Bilingual, Multilingual, and Multicultural Education Commons^™

The First-Year Experiences Of Students In Remedial Classes At A Research University: Implications For Retention And Support, Therese Baca-Radler

Language, Literacy, and Sociocultural Studies ETDs

As more institutions of higher education adopt non-selective admissions processes, an increasing number of students from underrepresented populations are placed into developmental intervention courses as an added requirement to their educational paths based on standardized test scores alone. This study interviewed students who had these requirements imposed upon them and sought to understand their thoughts and feelings about that placement and how it impacted their transition from high school to college and their first-year college success. As students described their prior experiences in formal academic settings, they emphasized the benefits of family support in building their self-directed learning skills and …

Reflections On Learning, Communication, And Identity In A Hybrid Course On Language Development, Anni Leming

Language, Literacy, and Sociocultural Studies ETDs

This research explored the relationship between the face-to-face and online spaces in my university hybrid course on first and second language development in cultural contexts, as well as my students’ and my own communication, learning, and development of identity as teachers and students. This study was grounded in practitioner inquiry and ethnography of communication as a methodological tool to understand the role of language among teacher and students in the virtual co-construction of knowledge. The findings suggest that self-disclosures, legitimizing the self and others, and relatability played key roles in students navigating new course content, a hybrid space and discussions …

On Love And Treason: Critical White Feminist Thought For Social Justice Praxis, Amanda Joyce Parker

Language, Literacy, and Sociocultural Studies ETDs

This dissertation is a theoretical piece that examines the positionality of white women in upholding white supremacy and a framework for critical white feminist thought that will move white women toward a self-reflexive and self-implicating praxis. A white matriarchy (Parker, 2018) is fully conceptualized as part of a powerful subsystem that operates under white supremacy. Concepts, such as a race-gender bribe and white women’s negative solidarity (Combahee River Collective, 1977), are exposed and discussed as part of the workings of white matriarchy. White emotionality (Matias, 2015), intergenerational whiteness, and antiracist parenting are also analyzed. I also suggest possibilities for resistance …

The Effect Of Semantic Neighborhood Density On Vocabulary Learning In Spanish As A Second Language And Spanish As A Heritage Language, Marián Giráldez Elizo

Language, Literacy, and Sociocultural Studies ETDs

This dissertation reviews the results from an online survey created to identify and compare how second language (L2) learners and heritage language (HL) learners of Spanish, enrolled in beginning-level coursework at the college level, acquired and built vocabulary. A total of 451 participants completed the survey. The purpose of the online survey was to serve as a baseline for pedagogical purposes, since it provided information about participants’ language profiles and the way they build vocabulary based on sematic relatedness. Overall, the findings from the survey showed that HL and L2 learners differ in the way they build semantic neighborhoods and, …

Retaining The Power To Teach And Advocate In The Era Of "Reform", David Aram Wilson, David Aram Wilson

Language, Literacy, and Sociocultural Studies ETDs

This qualitative, multi-case study investigates veteran, dual-language teachers in urban elementary schools in the Southwest United States and how these teachers manage to continue teaching despite education “reforms” that have contributed to increased attrition among their peers. Each participant contributed qualitative data through a narrative questionnaire, two interviews, two focus groups., and physical artifacts. Coding and analysis of each case was inductive and involved the identification of patterns and themes that emerged from the data. A cross-case analysis was conducted. Modern Critical Theory served as the theoretical lens.

Teachers as advocates for their students’ cultural, linguistic, and socioeconomic well-being emerged …

Cross-Language Morphological Activation: The Case Of Arabic-English Bilinguals, Anas Alkhofi

Language, Literacy, and Sociocultural Studies ETDs

The role of morphology in bilingual lexical access is an under-investigated topic. Due to the overrepresentation of concatenative-based languages which inherently cannot adequately isolate effects of morphology from those of orthography and semantics, morphological processing had been relegated to a secondary role in lexical access. The present research utilized Arabic, a non-concatenative Semitic language, to investigate the role of morphology in bilingual language processing. Two experiments using translation recognition and masked lexical decision were conducted with Arabic-English bilinguals to answer two research questions: 1) Does (Arabic) morphology mediate cross-language activation? and 2) Is Arabic-English cross-language morphological activation task-dependent? Mixed effects …

Indigenous Wisdom, Storytelling, And Language Renewal Ꭰꮒᏸꭺꭹ, Ꭰꮒᏼꮻꮿ Ꭰꭷꮩꭵꭿꮝꮧ Ꭴꮒꭽ, Ꭰꮴꭿꮠꮧᏹ Ꭶꮼꮒꭿꮝꮧ, Arlo Starr

Language, Literacy, and Sociocultural Studies ETDs

Abstract ᎧᏃᎮᏍᎩ

Language, cultural immersion, and intergenerational land-based education have shown the potential to vastly improve dire health issues that Indigenous people face. What is the most effective way to produce a large number of second language learners who speak at a basic level in order to improve Indigenous health?

