Browsing by Subject "Listening"
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Item An analysis of the effects of a selected program of listening on reading increments of third grade children(Texas Tech University, 1972-08) Taylor, Hazel ScottNot availableItem Dem is drunk through the ears: sound, space, and listening in Alevi collective worship ritual(2016-05) Kreger, Alexander Colin; Seeman, Sonia Tamar, 1958-; Dell'Antonio, Andrew; Moin, AzfarIn Turkey, Alevi social and religious identity is often constructed in conscious opposition to institutionalized Sunni Islam. Sound is an important medium by which the relationship of violence and resistance between Alevis and the Sunni state is produced and perpetuated. This paper focuses on the ways in which Alevi aural dispositions and spatial constructions constitute and reinforce one another. These auralities and spacialities are rehearsed and disciplined within the context of collective worship rituals [cem or muhabbet], but play a broader role in molding and thus preserving the Alevi community as a religious minority under the threat of assimilation. In particular, I examine how Alevis map space by cultivating listening habits based on oppositions of interior and exterior, private and public, and esoteric and exoteric. Two Alevi concepts play especially prominent roles in regulating the relationship between sound and space. Dem refers to the divine power which resides in the words, voice, and breath of spiritually mature individuals. It is also the name for the alcohol Alevis may drink as part of their collective worship services. With the idea of dem, Alevis draw a link between listening and the acquisition of knowledge on the one hand, and drinking and interiority on the other that is embodied in the phrase “dem is drunk by the ears” [dem kulaktan içilir]. Just as tea is said to steep [demlenmek], Alevis steep—discipline themselves as Alevi subjects—during muhabbet by listening to words of wisdom spoken or sung by spiritually mature individuals. Meanwhile, dem is emplaced through its association with a face, or didar. The Alevi fixation on didar creates spatial orientations also experienced as listening vectors linking people together. Instead of facing towards Mecca while praying, Alevis face towards one another because they see God as the human being him/herself, and the beauty of God as reflected in the beauty of the human countenance. As a result, Alevi spiritual landscapes strikingly different from those of Sunni Islam, in which prayer is oriented towards a single, remote point.Item The effect of prior knowledge on listening comprehension in ESL class discussions(2004) Madden, John Patrick; Garza, Thomas J.Previous research in second language listening comprehension has considered the role of prior knowledge in listening to texts that are presented by a single speaker. Despite this, second language learners commonly encounter situations in which they must understand what more than one speaker is saying, whether in the language classroom, the academy, or the workplace. In addition, prior knowledge for text type has been argued to support second language listening, though the genre of discussion has been overlooked as a text type. This study investigated the hypotheses that prior knowledge of the topic of a discussion would aid comprehension of that discussion, that greater listening skill would result in greater comprehension of a discussion, that topic prior knowledge and listening skill would interact to support comprehension, and that familiarity with the discussion form would support understanding a discussion. Participants recruited from an intensive English program were assigned to experimental and control conditions. Topic prior knowledge was operationalized by allowing the experimental group to hear a portion of an audiotaped text that was used as the basis for a videotaped discussion among three native English speakers. To measure comprehension of the videotaped discussion, research participants distinguished statements made in the video from distracters, wrote recalls of the video, and made predictions about what they would hear next. Participants took a listening assessment and completed a survey about their experience learning English and their familiarity with and attitudes about discussion. Results showed that participants familiar with the discussion form understood more of the videotaped discussion than did participants unfamiliar with discussion. Better listeners understood more of the videotaped discussion than did less skilled listeners. Prior knowledge of topic was not found to be a significant predictor of success in understanding discussions. No interaction was found between topic prior knowledge and listening skill. Teaching and research implications are presented.Item Enduring character : the problem with authenticity and the persistence of ethos(2013-12) Dieter, Eric Matthew, 1976-; Roberts-Miller, Patricia, 1959-This dissertation is interested in how people talk about character in a variety of public spheres. Specifically, it explores the tangled relationship between authenticity and ethos, or what is taken as the distinction between intrinsic and constructed character. While this dissertation does not presume to settle the question of authenticity’s actuality, it does discuss the ways authenticity cues in rhetorical acts continue to influence how “sincere character” in those acts is understood, even as audiences exhibit shrewdness in recognizing that character is a purposeful manifestation of the rhetor. The fundamental phenomenon this dissertation seeks to describe is how people, with better and worse success, negotiate the dissonance between valuing character as authentic and as presentation and representation. Character in this view is a much richer and more paradoxical concept than many discussions of the term admit. A too-diluted study of ethos limited strictly to pinpointing credibility in an argument makes it difficult to articulate why an exhibition of character sometimes works and sometimes flops. Ethos in its fullest complexity is, and is not, constructed by any single act; it is the consequence of narratives, both of those narratives, and also what we say about those narratives; it is something we know about a rhetor, at the same time that it comes from what the rhetor claims to know; it is, most important, an appeal to authenticity, even when we know ethos is discursively, kairotically, and socially constructed. This dissertation offers an expanded definition of ethos as rhetorical transactions that rhetors and audiences mutually negotiate in order to determine the extent to which all sides will have their rhetorical needs met, and the extent to which