Matching Items (9)
Filtering by
- Genre: Academic theses
Description
This study investigates the uses of English in advertising in Brazil and the attitudes of Brazilians towards the use of different difficulty levels of English in advertising. Using a two part, mixed-methods approach, drawing from quantitative and qualitative methods, I utilized a corpus study to examine English uses in Brazilian magazines and a survey to investigate the difficulty of English slogans as a determinant for people's attitudes towards English in advertising. For the first part, three major Brazilian news magazines, Veja, Época, and ISTOÉ were used. From three issues of each magazine, results showed that 57% of the advertisements in all nine magazines contained English in different parts of the advertisements, with most occurrences in the product name, followed by the body copy, headline, subheadline, and slogan. English was used to advertise a number of different product types, but was especially used for advertising cars, electronics, events, and banks. It was also found that the majority of English was used for its symbolic representations of modernity, prestige, globalization, and reliability. Using a survey for the second part of the study, I investigated how Brazilian participants judged four advertisements that featured English slogans that were comparable to slogans judged to be easy or difficult to understand in a similar study conducted by Hornikx, van Meurs, and de Boer (2010). Participants were offered attitudinal choices to mark off on a 4-point Likert scale, where they indicated their attitudes towards the English slogans provided. They were also asked to determine if they understood the slogans and to translate them to indicate their actual understanding of the slogans. Participants showed more positive attitudes towards the uses of English than negative attitudes. The survey provided evidence that with the very low numbers of correctly translated slogans, many participants believed they understood the slogans, which could prove to be more of an indicator of positive attitudes than their actual understanding of the slogans. This project provides an example from one Expanding Circle context touched by the far-reaching influences of World Englishes.
ContributorsMontes, Amanda Lira Gordenstein (Author) / Friedrich, Patricia M (Thesis advisor) / Matsuda, Aya (Committee member) / Lafford, Barbara (Committee member) / Anokye, Akua Duku (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014
Description
Geography, and the social sciences more broadly, have long operated within what is arguably a paradigm of the visual. Expanding the reach of geographical consideration into the realm of the aural, though in no way leaving behind the visual, opens the discipline to new areas of human and cultural geography invisible in ocular-centric approaches. At its broadest level, my argument in this dissertation is that music can no longer be simply an object of geographical research. Re-conceptualized and re-theorized in a geographical context to take into account its very real, active, and more-than-representational presence in social life, music provides actual routes to geographic knowledge of the world. I start by constructing a theoretical framework and methodological approach for studying music beyond representation. Based on these theoretical and methodological arguments, I present four narratives that unfold at the intersections of race and music in the northeast Brazilian city of Salvador. From the favelas of Rio de Janeiro to the troubled neighborhood of the Pelourinho, from the manic tempos of samba to the laid back grooves of samba-reggae, and in the year-round competition between the oppressive forces of ordinary time and the fleeting possibility of carnival, music emerges as a creative societal force with affects and effects far beyond the realm of representation. Together, these narratives exemplify the importance of expanding geographical considerations beyond a strictly visual framework. These narratives contribute to the musicalization of the discipline of geography.
ContributorsFinn, John C (Author) / McHugh, Kevin (Thesis advisor) / Lukinbeal, Christopher (Committee member) / Bolin, Bob (Committee member) / Price, Patricia (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
Description
The number of Brazilian immigrants in the United States has greatly increased over the past three decades. In Phoenix, Arizona, this population increase reveals itself through a greater number of large Brazilian cultural events and higher demand for live Brazilian music. Music is so embedded in Brazilian culture that it serves as the ideal medium through which immigrants can reconnect to their Brazilian heritage. In this thesis, I contend that Brazilian immigrants in Phoenix, Arizona maintain their identity as Brazilians through various activities extracted from their home culture, the most prominent being musical interaction and participation. My research reveals three primary factors which form a foundation for maintaining cultural identity through music within the Brazilian immigrant community in Phoenix. These include the common experiences of immigration, diasporic identity, and the role of music within this diaspora. Music is one of the stronger art forms for representing emotions and creating an experience of relationship and connections. Music creates a medium with which to confirm identity, and makes the Brazilian immigrant population visible to other Americans and outsiders. While other Brazilian activities can also serve to maintain immigrants' identity, it is clear to me from five years of participant-observation that musical interaction and participation is the most prominent and effective means for Brazilians in Phoenix to maintain their cultural identity while living in the U.S. As a community, music unites the experiences of the Brazilian immigrants and removes them from the periphery of life in a new society.
