Bilingual, Multilingual, and Multicultural Education Commons^™

English Diphthongs For English Learners: The Same, But Different, Kristin Lems

Faculty Publications

In any language, diphthongs need to be reckoned with, but teaching diphthongs to learners of English as a new language requires greater insight and special skills. In this column, we take a look at English diphthongs, why they matter, and how they might be best handled when teaching English language learners.

Confessions Of A Beginning Dutch Learner, Kristin Lems

Faculty Publications

I have studied, taught about, and learned new languages throughout my lifespan. In fact, it has been the very core of my teaching career.  Now, I have the humbling experience of testing those truths against a new enterprise:  learning Dutch.  I spent last summer in the Netherlands, pursuing family roots and acquiring what Dutch I could.  I took no formal classes but did attend a free dropin class at the local library, where - believe me - I was the lowest learner in the lowest group! Here are some of my insights, from notes taken during that summer:

Visual Literacy, English Learners, And The Slider, Kristin Lems

Faculty Publications

The article looks at some of the ways “degrees of intensity” can be taught and practiced with visual supports such as sliders, graphs, or emojis, with a focus on English learners of all ages.

“Let Me Be A Bridge”: Language Brokering Among Emerging Adult Latina Professionals In The Midwest, Elise M. Dubord

Faculty Publications

In immigrant families, bilingual children and adolescents regularly act as translators and interpreters for family and community members who are not fluent in the dominant language. These childhood language brokers later shift the focus of their translation activities as they transition into adulthood and develop professional skills. This research explores narratives of language brokering trajectories of three bilingual Latinas who were emerging adult professionals in three cities in Iowa. Based on a series of interviews collected over a 15 month period, this analysis examines how participants described realigning their family language responsibilities while simultaneously transferring their language brokering skills to …

Translanguaging: Old Wine In A New Bottle, Or New Wine?, Kristin Lems

Faculty Publications

The conversation about translanguaging is creating waves around the world, and Illinois is no exception. This column serves to remind the reader of some of the antecedents to this influential concept (“old wine”), predicts how this movement may affect your education setting (“new bottle”), and lays out a few of the aspects of translanguaging that may indeed be “new wine.”

Effects Of Adjunct Questions On L2 Reading Comprehension With Texts Of Different Types, Yunmei Sun, Wenhui Zhou, Shifang Tang

Faculty Publications

Answering text-related questions while reading is a questioning strategy which is called adjunct questions or embedded questions, the benefits of which have been established in first language reading as to enhance comprehension. The present study aims to study the effects different adjunct questions exert on second-language (L2) readers’ comprehension of texts of various types. One hundred and forty-four intermediate-level Chinese EFL learners participated in this study and were divided randomly into six groups. Each group was given either a narrative or an expository text with ‘what or why’ questions or no questions. A brief topic familiarity questionnaire was attached to …

Affirming Culture And Cultural Identity In The Bilingual/Esl Classrooms, Frank Lucido, David Jimenez, Shifang Tang

Faculty Publications

In Texas and throughout the United States, the increasing linguistic diversity within educational settings necessitates the expansion of bilingual and ESL programs. Approximately 5 million school-age children in the U.S. are identified as English learners, and many more are raised in non-English-speaking households. This represents about one-quarter of all K-12 students in the U.S., amounting to nearly 18 million children, most of whom have immigrant parents (Mitchell, 2020a). The urgency to address their needs is amplified by concerns that prolonged school closures could worsen the challenges faced by this demographic, which already includes heightened risks of homelessness, hunger, and educational …

Doing Things With Metaphors: Mobilizing Cultural Humility From The Guest Perspective As Antiracist Pedagogy, Carol A. Leibiger, Alan W. Aldrich

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Word Choice: A Neglected But Key Skill For Ell Writers, Kristin Lems

Faculty Publications

With all of the urgent, critical issues confronting education in general, and literacy practices in particular, why write a column on something as obscure as word choice? Word choice (sometimes called vocabulary choice or diction) often drops to the bottom of the “To Do” list for English as a Second Language (ESL), English, bilingual, and language arts teachers. Even when teachers are able to focus on writing to begin with (writing development is often the first thing cut when lessons run over), teachers of English language learners (ELLs) are too preoccupied with teaching grammar, spelling, organization, syntax, genres, and building …

Variedades. Second Edition. Intermediate/ Advanced Spanish Conversation, Carmela V. Mattza

Faculty Publications

VARIEDADES. Second Edition. Intermediate/ Advanced Spanish Conversation is a textbook for the student at the intermediate / advanced intermediate level. Through audiovisual activities, the student is expected to put their previous knowledge into practice and improve their ability to understand, write, listen, and speak in Spanish. VARIEDADES offers communicative activities that can be easily adapted into courses of different levels. In addition, it offers an appendix of activities with films and a Spanish grammar section that by subject directs the student to electronic databases that are freely accessible or are part of the Open Access platform.

