Bilingual, Multilingual, and Multicultural Education Commons^™

Teaching Reading As An Integrated Skill: An Evaluation Of Two Popular Esl Textbooks, Ingrid Mcvanner

Master's Theses

As the population of non-native English speakers rises in the United States, so too does the need for effective English language instruction, and with that, effective instructional materials. With a growing population of adult English language learners with below basic prose literacy, the need for effective adult English language literacy instruction is also evident. Because people do not use one skill at a time, this project evaluates the reading materials in two adult English language integrated skills textbooks from major publishers of ESL materials in order to provide insight into the preparation of effective integrated skills textbooks designed for adult …

On The Job Teacher Training For Native English-Speaking Teachers In South Korean Intensive English Kindergartens, Elizabeth Christensen

Master's Theses

The purpose of this study was to examine how native English-speaking teachers from Western countries adapt to teaching Korean kindergarten students within South Korea while adapting to both teaching and working within South Korea. To collect data for the study, eight native English-speaking teachers were interviewed about their training and teaching experiences in South Korea. Results show that many native English-speaking teachers desire better communication from their supervisors during new teacher training programs. The participants especially wanted to have a clearer understanding of their supervisor’s expectations for them. In the interviews, many of the native English-speaking teachers expressed a wish …

Teaching English As A Second Language Through Rap Music: A Curriculum For Secondary School Students, Beth Segal

Master's Theses

This project provides a sample of the curriculum, Rapping English, which uses rap/hip-hop style music to teach ELLs vocabulary, grammar, discourse and prosody. The rationale for using musical instruction is based on Gardner’s (2006) multiple intelligence theory and Bloom’s (1978) learning domains. This curriculum instructs students through musical intelligence and the affective domain which are often neglected in traditional instruction. Furthermore, this project explores how musical curriculum can be used to lower the affective filter (Krashen, 1981) and provide emotionally appealing and memory stimulating instruction in line with the findings of current neuropsychology, specifically the work of R. Caine and …

An Investigation Of The Private Efl Sector In South Korea: Meeting Students’ And Parents’ Goals And Expectations, Stephen Ostermiller

Master's Theses

In South Korea, there is an abundance of expatriate educators working in the large, private English education industry. Many of these educators work for private language institutes known as hagwons, where they teach English as a foreign language (EFL) to preschool and primary school students. However, due to language barriers and other circumstances, these workers rarely communicate with the parents of their students. Couple this with a lack of knowledge about the history and current state of EFL education in Korea, and many of these educators are left unaware of the goals and expectations that these parents have for their …

Reactions To English Language Learning In Chile As A Means For Personal And National Development, Kortnee Byrd

Master's Theses

In our globalized world today, English has developed into the worldwide

language. Chilean leaders, in connection to their development goals to reach a developed

country status by 2020, have highlighted the need for Chilean citizens to become

bilingual in order to attract foreign investment and further integrate into the world

market. Leaders also highlight how English education will serve as an equalizing

measure to combat the socioeconomic inequality that has plagued this country since

Spanish colonization. While the economic benefits are clear, questions remain as to what

the social and cultural costs will be. This research project presents how a …

Cross-Cultural And Multilingual Encounters: Composing Difference In Transnational Contexts, Tika Lamsal

Rhetoric and Language Faculty Publications and Research

A rapid increase in the population of cross-cultural and multilingual students and faculty in the U.S. universities has spurred the need to develop a culturally and linguistically more inclusive pedagogy in the teaching of writing. By analyzing the writing of a couple of multilingual and multicultural students from a freshman composition class in a U.S. university, this article explores the ways that help facilitate the writing process of such students. Stressing the value of students’ previous experiences based on their social, cultural, and language differences, the essay argues for the need to recognize and promote the use of multilingual and …

Casa De La Solidaridad: A Pedagogy Of Solidarity, Kevin Yonkers-Talz

Doctoral Dissertations

Casa de la Solidaridad has been recognized as an innovative and effective educational model within Jesuit higher education yet, until now, there have only been verbal presentations of the unique attributes of the Casa de la Solidaridad model. In addition, there has been a lack of information regarding the influence of the Casa experience on the lives of alumni. The purpose of this study was twofold: 1) to thoroughly describe and document the unique attributes of the Casa de la Solidaridad model, and 2) to provide some insight into how the Casa program has influenced the lives of Casa alumni. …

Teaching Dilemmas: Language Development For English Learners In A Hyper-Segregated Dual Immersion Program, Allison Briceño

Doctoral Dissertations

English learners (ELs), a growing population in U.S. schools, generally

underperform as compared to their monolingual English peers. One potential solution to this EL achievement gap has been the implementation of Dual Immersion (DI) programs. However, given that ELs are often densely concentrated in schools with limited access to native English-speaking peers, some schools do not have enough native English-speaking

students to constitute a true DI program.

