“Reading Is Everywhere:” A Case Study Situating Children's Book Distribution Within The Literacy Practices Of Somali New Mainers, Rachel C H Groenhout

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Somalia has a long and rich oral literacy tradition of poetry, proverbs, and songs, while Somalia’s print literacy history has been significantly disrupted by colonization and then the Somali Civil War. Many Somalis have fled the country since the start of the civil war in 1991, and an estimated 10,000 Somalis have made a new home in Maine. When Somali citizens relocated to Maine, they were exposed to Maine’s Raising Readers children’s book distribution program. Raising Readers distributes high-quality, age-appropriate, English-language children’s books during pediatric well-child visits to foster family literacy interactions and children’s emergent literacy skills.

This study explores …

Writer Identity Construction Of Thai Efl Students: A Phenomenological Study, Kittika Limpariwatthana

Language, Literacy, and Sociocultural Studies ETDs

ABSTRACT

This empirical study uncovered Thai English as a Foreign Language (EFL) writer identity construction and revealed how Thai culture plays a role in the development using a sociocultural perspective. Data collection for analysis includes interviews with nine Thai college students, a group interview, English writing essays, and artifacts they provided throughout a 15-week English writing course. The focus of this study was to gain insight into the phenomenon of identity construction among EFL writers from perceptions of their lived experiences.

Based on the description of identity development, the research findings focus on two different ways the participants perceived their …

Evidence Of Emotional Intelligence In College Presidents’ Public Writing: Does Their Emotional Intelligence Change Over Time?, Karen Powers Liebhaber

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Higher education (HIED) presidents face a wide variety of competing demands and pressures. High emotional intelligence (EI) has been found to be effective in good leadership, but few studies exist which examine HIED presidents’ EI. This quantitative growth model study attempted to expand the understanding of EI and its source of change among HIED presidents. Several conceptualizations link together in this study to better understand HIED presidents’ EI. First, higher EI has been linked to strong leadership and strong communication. Studies show EI can change over time and EI is associated with certain demographic factors. Further, language, particularly written language, …

Natural History Of Discourse Of Missouri House Bill 1042: Bringing A Critical Perspective To Policy Engagement In Two-Year Contexts, Mary Casey Reid

English Theses & Dissertations

In this autoethnographically-infused natural history of discourse (NHD) (Silverstein and Urban, 1996; Slembrouck, 2001), I use methods from critical discourse studies (CDS) to trace 10 years of changes in “remediation” discourses within a corpus of texts associated with Missouri HB 1042, a piece of legislation passed in 2012 that requires higher education institutions to “replicate best practices in remediation” (CBHE, 2013). After providing national and state context related to HB 1042 and the discourses circulating within the HB 1042 corpus of texts, I describe what I call the “higher ed’s remediation problem” discourse, focusing on three discourse features that I …

How Hearing Parents With Deaf Or Hard Of Hearing Children Construct Deafness Through Their Early Intervention Experience, Bettie T. Petersen

Language, Literacy, and Sociocultural Studies ETDs

This dissertation explores how hearing parents with deaf/hard of hearing children come to understand deafness. This mixed methods study used an online survey and multiple case studies (volunteers from survey). Participants were asked about early intervention experiences and beliefs about deafness. The survey had 74 respondents and five families participated in the interviews. Survey participants’ beliefs about deafness were primarily medical, focusing on the perceived barriers caused by deafness and the remediation of those barriers through spoken language options. A small number of respondents adopted a cultural perspective of deafness and focused on remediation of barriers through involvement in the …

The International Academy Of Language And Culture: The Global (Pre)K-12 Charter School Network, Dree-El Simmons

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The International Academy of Language and Culture (IALC) is a charter school based on the original concept of charter schools by Ray Budde and Albert Shanker, as an academic environment dedicated and designed to improving the educational outcomes for its students through innovative pedagogy. Committed to American (and global) education reform, the IALC incorporates elements from higher education into the early childhood and adolescent settings. We accomplish this by utilizing an interdisciplinary approach in our language and culture-based program.