Black Lives Matter In Teaching English As A Second Language!, Kristin Lems

Faculty Publications

The Winter 2020 issue of theIllinois Reading Council Journal published a special issue focusing on “action for equity,” with thoughtful articles and abundant family and classroom resources. This issue of the “wELLcome”column, which is dedicated to topics regarding English language learners (ELLs), continues in that same vein. In this issue, we place the spotlight on ELLs of African descent, their teachers, and their schools.

Cultural Identity Formation: A Personal Narrative, Jose Carbajal

Faculty Publications

This paper provides an autoethnography of personal experiences and perceptions of being a minoritized individual. This is the story of a professional social worker learning to adapt to social norms and expectations of self. I discuss the struggles I experienced as an adolescent and as a young adult attending college. This narrative highlights the intersection of faith and social work at moments in my professional development. It is at this intersection that this social worker learns to live a holistic life without feeling discriminated against or ashamed of his identity. I begin to actualize a reality with imperfect beings who …

Truly, Madly, Deeply: Adverbs And Ells, Kristin Lems

Faculty Publications

In this issue’s column focusing on adverbs and English language learners, columnist Kristin Lems explores some of the basic but not-so-obvious features about adverbs that readers and writers need to learn in order to take advantage of these powerful levers of language. The odds are very good that your native English speakers will also benefit from this information—and you might learn a thing or two as well.

All About The American Flap, Kristin Lems

Faculty Publications

In this column, I am going to talk about the American flap, a phonological feature of the American English dialect. Those of us with backgrounds in ESL/EFL learn about this in our master’s programs, but I have found that even teachers who have taken a course in linguistics may not be aware of the flap and its important implications for listening, reading, and spelling in English (Lems, Miller, & Soro, 2017)

Engaging In Culturally Relevant Teaching: Lessons From The Field, Charity Hannah Garcia, Charissa Boyd

Faculty Publications

Culturally Relevant Teaching (CRT) is a popular topic for discussion and research, and it continues to gain more traction through practical application in classrooms worldwide. Certainly, as many teachers look around their classrooms, they recognize that demographics are changing, and student populations are becoming increasingly more diverse. It is more likely than ever that teachers will not look like or have the same cultural or linguistic background as many of their students. This means that some students will be entering classrooms with valuable learning strategies developed within their home communities, but these strategies may be very different from what their …

Supporting Faculty To “Do The Flip!” Lessons Learned When Transitioning Faculty To Active Pedagogy In The Classroom, Laura Sullivan-Green, Patricia Backer, Ravisha Mathur

Faculty Publications

San José State University, in partnership with California State University-Los Angeles and Cal Poly Pomona, are developing supportive methods to transition STEM faculty from lecture-based instruction to instruction using active learning pedagogies. These efforts, sponsored by the Department of Education’s First in the World Grant Program, focus on providing faculty training through workshops conducted in the active learning model, resources to support their material development, and peer support through access to multi-disciplinary/multi-campus learning communities. Active learning pedagogies like the flipped classroom have been shown to be a high impact practice that increases URM student success and retention. The partner campuses, …

Second Language Identities Of International Teaching Assistants In The U.S. Classroom, Adam Agostinelli

Faculty Publications

Sociolinguistic research has yet to comprehensively address changes in the second language mediated identity, or second language identity (L2I), of English as a second language (ESL) students that take place as a result of traveling abroad and experiencing English in authentic circumstances. First, this study provides an outline of L2I and proposes a framework for evaluating L2I in authentic contexts (i.e. in a country where the target language is the primary means of communication). Second, personal narratives, formal reports, and observed classroom comments of international graduate teaching assistants (ITAs), who were placed in a required English Speaking course as a …

Second Language Identities Of International Teaching Assistants In The U.S. Classroom, Adam Agostinelli

