This study will chronicle the contributions of Irene Olivia Colbert Edmonds (1908-1968) to the field of educational theatre. The study will focus on her years as an educator at Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University (FAMU) during the years 1947-1968. / The dissertation is organized into six chapters. Chapter one establishes the historical importance of Edmonds before examining her family heritage and her place in the socio-political context of the time. Specifically, it provides background information on the woman and on her career prior to her arrival at FAMU. / Chapter Two, involving the years 1947-1960, deals with Edmonds' initial years at FAMU and her place in the historical development of educational children's theatre from an African-American context. Additionally, the chapter will discuss Edmonds' position as a cultural role model within the black community. / Chapter Three focuses on Edmonds' varied essays in literary criticism and politics. Edmonds' writings speak symbolically, eloquently and directly to the racism that permeated the United States during her lifetime. / Chapter Four examines the role that Edmonds played in the 1958 continental tour of Africa by the FAMU Playmakers Guild. This group was the fourth university group and significantly, the first entourage from an historically black college or university (HBCU) to be selected by the federal government to represent the nation under President Dwight D. Eisenhower's Special International Cultural Exchange Program. / Chapter Five discusses the final decade of Edmonds' life, and focuses on her work with the FAMU Playmakers Verse Choir. The group demonstrates Edmonds' continuing experimentation with dramatic presentations until the time of her death. / Chapter Six presents the summary and conclusions derived from the study and suggestions for further research. This dissertation documents an American original, a pioneer within the American theatre who was uniquely qualified to leave her mark on the history of educational theatre. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 56-11, Section: A, page: 4207. / Major Professor: John A. Degen. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1995.

The purpose of this study was to test the alternative hypothesis that subjects who use Aesthetically Illustrated Language Materials (AILM) will have significantly greater mean comprehension scores than subjects who use non-Aesthetically Illustrated Language Materials (non-AILM). / More specifically, five original stories (AILM and non-AILM) with 166 illustrations were developed and used as part of this experiment for the population of interest. A sample of 255 fourth grade students enrolled in the New York City public schools were part of this experiment. / The results of a Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA) supported the alternative hypothesis that there was a significant difference in subjects' mean comprehension scores when using the AILM materials as compared with the control group. / The treatment descriptive means, standard deviations, and the MANOVA Sum of Squares were shown to be highly significant (at p value =.00001) in all five AILM treatments. / Thus, it is concluded that the AILM method was significantly more effective as compared with the control group. / It therefore follows that since AILM helps the student achieve better reading comprehension, its future use would be a valuable contribution to the field of education. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 49-07, Section: A, page: 1693. / Major Professor: Ernest A. Frechette. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1988.

This is a multiple case study of three students of English as a Second Language (ESL) who were exposed to computers. The study sought to explore the expectations of these first time users and the roles played by culture and motivation in regard to hardware and software preferences. / The subjects worked within two environments of quite differing degrees of interaction. The less interactive consisted of an Apple II microcomputer, the workhorse of education, running a well-known ESL drill and practice program. The more interactive environment consisted of games, simulations, graphics programs, and word processing on the Apple Macintosh microcomputer. These provided one set of parameters for the study. / Another was the subjects. None had worked with computers before, and all three were receiving ESL instruction. The articulation between the subjects' parent cultures and their present circumstances in the United States was a variable which, it was hypothesized, would affect the quality of their computer experiences in predictable ways. / Accordingly, interviews, observation, and the analysis of artifacts were used in order to discover data. Profiles of the subjects and their educational environments were gathered. Computer sessions were taped, clarified with interviews, and transcribed. Classifications of behavior and areas of interest and concern were identified. Finally, propositions were made in regard to the success or failure of humans and technology to interface. / In general, all subjects displayed a preference for the less interactive program on the Apple II. In addition, the quality of their experiences in both environments corresponded positively with their apparent motivations for language learning. As these, in turn, were at least partially products of their parent cultures, the study implies that their experiences and preferences might be generalized to others. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 50-08, Section: A, page: 2371. / Major Professor: Frederick L. Jenks. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1989.

The purpose of this study was to identify and analyze difficulties experienced by Kuwaitis in the pronunciation of English vowel segments. The data were collected through tape-recorded interviews with 66 male Kuwaiti students in the College of Commerce of Kuwait University in 1988-1989. The researcher and an American professor of linguistics at the Florida State University analyzed the data by identifying segmental deviations from the pronunciation of the vowel segments acceptable to native speakers of English. They listened to the tapes and marked down the correct and incorrect pronunciation of the vowel segments as they occurred in the students' English speech. / Scores from the analysis were displayed in tables showing each vowel segment, total number of errors and correct pronunciation, and vowel segments ranked in order of difficulty according to percentages of errors related to the total number of occurrences. Also, a series of chi-square goodness of fit computations were conducted on the findings to determine whether the ratio of difficult to easy for each vowel segment was statistically significant. / The findings showed that the English vowel segments /e, ae, $\partial$, a, uw, u, ow, $\supset$/ constituted areas of serious pronunciation difficulty to the Kuwaiti students of ESL/EFL. In particular, with the English sounds /e/ as contrasted with /i/, and /ow/ as contrasted with /$\supset$/, the mispronunciation of the Kuwaitis would result in a change in meaning. These problems might be attributed to interference from the native language, improper instruction, and insufficient linguistics training of the English teachers. / Pedagogical implications and recommendations are offered to assist English language teachers in Kuwait to implement teaching techniques that lead to better acquisition of English vowel segment pronunciation by Kuwaitis. They are also offered to help teacher training program staffs and curriculum experts reduce future problems, and design instructional materials that would improve the teaching of pronunciation of English vowel sounds. Also, suggestions for further research relevant and complementary to this study are offered. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 51-02, Section: A, page: 0492. / Major Professor: Ernest A. Frechette. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1990.

