Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Bilingual, Multilingual, and Multicultural Education Commons™

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Senior Honors Theses

Discipline
Keyword
Publication Year

Articles 1 - 28 of 28

Full-Text Articles in Bilingual, Multilingual, and Multicultural Education

Community In Culture: The Role Of Multicultural Education In Elementary School, Michaela Novack Dec 2022

Community In Culture: The Role Of Multicultural Education In Elementary School, Michaela Novack

Senior Honors Theses

Racism, bias, and discrimination plagues all areas of society, including the school systems. With the wrong perspective, diversity causes division, and it is impacting students, even in elementary schools. This thesis will examine research about the issue of racism and bias in elementary schools and suggest the solution of cultural integration experiences with practical strategies. It will demonstrate how cultural diversity in instruction encourages students to identify stereotypes, readjust their perspectives of culture, and identify and appreciate their cultural differences. This instruction can be achieved through a variety of methods including virtual field trips, diverse literature, and class activities. The …

Go to article

The Greatest Teacher: Modeling Jesus In Urban Education, Harley Rusk Dec 2022

The Greatest Teacher: Modeling Jesus In Urban Education, Harley Rusk

Senior Honors Theses

Several key best practices from urban education research are reflected in the pedagogy of Jesus Christ, providing a practical foundation for Christian educators in urban schools. Related to the prevalence of poverty and trauma are the practices of learning students’ backgrounds to better interpret behavior, which Jesus reflects by healing before teaching, and holding high standards, demonstrated in Jesus’ interaction with the rich man and the Sermon on the Mount. Related to racial diversity are the practices of addressing implicit bias, a crucial part of being Christlike, and connecting instruction to students’ culture, like Jesus did through parables. Christians can …

Go to article

More Than A Single Story: Culturally Diverse Literature And Social Inclusion In Elementary Classrooms, Amanda Works Dec 2022

More Than A Single Story: Culturally Diverse Literature And Social Inclusion In Elementary Classrooms, Amanda Works

Senior Honors Theses

This paper aims to consider the existing literature regarding culturally diverse literature, social inclusion, and children’s literature as mirrors, windows, and sliding glass doors. These three concepts form a conceptual framework that supports the research study, which explored the use of culturally diverse literature and any correlation with social inclusion. Four elementary teachers participated in semi-structured interviews focused on two research questions: “What impacts the use of culturally diverse literature in elementary classrooms?” and “Does culturally diverse literature affect social inclusion in elementary classrooms?”. Through thematic, qualitative analysis, the study identified three central themes: (1) levels of choice based on …

Go to article

The Effects Of Charter Schools On Early Foreign Language Education In Public Schools, Cassie Kunz Apr 2022

The Effects Of Charter Schools On Early Foreign Language Education In Public Schools, Cassie Kunz

Senior Honors Theses

Education is a notoriously contentious subject in America. Controversy exists and continues to flare up over what content should be taught, how it should be taught, as well as the cost; foreign language is one such subject. The history of foreign language education in the United States (U.S.) reviews current foreign language policies and practices in the U.S. and other countries, as well as the reasons that proponents of foreign language education argue that it must be improved in the U.S. The charter school approach to education was analyzed in the context of market theory to determine if a correlation …

Go to article

Teaching Lexical Stress: Effective Practice In A Mandarin Ell Context, Ethan Oliver Apr 2021

Teaching Lexical Stress: Effective Practice In A Mandarin Ell Context, Ethan Oliver

Senior Honors Theses

Current trends in teaching pronunciation to ELLs (English Language Learners) point towards a "top-down" approach. This refers to putting emphasis on the overarching prosodic features of English rather than the proper pronunciation of consonants and vowels. One of the most integral prosodic features in English is stress. Both lexical stress (stressed syllables within a word) and sentence stress (stressed words within a sentence) play an important role in the prosodic pronunciation of English. However, some languages, such as Mandarin, lack stress in their prosodic systems, instead employing features such as tonality. These languages both have overlap in their fundamental prosodic …

