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French 203: Grammar & Conversation: A Faculty-Led Inquiry Into Reflective & Scholarly Teaching Benchmark Portfolio, Erica Schauer

UNL Faculty Course Portfolios

The following Benchmark Portfolio is the product of a full reassessment of FRENCH 203: CONVERSATION & GRAMMAR, an intermediate-level grammar course that serves as a prerequisite for students pursuing a major or a minor in French at UNL. Previously, French 203 had been a review course that covered the essential grammar structures discussed in 101, 102, 201 and 202 and invited students to practice these structures orally with peers in class. This new iteration of the course, however, seeks to broaden the reach of student comprehension of French as a functional tool of communication by requiring students to understand and …

Who Are Our Teachers? The Impact Of The Composition Teaching Practicum On Writing Studies, Maxine Krenzel

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

For first year writing instructors, the teaching practicum is vital for navigating both the writing classroom and the institutions in which the classroom is embedded. The composition teaching practicum, or the often-required training course for new writing instructors, is where new instructors are typically first introduced to their institutional and departmental policies as well as to the field of Writing Studies. While the practicum is a course that is immensely important for new instructors, I have found that this course is nevertheless understudied, under- historicized, and—in institutional and disciplinary rhetoric—too often aligned with an abstract set of “best practices” that …

Diggin’ In The Racial Literacy And Culturally Responsive And Sustaining Crates, Jordan Bell

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Racial Literacy first became scholarship in 2004 with Lani Guinier and France Winddance Twine’s racial literacy works. Likewise, Culturally Responsive and Sustaining Education’s seminal work is associated with Gloria Ladson-Billings’ (1995) introduction of culturally relevant pedagogy. While racial literacy and culturally responsive and sustaining education scholarship appeared around the late 20th and early 21st centuries, these frameworks were being developed in Black educational spaces since their inception in the United States. These frameworks were created in response to rampant antiblackness throughout various periods of United States history. In recognition of pre-21st century Black educators’ contributions to racial literacy and culturally …

Talking Back To The Elpac: Resilient Resistance And (Re)Imagining Through Ypart, Zulema Reynoso

Dissertations

Policies that label and track students based on language and race dismiss the voices and lived experiences of English learners (ELs) through forced fits and ideologies that devalue multiple languaging and ways of knowing. This qualitative study explores how an educator and 20 seventh-grade bi/multilingual Latinx students labeled long-term English learners (LTELs) reimagined how language is perceived, taught, and assessed across traditional schooling contexts and language policy landscapes. Drawing from LatCrit theory, Latina/Chicana feminisms, and dimensions of youth participatory action research (YPAR), this study centered both LTELs as jóvenes educados (dignified youth) and a conceptualized taller (studio space) to affirm …

Reading Recovery Teacher Understandings About Language And Early Literacy Acquisition, Kelly L. Mcdermott

Educational Studies Dissertations

This study investigated Reading Recovery teacher understandings about language and early literacy acquisition by applying a constructivist grounded theory design. Participants were Reading Recovery teachers working across three varied districts in Massachusetts (N=33). The purpose of the study was to engage Reading Recovery teachers in surveys, focus groups, interviews, and observations to understand the degree to which Reading Recovery teacher participants value varied student language patterns. Addressing biases faced upon school entry by children who speak differently than their teachers is essential. When students are identified for early literacy intervention, an asset-based frame is critical to ensure accelerated growth. The …

Multicultural Mentor Texts In 2nd Grade Writer’S Workshop, Ellen R. Carbonaro

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of the utilization of relevant multicultural mentor texts during writer’s workshop instruction in the second-grade classroom. The specific aim is to understand how students relate these diverse texts to their development of literacy skills. This study is grounded in the theoretical frameworks of culturally relevant education and reader response theory. Upon data triangulation analysis, the following themes were identified: 1. Multicultural Literature Promoted Engagement with Literacy, 2. Multicultural Mentor Texts as a Guide for Writing, and 3. Writing as a Social Practice within the Writer’s Workshop Model. Implications regarding the …

Translanguaging In World Language Higher Education, Alessia Barbici Wagner

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Theses and Other Student Research

