The aim of this study is to identify the use of metaphor in university-level introductory engineering textbooks. Engineering is an important field of study for foreign students in the United States. In order to determine the linguistic and cultural problems foreign students of this field may have, two introductory engineering textbooks are examined for occurrences of metaphors. Two corpora of 20,000 words each drawn from introductory textbooks used at two four-year, public universities are examined for occurrences of metaphor. A combined semantic and pragmatic test for metaphor is applied to each word used in the corpora to determine if the use is metaphoric. Each word used metaphorically is given a typesto- tokens ratio to determine if it is used only once or many times. The words used metaphorically are grouped according to metaphor themes and source domains for classroom use. The types-to-tokens ratios show that many words in the corpora are used only once. Some words, however, are used many times in both corpora. These words include many of the prepositions and words from particularly prevalent metaphor themes and source domains. The results suggest that some concepts such as process, discipline, and time are metaphorically described in English. Knowledge that concepts are metaphorically described is an important explanatory tool for the teacher of English to speakers of other languages.

Electronic mail has become a widely used medium of communication in academia, government, and business. It is unique as a communication medium because it makes conversations across time, space, and organizational levels possible. The ability of electronic mail to "forward" a message allows for the creation of chains that preserve the entire conversation for each participant. This appears to be a new linguistic form in which the interactive features of spoken conversation are realized using electronically transmitted text. The purpose of the present study was to determine the extent of the similarities and differences between spoken conversation and electronic mail exchanges. The research questions addressed were 1) What techniques that occur in spoken conversations also occur in electronic mail exchanges?, and 2) How are the techniques used in spoken conversations modified or different in electronic mail exchanges? The data used in this study consisted of electronic mail text collected by the author in the course of her daily work in the data processing division of a large financial institution. The authors were computer technicians and middle managers with a wide diversity of educational backgrounds. Sixteen samples of message "chains" that contained at least three individual messages were selected for in-depth analysis. These samples were analyzed for conversational openings and closings, tum-taking mechanisms, adjacency pairs, and repetition. Of the structural features studied, repetition was used in ways most similar to its uses in spoken conversation. The feature having the most differences from spoken interaction was the tum-taking system. In the electronic mail exchanges there was more variation in the sender's selection of the next sender, including the option for multiple simultaneous replies. Openings and closings took many forms, some of them the same as in spoken conversation. Among the forms that differed were openings that resembled the salutation in a letter and closings that followed each individual message in a "chain." Adjacency pairs such as questions and closings were paired as in spoken conversation, while openings, thanks, and apologies occurred as single utterances.

This study examined the attitudes of English as a second or other language (ESOL) students who used computers/word processors to develop skills in writing English. Two primary questions were investigated: what are students' attitudes toward using computers to write English and what are students' attitudes toward learning computer and word processing skills? The subjects were 40 ESOL students enrolled at South Seattle Community College (SSCC) in technical programs and were required to complete a transitional English class that included business and technical writing . Students received 10 weeks of writing instruction on word processors. A 38-item attitude inventory created by Neu and Scarcella (1991) was used to measure students' attitudes toward ComputerAssisted Writing (CAW). An additional 13 questions helped identify subjects' native language, computer experience, and amount of time spent studying English. ChiSquare and t-test were used to examine the data. South Seattle Community College students' responses are reported and compared to Neu and Scarcella's ( 1991) results. The results of this study indicated that students' attitudes were significantly positive toward the writing process when using word processors. Foremost, students acknowledged that using a computer helped them develop confidence about their ability to write in English and they would recommend that other international students learn to use word processing for writing their papers. In addition, students' perceptions toward learning and developing personal computer (PC) skills were significantly positive. When SSCC data was compared to Neu and Scarcella's (1991) data, four statistically significant differences with respect to general attitudes towards writing emerged. Students stated that computers helped develop confidence in their ability to write (item I 0), helped them pay more attention to grammar (item 3 ), punctuation (item 33), and spelling (item 21). There were no statistical significant difference with respect to attitudes towards PC's: although SSCC students generally felt less positive about learning PC skills than their California counterparts.

