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Full-Text Articles in Education
On-Ramps For Refugees: A Workplace Safety Iet Curriculum For Low-Proficiency English Learners, Annamarie Hansen
On-Ramps For Refugees: A Workplace Safety Iet Curriculum For Low-Proficiency English Learners, Annamarie Hansen
School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects
This capstone project aims to address the question: “How can current career pathway programs be expanded to create more “on-ramps” for Refugee ELL students at lower English proficiency levels? What role can community-based organizations take in creating “on-ramps”? This paper was inspired by the teacher’s professional experiences working with refugees with lower-level English proficiency seeking to re-enter their chosen career fields. The paper provides an overview of the literature with a specific focus on Vocational English as a Second Language (VESL), the Career Pathway model, Integrated Education and Training (IET) programs, and the need for “on-ramps” to create additional points …
Planting The Foundational Roots In Co-Teaching Between Secondary Ell Teachers And Mainstream Content Teachers, Amanda Cummings
Planting The Foundational Roots In Co-Teaching Between Secondary Ell Teachers And Mainstream Content Teachers, Amanda Cummings
School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects
The research question in this capstone project that was explored was, “in what ways can building early collaboration between secondary mainstream teachers and ELL teachers positively impact student learning?” This research question explores collaborative co-teaching and its process based on past personal experiences and research to assist and boost ELL students’ achievement through collaboration. Based on research, secondary teachers are often on their own islands and do not have much of an opportunity to collaborate. Secondary teachers are also often voluntold to co-teach instead of volunteer. Even if a co-teaching pair is open to the idea, many have no idea …
A Plurilingual Approach For Secondary Efl Students In Panama, Charlie Kersey
A Plurilingual Approach For Secondary Efl Students In Panama, Charlie Kersey
School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects
This capstone project was guided by the following research question: How can we develop a pedagogy for emerging bilingual EFL students that leverages their full linguistic potential? The research question was identified in response to the shortcomings of an English immersion program that was not promoting the full linguistic potential of its bilingual students. This paper pursues solutions to this problem through a multidisciplinary literature review designed to explore the benefits of bilingualism, how to increase language awareness among students, as well as the explicit use of students’ L1 to learn a L2. Topics explored in the literature review include …
Implementing Equitable And Effective Practices For Dual-Identified Learners, Annelise Walsh
Implementing Equitable And Effective Practices For Dual-Identified Learners, Annelise Walsh
School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects
Walsh, A. (2023). Implementing Equitable and Effective Practices for Dual-Identified Learners English learners in special education make up approximately 1% of students in the United States. As the overall population of English learners rapidly increases, so does this population of dual-identified learners. Educators often do not receive adequate preparation to support dual-identified learners, and misconceptions that these students do not require services in both areas still persist in American public schools. Additionally, disproportionality of English learners in special education remains an ongoing issue. As a result, dual-identified learners are a misunderstood and underserved population. This capstone seeks to answer the …
Translanguaging: The Instructor-Perceived Benefits Of Use In The Adult English Language Learner Classroom, Paul Jonas
Translanguaging: The Instructor-Perceived Benefits Of Use In The Adult English Language Learner Classroom, Paul Jonas
School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Theses and Dissertations
This thesis, seeks to answer the research questions: what are the instructor-perceived benefits of translanguaging in the adult second language acquisition classroom for students who have not had any prior English language experience when learning English as a second language? Additionally, is there an instructor-perceived increase in output and comprehension with adult learners when translanguaging is actively used, and how is it being used? Topics explored during the literature review process included translanguaging, perceived benefits and challenges of translanguaging in the classroom, age-related factors for language acquisition, and non-age-related factors regarding language learning. Six English language instructors of adult non-degree-seeking …
Exploring How Elementary Esl Teachers Experience Learning And Change Related To A Genre-Based Approach To Language Instruction, Angela Froemming
Exploring How Elementary Esl Teachers Experience Learning And Change Related To A Genre-Based Approach To Language Instruction, Angela Froemming
School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Theses and Dissertations
This study explored how elementary ESL teachers describe their experience learning about genre-based pedagogy, and how they describe change that resulted from learning about this instructional approach. Multilingual learners represent a rising student demographic across the United States (National Center for Educational Statistics, 2021), however, most teachers and administrators have not been adequately trained in language development, so language remains an abstract concept and professional learning experiences related to language development are scarce (He & Bagwell, 2021; Ranney, 2012). Without language-based resources or frameworks, ESL teachers are often underutilized professionals in their schools (Harper & de Jong, 2009). A genre-based …
