Language and Literacy Education Commons^™

Literacy Uses And Practices Of Schoolchildren Living In A Contemporary Malaysian Context, Syerina Syahrin

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

This paper reports the uses and practices of literacy in English of primary schoolchildren in Malaysia. Data was gathered from two children, their parents and the English subject teacher. The results reveal four major findings. First, the results reveal that the students’ experience with out-of-school literacies in English were largely afforded by new technologies Second, popular culture played a considerable role in the students’ out-of-school lives. Third, the students’ engagement with out-of-school texts was influenced by cultural artefacts and social discourses, and fourth, there were also complementing and contrasting literacy practices reflected in both environments. This paper argues that …

Promoting 21st-Century Learning: Online Collaboration Through Design Thinking Framework For Today's Esl Students, Hande Yildiz

Master's Projects and Capstones

Learners of the 21st-century engage and learn differently than ever before. Policymakers and teachers are now challenged to makeshift into the 21st-century education model and adapt their approaches to better prepare the students for the future work world. 21st-century ESL classrooms should reflect this learning model through a more engaging, collaborative, and student-centered approach. Collaboration and Information and Communication Technology (ICT) skills are vital in 21st-century learning. Research shows that ESL learners can benefit from collaborative activities and the use of technology improves students' language reception and production. However, due to the lack of understanding of the paradigm shift in …

Financial Literacy For Latino Immigrants: A Guidebook For Esl Teachers, Anna Braden

Master's Projects and Capstones

Latino immigrants face many financial challenges in the United States. Language barriers exclude them from jobs as well as financial and consumer markets. Lack of familiarity with the U.S. financial system or bad experiences with financial systems in their home countries can create mistrust and lead to Latino immigrants being unbanked or underbanked. Consumer vulnerabilities may also be exploited as immigrants turn to nonbank financial services such as predatory lenders (check cashers, payday lenders, etc.). Lack of access to jobs and marketplaces results in lower income and less wealth accumulation. Over time this results in wealth inequality between Latino immigrants …

Oral Presentation Skills Among Low Proficiency Esl Undergaduates, Majamin Zeuricca Johnny

Student Works (2020-2029)

This research study seeks to examine the issues that are related to ‘Oral Presentation Skills among Low Proficiency ESL Undergraduates’. The two research questions that have been constructed in this study focuses on eliciting the perspective of low proficiency undergraduates on the types of oral presentation difficulties that are faced by them and the types of communicative strategies that are used by this group in coping with their oral presentation difficulties. A total of fifty one low proficiency undergraduates from 3 local private universities with a MUET score of Band 1 and Band 2 have participated as respondents for the …

Primary School Pupils’ Perceptions On Narrative Model Essays In An Esl Classroom, Kanniappan Jamuna

Student Works (2020-2029)

Writing problems faced by Malaysian primary school pupils have led the teachers to find a way to help them in their writing ability. One of the strategies teachers have had is to use model essays in the writing classroom. This study examines the use of narrative model essays in a writing classroom in a school in Selangor. This study aims to identify the aspects of language which second language learners notice in reference to narrative model essays and gather insights regarding pupils’ perceptions on the use of narrative model essays in their narrative essay writing. The theoretical framework that underlines …

Self-Directed Learning Practices In Esl: How Beginning Adult Latinx English Language Learners Can Increase Learning Outcomes, Jessica Parisi

Master's Projects and Capstones

This field project investigates the self-directed learning (SDL) practices that could increase learner outcomes in English language acquisition for beginning adult English language learners (ELLs), and presents on a website designed for the learner, the practices and local resources to engage them. Non-credit English as a second language (ESL) courses in community colleges in the San Francisco Bay Area have high enrollment and low levels of advancement, especially beginning levels. Latinx adult ELLs face unique challenges that contribute to their low rates of advancement, including linguistic isolation, and work and home duties that often prevent learners from attending classes the …

Teaching English To Refugees And Immigrants With Low Literacy In Their Native Language And Limited English Proficiency (Using The Language Experience Approach), Jacqueline Hill

Master's Projects and Capstones

Immigrants who enter the United States come with varying degrees of education. Some immigrants come with a bachelor’s degree or higher, and some come with very limited schooling or no schooling at all. Yet many immigrants or refugees that come to the United States with low literacy in their native language, and limited English proficiency never enroll in an ESL class. There are many causes attributed to this lack of enrollment: learners’ embarrassment and anxiety to admitting their lack of literacy, class scheduling conflicts, long waiting lists, and the English-only approach taken by most ESL classes in the United States. …

