Education Commons^™

Teachers’ Beliefs Towards Learners’ Heritage Languages Inside Schools In A Multilingual Setting, Ivian Boruchowski Phd

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study adds to the conversation about the increasing language diversity in U.S. schools (Paris & Alim, 2014). In the South Florida district discussed here, ELLs represent 16.9% of the total student enrollment (Miami Dade, 2020), and there is a popular narrative about the value of bilingualism in this community. Despite that, Valencia and Lynch (2019), Mackinney (2016), and Lanier (2014) indicated: even though the bilingual political and economic value in South Florida is noticeable, HLs are relegated to a secondary place and with no prestige inside local school settings.

As Garcia and Wei (2014) observed: "language practices cannot be …

Bilingualism: Bringing World Language To The Youth, Kyle Villella

Modern Languages, Philosophy and Classics Theses

This research thesis focuses on world language education in the United States, more specifically, in the state of Rhode Island. In a changing world, learning a second language is key to creating more culturally competent citizens of the world. This thesis pushes for world language education in elementary schools, particularly in first grade. The first section of the thesis focuses on the reasoning behind beginning this education and how a child’s brain is more capable of second language learning This thesis then looks into how this style of education can be successful and the best pedagogical approaches. It analyzes how …

The Effects Of Teaching Undergraduate Freshmen Biology Courses In Spanish And English, Angela M. Chapman, Amy A. Weimer, Mirayda Torres-Avila, Cristina Trejo, Alexis Racelis

Teaching and Learning Faculty Publications and Presentations

This study examines the attitudes and experiences of bilingual learners across two instructional types, identifying how the language of instruction affects the context of learning, and how the experience of the learners differs. Participants included 269 predominantly Hispanic undergraduate students in a general biology course attending a Hispanic Serving Institution in a bilingual community along the US-Mexico border. A bilingual faculty member, who recognizes the sociocultural and contextual factors that affect student learning and adopts a teaching philosophy founded in Culturally Responsive Practices (CRP) and valuing students’ Funds of Knowledge taught the class. This study utilized a mixed method design …

Ideas, Power And Agency: Policy Actors And The Formulation Of Language-In-Education Policy For Multilingualism, Susanna Nocchi, Iker Erdocia, Mary Ruane

Articles

The processes of formulation of language policies have not been researched thoroughly. This paper aims to explore the relationship between ideas, power and agency in language policy-making and specifically with reference to the formulation of language-in-education policy for multilingualism in Ireland. Through an argumentative approach to language policy and using a discursive institutionalist framework, the paper examines data from policy documents and interviews with policy actors in the Department of Education and Skills. The paper reports on the ways in which agentive discourses are constrained and enabled by institutional structures. The analysis shows how power resulting from asymmetric internal forces …

The Effects Of Charter Schools On Early Foreign Language Education In Public Schools, Cassie Kunz

Senior Honors Theses

Education is a notoriously contentious subject in America. Controversy exists and continues to flare up over what content should be taught, how it should be taught, as well as the cost; foreign language is one such subject. The history of foreign language education in the United States (U.S.) reviews current foreign language policies and practices in the U.S. and other countries, as well as the reasons that proponents of foreign language education argue that it must be improved in the U.S. The charter school approach to education was analyzed in the context of market theory to determine if a correlation …

Spanish English Literacy: Critical Pedagogy, Positive Coping And Transformative Self-Identity, Sara Soledad Garcia

Teacher Education

This chapter reports on a study that focuses on a special agent of change: the classroom teacher and their bilingual skills in preparation for the challenge of teaching in Spanish and English. The new generation of practicing bilingual educators and those presently preparing to teach, have lived in a context that, although restricted by language policies for schooling, have developed coping mechanisms and maintain skills in both languages, Spanish as a native language and English as the language of schooling. A goal for this study is to support a change for a more humanistic approach for the education of linguistic …

Analysis Of The Factors That Affect The Development Of Bilingualism In Colombia, Yuly Andrea Gutiérrez Pacheco

English Language Institute

This poster presents the background of public policies in Colombia related to teaching English as a foreign language and the goals proposed in each one. Subsequently, the results obtained by secondary students and the factors that have made the language acquisition process difficult are emphasized.

