Digital Commons Network^™

Equity In Language Programs: Revitalizing Indigenous Languages In Secondary School In Anchorage, Alaska, Betsy Watson (Paskvan)

Doctoral Dissertations

"Wherever there is a situation of domination and subordination between any two groups, whatever their color or religion, this will be reflected in the language relationship: one language dominating the other." —wa Thiong’o (2011, p. 244) Indigenous language and culture education efforts in Anchorage, Alaska are limited by omissions in the public school curriculum. One of the many reasons for this is that policy makers believe there is not sufficient demand for Alaska Native languages in public schools. Further there is a perceived lack of language teacher-leaders and experts to build programs for Alaska Native language instruction. This study used …

Learning From The History Of Language Oppression: Educators As Agents Of Language Justice, Sandra Rodriguez-Arroyo, Ferial Pearson

Journal of Curriculum, Teaching, Learning and Leadership in Education

There is a long history in this country of language oppression that has led to policies currently in place that affect the way educators are asked to teach. Therefore, educators must understand national and local language policy to know how it affects their students and how they can perform their duties as educators. Even though the U.S. does not have an official language, states have enacted language policies through court decisions and legislation. These policies have led to students being denied access to English as a Second Language (ESL) and bilingual education programs, resources, and accommodations, all of which lead …

Picking Up Steam: The Role Of Languages And Linguistics, Keith Mason

The Transdisciplinary STEAM+ Journal

Languages and linguistics are powerful skills that enhance STEAM curricula and careers. A variety of approaches and methods to language teaching and learning inform educators how to proceed with the enhancement of STEAM programs. Linguistics, the science of language, can help STEAM students, especially within the science and mathematics components, because of its reliance on hypothesis formulation for scientific inquiry and data collection and analysis. Language, an important aspect of the human experience, elevates or picks up the STEAM experience.

Terminology As A Special Linguistic Layer In The Modern Arabic Language, Viktoria Mamadjanova

The Light of Islam

This article deals with the problems of the formation and functioning of modern terminology in the countries of the Arab East. It is important to trace the factors that influenced the process of forming its lexical composition. Following the national liberation movement of the Arab countries, starting from the second half of the 20th century has repeatedly raised the issue of the ofcial status of the Arabic language at the regional and global levels. The nationalization of education was a fundamental principle of the language of the Arab countries’ policies. It was about switching the entire national education system to …

Using Contextualized Materials To Teach English Grammar, Jingyi Yang

Master's Projects and Capstones

Grammar learning is the foundation of language learning. Despite its importance, many ESL adult learners consider grammar learning a challenging part, and the effectiveness of grammar instruction has been evaluated low. This is because of inappropriate teaching approaches and the lack of contextualized learning materials. Inappropriate teaching approaches include traditional PPP (Presentation, Practice, Production), which hinder the effectiveness of research-based teaching approaches. Decontextualized and meaningless grammar forms are additional underlying challenges of grammar learning. This field project uses task-based language teaching (TBLT) as a theoretical framework. The three literature review themes explore the importance and challenges of grammar, grammar instruction …

Language Concordance In Medicine And The Need For Medical Schools To Require Taking A Foreign Language As An Intervention Method To Minimize Language Barriers In The U.S., Mary K. Yousif

Honors College Theses

During medical school future student doctors are exposed to a multitude of patients, both natives and non-natives. However, there is no course offering (such as a foreign language or culture class) provided within the curriculum that prepares them for these future interactions. With communication being one of the primary skills used in healthcare, it is imperative to discuss the effects it can cause on a patient if not established. Overall, the goal of this research is to conduct a literary investigation regarding this matter and educate the medical community about the importance of providing effective communication in medicine. This begins …

The Connections Of Music, Culture, And Language: A Qualitative Case Study Of The Musical Experience Of A Newcomer Program, Jessica Strawderman

Masters Theses, 2020-current

In this qualitative case study, I investigated the philosophy and process of an elementary newcomer program and explored the perceived benefits for newcomer students of the musical experience, aiding in transition from full-time English as a second language (ESL) services in self-contained class to a general education setting. The studied school division serves a high population of students who are English Language Learners (ELLs), representing a multitude of languages and cultures. The division places students of immigrant families who have no social or educational experience speaking English in the newcomer program. In order to gain a deep understanding of the …

A Discourse Analysis Of The Science Of Reading Through The Lens Of A Social Media Twitter Hashtag, April Darlene Evans

Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative virtual ethnographic study was conducted to explore the discourse around the science of reading topic through the lens of a social media Twitter hashtag known as #scienceofreading. Participants for this study consisted of any person that had an account on Twitter and entered into the discourse of the topic of the science of reading using the #scienceofreading contained within their tweet or attached to their tweet. Participants were observed in the public social media platform of Twitter. Three research questions were used to explain the phenomenon: 1) What are the roles of the participants involved in the discourse …

