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

Bilingual, Multilingual, and Multicultural Education Commons

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

Articles 1 - 2 of 2

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

Second-Language English Fluency Change In Native-Speaker Context, John Zehnder Aug 2014

Second-Language English Fluency Change In Native-Speaker Context, John Zehnder

Journal of Undergraduate Research at Minnesota State University, Mankato

This study examines the influence of social context on oral proficiency change among English language learners on the campus of an American university. Speech samples were taken from 2 rounds of interviews with 9 East Asian women. These were analyzed using the phonetic analysis program Praat in order to determine each speaker’s rate of stressed syllables at the beginning and end of the study. The change in these rates was used as a proxy for fluency change. This was then compared with each speaker’s social context. The results suggested that English language learners improve their fluency when they have at …


Perspectives On Teacher Quality: Bilingual Education And Esl Teacher Certification, Test-Taking Experiences, And Instructional Practices, Nancy Lemberger, Angela Reyes-Carrasquillo Aug 2014

Perspectives On Teacher Quality: Bilingual Education And Esl Teacher Certification, Test-Taking Experiences, And Instructional Practices, Nancy Lemberger, Angela Reyes-Carrasquillo

Journal of Multilingual Education Research

This descriptive exploratory study looked at the certification process, test-taking experiences, and instructional practices of a group of graduate bilingual education (BE) and English-as-a- Second-Language (ESL) teachers to understand why some had problems passing teacher certification tests after completing their degrees. The study surveyed 63 BE and ESL teachers on their certification and test-taking experiences and their perceived instructional strengths. From this group of 63 participants, 15 volunteer teachers were interviewed and observed in their classrooms. Findings reveal most teachers passed certification tests on the first or second attempt. However, several failed tests due to language, content, and time difficulties, …