Relationship is a vital part of Indigenous cosmology. Rather than promoting the consumption of words as things, acquisition will be more readily integrated into relationship-based thought when also interacting with them in context through story, and cultural activities that are fun, understandable, and engage community. Many successful language immersion models …

Using The Linguistic Experiences Of Youth And Their Families As Curriculum: The Language Box Project, Molly A. Perara-Lunde Ms.

Language, Literacy, and Sociocultural Studies ETDs

This qualitative curricular case study investigated the implementation of a project called the Language Box in a seventh grade Humanities classroom in Albuquerque, New Mexico. I worked with the classroom teacher to design the Language Box project, which focused on the language use practices of the students and their families. We designed the project with the goal of addressing issues of home language loss, bilingualism, and English language acquisition. The students in the classroom were almost exclusively Hispanic, many came from low income families and some were undocumented. Each student acted as a researcher, investigating the language use practices in …

Linguistic Discrimination Against Native Spanish Speakers In The New Mexico Bar Examination In The 1970s, Marie Chávez

Language, Literacy, and Sociocultural Studies ETDs

In the 1970s, many people from Hispanic backgrounds, whether their first language was Spanish or English, who had graduated from law school took the New Mexico Bar Examination. A disproportionately large percentage of them (compared with their counterparts who did not come from Hispanic backgrounds) did not pass the Bar Examination. They therefore were denied admission to the bar. This dissertation examines how this came to be.

The study centers on the history of identity politics in New Mexico for Spanish-speaking people and their descendants. It examines the relationship between language and ideologies about race and ethnicity, as well as …

Communicative And Collective Formative Program Evaluation: A Descriptive Case Study Of Experiences Of Teachers And Students In Saudi Arabia, Ahmed Khawaji

Language, Literacy, and Sociocultural Studies ETDs

Saudi students who matriculate in programs of higher education in Saudi Arabia confront major language obstacles that hinder their academic output, due to the transition from high school, which employs Arabic-language instruction, to the English-medium of instruction in post-high school education. Preparatory Year Programs (PYPs) established to aid students’ transition, from Arabic to English, have not produced satisfactory results (Alseweed & Daif-Allah, 2013). Those programs have rarely been submitted to any form of formative evaluation procedures (Barnawi, 2011).

This descriptive case study embarked on evaluating formatively the English Language Teaching (ELT) in a Saudi university through bridging the perspectives or …

Resaka Kolontsaina Le Raha (It Is About Cultures): Cultures And Foreign Language Teaching In Madagascar, Iarintsambatra Rijasoa Andriamanana Josoa

Language, Literacy, and Sociocultural Studies ETDs

For years, teaching and learning a foreign language (FL) has been equated to exclusively discover and master that target language and its related cultures. There has not been any exploration of other features such as the native language and local cultures in a foreign language classroom. Using a participatory action research, the aim of this study was to tell the story of six Malagasy high school teachers collaborating in a Teacher Learning Community (TLC) to construct and put into practice pedagogical approaches that celebrate and sustain Malagasy students’ identities, cultures, and experiences through classroom activities, and capitalize them for basis …

Jack D. Forbes And The Search For A Decolonizing Philosophy Of Education, Joshua T. Frank

Language, Literacy, and Sociocultural Studies ETDs

This study seeks to explicate and advance contemporary deimperial and decolonial philosophies of education through a reflexive archival inquiry and comparative textual analysis of the corpus of California Indian educational leader (Renape/Lenape) Jack Douglas Forbes (Jan. 7, 1934-Feb. 23, 2011). This study looks across Forbes lifetime at the development of his conception of education and peoplehood-nationhood, his critique of imperialism and colonialism, and finally his development and advocacy for decolonizing-deimperializing forms of education. I will describe his growth as an Indigenous scholar-warrior reading and writing across diverse types of data sources, or as I name all throughout this study as …

