Digital Commons Network^™

Bilingualism In Education In The Multilingual Apple: The Future Of The Past, Ofelia García

Journal of Multilingual Education Research

This article traces the ways in which New York City schools have responded to the multilingualism of its children in the last forty years. I review here the past to construct the future—the future of the past. I argue that in the predominantly Puerto Rican community of the 1960s and 1970s a simple approach toward languages and bilingualism in education was an appropriate response to meet the needs of language minority children. Thus, subtractive and additive bilingual education programs might have been sufficient. However, in the 21st century, with the demographic shifts and the technological advances of a globalized world, …

The Importance Of Disseminating Knowledge: An Issue Of Mission, Voice, And Passion, Aida A. Nevárez-La Torre

Journal of Multilingual Education Research

No abstract provided.

Notes On Contributors To This Issue

Journal of Multilingual Education Research

Notes on Contributors to This Issue; Description; Guidelines for Submission

Book Review. No Easy Answers: Bilingualism Or Language Delay?, Patricia Velasco

Journal of Multilingual Education Research

Introduction to book review.

Educators Taking The Lead To Transition High School Emergent Bilingual Learners With Disabilities, Diane Rodríguez, Lora Lee Smith Canter, Karen Voytecki, Kimberly Floyd

Journal of Multilingual Education Research

This article seeks to improve transition services for Emergent Bilinguals (EBs) with disabilities in secondary education. The authors provide recommendations to school administrators and educators on how to design a promising transitional context within classrooms and schools for EBs with disabilities. This article considers transition issues from multiple perspectives and urges secondary school educators to broaden their programmatic and teaching practices in order to increase successful transition of their multilingual students from school to work or to post-secondary education.

Native And Emergent Bilingual University-Level English Speakers Reading Online: The Influence Of Hypertext On Comprehension, Miriam Eisenstein Ebsworth, Tommy Mcdonell

Journal of Multilingual Education Research

Our study contributes to our understanding of Internet reading by Emergent Bilinguals (EB) and Native English speakers (NS) by investigating their recall of two Internet reading passages containing additional information available through either hypertext links or footnotes. Participants included 25 EB and 25 NS college students. Answers to cued recall questions were scored on the basis of the number of correctly recalled propositions (Kintsch, 1998). Additional interpretive data came from semi-structured interviews with four NS and four EB participants. Quantitative results showed that both groups of students recalled significantly more propositions with linear text than with hypertext. However, although descriptive …

Promising Pedagogical Practices For Emergent Bilinguals In Kindergarten: Towards A Mathematics Discourse Community, Sandra I. Musanti, Sylvia Celedón-Pattichis

Journal of Multilingual Education Research

In the current U.S. context, it is relevant to disseminate research that portrays in detail how bilingual teachers create challenging and safe mathematics learning environments for emergent bilinguals. It is critical to identify pedagogical approaches that foster emergent bilinguals’ participation in mathematics conversations and discourse practices where language is considered a pedagogical resource. This is possible when teachers understand that young Latino/a students come to school with a wide range of cognitive and linguistic tools, which they can use to help them make sense of problems posed in the classroom. Using case study methodology, we define and provide a detailed …

Where Have All The Bilingual Programs Gone?!: Why Prepared School Leaders Are Essential For Bilingual Education, Kate Menken, Cristian Solorza

Journal of Multilingual Education Research

Enrollment in bilingual education has declined significantly in New York City in recent years, in spite of state and city policies that support it. To better understand this alarming trend, we interviewed school leaders, particularly principals, who have dismantled their school’s bilingual education programs in recent years. We also interviewed school leaders who have managed to preserve their bilingual education programs within the same time period. We examined these leaders’ knowledge and understandings about bilingual education and their emergent bilingual students, and their rationale for the respective language education policies they have adopted. Our research points to the very important …

Editorial: Necessary Paradigm Shifts In Bilingual Education: Rethinking Language, Aida A. Nevárez-La Torre

Journal of Multilingual Education Research

No abstract provided.

Journal Of Multilingual Education Research

Journal of Multilingual Education Research

No abstract provided.

