Education Commons^™

Forming A Global Citizen: Personal Development Through Study Abroad, Anna L. Reiter

Honors Thesis

This literature review examines key benefits of studying abroad, while investigating which elements most contribute to students’ overall success. Current literature suggests that benefits of studying abroad include, but are not limited to, second language acquisition (SLA), identity formation, and intercultural competence. The degree of which each is improved depends on a multitude of variables. SLA improvement is explored via consideration of students’ baseline proficiency level, degree of receptivity of the host country, and length of the study abroad program. Students’ identity formation is explained through the three bases of identity: person, role, and group/social. Finally, intercultural competence in study …

Negotiating Multilingual Writer Identity In The Dissertation: International Perspectives On Language And Writing Practices, A. Brooke Boulton

Education Doctorate Dissertations

Globalization and internationalization of higher education have perpetuated the dominance of English as the language of production and reproduction in doctoral education. English dominance considers the status of English as a lingua franca in academia. Multilingual students for whom English is not the first language must engage in complex language and writing practices to meet university and publication standards, globally. As writing is identity work, students must negotiate thought and writing in two or more languages to achieve meaningful self-expression and to represent authentic, authoritative voices in English. Data representing students from 17 different countries and speaking 14 different languages …

Marrying Science And Experience: An Exploration Of How Multilinguals Interact With And Between Languages And Cultures, Allie Heeg Polzin

MA TESOL Collection

This paper will begin exploring bi- and multilingualism at an individual level. The author will explore previous research written on how the brain processes several languages, how languages might affect individuals emotionally, and how one switches between languages as well as the effects of this, if any. Beyond this, the experience of navigating languages between discourse communities and balancing two or more cultures will be considered. As the title suggests, the science of multilingualism will be married with the diverse individual experience while considering both intrapersonal and interpersonal relations. The author will look at her own experience as well as …

SahuhlúKhane’ UkwehuwenéHa They Learned To Speak It Again: An Investigation Into The Regeneration Of The Oneida Language, Rebecca Doxtator

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This study investigated the significance of the Oneida language to two groups of Oneida speakers and learners in the Onʌyota’á:ka’ Oneida Nation of the Thames community. This study’s research questions included: (1) What is the significance of Oneida language to Oneida adult language learners who are seeking to acquire the language and what are they doing to regenerate the language? (2) What is the significance of Oneida language to Oneida adults who are conversationally fluent in Oneida language and what are they doing to regenerate the language? (3) What does an investigation into my personal relationship with Oneida language reveal? …

A Critical Interpretation Of Study Abroad, Participant Identity, And Second Language Learning, Laura Edwards

Theses and Dissertations

In this study I explore the history of study abroad as a sojourn for the privileged, notions of whiteness, institutional racism and inequality, and nationality and linguicism, and apply theory from critical applied linguistics and post-colonialism to analyze and interpret data collected from five participants of either a semester or year-long study abroad at the Centre International d’Études Françaises (CIDEF) in Angers, France. The principal research questions are: What is the nature of how students negotiate their identities (racial, national, and gender), L2 learning, and engagement (or lack of) with various communities of practice while studying abroad in a non-English …

English Language Investment: A Qualitative Study On Transitioning Adult Language Learners To Postsecondary And Career Certificate Programs, Colleen Collins Stribling

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

This qualitative study elicited and examined the narratives of 15 adult immigrants

learning English in a grant-funded program. The purpose of the study was to listen to student

voices to understand persistence and investment from the perspectives of the students. The study

utilized a process called reciprocal ethnography whereby participants analyzed their journeys

with the researcher to determine what factors in their life histories, experiences, and identities

had led them to invest sufficiently in English as a Second Language (ESL) programs in order to

reach levels of achievement that would allow them to transition into post secondary and career

certificate …

Drama For Social Justice: Embodying Identity And Emotion In Elt, Riah Werner

MA TESOL Collection

In this thesis, the author makes the case that drama is a powerful tool for language acquisition because it develops and engages embodiment, emotion and identity, important aspects of learning and communication that are often neglected in traditional language classrooms. The thesis establishes a theoretical foundation for the use of drama in the social justice-oriented language classroom, reviews research on drama for language learning and describes common drama techniques. The author connects the theories of embodied cognition and multiliteracies to an intersectional model of identity and argues that drama helps students re-examine the way society positions them based on their …