Public Perceptions Of Language Education In Taiwan: English In A Multilingual Context, Isabel Eliassen

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

Language policy in Taiwan has been a focus of the government since the days of the Kuomintang (KMT) dictatorship, when languages other than Mandarin were ruthlessly suppressed. After democratization, local languages were allowed again, but soon English became Taiwan’s top language education priority. However, not all Taiwanese agree with the decision to prioritize English. Despite claims that English is important for economic and diplomatic reasons, my survey found that most Taiwanese did not support English education when it threatened local Taiwanese languages. The survey also found that despite a significant amount of debate in academic literature about the role of …

Reconciling The Past: Language Validation In A First-Year Experience Course At A Border, Jose Saldivar

Teaching and Learning Faculty Publications and Presentations

The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) has made part of its mission to become a bilingual, bicultural, and biliterate public institution. Established in 2015 on two legacy institutions, The University of Texas-Pan American and The University of Texas Brownsville, it must reconcile a past that was not always welcoming of its students’ bilingualism. This article examines one instructor’s experience taking one of the university’s signature first-year experience courses and creating a class that is welcoming and supportive of the students’ bilingualism while also reconciling his own educational experiences with language.

Mother Tongue, Please!, Anannya Chakraborty

Teacher India

There is sufficient research to show that mother tongue-based multilingual education (MTB-MLE) can help improve learning levels of students. Anannya Chakraborty discusses the key role of teachers in driving MTB-MLE and the systemic challenges of successfully engaging teachers in such programmes.

Figuring Out How Verb-Particle Constructions Are Understood During L1 And L2 Reading, Mehrgol Tiv, Laura Gonnerman, Veronica Whitford, Deanna Friesen, Debra Jared, Debra Titone

Education Publications

The aim of this paper was to investigate first-language (L1) and second-language (L2) reading of verb particle constructions (VPCs) among English–French bilingual adults. VPCs, or phrasal verbs, are highly common collocations of a verb paired with a particle, such as eat up or chew out, that often convey a figurative meaning. VPCs vary in form (eat up the candy vs. eat the candy up) and in other factors, such as the semantic contribution of the constituent words to the overall meaning (semantic transparency) and frequency. Much like classic forms of idioms, VPCs are difficult for L2 users. Here, we present …

“…4542 Miles From Home…”: Repositioning English Language Learners As Power Brokers And Teachers As Learners In The Study Abroad Context, Kenneth J. Fasching-Varner, Michaela P. Stone, Roberto Mora Mella, Francisco Olave Henriquez, Macarena Yacoman Palma

Teaching and Learning Faculty Research

This article provides an empirical context for the role that bi/multi-lingual children and families may play in supporting pre-service and in-service educators engaging difference through a literacy and language situated study abroad internship in Chile. Drawing on data over a 15-year longitudinal study of the program, the authors examine how students and parents navigate serving the role of teacher, whereas the teacher participants navigate a new role as a learner in a context where they, many for the first time, experience being language and cultural minorities.

The Impact Of Individual Differences On Cross-Language Activation Of Meaning By Phonology, Deanna Friesen, Veronica Whitford, Debra Titone, Debra Jared

Education Publications

We investigated how individual differences in language proficiency and executive control impact cross-language meaning activation through phonology. Ninety-six university students read English sentences that contained French target words. Target words were high- and low-frequency French interlingual homophones (i.e., words that share pronunciation, but not meaning across langauges; mot means ‘word’ in French and sounds like ‘mow’ in English) and matched French control words (e.g., mois – ‘month’ in French). Readers could use the homophones’ shared phonology to activate their English meanings and, ultimately, make sense of the sentence (e.g., Tony was too lazy to mot/mois the grass on Sunday) …

The Effects Of Script Variation, Literacy Skills, And Immersion Experience On Executive Attention: A Comparison Of Matched Monoscriptal And Biscriptal Bilinguals, Sujin Yang, Hwajin Yang, Andree Hartanto