The IALC is a multilingual, full-immersion program. Food Studies (including culinary arts), the Arts, the Humanities, Social Sciences, and Martial Arts …

Retrieval Practice Promotes Learning Of Turkish As A Foreign Language: A Computer-Assisted Language Learning Study, Maya C. Rose

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Adults generally find it difficult to learn a new language, yet exhibit remarkable individual differences in outcomes. Variation in second language (L2) learning is associated with input conditions (Morgan-Short et al., 2010) as well as learners’ aptitude (Dörnyei, 2005). Recent work has demonstrated benefits of retrieval practice in promoting L2 learning of grammatical patterns and vocabulary in both artificial and natural languages (Hopman & MacDonald, 2018; Keppenne et al., 2021). With that said, when retrieval practice is based on oral recall as opposed to a recognition test, it confounds potential benefits of repeated testing (Rowland, 2014) with those associated with …

Media Ideologies And The Politics Of Digital Literacy: Discourses On Technology And Media In A Small School District In The U.S. Heartland, Chris Borntrager

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation uses a discourse studies approach to investigate key communicative processes by which digital technology is given situated meanings within the institution of public education, including at the level of official discourse, administrative texts, and the spoken discourse of professional educators. The discursive processes under analysis, referred to here as “institutional media ideologies,” arguably function as discursive frameworks which, akin to tactics of management in organizations, constrain the further production of discourse in a particular professional domain, including through the codification of contextualization practices, participant roles, and the social meanings of practices implicating the use of digital technology. Furthermore, …

Applying The Dialogic Method In An Eighth Grade English Curriculum, Maggie Repko

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

In this thesis, I provide an analysis of Paulo Freire’s (1973) dialogic method for language education. I then synthesize his theories with the work of sociocultural and linguistic researchers who have determined the strongest activities to bring about student language development. Finally, I apply these theories to my appendices of created works that might be utilized in an eighth-grade creative writing course. This thesis demonstrates the similarities between Freire’s students and our students in the USA today and the ways that a critical dialogic pedagogy will meet their language learning needs while also inspiring their creative, critical conscientização. Paulo Freire …

Language Ideologies In First Year Composition Textbooks, Joanna Clevenger

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

This thesis examines how standard language ideologies are perpetuated in the five most frequently assigned first year composition textbooks from four higher education institutions in Southern California’s Inland Empire. Standard language ideologies position one variation of a language as superior, correct, appropriate and the normal variation of a language which everyone should be able to speak. Using Critical Discourse Analysis, the five textbooks were analyzed in order to uncover the embedded power and hegemony over women, people of color, and those from a lower socioeconomic status which are prevalent throughout society because they are unchallenged and widely accepted as the …

Radically Inclusive Pedagogy And Praxis, Danie Jules Hallerman

English Theses & Dissertations

Although the current definition exists at the intersection of critical pedagogy, disability studies, critical race theory, critical embodiment pedagogy, feminism, cultural rhetoric, expressivism, and queer theory, as it stands now, radical inclusive pedagogy has few, if any, identifiable, distinctive qualities of its own. The pedagogies and theories from which radically inclusive pedagogy draws from speak to the mind, the body, and the spirit separately, or will focus on two aspects while neglecting the third. As I envision it for the classroom practice I have designed and would like others to adopt, radically inclusive pedagogy addresses the mind (embracing students’ knowledge, …

Assessing L2 Egyptian Colloquial Arabic (Eca) Learners’ Intercultural Communicative Competence, Ahmed Said Mohammed Elgebaly

Theses and Dissertations

This study assesses L2 Egyptian Colloquial Arabic (ECA) Learners' Intercultural Communicative Competence (ICC). The study participants were 19 L2 (ECA) learners who completed one semester at least in Egypt. The participants were only from two proficiency levels; the advanced and high-intermediate levels. The current study used a mixed methodological approach for data collection, beginning with an ICC test and concluding with a series of follow-up semi-structured interviews with ten participants. The ICC test employed in the current study was created based on a model that includes ten features of the ICC. The current study's findings revealed that although high-intermediate learners …

