This study explores invented spelling in Arabic. Since spelling in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) is taught through dictation and composition, this study explores and compares spelling inventions that occur in students' writing in each context. Samples of dictation and composition were collected from three sixth grade classrooms taught by UAE teachers. In addition, this study aimed to investigate what sixth grade students in the (UAE) know about Arabic spelling. A number of features were examined to explore the participants' knowledge and use of certain Arabic spelling rules. Spelling inventions were categorized into three linguistic levels for analysis: 1) phonological level, 2) grammatical level, and 3) orthographic level to answer three of the research question. The findings of student's spelling inventions in their compositions were compared to those found in dictation. Interviews were also conducted to supplement written samples, and to study what sixth grade students report that they do when Arabic standard spelling in unknown. In practice, this study will serve Arabic teachers in the Arabic world as a resource in teaching, evaluating, and understanding invented spelling. Students' invented spellings must be seen as opportunities to contribute actively to their own learning. By combining an understanding of invented spelling with formal spelling instruction, teachers will develop more effective spelling instructions. Findings included: sixth grade students' spelling inventions that occurred in dictations reflected the phonological level primarily; writing compositions drew students' attention to meaning making rather than writing every word accurately; students wrote spontaneously and used their knowledge of information, poems, Koran and Hadith in their compositions. When standard spelling in unknown, students reported that they have many strategies to overcome spelling difficulties such as sounding out, asking for help, visualization, etc. However, they do not advise other students who have spelling difficulties to use the same techniques they use in the same order.

Clinical assessment of children who are English language learners (ELL) is often a difficult and time-consuming task for speech-language pathologists (SLPs) due to the complex nature of second-language acquisition and current methods of formal language assessment. Using an invented rule procedure has emerged in the literature as a screening tool to help determine whether flaws in language use and production are a consequence of language difference or language disorder. The current study utilized invented rule learning with a modeling protocol to compare performance on the invented rule task between children who are ELL to children who are monolingual. The study also compared task performance between age groups and compared individual participant's task scores to scores on the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test - III (PPVT-III). The results indicated no significant difference between ELL and monolingual raw scores on the task. A significant difference was present between the youngest age group and the older two age groups. There was a weak positive correlation between the invented rule task and the PPVT-III, which could indicate that the two tests are assessing two different areas of language. The invented rule could play a role in language assessment, however more research is necessary to determine under what circumstances its use is appropriate.

The paradigm of multiple modernities proposes that alternative modernities have formed across the globe as a result of social change. This paradigm stands in contrast to evolutionary and modernization theories, as well as theories of globalizing modernity, which argue that all societies are moving in the similar direction and that Western modernity is universalizing. Focusing on two specific trends, which are the closure of the political sphere for students and young people in general versus the growing role of women in the political sphere, it is suggested in this case study that Namibia is one of the societies that is characterized by distinctive social change. Particular attention is paid to the interrelationships between customs, invented traditions and the modern Western condition drawing on quantitative and qualitative data on Namibian university students and an extensive literature review to demonstrate that Namibia has an alternative type of the modern.

This study aims to explore how the imagined Chinese community, as the nation of Taiwan, was created and recreated between 1949 and 2011, to become the Taiwanese community. The theoretical concept of the ‘imagined community’, which is interconnected with the concepts of ‘invented tradition’ and ‘banal nationalism’, has been used to suggest a sociological interpretation of the transformation of people’s self-identification from ‘Chinese’ to ‘Taiwanese’, as a kind of reflection of the changing nation of post-war Taiwan. The social phenomenon of Taiwan residents’ changing self-identification raises a key concern, namely, has the nature of the nation in Taiwan changed? Junior and senior high school history textbooks (1949 to 2011), which can be regarded as representing the officially invented history, were used as resources, and analysed together with data gathered during interviews with twenty-five history teachers, who had not been screened for age or ethnic differences. The history textbooks provided content for a case study, comparable to that of the theoretical concept of the ‘invented tradition’. This could be regarded as ‘banal nationalism’, through which the life environment is subtly shaped and reshaped to become the ‘imagined community’, namely, the ‘national’ environment. The interviews with teachers were intended to help the researchers understand how the content in history textbooks had been taught, in order to explain how, or whether, the society undermined or reinforced the officially structured ‘imagined Taiwanese community’. The two approaches – one of which could be regarded as a top-down power, while the other could be considered as a social force – jointly provided the research framework and a perspective consistent with the changing social phenomenon of the increasing ‘Taiwanese’ identity among members of the population. This study concluded that ‘Taiwan’ has been produced and reproduced from the local identification to the national. The research results show that the meaning of ‘China’ and ‘Taiwan’ changed during three time periods: from the 1950s to the late 1980s, from the 1990s to the 2000s, and from the 2000s to 2010 and later. Through this process, mainland China and Taiwan were identified as one Chinese nation-state, beginning in the 1950s to the late 1980s, as one nation but two states, from the 1990s to the early 2000s, and finally, as two nation-states, from the early 2000s to 2010 and later. This research explored how ‘Taiwan’, an ‘imagined community’, has been shaped over time. Teachers further manifested ‘Taiwan’ as an explicit concept of national identity by providing other examples, in addition to the content in textbooks, and noting distinctions between ‘China’ and ‘Taiwan’. Theoretical logic is coherent with this empirical investigation, and this study provided the perspective to interpret how the state worked as a top-down force cooperating with society’s bottom-up perseverance, to invent ‘Taiwanese’ national history, through which the national identity of Taiwan was manifested.

