Education Commons^™

Towards A Constructivist Grammar Curriculum For The United States, Tyler Crafts Jennings

Graduate Student Independent Studies

The author argues that educators must forge an alternative method to teaching grammar: the explicit, constructivist teaching of grammar within the meaningful context of a writing curriculum.

Use Of C-Map As A Cognitive Tool In Collaborative And Individual Concept Mapping For Enhancing Ell Students' Reading Comprehension, Enaz Yousef Rasheed Mahmoud

Theses and Dissertations

Among those who teach English to English Language Learners (ELL), reading comprehension is considered an essential language skill critical for knowledge acquisition and information exchange. However, in various parts of the world, including Jordan, reading comprehension has been reported as a difficult area for ELL students to master.

The purpose of this study was to investigate in-depth the impact of the use of the reading software C-map as a cognitive tool in collaborative and individual concept mapping to promote reading comprehension among ELL readers. The independent variable of this study was concept mapping, which functioned on three levels: collaborative, individual, …

Actividades Utilizadas Por Docentes Practicantes De La Universidad De La Salle Para Promover El Desarrollo De Competencias De Lectura Y Escritura En Lengua Inglesa, Diana Catalina Mora Pacheco, Eddy Yamile Rojas Castillo

Licenciatura en Español y Lenguas Extranjeras

El presente proyecto, se fundamentó en la descripción de las actividades utilizadas en la práctica docente para promover el desarrollo de competencias de lectura y escritura en la enseñanza de inglés. El objetivo principal fue determinar las actividades que durante el ejercicio de la práctica docente se implementan efectivamente para promover el desarrollo de competencias de lectura y escritura en la enseñanza de lengua inglesa a los niños entre seis y ocho años de nivel básico uno de la Fundación ASE sede Laureano Gómez. Además, se describieron y analizaron las actividades halladas en función del desarrollo de las competencias anteriormente …

The Impact Of Criteria-Referenced Formative Assessment On Fifth Grade Students' Theater Arts And English Language Arts Achievement, Fei Chen

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of criteria-referenced formative assessment (CRFA) on elementary students' achievement in theater arts and the transfer effect of the treatment on English language arts (ELA) achievement. The role of gender and task type in moderating the treatment-achievement relationship was also explored. The analytical sample included 520 fifth-grade students from thirteen classes who participated in the Arts Achieve project. Selection bias in treatment assignment was adjusted with propensity score analysis (Rosenbaum & Rubin, 1983) for the purposes of obtaining asymptotically unbiased estimates of treatment effects.

The Effect Of A Dual Coding Elucidation Technique On Idiom Comprehension In Esl And Efl Learners, Denis Samburskiy

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

This study relied on the assumption that literal meaning of some idiomatic expressions (i.e., their conceptual motivation) could have a positive effect on the comprehension of their correct figurative sense. To test this hypothesis, a Dual Coding elucidation technique, in which important elements of correct figurative meaning were mapped onto literal ones, was designed to facilitate the comprehension of 15 highly imageable idioms. This technique was administered in the form of an online questionnaire to Russian- and Korean-speaking EFL and ESL learners. The facilitative effect of this technique was assessed taking into account several relevant variables: the learners’ levels of …

Writing Development Of Spanish-English Bilingual Students With Language Learning Disabilities, Robin L. Danzak, Elaine R. Silliman

Communication Disorders Faculty Publications

This chapter addresses Spanish-speaking, English Language Learners (ELLs) in the United States (U.S.) who are sequential bilinguals; that is, oral and written English is acquired as a second language (L2) at school. Within this population, substantial variation exists with regard to individual students’ language and literacy learning experiences. The specific focus here is the writing patterns of ELLs with atypical language development, who often present with multiple complexities in authenticating their language learning profiles in both Spanish and English.

Adult Learners Of English Interacting With Native Speaker Teachers And Non-Native Speaker Teachers : Exploring Differences In Students' Language Use, Melody Hallenbeck Nadeau

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

This mixed-methods study examined the lived experience of adult English Language Learners (ELLs) in classrooms led by native speaking teachers, compared with their experience in classrooms led by non-native teachers. The socio-cognitive approach to language and emergent common ground framed the development of the English classroom as a Community of Practice, in which students produced varying levels of complex, formulaic, metaphorically dense speech.

