Because of its ambiguous function and usage, silence is a major source of intercultural miscommunication, which frequently leads to negative judgments, and breeds stereotypes. Grounded in a cross-cultural and interactive framework, I conducted a five-month descriptive qualitative study, which explored silence perceptions among Chinese, Korean, Russian, Colombian and Iranian ESL speakers, and Canadian native-speakers of English (NS). Multiple perspectives were investigated using stimulated recall, in a context of intercultural mentoring sessions and interviews. Eight ESL 'silence producer' participants were asked to explain their silence use, and their interpretations were compared with the functions attributed to these silences by other participants, one from the same cultural background as the 'silence producer', and a NS. Participants' silence perceptions were described, and most negatively-interpreted silences were identified. Analysis revealed intra-cultural acrimony, that high language proficiency perceptions increase negative silence attributions, cross-cultural differences in attitudes towards fillers, and the systematic silencing of ESL speakers.

This study explores the use of a critical literacy approach in a class of language learners who had low levels of literacy. The particular focus was on the teacher‟s role in the process and how she could implement this approach in such a way that the students would benefit. The study records the exploration of the relevant literature, the planning and implementation of the lesson, and her reflection on the process. The students had all arrived in New Zealand as refugees. They had limited English proficiency and were enrolled on a Training Programme at the Auckland University of Technology. The aim of this programme is to help students enter gainful employment or continue with their studies. To this end great emphasis is placed on students improving their English proficiency and entering the workforce or engaging in further study. Many of the texts employed in the classroom context underline the desirability and praiseworthiness of these goals. In this study 15 students drawn from a variety of sociocultural backgrounds were asked to deconstruct a text of a type often employed in the classroom and explore their reaction to it. Two experienced observers provided feedback on the lesson and the way in which it was implemented. The students worked in groups, where possible in their first language, and answered a series of questions on the text. They were also asked to write individual texts in response to the teaching text. The researcher then conducted interviews with the students which afforded them the opportunity to expand on and clarify these responses. The study concludes that classroom exercises such as these can be meaningful and empowering particularly when students assume the roles of narrators and advisors. However such lessons need to be carefully designed and structured if students are to gain real benefit from such as approach.

This study examines the development of collocational knowledge in learners of ESL. A number of previous studies have underscored the importance of collocations for L2 acquisition, and the problems that learners face with learning and using collocations. However, there have been few attempts to systematically study how the development of collocational knowledge relates to the overall development of language proficiency with a particular intention in identifying possible stages in the development of L2 collocational knowledge. This study adopts a structure-based framework for the study of collocations based on previous studies (Zhang 1993; Biscup 1992) and the BBI Combinatory Dictionary of English, and attempts to describe how collocational knowledge develops across different language proficiency levels with respect to 37 collocation types. Data were collected from 275 Greek learners of ESL at three proficiency levels (post-beginners, intermediate, and post-intermediate) using three tasks: essay writing, translation test, and blank-filling. The essay writing provided evidence of accurate free production of collocations, while the translation and blank-filling tests measured accuracy in the subjects’ knowledge of collocations in cued production tasks. The data were examined with respect to the between- and within-group differences in accuracy on all three dependent measures. Statistical measures were employed to determine the significance of the observed between-group and within-group differences, and implicational scaling analyses was used to reveal accuracy orders in the acquisition of collocations. Results show that there are patterns of development of collocational knowledge across and within the different proficiency groups for both the free and the cued production data. Collocational knowledge was shown to increase steadily as the level of proficiency increased, and there were group-specific accuracy orders showing that grammatical collocations are easier to acquire than lexical collocations. The development of collocational knowledge was found to be influenced by the syntactic complexity of the collocation types, and also by exposure and maturation. Finally, three stages for the development of collocational knowledge are proposed. In the first stage learners acquire collocations as unanalysed lexical items, and hence the learners are more accurate with lexical collocations than complex grammatical ones. At the second stage the learners' grammatical knowledge develops enabling learners to use complex grammatical collocations with greater accuracy than in stage one. At the third stage of collocational development, learners are able to use both grammatical and lexical collocations with greater accuracy than in the other two stages, and they are on their way to a more advanced level of collocational knowledge. Pedagogical implications and directions for future research are provided in light of the research findings.

