Community Connections: Digital Literacy Acquisition Policy Brief,
2015
Portland State University
Community Connections: Digital Literacy Acquisition Policy Brief, Gloria Jacobs, Jill Castek, Drew Pizzolato, Kimberly D. Pendell, Elizabeth Withers, Stephen Reder
Research Briefs and Case Studies
This case study describes how the digital literacy acquisition program in a rural community was sustained through formal and informal connections across a variety of organizations and community institutions. The case study describes the setting, the details of how tutor facilitated, self paced learning was organized, and the various ways connections were made across organizations. Five types of connections are identified: formal top-level partnerships, local connections, library/workforce partnership, school/workforce connections, informal community connections, and lab coordinator/tutor/learner connections. Implications for these findings include how policy makers and other key stakeholders may benefit from recognizing and building on the ways people in …
Corrections And Reentry: Digital Literacy Acquisition Case Study,
2015
Portland State University
Corrections And Reentry: Digital Literacy Acquisition Case Study, Elizabeth Withers, Gloria Jacobs, Jill Castek, Drew Pizzolato, Kimberly D. Pendell, Stephen Reder
Research Briefs and Case Studies
This case study investigates the digital literacy acquisition process for learners within a corrections setting. The digital literacy program was part of the reentry program available to some individuals approaching their release date. The case study describes the lab within a prison, and details of how mentor-facilitated, self-paced learning was organized. Examination of the learner path in a corrections setting highlights how learners perceived the relevance of digital literacy in their lives; how they overcame their fears of computers or technology and their self-confidence grew; and potential changes in their self-identity, which often led to imagining new and different possible …
Epistemic Modal Disagreement,
2015
West Virginia University
Epistemic Modal Disagreement, Jonah Katz
Faculty & Staff Scholarship
At the center of the debate between contextualist versus relativist semantics for epistemic modal claims is an empirical question about when competent subjects judge the presence of epistemic modal disagreement. John MacFarlane’s relativist claims that we judge there to be epistemic modal disagreement across the widest range of cases. We wish to dispute the robustness of his data with the results of two studies. Our primary conclusion is that the actual disagreement data is not consistent with relativist predictions, and so, that the primary motivation for relativism disappears. Our study differs from a related study by Knobe and Yalcin (2014) …
An Attentional Effect Of Musical Metrical Structure,
2015
West Virginia University
An Attentional Effect Of Musical Metrical Structure, Jonah Katz
Faculty & Staff Scholarship
Theories of metrical structure postulate the existence of several degrees of beat strength. While previous work has clearly established that humans are sensitive to the distinction between strong beats and weak ones, there is little evidence for a more fine grained distinction between intermediate levels. Here, we present experimental data showing that attention can be allocated to an intermediate level of beat strength. Comparing the effects of short exposures to 6/8 and 3/4 metrical structures on a tone detection task, we observe that subjects respond differently to beats of intermediate strength than to weak beats.
The Relationship Between English Language Learners And Reading Disabilities Profiles: Language Acquisition Vs. Reading Disabilities,
2015
Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine
The Relationship Between English Language Learners And Reading Disabilities Profiles: Language Acquisition Vs. Reading Disabilities, Emily S. Hartz
PCOM Psychology Dissertations
School psychologists are asked to determine whether or not a student’s limited English proficiency affects his or her eligibly for special education services. Scores from language proficiency tests, such as the WIDA ACCESS for ELLs English Language Proficiency Test, are often the only data available that speak to a student’s language proficiency. There is little research that speaks to how scores on these tests relate to performance on diagnostic testing for special education, specifically achievement testing. In this sample of data drawn from a population of English language learners, who also qualify for special education services under the disability of …
Scribblescholar Was Here: Confessional Notes Of A Vandal Academic,
2015
University of Kentucky
Scribblescholar Was Here: Confessional Notes Of A Vandal Academic, Clay Shields
Theses and Dissertations--English
As a (former) vandal-punk in the academy, I often fear succumbing to Ivory Tower Stockholm syndrome. The identities I perform, vandal-punk and scholar, ideologically clash to the point that they often feel irreconcilable. By codemeshing the high-low discourses associated with these adopted cultures, I attempt to disrupt any hierarchal privileging of either, instead searching for a way to live with and harness both.