Understanding Classroom Teachers' Knowledge And Practices For Teaching Reading To Students At-Risk For Dyslexia, Amanda Mccaleb

Theses and Dissertations

This mixed-methods study examined the knowledge base of 130 elementary classroom teachers for teaching reading to students at-risk for dyslexia. A multiple-choice knowledge survey included items situated in classroom contexts and assessed participants’ knowledge about the five components of reading including phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension. Additionally, qualitative data were collected to better understand what is informing classroom teachers’ knowledge and practices for teaching reading to students at-risk for dyslexia. Overall, participants obtained the highest scores on the knowledge survey subscale involving fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension and the lowest subscale involving phonemic awareness and phonics. Mean percentages correct …

Evaluating A Speech Training Software Program Called Nativeaccent Based On Empirical Studies, Farideh Nekoobahr, Jacqueline Hawkins, Kristi L. Santi, Janeen R. S. Antonelli, Johanna Leigh Thorpe

Journal of English Learner Education

This article evaluates a Computer-Assisted Language Learning program called NativeAccent and demonstrates that the software is designed based on systematic instructional strategies and empirically-proven theories. The instructional strategies include an initial assessment, training sessions, a final reassessment, repeated measurement, graphic presentation and systematic and rigorous interpretive guidelines, and individualized dosage. The empirically-supported theories are rooted in the four research-based theories of Universal Design for Learning, Learning Science, Intelligent Tutoring System, and Automatic Speech Recognition. In matching the components of the four theories mentioned above to the design of NativeAccent and evaluating the software, the purpose is to help administrators, educators, …

The Power Of A Name: Nontraditional Names, Teacher Efficacy, And Expected Learning Outcomes, Lasonya L. Moore, Martha S Lue Stewart Dr., Dena D. Slanda, Anais Placencia, Meznari M. Moore

Journal of English Learner Education

Names serve as important identifiers and carry with them hopes for a generation as well as pride in one’s culture. A name is often an extension of one’s culture or language and represents their identity. With the increasing student diversity across our nation, many students in our K-12 public schools may have uncommon or nontraditional names. Public school teachers, who are predominantly White, may find these names unfamiliar, difficult to pronounce or difficult to spell. Despite a name’s unfamiliarity, classroom teachers must have the knowledge and disposition to create a space that signals to a student that their name is …

Integrating Critical Multiliteracies Pedagogy In Esl/Efl Teaching, Sujin Kim, Kathleen A. Ramos, Hyunsun Chung, Sungshim Choi

Journal of English Learner Education

This article argues for enacting a synthesis of English language teaching (ELT) and critical pedagogy into what we call critical multiliteracies pedagogy (CMP) in the context of ESL/EFL teaching. CMP challenges and expands language and literacy instruction beyond a skills-based pedagogy to be inclusive of diverse modes, voices, and identities to address critical issues across local, global, and transnational contexts in ESL/EFL classrooms. Particularly, we share how an international professional development program has promoted CMP for 20 Korean English teachers working with adolescent multilingual learners in South Korea. Findings show how participating teachers critically reframed their vision of ELT, enacting …

From Esl To Eal: Moving From A Deficit Framework To An Asset Framework, Karen Bordonaro

Journal of English Learner Education

This article describes a self-directed autoethnographic research study of how the author moved from a deficit to an asset perspective in working with non-native speakers of English. Reframing this perspective took place by investigating how the author’s lived experiences as an ESL instructor intersected with the learning theories of language learner autonomy, plurilingualism, and internationalization at home to create positive flashpoints. These flashpoints included offering choices, marking learner success, and embedding cultural information into domestic settings. By engaging in these reflections, a widened perspective of moving from English as a second language to English as an additional language was reached. …

Collaborating With K-12 Partners: Improving Preservice Teachers’ Self-Efficacy In Teaching Rural English Learners Science Through A Guided Experiential Learning Opportunity, Dana Manning, Erin Pearce

Journal of English Learner Education

With changing demographics in the United States, educator preparations programs (EPPs) must consider incorporating more experiential learning opportunities for preservice teachers to grow in their self-efficacy when working in diverse classrooms. At a rural university in the southern United States, researchers designed an instructional unit that transcended three educator preparation courses to provide an opportunity for students to design and deliver a 5E science lesson to English learners from a rural school district. The results from this study indicate that preservice teachers’ self-efficacy in teaching English learners increased as evidenced by the Teacher Sense of Self- Efficacy Scale, adapted for …

Embracing The New Normal: Infusing Academic Language And Technology To Empower Ells, Scott B. Freiberger

Journal of English Learner Education

This au courant, research-based article offers specific program ideas for teachers during this unprecedented time when supporting our ELLs is especially needed.

