In response to the dearth of research on culture awareness instruction prior to foreign language instruction, the objective of this study was to explore the effects of culture awareness lessons on learner attitudes and beliefs in second-semester university students of French. As a treatment, the experimental group received lessons on culture awareness prior to traditional French classroom instruction; the control group did not. Culture awareness lessons addressed terms such as perspective, culture, interpretation, and stereotypes. Lessons also included worksheets consisting of open-ended questions designed to capture students' responses to the aforementioned topics of discussion. Data collection methods consisted of pre- and post-surveys that included Likert-scale questions and reflections that incorporated open-ended questions designed to capture student attitudes and beliefs. Reflections included general questions on attitudes toward the French as well as cultural practice-specific questions. Qualitative analysis revealed that students from the experimental group showed greater appreciation for culture as an important component of foreign language instruction as well as higher response rates vis-à -vis intercultural understanding. Statistical analysis of the Likert-scale questions also showed significance among questions addressing greater understanding of cultural differences and increased perceived similarity between American and French cultures among the experimental group. However, the experimental group also showed a decrease in student predilection for studying and talking about culture. In general, the study reveals that the explicit teaching of culture awareness prior to traditional foreign language instruction, in conjunction with the opportunity students had to reflect and express their thoughts, has a positive effect on student attitudes.

Language is a reflection of society, so knowing about a language also means knowing about a culture. Therefore, many types of literature have been used as a language education tool representing culture. This thesis proposed folktales as an effective material of not only introducing culture but also learning language. Since folktales are old stories that have passed from generation to generation for a long time, values and morals of a culture are naturally presented in the context of the stories. Furthermore, folktales could enhance students' reading comprehension because the story lines, phrases, and words in a story are used repeatedly. Due to this repeated use of language, students could learn expressions and vocabulary more effectively. This study examined the relationship between using Korean folktales in a foreign language class and learners' reading comprehension and cultural understanding. The participants were the students of Korean 201 at BYU. The experimental group had folktale courses once in every week for 10 weeks while they received usual language class from Monday to Thursday, whereas the control group received usual language class every day. The Test in Proficiency in Korean (TOPIK) was administered for observing the students' enhancement in reading proficiency, and the Likert-scale surveys were given for observing their enhancement in cultural understanding. In addition to the quantitative data, qualitative data was gathered from the oral interviews of the experimental group. The interview questions were about their experiences and attitudes towards the use of folktales in Korean class. The results of the study showed that there was no significant difference between the two groups due to the many limitations of the present study, but the participants' interviews revealed that the students felt the use of folktales in language class helped to enhance their reading comprehension and cultural understanding, and they had positive attitudes toward to using folktales.

Though learning content in a second language (L2) requires additional time, students in immersion classes are expected to keep up with the curricular pace of traditional classes. One possible way to secure sufficient time for both language and science content learning is to integrate language arts instruction with core curricular content. This action research study investigated the effectiveness of purposefully integrating literacy instruction with the Utah Core Standards for science with 53 fourth-grade French partial immersion students in Utah. The purpose of this study was to discover how such a model might affect students' French reading skills, science knowledge, and attitudes about their immersion experience. Findings revealed statistically significant differences between pre- and post-tests on some measures of student performance, and yielded pedagogical implications regarding the development of reading fluency, science proficiency, and student engagement.

This qualitative study follows the experiences of four female students as they sought to gain access to native speakers and the L2, engage with the culture, and fulfill program speaking requirements (two hours of speaking the second language outside of class per weekday) in Amman, Jordan. The research explores the following questions: what challenges did female participants on BYU's intensive Arabic study abroad (SA) program face as they accessed native speakers and the L2 outside of the classroom, how were participants able to persevere through and overcome these challenges, and how were program interventions set up to help participants persevere and overcome these challenges? Data include a pre-study abroad questionnaire, daily/weekly reports, semi-structured interviews, and an exit survey. Through the lens of the Ecological Approach to Language Learning, findings reveal how students worked alongside the study abroad program to access native speakers and the L2 within the sociocultural environment.

