Master of Arts (MA), Ohio University, 2012, Film (Fine Arts)

This thesis, with the particular focus on Taiwanese films set in Taipei, investigates how the Taiwanese cinema, through its diverse treatments of history and memory, enacts its role as a cinematic interpretation of the envisioning of Taiwanese national identity within the transnational context. The first chapter centers on the Taiwanese New Cinema's portrayal of “The Taiwanese Experience,” which refigures Taipei as a site of cultural hybridization, and further contends against the Kuomintang's configuration of Taipei as a site coherent to the nationalist One-Chinese narrative. The second chapter examines the instability of recollection, and the artificial and invented quality of history and historiography through the emerging Post Taiwan New Cinema's utilization of collage of fragmentary shots that shuttle between Taiwan's past and present. The third chapter explores the Post Taiwan New Cinema's depiction of “The Taipei Experience,” which transfigures Taipei as a postcolonial city of layers of historical inscriptions, and therefore suggests an alternative route to locate Taiwan and the Taiwanese identity within the transnational context. With the concentration on the context of postcolonialism and the awareness of what Taiwan is and has been, this thesis discovers that the cinematic layerings of different phases of Taiwan's past and present can illustrate the emergence of “The Taipei Experience” through the erasure of “The Taiwanese Experience.” This thesis therefore reevaluates “The Taipei Experience” as an alternative embodiment of “The Taiwanese Experience,” which in consequence paves a way for an innovative perspective to (re)imagine and (re)negotiate the Taiwanese sense of self.

Committee: Louis-Georges Schwartz PhD (Committee Chair); Ofer Eliaz PhD (Committee Member); Michael B. Gillespie PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Asian Studies; Film Studies; Fine Arts; History; Motion Pictures

Master of Arts, The Ohio State University, 2016, Linguistics

Phonological acquisition by children is strongly influenced by language-specific and socio-environmental factors, rather than being determined strictly by linguistic universals or biological constraints. Although early research, primarily on acquisition by monolingual English-speaking children, supported the hypothesis of linguistic universals, evidence from cross-language studies show wide variation in the acquisition order of sounds. Looking specifically at the acquisition of the nonsibilant fricatives /f/, /x/, and /h/, this study examines acquisition patterns by bilingual Guoyu-Taiwanese Southern Min speaking children in Taiwan. Transcription results show that while children are able to articulate both [x] and [h] before the age of 2;5 (2 years and 5 months), /f/ is phonologically acquired first around the age of 5, while /x/ and /h/ are acquired after the age of 6. The late acquisition of /x/ and especially /h/ may result from the wide range of /x/ and /h/ realizations by adults, due to the relative statuses of the two languages and the linguistic history of Taiwan. The current study complements Shih's (2012) study on the acquisition of sibilants to provide a holistic account of fricative acquisition by children in Taiwan.

Committee: Mary Beckman (Advisor); Micha Elsner (Committee Member) Subjects: Language; Linguistics

Doctor of Musical Arts, The Ohio State University, 2014, Music

Beginning in the middle of the twentieth century, Taiwanese musicians began to preserve the musical culture of the Taiwanese aboriginal tribes. A few composers started to arrange music based on aboriginal music and more and more pieces have been composed throughout the years; Nan-Chang Chien is one of the pioneer composers. Although Taiwanese musicians have begun composing and performing these works, few studies have been done which has left this music still mostly unknown to the world. This document aims to contribute to the study of Taiwanese composers by offering an introductory study guide for the Taiwanese composer, Nan-Chang Chien, and for his unpublished work, Four Aboriginal Lieder for Soprano and Orchestra. This study begins with a discussion of Taiwanese music history. It includes a brief investigation of the colonial history in Taiwan beginning in the seventeenth century and colonialism's effect on the musical culture. Furthermore, it seeks to describe some of the different characteristics and influences in Taiwanese music that have been influenced by Taiwanese aboriginal music, traditional Chinese music, and western music. The document then continues with a brief study of the life and work of Nan-Chang Chien. Finally, the document concludes with a thorough analysis and interpretation of the Four Aboriginal Lieder for Soprano and Orchestra, and interviews with the musicians who premiered this set of songs. A list of Nan-Chang Chien's compositions, a chronological discography, and vita have been included as appendices for the purpose of providing more information on the composer.