The Disappearing Of The Hmong Language, Choua Yang
The Disappearing Of The Hmong Language, Choua Yang
School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects
Within my personal and professional experience, I have observed that the Hmong oral language has declined since the Hmong people arrived in the United States. Over the past 50 years in the United States, there have been growing concerns regarding the decline in usage of the Hmong language within Hmong children. In my personal experience, my children who are second generation Hmong, only the five older children are bilingual while my three younger children only speak English. As for my seven grandchildren, who are third generation Hmong, they only speak English. They do not understand nor speak the Hmong language. …
A Ninth Grade English Language Arts Supplemental Curriculum That Integrates Language And Content Instruction For English Language Learners Using A Co-Taught Model, Hanna Brown
School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects
The research question addressed in this capstone project is: How can ninth grade English Language Arts curriculum be designed to integrate language and content instruction to support academic English proficiency for English Learners using a co-teaching model? The paper provides an in-depth literature review on both academic language development and co-teaching. Topics of this paper are: long-term English language learners (LTELs) in the mainstream, academic and language standards, content instructional models for secondary English language learners which includes co-teaching practices and building academic language. Following this paper, a supplemental curriculum for ninth grade English language arts was created in order …
How Equitable Teaching Practices Impact The Mathematical Identity Of English Language Learners From Teachers’ Perspectives, Xiaomei Segelstrom
How Equitable Teaching Practices Impact The Mathematical Identity Of English Language Learners From Teachers’ Perspectives, Xiaomei Segelstrom
School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Theses and Dissertations
This mixed method research study examined the teacher’s perspectives on how equitable teaching practices impact the math identity of English language learners. A quantitative research survey instrument including five major themes that was generated from the frameworks in the literature review was used, and then followed by semi-structured interviews to address the research question. The data collected from the survey indicated that participants do believe that equitable teaching practices would impact the math identity of ELLs via: conveying high expectations, language support, modifying lessons, mathematical tasks and mathematical tools. Building on the survey results, interviewees furthermore informed that all these …
Supporting English Language Learners In A Co-Taught Classroom Through The Curriculum, Emilia Witthuhn
Supporting English Language Learners In A Co-Taught Classroom Through The Curriculum, Emilia Witthuhn
School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects
Co-teaching is a common strategy used to support English Language Learners in the content classroom. However, English Language Learners can still struggle in these classrooms. Research has shown that co-teaching can be a benefit for students, but this takes collaboration between the content teacher and the English Language teacher to make the class accessible. This project was designed to take an existing English Language Arts curriculum and modify and adapt the curriculum to better meet the needs of English Language Learners. The WIDA 2020 standards and Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe’s Understanding by Design were used as resources in developing …
Incorporating Opportunities For Diverse Literature Into The Early Elementary Classroom, Mary Cline
Incorporating Opportunities For Diverse Literature Into The Early Elementary Classroom, Mary Cline
School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects
The research shows that student engagement is positively impacted by literature that contains mirrors to their own lives and experiences. This is a set of lessons that are created to be incorporated into the school’s literacy curriculum for 1st and 2nd grade. Through reading and discussing various books, these lessons strive to add places for multicultural students to see their lives mirrored back to them as well as to give all students a chance to see another way of life by looking through a window into someone else’s world. The lesson plans focus on creating space for students to engage …
Implementing Tpr And Tprs In The Adult Esl Classroom With Slife Learners: A Teacher’S Diary Study, Ann Gehrt
Implementing Tpr And Tprs In The Adult Esl Classroom With Slife Learners: A Teacher’S Diary Study, Ann Gehrt
School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Theses and Dissertations
This study addresses the question: how can TPR and TPRS be used in the adult ESL classroom to teach vocabulary and reading skills? Adult ELLs with limited or interrupted formal education may struggle to learn English in traditional classrooms that rely on pre-existing literacy skills they have not yet developed, such as reading or taking notes. TPR (Total Physical Response) and TPRS (Teaching Proficiency through Reading and Storytelling) are methods of teaching language that may make use of body movements, gestures, role-play, drama and oral storytelling to make language understandable before connecting it to its written form. TPR has a …