The Influence Of Interventions On Reading Comprehension In A Second And Foreign Language,
2015
University of Mississippi
The Influence Of Interventions On Reading Comprehension In A Second And Foreign Language, Anna Velezheva
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Reading comprehension is one of the crucial skills for the students enrolled or planning to enroll in language learning courses at North American universities. In order to be able to read academic texts, the students need to develop strong comprehension skills. The present study plays an important role in the field of second/foreign language (L2/FL) acquisition due to its attempt to investigate those classroom practices that can foster reading comprehension among international students learning English as a second language and American students learning German as a foreign language. The present study analyzes the influence of two interventions on reading comprehension …
Formal And Informal Academic Language Socialization Of A Bilingual Child,
2015
University of North Dakota
Formal And Informal Academic Language Socialization Of A Bilingual Child, Hyonsuk Cho
Teaching & Learning Faculty Publications
This ethnographic case study examines a bilingual child’s academic socialization in both formal and informal academic communities. The study follows a high-achieving, bilingual student in a public US elementary school, who paradoxically is seen as a slow learner in her Korean-American Sunday school. From the academic socialization and community of practice perspectives, 360 contextual, interactional, and interview events gathered from both communities over the course of one year are analyzed. The findings indicate that explicit norms and peer collaboration have a considerable effect on a child’s socialization in a formal academic school context, and furthermore, that the lenient, undisciplined environment …
Processing Of Garden-Path Sentences Containing Silent And Filled Pauses In Stuttered Speech: Evidence From A Comprehensive Study,
2015
University of South Carolina - Columbia
Processing Of Garden-Path Sentences Containing Silent And Filled Pauses In Stuttered Speech: Evidence From A Comprehensive Study, Elena Galkina
Theses and Dissertations
Disfluency is common in spontaneous speech. Self-correction is a type of disfluency that consists of reparandum, filler, and repair (Levelt, 1989). Little is known about the processing of self-corrections in a normally disfluent speech, and even less is known about its processing in atypically disfluent speech (e.g. speech in patients with autism spectrum disorder, hearing impaired, patients with brain damage, and stuttered speech; see: Lake, Humphreys, & Cardy, 2011; Lind, Hickson, & Erber, 2004; Plexico et al., 2010; Rossi et al., 2011; Yairi, Gintautas, & Avent, 1981). This study focuses on self-correction disfluencies in garden-path sentences and employs a behavioral …
Investigating English Teachers' Perceptions Of Intercultural Communicative Competence In The Kingdom Of Saudi Arabia,
2015
University of San Francisco
Investigating English Teachers' Perceptions Of Intercultural Communicative Competence In The Kingdom Of Saudi Arabia, Hazem Ahmed Osman
Doctoral Dissertations
This mixed-method study examines the perceptions of Intercultural Communicative Competence (ICC) by English teachers in the Preparatory Year (PY) program at King Saudi University. Studies that aim to investigate teachers’ perception of ICC and its implementation in a foreign language classroom are relatively scarce. Additionally, the majority of the studies that generally targeted the concept of ICC in a foreign-language learning context were studies that either relied on online blogs, discussion forums, and chat rooms to allow students to communicate cross-culturally, or examined ICC development during sojourns or study abroad periods in the target country. Relatively fewer studies have addressed …
The Effects Of Cued Speech On Phonemic Awareness Skills,
2015
Eastern Illinois University
The Effects Of Cued Speech On Phonemic Awareness Skills, Jessica M. Phillips
Masters Theses
Research suggests phonemic awareness is enhanced through multimodality training. Cued Speech is a multimodality system that combines hand signs with mouth movements to represent phonemes of the spoken language. This system has been utilized successfully in developing phonological awareness with children with hearing loss. However, no research is available on its effectiveness with children who are not deaf or hard-of-hearing. The efficacy of the use of Cued Speech for the enhancement of phonological skills in typically developing 1st grade students was evaluated in this study. Twenty-six 1st graders identified as low-achieving readers by their classroom teachers were administered the …
The Window To The Bilingual Mind: Eye Movements Reveal Psycholinguistic Grain Unit Sizes Of Bilingual Spoken Word Recognition,
2015
University of Texas at El Paso
The Window To The Bilingual Mind: Eye Movements Reveal Psycholinguistic Grain Unit Sizes Of Bilingual Spoken Word Recognition, Yu-Cheng Lin
Open Access Theses & Dissertations
Although there are common phonological units across different languages, previous studies have shown that individual differences of language proficiency affect sound unit preferences in monolingual and bilingual speakers. The cross-language lexical activation of phonological representations in bilingual minds can provide a great opportunity for testing hypotheses about how this key factor modulates the cross-linguistic phonological transfer across languages. In this study, I used the eye-tracking technique and quantitative methods (i.e., growth curve analysis and multilevel regression) to examine how individual differences in language proficiency affect cross-language phonological unit size transfer in Chinese-English bilinguals. Participants heard a spoken word and were …
The Effect Of Short-Term Study Abroad On Second Language Spanish Phonetic Development,
2015
Indiana University - Bloomington
The Effect Of Short-Term Study Abroad On Second Language Spanish Phonetic Development, Silvina Bongiovanni, Avizia Y. Long, Megan Solon, Erik Willis
Faculty Publications
This study explores the impact of study abroad (SA) on second language Spanish phonetic development. Twenty-seven English-speaking learners of Spanish, 15 who were participating in a 4-week SA program in the Dominican Republic and 12 who were studying at their home (AH) institution, were recorded 5 weeks apart (at the approximate beginning and end of their respective programs). Recordings were analyzed acoustically, and four groups of segments were examined: word-initial /p t k/, intervocalic /b d ɡ/, intervocalic /ɾ/ and /r/, and word-final /l/. Productions at Time 1 and Time 2 as well as between the SA and AH groups …
Literary Translingualism: Multilingual Identity And Creativity,
2015
University of Texas at San Antonio
Literary Translingualism: Multilingual Identity And Creativity, Steven G. Kellman, Natasha Lvovich
Publications and Research
No abstract provided.