Faculty Publications

Sociolinguistic research has yet to comprehensively address changes in the second language mediated identity, or second language identity (L2I), of English as a second language (ESL) students that take place as a result of traveling abroad and experiencing English in authentic circumstances. First, this study provides an outline of L2I and proposes a framework for evaluating L2I in authentic contexts (i.e. in a country where the target language is the primary means of communication). Second, personal narratives, formal reports, and observed classroom comments of international graduate teaching assistants (ITAs), who were placed in a required English Speaking course as a …

Korean Scholars’ Use Of For-Pay Editors And Perceptions Of Ethicality, Eun-Young Julia Kim

Faculty Publications

Many Korean scholars rely on language professionals for preparing English manuscripts. So far, little has been reported on how Korean scholars utilize them and how they perceive various types of help received. This study examines how Korean scholars utilize for-pay editors and translators, and how they perceive various types of textual modifications incurred in the process, based on the data obtained through a survey completed by 88 Korean faculty from three universities. Half of the participants received proofreading help from for-pay editors, and fewer participants received help with translation. They held widely differing views on ethicality concerning scenarios that involved …

Speech-Language Pathologists' Collaboration With Interpreters: Results Of A Current Survey In California, Terry Saenz, Henriette W. Langdon

Faculty Publications

One of the challenges of bilingual speech and language assessment, intervention, and conferencing is the effective collaboration with interpreters in such interpreted interactions when the professional does not share the same spoken language with the client. A survey of California speech-language pathologists who were members of the California Speech-Language-Hearing Association (CSHA) was performed to obtain information on their training to collaborate with, experiences with, and opinions of interpreters. In addition, these professionals were surveyed about the training of the interpreters and suggestions for improvement in interpreted interactions. Findings from 229 participants indicated that: (a) Most of the speech-language pathologists had …

Investigating Gender Assignment Strategies In Mixed Purepecha–Spanish Nominal Constructions, Kate Bellamy, M. Carmen Parafita Couto, Hans Stadthagen-Gonzalez

Faculty Publications

Purepecha has no grammatical gender, whereas Spanish has a binary masculine–feminine system. In this paper we investigate how early sequential Purepecha–Spanish bilinguals assign gender to Purepecha nouns inserted into an otherwise Spanish utterance, using a director-matcher production task and an online forced-choice acceptability judgement task. The results of the production task indicate a strong preference for masculine gender, irrespective of the gender of the noun’s translation equivalent, the so-called “masculine default” option. Participants in the comprehension task were influenced by the orthography of the Purepecha noun in the -a ending condition, leading them to assign feminine gender agreement to nouns …

Scholarly Publishing In Korea: Language, Perception, Practice Of Korean University Faculty, Eun-Young Julia Kim

Faculty Publications

This study reports how internationalization of academic knowledge is reflected in the language choice of Korean academic journals across disciplines and examines perceptions and practices of eighty two faculty from various disciplines at three Korean universities concerning publishing in English journals. The results indicate that natural science has the highest percentage of English-medium journals whereas those in humanities and social science predominantly use Korean as a medium of publication. Similar disciplinary patterns are observed in the responses to survey questions about frequency of publication as well as desire and preference for publishing papers in English. The biggest motivation for Korean …

El Cuento Como Recurso Didáctico En La Enseñanza Del Francés Lengua Extranjera, Sonia R. Badenas

Faculty Publications

Este artículo ofrece una reflexión pragmática sobre el uso del cuento como material didáctico en el aula de francés

lengua como extranjera (FLE). Tras revisar brevemente las diferentes ventajas de trabajar con cuentos y géneros afines en la enseñanza de lenguas, se analiza la utilidad de este género como material pedagógico para la práctica de la expresión escrita. Sobre esta base proponemos un acercamiento práctico a la integración del cuento en la enseñanza del francés en niveles universitarios dentro de un contexto comunicativo y a la luz del Marco Común Europeo de Referencia para las Lenguas (MCERL).

