Thesis (M.A.)--B.Y.U. Dept. of Church History and Doctrine.

Thesis (M.A.)--B.Y.U. Dept. of Church History and Doctrine. / Electronic thesis. Also available in print ed.

Thesis (M.S. in Computer Science and M.S. in Modeling, Virtual Environments and Simulation (MOVES))--Naval Postgraduate School, March 2004. / Thesis advisor(s): Rudolph Darken. Includes bibliographical references (p. 57). Also available online.

Level 6 of the Assessment of Basic Learning Abilities (ABLA) assesses the ease or difficulty with which persons with developmental disabilities (DD) are able to learn a two-choice auditory-visual discrimination. Individuals with DD who have passed ABLA Level 6 are likely to have at least some language skills, and their language is likely to be more complex than those individuals who have not passed Level 6 (Marion et al., 2003). Thus, an individual’s performance on Level 6 of the ABLA may be predictive of the types of language skills he/she will readily learn. Previous research (Verbeke, Martin, Yu & Martin, 2007) demonstrated that an individual’s pass/fail performance on ABLA Level 6 predicted his or her ability to point to pictures of common objects when the tester said the names of the objects. The present research examined whether performance on ABLA Level 6 might predict the ability of a person with a severe DD to learn to say the names of common objects (called tacting). Specifically, this study investigated whether participants who passed ABLA Level 6 (the Auditory-Visual Group – Group 1) would more readily learn object naming behavior (vocal tacts) than those clients who failed ABLA Level 6 (the Visual Group – Group 2). The groups were matched on the Communication Subscale of the Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scale (VABS). Results indicated that: (a) Group 1 met mastery criterion for a significantly larger number of naming responses than Group 2; and (b) the mean number of trials to mastery criterion was significantly lower in Group 1 than in Group 2. The implications for language training are discussed.

Level 6 of the Assessment of Basic Learning Abilities (ABLA) assesses the ease or difficulty with which persons with developmental disabilities (DD) are able to learn a two-choice auditory-visual discrimination. Individuals with DD who have passed ABLA Level 6 are likely to have at least some language skills, and their language is likely to be more complex than those individuals who have not passed Level 6 (Marion et al., 2003). Thus, an individual’s performance on Level 6 of the ABLA may be predictive of the types of language skills he/she will readily learn. Previous research (Verbeke, Martin, Yu & Martin, 2007) demonstrated that an individual’s pass/fail performance on ABLA Level 6 predicted his or her ability to point to pictures of common objects when the tester said the names of the objects. The present research examined whether performance on ABLA Level 6 might predict the ability of a person with a severe DD to learn to say the names of common objects (called tacting). Specifically, this study investigated whether participants who passed ABLA Level 6 (the Auditory-Visual Group – Group 1) would more readily learn object naming behavior (vocal tacts) than those clients who failed ABLA Level 6 (the Visual Group – Group 2). The groups were matched on the Communication Subscale of the Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scale (VABS). Results indicated that: (a) Group 1 met mastery criterion for a significantly larger number of naming responses than Group 2; and (b) the mean number of trials to mastery criterion was significantly lower in Group 1 than in Group 2. The implications for language training are discussed.

The project of American economic imperialism in China during the first half of the twentieth century was first and foremost an imagined enterprise. This dissertation examines the role of the Student Interpreters Corps (SIC) in this endeavor. Studying language-trained intermediaries, this treatment is a first step towards studying history with an approach that is neither top-down nor bottom-up but rather middle-outward. Examining hitherto neglected personnel records and State Department correspondence, this study reveals the SIC as part of an imagined but unsuccessful program of economic imperialism. Although effective in garnering American business interest and support for Foreign Service reform and expansion, efforts to entice American merchants and companies to enter Asian markets (particularly in China) failed to yield a coherent, successful trade empire. However, the largely unstated goal of increased American power was achieved as the result of a bureaucratic imperative for specialization, professionalization, and institutional expansion set in motion during the establishment of the SIC. Examining the evolving roles and views of SIC-trained intermediaries, this dissertation finds that while the imagined trade empire failed to materialize, the SIC contributed to a developing American perception of China that envisioned increasingly greater American intervention in East Asia. In this millieu, a “Peking” order emerged by the mid-1920s that became influential in American East Asia policy towards the eve of Word War II that saw China as vital to American interests. Established as precursor of American economic empire in China, the SIC was instrumental in shifting discourse away from economic empire towards an interventionist American Orientalism. Trade expansion rhetoric waned and Orientalist language solidified as Japanese aggression became more blatant and the ascendance of Communism in China ever more certain. Highlighting the bureaucratic intermediaries as new method of studying history, this study indicates that the project of American economic imperialism was largely imagined, but one that transformed to accommodate evolving visions of expanding American power in East Asia. These conclusions offer new challenges to and opportunities for scholars of American foreign relations.