The purpose of this qualitative study was to observe, identify, and describe literary experiences and activities provided for students during the elementary school years. This study sought to describe literary information presented to students, along with how and why teachers use children's literature in the overall elementary curriculum. / In order to fulfill these purposes the researcher became an observer within the context of one elementary school for a period of five months. During this time the researcher observed extensively in all grade levels and the school library media center. The researcher also utilized a variety of other qualitative research strategies, such as interviewing, examining instructional materials, and inspecting students' work related to literature. Triangulation involved follow-up interviews with teachers, school administrators, and district supervisors, examination of lesson plans, and repeated classroom and library media observations in order to confirm findings. Two broad perspectives were used to present the overall use of literature at one elementary school. The perspectives were: children's literature as a separate subject area and children's literature as an instructional tool. / Based on the qualitative data gathered the following conclusions were derived: (1) no consistent, well-coordinated curriculum in children's literature was currently in use, (2) no system for ensuring coverage of certain literary concepts across grade levels and for preventing excessive rereading of stories was provided, (3) an implicit curriculum in children's literature existed in which teachers drew upon personal craft knowledge and creativity to bring literature into their classrooms, and this curriculum varied greatly from teacher to teacher and grade to grade, (4) most students preferred having literature read aloud to them, rather than reading independently, (5) school library media specialist played a supplemental role to the implicit literature curriculum, but in this school the resident literature experts who served as resources to other teachers were two classroom teachers, (6) reading aloud to students was the most routinely implemented literature activity, with other literature activities typically occurring spasmodically, (7) there was no consistent pattern for purchasing literature for individual classrooms, (8) teachers typically used whole class grouping for reading instruction, rather than providing varied grouping patterns. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 52-10, Section: A, page: 3525. / Major Professor: Carol Lynch-Brown. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1991.

This research study was designed to investigate good readers' perceptions of what it means to read and the processes by which they became good readers. The theory informing this study comes from work across several disciplines: reading research, psycholinguistics, sociolinguistics, and developmental and cognitive psychology. The researcher became a participant observer in two fifth-grade classrooms over a period of five months. During this time, the researcher engaged in ethnographic interviewing with the six good readers and their parents. The researcher employed a number of qualitative methods designed to gather information pertinent to the research questions proposed: participant observation, interviewing, audio-recording, triangulation procedures and general qualitative case study methods. The six good readers were studied in-depth from a social and academic context of school and from the context of home and family interactions. All of these observations and interviews contributed to the analysis of the qualitative data and consequent emerging themes. / The emerging themes derived from the qualitative data were: Learning About Reading, Learning to Read and Engaging in Reading. / The following conclusions were generated from the analysis of data collected during the observation and interviews with the teachers, parents and students: (1) early social interactions with parents in storyreading nurtured a love of reading, confidence in learning to read, encouragement and acceptance in the process of becoming a reader and establishing a positive attitude toward reading, (2) exposure to books with parents enhanced the good readers' understanding of language conventions, concepts of print and the language used to talk about reading, (3) the school context and the teacher's language and behaviors influenced the good reader's perceptions of reading and learning to read, (4) interest, self-confidence and motivation appeared to be of primary importance in becoming a good reader, (5) good readers perceived themselves to be good readers when they were free to self-select books and actively pursue knowledge on their own, (6) the good readers shared common understandings and beliefs about learning to read and the reading process. From the good readers' perspectives reading empowered them to become active learners. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 52-03, Section: A, page: 0860. / Major Professor: Diana Scott. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1991.

This study was designed to determine whether or not there are differences in the understanding of culture between college undergraduates who study French literature in French and those who study it in English. / To measure the dependent variable (understanding of culture), a test was developed using Valette's (1977) guidelines on testing literature and culture. The instrument was found to be adequately valid and reliable (alpha =.92). / The sample consisted of 118 subjects enrolled in seven colleges and universities. Twenty-two subjects studied Madame Bovary in French while 96 studied it in English. A pretest was given to all the subjects, who were then taught Madame Bovary for one week. The posttest was administered upon completion of the instruction. Since the students in each institution were taught by a different professor, a hierarchical analysis of covariance was employed to analyze the data. / The study produced the following results: (a) no significant difference was observed between the average scores of subjects who studied Madame Bovary in French and those who studied it in English, thus, medium language, whether the original one or not, does not appear to be the determinant factor in comprehending culture from a literary work, (b) both language groups made significant progress and had significantly greater means on the posttest than on the pretest, thus, literature does have a bearing on understanding culture, and (c) the differences between the mean scores of classes taught by different instructors within each treatment were significant and accounted for about 40% of the total variance of the scores, leading to the conclusion that it is probable that the instructors' attributes, e.g., their styles of teaching, their knowledge of culture, and their willingness to teach culture through literature, had a tremendous effect on the student's understanding of culture. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 49-06, Section: A, page: 1394. / Major Professor: Ernest A. Frechette. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1988.

