Matching Items (3)
Filtering by
- All Subjects: Foreign language education
- Genre: Masters Thesis
- Creators: Acuna, Ruben
- Creators: Henderson, Christopher
- Creators: Prior, Matthew
Description
Graph theory is a critical component of computer science and software engineering, with algorithms concerning graph traversal and comprehension powering much of the largest problems in both industry and research. Engineers and researchers often have an accurate view of their target graph, however they struggle to implement a correct, and efficient, search over that graph.
To facilitate rapid, correct, efficient, and intuitive development of graph based solutions we propose a new programming language construct - the search statement. Given a supra-root node, a procedure which determines the children of a given parent node, and optional definitions of the fail-fast acceptance or rejection of a solution, the search statement can conduct a search over any graph or network. Structurally, this statement is modelled after the common switch statement and is put into a largely imperative/procedural context to allow for immediate and intuitive development by most programmers. The Go programming language has been used as a foundation and proof-of-concept of the search statement. A Go compiler is provided which implements this construct.
To facilitate rapid, correct, efficient, and intuitive development of graph based solutions we propose a new programming language construct - the search statement. Given a supra-root node, a procedure which determines the children of a given parent node, and optional definitions of the fail-fast acceptance or rejection of a solution, the search statement can conduct a search over any graph or network. Structurally, this statement is modelled after the common switch statement and is put into a largely imperative/procedural context to allow for immediate and intuitive development by most programmers. The Go programming language has been used as a foundation and proof-of-concept of the search statement. A Go compiler is provided which implements this construct.
ContributorsHenderson, Christopher (Author) / Bansal, Ajay (Thesis advisor) / Lindquist, Timothy (Committee member) / Acuna, Ruben (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2018
Description
Language Textbooks often play a major role in English for speakers of other languages (ESOL) classrooms, not only to provide information but also to help students construct their identities. Several studies showed that identity and language learning are inseparable, due to the simple fact that every learner has his/her own identity aspects like race, gender, social class, and speaker status (i.e., native speaker vs. non-native speaker of the target language). These aspects should be acknowledged because providing the students with limited identity options might cause the students to resist learning the language or be less invested in this practice (Norton & Toohey,2011).
However, there is limited support for teachers who wish to examine identity in ESOL textbooks. Several scholars attempted to evaluate the range of identity options offered in ESOL textbooks, but they all used either Critical Discourse Analysis or Content Analysis which can be effective; however, these procedures require training and can take a long time, so they may not be practical for teachers. This suggests that there is a need for a less complicated evaluation tool that can be easily used by teachers.
The purpose of this thesis is to develop a teacher-friendly identity-focused checklist for ESOL textbooks, and the thesis is guided by the following questions: (a) what would an evaluation checklist for identity in ESOL textbooks look like?; (b) what can this checklist reveal about ESOL textbooks? The purpose of this thesis was achieved by developing a qualitative checklist that covers, race, gender, social class, and speaker status, and demonstrating how to use it on a collection of five adult ESOL textbooks. The checklist revealed similarities and differences between the textbooks, including important shortcomings, and that kind of information can be useful for the teacher to make decisions about the textbook he/she uses.
However, there is limited support for teachers who wish to examine identity in ESOL textbooks. Several scholars attempted to evaluate the range of identity options offered in ESOL textbooks, but they all used either Critical Discourse Analysis or Content Analysis which can be effective; however, these procedures require training and can take a long time, so they may not be practical for teachers. This suggests that there is a need for a less complicated evaluation tool that can be easily used by teachers.
The purpose of this thesis is to develop a teacher-friendly identity-focused checklist for ESOL textbooks, and the thesis is guided by the following questions: (a) what would an evaluation checklist for identity in ESOL textbooks look like?; (b) what can this checklist reveal about ESOL textbooks? The purpose of this thesis was achieved by developing a qualitative checklist that covers, race, gender, social class, and speaker status, and demonstrating how to use it on a collection of five adult ESOL textbooks. The checklist revealed similarities and differences between the textbooks, including important shortcomings, and that kind of information can be useful for the teacher to make decisions about the textbook he/she uses.
ContributorsAlmatard, Abdulmajeed Mohammed (Author) / James, Mark (Thesis advisor) / Matsuda, Aya (Committee member) / Prior, Matthew (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2019
Description
Globalization is driving a rapid increase in motivation for learning new languages, with online and mobile language learning applications being an extremely popular method of doing so. Many language learning applications focus almost exclusively on aiding students in acquiring vocabulary, one of the most important elements in achieving fluency in a language. A well-balanced language curriculum must include both explicit vocabulary instruction and implicit vocabulary learning through interaction with authentic language materials. However, most language learning applications focus only on explicit instruction, providing little support for implicit learning. Students require support with implicit vocabulary learning because they need enough context to guess and acquire new words. Traditional techniques aim to teach students enough vocabulary to comprehend the text, thus enabling them to acquire new words. Despite the wide variety of support for vocabulary learning offered by learning applications today, few offer guidance on how to select an optimal vocabulary study set.
This thesis proposes a novel method of student modeling which uses pre-trained masked language models to model a student's reading comprehension abilities and detect words which are required for comprehension of a text. It explores the efficacy of using pre-trained masked language models to model human reading comprehension and presents a vocabulary study set generation pipeline using this method. This pipeline creates vocabulary study sets for explicit language learning that enable comprehension while still leaving some words to be acquired implicitly. Promising results show that masked language modeling can be used to model human comprehension and that the pipeline produces reasonably sized vocabulary study sets.
This thesis proposes a novel method of student modeling which uses pre-trained masked language models to model a student's reading comprehension abilities and detect words which are required for comprehension of a text. It explores the efficacy of using pre-trained masked language models to model human reading comprehension and presents a vocabulary study set generation pipeline using this method. This pipeline creates vocabulary study sets for explicit language learning that enable comprehension while still leaving some words to be acquired implicitly. Promising results show that masked language modeling can be used to model human comprehension and that the pipeline produces reasonably sized vocabulary study sets.
ContributorsEdgar, Vatricia Cathrine (Author) / Bansal, Ajay (Thesis advisor) / Acuna, Ruben (Committee member) / Mehlhase, Alexandra (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2020