Thesis (Ed.D.)--Boston University / PLEASE NOTE: Boston University Libraries did not receive an Authorization To Manage form for this thesis or dissertation. It is therefore not openly accessible, though it may be available by request. If you are the author or principal advisor of this work and would like to request open access for it, please contact us at open-help@bu.edu. Thank you. / This qualitative study explores the cognitive processes of 10 6th-grade students of varying Spanish and English proficiencies while writing persuasive letters in both languages. The participants who were purposefully selected included: three high Spanish/high English proficient students (high performers), three high English/low Spanish proficient students (high/low performers), two low Spanish/low English proficient students (low performers), and two monolingual English speakers. The following research question was posed: How do sixth-grade students of varying Spanish and English proficiencies engage in the writing process while composing persuasive letters in both languages? In particular, (a) How do students engage in the cognitive processes of writing in L1 and L2, and do the processes vary by language and/or ability? (b) Are there patterns across participants' writing behaviors in L1 and L2 that indicate cross-linguistic transfer? If so, do the patterns vary by language or writing proficiency? (c) Do bilingual students differ from monolinguals in their use of strategies and resources? The researcher audio-taped and video-taped participants thinking aloud as they responded to persuasive letter prompts in both Spanish and English (monolinguals responded to two English prompts). Recall protocols and student interviews were also collected. All data were transcribed. Data were analyzed in three phrases. First, think aloud sessions were coded for three general writing processes: composing, reading, and selecting. Second, recall protocols were coded for specific behaviors within each general process (e.g. attending to text generation, reading the text produced, considering or changing an idea). Finally, interviews and recall protocols were analyzed for student strategy, bilingual strategy, and resource use as well as general strategy and bilingual strategy awareness. Findings suggest: (1) The writing process did not vary for bilingual and monolingual writers across languages; (2) Low performers focused attention almost exclusively on idea generation without attention to topical importance; (3) For high/low performers' knowledge of discourse features in L1 appeared to mediate writing in the weaker language; (4) Topically important ideas articulated in L1 during the selection process were abandoned if students did not have the vocabulary to express the idea in L2; (5) High performers seemed to intentionally separate their language resources while writing. / 2031-01-02

Mobile learning is the attainment of any knowledge or skill through using mobile technology, anywhere, anytime (Hashemi et al. 2477). Hashemi and Ghasemi also state that mobile phones are one of the most successful technologies in the past two decades (2947). More and more educators are using mobile phones as an educational tool. Second Language Acquisition has also been redefined due to the advent of Mobile learning and text-messaging. Khazaie and Ketabi explain that "the value of deploying technology at the service of learning and teaching seems to be both self-evident and unavoidable" (174). There are many studies of using text-message technologies in education and in Second Language Leaning of English, but these publications do not provide any evidence of the use of Mobile technologies or text-messaging in Second Language Acquisition of Spanish. This paper presents a study using text-message in the teaching and learning of Spanish Vocabulary in a second semester Spanish course. It compared a Control group that used a conventional paper based task learning method and an Experiment group that used text-messaging leaning method to learn twelve Spanish Vocabulary words. The results from the study show that text-messaging can be used as an effective Spanish Vocabulary language learning tool and students enjoyed the use of this vocabulary learning method. The finding in this study could perform as a roadmap in creating more studies that involve the use of mobile learning and text-messaging in the learning of Spanish vocabulary and Spanish as a Second Language.

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A Thesis submitted to The University of Arizona College of Medicine - Phoenix in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Medicine. / The purpose of this research was to assess the quality of the inpatient, health education diabetes program as it relates to primary Spanish speaking patients. Complications from diabetes account for huge personal and financial costs. There is substantial evidence supporting the use of targeted diabetes education to reduce complications but we need to know if our education interventions are valid. In order to accomplish this by auditing the knowledge of a sample of inpatient diabetics before and after receiving the standard MMC Spanish language diabetes education interventions via Spanish language pre and post surveys (standardized by the previously validated SKILLD survey). Demographic and clinical data were analyzed and all significant data (p value <0.05) were considered for their importance. The data demonstrated that in all 10 items on the survey, overall patients were able to demonstrate significant improvement in survey scores. Additionally, comparisons of demographic data demonstrated that being less than 50 years old was associated with improved survey scores. This indicates overall benefit of the training program as well as possible insight into need for more aggressive training for patients greater than 50 years in age.

La presente investigación establece la relación existente entre la violencia urbana colombiana y su representación literaria. En realidad, este trabajo presenta la forma en que la literatura rearticula espacios, sujetos y culturas locales desde la industrial global, reafirmando estereotipos e imaginarios construidos desde el afuera. La literatura, particularmente la novela colombiana contemporánea del sicarato, revela los códigos simbólicos que constituyen el imaginario de Medellín, contribuyendo al modo en qué leemos y habitamos la ciudad. En este estudio se intentará demostrar el modo en qué los textos literarios analizados, a partir de la posición de los narradores y la traducción o mediación del discurso y lenguaje del Otro, en este caso el sicario, refuerzan la invisible pere ineludible división interna existente en la ciudad de Medellín y continúan estigmantizándola al definirla como el lugar del caos y la fragmentación. Pero además, se observará cómo las narraciones no soló no logran sostener un diálogo con el discurso oficial, sine que, a partir de ciertos regimenes de valor, convierten al sujeto subalterno en objeto narrativo. Para tales fines, se mostrará cómo la ciudad ha sido un lugar conflictivo por excelencia y, por otra parte, se cuestionará, a partir de una síntesis de distintas teorías sobre subalternidad, el lugar del Otro en la literatura urbana colombiana de entresiglos.

This thesis compares Spanish Golden Age emblems on the education of the prince to Machiavelli’s Il principe to determine how Spanish emblem writers position themselves with respect to Machiavelli’s ideas on the topic. Keith David Howard’s The Reception of Machiavelli in Early Modern Spain serves as the theoretical and methodological basis for this study. Howard identifies three categories that historians have used to classify Spanish authors and their positions towards Machiavelli’s ideas: those who reject Machiavelli’s ideas, those who accept them almost completely, and those who attempt to blend Machiavelli’s ideas with Christian values. Howard believes that the first two categories are oversimplifications that lead to a misunderstanding of the Spanish reception of the works by the Florentine author. This research project aims to determine whether Howard is correct in stating that the first two groups are oversimplifications and explores how Spanish emblem writers position themselves vis-à-vis Machiavellian ideas. Three case studies provide an analysis and comparison of emblems to Machiavelli’s Il principe. Machiavelli’s Discorsi offer further material for analysis and comparison. / Graduate

The thesis explores Mario Vargas Llosa's Historia de Mayta in light of recent studies of Latin America's new historical novel (Menton, Juan-Navarro) and in connection with contemporary literary theory (Waugh, Stonehill) and new trends in the philosophy of history (White, Foucault). In my study, I focus on three major levels of analysis: 1) significant events in Peruvian history to which the novel alludes; 2) biographical elements that strongly evoke the lives of Ernesto "Che" Guevara, Jacinto Rentería, and Vargas Llosa himself; and 3) the self-referential devices that aim at questioning the validity of empirical analysis in both fiction and history. The allegorical dimension of the novel's view of modern Peruvian politics, its biographical component, and the self-consciousness of its historiographic approach make of Historia de Mayta both a metahistory of Perú and a biographical metafiction. The thesis ultimately reveals the problematic borderline between fiction and reality, the novel and history.