Digital Commons Network^™

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 …

Building Bridges, Not Walls, Between Latinx Immigrant Parents And Schools, Kiyomi Sánchez-Suzuki Colegrove

Occasional Paper Series

As a teacher educator and former bilingual teacher, I have encountered many teachers who have negative misconceptions about immigrant parents. These misconceptions prevent teachers from forming reciprocal and meaningful relationships with parents and even with children (Colegrove, forthcoming). Negative misconceptions impact teachers’ abilities to be equitable as well as their willingness to offer high-quality learning experiences to children (Adair, 2015; Crosnoe, 2006) or to include parents in meaningful, educational decision-making (Doucet, 2011, 2008).

This essay addresses some of these misconceptions as they were articulated during a large video-cued ethnographic study of Latinx immigrant parents of young children in Texas and …

Building Bridges Between Home And School For Latinx Families Of Preschool Children, Gigliana Melzi, Adina Schick, Lauren Scarola

Occasional Paper Series

All children, regardless of their backgrounds, enter the classroom environment with a set of cultural and communal resources known as funds of knowledge (González, Moll, & Amanti, 2005; Moll, Amanti, Neff, & Gonzalez, 1992). Educators can support children’s learning and achievement by incorporating these funds of knowledge – which include, for example, cultural and familial values and traditions, family activities, and home language – into classroom learning experiences. All too often, however, educators fail to take advantage of these resources, and instead draw on mainstream values, traditions, and practices that have historically been embedded into classroom culture and protocol. Even …

Rethinking “Parent Involvement”: Perspectives Of Immigrant And Refugee Parents, Zeynep Isik-Ercan

Occasional Paper Series

I arrived in the U.S. 15 years ago as a master’s student in early childhood education after teaching in elementary schools in Turkey. Becoming a permanent resident in my new country and parenting my two Turkish-American boys fueled my scholarly interest in the experiences of immigrant communities with their children’s early school years, specifically the ways they negotiate cultural and linguistic identities in educational settings. Among many encounters with my children’s teachers, one is particularly memorable.

Shortly after Enis, my older son, began attending the campus preschool at age two, his teacher asked me to speak only English at home …

Building Safe Community Spaces For Immigrant Families, One Library At A Time, Max Vazquez Dominguez, Denise Davila, Silvia Nogueron-Liu

Occasional Paper Series

In today’s political climate, supporting the needs of young children from Latinx immigrant families has become increasingly difficult at the community, institutional, state, and federal levels. This essay is about a group of Latinx families who participated in an innovative early literacy program at a county public library branch in the migration setting of the U.S. Southeast known as the New Latino Diaspora (Hamann, Wortham, Murillo, 2015). We describe the program and its role in building a safe and welcoming environment for Latinx students and their families. We include the voices of the librarian and parents who had never before …

No Room For Silence: The Impact Of The 2016 Presidential Race On A Second-Grade Dual-Language (Spanish-English) Classroom, Sandra L. Osorio

Occasional Paper Series

“¡Quiere sacar a todos los suramericanos! Quiere quedarse con solo los blancos,¹ shouted second grader Salvador² to his classmate Victor. They were supposed to be reading Click, Clack, Moo: Cows That Type by Doreen Cronin, but somehow the conversation had turned to the then presidential candidate for the Republican Party, Donald Trump. That was how Trump and his rhetoric entered our dual language classroom.

Far too often, the voices of students of color, their experiences, and their lives are not validated in the classroom. When Salvador and Victor’s conversation about Trump erupted, the teacher and I—the teacher …

Intersectionality And Possibility In The Lives Of Latina/O/X Children Of Immigrants: Imagining Pedagogies Beyond The Politics Of Hate, Ramon Antonio Martinez

Occasional Paper Series

I first met Alma¹ when she was five years old and a kindergarten student in a multi-age Spanish-English dual language classroom in southern California. Alma is the child of immigrants from the Mexican state of Oaxaca. Somewhat shy and soft spoken, she nonetheless had many friends and seemed eager to engage with her peers in class. In interviews with me over the first few years of a longitudinal study that I was conducting at her school, she spent a great deal of time sharing the details of her rich literate life. Among other things, Alma loved poetry. In addition …

Introduction: A Vision For Transforming Early Childhood Research And Practice For Young Children Of Immigrants And Their Families, Fabienne Doucet, Jennifer Adair

Occasional Paper Series

This special issue of the Occasional Paper Series describes practices and policies that can positively impact the early schooling of children of immigrants in the United States. We consider the intersectionality of young children’s lives and what needs to change in order to ensure that race, class, immigration status, gender, and dis/ability can effectively contribute to children’s experiences at school and in other instructional contexts, rather than prevent them from getting the learning experiences they need and deserve.

