The present compilation thesis investigates the use of a pattern that is commonly found in academic writing, namely the introductory it pattern (e.g. it is interesting to note the difference). The main aim is to shed further light on the formal and functional characteristics of the pattern in academic writing. When relevant, the thesis also investigates functionally related constructions. The focus is on learner use, but reference corpora of published writing and non-native-speaker student writing have also been utilized for comparison. The thesis encompasses an introductory survey (a “kappa”) and four articles. The material comes from six different corpora: ALEC, BATMAT, BAWE, LOCRA, MICUSP and VESPA. Factors such as native-speaker status, discipline, level of achievement (lower-graded vs. higher-graded texts) and level of expertise in academic writing are investigated in the articles. In more detail, Articles 1 and 2 examine the formal (syntactic) characteristics of the introductory it pattern. The pattern is studied using modified versions of two previous syntactic classifications. Articles 3 and 4 investigate the functional characteristics of the pattern. In Article 3, a functional classification is developed and used to categorize the instances. Article 4 examines the stance-marking function of the pattern in relation to functionally related constructions (e.g. stance adverbs such as possibly and stance noun + prepositional phrase combinations like the possibility of). The introductory it pattern was found to be relatively invariable in the sense that a small set of formal and functional realizations made up the bulk of the tokens. The learners, especially those whose texts received a lower grade, made particularly frequent use of high-frequency realizations of the pattern. The thesis highlights the importance of not limiting investigations of this kind to comparisons across native-speaker status, as this is only one of the several factors that can influence the distribution. By exploring the potential importance of many different factors from both a formal and a functional perspective, the thesis paints a more complete picture of the introductory it pattern in academic writing, of use in, for instance, second-language instruction.

Den här uppsatsen undersöker hur sponsrat material smälter in i det övriga innehållet, i två etablerade bloggar. Den ena är Petra Tungårdens professionella blogg och den andra är Nicole Falcianis privata blogg. Det är en jämförande studie mellan sponsrade blogginlägg och osponsrade inlägg. Studien är en kvalitativ retorikanalys som med hjälp av teorierna native advertising, retorik, personligt varumärke och parasocial interaktion undersöker hur de två bloggarna men hjälp av argumentation säjer in produkter eller tjänster till sina läsare. Resultatet visar att det finns både likheter och skillnader mellan argumentationen i de sponsrade och de osponsrade inläggen. Gemensamt för bloggarna är att det finns betydligt fler skillnader än likheter i argumentationen, men i den privata bloggen fanns det mycket fler skillnader jämfört den professionella. Vidare diskuteras att skillnaderna inte är tillräckligt markanta för att läsarna ska kunna upptäcka dem, och att problematiken med att urskilja sponsrat material kvarstår. / This paper investigates how sponsored content blend in with the other content, in two established blogs. One is Petra Tungården who has a professional blog, and one is Nicole Falciani's personal blog. It is a comparative study between sponsored blog posts and non-sponsored blog posts. The study is a qualitative rhetoric analysis using the theories native advertising, rhetoric, personal branding and parasocial interaction to investigate how the two bloggers recommend products or services to their readers with the help of argumentation. The result shows that the argumentation for the sponsored and the non-sponsored posts have both smililarities and differences. Both blogs have many more differences than similarities, but the personal blog turned out to have much more differences than the professional one. Further on it is discussed that the differences are not sufficientlly pronounced to the readers to detect them, and that the problem of distinguishing the sponsored content remains.

