Aligning Language Test Scores To Local Proficiency Levels: The Case Of China’S Standards Of English Language Ability (Cse), Spiros Papageorgiou, Sha Wu, Ching-Ni Hsieh, Richard J Tannenbaum, Mengmeng Cheng

Chinese/English Journal of Educational Measurement and Evaluation | 教育测量与评估双语期刊

The past decade has seen an emerging interest in aligning test scores to language proficiency levels of external performance scales or frameworks, such as the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR). Such alignment is ultimately a claim about the interpretation of test scores in relation to external levels of language proficiency. To support such a claim, established procedures should be carefully implemented and documented, and multiple sources of evidence should be collected. This paper demonstrates the steps in building an argument for aligning the scores of an international English language proficiency test to the levels of China’s Standards of English …

Toward Suicidal Ideation Detection With Lexical Network Features And Machine Learning, Ulya Bayram, William Lee, Daniel Santel, Ali Minai, Peggy Clark, Tracy Glauser, John Pestian

Northeast Journal of Complex Systems (NEJCS)

In this study, we introduce a new network feature for detecting suicidal ideation from clinical texts and conduct various additional experiments to enrich the state of knowledge. We evaluate statistical features with and without stopwords, use lexical networks for feature extraction and classification, and compare the results with standard machine learning methods using a logistic classifier, a neural network, and a deep learning method. We utilize three text collections. The first two contain transcriptions of interviews conducted by experts with suicidal (n=161 patients that experienced severe ideation) and control subjects (n=153). The third collection consists of interviews conducted by experts …

Ecosystem Of Workplace Education And Training: Where Do Learners Fit?, Kathy Harris, Jen Vanek, Jill Castek, Gloria E. Jacobs

21CLEO Presentations and Publications

Presentation Agenda

● Background on study design and theoretical approaches

● What’s a learning ecosystem?

● Who are the learners?

● Insights gleaned from critical analysis of learner interview data & discussion with key stakeholders (employers, WFD practitioners, educators)

● What’s next in our research

It Won’T Be Easy, Allison Arkush

School of Art, Art History, and Design: Theses and Student Creative Work

Interdisciplinary artist Allison Arkush engages a wide range of materials, modalities, and research in her practice. In It Won’t Be Easy, Arkush places and piles her multimedia sculptures throughout the gallery to create installations that overlap ­with her writing and poetry, sometimes layering in (or extending out to) audio and video components. This approach facilitates the probing exploration of prevailing value systems through a flattening of hierarchies among and between humans, the other-than-human, and the inanimate—though no less lively. Her work meditates on and ‘vendiagrams’ things forsaken and sacred, the traumatic and nostalgic. The exhibition title acknowledges that the …

The Religious Lexicon Embedded In Public American Curricula, Daniel R. Jones

Student Publications

What is the relationship between one's own religious beliefs and their everyday colloquial diction choices? Moreover, why is the subfield that encompasses the intersection of sociolinguistics, education, and religious studies one that has gained little scholarly interest in recent years, where one could argue the importance of religious belief, and other socio-political beliefs in education have come center stage in the heart of American political debate? This article will tackle this broad range of topics through a case study focusing on my primary research question: How does a teacher’s own religious identity affect the religious language utilized in their classroom …

U.S. Muslim College Students' Spatialization Of Their Muslimness: An Exploration Of Muslim Linguistic And Cultural Identities Across Social Spaces, Ibrahim Demir

Language, Literacy, and Sociocultural Studies ETDs

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this multiple-case study was to explore how four US-born Muslim college students spatialized their linguistic and cultural identities within and across their social, academic, and religious spaces. The data were collected through detailed and in-depth data collection methods involving multiple sources of information: observations in the above-mentioned spaces, focus group interviews, autobiographies, drawings, images, and narratives. The data were analyzed through spatial analytical perspectives.

This study was drawn on Lefebvre's (1991) Spatial triad of perceived, conceived, and lived spaces, Soja's (1996) interpretation of spatiality and Thirdspace, and Bhabha's (2004) concept of Hybridity. This study presented how …

Chinese Word Order: A Look Into Svo And Sov Arguments, Shelley E. Tennison

University Honors Theses

In this paper, the issue of Chinese word order is weighed, and findings in the field are presented. First, looking into the historical background and offering a brief introduction to Greenberg's linguistic universals, I will break apart various arguments concerning the word order in Chinese. I will examine many sources, albeit the focus will rest heavily on Sandra Li and Charles Thomson's SOV argument and Timothy Gívon and Chaofen Sun's SVO argument. The two sides of this argument are considered regarding X-bar theory, constituent test, morphological limitations, and syntax.

