UNT Theses and Dissertations - 51 Matching Results

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From inside the Arab family: What literacy practices occur when raising bilingual and biliterate children?

Description: Living in the United States creates unique challenges in biliteracy and bilingualism for the Arab family. While extant literature provides insight into the literacy interactions and experiences of families from many other cultures now living in the U.S. , there is next to nothing regarding the Arab family literacy experience. Thus, knowledge about the literacy activities Arab families engage in as they gain access to and knowledge of a new culture and language is important. The purpose … more
Date: December 2004
Creator: Alshaboul, Yousef Mohammad
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
Partner: UNT Libraries
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Teacher Decision-Making: Cultural Mediation in Two High School English Language Arts Classrooms

Description: Although studies have addressed high school English language arts (ELA) instruction, little is known about the decision-making process of ELA teachers. How do teachers decide between the resources and instructional strategies at their disposal? This study focused on two monolingual teachers who were in different schools and grades. They were teaching mainstream students or English Language Learners. Both employed an approach to writing instruction that emphasized cultural mediation. Two questio… more
Date: August 2011
Creator: Araujo, Juan José
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
Partner: UNT Libraries
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The Nature of the Impact of a Reading Tutoring Program on Participating Students in the Classroom: A Qualitative Study

Description: The purpose of this qualitative multi-case study was to explore the nature of the impact that a tutoring program, which featured preservice teachers as tutors, had on participating fifth grade at-risk students’ literacy behaviors in the classroom.The researcher served in the role of passive participant observer during the scheduled language arts period three days per week in the participating students’ classroom for a period of twenty-three weeks. Field notes were made in the classroom and code… more
Date: August 2000
Creator: Arrowood, Dana R.
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
Partner: UNT Libraries
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Examining the Nature of Interactions which Facilitate Learning and Impact Reading Achievement During a Reading Apprenticeship: A Case Study of At-risk Adolescent Readers

Description: The purpose of this qualitative case study was to explore the interactions that take place during a reading apprenticeship which facilitate the learning of reading strategies by adolescent students who are at the middle school level and are still at-risk for reading failure and to investigate how a reading apprenticeship affects reading achievement in the areas of fluency, vocabulary development, comprehension, and the self-perception of the reader. The case study was descriptive and interpreti… more
Date: December 1999
Creator: Arthur, Mary L.
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
Partner: UNT Libraries
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Critical Literacy Practices, Social Action Projects, and the Reader Who Struggles in School

Description: This study, conducted at an urban public school, explored the engagements of five, fourth grade, African American students who struggled with reading in school as they participated in critical literacy practices and social action projects with the assumption that critical analysis of written texts and concrete social actions were necessary for student empowerment. Using Discourse Analysis within a microethnographic framework, participants’ responses were analyzed. Early in the study, participan… more
Date: December 2011
Creator: Bauer, Courtney Marie
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
Partner: UNT Libraries
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A Study to Assess Relationships Between Reading Achievement and Retention Of Prose

Description: This investigation was concerned with whether linguistic competence with printed material is related to the retention of information contained in prose passages of high readability. The specific purpose of the study was to investigate relationships between linguistic competence and free recall, immediate, delayed, and practiced, after the reading of a passage of high readability. In a review of related literature, indications were found that linguistic competence could be expressed by test scor… more
Date: December 1980
Creator: Berrier, Ruth
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
Partner: UNT Libraries
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A Philosophical Study of the Holistic Paradigm with Heuristic Implications for Written Language

Description: The problem of this study was to investigate the philosophical assumptions underlying the holistic paradigm. These underlying philosophical assumptions include beliefs about the nature of being (ontology), goals (axiology), and knowledge (epistemology). The interdependence of these assumptions, as well as how they translate into different research processes, is noted in this study.
Date: December 1993
Creator: Campbell, Carol L. (Carol Louise)
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

The Nature of Reading Instruction in a Literature-based Reading Program

Description: The purpose of this study was to describe the nature of reading instruction in a program using children's trade books instead of basal readers, and to identify patterns resulting in hypotheses regarding the nature of instruction. The study informs practitioners by providing descriptions of actual instruction, enabling readers to envision how reading instruction is accomplished using children's trade books, and it informs the research community by developing grounded theory concerning the nature… more
Date: August 1992
Creator: Canavan, Diane D.
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
Partner: UNT Libraries
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Who is Helping Our Children? Development of a Model for the Training of Tutors for America Reads

