This thesis explored the history of calculator usage in mathematics classrooms in the United States since 1975 with a focus on the attitudes of parents, educators, and national organizations. The influence of historical events, people, organizations, research, and trends was explored in depth. Studying the changes that calculators have brought to…

In recent years, there has been a growing interest in the teaching of conversation strategies in the EFL classroom. This is reflected in how institutional programs and textbook series regard conversation management as crucial in the learning of the L2. Classrooms, in this sense, have become spaces for active socialization, and have given the study…

This study analyzes the discourse structures of one text type in Central Bontoc, one of eight minority Philippine languages. The text explains the Innana rituals, a complex of six rituals held annually in Bontoc villages shortly after the planting of the rice crop. The rituals are considered extremely important because they are believed to help…

Based on a model developed by Brown and Levinson (1978), this thesis examines one feature underlying appropriate language use--politeness--as it affects the discourse of native English speakers in three situations. The three situations and speakers involved are: (1) British speakers in a British public library, (2) American speakers in an American…

This study investigates topic units and suggests some practical applications to the teaching of composition to native speakers and second language learners. A topic unit is a structural unit beyond the sentence. It is composed of clauses and consists of two parts -- a head proposition and a set of comments. The head proposition consists of the…

This study provides a complete review of discussion and development leading up to the current trends in Deaf Studies curriculum development, and also analyzes existing known curriculum (or curriculum-like) materials to help inform development of an ideal standards-based Deaf Studies curriculum. The common shared arguments identified in this…

The suspicion that some second language learners' problems in reading can be attributed to a lack of literacy in general rather than to a lack of fluency in English per se motivated the present study. The hypothesis suggests that readers learn literacy only once and that a lack of literacy in one's first language can be more of a barrier to…

The starting point of this thesis is the hypothesis that in Spanish there are conventionalized expressions that signal both the articulation of text parts and the speaker's attitude towards the utterance. "Pragmatic Expressions" (PEs) are fixed lexical forms that contribute to text creation in relation to the context of enunciation, are oriented…

To determine the extent to which current theories of persuasion are used or advocated by homileticians (i.e., preachers), this study examines 21 frequently used homiletics textbooks for their treatment of persuasion. After describing the characteristics of classical, premodern, humanistic, and rhetorical models, the study suggests that these…

It is argued that there is a great need to integrate critical thinking instruction in courses in English for academic purposes (EAP) and English as a Second Language (ESL). Three primary components of critical thinking are identified: understanding the author's intended meaning; synthesizing all available information, which also includes…

This thesis attempts to explain, in light of contrastive rhetoric, the Chinese preference of set phrases and the American disapproval of cliche. It asserts that because society and culture shape the way individuals use their language, Chinese and Americans hold different rhetorical expectations and observe different conventions in forming their…

In their study in 1990, Clark and Isaacs identified five properties and seven defining features that distinguished between English ostensible and genuine invitations. To see if Persian ostensible and genuine invitations could be distinguished by the same features and properties, the present study was carried out. 45 field workers observed and…

A study examined from a feminist poststructuralist perspective the discourses available in a classroom using a critical pedagogy, based on a belief that teaches need to make it possible for their students to question the social world constructed in texts. The teacher of an Australian junior primary classroom (with students age five to eight) took…

Two experiments were undertaken in Hong Kong to examine sociocultural factors in the speech acts of making apologies in Cantonese. The first experiment involved ten men who were given role cards describing various situations with minor to serious problems for which they must apologize. The influence of certain situational variables on the…

Noting that there are students with limited writing ability who belong neither in regular English composition classes nor in classes for speakers of other languages (ESOL), this paper reports on a study conducted at the University of Texas, EL Paso to produce a profile of 30 limited English writers. Following an introduction to the family…