Browsing by Subject "language"

Now showing 1 - 10 of 10
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    Attitudes toward Language Variation: Evidence from a Qualitative Study of Sociolinguistic Interviews
    (2021) Opusunju, Shelby D
    Due to the multimodal nature of speech perception, social information such as race, gender, or accent gleaned from hearing and seeing a conversational partner can have an influence on how we perceive their speech. One’s preexisting beliefs about language and social identity can not only impact how we perceive the speech of others, but provide a window into what shapes their own speech patterns. This paper examines the sociolinguistic attitudes and beliefs of 46 participants in interviews conducted as part of the “Race, Ethnicity, and Speech Intelligibility in Normal Hearing and Hearing Impairment” project. Responses these participants gave in their sociolinguistic interviews suggested that a large number of them viewed a stereotypical English speaker as a white, highly educated, accentless speaker of American or British English, and (with few exceptions) did not view their authentic speech patterns as aligning with those of this stereotypical speaker due to a broad range of regional, cultural and linguistic differences. Future analysis of these interviews may reveal how these participants' linguistic attitudes may influence how their speech is perceived by listeners.
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    Cognitive and Neural Correlates of Processing Spatial Relations in Humans
    (2015-12) Scott, Nicole
    Human cognition has long been thought to exceed that of other animals; however, what it is that makes humans “so smart” continues to be questioned. Gentner argues that language and relational reasoning together elevate human cognition and she takes a developmental approach to support her theory. This project takes a similar approach to Gentner’s. I examined the relationship between language and relational reasoning in children, specifically as they are learning the relational terms for right and left as compared to relations for terms that they already know (i.e., above/below). What sets this project apart from Gentner’s work is that I also looked at the effect of lateralization on children’s performances as well the neural mechanisms underlying these same relational judgments in adults. Some of the neural mechanisms underlying relational reasoning in humans and monkeys are known. However, it is not known whether one set of relations (i.e., above/below) should be advantaged over the other (i.e., right/left) in both verbal and nonverbal modalities. To answer this question, I have developed a set of tasks to examine the following queries: 1) how verbal and nonverbal knowledge of above/below/right/left develops from 5 years to 10 years of age, 2) whether verbal knowledge aids performance on a nonverbal task that requires judgments of these relations, 3) whether strength of handedness promotes either verbal or nonverbal performance, and 4) what the neural correlates of these judgments are. The chapters of this thesis are organized to address each question separately. In the first chapter, I give a general overview of the work already done regarding these questions. In Chapter 2, I describe the spatial relational task used to investigate each question. Chapters 3-6 report on the findings from each of my four questions and Chapter 7 provides a general discussion of what this research adds to the current literature. Overall, my findings suggest that language is not necessary for relational coding to emerge, verbal and nonverbal knowledge of relations follow different developmental trajectories, lateralization (handedness) does not aid in learning relations, and the two sets of spatial relations are represented differently in the brain.
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    Examining Special Educators Verbal Responsiveness in Groups of Students with Autism Spectrum Disorder
    (2015-10) Qian, Xueqin
    This study aimed to examine whether verbal responsiveness to students’ attentional focus and verbal/vocal acts in special educators varied among subgroups of preschool students with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) (n = 112). Participants were divided into clusters using cluster analysis based on their standardized scores from the Preschool Language Scale-4 and the Mullen Scales of Early Learning. For each student, a 15-minute video of free play in school setting was collected. Three types of responsive utterances were coded: follow-in directives for behavior, follow-in directives for language, and follow-in comments. Results showed that the clusters did not differ in the rate of overall responsive utterances. Additionally, the groups did not differ in follow-in directives for behavior after controlling for classroom types. However, compared with a cluster of students with ASD who scored within normal range on standardized cognitive and language tests, the cluster of students with more severe cognitive and language impairments received a significantly higher rate of follow-in directives for language from special educators. Moreover, student engagement was positively associated with the amount of responsive utterances from the teacher. Students with more cognitive and language impairments produced significantly fewer vocal/verbal acts, which may have resulted in receiving fewer verbal responses from their teachers.