all sides can assent to the those needs. The dissertation, using the works of Wayne Booth, Kenneth Burke, and Chaïm Perelman as its primary theoretical structures, offers pedagogic implications for these mutual negotiations.Item Learning through listening : how collaborative discourse contributes to individual learning in small group work(2012-05) Vogler, Jane Susan; Schallert, Diane L.; Svinicki, Marilla; Emmer, Edmund; Maloch, Anna E.; Restad, PenneAligned with socio-constructivist views of learning, small groups are being adopted as a viable and valid instructional technique with increasing enthusiasm. Previous research has shown that learning outcomes for students who have participated in small groups is inconsistent at best, and that small groups function differently even when working on identical tasks within the same classroom. Consequently, researchers continue to try and tease apart the ways in which effective small groups function and how small group participation influences individual learning. In this study, I explored the nature of listening within a small group learning context with the purposes of understanding how listening behaviors in the group were related to individual learning outcomes and gaining further insights into small group functions. This qualitative study was embedded within a college level history course for which the instructor had assigned students to permanent teams diverse in terms of gender, degree major, and class rank (i.e., freshman to senior status). Data collection and analysis focused on a subset of these teams and centered on group discussions that took place across two class days just past the semester’s midpoint. Data sources included: observational field notes, individual interviews, individually-written essays, synchronized audio/video recordings of team discussions, and team activity sheets. Data analysis was progressive, inductive, and micro-analytical in nature, using discourse analysis of the discussions and topic analysis of the essays to derive themes and code ideas. As indicated by individual interviews as well as an analysis of what individuals said and did during the small group discussion, listening indicators included verbal and nonverbal responses. A systematic analysis of the individually-written essays alongside a coded transcript of the team discussion revealed that topics included in the essay were ideas discussed by the group and were aligned with indicators of listening. Analyses of all data showed that listening contributes to the way the groups functioned, helping to explain the differences in team interactions.Item Looking beyond the visual: considering multi-sensory experience and education with video art in installation(2010-05) Spont, Marya Helen; Bolin, Paul Erik, 1954-; Mayer, Melinda M.This study problematizes how the history, theory, and practice of art education (as documented) have predominantly focused on visually-based artworks and on visual aspects of other, multi-sensory artworks. I posit that existing pedagogical approaches become particularly limiting when addressing contemporary artworks that engage multiple senses and question how art educators might adapt such paradigms to consider individual learners’ multi-sensory experiences—particularly, aural, bodily, and spatial, as well as visual, experiences—as they operate in relation to video art in installation. To offer a point of reference for subsequent discussion, I narrate and interpret my own multi-sensory experience of Krzysztof Wodiczko’s "...OUT OF HERE: The Veterans Project" (2009), and then situate both visual and non-visual aspects of my experience in relation to various possible experiences of time, still and changing images, sound, the static or mobile body, other bodies, and space. By synthesizing and building upon recent scholarly literature pertaining to interpretation, multi-sensory and bodily experience, and learner-centered pedagogy, I consider theoretical and practical implications for teaching and learning with video art in installation, and recommend art educators’ mediation through creating communities of questioning, listening, and “speaking with,” in addition to looking. Throughout this study, I argue that encouraging learners to interpret their individual bodily and sensory experiences of artworks should be considered an essential part of the process of making meaning of those artworks in art education environments and, more importantly, of the process of helping learners to become more critically aware of their own sensory experiences in the world.Item Motivated election, voice changes, and orienting: Dichotic processing of attended and unattended audio messages(2011-12) Wise, Wes; Bradley, Samuel D.; Cummins, Robert G.; Sparks, Johnny V.; Reich, Darcy A.Attention has been defined by James (1890) as the willful act of focusing on some things at the expense of others. Implied in his description is the act of selection – choosing to devote processing resources to some things in the environment while ignoring other things. Selection acts as the stepping down process between perception and memory; the capacity limitations in the brain allow only so much information to be retained. Filter theory (Broadbent, 1958) provides one plausible explanation for selection. An attentional filter acts a gatekeeper by allowing attended information to pass into memory all the while barring unattended information from accessing processing resources. Filter theory is an early selection account of attention in that unattended information is disregarded early in the processing hierarchy. Research supporting filter theory has shown that physical cues in the environment are reliable tools that allow people to attend to stimuli based upon their intention to do so. In other words, the filter may be set in order to facilitate discrimination between competing stimuli. Some findings, however, have shown that unattended stimuli may pass the attentional filter. The late selection account (Deutsch & Deutsch, 1963) holds that unattended stimuli, once perceived, may not be immediately discarded from memory. Instead, information may be processed and then rejected if it does not meet particular criteria (such as the physical cues described in filter theory). As opposed to early selection, in which explicit memory is typically used to assess attention, many late selection studies have used dependent measures more indicative of implicit memory. The current study was designed to add to the literature on selective attention. Instead of approaching the subject from an early or late selection perspective, this study used a theoretical framework based upon attenuation theory (Treisman, 1960; 1964a). The concept of attenuation suggests