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Full-Text Articles in Education

Promoting Student Success: Bilingual Education Best Practices And Research Flaws, Lillian Fassero Dec 2017

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 Nov 2017

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 …


Effects Of Bilingualism In Short-Term Memory In Individuals With Down Syndrome, Evelyn I. Pinto-Cardona Jun 2017

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 Mar 2017

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 …


The Georgia Seal Of Biliteracy: Exploring The Nexus Of Politics And Language Education, Tim Jansa, Kristina Brezicha Jan 2017

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 …