Language and Literacy Education Commons^™

Student Motivation In Writing, Technology Integration, And Middle Grade Pedagogy, Carol M. Edge

Dissertations

This qualitative case study explored how seventh-grade students experienced three-dimensional (3D) holographic technology during writing instruction. Grounded in Self-Determination Theory (SDT) and Multimodality Theory, the study examined how students’ intrinsic motivation processes were influenced by immersive learning environments that incorporated multiple modes of communication. A qualitative case study design was employed with 15 seventh-grade students. Data were triangulated through classroom observations, semi-structured interviews, focus groups, and artifact analysis.

Findings indicated that the 3D holographic environment supported students’ experiences of autonomy, competence, and relatedness. Students engaged with diverse modes of expression, including textual, visual, spatial, and gestural forms, which enhanced their …

Bridging The Gap: A Qualitative Case Study Of Pre-K Teachers' Literacy Professional Development Needs In The Context Of Georgia's Early Literacy Act (Hb 538), Deborah Lissimore

Dissertations

Abstract

The purpose of this qualitative case study was to explore how school-based pre-K teachers in Georgia perceived their literacy professional development needs within the context of the Georgia Early Literacy Act, House Bill 538, and to examine the role of teacher leadership in supporting their professional learning. Although the Act established evidence-based literacy requirements and professional learning expectations for kindergarten through third grade educators, comparable supports for school-based pre-K teachers were not clearly defined. Participants included five certified pre-K teachers employed in a Georgia public school district. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews and researcher field notes, with member …

Defining My Country: An Appalachian Educator’S Autoethnography Of Linguistic Erasure And Ai, Kimberly B. Wright

Dissertations

When students use AI writing tools to revise their work, the algorithms often erase the cultural and linguistic markers that constitute their authentic voice. This erasure operates through the same mechanisms that linguistic justice scholars have documented for decades: a dominant language ideology that frames non-dominant expression as deficient and “corrects” it into standardized prose. As a first-generation Appalachian educator who spent years suppressing her own voice to succeed in academic spaces, I recognize this pattern from the inside. Using autoethnography as a methodology, this study examines how my journey from voice erasure to reclamation informs my pedagogy to help …

Take Flight With Languages

Dimensions

SCOLT Dimensions Volume 61

Take Flight With Languages, Paula Garrett-Rucks, Christiane Fäcke

Dimensions

T his article attempts to bridge language education fields from Europe and the United States by sharing language learning terms, concepts, and teaching and learning theories and practices across the Atlantic in response to the call for papers for the 2026 Dimensions special issue on Plurilingual Education. In order to situate the ways in which the instructional materials, resources, and practices for plurilingual language learning that are described by European contributing authors to the special issue might look across contexts, this article addresses both European and U.S. unique linguistic landscapes and social contexts, societal norms and expectations toward speaking more …

Intercomprehension In Theory And Practice: Teaching And Learning Plurilingual Competence In A European Context, Claudia Polzin-Haumann, Christina Reissner

Dimensions

Plurilingualism and multilingualism have long been central to human interaction. However, in the context of increasing global mobility, digital communication and ongoing migration, they have gained renewed importance. This article examines some aspects of language diversity and plurilingual teaching and learning in Europe. It situates current European language policies as pivotal in fostering plurilingual competence and intercultural understanding through education. The discussion foregrounds exemplarily the pluralistic theoretical and didactic model of intercomprehension, defining its core principles and summarizing central concepts. It highlights digital and social learning environments and shows the importance of the human factor for successful plurilingual education. In …

Awakening To Languages: Preparing A Peaceful Multilingual World, Michel Candelier, Jean François De Pietro

Dimensions

Awakening to Languages (AtL) is a teaching approach that proposes multilingual activities and accompanies language teaching to foster the learners’ awareness of and openness to multilingualism, while increasing their reflexive metalinguistic abilities. In this article, we describe ATL as a component of Didactics of Plurilingualism (DP) and its main aims and characteristics which will be illustrated through multiple examples of activities and teaching materials. We further discuss the reported effects of AtL on learners, teachers, and parents, followed by current trends in integrating AtL in schools. We then turn to a comparison of core concepts of AtL and DP to …

Teaching Materials For Plurilingual Practices: Insights From Austrian Vocational Schools, Michaela Rückl

Dimensions

T his article explores how plurilingualism is reshaping educational language policy by shifting the focus from monolingual proficiency to an integrative model that draws on learners’ full linguistic and cultural repertoires. European language policies and perspectives are described, highlighting goals such as promoting global citizenship through plurilingual education. Specific attention is placed on Austria’s innovative curriculum for vocational schools, which embeds plurilingual, pluricultural, and transversal competences in the new subject “International Communication with Focus Language” (InCo). Preliminary findings from a pilot study emphasize the value of activating learners’ linguistic resources, incorporating real-life tasks, and using AI tools to enhance foreign …

