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Full-Text Articles in Bilingual, Multilingual, and Multicultural Education
Going Beyond The Textbook: Revitalizing Culture In The Spanish Classroom, Sarah Basar
Going Beyond The Textbook: Revitalizing Culture In The Spanish Classroom, Sarah Basar
Honors Theses
Effectively teaching the culture of a target language in foreign language classrooms can be a rather difficult and time-consuming task. Most often, culture is placed somewhere on a spectrum of either being a minor supplement to acquiring and learning the target language or utilizing culture as the direction through which grammar, vocabulary, and conversational practice are attained. Teachers’ beliefs, experiences, and resources all play a significant role in how culture is defined and taught in the schools of a country where globalization and immigration are quickly beginning to change the sociopolitical and demographic dynamics of our society. Thus, it is …
Senegal's Language Problem: A Discourse Of Disparity, Monica Naida
Senegal's Language Problem: A Discourse Of Disparity, Monica Naida
Honors Theses
The purpose of this research is to assess the deficiencies of the Senegalese education system and to evaluate improvements to the system so that it works for the Senegalese, instead of against them. My research is mostly concerned with the process in which the French language is taught in schools. I explain these deficiencies in the education system through elucidation of the discourse used by the French colonizer, politicians, non-governmental organizations, teachers, and parents. My approach to this research includes an extensive literature review as well as my own personal observations during a faculty-led research trip to Dakar, Senegal during …
Resisting (And Reproducing) Language Domination In A Bilingual Kindergarten Classroom, Roxana Gamble
Resisting (And Reproducing) Language Domination In A Bilingual Kindergarten Classroom, Roxana Gamble
Honors Theses
In modern U.S. society, English is considered the language of power while Spanish is considered a minority language, unfit for academic or professional settings. These macro-level power inequalities are evident in micro-level interactions between students and teachers in mainstream schools. Dual language education programs, however, attempt to challenge this ideology by elevating the status of minority languages and their speakers. In this study, I use an ethnographic/discourse analysis approach to examine how one teacher's practices in a dual language kindergarten classroom work to both reproduce and resist dominant ideologies about Spanish. Through participant-observation, interviews, and audio recordings of naturallyoccurring speech, …
!Que Aproveche! An American Student's Encounter With The Culture And Language Of Spanish Food, Amanda Mills
!Que Aproveche! An American Student's Encounter With The Culture And Language Of Spanish Food, Amanda Mills
Honors Theses
As a language teacher, culture is one of the most challenging things to convey to students. It is relatively straightforward to introduce grammar and vocabulary, but culture is an entirely different topic, one that adds a level of complexity that is difficult to describe and harder to convey. I wish I could give students a living, breathing experience of what it is like to visit or live in a Spanish-speaking country, but school budgets and instructional hours typically do not allow for that. To apply my knowledge of Spanish and make it accessible and meaningful to students, I designed a …
Cesar Chavez Day Celebration With Delores Huerta, 2009, Julian Ramirez-Torres
Cesar Chavez Day Celebration With Delores Huerta, 2009, Julian Ramirez-Torres
Honors Theses
“Big things don’t happen in Kalamazoo and especially not for our people”. These are the words of a young Hispanic student at Kalamazoo Central High School. This KCHS student along with others did not believe that the Hispanic community could bring an important speaker such as Dolores Huerta to Kalamazoo. Dolores Huerta, alongside César Chávez Co-Founded the United Farm Workers (UFW). What that young Hispanic student saw as impossible, I saw it as calling and a dream, but most importantly as a moment when I could change the way those students thought about what is possibly from our Hispanic community. …