I decided to write this thesis many years ago and in the process of ‘becoming’ a Palawa man I finally understood the global agenda between black and white Australians and the direct actions required to attain a traditional form of Aboriginal democracy. I share in this understanding in this thesis. Mind you I share with trepidation because the options are very existential to the prevailing discourse. However a doctoral thesis will add to the body of knowledge not simply to confirm existing theoretical discourse or to leave this discourse un-challenged. Therefore this thesis is about the critical mass of cultural variables pertaining to teaching of Australian Indigenous peoples and the conduct of meaningful research. Its primary intent is to offer an alternative to the inappropriate methodologies that currently apply in the generic areas of pedagogy and research (in their broadest sense). In my opinion at present both these areas are pathologically dominated by Western thought. The idea of change and alternative paradigms is addressed in the introduction and this thesis is not intended to achieve anything more than a hearing of these options. This is why the discourse of this knowledge terrain in this thesis is so diverse and so demanding of the reader. The core notion of this discourse is the Japanangka Teaching and Research Paradigm.The Japanangka Teaching and Research Paradigm has as its core the articulation of eight dimensions or sub-paradigms. These are the quality of life dimensions: Cultural, Spiritual, Secular, and the other five: Intellectual, Political, Practical, Personal and Public dimensions. These eight constitute the sum of human experience relevant to the daily lives of Aborigines and as such are key categories to the unravelling of the seemingly imponderable mystery of “learning journey paths” so critical to the success of our students in formal Western education activities.

Raising scholastic achievement of diverse and struggling students as well as narrowing the academic achievement gap between students from mainstream and diverse backgrounds seems to be essentially dependent on educators’ personal knowledge, perspectives, and definitions regarding the terms multicultural education and equity pedagogy. Research studies confirm that addressing student’s culture, language, and social status with appreciation, inclusion, and sensitivity increases their academic successes. In classrooms, negative perceptions often maintained by educators about students perpetuate the false belief that diverse learners are unable to or struggle to grasp new learning. This ten-week qualitative study examined teachers’ perceptions as well as implementations of multicultural education and culturally responsive instructional practices as a means of addressing the literacy learning needs of diverse and struggling students in two primary classrooms in an urban Southeastern elementary school. Reading instruction observations provided insight into teachers’ self-descriptive beliefs and attitudes of multicultural education, how their perceptions of multicultural education differ from observed culturally responsive instructional practices, and how observed culturally responsive pedagogy align with multicultural education theories outlined by prominent researchers. All teachers and students come to school with personal backgrounds, languages, and attitudes concerning cultures and ethnicities. Their perceptions are formed by family members, prior experiences, and mainstream society. Frequently, teachers do not realize that personal and institutionalized perceptions, expectations, pedagogies, learning environments, curriculum and materials, grouping strategies, and assessment methods are at odds with learning needs of many students from diverse backgrounds. Findings of this study suggest that educators’ academic goals are often at odds with instructional policies and practices, as demonstrated by the persistent academic achievement gap. Tragically, many students perceive that learning struggles and failures are their fault. They may experience marginalization and develop feelings of inadequacy. Consequently, many students from diverse backgrounds express feelings of anger and frustration that may be exhibited by undesirable behavior. They may give up, drop out, abandon opportunities for citizenship participation and responsibility, or surrender to jobs in adulthood that are less than those they dreamt of. Finally, study findings suggest that teachers’ lack of cultural awareness, understanding of multicultural education, and knowledge of equity pedagogy prevent them from recognizing several negative personal perceptions and biases. As a result, they implement self-selected, school, and district policies and practices completely unaware that they are unintentionally posing learning obstructions and academic success limitations as well as fostering students’ frustrations. Demographics indicate that the predominantly Caucasian middle-class teaching population requires high levels of cultural awareness and extensive knowledge concerning multicultural education, equity pedagogy, and cultural awareness in order to address the literacy-learning needs of the increasingly diverse student population effectively.

