Digital Commons Network^™

Translanguaging Supports Reading With Deaf Adult Bilinguals: A Qualitative Approach, Dan Hoffman, Ju-Lee Wolsey, Jean Andrews, Diane Clark

The Qualitative Report

Translanguaging is a pedagogical theory and an approach to teaching language. It conceptualizes the dynamic ways in which bilinguals use their linguistic repertoire and language practices in both languages for learning, meaning-making, reading, and writing. This study reports on the results of a qualitative study using Grounded Theory. The research question posed was, “what insights do bilingual Deaf readers provide regarding their metalinguistic processes and reading strategies used during translanguaging? To answer this question, responses were gathered from Deaf adults who were interviewed on their language and literacy histories. Further, they were queried about their reading comprehension practices using translanguaging. …

Functions, Forms, And Accessibility Of English As A Second Language Courses In South-Central Kentucky, Mollie Todd

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

In the South-Central region of Kentucky there are several facilities that teach English as Second Language (ESL) courses. This thesis examines the forms and styles of these classes, as well as problems refugee students face in the classroom and the functions the classes may serve beyond the teaching of English. To accomplish this, I used anthropological field work methods, including semi-structured interviews with local ESL teachers, volunteers, and professionals in refugee services and participant observation. I will focus on the interviews I have conducted; what content has been collected, structure of the interviews, and what questions were asked. This paper …

A Pedagogy Of Care For Adolescent English Learners: A Formative Experiment, Mary Amanda Stewart, Alexandra Babino, Katie Walker

TAPESTRY

In the case of educators of adolescents in the dynamic process of English acquisition, it is our goal to increase the fulfillment and success of the students we are privileged to serve through nurturing their academic, emotional, personal, social, and civic development. It is, therefore, essential that educators understand the implementation and impact of teaching through a framework of care.

Latino Mothers’ Responsiveness And Bilingual Language Development In Young Children From 24 Months To 36 Months, Rica Ramirez

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This longitudinal study examined the role maternal responsiveness had on shaping Spanish and English language development in bilingual two year-old children. Because children who are bilingual language learners are oftentimes coming from low socioeconomic families it is essential that we investigate the ways in which they develop language in order to better serve this population. Maternal responsiveness is one source in which we can examine early language development of young bilingual children. Eight Latino mother-child dyads were observed and assessed at three time points. Each observation was coded for maternal responsive behaviors. Regression and multilevel modeling was used in order …

Measuring The Effectiveness Of Critical Literacy As An Instructional Method, Edward Lehner, Kaemanje Thomas, Jean Shaddai, Toni Hernen

Publications and Research

This paper reports the results of a quasi-experiment investigating the efficacy of using critical literacy as an instructional method. Using a quantitative comparison method, critical literacy is the study’s treatment. The treatment measures the final exam scores of linguistically diverse urban community college students enrolled in college developmental reading courses against 13 other statistically similar classes. The primary data are the results of a standardized final exam. This quasi-experimental study demonstrates the effectiveness of a critical literacy model when employed in a community college setting. Further, this study introduces a quantitative rationale for using critical literacy and establishes the practice …

The Power Of Empathy: A Critical Narrative Inquiry Of Cultural Competencies In New Teachers, Marcus K. Hughes, Sr.

LMU Theses and Dissertations

Given the large homogeneous workforce of predominately White, middle-class female K–12 educators combined with the rising population of diverse students in the United States and the disproportionate achievement gap of students of color compared to their White peers, I sought to discover how new millennial educators defined and used empathy to build their own cultural competencies as well as discover how these teachers used empathy to strengthen the teacherstudent relationships across cultural differences. Using the conceptual frameworks of Paulo Freire’s (1970) pedagogy and Wang et al.’s (2003) definition of ethno-cultural empathy, I conducted a critical narrative inquiry of five first-year …

A Case Study Of Hanban’S Chinese Language Teaching Program At Western Kentucky University: Developmental History And Preliminary Outcomes, Sheng-Huei Yu

