Education Commons^™

Challenging Filipino Colonial Mentality With Philippine Art, Francesca V. Mateo

Master's Theses

For 350 years, the Philippines was colonized by Spain and the United States. The Philippines became a sovereign nation in 1946 yet, fifty years later, colonial teachings continue to oppress Filipinos due to their colonial mentality (CM.) CM is an internalized oppression among Filipinos in which they experience an automatic preference for anything Western—European or U.S. American—and rejection of anything Filipino. Although Filipinos show signs of a CM, there are Filipinos who are challenging CM by engaging in Philippine art. Philippine art is defined as Filipino-made visual art, literature, music, and dance intended to promote Philippine culture. This …

Code Switching In Teaching English To Speakers Of Other Languages, George H. Keller

Master's Projects and Capstones

One of the most controversial issues in foreign language teaching and learning over many years has been the role of the students’ L1 in L2 target language education. While a monolingual approach prohibited the use of the target language in L2 classroom, researchers have reexamined the issues related to the use of students’ L1 through code switching in the L2 classroom since the 1990s. The results of these studies have shown that the L1, if used properly and judiciously, may serve important functions for the learning process and social environment of the classroom. The purpose of this study was a …

Innovative Techniques For Inspiring Efl Students' Enthusiasm And Participating In English Classroom Activities, Yinghung Natalie Chiang

Master's Projects and Capstones

Since 1990, the government of Taiwan has sought to position the country as an international economic and trading center. As a result, English became a compulsory subject for Taiwanese students in 2005 (Lu, 2011). The Taiwan Ministry of Education (MOE) is promoting communicative language teaching (CLT) and encouraging learners to develop and increased desire to improve their language skills. However, many Taiwanese English as Foreign Language (EFL) teachers still focus on memorization and the grammar translation method (Chung & Huang, 2009). The author discovered two major issues related to English language teaching in Taiwan. The first issue was many Taiwanese …

An Interactive Environmental Approach To Teaching English As A Second Language, Jennifer L. Young

Master's Projects and Capstones

This field project offers lessons related to ecoliteracy and environmental understanding for intermediate to advanced English Language Learners. It contains an ESL Ecoliteracy Student Handbook and an ESL Ecoliteracy Teacher Guide. There are two comprehensive units focused on understanding and acknowledging ecosystems in urban areas and foraging. The lessons formed in these units stem from Howard Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences and the pedagogical theories of place based and experiential learning. Each unit has an outdoor activity build into the language learning framework, and the lessons are focused on building communicative, reading, vocabulary and grammar skills within an authentic learning …

Humanistic Approach Vs. Technological Approach: Accelerate Language Learning By Having Fun In The Sun, Alex M. Lopez

Master's Projects and Capstones

Technology continues to spread throughout the world, and it seems that this trend will continue for some time. Many students have been left behind because the focus has been largely on viewing computer screens and communicating without the use of a voice, through text messages and chatting.

This project is based on the humanistic approach, and it is designed to promote activities that involve group work, taking the students outside of the classroom, and building a familial support system within the classroom by promoting class chemistry.

The project outlines activities that involve more communication and collaborative activities because these enable …

The Immigrants In The Central Coast Of California Need Motivation To Attend Classes And Learn English As Their Second Language, Martin Rodriguez-Juarez

Master's Projects and Capstones

This field project shows that the immigrant community that works in the fields from the Central Coast of California need the motivation to attend adult school to learn English as their second language. A six-week courses is included.

Molding Minds For Peace: A Curriculum For Early Childhood Educators To Teach Peacebuilding Concepts And Skills, Marissa D. Gray

Master's Projects and Capstones

The United States is amidst a period of substantial growth in diversity. This diversification along with feelings of anti-immigrant sentiment has also led to an increase in tension and violence. Molding Minds for Peace: A Curriculum for Early Childhood Educators To Teach Peacebuilding Concepts is a project designed to teach early childhood students the skills that they need to peacefully navigate conflict and difference. After exploring literature about early childhood education/development, multicultural education, and peace education, this project provides early childhood educators with six complete lesson plans that are fully ready for implementation. These lessons have been developed in such …

An Esl Instructor's Guidebook For Reducing Test Anxiety At The Community College Level Through Exploring Alternatives In Assessment, Allison D. Grant

Master's Projects and Capstones

The purpose of this project is to decrease test anxiety within ESL community college students by providing their instructors with a guidebook for implementing alternatives in assessment. Chapter one dives right into the problem of ESL students experiencing test anxiety. At the community college level, there are added pressures from family needs, work, legal issues, adjusting to a new culture, and more. Teachers could offset this external anxiety by eliminating test anxiety in their classrooms.

