Reading literature in a foreign language (FL) requires a learner to move beyond decoding simple meanings and phrases to analysis and interpretation of multiple meanings. It also involves the development of a global understanding of a text's significance, which entails participation in a complex social practice, situated in cultural, linguistic,…

Past experiences influence how teachers identify as teachers, writers, and teachers of writing and impacts what they do in their classrooms, including their motivation and effectiveness in teaching writing. When teachers fail to identify as writers, they tend to spend less time teaching writing and may find it difficult to model a genuine passion…

This paper examines the connections between art and text regarding the (mis) treatment of Mexican immigrants, particularly in schools. The paper discusses the harsh realities of anti-immigrant discourse through a series of oil paintings created to depict selected issues of Mexican immigrant experiences that are also written about in text. The main…

Cognitive framing theories explain how individuals understand and apply information in relation to existing experiences and beliefs. Yet these theories have rarely been applied to explore the interpretation and application of evidence in policy development. This paper undertakes a critical discourse analysis of interviews and texts surrounding a…

The present study investigates the phonological effect triggered by the different types of phonetic pause used in Quran on morphology, syntax, and semantics. It argues that Quranic pause provides interesting evidence about the close relation between phonology and semantics, from one side, and semantics, morphology, and syntax, from the other…

The number of females in senior level leadership positions in higher education is substantially fewer than males. Yet female students in these same institutions represent over half the population (National Center for Educational Statistics, 2010). The leadership gender gap is a phenomenon that has undergone numerous studies in search of reasons…

Increasing Black and Latino college students' engagement is a primary concern of critical educators who seek to advance their students' critical literacy skills. There is a growing amount of these students who appear unable to successfully perform literate acts inside the academic space. However, these same students have rich literate…

As face-threatening speech acts, requests are of particular interest to second language acquisition scholars. They affect the interlocutors' public self-images, and thus require a careful consideration of the social distance between the interlocutors, their status, and the level of the imposition, factors that are weighed differently in…

Current theoretical models of distance learning are driven by two impetuses: a technical CMC element, and a pedagogical foundation rooted strongly in the Western world, and driven by social constructivism. By and large these models have been exported throughout the world as-is. However, previous research has hinted at potential problems with these…

This thesis describes new approaches to the formal modeling of narrative discourse. Although narratives of all kinds are ubiquitous in daily life, contemporary text processing techniques typically do not leverage the aspects that separate narrative from expository discourse. We describe two approaches to the problem. The first approach considers…

This dissertation is a dual-site ethnographic case study of the lived information literacy experiences of students in their junior year of high school relative to their school library and librarians. What began as an investigation of an apparent gap in understanding between the views of teens and school librarians regarding "information…

The aim of this study was to determine the university instructors' conceptions of teaching in ELT departments at two universities in Turkey. The data was collected through qualitative research techniques. The participants were four instructors working in two different institutions in Turkey with doctorate degree on the same major from the same…

In this study, 5-year-olds and adults described scenes that differed according to whether (a) the subject or object of a transitive verb represented an accessible or inaccessible referent, consistent or inconsistent with patterns of preferred argument structure, and (b) a simple noun was sufficient to uniquely identify an inaccessible referent.…

What constitutes a successful lesson? A considerable body of literature examines instructional talk; however, little attention has been directed to situations in which teacher intentions (as captured by lesson plan) are stymied by unanticipated student response and the teacher must instantaneously reevaluate and revise an intended lesson. This…

The globalization of English in Sweden is examined as it takes shape in educational policy and practice. Following in the tradition of a "new wave" of language policy and planning research that emphasizes connections between policy and how it is interpreted by local stakeholders, this investigation focuses on textual data from Swedish…