This qualitative study explored language development practices in both Spanish and English in a Northern California hyper-segregated DI elementary school, where almost all the students were English learners. The participants were four Latina …

The Effect Of Sequent Input On Speech Accuracy And Fluency In Adults At The Intermediate Level, Salah Farah

Doctoral Dissertations

To help students achieve their potential, input/feedback must be sequenced by the level of complexity that immediately follows the student's actual developmental level. I assert that effective input/feedback has to follow a set of suggested but not directly expressed rules that represent basic criteria for the development of communicative competence. This study made these criteria explicit, and converted them into ready-for-use input/feedback specifications. Such specifications allow instructors to provide effective remedies to treat particular interlanguage errors. Thus, it is important that instructors understand how to sequence input/feedback to target students differentially in response to their different proficiency levels.

The study …

The Impact Of Transactional Strategies Instruction On The Reading Comprehension Of A Diverse Group Of Second Graders, Sunjoo Shawn Kim

Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of TSI in teaching reading comprehension to a diverse group of second graders. The diversity included various levels of readiness in reading, language status such as English learners and native speakers of English, and various levels of participation by children in a whole-class setting. Part One of this study used teacher action research as its methodology to address reading comprehension and student autonomy. Part Two of this study used participatory action research, involving children as co-researchers, to investigate how second graders perceived Literature Circles as their reading comprehension instruction and …

Being In Deep, Authentic, Dramatic Celebration: Narratives Of Community Cultural Workers For Social Change, Mi'jan Celie Tho-Biaz

Doctoral Dissertations

The common discourse in the field of education in the United States during the years 2002 through 2013 centered on the approach of making schools accountable for their students' performance, while aiming to bring proficiency to all students regardless of their socio-economic background. Prior to this study, little research existed on cultural workers who teach, and their associated outcomes with marginalized populations of learners. To fill this gap in the research literature, this study explored the question: How do cultural workers define their work, and in what ways do they connect their stories to the current academic discourse on the …

"These Rights Go Beyond Borders And Pieces Of Paper": Urban High School Teachers And Newcomer Immigrant Youth Engaging In Human Rights Education, Juliet A. Schiller

Doctoral Dissertations

This qualitative study explored the ways that two ninth and tenth grade teachers and their newcomer immigrant students engaged in HRE using elements of critical pedagogy at an urban pubic high school. Research data included eight months of classroom observations and interviews with two teachers and nineteen of their students across four of their classrooms. In this study, the complexity of engaging in HRE with newcomer students was brought to light as two teachers enacted their vision of critical pedagogy, human rights content and learning goals, as well as English language instruction.

The findings in this study conveyed that engaging …

Perceptions Of Bilingualism And Home Language Maintenance And Loss: A Study Of Latino Parents At A San Francisco Bay Area Elementary Charter School, Emily Mccormick Enstice

Doctoral Dissertations

There is limited research that investigates parent perceptions with respect to their early elementary school children's home language use. To fill the gap in research, this study explores the relationship between first generation Latino parent perspectives of bilingualism, home language maintenance and loss, and the intersection of culture and identity in an elementary school community. It also investigates how parents create an additive bilingual environment in the home.

This participatory action research (PAR) study involved group dialogue sessions and individual interviews in order to engage co-researchers and participants. PAR provided this study with the structure and tools to change and …

The Image Of The Artist: A Content Analysis Of Authenticity, Ethnicity, And Quality In Young Adult Novels, Jeannine L. Jeffries

Doctoral Dissertations

There is little research on the image of the artist in general and no research was found incorporating the multicultural image of the artist in children's or YA books. Knowing that artists can be as culturally diverse as their artistic medium of choice raised the initial questions about the multicultural image of the artist. Even though there have been numerous novels published over the last 40 years with an artist character as part of the story, there was a lack of empirical research on how the image of the artist may be stereotyped and if these novels reflect today's contemporary …

A Participatory Action Research Study With Bi-Ethnic Children In South Korea On Bi-Ethnic Identity Development, Jeong Min Lee

Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this research was to explore how bi-ethnic children in South Korea understand their identity using a participatory action research (PAR) method. The number of bi-ethnic/multicultural families and children is increasing in South Korea, matched with a rising xenophobia towards these groups. Thus, the need for research that captured the inner thoughts and feelings of children, through their own voices, seems of paramount importance for a more secure and authentic identity development. The findings from this research provided evidence through their own storybooks that bi-ethnic Korean children had individual identity experiences in different contexts through diverse development processes. …

Supporting Teachers As Transformative Intellectuals: Participatory Action Research In Human Rights Education, Page Hersey

Doctoral Dissertations

Human rights education (HRE) holds the potential for educators to begin an honest dialogue with students and to connect local issues with international struggles for human rights. However, HRE and other teaching approaches that build understanding of systems of power and oppression that lead to human rights violations are not widely embraced in U.S. schools. In this participatory action research (PAR) study, a group of five educators in the San Francisco Bay Area examined the development and implementation of HRE and social justice education.