This thesis focused on students’ cognitive and affective responses to Arabic (L1) and English (L2) used by English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers who come from different L1 backgrounds in English (L2) classrooms in an English institute at a university in Saudi Arabia. Consideration of students’ responses to teachers’ use of English was crucial in this study as it helped to shed light on students’ cognitive and affective responses to the Arabic used by teachers. In addition, students’ preferences for EFL teachers in respect of their L1 background (native Arabic speaker teacher, native English speaker teacher and non-native English/Arabic speaker teacher) were examined. In order to be able to investigate the students’ responses and preferences, it was nessesary, firstly, to develop a deeper understanding of what they were responding to, namely the extent to which, and the conditions under which, teachers employ Arabic in the L2 classrooms. In addition, the extent to which teachers’ use of Arabic varies according to their students’ level of proficiency was also explored. Teachers' views on their own use of Arabic were also identified in order to establish the extent to which their views coincided with that of their students. This study adopted a qualitative approach and data were gathered through classroom observations, semi- structured interviews (in form of stimulated recall interviews), and open-ended questionnaires. Classroom observations were used to identify the extent, as well as the functions, of teachers’ L1 use and to examine whether the degree of teachers’ Arabic use varied according to their students’ level of proficiency. In addition, stimulated recall interviews were employed to explore students’ cognitive and affective responses to their teachers’ L1 and L2 use and students’ preferences for their teachers’ L1 background. The open-ended questionnaires were used to understand whether teachers’ and students’ views on the use of L1 by teachers coincided. The findings suggest that the way that Arabic is used by teachers in the Saudi EFL classroom varies according to the teachers’ L1 background in terms of the consistency, frequency, and the functions of the Arabic used by those teachers. Regarding students’ preferences for their EFL teachers, more than one third of the students (37%), the largest group regarding this aspect, preferred to be taught by a competent English teacher irrespective of their nationality or background; this clearly indicates that some students put emphasis on the pedagogy and professional skills of teachers rather than on their native status. The findings also suggest that a number of common cognitive responses are employed by students, mainly comparing English and Arabic grammatical rules, memorising new words, and making connections between Arabic and English. Furthermore, the results indicate that for most students (21 out of 30) Arabic helped to keep the affective filter low, making them feel more comfortable, happy and less anxious, whereas Arabic made the other students uncomfortable and more anxious. Moreover, it was found that the most frequently used strategies when students responded to teachers’ English use were mental translation, use of dictionaries and requesting clarification, while the least frequently used strategies were finding alternative English synonyms or avoidance. Finally, the findings indicate that teachers’ views generally coincide with students’ views about teachers’ use of Arabic. The findings from this study may benefit language teachers and programme designers to help them develop training programmes for teachers that take into account learner preferences regarding the background of their EFL teachers, particularly in the field of teaching EFL in the Saudi context. More importantly, the study suggests that learners should be trained how to use L1 as a successful learning strategy and that teachers should raise students’ awareness, especially those students with low proficiency in English, that Arabic can be used as a cognitive strategy, for example, to compare the similarities and differences between L1 and L2.