Opening A Dialogue Between Translanguaging And Interlectal Practices: Constrained Freelanguaging For Peaceful Language Education, Christian Ollivier, Logambal Souprayen-Cavery

Dimensions

Translanguaging concepts and practices have gained great attention across the globe, at risk of overshadowing and obscuring the contributions of research and theories from non-Anglophone areas. For example, research from the Francophone world that has long investigated interlectal practices, a form of translingual practice in Creole-speaking areas, yet remains lesser known. This theoretical paper aims to initiate a dialogue between less-known peripheral studies about interlectal practices and the omnipresent North American translanguaging approach. Specifically, this paper presents the concepts and linguistic dimensions of translanguaging and interlectal practices as defined in the literature, highlighting similarities and differences in the ways of …

Democratizing Knowledge In Plurilingual Education, Angelica Galante, Yunjia Xie

Dimensions

T his article reports efforts to mobilize and democratize research-informed knowledge and resources for plurilingual education through the Plurilingual Lab, a research laboratory based in Canada. Situated in the highly multilingual city of Montreal, Quebec, the Lab showcases findings from research on plurilingual education and fosters collaborative knowledge mobilization among researchers and educators. Grounded in principles of equity, diversity, inclusion, and decoloniality (EDID), the Plurilingual Lab’s initiatives seek to advance and inform both plurilingual research and pedagogical practices. Moreover, by making resources openly accessible, the Lab helps democratize knowledge production and dissemination, extending its reach to communities that might otherwise …

Participatory Community Archiving To Preserve And Sustain North Georgia Appalachia’S Language, Literacy Practices, And Histories, Leah Panther Dr., Lindsey Walker, Presley Dyer, Tyler Osborn, Kerri Abernathy

Georgia Library Quarterly

This case study presents Swappin’ Stories, a community-based archiving event that serves as a model for public and participatory archiving. The event aimed to address gaps and misrepresentations of southern Appalachia by gathering the voices, artifacts, and stories of Towns County residents. By centering local narratives, it sought to foster a sense of community identity and offer an authentic portrayal of North Georgia, distinct from the narratives shaped by popular media and political figures. This case highlights the potential of community-driven archives to reclaim and reshape regional histories.

The Impact Of Focused Specific Phonemic Awareness Instruction On English Language Learners In The Kindergarten Classroom, Bethany Brewer

Dissertations

This study is about the impact of focused phonemic awareness instruction on English language learners in a Kindergarten classroom. The gaps in early literacy skills for students entering Kindergarten can create long-lasting deficits for students (NAEP, 2022). The purpose of this study is to determine if the engagement and performance of ELL students changes during whole group phonemic awareness and phonics instruction when taught specific skills in small group. The study took place in a Kindergarten classroom with students who have been identified as English Language Learners through ACCESS testing. This qualitative study used interviews with teachers to determine the …

We Speak Life Into Their Language: Black Educators’ Approaches To Linguistic Justice In Urban Secondary Ela Classrooms, Lakeisha A. Davis

Dissertations

This study explores how Black educators navigate linguistic justice, deficit thinking, and stereotypes in urban secondary English Language Arts (ELA) classrooms. Using a hermeneutic phenomenological approach, it examines how teachers affirm Black Language (BL) while balancing the demands of White Mainstream English (WME) in academic spaces. Findings reveal that although educators employ culturally affirming strategies, they face challenges from restrictive language policies and standardized assessments. To counteract these barriers, they adopt negotiation practices that support students’ linguistic and cultural identities. From these findings, the study proposes Dynamic Linguistic Uplift (DLU)—a new theoretical framework that illustrates how Black educators sustain BL …

Examining Rural High School Students’ Perceptions Toward And Experiences With The Reading Plus Intervention Program: A Qualitative Case Study, Deshonda Wolfe

Dissertations

Reading is the gateway to all other academic skills and across all disciplines of learning. Content courses at the high school level central focus are on reading to learn core curriculum verses learning to read. However, research shows that if students read significantly behind their typical peers, the reading gap widens throughout high school. Learning is stalled, and access to other contents, curriculums, and instructions becomes limited. To address the reading proficiency gap of high school students struggling to read in grade level, school districts have turned to computer assisted interventions programs, such as Reading Plus, to combat the reading …

Minoritized Students’ Internship Experiences In World Languages: A Call For Research, Mathias Guerreiro-Aires, Paula Garrett-Rucks

