University of Macau / Faculty of Business Administration / Department of Management and Marketing

This study investigated the construct of comprehensible English in the context of oral proficiency assessment for international teaching assistants. I carried out a three-part mixed method design to explore instructor rater judgments, results of a speech analysis, and how specific speech variables might have influenced judgments on the assessment criteria. Each step focused on a failed/passed assessment comparison made possible through archived data from which 10 individuals initially failed the oral proficiency test but within the same year retook the task and received a passing score. Part A evaluated the perspective of the instructor raters through the rating scale judgments provided on the assessment evaluation forms. In the second part of the study, I coded and scored grammatical, temporal, and phonological variables that occurred on two-minute excerpts of a field-specific summary task from the set of 10 failed and then subsequently passed assessments performed by the same individuals. I inspected the speech analysis results to evaluate differences in the values of specific speech variables on the set of failed performances in comparison to the set of passed performances. In Part C, I conducted 10 case studies to compare each individual's rating scale judgments and rater comments on grammar, fluency, and pronunciation from their failed and their passed assessment with the results from the speech analysis of grammatical, temporal, and phonological variables. The case study approach facilitated a broad inspection of the interrelation among the rater perspectives on the assessment criteria and the speech analysis results. The study findings showed evidence of an interrelation between temporal and phonological variables on rater judgments of comprehensibility, as well as the role of pronunciation as a criterion for oral proficiency assessments. I concluded with implications for future research on the interrelation among speech variables that influence listener perceptions of comprehensibility and the use of pronunciation as a speaking assessment criterion. / text

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A qualitative study of how first year foreign language students perceive different interactions in an online environment. In depth interviews were conducting with ten students after the completion of an online second semester Spanish course. Individual case studies recorded the unique experiences of each study participant and those experiences were then compared and analyzed for common themes. Emerging themes included the value of explanatory feedback programmed into the course, the use of message boards for making interpersonal connections, the difficulty of conducting online chats, the role and value of announcements and the importance of immediacy behaviors for creating social presence. The themes were then applied to the following research questions: 1) What is the effectiveness of the available interactions in a web-based Spanish course as perceived by community college foreign language learners? 2) How do these interactions work together to facilitate learning based upon their purpose? 3) How do these interactions work together to facilitate learning in an online foreign language learning environment based upon with whom or what the student is interacting? The results of this study included three attributes of effective interaction. The participants indicated a need to make a connection between their personal learning goals and the available interactions. Timeliness was also identified as a key component of effective interactions. Automatic feedback, archives for previous information and a quick turnaround on email correspondence were listed as important aspects that created a feeling of timeliness. The third attribute was identified as a low level of frustration when compared to the potential benefit of an interaction. The study participants indicated a willingness to endure some frustration if they thought it would be worth it in the end. Final recommendations suggested that designers of online foreign language courses should include non-linear instructional activities, carefully designed chat opportunities, quality automatic feedback and reading and listening passages that are level appropriate. Instructors should engage in behaviors that enhance the effectiveness of interactions by making regular announcements, helping learners draw connections between the interactions and their learning goals, maintaining and organizing archives and keeping response times as close to 24 hours as possible. / text

This thesis analyzes President William Jefferson Clinton's self-defense during the first four months of 1998. The study focuses on Clinton's denial of the sex scandal with White House intern Monica Lewinsky when the story broke out in the Washington Post on January 21, 1998. William L. Benoit's theory of Image Restoration is used to examine each strategy's distribution. Benoit's framework consists of identifying strategies used by denial to clarify and repair a positive image despite negative public accusations.The study employed a content analysis as the research methodology. There were a total of 1,392 sentences contained in twenty-four articles from the Washington Post, only articlesfrom the Post were included in the initial search. Research was conducted using microfilm of the Washington Post full-text articles during the time period of interest: January 21, 1998 to April 20, 1998. The dependent variables were the number of sentences devoted to the amount of the Washington Post coverage given to the strategies utilized by Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, Clinton's staff, Clinton' s lawyer, Clinton's friends, the media, Al Gore, and the Democratic Party. Meanwhile, the sentences were coded on the basis of image restoration theory and strategy categories defined by Benoit.The data showed the strategy of denial was employed at the highest rate among all strategies during the three selected time periods. Specifically, the denial strategy was used the most frequently with 348 quotations (25%). In the short run, Clinton's popularity among followers was not damaged, but in the long run, he faced impeachment proceedings. Therefore, the strategy of denial is not always a clarification action. This study indicates that the strategy of denial merely complicates and prolongs the whole process; therefore twisting Benoit's original definition. / Department of Journalism

