Digital Commons Network^™

Leveraging The Dynamics Of The Mixed Level Classroom: A Materials Collection, Emily Hampston

MA TESOL Collection

A number of studies have noted the rise in student demographic diversity and the heightened significance of the mixed-level classroom; however, a consensus on the appropriate methods and materials to address these developments remains to be reached. Educators are anticipated to address the needs of students with a variety of abilities, backgrounds, and interests in a singular class. Less proficient students face overstimulation whilst more proficient students face understimulation. How can the challenges of the mixed-level classroom be recast into strengths? The mixed-level classroom environment calls for student investment, real language, and familiar processes. Methods such as peer tutoring, cooperative …

Spanish Language Development And Perceptions Of Undergraduate Students During Short-Term Study Abroad, Marissa Baugh

Transformations: Presentation Slides

The purpose of this evaluative case study is to determine how students from a 4-year medium-sized college in the northeast US who participated in a short-term study abroad program in Cuernavaca, Mexico perceived their experience as worthwhile in their education. This research seeks to answer the following questions: 1) How does short-term study abroad impact students’ perceived level of Spanish language proficiency?; 2) What are students’ thoughts about short-term study abroad with respect to their learning beyond their Spanish language development (e.g., financial investment, cultural appreciation, etc.)?; and 3) What are students’ overall perceptions of the short-term study abroad program? …

Text Types, Computers, And Teaching: How Do They Work Together?, Esra Ceker

Transformations: Presentation Slides

Research in applied linguistics has shown that different text types (e.g., news reportage, fiction, academic prose) are characterized by a high frequency of co‐occurring grammatical features which work together to convey the particular communicative purpose of the text type. This presentation shows how corpus‐linguistic methodology combines quantitative and qualitative analyses to determine what these grammatical features are and how they complement each other in the expression of the text type's specific communicative purpose. Awareness of such grammatical foundation of different text types is of utmost importance to language teachers and learners. The presentation closes with examples of practical applications in …

The Effects Of Charter Schools On Early Foreign Language Education In Public Schools, Cassie Kunz

Senior Honors Theses

Education is a notoriously contentious subject in America. Controversy exists and continues to flare up over what content should be taught, how it should be taught, as well as the cost; foreign language is one such subject. The history of foreign language education in the United States (U.S.) reviews current foreign language policies and practices in the U.S. and other countries, as well as the reasons that proponents of foreign language education argue that it must be improved in the U.S. The charter school approach to education was analyzed in the context of market theory to determine if a correlation …

“We Are So Much Alike, But Nobody Wants To Admit It”: Reactions To A Critical Bernalillo Nuevomexicano Language And Culture Curriculum, Joseph Moreno

Language, Literacy, and Sociocultural Studies ETDs

This study gauges how adult Bernalillo Nuevomexicanos reacted to a critical curriculum that addresses how race, class, power, and identity influence Nuevomexicano language use, and an understanding of history and culture, with emphasis on the Bernalillo Matachines Dance, Las Fiestas de San Lorenzo and associated customs. In addition, the study aims to discover what elements they find positive, negative, and what they would revise about the curriculum. This study is an attempt to create agency through the creation of a critical curriculum unit by a community researcher, teaching the pilot unit to a group of community members, and gauging their …

Searching For Mirror Books For Young Asian/Asian-American Children With Disabilities, Sohyun Meacham, Su-Jeong Wee, Wu-Ying Hsieh, Pei-Chun Chen, Bryce Davis

Asian American Literature: Discourses & Pedagogies

America’s changing demographics and the increasing number of children with disabilities call for appropriate representations of race/ethnicity and disabilities in materials (e.g., books) for inclusive classrooms. This study analyzed how Asian/Asian-American (A/AA) people with disabilities had been portrayed in picture books with the Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature (APAAL) or the Schneider Family Award (SFA). We addressed the intersectionality of Asian racial cultures and disabilities, focusing on the picture books with these awards, due to the potential impact of these portrayals on children. We used 35 picture books with the APAAL from 2001 to 2020 and 18 with the SFA …