This study explores the use of a critical literacy approach in a class of language learners who had low levels of literacy. The particular focus was on the teacher‟s role in the process and how she could implement this approach in such a way that the students would benefit. The study records the exploration of the relevant literature, the planning and implementation of the lesson, and her reflection on the process. The students had all arrived in New Zealand as refugees. They had limited English proficiency and were enrolled on a Training Programme at the Auckland University of Technology. The aim of this programme is to help students enter gainful employment or continue with their studies. To this end great emphasis is placed on students improving their English proficiency and entering the workforce or engaging in further study. Many of the texts employed in the classroom context underline the desirability and praiseworthiness of these goals. In this study 15 students drawn from a variety of sociocultural backgrounds were asked to deconstruct a text of a type often employed in the classroom and explore their reaction to it. Two experienced observers provided feedback on the lesson and the way in which it was implemented. The students worked in groups, where possible in their first language, and answered a series of questions on the text. They were also asked to write individual texts in response to the teaching text. The researcher then conducted interviews with the students which afforded them the opportunity to expand on and clarify these responses. The study concludes that classroom exercises such as these can be meaningful and empowering particularly when students assume the roles of narrators and advisors. However such lessons need to be carefully designed and structured if students are to gain real benefit from such as approach.

This study reports data from a three-month discourse analysis of a fifth-grade teacher`s language used to negotiate meaning of text with linguistically and culturally diverse students. Specifically, I use Gee`s (2005) discourse analysis methodology to examine the teacher`s language-in-use for seven building tasks of language--significance, activities, identities, relationships, politics (the distribution of social goods), connections, and sign systems and knowledge--in a micro level analysis for eight teaching episodes covering reading and/or social studies instruction. In doing so, I conceptualize categories and subcategories of language use for each of the language building tasks. I find that the teacher used instructional language overwhelmingly to build significance (almost two-thirds of the coded data) and that in building significance the teacher used reproduction of meaning (including repetition, paraphrase, and citation), prosodic devices, questions, overt attention, life connection, and adjective labeling. In a macro level of analysis, I examine the content of the meanings the teacher negotiated, and find that situated meanings in her discourse often allude to issues of power that implicate a discourse model of a critical outlook on social studies and social issues that appear in social studies, reading and other texts. I end with a discussion of how these findings might be of practical use for educators and suggestions for future research.

abstract: Network-on-Chip (NoC) architectures have emerged as the solution to the on-chip communication challenges of multi-core embedded processor architectures. Design space exploration and performance evaluation of a NoC design requires fast simulation infrastructure. Simulation of register transfer level model of NoC is too slow for any meaningful design space exploration. One of the solutions to reduce the speed of simulation is to increase the level of abstraction. SystemC TLM2.0 provides the capability to model hardware design at higher levels of abstraction with trade-off of simulation speed and accuracy. In this thesis, SystemC TLM2.0 models of NoC routers are developed at three levels of abstraction namely loosely-timed, approximately-timed, and cycle accurate. Simulation speed and accuracy of these three models are evaluated by a case study of a 4x4 mesh NoC. / Dissertation/Thesis / M.S. Electrical Engineering 2012

There has been an increase in interest among researchers in the study of loanword phonology, but only limited studies have been carried out on the phonology of English loanwords in Arabic. Thus, there is a need for more linguistic studies to shed light on the borrowing of English loanwords into Arabic. A significant issue that has been the subject of an ongoing debate is whether adaptation processes are part of perception or production. This study investigated the phonology of English loanwords in Arabic. In the process, it discussed the phonetic and phonemic approaches that have been controversial in loanword adaptation. The study questioned whether the absence of phonemes in the Arabic phonemic inventory equivalent to certain English target phonemes affected EFL and ESL learners' pronunciation of English loanwords differently. It also examined whether they substituted phonemes, and if so, whether the two groups of speakers used the same phonemes for substitution or used different ones. A list of 29 loanwords was compiled and used to examine the productions of 15 EFL learners from Salman University and 15 ESL learners from the Center for English as a Second Language in Southern Illinois University. Examining the effects of the Arabic Ll on the production of loanwords via transfer, approximation, the Markedness Differential Hypothesis, and Optimality Theory showed that these English loanwords had undergone certain phonological modifications. Both EFL and ESL learners reflected native Arabic phonological processes, while only ESL learners reflected universal patterns, such as VOT approximation, that followed neither the phonological system of Arabic nor that of English. Consequently, the findings of the study contribute to a better understanding of how both phonology and phonetics are related to English loanwords in Arabic. Further research is suggested to investigate different aspects of loanword phonology, such as the effects of orthography.