Dimensions

Higher education has undergone important shifts over the past two decades, with U.S. universities placing more emphasis on career readiness and internships becoming an integral part of academia (National Association of Colleges and Employers [NACE], 2021). Moreover, the student population in U.S. universities has become more diverse (National Center for Education Statistics [NCES], 2023), which has drawn more attention to issues of equity and access to career readiness initiatives such as internships (Greenman et al., 2022). Disparities exist for students from historically marginalized racial and ethnic communities, such as Black, Latinx, and Afro-Latinx students, from their White peers not only …

Incorporating Extensive Reading Into The Foreign Language Curriculum, Jane E. Hardy, Victoria Rodrigo

Dimensions

Extensive reading is an approach to language learning that encourages learners to read a large quantity of easy reading material. A substantial body of research confirms the effectiveness of this approach for developing proficiency in both first (L1) and second (L2) languages. This paper explains what extensive reading is, why it is important, and how it can be incorporated as part of a language curriculum. The paper also provides a review of research on the effectiveness of extensive reading in several different languages and recommends many extensive reading resources, including open access materials, to facilitate the implementation of extensive reading …

Demonstrating A Free Listing Data Collection Approach To Cultural Instruction, Gregory De La Piedra

Dimensions

Free listing tasks are a common data collection method used by cultural anthropologists, language historians and linguists (Nolan, 2002; Ryan et al., 2000; Weller & Romney, 1988; Wolfram & Schillings-Estes, 1998). These tasks are interviews in which a researcher asks groups of respondents to list words or expressions that come to mind for a given cultural topic. This study focused on a free listing task collected from working class Mexicans about fiestas y celebraciones [parties and celebrations]. Although this topic is routinely included in second language (L2) teaching materials, common terms or slang used by Spanish speaking populations that U.S. …

Resources And Approaches For Integrating High-Leverage Teaching Practices: A Content Analysis, Sara Ahnell

Dimensions

Implementing high-leverage teaching practices (HLTPs) for language learning can help ensure teachers create and deliver a high-quality curriculum, especially when working with Novice learners who require more scaffolded instruction. This study aimed to fill a gap by identifying print resources and approaches available to support world language teachers’ integration of HLTPs into instructional design for Novice learners in middle and high school classrooms (grades 6-12). In the Fall of 2022, various resources were analyzed according to their use in assisting teachers with integrating HLTPs, state standards, and current second language acquisition (SLA) research into instructional design. These resources included several …

Why World Language Teachers Stay: Teacher Retention In West Virginia, Challenges And Opportunities, Laura Guglani, Tori Gastón

Dimensions

The present study investigates World Language (WL) teacher retention and the challenges and opportunities of teaching a WL in a rural state. Data came from ethnographic interviews conducted with 10 participants, current Spanish teachers teaching throughout West Virginia. Through thematic analysis, eight themes emerged: Lack of Exposure to Cultural Diversity, Lack of Qualified Teachers, Toll on Mental Health, Pressure to Defend the Value of WLs, Remaining in West Virginia, Passing on the Love of Language and Cultural Learning, Innovative Pedagogical Approaches, and Strong Professional Support Systems.

Dimensions Volume 60 - Full Issue, Editors, Dimensions

Dimensions

SCOLT Dimensions Volume 60

Archiving Living Historical Narratives With Youth Participatory Action Research, Leah Panther, Elizabeth Burbridge, Robbie Barber, Rosi Sanchez

Georgia Library Quarterly

As part of an interdisciplinary place-based summer program, the three adults and nine youth explored local communities as a co-researchers, seeking to preserve and sustain their community’s literacies, histories, and stories. Youth co-researchers led the data collection, analysis, and creation of archival resources to capture community literacies, histories, and stories that expanded beyond traditional print-centric resources and archival collections management systems. From our youth co-researchers we learned: (1) prioritizing people as archival sources, (2) living historical narratives lead to critical readings of historical artifacts, and (3) public digital composing practices with historical narratives and historical artifacts. The implications result in …

Empowering Female Voices In The Ela Classroom, Jacqueline Gurliaccio Vance

Dissertations

This study aims to understand how women’s voices can be empowered in a high school English Language Arts (ELA) class. Through the use of female authors and female protagonists in the classroom texts, this study seeks to understand if implementing female-driven texts enhances female students’ literary experiences, empowers the personal identities of female students, and shapes female students’ perspectives of themselves and their peers. This case study includes female students in twelfth grade AP Literature class.