This ethnographic case study explored the vocation discernment process for Latina women who have entered a religious order. The researcher spent three months participating in and observing the daily lives of religious sisters and conducted interviews. The eight religious sisters interviewed for the study were predominately of Mexican and Central America descent. Similar to Lester’s (2005) findings, sisters describe persistent feelings of inquietud before entering the religious life, and sought fulfillment through religious means. Participants often feel joy and admiration when they met a religious sister for the first time. Participants recount a religious or sensory experience which provided clarity to her decision. The participants indicate a sense of urgency to enter the religious life as soon as possible. The results are compared with other studies on religious life and vocation discernment through a sociological and psychosocial perspective. / Department of Counseling Psychology and Guidance Services

This study examines the public relations efforts surrounding the popular music group the Beatles’ first United States tour in February of 1964. The evidence, acquired through the composition of a thorough case study of events, suggests that a combination of factors is responsible for their unprecedented international success: the group’s innate talent (both in terms of their craft and their ability to interact with key and intercessory publics); cultivation and maintenance of a specifically-designed image emphasizing their physical appearance, musicianship, wit, and working class background; understanding by the group’s management of the necessity of record label and major media support; the expert knowledge by said management of the media landscape, publicity opportunities, and a keen sense of appropriate timing by which significant publicity is attained. / Department of Journalism

This study looks to the social trends, needs, and definition of home for the single-mother household. People need strong families to provide them with the identity, belonging, discipline, and values that are essential for full individual development ("The American Family Crisis" 16). This requires the examination of the role that the physical home environment plays in the life of the single-parent household. Personal histories, a literary search, and research of existing examples of built facilities serve to produce a series of patterns formalized in a design matrix, investigating how architecture can foster a healthy and supportive environment for the single-parent household.The intent of this research is to define a process by which the singleparent household, headed by a single mother, may be able to become self-sufficient and empowered by their housing situation. The aim is to create More than Housing (Joan Forrester Sprague), while utilizing the architecture to foster relationships and encourage growth.A resulting programmatic guide and design development tool for supportive housing, adapted to the needs of the single-parent household, creates a framework of design ideas derived from this research. This compilation is used to define design strategies and recommendations for the form and program of support systems used to illustrate the definition, application and resolution of "home" for the single-mother household. / Department of Architecture

Historic interiors are an integral component to the historic fabric of our communities, yet the protection of interiors is fodder for debate among preservationists as to whether interiors are afforded equal protection as exteriors. This debate arises because interiors present unique challenges, namely, issues of public access, designation of publicly versus privately owned interiors,and infringement on Fifth Amendment rights. This thesis will examine federal, state, and local government policies, organizations, and laws, and discuss their impact on the protection of historic interiors. Five seminal court cases that examine legal precedents for designating interiors will also be addressed. Finally, case studies provide examples of how two communities have used local preservation laws to preserve and protect significant interiors in their cities. This thesis will show that historic interiors are subject to controls that ensure their preservation and designation. / Historic preservation in the United States -- Legal precedents -- Case analyses. / Department of Architecture

This thesis investigates if and how poor, mostly minority citizens can be mobilized by a campaign whose principal policy objective would materially enhance their lives by including them in a major public program. The question is put to the test through a multi-dimensional study of voter mobilization in Alabama during the 2014 election for Governor. At stake in the election was whether Alabama would expand Medicaid through the Affordable Care Act in Alabama, an issue emblematic of "submergedness" (Mettler, 2011). In order to understand the extent to which the policy was submerged - measured by knowledge and awareness of the policy, along with its key provisions - I distributed a survey to 868 Alabamians weeks before the election. The survey used the experimental design of conjoint analysis to test which aspects of the policy were most persuasive among the target population. Additionally, I performed a randomized field experiment across the four major metropolitan areas of Alabama, micro-targeting 6,021 registered voters living in the "Coverage Gap," citizens who could gain health insurance if Medicaid were expanded. The campaign yielded negligible effects on voter turnout among subjects in the Coverage Gap, even though the interventions shifted voter knowledge, 'surfacing' the policy. In addition to the survey and field experiments, this research benefits from qualitative insights gathered in 22 semi-structured interviews conducted among poor Alabamians, many of whom were uninsured. From these interviews, it became clear that the political disengagement of the poor is deeply entrenched, prohibitive of policy-based mobilization. Disengagement is driven by a complex mix of barriers to registration and perceptions of political inefficacy based on interpretations of extant policy designs. These results have important implications for our understanding of the limitations of policy-based mobilization, suggesting that more attention must be paid to how current policies shape predispositions for mobilization.