Recent efforts have focused on screening methods to identify children at risk for dyslexia as early as preschool/kindergarten. Unfortunately, while low sensitivity leads to under-identification of at-risk children, low "specificity" can lead to over-identification, resulting in inaccurate allocation of limited educational resources. The…

The University System of Georgia (USG) has a state-wide initiative aimed at increasing the well-being of faculty and staff by incentivizing a decrease in tobacco product usage by employees covered by a USG healthcare plan. This incentive is positive in that aid in stopping tobacco product usage is offered to each member; and negative in that each…

The question of cognition in second language (L2) acquisition later in life is of importance inasmuch as L2 learning is largely mediated by domain-general cognitive capacities. While a number of these capacities have been shown to decline with age, individual differences in cognition increase over the lifespan. This microdevelopment study…

In view of the potential benefits that computers can bring to older adults, it is advantageous that they acquire a basic understanding of computer function. During the COVID-19 pandemic, it became necessary to register for vaccines online, and this posed a problem for some older adults who were neither knowledgeable in using computers nor had…

The present dissertation analyzed speech production and perception in early heritage Spanish-English bilingual children. Specifically, I investigated how perception and production of lexical stress develops in bilingual children. Current models of second language (L2) speech perception do not include heritage bilinguals or suprasegmental aspects…

The purpose of this study was to contribute to the body of research on the factors which influence job satisfaction and retention of business faculty in higher education. This study utilized the National Study of Postsecondary Faculty NSOPF: 2004 which is a nationally representative sample of higher education faculty and was sponsored by the NCES…

We investigated age-related decline in adult learning of Dutch as an additional language (Ln) in speaking, writing, listening, and reading proficiency test scores for 56,024 adult immigrants with 50 L1s who came to the Netherlands for study or work. Performance for all four language skills turned out to decline monotonically after an age of…

Bilingual children with a limited command of the second language (L2) often yield unsatisfactory results in L2-based non-word repetition tasks (NWRT) for the assessment of working memory. In this study, monolinguals (MO) and bilinguals (BI) of preschool age acquiring German were compared in regard to their performance on German-based NWRT to…

This article compares the immersion-education systems in Brittany and Wales. The number of Welsh speakers is growing thanks to its well-developed immersion-education system. Brittany has a much less well-developed system and the number of Breton speakers is falling dramatically. Urgent action is needed if Breton is to survive. Using an approach…

The purpose of this study was to examine student perception of parental involvement. Parental involvement has been a key factor in academic performance and student success. Parenting, communicating, volunteering, learning at home, decision making and collaborating with the community are all components of parental involvement and interaction.…

This dissertation investigated how a bilingual's experiences can affect how their first language pronunciation can differ from monolingual speakers of their two languages. We used a methodology incorporating quantitative phonetic measurements of voice onset time and vowel formants, grammar and vocabulary tests, and qualitative measures of language…

With the current and expected impacts of climate change on the agricultural industry, it is important to provide information to farmers to allow them to adapt and reduce their risk of loss. Extension agents are an important resource and serve as intermediaries between scientists and farmers to provide this information. There is little research,…

This study explored Canadian young women's experiences of having received pressure from one or both parents regarding their career choices and future, within the context of their career exploration. Using Charmaz' grounded theory approach, in-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted with 20 undergraduate female students who were…

Composing Territory is a research project with two main aims. The first aim is to identify optimal composition and arrangement techniques for choral works written for female singers from various linguistic backgrounds in the Northern Territory whose voices are undergoing pubertal changes. The second aim is the creation of twelve choral…

Delayed trajectories into traditional adult roles have led researchers to reconsider the nature of development, giving way to emerging adulthood (Arnett, 2000a). Although largely embraced by many contemporary scholars, questions remain about the universality of emerging adulthood. The current study explored factors that predict the degree to which…