Learning phrasal verbs (PVs) is of vital importance in both written and spoken English, especially for those English learners who must use English as a second language (ESL) in their daily interactions with proficient speakers. This study focused on two particles (out and in) in exploring a more effective model for presenting PVs in an ESL context. PVs are the focus of this empirical study because they are an essential component of English vocabulary but are typically regarded as very difficult for ESL students to master. This study used a quasi-experimental design to compare the effect of instruction through image-schematic container illustrations of 16 PVs (supported by the container metaphor model) and a definition-only illustration of the same 16 PVs (supported by the traditional model of PV instruction). The participants in this experiment consisted of 28 intermediate-level students enrolled in intensive English program (IEP) courses at a metropolitan college in the southeastern United States during the summer of 2019; the students were divided into a control group and an experimental group. Four types of instruments, including one pretest and three posttests, were used in this experiment to examine the effectiveness of the container metaphor model compared with the traditional model. The findings of this study challenge the traditional view regarding the difficulty of teaching the meanings of these 16 PVs and suggest that the container metaphor model is more conducive to PV learning and retention. However, the findings of this study showed little evidence that the container metaphor model can assist in guessing the meaning of previously unknown PVs. The practical implications demonstrated from these results can be used by ESL teachers and educational stakeholders to validate English-teaching practices. Therefore, this model was recommended to be considered as one model of presenting PVs. The current study demonstrated that researchers should include infrequent PVs in their research in addition to the frequent ones. Finally, limitations of the current study are identified and recommendations for organizing future studies on this topic are proposed.

This thesis analyzes the life and work of Nobel Peace Laureate Wangari Maathai, one of the foremost African woman rhetors of our time. Wangari Maathai--founder of Kenya's Green Belt Movement (GBM), Member of Parliament, and activist for democracy, sustainable development, and human rights--has cultivated a multidimensional literacy that has allowed her to truly understand and address the problems that post-colonial Kenyans face. Her strong solution-oriented approach has allowed her to develop and refine operation of the GBM, which began simply planting trees, to produce a worldwide organization that works for sustainable development, human rights, and environmental conservation/restoration (among many others) by attacking the roots of disempowerment and challenging participants to become the primary agents of change. Through the overlapping lenses of Paulo Freire's Pedagogy of the Oppressed, Jacqueline Jones Royster's Traces of a Stream, and Filomina Chioma Steady's Women and Collective Action in Africa, I trace Maathai's emergence as a literate women in late 20th century Kenya who is able to effect meaningful social change. This examination of her life and work uncovers the convergence of literacies (academic, critical, civic, and cultural) that have created her unique worldview. Furthermore, it also examines her rhetorical construction of self through an analysis of her context, her ethos construction, and her mandates for action. At the heart of the study is an exploration of the GBM as an outlet of civic and environmental education. This discussion explores Maathai's approach to civic education as well as the potential pedagogical implications of that approach in the composition classroom of the Western university.

Thesis (Ed.D.)--Boston University / PLEASE NOTE: Boston University Libraries did not receive an Authorization To Manage form for this thesis or dissertation. It is therefore not openly accessible, though it may be available by request. If you are the author or principal advisor of this work and would like to request open access for it, please contact us at open-help@bu.edu. Thank you. / With increasing complexities in the health care system, including new technologies, density of health information, and a rise in medical errors, the literature has demonstrated links between communication and health literacy and patient/client safety, adherence to health protocols, and satisfaction with health providers. The purpose of this study was to understand the current level of knowledge of health communication and health literacy among doctoral (OPT) students and experienced physical therapists, and to explore related professional literature, documents, competencies, and industry standards to further inform this research. In addition to a qualitative research approach that included semi-structured participant interviews, open-ended questioning, coding, and analysis, the Design for Learning Model of instructional design was incorporated as a parallel methodology to develop a course template for communication and health literacy instruction. Participants were selected and interviewed at a national conference, and in academic, practice, and home settings. Based upon, and in response to, the data collected from fifteen physical therapist informant interviews, industry consultants, document sources, and pilot testing of units on health literacy and pharmaceutical advertising in the American health care system, respectively, a systematic, competency-based communication and health literacy course template was developed for use in physical therapist education. Findings suggest that, although patient-practitioner communication is embedded into physical therapy courses, there is a need to broaden the definition to incorporate more extensive communication topics, including health literacy and health informatics, cultural- and age-sensitivity, and alternative patient education methods to address related issues in health care settings, home, and workplace. Recommendations for the future include development of more specific communication and health literacy education for both student and experienced physical therapists in academia, clinical education, practice settings, and professional development arenas. Additionally, physical therapists are urged to collaborate with other health and non-health disciplines, including policymakers, educators, communications experts, and instructional designers to promote health literacy awareness, competencies, and commitment within the profession, and beyond. This study further underscores the health professional's responsibility for both delivery and comprehension of health information by patients/clients, especially those who may be challenged by low health literacy. / 2031-01-02

