This thesis examines _The Desert Music_ by Steve Reich in the context of the composer's artistic perspective and advocates studying the subjective listening experience as a tool for musical analysis. Challenging conventional approaches in musicology and music theory, this work examines how a specific analytical approach in turn shapes the values assigned to that work. Systematic documentation of the author's listening experience is presented as an application of this premise and as a template to use in subsequent investigations of how other listeners respond to the work. The author concludes, mirroring the ideas implied in _The Desert Music_ itself, that instead of suppressing individual responses as opinions too myriad and divergent to be relevant, we should recognize that these reactions are products of shared cultural experience and that discussing them collectively may lead to powerful revelations about artistic meaning that may not emerge any other way.

The importance of using the target language (TL) in the FL classroom is ingrained in the minds of most language teachers e.g., the Direct Method, Audiolingualism, and the Communicative Method. However, few studies have examined how TL and first language (L1) are being used in the FL classroom (Duff & Polio, 1990, 1994; Macaro, 2001; Levine, 2003). Even less research has been done regarding the purpose(s) for which the L1 and TL are being used in the classroom and the types of discourse for which the L1 and TL are being employed by teachers and students. There is, however, a growing number of researchers who have begun to question the exclusion of the L1 from the classroom (Guthrie, 1984; Cook, 2001; Macaro, 2001; Turnbull, 2001).This study was carried out at the University of Arizona. Sixteen first- and second-year Spanish classes were video- and audio-recorded over the course of three observations. Additionally, over 500 students participated in a pre- and post-listening test as well as a survey regarding perceptions of L1 and TL use in the classroom and beliefs about language use. This study also investigated in what types of discourse the L1 and TL are being employed and some of the motivations behind this usage. Also, explored are the differences between native and non-native instructors of the TL.The results showed that while there was a strong positive correlation between the instructors' use of the L1 and the students' use of the L1, this did not adversely affect the listening gains in the classroom. Also, it was found that both the students and the instructors were able with a high degree of accuracy to predict the L1 and TL of the instructors in the classroom. Finally, there were no significant differences between the classes with native speaking instructors of the TL and those who were non-native speaking instructors of the TL. This study contributes to a better understanding of actual classroom language usage, the motivations behind L1 and TL use, and the students' and teachers' perceptions of the role of the L1 and TL in the classroom.

With English becoming a world language, an increasing number of non-native-English-speaking (NNES) students are pursuing studies in English-medium universities. Of these NNES students, Chinese students constitute a large proportion. Most of these Chinese students are NNES and need English language support to help them meet academic demands in English-speaking settings. However, there are a very limited number of studies conducted on linguistic needs and deficiencies among Chinese students at English-speaking universities in Canada. / The main objective of this thesis is to discover Chinese students' perceptions of academic English listening competence and to investigate their academic listening needs for academic success at Canadian universities. This small-scale study at two Canadian universities, conducted through a questionnaire survey and follow-up interviews, fills a gap in the limited number of studies concerning Chinese students' language-development needs at Canadian universities. / Findings of this study support the following points. Firstly, Chinese students think that having sufficient English academic listening competence is crucial and necessary for academic success in academic English settings. Secondly, Chinese students still have difficulties in various academic listening skills, and factors that affect students' listening comprehension are both linguistically and socio-culturally related to the new settings. Thirdly, Chinese students still need target-language linguistic support even though they are admitted into English-medium universities. Finally, apart from academic listening competence, Chinese students report deficiencies in academic writing, reading and speaking as well. In addition, this study also suggests that Chinese students may lack good strategies for enhancing their English-language proficiency.

