The use of a computer graphic organizer for persuasive composition writing by Hispanic students with specific learning disabilities

Many culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) students with specific learning disabilities (SLD) struggle with the writing process. Particularly, they have difficulties developing and expanding ideas, organizing and elaborating sentences, and revising and editing their compositions (Graham, Harris, & Larsen, 2001; Myles, 2002). Computer graphic organizers offer a possible solution to assist them in their writing. This study investigated the effects of a computer graphic organizer on the persuasive writing compositions of Hispanic middle school students with SLD. A multiple baseline design across subjects was used to examine its effects on six dependent variables: number of arguments and supporting details, number and percentage of transferred arguments and supporting details, planning time, writing fluency, syntactical maturity (measured by T-units, the shortest grammatical sentence without fragments), and overall organization. Data were collected and analyzed throughout baseline and intervention. Participants were taught persuasive writing and the writing process prior to baseline. During baseline, participants were given a prompt and asked to use paper and pencil to plan their compositions. A computer was used for typing and editing. Intervention required participants to use a computer graphic organizer for planning and then a computer for typing and editing. The planning sheets and written composition were printed and analyzed daily along with the time each participant spent on planning. The use of computer graphic organizers had a positive effect on the planning and persuasive writing compositions. Increases were noted in the number of supporting details planned, percentage of supporting details transferred, planning time, writing fluency, syntactical maturity in number of T-units, and overall organization of the composition. Minimal to negligible increases were noted in the mean number of arguments planned and written. Varying effects were noted in the percent of transferred arguments and there was a decrease in the T-unit mean length. This study extends the limited literature on the effects of computer graphic organizers as a prewriting strategy for Hispanic students with SLD. In order to fully gauge the potential of this intervention, future research should investigate the use of different features of computer graphic organizer programs, its effects with other writing genres, and different populations.

Document understanding using data mining and machine learning techniques

With the explosive growth of the volume and complexity of document data (e.g., news, blogs, web pages), it has become a necessity to semantically understand documents and deliver meaningful information to users. Areas dealing with these problems are crossing data mining, information retrieval, and machine learning. For example, document clustering and summarization are two fundamental techniques for understanding document data and have attracted much attention in recent years. Given a collection of documents, document clustering aims to partition them into different groups to provide efficient document browsing and navigation mechanisms. One unrevealed area in document clustering is that how to generate meaningful interpretation for the each document cluster resulted from the clustering process. Document summarization is another effective technique for document understanding, which generates a summary by selecting sentences that deliver the major or topic-relevant information in the original documents. How to improve the automatic summarization performance and apply it to newly emerging problems are two valuable research directions. To assist people to capture the semantics of documents effectively and efficiently, the dissertation focuses on developing effective data mining and machine learning algorithms and systems for (1) integrating document clustering and summarization to obtain meaningful document clusters with summarized interpretation, (2) improving document summarization performance and building document understanding systems to solve real-world applications, and (3) summarizing the differences and evolution of multiple document sources.

The Mismatch of the Language of Textbooks and Language of ESL Students in Content Classrooms

Debate concerning bilingual education effectiveness may focus around the definition of academic language. Two aspects of such-vocabulary and grammar-were examined in 4th and 8th grade textbooks. Results showed substantial increases in the number of abstract words and complex sentences, suggesting more daunting language demands for older non-English-speaking students.

The Use of a Computer Graphic Organizer for Persuasive Composition Writing by Hispanic Students with Specific Learning Disabilities