No description available.

Bereits seit Mitte der 1990er Jahre greift die schulische Sprachförderung im Land Berlin vor allem auf das Merkmal der „nichtdeutschen Herkunftssprache“ (ndH) zurück. Mit der Einführung dieses Merkmals entschied sich der Landesgesetzgeber dafür, die – aus seiner Sicht weiterhin dringend notwendige – Sprachförderung von Kindern und Jugendlichen mit Migrationshintergrund in der Schule nicht mehr an eine ausländische Staatsbürgerschaft, sondern, ungeachtet der Staatsbürgerschaft der Schüler, an das Vorherrschen einer nichtdeutschen Kommunikationssprache in der Familie anzuknüpfen. An diesem Ansatz hat sich auch durch die Novellierung des Berliner Schulgesetzes im Jahre 2004 nichts Grundsätzliches geändert. Neben der Bedeutung des Merkmals ‚ndH‘ für die individuelle Sprachförderung in Schulen kommt diesem Merkmal – zusammen mit dem erst unlängst aufgewerteten weiteren Sprachfördermerkmal „Lernmittelbefreiung“ (LmB) – jedoch nunmehr auch eine zentrale Rolle bei der Zumessung von Sprachfördermitteln und Personalressourcen zu. In der Vergangenheit ist das Merkmal ‚ndH‘ allerdings wegen seiner angeblich diskriminierenden und vermeintlich segregierenden Wirkung mehrfach in die Kritik geraten, die sich, ausgelöst durch einen Vorfall an einer Kreuzberger Grundschule im Jahre 2012, noch einmal verstärkt hat. So wird neben der Tatsache, dass das Merkmal ‚ndH‘ überhaupt erhoben und der Sprachförderung zugrunde gelegt wird, auch die Praxis der Berliner Senatsverwaltung für Bildung, Jugend und Wissenschaft, auf den sog. Schulporträts im Internet ‚ndH‘-Quoten zu veröffentlichen, angegriffen und die Abschaffung dieser Praxis gefordert. Ziel der vorliegenden Arbeit ist die Beantwortung der Frage nach der Berechtigung dieser Kritik. Ausgehend von einer Darstellung zur Einführung und Entwicklung des Merkmals ‚ndH‘ unter Berücksichtigung der zuvor geltenden Rechtslage und einer Darstellung der aktuellen rechtlichen Grundlagen der schulischen Sprachförderung im Land Berlin wird dieses Merkmal einer näheren Betrachtung unterzogen. Nach einer Bestimmung des Merkmals ‚ndH‘, einer Erläuterung der einschlägigen Regelungen zur ‚ndH‘-Sprachförderung und einem Vergleich mit dem zusätzlich bestehenden Fördermerkmal ‚LmB‘ im Kontext der aktuellen Bestimmungen wird zunächst ein Überblick über wesentliche Aspekte der schulischen Sprachförderung auf der Grundlage des Merkmals ‚ndH‘ in der Praxis gegeben, in den wiederum das Vergleichsmerkmal ‚LmB‘ einbezogen wird. Daran knüpft die Untersuchung der These an, das Merkmal ‚ndH‘ bzw. zumindest seine Veröffentlichung im Rahmen der Schulporträts der Senatsschulverwaltung habe diskriminierende Wirkung und führe zu einer Segregation der Schülerschaft. Im Anschluss daran wird als zusätzliche Überlegung der Frage nach der tatsächlichen Notwendigkeit einer sich an dem Merkmal ‚ndH‘ und damit einer familiären Kommunikationssprache orientierenden Sprachförderung nachgegangen, die, wenn sie denn bejaht werden könnte, etwaige Diskriminierungs- und Segregationswirkungen rechtfertigte. / Since the mid-1990s, school language training in the state of Berlin has fallen back on the criterion “non-German heritage language” (German: nichtdeutsche Herkunftssprache – ndH). Considering language training as still urgently needed, the state legislator decided by introducing this new criterion to base language training in schools for children and youths with a migration background not on a foreign (i.e. non-German) citizenship anymore, but on the prevailing use of a non-German language of communication in the family, regardless of the students’ citizenship. Little has changed in that regard, even after the amendment of the Law on Schools in Berlin (German: Berliner Schulgesetz) in 2004. Besides the significance of the criterion ‘ndH‘ for individual language training in schools, however, it now also plays a central role when it comes to measuring language training aids and personal resources, alongside with another recently evaluated language training criterion, the so-called ‘Lernmittelbefreiung’ (LmB; exemption from the payment of contributions for learning aids). In the past, the ‘ndH’-criterion was criticized numerous times because of its allegedly discriminatory and supposedly segregating effects, though. In 2012, critics even increased after an incident which had taken place at an elementary school in Kreuzberg (a city district in Berlin with a high proportion of i.a. Turkish migrants). The Criticism is not only directed at the fact that the criterion ‘ndH’ has been brought to the agenda at all and that this criterion serves as a basis for the language training. It is also the practice of Berlin's Senate Department for Education, Youth and Science (German: Senatsverwaltung für Bildung, Jugend und Wissenschaft) to publish ‘ndH’-quotes on the internet within the so-called school portraits that is heavily attacked. In the view of the critics, the abolishment of this practice is already overdue. The objective of this thesis is to reply to the question of whether and to what extent the criticism of the ‘ndH’-criterion and the Senate Department’s practice is justified. Starting with a description of the introduction and development of the ‘ndH‘-criterion in consideration of the previous legal system and a representation of the current legal framework of school language training in the state of Berlin, the criterion ‘ndh’ will be examined more closely. After determining the ‘ndH’-criterion, explaining the relevant regulations relating to ‘ndH‘-language training and drawing a comparison with the (additional) ‘LmB’-criterion in the context of the current legal framework, an overview will be given of the relevant aspects of school language training on the basis of the ‘ndH‘-criterion in practice. This overview will again include a comparison with the criterion ‘LmB’. This will be the point of departure for the analysis of the critics’ assumption that the mere existence of the ‚ndH‘-criterion or at least its publication within the Senate Department’s school portraits has a discriminatory effect and leads to segregation in schools. This analysis will be followed by an additional consideration of the question of a real need for a language training that is oriented to the ‘ndH‘-criterion and consequently to a family language of communication; for if there was such a need indeed, possibly existing discriminatory and segregating effects could be justified by this need. The thesis will finish with a summary of the key findings.