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The purpose of this study was to determine whether the listening comprehension of learning disabled (LD) students was affected by structure applied to a listening task with the variable of locus of control held as a constant. The study was also designed to investigate whether there were differences in locus of control orientation between normal and LD students. The following hypotheses were tested: 1. There will be no significant difference in listening comprehension between the learning disabled external locus of control group receiving the structured task and the learning disabled external locus of control group receiving the unstructured task. 2. There will be no significant difference in listening comprehension between the learning disabled internal locus of control group receiving the structured task and the learning disabled internal locus of control group receiving the unstructured task. 3. There will be no significant difference in listening comprehension between the normal external locus of control group receiving the structured task and the normal external locus of control group receiving the unstructured task. 4. There will be no significant difference in listening comprehension between the normal internal locus of control group receiving the structured task and the normal internal locus of control group receiving the unstructured task. 5. There will be no significant difference in locus of control orientation between the total normal group and the total learning disabled group. The subjects of this study were sixth, seventh, and eighth grade LD and normal students. They were selected from a population in Anderson, Indiana. For the sample, a total of 60 LD students from 11 schools, eight elementary and three secondary were obtained. The 60 normal students were chosen from two schools, one elementary and one secondary. Grade level and ages of the sample were approximately equivalent. Following selection of the sample, all students were administered the Nowicki-Strickland Locus of Control Scale for Children (NSSC). After the NSSC had been administered, 20 LD students, whose scores represented the highest 33.3% on the NSSC, and 20 LD students, whose scores represented the lowest 33.3% on the NSSC, were selected for the remaining portion of the study. The 20 LD students with the highest 33.3% of the scores were designated as external in their locus of control orientation (ELOC) while the 20 LD students whose scores represented the lowest 33.3% were designated as internal in their locus of control orientation (ILOC). The same procedures were followed in selecting the 40 normal students who were also classified as external or internal in their locus of control orientation.The LD and normal students were then administered four listening passages from the Analytical Reading Inventory. Two of the four passages were provided with structured introductions while the remaining two were not. Structured introductions were defined as the oral presentation of prelistening directions given to students in a counterbalanced fashion. They included both general information about the topic and the material to be read, and a preview of the sequence of events in the selection. Five null hypotheses were tested in this study. The first four hypotheses were examined using appropriate t-tests for planned comparisons after two two-way analyses of variance with repeated measures on the last factor were computed. Hypothesis number five was subjected to a t-test for independent groups. Using the .05 level of confidence as the predetermined criterion, only hypotheses number five was rejected. It was determined that LD students were significantly more external in their locus of control orientation than normal students. In the four instances where the hypotheses were not rejected, data indicated, for the LD and normal groups, that there were no significant differences in listening comprehension when the structured and unstructured introductions were administered. The findings of this study indicate, for these particular students, subject to the limitations of this investigation, that the presentation of structured introductions did not significantly improve the listening comprehension of LD subject. It was concluded, however, that LD subjects were operating on a more external locus of control orientation than normal subjects.

This thesis used the Brown-Carlsen Listening Comprehension Test to gather pre- and post-test scores in order to measure students' listening abilities at the beginning and the end of the Speech 210 class offered Spring Quarter, 1972.The results were then analyzed by means of two statistical designs: The Analysis of Variance and The Product-Moment Correlation Test for Missing Data. The findings indicated statistically significant relationships between sex and listening test scores, pre- and post-test scores, and listening test scores and final grades.In addition, this thesis has discussed numerous previous studies and their relationships to the field of listening research.

The aim with this research was to determine how cancer patients (the inner group) and non-cancer patients (the listening group) experience the listening group technique. A qualitative research design was utilised. The reasons for undertaking this research were the following: Experience has indicated that the listening group technique may be an effective method to help individuals discover alternative life stories besides the dominant stories that direct their lives. Some authors have expressed the need for therapists to do research on the listening group technique to ascertain its effectiveness as a therapeutic approach. The reason for focusing specifically on cancer patients is the high incidence of cancer and the accompanying medical and psychological effects it has for the individual. Psychological interventions appear to have positive results for cancer patients. The project was announced to cancer patients and their supporters, as well as in the postgraduate Psychology classes. Six cancer patients, five supporters and ten students participated on a voluntarily basis - twelve as members of the inner group (cancer patients and supporters) and nine as members of the listening group. Eight members of the inner group were female and four were male. Their ages varied from twenty - two to sixty - two. The listening group consisted of six female and three male students, of whom seven were honours students and two were masters students. Their ages varied from twenty - one to twenty - two. The study leader and the researcher acted as facilitators during the sessions. The process covered five evenings. After the introductory session, the first two sessions were held in the first week, while the last two sessions took place during the subsequent two weeks. Each session lasted approximately two hours. The way the participants experienced the technique was determined by means of semi-structured interviews. The following five themes came to the fore on analysing the data: other perspectives that developed and growth that took place during sessions, it was a learning experience, the participants' experience of the process, the participants' experience of the procedures and application of the technique, and suggestions that the participants made. The results indicated that the listening group technique can be applied to obtain beneficial outcomes for the participants. It can, inter aha, help them to develop new perspectives about their personal dilemmas and stimulate personal growth. / Thesis (M.A. (Clinical Psychology))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2007.