Committee: Robin Rice (Committee Chair); Scott McCoy (Committee Member); Alan Green (Committee Member); Joseph Duchi (Committee Member) Subjects: Music

BA, Oberlin College, 2010, History

Japan colonized the island of Taiwan from 1895-1945. During this period, the colonial administration set up the first modernized education system on the island, which emphasized learning the Japanese language at the expense of the students' native Chinese language. The government espoused ideals of equality between the Taiwanese and the Japanese that extended to equal opportunity in schooling and in the work place. However, in reality the Japanese colonial government discriminated against the Taiwanese, and this manifested itself within all levels of the education system. The Japanese harbored racist attitudes against the Taiwanese, and were reluctant to provide opportunities for higher education that would lead to full intellectual development. Even though there was a group of elite Taiwanese who had been assimilated into Japanese society to a large degree, the Japanese government still distrusted them and did not consider them as fully Japanese. The case of Japan as colonizer yielded interesting comparisons with the cases of Britain and France, and sheds light on the nature of imperialism and of the enterprise of colonial education. Under the colonial administration, Taiwanese language and culture was marginalized, and this phenomenon continued under the Chinese Nationalist regime. Today, the Taiwanese government continues its efforts to promote Taiwanese language and culture in the education system.

Committee: Emer O'Dwyer (Advisor); Suzanne Gay (Committee Member); Ann Sherif (Committee Member); David Kelley (Committee Member) Subjects: Education History; History

MA, Kent State University, 2009, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of English

Research on reading acquisition has shown that phonological awareness has a high correlation with L1 and L2 children's learning to read in an alphabetic orthography. Conversely, other research indicated that learners from a nonalphabetic language background would have more difficulty decoding and learning new words than learners who come from an alphabetic background. These studies pointed out that the importance of EFL students' phonological awareness affects them when learning a target language. The purpose of the study is to find out (1) if L1 intraword phonological awareness experience affects L2 phonological awareness among EFL learners with nonalphabetic L1 background; and (2) how L1 experience affects L2 phonological awareness among EFL students with nonalphabetic L1 orthographic backgrounds.Twenty-five Taiwanese students who attend Kent State University, twenty females and five males, were recruited from the undergraduate and graduate academic levels. The results of the study provide information that the EFL Taiwanese students' L1 phonological awareness was significantly correlated to L2 phonological awareness; the findings of the study of EFL teenage learners indicated that if learners do well when manipulating Chinese Zhuyin Fuhao, their performance of English phoneme deletion and pseudo word will reach higher levels. Moreover, based on L1 backgrounds, the difficulties for Taiwanese students in learning English phonological awareness are discussed in this study; consonant clusters, consonant digraphs, in addition to rhotacized and nasal sounds, are common problems for the subjects in this study. Several implications for future research and English teaching from the findings are also presented.

Committee: Kristen Precht PhD (Advisor); Klaus Gommlich PhD (Committee Member); Karl Uhrig PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Education

PHD, Kent State University, 2023, College of Education, Health and Human Services / School of Foundations, Leadership and Administration

The purpose of this interpretive qualitative study was to explore the challenges faced by Taiwanese professors when implementing EMI and to understand their perspectives in the context of Taiwan's Bilingual 2030 Policy. Spolsky's (2004) language policy framework was utilized to guide the research. Semi-structured interviews with seven Taiwanese professors were conducted for data collection and analysis. The major findings from this study show that the faculty support the Bilingual 2030 Policy and the BEST Program despite the additional labor. However, a number of the policies and procedures the Taiwanese government is using to encourage and boost EMI are out of sync with best practices for both the improvement of English language skills and the acquisition of academic/professional knowledge identified by my research participants and in the literature. Furthermore, the policies are made without meaningful and adequate resources for the stakeholders who are charged with implementing EMI, which has created different challenges. This dissertation concludes by suggesting that in order to achieve the goals of the Bilingual 2030 Policy and solve the issues that Taiwan's exam-driven culture has caused, an environment where English can be freely used and where all accents are appreciated is needed. Additionally, the Taiwanese need to regard EMI teaching and learning as a mutual process of gradual improvement through communication itself. Taiwan's Bilingual 2030 Policy should be understood as a work in progress. Establishing the glocalized and Taiwanized EMI can be critical for Taiwan and its next generations.