A Critical Analysis Of Cultura In Spanish World Language Textbooks, Amanda Holbrook

Education Doctorate Dissertations

This action-oriented multimodal discourse analysis explored how a high school Spanish world language textbook series construes Spanish speakers and cultures and invites students to engage with them through written texts and visual images. Through a lens of analysis based on systemic functional linguistics and influenced by critical discourse analysis and critical literacy pedagogy, this study found that the textbooks erase Spanish speakers as active creators of cultures, construe them as a standardized monolithic group when present, and construe cultures as tied to the interests of tourists and linked to place. Moreover, the textbook series invites students to engage with Spanish …

Decoding The 1920s: Teaching Advanced Russian In A Literature Class, Nila Friedberg

World Languages and Literatures Faculty Publications and Presentations

Decoding the 1920s: A Reader for Advanced Learners of Russian was published by the Portland State University Open Access initiative in 2021. The 1920s is a major part of the Russian literary canon but is notoriously difficult for American students to read in the original, due both to its stylistic complexity and its hidden historical, political and cultural references. And yet, the period is crucial for understanding Russia – not only in the Soviet period, but also today. The 1920s and 1930s were the period when “The New Soviet Person” emerged, with its Soviet mentality. Recent attempts to glamorize the …

Availability, Accessibility And Utilization Of Electronic Information Resources By Undergraduates Of Ladoke Akintola University Of Technology, Ogbomoso, Oyo State, Nigeria, Kehinde Mary Oyelade Mrs, Vincent Enyeribe Unegbu Prof, Madukoma Ezinwayi Madukoma Dr

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

The study investigates the availability, accessibility and utilization of electronic information

resources by undergraduates of Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Ogbomoso, Oyo

state, Nigeria. Survey research design was adopted for this study. A population of six thousand

three hundred and forty (6340) undergraduates were involved in the study. A total number of

Three hundred and seventeen 317 undergraduates were drawn as sample size through stratified

sampling techniques. Questionnaire was the main instrument used for data collection. Two

hundred and seventy 274 four dally filed questionnaires were received, given an overall response

rate of 86.49%. Data were collected and analyzed using …

He Needs To Be In A Learning Community – Learning Community, A Place Of Respite And Brotherhood While Persisting In College, Ngozi Taffe

Journal of College Access

Black males encounter significant microaggressions and race related challenges as students in Predominantly White Institutions. These encounters negatively impact their college learning and social experiences. In the face of these challenges, college retention rate of Black males falls behind those of other racial and gender groups (Toldson, 2012). Notwithstanding, statistics point to the success and persistence of Black male students in such oppressive environments and the role of learning communities in fostering successful outcomes for students. Using the Community Cultural Wealth (Yosso, 2005) framework, this qualitative study explores the experiences of eight Black males living in a same race same …

“It’S Not Just About Improving My Spanish.” Student Perceptions Of Service Learning, Farah Ali

Global Language Studies Faculty publications

In the last few decades, service learning (SL) has emerged as an instructional model that facilitates connections between learning experiences in and outside the classroom, and highlights the socio-political nature of language use (Grim, 2010; Bettencourt, 2015; Moreno-López et. al, 2017). However, its effective and relevant curricular implementation remains a challenge for educators. This exploratory paper examines how SL impacts advanced learners’ beliefs, attitudes, and motivation towards learning Spanish, as well as their ability to connect their service experiences with course content. Findings show that learners evaluate service experiences through a proficiency-based lens, where the success of their experiences depended …

Nations Within Nations: The Heterogeneity Of Mexican Transnationals Of Indigenous Descent From Anzalduan Lenses, David Martinez-Prieto

