Education Commons^™

Is Weak Oral Language Associated With Poor Spelling In School-Age Children With Specific Language Impairment, Dyslexia Or Both?, Jillian H. Mccarthy, Tiffany Hogan, Hugh W. Catts

Department of Special Education and Communication Disorders: Faculty Publications

The purpose of this study was to test the hypothesis that word reading accuracy, not oral language, is associated with spelling performance in school-age children. We compared fourth grade spelling accuracy in children with specific language impairment (SLI), dyslexia or both (SLI/dyslexia) to their typically developing grade-matched peers. Results of the study revealed that children with SLI performed similarly to their typically developing peers on a single-word spelling task. Alternatively, those with dyslexia and SLI/dyslexia evidenced poor spelling accuracy. Errors made by both those with dyslexia and SLI/dyslexia were characterized by numerous phonologic, orthographic and semantic errors. Cumulative results support …

Exposure: Making Changes In American Public Education, Katharine Mcallister

Katharine McAllister

During the 2008-2009 school year I volunteered through the Mentor/Tutor Internship program at the East Bay Met School in Newport, RI. I formed solid relationships with many of the students and the staff and discovered unexpectedly how much I enjoyed being in a school setting. In the fall of 2009 I obtained permission from the principal and the advisors to experiment with a syllabus I created for my Senior Honors Project- a 10 week course on Hispanic language and culture called Exposure. In late September I found myself playing the part of teacher in front of a group of 12 …

Maternal Language During Book-Sharing: Wordless Verses Print, Jessica Nielsen

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

The importance of adult linguistic responsiveness in facilitating language development in young children is well documented (e.g. Cross & Morris, 1980; Snow, 1994; Tamis-LeMonda, Bornstein, & Baumwell, 2001; Yoder, Warren, McCathern, & Leew, 1998). Research has shown that the use of responsive language by parents in the context of play is associated with greater child language productivity (Girolametto, Hoaken, Weitzman, & van Lieshout, 2000). Rocissano and Yatchmink (1983) found that when mother-child dyads utilized more joint attention, the toddlers demonstrated higher language skills and syntax abilities. Research has also shown that parent-child shared book reading contexts can be very beneficial …

A Professional Development Program For The Mother Tongue-Based Teacher: Addressing Teacher Perceptions And Attitudes Towards Mtbmle, Rebecca J. Paulson Stone

Open Access Dissertations

This study investigates teacher attitudes about language and education. The purpose of the study is to help program designers develop professional development efforts that successfully address some of the major identified challenges teachers face when transitioning into Mother Tongue Based Multi-Lingual Education (MTBMLE), including negative attitudes. It also suggests protocols and issues that trainers should consider when designing professional development for MTBMLE teachers.

The research question guiding this study is:

1. Do teachers' attitudes towards and knowledge about mother tongue-based instruction change after they participate in professional development that is consistent with good professional development practice?

a. What were teachers' …

The Language Teaching Puzzle, Gregory S. Child

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

This portfolio is a compilation of beliefs about effective foreign language (FL) teaching. The core of this portfolio is a teaching philosophy, in which theories, such as comprehensible input, teacher and student roles, and activities are explained. The teaching philosophy is accompanied by a reflection of the authors teaching observed from a video. Following the teaching philosophy and personal teaching reflection are three artifacts centered on language, culture, and literacy. The language artifact contains an observational study in which instructors’ practices are compared with their beliefs. The cultural artifact is focused on storytelling. Many civilizations employ storytelling in the form …

Communicative Language Teaching: The Cornerstone Of Second Language Acquisition, Sierra Fischback

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

This portfolio is comprised of a compilation of papers written by the author while completing the Master of Second Language Teaching (MSLT) program at Utah State University. The focus of the portfolio is a teaching philosophy outlining the author’s beliefs on how to foster effective language teaching in the university foreign language classroom. Included as well are artifacts addressing coping with culture shock, effective forms of language learning, and reading in foreign language literature courses. These artifacts were chosen to reflect important areas of language teaching that have affected the author’s teaching philosophy. Finally, the author has incorporated an annotated …

Re-Envisioning Professional Development For The Teaching Of Writing: Lessons Learned From The National Writing Project And Where We Go From Here, Susan M. Diaz

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

In this thesis, I compare what we know about the teaching of writing from thirty years of disciplinary research and development versus what secondary pre-service and in-service teachers know about it. In terms of theoretical and practical alignment, I also examine the transition in Texas from one standardized test (TAKS) to another (STAAR) and the implications for teachers. Finally, I outline a Professional Development sequence for secondary school teachers that would better prepare teachers to teach writing across the secondary school curriculum, including an argument for particularly effective methods of delivery for communicating this information. This professional development design includes, …

Cartoons And Linguistic Context, Brad Jackel

Dr Brad Jackel

This paper presents the results of a trial conducted during the development of The Graduate Australian Medical School Admission Test (GAMSAT) 2006, where two versions of a cartoon unit were trialled; in both cases the cartoon and the question itself were identical. The only difference was in the way the cartoon was introduced within the test. Psychometrically, across the 650 candidates involved in the trial, one version ‘worked’ very well, the other not at all.

