Bilingual, Multilingual, and Multicultural Education Commons^™

Critical Period Controversies For Second Language Acquisition: Implications For Language Teaching, Randy Lucio

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

It was proposed by Eric Lenneberg (1967) in Biological Foundations of Language that implicit first language (L1) acquisition was only possible during a critical period (CP) spanning from infancy to puberty. The critical period hypothesis (CPH) has since been a topic of controversy among L1 and second language (L2) scholars, whose studies have produced varying results that argue for and against a CP. It is suggested in this paper, however, that these often-varying results offer important insight that can serve to inform current and future L2 educational policy and instruction within K-12 education in the U.S. Thus, it is imperative …

Black Girls Matter: The Impact Of Historical Representation On Contemporary Education, Carolyn Strong

Dissertations

A long history of misogynoir and negative stereotypes about Black
girls and women can be found throughout the literature and popular
culture of the United States. These stereotypes inform the lived
experience of Black girls and women, and in particular interfere with
African American girls’ ability to thrive in a school environment. An
autoethnographic research approach shows that various strategies, in
particular, Black girl-centric spaces, have proven to be helpful in
supporting Black girls who have to negotiate varying degrees of
hostility in general environments. These could be applied more broadly
to improve Black girls’ mental, psychological, physical, and
educational …

Afro-Americano: The Transracialization Of The African-American Spanish Speaker, John M. Flanagan

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Transracialization is not a biological term connoting the change of one’s skin tone to become a member of a different race. Its definition has its roots in racialization—the ideological process that describes how one assembles ideas about groups based on their race and decides, for example, what a ‘Black’ person is and how ‘Black’ people speak. Thus, transracialization is a linguistic term that describes the political and sociocultural act of recontextualizing one’s phenotype with the use of language, and in so doing, upending the observers’ stereotypical expectations of who one is (Alim 2016). This dissertation deals with how Spanish influences …

Impacts Of Positioning, Power, And Resistance On Efl Learners’ Identity Construction Through Classroom Interaction: A Perspective From Critical Classroom Discourse Analysis, Wenwen Tian, Remart Padua Dumlao

The Qualitative Report

In this study, we explored how positioning, power, and resistance might have possible impacts on learners’ identity construction. We conducted this study in a 6-month language and culture program from August 2018 to January 2019 involving one teacher and 24 English major undergraduate students at a public university in Thailand. Using Kumaravadivelu’s (1999) Critical Classroom Discourse Analysis (CCDA) as an analytical framework and Braun and Clarke's (2006) thematic analysis approach to analysing data , we found three themes that illustrate how participants demonstrated positioning, power, and resistance: (a) learners’ choice of code as passive resistance, (b) circulating power in interaction …

Languages, Literacies, And Literate Programming: Can We Use The Latest Theories On How Bilingual People Learn To Help Us Teach Computational Literacies?, Sara Vogel, Christopher Hoadley, Ana Rebeca Castillo, Laura Ascenzi-Moreno

Publications and Research

Background and Context: In this theory paper, we explore the concept of translanguaging from bilingual education, and its implications for teaching and learning programming and computing in especially computer science (CS) for all initiatives.

Objective: We use translanguaging to examine how programming is and isn’t like using human languages. We frame CS as computational literacies. We describe a pedagogical approach for teaching computational literacies.

Method: We review theory from applied linguistics, literacy, and computational literacy. We provide a design narrative of our pedagogical approach by describing activities from bilingual middle school classrooms integrating Scratch into academic subjects.