Increased global migration and a myriad of other social and political factors has made today’s universities more diverse than ever. As a result, teachers in higher education regularly find multilingual learners from a variety of different linguistic and cultural backgrounds in their classrooms and must consider this diversity in their teaching. One of the ways that teaching can better serve today’s multilingual and multicultural student population is through translanguaging. The objective of this dissertation is to investigate the intentional and unintentional use of translanguaging by multilingual language learners and world language instructors in higher education. Additionally, this qualitative case study …

When Culturally Responsive Practices Meet Social-Emotional Learning: A Guide For Educators, Sharon Ju-Ting Cheng

Master's Projects and Capstones

Many educators hope to give their students quality and well-rounded education while balancing all the contents they need to learn. Social-emotional learning (SEL) and culturally responsive teaching, however, are two areas that teachers seem to struggle with (Stark et al., 2021). Teachers have encountered situations where it was difficult for them to support their students due to the cultural differences between the teacher and student (Heineke & Vera, 2021). This lack of professional development in the culturally responsive aspect is concerning.

The shortfall of training leads to failure to apply these practices into schools. For newcomer students, who are usually …

Enhancing The Communicative Competence Of Filipino Immigrants In America, Zsanel Aranas

Master's Projects and Capstones

This field project focuses on enhancing the communicative competence of Filipino immigrants in America through developing a workshop program. The Filipino immigrant community in America is diverse and they struggle to overcome language barriers and adapt to their new environment. This project aims to solve these struggles by providing valuable skills and resources for successful communication. The workshop program is a four-unit modular material that covers areas relevant to speaking and communication, such as vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation, writing, speaking, and cultural competence. By enhancing their communicative competence, Filipino immigrants can engage in meaningful conversations, develop public speaking skills, and create …

English Pronunciation Skills And Intelligibility Of Native Russian Speakers, Zoia Palgova

Master's Projects and Capstones

The rapid growth of the native Russian-speaking population in the United States created an urgent need to improve their pronunciation skills and increase their second language speech intelligibility. The purpose of this field project was to present a research-based curriculum, with the use of embedded technology, that can be utilized to improve the American English pronunciation skills and intelligibility of native Russian speakers.

The body of analyzed scholarship demonstrated that speech intelligibility is the primary goal of second language pronunciation teaching, justified the importance of research-based pronunciation teaching, emphasized the significant role of technology in pronunciation research and teaching, and …

Using Dual-Language Texts To Support Literacy For Emergent Bilingual Students, Amanda Dranchak

Theses and Dissertations

This paper provides a qualitative account of how linguistically inclusive curriculums can enhance literacy instruction. The specific aim of this study is to explore the impact on literacy instruction of emergent bilingual students when the curriculum includes dual-language texts. Methods of data collection include student interviews, text discussions, student work, and student self-assessments. The findings show that the dual language literature positively affected the emergent bilingual students. Students enjoyed increased levels of engagement and a high level of confidence in their reading abilities. The research demonstrates the value of a culturally and linguistically inclusive instructional environment. With the inclusion of …

Put Down That Book! Producing Poetry To Center Students As Organic Intellectuals, Jacqueline E. Boland

Master's Projects and Capstones

Schools are often sites of hegemony, where certain knowledge and voices are prioritized over others. This hierarchy frequently discounts students as producers of their own knowledge, ignoring the wisdom gleaned from their lived experiences, diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds, and cultural communities. While the study of literature inside a high school English classroom can be fruitful for students to acquire empathy and perspective, it is only effective when it is equitable. Educators must implement diverse representation in narratives, characters, authors and texts to represent students whose identities exist at the margins. Positioning work by Women of Color in the classroom …

Rural Voices: A Photographic Journey Of The Intersection Of Place And Reading Identity In Rural Adolescents, Gena Brown

