This study investigated the effects of reading comprehension strategy awareness and use on main idea comprehension and recall in first and second languages for Arabic-speaking Libyan university students. The research examined the effects of general reading proficiency, text difficulty and topic interest and familiarity on main idea comprehension. The study also examined whether there is a facilitatory relationship between awareness of reading comprehension strategies and their effective use. Participants were all university students majoring in Teaching English as a Second Language (TESL). There were 112 participants from Libya and 16 English speaking control participants from Canada. Reading comprehension strategy awareness was assessed via Mokhtari and Sheorey's (2002) Survey of Reading Strategy. The CanTEST was used to assess the English as a second language reading proficiency of the Arabic-speaking group, while the Nelson-Denny Reading Test served to assess L1 reading proficiency for the English-speaking group. An English reading text was administered to both groups and an Arabic reading text to the Arabic group only. The texts served as the basis for examining the English group's L1 and the Arabic group's L1 and L2 reading comprehension strategy use through their recall of the main ideas of these texts. A reader assessment questionnaire was employed to assess text difficulty, topic interest and familiarity. In addition, semi-structured reading strategy interviews were conducted individually with participants from the control and the experimental groups. The interviewees were randomly selected from within different reading proficiency groupings. Results revealed that reading comprehension strategy awareness had no effect on main idea comprehension in both L1 and L2 for the native Arabic group. The native English group had higher awareness of the three categories of reading strategies (Support, Global and Problem-solving) than the native Arabic group. The Problem solving strategy category was the most familiar to the native Arabic group. Results indicated that general reading proficiency did not affect the recall performance of main ideas for either group. Text difficulty and topic interest did not contribute to the comprehension and recall of main ideas, while topic familiarity was a factor in the recall performance of the native Arabic group. Qualitative analysis of the results indicated that the native English group effectively used more reading strategies than the native Arabic group, and that the native Arabic group did not actually use the strategies which they claimed the highest awareness of. Futhermore, they tended to misapply the strategies that they did use. These findings indicated that simply knowing about reading strategies does not necessarily result in being able to use them appropriately. We concluded that reading strategy awareness alone is not sufficient for the comprehension and recall of main ideas and that awareness needs to be accompanied by effective strategy use in order to have a positive impact on main idea comprehension and recall.

Most studies of language minority students' performance focus on students' characteristics. This study uses qualitative methodology to examine instead how educational policies and practices affect the tracking of language minority students who are classified as limited English proficient (LEP). The placement of LEP students in core courses (English, Math, Social Studies, and Science) is seen as resulting from the interaction between school context and student characteristics. The school context includes factors such as equity policy requirements, overcrowding, attitudes regarding immigrants' academic potential, tracking, and testing practices. Interaction among these factors frequently leads to placement in lower track courses. It was found that the absence of formal tracks could be misleading to immigrant students, particularly those with high aspirations who do not understand the implications of the informal tracking system. Findings are discussed in relation to current theoretical explanations for minority student performance.

The object of this research was to discover whether the related concepts of "practical certainty" (Dewey) and "going on" (Wittgenstein) might shed light on the nature of successful intercultural communication and how it is accomplished. The inquiry is significant because much of the research in the field to date is product- not process-oriented and involves models difficult to translate into practical life. The methodology involved the assumption that utility is a more suitable research goal than truth. Student-teacher interactions were taped in two kinds of class conferences at the University of New Hampshire, (1) foreign students being taught by an American, and (2) American students being taught by a Chinese woman. Participants were also interviewed. The concepts "practical certainty" and "going on" were found to shed new light on how successful intercultural communication is actually "done."

This dissertation examines the academic and social goals that three second-grade English language learners in a U.S. urban school bring to their blog-mediated academic writing practices, and the interrelated nature of those goals. This study aims to bridge the dichotomy between approaches to studying computer-mediated language and literacy development that are oriented toward academic goals inside school, and those that are oriented toward social goals outside school. The study also aims to investigate connections between language use and language development by highlighting linguistic features of semiotic choices that the students made for their texts. This builds upon recent research studies of literacy practices that focus only on situated uses of literacy in various social and cultural contexts (Christie & Martin, 2007). In this study, learning is defined as appropriation and language is defined as a semiotic system, from sociocultural perspectives that capture the transformative nature of tool-mediated practices (Bakhtin, 1981; Halliday, 1985; Kress, 1998; Vygotsky, 1978). Ethnographic data collected over the course of a year include students’ texts, blog comments, videotaped classroom interactions, interviews, instructional materials, and school documents. Analysis of the data examines student goals, semiotic choices employed by the students, and roles adopted by the students, in the social processes of learning academic genres. Systemic functional linguistics is used to analyze register variables across texts and blogging comments, to examine changes in the students’ uses of linguistic resources. The findings demonstrate that students appropriate blogging for both academic and social goals, and compose their texts by drawing on linguistic features appropriate for goals related to the audiences reading their blog posts. Writing for meaningful goals and for wider audiences encourages ELLs to become more invested in learning, and to use linguistic patterns in context-dependent ways. The study concludes with a discussion of the significance of social goals in developing critical academic literacies (Gebhard, Harman, & Seger, 2007), and implications for K-12 educators who are attempting to open up curricular spaces in which all stakeholders collaboratively work toward transformative learning experiences for ELLs (Willett & Rosenberger, 2005).