How Can Guest English-Speaking Teachers Best Promote Students’ Identity And Culture In South Korean Schools, Tracy Olsen
How Can Guest English-Speaking Teachers Best Promote Students’ Identity And Culture In South Korean Schools, Tracy Olsen
School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects
English language education in South Korea has complex layers. Ideas of Westernization, globalization, neoliberalism, native-speakerism, language ownership, culture, and identity all play a role in how Koreans view themselves as English language learners. Guest English-speaking Teachers (GETs) should promote student culture and identity to empower students as English speakers in a globalized world and work against ideas of native-speakerism and Westernization. The project created is a website for new and current GETs teaching English in South Korea. Based on research on culture and identity in English language learning in Korea and critically and culturally sustaining pedagogy, this website is meant …
Supporting Multicultural Mental Health With Culturally And Linguistically Relevant Practices, Codi Shogren
Supporting Multicultural Mental Health With Culturally And Linguistically Relevant Practices, Codi Shogren
School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects
Teaching through the COVID-19 pandemic as an English teacher to elementary school learners highlighted many mental health needs for learners that were amplified even more once everyone was back in school full time. My fellow educators and I have been surviving and reacting to mental health needs and behaviors as they pop up during the school year but that is neither a long term solution nor does it provide the needed support to learners. These experiences in the classroom led to the question: How can elementary educators support multicultural learners with their mental health? After researching culturally and linguistically responsive …
Early Career Language Educators Experience Joy And Purpose In The Creation Of Multilingual Classroom Ecologies, Jonell Pacyga
Early Career Language Educators Experience Joy And Purpose In The Creation Of Multilingual Classroom Ecologies, Jonell Pacyga
School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Theses and Dissertations
The goal of this phenomenological study was to intensely analyze and interpret the experiences of a select sample of early career language teachers as they reflected on their languaging interactions with their learners. To answer the research question: How do early career language teachers experience the creation of multilingual classroom ecologies?, four individuals participated by collectively providing 14 interviews, submitting 13 bi-weekly journals, and sharing 17 self-selected semiotic images over a two month time period. Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (Smith, 1996) was then employed using a double hermeneutic to uncover themes in each case by elucidating descriptions and then cohesively analyzing …
Curriculum Design That Supports Multilingual Learners' Literacy Development: Pairing The Science Of Reading And Oral Language Development Utilizing Read-Alouds, Eleanor Christman
Curriculum Design That Supports Multilingual Learners' Literacy Development: Pairing The Science Of Reading And Oral Language Development Utilizing Read-Alouds, Eleanor Christman
School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects
The curriculum designed for this project focuses on combining the science of reading with oral language development through read-alouds, with a focus on understanding text structure. The purpose of this study is to determine best practices for teaching multilingual learners how to read and to give teachers concrete materials to use in the classroom. Research suggests that phonics-based instruction supports the reading development of multilingual learners more than whole language instruction. Researchers also recommend teachers focus on more than just decoding, especially for multilingual learners as it connects to comprehension. Additionally, research emphasizes the importance of developing oral language in …
Supporting Dual-Identified Learners’ English Expressive Language Development, Sara Hommes
Supporting Dual-Identified Learners’ English Expressive Language Development, Sara Hommes
School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects
This project seeks to answer the questions: How can educators support ELL and dual-identified learners’ English language development in the modalities of writing and speaking? What is the intersectionality between language acquisition and SLD issues? This project was born out of the author’s own experience in supporting dual-identified learners as well as from a desire to better support expressive language production in her class, with the goal of helping students exit the EL program. The author consulted research that offered information on the diverse identities and various labels of ELL learners, the issues in identifying SLD in ELLs, various perspectives …
Best Practices: To Supporting And Including Slife, Preliterate, Pashtu Students In Secondary, Western, Schools, Claire Madden
Best Practices: To Supporting And Including Slife, Preliterate, Pashtu Students In Secondary, Western, Schools, Claire Madden
School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects
The research question addressed in this capstone project was: what are the best practices for supporting and including SLIFE (Students with Limited or Interrupted Formal Education), preliterate, Pashtun students in secondary, Western, schools? Topics explored in this literacy review were the challenges of SLIFE students, literacy development, multiculturalism and Pashtu culture. This paper and three part professional development series discusses methods for all secondary teachers to include and support SLIFE, preliterate, Pashtu students in Western schools. This professional development utilizes the research of Aguilar (2013). Aguilar’s (2013) work in adult education assisted in the creation of this professional development series. …
