Education Commons^™

The Relationship Between Musical Ability And The Perception And Production Of L2 Prosodic Features, Jun Akiyoshi

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

Studies in L2 acquisition have indicated that musically trained individuals are apt to demonstrate better L2 pronunciation skills. As for music, it was recently clarified that some amusiacs demonstrate selective impairment in L1 prosody discrimination. The purpose of this study was to investigate a relationship between amusical L2 learners and their perception and production of L2 prosody. To investigate this, 24 native-Japanese learners of English either in EFL (n=22) or ESL context (n=2) were examined in terms of their musical ability and L2 intonation perception and production. The musical test indicated that there was one amusiac and 10 low-level musical …

The Instructional And Emotional Quality Of Parent–Child Book Reading And Early Head Start Children's Learning Outcomes, Keely Cline, Carolyn P. Edwards

Department of Child, Youth, and Family Studies: Faculty Publications

Research Findings: The objective of this study was to understand how instructional book-reading style and emotional quality of reading interact and relate to cognitive skills in a sample of at-risk infants and toddlers. Participants were 81 parents and their children participating in Early Head Start programs in the rural Midwest. Correlation and multiple regression analyses were used to test the hypothesis that parental book-reading instructional style and emotional quality interact and relate to changes in children’s cognitive scores for culturally and linguistically diverse families. Results included that there were variations in how book-reading qualities interacted and related to changes in …

Teaching Dilemmas: Language Development For English Learners In A Hyper-Segregated Dual Immersion Program, Allison Briceño

Doctoral Dissertations

English learners (ELs), a growing population in U.S. schools, generally

underperform as compared to their monolingual English peers. One potential solution to this EL achievement gap has been the implementation of Dual Immersion (DI) programs. However, given that ELs are often densely concentrated in schools with limited access to native English-speaking peers, some schools do not have enough native English-speaking

students to constitute a true DI program.

This qualitative study explored language development practices in both Spanish and English in a Northern California hyper-segregated DI elementary school, where almost all the students were English learners. The participants were four Latina …

Speaking Silence Fluently: Encouraging Student Understanding Of Counterhegemonic Strategies In African American Literature, Kathleen S. Decker

Masters Theses

This thesis suggests that while mainstream multicultural education claims to promote both diversity and equality, it fails to adequately address, let alone improve, the living conditions of minority students. It further suggests that when teachers help students read through the lenses of critical multiculturalism and critical whiteness studies, students can better see that both canonical and non-canonical African American authors deliberately employ nuanced strategies to resist white supremacy. Specifically through the use of purposeful and discreet silences, these authors serve to promote new and actively counterhegemonic ways of thinking in the classroom.

Each chapter pairs two texts--one canonical and one …

Exploring Factors That Contribute To Academic Persistence For Undergraduate Hispanic Nontraditional Students At Hispanic Serving Institutions In The Southeast, Floralba Arbelo Marrero

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This study examined the academic persistence of 10 undergraduate Hispanic nontraditional students enrolled at a public and a private not for profit Hispanic Serving Institution in the southeastern region of the United States, each in their last year of a bachelor degree program. Using a phenomenological research design and an ecological and sociocultural framework the findings indicated that family context, personal aspirations, campus environment within Hispanic Serving Institutions, life challenges, and English language learning each play a vital role in the persistence behaviors of this population. These factors interact at the student and institutional levels to provide students with internal …

Diversity Among Latino/A College Students And Its Impact On Student Organization Involvement, Enmanuel Mercedes

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

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Reading The World In The Word: The Possibilities For Literacy Instruction Framed Within Human Rights Education, Judith Dunkerly-Bean

Teaching & Learning Faculty Publications

The purpose of this critical ethnography (Madison, 2005; Noblit, Flores & Murrillo, 2004) was to investigate the experiences of teachers and students when literacy instruction was framed within human rights education. Informed by theories of cosmopolitan education (Beck, 2002; Beck & Szneider, 2010; Goldstein, 2007; Harper & Bean, 2009; Hull, 2010), critical socio-cultural theory (Moje & Lewis, 2007) and incorporating Freirean concepts of critical literacy and praxis, this study details the experiences of two servant leader interns (teachers) and sixteen scholars (students) participating in human rights education within the context of a Children’s Defense Fund Freedom School.

