Listening with comprehension, one of the basic language skills, is an essential part of teaching Czech as a foreign language. Even though this skill is very important, it is usually not given sufficient attention. This master thesis examines how listening is processed in selected popular textbooks which are, according to the Common European Framework of Reference for Language, designed for basic users on level A1 and A2. Based on a critical analysis of textbooks, the output this thesis is the design of several types of listening tasks created with the support of theoretical knowledge based on the literature processed in the introductory part of the thesis. At the same time, it seeks to fill in the gaps in existing listening tasks which are presented in current teaching materials.

The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of visual stimuli on music listening skills in pre-service elementary teachers. Visual Stimuli in this study refers to the presentation of arts elements in selected visually projected images of paintings. Music listening skills are defined as those skills needed to identify and interpret musical excerpts. A Pretest-Posttest Control-group Design was used in this study. Subjects were pre-service elementary general educators enrolled in a large southern university (N=93). Students from intact classes were randomly placed into either the experimental group or the control group. The treatment consisted of six music listening lessons over a two-week period with each group receiving the identical teaching protocol with the exception of the use of paintings with the experimental group. Listening instruction emphasized the identification of melodic contour, instrumentation, texture, rhythm and expressive elements of the compositions. The Teacher Music Listening Skills Test (TMLST) was constructed by the investigator and administered before and after the treatment. The TMLST was designed to assess music listening skills in adult non-musicians. Results indicate that the group receiving visual stimuli in the form of paintings scored significantly higher on listening skills (pandlt;.01) than the control group which received no visual stimuli in the form of visually projected images of paintings. There was an instruction effect on both preference and familiarity of the musical pieces for both the control group and the experimental group.

This study was designed to evaluate the effect of concurrent notetaking and the quality of notes taken on the immediate recall of English lecture information by both native and non-native speakers of English. Additionally, the impact of short-term memory and familiarity with English on lecture information recall was also assessed. The subjects were 136 native speakers and 123 non-native speakers enrolled in Freshman English Composition classes at The University of Arizona. The Digit Span subtest of the WISC-R was administered to obtain a measure of short-term memory. Subjects were randomly assigned to a "listening only" or a "listening and notetaking" condition during a videotaped lecture presentation on the evolution of the Egyptian pyramid structure. Immediately following the lecture, the notes were collected to preclude review, and a 15-item multiple-choice test on lecture concepts and a 15-item multiple-choice test covering lecture details were administered. The data were subjected to multivariate analyses of variance (MANOVAS). A stepwise multiple regression analysis was also performed to determine which index/indices of note quality predicted information recall for American and international notetakers. Results indicated that (1) notetakers and non-notetakers did equally well in recalling lecture concepts and details; (2) no significant differences in the test performance of subjects who took "no notes," "low quality notes," "medium quality notes," or "high quality notes" were found; (3) subjects with high short-term memory ability recalled more concept and detail information than subjects with low short-term memory ability; and (4) native speakers of English recalled significantly more of the concepts and details presented in the lecture than non-native speakers. The regression analysis indicated that 4 of the 5 indices of note quality predicted recall performance, but the indices varied according to the kind of information tested and the subjects's ethno-cultural background. Implications concerning the nature of the findings and recommendations for future research were proposed.

The problem of this study was to test the effects of teaching selected study skills and reading, writing, and listening skills as a specific course of study for ninth grade students. To study this problem, the performance of students enrolled in a study skills and reading, writing, and listening skills course was compared to that of a comparable group of ninth graders, electing the course but not permitted to take it, on the basis of performance as measured by mean gain on alternate forms of the Spitzer Study Skills Test and on the Sequential Test of Educational Progress--Reading-Writing-Listening.

The purpose of this study was to determine differences between the same subjects' music preferences at the elementary and high school levels, and the relationship between these findings and the following variables: peer preferences, musical training, excerpt familiarity, grade, gender, and race.

Many adults and children have problems reading and comprehending books, signs, written directions, etc. These same individuals have difficulty processing written materials as a result of right hemisphere interference. The Lynks Reader (DLR Co., Richmond, VA) is a commercially developed device which has been used to help individuals move from their right to their left hemisphere and to increase reading fluency and comprehension. The objective of this project was to evaluate the best way to use the various forms of the Lynks Reader. Using the device demonstrated an increase in reading fluency and comprehension by increasing the left hemisphere dominance. In addition, different types of headphones with microphones, and music devices (MP3 or CD player), were studied to determine which performs best in formulating a more effective device. Furthermore, the voice and music sound level and frequency output of the device was calibrated to insure the efficacy.