Conquering Esl Students' English Listening Barriers, Dan Wu

Master's Projects and Capstones

Many students learning English as a Second Language (ESL) have some English pronunciation barriers in their listening and speaking, consisting of incomplete explosion, liaison, weak forms. The project aims to help ESL students find effective ways to conquer these common English pronunciation barriers in listening comprehension. At the same time, ESL students will learn the standard pronunciation habits of English sentences. This project is designed to use specific listening practice to assist in conquering ESL students’ English listening barriers of incomplete explosion, liaison and weak forms. By using the materials in this project, ESL students can learn to find their …

Flipgrid And Second Language Acquisition Using Flipgrid To Promote Speaking Skills For English Language Learners, Annelise Difilippantonio-Pen

Master’s Theses and Projects

Integrating twenty-first century skills within the classroom has become a global driving force within the educational field. While schools have adopted models of one-to-one technology or digital formats for native English speakers, addressing the twenty-first century skills for English language learners have been absent. Given that the present global society is driven on bilingualism and multilingualism, English language learners need to be given the equitable digital opportunity to build their twenty-first century skills. The purpose of this mixed methods research study is to explore the influence and use of the digital application, Flipgrid, on the oral, English development for foundational, …

Life After The El Label: Conversations About Identity, Language, And Race, Veronica Arizaga Aguayo

Doctoral Dissertations

Currently, the English Learner (EL) label is found in every facet of education concerning learners with home languages other than English. While the EL label is designated to objectively identify students who are indeed learning English, it also brings with it an unintentional, outward forced identity that institutes an unwillingness among peers and teachers to socially and academically engage with EL-labeled students. Not only has the label warranted inequitable academic opportunities, wide graduation gaps, and a consistently wide achievement gap, it has also perpetuated a deficit model and negative perceptions of the learners, especially with the racialized rhetoric that has …

Student-Centered, Interaction-Based, Community-Driven Language Teaching, Sharon Lyman

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

This portfolio is a compilation that highlights some of the author’s accomplished work while in the Master of Second Language Teaching (MSLT) program at Utah State University (USU). Organized into sections that reflect the author’s teaching and research perspectives as a MSLT graduate student and instructor, who taught intensive English reading, writing, and conversation courses for the Intensive English Language Institute (IELI).

In the first section, teaching perspectives, the author describes her desired professional environment, shares her personal teaching philosophy statement, and accounts for her professional development through classroom observations. In the second section, research perspectives, two research papers and …

The Importance Of Grammar For English Learners And English Teachers In The Coming Decade, Brian White

New Jersey English Journal

The teaching of traditional grammar in traditional ways is out of favor, and for very good reason. Still, in the coming decade, teachers of English will need to "know their grammar" and be able to explain it to a burgeoning number of English Language Learners (ELLs).

English Proficiency At A Glance: A Literature Review And Qualitative Interview Analysis For First-Time Tesol For First-Time Tesol Volunteers, Molly Bebko

Honors Projects

The purpose of this literature review and these consultations is to present the demands and needs of ESL volunteers in order that they may be effective teachers. These demands of ESL volunteers will be categorized according to the eight domains of the 2008 TESOL International Association Standards for ESL/EFL Teachers of Adults Framework. The literature review comprised of a thematic search of past and current research. The consultation process was semi-structured, phenomenological, and qualitative. The primary investigator interviewed five professionals in the ESL field. After both the literature review and consultation process, themes were identified and results were categorized into …

English Proficiency Of Vietnamese Business Graduates: Requirements Of Government, Private Universities, And Foreign Employers, Tien Tung Le

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

English is the global language of business, trade, tourism, technology, science and politics. It is also the official language in many foreign companies (Kam, 2002) and proficiency in English is therefore an advantage for acquiring employment in foreign companies where the working environment is multilingual, professional and highly competitive.