PURPOSE: The quantity and quality of maternal language input in early childhood carry long-term implications for children's language development. This includes not only the quantity (e.g., total number of words) but also the quality of maternal language input (e.g., complexity and diversity of vocabulary and grammar use). One central qualitative aspect of maternal language use involves prosody. Prosody is a perceptually salient aspect of spoken language that conveys meaning, emphasis (i.e., via linguistic stress patterns), and emotion through changes in pitch (fundamental frequency (fo) modulation) and timing (rate, pausing). Prosody of a child’s main communication partner, often mothers, has been shown to play an important role in the language development of the child. There are numerous contexts in which language interactions can take place between a mother and child. Mother-child shared book reading (hereafter referred to as “shared reading”) is known to provide especially rich opportunities for language input and exposure, yet the contributions of oral reading expressiveness have yet to be specified. Initial evidence suggests that more expressive presentation of a storybook (through digital manipulation of fo mean) has a positive impact on children’s comprehension of the storybook text. Yet, it remains unclear whether maternal oral reading expressiveness is associated with children’s emerging language abilities in early childhood, particularly in toddlerhood, a critical developmental window for the early identification of late talkers. This work seeks to delineate the associations of maternal oral reading expressiveness on a child’s overall concurrent and subsequent language abilities. PROCEDURE: 44 mother-child dyads with children classified as either late talkers (n = 21) or typical controls (n=23) were selected from an ongoing larger longitudinal study of language delay in collaboration with researchers at Northwestern University. Maternal oral reading expressiveness during shared reading of the same children’s book was quantified through prosodic transcription and acoustic analysis in Praat yielding mean fundamental frequency (fo) and rate of speech as primary variables. Child language abilities were measured concurrently at the two-year time point and subsequently at the three-year time point using the Mullen Scales of Early Learning. Maternal socioeconomic status (SES) variables were assessed via family income-to-needs ratio and maternal education level. First, independent two sample t-tests were employed to determine whether late talker and typical control groups significantly differed in maternal oral reading expressiveness (as indicated by mean fo and speech rate) or SES. Thereafter, correlation analyses were employed to examine maternal oral reading expressiveness in relation to concurrent child language abilities at age two, and subsequent child language abilities at age three. Finally, multiple regression analyses were conducted to examine the extent to which maternal oral reading expressiveness may predict subsequent child language abilities approximately one year later (at age three) when controlling for SES. RESULTS: Preliminary findings revealed no group differences in measures of maternal oral reading expressiveness (i.e., mean fo, speech rate) between mothers of late talkers versus controls. However, at the whole-group level (among all dyads), correlational analyses revealed that maternal oral reading expressiveness (e.g., mean fo) is positively associated with child receptive and expressive language abilities at both two and three years. Furthermore, through a multiple regression model, maternal oral reading expressiveness was found to significantly contribute to the variance in child language abilities at both two years and longitudinally at three years when SES factors (i.e., parent education level, income-to-need ratio) were held constant. CONCLUSIONS: Preliminary results suggest that maternal oral reading expressiveness is significantly associated with children’s emerging language abilities in toddlerhood. These findings highlight the need for further investigation into the variable of maternal oral reading expressiveness as a possible modifiable environmental factor with the potential to facilitate positive language outcomes for children. Future and ongoing work will be necessary to obtain a more fine-grained characterization of variation in maternal oral reading expressiveness and examine maternal oral reading expressiveness in conjunction with other quantitative and qualitative indicators of maternal language input. Findings of this work carry implications for targeting reading expressiveness in parent-focused early intervention programs.

