Language and Literacy Education Commons^™

Pre-Service Educators' Understanding And Perceptions Of Asd Before And After Reading Asd Narrative Fiction, Brenda L. Barrio, Jane E. Kelley, Teresa Cardon

Northwest Journal of Teacher Education

Pre-service teachers and other educators are expected to understand and teach students from diverse backgrounds and varying abilities. One group that is growing in all classrooms across the U.S. are students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). As such, it is essential that teacher preparation programs prepare pre-service teachers and educators to teach students with ASD. The purpose of the research was to examine the effects of pre-service teachers understanding and perceptions about ASD before and after reading young adult literature about characters with ASD. Results of parallel mixed-method research showed an increase of positive attitudes of pre-service teachers and educators' …

Book Review: Information Literacy In The Workplace, Lore Guilmartin

Communications in Information Literacy

No abstract provided.

Book Review: Information Literacy And Writing Studies In Conversation: Reenvisioning Library-Writing Program Connections, Jacqulyn Ann Williams

Communications in Information Literacy

No abstract provided.

Epilogue: Open Education, Social Practices, And Ecologies Of Hope, Steven L. Thorne

World Languages and Literatures Faculty Publications and Presentations

For more than a decade, some of the world's top-ranked universities have invited the global public to freely access the very curricular content that previously had only been available to a privileged few. Under the umbrella term Open Education (OE), which refers to the advancement of education through "open technology, open content and open knowledge" (Iiyoshi & Kumar, 2007), this movement encourages universities, as well as educators at other institutional levels, to serve the greater public good through the sharing of topical and thematic learning objects as well as intact course materials and curricula.

A Study Of The Intelligibility, Comprehensibility And Interpretability Of Standard Marine Communication Phrases As Perceived By Chinese Mariners, Lillian Christine Holland

Dissertations and Theses

Worldwide, mariners use a variety of English as an International Language known as Maritime English regardless of the first language spoken by the crew or port in which they enter. English knowledge and ability is therefore critical to a mariner's livelihood at sea and is also mandated by the International Maritime Organization. The ability to understand and be understood is paramount to safety at sea. This study investigated which accents of English a subset of Chinese mariners found easy or difficult to understand. The data from 39 Chinese mariners who listened to 8 Standard Marine Communications phrases was analyzed. The …

Literary Texts In The Undergraduate Russian Curriculum: Leveraging Language Learning And Literary Discussion Through Scaffolding, William J. Comer

World Languages and Literatures Faculty Publications and Presentations

In this article, I want to summarize the broader discussion about literary texts in the undergraduate curriculum for the more commonly taught languages, consider the nature of Russian undergraduate programs in light of that discussion, and then suggest a way that upper-division Russian classes can work with literary texts through the effective deployment of scaffolding in classroom tasks.

Evaluation Of The Start Making A Reader Today (Smart), Beth L. Green, Amanda Cross-Hemmer, Lorelei Mitchell

Early Childhood

The goal of the Start Making a Reader Today (SMART) program is to support young children to develop early reading and literacy skills, as well as to increase their interest, confidence, and enthusiasm about reading. SMART pairs trained adult volunteers with PreK-3 rd grade children, primarily in schools serving significant proportions of low-income families. Thus, SMART augments the one-on-one reading support available in typical elementary schools. Volunteers read to children for 30 minutes, either once or twice a week, and provide books that children can take home and keep for themselves. Prior evaluation research (Baker, Gersten, & Keating, 2000) found …

Global Learning Outcomes Of A Domestic Foreign Language Immersion Program, Kathleen Ann Godfrey

Dissertations and Theses

There is a critical need for college students to receive an education that fosters global learning in preparation for life in an increasingly interdependent and interconnected world. Universities recognize this need and endeavor to provide a range of programs that target global knowledge and skills, and meet the needs of traditional and non-traditional students. Domestic foreign language immersion programs can contribute to student global learning and development by providing students with an opportunity to participate in a rich global learning experience in the U.S. While some researchers have investigated impacts of domestic foreign language immersion on language proficiency, few studies …

Academic Achievement And Course Taking Among Language Minority Youth In U.S. Schools: Effects Of Esl Placement, Rebecca Callahan, Lindsey Wilkinson, Chandra Muller

Sociology Faculty Publications and Presentations

The 1974 Lau decision requires that U.S. public schools ensure a meaningful education for students learning English. English as a Second Language (ESL) placement is an institutional response to the linguistic needs of these students; however, its academic implications remain largely unexplored. Using nationally representative data from the Educational Longitudinal Study (ELS), the effects of ESL placement on college preparatory course enrollment and academic achievement of language minority students are estimated, first with fixed effects regression models and then with multi-level propensity score matching techniques. While numerous school and individual level factors beyond language proficiency predict ESL placement, a significant …

Using Children's Literature With Young Learners, Eowyn Ferey

Intensive English Language Program Faculty Publications and Presentations

The biggest practical challenges in using English language children's literature rather than readers created specifically for EFL/ESL students are:

• choosing an appropriate book
• preparing to teach, from writing lesson plans to developing supporting teaching materials
• brainstorming creative teaching ideas

This paper will serve as a guide for those who would like to use literature in the classroom with their young students, but aren't sure how to begin.