Fiqws Language And Literacy: Mine/Yours/Ours/Theirs, Missy Watson

Open Educational Resources

This syllabus is for a Freshmen Inquiry Writing Seminar, which is a two-section, collaboratively taught course wherein one of the two courses engages students in critical thinking, reading, and writing about the issue of language and literacy, while the other introduces students to conventions of academic writing and mentors them in social and rhetorical writing processes. Thus, this course draws on the topic of language and literacy as a vehicle for critically analyzing students' own languages and literacies and developing especially their academic and information literacies.

A Study Of Ghanaian Kindergarten Teachers' Use Of Bilingual And Translanguaging Practices, Joyce Esi Bronteng

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The importance of mother tongue-based bilingual medium of instruction in bilingual and multilingual classrooms has been evidenced in ample studies in different parts of the world including Ghana. However, studies on how bilingualism is carried out with respect to classroom displays in bilingual education is very scant and even none, as far as I know, in Ghana. Also, there is emerging research on teachers’ translanguaging practices in other parts of the world including South Africa but research on instructional use of translanguaging is yet to be conducted in Ghana. Therefore, this study examined kindergarten teachers’ bilingual practices with regard to …

Dual Immersion Leadership: A Case Study Of Three K-5 Principals Who Show Success With Emergent Bilinguals, Ivonne Karina Dibblee

Dissertations and Theses

In the past decade the number of dual language immersion programs in US public schools has grown to more than 2000. The benefits of dual language immersion for emergent bilinguals (EBs) have been confirmed by numerous studies. However, lacking from this literature is research which focuses on leadership within dual immersion schools. Despite an upsurge in the number of immersion schools, few studies examine the characteristics of effective immersion leaders. The aim of this study is to examine the leadership characteristics of principals leading K-5 dual language immersion programs who have increased student achievement among EBs.

The purpose of this …

Resilient Scholar: A High Achieving African American Male With A Learning Disability, Shawn A. Robinson

Journal of Research Initiatives

The existing literature on race/ethnicity overlooks learning disability (LD) and the latter often neglects African American males. Further, when the intersection of race/ethnicity and LD overlap, African American males are rarely discussed or viewed as high achievers within the literature. Therefore, I seek to break through the wall of silence and provide an account that explores the rich lived experiences of a high achieving African American male with LD (i.e., dyslexia) in higher education. The article begins with literature relevant to my lived experiences followed by contextualizing those experiences as a high achiever. Next, I use a conceptual framework as …

Black Exceptionality In Academia: A Cultural-Historical Re-Conceptualization Of Black Male Students Identified With Learning Disabilities In Higher Education, Larry Love, Dosun Ko, Aydin Bal

Journal of Research Initiatives

The under-representation of Black male students identified with learning disabilities (LD) in higher education is a symptom of a larger social injustice, the racialization of educational opportunities and outcomes in the United States. We provided a critical review of literature to examine the structural and social barriers facing Black college students identified with LD in terms of access to adequate support services, refusal of funds of knowledge that Black students bring to higher education, and hegemonic organization of higher education. Following themes are explored: a) historical legacy of racial inequity in academia; b) systemic contradictions in institutional practices; c) absence …

Bilingual Teachers' Experiences: Being English Learners, Becoming Teachers, And Bilingual Education, Carrie Susan Larson

Dissertations and Theses

Bilingual students are the fastest growing demographic group in U.S. P-12 public schools and offer promise and hope to our increasingly global workforce. However, many bilingual students are lagging behind in school, too many do not complete high school, and their schooling experiences are overshadowed by racial and linguistic segregation, low-academic tracking, and subtractive educational experiences. There is a growing body of literature that recognizes the importance of bilingual and bicultural teachers and leaders who can include students' linguistic, cultural, and community assets in school. This qualitative research study explores the experiences of a specialized group of elementary bilingual and …

Chinese Students In U.S. Universities: A Qualitative Study Of Cross-Cultural Learning Experiences, Transition And Adaptation, Josefina E. Oramas, Hagai Gringarten, Lloyd Mitchell

Journal of International & Interdisciplinary Business Research (2014-2019)

Chinese students represent the largest single group among international students enrolled in the U.S, and globalization has played an important role in impacting Chinese students’ perceptions of what it means to study abroad. According to The Wall Street Journal, there are 85 percent more international students enrolled today in U.S. schools than ten years ago, adding more than 35 billion dollars to the nation’s economy in 2015 (Belkin & Purnell, 2017). This qualitative study adds to the limited research available regarding Chinese students’ cross-cultural transition and academic adaptation to American universities (Kusek, 2015; Yan & Berliner, 2009). Findings add a …

Sharing Identity: Indexing Cultural Perspectives Through Writing Responses To Graphic Novels, Alex Romagnoli

SANE journal: Sequential Art Narrative in Education

Indexing identity through writing responses among ELL students in response to a graphic novel helps provide insight into how writing responses represent people and how graphic novels can aid in that process of self-discovery through their inherent multimodalities. This study takes looks at four students in an ELL class at an urban high school in southern Pennsylvania as they responded in writing to a portion of Will Eisner's New York: Life in the Big City (2006). All of the participants took events from the portion of the graphic novel provided to them and indexed their urban, cultural perspectives through their …

Amjambo Africa! (June 2018), Kathreen Harrison

Amjambo Africa!

