Bilingual, Multilingual, and Multicultural Education Commons^™

Improving Second Language Learning Through Performance-Based Assessment Practices, Maria Granados

Dissertations

From the time of the No Child Left Behind Act (2001) to the present day, standardized testing has become the benchmark measure for student assessment and school accountability in the United States. Multilingual learners are a vulnerable population with more testing and accountability requirements than mainstream students. Not only are they required to learn a second language, but they are also assessed within the same standardized testing paradigms as their peers - native speakers of the English language. This study aimed to examine and evaluate the benefits of instructional practices and assessments that provide multilingual students and teachers prompt and …

Observación Participante De Clases Virtuales Bilingües En K-2 Durante Covid-19, Jennifer Quint

World Languages and Cultures

The Covid-19 pandemic is shifting education from the classroom to a virtual setting, forcing educational institutions to collaboratively innovate a new structure for virtual learning. The world’s current state of reliance on technology came so suddenly that teachers, students, and families have no choice but to learn as they go. This research analyzes how an elementary dual- immersion bilingual program adapts to new-found challenges such as technical difficulties, variances in at home support, and student independence. Furthermore, students enrolled in a dual-immersion bilingual program face additional challenges to provide students a language immersive environment. From August 2020 to March 2021, …

Investigando Los Éxitos Y Las Dificultades De Implementar Un Programa De Inmersión Dual A Través De Las Perspectivas De Tres Administradores, Victoria E. Slaybaugh

World Languages and Cultures

This Modern Languages and Literatures senior project investigates and analyses the successes and struggles of implementing a dual immersion program through interviews with three dual immersion principles. In interviewing three highly experienced administrators, ample information was collected on why some programs are prosperous while others see little success. Each individual principal had unique and valuable input, especially with regard to why their respective schools changed programs from 50/50 to 90/10, why they implemented K-12, and even why they chose to eliminate the program entirely. Using supplemental studies to more thoroughly examine the historical and social context of dual immersion, this …

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.

Translanguaging Supports Reading With Deaf Adult Bilinguals: A Qualitative Approach, Dan Hoffman, Ju-Lee Wolsey, Jean Andrews, Diane Clark

The Qualitative Report

Translanguaging is a pedagogical theory and an approach to teaching language. It conceptualizes the dynamic ways in which bilinguals use their linguistic repertoire and language practices in both languages for learning, meaning-making, reading, and writing. This study reports on the results of a qualitative study using Grounded Theory. The research question posed was, “what insights do bilingual Deaf readers provide regarding their metalinguistic processes and reading strategies used during translanguaging? To answer this question, responses were gathered from Deaf adults who were interviewed on their language and literacy histories. Further, they were queried about their reading comprehension practices using translanguaging. …

Does Being Bilingual Make You Better At Math?, Enxhi Elezi

Honors Projects in Mathematics

The purpose of this study is to examine if there is any relationship between being bilingual, defined as speaking your native language at home and another language in school, and your mathematical ability. Data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health was used to compare the math grades of students who were not born in the US and speak English, Spanish, or Other at home. Also, data from the Bryant University first year students was used to test if students who speak a different language at home have a higher mathematical average than their monolingual peers. Results show that …

A Washington State Elementary Teachers’ Guide To Bilingual Education, Maria G. Garcia-Bautista

All Graduate Projects

The purpose of this project was to create an elementary teacher's manual which explained the history and laws of bilingual education, first and second language development theories and approaches, bilingual education models and what research says about the various models. Proponents of English only/ Sheltered Instruction programs argue that immigrants and their descendents should assimilate to the customs and cultural norms of the United States as expeditiously as possible. Those same proponents believe that acquiring English is a prerequisite for success in education. Without a doubt English language proficiency can lead to immeasurable success. In this manual Two-Way Dual Language …

The Effects Of Teacher Race In The Elementary School On Student Achievement Test Scores, John Stortz

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The racial and gender composition of elementary school teachers does not match those of the students and this may be contributing to an inequity of achievement scores between African American and European American students. This ex post facto causal comparative study compared three levels of elementary school diversity personnel staffing on Grade 4 African American student Criterion-Referenced Competency Test (CRCT) scores and differences between male African American scores and female African American scores in a suburban Atlanta county. Nine intentionally selected elementary schools were chosen representing 3 racial diversity personnel staffing levels including 39% to 50%, 25% to 27%, and …

The Effects Of Program Model And Language On Science Taks Scores Among Fifth Graders, Stephanie Leigh Zelenak

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

THE EFFECTS OF PROGRAM MODEL AND LANGUAGE ON SCIENCE TAKS SCORES AMONG FIFTH GRADERS

This study examined the conditions of learning allowing students in one classroom to succeed on the fifth grade science TAKS test whereas students in other classrooms on the same campus do not succeed. It focused on the relationship of program models, specifically as it pertains to the influence of language within the content area of science and student performance on the fifth grade science TAKS scores.