Metaphor Matters: Teaching Metaphoric Competence, Linda Pope
Metaphor Matters: Teaching Metaphoric Competence, Linda Pope
School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects
Research shows that metaphoric competence is necessary for communicative competence and this paper suggests Cognitive Metaphor Theory (CMT) may be useful in teaching metaphoric competence at all levels of English. Even though causality is difficult to establish, research underscores the link between metaphoric competence and overall language proficiency. This, and the pervasiveness of metaphor in everyday and specialized English, strongly suggests a pedagogical shift towards recognizing and engaging deeply with metaphoric language. This means making room for metaphoric competence training in the ESL and legal English classroom. The project models the analyses of two diverse texts: an intermediate-level newspaper article …
Avid For Ells In Content Classes, Whitney Selimovi Ć
Avid For Ells In Content Classes, Whitney Selimovi Ć
School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects
Students classified as English Language Learners (ELLs) continue to lag behind the academic performance and graduation rates of their peers (Bravo & Cervetti, 2014; Minnesota Department of Education, 2022). Although English Language Development (ELD) teachers are highly trained in language acquisition, they are not with their students all day, and much of the responsibility of English Language instruction falls on the classroom teachers, who report both less training in the knowledge required and less comfort in supporting this ELL population (Carabantes & Paran, 2022; de Jong & Barko-Alva, 2015; Harklau & Ford, 2022; Murphy & Torff, 2019). This knowledge gap …
How Adult Efl Teachers Can Effectively Utilize Duolingo In Their Curriculum, Rebecca Nelson
How Adult Efl Teachers Can Effectively Utilize Duolingo In Their Curriculum, Rebecca Nelson
School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects
The proliferation of cell phones and application technology has changed the way individuals access learning. It’s also opened up a space for profit-driven companies to be included in educational options. This project focuses on Mobile-Assisted Language Learning applications, in particular Duolingo, and how they can best be used by Language teachers, especially English teachers of adults in non-immersive environments, to use Duolingo as a supplement to their teaching. The literature shows that these applications can be helpful, but need traditional support to be most effective. The question the literature brings to mind is how teachers can best use these apps. …
Planning For Expressive Language In Math For Multilingual Learners, Stephanie Deehr
Planning For Expressive Language In Math For Multilingual Learners, Stephanie Deehr
School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects
Many multilingual students are struggling to keep up in their math classes. They are not given enough opportunities to use the language of math to explain and justify their thinking. The research question addressed in this project was, How can planning for expressive language in math affect the academic achievement and language development of third grade multilingual students? The author describes her personal and professional experiences that guided her to the question. Then, the author reviews professional literature on the topics of learning language through content, math as a second language, and scaffolds and strategies for using expressive language in …
A Framework For Incorporating Best Practices To Provide Foundational Literacy Skills To English Learners For Sustained Academic Success, Gabriel Arechigo
A Framework For Incorporating Best Practices To Provide Foundational Literacy Skills To English Learners For Sustained Academic Success, Gabriel Arechigo
School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects
English Learners (ELs) have experienced a lack of sustained academic success for generations, especially compared to their non-EL peers. The cause of this experience is multifaceted and the importance of making its history visible cannot be stressed enough. This capstone aims to empower individuals with the knowledge of this topic and create empathy for the EL community so that awareness becomes actionable and change is demanded for the way foundational literacy skills are taught in public schools. Knowledge for this topic includes a historical context of language policies, theories of learning, literacy instruction, and misconceptions stemming from these facets that …
Multisensory Literacy Instruction: Efficacy For Struggling Multilingual Learners, Stephanie Sowma
Multisensory Literacy Instruction: Efficacy For Struggling Multilingual Learners, Stephanie Sowma
School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects
By the year 2025, approximately 25% of U.S. public school students will be multilingual learners. However, many mainstream teachers have not received any development in supporting this particular group of students. This capstone explores best literacy practices for multilingual learners, multisensory learning, and teacher professional development to answer the focus question: how can multisensory instruction be utilized to add engagement and rigor in order to improve the literacy skills of multilingual learners between 5 - 8 years old who score between a 1.0 - 2.9 on the WIDA Access Assessment and are struggling with basic reading skills? Multisensory literacy instruction …