Teachers As Language-Policy Actors: Contending With The Erasure Of Lesser-Used Languages In Schools, Kara Brown

Kara D. Brown

On the basis of an ethnographic study of the Võro-language revitalization in Estonia, this article explores the way teachers function as policy actors in the broader context of the school. As policy actors, the language teachers' appropriation of regional–language policy helps simultaneously to reproduce and challenge existing ideologies in the school environment. I explore the teachers' understandings of their power and freedom to inform their navigation of the circumscribed choices offered in a post-Soviet educational system. [language, anthropology of policy, teachers, Baltic]

A Multi-Platform Application Suite For Enhancing South Asian Language Pedagogy, Tao Bai, Christopher K. Chung, Konstantin Läufer, Daisy Rockwell, George K. Thiruvathukal

Konstantin Läufer

This interdisciplinary project explores the potential for handheld/wireless (H/W) technology in the context of language education within and beyond the classroom. Specifically, we have designed and implemented a suite of multi-platform (desktop/laptop, handheld, and browser) applications to enhance the teaching of South Asian languages such as Hindi-Urdu. Such languages are very difficult to learn, let alone write, and H/W devices (with their handwriting/drawing capabilities) can play a significant role in overcoming the learning curve. The initial application suite includes a character/word tracer, a word splitter/joiner, a smart flashcard with audio, contextual augmented stories for reading comprehension, and a poetic metronome. …

Education Reform In Rwanda: Impacts Of Genocide And Reconstruction On School Systems, Jay Mathisen

Doctor of Education (EdD)

This study is an historical dissertation on the topic of education reform in the East African nation of Rwanda. Determining the impact of the Rwandan genocide of 1994 on three reform initiatives that followed is the central aim of the study. The framework of the study is assembled as a three-­‐part timeline upon which three initiatives of education reform are overlaid for analysis, 1) student-­‐centered instruction, 2) language and 3) enrollment developments. Focusing on those three initiatives in the context of a timeline that details each in the decades prior to the genocide, and in the years that followed it, …

Knowledge Of An Aboriginal Language And School Outcomes For Children And Adults, Anne GuèVremont, Dafna E. Kohen

Aboriginal Policy Research Consortium International (APRCi)

This study uses data from the child and adult components of the 2001 Canadian Aboriginal Peoples Survey to examine what factors are related to speaking an Aboriginal language and how speaking an Aboriginal language is related to school outcomes. Even after controlling for child and family factors (age, sex, health status, household income, number of people living in the household, and living in an urban or rural area), speaking an Aboriginal language was associated with positive school outcomes for young children aged 6 to 14 years old if they learned the language in school, but a lower likelihood of having …

More Than Just Nonsense Verse?: The Language Of Dr. Seuss And Children's Literacy, Nicole Hewes

Senior Scholar Papers

In this Senior Scholars project I wanted to demonstrate that Dr. Seuss books are much more than just nonsense verse. For the first part of my project, I familiarized myself with all of his texts and scrutinized his use of language in a textual analysis. By scrutinizing Geisel’s use of language and wordplay, I hoped to isolate some characteristics that make a Seuss book different from other types of stories and texts. The second part of my project was an empirical study that tested what influence reading a real Seuss text versus a fake Seuss text has on students’ performance …

Service-Learning In English Language Courses, Audrey Short, Susan Dudley, Lynn Pelco

Division of Community Engagement Resources

No abstract provided.

Using Transfer Of Stimulus Control Technology To Promote Generalization And Spontaneity Of Language, Trina D. Spencer, Thomas S. Higbee

Special Education and Rehabilitation Counseling Faculty Publications

Children with autism often use newly acquired language in restricted contexts and with limited variability. Instructional tactics that embed generalization technology have shown promise for increasing spontaneity, response variation, and the generalized use of language across settings, people, and materials. This case example explores the integration of textual scripts and explicit engineering of transfer of stimulus control procedures to facilitate functional conversation skills of a young girl with autism. The generalized use of prepositions, coordinating conjunctions, and subordinating conjunctions was assessed within the context of natural conversation with teachers, parents, and peers. The intentional programming of training contexts has the …

Knowledge About Language In The Australian Curriculum: English, Beverly Derewianka

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

Somewhat surprisingly, an explicit knowledge about language has been often absent from English curricula. The new Australian Curriculum: English (ACARA, 2012) has taken a fairly radical step in placing knowledge about language at the core of classroom practice, thereby raising the issue of an appropriate model of language to inform the Language Strand of the Curriculum. This paper will outline the rationale behind the Language Strand, and will then make explicit its underlying model of language. The paper thus provides a context for the ensuing articles in this Special Focus Issue of AJLL, which take up various concerns in relation …

Continued Professional Development Of Teachers To Facilitate Language Used In Numeracy And Mathematics, Brenda Louw

Brenda Louw