Go to article

Khmer Phonetics & Phonology: Theoretical Implications For Esl Instruction, Alex Donley Apr 2020

Khmer Phonetics & Phonology: Theoretical Implications For Esl Instruction, Alex Donley

Senior Honors Theses

This thesis develops an approach to English teaching for Khmer-speaking students that centers on Khmer phonetics and phonology. Cambodia has a strong demand for English instruction, but consistently underperforms next to other nations in terms of proficiency. A significant reason for Cambodia’s skill gap is the lack of research into linguistic hurdles Khmer speakers face when learning English. This paper aims to bridge Khmer and English with an understanding of the speech systems that both languages use before turning to the unique challenges Khmer speakers must overcome based on the tenets of L1 Transfer Theory. It closes by outlining strategies …

Go to article

The Prevalence And Importance Of Ethnic Diversity In Children’S Literature, Rose Schewe Oct 2019

The Prevalence And Importance Of Ethnic Diversity In Children’S Literature, Rose Schewe

Senior Honors Theses

Despite the complicated past of ethnic censorship, ethnic diversity has a prominent role in children’s literature published in the United States because diversity is accurately representative of the culture in which today’s young readers live. Children’s literature has advanced in terms of ethnic diversity in recent decades, but obstacles that prevent the stories of various minority groups from being told continue to exist. In order for all children to feel properly included in the literary world, children must be given the opportunity to see both people who are different from them as well as people who bear similarities to themselves …

Go to article

For The Culture: The Importance Of A Critical Social Theory Within The Music Education Classroom, Brianna Thomas Apr 2019

For The Culture: The Importance Of A Critical Social Theory Within The Music Education Classroom, Brianna Thomas

Senior Honors Theses

This paper will analyze the history of music education in the United States and discuss how the music classroom can contribute to and dismantle social inequalities including social class, gender, and race. Class effects music education by creating barriers to necessary resources and opportunities as a result of economic positions.[1] Gender is the second focus because music has historically been a male-dominated profession. As a result, many textbooks and curriculum highlight the achievements of men while erasing the contributions of women which has taught women to devalue their own work.[2] The last focus is race. While the arts …

Go to article

Teaching English To Refugees Through Storytelling, Emily Camplejohn Apr 2019

Teaching English To Refugees Through Storytelling, Emily Camplejohn

Senior Honors Theses

Many refugees are trying to learn English while assimilating to a new culture. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has identified several needs and goals of refugees including competence in the language of the receiving culture and participation in a new, welcoming community. Storytelling, expressing or receiving a narrative through oral or written communication, can be implemented for teaching English to refugees with these goals and can link academic learning with real life experiences. In addition to using storytelling as a meaningful way to interact with language, storytelling also fosters a community within the classroom. The teacher is …

Go to article

Foreign Language Education: Methods Of Effective Instruction In The Foreign Language Classroom, Ashley Nicole Jacobs Nov 2018

Foreign Language Education: Methods Of Effective Instruction In The Foreign Language Classroom, Ashley Nicole Jacobs

Senior Honors Theses

This thesis compares the various methods of teaching a foreign language. With the growing diversity of the population of the United States, it is becoming increasingly important for students to expand their knowledge of languages beyond English. Foreign language study has a number of benefits, including the promotion of effective communication and the construction of relationships with those from other countries and cultures. While there are a number of factors that influence effective foreign language acquisition, the factor that will be explored in this thesis is foreign language education methodology. This thesis will present seven methods of teaching foreign language …

Go to article

Promoting Student Success: Bilingual Education Best Practices And Research Flaws, Lillian Fassero Dec 2017

Promoting Student Success: Bilingual Education Best Practices And Research Flaws, Lillian Fassero

Senior Honors Theses

This paper first determines the benefits which bilingual education offers and then compares transitional, dual-language, and heritage language maintenance programs. After exploring the outcomes, contexts, and practical implications of the various bilingual programs, this paper explores the oversight in most bilingual studies, which assess students’ syntax and semantics while neglecting their understanding of pragmatics and discourse structures (Maxwell-Reid, 2011). Incorporating information from recent studies which question traditional understandings of bilingualism and argue that biliteracy requires more than grammatical and vocabulary instruction, this paper proposes modifications in current research strategies and suggests best practices for transitional, dual-language, and heritage maintenance programs.