Findings: Translanguaging pedagogy …

Advocating For Culturally Responsive Practices In The Ib Diploma Programme: Tapping In The Potential Of Acid Tests To Foster Coherence Between The Ib Principles And Teaching Practices, Timizay Ruiz Pineda

Critical and Creative Thinking Capstones Collection

International education programs, like the one proposed by the IB Organization, offer students across the world education for global, internationally-minded citizens. Nonetheless, the definition and often, the use of these terms are vague and, for the most part, refers to education and practices of Western countries that are Eurocentric in nature. It is necessary to develop coherence between the principles expressed in many international education frameworks and the reality of their practices. For this, it is fundamental that explicit guidance on culturally responsive teaching practices is acknowledged and provided by organizations like the IB. This paper provides theoretical support explaining …

Enseignement Engagé: Engaging And Motivating French Language Learners, James T. Workman

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

This portfolio is a compilation of work that the author completed during the Master of Second Language Teaching (MSLT) program at Utah State University. It represents the culmination of the author’s personal learning and teaching experiences from his coursework and teaching experience both as a graduate instructor of French at USU and as a seventh-grade French Dual Language Immersion (DLI) instructor.

The portfolio consists of three main sections. The teaching perspectives section provides insight into the author’s beliefs about the ideal roles of teachers and students in an L2 classroom, both in a foreign language setting and an immersion setting, …

Press Release - Utrgv Linguists Awarded Federal Grant To Document The Language Of The Rgv, The University Of Texas Rio Grande Valley. Corpus Bilingüe Del Valle

Corpus Bilingüe del Valle (CoBiVa) - News Releases

No abstract provided.

Southeast Asian Refugee-Learners: Identities Informing Esl Education And Support, Andrew J. Perlman

Journal of Southeast Asian American Education and Advancement

Serving as a synthesis of previously published studies and digests, this paper focuses on Southeast Asian refugees in America to address the complex interaction between refugee-learners’ ongoing construction of identity and the ESL environment. Drawing on a wealth of historical and contemporary research on one of America’s most prominent refugee populations, this exploration highlights the traits that constitute Southeast Asians as a unique group of learners due to their shared histories of trauma; social, cultural and religious influences; and ongoing sociocultural and linguistic negotiations of identity during resettlement. As a result, ESL programs and practitioners become critical to both language …

'In Gram's Blouse Pocket - Trong Túi Áo Ngoại', Trangdai Glassey-Tranguyen

Journal of Southeast Asian American Education and Advancement

Six bilingual poems celebrating the love and life of Ngoại-Grandma and the continuation of life in the next world.

The Struggle For Strong Democracy: We Need To Go Deeper. A Response To "Democratic Spaces: How Teachers Establish And Sustain Democracy And Education In Their Classrooms", Rick Ayers

Democracy & Education

The article by Collins, Hess, and Lowery (2019) explores struggles teachers faced in order to pursue Deweyan educational practices. This response proposes that even more is needed for a critical educational practice, called “strong democracy.” Such an approach requires addressing and countering the White supremacist legacy of U.S. capitalism and U.S. education. The article advances examples and various projects in strong democratic education.

Using Extensive Reading And Digital Flashcards For Vocabulary Acquisition, Zijin Feng

Master's Projects and Capstones

Non-native English learners often find it difficult to acquire adequate vocabulary knowledge. This can prevent them from making progress in other aspects of English learning, because learners have to understand most of the words that they hear or read to obtain comprehensible input. Fortunately, second language acquisition literature has long identified pleasure reading and spaced retrieval practice as effective in learning vocabulary. This field project examines the effectiveness of these two methods on vocabulary acquisition in adult English learners, and presents a handbook on how teachers can implement pleasure reading and spaced retrieval practice in the classroom. The handbook lays …

Elementary School Teachers’ Perspectives And Practices Of Multicultural Education In Indonesia, Robby Anggriawan

Theses and Dissertations

The main purpose of the study was to investigate multiculturalism and multicultural education perspectives and practices of elementary school teachers in Indonesia. The research was designed as a qualitative case study which focused on seven elementary school teachers as study participants. In this study, semi-structured interviews are used to evaluate teachers’ understanding of culture as defined by Creshaw (1989, 2008) and multiculturalism concept by using four levels of understanding multiculturalism as defined by Nieto (1994, 2017). As well as elementary school teachers’ practices of multicultural education implementation as outlined by Banks (1999, 2019). The results of the study showed that …

Using Bloom's Taxonomy To Teach College English In China: A Handbook For Educators, Yue Cai

Master's Projects and Capstones

With the modernization and globalization of China, the Chinese need to study and utilize English to be a part of the world. College students are essential to learning English. However, the purpose of college English in China still focuses on the national College English Tests. College students are not able to meet their original goal of learning English.