Description: The purpose of this research study was to examine the effectiveness of training for college work study students who participated in an America Reads program, which was designed to help at-risk children struggling with reading. Two groups participated in this research study. One group of college tutors had minimal training in reading strategies at the beginning of the study and the other group of college tutors had continuous training and feedback throughout the study. The research study sought … more
Date: August 2000
Creator: Coleman, Janet E.
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
Partner: UNT Libraries
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A Delphi Study of the Perceived Reading Skill Needs of Community College Students as Determined by Community College Content Area Faculty

Description: This study determined the reading skills that community college faculty perceived as necessary for their students' success in certain English, history, and biology courses. Three questions were posed: What reading skills do faculty perceive as necessary for their students' success? Which skills are perceived to be most important? To what extent are the perceptions of English, history, and biology faculty similar or different? Sixty-one faculty from nineteen Texas community colleges completed th… more
Date: August 1983
Creator: Cortina, Joe
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
Partner: UNT Libraries
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Perceptions of agency: Beliefs of four adolescent girls in high school as revealed through literature discussions.

Description: Published research suggests that cultural practices and institutional structures influence adolescent girls' engagement and achievement in school. This study was an attempt to further investigate that claim by describing the perceptions of agency held by four adolescent girls in high school. Members of the same English class, the girls volunteered to participate in three lunchtime meetings to discuss Evelyn Coleman's (2001) Born In Sin. Analysis of classroom observations, transcripts of audio r… more
Date: August 2008
Creator: Curtis, Joan Scott
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
Partner: UNT Libraries
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Comprehension of Prose: Strategies Affecting Good and Poor High School Readers

Description: The problem of this study was to investigate how good and poor comprehenders utilize passage structure and task instructions to acquire information from a prose passage. To give a more detailed picture of what type of information processing occurred during reading, both verbatim and paraphrase items were used to assess comprehension.There were two strong but nonsignificant patterns in the data for task instructions. Poor readers were sensitive to both attribute and relation instructions. Good r… more
Date: May 1980
Creator: Doyle, Mary Jean
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
Partner: UNT Libraries
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Comparison of Pre- and Posttraining Verbal Interaction of Caregivers and Children During Story Time

Description: The purpose of this descriptive study was to create a read-aloud instructional program which could be used in teaching caregivers to promote quality verbal interaction among participants during story time. Prior to and subsequent to instruction, selected high-school students participating in a vocational-technical child development program were audio- and videotaped as they read stories aloud to children. All tapes were transcribed in full. Using the storybook Reading Analysis System (Teale, Ma… more
Date: August 1987
Creator: Drescher, Juanita Frost
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
Partner: UNT Libraries
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An Exploratory Study of the Relationship Between Curiosity and Print Awareness of Four-Year-Old Children

Description: This study has five chapters, organized in the following manner: (1) Chapter I contains the introduction, statement of the problem, purpose of the study, questions, significance of the study, and definition of terms; (2) Chapter II is a review of the literature; (3) Chapter III is a description of subjects and tests and procedures for treating the data; (4) Chapter IV contains the statistical technique of the analysis and the findings related to the questions, and (5) Chapter V consists of the … more
Date: December 1988
Creator: Estrada, Anita
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
Partner: UNT Libraries
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Examining First-Graders' Construction of Knowledge of Graphophonemic and Orthographic Relationships: Reading and Writing Student-Selected Continuous Text

Description: The purpose of this study was to examine first-graders' construction of knowledge of graphophonemic and orthographic relationships. Three levels of treatment were assigned randomly to three groups of first-graders in their first semester of first grade. Treatment varied in student engagement with reading and writing texts based on student interests and in the amount of interaction students had with one another and the researcher as they read, wrote, and examined words, word patterns, and grapho… more
Date: May 1996
Creator: Frerichs, Linda C.
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
Partner: UNT Libraries
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Critical Thinking, Reading, and Writing: Developing a Schema for Expository Text Through Direct Instruction in Analysis of Text Structure

Description: The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of a direct instruction model as a means of enhancing secondary students' schema for expository text. Subjects were seventh- and tenth-grade students in regular reading and English classes in an suburban school district. Students were pre- and posttested on four measures: attitude toward expository text, independent reading comprehension and recall from expository text, organization of information from expository text in notetaking, a… more
Date: August 1986
Creator: Hickerson, Benny L. (Benny Louise)
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
Partner: UNT Libraries
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Beliefs About Language Learning Strategy Use in an EFL Context: A Comparison Study of Monolingual Korean and Bilingual Korean-Chinese University Students.