Go to article

The Role Of Education In Self-Sustaining Community Development, Leanne Riegel Dec 2017

The Role Of Education In Self-Sustaining Community Development, Leanne Riegel

Senior Honors Theses

Self-sustaining community development strategies, focused on education as a means for change, have great potential to make an impact on worldwide poverty. Instead of a one-time intervention with results that fade over time, the cyclical structure of participatory development will yield increasing results as time goes on. Teaching the community how to improve itself will increase its ability to deal with future problems, and positively impact women, children, and the environment in developing countries. This philosophy and practical strategy could be effective in any geographic location or culture, focusing on education and the ability of the local people to transform …

Go to article

Education From Location, Yvonne Kordus Dec 2016

Education From Location, Yvonne Kordus

Senior Honors Theses

In order to have systems of education that will work to promote peoples and societies in regions all across the globe, educators must consider multiple aspects of the culture of each location. Educators should then tailor an education system to meet the desires, strengthen the advantages, and eliminate the challenges in each particular location. Factors of each culture that educators should take into account include resources available, participation in education, major difficulties in social arenas of society, advantages or disadvantages of the physical environment, health conditions, human interactions within the culture, desire to change or maintain societal or cultural norms, …

Go to article

To Build A Better Textbook: Developing A Literature Curriculum For Today’S Christian Schooling, Abby L. Cockrell May 2016

To Build A Better Textbook: Developing A Literature Curriculum For Today’S Christian Schooling, Abby L. Cockrell

Senior Honors Theses

This thesis explores the educational philosophy and the creative process behind the creation of a new textbook and curriculum. The goal of this new textbook and curriculum is to help persuade high school students to view literature as an avenue of life-long learning. The plan to develop this textbook and curriculum is built on five objectives: a recognition of the need for holistic education, the implementation of differentiated teaching methods, the cultivation of student interest, the reflection of diversity within classrooms, and the integration of modern technology. This plan will be proposed in the creation of a textbook for use …

Go to article

Teaching Special Education In The Es/Fl Classroom, Melinda Koerth Apr 2016

Teaching Special Education In The Es/Fl Classroom, Melinda Koerth

Senior Honors Theses

English language learners (ELLs) are growing in number in the United States school system. With this increase in population comes the task of providing quality and appropriate education for these students. A great part of this responsibility falls on instructors of English as a Second/Foreign Language (ES/FL) courses. As with every other content area, the possibility of having students with disabilities and disorders in the classroom exists. However, in the context of language acquisition unique obstacles and pitfalls exist which are particular to this field. Providing services for ELLs with special needs is a major concern in the realm of …

Go to article

Game-Based Selective Attention Intervention: Effect Of Blink On Selective Attention For Street Youth In Zambia, Brittany S. Richard Apr 2016

Game-Based Selective Attention Intervention: Effect Of Blink On Selective Attention For Street Youth In Zambia, Brittany S. Richard

Senior Honors Theses

The following study was conducted to evaluate the effect of a game-based intervention in the form of a card game, Blink, on selective attention for a sample of street youth in Zambia, Africa. Based on previous research suggesting that selective attention and executive functioning may be modified by game-based interventions in various populations and contexts, this study sought to employ a card game intervention for selective attention. The study was conducted with a repeated measures design, with a paired sample within-groups t-test adapted from the TEA-Ch Sky Search measure of selective attention, and the card game Blink as a …

Go to article

Evaluating English-Learner Inclusion As An Effective Educational Strategy For English-Learner Students, Grace Dreyer Nov 2015

Evaluating English-Learner Inclusion As An Effective Educational Strategy For English-Learner Students, Grace Dreyer

