Bilingual, Multilingual, and Multicultural Education Commons^™

Folklore Or Britney Spears: Efl Decisions In An Increasingly Global World, Erin C. Anderson

MA TESOL Collection

This paper explores my decisions concerning texts in the EFL classroom in the post-communist cities of Bruntál, Czech Republic in 1993 and Bila Tserkva, Ukraine in 2005. By examining my use of Slavic folklore in these EFL contexts, through the lenses of post-colonialism, folklore studies, and globalization, it is apparent that what has motivated my students has not necessarily been consistent with the goals of post-colonialism, i.e., the development and maintenance of national cultural values. In fact, students have been found to be most motivated by the use of texts they share a fondness for and a familiarity with, …

From Riyadh To Portland: The Study Abroad Experiences Of Five Saudi Arabian Female Students, Dana Kampman

MA TESOL Collection

The number of Saudi Arabian students enrolled in college and university programs in other countries is increasing. This paper reports on a qualitative research project conducted with five female Saudi college students enrolled in a summer program at Portland State University. It examines how notions of culture can explain the source of the challenges that the students faced and how they overcame these challenges. Implications for pre-departure orientation and on-site support are presented and discussed.

Instructional Practices That Hinder And Support Esl Students In The Self-Contained Esl Classroom And The Mainstream Classroom, Ebru N. Bozburun

MA TESOL Collection

This paper describes the academic challenges that many English Second Language (ESL) students must deal with from the moment they start attending a bilingual program at elementary school until they finish the last step of their academic experience. These students continually struggle to keep up with their peers, often fail the state mandated tests, and eventually, drop out before receiving their high school diploma. For the past three years, both as a self-contained ESL teacher and an ESL certified co-teacher in the mainstream classroom, I taught ESL Language Arts to Spanish- speaking students at a public junior high school in …

Using Technology In The Efl Classroom In Saudi Arabia, Neil Oby Morris

MA TESOL Collection

This paper explores the ways that technology, specifically the use of laptop computers and cellular phones, may be incorporated in the EFL classroom to enhance learning and lower the affective filter of male Saudi Arabian university students.

Saudi Arabia presents the EFL teacher with many challenges that are unique to this gender-segregated Islamic kingdom. Meeting these challenges and turning them into learning opportunities that other EFL teachers may find useful within their teaching contexts is the purpose of this paper.

The appendix includes a writing rubric and a 40-day materials introduction calendar. The calendar illustrates the day-by-day introduction of material …

The Effect Of Powerpoint And Nongraphic Paired List Presentations On The Vocabulary Production And Recognition Of Elementary-Level College French Students, Lucie Viakinnou-Brinson, Steven P. Cole

Faculty Articles

This study investigates the effect of presenting images via PowerPoint (PPT) and nongraphic paired lists to teach vocabulary. In this study nongraphic paired list (PL) refers to a list of French words paired with their English equivalent. The study, conducted with 38 elementary-level college students, examined their recall performance for written production and visual recognition of French vocabulary words. Students were taught French vocabulary via PPT and nongraphic PL presentations. Quantitative results indicated a significant difference between participants’ mean immediate test scores favoring the PPT condition for both written production and visual recognition. The study also investigated participants’ instructional perceptions …

Recuerda Que Yo Estoy Aqui Tambien : A Bilingual Picture Book, Liliana Ivette Funes

Graduate Student Independent Studies

My independent study for my Integrative Masters consists of a bilingual (Spanish/English) picture book that is based on personal experience, and endeavors to describe the emotional distress and anxiety children can experience as second language learners entering a monolingual classroom for the first time. The book addresses not only the emotional and academic struggles of the child, but also the ways in which peers and teachers can intervene to ease the child's transition into English. Thus the book can serve as a resource to support monolingual classrooms. The study also includes a personal reflection of the process and journey, I …

Cognitive Load And Its Major Pedagogical Implications, Focus On Education In Jordan, Bassam Kutkut

MA TESOL Collection

Through my teaching experience in Jordan, I noticed the amount of work students had to do. I noticed the tremendous amount information they received from their teachers on a daily basis. I also noticed that students forgot most of the information they learned in class right after their exams. I was wondering if that’s the right way of teaching. Then, after my study at SIT, I learned that this is a cognitive overload that can impair the learning process.

Cognitive load refers to the information processing abilities in the human memory system which has limitations. When these limitations are exceeded, …

Effective Vocabulary Teaching Strategies For The English For Academic Purposes Esl Classroom, Joseph Mukoroli

MA TESOL Collection

Vocabulary learning is an important and indispensable part of any language learning process. The author of this thesis focuses on effective vocabulary teaching strategies in the English for Academic Purposes ESL classroom. Drawing on findings obtained from observing three English for Academic Purposes ESL classrooms across the U.S.A, several current databases and his personal experience as a teacher and learner, the author discusses various effective vocabulary teaching strategies in the English for Academic Purposes classroom which could greatly assist English language learners in their journey of language acquisition and therefore expedite the language learning process.

The First Child In A Chinese Family Who Could Read Prior To Entry Into Elementary School: A Qualitative Intrinsic Case Study, Shu Ping Zhang

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study is an account of the literacy-related human environment a Chinese girl experienced as the first person in the history of her family who was able to read prior to entry into elementary school. Temporally speaking, the study spanned more than a decade from the initial, tentative research question to the formal, primary research question. Spatially speaking, it crossed three cultures: the Chinese, Korean, and American cultures. The study was inspired by the Zero Project in China, known as the "Project of Quality Education and Implementation for Children Aged Zero (fetus) to Six." The significance of the content issue …

Success Stories Of Students Of Mexican Descent, Wesley Montoya

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study tells the personal stories of three academically successful students of Mexican descent. The goal of this study was to give a counter to the stereotypical deficit view of Hispanic students in the eyes of teachers, parents, and other students.