Dissertations

This case study provides a historical overview of foreign language development (especially Chinese) in the United States and the growing number of Confucius Institutes (CIs) established in the U.S through Hanban, China’s National Office for Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language. This case study specifically captures the growth of the Western Kentucky University (WKU) CI from its inception in 2010. According to Hanban’s annual assessment reporting guidelines, since the conception of CIs sheer quantity of teachers and students has always been the primary focus. Therefore, the growth in the numbers of Hanban Chinese teachers and number of students enrolled in …

Connecting Genre-Based And Corpus-Driven Approaches In Research Articles: A Comparative Study Of Moves And Lexical Bundles In Saudi And International Journals, Basim M. Alamri

Language, Literacy, and Sociocultural Studies ETDs

Research articles (RAs) have become the primary channel for researchers to circulate academic knowledge within certain discourse communities. Writing an acceptable research paper for publication in a scholarly journal is challenging for novice writers, especially for nonnative speakers of English. The present study was pedagogically motivated, and the ultimate goal was to provide the basis for a genre approach and corpus linguistics to academic writing for ESL/EFL postgraduate students in the field of applied linguistics.

The study analyzed the rhetorical structure and lexical bundles of English-language RAs—Introduction-Methods-Results-Discussion-Conclusion (I-M-R-D-C)—sections published in Saudi Arabian and international journals in the field of applied …

Improving Second Language Lexical Acquisition Through Personalization And Contextualization: A Look At Intrinsic Cognitive Load Reduction Strategies, Curtis Kleinman

Teaching & Learning Theses & Dissertations

Cognitive load reduction strategies traditionally seek to reduce the amount of extraneous mental effort required of the learner. Researchers, through effective instructional design, seek to eliminate load-causing agents that are extraneous to the learning topic at hand. However, cognitive load theory research has now shifted to also include the exploration of strategies that seek to reduce the inherent complexities of the target topic itself. The current study seeks to apply two such intrinsic cognitive load reduction strategies—personalization and contextualization. Previous research suggests that cognitive load can be reduced by personalizing the learning environment, which serves to meet the interests of …

Rediscovering Misinterpreted Concept Of Vospitaniye, Core Constituent Of Vygotskian Zpd, Through Scholar’S Socio-Cultural Actuality, Svetlana Mylnikova

Language, Literacy, and Sociocultural Studies ETDs

ABSTRACT

Lev Semyonovich Vygotsky, a renowned Russian psychologist, whose immediate family, academic surrounding, and scientific findings are typically scrutinized by scholars of past and present (Feingenberg, 1996, Kotik-Friedgut, 2008, 2011, Kuzmich, 2006, Vygodskaya & Lifanova, 1999, Yasnitsky, 2011, 2012) was the first to emphasize the holistic multidisciplinary approach to child development of pedology (child pedagogy) and distinguish two equally meaningful components of child education: obuchenie (teaching/learning process) and vospitanie (fostering). Even though Vygotskian theories are extensively employed in modern educational practices the intricacy of a complex unity of obuchenie and vospitanie in the process of education was overlooked as both …

The Language Of Learning In Family And Consumer Sciences: English Language Learners In Career Technical Education, Kali S. Lenhoff

Empowering Research for Educators

Family and Consumer Sciences (FCS) content and English as a Second Language (ESL) strategies can be organically incorporated to create a successful education for an English Language Learner (ELL). The first objective of this research project is to discover how prepared Family and Consumer Sciences teachers feel to work with English Language Learners in the classroom. The second objective is to identify practical and effective methods and strategies that are useful for Family and Consumer Sciences teachers instructing English Language Learners. The rationale for this project is that by identifying the challenges faced by English Language Learners in education, teachers …

Using Multimodal Modules To Address Pre-Service Teachers’ Knowledge Gap In Learning To Teach English Language Learners, Guofang Li, Denisse M. Hinojosa, Lindsay Wexler, Yue Bian, Jose Manuel Matinez

TAPESTRY

Researchers have argued that teacher education programs fail to prepare effective teachers for the increasing English language learner (ELL). In response to the under preparedness of pre-service teachers (PSTs) for ELLs, the authors designed a six-module online lab course for a group of 22 TESOL minor PSTs. The content of the modules included knowledge of ELLs and their parents, the socio-political context of teaching ELLs, and strategies of teaching knowledge and content to ELLs. PSTs reported they benefited from the learning opportunities these modules provided, including: familiarizing them with the challenges ELLs faced, the importance of and ideas for involving …