Over the past several years, much research has investigated the role of pre-task planning, including solitary, group, and teacher-led planning, on the variables of complexity, fluency, and accuracy in Second Language Acquisition (SLA) research. (Foster & Skehan, 1996; Gaillard, 2013; Geng & Ferguson, 2013). Additionally, other studies have investigated L2 learners' use of paragraphs and/or the role of conjunctions, i.e. transition words and expressions, in developing ideas and increasing cohesion (Mendelson, 2012; Rass, 2015). A gap remains, however, in seeing how pre-speaking and transition word activities together can promote proficiency in terms of text type, i.e. the move from word level speech and producing strings of sentences to paragraph level discourse. This study seeks to fill this gap by examining two teaching methods, namely Prelude to Conversation, or pre-speaking (Thompson, 2009), and transition word activities, to investigate the effect that these teaching methods have on increasing complexity and fluency among Intermediate-level learners of French. Complexity was measured by investigating the sub-components of total transition words, taught transition words, total clauses, words per clause, and total words. Fluency was measured by investigating the sub-components of time duration (total minutes) and words per minute. Furthermore, a case study illustrates the implications of increases in complexity and fluency for text type. Subjects were recruited from third semester French courses at Brigham Young University and were subsequently divided into three groups with each group receiving a different teaching method: Group 1 received transition word pre-activities, Group 2 received pre-speaking with a focus on content and forms needed to respond to the task, and Group 3 received a combination of both teaching methods. The study lasted four weeks with a Pre-Test in week one, followed by two weeks of treatments before completing the Post-Test in the fourth week. During the second and third weeks, each group received their respective treatments before responding to prompts that were identical for each group. Following the data collection, the speech samples were transcribed and analyzed for the sub-components of complexity and fluency. Results show, when comparing the Pre-Test to the Post-Test, that pre-speaking has a broader impact on complexity and fluency, either alone or when combined with transition word activities, impacting in particular total clauses, total words and response duration. When transition word activities were taught alone, there were greater gains in the use of taught transition words. The findings also demonstrate that even simply practicing providing oral responses regardless of treatment did help learners make overall increases that led to Post-Test responses (without scaffolding) that did not return to Pre-Test levels.

The purpose of this thesis is to comprehensively explore Theravāda missionary activity. The philological, textual, theoretical, and ethnographic methods used to investigate the historical, sociopolitical, religious, and ethical aspects of early Theravāda, the U.S. Vipassanā (Insight) meditation movement, and modern Burmese Theravāda revealed nuanced meanings in the descriptions of these adherents’ endeavors with respect to proselytizing, converting, and the concept of missionary religions. By exploring the secular features that contributed to their religious appearances, a more developed contextualization of Theravāda “activity” reshapes understandings of the larger concept of missionary religions. I argue that what has been maintained in the establishment of early Theravāda, and continuance of Theravāda thereafter, is the preservation of a secular activity with respect to resolving diverse sociopolitical and ethical tensions through religious articulations and practices of tolerance and egalitarianism. In brief, the first chapter is a philological study on the Pāli word “desetha” or “preach.” The word desetha, and thus its meaning, is traced to its Prākritic form—a contemporaneous language more likely spoken by Gotama Buddha—to posit a more accurate translation for this word. Next, a theoretical examination into early Theravāda’s sociopolitical, ethical, and religious environment demonstrates the larger secular, rather than religious, features that contributed to this ancient movement’s emergence. A contextual analysis comparing the emergence and establishment of the “secular” U.S. Vipassanā (Insight) meditation movement to that of early Theravāda follows, in order to explore how the former aligns with Theravāda missionizing. Lastly, an ethnographic study on Burmese Buddhist monastics is presented. In relation to missionary activity, the Abhidhamma, a Buddhist doctrinal system, not only provides Burmese Buddhist monastics with a system of applied ethics that shapes how they interact with Buddhists and non-Buddhists in America, but also helps to explain the larger concern of viewing such activity as strictly “religious.”