This study analyzed how six Heritage language learners at the university level gained conscious awareness and control of the concept of modality as revealed in student verbalizations (Vygotsky, 1998) throughout five different written communicative events. This work took place in the only course designed for Heritage language learners at a large public suburban university in the Northeast part of the United States. Grammatical simplification in bilingual speakers is due to incomplete acquisition of Spanish, attrition or loss of an underused linguistic system (Lynch, 1999; Martínez Mira, 2009a, 2009b; Mikulski, 2010b; Montrul, 2007; Ocampo, 1990; Silva-Corvalán, 1990, 1994a, 1994b, 2003; Studerus, 1995). The result of the process of simplification is reduction or loss of forms and/or meanings. In this work, I investigated in which ways Gal'perin's (1989) systemic-theoretical organized instruction promoted awareness, control and internalization of the concept of modality in three sets of data: definition, discourse and verbalization (Negueruela, 2003). In addition, I examined how the concept of modality emerged and proceeded. By focusing students' attention in Negueruela's (2003) Concept of Mood in Spanish orienting chart in a top down fashion, students were able to strengthen their theoretical understanding in practical activity while still accessing empirical knowledge, and eventually generalizing its use in new contexts across nominal, adjectival and adverbial clauses. At the definition level, Gal'perin's Systemic-theoretical instruction promoted emergence and progress of their conceptual understanding from perceptual to semantic. At the discourse level, students' theoretically based semantic understanding had a positive impact as revealed in student's discourse progress throughout tasks. At the verbalization level, semantic, abstract and systematic verbalizations showed students' emergence of awareness of the interrelated categories of modality. The conceptual category of anticipation was appropriately verbalized and contextualized 68% of the time. The absence of quality verbalizations referring to a specific conceptual category in some students lead me to conclude that students did not fully understand the meaning of some conceptual categories. On the contrary, their presence in any of the tasks showed emergence of conceptual meaning(s) in appropriate contexts, further appropriate recontextualization may provide full awareness and control.

Language education policy and its implementation have been controversial and ongoing issues throughout the United States, especially in the border state of Texas, with its large population of students who are learning English. This dissertation reports two studies, the first of which was a frame analysis of problems and solutions as represented by the five bills amending the Texas Education Code with regard to bilingual education and English as a second language programs. These laws, passed in 1969, 1973, 1975, 1981, and 2001, have been enacted since 1968, the year the Bilingual Education Act (BEA) was passed. The problem framed consistently by these state policy documents was inadequate instruction for children who come to school speaking languages other than English. More variability was seen in the framing of solutions, with approaches changing from the authorization of instruction in languages other than English, to the establishment of mandated bilingual programs, to the extension of special language programs, and to the establishment of dual language immersion programs. The primary ideology influencing the policy documents was the monolingual English ideology; however, alternative ideologies are apparent in the policies that allow for dual language immersion programs. Geographic information systems (GIS) analysis was used in the second study to investigate the geographic locations of particular programs and the demographics of students they served. Choropleth maps showed variability in program distribution across the state with distinct patterns apparent in only two programs. The maps indicated that districts with high percentages of student enrollment in one-way dual language programs tended to be located in and near the major metropolitan areas, whereas many districts offering early exit transitional bilingual programs tended to be located along the Texas-Mexico border. Despite the literature on bilingual/ESL program effectiveness, the predominant program in the border region of Texas is among those considered least beneficial to students learning English. This pair of studies illustrates the influence of monolingual English ideology on educational practice and policy through the implementation of programs by districts as well as the framing of bilingual education in legislation.

Across 2 experiments, I examined the effects of the establishment of English IncidentalBidirectional Naming (Inc-BiN) on the transformation of stimulus function from English to Spanish Inc-BiN for novel familiar stimuli. A total of 10 preschool-aged participants with disabilities were selected across both experiments, as none demonstrated incidental learning for listener and speaker responses. Participants were categorized as either a Monolingual (ML) or Dual Language Learner (DLL), based on the language they were exposed to outside the educational setting. Further, I conducted pre-experimental screenings to determine participants’ initial strength of Inc-BiN stimulus control and paired them into dyads consisting of 1 student from each language community. In the pilot study, I used a pre-test post-test simultaneous treatment design across 2 dyads to test the effects of Brief and Prolonged Naming Exposures on the establishment of English Inc-BiN. Across all phases of the intervention, I provided visual match-to-sample Naming experiences followed by tests for the acquisition of untaught listener and speaker English responses for novel familiar stimuli. Upon completing any given phase to the intervention, I assessed for the transformation of stimulus function using the same set of Naming experiences and tests in Spanish. Results showed that English Inc-BiN was established for both DLLs, 1 of whom also acquired Spanish Inc-BiN while the other demonstrated Spanish Incidental-Unidirectional Naming (Inc-UniN) without intervention. However, this developmental capability was not established for any ML participants, as the intervention was interrupted due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In Experiment II, I utilized a multiple probe design across 3 dyads to conduct a systematic replication of the pilot study. Overall, English Inc-BiN was established across all participants. Brief Naming Exposures were effective in establishing the capability for 4 participants while the remaining 2 required additional Prolonged Naming Exposures. The intervention was also effective in establishing the transformation of stimulus function across listener and speaker responses of different languages, with the acquisition of Spanish Inc-BiN for 3 participants and Spanish Inc-UniN for 2 participants. Reported differences in the number of Naming exposures required to establish English Inc-BiN further indicate that Inc-BiN may be acquired at varying rates across members of different language communities. The implications of these findings are discussed in terms of establishing incidental language repertoires in order to improve DLLs rate of learning and long-term educational success. These results further pose question on the effectiveness of our nation’s current bilingual education system, as there may be a need to shift focus from language of instruction to quality of instruction.