Bilingual and Literacy Studies Faculty Publications

This chapter analyzes the significance and limitations of utilizing Gloria Anzaldúa’s framework when examining Mexican transnational communities of Mesoamerican ancestry after they return to Mexico. In this way, this chapter calls for a better understanding of the historical and political factors that impact the identities of Mexican transnationals of Indigenous origin. Based on data collected during three investigations with transnational (pre)service teachers from Indigenous communities in the Mexican states of Puebla (2017), Tlaxcala (2017), and Oaxaca (2018), the author analyzes the pertinence of Anzaldua’s framework in understanding the subjugation and internal differences of Indigenous transnational populations. This chapter also examines …

Family Engagement And English Language Students, Megan Beuch

Graduate Teacher Education

Families are a child’s first teacher. Preschool students are learning and developing rapidly, while becoming accustomed to new school rules and routines. Dual language learners are a growing population in the United States. As children are learning English as a second language, parents, alongside early childhood educators, play an impactful role in each child’s development. When families and teachers work together, students will see more academic, social, emotional, and linguistic success during the early years. This paper explored a multitude of qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods studies regarding dual language learners, family engagement, and the importance of fostering positive home …

Autoethnography As A Recent Methodology In Applied Linguistics: A Methodological Review, Ufuk Keles Dr

The Qualitative Report

In this methodological review, I explore how recent autoethnographic studies in the field of applied linguistics have used autoethnography as a research methodology. I examine 40 autoethnographies published in peer-reviewed journals between 2010 and 2020. The findings show that a large number of the researchers employed autoethnography as “an umbrella term” without opting for a specific type of autoethnography. Second, a great majority of the autoethnographers diverted from traditional third-person academic prose, although most of them approached their stories with an analytic lens. Third, the absence or scarcity of (auto)biographical information decreased both the evocative and analytic qualities of autoethnographic …

Beginning Spanish ¡Empecemos Por Aquí!, Jenny Ceciliano, Lisa Notman

PDXOpen: Open Educational Resources

Beginning Spanish ¡Empecemos por aquí! focuses on the development of communication skills in interpretive, interpersonal, and presentational modes while centering student voices. Activities engage learners in real exchanges of information on topics that are relevant to adult students. In addition to language-acquisition learning outcomes, this text supports learning outcomes in diversity, equity, inclusion, cultural sustainability, and social justice.

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Please see the Open Textbook Library for faculty Reviews of this textbook.

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If you are an instructor adopting or adapting this open educational resource, please help us understand your use …

Learning From The Standpoints Of Minoritized Students: An Exploration Of Multicultural And Social Justice Counseling Training, Julie A. Cohen, Anusha Kassan, Kaori Wada

The Qualitative Report

The results of a feminist research endeavour that explored multicultural (MC) counselling and social justice (SJ) training experiences from the standpoint of eight culturally non-dominant doctoral students are presented. Participants represented students within the five counselling psychology programs accredited by the Canadian Psychological Association. Specifically, the research aimed to address the following research question: How do counselling psychology doctoral students who self-identify with non-dominant cultural identities perceive their experiences of MC and SJ training? This research adopted a feminist standpoint theory epistemology to guide an interpretative phenomenological analysis to reflect the culturally rich, complex, and situated experiences of participants, while …

Amjambo Africa! (February 2022), Kathreen Harrison

Amjambo Africa!

In this Issue

Afghan Resettlement ............2/3

Lunar New Year ........................4

Maine Youth Network .............5

Afrofuturism with MHC......... 7

Editorial .....................................8

Translations French .........................9/13

Swahili .......................10/13

Somali .......................11/13

Kinyarwanda ............12/13

Portuguese ................28/30

Spanish ......................29/30

MCF grant opportunities ......14

Legislative update ...................15

Tips & Info ........................16/31

New Roots Farm .....................17

The Samosa Story .............18/19

Health&Wellness... ............20-27

Cardiac Health In English & translations

Columns ..................................32

Maine Equal Justice South Portland Sustainability MIRC

Tax Season...33

In English & translations

New Voices columns ..............34

Rupal Ramesh Shah Roseline Souebele

Hope in Augusta .................... 37

Indigenous Mexicans In New York City: Immigrant Integration, Language Use, And Identity Formation, Leslie A. Martino-Velez

