Language and Literacy Education Commons^™

When Would You Feel Like A Writer? Exploring Writing With Newcomer Students, Sinélia Peixoto, Thea Williamson

English Faculty Publications

The authors share a story of a middle school writer's experience navigating across languages in an English for Speakers of Other Languages support classroom.

Linking Language Use Practices And Valued Teacher Capabilities: A Mixed Methods Study Of English-As-A-Foreign-Language Teacher Educators, Adeline De Angelis

Dissertation Collection

This mixed-methods study explored how much English-as-a-foreign-language teacher educators used English, Spanish, or a combination of those languages in teaching content courses (e.g., pedagogy, linguistics) and how their language use practices related to the teacher capabilities they most valued. Quantitative data was collected with a survey of 115 teacher educators from 21 Ecuadorian universities. Most participants reported teaching in English while incorporating some Spanish, usually in minimal amounts; most believed in minimizing Spanish. Ordinary least squares regression analysis indicated the amount of Spanish included related to teacher educators’ prioritization of teacher empowerment over accountability to standards and to teacher educators’ …

Critical Discourse Analysis Of The Dialogical Demands Of Florida's 10th Grade B.E.S.T. English Language Arts Standards, Amanda Nb Kaplowitz

Graduate Thesis and Dissertation 2023-2024

This study investigates the extent to which the Florida B.E.S.T (Benchmark for Excellent Student Thinking) English Language Arts (ELA) standards demand that students participate in dialogic interactions within the 10th grade ELA classroom. Dialogic demands, characterized by active discourse and collaborative sense-making, are the opportunities students interact with one another or with a text. The dialogic elements of classroom pedagogy are an increasingly recognized critical component of effective literacy instruction in contrast with the monologic classroom where teachers are the primary source of information. A Critical Discourse Analysis through the lens of Fairclough is used as this research aims to …

The Critical Need For Early Language Access For Deaf And Hard Of Hearing Children, Kinya D. Embry-Wright

Theses and Dissertations--Rehabilitation Sciences

According to the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA), speech-language pathologists (SLPs) are referred to as the experts of communication (ASHA, n.d.) utilizing their specialized training, extensive education, and clinical expertise to work with individuals across the lifespan with a variety of different speech and language delays, disorders, and deficits. However, when working with deaf or hard of hearing (DHH) children, there is often precedent given to speech and listening (M. L. Hall et al., 2019). For example, ASHA only recently updated their DHH portal to include American Sign Language (ASL), though they still list it on some webpages as an Augmentative …

Toward The Next Generation Of Research In Adult Literacy Instruction, Rebecca Clark-Stallkamp, Barbara B. Lockee

Journal of Educational Technology Development and Exchange (JETDE)

In November 2019, the Program for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) from 2017 (Institute of Education Sciences [IES], 2019) depicted no significant change in the concerning status of adult literacy in the US. More than 52% of adults between 16 and 45 scored below functionally literate levels. While shortcomings are attributed to various factors such as high attrition rates in program, ill-conceived policy planning, and more, significant focus is placed on the impact of effective instruction. The study reviews core cognitive component theory experimentation and instructional intervention research in adult literacy to explain contributions and limitations in current …

Critical Writing About Literature, Erika L. Bass

Faculty Book Gallery

This free custom textbook includes openly-licensed and public domain works for the University of Northern Iowa course ENGLISH 2120: Critical Writing about Literature. It introduces readers to the knowledge and skills necessary to critically read, interpret, and analyze literature. The editor--Dr. Erika L. Bass--chose these readings to orient readers to important concepts and literature genres, as well as develop writing skills. While these chapters were chosen from other OER textbooks, I took care in selecting the chapters that are relevant to course objectives and will help students transfer skills from one class to the next, regardless of major. -- Provided …

Effectiveness Of Automated Formative Feedback In An Online Tutorial For Promoting Summarizing, Veronika Barkela, Miriam Leuchter

Journal of Educational Technology Development and Exchange (JETDE)

We conducted a study with the aim to investigate the effectiveness of automated formative feedback in improving students’ ability to summarize. One-hundred and thirty-eight undergraduate students in an elementary education program were asked to summarize six scientific texts, with the experimental group (N=87) receiving automated formative feedback in a computer-based learning environment (FALB). FALB provides automated feedback about content coverage, copying words avoidance, redundancy avoidance, relevance, and length. Comparing the experimental group to a control group (N=51), results implied that summarizing skills could be fostered when interacting with FALB. In particular, the automated formative feedback promoted the adherence to the …

Feminist Pedagogy In The Esl Classroom: A Retrospective Qualitative Case Study, Lindsei Pereira Da Silva