Many culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) students with specific learning disabilities (SLD) struggle with the writing process. Particularly, they have difficulties developing and expanding ideas, organizing and elaborating sentences, and revising and editing their compositions (Graham, Harris, & Larsen, 2001; Myles, 2002). Computer graphic organizers offer a possible solution to assist them in their writing. This study investigated the effects of a computer graphic organizer on the persuasive writing compositions of Hispanic middle school students with SLD. A multiple baseline design across subjects was used to examine its effects on six dependent variables: number of arguments and supporting details, number and percentage of transferred arguments and supporting details, planning time, writing fluency, syntactical maturity (measured by T-units, the shortest grammatical sentence without fragments), and overall organization. Data were collected and analyzed throughout baseline and intervention. Participants were taught persuasive writing and the writing process prior to baseline. During baseline, participants were given a prompt and asked to use paper and pencil to plan their compositions. A computer was used for typing and editing. Intervention required participants to use a computer graphic organizer for planning and then a computer for typing and editing. The planning sheets and written composition were printed and analyzed daily along with the time each participant spent on planning. The use of computer graphic organizers had a positive effect on the planning and persuasive writing compositions. Increases were noted in the number of supporting details planned, percentage of supporting details transferred, planning time, writing fluency, syntactical maturity in number of T-units, and overall organization of the composition. Minimal to negligible increases were noted in the mean number of arguments planned and written. Varying effects were noted in the percent of transferred arguments and there was a decrease in the T-unit mean length. This study extends the limited literature on the effects of computer graphic organizers as a prewriting strategy for Hispanic students with SLD. In order to fully gauge the potential of this intervention, future research should investigate the use of different features of computer graphic organizer programs, its effects with other writing genres, and different populations.

A responsabilidade enunciativa na sentença judicial condenatória

The Textual Analysis of Discourse has its origin in Text Linguistics and it aims at studying the co(n)text meaning production based on the analysis of concrete texts by offering elements to the understanding of the text as a discourse practice throughout the plans or levels of linguistic analysis. In this perspective, we intend to investigate the enunciative responsibility phenomenon in the sentencing court judgment. To do so, we review the theoretical contributions of Textual Analysis of Discourse (ADAM, 2011) and the Enunciative Linguistics from various authors, among them, Rabatel (1998, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2008, 2009, 2010), Nølke (2001, 2005, 2009, 2013), Nølke, Fløttum and Norén (2004), Guentchéva (1994, 1996) and Guentchéva et al. (1994). In this direction, we investigate the enunciative responsibility through a range that comprises the phenomenon from four gradations, each one with a kind of point of view (PoV) and with links that may mark the assumption or the distance from the point of view. Regarding the legal approach of the thesis, our theoretical anchoring follows several authors, among them, Petri (1994), Soto (2001), Alvarez (2002), Alves (2003), Cornu (2005), Albi (2007), Bittar (2010), Asensio and Polanco (2011), López Samaniego (2006), López Montolío and Samaniego (2008), Montolío (2002, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013), Sterling (2010), Prieto (2013), Lawrence and Rodrigues (2013) and Rodrigues, Passeggi and Silva Neto (2014). Our corpus is composed of 13 sentences from criminal cases arising from the district of Currais Novos-RN, completed in 2012. The results reveal how the judge, from various enunciative instances, builds the court decision, which allowed us to understand the configuration of (non) assumption of enunciative responsibility in the sentencing court judgment discourse genre. In conclusion, we perceive that the discourse units are envisaged or through the assumption, or the non assumption of PoV by the enunciative instances, what guides the producer organization argumentative text and his (her) communicative purposes. With that, the judge creates and/or modifies values and beliefs, induces and/or guides his (her) interlocutor by being able to demonstrate objectivity and/or preventing his (her) face through the mediated constructions or engage through the assumption of the enunciative responsibility of the propositional content of an utterance. In short, we reaffirm our belief that the (non) assumption of the enunciative responsibility configures as an argumentative mechanism strongly marked by the producer of the text with a view to their communicative purposes. The sentence, therefore, is constructed in this game of taking and/or not taking of statements according to argumentative orientation and the objectives of the text producer.

Análise sintagmática aplicada ao processo de sumarização automática de documentos do português brasileiro

This research studies the application of syntagmatic analysis of written texts in the language of Brazilian Portuguese as a methodology for the automatic creation of extractive summaries. The automation of abstracts, while linked to the area of natural language processing (PLN) is studying ways the computer can autonomously construct summaries of texts. For this we use as presupposed the idea that switch to the computer the way a language is structured, in our case the Brazilian Portuguese, it will help in the discovery of the most relevant sentences, and consequently build extractive summaries with higher informativeness. In this study, we propose the definition of a summarization method that automatically perform the syntagmatic analysis of texts and through them, to build an automatic summary. The phrases that make up the syntactic structures are then used to analyze the sentences of the text, so the count of these elements determines whether or not a sentence will compose the summary to be generated

Padrões de ordenação de constituintes das construções V2/V3 superficiais em cartas pessoais brasileiras dos séculos 19 e 20