AN ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION OF Jarrah Mohammad Al-Jarrah, for the Doctor of Philosophy degree in Curriculum and Instruction, presented on 03/22/2017, at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. TITLE: ESL TEACHER, STUDENT, AND PARENT PERCEPTIONS OF USING EDUCATIONAL MOBILE APPLICATIONS TO DEVELOP THE LANGUAGE SKILLS OF ESL ELEMENTARY SCHOOL STUDENTS MAJOR PROFESSOR: Dr. John McIntyre The purpose of this mixed-methods sequential explanatory study is to explore the perceptions of ESL teachers, students, and parents regarding the use of educational mobile applications to help ESL elementary school students develop their language skills. It also aims to explore the criteria used by teachers, students, and parents to choose suitable and effective applications for ESL instruction, as well as the barriers that teachers, students, and parents perceive might influence the successful use of such applications to improve ESL elementary school students’ language skills. Quantitative data were collected via surveys taken by a sample of 43 ESL students from 4th to 8th grade and 72 ESL parents from Unity Point Elementary School, Carbondale, Illinois. Later, qualitative data were collected through in-depth interviews from eight ESL students and eight ESL parents from Unity Point and from eight ESL teachers from different schools in Carbondale. Participants reported positive perceptions of using educational mobile applications to develop the language skills of students. However, they identified some obstacles to their effective use, including a general lack of mobile devices and effective applications, a lack of technical support, inadequate professional development, and negative attitudes. In addition, participants identified some criteria for choosing applications. These criteria were organized under four main themes: user feedback and reputation, content and focus, theoretical and pedagogical features, and technological features. This study provides some recommendations for the successful integration of technology in English learning and teaching for overcoming the obstacles that ESL teachers, students, and parents might encounter. Furthermore, identifying the criteria for choosing educational mobile applications could provide a framework for evaluating them, especially those used for learning English. These criteria could be used to help teachers choose appropriate applications to improve their teaching practices and performance and help decision makers assess applications and reflect upon their educational value. They may also be used to inform the design of these applications in a way that supports the effective integration of mobile technology in ESL learning and teaching.

This thesis discusses the use of innovative technologies in retail companies. The second chapter describes the basic concepts of retail and marketing, which are a key basis for understanding access to innovative technologies. They are presented in the 3rd section including a description of their use in this area. Then in the 4th section is verified using these technologies in retail stores dealing mainly selling food. In the 5th chapter describes the implementation of electronic shelf labels, which is then verified by a verified implementation of Tesco in the 6th chapter.

This research was designed to investigate the utility, relevance, and efficacy levels in the application of Computer Electronic Mail (CEM) as a tool for the teaching and learning of English as a second language (ESL). The participants in the study consisted of 26 students (18 females and 8 males) selected from the population of full time middle-level students of English as a Second Language Kuwaiti Students (ESLKS) in Kuwait University (KU). The Statistical findings of the study indicate that CEM is a useful and effective tool for the study of English as a second language among ESLKS. Positive significant differences were observed comparing pre-CEM and post-CEM scores in sentence structure, syntax, spelling, vocabulary, and the clarity of writing skills. A second dimension of the study was a survey of the participants' opinions and attitudes about CEM. The opinion survey assessed participants' perceptions of the relevance, usefulness, and effectiveness of CEM as a means of communication and as a tool for the learning of the English language. The study involved a pretest, a seven-week training in the use of CEM to communicate with native American English speakers, and a posttest of participants' performance in five critical language skills. This portion of the study also indicates the participants' overall satisfaction with CEM as useful tool both for developing English language skills, facilitating learning, building self-confidence in contacting and communicating with other people, stimulating interest in the learning of the English language, and helping in homework assignments. Participants also seem to perceive the relevance of CEM not only in the learning of English as a second language, but also in communication and in transmitting information, generating ideas, striking friendships, solving problems, and increasing work output. / Ph. D.