As a dynamic developing country in Southeast Asia, Vietnam has attracted substantial foreign investment since the introduction of Doi Moi or the Renovation policy in 1986. Over the last three decades, a number of foreign companies have established themselves in the country, creating numerous employment opportunities for young Vietnamese people, especially …

Relationship Between Esl Teachers’ Reading Habits And Their English Language Proficiency, Appa Rwoo Sharmila

Student Works (2020-2029)

This research is carried out with the purpose of gaining more in-depth information in regards to the reading habits of 210 ESL teachers in the district of Klang, Selangor and how these habits correspond to their English language proficiency. Using the convenience sampling method and quantitative instruments such as survey questionnaire and an English language proficiency test, this research aims to achieve four research objectives. First, it intends to study the types of reading materials read by ESL teachers in Malaysia. Secondly, it aims to calculate the rates of general and extensive reading among these teachers and thirdly, the problems …

Teacher-Tool Relationship Of Maldivian Esl Teachers: A Multiple Case Study, Wadheefa Aishath

Student Works (2020-2029)

Previous research has revealed the various ways teachers use the curriculum in classroom teaching. The way teachers use the curriculum not only impacts the effective implementation of the curriculum but, it also impacts the classroom instruction. This study intended to describe the teacher-tool relationship and the factors which shape this teacher-tool relationship. It particularly focused on ESL instruction in the context of Maldivian Key stage two teachers. Framing the study to include the unique characteristics of the island contexts, a qualitative multiple case study design informed by the interpretivist research paradigm was used in this study. Four schools across Maldives …

Three Ways To Help Esl Content Linger Beyond The “El Course” In Teacher Preparation Programs, Melanie Gonzalez

Journal of English Learner Education

Like many other states, our teacher preparation program arrived at this compartmentalized, “single-experience” ESL-focused course model as a result of local, state, and federal policies in the United States that have increasingly placed ELs into mainstream classrooms rather than into language and literacy development courses (de Jong, 2014). TESOL faculty might have questioned: how can everything related to effective ESL teaching be covered in one semester? The fact of the matter is that the onus on this work largely rests upon teacher candidates’ shoulders after they depart the ESL-focused course. What follows are three practices that largely have arisen …

A Phenomenology: Teachers Lived Experiences With Workplace English As A Second Language (Esl) Programs, Odilia Lineth Mitre Marciaga

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative phenomenological study was designed to understand in-depth teachers lived experiences with workplace ESL programs. This study provides strategies and recommendations to improve the overall logistics of workplace ESL programs which can benefit the employer, the students, the institution, and the teachers. Strengthening the partnership and communication of all the parties can strengthen the program as whole as well. Data collection of the methodological process included in-depth face-to-face interviews with seventeen teachers during the summer of 2019.The data was managed and analyzed through initial and axial coding from which main themes emerged. Six key findings emerged from themes as …

All About The American Flap, Kristin Lems

Faculty Publications

In this column, I am going to talk about the American flap, a phonological feature of the American English dialect. Those of us with backgrounds in ESL/EFL learn about this in our master’s programs, but I have found that even teachers who have taken a course in linguistics may not be aware of the flap and its important implications for listening, reading, and spelling in English (Lems, Miller, & Soro, 2017)

A Dialectical Relational Analysis Of Tesol Quarterly 2006 Special Issue On Race: Discourse, Race, And White Supremacist Ideology, Ginger A. Looney

Language, Literacy, and Sociocultural Studies ETDs

Although the field of TESOL is not racially neutral this dialectical relational analysis examined (1) what discourses did the authors use to deploy race in the articles in the 2006 TESOL Quarterly Special Issue on Race (TQSIR)? and (2) how do these discourses work to either conform to, or resist white supremacist ideology? Analysis of the texts identified four key discourse: racialization, whiteness, emotional labor of racism, and sonic and optic negation of racism. These discourses were examined in the domains of scholarship, curriculum, teachers, and students. In 21 instances, these four discourses work to resist white supremacist ideology. …

What Can We Learn From Adult Esl Students’ Responses To Children’S Literature?, Monique C. Stone

Language, Literacy, and Sociocultural Studies ETDs

Some teachers face frequently changing populations of students, making it difficult to gain cultural knowledge that is important to support student learning. The aim of this study was to explore how adult language-learner students in intensive English programs (IEPs) respond to children’s picture books portraying their home countries or cultures. Reader response theory (Rosenblatt, 1995) and cultural scaffolding (Gay, 2002; i.e., the use of student culture to support student learning) are the initial frameworks upon which the study was developed. The study was qualitative in nature and driven by a desire for the researcher to gain more cultural knowledge about …

An Evaluation Of A Title One Elementary School's English For Speakers Of Other Languages Program, Kim L.P. Rigby

Dissertations

ABSTRACT

Enrolled at many public schools in the United States are students who primarily speak languages other than English and lack proficiency in the English language. These students are required to show language proficiency on end-of-year English-only state assessments. One public elementary school utilizes a support program to assist second language learners in acquiring a level of language skills necessary for proficiency on state assessments. My evaluation of this school’s program utilized mixed methods to determine the viability of support services provided to second language learners. The findings of my evaluation revealed some weaknesses within the provided services and indicated …