Committee: Natasha Levinson (Committee Co-Chair); Martha Merrill (Committee Co-Chair); Tricia Niesz (Committee Member) Subjects: Bilingual Education; Education; Education Policy; Higher Education; Language; Pedagogy; Teaching

Master of Arts, The Ohio State University, 2022, East Asian Languages and Literatures

In Chinese, how one writes is often political. Graphs, representing the spoken language, carry a cultivated story of Chinese through their historical origins and transmission. Taiwanese Southern Min, conversely, has been characterized by some scholars as “chaos” (Kloter 2005: 249). The past two decades have seen numerous attempts by the Taiwanese government to codify the so-called “unstandardized” written Taiwanese through extensive language planning (Ministry of Education 2006, 2009; Ministry of Culture, 2019). Yet, the current thesis questions this notion of an unstandardized or chaotic writing system. The current thesis analyzes thirteen different published sources to understand the sociolinguistic attitudes expressed by the authors. Written character variation is re-characterized here as a sociolinguistic variable, one that is indexical of the author's attitude towards the position of Taiwanese. Through written Taiwanese, authors can assert their view of Taiwanese as either part of a local Taiwan schema or contextualize it within a larger pan-Chinese history. For example, how should one write the word ‘to know' tsai-iann? According to those in a Modernist Camp, it may be tsai- iann and <知影>. Some local activists, however, propose chai-ian and <知也>. And still others, those interested in a pan-Chinese history and literature, even propose <知曉>. Language standardization is complex and culturally charged in any society, but especially in post-colonial ones like Taiwan. Standardization is the selection of one official story of a language, a story of ruling groups and minority practices repeated globally. Through looking at a wide variety of published works, ranging from poetry collections to linguistic treatises, we can view the progress of standardization. More importantly, we can get a glimpse at how Taiwan's story is being crafted and whose story is being told.

Committee: Donald Winford (Committee Member); Marjorie K.M. Chan (Advisor) Subjects: Asian Studies; Linguistics; Sociolinguistics

Master of Arts (MA), Ohio University, 2022, Film Studies (Fine Arts)

The thesis considers the transnationalism of cinema's last thirty years and its disruption of the previous ways for conceiving of isolated national cinemas. The work of filmmakers Olivier Assayas and Tsai Ming-liang are examined for their dealings with national identity, both of whom resist the label of national filmmaker and instead embrace the international cultural exchanges that reflect the 21st century's globalization. I argue that by confronting cinema's past and its relationship to nation, these filmmakers posit a cinematic identity unbounded by borders. Specifically, I analyze Assayas's work as an instrument to capture the crisis of both national cinema and national identity, while for Tsai a cinematic lineage dating back to mid-century art cinema supplants identity for the transnational filmmaker.

Committee: Erin Schlumpf (Committee Chair); Matthew Wanat (Committee Member); Ofer Eliaz (Committee Member) Subjects: Film Studies

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2020, Dance Studies

This dissertation “Taiwanese Eyes on the Modern: Cold War Dance Diplomacy and American Modern Dances in Taiwan, 1950–1980” examines the transnational history of American modern dance between the United States and Taiwan during the Cold War era. From the 1950s to the 1980s, the Carmen De Lavallade-Alvin Ailey, Jose Limon, Paul Taylor, Martha Graham, and Alwin Nikolais dance companies toured to Taiwan under the auspices of the U.S. State Department. At the same time, Chinese American choreographers Al Chungliang Huang and Yen Lu Wong also visited Taiwan, teaching and presenting American modern dance. These visits served as diplomatic gestures between the members of the so-called Free World led by the U.S. Taiwanese audiences perceived American dance modernity through mixed interpretations under the Cold War rhetoric of freedom that the U.S. sold and disseminated through dance diplomacy. I explore the heterogeneous shaping forces from multiple engaging individuals and institutions that assemble this diplomatic history of dance, resulting in outcomes influencing dance histories of the U.S. and Taiwan for different ends. I argue that Taiwanese audiences interpreted American dance modernity as a means of embodiment to advocate for freedom and social change. Taiwanese dancers received American modern dance as representations of freedom through the dance tours under the Cold War rhetoric. By practicing modern dance of their own, Taiwanese choreographers and audience members repurposed American freedom rhetoric to resist the censorship of the White Terror in Taiwan. Since then, the idea of the modern, for the Taiwanese, has taken the name of freedom: free to explore, free to express, and free to advocate. These ideas do not only happen verbally, but also within the body. This dissertation in this sense provides a fuller picture of U.S. postwar dance diplomacy from Taiwanese perspectives than American views and also shows Taiwanese choreographers' agencies reacting to Ameri (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Hannah Kosstrin (Advisor); Harmony Bench (Committee Member); Danielle Fosler-Lussier (Committee Member); Morgan Liu (Committee Member) Subjects: Asian American Studies; Asian Studies; Dance; Performing Arts; World History

