Bilingual, Multilingual, and Multicultural Education Commons^™

When Culturally Responsive Practices Meet Social-Emotional Learning: A Guide For Educators, Sharon Ju-Ting Cheng

Master's Projects and Capstones

Many educators hope to give their students quality and well-rounded education while balancing all the contents they need to learn. Social-emotional learning (SEL) and culturally responsive teaching, however, are two areas that teachers seem to struggle with (Stark et al., 2021). Teachers have encountered situations where it was difficult for them to support their students due to the cultural differences between the teacher and student (Heineke & Vera, 2021). This lack of professional development in the culturally responsive aspect is concerning.

The shortfall of training leads to failure to apply these practices into schools. For newcomer students, who are usually …

K-12 Teachers’ Perceptions Of Preparedness And Training To Provide Instruction And Support To English Language Learners, Rebecca Doxsee

Ed.D. Dissertations

The increased number of English language learners in the general education classroom created the need for teachers to be knowledgeable about how to instruct and support English language learners. Due to the minimal extant literature related to K-12 teachers’ preparedness and training, specifically regarding English language learners, the purpose of this qualitative, interpretive study was to examine the perceptions of Tennessee K-12 teachers related to preparedness and training to provide instruction and support to English language learners in the general education classroom. I emailed the questionnaire to 63 potential participants and received questionnaire responses from 44 (69.84%) K-12 teachers. I …

Increasing English Language Learners Vocabulary And Spelling Through Game Interactions, Lucila Chavez

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

My Capstone Project was intended to increase the language development of English Language Learners due to language barriers. Games became the method to address the need to increase the language and to motivate the students while learning. The audience was third-grade students at Chualar Elementary School. Vocabulary Definitions, syllables awareness, and spelling development were the three learning outcomes of the project. Diversity was also thought about while implementing this capstone project which was addressed through the student's ability to take what they learned from the games outside the class and play it with others. Lev Vygotsky's theory of the importance …

Competent And Confident: Empowering English Language Learners Through Pronunciation Instruction, Faith Pellas

Master's Projects and Capstones

Compared to other language skills such as reading, writing, listening, and speaking, pronunciation is often neglected in ESL and TESOL curriculum planning and material design. Moreover, many English language teachers lack training in pronunciation instruction, therefore these techniques are not often addressed in class. Learning pronunciation is a top priority for many English language students because it enables them to communicate clearly, have better opportunities, and integrate well into Anglophone communities. The literature review discusses second language acquisition and the determining factors of accented and non-accented speech. It also addresses accent discrimination and the obstacles English language learners (ELLs) face …

No Habla Espanol: Are Monolingual Teachers Getting The Support They Need?, Rosa I. Castillo-Rocha

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

For this Capstone Project, the researchers investigated how monolingual teachers view the support and resources they received to teach English Language Learners (ELL) and what they thought could be done to improve their teaching effectiveness. An evidence-based argument is offered that monolingual teachers were not being provided with effective support and resources. More specifically, three themes emerged from an analysis of the data obtained from interviews of monolingual teachers and administrators. Based on the emergent themes, an action was undertaken to help monolingual teachers better address the needs of ELLs. This is an important issue for monolingual teachers because the …

A Curriculum Design For Emergent English Language Learners In Middle School Science, Allison Simpson

Masters Theses/Capstone Projects

The purpose of this Capstone project is to design a curriculum for emergent English Language Learners (ELLs). This subgroup of students typically comes from a different educational background and speaks a different native language than native English-speaking students. This presents a challenge for educators to include modifications to their current curriculum. While most curricula include modifications for educators to use, they are usually not at the level Emergent ELLs need to be successful in the classroom. This curriculum focuses on emergent level students in the middle school science classroom. The research question is How do we meet emergent ELL students …

The Effects Of Technology On Ell Students Writing Fluency, Aristea Goundouvas

Masters of Arts in Education Action Research Papers

This action research project explored whether the iPad application ‘Book Creator’ could impact the written fluency of English Language Learners (ELL). It also monitored the impact the application would have on non-ELL students. It was conducted in a public Montessori elementary school with students aged six to eight years old at the beginning of the school year. Out of twenty students, ten were ELL. Data tools included writing rubrics, personal evaluation rubrics and tallies of written output. While results showed some nominal improvement in writing output, it is difficult to assess if the results reflected students settling into the new …

Perceptions Of Educator Preparation In The Field Of English Language Learners, Vivian R. Fry

Selected Honors Theses

This study investigated how well pre-service teachers felt prepared to teach English Language Learners in the areas of second language (L2) acquisition and culture. 62 preservice teachers responded to a survey sent out to education majors at Southeastern University. Majority of the participants in the study indicated that they had less than adequate knowledge in the area of L2 acquisition and were less than adequately prepared to educate ELLs in the area of L2 acquisition. The participants indicated that they wanted professional development opportunities that focused on pedagogy for the specific stages of L2 acquisition. Regarding culture, a little more …