Teaching English To Refugees Through Storytelling, Emily Camplejohn

Senior Honors Theses

Many refugees are trying to learn English while assimilating to a new culture. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has identified several needs and goals of refugees including competence in the language of the receiving culture and participation in a new, welcoming community. Storytelling, expressing or receiving a narrative through oral or written communication, can be implemented for teaching English to refugees with these goals and can link academic learning with real life experiences. In addition to using storytelling as a meaningful way to interact with language, storytelling also fosters a community within the classroom. The teacher is …

An Investigation Into A Culturally Sensitive Manner Of Teaching English As A Foreign Language, Julianna Vaught

Senior Honors Theses

How to teach English globally has continued to be a relevant topic of discussion in the field of TESL, especially how to teach in a manner that is sensitive to the various sociocultural and historical factors surrounding the English language, as well as other languages and cultures. Through an examination of the current global status of English, its historical significance, the dilemmas attached to its’ worldwide spread and dominance, and an examination of culture in language teaching, an attempt is made to codify some basic principles of culture-sensitive English teaching, as well as address the Christian position on this matter, …

Advocating For Integration: Acculturation In A Non-Profit Serving Immigrants Organization, Daniel Calderon

SPACE: Student Perspectives About Civic Engagement

This paper presents acculturation practices in a non-profit, serving immigrants organization in a Midwestern city in the United States. Although the programs and services offered at this organization become pertinent vis-à-vis the welfare of the immigrants, their expected outcomes seem to foment the Americanization of the organization’s clients.

Through a critical examination, certain services and practices within this organization respond to a unidirectional process of acculturation, in which the immigrants turn out to be the ones who have to acquire certain sociocultural and linguistic repertoires for them to adapt and fit in the U.S. mainstream society.

The utilization of the …

Creating An Energetic Classroom: A Handbook For Esl Teachers, Lusha Sha

Master's Projects and Capstones

Low classroom energy is a common problem in English language teaching. This field project discusses the problematic low-energy classroom from both the student side and the instructor side. The first aspect explored is the silence of students. Because speech shows the process of language acquisition and is also the precondition of language acquisition, it is crucial to discover and understand the reasons for some students’ unwillingness to speak (Baran-Lucarz, 2014). The project explains the willingness to communicate and the cultural variations in learning. The second aspect of a low-energy classroom in this project is the ESL teacher lack of enthusiasm. …

Indonesian Students' Perceptions Of Written Feedback In Second Language Writing, Rahmah Fithriani

Language, Literacy, and Sociocultural Studies ETDs

Grounded in sociocultural theory, written feedback activities in second language (L2) writing provide the social interactions that help learners develop their psychical functions within the zone of proximal development (ZPD) as they co-construct knowledge with teachers and peers through guided learning (De Guerrero & Villamil, 2000). Written feedback can also help student writers improve their writing proficiency, including organization of their texts and awareness of the mechanics of the language necessary for successful communication of the intended message (Chandler, 2003; Ferris, 2006; Jahin, 2012; Kamimura, 2006).

Regarding the eminence of feedback in L2 writing, a large body of research has …

The Language Of Learning In Family And Consumer Sciences: English Language Learners In Career Technical Education, Kali S. Lenhoff

Empowering Research for Educators

Family and Consumer Sciences (FCS) content and English as a Second Language (ESL) strategies can be organically incorporated to create a successful education for an English Language Learner (ELL). The first objective of this research project is to discover how prepared Family and Consumer Sciences teachers feel to work with English Language Learners in the classroom. The second objective is to identify practical and effective methods and strategies that are useful for Family and Consumer Sciences teachers instructing English Language Learners. The rationale for this project is that by identifying the challenges faced by English Language Learners in education, teachers …

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 …

The Importance Of Using Information Communication Technology For Learning And Teaching The English Language In Kurdistan Of Iraq, Nabaz Noori Kareem

English (TESOL) Master Theses

Kurdistan as a region in north of Iraq has undergone significant changes regarding its educational system, and using ICTs (information communication technologies) for teaching and learning English has been given a great role in the system. There are many researchers who wrote about the benefits and the challenges of using ICTs. As the term ICT includes many kinds of devices and applications, students and teachers in Kurdistan are using various types of ICTs inside or outside of the schools. Students and teachers use ICTs for teaching and learning the skills of the English language such as reading, writing, speaking, and …