In line with the model of grammar competition (Kroch, 1989; 2001), according to which the change in the syntactic domains is a process that develops via competition between different grammars, we describe and analyze the superficial constructions V2 / V3 in matrices / roots sentences of brazilian personal letters of the 19th and 20th centuries. The corpus, composed by 154 personal letters of Rio de Janeiro and Rio Grande do Norte, is divided into three century halves: (i) latter half of the 19th century; (ii) first half of the 20th century; and (iii) latter half of the 20th century. Our focus was the observation of the nature of preverbal constituents in superficial constructions V2 (verb in second position in the sentence) and V3 (verb in third position in the sentence), with a special attention on the position of the subject. Based on the various diachronical studies about the Portuguese ordination standards (Ambar (1992); Ribeiro (1995, 2001); Paixão de Sousa (2004); Paiva (2011), Coelho and Martins (2009, 2012)), our study sought to realize what are empirical ordination standards that involve superficial constructions V2 / V3 and how these patterns structure syntactically within a formal theoretical perspective (Chomsky, 1981; 1986), more specifically, in accordance with studies of Antonelli (2011), and Costa & Galves (2002). The survey results show that the data from the second half of the 19th century – unlike the first and second half of the 20th century data – have a greater balance in relation to the syntactic nature of preverbal constituent (contiguous or not), so that, in this period, the occurrence of orders with the subject in a preverbal position arrives at, at most, 52% (231/444 data); while in the 48% (213/444 data) remaining, the preverbal constituents are represented by a non-subject constituent, almost always an adverbial adjunct. Seen the results, we advocate that the brazilian personal letters of the 19th century have ordination patterns associated with a V2 system and an SV system, configuring, therefore, a possible competition process between different grammars that instantiate or a V2 system or an SV system. In other words, the brazilian letters of the 19th century instantiate a competition between the grammar of Classic Portuguese (a V2 system) and the grammars of Brazilian Portuguese and European Portuguese (an SV system). Therefore, that period is subject to the completion of two distinct parametric markings: (i) verb moved to the Fin core (grammar of Classic Portuguese) and (ii) verb moved to the T core (grammar of Brazilian Portuguese /European Portuguese). On the other hand, in the personal letters of the 20th century (first and second halves), there is a clear increase in ordenation patterns associated with the SV system, which shows more stable.

A colocação de pronomes clíticos em sentenças infinitivas preposicionadas na escrita brasileira dos séculos XIX e XX

In this work we present the description and analysis of the clitics collocation patterns in prepositional infinitive sentences within the Brazilian writing in the centuries XIX and XX. The corpus in analysis is comprised of letters of newspaper readers and newspaper writers, as well as of advertisements (ads) taken from Brazilian newspapers from different regions / states – Rio de Janeiro, Bahia, Ceará and Pernambuco – and written in the Centuries XIX and XX. They belong to the common minimum corpus of the project named Projeto para a História do Português Brasileiro (PHPB or Project to the History of the Brazilian Portuguese, in English). Its analysis is based on theoreticalmethodological postulates of the Theory of Variation and Change (WEINREICH; LABOV; HERZOG, 1968[2006]; LABOV, 1972[2008]); on the Theory of Principles and Parameters (CHOMSKY, 1981, 1986) and on the model of Grammar Competition (KROCH, 1989; 2001). By trying to articulate those presuppositions from both the theories we present a proposition of theoretical interface between the Variation Theory and the Grammar one. Concerning the empirical results achieved by means of this research, we could figure that, in the context in which there were prepositional infinitive sentences, the most significant independent variable to the occurrence of the proclisis is the type of preposition that comes before the verb in the infinitive. Before that, we found out that there are prepositions which strongly direct the proclisis, as it is the case of the prepositions in Portuguese sem, por, de and para, with all of them presenting Relative Weights over 0,52. Another important result is the one attested in the data referring the state of Rio de Janeiro (RJ). This state is the only one of the sample which is located in the Southeastern region and also presents itself as the main proclisis conditioner amongst the localities pertaining to the sample. In order to explain those results, we raised the hypothesis that the proclisis implementation may be more advanced in the Southeastern than in the Northeastern Brazil, however that hypothesis must be confirmed or refuted in future works. We also present, in this work, a theoretical explanation about the clitics colocation in prepositional infinitive sentences within the Brazilian writing in the XIX and XX centuries. The theoretical explanation we found to interpret the achieved results associates Magro’s proposition (2005), regarding the existence of prepositions occupying the nucleus PP and the existence of prepositions which can play the role of a completer and occupy the nucleus CP, according to Galves (2000; 2001), regarding the existent relation between the clitic colocation and the association of traits-phi to the functional categories COMP, Tense and Person. Our proposition is that the occurrence of prepositions which occupy the nucleus CP causes changes in the values attributed to the traits-phi and to the strong Vtraits in the functional categories COMP, Tense and Person. Thus, we defend that proclisis in Brazilian Portuguese (BP) is derived from the movement of the verb to the functional category tense in which there is the association of traits +V and traits +AGR, what legitimates the proclisis according to Galves´s proposition (2000; 2001).