Senior Honors Theses

The United States of America has experienced unprecedented growth in the percentage of English Learners students enrolling in schools across the country. While federal guidelines and policies have been implemented within the past fifty years to hold school systems accountable for effectively education LEP students, there is no mandated model for educating English Language Learners. The massive number of students speaking foreign languages is a relatively recent issue, and government policy allows schools to operate with considerable flexibility; consequently, a variety of self-contained and English-inclusion strategies have emerged. Reducing costs and a number of other factors have led more school …

Go to article

Nonstandard Languages: The Outcasts Of The Language Revitalization Movement, Whitney Snowden Nov 2015

Nonstandard Languages: The Outcasts Of The Language Revitalization Movement, Whitney Snowden

Senior Honors Theses

This thesis compares the failures of the creolization movement with the success of the language revitalization movement and seeks to determine which elements are missing from the former to make it as successful as the latter. Education policy, identity, and language ideology are all examined as contributors to the future success of creole inclusivity in education and society, as well as the potential benefits such a movement would include. Specifically examined are Siegel’s research on creole education and Armstrong’s work on language ideology.

Go to article

The Celtic Way: Order, Creativity, And The Holy Spirit In The Celtic Monastic Movement, Fiona Leitch May 2015

The Celtic Way: Order, Creativity, And The Holy Spirit In The Celtic Monastic Movement, Fiona Leitch

Senior Honors Theses

The Celtic monastic movement lasted hundreds of years and is responsible for much of the spread of Christianity to the West. Much of the movement’s success can be attributed to the Celtic Christians’ understanding of the importance of the role of creative culture and order as well as an openness and responsiveness to the leading of the Holy Spirit. It is these three things working in tandem that influenced the success of the Celtic monastic movement. Although the movement ended a thousand years ago, it can offer guidance and wisdom for carrying out ministry today. A case study of Cuirim …

Go to article

Order Of Acquisition: A Comparison Of L1 And L2 English And Spanish Morpheme Acquisition, Kyle A. Mcferren Apr 2015

Order Of Acquisition: A Comparison Of L1 And L2 English And Spanish Morpheme Acquisition, Kyle A. Mcferren

Senior Honors Theses

This paper examines the order of acquisition for grammatical morphemes in Spanish and English first and second language learners. Brown’s first morpheme order study, conducted in 1973, laid the foundation for what would become one of the most common types of study conducted within the field of second language acquisition. The four orders of acquisition relevant here are examined and compared in order to support the roles of salience, morphophonological regularity, complexity, input frequency, and native language transfer in first and/or second language acquisition. The conclusion is that these five determinants work interdependently in determining the difficulty of acquiring a …

Go to article

English In South Asia And Pedagogical Implications, Brittany R. Ehret Apr 2014

English In South Asia And Pedagogical Implications, Brittany R. Ehret

Senior Honors Theses

English at present maintains a significant role as a second or foreign language in the region of South Asia as well as globally. In a discussion of this topic, it is important to explore a brief history of the expansion of English and its origins in South Asia. It is also essential to provide a background of South Asian English and its unique linguistic characteristics as well as its use in different contexts of South Asia. The perspectives of linguists and educators who are native to the region of South Asia should be included as much as possible in this …

Go to article

Methods For Teaching Hispanic English Language Learners, Johannah M. Strohman Nov 2012

Methods For Teaching Hispanic English Language Learners, Johannah M. Strohman

Senior Honors Theses

With the increase of diversity in American schools and the growing importance of English around the world, teaching English as a second language has become an essential aspect to education. It is difficult to have students of different cultural backgrounds in the classroom who are not proficient in English. A teacher cannot expect these students to succeed in an English only classroom setting. It is important that there be specialized teachers to address the needs of these students in order to reach all students where they are and help them accomplish all that they need to in order to succeed. …

Go to article

Educating English Language Learners: The Literacy Gap In The Underacheiving Demographic, Stephanie Merrick Apr 2012

