No description available.

Human language has two fundamental requirements: it must allow competent speakers to exchange messages efficiently, and it must be readily learned by children. Recent work has examined effects of language predictability on language production, with many researchers arguing that so-called “predictability effects” function towards the efficiency requirement. Specifically, recent work has found that talkers tend to reduce linguistic forms that are more probable more heavily. This dissertation proposes the “Predictability Bootstrapping Hypothesis” that predictability effects also make language more learnable. There is a great deal of evidence that the adult grammars have substantial statistical components. Since predictability effects result in heavier reduction for more probable words and hidden structure, they provide infants with direct cues to the statistical components of the grammars they are trying to learn. The corpus studies and computational modeling experiments in this dissertation show that predictability effects could be a substantial source of information to language-learning infants, focusing on the potential utility of phonetic reduction in terms of word duration for syntax acquisition. First, corpora of spontaneous adult-directed and child-directed speech (ADS and CDS, respectively) are compared to verify that predictability effects actually exist in CDS. While revealing some differences, mixed effects regressions on those corpora indicate that predictability effects in CDS are largely similar (in kind and magnitude) to predictability effects in ADS. This result indicates that predictability effects are available to infants, however useful they may be. Second, this dissertation builds probabilistic, unsupervised, and lexicalized models for learning about syntax from words and durational cues. One series of models is based on Hidden Markov Models and learns shallow constituency structure, while the other series is based on the Dependency Model with Valence and learns dependency structure. These models are then used to measure how useful durational cues are for syntax acquisition, and to what extent their utility in this task can be attributed to effects of syntactic predictability on word duration. As part of this investigation, these models are also used to explore the venerable “Prosodic Bootstrapping Hypothesis” that prosodic structure, which is cued in part by word duration, may be useful for syntax acquisition. The empirical evaluations of these models provide evidence that effects of syntactic predictability on word duration are easier to discover and exploit than effects of prosodic structure, and that even gold-standard annotations of prosodic structure provide at most a relatively small improvement in parsing performance over raw word duration. Taken together, this work indicates that predictability effects provide useful information about syntax to infants, showing that the Predictability Bootstrapping Hypothesis for syntax acquisition is computationally plausible and motivating future behavioural investigation. Additionally, as talkers consider the probability of many different aspects of linguistic structure when reducing according to predictability effects, this result also motivates investigation of Predictability Bootstrapping of other aspects of linguistic knowledge.

Thesis (D.P.E.)--Indiana University, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 88-92). Also available online (PDF file) by a subscription to the set or by purchasing the individual file.

Thesis (D.P.E.)--Indiana University, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 88-92).

No description available.

The aim of the study is to illuminate upper secondary school teachers’ experiences of incorporating potentially sensitive topics in their teaching of English. To fulfil this aim, the degree project builds on six individual interviews with active English teachers at upper secondary schools in Sweden. The findings are that the chosen teachers can see four different effects on the learning of English related to the pupils’ motivation, participation, understanding of cultures, and vocabulary. Furthermore, the teachers incorporate five different strategies when teaching sensitive topics: trigger warnings, group discussions, remaining neutral, rules for discussions, and icebreakers. An implication of the results is that sensitive topics carry both benefits and drawbacks and that pupils may respond to such topics in varying ways. Additional implications relate to teaching experience, in that this can be seen to influence how many effects and strategies a teacher may be able to share.

No description available.

Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Educational Leadership / Sarah Jane Fishback / A new group of learners is emerging in the adult learning environment as a result of the United States being at war for more than 10 years. More than two million warriors served in the Global War on Terrorism (GWOT). Educational institutions across the United States are experiencing growing numbers of students who are military combat veterans of the GWOT. These numbers will continue to grow as more of them transition back into life after combat. These students are arriving in class with varying levels of combat trauma experience and possibly Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), major depression, Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) or a combination of these and other difficulties. The purpose of this research was to learn from military veteran students how their combat experience affects them in the classroom. Specifically it looked at the types of combat experiences they have and the types of physical and mental effects they report experiencing while attending and participating in educational learning activities. This research h sought to gain insight into how combat experience influences the learning experience for GWOT military combat veterans who participate in an educational learning environment. It explored the types of experiences these students bring into that learning environment and how their participation in learning activities is affected.