Web 2.0 For Language Learning: Benefits And Challenges For Educators, Tian Luo

STEMPS Faculty Publications

This literature review study explores 44 empirical research studies that report on the integration of Web 2.0 tools into language learning and evaluate the actual impact of using those Web 2.0 tools in language learning. In particular, this review aims to identify the specific Web 2.0 tools integrated in the educational settings, theoretical underpinnings that are commonly used to frame the research, methodologies and data analysis techniques that scholars employ to analyze their research data, the benefits and challenges scholars spotted in their research findings, the pedagogical implications in using Web 2.0 for language learning and future research directions that …

Getting Real About Globalization And Legal Education: Potential And Perspectives For The U.S., Carole Silver

Carole Silver

This article addresses whether US law schools are preparing their JD students to work in the global environment that many - if not most – law graduates will encounter. It begins by considering the significance of globalization for legal education, drawing on research analyzing its influence on legal practice as well as on higher education. It then explores possible settings and opportunities for learning to work in a global environment. For the vast majority of students whose learning must occur in the US, the presence of international students in their law school offers the potential for creating a global learning …

An Innovative Approach To Cultural Competence Organizational Leadership: The Intercultural Personal Development, Sherwood Thompson

Sherwood Thompson

Leaders are called upon in today's society to be sensitive to and aware of the needs of their workforce. In many instances, these needs transcend the professional requirements of getting the job done. Oftentimes, the employees are dealing with needs that invole personal relationships between and among co-workers based on cultural difference.

Latino Adaptations And Connections In Rural America, Refugio I. Rochin

Refugio I. Rochin

A majority of rural Latinos are immigrants or the first sons and daughters of immigrants from Mexico. They arrive to survive, earn income, raise and support family and work hard without burdening public services. I offer a personal account of rural Latinos, partly through the lives of my parents, to explain Latino adaptations and contributions in America. Who are rural Latinos, how did they arrive, why and, what are their experiences and issues?

Language Policy And Education: Space And Place In Multilingual Post-Soviet States, Kara D. Brown

Kara D. Brown

Institutional isomorphists and other proponents of world culture theory argue that schools around the world are converging in many ways, while anthropologists and others question this conclusion, often arguing that local cultural differences belie superficial similarities. These viewpoints are not merely academic explanations of the spread and apparent convergence of education policies and practices around the world, but are often present in policy and practice. The authors seek both to shed new light on these often-entrenched positions and to refocus the debate by considering the presence and influence of such views in the policies and practices of international teacher exchanges. …

The Effect Of Languaging On Korean Students' L2 Learning Motivation: A Classroom-Based Mixed Methods Approach, Tae-Young Kim

Dr. Tae-Young Kim (김태영, 金兌英)

This paper focuses on the effect of languaging activity on students' L2 learning motivation. Swain (2006, p. 98) defines languaging as "the process of making meaning and shaping knowledge and experience through language." To date, most of languaging research investigated its impact on L2 learners' cognition. I endeavor to extend its original notion to the domain of motivation. Based on Dörnyei's (2009) L2 Motivational Self-System, the effect of languaging on students' L2 selves and their teachers' reflection will be investigated in this paper.

In Spring 2012, three English teachers implemented four different languaging conditions for their students: 1) written languaging …

An Activity Theory Analysis Of Second Language Motivational Self-System: Two Korean Immigrants' Esl Learning, Tae-Young Kim

Dr. Tae-Young Kim (김태영, 金兌英)

This paper analyzes two recent Korean immigrants’ ESL learning motivation using Dörnyei’s (2009) Second Language (L2) Motivational Self-System, which is synthesized with Engeström’s (1999) Activity Theory (AT) framework. Over a ten month period, the author conducted semi-structured monthly interviews and stimulated recall tasks. The findings of this case study suggest the following: 1) when sociocultural factors are mediated by L2 learners’ beliefs, these factors may directly influence learners’ ideal L2 self and ought-to L2 self; 2) learners’ sensitivity with inclusive attitudes can transform the L2 learning environment into meaningful affordances; and 3) if there is no tension among elements in …