that the attentional filter described by Broadbent (1958) may not be rigid; items may not be selected on an all-or-none basis. Instead, there may exist certain conditions that will attenuate the filter, such that stimuli meeting those conditions will be processed whether they are attended or not. One such condition may be valence, as the affective quality of a stimulus could influence processing. In addition, two variables (structure and load) were included to account for recent findings in literature. Participants (n = 49) in the study performed a dichotic listening task while shadowing material in an attended channel. Heart rate and electrodermal activity were recorded as physiological measures indicative of cognitive responding. Signal detection was included to provide an assessment of explicit memory. The results of the study did not support any predictions – valence, structure, and load seemed to have no impact upon responding. A closer analysis of the physiological data revealed two interesting findings, however. First, a large, general increase in sustained heart rate over the course of the shadowing activity indicated that the task was extremely difficult and demanding. It was so difficult that it may have prevented any possible effect from any independent variable from being detected. This conclusion is supported by the fact that no main effect was found for the perceptual load condition. Second, a small interaction effect was discovered revealing that when voice changes (structure) and negative words (valence) appeared together, a cardiac orienting response occurred. This result hints that under the right conditions a shift in attentional resources may occur. Implications for the study include reevaluating shadowing and the dichotic listening paradigm given participants struggle with the procedures. Also, despite the difficulty of the tasks, some shifting of resources may have occurred. If so, it is evidence that despite strong circumstances to the contrary, selection may be a more complicated process than once originally thought.Item Target language captioned video for second language listening comprehension and vocabulary acquisition(2014-12) Cano, Clarissa Ysel; Pulido, Diana C.This report surveys existing literature in order to determine how best to implement target language captioned video in a classroom of a particular context: a Korean church in the U.S. whose members desire to improve their English language ability for the purpose of sharing the gospel of resurrection in English. In order to gain insight into the benefits and limitations of target language captioned video on second language listening comprehension and vocabulary acquisition and thus how to use the learning tool optimally, literature is reviewed regarding word knowledge, processing strategies, and reported gains or effects of the use of captioned video. Then, incorporating the information gleaned from the literature, two sample lesson plans are presented utilizing the C-Channel English testimony videos as the primary tool for instruction.Item The effect of verbal clarity and verbal dramatics in facilitating learning and attention during the college lecture(Texas Tech University, 1997-05) Goff, Sara LynnCommunication is an essential role of a teacher, who is responsible for extending, facilitating, and stimulating knowledge. Communicating with students can become problematic when an instructor must not only deliver information in a lecture, but also work to maintain his or her students' interest. Many scholars consider the attention span of students to be decreasing (Hunter, 1994; Penner, 1984). Although ample research has considered the role of delivery in the classroom, when related to student attention nonverbal delivery is most often emphasized. Considerably less research has been conducted on how a teacher can develop their verbal style of lecture delivery to increase student attention and learning.Item The effects of a planned daily program of listening on the development of reading achievement of first-grade pupils(Texas Tech University, 1970-05) Ballenger, Marcus Taylor,Not availableItem The relationship of listening behaviors and psychological traits of selected community college students(Texas Tech University, 1985-05) Tindall, Tyler HubertThe purpose of this study was to ascertain the relationship between the Jungian psychological traits of selected community college students and their listening behavior. Listening is the most frequently used communication system by college students to acquire information presented by an instructor. College students utilize listening three times more than any other communication skill. Psychological traits have been linked to student learning styles which are essentially differing ways students prefer to perceive and process information. Justification for the study was based upon the premise that psychological traits are related to information acquisition preference. In this study an assessment of psychological traits was made using the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) which is derived from Carl Jung's theory of psychological type. The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator classifies the respondent's preferences for psychological traits on four dichotomous scales: Extraversion/Introversion, Sensing/Intuition, Thinking/Feeling and Judging/Perceiving. Sixteen different personality types result from the combinations of psychological traits which are indicative of differing preferences in information acquisition. Listening behavior was assessed in this study by use of the Kentucky Comprehensive Listening Test (KCLT) which scores the respondent's listening skills in short-term listening, short-term listening with rehearsal, interpretative listening, distraction listening, and long-term listening. An overall total score is also produced on the respondent's listening behavior. The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator and the Kentucky Comprehensive Listening Test were administered to 208 community college students attending Midland College and Amarillo College. The Pearson product-moment technique was used to correlate the continuous numerical scores generated from the four scales of the MBTI with the overall total score of the KCLT and the five subscale scores. Results revealed statistically significant relationships between the strength of preferences in the four functioning modes on the MBTI and the overall total score and the five subscales of the KCLT. Additionally, t-test for Independent samples revealed statistically significant differences between the demographic variable of respondent sex and MBTI psychological trait preferences and the listening scales of the KCLT.