To compare the academic achievement, as measured by the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS) test, in grade five …

"Beating The Odds": How Bi-Lingual Hispanic Students Work Through Adversity To Become High Achieving Students, Mark Hassinger

All Graduate Projects

The purpose of this qualitative study was to examine characteristics of academically successful Hispanic students. Rather than ask ourselves why so many Hispanic students are failing, this study takes a more positive approach to this subject. Despite repeated failures and early academic difficulties, some Hispanic students continue to fight through the adversity. Some children have a positive attitude toward school although there are monumental barriers for these at-risk children. This study asks, "What piece of the puzzle do these students possess that the others do not?" In essence, this is an "asset-oriented" approach rather than a deficit-assessment approach. The purpose …

A Comparative Study Of The Language Assessment Battery, The Woodcock-Munoz Language Survey And The Portfolio Assessment Results Of Language Learners, Louise Langlois Chaker

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

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Cross-Language Synonyms In The Lexicons Of Bilingual Infants: One Language Or Two?, Barbara Zurer Pearson, Sylvia C. Fernandez, D.Kimbrough Oller

Adjunct Faculty Author Gallery

This study tests the widely-cited claim from Volterra & Taeschner (1978), which is reinforced by Clark's Principle of Contrast (1987), that young simultaneous bilingual children reject cross-language synonyms in their earliest lexicons. The rejection of translation equivalents is taken by Volterra & Taeschner as support for the idea that the bilingual child possesses a single-language system which includes elements from both languages. We examine first the accuracy of the empirical claim and then its adequacy as support for the argument that bilingual children do not have independent lexical systems in each language. The vocabularies of 27 developing bilinguals were recorded …

Cross-Language Synonyms In The Lexicons Of Bilingual Infants: One Language Or Two?, Barbara Zurer Pearson, Sylvia C. Fernandez, D.Kimbrough Oller

Barbara Zurer Pearson

This study tests the widely-cited claim from Volterra & Taeschner (1978), which is reinforced by Clark's Principle of Contrast (1987), that young simultaneous bilingual children reject cross-language synonyms in their earliest lexicons. The rejection of translation equivalents is taken by Volterra & Taeschner as support for the idea that the bilingual child possesses a single-language system which includes elements from both languages. We examine first the accuracy of the empirical claim and then its adequacy as support for the argument that bilingual children do not have independent lexical systems in each language. The vocabularies of 27 developing bilinguals were recorded …

Patterns Of Interaction In The Lexical Development In Two Languages Of Bilingual Infants, Barbara Pearson, Sylvia Fernandez

Barbara Zurer Pearson

We investigated the extent to which bilingual children follow the same patterns and timetable of lexical development as monolinguals. For a group of 20 simultaneous bilingual (English-Spanish) infants, ages 10 to 30 months, we looked at the patterns of growth in one language in relation to growth in the other and also with respect to growth in both languages combined. The MacArthur Communicative Development Inventories (CDI), standardized parent report forms in Spanish and English, provided measures of lexical growth in two languages at varying intervals within the age range. We plotted the two single-language measures, as well as Total and …

Lexical Development In Bilingual Infants And Toddlers: Comparison To Monolingual Norms, Barbara Zurer Pearson, Sylvia C. Fernandez, D.Kimbrough Oller

Barbara Zurer Pearson

This study compares lexical development in a sample of 25 simultaneous bilingual and 35 monolingual children for whom semilongitudinal data were collected between the ages of 8 and 30 months. A standardized parent report form, the MacArthur Communicative Development Inventory (1989), was used to assess the children's receptive and productive vocabulary in English and/or Spanish. A methodology was devised to assess the degree of overlap between the bilingual children's lexical knowledge in one language and their knowledge in the other. Using the measures presented here, there was no statistical basis for concluding that the bilingual children were slower to develop …

An Annotated Bibliography Of M.A.T. Projects, Reports And Papers In The S.I.T. Library, David Michael Bumbar

MA TESOL Collection

This project is an annotated and edited bibliography of the independent professional projects, reports and other materials that have been written by students in the Master of Arts in Teaching program. This booklet which is a reference guide to the MAT writings found in the S.I.T. library has been indexed according to the major topics within the MAT program and is accompanied by a set of index cards.