Morris Intercultural Education Initiative: A Community Needs And Assets Assessment, Keni Zenner, Argie Manolis, Cristina Ortiz

Miscellaneous Campus Publications

This document is the culmination of a year-long research project, which was conceived in December 2012, when a group of stakeholders from Lazos, Morris Area Community Education, and the University of Minnesota, Morris met to discuss submitting a proposal for a Minnesota Literacy Council AmeriCorps Volunteer In Service To America (VISTA) position. Our aim was to utilize the skills of a VISTA to more effectively plan, coordinate, and support literacy programming for children whose first language is Spanish and to ensure that children’s first language is not a barrier to educational achievement.

Developing Attitudes Toward Learning Arabic As A Foreign Language Among American University And College Students, Martin Isleem

Faculty Contributions to Books

This study investigates the developing attitudes of American university and college students toward learning Arabic as a Foreign Language. The primary goal of this examination is to shed light on the ways in which students' attitudes toward learning Arabic affect their motivation to learn the language, as well as their commitment to learning it. A secondary goal of this study is to reveal students' perceptions of the use of both Spoken and Standard Arabic in the classroom, and what effect their perceptions may have on their developing attitudes toward Arabic, and their motivation to learn the language and study its …

Language Diversity In Trainings: Analyzing The Use Of English In A Writeshop Process, Elis Cardoso Motta

Capstone Collection

This capstone paper discusses a learning process called “writeshop,” and the role played by language use in a writeshop I co-facilitated in November 2013 in South Africa. A writeshop is a workshop to collectively create a written product for publication. This paper starts with a description of my experience in co-designing and co-facilitating a writeshop as part of my practicum, followed by a reflection on the process and the different roles I played, from a trainer lens. The third part of this capstone paper presents an analysis, based on a survey and individual interviews conducted with the writeshop participants, of …

Panoply: Haitian And Haitian-American Youth Crafting Identities In U.S. Schools, Fabienne Doucet

Trotter Review

In the United States, where race is a powerful factor for social stratification (Appiah & Gutmann, 1998; Glick-Schiller & Fouron, 1990a; Omni & Winant, 1986), foreign-born Blacks find themselves battling the demoralizing impacts of discrimination, racism, and xenophobia on a daily basis. In the school context, racist assumptions have been shown to predispose teachers to have lower expectations of immigrant students and other students of color, to view them more often as behavioral problems, and to assume that their parents do not value education (Doucet, 2008, 2011b; Suárez-Orozco, Suárez-Orozco, & Todorova, 2008). At the same time, the powerful influence of …

What Is Higher Mathematics? Why Is It So Hard To Interpret? What Can Be Done?, John Tabak

Journal of Interpretation

Courses and seminars in higher mathematics are some of the most challenging assignments faced by academic interpreters. Difficulties interpreting higher mathematics can adversely impact the academic and professional aspirations of deaf mathematics students and professionals. This paper discusses the nature of higher mathematics with the goal of identifying what distinguishes higher mathematics from other subjects; it then reviews the history of attempts to sign/interpret higher mathematics with particular attention to current challenges associated with expressing higher mathematics in sign. The final part of the paper discusses strategies for more effectively expressing higher mathematics in American Sign Language.

Evidence Of A "Hearing" Dialect Of Asl While Interpreting, Campbell Mcdermid

Journal of Interpretation

Little is know about the characteristics of fluent hearing signers and their ultimate attainment of ASL as a second language. To address this, a study was conducted with 12 ASL-English interpreters who were native English speakers to examine their use of ASL while interpreting. Each subject was asked to simultaneously interpret a short English narrative into ASL and a panel of three Deaf native signers assessed their fluency. Though the group included both novice and expert interpreters, the results revealed many similarities in their work. These included a reduction in pronouns between the English source and ASL target text, the …

U.S.- Educated Multilingual Students In Community College: Transitioning From Esl To English 101, Melinda S. Harrison

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis focuses on U.S.-educated multilingual students as they transition from a community college academic English as a Second Language program to and through a semester-long first-year composition course. Research on non-native English speakers has indicated that U.S.-educated multilingual students have both similar and varied background and literacy experiences compared to native English speakers and international students; they also often present unique literacy needs compared to their peers. These various and shifting similarities and differences sometimes complicate placement and instruction in college courses.

