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“You Can’T Know Until Someone Tells You Or You Experience Something”: Talking Back To Deficit Discourse With Digital Photo Stories And The Not-Ice Teacher Discussion Protocol, Jennifer K. Allen

Perspectives In Learning

This practitioner research study explored the use of student-created digital photo stories combined with focused teacher conversations guided by the NOT-ICE protocol (Author, 2016) to provide insight into why Latin@ students’ talents may be overlooked by classroom teachers. Digital photo stories, created by emergent bilingual elementary Latin@ learners, were used to elicit the primary data from the study. Teacher co-researchers participated in small-group, collaborative discussion sessions to investigate and understand how schooling labels carry potential biases that obscure students’ gifts and talents. Findings indicate that digital photo stories can act as counter-stories by disrupting teachers’ commonly held (mis)perceptions about emergent …

Prioritizing Multilingualism In U.S. Schools: States’ Policy Journeys To Enact The Seal Of Biliteracy, Amy J. Heineke, Kristin J. Davin

Education: School of Education Faculty Publications and Other Works

Fueled by immigration and globalization, the United States has evolved into a nation of linguistically diverse residents; however, English remains the dominant language in schools. A recent language policy initiative emergent in states across the nation, the Seal of Biliteracy challenges English monolingualism by promoting the development of students’ bilingualism and biliteracy by high school graduation. Using narrative inquiry, this study explores the policy journeys that states have taken to enact the Seal of Biliteracy, as educators and stakeholders come together to engage in grassroots policy work. Findings include the collective stories of these efforts to disrupt English-dominant ideologies in …

Portuguese And German Repertoires Perceived By Portuguese Speaking Children In Germany: A Tale Of Two Continua, Sílvia Melo-Pfeifer, Alexandra Fidalgo Schmidt

Journal of Multilingual Education Research

After a theoretical overview of the concept of heritage language (HL) from a plurilingual perspective, we will describe the project “Images on the (teaching of) Portuguese Language abroad”. For this project, several drawings were collected, produced by lusodescendant children living in Germany and attending supplementary Portuguese lessons. We will analyze four tendencies of students’ representations towards Portuguese and German, as well as towards the skills they have developed in those languages. These representations illustrate four profiles of Portuguese Heritage Language (PHL) learners present in the classroom (in terms of motivations, skills, linguistic repertoires, etc.). As conclusions, we will point at: …

Critical Pedagogy In Practice: Reflections Of A K-5 Educator, Kelly Gresalfi

Graduate Student Independent Studies

The author illuminates major theoretical concepts integral to critical pedagogy as they apply to grades k-5 through a selective review of the literature and reflection on how these principles intersect with her personal and teaching experiences. A candid analysis of the author's ongoing journey to put these ideas into practice, including ways in which she has felt successful and areas she continues to find challenging, is offered. Suggestions for ways in which elementary school educators can approach their teaching practices and classroom structures through the lens of critical pedagogy are included. Reactions to the thesis from several of the …

Amjambo Africa! (September 2018), Kathreen Harrison

Amjambo Africa!

In This Issue... Eid Al-Adha .......................... Page 2

Results Conference ................Page 2

Host Community....................Page 3

World Refugee Day................Page 8

National Night Out ................Page 9

November Elections.............Page 13

Arabic Summer School ........Page 15

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Supporting Newcomer Students: A Chicago-Specific Exploration Of Social And Emotional Learning Initiatives, Lincoln Hill

Center for the Human Rights of Children

Due to the large number of immigrant children and families within its borders as well as its sanctuary jurisdiction, the city of Chicago serves as an ideal case study towards investigating specialized services for one of its most vulnerable subpopulations of children, primarily the development needs of its immigrant children. The desired outcome for this non-exhaustive research brief is to provide empirical evidence and best practices for Chicago community and school specialists seeking to support the social and emotional needs of their newcomer student population.