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2016, EDU Teaching and Learning

Recent decades have seen growing importance placed on research in heritage languages in the United States as a result of the increasing number of immigrants whose mother tongue is not English. Despite the rapid increase of the number of people who speak the Chinese language in the United States, research on Chinese heritage language education has received little attention. This ethnographic study was thus carried out at a Chinese heritage language school in a Midwestern U.S. city. Two classes of twenty-one eighth and ninth graders participated in the study, involving two Taiwanese immigrant teachers and four focal students. Data collection took place about six months through semi-structured interviews with four focal students and two teachers, participant observation, and audio-recordings of classroom discourse. The aim of this thesis is threefold. First, in Chapter 4, I examine what stage of ethnic identity development the four focal students may be at. Second, in Chapter 5, I explore how the four focal students perform their uncooperative language behaviors in the IRF pattern, how they other-correct their teacher's English in the student-initiated IRFs, and how they express convergent (accommodative) and divergent language behaviors through code-switching. Third, I investigate the relationship between language ideology and ethnic identity as well as the link between their language behaviors and their self-identification and language ideologies. In Chapter 4, the findings show that Arthur, Paul, and Jack seem to be at Stage 2 - Ethnic Ambivalence / Evasion (EAE), and Bill appears to be between Stage 2 and Stage 3 – Ethnic Emergence. In Chapter 5, the results indicate that the students expressed uncooperative language behaviors; it seems that they “miscommunicate” and try to be “bad” communicators (Ladegaard, 2009, p. 650). Their corrective actions can be regarded as a favor from the native speakers (Paul and Jack) to the nonnative speaker (the teacher Lily). (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Leslie Moore (Advisor); Keiko Samimy (Committee Member); Donald Winford (Committee Member) Subjects: Asian American Studies; Bilingual Education; Communication; Language

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Ohio University, 2015, Counselor Education (Education)

There is a paucity of specific to Asian communities, Taiwan specifically. There is also a lack of contemporaneous research on attitudes towards domestic/intimate partner violence and attitudes toward sexual violence. Current literature on sexual violence has focused on migrant groups worldwide. Cultural responses may keep many Asian victim/survivors of sexual violence from seeking professional help. Therefore, this study examined the attitudes of a sample of Asian college students in relation to sexual violence and seeking psychological help. This research sought to augment current knowledge provided through the work of Chen (1996), Yoshihama, and Sorenson (1994) by studying Asian college students. Understanding how this population perceives and responds to sexual violence against women may hold relevant implications for culturally competent and sensitive counseling services for Asian victims/survivors of sexual violence. Data derived from self-administered surveys including a demographic questionnaire, Asian Values Scale-Revised (ASV-R), Inventory of Beliefs about Wife Beating (IBWB), Attitudes toward Seeking Professional Psychological Help- Short Form (ATS), and Simplified Version of Attitudes toward Women Scale (SVAWS). Multiple regression approaches were used in data analysis. A small sample limited the ability to generalize study results outside of females at the host university (National Cheng Kung University).