The Variation Of Metaphor Processing Strategies And The Effects On Reading Skills In L2 English Learners, Shana Scucchi

Theses and Dissertations

Metaphor use and meaning is deeply tied to the culturally-determined conventional use of language. To date, most research regarding metaphor comprehension exists within the realm of first language (L1) acquisition, with little research that examines how learners interpret metaphor in their second language (L2). Thus, little is known about how learners process metaphor constructions in their L2, or how these processing strategies may affect other L2 skills, such as reading abilities.

Gentner (1988) investigated how metaphors are comprehended at various ages using the nominal metaphor X is Y, where Y is the base of the metaphor and X is the …

Lexical And Syntactic Priming In Dialogue, Sarah Campbell Wilson

Theses and Dissertations

Speakers engaged in dialogue align with one another across multiple linguistic levels to ensure effective communication. The Interactive Alignment Model (Pickering & Garrod, 2004) suggests speakers align due to automatic priming mechanisms at individual linguistic levels. Syntactic priming is the tendency to repeat a syntactic structure that has been recently comprehended or produced. Although syntactic priming is regarded as an automatic, abstract structural phenomenon, other linguistic factors can influence a syntactic structure’s priming strength. Lexical repetition between structures has been shown to enhance syntactic priming, an effect termed “lexical boost” (Branigan et al., 2000; Healey, Purvery, & Howes., 2014). Another …

"You Will Be Evaluated According To The Following": Language, Race, And International Students At A U.S. Predominantly White Institution, Anusha Anand

Theses and Dissertations

As sociolinguists have long noted, racial hierarchies in the United States have been maintained through a hegemonic standard language ideology that assumes white middle-class ways of speaking as “standard” and the linguistic marginalization of non-whites ways of speaking as “nonstandard” (Bonfiglio 2010). This phenomenon is well-documented in studies on the perceptions of racialized international TAs (ITAs), which show that the racializing ideologies about ITAs’ language held by predominantly white, Western undergraduates impact their perception of ITAs’ comprehensibility and teaching ability (Staples, Kang, & Wittner 2014). Other studies on international students have shown that the discrimination that they face is driven …

The Role Of Force Dynamic Schemas In The Comprehension Of Causal Language, Dawson Petersen

Theses and Dissertations

The current study is an attempt to empirically test the predictions of Talmy’s (1988) force dynamics. Specifically, Talmy argues that causal sentences are understood by reference to basic image schemas, such as Starting and Stopping. While many of the predictions of other cognitive linguistic models, such as Lakoff and Johnson’s (1980) conceptual metaphor theory, have been tested empirically by psycholinguists (Fischer & Zwaan, 2008; Gibbs, 2006; Boroditsky & Ramscar, 2002), force dynamics has received very little empirical attention (I am only aware of Wolff & Song, 2003), in spite of its productivity in formal linguistics.

The current study aims to …

“I’M Certainly No Language Police”: Language, Race, And Identity Negotiation Among White K-8 Teachers, Luca Poxon , '22

Senior Theses, Projects, and Awards

Drawing on concepts from critical race theory and critical whiteness studies, scholarship on raciolinguistics and racial identity, and methods from grounded theory and discourse analysis, this thesis explores the following research questions: 1) How do White teachers of students of color understand language, race, and their own role as raced people teaching language? 2) How do they act on these understandings? Interviews with five White K-8 educators show how particular combinations of understandings of race, language, and self produce raciolinguistic and pedagogical tensions; these include knowing that the concept of “academic language” is racialized and power-laden while also believing that …

Examining The Perspectives Of Adult Working Learners And Key Stakeholders Using Critical Race Theory, Gloria E. Jacobs, Jill Castek, Kathy Harris, Jen Vanek

Applied Linguistics Faculty Publications and Presentations

Purpose: This article reports on a critical race theory (CRT) analysis of the perspectives of providers of employer-supported educational opportunities and adult learners, who identified as Black, indigenous or as a person of color, and were employed in service industries. Design/methodology/approach: A review of the literature was used to shape an initial interview protocol. Data were collected from working learners in retail, hospitality, restaurants and healthcare industries. An “a priori” coding scheme that drew from CRT was applied to transcripts during analysis. Findings: Analysis revealed that working learners' skills, experiential knowledge, learning mindset, language flexibility and knowledge gained from previous …