Transmigration Experiences Of Newcomers In The Context Of An English-Only Education: Sense-Making By Former Newcomer Ells, Elizabeth Paulsen Tonogbanua

Graduate Doctoral Dissertations

This qualitative interpretive study explored how former newcomer English Language Learners (ELLs) in Boston Public Schools (BPS) made sense of their transmigration experiences through a digital storytelling project. The study fills a gap on transmigration experiences in the context of English-only learning environments, with a particular orientation toward the value of students’ home languages, and in turn, cultures within an urban school setting. The immigrant student population in BPS continues to increase and teachers must be able to understand and plan for newcomers’ specific needs. To this end, my conceptual framework drew on four areas: general educators and their urban …

Beyond Embracing A Multicompetent Self: An Autoethnography Of A Nnest, Seullee Talia Lee

MA TESOL Collection

This article represents the identity transformation process of a non-native English- speaking teacher (hereafter NNEST) in the format of an autoethnography. Through the vignettes of the author, the evidence that English language plays a vital role as cultural capital (Bourdieu, 1991) in expanding circle countries (hereafter ECCs) (Kachru, 1985, 1986) such as South Korea (hereafter Korea) becomes apparent. Also, her narrative adds more credence to how the newly imagined identity options such as multicompetent self and English language teaching (hereafter ELT) professional have a tremendous constructive impact on the personal and professional development of NNESTs. Lastly, this study proposes the …

Gestures As Mimetic Forms Of Identity In Post-Secondary Italian As A Foreign Language Classrooms: A Sociocultural Perspective, Ilaria Nardotto Peltier

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This study investigates the use of mimetic gestures of identity by foreign language teachers of Italian and their students in college classes as a form of meaning-making. All four of the teachers were found to use a variety of Italian gestures as a regular aspect of their teaching and presentation of self. Students and teachers also were found to mirror each other’s gestures. None of the teachers had been video-recorded before the study and all were surprised to see the degree to which they appeared to be Italian, although at the same time all believed this to be an important …

Not A Hearing Loss, A Deaf Gain: Power, Self-Naming, And The Deaf Community, David J. Thomas

Educational Leadership & Workforce Development Theses & Dissertations

Self-naming has long stood as the primary assertion of power for disenfranchised communities in the western world. While person first language (e.g. person who is deaf) has been the preferred language of disability and disability services for the last 20 years, members of the Deaf community have asserted their cultural capital, and indeed, their Deafhood, or defining the experience of being ‘deaf in the world’, through the power of self-naming. This research examines attitudes toward language, self-naming, and disability in the Deaf community and seeks to move toward a more attentive, sensitive, and responsive language policy in the academy.

Historically, …

Not You/Like You, With You: Toward A Praxis Of Love, Learning, And Liberation In Teaching Efl Writing — On Zombies, De-Colonial Feminisms, And Freire In Efl Contact Zones, Jessmaya Morales

MA TESOL Collection

This paper explores EFL writing as a critical contact zone in which identity and subjectivity are found, denied, contested, de/constructed and occupied. The author opens with an account of a dream, utilized as a metaphor to examine EFL learning through the analytical lens of Paulo Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed. The paper’s first section is a self-reflexive discussion of Freire’s pedagogy and why his unambiguous analyses of power, subjectivity, and the “banking system of education” are vital to the field of ELT. In the second section, the author discusses subjectivity, identity, and intersectionality as rooted in the work of …