Committee: Mona Robinson PhD (Advisor); Gordon Brooks PhD (Committee Member); Nikol Bowen PhD (Committee Member); Valery Conley PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Asian Studies; Behavioral Sciences; Counseling Education; Counseling Psychology; Demographics; Educational Sociology; Ethics; Ethnic Studies; Families and Family Life; Gender; Gender Studies; Mental Health; Multicultural Education; Personal Relationships; Psychology; Psychotherapy; Public Health Education; Rehabilitation; School Counseling; Social Work; Sociology

JD/MA, University of Cincinnati, 2007, College-Conservatory of Music : Composition

Ebb and Flow is inspired by the idea of cause and effect. All things, as well as the sections of this work, start with a strike, and followed by series of effects that create different outcomes. These unpredictable results lead this work to conflict or cohesive sections that create emotional tension to propel the music forward. The piece is constructed around two groups of pitches – C, C#, D, D#, E, and F#, G, G#, A, Bb. They start the work together as a whole, and go apart through out the piece in variation. The sets are presented wholly or partially in forms of pillar chords, melodic components, accompanying forces, and harmonic backdrop. Furthermore, the two sets sometimes compete with each other, and sometimes combine to compliment each other. F and B, the two among the twelve pitches that are not presented in the main pitch materials, play an insignificant role in the composition. They act as the filling of the twelve-tone-chord sonority, but don't draw melodic or thematic attention. It is not until the end, after all instruments reach the climax, that the vibraphone hit these two notes strongly to conclude this piece with a satisfying completion of twelve pitches.

Committee: Joel Hoffman (Advisor) Subjects: Music

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2012, EDU Teaching and Learning

Over the centuries, languages have moved from their places of origin to regions where they have not been used previously. According to Nicholas Ostler (2005), languages shift because of migration, military conquest, empire consolidation, and, to a lesser extent, trade and religious proselytizing. English evolved from a local Germanic dialect on continental Europe two millennia ago to worldwide recognition by the early 20th century for these reasons. Models of English-language spread, most notably that of Braj B. Kachru (1985, 1988), have focused predominantly on the sociocultural status and use of English in the areas where it expanded. But such an analysis tends to be ahistorical and static. Thus, this study adds a historical element by focusing on Taiwan and posing the following research questions: How did English come to contemporary Taiwan? Why did the Taiwan people accept the language? How did the language become an established part of Taiwan society? Based on document-derived research of political and military activities involving the United States and Taiwan during World War II and the Cold War, this study identifies a three-step pattern of English-language introduction: Military cooperation that required English proficiency among Taiwan military officers; a subsequent “trickle-down” use of English by the adjacent society, which embraced American culture; followed by the permanent establishment of the language in the society due to Taiwan's participation in a globalized marketplace. The orientation of this investigation is significant given the generally accepted assumption put forth by Mikhail Bakhtin (1982) that language study cannot be separated from its sociohistoric context. Ultimately, what is at stake is the quality of EFL pedagogy, which is enhanced by teachers and education-resource designers who are aware of the local history of the foreign language as well as its sociolinguistic status. Thus the historicolinguistic perspective here is defined as th (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Keiko K. Samimy PhD (Advisor); Anna Soter PhD (Advisor); Galal Walker PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Bilingual Education; Education; English As A Second Language; History; International Relations; Language; Linguistics; Modern History; Multicultural Education; Multilingual Education; Pacific Rim Studies; Political Science; Sociolinguistics

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2011, EDU Teaching and Learning

This study explored the potential link between Chinese-English syntactic differences and English reading anxiety in Chinese learners of English. Using the survey and the immediate written recall protocol, this study examined 202 Taiwanese university students' perspectives on issues concerning (a) the extent of English reading anxiety they experienced; (b) factors attributing to their English reading anxiety and their reading anxiety associated with Chinese-English syntactic differences; (c) the role of Chinese-English syntactic differences in English reading anxiety; and (d) whether there exists a certain type of English structure which elicits a higher level of English reading anxiety in Taiwanese university students. The 202 survey respondents' English reading anxiety and reading anxiety associated with Chinese-English syntactic differences were measured using two survey instruments: the Foreign Language Reading Anxiety Scale (FLRAS; Saito, Horwitz, & Garza, 1999) and the Survey of Anxiety in Reading Chinese-English Syntactic Differences (SARCE, a self-designed measure), respectively. Based upon levels of English reading anxiety, 30 out of the 202 survey respondents were further selected as recall participants in an attempt to understand how they comprehended texts containing either none or gross Chinese-English syntactic differences. The survey results confirmed the overall results of the written recall protocol data. First of all, the results indicated that the participants experienced a mid-to-high level of English reading anxiety, as could be predicted by three background variables—frequency of reading English per week, informal English learning experience, and length of time staying in an English-speaking country. The results also showed that most participants regarded Chinese-English syntactic differences as an important factor causing their English reading anxiety. In addition, it was found that the English relative clause, the English passive, and anxiety (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Keiko K. Samimy PhD (Committee Chair); Eric M. Anderman PhD (Committee Member); Alan R. Hirvela PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: English As A Second Language