Chapter two outlines much of the relevant literature dealing with the topics of test anxiety, foreign language anxiety, ESL testing practices, ESL at the community …

Improving Communicative Competence Of Korean College Students Based On The Flipped Classroom Model: A Handbook For Teachers, Jihye Lim

Master's Projects and Capstones

Korean college students tend to focus on obtaining competitive grades in different types of exams such as TOEFL, TOEIC, and IELTS. Despite their high test-scores, many Korean students are not proficient in communicating with others in English. Given the challenges many Korean students at the college-level experience with communication in English, there is an opportunity to provide Korean EFL instructors with a new classroom model for language teaching. The purpose of this project is to provide Korean EFL teachers with model lesson plans and instructional design resources based on the flipped classroom model. The improvement of students’ English level depends …

Exploring The Experiences Of Muslim Students In An Urban Ontario Public School, Asma Ahmed

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This dissertation explores the experiences of Muslim students in an urban public high school in Ontario with a reputation of having a large Muslim student presence. Much of the studies and surveys involving Islam and Muslims make evident that Islam is the most misunderstood religion in the world. Therefore, Muslims in the West are a “poorly understood” minority group (Environics Institute, 2016). While other ethnic or racial minorities feel moderately comfortable defending themselves and their groups, and asserting their identities, Muslim youth “face qualitatively different identity tasks than do many of their peers”, largely due to feelings of “being under …

Learning To Know, Do And Be: Curriculum For Self-Reflection And Intercultural Consciousness For The Sena Volunteacher Program, Claire H. Hero

Capstone Collection

Teach abroad programs have gained popularity across the world, as they are often an attractive option for people to live internationally while earning money. Many programs’ practices contribute to local teachers’ loss of employment, perpetuating stereotypes or ethnocentric views, or invite tourists into classrooms to “teach” English to communities they have no substantial interest in. As the industry grows, it is important to develop programs that promote responsible practices to encourage favorable impacts on the communities as well as visiting teachers. This proposed curriculum has been designed to enhance the experience for participants of the SENA Volunteacher Program for the …

Implementing Vocational Training At Escuela Quiteña De Estudios Bíblicos, Joshua K. Marcum

Doctor of Ministry Theses

This DMin project addressed the problem of the absence of a viable training model to equip graduates of EQEB (Escuela Quiteña de Estudios Biblicos) for self-sustaining ministry. Based upon a theology of vocation, the project implemented and evaluated the inclusion of a technical-skills component to EQEB’s current seminary training. The project followed the integration of sixteen EQEB students in the vocational program implemented during the 2015-2016 school year. Qualitative research data gathered from five group interviews with these students, my own field notes, and a faculty interview provided the substance upon which I based the project´s findings. Over a seven-month …

The Effects Of Explicit And Systematic Phonemic Awareness Instruction On Reading For English Language Learners, Annette Freeman

Dissertations

The purpose of this dissertation was to find effective phonological instruction for improving reading comprehension and oral language proficiency of ELLs. In addition, this study was conducted to inform school administrators without ESL certification about best practices in ELL education so they could make informed, school-wide decisions for better serving ELLs before entry into secondary schools.

The sample included first and second-grade students identified as ELLs in two Northwest Arkansas elementary schools. The two schools were selected based on their similar student demographics of grade configuration, ethnicity, and poverty rate. All students selected for the study were identified as ELLs …

Siwi In An Itinerant Teaching Setting: Contextual Factors Impacting Instruction, Rachel Machelle Saulsburry

Doctoral Dissertations

In the last 40 years, there has been a shift in where deaf and hard-of-hearing (d/hh) students have been educated (Foster & Cue, 2009), with a majority of d/hh students now spending at least part of their school day in the general education classroom instead of residential or day-schools for the deaf. Many of these students receive specialized support from an itinerant teacher. D/hh children have unique language needs due to their access (or lack thereof) to natural language for acquisition purposes. Insufficient access to language, ASL or English, may be due to: delays in identification and/or amplification, auditory input …

Language, Culture, And Identity Negotiation: Perspectives Of Adolescent Japanese Sojourner Students In The Midwest, Usa, Reiko Akiyama

Open Access Dissertations

This qualitative research highlights the voices and lived experiences of adolescent Japanese sojourner students and their mothers residing in the Midwest. The central goals of this research are to understand what adolescent Japanese sojourner students’ school experiences in the U.S. are like—particularly in areas with small Japanese populations—and how their experiences in the U.S. shape their current identities as cultural and linguistic minority students. This research also aims to learn how the students’ sojourning experiences influenced their mindsets as future returnee students. I conducted an in-depth case study with a phenomenographic approach as the theoretical framework to deeply investigate the …

The Effects Of Sign Language On Second Language Acquisition, Itzel Mejia-Menendez

