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The Reading Professor

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The Reading Professor

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Cover, Summer/Fall 2024

The Reading Professor

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Effects Of Plc At Work In Arkansas On Academic Outcomes, Sarah Mckenzie, Kate Barnes, Charlene Reid

Policy Briefs

This study evaluates the impact of Solution Tree’s Professional Learning Communities (PLC) at Work model on the academic achievement and growth of students in Arkansas schools. It provides the first large-scale evaluation of the PLC at Work model’s effectiveness in improving student academic outcomes. Using publicly available data from the Arkansas Department of Education (ADE), the analysis uses a two-stage matching process and an event study framework to determine the effectiveness of PLC at Work across six cohorts. The findings hold significant implications for policymakers, educators, and researchers interested in leveraging professional development to enhance educational practices and student outcomes. …

Professional Learning Communities And Student Outcomes: A Quantitative Analysis Of The Plc At Work Model In Arkansas Schools, Kate Barnes, Sarah Mckenzie

Arkansas Education Reports

This study evaluates the impact of the Professional Learning Communities (PLC) at Work model on student achievement and growth in Arkansas schools. Implemented through a partnership between the Arkansas Department of Education and Solution Tree, the program promotes collaborative professional development among educators. Using a matching process and an event study framework, we analyze longitudinal data on student performance in English Language Arts (ELA) and mathematics from multiple cohorts of schools.

The overall results reveal mixed outcomes. While no statistically significant improvements were observed in overall student achievement or growth, there were concerning trends for economically disadvantaged students. This subgroup …

Spanish Heritage Speakers’ Processing Of Lexical Stress, Ramsés Ortín

Writing and Language Studies Faculty Publications

This study examines the status of lexical stress in the processing system of heritage speakers of Spanish and whether or not it is influenced by their experience with English. Participants completed an ABX matching task with auditory stimuli differing in the location of stress or in one consonantal sound. Findings reveal that heritage speakers are more accurate in consonant-based trials than in stress-based ones, but only when matching stimuli were non-adjacent, which suggests that their stress-processing strategies pattern more closely with those of native English speakers. Furthermore, dominance and knowledge of Spanish appear to be associated with increased phonological sensibility …

Code-Switching In The Second Language Classroom: A Narrative Study Of A Saudi English Language Teacher’S Experience, Amal Alnefaie, Abha Gupta

Teaching & Learning Faculty Publications

This narrative study explores the use of code-switching in the second-language classroom from the perspective of a Saudi English language instructor. The aim was to explore how the instructor experienced code-switching as a student and used it in her teaching. The main research question guiding the study was: How does a Saudi English language teacher perceive and utilize code-switching in her teaching practice, and how does this relate to her experiences as a language learner? The study holds significance in contributing to the ongoing discourse on code-switching in second-language classrooms, providing a nuanced understanding from the perspective of an individual …

Teaching Writing With The Digital Feedback Protocol: A Peer-To-Peer Intervention To Increase Elementary Student Writing Motivation, Karyn Keenan

Dissertations

Writing is a complex task, especially for elementary school writers; motivation in writing leads to greater writing performance and writing quality. Teachers enter their careers underprepared to teach writing and have to seek out professional development on writing for themselves. Technology can be leveraged in the elementary writing classroom, but it is an under researched area. The Digital Feedback Protocol is a case study dissertation study with an embedded professional development opportunity that supports teachers to implement a protocol for students to provide digital feedback to each other’s writing. The study was conducted with four third grade teachers and their …

Trauma-Informed Teaching With Adult English Language Learners: A Study In A Community-Based Organization, Elizabeth Eastman

Doctoral Dissertations

Often, immigrants in the United States have suffered traumatic experiences in their home country, on their journey to the U.S., and/or in their process of acculturation. In English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) classes, symptoms of trauma can interfere with learning and acculturation. Trauma-Informed teaching can meet the needs of students who have been impacted by trauma but it is not often used in ESOL classes. This is due to a lack of teacher training, and a gap in the literature on the effects of the approach and studies that explore the perspectives of the students. Based in phenomenology …