My case study focused on three U.S.-educated multilingual students' experiences in the final semester of a community …

A Holistic Approach To Homestay: A Homestay Program Proposal For Cats Academy Boston, Nora Salmon

Capstone Collection

The following is a proposal for an academic yearlong homestay program for international students attending high school in the United States. This proposal examines what research conducted on homestay programs says about the effects of living in a homestay, what the perceived benefits of living in a homestay are and what is the role of homestay hosts in the homestay experience.

The homestay program developed is entitled the CATS Academy Homestay Program. This proposed program design incorporates the homestay experience as part of the students’ overall education at the high school CATS Academy, located in Newton, Massachusetts. It uses a …

A Case Study Investigating The Impact Of A Blended International Partnership On Perceptions Of Learning And Global Mindedness In A North Carolina High School, Jennifer Ricks

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Despite the ever-increasing popularity of international partnerships that blend study abroad and virtual learning, very little data exists to understand their impact on student attitudes and achievement. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to investigate the impact of a blended international school partnership on perceptions of learning and global mindedness in a North Carolina high school. Data was collected, in two phases, from stakeholder interviews, observations, an online Global Mindedness Scale survey, the NC School Report Card, and teacher lesson plans. Global mindedness was found to have increased as participants gained a multifaceted understanding of, and appreciation for, …

Supervisor Perceptions Of Their Multicultural Training Needs For Working With English Language Learning Supervisees, Hsin-Ya Tang

Counseling & Human Services Theses & Dissertations

The counselor education and supervision profession has embraced the need to prepare multiculturally competent supervisors (American Counseling Association, 2005; Bernard & Goodyear, 2013; Inman & Ladany, 2014). However, literature dealing with training supervisors to work with linguistically diverse supervisees is limited and supervisors' training needs for effectively supervising linguistically diverse supervisees are not yet clearly addressed. The aim of this qualitative study was to develop a theory which explained supervisors' perceptions of their multicultural training needs for working with English language learning supervisees. Constructivist grounded theory was utilized in this effort to analyze the data gathered from 10 supervisors who …

Bringing Literacy Home: Latino Families Supporting Children's Literacy Learning, Stephanie Wessels, Guy Trainin

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

DUAL LANGUAGE LEARNERS (DLLS) are part of the educational landscape across the United States. Public school enrollment of dual language learners increased by 51 percent from 1997 to 2008 (NCELA 2011). At the same time, students who are DLLs meet the same academic standards as English-only students after an adjustment period (Goldenberg 2008). The challenge for our schools and communities is educating all students while helping DLLs close the gap in language and cultural understanding so they can succeed in the American educational system. Research suggests that working to close the achievement gap during regular school hours only is not …

Developing An Action Learning Community Advocacy/Leadership Training Program For Community Health Workers And Their Agencies To Reduce Health Disparities In Arizona Border Communities, Kenneth A. Schachter Md, Mba, Maia Ingram Mph, Laurel Jacobs Drph, Mph, Hannah Hafter Mph, Jill Guernsey De Zapien Ba, Scott Carvajal Phd, Mph

Journal of Health Disparities Research and Practice

Community health workers (CHWs) make unique and important contributions to society. They serve as patient advocates, educators, and navigators in our health care system and a growing body of research indicates that they play an important role in the effective delivery of prevention and treatment services in underserved communities. CHWs also serve as informal community leaders and advocates for organizational and community change, providing valuable insiders' insights about health promotion and the interrelatedness of individuals, their community, its institutions, and the surrounding environment. Accion Para La Salud or Action for Health (Accion) is a CDC-funded community based participatory research (CBPR) …

Immigrants, Roma And Sinti Unveil The “National” In Italian Identity, Francesco Melfi