Of madness and many-valuedness: an investigation into Suszko's Thesis

Suszko’s Thesis is a philosophical claim regarding the nature of many-valuedness. It was formulated by the Polish logician Roman Suszko during the middle 70s and states the existence of “only but two truth values”. The thesis is a reaction against the notion of many-valuedness conceived by Jan Łukasiewicz. Reputed as one of the modern founders of many-valued logics, Łukasiewicz considered a third undetermined value in addition to the traditional Fregean values of Truth and Falsehood. For Łukasiewicz, his third value could be seen as a step beyond the Aristotelian dichotomy of Being and non-Being. According to Suszko, Łukasiewicz’s ideas rested on a confusion between algebraic values (what sentences describe/denote) and logical values (truth and falsity). Thus, Łukasiewicz’s third undetermined value is no more than an algebraic value, a possible denotation for a sentence, but not a genuine logical value. Suszko’s Thesis is endorsed by a formal result baptized as Suszko’s Reduction, a theorem that states every Tarskian logic may be characterized by a two-valued semantics. The present study is intended as a thorough investigation of Suszko’s thesis and its implications. The first part is devoted to the historical roots of many-valuedness and introduce Suszko’s main motivations in formulating the double character of truth-values by drawing the distinction in between algebraic and logical values. The second part explores Suszko’s Reduction and presents the developments achieved from it; the properties of two-valued semantics in comparison to many-valued semantics are also explored and discussed. Last but not least, the third part investigates the notion of logical values in the context of non-Tarskian notions of entailment; the meaning of Suszko’s thesis within such frameworks is also discussed. Moreover, the philosophical foundations for non-Tarskian notions of entailment are explored in the light of recent debates concerning logical pluralism.

Acting on impulse: using the neuroscience of impulse control to improve the law

This thesis investigates the potential legal utility of neurotechnologies which measure correlates of impulsive behaviors. Chapter 1 explains my philosophical position and how this position compares to others in the field. Chapter 2 explores some of the technical concepts which must be understood for the discussion of neurotechnologies and their applications to be fruitful. These chapters will be important for both explaining the capabilities of a neuroscientific approach to neural abnormalities as well as how they relate to the kind of regulation in which the law is engaged. The purpose of Chapter 3 will be a descriptive account of Canadian law where I will begin to explore how to apply ideas and experiments from neuroscience to specific areas of law. Chapter 3 will look at actual examples of Canadian criminal law and will span topics from the creation of law to the construction of appropriate sentences. Chapter 4 will debate if and how we should apply the neuroscientific perspective to the law given the ethical concerns surrounding the applications described in Chapter 3. The thrust of the chapter is that the development of the law does not occur in a vacuum and any alteration either to the laws themselves, how they are interpreted, or the technologies used to provide evidence, must have an ethical justification, that is, a way in which the proposed change will better meet the needs of society and the ethical objectives of the law. Sometimes these justifications can be drawn directly from constitutional documents, such as the Charter, or from the Criminal Code, while at other times these justifications depend upon arguments about furthering meaningful responsibility and therapeutic outcomes.

La place de la relation conjugale dans la réinsertion sociale des délinquants sous l’autorité des Services correctionnels du Québec

Rapport de stage présenté à la Faculté des arts et des sciences en vue de l’obtention du grade de Maître ès sciences (M.Sc.) en criminologie, option intervention

Le vécu des détenus sentencés à vie : point de vue des intervenants

Mémoire numérisé par la Direction des bibliothèques de l'Université de Montréal.