The Construct Of English Native Speaker In Hong Kong, Ka Long Roy Chan

Journal of English and Applied Linguistics

The paper provides a discussion of the construct of English native speakers among Hongkongers. Beginning with a review of the linguistic landscapes of Hong Kong, including English language education and English usage, followed by an introduction of a debate on the construct of English native speakers, this paper demonstrates the potential inclusion of Hongkongers as native speakers of English, with the use of their English variety, Hong Kong English. Additionally, the paper argues for a revision of the traditional geographically bounded definition of native speaker, drawing upon discussions by Rampton (1990), Kachru (1998), and Hansen Edwards (2017a, 2017b) regarding the …

A Qualitative Study Of Closed Captions In English Language Teaching (Elt) Youtube Videos, Queenie Mae G. Hernandez, Monica Louise G. Nacionales, Camilla J. Vizconde

Journal of English and Applied Linguistics

The COVID-19 pandemic reinforced online learning of English using YouTube as a viewing material in the Philippines. Using an adapted checklist evaluation, the study assessed the closed caption (CC) quality of forty-eight (48) YouTube videos dedicated to English language teaching and learning by Filipino content creators from 2020 to 2022. Findings show Filipino-made English language teaching (ELT) videos only used auto-generated captions, which affected the accessibility of the materials, especially for D/deaf learners. Multiple discrepancies were noted in the accuracy of the captions due to their automated properties, namely, in grammar and vocabulary, which hinder learning for those who use …

Can Mobile-Assisted Language Learning Help Improve Hong Kong Secondary School Students' Vocabulary Attainment?, Louis William Gray

Journal of English and Applied Linguistics

This paper investigates the efficacy of Quizlet, a mobile-assisted language learning (MALL) application, in enhancing the vocabulary usage of English language learners in Hong Kong. Utilizing a quantitative research design, the study collected and analyzed baseline data before and after the implementation of Quizlet to evaluate its influence on student results. The analysis sought to identify any statistically significant differences in performance that could be attributed to the use of the MALL tool. The results indicated that while some learners experienced individual progress, there was no conclusive evidence to suggest that Quizlet usage led to a significant improvement in overall …

Cross-Cultural And Cross-Proficiency Analysis Of Selected Cohesion Indices In Student Essays, Audrey Buenavista Morallo

Journal of English and Applied Linguistics

Cohesion is important in writing because of its role in writing quality development (Abdi Tabari & Johnson, 2023) and in making texts comprehensible (Ghasemi, 2013). It can differentiate between proficient and deficient writing (Crossley et al., 2016b, 2019), demonstrating its use as an index of language proficiency. Despite being an index of proficiency, little is known about cohesion use in second-language contexts (Abdi Tabari & Johnson, 2023; Crossley, 2020; Crossley et al., 2016a). To address this, this study investigated the use of connectives, givenness, and lexical overlap in essays from the Philippines, Singapore, and China available in a corpus. A …

Towards More Inclusive Practices In Applied Linguistics: A Study Of Journal Editors’ Views On Using ‘Who’ With Nonhuman Animals With Implications For Language Education, Denise Dillon, George M. Jacobs, Meng Huat Chau

Journal of English and Applied Linguistics

Like racism or sexism, speciesism highlights how people fail to give due respect to nonhuman animals. After more than 20 years since the publication of Dunayer’s (2001) seminal work, Animal Equality: Language and Liberation, speciesism appears to remain a controversial issue. In this article, we explore the issue of speciesist language by considering the views of journal editors on one point raised in the seventh edition of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (2020): that the relative pronoun who should only be used with humans and not with other animals. The results of this study suggest that while …

Digital Social Reading In Second Language Learning And Teaching: Synthesis Of Current Research And Pedagogical Practices, Chiew Hong Ng, Yin Ling Cheung