Narrowing The Opportunity Gap: Developing Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy For Culturally And Linguistically Diverse Students, Niles Engerman

Dissertations

As per Breeze and Laborda (2016), a culturally responsive curriculum addresses the integration of students into a new culture, as bilingual education traditionally receives minimal interest from the authorities. Akkari and Loomis (1998) explain that bilingual education is socially and historically situated, while van Lier (2004) posits that diverse linguistic groups will have an ominous future if the educational system ignores their linguistic needs. This demands a paradigmatic shift to meet the needs of culturally and linguistically diverse students (CLDs). Advocating for culturally responsive curriculum, this defense will examine the history of bilingual education in the United States, linguistic ecology, …

Investigating Gender Assignment Strategies In Mixed Purepecha–Spanish Nominal Constructions, Kate Bellamy, M. Carmen Parafita Couto, Hans Stadthagen-Gonzalez

Faculty Publications

Purepecha has no grammatical gender, whereas Spanish has a binary masculine–feminine system. In this paper we investigate how early sequential Purepecha–Spanish bilinguals assign gender to Purepecha nouns inserted into an otherwise Spanish utterance, using a director-matcher production task and an online forced-choice acceptability judgement task. The results of the production task indicate a strong preference for masculine gender, irrespective of the gender of the noun’s translation equivalent, the so-called “masculine default” option. Participants in the comprehension task were influenced by the orthography of the Purepecha noun in the -a ending condition, leading them to assign feminine gender agreement to nouns …

Graphic Mathematical Mediated Structure: The Link For Hispanic/Latino And English Learners' Mathematical Success, Sylvia Casteloes

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

This project’s goal is to promote and improve the mathematical literacy of fourth-grade Hispanic/Latino and English learners through the use of a graphic mathematical mediated structure. Current California Common Core data finds fourth-grade Hispanic/Latino and English learners significantly behind White and Asian students in mathematics, especially in understanding written word problems.

Research supports the assumption that as a tool, a graphic mathematical mediated structure could: 1) foster conceptual understanding; 2) build content terminology; 3) allow students opportunities to justify their solutions; 4) integrate writing in math; and 5) provide a platform for discourse. This innovative pedagogical project specifically focused on …

The Writer's Workbook Intervention: Promoting Writing Achievement, Cassandra O'Sullivan Sachar

Journal of Research Initiatives

Research demonstrates that American high school students are not writing with proficiency, and teachers are not providing adequate writing instruction. This study examined the effectiveness of a writing intervention on achievement using pre- and post-intervention data. The instructional intervention combined self-regulated strategy development, peer and teacher feedback, reflection, and flexible writing practice to strengthen persuasive and argumentative writing in high school students. 95 ninth- and tenth-grade Delaware public school students in higher and lower-level classes participated in the instructional intervention, and twenty-five students’ writings were scored before and after the intervention to assess growth. Pre/post mean ratings of writing quality …

P.S. 25, South Bronx: Bilingual Education And Community Control, Laura J. Kaplan

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Through a methodology of oral history interviews with primary subjects and archival research, this dissertation explores the creation and evolution of P.S. 25, The Bilingual School, the first Spanish-English bilingual elementary school in New York City, as well as the entire Northeast. The Bilingual School, founded in 1968, was a product of the civil rights movement in the United States and one key manifestation of that movement in New York City, the struggle for community control of schools.

Latinos in general and Puerto Ricans in particular have been written out of the official narrative of the educational civil rights movement …

¿Esto Funciona?: Studying The Influences Of Peer Tutoring On Student Performance In The Spanish Language-Learning Process, Alisha Castaneda

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Foreign language pedagogy is currently pushing for a more communicative approach to teaching learners practical language skills (Jones, Squires, and Hicks, 2008). Students want to develop language skills they can use in their careers and everyday lives; consequently, professors are integrating learning methods that make the language classroom more practical and applicable to students’ needs. One potentially invaluable tool in the language-learning process is requiring students to complete a specific number of target-language peer tutoring hours. This study examines the correlations among three variables: the number of tutoring hours students complete, their numerical final course grades, and their scores on …