Variación Lingüística De La Cortesía Verbal En El Discurso Académico Escrito: Atenuación E Intensificación De La Voz Del Autor En La Evaluación De Las Fuentes, David Sánchez-Jiménez

Publications and Research

Resumen

Como ocurre con la mayor parte de los elementos pragmáticos, la cortesía verbal cumple una función esencial en la elusión de los efectos no deseados de los actos amenazadores de la imagen, lo cual permite que se establezca una comunicación eficaz en la interpretación de los textos. Con el fin de facilitar esta labor, el escritor emplea una serie de recursos retóricos interpersonales −asociados con la expresión de la voz del autor− que se utilizan para proyectar una imagen social determinada del emisor del escrito y, al mismo tiempo, establecer un diálogo eficaz con su audiencia. En el análisis …

Vedantic Basis And Praxis Of The Integral Advaita Of Sri Aurobindo, Debashish Banerji

Monsoon: South Asian Studies Association Journal

The integral nondualism of Sri Aurobindo can be traced to the great pronouncements (mahāvākya) of the Upanishads and later commentaries. This study examines teachings on the Supermind (vijñāna) and the other four kinds of consciousness that define human reality: Matter (annaṃ), Life (prāṇaḥ), Mind (manaḥ), and Bliss (ānanda). Through Yoga and Tantra, one learns and embodies the pathway to the divine.

Digital And Spatial Humanities Mapping: Eurasia-Pacific Early Trade And Belief Linkages, Igor Sitnikov, David Blundell

Monsoon: South Asian Studies Association Journal

The Eurasia-Pacific is a dynamic region of rapid economic growth, cultural awareness, natural resource exploration, and military buildup. The concept of the region is relatively new, featuring contested vast areas of geo-resource space of numerous cultures and languages. The current findings in anthropology and archaeology and even its more specific subfields such as folklore are important contribution to the understanding of periodic environmental changes and technical innovations were the main forces of transformations in social structures that have determined the mechanisms and levels of cross-cultural trade activity across the region. We have traced early trade and belief linkages across Eurasia-Pacific …

Tusha Hiti: The Origin And Significance Of The Name, Deepak Shimkhada

Monsoon: South Asian Studies Association Journal

In this article, the author examines the royal bath called Tushā Hiti located in Sūndari Chowk (Beautiful Courtyard) of Pātan Durbar Square, using six different methods of investigation. The question: What is in a name? started the ball of investigation rolling and along the way were added more supporting blocks such as history, iconography, function and purpose, notion of purity and impurity, and finally the hiti in popular culture to get a complete picture of the subject in question.

Diversity, Equity, And Inclusion: Perspectives From Contemporary India And 6th Century Jain Yoga, Christopher Key Chapple

Monsoon: South Asian Studies Association Journal

Times New Roman

Ganges In Indian Sculpture And Literature: Mythology And Personification, Nalini Rao

Monsoon: South Asian Studies Association Journal

The river Ganges is a symbol of wealth, purity and eternity, and its sacred waters have inspired sages, philosophers, and artists in India who have immortalized its divine imagery. However, it has rarely been understood from a historical point of view, as to how it became so sacred and to view it from a multi-dimensional and interdisciplinary perspective with an accumulation of layers of historical thought and practices, provides a rationale for the living practices around the river. The paper explores the evolution of the concept of sacredness and eternity of River Ganges through art- historical and archaeological evidence. It …

Gender-Related Language Trends In Online Written News: Comparative Corpus Analysis Of Prescribed Vs. Actual Usage, Brooke James

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Contrary to traditional thought in linguistics and editing, recent studies using corpus-based evidence suggest that historical English usage patterns influenced prescriptive usage manuals’ guidelines more than the other way around. To investigate the modern relationship between English language prescriptions and usage, this study focuses on the wide-reaching genre of written online news and the topic of gender-fair language. It compares changes regarding gender-specific language in the Associated Press’s stylebooks to actual usage trends as documented in the News on the Web (NOW) corpus. Results from NOW show -man title variants as the dominant form in the early 2010s, consistent AP …