Education Commons^™

Linguistic And Cultural Diversity: Examining Support For English Language Learners In Canada Through Multiliteracies And Sociocultural Theories For Teaching And Learning, Rasha Qaisi

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study explores and analyzes the use of multiliteracies, multimodalities, and sociocultural perspectives as pedagogical practices for the teaching and learning of secondary school students and adult learners for literacy and second language acquisition. This qualitative, comparative case study research questions the impact of the theory of multiliteracies and the use of multimodalities and technology has on student experiences across the curriculum and language acquisition with English language learners (ELLs). More specifically, this research study investigates the implementation of multiliteracies, multimodalities, and sociocultural theories of education in language acquisition classrooms, the use of technology in the classroom, and the role …

The Relationship Between Language Mindsets And Foreign Language Anxiety, Jared David Barber

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The learning of a second language is distinct from other types of learning, and it involves a complex interplay of cognitive, affective, motivational, and emotional factors. Language mindset, the beliefs that learners hold regarding their language learning ability, is one important affective factor, as is language anxiety. The purpose of this quantitative correlational study was to discover whether a relationship exists between language mindsets and foreign language anxiety for university second language students at a large central Virginia university. The study used four bivariate linear regressions to examine correlations between the predictor variable, foreign language anxiety, and four language mindset-related …

A Case Study Of The Academic And Social Needs Of Hispanic Elementary Dual Language Learners, Erika Suzanne Rivera-Castillo

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this instrumental case study is to describe the educators’ perspective of the academic and social needs of Hispanic elementary dual language learners (DLL) at a school district in a southern state's northwestern region. The theory guiding this study is the Krashen’s second language acquisition theory, using the five main hypotheses: (1) the acquisition-learning distinction, (2) the natural order hypothesis, (3) the monitor hypothesis, (4) the input hypothesis, and (5) the affective filter hypothesis. Vygotsky’s social development theory will also guide this study as social development and interaction have a vital role in the process of cognitive and …

Writing A Formal Email In English: Exploring University Students’ Pragmatic Competence, Alexandra Shaitan Professor, Guzal Zakhidova Teacher

Central Asian Journal of Education

This exploratory study discusses findings pertaining to university students’ pragmatic and intercultural communicative competence in the context of Uzbekistan. It begins with a brief review of the research literature related to pragmatics, and its corollary pragmatic success, initially reviewing studies conducted in various contexts in the past several decades. This is followed by a brief overview of university teaching context in Uzbekistan, a methodology for data collection and criteria for participants’ selection. The article concludes with a brief discussion of findings and recommendations for further research. In particular, it highlights the necessity for incorporating explicit instruction of formal email writing …

Writing A Formal Email In English: Exploring University Students’ Pragmatic Competence, Alexandra Shaitan Phd Candidate, Guzal Zakhidova Senior Lecturer

Central Asian Journal of Education

This exploratory study discusses findings pertaining to university students’ pragmatic and intercultural communicative competence in the context of Uzbekistan. It begins with a brief review of the research literature related to pragmatics, and its corollary pragmatic success, initially reviewing studies conducted in various contexts in the past several decades. This is followed by a brief overview of university teaching context in Uzbekistan, a methodology for data collection and criteria for participants’ selection. The article concludes with a brief discussion of findings and recommendations for further research. In particular, it highlights the necessity for incorporating explicit instruction of formal email writing …

How Can Music Most Effectively Be Used In The English Learner Classroom, Robert Ryden

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects

Music is an omnipresent part of everyday life. Whether it’s in the background or the foreground, music is everywhere. This capstone project aims to deliver the best answer to the question: How can music most effectively be used in the EL classroom? Effectively using music in the EL classroom involves understanding how to thoughtfully select the right music for the right situation, how to use music to build community and social skills among students, and how music can be used to positively impact the language learning process. Through this project, educators are also given the opportunity to participate in a …

Native And Non-Native English-Speaking Doctoral Students' Strategies To Understand Idiomatics In Comics And Comic Strips, Himelhoch Luz-Aydé

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Everyday language consists of many idiomatic and figurative expressions. For non-native English speakers to achieve native fluency, control of idiomatics—native speech that includes the use of both idiomatic and figurative language—is paramount. In this study, I aimed to explore the use of comics and comic strips in the learning and comprehension of L2 (second language) idiomatics. Seldom has the topic of comics and comic strips been addressed as it applies to idiomatics learning in second language acquisition (SLA). I employed a descriptive and exploratory approach in this study to address this gap in SLA pedagogy. A total of 21 doctoral …

Second Language Spanish Refusals: The Effectiveness Of Explicit And Implicit Teaching Methods, Hannah R. Mcintire

LSU Master's Theses

This study investigates the effects of pragmatic instruction on two experimental groups in order to analyze participants’ pragmatic ability of producing culturally and situationally appropriate refusals in Spanish. The three groups include an in-class group, a tandem group, and a control group. Using pre and post written discourse completion tasks (DCTs), this study analyzes participants’ first turn in making a refusal of a friend’s invitation (-P, -D) and a professor or advisor’s suggestion (+P, +D). Based on tokens elicited for each group, it will be demonstrated that 1) both experimental groups increased in their ability of producing appropriate refusal strategies, …

Estrategias Para El Uso Efectivo De La Tecnología Y La Inclusión De La Cultura En Clases En Línea De Español Como Lengua Extranjera A Nivel Universitario En Los Estados Unidos, Daniel Tamez

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

Developing culturally responsive knowledge and practices for the online Spanish classroom is increasingly important as campuses across the country have moved to online and hybrid delivery due to the emergence across the world of the novel Coronavirus, Covid-19, in 2020, and continuing technological enhancements and opportunities to conduct successful classes in using an online or hybrid delivery model. While it was clear that faculty and staff would need support to develop their skills and knowledge for using new technologies and methods for teaching in the online environment, it was not as clear that designing a curricular experience that was culturally …

The Role Of Community Building In Second Language Acquisition In The Mainstream Classroom, Alejandro Clemente Fernandez

Doctoral Dissertations

The world is currently suffering from population displacement due to climate change, war, and economic instability which force many people to migrate in search of a better life, and many of these immigrants include school-age children. This mixed-methods research study sought to establish the association between community building, emotion, and second language acquisition by administering a survey to second language learners in the Napa Valley north of San Francisco in the spring of 2020. The participants were fourteen sixth grade students who had been enrolled in the same English and Spanish dual language immersion program since kindergarten.

The theoretical framework …

Using A Smart Phone To Learn Spanish: Does It Work And Will Students Use It?, Andrew J. Demil, Alysha Assaf, Ryan Cragun

The Coastal Review: An Online Peer-reviewed Journal

Over time, mobile devices have penetrated the classroom, requiring new and beneficial ways to implement classroom instruction. Research suggests that Short Message Service (SMS) based instruction is an effective tool for acquiring second language (L2) vocabulary and idiom knowledge (Hayati, Jalilifar, & Mashhadi; Lu,). Additionally, studies have found that students believe that mobile learning (m-learning) is beneficial to acquiring a second language (Cavus & Ibrahim; Hayati, Jalilifar, & Mashhadi; Lu, 2008). This study examined whether m-learning can lead to Spanish vocabulary familiarity and if sentence comprehension outperforms reading definitions. Participants were 29 native English speakers studying Spanish as a second …