AbstractTeachers make decisions about which resources to use in their classrooms daily, including text selection for read-aloud. This impacts students in classrooms nationwide, as these decisions validate some voices and marginalize others. This study used the Q-methodology in a concurrent mixed-methods design to explore what beliefs influence decision-making as teachers in Grades 3-6 select texts to share for read-aloud and where these beliefs originated. Teacher participants identified priorities in text selection using a forced-rank Q-sort and reflected individually on their text selection process for read-aloud. Data were then analyzed using exploratory factor analysis (EFA) to delineate factor groups with similar priorities within the participant sample. These groups were interviewed to investigate commonalities more deeply and look for common origination spaces. Participants identified different priorities in text selection; texts that help students examine and stretch their own thinking were most common. The sample clustered into 4 dominant viewpoints about text selection for read-aloud: read-aloud as a curriculum tool, a relationship building tool, a pathway to explore diversity, or an invitation to school and reading. Teachers struggled to identify a single priority in their text selection process; top priorities in the Q-sort were identified, however, self-reflections revealed many other influences that affected final book choices. Teachers identified the origins of their beliefs about text selection and felt that the text selection process could change during a teacher’s career. Recommendations based on findings along with implications for policy and practice are shared in the discussion. Keywords: read-aloud, beliefs, decision making, q methodology, teachers

Background: In Canada, as acute ischemic stroke treatment advances and the population ages, more individuals are surviving stroke and returning home with minor deficits. Self-management education tailored to one’s health literacy level is a critical and overlooked aspect in minor ischemic stroke survivors’ recovery. During the first month after minor ischemic stroke, when the risk of recurrence is highest, minor ischemic stroke survivors experience numerous transitions and report unmet health information needs that place them at risk for poor health outcomes. Although minor ischemic stroke-specific data is lacking, American data suggests 59% of stroke survivors have marginal to inadequate health literacy at the time of hospital discharge. Low health literacy in stroke survivors has been associated with poor education retention; issues with medication administration, adherence and self-efficacy; reduced physical functioning; and depression. Increasingly it is recognized that health literacy should be considered a contextual entity. There is a need to better understand the level of health literacy and contextual factors associated with health literacy in minor ischemic stroke survivors to prevent poor health outcomes and health disparities. Purpose: This project aimed to determine the level of health literacy and contextual factors associated with health literacy in recent minor ischemic stroke survivors who were predicted to return to the community within 30 days after their stroke. Methods: This cross-sectional survey was grounded by Sorensen’s Integrated Model of Health Literacy (2012) and employed the HLS19-Q12 to measure health literacy. Contextual factors were assessed using a survey developed from a comprehensive literature review. Forty-two minor ischemic stroke survivors were recruited from the acute stroke unit and stroke rehabilitation unit and completed the questionnaires. Statistical analyses were completed in SPSS. Summary statistics of the HLS19-Q12 scores in minor ischemic stroke survivors were reported and compared with HLS19-Q12 scores of the general population published in the2019-2021 Health Literacy Population Survey. Contextual factors were reported as summary statistics and associations with health literacy were analyzed using Spearman correlation, Kruskal-Wallis tests, Mann-Whitney U tests and multiple linear regression. Results: The average HLS19-Q12 score was 76.3 and similar to the results obtained in the 2019-2021 Health Literacy Populations Survey. The need for information about financial support, a higher number of total barriers to health literacy and issues related to health care provider continuity, feeling uncomfortable asking a health care provider to explain something you didn’t understand (stigma) and memory were associated with lower levels of health literacy in recent minor ischemic stroke survivors. Discussion: Although the average level of health literacy was similar to that of the general population, many participants reported problematic (26.2%) or inadequate (16.7%) health literacy. This thesis is unique in its use of a contextual perspective to explore health literacy in minor ischemic stroke survivors. This perspective enabled the identification of personal, situational and societal/environmental factors that may be critical in promoting optimal health of recent minor ischemic stroke survivors. The results of this study suggest care continuity, the patient-health care provider relationship and financial support may be critical factors. Conclusion: This data can be used to inform future equity-focused research designs and holistic interventions to support recent minor ischemic stroke survivors with lower levels of health literacy who return to the community. These interventions have the potential to reduce the risk for poor health outcomes after a minor ischemic stroke / Thesis / Master of Science in Nursing (MSN)