The purpose of this project is to create some teaching materials that improve students’ motivation and ability to learn English instead of raising exam grades. The project is a handbook which composes two model units based on Bloom’s taxonomy. Each unit contains …

Integrating Chinese Culture Into English Textbooks For Efl Teachers In Lesson Plans, Kexin Lu

Master's Projects and Capstones

In recent years, second language teaching in China, especially English teaching, has developed rapidly, making significant progress, and training a large number of outstanding non- native English speakers. However, Chinese cultural knowledge and its English expressions are neglected, resulting in learners' weak ability to express Chinese culture by using their second language. Therefore, it is necessary to pay attention to the integration of Chinese culture in English teaching materials and improve China ’s second language education.

This project first analyzes the current situation of weak cross-cultural communication competence of English learners in China, then explains the reasons cause for this …

An Effective Method Of Teaching English: A Handbook For English Teachers In China, Zichen Cai

Master's Projects and Capstones

Along with the significance of learning English has been emphasized by Chinese government for more than thirty years, more and more Westerns who mostly came from the U.S and England were welcomed to teach English in China. However, most of them are not qualified to teach, and they are not well-prepared before teaching according to author’s observation, which make students lose their interest in learning English eventually. Moreover, these foreign ESL teachers follow the activities and exercises in the textbook step by step while teaching, which is very dull and monotonous. In the literature review, the factors that might influence …

Retaining The Power To Teach And Advocate In The Era Of "Reform", David Aram Wilson, David Aram Wilson

Language, Literacy, and Sociocultural Studies ETDs

This qualitative, multi-case study investigates veteran, dual-language teachers in urban elementary schools in the Southwest United States and how these teachers manage to continue teaching despite education “reforms” that have contributed to increased attrition among their peers. Each participant contributed qualitative data through a narrative questionnaire, two interviews, two focus groups., and physical artifacts. Coding and analysis of each case was inductive and involved the identification of patterns and themes that emerged from the data. A cross-case analysis was conducted. Modern Critical Theory served as the theoretical lens.

Teachers as advocates for their students’ cultural, linguistic, and socioeconomic well-being emerged …

Beyond Working Relationship-Chinese International Students' Acculturation Stress, Wenjing Zhao

Education | Master's Theses

Chinese students form the largest group of international students in the U.S. today, yet research demonstrates that they experience significantly more acculturation stress than their European peers (Qi, Wang, Pincus & Wu, 2018). The purpose of this study is to analyze acculturation stress Chinese international students (CIS) face that stem from interactions with their American peers. This study takes a qualitative approach consisting of both group and individual interviews involving one focus group of seven American students and another focus group of six CIS. The researcher also interviewed two teachers and observed their classes. The research findings indicate that both …

Building Meaningful Relationships With Students, Amanda Brown

Education | Master's Theses

Elementary school classrooms are becoming more diverse and there is a growing need for educators to be culturally responsive to students and to understand what that means. The challenge we face is to support educators in implementing strategies to acknowledge student names, welcome students into the classroom and create an environment in which students want to be a part. Studies have shown that naming practices are an important topic in diverse classrooms, as some students with Non-Eurocentric names are being “renamed”, and as a result, lose a part of their identity. To best support these students, researchers recommend student-centered teaching …

Self-Directed Learning Practices In Esl: How Beginning Adult Latinx English Language Learners Can Increase Learning Outcomes, Jessica Parisi

Master's Projects and Capstones

This field project investigates the self-directed learning (SDL) practices that could increase learner outcomes in English language acquisition for beginning adult English language learners (ELLs), and presents on a website designed for the learner, the practices and local resources to engage them. Non-credit English as a second language (ESL) courses in community colleges in the San Francisco Bay Area have high enrollment and low levels of advancement, especially beginning levels. Latinx adult ELLs face unique challenges that contribute to their low rates of advancement, including linguistic isolation, and work and home duties that often prevent learners from attending classes the …