English Language Learner Labels: Institutions And Identity, Saylor B. Eames

University Honors Theses

In recent discussions of identity work, an underexplored issue has been how different labels impact the self-identity of multilingual students. Critics have argued for new labels and have shown how the ELL label supports a deficit view. However, they have not considered what labels are used by different institutions because they participate in different discourse communities. In my work, I explore what labels are used in the institutions of government, education, and linguistics in order to synthesize the potential identity impacts on multilingual students. I acknowledge that other researchers have contributed to our understanding of labels and identity. I will …

Amplifying Arab American Heritage Language Students' Voices: A Multiple Case Study On Translanguaging Practices And Identity Negotiation In University Arabic Classrooms, Lina Gomaa

Dissertations and Theses

Little research has been conducted on Arab American students at universities and specifically, in the heritage language studies field. The experiences of Arab American heritage language (AAHL) students are significantly less examined than those of other heritage language students. Arabic language curricula and instructional practices in universities tend to privilege the teaching of Modern Standard Arabic over dialects, which marginalizes heritage learners' prior knowledge of the Arabic culture and its language, specifically Arabic dialects used in their home communities. These phenomena can create a non-affirming learning experience for these students. As such, in this study, I addressed these questions:

• To …

Sheltered Math Curriculum For Middle School English Learners, Jasmine Ercink

Dissertations, Theses, and Projects

Language barriers have shown a need for differentiation and sheltered instruction in the classroom for English Learners (ELs) to be successful in the United States public school system. This project proposes a mathematics curriculum using SIOP so that both groups of students in the middle school level can increase their proficiency in the mathematics content area as well as experience opportunities for academic and social language development. The purpose of this report is to describe the processes, methods, data, and intent of the mathematics curriculum for these learners. The curriculum acts as an effective intervention to fill gaps in both …

Writing While Black: African American Vernacular English (Aave) And Perceived Writing Performance, Jaylin N. Nesbitt

Masters Theses, 2020-current

In the education system, there have historically been inequities that have severely disadvantaged Black students academically. One area in which these inequities surface is on writing assessments in the form of lower scores. I argue that because the U.S. education system is centered around Standard American English (SAE), it disadvantages those from different linguistic backgrounds, specifically Black students, as they are most likely to be speakers of African American Vernacular English (AAVE). Although there are theoretical justifications for this, past literature has not empirically tied inequities on writing assessments to Black students’ use of AAVE. The current study used Natural …

Student Attitudes Towards English Grammar, Evalyn H. Bassett

Honors Theses

The literature on English grammar is mostly on its history, standardization, educational implementations, how ideologies shape its frequency of usage, and how it is perceived by students learning English as a second language. This study seeks to address a gap in the literature that reviews the attitudes of college students towards English grammar as their first language and how these attitudes correlate with any past experience with English grammar up to this point. To gain a better understanding of student’s attitudes towards English grammar, an online mixed-methods survey was distributed to graduate and undergraduate students in all departments of the …

Finding Their Chrysanthemum: Linguistic Representation In Children's Literature, Marielena Zajac

Master of Arts in Professional Writing Capstones

Children in America today struggle with finding themselves in the books they read due to societal expectations. From an early age, children are dictated on the correct way to speak and write in “American,” which can leave children and their home languages feeling unseen and dismissed. To help further the conversation and promotion of linguistic diversity in American society, this capstone analyzes dialectal representation in children’s books, with a heavy focus on attitudinal linguistic principles rather than prescriptive mechanics. The secondary research explores current literature and resources that discuss literacy acquisition in adolescents, trends in dialects in America, and childhood …

The Effects Of Various Classroom Seating Arrangements On English Learners' Academic Achievement, Alvin Gutierrez

University Honors Program Senior Projects

Nelson Mandela once stated, “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world” (Duncan, 2013). Education fosters growth-mindsets within an innovative environment. As a future educator, I want to create a classroom environment that is most adaptable and accommodating for students--a space that is diverse, inclusive, and promotes student voices. Creating a student-centered learning environment is beneficial to both academic and social emotional success in school and beyond. I want my students to develop a level of confidence by encouraging them to reach their full potential. With a focus on English Learners, my research project …

Pragmatics In Game Activities, Humor, And Technology In Second Language Learning, Zachary Brandon Brown

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

This portfolio compiles work the author explored and developed during the Master of Second Language Teaching (MSLT) program at Utah State University (USU). It encompasses a range of experiences from teaching abroad and at USU, insights from the observation of other classrooms, and reflections from studies in the MSLT program.