Welcome to Amjambo Africa! Welcome to Amjambo Africa! We are Maine’s free newspaper for and about New Mainers from Sub-Saharan Africa.

Amjambo Africa! is here to help New Mainers thrive and to help Maine welcome and benefit from our new neighbors.

Amjambo Africa! will serve as a conduit of information for newcomers as they navigate life in Maine.

Amjambo Africa! will include background articles about Africa so those from Maine can understand why newcomers have arrived here.

Amjambo Africa! will profile successful New Mainers from Sub-Saharan Africa in order to give hope to those newly arrived as well as make …

Mexican American Parents Of Elementary Students And Literacy Engagement: A Case Study Of A Bilingual (Spanish/English) Parent Book Club Using Children's Literature, Pablo Ochoa

Dissertations

This qualitative case study explored what occurred when seven Latinx parents and a bilingual coordinator engaged in a book club using the same historical fiction text as the school's fifth grade classroom. Research questions focused on Book Club participation, connections to the focal text(s), and new learning. Data included audiotapes of the sessions, parent written/artistic artifacts, participant interviews, retrospective field notes, and reflective journal entries.

Study findings suggest that positive partnerships between schools and parents can occur within familial text engagement opportunities built on existing relationships with school personnel; use of relevant literature, literacy activities that allow for parent choice …

Poverty And Empowerment Discourse In Utah Dual Immersion Classrooms, Lauren Johnson

Undergraduate Honors Theses

This paper considers the discourse, or communication, that occurs in dual immersion programs in Utah. I take a sociocultural perspective to address the question of whether and how these programs are meeting the unique needs of the students enrolled in them. I consider two tasks frequently viewed in five consecutive days of filming: mirroring/repeated phrases and partner talk. Findings suggest that although they have promise, they often do not meet the intended aims of comprehension and language development. The findings also show that these tasks do little to empower participants. The conclusions and implications suggest that commonly accepted tasks in …

Redesigning Curriculum, Reimagining Education: Preparing Preservice Teachers For Students Of Color In Urban Education, Sabrina D. Jones

College of Education Theses and Dissertations

Dropout rates, suspensions, and expulsions have increased—among urban schools for quite some time. Yet, the number of unmotivated and disengaged culturally diverse students in urban learning environments is steadily increasing. There is a growing number of white female novice teachers who are entering the field of urban education and many prospective/novice teachers overall that are feeling unprepared to reach culturally diverse urban youth. This dissertation by no means suggests that people of other races and cultures cannot teach culturally diverse students in urban learning environments, but it does suggest that those who enter the field of urban education should be …

Teachers’ Sense Of Self-Efficacy And Its Impact On English Learner Students’ Reading Proficiency-Level Scores On A Large-Scale Language Proficiency Test: A Mixed-Method Design, Mirtha Quintana-Toomey

College of Education Theses and Dissertations

The research design applied in this study was a convergent parallel mixed-method approach that included qualitative and quantitative data collection. The quantitative data accrued through the Teacher’s Sense of Efficacy Survey (TSES) survey. The quantitative data also included a collection of English language learner’s reading-proficiency-level scores from a large-scale English-language proficiency test: Assessing Comprehension and Communication in English State-to State for ELLs 2.0 (ACCESS for ELLs 2.0) administered in 2017. The quantitative data from the TSES survey and the ACCESS test were analyzed using the Pearson correlation coefficient. Findings from the TSES indicated that teachers had much self-efficacy in implementing …

The Image Betrays More Than It Reveals: Inter(Ior) Views From Women Of Color On Identity And Social And Academic Experiences In Higher Education, Amy Hauenstein

College of Education Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation proposes a further conceptualization of intersectional identity as a fundamental topic in education reform research. Overlaying the theoretical lenses of Critical Race Theory and intersectionality, a modified narrative inquiry methodology was used to investigate the self-perceived identities among seven women of color, who are alumnae of an all-girls secondary school, in their current context of higher education. Analysis of data from in-depth, open-ended interviews, a focus group interview, and a fictional writing sample illuminated the role of meaning-making capacity in determining the extent to which contextual influences shape self-perceptions of gender, race, and other emergent identities at their …