Synergic Concepts Between English And Vietnamese, Ngoc Thi Bich Tran

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

One of the most common mistakes that foreign/second language learners make is inappropriate word choice, which results from the lack of knowledge of the conceptual content contained in a word. I have experienced this difficulty myself as a foreign learner of English for more than ten years; and as an English teacher for about three years in Vietnam, I understand that grasping the conceptual content of English words is quite challenging for Vietnamese learners. It has long been a tradition that the teacher gives the translation of an English word to the student, and the student consequently just puts a …

Discursive Leadership And Conceptual Fluency In Non-Native English Speakers' Online Task-Based Dialogues, Umit Boz

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Much research has examined how different patterns of social interaction shape language learners' interactional roles (e.g., collaborative, dominant, passive) in peer-to-peer conversations. However, little or no research has investigated the co-construction of such roles in multiparty, online task-based dialogues within the framework of discursive leadership. For the purpose of this study, discursive leadership is defined as the ability of the interlocutors to (a) shape the discourse via topic introductions and subsequent topic mentions and (b) manage the process of the task through the use of a series of task-oriented speech acts such as directives and assertions. Using a multi-method approach …

When Every Teacher Is A Language Teacher : A Case Study Of High School Math And Science Instructors' Use Of Multimodal Accommodations With Els, Karen Marie Gregory

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

This case study investigated the multimodal accommodations that content teachers make in order to dually support linguistic and conceptual development for English language learning students. Data from digitally recorded classroom observations, teacher interviews, student work, and questionnaires were collected from the participating math and science teachers. The data were analyzed from the theoretical framework of an ecological -semiotic perspective of language teaching and learning (van Lier, 2004), and is theoretically tied to communication accommodation theory and multimodal communication theory as well.

Teaching Writing To East Asian Esl Adolescents : Case Studies Of Esl And Ela Teachers, Ae Lee Lee

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

This study aims to identify practices of teaching writing that are most helpful for East Asian ESL adolescents. Although prior research has examined practices of ESL writing instruction for adolescent students in general or for East Asian ESL students at the college level, to date no empirical research has been conducted on writing pedagogy specifically for East Asian students at the secondary level. This study aims to bridge that research gap.

Why Do Teachers Hate Ai N'T? Eighteenth-Century Ideologies And Attitudes In Twenty-First-Century Classrooms, Robin Elise Halsey

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis investigates the impact of various historical events on the development of the English language and its grammar. Specifically, this project highlights how the ideologies about language held by eighteenth-century grammar-writers have influenced the pedagogical approach of teachers of English, persisting into the twenty-first century. Further, the rationale behind these language ideologies is explored in order to gain important insights into the seemingly prescriptive nature of the majority of grammar texts produced in the eighteenth century and beyond.

The origins of four particular points of grammar and usage that are commonly attacked by teachers, grammarians, and others are examined. …

Teachers' Perception Of The English Language Curriculum In Libyan Public Schools: An Investigation And Assessment Of Implementation Process Of English Curriculum In Libyan Public High Schools, Salem Altaieb

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

With the advent of globalization and technological development, English has become a necessary tool of international communication in many areas such as education, business, politics, commerce, science, and technology throughout the world. Also, English has become the most widely taught foreign language in the world (Kachru &Nelson, 1996). Moreover, the issue of successful implementation of the English language curriculum has been the focus of a number of studies. In the case of Libya, however, little research has been conducted on teachers' perceptions of the new English language curriculum in Libyan high schools. Thus, teachers' voices have not been examined or …

Science Classroom Discourse For Fourth Grade English Language Learners' Scientific Literacy Development, Shu-Wen Lan

Open Access Dissertations

Recent research has shown that the construction of science knowledge involves students' development of science understanding and science language, particularly as it relates to intertextual connections to science terminology and concepts that teachers and students make in science classroom discourse. However, up to now, there is little research exploring this development in upper elementary students, including English Language Learners (ELLs). Through a qualitative case study of a fourth grade science classroom with ELLs, this research project investigated science classroom discourse, using the frameworks of Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) discourse analysis and intertextual analysis, to understand the nature of science classroom …

Professional Writing In The English Classroom: Designing A High School Or Middle School Course (Or Unit) In Professional Writing, Jonathan Bush, Leah A. Zuidema

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

The article offers information on the development of professional writing course in English middle school or high school classroom. It mentions that a good syllabus not only provide answers to basic questions, but also to questions that Jay McTighe and Grant Wiggins have pertained to as the essential questions. It notes that students learn from writing activities and assessments including how to write in genres, evaluate the settings of professional tools, and manage their writing processes.