A Dialectical Relational Analysis Of Tesol Quarterly 2006 Special Issue On Race: Discourse, Race, And White Supremacist Ideology, Ginger A. Looney

Language, Literacy, and Sociocultural Studies ETDs

Although the field of TESOL is not racially neutral this dialectical relational analysis examined (1) what discourses did the authors use to deploy race in the articles in the 2006 TESOL Quarterly Special Issue on Race (TQSIR)? and (2) how do these discourses work to either conform to, or resist white supremacist ideology? Analysis of the texts identified four key discourse: racialization, whiteness, emotional labor of racism, and sonic and optic negation of racism. These discourses were examined in the domains of scholarship, curriculum, teachers, and students. In 21 instances, these four discourses work to resist white supremacist ideology. …

Found In Space: A Cross-Linguistic Analysis Of Second Language Learners In English Map Task Performance, Susan K. Metheny

Language, Literacy, and Sociocultural Studies ETDs

Understanding the relationship between first and second language use in the area of spatial language has broader implications for our understanding of language learning and consequences for the construction of bilingual assessment instruments for second language learners. This study shows that observing and interpreting the task of map drawing and the related behavior of explaining maps can be a way to explore the linguistic emergence of the conceptualization of spatial language (at a moment of simultaneous and synchronized incarnation). Altogether, 50 dyads (pairs) participated in the New Mexico Map Task Project; the project included native speakers of English, Russian, Japanese, …

A Systemic Functional Linguistics Analysis Of The Discourse Of English Friday Sermons, Ahmad Alenezi

Language, Literacy, and Sociocultural Studies ETDs

On every Friday, in every mosque in the world, Muslims gather for Friday sermons in answer to the call: “O you, who have believed, when [the adhan] is called for the prayer on the day of Jumu’ah [Friday], then proceed to the remembrance of Allah and leave trade. That is better for you, if you only knew” (Quran, 62:9). Typically, the Friday prayer is shortened by half to accommodate the presentation of the Friday sermon; this emphasizes the importance of the sermons. The present study is a discourse analysis that examined 12 sermons delivered on the first Friday of every …

The Identification Of Formulaic Sequences In Urdu Language And Their Pedagogical Implication For Sla (Esl/Usl), Hafiz-Muhammad Fazal E Haq

Language, Literacy, and Sociocultural Studies ETDs

In this study, an effort has been made to explore formulaicity in the Urdu language and its pedagogical implication in second language acquisition, both for English as a second language and Urdu as second language learners. It is believed that formulaic sequences or prefabs make more than fifty percent of a language. These formulaic sequences are of various kinds encompassing idioms, proverbs, collocations and sometimes, simple fillers. For the current study, data will be collected from two widely circulated Urdu newspapers. The data will consist of lexical chunks or formulas, which will be identified on the basis of eleven criteria …

An Odyssey To The Self: Voices Of L2 Arab Writers And Institutional Practices, Majed Abduallah Alharbi

Language, Literacy, and Sociocultural Studies ETDs

The term ‘voice’ has been a pivotal metaphor in the fields of composition studies and applied linguistics, and it still has a strong implicit and/or explicit presence in the U.S. classroom. This critical case study examines 6 Saudi graduate student writers’ voices in various U.S. universities. Data were collected by analyzing texts of students’ papers and in-depth interviews with each participant. Using Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) as an overarching framework and analytical tool, this study examines the voices of Saudi students as they resist and/or perpetuate dominant ideologies both in the U.S. and Saudi Arabia when writing in their L2 …

Transborder Testimonios Of Language Learning And Socialization, Maria Teresa Guevara Beltrán

Language, Literacy, and Sociocultural Studies ETDs

This qualitative study utilizes a Chicana/Latina feminist lens and the Latin American tradition of Testimonio to explore Spanish-speaking immigrants’ experiences of migration, language learning and socialization, paying close attention to the ways in which the multilayered intersections of identity, race, class, gender, nationality, language, citizenship and power shape these experiences. In the context of a grassroots English as a Second Language class, testimonios are elicited through multimodal data collection methods, including visual, oral and written forms. Critical perspectives of second language learning and second language socialization research in bilingual contexts provide a multidisciplinary framework for this study, bridging conceptual parallels …

Rich Points In Between Cultures, Languages, And Pedagogies: Experiences And Perspectives Of International Teaching Assistants In The Usa, Natalia V. Rud