ContributorsSwietlik, Amy (Author) / Solís, Ted (Thesis advisor) / Norton, Kay (Committee member) / Pilafian, Sam (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
Description
With various gaps remaining in business incubation literature, developing scales that capture the multi-dimensional constructs of the incubation process remains a necessity. While living and traveling within Brazil, this author journeyed within Brazil's well-developed incubation ecosystem in order to investigate the reproducibility and validity of scales whose authors propose measure the constructs that capture the process of business incubation which were defined in their options-driven theory of business incubation as "selection performance", "monitoring and business assistance intensity", and "resource munificence". Regression analysis resulted in the data suggesting that there is no statistically significant predictive ability of the Hackett and Dilts scales when used to predict incubatee outcomes from this study's sample of incubators. The results of the analysis between total score in each of the three constructs and incubatee outcomes suggested that when the total score within the construct of selection performance increases, there tends to be a decrease in incubatee outcomes where the incubatee was surviving and growing profitably at the time of its exit from the incubator. Also, there tends to be a decrease in incubatee outcomes where the incubatee was surviving and growing on a path toward profitability at the time of the incubator exit. The results show no predictive ability of the remaining two constructs of "monitoring and business assistance intensity" and "resource munificence" to capture business incubation performance. The item specific analysis of all correlating and inter-correlating variables for each of the dependent variables, resulting in several significant relationships, however, many demonstrate negative relationships which also run contrary to the relationships proposed by Hackett and Dilts. These results have challenged both the validity of the Hackett and Dilts scale as a tool for investigating the constructs of the incubation process, and the ability of the options-driven theory to explain and predict business incubation outcomes.
ContributorsBejarano, Thomas (Author) / Grossman, Gary (Thesis advisor) / Waissi, Gary (Committee member) / Parmentier, Mary Jane (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
Description
The present study investigates some of the different ways in which English has been conceptualized in Brazil since the beginning of intensified globalization in the 1990s, and proposes how such conceptualizations relate to sociocultural, political and historical phenomena in the country. To this end, central texts (governmental documents, musical lyrics, cultural messages, educational policies, and language school commercials) of three domains of language regulation and use (political discourse, pop culture, and English language teaching) were examined through discourse analytical tools, text mapping, and content analyses. The investigation of each domain was supplemented by analyses of additional data (media texts, artistic work, and teacher interviews) that either confirmed or problematized results. Findings showed that the symbolic meanings of English in Brazil are caught in a heteroglossic web of discourses, which reflect diverse understandings of global processes, of the spread of English, and of Brazil itself. Tensions between authoritative and internally persuasive discourses, and between centripetal and centrifugal forces are revealed not only across different texts and realms - as reported in studies of English in other contexts - but also within domains, and within the discourses of the same people and institutions. It is argued that legislative authority, the role of the state, and the contradictions between discourses of mobility and empowerment and unsuccessful educational practices play a central role in the way English is understood and experienced in Brazil, confirming previous claims of an identity crisis, and revealing other crises of power, democracy, politics, and education. The study adds to the literature on English conceptualizations by bringing an understanding of the case of Brazil, which has not been as extensively investigated as other contexts. Moreover, the individual analyses presented bring new perspectives on the political discourses that have attempted to regulate loanword use in Brazil, and on the nature of language teaching in the country, besides emphasizing the role of pop culture in the understanding of English in that context. Further implications include the discussion of how the study of the spread of English may connect with different understandings of globalization, and the presentation of how the results contribute to language education.
ContributorsFigueiredo, Eduardo Henrique Diniz de (Author) / Friedrich, Patricia (Committee member) / Matsuda, Aya (Committee member) / Gee, James (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
Description
The repertoire for guitar and piano duo is small in comparison with other chamber music instrumentation; therefore, it is important to broaden this repertoire. In addition to creating original compositions, arrangements of existing works contribute to this expansion.
This project focuses on an arrangement of Bachianas Brasileiras No. 1 by Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos (1887-1959), a work originally conceived for cello ensemble with a minimum of eight cellos. In order to contextualize the proposed arrangement, this study contains a brief historical listing of the repertoire for guitar and piano duo and of the guitar works by Villa-Lobos. Also, it includes a description of the Bachianas Brasileiras series and a discussion of the arranging methodology that shows how the original musical ideas of the composer were adapted using techniques that are idiomatic to the guitar and piano. The full arrangement is included in Appendix A.
This project focuses on an arrangement of Bachianas Brasileiras No. 1 by Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos (1887-1959), a work originally conceived for cello ensemble with a minimum of eight cellos. In order to contextualize the proposed arrangement, this study contains a brief historical listing of the repertoire for guitar and piano duo and of the guitar works by Villa-Lobos. Also, it includes a description of the Bachianas Brasileiras series and a discussion of the arranging methodology that shows how the original musical ideas of the composer were adapted using techniques that are idiomatic to the guitar and piano. The full arrangement is included in Appendix A.