Chan, Ying Shan. / Thesis submitted in: October 2006. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 112-117). / Abstracts in English and Chinese; appendix also in Chinese. / ACKNOWLEDGEMENT --- p.i / ABSTRACT IN ENGLISH --- p.ii / ABSTRACT IN CHINESE --- p.iv / LIST OF TABLES --- p.v / LIST OF FIGURES --- p.vi / Chapter CHAPTER ONE --- INTRODUCTION --- p.1 / Chapter 1.1 --- Introduction --- p.1 / Chapter 1.2 --- Statement of Problem --- p.3 / Chapter 1.3 --- Purpose and Method of Study --- p.4 / Chapter 1.4 --- Significance of the Study --- p.6 / Chapter 1.5 --- Organization of the Dissertation --- p.7 / Chapter CHAPTER TWO --- LITERATURE REVIEW --- p.8 / Chapter 2.1 --- Introduction --- p.8 / Chapter 2.2 --- Previous Research on Planning and Oral Performance --- p.9 / Chapter 2.2.1 --- Conceptual Framework of Planning Studies --- p.9 / Chapter 2.2.2 --- Aspects of Linguistic Performance --- p.10 / Chapter 2.3 --- The Role of Planning in Writing --- p.13 / Chapter 2.3.1 --- Writing Models --- p.14 / Chapter 2.3.2 --- The Role of L2 in Writing Models --- p.16 / Chapter 2.3.3 --- The Role of L1 in L2 Writing --- p.18 / Chapter 2.4 --- Different Types of Planning --- p.22 / Chapter 2.5 --- The Importance of Planning --- p.23 / Chapter 2.6 --- The Relationship between Planning and Written Performance --- p.24 / Chapter 2.6.1 --- Planning Types --- p.26 / Chapter 2.6.2 --- Research on Pre-task Planning --- p.26 / Chapter 2.6.3 --- Research on Online Planning --- p.27 / Chapter 2.6.4 --- Other Research --- p.28 / Chapter 2.7 --- Chapter Summary --- p.29 / Chapter CHAPTER THREE --- METHODOLOGY --- p.30 / Chapter 3.1 --- Introduction --- p.30 / Chapter 3.2 --- Safeguards for the Research Design --- p.31 / Chapter 3.2.1 --- Classroom Situation --- p.32 / Chapter 3.2.2 --- Purposeful Sampling --- p.33 / Chapter 3.2.3 --- Voluntary Participation and Guarantee of Anonymity --- p.33 / Chapter 3.3 --- The Participants --- p.33 / Chapter 3.4 --- Sources of Data --- p.38 / Chapter 3.4.1 --- Pre-task Questionnaires --- p.39 / Chapter 3.4.2 --- Written Products --- p.39 / Chapter 3.4.3 --- Reflective Questionnaires --- p.40 / Chapter 3.4.4 --- Semi-structured Interviews --- p.40 / Chapter 3.5 --- Procedures of Data Collection --- p.41 / Chapter 3.5.1 --- Selecting the Subjects --- p.41 / Chapter 3.5.2 --- Gathering the Basic Information of the Participants --- p.42 / Chapter 3.5.3 --- Conducting Pilot Studies --- p.43 / Chapter 3.5.4 --- Writing Sessions --- p.44 / Chapter 3.5.5 --- Semi-structured Interviews --- p.47 / Chapter 3.5.6 --- Collecting Questionnaires and Written Products --- p.48 / Chapter 3.6 --- Analysis of the Data --- p.48 / Chapter 3.6.1 --- Eliciting the Questionnaires and Interviews --- p.48 / Chapter 3.6.2 --- Analyzing the Written Products --- p.49 / Chapter 3.6.3 --- Processing the Data --- p.52 / Chapter 3.7 --- Chapter Summary --- p.52 / Notes --- p.53 / Chapter CHAPTER FOUR --- RESULTS --- p.55 / Chapter 4.1 --- Introduction --- p.55 / Chapter 4.2 --- Effects of the Medium of Planning on Written Performance --- p.55 / Chapter 4.2.1 --- The Effects of Task Sequences on Written Performance --- p.55 / Chapter 4.2.2 --- The Effects of the Medium of Planning without the Consideration of Proficiency --- p.57 / Chapter 4.2.3 --- The Effects of the Medium of Planning with the Consideration of Proficiency --- p.59 / Chapter 4.2.4 --- The Effects of the Medium of Planning and Proficiency Level on Written Performance --- p.65 / Chapter 4.3 --- The Comparison between Two Proficiency Groups on Each Task --- p.67 / Chapter 4.4 --- Questionnaires and Interviews --- p.73 / Chapter 4.5 --- Chapter Summary --- p.75 / Chapter CHAPTER FIVE --- FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION --- p.77 / Chapter 5.1 --- Introduction --- p.77 / Chapter 5.2 --- The Relationship between the Medium of Planning and Written Performance --- p.77 / Chapter 5.2.1 --- The Effects of the Medium of Planning on Fluency --- p.78 / Chapter 5.2.2 --- The Effects of the Medium of Planning on Accuracy --- p.88 / Chapter 5.2.3 --- The Effects of the Medium of Planning on Complexity --- p.92 / Chapter 5.3 --- Comparison of the Two Proficiency Groups on Each Task --- p.94 / Chapter 5.3.1 --- Two Groups Performing in English Task --- p.94 / Chapter 5.3.2 --- Two Groups Performing in Chinese Task --- p.96 / Chapter 5.4 --- Chapter Summary --- p.100 / Chapter CHAPTER SIX --- "CONCLUSION, IMPLICATIOINS AND RECOMMENDATIONS" --- p.102 / Chapter 6.1 --- Introduction --- p.102 / Chapter 6.2 --- Conclusion of the Study --- p.102 / Chapter 6.3 --- Implications for Teachers --- p.105 / Chapter 6.3.1 --- Ways to Improve Fluency --- p.106 / Chapter 6.3.2 --- Ways to Improve Accuracy --- p.108 / Chapter 6.4 --- Limitations and Recommendations --- p.109 / Chapter 6.5 --- Chapter Summary --- p.110 / REFERENCES --- p.112 / APPENDICES --- p.118