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

As indigenous Mexican immigrants migrate, settle, and raise families in the United States, parents, particularly women, and their children increasingly have contact with community institutions, such as schools. Despite their growing numbers in U.S. schools, indigenous children, youth, and their parents are often invisible due to their ethnolinguistic identities and undocumented status. Understanding what parents do to help their children is essential to understanding the first generation's integration and their children, the second generation.

To better understand this, I conducted an ethnographic research study at a bilingual Head Start program in New York City, in East Harlem, where many undocumented …

Cùng Với Nhau Chung Tay: A Collaborative Project With Vietnamese American Youth, Khanh Le

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The purpose of my research is to document, remember and reflect on the experiences of Vietnamese Americans. To create a space in which Vietnamese American youth can co-labor (García, 2020) and co-produce knowledge to disrupt the silence surrounding their lived experience in the U.S., I drew across methodological traditions for this collaborative project. In doing so, I seek to answer the following questions:

1. How do Vietnamese American youth view/narrate their lives and relationships to the past and the present in the U.S. and Vietnam?
2. What do youths’ narratives communicate about their transtrauma?

This collaborative project drew from translanguaging and …

Book Review: Reckonings: Numerals, Cognition, And History By Stephen Chrisomalis, Milton Rosa, Daniel Clark Orey

Journal of Humanistic Mathematics

This review of Reckonings shares our thoughts on the diverse insights presented by Stephen Chrisomalis’s version of the history of numerical notation. Chrisomalis suggests that members of distinct cultural groups write numbers as an active choice in accordance with their own sociocultural contexts, which reflect the influences of historical, cognitive, social, economic, political, environmental, and cultural factors. This book integrates comparative, cognitive, and evolutionary understandings on numerical cognition with historical and linguistic evidence on the use and transformation of numeral systems through the historical advancement of numeracy. Chrisomalis offers an interesting historical perspective on numbers that builds upon three main …

The Problem Of Words: Learning To Teach Mathematics When Numbers And Languages Mix, Gladys Krause

Journal of Humanistic Mathematics

In this piece I propose a perspective shift, from a simplified view of mathematics story problems to a more academically rigorous perspective that integrates mathematical proficiency and language practices crucial for educating bilingual students. The data presented in this article provide a window into what preparing bilingual pre-service teachers to teach mathematics might involve. I discuss issues that arise in the context of preparing Spanish-English bilingual pre-service teachers in a way that can inform their practice in linguistically and culturally diverse classrooms.

Writing Instruction For Multilingual Learners, Leticia Kiwan

Dissertations

Purpose: The purpose of the study was to explore and describe the benefit of three key elements of instructional writing strategies: structured writing, visual learning, and collaborative tasks to assist Title 1 middle school site administrators and teachers in assessing the impact of the instructional writing strategies for multilingual learners to achieve reclassification to Fluent English Proficient.

Methodology: The qualitative case study included a thorough analysis of one-on-one interviews with seven teachers and seven administrators with more than three years of experience in a middle school from the Sacramento area.

Findings: Examination of the data indicated the following findings: (1) …

Early Childhood Education And Care Provision Through The Medium Of The Irish Language, Maire Mhic Mhathuna, Mairéad Mac Con Iomaire

Books/Book Chapters

This chapter will give an overview of the history of naíonraí or Irish-medium preschool settings in Gaeltacht1 and non-Gaeltacht areas from their beginnings in the 1960s to date. The material for this chapter is based on desk research, interviews with the founding member of the naíonra movement and the personal involvement of the chapter authors. The rationale for establishing naíonraí will be described and the role of the pioneers who led the movement in the 1970s and 1980s will be analysed in light of their principles and philosophy. These principles are visible in the structures they set up to manage …

The Very Model Of A Modern Teacher-Training Program, James Hunter

TESOL Faculty Scholarship

Gonzaga University's MA/TESOL program developed organically from within the university's ESL program, guided by a philosophical model comprising of three modes of authority: compassion, scholarship, and invention (Jeannot, 1997). This article assesses the success of the model from the faculty and student perspectives.

