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Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1992. / Typescript. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references.

A considerable body of work on women's television careers exists in Europe and North America, but the English-speaking Caribbean countries have never been investigated for their regional practices. This dissertation fills this void by addressing three major themes: a) the discrepancies between the high female labour force participation rates and their low representation in media management positions; b) the role of Caribbean gender ideology and stereotypes in excluding females from the professions; and c) the dearth of anti-discrimination and equity legislation in the region, their impact on female professional careers; and what can be done to ameliorate the working conditions of female broadcasters in the Caribbean. Historically, there has always been a significant percentage of women in employment in the Caribbean: during slavery, women outnumbered male workers on the plantations. The last two decades have seen a marked movement of women out of agriculture and into the service sectors including tourism and banking; as well as communication and some of the professions. As elsewhere in the world, gender structures and fragments the contemporary Caribbean labour force; and the tendency for men and women to have access to qualitatively different types of jobs is a persistent feature of both professional and general employment patterns in the region. This thesis investigates journalism as one of the prestige professions, which has attracted female personnel since the 1960s; and compares their access, promotion and remuneration to that of the male professionals. The thesis further uses Canadian and American findings to determine the informal barriers encountered by females in building their careers, as well as asesses the equity legislation and its impact on the region. Two comprehensive surveys covering all Television stations in the Anglophone Caribbean provide the data for the thesis; which are similar to those used by Robinson/St. Jean (1997) in Canada and Weaver / Il existe en Europe et en Amerique du nord de nombreuses etudes sur la vie professionnelle des femmes oeuvrant dans le domaine televisuel. Aux Caraibes Anglophones, par contre, il n'existe aucune etude de ce genre. Ce travail vise a combler ce vide en considerant le probleme sous trois angles principaux: a) les ecarts existant entre le taux eleve de la main-d'ceuvre feminine dans le domaine televisuel et la sous-representation des femmes parmi les cadres superieurs du secteur des medias b) le role de l'ideologie et des stereotypes de sexes aux Caraibes dans l'exclusion des femmes des postes de responsabilite au sein des entreprises mediatiques et de la penurie d'une politique de justice sociale et d'equite d'emploi dans la region et ses consequences sur les carrieres des femmes; et dans quelle mesure it serait possible d'ameliorer les conditions de travail des femmes dans le domaine de la telediffusion aux Caraibes. Historiquement les femmes des Caraibes ont toujours constitue un pourcentage important de la main-d'ceuvre: pendant l'esclavage, le nombre de femmes travaillant sur les plantations depassait celui d'ouvriers de sexe masculin. D'ailleurs, au cours des deux demieres decennies, les femmes ont de plus en plus abandonne le secteur de l'agriculture au profit de celui de services et de consommation, y compris le tourisme et les operations bancaires, la communication et certaines autres professions. Comme ailleurs dans le monde, l'appartenance sexuelle conditionne et influence le decoupage de l'effectif aux Caraibes contemporaines; la tendance selon laquelle les hommes et les femmes occupent des postes qualitativement differents est donc une caracteristique permanente des politiques d'emploi de la region. Cette these analyse le journalisme comme profession de prestige ayant attire les femmes depuis les annees 60 et compare leur acces au travail et a la promotion et leur remuneration a ceux de leurs homologues masculins. La these s'inspire des resultats d'etud

This degree project is an interview study investigating upper secondary EFL teachers’ perceptions of speaking anxiety in their classrooms. The aim of the study is to gain insight into how the teachers perceive the prevalence of foreign language speaking anxiety (FLSA) among their pupils, the factors contributing to FLSA and what methods they use to manage FLSA in their EFL classrooms. To achieve this aim, a phenomenological approach was applied, and six teachers were interviewed using semi-structured interviews in a mediumsized city in Sweden. Through the interviews, information of the teachers’ experiences in relation to the prevalence of FLSA, the contributing factors to FLSA and what methods they used to manage FLSA were gathered. The results showcase that the teachers perceive FLSA to be present in their EFL classrooms but to varying degrees. They perceived that the factors contributing to FLSA could be many, but the factors all the teachers named were fear of evaluation, having many people listening to your speech, being focused on correctness in the FL, and being inexperienced and afraid to make mistakes in the FL. To counteract this with methods of managing FLSA, the teachers perceived that positive reinforcement, communication, group division, individual adaptation, a focus on meaning over correctness, and showing understanding for the pupils’ feelings are suitable methods to manage FLSA in their classrooms. The most common of these methods was the usage of individual adaptations, where the teacher and pupil communicate to find the most suitable solution with reference to the knowledge requirements of the English subject and the pupil’s needs. Lastly, the results indicate that FLSA is a complex phenomenon in EFL education due to the variety of factors that might contribute to it and the variety of methods potentially useful in counteracting it.

No description available.

