28,403 research outputs found
Laughing Out Loud: Humor Usage in Young Childhood Classrooms
The purpose of this honors thesis is to document the types of humorous occurrences among 2-3-yearold children and then to describe the relationship between childrenâs humor during circle time and teacher-child interactions, noting how teachers respond to these humorous occurrences. I conducted my observations at the Child Study Development Center in the Nursery II classroom, which included one head teacher and 19 children. I audiotaped and photographed my observations and took notes on two tables. One table included recording linguistic humor and non-linguistic humor occurrences, or humor involving words and humor involving movement, and the other table included teacher responses to humorous occurrences (Craig-Unkefer & Fitzgerald, 2008). My findings show that the majority of humorous occurrences stem from childrenâs incongruent body movements and group discussion during story time. Furthermore, when the teacher extends or scaffolds a humorous occurrence, there is whole-group discussion with attentive listening from children. When a teacher rejects or ignores humor, the humor either stops or the behavior is labeled as inappropriate by the teacher and the children are redirected to what is expected of them. I discuss why humor in the classroom is important for educators to use to enhance young childrenâs learning
The relation between pitch and gestures in a story-telling task
Anecdotal evidence suggests that both pitch range and
gestures contribute to the perception of speakers\u2019 liveliness in
speech. However, the relation between speakers\u2019 pitch range
and gestures has received little attention. It is possible that
variations in pitch range might be accompanied by variations
in gestures, and vice versa. In second language speech, the
relation between pitch range and gestures might also be
affected by speakers\u2019 difficulty in speaking the L2. In this
pilot study we compare global pitch range and gesture rate in
the speech of 3 native Italian speakers, telling the same story
once in Italian and twice in English as part of an in-class oral
presentation task. The hypothesis tested is that contextual
factors, such as speakers\u2019 nervousness with the task, cause
speakers to use narrow pitch range and limited gestures; a
greater ease with the task, due to its repetition, cause speakers
to use a wider pitch range and more gestures. This
experimental hypothesis is partially confirmed by the results
of this study
Influences of Accent and Ethnic Background on Perceptions of Eyewitness Testimony
The purpose of the present work was to investigate the effect two eyewitness factors, accent and ethnic background, have on the perceived favorability of eyewitness testimony and case disposition in criminal trials. Six variations of testimony were created and videotaped. The videotapes varied by accent and ethnic background of the eyewitness; the testimony text was identical. Four eyewitness favorability variables, a) credibility, b) judgment of accuracy, c) deceptiveness, and d) prestige, as well as their relationship to case disposition, were measured. One hundred seventy-four undergraduate participants viewed one of the six videotapes. Results indicate that there was a significant main effect of accent for the four eyewitness favorability variables. Accent by ethnic background interactions also yielded significant findings for the four variables as well as for the defendantâs degree of guilt. Results were interpreted using the Elaboration Likelihood Model. The potential importance of these results for judicial settings is discussed
BitBox!:A case study interface for teaching real-time adaptive music composition for video games
Real-time adaptive music is now well-established as a popular medium, largely through its use in video game soundtracks. Commercial packages, such as fmod, make freely available the underlying technical methods for use in educational contexts, making adaptive music technologies accessible to students. Writing adaptive music, however, presents a significant learning challenge, not least because it requires a different mode of thought, and tutor and learner may have few mutual points of connection in discovering and understanding the musical drivers, relationships and structures in these works. This article discusses the creation of âBitBox!â, a gestural music interface designed to deconstruct and explain the component elements of adaptive composition through interactive play. The interface was displayed at the Dare Protoplay games exposition in Dundee in August 2014. The initial proof-of- concept study proved successful, suggesting possible refinements in design and a broader range of applications
Sounding natural: improving oral presentation skills
This paper discusses how multimodal resources can be used to teach oral communication strategies, as exemplified in a course taught at the University of Padua, Italy. The course focused on lexicon and language structures in use, pronunciation and intonation, body language and cultural awareness. A variety of multimedia resources were used, including: pictures and illustrations; digital slides; audio files for pronunciation exercises and for audio-video feedback with the speech analysis software Praat; video clips from online English courses and other YouTube videos of authentic interviews, talk shows, news, monologues, and presentations. The main class activities were: listening and watching video clips; metalinguistic discussions on the use of verbal and non-verbal language in different linguistic situations; pronunciation practice; and speaking. Students were filmed while speaking and received feedback on their oral and communicative skills. Overall, the course appeared to be highly effective in raising studentsâ awareness of facts about English communication and its workings
Learning to Produce Speech with an Altered Vocal Tract: The Role of Auditory Feedback
Modifying the vocal tract alters a speakerâs previously learned acousticâarticulatory relationship. This study investigated the contribution of auditory feedback to the process of adapting to vocal-tract modifications. Subjects said the word /tÉs/ while wearing a dental prosthesis that extended the length of their maxillary incisor teeth. The prosthesis affected /s/ productions and the subjects were asked to learn to produce âânormalââ /s/âs. They alternately received normal auditory feedback and noise that masked their natural feedback during productions. Acoustic analysis of the speakersâ /s/ productions showed that the distribution of energy across the spectra moved toward that of normal, unperturbed production with increased experience with the prosthesis. However, the acoustic analysis did not show any significant differences in learning dependent on auditory feedback. By contrast, when naive listeners were asked to rate the quality of the speakersâ utterances, productions made when auditory feedback was available were evaluated to be closer to the subjectsâ normal productions than when feedback was masked. The perceptual analysis showed that speakers were able to use auditory information to partially compensate for the vocal-tract modification. Furthermore, utterances produced during the masked conditions also improved over a session, demonstrating that the compensatory articulations were learned and available after auditory feedback was removed
Re: Silences--: The Sensing of Sound
There is always a pressing need to make sense of the inexplicable. Research as teaching, writing as inquiry, texts as
performativeâwe embark on a series of encounters and engagements. We draw and write lines in, and around, our
experiences. Straightforward is not a geometry that sense, time, identity, or language takes. Usually, texts are considered
to be the domain of authors but we ask that you engage with us as we explore how matter and fact warp and where theory
is practice rather than applied, expressed, or attached to practice
HIEMPA: Hybrid Instruments from Electroacoustic Manipulation and Models of PĂŒtorino and Aquascape
The HIEMPA project combined a team of people with technical, artistic, environmental and cultural expertise towards an artistic outcome aiming to extend the New Zealand sonic art tradition. The work involved collecting audio samples from the aquascape of the Ruakuri Caves and Nature Reserve in Waitomo, South Waikato, New Zealand; and samples of a variety of pĂŒtorino â a New Zealand MĂ€ori wind instrument. Following a machine learning analysis of this audio material and an analysis of the performance material, hybrid digital instruments were built and mapped to suitable hardware triggers. The new instruments are playable in realtime, along with the electroacoustic manipulation of pĂŒtorino performances. The project takes into account the environmental and cultural significance of the source material, with the results to be released as a set of compositions. This paper discusses the background research and process of the project
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