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Even though feminist pedagogy in the context of higher education has been widely researched, there is a dearth of scholarship available when it comes to feminist pedagogy in the context of English as a Second Language. The present retrospective qualitative case study investigated the ways in which feminist pedagogy is represented in the teaching philosophies and intended teaching practices of ESL instructors in the Summer 2023 Fulbright Pre-Academic Program. The research findings indicate that feminist pedagogy was represented in the teaching philosophies and intended teaching practices of the ESL instructors in several ways, despite the fact that they had not …

Becoming A Homemaker In Appalachia: Building Bridges In Women's Flat Track Roller Derby, Jessica Lynn Lough

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This study sought to explore how six women in Central Appalachia negotiated embodied subjectivity and agency across discourses and gendered power relations. Women living in central Appalachia who play roller derby occupy a unique social position in which to position this study, as many are simultaneously challenging traditional gender norms and engaging in a highly physical and competitive sport that involves using their bodies relationally. Specifically, by conceiving women as vehicles of power and women’s flat track roller derby as a public pedagogy, I sought to trace what ‘doing’ a roller derby identity does to transform and advance their knowledge …

Catching Up To Yesterday: An Argument For A Practical Application Of Creativity For Inspiring Change From A Content-Based Course Delivery To A 21st-Century Skills-Based Delivery, Darren Chapman

Creativity and Change Leadership Graduate Student Master's Projects

This project is a creative vision for how college-level courses could be changed to deliver the most important skills students need in the 21st century—moving toward an essential employability skills-based delivery process while training vocational (content) skills. Technology is outpacing humans' ability to adapt and adopt to it, making it increasingly difficult to keep pace with technological change. This has wide-ranging effects on each of us – productively, emotionally, and perhaps physically. Colleges are at the forefront of educating citizens about the working world to improve their productivity, incomes and their sense of intrinsic motivation. However, these same colleges are …

Global Communities: The Potential Of Street Art And The Public Space, Elena Picech

The Coastal Review

This paper highlights the significance of physical proximity and the potentiality of socio-spatial situations as tools to enrich study abroad programs. Particular attention is given to street art and the public space. While, studying on-site can be somewhat uncomfortable, it can potentially prompt unique reflections, enhance student’s learning and encourage introspection. Being on-site provides the opportunity to come into contact and to connect with the physical objects and their environment. It enables a multisensory and immersive embodied experience. Leveraging art for communicative educational activities can facilitate a participatory experience, promote critical thinking and enhance cultural understanding.

The Femme-Fatale “Bear’Ing Her Teeth: The Relation Between Women And Animals In Prosper Mérimée’S Lokis, William B. Holley

The Coastal Review

Abstract: Many French fantastic texts from the nineteenth century employ the use of a femme-fatale to highlight and underscore the dangers inherit with the female figure. This can be seen in vampires, ghosts, fairies, and other supernatural phenomena wherein a female character takes on incredible attributes. Propser Mérimée’s Lokis offers readers a tale wherein those same female figures are given traits that resemble the traditional femme-fatale, but in doing so they highlight the deadly nature of the titular half-man/half-bear creature. This paper offers a reading of Lokis which brings together an understanding of the social and political climate in which …

Research Bibliography For Philippine English (2008–2023), Kingsley Bolton, Priscilla T. Cruz, Isabel P. Martin

English Faculty Publications

The research bibliography presented here is intended to complement the earlier research bibliographies from Bautista on Philippine English (Bautista, 2004; Bautista & Bolton, 2008a). It includes 11 sections dealing with book-length studies of Philippine English, as well as book chapters and journal articles on such topics as code-switching, code-mixing and linguistic hybridization; critical linguistics; discourse analysis; language attitudes and intelligibility; sociolinguistic description; language policies; multilingualism and multilingual education; Philippine literature in English; Philippine English features; and summative perspectives. While the bibliography is essentially contemporary in orientation, this article also emphasizes the foundational contributions of earlier scholars in the field.

De Aquí, Y De Allá: Education, Culture, And Identity Development Of Transnational Latinas, Elizabeth Harris-Medina

Theses and Dissertations--Educational Policy Studies and Evaluation

De Aquí, y De Allá: Education, Culture, and Identity Development of Transnational Latinas This ethnographic case study examines the experiences of three transnational Latina women, descendants of families from Degollado, Jalisco, Mexico, exploring how their migration history and educational backgrounds influence their life trajectories. Focusing on these three women, the study aims to better understand their challenges and inform the development of resources to support their success in the U.S. education system. Using ethnographic interviews and Ecological Systems Theory, the research highlights how places and social systems shape views and life paths, offering insights into how best to support these …

Do Dyslexia Laws Help Students With Visual Impairments Receive Needed Reading Supports? A Mixed-Methods Approach., Lindsay N. Harris, Johnnie Jones, Molly Pasley, Lisa Liberty, Tiffany Puckett