Doctor of Education in Secondary and Middle Grades Education Dissertations

Researchers have long been documenting the decline in reading habits of Americans, particularly adolescents and young adults. Reading for pleasure has been declining for the last three decades. Young people claim that reading is boring and irrelevant to their fast-paced, largely digital lives. In the past two decades, the decline of reading has captured wide attention, but most of that attention has been focused on urban and suburban settings. A gap exists in the research when it comes to rural students and their reading habits. Using photo elicitation, I gained an understanding of reading identity as it relates to rural …

Du Undergraduate Showcase: Research, Scholarship, And Creative Works, Caitlyn Aldersea, Justin Bravo, Sam Allen, Anna Block, Connor Block, Emma Buechler, Maria De Los Angeles Bustillos, Arianna Carlson, William Christensen, Olivia Kachulis, Noah Craver, Kate Dillon, Muskan Fatima, Angel Fernandes, Emma Finch, Colleen Cassidy, Amy Fishman, Andrea Francis, Stacia Fritz, Simran Gill, Emma Gries, Rylie Hansen, Shannon Powers, Jacqueline Martinez, Zachary Harker, Ashley Hasty, Mykaela Tanino-Springsteen, Kathleen Hopps, Adelaide Kerenick, Colin Kleckner, Ci Koehring, Elijah Kruger, Braden Krumholz, Maddie Leake, Lyneé Alves, Seraphina Loukas, Yatzari Lozano Vazquez, Haley Maki, Emily Martinez, Sierra Mckinney, Audrey Mitchell, Kipling Newman, Audrey Ng, Megan Lucyshyn, Andrew Nguyen, Stevie Ostman, Casandra Pearson, Alexandra Penney, Julia Gielczynski, Tyler Ball, Anna Rini, Christina Rorres, Simon Ruland, Helayna Schafer, Emma Sellers, Sarah Schuller, Claire Shaver, Kevin Summers, Isabella Shaw, Madison Sinar, Claudia Pena, Apshara Siwakoti, Carter Sorensen, Madi Sousa, Anna Sparling, Alexandra Revier, Brandon Thierry, Dylan Tyree, Maggie Williams, Lauren Wols

DU Undergraduate Research Journal Archive

DU Undergraduate Showcase: Research, Scholarship, and Creative Works

General Education Teacher Challenges With Teaching English Learners In The Mainstream Classroom: A Qualitative Study Of 3rd-5th Grade Elementary General Education And Esol Teachers’ Perceptions, Joanne Gauthier

Doctor of Education in Educational Leadership Dissertations

This qualitative study focused on the challenges that 3rd through 5th grade general education teachers faced while supporting and teaching English Learner (EL) students in the classroom from the perspectives of general education and ESOL teachers, based on their experiences in the classroom. This study took place at an urban Title 1 elementary school in the southeastern United States. The purpose of this study was to gain an understanding of the teacher challenges surrounding EL instruction and its impact on student achievement. The theoretical frameworks that informed this study were culturally responsive teaching and critical teacher leadership. Several data gathering …

Forming A Global Citizen: Personal Development Through Study Abroad, Anna L. Reiter

Honors Thesis

This literature review examines key benefits of studying abroad, while investigating which elements most contribute to students’ overall success. Current literature suggests that benefits of studying abroad include, but are not limited to, second language acquisition (SLA), identity formation, and intercultural competence. The degree of which each is improved depends on a multitude of variables. SLA improvement is explored via consideration of students’ baseline proficiency level, degree of receptivity of the host country, and length of the study abroad program. Students’ identity formation is explained through the three bases of identity: person, role, and group/social. Finally, intercultural competence in study …

Language Ideologies Of Multilingual Learners In An Intensive English Program, Madhur Shende

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Theses and Other Student Research

Despite some rises and falls in the numbers due to various reasons, including the political climate in the Trump era and the COVID-19 pandemic (Laws & Ammigan, 2020), each year universities in the United States host a large number of multilingual international students from different parts of the world. Based on their TOEFL scores, many are required to enroll in an accelerated course of study in academic English, commonly known as the Intensive English Program (IEP) before they can begin their mainstream academic programs. Where there is language, there are language ideologies. Yet, often in monolingual, English-only classrooms, little is …

Transtrauma: Conceptualizing The Lived Experiences Of Vietnamese American Youth, Khánh Lê