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    Improving the Cultural Responsiveness of Visual Thinking Strategies
    (2021) Choi, Sky Y
    Visual Thinking Strategies is a thinking strategy created by Philip Yenawine and Abigail Housen to combat the lack of cognitive intake museum goers and art viewers felt after looking at art. Now, it is used in classrooms as well as museums to develop critical thinking skills and visual literacy amidst other skills such as communication and writing. While reviewing this thinking strategy, I wondered how it would fit and adhere to Culturally Responsive Teaching, a pedagogy curated by Geneva Gay to view academic achievement, skills, identities, and experiences by multicultural students through a holistic view rather than a deficient, “what are they lacking”, point of view. In this essay, I suggest methods to improve the cultural responsiveness of Visual Thinking Strategies in the hopes that they will create a more culturally responsive form of VTS to be used in future classrooms. I have also taken my findings and thoughts from throughout my analysis and created a photomontage which is attached and explained at the end.
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    Indigenous Language Revitalization using Virtual Reality
    (2021-05-12) Werner, Colton
    Working within the framework of the Indigenous Futures project, a collaborative research project between the University of Minnesota and three local Indigenous communities, this thesis explores the potential of using VR environments to facilitate Indigenous language revitalization and trans-Indigenous exchange, specifically on the topic of star knowledge and stories. I implemented a virtual night sky filled with Micronesian, Ojibwe and Dakota constellations. These constellations carry rich cultural histories, and their stories have been passed down through generations within each community, making them an ideal topic for trans-Indigenous exchange. 3D text can be incorporated into the environment to label the constellations directly in the virtual sky; however, this raises the question of how the constellations' written names should be represented. To understand this important design choice, I developed a series of visual prototypes, both in English and the respective Indigenous languages incorporating various scripts and symbols to depict each name. The prototypes also explore where and when to display these labels (i.e., side-by-side, overlapping, changing over time). In this way, the project serves as a case study of some of the many options available to Indigenous communities for representing written forms of language in VR. Early feedback from collaborating Indigenous scholars supports the potential of VR environments in this style to open the door to further conversations about the importance of language in Indigenous culture and suggests that using "morphable 3D labels" (those that change over time to depict multiple names for the same constellation) may provide a useful graphical tool for facilitating these conversations.
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    Measuring Written Language Proficiency of Elementary-Aged Students with Writing Difficulties: Evaluating the Technical Quality of Complementary Scoring Mechanisms in Writing Curriculum-Based Measurement and Language Sample Analysis
    (2024) Reno, Emily
    Achieving proficiency in core foundational oral language (OL), reading, and writing skills remains difficult for students with specific learning disabilities (SLD) and foundational OL difficulty (National Center for Educational Statistics, 2022). Despite evidence linking OL skills in grammar (morphosyntax, syntax) and vocabulary (semantics) to writing quality (Dockrell et al., 2014, 2015; Kim et al., 2011, 2014, 2015; Kim & Park, 2019; Kim & Graham, 2022; Kim & Schatschneider, 2017) and a high co-occurrence of OL difficulty and SLD (Adlof & Hogan, 2018; Graham et al., 2020) OL difficulties remain under-identified (Adlof & Hogan, 2018; Georgan et al., 2023). To improve identification of these language-based learning disabilities, school-based practitioners must adopt a comprehensive, cascading levels of language assessment approach that examines linguistic skills across modalities (i.e., oral, written), domains (i.e., phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, pragmatics), and levels (i.e., word-, sentence-, discourse-level) (Berninger et al., 2015). To support comprehensive oral and written language assessment, Reno and McMaster (2024) applied metrics from language sample analysis (LSA) as a complementary scoring mechanism for sentence-level picture-word writing curriculum-based measures (PW CBM-W) that provide discrete estimates underlying syntactic and semantic skills not possible with current CBM-W metrics (Dockrell et al., 2014). Three metrics, mean length of T-Unit in words, mean length of T-Unit in morphemes (MLTU-M), and number of different words (NDW) showed evidence of adequate reliability, criterion-related validity, and sensitivity to growth in a group of typically developing first through third graders. However, the extent to which complementary PW CBM-W and LSA scoring mechanisms exhibit technical quality in students with writing difficulties is unknown. The purpose of this dissertation was to determine the technical quality of complementary PW CBM-W and LSA scoring mechanisms in 123 first through third graders with writing difficulties. Using descriptive statistics, Pearson product-moment correlations, and Spearman’s correlations, I determined that two LSA metrics showed evidence of adequate reliability and criterion-related validity with existing CBM-W metrics and the Kaufman Test of Educational Achievement, Third Edition Written Expression subtest (Kaufman & Kaufman, 2014): MLTU-M, using the mean score of two PW CBM-W forms, and NDW, by individual form or the mean of two PW CBM-W forms. Results support research on the role of foundational OL skills in writing (Kim & Graham, 2022) and offer a promising method to support comprehensive sentence-level written language assessment. Future research in PW CBM-W and LSA should investigate sensitivity to growth and identification accuracy for language-based learning disabilities, technical quality with bilingual and emergent bilingual populations, and school-based practitioners’ experiences with PW CBM-W and LSA scoring mechanisms as a feasible and acceptable practice.