This study was undertaken in an effort to determine the effect of compensatory education on achievement and the self concepts of students in inner city schools. The subjects for this study were chosen from the third, fourth, and fifth grades of the Lincoln, Longfellow, Blaine, and Garfield public elementary schools of Muncie, Indiana. The experimental group received compensatory treatment which consisted of remedial reading, tutorial aid, and counseling, while the control group received the standard type of education given by the schools involved in the study. Both groups were selected by classroom teachers on the basis of personal judgment with no specific criteria given for the selection.Academic achievement was measured by the results of the Iowa Basic Achievement Test. This test was given twice (pre- and post-test) to both the control and experimental groups in grades four, and five. Grade three had been administered the Metropolitan Achievement Test (MAT) as a pre-test the previous spring at the end of grade two. Grade three was tested by the Iowa Basic Achievement Test in a post-test the spring of 1973.Self concept was measured by the results of the test by Waetjen and Liddle, Self Concept as a Learner (SCAL). This test was given twice to both the control and experimental groups; the' pre-test in the fall of 1972 and the post-test in the spring of 1973.The results were used to evaluate the eight basic hypotheses. Statistical analysis of the results led to rejecting only one hypothesis. Hypothesis 7 was rejected at the .05 level of significance.In general, any gains shown by the experimental group over the control group were of small statistical magnitude, whether in the area of academic achievement, reading achievement or self concept. The same may be said of any of the differences between the various schools, grades, and class groups. No strong relationship between compensatory education and the probability of success could be clearly established from the data.A strong relationship was established, however, between compensatory and the probability of success for grade three. Since the impact of counseling, tutorial aid, or remedial reading was not analyzed separately, this relationship was attributed to the compensatory treatment as a whole and specifically to any one part of the program.

The premise of the Simple View of Reading is that reading comprehension is the product of two components – decoding and language comprehension. Each component is necessary but not sufficient. To support teachers in identifying end-of-second-grade students who may have difficulties in one or both of the components, parallel listening comprehension and reading comprehension screening measures were developed and investigated in two preliminary pilot studies and one large-scale administration. The first pilot study, conducted with 41 end-of-second-grade students, established administration times for the listening comprehension screening (LCS) and the reading comprehension screening (RCS) and confirmed the appropriateness of the 75 items on each of the measures. The second pilot study, conducted with 12 end-of-second- grade students with varying reading levels, demonstrated that the LCS and RCS could differentiate readers with good comprehension from readers with poor comprehension. The large-scale administration, conducted with 699 end-of-second-grade students, aided in the development of shorter final versions of the LCS and RCS and provided data to determine the score reliability and validity of the final versions of the measures, each of which had 42 items. Item response theory (IRT) was used to identify the most apposite and discriminating items for use on the final versions of the LCS and RCS. Score reliability (Cronbach’s alpha) on the final LCS was estimated to be .89 and was estimated to be .93 on the final RCS. Various sources provided content and criterion-related validity evidence. In particular, criterion-related validity evidence included strong correlations with the Gates-MacGinitie Reading Tests and strong sensitivity, specificity, and positive predictive indices. Construct validity evidence included group differentiation and a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), all of which supported a single underlying construct on the LCS and a single underlying construct on the RCS. In a subset of 214 end-of-second-grade students from the larger study, partial correlation and structural equation modeling (SEM) analyses supported the discriminant validity of the LCS and RCS as measures of comprehension. The listening and reading comprehension screening measures will assist second-grade teachers in identifying student learning needs that cannot be identified with reading-only comprehension tests.

This dissertation presents a qualitative study of how women come to terms with abusive childhood sexual experiences. In in-depth interviews, five women described how they have come to terms and the ways in which their experiences of sexual abuse influenced their identities, their relationships with others, and their embodiment. The data were analyzed using the Voice-Centered Relational Method--more recently known as The Listening Guide--developed by Carol Gilligan and Lynn Brown (1992); following this method, the transcripts of the interviews were read through four times, listening for plot, identity ("I" voice), and two contrapuntal voices. The four listenings allowed for a multilayered approach to understanding how the women have come to terms. A multiplicity of voices emerged both within and across participants, with voices of guilt, innocence, betrayal, protection, avoidance, engagement, victim, agency, disembodiment, and empowerment identified. The ways in which the contrapuntal voices overlapped with one another and with the participants' identities were explored. Results suggest that coming to terms with childhood experiences of sexual abuse is a nuanced and ongoing process. Implications, including the importance of allowing women to label and describe their own unique experiences, were explored; the nebulousness of the phrase "sexual abuse" and the suggestions for a more subtle understanding of a continuum of experiences were also explored. Ideas for further research in this area of sexual abuse are suggested. / McAnulty College and Graduate School of Liberal Arts / Clinical Psychology / PhD / Dissertation