Education Commons^™

The Modern Language Classroom: Individuality, Technology, And Context, Eric Sims

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

This portfolio is a compilation of the author’s research-supported ideas on what good language teaching looks like. The central component is the teaching philosophy, in which the author explains that respect for individuality, use of technology, and use of culture as context for learning are the three elements seen as most important for successful language learning.
The teaching philosophy is supported by artifacts about peer feedback in language learning, literacy in adult English as a Second Language learners, and autonomy in culture learning. Finally, in three annotations the author branches out from the pillars of the teaching philosophy and examines …

Communication-Based Teaching For Chinese Language Learners, Hsiao-Mei Tsai

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

This portfolio is founded on the author’s principles of communicative teaching for Chinese language learners, which were cultivated and developed in the Master of Second Language Teaching program. The initial part of the portfolio is the teaching philosophy, which contains the author’s beliefs of teacher and student roles and effective teaching approaches in the Chinese as a foreign language classroom. The teaching philosophy is supported by three artifacts, which further clarify how to associate culture, literacy, and linguistics with language learning. The literacy artifact explains the process of Chinese and English biliteracy acquisition. The culture artifact is a comparison of …

Understanding Successful Japanese Language Programs: Utah Case Study, Timothy G. Stout

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Recent world events have caused Americans to reassess national political, economic, and educational priorities, resulting in a shift towards Asia. The schools in response have begun to introduce less commonly taught languages, such as Japanese and Chinese. Many Utah public schools have tried to implement less commonly taught language programs. Some have succeeded, and other others have not. The purpose of this study was to understand how and why some schools were able to successfully integrate less commonly taught language programs, and why others were not.

The results of this study suggest that the factors relating to students’ interests and …

Communicative Language Teaching, Karina C. Mora

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

This portfolio is a compilation of second language teaching research and

ideas put together during the author’s time as a MSLT student. It includes a

personal teaching philosophy supported by three related artifacts. It also contains

an annotated bibliography with an overview of some of the research examined

during her time in the program. Her personal teaching philosophy underscores

how communicative language teaching can help students learn language through

meaningful use. The artifacts suggest ways to implement communicative

language teaching by teaching language in content, using multimedia authentic

texts, and teaching sociolinguistics and pragmatics.

Spanish-Speaking Parents' Negotiation Of Language And Culture With Their Children's Schools, Ronda L. Bickmore

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Latinos are now the largest public school minority population in the U.S. Because of a shift in the states, cities, and counties where Latinos are choosing to live, many schools that did not previously serve substantial numbers of Latinos are doing so now. Additionally, many of the Latinos in these new settlement areas are recent immigrants who speak little or no English. This qualitative study examined how immigrant Latino parents who speak little or no English supported their children in the English-speaking school system of the U.S. It specifically examined how 12 Spanish-speaking parents negotiated language and culture with their …