Magister Artium - MA / South Africa has a growing economy with about 19 million of people going to work and looking for work every day (Ahmed 2004). The majority of people in South Africa use public transport in order to get to work. According to Ahmed (2004), 65 % of the people who use public transport, make use of the minibus taxis. The minibus taxis established themselves during late Apartheid as a solution to transporting poor, black people to and from work. Over the years during Apartheid and after, the minibus taxi industry has grown from a few, small scale businesses to a nationwide structured organisation (McCaul 1999). In 2007, the National Department of Transport created the Public Transport Strategy and Action Plan that would look at reorganising the transport system in South Africa. The main idea of restructuring the public transport system was to introduce a scheduled bus system which was reliable. In 2008, the City of Cape Town decided to begin plan and implement a new Bus Rapid Transport system (BRT system). This new transport system would be regulated and scheduled in order to make commuters movements around the city easier. (Ahmed 2004, 2-3) The BRT can be seen through the lens of competitive cities (Huchzemeyer), a notion intimately tied to neo-liberal and high modernist world views. Neoliberalism fosters competition between countries and companies across the world. Countries who want to be competitive and attract foreign direct investment adopt the neoliberal policies in order to make investing, trading and profit making easier and more attractive for businesses, especially international investors. The City of Cape Town follows neoliberal thought in the sense of adopting policies aimed at creating a city that can compete on an international level with other cities (Integrated Development Plan 2012-2017). The Integrated Development Plan (IDP) provides the City of Cape Town with a strategic framework on how to create sustainable development and growth so that the City may grow and develop economically as well as socially. This entails creating a city that is capable of supporting and aiding business expansion and development in all sectors as well as ensuring that Cape Town remains a prime tourist destination in order to attract international and local investment (Integrated Development Plan 2012-2017). In addition to a neo-liberal flavour, competitive cities invoke the high-handedness of modernist planning that Scott (1998) identifies in, 'Seeing like a State'. The theory explains how the state wants to create progress to improve the lives of the people by creating order out of the organic chaos that has emerged from the community/city over time. The outcome is that the State implements policy that eradicates the unique informal design and replaces it with a formal structure which can have a negative impact on the poor. This simplification is also often the reason why many historical social and economic practises are lost and replaces with order and simplicity – loss of unique identity (Scott 1998). These elements of the ideal competitive city are manifested in the BRT idea too. The City of Cape Town is in the process of trying to simplify and re-organise the transport system in the City in order to ensure that Cape Town fits into the mould of a competitive city. This new bus service will in effect eradicate the ‘organic chaos’ of the taxi industry as the taxis are replaced with MyCiti. The City of Cape Town used the process of public participation to consult with the taxi associations and owners. The City used 'invited spaces' (Cornwall 2002), to engage with the affected taxi parties and "sell" the idea of the BRT system. The City did use public participation; however, they only consulted the elites (Taxi owners and associations) in the taxi industry. Once the elites were satisfied that they would receive compensation for the loss of their business, they bought into the BRT system often at the expense of their voiceless employees. In Imizamo Yethu, Hout Bay, the Hout Bay taxi association and Hout Bay Cape Town associations used invented spaces, namely protests, to engage with the City about MyCiti. These associations believe that the implementation of the BRT system has affected their livelihoods in a negative way and that the City did not consult them about the implementation of the MyCiti bus service. There are also other conflicts that have arisen because of the implementation of the MyCiti bus service which has impacted negatively on the community. The result from the implementation of the BRT system is mixed. On one hand it would seem that the City of Cape Town has turned towards creating a competitive city and away from effects on the parlous lives of the poor. The City in conjunction with the ODA (full trading name), have tried to minimise the impact of the BRT system on the taxi micro-economy. However, those whose business was only partially affected have been left to fend for themselves. The problem, according to the City of Cape Town, is that there are limits to how much compensation they can give. Unfortunately, those left without compensation and loss of business are the victims of a society which favours straight lines compared to organic unique chaos.