Finding Focus: Authentic Inquiry And Composition In The Third Space, Noah Brewer

Dissertations

This research seeks to better understand the attitudes and dispositions of advanced-level English Language Arts students toward the activities of academic research and writing, and to explore the ways that critical pedagogies focused on authentic inquiry and composition interact with these attitudes. The project draws upon research in student motivation, sociocultural definitions of literacy, and theories of hybrid identity in order to discover the potential impact of engaging students in critical reflection on their own meaning-making practices, and of curricular and pedagogical choices aimed at making the lessons of the classroom more relevant to the demands of real-world literacy practices …

Teachers’ Perceptions Of The Impact Of Iready On Student Reading Achievement For Students In Response To Intervention, Althia Gates

Dissertations

This qualitative case study aimed to explore teachers’ perceptions of the impact of i-Ready on student reading achievement for students in Response to Intervention (RTI). In this qualitative case study, participants were given an opportunity to voice their point of view and perceptions of the impact of i-Ready, including the benefits and barriers they experience when implementing i-Ready as an intervention tool for struggling readers. The need to hear teacher voices and perspectives on an RTI intervention tool is essential to providing students with the best learning experience and growth results. The study included five elementary teachers who implement i-Ready …

Bridging The Artificial Gap: Tesol Frameworks For World Language Education And Advocacy, Michelle Back, Manuela Wagner

Dimensions

In this position paper we present research and data demonstrating how pedagogical frameworks traditionally used in TESOL contexts can be harnessed by world language (WL) educators to scaffold language learning and advocate for emergent multilingual language learners (EMLLs). Focusing on three pedagogical frameworks–Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol (SIOP), translanguaging, and multilingual ecology– we discuss how we have utilized these frameworks with WL teachers and teacher candidates and offer suggestions for how they might be used effectively in WL classrooms to both scaffold language acquisition and foster a greater appreciation for and pride in multilingualism.

Border-Crossing In Language Teacher Education, Colleen Hamilton, Xiaoning Chen

Dimensions

In this paper, we bridge fields of English as a Second Language, Bilingual, and World Language teacher education through curricular innovation in methods coursework for future Chinese language teachers. We apply a language curricularization framework to analyze theoretical, ideological, political, and contextual factors underlying connections and distinctions across disciplinary borders and to guide collaboration within a language equity lens. Our work indicates the affordances of translanguaging approaches, a multilingual turn, and critical curricular analysis in preparing critically conscious language educators.

An Examination Of World Language Teacher Practices Regarding Target Language Instruction, Edris Brannen, Victoria Russell, Krista Chambless

Dimensions

In this study, 96 world language teachers in the state of Georgia completed a survey regarding their delivery of instruction in the target language. While ACTFL (2010, 2021) recommends using the target language 90% or more of the time to deliver instruction, only 20% of the world language instructors who were surveyed reported doing so. According to ACTFL (2010, 2021), delivering instruction in the target language is necessary to create an acquisition-rich environment where learners are exposed to significant amounts of comprehensible input—a key factor for second language acquisition to occur (Krashen, 1982). This study examined three factors that may …

Bridging Language Education Fields: An Interview With Kim Potowski, Paula Garrett-Rucks, Jason A. Kemp

Dimensions

At the beginning of the year (2024), interviewers Jason Kemp and Paula Garrett- Rucks had the pleasure of meeting with Kim Potowski over Zoom in a video- recorded, semi-structured interview to discuss Language Education. Transcripts from the recording were slightly edited and organized in the following question and response structure

Expanding Conversations: Experiential Learning Through Film In Asynchronous Online World Language Courses, Kelly F. Davidson, Karen Acosta

Dimensions

Many educators face challenges with online learning since the COVID-19 pandemic began. Online modalities became common in world language courses; however, challenges remain in creating communicative contexts. This study examined university student perceptions of an experiential learning sequence using films in Spanish and French at the intermediate level in an asynchronous online environment. Students were required to watch a movie and complete activities related to language and culture learning goals, followed by an in-depth survey about the experience. Participants expressed positive perceptions of the activities, finding them helpful in increasing interest and motivation, as well as in expanding their thinking …

Bridging Instruction Of The Spanish Subjunctive: Exploring Task Types For Heritage And L2 Learners, Sara Fernández Cuenca

Dimensions

To this day, there are only a few studies that have used a controlled instructional intervention on specific linguistic structures to investigate if language instruction is beneficial for heritage learners (HLs), in the same way it is for second (L2) language learners, and more research in this area is rapidly needed (Bowles, 2018). The results from this small body of research suggest that explicit language instruction can be beneficial for HLs, but overall L2 learners still appear to benefit from language instruction more than their HLs counterparts (Potowski et al., 2009; Torres, 2018, inter alia). The present study seeks to …