The Validity Of Parental Reports Of Preschooler’S Early Literacy Skills, Allison M. Henning

Dissertations and Theses

It has been well documented that children with language impairments often go on to have difficulties in reading, with many of these children not being diagnosed until first or second grade. However, research demonstrates a predictive relationship between early literacy skills and later reading and writing success. Thus, assessment of early literacy is to utilize parental reports, which have been found to provide valuable information regarding children's communicative-linguistic development.

The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between parental reports of early literacy behaviors of their preschool children and the child's performance on informal and formal early literacy …

A Comparison Of Developmental Sentence Scores And Ratings Of Intelligibility, Julie O'Harrow Karnstein

Dissertations and Theses

Speech intelligibility is the term used to describe the degree to which an individual speaker is understood by both familiar and unfamiliar listeners. There are many factors that influence an individual's intelligibility, including (but not limited to) variations in phonology, grammar, rate of speech, and vocal features. Most research has focused on the articulation and phonological influences that impact speech intelligibility. Perhaps for this reason, treatment methods for improving speech intelligibility generally have targeted an individual's phonological production skills. Additional research is necessary to understand more about each of the areas of language production that may be influencing intelligibility. This …

The Literacy Proficiencies Of Oregon Tanf Recipients: A Human Capital Approach, Amy Katherine Arnett

Dissertations and Theses

On August 22, 1996, President Clinton signed new legislation that dismantled the United State's welfare system. Consequently, thousands of welfare recipients had to move into the work-force. It is essential to discover if former welfare recipients are prepared to obtain employment and achieve self-sufficiency. Previous research suggests that human capital assets, such as level of literacy proficiency and grade completed in school are important factors in predicting welfare receipt. The purpose of this study is to investigate how literacy skills are associated with having received TANF for people without a high school degree or GED. The 941 subjects were located …

The Effectiveness Of An Accent Reduction Program On Foreign Speaker’S Oral English Proficiency And Understandability, Kara Elizabeth Sewell

Dissertations and Theses

Accent reduction is a program to assist foreign speakers in developing a level of oral English proficiency that is more similar to native English speakers. This study examined whether an accent reduction program, focusing on intonation and articulation, would improve the oral English proficiency and understandability of 2 Vietnamese speakers.

The research questions this study sought to answer were: (a) Does a foreign speaker's oral English proficiency as measured by the Proficiency of Oral English Communication (POEC) subtest scores improve immediately after completion of an accent reduction program?, (b) Does a foreign speaker's POEC subtest scores 4 weeks after termination …

The Study Of Malaysian Learners' Strategies While Studying A Second Language, Phoebe Christina Leong

Dissertations and Theses

In the past, the process by which language acquisition took place was largely ignored. Learning strategies were found to reveal much of the processes that occurred in a learner. In recent years, however, there was a greater emphasis in discovering learner's strategies because of the important role it played in helping the learner control his learning. Most researchers (e.g., Rubin 1975, Stern 1974, O'Malley 1985) emphasize not only the importance of learner strategies in helping the student direct his own learning, but they also emphasize the usefulness of transferring strategies used by successful learners to less successful learners. In order …

Attitudes, Motivations And Expectations Of Students And Instructors In An Intensive University Esl Summer Session, Ronald Andrew Ragsdale

Dissertations and Theses

All international students have specific motivations and expectations when learning English as a Second Language (ESL) in the United States, and recognizing the diversity of those motivations and expectations is the first step toward providing successful second language instruction. This study was designed to elicit the attitudes, expectations and motivations of two unique groups of students studying in the same classes in an ESL summer session at Portland State University (PSU), the preconception of the instructors, and the impressions and evaluations of the program upon its completion by the students, instructors, coordinators and administrators.

A successful curriculum can only be …

Peer Response Groups In The Esol Classroom : A Study, Karin Dorothy Krueger

Dissertations and Theses

This qualitative study is introduced through a discussion of peer response groups and the researcher's interest in them. The guiding question of whether peer response groups are as useful for teaching writing ESOL classrooms as in first language classrooms is stated along with supplementary research questions. These are fol lowed by a review of relevant theories and summaries of peer response group hi story, social and cultural factors, and research done on peer response groups in first and additional language classrooms.

The Effects Of A Course In American Jokes On A Class Of Intermediate Level Esl Students, John Randolph Carruthers

Dissertations and Theses

Teachers of English to speakers of other languages have often incorporated humor in the curriculum, yet a recent computer search revealed that there were no empirical studies which have shown that curricular humor enhances English language learning. The three specific questions of the thesis are: does the use of curricular humor 1) improve memory/recall, 2) improve over-all English proficiency, and 3) result in the subjects' having more positive attitudes towards Americans, and if so, does a more positive attitude correlate with improved memory/proficiency?