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Thesis (M.A.)--Miami University, Dept. of History, 2009. / Title from first page of PDF document. Includes bibliographical references (p. 58-66).

Made available in DSpace on 2016-03-15T19:43:06Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 NILTON_FRANCO_EAHC.pdf: 4017232 bytes, checksum: 8c9631103395484acb0e75cc28480692 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2006-09-13 / Fundação de Amparo a Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo / This work presents a study about the soirée of Cooperativa Cultural da Periferia Cooperifa as a new cultural tradition started in the beginning of the XXI century in the South Zone of the city of São Paulo. Due to its acting focus to be immersed in the strong tensions of economic and social order, the Cooperifa woke up our interest through its innovative activities with community related to the new papers it gave to the poetry and bar as means to renew community life through fomenting culture.The investigation shows Cooperifa s growth evolution including their leaders initial propose, and the mechanisms that ruled their actions, such as mass media communication related to journalism, television and informatics, as well as the support of Itaú Cultural based on Rouanet Law. In the last part of the work is developed a study of the soirée under the look of Invented Traditions , which were extracted from Eric Hobsbawm s concepts. The study shows an analyze about the internal an external dynamic of the soirée, treating exclusively of its routine, habits and poetic-literary production, as well its social, politic and economic function in the middle of its social network, in the modern-day. / Este trabalho apresenta um estudo sobre o sarau da Cooperifa (Cooperativa Cultural da Periferia) como uma nova tradição cultural surgida no início do século XXI, na zona sul da cidade de São Paulo. Devido a seu foco de atuação estar imerso nas fortes tensões de ordem econômica e social, a Cooperifa despertou nosso interesse através de suas atividades inovadoras com a comunidade em torno dos novos papéis que atribuiu à utilização da poesia e ao bar, como meios de revigorar a vida comunitária, através do fomento à cultura. A investigação mostra a evolução do crescimento da Cooperifa, incluindo os propósitos iniciais dos seus líderes e os mecanismos que condicionaram as suas ações, tais como a mídia jornalística, televisiva e informatizada, assim como, o apoio da parceria com o Itaú Cultural, por meio da Lei Rouanet. Na parte final do trabalho é desenvolvido um estudo do sarau sob o olhar das tradições inventadas , que foram extraídas dos conceitos de Eric Hobsbawm. O estudo mostra uma análise da dinâmica interna e externa do sarau, tratando respectivamente de suas rotinas, hábitos e produção poético-literária, assim como do seu papel social, político e econômico em meio à rede social a que pertence, na contemporaneidade.

This thesis concerns the study of ethnic minority groups and their national identity formation process as a result of their collective experience during, and understanding of, World War One. The groups observed are Black Americans and German Americans from the United States, as well as the Irish from Great Britain. Each groups’ identity progression and understanding of the war differed from their counterparts, while having still exhibited similarities of which highlight how different forms of nationalism played a role in the lives of ethnic minorities. A Marxist theoretical framework of nationalism and tradition is applied through the works of Benedict Anderson, Eric Hobsbawm and Terrance Ranger. The results convey how American nationalism served to further solidify a greater sense of American national identity for the respective ethnic groups, though through a process of apathy and coercion. British nationalism revealed how its version of the phenomena lacked sufficient proximity to the respective group, thus resulting in the Irish rejection of the British nation and its form of identity. These results further illustrate how both nations were in many ways sovereign and limited in their ability to form a political and social community with these groups. Lastly, it is revealed that the internal differences in each group followed a universal trend wherein those group members who served in combat roles during the war, inhibited a greater sense of national identity than those who did not see combat. This result serves as the foundation for my new theory, known as the Fog of War Complex.

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