The participants were three high school students of Mexican descent attending an urban high school in Colorado. The research question of this study allowed the participants to tell their story of what it was like to be a student. The research question was: What are the personal and academic stories of academically successful Mexican urban high school students?

Through …

Fostering A Consciousness Of Academic Success With Latino English Language Learners In High School: The Role Self-Efficacy And Social Capital Play, Miguel Angel Huerta LóPez

Theses Digitization Project

The purpose of this study is to suggest ways in which educators can foster a consciousness of academic success with Latino English language learners in high school using self-efficacy and social capital as assets. The concentration of this study is to look at the English language learner population at Vista Valley High School. A total of twelve students participated in this study. Each student will be interviewed twice with at least six additional students being interviewed a third time.

Culturally Responsive Curriculum For Latino Children's Ethnic Identity, Silvia Jenny Cardenas

Theses Digitization Project

This project studies the link between ethnic identity, culturally responsive pedagogy, and classroom achievement and offers a curriculum to address the need voiced by researchers for culturally responsive curriculum for Latino children in elementary school.

Defining A Niche For International Education As The Link To Building Global Civil Society, Thomas Millington

Office of International Programs Faculty/Staff Publications

No abstract provided.

Lost In Translation: Strategies Japanese Language Learners Use In Communicating Culturally Specific L1 Expressions In English, Sarina Chugani Molina, Noriyuki Inoue

School of Leadership and Education Sciences: Faculty Scholarship

Communicating in a second language could be seen as a process requiring the deconstruction and reconstruction of cultural meanings. If this is the case, how do second language (L2) learners express cultural meanings of their first language (L1) expressions that do not have semantically equivalent L2 expressions? Twentynine Japanese students learning English as a second language in the US were asked to translate Japanese cultural expressions that do not have equivalent English expressions. This study found that the students either (a) entirely eliminated the expression from the statement, (b) replaced the expression with an English expression commonly used in a …

Closing The Achievement Gap: Favoring A Literacy-Based Approach To Solving The Nation's Education Crisis, Timothy M. Siverd

VA Engage Journal

This paper provides an overview of the educational achievement gap, paying particular attention to the gap between white and minority students. Additionally, this paper explores why closing the achievement gap is important, and why it is hard to do. The goal of this paper is to suggest that using a literacy-based method will produce superior results than using STEM-field methods by highlighting a “best practice,” Musick Elementary School in Newark, California.

Recognizing Samoan Students' Cultural Capital In Schools, Sane Aletoni Mataitusi

Theses Digitization Project

This research focused on Samoan parents' and students' perceptions of student success. This research confronts some of the barriers encountered by minority parents and students within the public education system. Recent research on Samoan students identified the struggle many encounter living as a minority group within the dominant societies of Australia, New Zealand and the United States. This study documented multiple pathways toward success that Samoan parents and students within these countries have identified.

Explicit Content-Area Vocabulary Instruction For English Learners: Impacts With Reading Comprehension, Catherine Ruthe Terrell

Theses Digitization Project

The purpose of this study was to examine impacts of explicit content-area vocabulary instruction on reading comprehension. Effective instructional strategies include multiple texts at students' instructional levels, highly qualified teachers, daily explicit vocabulary instruction combined with student's application of instruction and evolution of instruction as student's reading achievement increases.

The Observation Protocol For Academic Literacies (Opal); A Tool For Supporting Teachers Of English Language Learners, Elvira G. Armas, Ed.D, Magaly Lavadenz, Ph.D.

Practitioner Journal Articles

Schools and school systems are experiencing an instructional support gap that results in limited opportunities for educators to analyze, reflect on and improve research-based practices for ELLs so that outcomes for culturally and linguistically diverse students can change. To address this need, an inter-disciplinary research team from the Center for Equity for English Learners, comprised of educational leaders, teachers, researchers, and content experts developed a classroom observational instrument—the Observation Protocol for Academic Literacies (OPAL). The OPAL is intended for teachers, educational leaders, coaches, and others to conduct focused classroom observations for three potential purposes: research/evaluation, professional development, and coaching. In …

Religion, Forced Migration And Schooling: Varying Influences Of Religious Capital Among Iraqi Christian Refugee Students In Jordan And The Usa, Bruce A. Collet

School of Educational Foundations, Leadership and Policy Faculty Publications

This study is based on focus groups conducted with Christian Iraqi refugee secondary school students in the metropolitan Detroit area, and interviews with staff from volunteer aide agencies, non-governmental organizations, churches, and independent researchers in both Amman, Jordan as well as the Detroit metropolitan area. The article examines varying influences of religious capital among Iraqi Christian students. Examination of the operation of this capital within the context of the two countries’ economic and foreign policy interests including their refugee policies exposes macro-level forces that render religious capital to function in countervailing manners. Iraqi Christian students in both Amman and Detroit …

Examination Of Dispositions And Practices In Diversity: The Impact Of A Teacher Education Course Promoting Culturally And Responsive Pedagogy, Deuslene Leite Bastos

Wayne State University Dissertations

Assimilation ideology guiding teachers and policy makers to mainstream immigrant children into the American schools has prevailed in spite of pluralists' efforts for reform schools to provide more opportunities for culturally and linguistically diverse students. Research shows a need to change assimilation driven policies and practices which are harmful to students into a reconstructivist ideology that has shown to be more conducive for the application of culturally responsive teaching. Teacher education courses aimed to prepare teacher candidates for diverse classrooms have shown limitations due to abundant focus on theory or lack of elements in course work that are known to …