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

To examine script effects, monoscriptal Spanish-English (SE) bilinguals, who use two similar Roman alphabetic systems, were compared to biscriptal Chinese-English (CE) bilinguals, who use logographs and Roman alphabets. On the Attention Network Test, script effects were most evident in global processing efficiency (i.e., inverse efficiency and reaction time) and in the local network of executive control in favor of biscriptal CE bilinguals over matched monoscriptal SE counterparts. Literacy effects were found on the executive control network among Chinese-English bilinguals of high L1-literacy skills over their script- and immersion-matched counterparts, who varied only in low L1 literacy. In a similar vein, …

“Siento Que Siempre Tengo Que Regresar Al Inglés”: Embracing A Translanguaging Stance In A Hispanic-Serving Institution, Sandra I. Musanti, Alyssa G. Cavazos

Bilingual and Literacy Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations

This chapter centers on our reflections and pedagogical moves as two bilingual educators at a Hispanic-Serving Institution on the borderland region of South Texas, a predominantly bilingual and bicultural community. Specifically, the chapter documents how we embrace a translanguaging pedagogical stance. Translanguaging practices are identity markers and represent the complex ways bilinguals use their linguistic repertoire to communicate across contexts and to negotiate social identities (García & Li Wei, 2014; Martinez-Roldán, 2015). Drawing on García, Johnson, and Seltzer’s (2017) conceptualization of a translanguaging “corriente,” we describe our translanguaging stance and moves as we, respectively, design and teach two undergraduate courses: …

Perception Of American–English Vowels By Early And Late Spanish–English Bilinguals, Miriam Baigorri, Luca Campanelli, Erika S. Levy

Publications and Research

Increasing numbers of Hispanic immigrants are entering the US and learning American–English (AE) as a second–language (L2). Previous studies investigating the relationship between AE and Spanish vowels have revealed an advantage for early L2 learners for their accuracy of L2 vowel perception. Replicating and extending such previous research, this study examined the patterns with which early and late Spanish–English bilingual adults assimilated naturally-produced AE vowels to their native vowel-inventory and the accuracy with which they discriminated the vowels. Twelve early Spanish–English bilingual, 12 late Spanish–English bilingual, and 10 monolingual listeners performed perceptual-assimilation and categorical-discrimination tasks involving AE /i,ɪ,ɛ,ʌ,æ,ɑ,o/. Early bilinguals …

Cultural Context As A Biasing Factor For Language Activation In Bilinguals, Matthias Berkes, Deanna Friesen, Ellen Bialystok

Education Publications

Two studies investigated how cultural context and familiarity impact lexical access in Korean-English bilingual and English monolingual adults. ERPs were recorded while participants decided whether a word and picture matched or not. Pictures depicted versions of objects that were prototypically associated with North American or Korean culture and named in either English or Korean, creating culturally congruent and incongruent trials. For bilinguals, culturally congruent trials facilitated responding but ERP results showed that images from both cultures were processed similarly. For monolinguals, culturally incongruent pairs produced longer RTs and larger N400s than congruent items, indicating more effortful processing. Thus, an unfamiliar …

Promoting Student Success: Bilingual Education Best Practices And Research Flaws, Lillian Fassero

Senior Honors Theses

This paper first determines the benefits which bilingual education offers and then compares transitional, dual-language, and heritage language maintenance programs. After exploring the outcomes, contexts, and practical implications of the various bilingual programs, this paper explores the oversight in most bilingual studies, which assess students’ syntax and semantics while neglecting their understanding of pragmatics and discourse structures (Maxwell-Reid, 2011). Incorporating information from recent studies which question traditional understandings of bilingualism and argue that biliteracy requires more than grammatical and vocabulary instruction, this paper proposes modifications in current research strategies and suggests best practices for transitional, dual-language, and heritage maintenance programs.