Family Emotional Literacy: A Critical Education Curriculum For Mental Health Promotion, Anna L. Dinallo

Language, Literacy, and Sociocultural Studies ETDs

This narrative study documents the experiences of seven Latina community educators through focus groups, interviews, and artifact data. Given the stigma of mental health (Bayer, 2005), a lack of culturally centered emotional curriculums (Boler, 1997; Boler & Zembylas, 2003) which are removed from structural oppression (Collins, 2002,1989; Crenshaw, 1991, 1993; hooks, 2014), educators, parents, and communities are in need of mental health promotion tools. According to the American Psychiatric Association (APA, 2015), approximately 70 million Americans annually are diagnosed with mental health issues that disable daily functioning. More relevant to the study population was the loss of three middle school-aged …

Changing Roles Of Legal Information Professionals: Adapting Your Skills To New Challenges, Michele Villagran

Faculty Publications

Michele will explain the concept of cultural intelligence or cultural quotient (CQ)—a person’s capability for successful adaptation to new cultural settings. She’ll also demonstrate how info pros can reinvent themselves by understanding their CQ and applying differing techniques in the workplace when confronted with change.

Walking Through Apprehension: Beginning The Journey To Cultural Understanding, Connie L. Schaffer, Sarah Edwards, Nancy A. Edick

Journal of Curriculum, Teaching, Learning and Leadership in Education

Within urban universities, programs often require students to complete experiences via partnerships with P-12 schools, community centers, or social service agencies located in urban centers. These experiences provide rich opportunities for students to apply, in real-world settings, what they study on campus. These experiences also provide opportunities for students to confront their perceptions of the urban neighborhoods in which the experiences occur. However, when students' perceptions are based primarily on stereotypes or negative media portrayals, they may enter into the experiences with apprehension, even fear. This manuscript describes one attempt of a large teacher preparation program to address this issue …

Predictors Of Behavior Problems In The Context Of Peer Play Interactions: A Sample Of Low-Income Latino Preschoolers, Olivia Hernandez Gonzalez

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Latinos are the fastest-growing minority group in the United States and have higher dropout rates compared to other groups. Moreover, problem behaviors are common in preschool classrooms, and the incidence of these problems is higher for children from low-income families. The purpose of this study was to understand Latino children's problem behaviors in the context of peer play interactions and identify those variables that influence such behavior. 265 five and six-year-old Spanish-speaking children (53.6% female) attending Head Start or kindergarten participated in the study. Additionally, 198 mothers and 78 pre-kindergarten and kindergarten lead teachers participated in the study. Child level …

“They Ate Macaroni-And-Cheese Or Tv Dinners; My Mother Made Curry Instead ”: A Narrative Inquiry Of South Asian American Writers’ Identity Negotiation, Su Yin Khor

Theses and Dissertations

As the demographic and linguistic landscape in the United States is shifting—the Asian population has increased significantly in the last decade, particularly the South Asian population—these changes are reflected in the classrooms all over the country. As such, it becomes imperative to investigate who these multilinguals are, and as several scholars have pointed out, the Asian population has not been studied to the same extent as other minorities. In addition, the notion of a homogenous Asian identity persists and hides the internal differences that exist within the Asian population.

Therefore, the aim of this thesis was to challenge the notion …

Developing A Collaborative Qualitative Research Project Across Borders: Issues And Dilemmas, Peter Sayer, Troy Crawford

The Qualitative Report

International collaborative research often refers to collaboration among the researchers and the participants. Few studies investigate the collaborative process among the researchers themselves. Assumptions about the qualitative research process, institutional requirements, and even epistemological orientations, are pervasive. Our experience conducting an empirical research study as a collaborative effort amongst a research team in Mexico and the United States challenged and transformed our assumptions about collaborative qualitative research in terms of organizational compatibility: (a) understanding research perspective and themes, (b) interpreting rules and regulations (c) physical travel between countries, and (d) how research products are counted. We address each assumption through …