在兒童習得談話溝通的發展過程中，兒童需要習得多種談話技巧才能全然地參與談話，而其中一項重要的談話技巧即為引語的使用。引語在言談分析中是指一種半固定的語句用以加速言談的流暢。然而至今沒有研究探討過兒童使用引語的情形，因此本研究旨在探討中文言談中學齡兒童使用引語的發展情形。本研究將十二名學齡兒童依年齡分為兩組，並將其自然談話內容錄音且加以轉錄，以資進一步之分析與研究。此研究結果發現隨著年紀的增長兒童愈常使用引語，且愈能行使不同的種類形式來表達。這些發展性的成長與兒童的心智、語言及社會發展有關；此外，本研究結果亦發現學齡兒童最常使用的引語種類。本研究期待能增加人們對於兒童引語的認識，更能提供國小教師指導或幫助學齡兒童在言談中使用引語，進而增進兒童言談順暢無誤。

Nasality is a common resonance disorder present in the speech of severely hearing impaired individuals (Hudgins, 1934). The likely cause has been attributed to structural or functional abnormalities of the velopharyngeal mechanism as well as deviations in pitch and loudness. In addition, hearing impaired individuals speak at a slower rate than normal hearing individuals which has been shown to exacerbate the presence of nasality in their speech (Colton & Cooker, 1968). The purpose of this study was to determine whether deliberate increases in speaking rate would serve to decrease the amount of nasality in the speech of severely hearing impaired individuals. The participants were 11 severe to profoundly hearing impaired students, ranging in age from 12 to 19 years (mean = 16 years). Each participant provided a baseline speech sample (R1) followed by three training sessions during which participants were trained to increase their speaking rate. Following the training sessions, a second speech sample was obtained (R2). Acoustic and perceptual analysis pf the speech samples obtained at R1 and R2 were undertaken. The acoustic analysis focused on changes in first and second formant frequency bandwidth (BW1 & BW2). The perceptual analysis involved 21 naïve listeners rating the speech samples (at R1 & R2) for perceived nasality. Findings indicated a significant increase in speaking rate at R2. In addition, a significantly narrower BW2 frequency and lower perceptual rating score was obtained at R2 across all participants, suggesting a considerable decrease in nasality as speaking rate increases. The influences of speaking rate changes on the functioning of the velopharyngeal mechanism are discussed. In addition, the clinical implications of the findings are explored.

This thesis explores the impact of peer feedback on two secondary level classrooms studying English as a foreign language in Taiwan. The effectiveness of teacher-led feedback has consistently been the focus of the relevant literature but relatively fewer studies have experimentally investigated the impact of peer-led feedback on learning. This research is based on the belief that the investigation of the process of peer-led feedback, as well as the effectiveness of peer-led correction, will enhance our understanding of learners’ communicative interactions. These data will allow us the opportunity to provide suggestions for successful second/foreign language learning. This study was conducted following a mixed-methods quasi-experimental design involving a variety of data collection and analysis techniques. Observations of peer-peer dialogues taken from a Year 7 and a Year 8 class were analysed using content analysis, in order to classify the types of peer feedback provided by the Year 7 and Year 8 learners. Pre-and post-measures, including English speaking tests, questionnaires, and checklists, were examined with non-parametric statistical tests used to explore any changes in relation to the learners’ speaking development after the quasi-experiment. Key findings included frequency and distribution of seven types of peer feedback, as used by the Year 7 and Year 8 learners, and the statistical results that revealed the differences between the pre-and post-measures. Among the seven types of peer feedback (translation, confirmation, completion, explicit indication, explicit correction, explanation and recasts), explicit correction and translation were the two techniques used most frequently by the learners. Post-test results indicated an improvement in the learners’ speaking performance. The results of pre- and post-questionnaires and pre- and post-checklists showed different levels of change in the learners’ self-evaluation of their own ability to speak English, as well as their attitudes towards corrective feedback. These results allow us to gain insight into the nature of peer interaction in communicative speaking activities as well as learners’ motives behind their feedback behaviours. Additionally, the results shed light on learners’ opinions towards corrective feedback that they received or provided in peer interaction. Further, the results yield a deepened understanding of impacts of peer feedback on L2 development by examining changes in learners’ speaking performance, self-confidence in speaking English and self-evaluation of their own ability to speak English after a peer-led correction treatment. In conclusion, the study suggests that adolescent learners are willing and able to provide each other with feedback in peer interaction. The feedback that they delivered successfully helps their peers to attend to form and has positive impacts on their peers’ English- speaking performance. Moreover, the study provides explanations for learners’ preference for certain types of feedback techniques, which hopefully helps to tackle the mismatch between teachers’ intentions and learners’ expectations of corrective feedback in the L2 classrooms.

This thesis examines the problems engendered by ongoing Western dominance in the field of francophone African publishing, with specific reference to Guinea and Senegal. This dominance raises complex issues of power, authority and voice that are familiar tropes in postcolonial analyses, but this thesis seeks to re-place such questions in a wider context, looking at the current material circumstances of the publishing industry and “socially contaminated” instances such as international donor funding and national language policy as a perspective. This allows the links between the two rather distinct fields of the cultural and the commercial to be explored.  The guiding theme is a critique of the argument for full indigenisation or africanisation of African publishing, a debate which is based on questions of language, critical authority and identity.  The thesis seeks to cut through the inevitable polemics raised by the dominance of Western publishers in African publishing, to clearly identify the problems thrown up by this imbalance, and to explore the ramifications for ‘African literature’.