An Emergent Bilingual Child's Multimodal Choices In Sociodramatic Play, Alain Bengochea, Sabrina F. Sembiante, Mileidis Gort

Educational & Clinical Studies Faculty Research

In this case study, situated in a preschool classroom within an early childhood Spanish/English dual language programme, we examine how an emergent bilingual child engages with multimodal resources to participate in sociodramatic play discourses. Guided by sociocultural and critical discourse perspectives on multimodality, we analysed ways in which Anthony, a four-year-old emergent bilingual child, engaged in meaning-making during play through verbal, visual and actional modes and in conjunction with additional subcategories in his transmodal repertoire (e.g. translanguaging, sentence types, actual versus signified use of artefacts). Our results revealed differences in the ways Anthony engaged his verbal modes (e.g. monolingual languaging …

Forms Of Science Capital Mobilized In Adolescents’ Engineering Projects, Amy Wilson-Lopez, Christina M. Sias, Allen Smithee, Indhira María Hasbún

Teacher Education and Leadership Faculty Publications

The purpose of this multiple case study was to identify the forms of science capital that six groups of adolescents mobilized toward the realization of their self-selected engineering projects during after-school meetings. Research participants were high school students who self-identified as Hispanic, Latina, or Latino; who had received English as a Second Language (ESL) services; and whose parents or guardians had immigrated to the United States and held working class jobs. The research team used categories from Bourdieusian theories of capital to identify the forms of science capital mobilized by the participants. Data sources included transcripts from monthly interviews and …

Effects Of Bilingualism In Short-Term Memory In Individuals With Down Syndrome, Evelyn I. Pinto-Cardona

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of bilingualism in short-term memory (STM) compared to monolingualism with individuals who have Down syndrome. Five tasks were used for STM skills comparison between monolingual and bilingual participants. Sixteen participants between the ages of 13 to 37 were included in this study. Participants were divided based on their language groups. The experimental tasks consisted of non-verbal activities to examine visual (RVDLT) and spatial (Corsi) STM; as well as three verbal STM tasks (RAVLT, WMS, and Digits). The results showed that bilinguals acquired higher overall correct responses, with a significant difference …

Becoming Bilingual: Examining Teachers' Perceptions And Practices For Achieving Bilingualism And Biliteracy In English And Spanish In A Two-Way Dual Language Bilingual Education Program, Carolyn O'Gorman-Fazzolari

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Bilingualism characterizes not only people, but homes, schools, and communities across the United States. While some bilingual people are forced to suppress their bilingualism, others are encouraged to develop their skill set to a level of becoming biliterate. Bilingualism and biliteracy are key features in dual language bilingual education (DLBE) programs where students are provided daily opportunities to develop two languages simultaneously, along with grade-level academic content. Research in DLBE suggest closure of the achievement gap (Valentino & Reardon, 2015). Traditionally, DLBE programs were designed to keep the two target languages (for example, Spanish and English) separate as designated by …

Language Ideologies In A U.S. State-Funded International School: The Invisible Linguistic Repertoires Of Bilingual Refugee Students, Ana T. Solano-Campos

Early Childhood and Elementary Education Faculty Publications

In this study, I investigated language ideologies in a state-funded International Baccalaureate Primary Years Programme school in the United States. I conducted ethnographic observations, focus groups, and interviews in a fourth grade classroom in one of the largest refugee resettlement areas in the country. Findings indicate that although the school positioned bilingualism as linguistic capital, the linguistic repertoires of multilingual refugee students were made invisible by three inter-related processes: linguistic tokenism, linguistic subordination, and linguistic compartmentalization. These results highlight the urgency for schools offering the IB PYP to implement language policy, curriculum, and instruction that explicitly support immigrant and refugee …

The Georgia Seal Of Biliteracy: Exploring The Nexus Of Politics And Language Education, Tim Jansa, Kristina Brezicha

Educational Policy Studies Faculty Publications

On May 3, 2016, House Bill (HB) 879—the Georgia Seal of Biliteracy—was signed into law by Governor Nathan Deal and went into effect on July 1, 2016. Outside of the language education sphere, many educators and policymakers may not fully understand the benefits of studying other languages. Yet, this policy hinges on the utility of simultaneously demonstrating proficiency in a foreign language and an advanced command of English, thus forming the foundation of biliteracy. This article provides an overview of the political landscape in Georgia as it pertains to language education and analyzes how lawmakers translated the issues at hand …

De Los Derechos Humanos: Reimagining Civics In Bilingual & Bicultural Settings, Melissa L. Gibson