Master of Arts, The Ohio State University, 2011, East Asian Languages and Literatures

This thesis is a study of language contact in Taiwan. Previous research (Ratte, 2009) has shown that voiced obstruents /g/ /b/ /dz/ are not being articulated by bilingual speakers of Taiwanese Southern Min and Mandarin, and suggests that these sound changes could be due to influence from Mandarin. This study investigates contact between the two languages in the framework of imposition proposed by Van Coetsem (1988). Recordings were collected of 15 young Taiwanese adults reading a word list, and their pronunciations were examined for evidence of contact-induced shift. The study finds that bilinguals from all over Taiwan are exhibiting the same shift, and that virtually all sound changes can be attributed to the imposition of Mandarin phonology, followed by analogy to Mandarin cognates for the choice of strategy. Mandarin agentivity on the part of bilinguals implies Mandarin dominance in Van Coetsem's framework, leading to the conclusion that bilinguals in this study were less proficient in Taiwanese. Close scrutiny of Taiwanese society in the context of language contact also offers evidence contradicting a linguistic revival of Taiwanese, and suggests that there is little motivation for bilinguals to maintain Taiwanese. The study concludes that bilinguals are shifting towards Mandarin dominance, and concludes that both the continued social dominance of Mandarin and the emergence of a “New Taiwanese” identity may be responsible for these shifts.

Committee: Marjorie K.M. Chan PhD (Advisor); Donald Winford PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Language; Linguistics

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2005, Art Education

Due to the fact that Taiwan has been colonized by different political powers over the past four hundred years and has been influenced by globalization, a search for its identity has become a crucial mission. Because picturebooks as a cultural product have become an important means to transmit cultural traditions to young generations, they have together provided a myth which seeks to represent the national imagination. How these picturebooks tell their stories about Taiwanese culture offers a window to understand what ideologies are embedded in them. This study investigates the representation of Taiwanese culture shown in three sets of picturebooks labeled “Taiwan” and containing 22 titles in total. They were produced by Taiwanese writers and illustrators and published in Taiwan during 2001~2004. The methodology of this study is qualitative research and the methods used for textual analysis include the analysis of narrative structure and Barthes' semiotic approach. The text is situated in two particular contexts: first, the current discourse of localization in Taiwan, in which the development of Taiwanese consciousness is reviewed, and second, the related publishing context is examined. The common cultural representation of the picturebooks, from the content aspect, illustrates a nostalgic aspect of an agricultural Taiwan, which represents a pure Taiwanese culture reflecting Han Chinese folkways without foreign cultural influences. In contrast, cultural hybridity is frequently shown in the format of the picturebooks. That is, a contemporary visual language is adopted in presenting local culture to attract today's young readers. This constructed representation can be seen as a strategy for recalling and reinstalling the local cultures that had been oppressed and missed in the Kuomintang era. However, this pure Taiwanese culture may not be able to reflect current social reality. According to Bhabha, culture is dynamic and hybrid. His notion provides an alterative persp (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Michael Parsons (Advisor) Subjects: Education, Art

Master of Arts (MA), Ohio University, 2011, Sociology (Arts and Sciences)

The issue of college credit card use has been studied in the United States for decades. This work explores the differences of credit card use between American and Taiwanese college students sampled at Ohio University and National Hsinchu University of Education in Taiwan. Based on sociological theories and Chinese culture, three variables—stigma of debt, fear of financial risks, and distrust of banks—are proposed to explain different credit card use results from culture. The connection between attitudes toward credit cards and five variables, which are credit card ownership, stigma of debt, fear of financial risks, distrust of banks, and parents‘ suggestions about credit card risks, were tested. The findings suggest that cultural factors—stigma of debt, distrust of banks, and fear of financial risks— and structural/institutional factors—credit card law, financial support from family members, and access to credit cards on campus—contribute to American and Taiwanese college students‘ different attitudes toward credit cards. The findings also imply that structural factors are powerful to affect consumer behaviors in different countries.