A Final Master's Portfolio, Martha Stai

Master of Arts in English Plan II Graduate Projects

The following portfolio is submitted to meet the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in the field of English with a specialization in English Teaching through Bowling Green State University. The pieces selected for the portfolio range from analysis to pedagogy. Selections include two substantive research essays, a writing-based unit plan, and a critical essay, all of which reflect the rigor and analysis required in the courses at Bowling Green State University.

Financial Literacy For Latino Immigrants: A Guidebook For Esl Teachers, Anna Braden

Master's Projects and Capstones

Latino immigrants face many financial challenges in the United States. Language barriers exclude them from jobs as well as financial and consumer markets. Lack of familiarity with the U.S. financial system or bad experiences with financial systems in their home countries can create mistrust and lead to Latino immigrants being unbanked or underbanked. Consumer vulnerabilities may also be exploited as immigrants turn to nonbank financial services such as predatory lenders (check cashers, payday lenders, etc.). Lack of access to jobs and marketplaces results in lower income and less wealth accumulation. Over time this results in wealth inequality between Latino immigrants …

Competent And Confident: Empowering English Language Learners Through Pronunciation Instruction, Faith Pellas

Master's Projects and Capstones

Compared to other language skills such as reading, writing, listening, and speaking, pronunciation is often neglected in ESL and TESOL curriculum planning and material design. Moreover, many English language teachers lack training in pronunciation instruction, therefore these techniques are not often addressed in class. Learning pronunciation is a top priority for many English language students because it enables them to communicate clearly, have better opportunities, and integrate well into Anglophone communities. The literature review discusses second language acquisition and the determining factors of accented and non-accented speech. It also addresses accent discrimination and the obstacles English language learners (ELLs) face …

Promoting 21st-Century Learning: Online Collaboration Through Design Thinking Framework For Today's Esl Students, Hande Yildiz

Master's Projects and Capstones

Learners of the 21st-century engage and learn differently than ever before. Policymakers and teachers are now challenged to makeshift into the 21st-century education model and adapt their approaches to better prepare the students for the future work world. 21st-century ESL classrooms should reflect this learning model through a more engaging, collaborative, and student-centered approach. Collaboration and Information and Communication Technology (ICT) skills are vital in 21st-century learning. Research shows that ESL learners can benefit from collaborative activities and the use of technology improves students' language reception and production. However, due to the lack of understanding of the paradigm shift in …

Bringing Classroom And Outside World Together: Mobile Instant Messaging Via Whatsapp© For Extracurricular Writing, Şakire Erbay Çetinkaya

The Qualitative Report

Mobile phones have a rapidly growing language teaching and learning potential due to various technologies and applications including instant messaging. However, the related literature mostly documents studies aiming at investigating their role for teaching vocabulary, pronunciation, and content, and thus there are calls to focus on other skills, including writing. Responding to these calls to solve the problem of research scarcity on other skills, I opted for a qualitative research design to investigate the pedagogical potential of WhatsApp©, perceive my students’ experiences, and evaluate the process with all strengths and weaknesses. I attempted to make contributions to the existing knowledge …

Educational Progress‐Time And The Proliferation Of Dual Enrollment, Brice Nordquist, Amy J. Lueck

English

In this commentary, we use the occasion of the proliferation of dual enrollment to examine the discursive construction of difference between high school and college literacies, and its effects on teachers and students. This discursive divide has real, material consequences. It informs (and constrains) literacy practices and pedagogies, becomes a barrier to access (particularly when operationalized in testing procedures), contributes to dropout and attrition, exacerbates unequal power and resources in communities, and justifies hierarchical relations between high school and college faculty and staff. By deconstructing the definitions of high school and college and the metaphors of containment they rely on, …

Workplace English As Professional Development: The Uw-Madison Model, Karen Parrillo

MITESOL Journal: An Online Publication of MITESOL

University human resources departments dedicate themselves to providing relevant professional development to their institutions’ employees. However, few of these departments consider the language learning needs of employees who are nonnative English speakers. This paper introduces the University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW-Madison)’s unique approach to meeting the English language learning needs of employees through its Cultural Linguistic Services (CLS) department within the Office of Human Resources (OHR). The CLS Workplace English Program features the development of contextualized learning materials, active participation of employees’ supervisors, dynamic scheduling, and on-the-job practice with authentic communicative tasks. The collaboration between CLS/OHR and other UW-Madison departments has …

Technology Of Story: Documenting Culturally Sustaining Anti-Racist Teaching, Frances Vitali

Proceedings from the Document Academy

Our education system, an extension of our society, has created a monster of historical sociocultural and linguistic inequities, traumas, structural racism, and oppressions. Culturally responsive and sustaining pedagogy honor students’ funds of knowledge as their authentic power and voice. The oral family stories became vehicles to navigate and facilitate educational partnerships in becoming more culturally responsive for these teacher candidates. Oral stories, as documents, became the content within the context of the writing workshop process. These documented stories became the technological bridge that supported students’ home experiences with academic language and content to meet curricular goals.