Masters of Arts in Education Action Research Papers

This action research project examined the effects of sign language on the ability of primary students to learn new Spanish vocabulary in a bilingual Montessori classroom. The research took place at a public charter Montessori school in Washington, District of Columbia. Twenty-seven primary school aged children were included in this seven-week study. Sources of data collection included a parent-teacher questionnaire, a baseline assessment, daily observation logs, a daily checklist, a weekly journal, and a summative assessment. Students were grouped by Spanish fluency and taught eight different vocabulary words in Spanish. Half of the words were taught alongside a sign in …

"Let Me Tell You What I See" Creating A Culturally Relevant Arts Based Education Through The Use Of Photography And Storytelling, William Tran

Master's Projects and Capstones

There are many constructs that can hinder the ability of students of color to succeed in a classroom environment. Factors such as the construct of whiteness, microaggressions, the banking method, as well as cuts in arts based classes create a learning environment where oppression occurs on multiple levels. The construct of whiteness creates an environment in which only the ideas, values, lived experiences, and knowledge of whites are considered valid. Microaggressions uphold the construct of whiteness by insulting and invalidating any ideas, values, lived experiences, languages, and knowledge that are outside the construct of whiteness. The constructs of whiteness as …

Finding Our Way: Female Students At Oakland International High School, Nicole M. Germanov

Master's Theses

This thesis seeks to understand the experiences of the female students at Oakland International High School (OIHS). OIHS is a unique public school within the Oakland Unified School District (OUSD) that serves entirely low-income, English Language Learner (ELL) populations. A quarter of the school’s 376 students are refugees or asylees who have fled their country due to persecution based on their race, religion, nationality, political opinion or membership in a particular social group; additionally, 30% are undocumented, 24% are unaccompanied minors, and 47% are considered SIFE (students with interrupted formal education). However, one of the most outwardly noticeable things on …

Lotuses Rising: Fostering Southeast Asian Community Cultural Wealth Through Arts Based Culturally Specific Programming, Rhummanee Hang

Master's Projects and Capstones

This project explores how Banteay Srei, a community organization in Oakland, California, works with young Southeast Asian American women using arts based and culturally specific programming to make visible the community cultural wealth that exists in this community. Through cooking and telling stories about their elders' refuge and resettlement experiences, the young women gain a better sense of their own history, culture, and identity. This intergenerational project allows participants to learn, feel empowered, and begin to heal. The result is a cookbook for the young women of the organization. While this project and program is not meant to be replicated …

Evaluating Intercultural Communicative Competence Using Mediated Self-Reflection In Teaching English To Speakers Of Other Languages, Hessah Khaled Alzimami

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

In a globalized world, teaching English as a second language (ESL) or English as a foreign language (EFL) requires mastery of intercultural communicative competence (ICC). Deploying ICC has many benefits, especially with teaching and learning English, because it is a preeminent necessity for intercultural communication today. In ESL and EFL contexts at college and university levels, learners and instructors interface with other learners and instructors who have various languages and cultures, so there is a need for implementing ICC, because it encourages instructors and learners to communicate effectively with others using both their native and target languages, as well as …

A Case Study Of Non-Native English-Speaking International University Students Participating In A Community Of Practice, Linka G. Crosby

Language, Literacy, and Sociocultural Studies ETDs

The social identity construction of international students studying in the United States is important to the field of second language learning and the study of identity. A Social Identity and Communities of Practice (CoP) framework were used to understand how participation in a CoP informed the identity of non-native speaking university international students studying in the U.S. The focus of this study was to investigate how participation in a CoP informed the identity of non-native speaking international university students studying in the U.S. I proposed that these frameworks provided a foundation for understanding how participation in a CoP for non-native …

Black Women's Search For Meaning: An Existential Portraiture Study On How Black Women Experience The 4 Existential Givens, Tamiko Lemberger-Truelove

Language, Literacy, and Sociocultural Studies ETDs

The purpose of the phenomenological, qualitative study was to explore how select Black women experience the four ultimate concerns of existence, including freedom, isolation, meaninglessness, and death. Existential psychology, from which the four existential givens emerge, is deeply grounded in existential philosophy, which rarely connects key principles and tenets of existentialism to the experiences of Black women. The existential givens have been posited as a universal framework and yet because Black women are faced with multiple forms of marginalization the current study operates from the assumption that universal experiences are filtered through patently Black experiences. To explore how the existential …

Acculturation Stress, Psychological And Sociocultural Adjustment, And Development Of American Adolescents: A Qualitative Study Of Newton High School Exchange Students In China, Binbin Zhu