Review Of A New English Grammar By Andrew Rossiter, James Hunter, Ayuko Momono

TESOL Faculty Scholarship

A New English Grammar by Andrew Rossiter (2021), is a clear, well organized, practical guide to English grammar at a high-intermediate to advanced level. With only four chapters, covering verbs, nouns, other parts of speech, and sentences and clauses, it organizes grammar points at the level of core concepts, so that the readers can see the big picture of the "grammar web" holistically.

Bilingual Education Teachers’ Perceptions Of The Educational Climate And Policies In The United States And Spain, Miguel Fernández Álvarez, Amanda Montes, Other Co-Authors

Teacher Education Faculty Publications

Access to high-quality bilingual education is critical and has evolved in many different ways during the last decades. Given recent efforts to enhance bilingual education, it is important to examine the perceptions of the current education workforce who serve students in bilingual education programs. A hundred and sixty-four bilingual education professionals from Spain and the U.S. participated in the research. They completed a questionnaire about the effect of educational climate and policies in their own countries. Findings show that teachers from Spain rate bilingual education higher than teachers from the U.S. There are significant differences in their general perceptions and …

Nurturing Cultural Humility And Responsiveness Through Restorative Pedagogy In Graduate Education, Annmary S. Abdou, Kris T. De Pedro, Arantxa De Anda, Ivette Merced, Karen Mao

Education Faculty Articles and Research

In an increasingly diverse world that is characterized by significant social and educational inequities, the development of educators and leaders who embody cultural humility and culturally responsive practices is necessary and transformational. Moving beyond individual and deficit-centered models of student support systems towards ecological and relational paradigms of education are critical to the goals of equity and justice. In order to make progress on these goals, training programs must prioritize and embed the values of cultural humility and culturally responsive practice as foundational constructs for future educators. This multi-authored reflective paper describes the use of Restorative Pedagogy, an approach grounded …

Opportunities And Challenges For Rural Educators: A Mixed Methods Study Of Emergent Bilingual Studies In Rural Colorado, Andrea Johnson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Over nine million students in the United States attend school in rural school districts, with a growing percentage of these students identified as emergent bilingual. The purpose of this study is to examine the national emergent bilingual literacy trends and to determine how the opportunities and challenges that rural educators encounter, impact emergent bilingual education in rural schools. Utilizing a theoretical framework of culturally sustaining practices and funds of knowledge, this study uses a convergent mixed methods design to answer the following research questions: What are the national trends in emergent bilingual reading test scores? What opportunities and challenges do …

Can Language Learners Hear Their Own Errors? The Identification Of Grammaticality In One's Own Production, James Hunter

TESOL Faculty Scholarship

This exploratory study investigated whether learners can correctly identify the grammaticality of items drawn from corrective feedback (CF) on their own oral production or on that of their peers. It was hypothesized that participants would judge less well-established items more slowly, and conversely that entrenched items, whether target-like or not, would be judged more quickly. 20 learners at two proficiency levels judged audio recordings of themselves reformulating errors they had made in small-group conversations. Items had been categorized according to reformulation accuracy and fluency, and the analysis investigated whether judgment accuracy and speed mirrored these categories. Results indicate clear parallels …

News - Congratulations To Carolina Deanda For Her Engaged Scholar And Artist Award, The University Of Texas Rio Grande Valley. Corpus Bilingüe Del Valle

Corpus Bilingüe del Valle (CoBiVa) - News Releases

No abstract provided.