Lessons Learned: Insights Into One Teacher’S Experience Working With Karen Refugee Students In The United States,
2015
The University of Georgia
Lessons Learned: Insights Into One Teacher’S Experience Working With Karen Refugee Students In The United States, Daniel J. Gilhooly
Journal of Southeast Asian American Education and Advancement
This study is informed by funds of knowledge and culturally responsive teaching studies that aim to explore and legitimize the cultural knowledge immigrant children bring to their communities and schools. Consequently, this paper specifically addresses issues related to the educational experiences of Karen children and their parents from one American teacher/researcher who has worked with the Karen for the past four years. In aggregate, this paper addresses issues germane to Karen education including; (1) background information on Karen educational experiences prior to resettlement, including a review of their journey from Thailand to the U.S.; (2) important characteristics of Karen culture; …
Utilization Of Placebo Response In Double-Blind Psychopharmacological Studies, Contextual Perspective,
2015
Antioch University - Seattle
Utilization Of Placebo Response In Double-Blind Psychopharmacological Studies, Contextual Perspective, Margarita Olegovna Ashirova
Antioch University Dissertations & Theses
Placebo response has been an elusive phenomenon in the fields of medicine, medical research, and psychology. Even though it has been heavily utilized as a comparator treatment in double-blind psychopharmacological studies, the reliable definition and consistent understanding of placebo response are missing. In this contextual exploration, I outlined the state of current placebo response research and variable rates of placebo response reported in double-blind studies. I identified the gap in the literature—lack of consistent understanding of placebo response—that has led to a waste of resources by the psychopharmacological research industry. Further, I compared and contrasted the current inconsistent Western medical …
Stories From The Old West End Of Boston: An Analysis Of Evaluative Devices In Oral Narrative,
2015
University of New Hampshire - Main Campus
Stories From The Old West End Of Boston: An Analysis Of Evaluative Devices In Oral Narrative, Melanie N. Platt
Honors Theses and Capstones
The following presents an overview of various evaluative devices found in a series of oral narratives from former residents of the West End of Boston, Massachusetts. In working with an archivist at the West End Museum, I was able to read through interviews, each conducted with residents that were displaced from the West End after the urban renewal project of the late 1950s. These interviews were recorded for the purpose of collecting each resident’s experience growing up in the neighborhood. After reading through each interview I found several instances of narrative speech. I conducted a narrative analysis, based on Labov …
Arabic Pro-Drop,
2015
Eastern Michigan University
Arabic Pro-Drop, Mansour Ibrahim Altamimi
Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations
The goal of this thesis is to analyze pro-drop in Arabic in terms of its syntactic properties and the nature of its optionality in discourse. The paper begins with a comprehensive review of five syntactic properties assumed to be universal to pro-drop languages, and discusses the status of each in both Standard Arabic and the Saudi Najdi dialect--the latter having seen little previous research in this area. The conclusion is that Najdi is very nearly syntactically identical to Standard Arabic with regard to the null subject parameter. The topic then shifts to discourse, and what factors may trigger pro-drop usage. …
Using Cognitive Word Games To Promote Lexical Memory Access And Vocabulary Retrieval In Second Language Learners,
2015
Michigan Technological University
Using Cognitive Word Games To Promote Lexical Memory Access And Vocabulary Retrieval In Second Language Learners, Kejkaew Thanasuan
Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports
Fluency in a second language (L2) is one of the most important skills for the modern world. However, adults learning a new language face many obstacles, including motivation, time, and other challenges in learning. Technology learning tools may help solve these problems. In this dissertation, I tested the effectiveness of cognitive word games as a vocabulary learning method, with the main goal of investigating how different word games including a crossword paradigm task, a free association task and a word-stem completion task were effective at improving vocabulary memory access. The games selectively increased semantic (meaning) or orthographic (spelling) associations in …
Elicited Imitation For Brazilian Portuguese,
2015
Brigham Young University
Elicited Imitation For Brazilian Portuguese, Deryle W. Lonsdale, Jarrett Finlinson Lever
Faculty Publications
Elicited imitation (EI) is an approach to measuring oral proficiency that consists of having test takers hear a sentence and repeat the sentence exactly as they heard it. Though indirect in nature, EI has successfully shown to correlate with previously established oral proficiency examinations, such as the Oral Proficiency Interview (OPI) (Lonsdale and Christensen 2014, Matsushita and Lonsdale 2014, Millard 2011, Thompson 2013). This paper discusses the development, administration, and evaluation of an EI test for the Brazilian Portuguese language. We first discuss the relevant background of oral proficiency examination and EI. After presenting the pertinent research questions, we explain …