Broad research questions guided the group process, asking how educators engaged with youth about human rights …

Being And Becoming Public School Teachers: Career Mobility Of Chinese Overseas-Trained Teachers In The San Francisco Bay Area, Lily L. Chow

Doctoral Dissertations

Teacher shortage and retention has persisted in the United States for decades. Ethnic minority teachers are underrepresented in public K-12 schools as well as teachers for English learners. Untapped pools of overseas-trained teachers who are lawful permanent residents exist but are unemployed, underemployed, or working in other fields. To earn a local teaching credential, the immigrant bears the burden of proving equivalent knowledge and skills to re-enter her or his profession in the United States. At the time of this study, there was no research about overseas-trained immigrant teachers entering the teaching profession for primary and secondary public school students …

Transcending Borders: The Experience Of Six Undocumented Immigrant Mothers In The United States, Patricia Derobles

Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to gain meaningful insights into the experiences of six undocumented immigrant mothers as they settled in the United States while they raise and participate in the educational life of their children. Currently 10 % of California's 6 million students originate from homes where one or two parents are undocumented, poor and have limited English skills. Undocumented immigrants live in constant fear of deportation, live and work in the shadows of mainstream society, are stigmatized by the media, are criminalized by immigration law and exploited by their employers. Historically, children originating from immigrant homes have …

Filipino American Educational Leaders In Northern California K-12 Public Schools: Challenges And Opportunities, Cynthia Manalo Rapaido

Doctoral Dissertations

The assumption that all Asians are model minorities is incorrect. The largest group of Asian American people is comprised of Filipino people followed closely by Chinese people; although Filipino people comprise the largest population, they lag behind Chinese and other Asian American groups with respect to academic achievement. Hence, Filipino American people are underrepresented as educational leaders in K–12 public schools in California.

Compared to other Asian ethnic groups, Filipino American people have (a) a lower achievement level for academic success, (b) a lower percentage enrolled in college in the United States, (c) a lower percentage 25–29 years of age …

The Principal's Role In Promoting Success For Culturally And Linguistically Diverse Students: A Participatory Research Study, Maria Norma Martinez

Doctoral Dissertations

We need to understand more fully what facilitates success in schools with diverse populations. Through participatory research, the voices of school principals who are responsive to the needs of culturally and linguistically diverse students were recorded and analyzed to provide insights on the practices that promote the school success of culturally and linguistically diverse students. Using a dialogic retrospective, the participants had the opportunity to engage, individually and collectively, in reflection and dialogue to identify common themes that emerged in their important work as school leaders and as advocates for diverse students.

Wisdom Of The Oppressed: Stirring The Voices Of Successful African-American Men, Lois Merriweather Moore

Master's Theses

Digitized thesis

Tellin' It Like It Is: Disempowerment And Marginalization Of First-Generation, Low-Income College Students: A Participatory Research, Charlene P. Lobo

Doctoral Dissertations

This study examined the origins and outcomes of disempowerment and marginalization in five first-generation, low-income college students who were participants in Student Support Services, a federally funded TRIO program at a large urban commuter state university. Using dialogic introspection and participatory research, the participants reflected on their experiences in the areas of disempowerment, marginalization, educational equity, oppression and the needs and concerns of first-generation low-income students. Generative themes fell into three areas: creating conditions for learning; silencing the voice; and resistance, persistence and hope. Themes that created negative experiences for the students included disparities between academic and personal cultures, lack …

The Relationship Between Attitudes Toward First-Language Maintenance And First-Language Literacy Skills Among Japanese Children Sojourning In The San Francisco Bay Area, Yumi Moriguchi-Mccormick

Doctoral Dissertations

This study investigated the relationship between attitudes toward first-language maintenance and first-language literacy skills among Japanese children sojourners in the San Francisco Bay Area.

The California Backlash Against Bilingual Education: Valeria G. V. Wilson And Proposition 227, Catherine P. Johnson

University of San Francisco Law Review

No abstract provided.