Educational Attainment Of Immigrant Students In The United States: Generational Struggle Towards Success, Robin Das

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Known as the land of opportunities, United States has always been a key attraction to outside world as the place where people can live up to their potential dreams. People migrate from far lands to settle down and find the missing link that was absent in their native country. Among numerous reasons, financial inefficiency and social and political insecurity at homeland, new immigration policies in the US, expectation of a better socio-economic lifestyle and a secure and prosperous future for their children are some key reasons why immigrants move out of their motherland and travel to America. They hope and …

Cultural Priming And Psychosocial Factors In The Achievement Of Hispanic And White Students, Richard Peters

Educational Studies Dissertations

The rationale for this study is that the achievement gap between Whites and Hispanics can be influenced by reconceptualizing the learner process as one that integrates culture, motivation, and psychosocial variables, with academic performance. The study investigated the role of three psychosocial variables in achievement: familism, academic self concept, and ethnocentrism. It also reconceptualized one’s culture as a toolkit for instrumental use on tasks in another culture, adopted the dynamic constructivist approach to culture’s influence, and applied the original definition of acculturation, of mutual influence of groups in contact, to achievement. A pretest/posttest comparison group design was used. White and …

Enseñar Superpoderes: La Importancia De Una Educación Bilingüe, Camryn Potter

Best Integrated Writing

This argumentative essay deals with a well-known topic in the field of linguistics, methodology and education. The topic, however, has not been exhausted, so Camryn Potter’s reflections insert her in a generation of new advocates of second language teaching. In detailed progression and with a clear style, Potter conveys her vision: it is true that when learning a second language, a person acquires skills beneficial for the brain and the holistic human condition. Although passionate about the topic, Potter does not jump to conclusions. On the contrary, she explores different pros and cons. An educator at heart, she invites the …

Friends With Benefits: Collaboration Between A State University And A School District Designed To Improve Teaching And Learning For Bilingual Students, Elizabeth A. Skinner, Pauline Williams

Journal of Multilingual Education Research

This article describes a long-term collaborative effort between a college of education and a public school district in Illinois. As both the district and the Bilingual-Bicultural Education Program at the university sought to improve the teaching and learning for emergent bilingual students, the relationship between the two institutions evolved. The result is a pipeline of teacher candidates, specifically prepared to work in the district’s dual language schools. The article describes the implementation of the federally funded program as well as the challenges encountered over the course of the collaboration.

The Seal Of Biliteracy: Considering Equity And Access For English Learners, Amy J. Heineke, Kristin J. Davin, Amy Bedford

Education: School of Education Faculty Publications and Other Works

The Seal of Biliteracy is a grass-roots language policy initiative that is sweeping across the United States. An award affixed to high school graduates’ transcripts and diplomas, the overarching purpose of the policy is to promote and foster students’ bilingualism and biliteracy in K-12 schools. Initiated in California in 2011, the policy has been modified significantly as stakeholders in 32 different states have drafted, passed, and enacted similar legislation in recent years. On its surface, the policy appears to hold promise in disrupting the monolingual norm prevalent in U.S. schools; however, with many states focusing efforts on world language education …

How Colonization Impacts Identity Through The Generations: A Closer Look At Historical Trauma And Education, Michelle Garcia-Olp

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Through the lived experiences of 26 New Mexicans, this inquiry investigates how colonization impacts identity through the generations, particularly looking at historical trauma and education. The findings demonstrate the importance of decolonizing spaces within educational settings. Furthermore, the findings demonstrate the need for viewing educational systems and spaces through a Tribal Critical Race Theory (TribalCrit) and Indigenous Storywork lens that lead Indigenous students in finding face (one’s identity), finding foundation (one’s greatest potential/full expression) and finding heart (one’s flow with the creator). The lens of TribalCrit enables the creation of a space where Indigenous students are empowered by their educational …