Facebook is today the biggest ads platform in the world. This makes it strategi- cally smart for companies to run their ads on the platform. To follow up the result from these ads is an important part for the companies to know if the target audience is the right one. The purpose with this thesis was to investigate if it’s possible for the company Leeroy to develope their own system that follow up ad conversion for Facebook ads. But also investigate how to implement Facebook’s own system and if other systems could be used. From this two purposes a number of goals have been set, which all could be answered. A pilot study resulted in the gathering of information if an own solution could be implemented. The result of this pilot study results in the answer no, an own solution could not be implemented at this state. Through the pilot study a recommended solution could be presented where Facebook’s system is the recommended way to go. This result is based on a system comparison between Facebook and Google Firebase. This recommended solution has resulted in a implementation guide that Leeroy can use to implement Facebook SDK in their application portfolio based on React Native. / Facebook är idag världens största annonsplattform vilket gör det strategiskt smart för företag att annonsera sin produkt eller sina tjänster på plattformen. Att följa upp resultatet av dessa annonser är för företagen en viktig parameter för att veta om den annonserade målgruppen är rätt. Syftet med detta arbete var att undersöka om ett eget system för mobilapplikationer hos företaget Leeroy kan utvecklas för uppföljning av annonskonverteringar hos Facebook-annonser och hur Facebooks egna system implementeras och om andra system går att använda. Utifrån detta syfte kunde ett antal mål fastställas som alla kunde besvaras. Utifrån en förstudie kunde information insamlas om hurvida en egen lösning går att tillämpa. Vilket resulterat i svaret nej, det är idag inte möjligt att utveckla en egen lösning. Genom förstudiens resultat kan en rekommenderad lösning presenteras där Facebooks system rekommenderas utifrån en jämförelse mellan Facebook och Google Firebase. Denna rekommenderade lösning har resulterat i en implementationsguide som Leeroy kan använda för att implementera Facebook SDK i sin applikationsportfölj baserat på React Native.

The goal of this research is to shed light on current developments in the field of Aboriginal Theatre Studies. This investigation encourages the reader to look again at the ways in which elements of Aboriginal culture are manifesting in contemporary theatre. Aboriginal theatre is increasingly visible in Canada and its cachet is growing with both artists and audiences. As a result, culturally specific worldviews and traditional practices are being introduced to mainstream Canadian theatre audiences. Through interviews with practicing Aboriginal artists like Floyd Favel, Yvette Nolan and Marie Clements and through an exploration of their individual theatrical processes, this research has attempted to identify how practicing Aboriginal artists consciously privilege Indigenous ways of knowing in their approaches to creating theatre for the contemporary stage.

The present study aims to investigate how the acoustic cues (i.e., mean pitch, duration, and mean intensity) are utilized by Taiwanese EFL learners to produce English noun-verb stress contrasts in falling and rising intonation. In addition, we examine how English native speakers perceive the English noun-verb stress contrasts produced by Taiwanese EFL learners. To examine English noun-verb stress contrasts in falling intonation, eight Taiwanese EFL learners, either in advanced level or intermediate level, recorded six English noun-verb stress contrasts which were put in a sentence frame (i.e., No, it is ______.), and four native speakers of English were also recruited for recording as a basis for comparison. Then, the vowels of the stressed and unstressed syllables were measured in terms of mean pitch, duration, and mean intensity. The results suggest that Taiwanese EFL learners in advanced or intermediate level produce English noun-verb stress contrasts by utilizing mean pitch, duration, and mean intensity, but the extent they utilize mean pitch is different from English native speakers. That is, they produced stressed syllables that are less high-pitched than English native speakers. To investigate how Taiwanese EFL learners utilize the correlates to produce the English noun-verb stress contrasts in rising intonation, the same groups of speakers also recorded the six English noun-verb stress contrasts put in another sentence frame (i.e., Did you say ______?), and the vowels of the stressed and unstressed syllables were measured and analyzed. The results show that Taiwanese EFL learners, either in advanced or intermediate level, utilize duration, but not mean pitch, to produce the noun-verb contrasts, while English native speakers use both duration and mean pitch. To examine how English native speakers perceive the English noun-verb stress contrasts with Taiwanese-accent, another eight English native speakers participated in doing several tasks including identification tasks, accent-rating tasks, and comprehensibility tasks. The results suggest that although Taiwanese EFL learners¡¦ production of the six English noun-verb stress contrasts in falling intonation was rated as foreign-accented, our eight English native speakers can identify their production with higher accuracy. In contrast, production in rising intonation was also rated as foreign-accented; however our English native speakers have difficulties in identifying their production.