Cultural Encounters, Conflicts, and Resolutions

This essay picks up a few threads in the ongoing debate on national identity in Italy. Immigration and the intertwining of cultures locally have stretched the contours of the nation state to a breaking point. As a result, the social self has become a sharply contested terrain between those who want to install a symbolic electronic fence around an imagined fatherland and those who want a more inclusive nation at home in a global world. After discussing the views of Amin Maalouf (2000), Alessandro Dal Lago (2009), Abdelmalek Sayad (1999) and Patrick Manning (2005) on national identity and migration in …

The Body As Politic: Education And The Performance Art Of Guillermo Gómez-Peña, Dana Cole

Cultural Encounters, Conflicts, and Resolutions

Art has been used as a tool in many fields as a method to tap into different ways of knowing and learning. It promotes creativity and individual expression by encouraging innovation and by opening up possibilities to different ways of expressing and experiencing. My work looks at the performance art of Guillermo Gómez-Peña as a form of public pedagogy using a/r/tography, an arts-based methodology, to illuminate way art it can be used to enhance the learning experience. This article examine the in-between spaces created in Gómez-Peña’s work as epistemological borderzones underscoring how borders come together in heterogeneity, contradiction, and flux …

Attitudes Toward Using Social Networking Sites In Educational Settings With Underperforming Latino Youth: A Mixed Methods Study, Keith Howard, Margaret Sauceda Curwen, Nicol R. Howard, Anaida Colon-Muñiz

Education Faculty Articles and Research

The researchers examined the online social networking attitudes of underperforming Latino high school students in an alternative education program that uses technology as the prime venue for learning. A sequential explanatory mixed methods study was used to cross-check multiple sources of data explaining students’ levels of comfort with utilizing a social networking site platform as a supplemental communication tool in connection with their schoolwork. Students were found to be significantly less comfortable using social networking sites than other online communication tools in connection with their schoolwork, and females were significantly more uncomfortable than males using such sites in school.

Some Complexities In English Article Use And Acquisition, Victoria Somogyi

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Along with preposition use, native-like article use is one of the greatest difficulties for learners of English, particularly for those learners whose first languages do not have articles. And unlike many other areas involved in the mastery of the language, articles continue to present a challenge for advanced learners. A significant number of article usages are complex in that they are neither simple to explain (in that the does not encode definiteness or contextual uniqueness) nor strictly idiomatic. This paper a) provides an overview and critique of the scholarship on articles and their acquisition, b) takes a detailed look at …

Understanding Biliteracy: Exploring The Lived Experiences Of Bilingual Reading Specialists, Tatiana Margarita Cevallos

Dissertations and Theses

Over the past 20 years, the United States has seen a rapid increase in school age students entering PK-12 schools for whom English is not their primary home language. These students are known as English learners (ELs). In Oregon, 77% of ELs speak Spanish and constitute the largest minority group, 21% of the total K-12 student enrollment in 2011-2012. With such potential for bilingualism in schools, bilingual teachers should be prepared to teach biliteracy effectively, especially in the early school years when students learn to read. There is an increasing demand for bilingual teachers in Oregon each year to teach …

A Look At Intercultural Communication In The Adult Esl Classroom: Using English To Empower Not Overpower, Ashley Elizabeth Nelson

Communication Studies

An ethnographic telling of time spent in an ESL (English as a Second Language) classroom and the intercultural forms of communication that took place.

Work Placements In Doctoral Research Training In The Humanities: Eight Cases From Translation Studies, Anthony Pym, Gabriel Gonzalez Nunez, Marta Miquel-Iriarte, Sara Ramos Pinto, Carlos Teixeira, Wine Tesse

Writing and Language Studies Faculty Publications

Research cooperation between academic and nonacademic institutions tends not to concern the humanities, where mutual financial rewards are mostly not in evidence. The study of eight nonacademic placements of doctoral researchers working on interlingual translation nevertheless indicates some degree of success. It is found that the placements lead to ongoing cooperation when the following conditions are met: 1) the nature of the placement is understood and relations of trust are established; 2) mutual benefits are envisaged; and 3) there are prior arrangements for receiving visiting researchers. A placement can be successful even when one of the last two factors is …

Aprendices Del Inglés En El Sistema De Educación De Los Estados Unidos, Madelyn Marie Frey

World Languages and Cultures

No abstract provided.