Education Commons^™

Partnership Between Iraqi Families With Refugee Backgrounds And School Professionals, Ashraf Alamatouri

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

Research shows that partnerships between families and school professionals can be an important factor in student educational outcomes and that such partnerships exist less for families with refugee backgrounds than for native-born Americans. There are gaps in the literature around linguistic factors and advocacy styles that could influence the relationship between families with refugee backgrounds and school professionals, especially for Arabic speakers. The purpose of this study was to deeply analyze one Iraqi family’s interactions with school professionals in the U.S. to answer the following research question: What linguistic factors and advocacy behaviors facilitate and impede the formation of a …

Predictors Of Refugees’ Ability To Pass The United States Citizenship Exam, Molly Grover, Fern Hauck, Sarah Blackstone, Emily Cloyd

Virginia Journal of Public Health

Background: Passing the United States citizenship exam can be challenging for refugee populations for several reasons, including affordability of English classes, time restraints, medical stressors, and limited formal education. The purpose of this study was to examine factors that may influence a refugees’ ability to pass the citizenship exam, including English proficiency, education, employment, and completion of English as a Second Language (ESL) classes.

Methods: Refugee patients at the International Family Medicine Clinic (IFMC) in Central Virginia participated in a survey that assessed their levels of English proficiency and whether or not they had passed the citizenship exam. The survey …

Teaching English To Refugees Through Storytelling, Emily Camplejohn

Senior Honors Theses

Many refugees are trying to learn English while assimilating to a new culture. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has identified several needs and goals of refugees including competence in the language of the receiving culture and participation in a new, welcoming community. Storytelling, expressing or receiving a narrative through oral or written communication, can be implemented for teaching English to refugees with these goals and can link academic learning with real life experiences. In addition to using storytelling as a meaningful way to interact with language, storytelling also fosters a community within the classroom. The teacher is …

Functions, Forms, And Accessibility Of English As A Second Language Courses In South-Central Kentucky, Mollie Todd

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

In the South-Central region of Kentucky there are several facilities that teach English as Second Language (ESL) courses. This thesis examines the forms and styles of these classes, as well as problems refugee students face in the classroom and the functions the classes may serve beyond the teaching of English. To accomplish this, I used anthropological field work methods, including semi-structured interviews with local ESL teachers, volunteers, and professionals in refugee services and participant observation. I will focus on the interviews I have conducted; what content has been collected, structure of the interviews, and what questions were asked. This paper …

Interpreting, Stephanie Jo Kent

Doctoral Dissertations

What do community interpreting for the Deaf in western societies, conference interpreting for the European Parliament, and language brokering in international management have in common? Academic research and professional training have historically emphasized the linguistic and cognitive challenges of interpreting, neglecting or ignoring the social aspects that structure communication. All forms of interpreting are inherently social; they involve relationships among at least three people and two languages. The contexts explored here, American Sign Language/English interpreting and spoken language interpreting within the European Parliament, show that simultaneous interpreting involves attitudes, norms and values about intercultural communication that overemphasize information and discount …

The Cultural Problems Encountered In Teaching Basic English To Russian Jew Refugees As An Initial Step To Entering An English Speaking Society, James Edwin Traver

MA TESOL Collection

The Organizzazione Rieducazione Tecnia in Rome, Italy offers English language instruction to Russian Jew refugees who for one reason or another wish to obtain visas to an English speaking country. The students are in a transitional phase in their lives; they have left their country of birth and haven't yet been accepted into another country of their choice. This creates special needs in regard to language acquisition. They need survival skills to help them make this transition and they need to gain an appreciation of English speaking cultures.

During the summer of 1977, I taught and observed classes at this …