Testing And Ideology: Policy Debates About Literacy Assessments For Colorado’S Bilingual Students, Luis E. Poza, Kara Mitchell Viesca

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Faculty Publications

The Colorado Reading to Ensure Academic Development Act requires grade-level attainment in literacy in English for students in grades K-3. Its practical outcome, however, has been to pressure schools with bilingual programs to shift their instructional language allocations towards more English in the early grades. Proposed rule revisions debated by the state Board of Education sought to facilitate testing in students’ language of instruction for those in bilingual programs. Analysis of written and verbal opposition to the proposed rule revisions demonstrates the persistence of insidious ethnoculturalist discourses opposing bilingual education as well as the cooptation of liberal multiculturalist discourses that, …

Teaching A Second Language: Communication, Culture, And Collaboration, Diannylín Núñez De Paulino

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

This portfolio presents the author’s perspectives on the effective use of language teaching techniques, practices, and tools. The first section demonstrates the author’s teaching philosophy, which includes her perceptions as a foreign language instructor and learner, teaching observations of various foreign language instructors, and self-reflections about teaching. The following section contains three research papers, which explore foreign language anxiety, effectiveness of co-teaching a foreign language class, and refusals across different cultures. The last section consists of three annotated bibliographies in which the author analyzes journal articles and book chapters about communicative language teaching, the role of culture in the Spanish …

Breaking Traditions: Teaching Efl In The Dominican Republic, Farlin Paulino

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

This portfolio is a compilation of the author’s beliefs in regard to effectively teaching English as a Foreign Language and Spanish as a Second language. This work was completed for the Master of Second Language Teaching (MSLT) program at Utah State University. All the work compiled in this portfolio centers on the teaching philosophy statement, which contains what the author believes to be the most important aspects of teaching a second language. In the first section of the portfolio, the author presents the experiences that made him pursue the profession of teaching languages, his personal philosophy of teaching shaped by …

Activating Schemata In Esl Writing, Uyen Dang

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

My research aims at exploring the contribution of various types of schemata to leaners’ text comprehension and text production, especially ESL (English as a Second Language) writing, to better understand how ESL learners, especially Vietnamese graduate students, use diverse resources in schema activation to facilitate their processes of learning to write in the academic setting. To better understand these processes, the researcher synthesized previous studies together with conducting interviews with four Vietnamese graduate students and analyzing their writing samples to investigate the relationships among types of schemata: formal, content, and rhetorical schemata, which can be significant in ESL writing and …

Effects Of An Elementary Immersion Program On Academic Achievement In Core Subject Areas, Marlee Schmidt

Dissertations, Theses, and Projects

This study sought to find out if students who became bilingual score

higher, lower, or the same on standardized tests as their monolingual peers across

multiple disciplines. An answer was obtained by comparing the Minnesota

Comprehensive Assessment scores of Spanish language immersion students to

scores of non-immersion students for the following subject areas: reading in

grades 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 10; math in grades 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 11; and science

in 5, 8, and high school. The scores used came from a graduating class of 2018

with approximately 342 students. Data was analyzed …

Decolonial Gestures Of Andean Bilingual College Students Promoting Quechua: Community-Based Participatory Research With Photovoice, Yuliana H. Kenfield

Language, Literacy, and Sociocultural Studies ETDs

Andean college students in Cusco, Peru, struggle to overcome discrimination against bilingualism during their pursuit of higher education. To examine this situation and possibilities for change, I employed a participatory method, photovoice (Wang & Burris, 1994) within a community-based participatory research framework, to facilitate Quechua-Spanish bilingual college students’ exploration of Quechuan practices in their university. Participatory research methodology promoted critical dialogues to challenge ideologies that have obstructed the revitalization, maintenance, development of the Quechua language in higher education. Although university policies in Cusco formally promote inclusion of indigenous knowledge and practices, bilingual Spanish-Quechua practices on campus have remained largely symbolic. …