Language, Literacy, and Sociocultural Studies ETDs

ABSTRACT

This study presents a qualitative, multiple case, instrumental case study which explores experiences and positionality of International Teaching Assistants (ITAs) in the US academia. Drawing from, first, the earlier research which focuses on ITAs’ language, culture, and pedagogy with, mostly, a “deficit” perspective and, second, from recent publications which concentrate on exploring ITAs’ identities and perceptions, this study investigates how ITAs approach differences and similarities (rich points) during everyday discourses in their various communities of practice. The conceptual framework is represented by Agar’s (1996, 2006) vision on rich points (differences and similarities); Lave and Wenger’s (1991) concept of community …

Becoming Biculturally Competent An Autoethnographic Journey Of A Guera Woman, Bernadette M. Hall-Cuarón

Language, Literacy, and Sociocultural Studies ETDs

Becoming Biculturally Competent

an Autoethnographic Journey of a Güera Woman

Bernadette Hall-Cuarón

ABSTRACT

This dissertation represents a personalized account of my lived experiences and analytically describes the autoethnographic and qualitative processes of bicultural development and bicultural competency. My autoethnographic study advocates that cultural self-reflection allows for an accurate determination of one’s cultural-self and more importantly provides an instrumental passageway to cultural awareness, bicultural awareness, and proposedly bicultural competency.

Through the implementation of this qualitative research method, I explored my role as the subject, researcher, and narrator of this autoethnographic examination. This bicultural autoethnography necessitated attending to the details of genuine …

Formulaic Sequences: An Investigation Of An Efl Textbook In Saudi Arabia, Assem Alqarni

Language, Literacy, and Sociocultural Studies ETDs

Over the last decade, an extensive body of literature has demonstrated the essential role of formulaic language in learning and teaching a second language (L2) (Martinez & Schmitt, 2012). Educators and policy makers in the Ministry of Education in Saudi Arabia have expressed their serious concerns about “the low level of achievement in English among students in schools and universities”(Alrashidi & Phan, 2015, p. 38).

As a result, most Saudi universities have incorporated Preparatory Year Programs (PYP) to enable students to master crucial academic skills, and to target the English language instruction needs in many disciplines. The present study, therefore, …

The Essence Of The Teaching/Learning Process: An Exploration Of The Perspectives And Lived Experiences Of University Spanish Language Teaching Assistants, Sarah Schulman

Language, Literacy, and Sociocultural Studies ETDs

U.S. schools are emblematic of the increasingly linguistic and cultural diversity present in this country. Despite this well-documented shift, U.S. foreign language teacher education programs have yet to align learning outcomes with the cognitive and affective needs of linguistically and culturally diverse students. Providing educators with opportunities to learn about and prepare for the needs of these students is essential, but this alone will not address the essence of the underlying problem. If foreign language teacher education programs are to evolve, a deeper understanding of the teaching/learning process is critical.

In response to this need, this qualitative study explored how …

A Comparative Analysis Of Saudi Women’S Educational Experiences In Graduate English Programs In Two International Contexts: Saudi Arabia And The United States, Kholod Sendi

Language, Literacy, and Sociocultural Studies ETDs

Although there are a significant number of Saudi females pursuing graduate degrees in Saudi Arabia and abroad, few studies have examined their educational experiences. This qualitative multi-case study examines the educational experiences of ten Saudi females who graduated with a master’s degree in an English language related field in two international contexts: American universities and Saudi universities. By conducting qualitative semi-structured interviews and document analysis, this study explored the challenges these two groups faced and the strategies they used to succeed in higher education institutions in the U.S. and Saudi Arabia. This study discusses the roles that culture, religion, gender, …

What Can We Learn From Adult Esl Students’ Responses To Children’S Literature?, Monique C. Stone

Language, Literacy, and Sociocultural Studies ETDs

Some teachers face frequently changing populations of students, making it difficult to gain cultural knowledge that is important to support student learning. The aim of this study was to explore how adult language-learner students in intensive English programs (IEPs) respond to children’s picture books portraying their home countries or cultures. Reader response theory (Rosenblatt, 1995) and cultural scaffolding (Gay, 2002; i.e., the use of student culture to support student learning) are the initial frameworks upon which the study was developed. The study was qualitative in nature and driven by a desire for the researcher to gain more cultural knowledge about …