During the writing process, …

English Proficiency Or Post-School Success? The Miseducation Of English Learners, Jatnna Acosta

Intersections: Critical Issues in Education

English learners in the U.S. are academically unprepared at the secondary level, ad such systemic barriers lead to limited opportunities for post-school success (Umansky, 2016). Additional research is necessary to examine the correlation between the impact of a school’s ethnic diversity on the academic achievement of students identified as ELs. The purpose of this study is to investigate the educational outcomes of ELs at the high school level as a result of the school’s ethnic diversity. This study provides quantitative data from the Ed-Data Education Data Partnership. The data is disaggregated by the ethnic diversity index, percentage of enrolled ELs …

Teaching English As A Foreign Language: A Case Study From Poland, Jaroslaw Richard Romaniuk, Kathleen J. Farkas

Faculty Scholarship

This article presents a detailed history of the development of a particular immersion program to teach English to young Polish students. The program draws support from two organizations, the Kościuszko Foundation and the Polish Scouting Organization. Kościuszko Foundation is dedicated to strengthening the ties between the United States and Poland as well as to increase knowledge of Poland’s history and culture in the United States. The cooperation of these two organizations developed an experience of immersion in language and cultural exchange. Both the teachers and the students in this program benefited from the opportunity to engage in a number of …

Lowering Language Learner Anxiety: The Impact Of Collaborative-Dynamic Assessment In The Intermediate University Spanish Classroom, Lynda Mcclellan

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation presents a new framework for the application of Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Theory (SCT) in the second language (L2) classroom called Collaborative-Dynamic Assessment (C-DA). C-DA is a melding of Collaborative Learning (CL), Dynamic Assessment (DA), and Group Evaluation (GE) in all aspects of L2 instruction and assessment. A study was conducted with 64 university students in an intermediate Spanish classroom to determine if the application of C-DA would lower Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety (FLCA). Horwitz’ (1986) Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS) was administered to the participants at the beginning of the course and then again at the end of …

An Acoustic Analysis Of The Monophthongs Of Penang Malay, Muhamad Farid Abdul Latiff

Student Works (2020-2029)

The study aims to examine acoustically the production of monophthongs of Penang Malay by five (5) selected female participants who are of the Jawi Peranakan community. Two (2) female participants of Standard Malay were also selected as a comparator to Penang Malay. The first research question focuses on the acoustic features of Penang Malay and Standard Malay based on their formant frequencies of F1 and F2, while the second research question examines the similarities and differences between Penang Malay and Standard Malay based on their acoustic properties. The target vowels are: [a], [i], [u], [ɛ], [ɔ], [ə], [e], and [o]. …

Evaluating The Effectiveness Of Thompson’S (2105) Survey Of Language Usage And Spanish Of Heritage Learners Placement Program Exam At The High-School Level, Elizabeth Villanueva

Doctoral Dissertations

Language placement test serve with multiple purposes to measure the language abilities and performance of language learners to place them in the most appropriate language course with curriculum that best meets the language needs. There is the need to assess appropriately the Spanish heritage language learners’ (SHLLs) abilities at the high-school level. Therefore, this mixed-method study investigated how Thompson’s (2015) modified Yes or No 10-question Survey of Language Usage (Survey) and the three part Spanish for Heritage Language Learners Placement Program Exam (Placement Test) could be used effectively with three Spanish class levels of HLLs at the high-school level to …

Authentic Language Use In The L2 Classroom: Building Learners' Motivation And Confidence, Emma Duncan

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

This portfolio is a compilation of work completed by the author while in the Master of Second Language Teaching program at Utah State University. The portfolio contains samples of the author’s writings on various aspects of language learning and perspectives that the author developed through study of language acquisition topics and classroom teaching experience.

Included in the portfolio is a statement of the author’s desired professional environment, her teaching philosophy, and a description of her experiences observing teachers of various languages. Also included is an annotated bibliography and two research papers which detail some of the author’s specific interests within …

The Problem-Based Learning Approach Towards Developing Soft Skills: A Systematic Review, Sadia Deep, Ali Ahmed, Nazia Suleman, Muhammad Zahid Abbas, Uzma Naza, Hina Shaheen, Abdul Razzaq

The Qualitative Report

In this paper, we review systematically the role of problem-based learning (PBL) in developing soft skills in Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) and other fields of studies. The Systematic Literature Review (SLR) includes the most recent empirical, review, and conceptual studies from TVET and other multiple fields of studies including medicine, humanities, and engineering between the years of 2001 and 2016 collected from four databases. A qualitative method was used to accomplish the systematic review. After the collection of articles, the selected studies were analyzed through thematic analysis. From this review, we concluded that PBL as an instructional …