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    Metalinguistic Skills in Children with ADHD
    (2017-08) Palm, Bryce
    Purpose: Prior research has established positive relationships between language ability, executive function, and metalinguistic awareness in bilingual children. Little is known about how these skills relate in other populations. This study examined these relationships in children with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) who are known to have weaknesses in executive function. Method: Participants included 10 children with ADHD aged 6 to 7 years and 10 age-matched typically developing peers. Children completed a battery of cognitive, language, and metalinguistic awareness assessments. Parents completed a demographic questionnaire and several surveys regarding their child’s development, including executive function abilities. Results: There were no significant differences in between groups based on performance on any of the metalinguistic awareness assessments. Conclusions: These results suggest a dissociation between executive function and metalinguistic skills in young children with ADHD. Future research examining a larger sample with a larger array of assessments is warranted.
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    Se Habla Español
    (2010-10-29) Alm, Liz
    Spanish speaking and language sensitive services are important in the proper care and treatment of Spanish-speaking patients. This pamphlet describes how to access Spanish speaking, culturally competent programs and services.
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    Towards a Common Language: Social Movements and Vernacular Publics in Telugu, 1900-1956
    (2019-06) Kollu, Sravanthi
    My dissertation foregrounds the ruptures in the constitution of vernacular languages, and in the publics these languages generate, to posit that the vernacular and its publics are unendingly fractured. This fracturing is significant for comparative and regional literary studies, where even as scholars attend to the exclusions that mark the vernacular public, they treat vernaculars as bounded and discrete languages whose limits of linguistic use could potentially be expanded. The equation of vernaculars with a place (within which they are spoken) and the association of people who live within a place with a given language plays a significant role in establishing the coherence of these languages. Such equation is not limited to Anglophone discourse; in South Asian languages as well, the words desa (region), bhasha (language) and praja (people) were repeatedly invoked in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries to establish the importance of vernaculars in that region. To critique the pervasiveness of this framework for studying vernaculars, I analyze the ruptures that mark the emergence of each of these categories at the turn of the twentieth century. The archives I draw on come from three social movements in the Telugu sphere that together led to the formation of a recognizable discourse on language and caused widespread transformations in how literature was read and written. These were: the Andhra movement (1900-1956), which sought to establish a separate state (administrative unit) for Telugu speaking people in the Madras Presidency and represented the interests of Telugu speakers in Hyderabad State; the Telugu language debates (1910-1915), which argued over what form of Telugu (classical, literary or modern, non-literary) should be used in contemporary prose writing; and the Andhra public library movement (1914-1956), which established public access libraries across the region. Drawing on these discourses, I argue that there is an enduring connection between vernacular languages and the formation of exclusionary linguistic communities. These movements constituted linguistic communities both as common, or commonly shared among people, and as exclusive/majoritarian entities. I show that to move toward a different concept of the vernacular, we would have to attend to both these concepts of the common.