power.

Running Records And First Grade English Learners: An Analysis Of Language Related Errors, Allison Briceno, Adria Klein

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Literacy Revolution: How The New Tools Of Communication Change The Stories We Tell, Molly Gamble

Dissertations, Masters Theses, Capstones, and Culminating Projects

The transmission of culture depends upon every generation reconsidering what it means to be literate. The way we consider ourselves to be a literate species is changing, which puts us at a unique turning point in human history. Verbal literacy, or the ability to read and write, is slowly being replaced by visual literacy as a primary tool for human communication. As a culture, we tend to underestimate the creative ferment of our increasingly visual world. The linear, structured pathways of traditional literacy are shifting towards a creative and participatory pursuit of unstructured information that emphasize dimensional thinking. The acceleration …

Contextualized Recognition Of Fingerspelled Words, Campbell Mcdermid, Lynn Finton, Alexis Chasney

Journal of Interpretation

Fingerspelling, an aspect of American Sign Language, is difficult for second language English-speaking adults to learn (Bahleda, 1998), yet mastery is required by professional ASL-English interpreters. This study compared novice and expert interpreters’ interpretation of fingerspelled words under the assumption that exposure to priming material in their L1, English, would enable the interpreters to recognize those terms when fingerspelled in their L2, ASL. In this study, participants (15 novices, 15 experts) were asked to interpret an ASL text with 25 “carefully” fingerspelled words embedded. Ten subjects were not given priming materials, ten a list of words in printed English that …

The Effect Of Spoiler Types On Enjoyment, Sussana Oad

Psychological Science Undergraduate Honors Theses

The belief that story spoilers are irksome is prevalent in society. However, prior research (Leavitt & Christenfeld, 2011, 2013) has found that spoilers increase enjoyment of short stories, while two follow-up studies (Johnson & Rosenbaum, 2015; Levine, Betzner, & Autry, in press) have failed to confirm these results and, in fact, found the opposite result – that spoilers decrease enjoyment. While these differential results are puzzling, they may be explained by the different spoilers types used in these studies. Therefore, in the present research, we examined whether the discrepant results were due to the spoiler types employed by using all …

Using Reading Cbm To Predict Performance On Smarter Balanced Assessment, Jonathan Wesley Shank

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

This study examined the relationship between AIMSweb oral reading fluency (R-CBM) and reading comprehension (MAZE) curriculum-based measures and performance on the English language arts/literacy (ELA/L) component of the Smarter Balanced Assessment (SBA) using a sample of students in third through fifth grade (N = 499). Pearson correlations between R-CBM, MAZE, and SBA were moderate to high, with R-CBM generally demonstrating the strongest relationships with coefficients ranging from .73 to .75. Results from hierarchical multiple regression models indicated that R-CBM provided strong predictive validity for SBA performance among third grade students (63.4% variance explained, p<.001), while the addition of MAZE to the equation was negligible (1.4% additional variance explained, p<.001). Similar findings resulted from the fourth and fifth grade multiple regression models. The predictive value of R-CBM and MAZE each decreased as grade level increased. Results support continued use of CBM to predict success on the Smarter Balanced Assessment, although CBM using cloze passages explained little variance in high-stakes test scores beyond that of oral reading fluency alone.

Effect Of Mindfulness Training On Interpretation Exam Performance In Graduate Students In Interpreting, Julie E. Johnson

Doctoral Dissertations

Many graduate interpreting students struggle because the real-time, interactive nature of interpreting dictates that they be able to regulate their attention across different parallel cognitive activities and manage the inherent stress and unpredictability of the task. Within the framework of Cognitive Load Theory, this mixed-methods study explored the effect of short-term mindfulness training on consecutive interpreting exam performance using a quasi-experimental repeated-measures design. It also examined the relationships among mindfulness, stress, aspects of attention, and interpreting exam performance. The sample included 67 students (age M = 26.9 years; 82% female) across seven language programs (Chinese, French, German, Japanese, Korean, Russian, …

Investigating The Effects Of A Parent-Mediated Intervention On Latino Parent-Child Verbal Interaction And Children's Receptive Vocabulary, Patricia G. Onorato

Theses and Dissertations

This study aimed to investigate parent-child verbal interactions in Spanish in a group of Latino preschoolers growing up in the United States through a parent-mediated program at home, and the effects of the program on their receptive vocabulary in Spanish. A single subject multiple baseline across participants design was used in the study. The participants were 3 Latino mothers and their sons, with low family income, living in the United States. The intervention taught the mothers strategies to enhance their children’s language through a sharing-book activity. The study lasted for 6 weeks during which baseline and intervention conditions data were …

Central Auditory Processing And The Link To Reading Ability In Adults, Lisa M. Brody

Honors Scholar Theses

What makes someone a good reader? What makes someone a poor reader? The root biological marker of reading ability has yet to be determined. Many scientists agree that phonological awareness, the understanding of speech sounds, and phonological decoding are key components of reading ability (Melby-Lervag, Lyster, & Hulme, 2012). In addition to this, new research suggests that the auditory system, specifically the timing of auditory processing in the brain, provides a crucial platform that supports the development of reading ability (Banai et al., 2009). This thesis provides empirical data to support the link between reading skill …

Deaf Individuals’ Bilingual Abilities: American Sign Language Proficiency, Reading Skills, And Family Characteristics, Brittany Freel, M. Clark, Melissa Anderson, Gizelle Gilbert, Millicent Musyoka, Peter Hauser

Melissa L. Anderson

The current study investigated the bilingual abilities of 55 Deaf individuals, examining both American Sign Language (ASL) competency and English reading skills. Results revealed a positive relationship between ASL competency and English skills, with highly competent signers scoring higher on a measure of reading comprehension. Additionally, family characteristics (e.g., parental education level, family hearing status) were entered into the analysis to ascertain their effect on Deaf individuals’ bilingual abilities. The findings support the theory that competency in ASL may serve as a bridge to the acquisition of English print. Moreover, the findings provide support for the critical period hypothesis for …

Hemispheric Specialization For Emotion Within First And Second Languages : Emotion Word Processing In Monolingual And Bilingual Speakers, Jennifer Mary Martin

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Emotion representation in monolingual speakers is complex, and for bilinguals the relationship between emotion and language can be even more intriguing. The present study examined reactions to words of six types, including positive, negative, and neutral words varying in concreteness. Words and nonwords were intermixed in a lexical decision task using hemifield presentation. In Experiment 1, participants were English monolinguals and all stimuli were presented in English. In Experiment 2, participants were Spanish-English bilinguals who were presented with both English and Spanish stimuli. Results revealed a general left hemisphere advantage. Overall, reaction times for positive words were faster than for …

Looking At The Multiple Meanings Of Numeracy, Quantitative Literacy, And Quantitative Reasoning, H. L. Vacher

Numeracy

The subject of this journal goes by a variety of names: numeracy, quantitative literacy, and quantitative reasoning. Some authors use the terms interchangeably. Others see distinctions between them. Study of psycholinguistic and ontological concepts laid out in the literature of WordNet and familiarity with the papers in this journal suggests a vocabulary matrix consisting of four rows (word senses) and three columns (word forms, namely numeracy, QL, and QR). The four word senses correspond to four sets of synonyms: {numeracy}, {numeracy, QL}, {QL, QR}, and {numeracy, QL, QR}. Each of the word forms is polysemous: “numeracy” points to the first, …