Effective Strategies For Integrating Pronunciation Instruction With A Focus On Intelligibility And Comprehensibility For Adult Esl Students, Ashley Carrel
School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects
The guiding question for this project was: What are some effective strategies for integrating pronunciation instruction in an adult ESL course with the focus being on intelligibility and comprehensibility? This question is guided by personal and professional experiences that are shared in the first chapter. The literature review examines the stigma of accented speech of non-native speakers and the factors that influence their pronunciation production. The intelligibility approach to pronunciation instruction has been proven to be a more realistic and ethical approach as compared to the nativeness principle. The research studied showed that adult ESL teachers often feel ill equipped …
Teaching English In Earth And Space Science: Content-Based Curriculum Development For Secondary Multilingual Learners, Laura Gislason
Teaching English In Earth And Space Science: Content-Based Curriculum Development For Secondary Multilingual Learners, Laura Gislason
School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects
The number of English language learners in public schools continues to increase in Minnesota. Multilingual high school students having a WIDA English language proficiency level below three tend to experience a greater number of academic challenges and experience lower graduation rates. In order to combat these challenges, many high schools provide sheltered content classes co-taught by licensed content and EL teachers. While these courses help students succeed in mastering content standards, English language development is often relegated to incidental acquisition as a bi-product of the learning process. This capstone uses the connections model of content based instruction to answer the …
Training English Language Teachers To Help Adult General English Students With Complex Noun Phrases For Business Writing, Christina Cipriani
Training English Language Teachers To Help Adult General English Students With Complex Noun Phrases For Business Writing, Christina Cipriani
School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects
An overwhelming number of English Learners (ELs) are motivated to learn English because it can act as a tool to help them achieve career success. However, textbooks, which form the backbone of many General English (GE) courses, do not provide enough information in a number of areas related to success at work. Notably, few textbooks offer models for the language needed in job searching, including complex noun phrases. Since textbooks are not providing this material, teachers have to fill that gap themselves. In order to help teachers fulfill this task, my capstone project investigates the following research question: “How can …
Maximizing The Effectiveness Of Peer Interaction In The English-Language Classroom, Benjamin Kahn
Maximizing The Effectiveness Of Peer Interaction In The English-Language Classroom, Benjamin Kahn
School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects
The research question addressed in this capstone project is the following: How can teachers maximize the effectiveness of peer-to-peer interactions in an English Language classroom at the secondary or post-secondary level? The paper documents this practitioner’s exploration of the research literature on peer interaction to discover what makes for high quality peer interactions and how various teacher-controlled practices can affect interaction quality. This document also follows the creation of a professional development presentation intended for English-language teachers to help familiarize them with the field’s current understanding of peer interaction and possible best practices in their classrooms. The topics of focus …
Adult Immigrant English Learners’ Perceptions Of Their Multilingual And Multicultural Identities, Greta Mcelvain
Adult Immigrant English Learners’ Perceptions Of Their Multilingual And Multicultural Identities, Greta Mcelvain
School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Theses and Dissertations
Adult immigrant English learners (ELs) must navigate living in a new country while also learning a new language. These immigrants are becoming both multicultural and multilingual. It has been established in prior literature that as immigrants adjust to living in a new culture with a different language, they experience both a language (Wardhaugh & Fuller, 2015) and cultural (Gibson, 2001, as cited in Schwartz, 2006, p. 2) shift. These shifts can sometimes result in immigrants losing connection to their first languages (Zhang, 2010) or their home cultures Gu and Lai (2019). Self-reflection activities have been shown to allow individuals to …
Supporting Kindergarten Multilingual Learners During Morning Meeting, Tamara Tripp
Supporting Kindergarten Multilingual Learners During Morning Meeting, Tamara Tripp
School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects
The guiding question of this capstone project is: “How can kindergarten classroom teachers support Multilingual Learners during Morning Meeting to improve their ability to engage and communicate with classmates?” Morning Meeting is a daily classroom time that supports the building of a shared classroom community. Students are seen and heard as they share about themselves and learn about their peers. Research has demonstrated the need for students to make connections with their classmates in order to feel safe taking academic risks. Multilingual learners in kindergarten classrooms can struggle to make social connections and actively engage in learning when they are …