This dissertation examines the associations between pragmatic meaning categories in English and specific realizations of prosodic prominence. It has been well-established that in Mainstream American English (MAE), prominence is often used to convey contrast. A more limited set of studies suggests that prosodic prominence may also be capable of…

It is becoming ever more challenging to address the changing landscape faced by California Community Colleges. Change agents strive to implement needed interventions but are often disappointed in the outcomes. However, the literature shows that the odds of successful change increase when interventions align with the organization's culture. The…

The objective of this study was to develop and validate the Psychobiosocial Experience Semantic Differential in Physical Education (PESD-PE) scale, a new holistic measure of discrete emotion-related feelings (i.e., psychobiosocial experiences) as conceived within the individual zones of optimal functioning (IZOF) framework. A preliminary version…

Teachers' and students' values influenced the teaching and learning process in the mathematics classroom. Few studies were conducted to compare teachers' and students' value in mathematics learning. This paper explores Malaysian mathematics teachers' and students' values in mathematics learning. Fifty-three mathematics teachers and 354 secondary…

This study tested how an STI diagnosis influences perceptions of hypothetical romantic/sexual partners. In an online experiment, participants (n = 189) were randomly assigned to one of five vignette conditions, which varied in how a potential partner's STI status was described. HSV or HIV-positive status (with treatment) decreased the likelihood…

This paper extends the use of Generalizability Theory to the measurement of extemporaneous L2 speech through the lens of speech perception. Using six datasets of previous studies, it reports on "G studies"--a method of breaking down measurement variance--and "D studies"--a predictive study of the impact on reliability when…

Purpose: This study aims to investigate the perceptions of Iranian English teachers about their teaching efficiency through a specific practicum course, namely, language teaching methodology. Drawing on a marketing education perspective, the researchers sought to measure the service quality offered in universities by examining teachers'…

In this study, we investigated Chinese viewers' attitudes toward fan-subtitled (fansub) online courses, sponsorship, and the sponsors of online courses. In addition, the relationships among these three attitude variables were examined. A cross-sectional research design based on a quantitative methodology was employed in the study. An online…

It is an interesting to obtain an objective view of students' attitude toward a certain discipline and to construct effective pedagogical diagnostics based on the obtained data. Such data relates to both the academic performance of students and also their emotional attitude towards a subject and motivation to study it. This research study, using…

The purpose of this research is to document the design, development, and validation of the Electronic Learner Satisfaction Scale (eLSS). The eLSS is designed to be a parsimonious, flexible, objective, valid, and reliable tool for reporting learner satisfaction scores with self-paced e-learning environments for either research or practice. The tool…

Character strengths are a protective factor against psychological symptoms. However, there is a lack of research that has investigated the psychometric properties of abbreviated character strengths scales. The purpose of this study was to adapt and validate the Character Strengths Semantic Differential Scale (CS-SDS) with a sample of 235 college…

The aim of the paper is to present the results of a survey focused on the image of an educational institution--a public university in the Czech Republic, which provides study programs for future teachers of vocational subjects at secondary schools. The image of an educational institution is an integral part of the management of educational…

Although boredom can be regarded as a ubiquitous emotion in most educational settings, including foreign and second language classrooms, and this condition can have a detrimental effect on the process of learning, it has to a large extent escaped the attention of second language acquisition researchers dealing with individual learner differences.…

Speech intelligibility, or how well a speaker's words are understood by others, affects listeners' judgments of the speaker's competence and personality. Deaf cochlear implant (CI) users vary widely in speech intelligibility, and their speech may have a noticeable "deaf" quality, both of which could evoke negative stereotypes or…

Based on Vygotsky's theory of the interplay of the tool and sign functions of language, this study presents a textual analysis of a corpus of student-authored texts to illuminate aspects of development evidenced through the dialectical tension of tool and sign. Data were drawn from a series of reflective memos I authored during a seminar for new…