Pakistani English Language Teachers’ Preparedness: An Investigation Of Ideological Meaning-Making In Higher Education Institutions In Pakistan, Yasir Hussain

Language, Literacy, and Sociocultural Studies ETDs

This research study is an attempt to understand the ideological preparedness of English language teachers at the higher education institutions (HEIs) in Pakistan. The construct of preparedness is unique in this study because the phenomenon of preparedness is simplified for pedagogical methodologies and teaching practices. This study is a journey of understanding ideology, its representations through discourse, and its enactment through discursive practices of the participant-teachers. In this hermeneutical phenomenological study, I used interview texts as the data source and critical discourse analysis (CDA) as the analytical framework. The participants included 15 English language teachers at nine different HEIs in …

Race, Disability And The Possibilities Of Radical Agency: Toward A Political Philosophy Of Decolonial Critical Hermeneutics In Latinx Discrit, Alexis C. Padilla

Language, Literacy, and Sociocultural Studies ETDs

The present dissertation is a non-empirical methodology project grounded in political philosophy. As a practical exercise, it bridges knowledge workers (e.g., educators, action researchers and other engaged scholars) with activists to explore the situated emancipation possibilities of radical agency at the intersection of blindness and Latinidad. It does so in line with DisCrit and other bodies of literature within critical disability studies, works centered on trans-Latinidades and border-crossing, intersectional decoloniality theorizing, critical hermeneutics, critical race theory and blackness/ whiteness studies. It interrogates performative and movement building spaces for teaching and learning that foster radical exteriority trajectories of decolonial solidarity and …

Decolonial Gestures Of Andean Bilingual College Students Promoting Quechua: Community-Based Participatory Research With Photovoice, Yuliana H. Kenfield

Language, Literacy, and Sociocultural Studies ETDs

Andean college students in Cusco, Peru, struggle to overcome discrimination against bilingualism during their pursuit of higher education. To examine this situation and possibilities for change, I employed a participatory method, photovoice (Wang & Burris, 1994) within a community-based participatory research framework, to facilitate Quechua-Spanish bilingual college students’ exploration of Quechuan practices in their university. Participatory research methodology promoted critical dialogues to challenge ideologies that have obstructed the revitalization, maintenance, development of the Quechua language in higher education. Although university policies in Cusco formally promote inclusion of indigenous knowledge and practices, bilingual Spanish-Quechua practices on campus have remained largely symbolic. …

Teachers’ Professional Identity Construction: A Narrative Inquiry Of Non-Native English Speaking Teachers In Saudi Arabia, Mustafa Abdo Hersi

Language, Literacy, and Sociocultural Studies ETDs

This qualitative study examineshow five in-service male non-native English speaking teachers (NNESTs) constructed and negotiated their professional identity as teachers to make meaning of their lived experiences in an EFL milieu, a Saudi Arabian university. The study also explores the challenges related to NNESTs’ teaching lives and how they negotiated them as they constructed their professional identities. I approached the studied phenomena by employing a narrative inquiry method. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews and an autobiography. The study draws on Clandinin and Connelly’s framework of three-dimensional space (temporality, sociality, and place), Bourdieu’s theory of forms of capital,and Gee’s …

International Muslim Students Within A Globalized Educational Context, Noha Ghali

Language, Literacy, and Sociocultural Studies ETDs

While previous research has revealed and documented the difficulties that international students and international Muslim students face when studying abroad, it fails to critically study and discuss the students’ perception of reasons behind these difficulties. The main aim of this study is to focus on international Muslim students and explore their social and academic experiences and challenges in a globalized educational context. Another aim is to investigate international Muslim students’ perceived reasons behind the challenges they meet, and how they negotiate such challenges. The study reviews the literature on international Muslim students in western higher education to highlight the gap …

A Case Study Of Two Taiwanese Students With Hearing Loss Navigating The English As A Foreign Language Requirement At Their University, Yu Chen

Language, Literacy, and Sociocultural Studies ETDs

Many institutions of higher education (IHE) students in Taiwan now need to meet the English proficiency requirement to earn their higher education degrees. In this case study, I intended to a) provide the opportunity for IHE students with hearing loss in Taiwan to share their opinions, thoughts, and experiences of learning English as a foreign language in higher education institutes; and b) understand how English as a foreign language policies and educational practices contribute to create opportunities and barriers for IHE students with hearing loss. The research question I intended to examine was “what are the perceptions of the lived …