College of Education Faculty Research and Publications

Dominant approaches to teaching social studies often marginalize bilingual and bicultural students. This is particularly troubling because the explicit goal of the social studies is to cultivate civic participation. Educational inequalities are thus tied to political inequalities. In light of this, this article shares a narrative case study of the author's own bilingual and bicultural approach to teaching middle school civics at a dual-language American school in Mexico. Through the illustration of a comparative civics curriculum that incorporates translanguaging practices, the author argues that embracing bilingualism and biculturalism in the social studies can lead to more expansive possibilities for justice-oriented …

Ii International Colloquium On Languages, Cultures, Identity, In School And Society, International Colloquium

Proceedings of the International Colloquium on Languages, Cultures, Identity in School and Society

The influx of immigrants in countries worldwide, coupled with the challenges associated to the schooling of their children in host countries' schools, makes it more necessary than ever to broaden our knowledge of the linguistic, ethnic, and cultural realities derived from this phenomenon. This is the rationale for the present Colloquium, which revolves around the following topics:

• Individual, school, and societal bilingualism/multilingualism-related issues
• Multi/Transculturalism-related issues in families, schools, and society
• Impact of bi/multilingualism on individuals' and societies' language, culture, and identity
• Impact of multi/transculturalism on individuals' and societies' language, culture, and identity
• Language ideologies, policies, and practices
• Promotion, maintenance, and …

Investigating Vocabulary Abilities In Bilingual Portuguese-English-Speaking Children, Ana Paula Fabian

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study investigated the vocabulary abilities of bilingual Portuguese-English-speaking children compared to their monolingual peers. Parental Report Surveys were conducted using the MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventories (CDIs), which are standardized norms for vocabulary assessment. Electronic versions of the “Words and Sentences CDI” in English and Brazilian-Portuguese were used in order to assess the vocabulary of children between the ages of 16 and 36 months. Parents answered the surveys online.

Different vocabulary score types were used in order to evaluate the children’s lexicons: The Total Vocabulary score, the Conceptual Vocabulary scores, and the Total Modified Vocabulary. The analyses of the results …

The Complex Nature Of Bilinguals' Language Usage Modulates Task-Switching Outcomes, Hwajin Yang, Andree Hartanto, Sujin Yang

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

In view of inconsistent findings regarding bilingual advantages in executive functions (EF), we reviewed the literature to determine whether bilinguals' different language usage causes measureable changes in the shifting aspects of EF. By drawing on the theoretical framework of the adaptive control hypothesis-which postulates a critical link between bilinguals' varying demands on language control and adaptive cognitive control (Green and Abutalebi, 2013), we examined three factors that characterize bilinguals' language-switching experience: (a) the interactional context of conversational exchanges, (b) frequency of language switching, and (c) typology of code-switching. We also examined whether methodological variations in previous task-switching studies modulate task-specific …

The Effects Of Bilingualism And Multilingualism On Lexical Retrieval, Sarah E. Young

Linguistics Senior Research Projects

This research reviews literature that has been written concerning the positive and negative cognitive impact bilingualism has on the speaker. It then takes this research one step further asking whether increasing the number of languages one speaks slows down the person’s lexical retrieval. Methods include an interview and two tests, the data from which strongly supports the hypothesis mentioned in the literature review that bilingualism slows down lexical processing. This research concludes that having more languages does increase a person’s difficulty with retrieving words on demand.

Key terms: bilingualism, lexical retrieval, RIF, retrieval induced forgetting, aphasia, tip of the tongue, …

Language And Thought In Egypt's Schools Today: What Does Arabic Mean To Arabic Native Speakers? A Literature Review, Diego Dalle Carbonare

Capstone and Graduation Projects

Sociocultural education initiated by Leo Vygotsky strongly believes that language of instruction affects thinking. With regards to the present situation in Egypt, the present research explores the current literature on the value that Arabic has in the Arabic speaking world. Over against a wide-spread opinion that English should be used as the only medium of instruction in early years of literacy, literature shows that some forms of immersion have negative impact on the mastery of mother tongue, and on the very development of cognitive skills. The linguistic and educational scenario is further complicated by the fact that Arabic is a …