Special Issue Editor's Introduction: 50 Years Of Model Minority Stereotype Research, Nicholas Daniel Hartlep

Journal of Southeast Asian American Education and Advancement

This special issue, intentionally focused on Southeast Asian Americans and the model minority myth, is important because Southeast Asian Americans have been “politically invisible” and because a disproportionate number have found it difficult to succeed academically. Asian Americans are not passive people. The model minority stereotype didn’t develop only because journalists made them out to be models or exemplars. This special issue shares 4 articles.

Academic Needs And Family Factors In The Education Of Southeast Asian American Students: Dismantling The Model Minority Myth, David M. Lee, Luke Duesbery, Peggy P. Han, Thupten Tashi, Chia S. Her, Valerie Ooka Pang

Journal of Southeast Asian American Education and Advancement

The model minority myth is a powerful force in schools. Many teachers believe that Asian American students do not need academic interventions. The purpose of this study was to examine the student achievement of almost a million seventh-grade students from California. The research compared the performance of Southeast Asian Americans, Cambodian, Laotian, and Vietnamese students, on reading and math on the CAT/6 standardized assessment with African American and White American students. Cambodian American and Laotian American students performed significantly lower than their White American peers and compared similarly to their African American peers. Vietnamese American students also scored lower than …

Accentuate The Positive; Eliminate The Negative: Hegemonic Interest Convergence, Racialization Of Latino Poverty, And The 1968 Bilingual Education Act, Kenzo K. Sung

College of Education Departmental Research

Derrick Bell's interest convergence thesis is a seminal framework to analyze social change within critical race theory. While interest convergence's influence has grown, two foundational questions have been raised: do interest groups act rationally; does interest convergence also offer a change prescription or only an explanation of prior events. By revisiting Bell's early influences, via the concept of hegemony, the article intervenes in these two formative debates by offering a reimagined analytic framing that I term “hegemonic interest convergence.” The article then applies this concept to analyze how broader political economic shifts shaped the struggles within which the 1968 Bilingual …

“The Soccer Field, It Has Dirt”: A Critical Analysis Of Teacher Learners In Contact With Emergent Multilingual Students, Theresa Catalano, Jenelle Reeves, Stephanie Wessels

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

In today’s globalized world, superdiversity and global migration have led to an increased focus on emergent multilingual students and how schools can best serve them. The authors explore how teacher learners in an undergraduate course on emergent multilinguals in a mid-sized university in the Midwest critically reflect on their learning in a practicum experience. Utilizing tools and perspectives from critical discourse studies (CDS), the researchers/teacher educators examine ideologies that surface in teacher learner reflections on their practicum experiences to find out how they renegotiate (or withhold) their beliefs while connecting to critical readings, coursework, and their experiences working with emergent …

Developing Teacher Competencies For Problem-Based Learning Pedagogy And For Supporting Learning In Language-Minority Students, Peter Rillero, Mari Koerner, Margarita Jimenez-Silva, Joi Merritt, Wendy J. Farr

Interdisciplinary Journal of Problem-Based Learning

Teachers need to be able to design and implement problem-based learning (PBL) experiences to help students master the content and the processes in new mathematics and science education standards. Due to the changed population of learners within schools, it is also critically important that teachers in the elementary grades have the abilities to work effectively with English language learners (ELL). This article discusses the implementation of a major initiative by our teachers college to achieve both of these goals through Problem-Based Enhanced Language Learning (PBELL), which combines PBL, enhanced opportunities for language, and ELL methods. The implementation began with a …

Book Review: Troubling Borders: An Anthology Of Art And Literature By Southeast Asian Women In The Diaspora By Pelaud, I. T., Duong, L., Lam, M. B., & Nguyen, K. L. (Eds.), Kim Dieu

Journal of Southeast Asian American Education and Advancement

Book review of Troubling Borders: An Anthology of Art and Literature by Southeast Asian Women in the Diaspora by Pelaud, I. T., Duong, L., Lam, M. B., & Nguyen, K. L. (Eds.)