Description: This study compared strategy use and beliefs about language learning, and the relationship between beliefs and use reported by 428 monolingual Korean and 420 bilingual Korean-Chinese university students. This study also examined the influence of background variables (e.g., gender, self-rated English proficiency, and academic major) on learners' beliefs and strategy use. Data was collected using three questionnaires, the Strategy Inventory for Language Learning (SILL), the Beliefs about Languag… more
Date: May 2006
Creator: Hong, Kyungsim
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
Partner: UNT Libraries
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Young Adult Literature and Censorship: A Content Analysis of Seventy-Eight Young Adult Books

Description: The purpose of this study was to analyze a representative seventy-eight current young adult books to determine the extent to which they contain items which are objectionable to would-be censors. Seventy-eight books were identified which fit the criteria of popularity and literary quality. Content analysis was selected as the quantitative method of research. Each of the seventy-eight young adult books was analyzed for the six categories which were established through prior research. The six cate… more
Date: December 1986
Creator: Horton, Nancy Spence
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
Partner: UNT Libraries
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Reader-Reported Influences on a Fifth Grader's Transaction With Extended Text

Description: This study was designed to investigate the question of what goes on in a reader's mind as she transacts with extended text. It was a case study with one respondent, a ten year old girl. She reported, in writing, her thoughts during teacher read aloud, subsequent silent reading of the same text, and group discussions about the text. The findings support and flesh out Rosenblatt.s transactional theory, Vygotsky.s Zone of Proximal Development theory, and Lipman.s Philosophy for Children theory. Co… more
Date: December 2001
Creator: Hubble, Winona Gaye
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
Partner: UNT Libraries
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Implementing a Framework for Remedial Reading for Seventh and Eighth Grades: A Delphi Study

Description: This study determined the instructional approaches and teaching techniques and materials reading specialists perceived to be the most effective for the seventh and eighth grade remedial reading courses mandated by Texas House Bill 246. It also determined the most effective inservice procedures for training teachers assigned to teach these courses. Fifty-four Texas reading specialists, representing school districts, service centers, and colleges and universities, participated as panelists in the… more
Date: May 1984
Creator: Jennings, Frances D. (Frances Ditto)
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
Partner: UNT Libraries
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Struggling Middle School Readers Learning To Make Intertextual Connections With Texts

Description: When people read, they often make connections to their lives, the world, and other texts. Often, these connections are not overt, but are a thinking process invisible to observers. The purpose of this study was to explore the intertextual connections struggling middle school students made as they read multiple topically-related texts to build knowledge, through observation of discussions, surveys, and interviews with students. The students received 30 lessons based on the constructivist model o… more
Date: December 2011
Creator: Johnson, Sunni
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
Partner: UNT Libraries
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A Tagmemic Analysis of Coherence in the Writing of Descriptive Texts by College Students

Description: For this study an attempt was made to bridge the disciplines of linguistics and composition in order to examine factors contributing to textual coherence. Pairs of descriptive texts written by fifty college students were examined in order to identify the factors which differentiate quality and topic. Students were asked to compose a descriptive paragraph on the topic of fall. They were then encouraged to use their five senses, given leaves, and asked to compose a paragraph describing the leaves… more
Date: August 1988
Creator: Kent, Carolyn E. (Carolyn Elizabeth)
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
Partner: UNT Libraries
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An Ethnographic Investigation of the Influence of the Home Environment on the Developing Reading Skills of First Grade Children

Description: This study described (a) the factors and activities in the home environment which appear to affect children's reading competence and affective dimensions of reading, (b) the parents' language style when interacting with their children, (c) the rate of reading acquisition for children from differing home environments, and (d) observable behaviors as children learn to read.
Date: August 1980
Creator: Kingore, Bertha Wilhelm
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
Partner: UNT Libraries
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How Computer Use Functions as an Aspect of Literacy Development : A Qualitative Description of a Second-grade Classroom

Description: In this study, the researcher investigated how computer use functions as an aspect of literacy development within a second-grade classroom. The researcher sought to gather data to help define the role that computer use plays in the literacy development of elementary school students by concentrating on how computers are actually used in the classroom being studied, and by looking for relationships revealed by students' and teacher's beliefs about computer use in the classroom.
Date: December 1993
Creator: Kostelnik, Joyce L.
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
Partner: UNT Libraries
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