The aim of this thesis is to compare and contrast the ways in which native speakers of Turkish (NST) and native speakers of American English (NSAE) write the acknowledgment sections of their MA and PhD dissertations. The analysis in the study focuses on the pragmatic and discourse strategies used by the authors in the texts written in English. First, the study uncovers the organization of the dissertation acknowledgments and the thanking strategies employed in the acknowledgment sections written in English by native speakers of Turkish and American English in their MA and PhD dissertations. Then, the authors&rsquo / choices of expressions of gratitude for specific addressees (e.g., supervisors vs. friends) are discussed. Data examined in the study comprise 144 dissertations written by 72 NST and 72 NSAE and are collected from sources such as the National Theses Centre of The Council of Higher Education of Turkey, ProQuest dissertation services. The thesis aims to contribute to the areas of foreign language education, pragmatics and cross-cultural communication.

En situation de perception audiovisuelle de la parole, comme lors des conversations face-àface,nous pouvons tirer partie des informations visuelles fournies par les mouvements orofaciauxdu locuteur. Ceci améliore l’intelligibilité du discours. L'objectif de ce travail était dedéterminer si ce « bénéfice audiovisuel » permet de mieux identifier les phonèmes quin’existent pas dans notre langue. Nos résultats révèlent que l’utilisation de l’informationvisuelle permet de surmonter les difficultés posées par la surdité phonologique dont noussommes victimes lors d'une présentation auditive seule (Etude 1). Une étude EEG indique quel’apport des informations visuelles au processus d’identification de phonèmes non natifspourrait être dû à une modulation précoce des traitements effectués par le cortex auditifprimaire (Etude 2). En présentation audiovisuelle les phonèmes non natifs donnent lieu à uneP50, ce qui n’est pas observé pour les phonèmes natifs. Il semblerait également quel'expérience linguistique affecte l'utilisation des informations visuelles puisque des bilinguesprécoces semblent moins aptes à exploiter ces indices pour distinguer des phonèmes qui neleur sont pas familiers (Etude 3). Enfin, l’étude de l’identification de consonnes plosivesnatives avec une tâche de dévoilement progressif nous a permis d’évaluer la contributionconjointe et séparée des informations auditives et visuelles (Etude 4). Nous avons observé quel’apport de la modalité visuelle n’est pas systématique et que la prédictibilité de l’identité duphonème dépend de la saillance visuelle des mouvements articulatoires du locuteur. / During audiovisual speech perception, like in face-to-face conversations, we can takeadvantage of the visual information conveyed by the speaker's oro-facial gestures. Thisenhances the intelligibility of the utterance. The aim of this work was to determine whetherthis “audiovisual benefit” can improve the identification of phonemes that do not exist in ourmother tongue. Our results revealed that the visual information contributes to overcome thephonological deafness phenomenon we experience in an audio only situation (Study 1). AnERP study indicates that this benefit could be due to the modulation of early processing in theprimary auditory cortex (Study 2). The audiovisual presentation of non native phonemesgenerates a P50 that is not observed for native phonemes. The linguistic background affectsthe way we use visual information. Early bilinguals take less advantage of the visual cuesduring the processing of unfamiliar phonemes (Study 3). We examined the identificationprocesses of native plosive consonants with a gating paradigm to evaluate the differentialcontribution of auditory and visual cues across time (Study 4). We observed that theaudiovisual benefit is not systematic. Phoneme predictability depends on the visual saliencyof the articulatory movements of the speaker.

As an example of personal inter-relational anthropology, this dissertation explores the nature of person hood, relationships, and affectionate adoption between relatives in the life of a Native American Church roadman, of Kiowa and Cheyenne heritage. As indigenous and Native American scholars have challenged hegemonic assumptions about indigenous communities and peoples, so too does this dissertation offer ideas and critiques from the indigenous perspective, thus reinterpreting an individualistic perception of identity with a perspective on identity based upon shared relationships. The centrality of religion, ceremony, and religious social dynamics form a context through which many of these relationships emerge, are expressed, and transform through time. This dissertation explores how relationships are created, maintained, and formed through the sharing of story, of experiences, and time. Also explored are issues of gender dynamics, gender identity, and their part in shaping family relationships. Other dynamics discussed include contemporary Native American life, economic insecurity, alcohol and substance use, humor and story telling.