Journal of English and Applied Linguistics

Growing interest in digital social reading (DSR) has led to research on the use of social annotations in digital learning, but there is yet to be a comprehensive review specifically on DSR for second language (L2). This paper aims to fill the gap by synthesizing 28 research papers published in English-medium refereed journals from 2010 to 2022 to derive these conclusions: (1) The predominant platforms or applications and text types for DSR were Google Docs, eComma, HyLighter, Perusall, and SocialBook. (2) The main L2 studied was English, and the majority of the studies were conducted at the university level. Activities/tasks/pedagogical …

Investigating Attitudes, Perceptions, And Challenges Of Moroccan Efl Teachers' Incorporation Of Critical Thinking In Argumentative Writing Instructions, Abdelmomen Khalil, Nadia Hellalet

Journal of English and Applied Linguistics

This study aimed at finding out Moroccan English as a foreign language (EFL) high school teachers’ attitudes towards incorporating critical thinking skills (CTS) in their teaching practices and in argumentative writing in particular, how they facilitate CTS, and what challenges they experience when incorporating CTS. To fulfill the research objectives and collect both quantitative and qualitative data, a mixed-methods approach was adopted using questionnaires and interviews. The researchers collected data from 127 EFL teachers from different Moroccan high schools. The findings revealed that the teachers hold positive attitudes toward critical thinking (CT) and integrating it in their argumentative writing instructions. …

Military Veteran Students’ Perceptions Of Support In College Writing Classrooms: A Qualitative Case Study, Jacqueline M. Beamen

Theses and Dissertations

Current literature indicates a disconnect between military veteran students’ experiences in college and what colleges claim they are doing to support these students. How support is manifested in writing classes at a medium-sized community college, as perceived by veteran students themselves, was unknown. This qualitative case study aimed to establish a deeper understanding of the unique needs of these students and how and whether they experienced support in their community college writing classrooms. The findings of this study showed that the participants’ military experiences impacted their perceptions of the college and of their writing classes. While they valued structure, rigor, …

Perceived And Preferred Methods To Adult Language Learning, Suzie Tse

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this research study is to understand the adult language learners in formal learning setting and know what do they perceive as the main methods of teaching and what do they prefer instead. If there is a gap between preferred methods of learning and perceived methods of learning, then there is a need that needs to be addressed. This is important because many students find language learning at best ineffective and at worst impossible. I hypothesize that there will be a difference between adult student perception and preference because student focuses more on speaking and listening skill over …

Utilizing Students’ Technological Knowledge To Develop Critical Reading Skills And Digital Literacy Identities, Rosemarie Mcgraw

Theses and Dissertations

This study aims to explore how teachers can purposefully integrate and connect students’ digital literacy funds of knowledge into in-school digital literacy meaning making to enhance critical reading and thinking, and how it supports students’ development of their digital literacy identity. The theories that guided this thesis were from New London Group, Freire, Gee, Knobel, and Lankshear. This was a qualitative research study that collected data from surveys, interviews, observations, and student work samples. Over the course of the study, students participated in a controlled choice research unit. Throughout the study, students received specific instruction on how to use multiliteracies …

Building The Roots Of Word Knowledge: Using Morphological Instruction In Latin Roots To Build Word Analysis Skills For Middle School Students., Sara Sukalski

College of Education Theses and Dissertations

Proficient reading requires the ability to analyze words for various properties, including pronunciation, meaning, and syntactical function. However, most instruction in word analysis is limited to phonics instruction provided in the early elementary grades. For older students, whose words largely center units of meaning, or morphemes, early phonics instruction does not provide the multifaceted knowledge of word properties these older students need to manipulate the complex words of their curricula. Therefore, this study examined the effects of direct morphological analysis instruction focusing on Latin roots on middle school students’ ability to orally decode and construct meaning for morphologically complex words. …