ContributorsFigueiredo Bartoloni, Fabio (Author) / Koonce, Frank (Thesis advisor) / Suzuki, Kotoka (Committee member) / Landschoot, Thomas (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2016
Description
The purpose of this action research was to work with Brazilian trained educators in a Community of Practice (CoP) to explore how teachers collectively define and talk about critical thinking (CT). The research also examined how past teaching experiences shaped their attitudes toward emphasizing CT in teaching. In addition, the research studied how participation in a CoP focused on CT changed classroom planning. The study is grounded in Community of Practice and Social Constructivism. As an international school, this study examined related research conducted in Jordan, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Pakistan. This qualitative action research was 12 weeks in length with six participants who were all from Brazil and worked at a private bilingual international secondary school. Participants completed an initial interview and final interview. They also completed online journals, which were assembled weekly for 45 minutes, and maximized their efforts constructing a unit plan utilizing the Understanding by Design method. The results of the study describe the teachers’ definition of critical thinking, and also present an understanding of how the CoP shaped their attitudes. This, in turn, resulted in members’ updated classroom planning, which was due to participation in the cohort. Further issues and credibility, contextualization, and transferability as well as researcher positionality were discussed.
ContributorsJaramillo, Kevin Lee (Author) / Dorn, Sherman (Thesis advisor) / Fischman, Gustavo (Committee member) / Buss, Ray (Committee member) / Johnston, Michael (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2019
Description
This doctoral dissertation proposes an analysis of a selection of photographic series by a diverse group of Latin American photographers such as Argentinian Gustavo Di Mario, Brazilians Claudio Edinger and Alair Gomes, and Mexican Dorian Ulises López Macías. The analyzed material focuses on a revision of characteristics of masculinity and imperative heteronormativity in the discourses on their respective national identities. The projects put-fourth by these four artists represent a political proposal that unveals the homoaffective possibilities of their photographic referents. Susan Sontag postulates in her On Photography (1979) that “the powers of photography have in effect de-Platonized our understanding of reality, making it less and less plausible to reflect upon our experience according to the distinction between images and things, between copies and originals” (179). These artists understand the power of the image and, through its meticulous composition, they propose to not only photograph, but to also narrate the reality of dissident identities and their belonging to a collective national identity.
ContributorsShalloe, Thomas J (Author) / Foster, David W (Thesis advisor) / Tompkins, Cynthia M (Committee member) / Urioste-Azcorra, Carmen (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2019
Description
This dissertation presents a new tool for analysis of the way difficult experiences
or phenomena influence the process for constructing self-identity in the performance of everyday life. This concept, refraction, emerged as part of a grounded theory methods analysis of ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Itacaré, Bahia, Brazil from January to July 2014. The work here contributes to the field of performance studies as a possibility for examining how affective responses to difficult experiences contribute to a shift in perspective and subsequently shifts in the performance of self in everyday life. This research was conducted with critical and reflexive autoethnographic methods in order to hold the research accountable for the ways subject position influences the research. In this case the most salient theme that emerged from these autoethnographic methods was an unpacking of unacknowledged tourist privilege in this setting. The resulting work-in-progress
performance will offer ways for spectators to question their own assumptions
regarding tourist privilege in Brazil, and in so-called developing countries in similar
tropical climates. An additional contribution to the field of performance-based research that resulted from this dissertation is the articulation of a dynamic locus of creativity wherein rigorous established qualitative research methods complement creative practices in conjunction with a spectrum of tacit knowledge and theoretical sensitivities. This juncture becomes the theoretical space where creativity in research can be articulated in ways that are legible to both artists and researchers.
or phenomena influence the process for constructing self-identity in the performance of everyday life. This concept, refraction, emerged as part of a grounded theory methods analysis of ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Itacaré, Bahia, Brazil from January to July 2014. The work here contributes to the field of performance studies as a possibility for examining how affective responses to difficult experiences contribute to a shift in perspective and subsequently shifts in the performance of self in everyday life. This research was conducted with critical and reflexive autoethnographic methods in order to hold the research accountable for the ways subject position influences the research. In this case the most salient theme that emerged from these autoethnographic methods was an unpacking of unacknowledged tourist privilege in this setting. The resulting work-in-progress
performance will offer ways for spectators to question their own assumptions
regarding tourist privilege in Brazil, and in so-called developing countries in similar
tropical climates. An additional contribution to the field of performance-based research that resulted from this dissertation is the articulation of a dynamic locus of creativity wherein rigorous established qualitative research methods complement creative practices in conjunction with a spectrum of tacit knowledge and theoretical sensitivities. This juncture becomes the theoretical space where creativity in research can be articulated in ways that are legible to both artists and researchers.
ContributorsPorter, Laurelann (Author) / de la Garza, Sarah Amira (Thesis advisor) / Underiner, Tamara (Thesis advisor) / Mcelroy, Isis (Committee member) / Gomez, Alan (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2015