Journal of Southeast Asian American Education and Advancement

Drawing on empirical data from qualitative research I conducted with eight Vietnamese American youth in the Fall of 2020, this paper forwards transtrauma, a new framework for conceptualizing and understanding the lived experiences of Vietnamese American youth. The concept of transtrauma goes beyond the pathologizing of individual trauma, to examine how structures of domination inflict and extend trauma in marginalized communities, such as that of Vietnamese American communities. Transtrauma transcends the overt and linear focus on trauma as a single experience and the examination of how institutionalized violence by nation states shapes the experiences of Vietnamese Americans. This conceptualization …

Culturally Responsive Strategies To Support Multilingual Learners, Liz Shanks, Mackenzie Weakland

James Madison Undergraduate Research Journal (JMURJ)

Teachers must develop pedagogical practices to meet the needs of the growing number of multilingual learners in K-12 classrooms. Our inquiry- based research study analyzed ways that teachers can implement pedagogical strategies that are culturally responsive to multilingual learners. Thematic analysis of recent academic studies, class observations, and an interview with a language specialist affirm a set of culturally responsive instructional practices in the classroom that lead to the academic success of multilingual learners. These practices included teacher attitudes, translanguaging, and thinking routines to assist in English language acquisition. K-12 teachers, administrators, and community leaders working with multilingual learners can …

Language And Literacy Development For Young Toddlers, Tori Johnston

Graduate Teacher Education

Language and literacy development is tremendously important for young children in the first year of life. The purpose of this capstone is to discover strategies to foster emergent literacy and implement those strategies. Towell, Bartram, Murrow, & Brown, (2021) suggested several strategies to help educators foster literacy development including lap reading, reading aloud, reading to children from birth, dialogic reading, establishing routines, creating books with children, asking questions, and making comments. According to Dowling, Shanty, Sonnenschein, and Hussey-Gardner (2020), it is never too early to introduce language and literacy skills. Infants learn best through responsive, playful interaction that occur in …

Rainforests Of The Mind: Conceiving Transnational Composition From A Mobilities Perspective On Knowledge., Tobias Lee

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This research project stems from my experience teaching academic writing at the state university in Qatar. To investigate the factors overdetermining the deeply standardized curriculum there, I draw on scholarship in mobility studies, political economy, and the history both of Qatar and of composition instruction in the US, from which the curriculum is drawn. These explorations ultimately lead me to comment on the fraught enterprise of subjecting writing and language to commodification, which I identify as part of broader trends characterizing neoliberal economic globalization. To further develop this critique, I conduct a critical multi-sited autoethnographic study that questions preconceived notions …

"Our House There Is Ugly But Still We Happy": An Ethnographic Study With Women Navigating Displacement And Resettlement., Bridget Kearney

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In academic and public discourse, narratives surrounding refugee camps and the conditions within them typically depict experiences of sorrow and hardship. And, although the stories of struggle are certainly a part of the refugee experience, they are not the only part. This dissertation is a critical ethnographic study with a participatory research lens that focuses on the life experiences and storytelling practices of women in a resettled Sudanese family. It investigates the action of storytelling within displaced groups, the link between stories and community, and the importance of materiality and relationships in storytelling. This dissertation finds that storytelling can be …

Use Of Vocabulary Strategies To Aid English Language Learners In A General Education Biology Classroom, Virginia Perry

All Dissertations

The demographics of the typical American classroom continue to present as a more diverse student population with the increase of English Language Learners (ELL) entering public schools. General education teachers on a secondary level are challenged with incorporating academic language instruction into content instruction for ELLs. Many of these teachers seek appropriate instructional strategies to teach ELLs academic language skills related to literacy to comprehend the specific content taught at the secondary level. A deeper understanding of language and skill acquisition within a secondary classroom can help guide future efforts in implementing effective literacy strategies to address ELLs’ academic language …

The Economic Impact And Effects Of Learning A Second Language, Luke Newman

Economics Undergraduate Honors Theses

The modern world has never been more connected than it is now. However, in the United States of America, and many other countries, the growth of their economy is slowed by the reliance on monolingual communication. By implementing policies to invest in the foundation and future of the countries workforce, and increase the use of a second language, not only will the economy reap the benefits, but the workers who are being invested in will also personally benefit as well. The following study aims to investigate the economic impact and effects of learning a second language.