CISLL Publications

Teachers of students with visual impairments (TSVIs) have long expressed frustrations about the difficulty of getting a dyslexia diagnosis for students with visual impairments, but there is limited data to validate their concerns. Moreover, although most U.S. states have passed dyslexia laws that require universal screening and/or intervention for students with dyslexia, the laws may not be applied equally across all populations of students. A mixed-methods approach can validate TSVIs’ perspectives by revealing whether dyslexia legislation is associated with TSVIs’ perceptions of how their students’ needs are being met. To this end, we conducted a qualitative analysis of TSVI survey …

A Science Teacher’S Experiences When Fostering Intercultural Competence Among Students In Multilingual Classrooms: A Narrative Study, Uma Ganesan, Amanda R. Morales

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Faculty Publications

Increased globalization of the world economy, growth in human migration, and rapid devel-opments in science and technology have required people to develop intercultural commu-nication skills. Teachers play a crucial role in developing intercultural competence among students in our globalized, multilingual classrooms. The need for fostering collaborative discourse among students with diverse cultural and linguistic repertoires and building in-tercultural competence among students is a common blind spot in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics teacher praxis. This can inhibit efforts to cultivate safe and supportive learning environments for all students and can ultimately threaten multilingual student success. As part of a larger …

Overturning Race-Conscious Admissions: Analyzing The History Of Higher Education Affirmative Acton Legal Discourse And Preserving Whiteness, Hiba A. Qari

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Although researchers have investigated Affirmative Action, few have attempted to understand and explain the language mechanisms shaping public opinion and policy. The purpose of this study was to explore the historical context of higher education Affirmative Action legal discourse. This study employed Critical Discourse Analysis and Critical Race Theory to analyze how language and race, as social constructs, maintain White dominance in law and higher education. The thematic concepts included power, White normativity, and diversity rhetoric. This project explored the historical evolution of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decisions on Affirmative Action policy in higher education. The study also investigated the …

Learning Chinese Vocabulary: Understanding Students' Perspectives, Austin Gasiecki, Zuotang Zhang

The Coastal Review

This study used a survey to investigate self-study and university-enrolled Chinese learners’ habits in studying Chinese vocabulary in order to determine what study methods influence a.) learners’ confidence in learning Chinese vocabulary and b.) what aspects of Chinese vocabulary they consider easy or difficult. We were particularly interested in seeing what the data had to say about students’ attitudes towards characters and the written language, given that the field of Chinese language pedagogy is known for a stronger focus on the written language as opposed to the spoken language. We found that aspects of Chinese vocabulary associated with the spoken …

Between Pain And Glory: Memory Disputes Of The Brazilian Dictatorship In Retrato Calado And O Que É Isso, Companheiro?, Angela R. Mooney

The Coastal Review

This article analyzes Luiz Roberto Salinas Fortes’ Retrato calado (Silent Portrait) published in 1988, considering the theoretical discussions on testimonio's epistemology—addressing the challenge of narrating trauma and the risk of stylization. It compares Fortes' memoir with Fernando Gabeira's O que é isso, companheiro? (What's This, Comrade?) from 1979, examining diverse approaches to capturing historical trauma through literature and its impact on collective memory about Brazilian Dictatorship (1964-1985).

Ocho Quilates And The Golden Age Of Spanish Software As Authentic Stem Language Lessons In The Spanish Language Classroom, Ransom Gladwin

The Coastal Review

A topic absent from cultural discussions is the Golden Age of Spanish Software (GASS). Known in Spain and Europe, but largely ignored elsewhere, the years 1983-1992 were the Golden Age of Spanish Software, when Spain became Europe’s second largest producer of 8-bit computer games, the dominant video gaming platform at the time. Ocho Quilates, the two-volume series by Jaume Esteve Gutiérrez, meticulously details the biographies and achievements of this unique time is Spanish history. Spanish achievement in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) needs to be presented along with the arts of the Spanish-speaking world. The GASS makes an excellent …

Back Matter

The Writing Center Journal

Back Matter for Writing Center Journal 42.3.

Discursive Practices In Recurring Asynchronous Writing Center Consultations, Olalekan T. Adepoju

The Writing Center Journal

This study explores the discursive practices the researcher utilizes during recurring asynchronous writing consultations to engender mutually adjusted and context-driven interactions meaningful to writers’ development during virtual tutoring. While earlier studies have critiqued asynchronous tutoring for its inability to efficiently promote the writing center philosophy, the inevitability of writing centers’ transition to online modes due to the global COVID-19 pandemic warrants that writing center scholarship rethink the effectiveness of these online spaces. This study utilizes a discourse-analytic approach to analyze textual data collected from both WCONLINE and drafts I, the tutor, worked on. Individual interviews are also collected to ascertain …

Integrated Virtual Reality For A Motivating And Effectual Language-Learning Experience, Spencer L. Galvan, Amy Hardy, Jo Dee Duncan-Mosier

Indiana STEM Education Conference

The increased globalization of STEM fields and the resulting needed multilingualism provide ample reason to infuse language classrooms with responsive and immersive technologies. Furthermore, technology has proven to be a powerful resource to motivate students, regardless of the field. Early results show that the use of immersive technology positively affects both motivation and retention, and that students desire these types of technology and resources in more of their courses.