Bringing Culture Back: Managing Unconscious Bias To Strengthen Your Corporate Culture, Michael Sholinbeck, Michele Villagran

Faculty Publications

Have you ever examined the sources of unconscious bias and how bias can influence interactions with others? Have you ever explored how cultural values impact our own biases and interactions? Cultural awareness and seeking to understanding unconscious biases are critical first steps towards improving our performance; however, we cannot stop there. Awareness alone does not guarantee success; individuals need to put that awareness into action in order to ensure these biases do not influence judgments about others. When done effectively, these actions can have a direct and positive impact on a library’s inclusive work environment and the strength of the …

Public Education For Democracy: Teaching Immigrant And Bilingual Children As Equals, Luis E. Poza, Sheila M. Shannon

Faculty Publications

This theoretical essay offers a genealogical analysis (Foucault, 1975) that problematizes the idea of “public” with respect to schooling immigrant and bilingual students. “Public” has been reconfigured in ways that privilege hegemonic whiteness, resulting in policies and practices such as standardized testing, for example, that primarily evaluate, sort, and penalize (Foucault, 1975) schools serving these students. We contend that testing’s pernicious impacts stem from a raciolinguistic project of American identity (Flores & Rosa, 2015). Educators, adapting to the tests (Freire, 1974), cement linguistic and racial hierarchies. Referencing classrooms from our teaching and empirical work, we argue for teacher education that …

How Cultural Intelligence Makes A Difference In The Information Profession: Are You Culturally Competent?, Michele Villagran

Faculty Publications

It is not enough to simply be ‘aware’ anymore. We must go beyond our own self-awareness and awareness of others to understand the impacts of how we work and interact effectively in culturally diverse situations, whether domestic or global. As the information profession operates in an ever changing, global environment, we need to be prepared to handle any diverse situation. As our workforces become more diverse, we face an even greater challenge and problem: that is how to successfully manage increasingly diverse interactions. To address this concern, organizations are applying the framework of cultural intelligence.Cultural intelligence is a person’s capability …

From The Ground Up: Providing Support To Emergent Bilinguals To Distinguish Language Difference From Disability, Andrea Golloher, David Whitenack, Lisa Simpson, Donna Sacco

Faculty Publications

National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) data reveal that students with disabilities who are emergent bilinguals (English language learners) have the lowest levels of profficiency in reading and mathematics among all student groups. We consider issues related to the instruction of emergent bilinguals, including those identified as having specific learning disabilities, using a Response to Intervention (RTI)/Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS) model. In so doing, we argue that instructional practices consistent with a robust Tier 1 framework are beneficial to emergent bilinguals with and without learning disabilities while differentiating Tier 2 and 3 interventions may improve outcomes for emergent bilingual …

Version Française Du Test Numeracy Screener (Ns-F), Un Outil De Dépistage Des Difficultés De Traitement Du Nombre Et Des Quantités, Nadia Nosworthy, Anne Lafay, Stefanie Archambault, Melanie Vigneron

Faculty Publications

The Numeracy Screener was developed by Dr. Nadia Nosworthy and Dr. Daniel Ansari at the Numerical Cognition Laboratory at Western University (Canada). This test is a brief (2 - 4minutes) screening tool of basic number and numerosity processing skills for children ages 5to 9 years. The goal of the present study was to establish a French version of the Numeracy Screener (NS-f), for which the translation is valid. For that purpose, a method of back-translation was used. The results showed a good correspondence (near 80 % adequation)between the original version and both retranslated versions. It thus suggests that the French …

Engage With Your Cultural Side: Cultural Intelligence, Michele Villagran

Faculty Publications

It is not enough to simply be ‘aware’ anymore. As our workforces become more diverse, we face a greater challenge and problem; that of how to successfully manage increasingly diverse interactions. To address this concern, organizations are applying the framework of cultural intelligence (CQ). Cultural intelligence is a person’s capability for successful adaptation to new cultural settings. This session’s learning goals include: what is cultural intelligence; how is CQ used as a practical tool for embracing differences and increasing work performance; how do you improve your own CQ capabilities including the four factors; and how do you apply CQ within …

How Cultural Intelligence (Cq) Makes A Difference In Your Professional Environment, Michele Villagran

Faculty Publications

As workforces become more diverse, we face the challenge of managing increasingly diverse interactions. Many organizations apply the framework of “cultural intelligence” (CQ)—a person’s capability to adapt to new cultural settings or an unfamiliar cultural context. Rooted in academic research, CQ is a globally recognized way of assessing and improving effectiveness in culturally diverse situations. Leading organizations in business, education, government, and healthcare use CQ. This session will give an overview of CQ and its application within the information profession. It is designed for any individual that interacts with diverse cultures in any organizational segment.