Problem formulation, goal and objectives: Algorithms are ubiquitous in digital society, yet complex to understand and often hidden. Algorithmic literacy can be a useful concept when educating and empowering users. However, it is not uniformly defined or used, and the state of knowledge is unclear. The aim of this thesis is to examine algorithmic literacy as a concept, what other concepts are associated, and what empirical and theoretical knowledge exists on this topic. Theory and method: Information literacy research serves as theoretical perspective, focusing on the role of evaluative and explorative approaches of research. The scoping review is chosen as method. Included are peer-reviewed journal articles, published in English from 2018 to 2022, from LISA, LISTA, ERIC ProQuest, and Scopus. Empirical results: Algorithmic literacy is often placed in information, media, and/or digital literacies. Closely related terms are attitude, agency, trust, and transparency. Four themes were identified: the necessity of algorithmic literacy, algorithm awareness as the basis, teaching and learning, and studying algorithmic literacy. Demographic and socioeconomic factors play a role: lower age and higher eduaction correlated with higher levels of algorithmic literacy. Algorithmic literacy is learned via personal experiences and formal education at all levels. Conclusions: Algorithmic literacy research would benefit from a limited number of terms used, and clearly defined terminology. The relationship between closely related concepts needs to be examined further. Librarians and educators should develop and share interventions at regional or national levels. Various knowledge gaps have been identified that may serve as future research agenda.

Traditionally, the field of education has often adopted a negative perspective in their views of minority families’ contributions to the educational progress of their children. However, research embodying the theoretical framework of ‘funds of knowledge’ attempts to counter that model through its assertion that all families possess extensive bodies of knowledge that have developed through social, historical, and cultural contexts. Teachers carry out studies of familial funds of knowledge in order to understand how family experiences shape the knowledge that a child brings to the classroom. There is then, the potential to use that body of knowledge to create meaningful learning experiences that connect prior understanding and experiences to classroom practice. This research served as a case study of the funds of knowledge existing in the home of a Hispanic family and the connections that existed between that knowledge and literacy. The results indicated that the family possessed extensive funds of knowledge that developed through their historical, cultural, and social experiences. They often used family networks, as well as formal and informal literacy experiences to share this knowledge with their children. A key component of the literacy value system that they communicated resulted from a desire to maintain aspects of their culture and heritage through maintaining and improving their children’s reading and linguistic abilities in Spanish. Furthermore, along with their emphasis on Spanish literacy, they held aspirations for their children related to familial and educational values that often stemmed from their expressed desire for their children to lead lives with greater opportunities and positive examples than they had experienced.

This study sought to investigate the self-perceived factors that led adult language learners, who acquired L2 after the critical period, to acquire native like pronunciation in their second language. Given the impact of accent and pronunciation on perceptions of a speaker's status, intelligence and/or competence, there exists a need for thoughtful and comprehensive research into why adult second language learners reach different outcomes in pronunciation attainment. A qualitative phenomenological design was employed to recruit adults who began learning English as an L2 after 12 years old but attained a native-like English accent. Participants recorded vocal samples that were presented with native speaker control-recordings to three native speaking judges. Two participants were judged to be native-like and then were invited to separate semi-structured interviews. These interviews collected data on the nature of the participants' language acquisition experience. Results revealed common experiences, supported by previous research, of a.) Interest in L2 beyond academics, b.) L2 and identity construction, and c.) cultivation of L2 social networks in target speaking countries. Results also revealed experiences that diverged from previous research relating to d.) use of metacognitive strategies and e.) attitudes toward pronunciation in the L2. These findings expand on the limited scholarship exploring the development of exceptional pronunciation in adults and provide a model of a targeted qualitative methodology for future research to continue investigating the unique experience of these exceptional learners.

No description available.