Thesis (PH.D.) -- Syracuse University, 2006 / "Publication number AAT 3251778."

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2007. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 104-116).

Thesis (M.E.S.)--Baylor University, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references (p.103 -106).

This dissertation analyzes and critically evaluates Southern Baptist Hispanic church-planting strategies in North America during the period of 1970-1994. This twenty-five-year study demonstrates that these years were both important and influential days for language missions among Southern Baptists. Chapter 1 introduces the reader to the reality that the United States is a nation of many "nations." Each culture is extraordinarily unique and, consequently, requires that strategies be contextualized to reach successfully the increasingly diverse population in North America. Chapter 2 explores the historical context that was the genesis of Southern Baptists' language missions in North America. Key people instrumental in reaching language/cultural groups, starting new churches, and developing indigenous leadership among different ethnic groups helped to paint the overall language missions landscape. Chapter 3 introduces Oscar I. Romo and explores Romo's missiological principles, sociological understanding, and theological foundation for language missions. The chapter investigates how Romo's theology influenced his methodologies, and to what extent he influenced other people and agencies. Chapter 4 introduces the reader to three important questions one must answer in order to have a better understanding of the importance and influence of language missions in the Southern Baptist Convention during the period of 1970-1994. While Chapter 4 is descriptive of each strategy, Chapter 5 analyzes, evaluates, and critiques the strengths and weaknesses of both primary and secondary strategies. Chapter 6 draws conclusions from the historical, theological, missiological, sociological, and ecclesiological lessons learned during the period of 1970 to 1994. Additionally, chapter 6 examines the lessons learned from the past, reflects on current church-planting practices of the NAMB, and answers important and practical questions.

Speakers of Spanish in the United States are living perhaps the most interesting linguistic experience in the entire Hispanic world. The present study deals with the theme of the Spanish language in contact with English and the problems related with social bilingualism. The first part of Chapter I recounts the principal incidents in the history of Spanish expansion, and outlines the route of the advance of the Spanish language throughout the American continent. The second part of Chapter I presents statistical tables pertaining to immigrants, and explains the geographic and demographic distribution of Hispanics in the United States. Chapter II is a linguistic study of the varieties of Spanish found in the United States, along with lexical examples from daily use, and grammatical characteristics. Chapter III provides an academic classification according to the sociolinguistic and sociocultural factors which affect the Spanish language. Chapter IV presents the linguistic deviations produced by factors at the phonological, morphological, syntactical, lexical, semantic and grammatical level. Chapter V concentrates on the bilingual element of U.S. society. Three tables demonstrate the distribution of English and Spanish according to the sociolinguistic context and the type of text involved. In addition, three studies are presented to deepen our knowledge of bilingualism, as well as its causes and consequences. The conclusion must take into account the fact that it will not be possible to assimilate Hispanics as easily as has been done with people of other cultures in the United States, since the group renews itself continuously through the presence of recently arrived Hispanic immigrants, and those who have recently returned. / Arts, Faculty of / French, Hispanic, and Italian Studies, Department of / Graduate

The purpose of this study was to explore the correlation between self-perceived information seeking skills and self-esteem in adolescents and, further, to determine whether this correlation varied according to race and gender. Tenth-grade students from three public high schools in a Midwestern city were given two instruments. Self-perceived information seeking skills were measured using a modified version of the Information Skills Checklist from High Plains Regional Technology in Education Consortium's Profiler website. Self-esteem was measured by the Tennessee Self-Concept Scale, which is designed for students 12 years of age and over. The scale has six separate measures of self-esteem: physical, moral-ethical self, personal self, family self, social self and academic self. These six measures are used to determine overall level of self-esteem. The results showed a statistically significant correlation between self-perceived information seeking skills and at least one facet of self-esteem for all groups measured, with one exception. African American males were the only adolescents to show no correlation between scores from these two instruments. It is hoped that this research will ultimately be used to develop policies regarding the development of information seeking skills in disenfranchised groups.

For years, university faculty has complained that students come to the university unprepared to meet the demands of their content courses. In particular, they complain that students do not know how to cite or how to quote the work of others. To help students, university and content faculty have taken a series of measures which include creating a series of junior and academic writing courses, developing academic honesty policies and bringing APA or MLA handouts to class, and including in their syllabi academic honesty policies. All these measures come from a view of writing as a set of rules that can be applied across contexts, situations, and audiences. Given that students continue to struggle with issues of voice in their academic writing, it is important to review these views and practices and find other ways to help students. In the past 40 years, genre and SFL scholars have been arguing for a more situated view of writing in which writing is a social practice that varies from one context to another and from one discourse community to another. Drawing on these theories, this study explores how content faculty can more effectively help students in general, and ESL nontraditional students in particular, develop their disciplinary voices. This study examines the difficulties that a group of undergraduate Latina nontraditional students encountered while adopting a disciplinary voice and incorporating the voices of others in their texts, including the reasons for these difficulties and faculty support received. Ethnographic, Critical Language Awareness, and Systemic Functional Linguistics methods of data collection and analysis were used to explore these issues. Findings suggest that to effectively help ESL students respond to the different writing and voice demands of their disciplinary courses, content faculty need to work collaboratively with students and college ESL and writing instructors in adopting and presenting a more dynamic view of writing and voice. In this dynamic view, students are not required to memorize rules for attribution of voice applicable across disciplines, but to analyze the situation and the audience before deciding what voices to use and how to use them.

Background. Type 2 diabetes is the fifth-leading cause of death in Latinos in the United States. Diabetes is a commonly occurring health condition in older adults, leading to complications that can severely impact quality of life and hasten death. The burden of diabetes is considerable in the older adult population; almost four-fifths of adults with diabetes are older than 59 years. Diabetes mortality can be reduced or delayed with effective management of the illness. Older minority adults are more likely to have higher rates of adult-onset diabetes than non-Hispanic Whites, yet few studies have examined the diabetes self-management practices of this group. These issues are particularly important to investigate in older Dominican adults in Washington Heights/Inwood, New York City, because this group has unique cultural beliefs and practices, is rapidly increasing in population, and has a variety of unmet health-related needs. This study explored specific barriers encountered (cultural and structural) and the extent to which external factors are associated with self-management practices among older Dominican community residents living in mainland US with type 2 diabetes. After 20 years of health disparities research and intervention older adults continue to have problems accessing health care due to structural and socio-cultural barriers. Methods. This investigation utilized qualitative in-depth interviews to examine the cultural and structural barriers to health care and self-management practices existing in this group. Results. Thirty Dominicans 55 years and older were recruited through a community-based senior resource center from the mainland US. Self-management practices for type 2 diabetes vary and are represented by commonly known factors, including: 1) diet modifications; 2) glucose monitoring; 3) medication adherence; 4) exercise, and 5) diabetes classes. Findings from this study illustrate that male and female participants have mixed self-management practices that assist them in managing their diabetes. In addition, participants are interested in “learning” how to manage their diabetes through their participation in classes and diabetes-related workshops. Home remedies (remedies caseros) for type 2 diabetes were identified in this study. Conclusions. Programs and services that promote healthy self-management practices of older Latino adults need to include a focus on the unique cultural beliefs and behaviors of the individual as well as the broader situational context that impacts their diabetes self-management. Such information is invaluable for researchers and health practitioners interested in diabetes self-management practices of older minority adults.

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