Language and Literacy Education Commons^™

Cultivating Student Voice: Writing As A Tool For Multilingual And Multicultural Students To Develop Language, Identity, And Cultural Competence, Gaeun Lee

Master's Projects and Capstones

The importance of using writing as an educational tool to English learners cannot be understated. It is critical for youth learning English as their second language to be encouraged to value their first language, culture, and identity by writing. Unfortunately, many teachers overlook the significance of the writing activity, which can be greatly helpful to develop the English learners’ language and cultural competence and their identity, specifically for multilingual and multicultural youth.

This project is developed with the purpose of cultivating student voice by using writing as a tool. The project is based on the two theories: the affective filter …

Music Speaks, We Listen: A Teacher's Guide For Using Music In The Adult Ell Classroom, Honora Mitchell

Master's Projects and Capstones

Too often adult ESL students are stymied by high levels of perfectionism, self-consciousness and anxiety when trying to learn English. They are further challenged because they may have come from a country where language teaching methods have not kept up with the times, so have an imbalance of skills—lacking speaking and listening skills. When students’ affective filters are high and their motivation is low they are less open to learning. Students need authentic, culturally-relevant material to stimulate learning and activate their multiple intelligences. The purpose of this project is to introduce adult ESL teachers to using popular songs to teach …

Strategies For First-Year University Esl Students To Improve Essay Writing Skills, Mengjie Wei

Master's Projects and Capstones

This project provides a writing guidebook for first-year university level English as a Second Language (ESL) students and teachers. Most ESL students have difficulties in academic English writing, especially first-year university ESL students. Due to the differences in linguistic and education backgrounds, first-year university level ESL students desire a writing guidebook that is appropriate for them; ESL teachers should be provided with professional teaching methods and materials in delivering lectures too. By applying Schema Theory and Stephen D. Krashen’s Monitor Model, strategies for students and teachers are professionally designed in this guidebook.

In order to help ESL students better their …

Improving The Reading Level Of Middle School English Learners In English Language Development Classes., Anastasiia V. Mixcoatl-Martinez

Master's Projects and Capstones

Presently, there are about 2,664,921 English Language Learners (ELLs) and Fluent English Proficient (FEP) speakers in California public schools who speak a language other than English at home (CalEdFacts, 2016). Some of these students have immigrated to the United States from other countries, while others were born and have been raised in the United States. According to the California Department of Education, the vast majority of ELLs (83.5%) in California come from low-income families and speak a language other than English at home. 73% of ELLs attend English Language Development (ELD) classes kindergarten through grade six, and 27% are in …

Exploring Self-Regulated Learning (Srl) And Listening Strategy Instruction In A Chinese L2 Classroom, Yue Li

Doctoral Dissertations

This interpretive case study explored the effectiveness of listening strategy instruction that promoted self-regulated learning and gained insights into students’ and instructors’ perceptions of strategy-integrated listening instruction among second semester learners of Chinese as a second language at a military college in Northern California. Most of previous studies investigated listening strategy use and the relationship between listening strategy use and listening achievement. Few studies investigated the effectiveness of listening strategy instruction. Thus, this study addressed the gaps in research by examining the effectiveness of integrating listening strategies into regular curriculum and explored students’ and instructors’ perceptions of listening strategy instruction …

The Taiwanese-American Perspective On Discrimination In English Language Teaching, Kuan Cheng Song

Master's Theses

This is a qualitative study examining the perspectives of five Taiwanese-American English teachers on their experiences of discrimination in the English language-teaching field of Taiwan. An extensive amount of literature has been written about the nativeness paradigm and its effect on the English language-teaching field, but the Taiwanese-American experience concerning those issues has yet to be explored. The study used Asian Critical Race Theory, Social Identity Theory and Asian American Racial Identity Theory to analyze the history of English language teaching in Taiwan, the critical studies on native and non-native English language teachers and the social issues affecting Asian Americans …

Strategies To Reduce Foreign Language Anxiety In Adult Efl Students Of The European Union, Kathleen Hershner

Master's Projects and Capstones

One of paradoxes in adult foreign language learning is that older learners must communicate in the very language, in this case English, they struggle to acquire. The discomfort that arises from needing to use deficient or non-existent skills in a new language is more acutely felt in adults than children. Adults approach learning new languages with an assumed level of control over themselves and their environment and can easily become frustrated when they're unable to maintain their usual levels of confidence and competence, which can lead to foreign language anxiety. FLA is a specific kind of anxiety defined as an …