Performing Wechat Recording Tasks In Mixed-Ability Study Abroad Content Courses, Hong Zhan, Leeann Chen

Publications

This case study explores the use of WeChat’s recording tool as a solution to the challenges of teaching mixed-ability students in content courses offered in study abroad programs. The tool successfully reduced anxiety and boredom, created opportunities for students to engage in personalized learning tasks in real time, enabled instructors to provide individualized feedback, and helped course curriculums stay on track. Data was collected from an online survey, email interview, and students’ recordings of topics and instructor’s feedback. The study determined that using WeChat’s recording function to complete linguistic tasks is a useful instructional tool for a mixed-ability classes in …

The Role Of Bilingual Interactional Contexts In Predicting Interindividual Variability In Executive Functions: A Latent Variable Analysis, Andree Hartanto

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

Despite a huge number of studies examining bilingual advantages in executive functions (EFs), the research findings with regards to the relations between bilingualism and EFs are mostly inconsistent and mixed. In order to shed light on these inconsistent findings, the current research aimed to tackle on both conceptual and methodological limitations that are prevalent in previous studies, namely: (a) failure to consider bilingual experiences in assessing bilingual advantages, and (b) task impurity due to substantial influence of non-EFs processes on EFs task performance. Based on Adaptive Control Hypothesis and Control Process Model of Code-switching, a theory-driven multisession study coupled with …

Language Ideology, Policy And Planning In Peru (Book Review), Yuliana H. Kenfield

Intersections: Critical Issues in Education

No abstract provided.

Nothing To Hide, Nothing To Fear? Tools And Suggestions For Digital Data Protection, Jedidiah C. Anderson, Erik Skare, Courtney Dorroll

The Qualitative Report

The developing cyber-infrastructure has provided new tools, methods, and opportunities to conduct research. However, the Snowden leaks and subsequent developments proved that the same infrastructure has made all-encompassing surveillance possible – posing new challenges for researchers when engaging with those they are obligated to protect. As the cyber-infrastructure simultaneously opens up new possibility-spaces for circumventing structures of surveillance, while drawing on the authors’ own experiences, this article presents a number of tools and suggestions that will aid the researcher to engage more responsibly and safely with the research subject digitally.

The Linguistic Landscape Of A Cambodia Town In Lowell, Massachusetts, Virak Chan

Journal of Southeast Asian American Education and Advancement

This research was conducted in a Cambodian community recently recognized as the second Cambodia Town in the U.S, which is new to the linguistic landscape research community. Data for this research were 279 photos collected in Lowell, MA during August of 2013. They were collected from two important main streets (Westford Street and Branch Street) that house many Cambodian businesses. The site for this data collection was purposefully selected because it is located in the heart of the Cambodia Town with many Cambodian businesses and offices. All the photos were entered into and coded with NVivo 10. Findings were reported …

Understanding The Knowledge And Attitudes Of Parents Of Students With Limited English Proficiency Towards Standardized Testing, Michele P. Tiedemann

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

State and federal regulations mandated standardized testing of students, including disadvantaged students: economically disadvantaged students, students with disabilities, and students with Limited English Proficiency (LEP). The results of the standardized tests were used for the accountability of school districts by way of state and federal reports, resulting in standardized testing also being referred to as high-stakes testing. Standardized testing was criticized for a number of reasons, including holding teachers accountable for students’ scores (Ysseldyke et al., 2004) and subjecting students to stress and anxiety brought on by the demands of standardized testing (Albrecht & Joles, 2003; Von der Embse & …

Best Practices For The Development Of English Language In Rural Elementary Schools In Prevention Of Long Term English Learners, Heather Christine Gomez

Dissertations

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to describe the best practices of English language development programs in rural South San Joaquin Valley elementary schools in the targeted areas of reading, writing, listening and speaking and best practices in teacher professional development to prevent Long Term English Learners from the perspective of principals. An additional purpose was to identify and describe obstacles to the implementation of best practices of English language development in rural South San Joaquin Valley elementary schools from the perspective of principals.

Methodology: Through data analysis, rural elementary schools in South San Joaquin Valley were identified …

An Intensive Esl Camp Curriculum And Excursion Activities For International High School Graduated / College Students, Ying Chen

Master's Projects and Capstones

There are many factors for students’ poor command of English among international students in the native language institutions. One of the factors is the students’ negative attitude and low motivation in English learning. Another aspect to lower students’ English learning motivation is the inappropriate use of the learning materials. Moreover, learners still lack a chance to immerse in the real language environment and the authentic cultural background to improve their comprehensively intercultural and communicative competence. For the sake that the second language instruction provided in regular schools is limited in time, many students even do not have enough time to …