This thesis is an exploration of hospitality, sharing and acclimation within a studio art practice as a means of fostering consideration of others. I employ a practice whereby I disrupt the typical gallery context, and through the production and dissemination of consumable items from the Middle East, I examine how resources can be used, valued, and shared to accommodate various and unspecified others and provide opportunities for crossing thresholds of guest and host relationships.

Many college-level students choose to study in another country and in a second language, often in English. In this context, a high standard of written English is important to attain good grades in college and earn degrees with distinction, which may lead to successful careers. One international college provided computer tools to students to improve their writing; however, students were reluctant to use the tools provided. This qualitative study explored these college students' perceptions of their lack of motivation to use computer tools and the barriers that prevent them from improving their English writing. The research questions investigated the technology available for these English as a Second Language students, their motivation to use error correction tools, barriers to their use, and attitudes to writing well in English. This study used the social constructivist theory as its theoretical framework that students learn by interacting with others. Semi structured interviews were conducted with 20 students, and 2 focus groups of 5 participants. All were selected purposefully. Data were open coded and thematically analyzed and 4 themes emerged. The four themes were technology and its uses, user preferences, writing, and motivation. The results indicated that the participants preferred to consult teachers, with technology as an aid, and used error correction tools only as a last resort. A total immersion writing development program with follow-up mentoring was developed to improve incoming international students' writing skills and to build their confidence in the use of technology. The emergent information from this study is intended for use by students, staff, and faculty to improve international students' English language acquisition, academic achievement, and professional success.

Hispanics are at increased risk for diabetes and are 40% more likely to die from the condition than are non-Hispanic Caucasians. The purpose of this project was to determine the effects of diabetes education conducted in Spanish by bilingual staff on the self-management and self-efficacy of a sample of 50 volunteer adult Hispanic clinic patients with diabetes. The education intervention incorporated the American Diabetes Association's Diabetes Self-Management Education program materials. Bandura's self-efficacy theory was selected as the theoretical support for the project that relied on self-management education of the patients to improve their self-efficacy to undertake the interventions necessary to manage their disease. The Diabetes Self-Management Questionnaire measured patient understanding and self-care management of diabetes before and after the education intervention, and the Diabetes Self-Efficacy Scale measured the self-efficacy of the patients before and after the intervention. Paired sample t tests were calculated to compare the pretest to posttest scores on the full questionnaire and subscales. The full scale and the glucose monitoring control and physical activity subscales showed statistically significant improvement pretest to posttest. An increase in the pretest to posttest Diabetes Self-Efficacy Scale scores was not significant. Results indicated that the diabetes education was an effective way to improve self-reported daily blood glucose monitoring and physical activity. The project may result in positive social change from the better self-management of some diabetes control skills among Hispanic adult patients when education is delivered in Spanish.

The normative development of language is often taken for granted, yet problems with language development can result in stress for the individual and family. A challenge with these language development problems lies within the contemporary education system, which assumes that children have appropriate skills when they begin school. The purpose of the study was to test a theoretical model of language readiness known as language-based cognitive fitness, which includes measures associated with structural concepts of language involving receptive language, expressive language, spontaneous narrative speech, and writing fluency. The sample included children from a private school who received an extensive battery of tests at admission and annually thereafter. Scores from a variety of cognitive measures were used in a structural equation modeling framework to test the model. Results demonstrated language-based cognitive fitness to be an interplay of verbal reasoning abilities, visual synthesis, and active analysis broadly representing receptive language, expressive language, spontaneous narrative expression, and writing fluency. Verbal reasoning, visual synthesis, and active analysis explained 91% of the variance in achievement. Implications for positive social change include an improved understanding for those who work with children's language development, specifically of the language structures responsible for language deficits and how these relate to overall cognitive fitness; interventions can be provided to help children more quickly make up language deficits.