A Correlational Study Of Teacher Efficacy And Culturally Responsive Teaching Techniques In A Southeastern Urban School District, Roberta F. Callaway

Journal of Organizational & Educational Leadership

This study investigated the level of personal and general teacher efficacy of teachers from three high schools within a southeastern urban school district. Additional research questions focused on correlational relationships between teacher efficacy and culturally responsive teaching, instructional strategies, student engagement, and classroom management as measured by the Teacher Efficacy Scale (TES), Culturally Responsive Teaching Techniques (CRTT) Scale, and Teachers’ Sense of Efficacy Scale (TSES). The CRTT Scale and TSES were combined to create a 29-item instrument to examine culturally responsive teaching, instructional strategies, student engagement, and classroom management. Significant relationships were found between teacher efficacy and culturally responsive teaching, …

Seeing And Being Seen: A Multimodal Inquiry Of Multilingual High School Newcomers And Their Contributions To Educational Communities, Ivana Espinet

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation research followed the experiences of seven high school newcomers who chose to participate in an internship program, assisting elementary school students, some of whom were also emergent bilinguals. This study used ethnographic and visual methodologies to explore young people’s evolving understanding of teaching, learning, and languaging as members of a community of practice within the internship.

The internship provided a space for the young people to make sense of schooling in their new country. The narratives that the interns shared highlight how the set of linguistic and cultural-historical repertoires of practice that they entered with shaped how they …

"Resisting From Within": (Re)Imagining A Critical Translingual English Classroom, Kate Anna Seltzer

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This ethnographic case study of an urban, linguistically diverse English classroom explores what happened when space was made for students both to voice their experiences living amidst ideologies that marginalize their language practices and identities and to resist such ideologies through writing that pushed monoglossic boundaries. Intensive one-on-one work with a high school English teacher led to the creation of a year-long curriculum that emphasized metalinguistic inquiry and discussion, linked language, power, and identity, and modeled the ways that writers and other artists take linguistic risks in order to critique monoglossic language ideologies.

Over the course of the year, students …

Letter To The President: Longitudinal Critical Discourse Analysis Of Academic And Hip Hop Genres In A Rap Narrative Program, Debangshu Roygardner

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The objective of this study was to examine an in-school rap narrative workshop through critical discourse theory (Bamberg, 2012; Daiute, 2014). Twelve youth from a public school serving youth in urban Houston, TX were recruited from an in-school and after-school Hip hop/Rap narrative program to participate in a two-year cohort research study. The primary research question guiding the study was “How do young people participating in a school-based Hip hop/Rap program use a wide range of narrative genres for literacy and psycho-social development over two years in the program?”

The data-intensive study involved assessments of literacy and psycho-social development via …

Embodying Rhythm Nation: Multimodal Hip Hop Dance As A Site For Adolescent Social-Emotional And Political Development, Lauren M. Roygardner

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This exploratory study employed qualitative methodology, specifically values analysis, to learn more about how being involved within Hip hop dance communities positively relates to adolescent development. Adolescence was defined herein as ages 13-23. The study investigated Hip hop dance communities in terms of cultural expertise (i.e. novice, intermediate and advanced/expert) to look specifically at dance narratives (i.e. peak experience narratives and “I dance because” essays) and hip hop dance performances. The primary purpose of this dissertation was to (1) explore how adolescents use multimodal Hip hop dance discourse for social-emotional development and critical consciousness, and to (2) understand how values …

Escribiendo Para Desahogarme: Release And Resistance In A Middle School Bilingual Writing Workshop, Carla Espana

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation examines a teacher’s language ideologies, their impact on curriculum modifications and bilingual Latinx middle schoolers’ storytelling, to understand how a bilingual pedagogy builds on their cultural and linguistic resources. This qualitative study was conducted in a sixth grade writing workshop class in New York City as the focus teacher taught the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project Personal Narrative Unit of Study. The first two findings center on the factors that influence a teacher’s stance on language practices and bilingual pedagogy, and how these contributed to curriculum modifications that included using students’ full linguistic and cultural repertoires, integrating …