This study seeks to provide a descriptive analysis of vowel lengthening in Standard Yoruba. It explores the phonological, morphological, and syntactic processes that condition Yoruba vowel lengthening. Vowel lengthening in Standard Yoruba can be shown to be a product of two interacting phonological processes, consonant deletion and vowel assimilation. These phonological processes are conditioned lexically and syntactically. Syntactic constructions determine the applicability of vowel lengthening or its inverse, vowel deletion. Tone is shown to operate independently of segmental assimilation, but not deletion Finally, this study examines the pedagogical implications of vowel lengthening to second language learners of Yoruba / acase@tulane.edu

The research literature has established a solid link between early development of phonological awareness and subsequent development of beginning reading skills. In addition to the empirical data obtained from longitudinal-correlational studies, training studies have indicated that the relationship is a causal one. The training studies have reported that it is possible to increase phonological awareness skills through training and that the training has an effect on subsequent acquisition of beginning reading skills. Few studies, however, have reported individual differences in response to phonological awareness training. The purpose of the present investigation was to determine which child characteristics would predict response to a twelve-week phonological awareness training program. One hundred kindergarten children participated in the study. Sixty children received phonological awareness training, while forty children served as a no-treatment control group. An analysis of covariance verified that the training had an effect on the children's phonological awareness skills. Once group-level differences were obtained, correlates of growth were examined by analyzing individual growth curves with hierarchical linear models. The best predictor of growth in both segmenting and blending was performance on the nonword spelling measure prior to training. The best model for predicting growth in segmenting included nonword spelling and general verbal ability, while the best model for blending included nonword spelling and rapid serial naming of digits. These latter variables accounted for essentially all of the reliable growth in blending skills, while the predictive model for segmenting left a significant proportion of the variance in growth unexplained. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 55-02, Section: A, page: 0246. / Major Professor: Joseph K. Torgesen. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1993. / The research literature has established a solid link between early development of phonological awareness and subsequent development of beginning reading skills. In addition to the empirical data obtained from longitudinal-correlational studies, training studies have indicated that the relationship is a causal one. The training studies have reported that it is possible to increase phonological awareness skills through training and that the training has an effect on subsequent acquisition of beginning reading skills. Few studies, however, have reported individual differences in response to phonological awareness training. The purpose of the present investigation was to determine which child characteristics would predict response to a twelve-week phonological awareness training program. One hundred kindergarten children participated in the study. Sixty children received phonological awareness training, while forty children served as a no-treatment control group. An analysis of covariance verified that the training had an effect on the children's phonological awareness skills. Once group-level differences were obtained, correlates of growth were examined by analyzing individual growth curves with hierarchical linear models. The best predictor of growth in both segmenting and blending was performance on the nonword spelling measure prior to training. The best model for predicting growth in segmenting included nonword spelling and general verbal ability, while the best model for blending included nonword spelling and rapid serial naming of digits. These latter variables accounted for essentially all of the reliable growth in blending skills, while the predictive model for segmenting left a significant proportion of the variance in growth unexplained.

The present study was an investigation to examine the current situation in the field of teaching foreign cultures in China's language education. The study concentrated on answering the question of whether there were any differences between the Chinese subjects from the state and provincial normal universities and those from the district teachers colleges concerning their acquisition of social and cultural knowledge and information about the United States. / The data collected from the performance of 171 subjects on the culture quiz and from their responses to the survey revealed that some significant differences existed between the two groups of subjects. The first group of subjects (those from the state and provincial normal universities) scored much higher on the culture quiz than the second group of subjects (those from the district teachers colleges). Moreover, the first group of subjects also held a more positive attitude toward the learning of foreign cultures. / The study also showed that the first group of subjects were less satisfied with the instruction of culture in their schools and were less content with their mastery of knowledge and information of foreign cultures, than the second group of subjects. / No evidence was found to establish a significant difference between the two groups of subjects with respect to their ways of obtaining sociocultural knowledge. Media, other than classroom instruction, was their main source of acquiring information of other cultures. The study revealed that the two groups of subjects had better knowledge of such cultural aspects as literature, history, and the like than knowledge of behavioral patterns and lifestyles. / The study also reported the subjects' expectations of improvement in the teaching of culture; most of them cared more about importation of video and audio materials though only a small number of them expected much change in classroom instruction. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 52-11, Section: A, page: 3844. / Major Professor: Frederick Jenks. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1991.