Home Of The Brave Book Study Assignment Description, David Wolff

Open Educational Resources - Teaching and Learning

Individuals lead storied lives, and everyone has a story to tell. Our stories can be shared orally and documented in print. Often, learners are exposed to stories through novels and other trade books. Teacher educators may benefit from using the stories in novels and trade books as case studies in preservice teacher preparation course. This assignment description outlines how to use the novel, Home of the Brave by Katherine Applegate, as a case study to contextualize and understand the lived story of an individual learning a second language and living in a new country. Through the novel, preservice teachers experience …

Fish In A Tree Book Study Assignment Description, David Wolff

Open Educational Resources - Teaching and Learning

Individuals lead storied lives, and everyone has a story to tell. Our stories can be shared orally and documented in print. Often, learners are exposed to stories through novels and other trade books. Teacher educators may benefit from using the stories in novels and trade books as case studies in preservice teacher preparation course. This assignment description outlines how to use the novel, Fish in a Tree by Lynda Mullaly Hunt, as a case study to contextualize and understand the lived story of an individual living and learning with dyslexia. Through the novel, preservice teachers experience the dilemmas faced and …

Power Of Partnership: The Effects Of Parent Training In Aided-Language Input On The Use Of Core Vocabulary Boards In The Homes Of Preschool Children: A Program Evaluation, Stephanie Jean Smith

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) systems play a crucial role in enhancing communication, language development, and learning for children with complex communication needs (CCN). Research suggests that AAC can significantly improve interaction with communication partners and mitigate risks in various developmental areas such as functional communication skills, speech, social engagement, and academic participation.

Early intervention is paramount for children with CCN to foster speech and language development, enabling them to express needs, interact socially, and lay the groundwork for future language skills. Introducing AAC systems early on and ensuring frequent exposure are essential for natural integration. Parents and caregivers must …

A Critical Perspective On Supporting Parents In Facilitating Informal Steam Learning On Children's Early Literacy Development, Suzanne G. Alexandre

Theses and Dissertations

Considering that parents/caregivers and home environment play an influential role in a child’s school readiness and future academic success, this study sought to support parents in using facilitation strategies to engage their child in informal learning at home. In order to examine if access to support for parents of preschoolers influenced parents’ confidence in their ability to facilitate informal learning at home, the project used informal STEAM learning, for context. The study also examines the potential impact of informal STEAM learning on children's school readiness and early literacy skills and the intersections of parent involvement, STEAM, and school readiness through …

Analysis Of Translanguaging In English Learning Of Thai Secondary Students, Dalton Le

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

This mixed-methods study was conducted to develop a questionnaire that explores students’ translanguaging practices and translanguaging perceptions in Thai secondary school English language instruction. The study was conducted in two phases. In the first phase, classroom observations and teacher interviews were used to frame and categorize students’ translanguaging practices, which were then used to construct the Translanguaging Practices and Perceptions Questionnaire. In the second phase, the questionnaire was distributed to 430 Thai students from M4 to M6 at a public government school in Thailand. After distribution, a confirmatory factor analysis revealed that the proposed factors in the questionnaire had a …

English 890: Advanced Research Methods, A First Benchmark Portfolio, Janel Simons

UNL Faculty Course Portfolios

In this benchmark portfolio, I reflect on course design and student learning in a course I teach for incoming Master's students in the English department, ENGL 890: Advanced Research Methods. ENGL 890 is a mini-session course intended to introduce students to various aspects of managing graduate-level research within the discipline of English studies. In this portfolio, I discuss the learning outcomes and goals for the course, highlight some of the assessments I use, reflect on student learning throughout the course, and articulate changes that might improve student learning in future iterations of the course. Given the overarching goals of this …

Measuring The Impact: Teacher Self-Efficacy In Literacy Instruction Following Letrs Professional Development, Elizabeth Younger

Doctor of Education Dissertations

North Carolina passed legislation that required all elementary literacy teachers to be trained in the Science of Reading (SOR). The North Carolina Public Department of Education (NCDPI) partnered with Lexia Learning to provide training on the SOR to all public-school Pre-K-5 literacy teachers using the professional development (PD) program Language Essential for Teacher of Reading and Spelling (LETRS). This study looked at how teachers in one North Carolina school district perceive the LETRS program to have impacted their efficacy in literacy instruction. This study used a mixed-method design using an explanatory sequential design with two phases. The first stage included …