In this current era of rapid demographic shifts and high stakes school reform, studies that explore the academic and social responses of students to critical language pedagogies are very much needed as resources for education policymakers and teachers. Through a combined ethnographic and systemic functional linguistic approach, this study explores the textual and classroom process of 5th-grade Puerto Rican students engaged in a SFL-based curricular unit on literature. Three interrelated questions guide the research: how SFL-based pedagogy supports students in developing an understanding of how to write literature and to accomplish social and political goals; and on a wider level, how institutional policies and practices constrain and facilitate teachers in developing such pedagogies. To address these issues, the dissertation draws on a critical sociocultural theory of language and literacy that sees language as a semiotic process and text as a web of previous texts and contexts woven together for a specific communicative purpose. To analyze ethnographic and classroom data, the study draws on concepts from Bloome and Egan Robertson (1993), Dyson (1997, 2003), and Keene and Zimmermann (1997). The comparative SFL analysis of literary source texts and students' writing is based on the work of Eggins (2004), Halliday and Matthiesen (2004), and Thompson (1996). Analysis of the data reveals that students in this SFL-based curricular unit learned in very different ways to interweave patterns of meaning from literary source texts into their literary and other academic writing. Furthermore, the students' access to a wide variety of literature and scaffolding activities afforded them different entry points into literature that resonated most strongly for each of them (Dyson, 2003). On an ethnographic level, a history of school-university-partnerships and school reform initiatives in the research site facilitated teachers' implementation of critical language-based curricula. Implications of this study for K–12 practitioners and researchers are discussed at length. They include the importance of the explicit use of intertextuality in heightening students' awareness of language as a pliable repertoire of choices and the crucial role school-university alliances need to play in supporting teachers and students in urban school classrooms.

Little, if any, research exists that provides guidance for educators on the use of a dynamic assessment as a tool for better identifying Latinx students for gifted programs. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to explore the perceptions of campus principals and elementary teachers as dynamic assessment was being considered as part of the gifted and talented identification protocol. Data were collected through teacher and principal interviews and focus groups, along with an analysis of current practices and protocols within the studied district. The findings revealed several key themes that emerged from educator perspectives on the ability of emergent bilingual students to be placed in gifted programs and how dynamic assessment could or could not play a part in the assessment process. The study provides support and context for future research about dynamic assessment as applied to gifted and talented identification of Latinx students, including (a) the development of a dynamic assessment, (b) the implementation of a dynamic assessment with presentation of data that supports or do not support its use, (c) training to support the implementation of a dynamic assessment, (d) the human capital and time associated with implementing a dynamic assessment, and (e) educator mindset associated with the implementation of a dynamic assessment for students who do not speak English in the home.

The objective of this dissertation is to determine how and to what extent the factors involved in primary stress assignment in nouns interact in the Spanish and English interlanguages. Both transfer and developmental factors are studied. The former include: L1 stress rule application in the L2 and L1 cognate stress transfer to the L2. The developmental factors considered are: L2 stress rule application and knowledge of the L2 marked stress. The analysis is based on Harris and Hayes's theoretical descriptions for the Spanish and English stress systems, respectively, and on Dresher and Kaye's parametric model. The sample consisted of 58 University of Massachusetts' students of Spanish: 30 beginners and 28 from the intermediate level; and 64 Simón Bolívar University's students of English: 32 from each level. The general hypothesis, according to which in the Spanish and English interlanguages' stress assignment of nouns, transfer and developmental factors interact in such a way that the former are more decisive at the beginning levels and the latter, at the intermediate, was proven. It was also found that in the first stages, learners rely on phonological rather than morphological information in finding out the second language stress system. In the light of the Theory of Principles and Parameters, the results of this study show that L2 learners can reset their parameter values: from the unmarked to the marked setting and vice versa. Finally, it is concluded that language idiosyncratic properties which lie outside the core grammar, such as: language specific conditions, prespecified metrical information in the lexicon, morphological considerations, etc. require systematic and intensive instruction and practice, since they constitute the main sources of error.