The Development And Evaluation Of An In-Service Training For Informing Elementary School Personnel About Culturally Responsive Assessment And Instruction For English Language Learning Students, Mallory Whitney Poole

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

The purpose of this project is to develop and present a training session for elementary school teachers and other Personnel who teach and work with English Language Learners (ELL). The training provides information on evidence based instructional strategies to help teachers improve their teaching methods with students who speak languages other than English. The lack of teacher knowledge in utilizing culturally and linguistically responsive teaching methods may be contributing to the over identification of ELLs in special education. This situation reinforces the need for additional teacher training for those who teach students from diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds. This creative …

Rethinking Materials For The Reading Class, Nolan Weil

Languages, Philosophy, and Communication Studies Faculty Publications

With experienced teachers reading pedagogy revolves around activities that promote:
• Background knowledge
• Knowledge of text structure
• Vocabulary development
• Strategic reading
• Reading fluency
• Interactions around text
Inexperienced teachers can be mentored so that they learn to use texts to teach as experienced reading teachers teach. Publishers and materials writers can facilitate this by writing and publishing materials that have lots of stimulating text and instructional materials (e.g., pedagogical explanation, techniques, and recommendations) that empower teachers to teach.

Nevada's English Language Learner Population: A Review Of Enrollment, Outcomes, And Opportunities, Sonya D. Horsford, Christina Mokhtar, Carrie Sampson

Lincy Institute Reports and Briefs

The purpose of this report is to provide the public with an easy‐to‐understand review of the status of education for Nevada’s English Language Learner (ELL) population with a focus on Clark County. Nevada is ranked first in the U.S. for having the highest growth rate of Limited English Proficient (LEP) individuals and fifth in the nation for having the largest share of LEP residents, only behind California, Texas, New York, and New Jersey (Migration Policy Institute, 2011). In the case of public education, student enrollment patterns over the last two decades reflect dramatic increases in ELL students in Nevada and …

Nevada English Language Learner's Summary, Sonya D. Horsford, Christina Mokhtar, Carrie Sampson

Lincy Institute Reports and Briefs

The purpose of this report is to provide the public with an easy‐to‐understand review of the status of education for Nevada’s English Language Learner (ELL) population with a focus on Clark County. Nevada is ranked first in the U.S. for having the highest growth rate of Limited English Proficient (LEP) individuals and fifth in the nation for having the largest share of LEP residents, only behind California, Texas, New York, and New Jersey (Migration Policy Institute, 2011). In the case of public education, student enrollment patterns over the last two decades reflect dramatic increases in ELL students in Nevada and …

Professional Writing In The English Classroom: Professional Collaborative Writing: Teaching, Writing, And Learning -- Together, Jonathan Bush, Leah A. Zuidema

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

The article discusses the significance of writing professionally and collaboratively in English learning. It states that if people consider writing as just an individual act, they miss the big part of the value of professional writing. It says that oftentimes, professional writing explicitly represents an organization. It adds that collaborative writing involves the work of two or more members of a team.

Strategy Use Of Russian Pre-Service Tefl University Students: Using A Strategy Inventory For Program Effectiveness Evaluation, Alla Zareva, Anna Fomina

English Faculty Publications

The focus of the present study is on identifying categories of learning strategies that are mostly used by Russian university students in an English Linguistics Program with a TEFL concentration. The more specific goal of the study is to offer a model of evaluation of the effectiveness of TEFL-oriented programs in terms of the language learning strategies their students use and recognize as pedagogically applicable to their EFL environment. To this end, two groups of students were compared on their self-reported frequency of strategy use -- 1st year students (n = 23), who had just entered the program, and 4th …

Effects Of Online Instructional Conversation On English As A Foreign Language Learners' Webquest Writing Performance : A Mixed Methods Study, Haesong Lee

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

WebQuests, or inquiry-oriented activities in which learners interact with Web-based information (Dodge, 1995, 1996, 2007), have recently been gaining popularity in education in general and in language education in particular. While it has the advantage of fostering higher-level thinking through authentic assignments, a WebQuest can be challenging to second or foreign language learners. In light of this challenge, Instructional Conversation (IC), or discussion-oriented form of teacher-led talk about text (Saunders & Goldenberg, 2007), may provide a solution to foreign/second language learners' difficulties with comprehension of Web-based information, thereby facilitating their WebQuest task performance. The purpose of this mixed methods study …

Use Of Subordination In English Second Language Texts, Susan L. Nesbitt Perez

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

This study investigates features of high-level academic writing in English with the aim of understanding the development of L2 English learners' academic writing skills as they follow a course of study in an English-speaking country. The study focuses on L2 writers' text quality and use of clause subordinators as a measure of writing complexity. The typology of the writers' L1s provides the organizational framework for the study, with three language typology groupings determined by a writer's L1 word order tendency: (1) configurational languages, (2) nonconfigurational languages, and (3) Asian languages.