This thesis presents the development and implementation of a proof-of-concept study testing music listening’s capacity to reduce subjective and physiological symptoms of anxiety in a situation analogous to an anxiety disorder. This interdisciplinary thesis draws on both clinical psychology and music psychology literature to present a conceptualisation for music listening in the treatment of anxiety disorders. In preparation for the proof-of-concept study, criteria for optimal stimuli were synthesised from the music psychology literature, two optimal stimuli were selected, and an anxiety induction protocol was developed to model the worry-based nature of an anxiety disorder. The two stimuli selected were ‘The Swan’, from Carnival of the Animals, by Camille Saint-Saëns, and a combination of ‘Dawn’ and ‘The Secret’, by Dario Marianelli, from the 2005 film Pride and Prejudice. In the anxiety induction protocol, participants were told that they would be asked to give a presentation in front of other participants and experimenters (whom they had not yet seen), and that this presentation would be assessed. While they awaited the presentation, participants were asked to do a mental visualisation exercise, which involved thinking about any previous public speaking experience that had made them feel nervous. Participants were given headphones with either music or white noise while they completed this exercise. The proof-of-concept study was conducted with a general population, with participants (n = 58) randomised to listen to either music or white noise during the anxiety induction protocol. Subjective anxiety (as per the short form of the state scale of the State Trait Anxiety Inventory, or STAI-SF) and physiological arousal (as per pulse rate and skin resistance) were measured. Physiological arousal measures were taken for one minute at baseline (time 1), for one minute when the participant had been introduced to the task and were reading through the mental visualisation exercise (time 2), and while the participants completed the mental visualisation exercise, and music or white noise was playing (time 3). Subjective anxiety scores were obtained immediately after each physiological time point. Results showed that subjective anxiety and physiological arousal rose significantly in response to the anxiety induction protocol, and that subjective anxiety and pulse rate decreased significantly in response to the music but remained the same for those who listened to white noise.

The aim of this project was to investigate the nature and possible significance of first-person kinaesthetic vocal sensations observed in association with musical listening. Hearing and voice are known to be closely linked but the mechanisms that underlie their close relationship are not yet understood. The presence of kinaesthetic vocal sensations challenges accounts of auditory processing that are divorced from peripheral vocal input and, instead, suggests the hypothesis that auditory and vocal processing mechanisms rely on shared peripheral substrates in addition to their increasingly recognized shared (brain-based) central substrates. To investigate this hypothesis, I used MRI and developed a measurement protocol (informed by established methods in cephalometry) that would allow me to relate vocal structures to their direct and indirect bony attachments to the craniofacial skeleton, cervical spine and sternum. After establishing the method's validity in subjects at rest, I acquired midsagittal MR images (under conditions where articulatory and postural input was negligible) while subjects (1) hummed and (2) listened (in a focused way) to low and high notes at each end of their range. Geometric and shape analysis of craniocaudal, craniocervical and anteroposterior variables revealed significant differences between low- and high-note conditions and widespread correlations between variables for both humming and listening investigations. An unexpected association between pitch change and changes of cervical alignment was also found. These results were complemented and extended by using the same MR images to build an active shape model (ASM). In addition to showing how vocal structures move together, ASM showed goal-related vocal activity to consist of one or more independent modes of variation. Together, the observations, experimental results, and evidence from diverse historical and contemporary sources, support the hypothesis that mechanisms underlying auditory and vocal processing rely on shared central and peripheral substrates. Wide-ranging implications arising from this hypothesis are also discussed.

The focus of the compositional approach presented in this folio is the sounding environment. The term sounding environment is used in this context to refer to the whole of our living experience in the world which we might register as relating to sound. It might include everything that is sounding, seemingly sounding, imagined sounding, remembered sounding, sensed as sounding, composed to sound. It includes thus the actual sound environment, all that is sensed or interpreted as sound and imaginary sounds. This dissertation accompanies the seven acousmatic and the two sound installation works included in the folio. It is divided into two parts. In the first part relevant ideas and theories both from the literature of electroacoustic music composition and soundscape composition are discussed while in the second the compositional approach to the sounding environment is presented as applied to the works.

Thesis advisor: Thomas J. Massaro / There is a substantial and growing corpus of literature that describes, with convincing statistics and analysis, globalization as the greatest achievement in the history of our modern world and that it has brought the greatest degree of prosperity and economic growth to poor countries. However, seen from the perspective of the poor and the marginalized, the current globalization has not helped them to end their misery and marginalization; indeed in most cases it has actually worsened their situation. The Christian community cannot remain an idle spectator of this unjust, inhuman and sinful global reality. Analyzed from a Christian theological perspective, it is not only an economic issue but also a moral issue. It is a social sin to violate human dignity, to commodify human labor, and to marginalize the poor. Based on the teachings of the Federation of Asian Bishops Conferences, the Catholic Bishops Conference of India and some prominent Asian theologians, I contend that dialogue with other faith traditions, cultures and the poor must be an essential part of her mission of humanizing the current globalization. I argue that the Church in India should avoid the presumption that she already possesses a vision of the common good adequate to the Indian society. While remaining committed to gospel values, the Church must be an open-minded listening and learning. / Thesis (STD) — Boston College, 2011. / Submitted to: Boston College. School of Theology and Ministry. / Discipline: Sacred Theology.