In response to the scant studies comparing the language content of the employment-related units in Australia's Adult Migrant English Program (AMEP) and Canada's Language Instruction for Newcomers to Canada (LINC) program, the present study examines the curriculum guidelines and the selected instructional materials of AMEP's Certificate in Spoken and Written English (CSWE) III and LINC level 4 and investigates four instructors' implementation of the curricula (two instructors from each program). Through qualitatively analysis using NVivo, the results show that both LINC 4 and CSWE III exhibit strengths and limitations, and also alignment and misalignment, as compared to their theoretical frameworks. While LINC 4 covers more components in the framework, CSWE III demonstrates greater depth in implementing its theoretical foundation. Further, LINC 4 instructors mostly implement a task-based approach; the CSWE III instructors incorporate multiple approaches, while the curriculum claims text-based teaching as its main approach. This study suggests that in teaching English for employment purposes, more content that introduces the different functions of language use and communication strategies would be beneficial, and authentic texts and learner experience can also be valuable. The incorporation of different teaching approaches may be advantageous. Future research can further examine newcomer language program outcomes by comparing language production data from learners of similar programs in different contexts, in order to evaluate the impact of language training on learners’ ability to engage in employment-purposed communication. / Graduate

This manuscript is dedicated to researching the link between language acquisition and cultural integration. As this has overtime become a glaring gap in multiple federal integration policy instruments, we carried out both theoretical reviews as well as fieldwork to answer this question. In so far as fieldwork goes, we recruited two contrasting participants twenty-two and thirty-five years old respectively, male and female, from different cultural groups but both sharing the overall goal of integration in Canada and enrolled in the Language Instruction for Newcomers to Canada (LINC) program. We carried out semi-structured interviews by way of a theory-based protocol and subsequently processed the data via thematic analysis techniques to arrive at our results. Empirically speaking, we synthesized our participants’ lived experiences and perceptions and found that language plays four distinct roles related to culture and cultural integration. First, it is a tool with which to transmit cultural information directly (the referential function). Second, it is the carrier of a second wave of pragmatic (e.g. body language, prosody) from which cultural norms and conventions can be inferred. Third, language is a tool for group differentiation on the basis of which prototypical members (i.e. native-speakers both in the source and destination culture) at times ostracize learners based on linguistic markers. Lastly, we find that it is precisely the experience of loss of membership, disembeddedness, and lack of belonging in previous and future speech groups which then drives newcomers to cultural integration patterns which are less than additive in nature such as intersection and compartmentalization.