Selected Factors Related To The Mathematics Academic Achievement Of Eighth Grade English Language Learners, Anthony Garza

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

The purpose of this study was to examine selected factors related to the 8th grade mathematics achievement levels of English Language Learner (ELL) students in selected South Texas middle schools. The dependent variable, ELL mathematics achievement, was measured by the ELL student’s raw score on the State of Texas Assessment of Academic Readiness (STAAR) or the State of Texas Assessment of Academic Readiness linguistically accommodated test (STAAR L). The factors examined in this study were 1) parent’s educational background, 2) socioeconomic status, 3) parental involvement status at school, 4) number of people in the household, 5) family structure, 6) primary …

Professional Writing In The English Classroom: Let's Get Real: Using Usability To Connect Writers, Readers, And Texts, Jonathan Bush, Leah A. Zuidema

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

The article discusses the application of the concept of usability and user-centered design in the interaction between the writers and the readers in the English classroom. It is inferred that the interaction with readers is essential during the process of writing. The elements of effective lessons on usability and user-centered design are highlighted.

A Comparative Analysis Of Two Forms Of Gyeonggi English Communicative Ability Test Based On Classical Test Theory And Item Response Theory, Young-Beol Yoon

Theses and Dissertations

This study is an empirical analysis of the 2009 and 2010 forms of the Gyeonggi English Communicative Ability Test (GECAT) based on the responses of 2,307 students to the 2009 GECAT and 2,907 students to the 2010 GECAT. The GECAT is an English proficiency examination sponsored by the Gyeonggi Provincial Office of Education (GOE) in South Korea. This multiple-choice test has been administered annually at the end of each school year to high school students since 2004 as a measure of the students' ability to communicate in English. From 2004 until 2009, the test included 80 multiple-choice items, but in …

Hall, Deborah Mcguffey (Fa 69), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

FA Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folklife Archives Project 69. Thesis: “Using Folklore to Teach English as a Second Language” by Deborah McGuffey Hall in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Master of Arts, Department of Folk and Intercultural Studies at Western Kentucky University.

The Effectiveness Of Etymological Elaboration As A Method Of Teaching Idioms To Adolescent English Language Learners, Julia L. Coryell

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

The prevalence of idioms in both spoken and written English makes learning to comprehend and produce them important for English language learners. It may be particularly important for preadolescent and adolescent learners to become proficient with idioms because of their need to fit in with peers and the frequency with which idioms occur in classroom communication and academic texts. Idioms pose difficulties for non-native speakers because of their nature as both formulaic and figurative language, their cultural specificity, and the fact that their figurative meaning cannot necessarily be determined from the literal meanings of the constituent words.

The Viability Of Palestinian Efl Teachers To Effectively Apply Ict As An Educational Medium In Palestinian Basic Schools In The Gaza Strip : A Pedagogical Perspective, Wael A. S. Jebril

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

The primary purpose of this research is to present a successful model of a Palestinian EFL ICT-using teacher; through investigating the viability of a Palestinian EFL teacher to effectively use ICT as a medium in the classroom in a basic school. The research presents a pioneering idea that focuses on the pedagogical ability of the teacher to design and teach governmental EFL material via technology in a developing, occupied and besieged area (The Gaza Strip: Palestine). The research is meant to present a successful demonstrative study that would address Palestinian EFL teachers, decision makers, school administrators and sponsors.

Theoretical And Practical Implications Of Multicultural Music For Additional Language Learning In South Africa, Nolan Keven Krull

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

The South African Department of Basic Education has outlined general goals for the country's education system as well as specific goals for each school subject in a Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement (CAPS) for Grades R to 12. This research focuses on how the use of multicultural South African music can support the goals and objectives of the curriculum for English as a First Additional Language in Grades 10 to 12. The proposed introduction of multicultural music creates a third culture that stems from the novel integration of cultural elements and takes advantage of learners' prior knowledge and cultural experiences. …