Building Academic Language Proficiency For English Learners, Abha Gupta

Teaching & Learning Faculty Publications

Academic language proficiency is essential for success in school, especially for English Learners (ELs). However, it is a skill which receives little attention. Many ELs frequently exit from language assistance programs because they perform well on social language tests and sound proficient in language interchange, due to strong basic interpersonal communication skills. However, they may still struggle in content areas due to poor academic language proficiency. This article’s main goals are to illustrate the value of academic language comprehension and offer teaching techniques that will help ELs develop this skill. These strategies, which play to English Learners’ strengths, incorporate cognates …

With Liberty And Justice For All? Examining The Role Of Hegemony Throughout U.S. History In Influencing Multilingual Discriminatory Practices Within Academic Policies And Legislation, Katie Olivia Wallen

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

The discriminatory systems that multidialectal and multilingual users experience in the United States have historically influenced how educators and policymakers approach the construction of academic policies and curricula. These hegemonic systems shape and inform linguistic attitudes that have continually imparted prejudice against non-White language users, resulting in a gap of inclusivity for diverse student populations. Research aiming to address this gap has traditionally approached linguistic discrimination by specifically examining the use of dialects or non-English languages in the classroom rather than the underlying systems that affect both multidialectal and multilingual users similarly. Through the lens of policy and social construct …

Transforming Black Students’ Higher Education Experiences And Lives: A Proposal For The Csu, Don Lundy

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

For decades, a racial “achievement gap” has persisted in U.S. higher education. Specifically, White students have outperformed Black students on a number of indicators, including college admissions, standardized test scores, and graduation rates. This graduate project considers several explanations for this persistent inequity. The root of the problem, it argues, is U.S. higher education’s history of racism and exclusion and the oversaturation of whiteness in these institutions. In other words, U.S. higher education was built for and continues to serve White students at the expense of Black students. Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) show us that when whiteness is …

Our Voices Matter: Engaging Middle Grades Hispanic Students In A Summer Literacy Program, Macy Christine James

All Dissertations

This study explored the literacy engagement of Hispanic rising seventh grade adolescents during a summer literacy program. Using a participatory social justice mixed methods design (Creswell & Plano-Clark, 2018), students’ voices were used to design and refine an instructional model proposed to increase their level of engagement in literacy tasks. Through a literacy motivation survey and focus group interviews, students’ perception of motivating and demotivating literacy experiences affecting their levels of engagement were gathered and analyzed. Following this exploration, a design-based approach was employed to create an initial model that would be refined by identifying the enhancing and inhibiting factors …

Integrating Content, Culture, And Language For Portuguese Dual Language Immersion Learners, Aline Reis

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

This portfolio is the result of the approaches to teaching I have learned through coursework, readings, class observations, and reflections during the Master of Second Language Teaching (MSLT) program. It contains my teaching philosophy, developed from my experiences in the elementary Dual Language Immersion (DLI) program and the Utah State University (USU) MSLT program, as well as examples of work produced in the MSLT program, both theoretical and practical. First, the professional environment piece provides context and background for reflections on my teaching experience and pedagogy. Second, the teaching philosophy statement (TPS) describes the main theoretical frameworks and approaches that …

Experienced Nonnative English-Speaking Teachers’ Nonnativeness-Related Challenges, Coping Strategies, And Identity Construction, Roseli Marqueti Matos Franco

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Kamhi-Stein (1999) declares that little is known about nonnative English-speaking teachers (NNEST) who work in ESL settings also known as Inner Circle countries. Twenty years later, Fan and de Jong (2019) have echoed that view by stating that traditionally research on NNESTs focuses on Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) international graduate students and that little is known about professional nonnative English-speaking teachers in English-dominant environments such as the U.S.A. Therefore, to try to help fill this gap in the literature, I investigated the lived experiences of English teachers who speak English as an additional language, often called …