Educating English Language Learners: The Literacy Gap In The Underacheiving Demographic, Stephanie Merrick

Senior Honors Theses

With the recent rise in immigration, the demographics of the American classroom are changing. English Language Learners are becoming more common, and with this change comes the challenge of effectively educating them. Unfortunately, this demographic has been observed to have a major achievement gap, as many students are placed in mainstream classrooms without basic literacy skills. This gap can be bridged through intentional focus on literacy with these students. This thesis examines styles of education for English Language Learners and instructional strategies in an effort to identify which styles and strategies can bridge the literacy and achievement gap most effectively.

Go to article

Korean Esl Students’ Use Of English Definite Articles, Hannah R. Morrett Dec 2011

Korean Esl Students’ Use Of English Definite Articles, Hannah R. Morrett

Senior Honors Theses

Misuse of English articles is a very common error among ESL students. If a student’s first language does not contain an article, learning a second language that has an article system will prove to be very difficult. Korean is an example of a language that does not contain articles, but instead relies heavily on the context of the sentence, as well as determiners to indicate definiteness and specificity. In order to understand how students learn and acquire English articles, a basic understanding is needed of Language Acquisition and theories of Second Language Acquisition. These explanations are continued through various literature …

Go to article

The Second Language Acquisition Of English Prepositions, Patricia J. Boquist Nov 2009

The Second Language Acquisition Of English Prepositions, Patricia J. Boquist

Senior Honors Theses

The acquisition of English prepositions is especially difficult for students learning English as a second language. This paper briefly discusses how prepositions are used in English and a few of the reasons prepositions cause problems for English language learners. It also analyzes the underlying system that governs prepositions and how this system might be represented to English language learners. Finally, it analyzes the current pedagogy and suggests a possible alternative to the status quo.

Go to article

Multiple Pre-Nominal Adjective Usages By Asian L2 Learners Of English, Sarah D. Mcmahon Dec 2008

Multiple Pre-Nominal Adjective Usages By Asian L2 Learners Of English, Sarah D. Mcmahon

Senior Honors Theses

This thesis focuses on adjective ordering in the English language, particularly in how it affects Asian ESL students’ grasp on English grammar. In order to complete the thesis, research was done comparing the aforementioned ESL students’ handling of pre-nominal adjective placement with that of generally accepted English adjective order. This was used for the following reasons: (i) to identify whether adjective placement is innate or learned; (ii) to discover common errors made by ESL students in adjective ordering; and (iii) to show that the findings may, upon extension, be used to implement ESL curriculum.

Go to article

The Academic Needs Of The Native Spanish-Speaking English Language Learner Under The No Child Left Behind Act (Nclb), Amy J. Whicker Nov 2008

The Academic Needs Of The Native Spanish-Speaking English Language Learner Under The No Child Left Behind Act (Nclb), Amy J. Whicker

Senior Honors Theses

The instructional demands and pressures placed on today’s educators are constantly increasing, influenced by national and state learning standards, assessments, and changing student demographics. More specifically, the standards of Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) set by the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) require academic gains to be made yearly by all students, including those with significant learning hurdles, such as the language acquisition difficulties faced by English Language Learners (ELLs). While the future of the NCLB Act is debatable, the necessity of effective classroom arrangements and instructional methods is indubitable. In addition, because the majority of this ELL population is …

Go to article

Missionary English Teaching: The English Language, Western Culture, And Christianity, Derek J. Kresge Apr 2008

Missionary English Teaching: The English Language, Western Culture, And Christianity, Derek J. Kresge

Senior Honors Theses

Teaching English as a missionary has become a significantly larger field in the recent years. These missionaries are confronted with a unique set of circumstances in which they perform their service. As English teachers, these missionaries are faced with the dilemma of teaching as best they can while at the same time living as followers of Christ in cultures that may be opposed to Christ as well as to the Western culture. This thesis unwraps the issues involved and discusses possible solutions to the problems that present themselves for missionary English teachers.

Go to article