Committee: Deborah Thorne (Committee Chair); Jieli Li (Committee Member); Leon Anderson (Committee Member) Subjects: Sociology

Master of Arts, Miami University, 2006, Theatre

This creative thesis focuses on my three adapted Three Taiwanese aboriginal plays, which staged in Ernst theatre in Miami University. Chapter One includes the historical origins of Taiwanese aborigines told by different countries through different perspective. Chapter Two is a review on the playwriting process how I applied storytelling and theatrical form in these three aboriginal stories. In Chapter Three, I discuss production process as well as the process translators working with translators. The whole creating process of these three plays focuses on the pursuit of nature theme and uses theatre as a new way of storytelling to English-speaking people. Chapter Four are the scripts, which were staged in Ernst nature theatre in Miami University in middle August, 2005.

Committee: Howard Blanning (Advisor) Subjects: Theater

MA, Kent State University, 2009, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of English

Learning cannot take place without motivation, so motivation is one of the mostimportant factors when learning a foreign language. With this in mind, strategies for motivating learners should be considered an essential variable to be investigated for triggering learners' motivation. The long-term objective of this study is to develop evidence to enable teachers to gain a better understanding of which motivational strategies are most effective from the learners' point of view. Therefore, two focal points of this research will be evaluated: (1) focus on learners' feedback about their perceptions of how important the motivational strategies are and how often teachers should use each motivational strategy; and (2) continually explore the comparison between teachers' and students' perspectives on motivational strategies. The participants are eleven teachers and forty students from Kent State University's English as a Second Language program, which is a language program that helps non-native speakers learn to communicate and study in English. They were asked to rate a list of motivational strategies contained in two questionnaires, which were derived from a variant questionnaire used by Hsing-Fu Cheng and Zoltan Dornyei (2007). The questionnaires contained the same set of motivational strategies for both students and teachers. The findings indicated that students and teachers perceived some of the motivational strategies similarly but some differently, no matter whether these perceptions were from the importance or the frequency aspects. The possible explanations for the similarities and differences are also discussed in this study. Another finding worthy of mention is that the sex of the teachers and the sex and nationality differences of the students were certainly crucial factors for learners when they evaluated the motivational strategies. These factors still warrant further exploration.

Committee: Kristen Precht PhD (Advisor); Jessie Carduner PhD (Committee Member); Klaus Gommlich PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Education

MA, Kent State University, 2009, College of the Arts / School of Art

Advertisements play a significant part in the everyday lives of students, advertisements impacting not only their purchasing habits but also the way they construct knowledge about the world in which they live. Art education inspired by visual culture could be a beneficial place for students to develop abilities to see advertisements critically and then make informed choices in their lives. In order to design an effective curriculum to meet both the needs and interests of students, an understanding of their responses to advertisements is essential. Thus, the purposes of this study were (a) to understand how a selected group of the sixth-grade students in Taiwan formulate their preferences for self-selected advertisements, and (b) to investigate their responses to advertisements. The researcher used a mixed qualitative and quantitative approach to collect data, which consisted of three survey questionnaires and semi-structured interviews. A convenience sample that included a class of 32 sixth-grade Taiwanese students was used. Data analysis yielded two important, broad findings. First, the students have indicated their advertisement preferences and have identified the purposes of the advertisements and interpreted them in complex and various ways. Second, advertisements permeated the daily lives of students, who interacted with them positively and passively. Furthermore, implications for art education practice and general education in Taiwan were discussed along with recommendations for future research in this area.

Committee: Koon-Hwee Kan Ed.D. (Advisor); Linda Hoeptner Poling Ph.D. (Committee Member); Janice Lessman-Moss M.F.A (Committee Member) Subjects: Art Education; Elementary Education