The Effect Of A Multisensory Approach To Spanish Instruction On The Foreign Language Proficiency Of Students With Learning Disabilities, Linda Chui

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of the study was to investigate the effect of a multisensory approach to Spanish instruction founded in Orton-Gillingham on the (1) foreign language writing, and (2) foreign language reading comprehension of students with learning disabilities in the middle school Spanish classroom. Additionally, the study inquired about the students' satisfaction with the Orton-Gillingham approach to learning to read in Spanish. Four middle school Spanish students with SLD, three male and one female, participated in the study. A single subject ABAB design was used. During the baseline phases, students received Spanish instruction in the traditional mainstream classroom. During the intervention, …

A Motherwork Challenge To Dominant Discourse: A Review Of Immigration, Motherhood, And Parental Involvement: Narratives Of Communal Agency In The Face Of Power Asymmetry, Katie D. Scott

The Qualitative Report

In Lilian Cibils dissertation-turned-book, Immigration, Motherhood and Parental Involvement: Narratives of Communal Agency in the Face of Power Asymmetry (2017), the stories of seven Mexican immigrant mothers provide insight into what motherhood looks like outside the mainstream ideology of parental involvement. Using a critical feminist lens, Cibils employs the concept of motherwork as an alternative to a cultural deficit approach for understanding Mexican immigrant motherhood.

Resisting Essentialism In Cultural Research: A Participatory Action Research Study Of Parent Involvement In Education Among Spanish-Speaking Students And Families, Michael J. Frank

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The present study aimed to investigate a locally-driven action research project to improve connections between Spanish-speaking Latinx parents and the high school that their children attend. Using Participatory Action Research (PAR), the study sought to create a collaborative research agenda that would empower the participants to study their own culture and practices at the school, and how the two combined to create a home-school partnership. Six parents and two members of the school’s bilingual staff comprised the PAR team, with a total of nine members including the principal investigator. The project began with the creation of a public sphere in …

Making Interactions Between Domestic And International Students Meaningful, Yukari Takimoto Amos, Nicole Rehorst

All Faculty Scholarship for the College of Education and Professional Studies

The purpose of this practitioner narrative is to identify ways in which meaningful interaction can take place between English learners (ELs) and domestic students in a university setting. In order to learn English effectively, ELs require situations in which they can participate equally in an interaction with a domestic student capable of modifying their English so that it is comprehensible. We created a series of joint classes between teacher candidates and Japanese exchange students in an ESL class. In the class, the first author instructs the teacher candidates on strategies for teaching content to ELs. Second, the teacher candidates teach …

Creating A New Normal: Language Education For All, Aleidine Kramer Moeller, Martha G. Abbott

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Faculty Publications

How close are we to the reality of all students having the opportunity to learn another language and gaining support for these efforts from the general public? The answer has a long history, which we point out by referencing articles that span the 50‐year history of Foreign Language Annals. From the 1979 President’s Commission on Foreign Language and International Studies report under President Jimmy Carter to the recent article by Kroll and Dussias (2017) on the benefits of multilingualism, this article tracks ACTFL’s advocacy efforts over the years. Most recently, the 2017 launch of the Lead with Languages public awareness …

El Cuento Como Recurso Didáctico En La Enseñanza Del Francés Lengua Extranjera, Sonia R. Badenas

Faculty Publications

Este artículo ofrece una reflexión pragmática sobre el uso del cuento como material didáctico en el aula de francés

lengua como extranjera (FLE). Tras revisar brevemente las diferentes ventajas de trabajar con cuentos y géneros afines en la enseñanza de lenguas, se analiza la utilidad de este género como material pedagógico para la práctica de la expresión escrita. Sobre esta base proponemos un acercamiento práctico a la integración del cuento en la enseñanza del francés en niveles universitarios dentro de un contexto comunicativo y a la luz del Marco Común Europeo de Referencia para las Lenguas (MCERL).