Across-formant integration and speech intelligibility:effects of acoustic source properties in the presence and absence of a contralateral interferer

The role of source properties in across-formant integration was explored using three-formant (F1+F2+F3) analogues of natural sentences (targets). In experiment 1, F1+F3 were harmonic analogues (H1+H3) generated using a monotonous buzz source and second-order resonators; in experiment 2, F1+F3 were tonal analogues (T1+T3). F2 could take either form (H2 or T2). Target formants were always presented monaurally; the receiving ear was assigned randomly on each trial. In some conditions, only the target was present; in others, a competitor for F2 (F2C) was presented contralaterally. Buzz-excited or tonal competitors were created using the time-reversed frequency and amplitude contours of F2. Listeners must reject F2C to optimize keyword recognition. Whether or not a competitor was present, there was no effect of source mismatch between F1+F3 and F2. The impact of adding F2C was modest when it was tonal but large when it was harmonic, irrespective of whether F2C matched F1+F3. This pattern was maintained when harmonic and tonal counterparts were loudness-matched (experiment 3). Source type and competition, rather than acoustic similarity, governed the phonetic contribution of a formant. Contrary to earlier research using dichotic targets, requiring across-ear integration to optimize intelligibility, H2C was an equally effective informational masker for H2 as for T2.

Nasalance scores for typical Irish English-speaking adults

The aim was to establish normative nasalance values for Irish English-speaking adults. Thirty men and 30 women with normal resonance read aloud 16 sentences from the Irish nasality assessment protocol, the Zoo passage, and the Rainbow passage. The speech samples were recorded using the Nasometer II 6400. Results of a mixed between–within subjects ANOVA indicated no significant gender effect on nasalance scores. The speakers showed significantly higher nasalance scores for high-pressure consonant sentences than low-pressure consonant sentences, and for the Rainbow passage than total test sentences. There was no significant difference between high-pressure consonant sentences and the Zoo passage. Compared to previous studies, the Irish young adults had lower nasalance scores than Irish children and than young adults with North American dialects.

Using parent report to assess early lexical production in children exposed to more than one language

Limited expressive vocabulary skills in young children are considered to be the first warning signs of a potential Specific Language Impairment (SLI) (Ellis & Thal, 2008). In bilingual language learning environments, the expressive vocabulary size in each of the child’s developing languages is usually smaller compared to the number of words produced by monolingual peers (e.g. De Houwer, 2009). Nonetheless, evidence shows children’s total productive lexicon size across both languages to be comparable to monolingual peers’ vocabularies (e.g. Pearson et al., 1993; Pearson & Fernandez, 1994). Since there is limited knowledge as to which level of bilingual vocabulary size should be considered as a risk factor for SLI, the effects of bilingualism and language-learning difficulties on early lexical production are often confounded. The compilation of profiles for early vocabulary production in children exposed to more than one language, and their comparison across language pairs, should enable more accurate identification of vocabulary delays that signal a risk for SLI in bilingual populations. These considerations prompted the design of a methodology for assessing early expressive vocabulary in children exposed to more than one language, which is described in the present chapter. The implementation of this methodological framework is then outlined by presenting the design of a study that measured the productive lexicons of children aged 24-36 months who were exposed to different language pairs, namely Maltese and English, Irish and English, Polish and English, French and Portuguese, Turkish and German as well as English and Hebrew. These studies were designed and coordinated in COST Action IS0804 Working Group 3 (WG3) and will be described in detail in a series of subsequent publications. Expressive vocabulary size was measured through parental report, by employing the vocabulary checklist of the MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventory: Words and Sentences (CDI: WS) (Fenson et al., 1993, 2007) and its adaptations to the participants’ languages. Here we describe the novelty of the study’s methodological design, which lies in its attempt to harmonize the use of vocabulary checklist adaptations, together with parental questionnaires addressing language exposure and developmental history, across participant groups characterized by different language exposure variables. This chapter outlines the various methodological considerations that paved the way for meaningful cross-linguistic comparison of the participants’ expressive lexicon sizes. In so doing, it hopes to provide a template for and encourage further research directed at establishing a threshold for SLI risk in children exposed to more than one language.