Doctoral Dissertations

Theories from the extant acculturation literature functioned to categorize international students’ adaptation experiences and predict their acculturation outcomes. Also, relevant studies focused mainly on students at the tertiary level. For adolescent students seeking self-development toward independence and autonomy, how they negotiated their identity challenges and tensions in a cross-cultural context, and how surrounding others in their socialization impacted on their psychosocial adjustment process and transformative experiences have not been actively explored. This qualitative study approached adolescent students’ acculturation as an integrated development and learning process to explore the effects of developmental and cultural factors on their cross-cultural adaptation, especially examined …

Perceptions Of Educator Preparation In The Field Of English Language Learners, Vivian R. Fry

Selected Honors Theses

This study investigated how well pre-service teachers felt prepared to teach English Language Learners in the areas of second language (L2) acquisition and culture. 62 preservice teachers responded to a survey sent out to education majors at Southeastern University. Majority of the participants in the study indicated that they had less than adequate knowledge in the area of L2 acquisition and were less than adequately prepared to educate ELLs in the area of L2 acquisition. The participants indicated that they wanted professional development opportunities that focused on pedagogy for the specific stages of L2 acquisition. Regarding culture, a little more …

An Examination Of How Adult English Second Language Learners Learn Pronunciation Skills, Joni Pagnotta

Doctor of Education (EdD)

This study examined research questions regarding differences in intelligibility levels of spoken English as a Foreign Language (EFL) and the use of pronunciation drills between two groups: control and treatment. The goal of this study was to discover if even short-term use of dedicated pronunciation drills (simple tongue twisters and voice exercises) in the EFL classroom was sufficient to significantly improve pronunciation in the target language. This study also examined some of the historical pedagogies and methodologies used in pronunciation teaching. Lastly, this research investigated whether or not there were any correlations between the use of and non-use of dedicated …

Americans' Foreign Language Deficit And Possible Solutions, Amanda B. Riehl

HON499 projects

This paper describes why knowledge of a foreign language is important and investigates why Americans are falling behind others around the world in regards to their knowledge of a foreign language. The paper then gives descriptions of different types of foreign language classes in the US, specifically classes that use the “book method” of teaching and classes that use the “immersion method” of teaching. Students from these classes also give feedback about their foreign language learning. The paper concludes with recommendations for how more Americans can more effectively learn a foreign language and how the United States can fix its …

Reflections On Donor-Funded Reports And Education Programs In Pakistan: A Qualitative Analysis On Pakistan’S English Education, Amy M. Puett

MA TESOL Collection

The extensive rise in aid from aid organizations and donor agencies for education in Pakistan at the beginning of the 21st century has resulted in a rise of the number of studies and reports on Pakistan’s education system and newly developed education programs. This was partially due to the concern about the status of the religious schools known as madaris and the quality of education they provided. The majority of the existing reports on education offer quantitative analyses and pay little attention to English taught in schools although English is critically important for job opportunities and professional growth in Pakistan. …

Initial Validation Of The Race-Ethnicity Supervision Scale (Ress), Stephanie Bartell

Dissertations (1934 -)

In this dissertation study, the author reports on the initial psychometric evaluation of the Race-Ethnicity Supervision Scale (RESS) with data collected from three studies and 307 mental health counseling and psychology trainees. Exploratory factor analyses yielded a 29-item scale with a four factor model (a) Promoting Supervisee Racial/Ethnic Cultural Competence, (b) Development and Responsivity to Cultural Identity in Supervision, (c) Perceived Supervisor Cultural Competence, and (d) Harmful Supervisory Practices. RESS scores were internally consistent and remained stable over a 3-week period. Construct validity evidence suggested RESS scores were positively related to MSI scores and unrelated to social desirability. Limitations and …

Literacies Of Bilingual Youth: A Profile Of Bilingual Academic, Social, And Txt Literacies, Michelle A. Mcsweeney

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation identifies three types of language skills that urban Spanish/English bilingual youth possess (academic, social, and texting language), and reports on their relationship while documenting and analyzing the features of text messaging among this population. The participants in this study are Spanish-dominant bilingual young adults enrolled in a high school completion program in New York City. They are in the process of developing both Spanish and English academic literacy skills, and it is well known that they tend to perform below the grade they are enrolled in. For this reason, they are often referred to as being “language-less” (DeCapua …

Transnational Indigenous Migration: Racialized Geographies And Power In Southern Highland Ecuador, Victoria Stone-Cadena

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This study examines the shifting landscape of social and economic inequalities in the remittance-dominated region of southern highland Ecuador, focusing on the transformations brought about by increased international migration since the early 2000s. The broader question is whether or not transnational migration has facilitated political and social upward mobility among indigenous communities. More specifically I ask: in what ways does indigenous identity figure in contemporary international migration practices, how does transnational indigenous migration complicate bounded notions of rural indigenous life, and how might the strategies employed by indigenous migrants transform social and economic inequalities in two small towns in the …