The purpose of this paper was to examine multicultural education, and clarify misconceptions about it. Particularly, those misconceptions that have resulted in House Bill 2281 ( i.e. multicultural education “promotes the overthrow of the United States government”), and the misconception that multicultural education solely involves content integration. In addition, this paper examines the possible benefits of having a multicultural education. These benefits include combating the negative effects of acculturation and assimilation, reducing prejudice and the effects of stereotypes, enhancing other-group orientation, and promoting critical analysis and empowerment.

This study explored the underlying factors involved in the Language and Culture Questionnaire (LCQ), a measure of lead pre-kindergarten and kindergarten teachers' (n = 119) beliefs and best practices for working with dual language learners (DLLs). The LCQ was found to have suboptimal reliability and all results herein should be interpreted with caution. The exploratory factor analyses suggested the LCQ weakly captures two factors, beliefs and practices. Frequencies of teachers holding the appropriate beliefs and implementing best practices were reviewed. The beliefs and practices scores exhibited a degree of relationship between each other. Finally, multiple regression designs were utilized to reveal what teachers demographic characteristics (e.g., years teaching DLLs, level of education) were related to greater scores on the LCQ.

Bilingual children represent a large population of preschool and school-aged children in the United States. Challenges may arise when the verbal community in which a child spends most of his or her time does not reinforce his or her primary language. Previous research has shown that children adjust their language to match the language of their listener (Genesee, Boivin, & Nicoladis, 1996). It is possible that having a native-language communication partner at school would improve child engagement, as measured by child mean length of utterance and quantity of child initiations. The purpose of this study is to examine whether listener language has an effect on number of child initiations and mean length of utterance. A secondary purpose is to replicate and extend previous research on children matching their language to that of their listener in Spanish-speaking preschoolers. Four preschoolers who were exposed to Spanish at home and English in their instructional setting were recruited. Their language proficiency was assessed with the preLAS and they were exposed to Spanish-speaking communication partners and English-speaking communication partners in a multielement design. Results suggest that the language of the listener had implications for amount of child initiations and mean length of utterance. This was not always predicted by the language proficiency assessment. Also, children were more likely to use their dominant language in the non-dominant language context than use the non-dominant language in the dominant language context. These results may have implications for best practices in educational settings for Spanish-speaking preschoolers.

While i was studying abroad in Spain and China, I found that, although there are many differences between two countries, i feel that they share some similarities in various aspects. My thesis will be a comparative study focusing on the problems of the educational system in Spain and China. In order to understand about the problem, I will also talk about the history of the educational systems in both countries, since the beginning of the twentieth century. Furthermore, this thesis will also explore the changes in both countries after the Franco regime, and the Post-Mao era, so that readers will know about the progress governments in both countries have been made in order to improve the educational system.

I decided to write this thesis many years ago and in the process of ‘becoming’ a Palawa man I finally understood the global agenda between black and white Australians and the direct actions required to attain a traditional form of Aboriginal democracy. I share in this understanding in this thesis. Mind you I share with trepidation because the options are very existential to the prevailing discourse. However a doctoral thesis will add to the body of knowledge not simply to confirm existing theoretical discourse or to leave this discourse un-challenged. Therefore this thesis is about the critical mass of cultural variables pertaining to teaching of Australian Indigenous peoples and the conduct of meaningful research. Its primary intent is to offer an alternative to the inappropriate methodologies that currently apply in the generic areas of pedagogy and research (in their broadest sense). In my opinion at present both these areas are pathologically dominated by Western thought. The idea of change and alternative paradigms is addressed in the introduction and this thesis is not intended to achieve anything more than a hearing of these options. This is why the discourse of this knowledge terrain in this thesis is so diverse and so demanding of the reader. The core notion of this discourse is the Japanangka Teaching and Research Paradigm.The Japanangka Teaching and Research Paradigm has as its core the articulation of eight dimensions or sub-paradigms. These are the quality of life dimensions: Cultural, Spiritual, Secular, and the other five: Intellectual, Political, Practical, Personal and Public dimensions. These eight constitute the sum of human experience relevant to the daily lives of Aborigines and as such are key categories to the unravelling of the seemingly imponderable mystery of “learning journey paths” so critical to the success of our students in formal Western education activities.