Three distinct sections comprise the portfolio: teaching perspectives, research perspectives, and an annotated bibliography. The teaching perspectives detail beliefs regarding games, computer technology, humor, and pragmatics and how they influence second language learning based on the author’s personal experiences. The research perspectives and annotated bibliography elaborate further on those topics …

U.S. Muslim College Students' Spatialization Of Their Muslimness: An Exploration Of Muslim Linguistic And Cultural Identities Across Social Spaces, Ibrahim Demir

Language, Literacy, and Sociocultural Studies ETDs

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this multiple-case study was to explore how four US-born Muslim college students spatialized their linguistic and cultural identities within and across their social, academic, and religious spaces. The data were collected through detailed and in-depth data collection methods involving multiple sources of information: observations in the above-mentioned spaces, focus group interviews, autobiographies, drawings, images, and narratives. The data were analyzed through spatial analytical perspectives.

This study was drawn on Lefebvre's (1991) Spatial triad of perceived, conceived, and lived spaces, Soja's (1996) interpretation of spatiality and Thirdspace, and Bhabha's (2004) concept of Hybridity. This study presented how …

“I’M Certainly No Language Police”: Language, Race, And Identity Negotiation Among White K-8 Teachers, Luca Poxon , '22

Senior Theses, Projects, and Awards

Drawing on concepts from critical race theory and critical whiteness studies, scholarship on raciolinguistics and racial identity, and methods from grounded theory and discourse analysis, this thesis explores the following research questions: 1) How do White teachers of students of color understand language, race, and their own role as raced people teaching language? 2) How do they act on these understandings? Interviews with five White K-8 educators show how particular combinations of understandings of race, language, and self produce raciolinguistic and pedagogical tensions; these include knowing that the concept of “academic language” is racialized and power-laden while also believing that …

Emergency Remote Teaching (Ert) Forced By The Covid-19 Pandemic: Efl Teachers' Practices And Perspectives Two Years Later, Eman Barri

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-

When the Covid-19 pandemic first hit the world in March 2020, all aspects of life were drastically disrupted, and the education sector underwent radical changes. An almost overnight shift from traditional classrooms to delivering instruction online became an enforced necessity rather than an option to continue education during the pandemic, which required teachers around the world to adapt to the new reality on very short notice. Because little research has been undertaken to understand language teaching practices globally during the pandemic from the teachers' perspectives, shedding light on how English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers responded to the emergency …

Aprendizaje En Inglés En Línea: Efectos Sobre La Elaboración De Textos Escritos Y Relación Con La Percepción De Los Docentes Sobre La Integración De Tecnología, Yetzy Limarys Díaz Maldonado

Theses and Dissertations

Los estudiantes de una escuela secundaria del área sur de Puerto Rico presentan un bajo aprovechamiento académico en los cursos de ESL para realizar trabajos escritos en inglés. Por lo tanto, esta disertación aplicada fue diseñada con el propósito de examinar el efecto del uso del programa de aprendizaje de idiomas en línea Grammarly sobre la elaboración de textos escritos y la percepción del docente sobre la integración de tecnología.

El diseño de este estudio fue uno cuasi-experimental. El marco teórico que sustenta el estudio se basa en la teoría del procesamiento de información cognitiva de Atkinson y Shiffrin (1968). …

The Axis Of Access: A Quantitative Ethnography Of Presidential Discourse On The Construct Of College Access In The United States, Pamela M. Donnelly

Theses and Dissertations

Federal discourse pertaining to college access requires clarified definition. Use of the college access construct has become commonplace, yet no unified refinement of meaning exists. This study, which covered U.S. presidential communications from January 2009 to October 2021, addressed the abstraction of language as leaders presented ideas, policies, and opinions. Observable trends impacting social mobility for students from underserved populations were of central interest. The research methodology, Quantitative Ethnography (QE), used the tool of Epistemic Network Analysis (ENA). Eight codes were identified through grounded analysis: Affordability, Pathway Program, Underserved Populations, Class Systems, Upward Mobility, Career Readiness, Trajectory, and Career Technical …