Thesis advisor: C. Patrick Proctor / Traditionally strict language separation policies in dual language bilingual education (DLBE) programs reflect parallel monolingualism and have been criticized as failing to recognize the sociolinguistic realities of bilingual students (García & Lin, 2017). To leverage bilingual learners’ full linguistic repertoires as resources, this study explored how Sánchez, García, and Solorza’s (2018) translanguaging allocation policy could be strategically and purposefully designed in a third grade Mandarin/English DLBE classroom where the majority of the students were English-dominant speakers. Taking the form of participatory design research (Bang & Vossoughi, 2016), I (as a researcher) and a Mandarin teacher worked together to co-design translanguaging documentation, translanguaging rings, and translanguaging transformation spaces across different content areas – Chinese Language Arts, Science, and Social Studies. During the process, we also engaged in equitable forms of dialogue and listening to openly discuss, negotiate, and develop our translanguaging co-stance in iterative ways. Data collection included classroom and design meeting recordings, observational field notes, and teacher and students’ artifacts and interviews throughout the school year of 2018-19. Inductive and deductive coding were adopted for data analysis. Findings revealed that translanguaging pedagogies took many shapes based on contextual factors, such as the different pedagogical purposes and curricular demands across content areas. Students were able to develop deeper content understandings, build cross-linguistic connections, and develop their bi/multilingual identities and critical consciousness in those flexible bilingual spaces. Findings also demonstrated that the ideological (re)negotiation between the researcher and the teacher was a bumpy and discursive journey, replete with tensions, confusions, and difficult conversations. Overall, it was a balancing act to create translanguaging spaces while maintaining the language-minoritized (Mandarin) space and privileging students’ use of Mandarin given the societal dominance of English. This study provides implications for new theoretical and pedagogical understandings of translanguaging, and suggests that researcher-teacher collaboration provides a promising way to generate evidence-based, practitioner-informed, and context-appropriate knowledge for DLBE curricular and pedagogical improvements. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2020. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Teacher Education, Special Education, Curriculum and Instruction.

<p>The under-preparation in math at the high school and college levels, as well as the low participation of ethnically and linguistically diverse individuals in STEM fields are concerning because their preparation for work in these areas is essential for the U.S. to remain competitive in the innovative knowledge economy. While there is now a substantial body of research on this group of students, there remain unresolved questions around the role of linguistic factors, affective variables, and prior achievement. In light of this concern, the purpose of the study was two-fold. One was to examine the moderating role of first language (L1) proficiency on the effects of language minority (LM) status in English reading. The second was to investigate the mediating roles of English reading and math achievement in the relationship between such interaction and math self-efficacy. The study was a secondary analysis of the Education Longitudinal Study (ELS 2002, n =16,110). Using a multilevel SEM analysis the study did not find support for the moderating role of L1 proficiency. However, English reading and math achievement mediated the relationship between LM status and math self-efficacy. These findings provide further knowledge for the development of targeted interventions that aim at increasing the preparation and participation of linguistically and ethnically diverse students in STEM fields. </p>

<p> Bilinguals have been found to outperform monolinguals across a variety of cognitive tasks (e.g., Bialystok, Craik, &amp; Luk, 2008). Research regarding the generalizability of the bilingual advantage in driving, however, has not been conclusive (Chong &amp; Strybel, 2015; Telner, Wiesenthal, Bialystok, &amp; York, 2008). This study aimed to investigate differences in monolingual and bilingual performance in a simulated driving task. The Lane Change Test (LCT) was used to assess driving performance in the presence of a peripheral detection task (PDT), delayed digit recall task (2-back task), and visuospatial task (clock task). Results demonstrated that both monolinguals and bilinguals performed equally across all tasks. Completing a cognitive task, however, was found to be detrimental to both driving and the detection of peripheral stimuli. Given the controversial nature of the bilingual advantage, possible explanations for the null results obtained for the two language profiles are discussed.</p>

The intention of this study is to describe some pedagogue’s exceptions of how they work with children who has Swedish as a second language and how they work with the policy documents and rights that is available. The study is based on three structured interviews with very experienced pedagogues that work in preschool. The three interviews are recorded and adapted.  To analyze the data a socio-cultural approach was used. The conclusion of my study was that the pedagogues who work in preschool has a similar way to work with bilingual children and that they consider that communication through speak, pictures and the body language is the most important thing to get the children accessorial to the preschool activities and to maintain the rights. / Syftet med denna studie är att beskriva några pedagogers uppfattningar om hur de arbetar med barn som har svenska som andraspråk och hur de arbetar utifrån de styrdokument och rättigheter som finns. Studien bygger på tre ostrukturerade intervjuer med erfarna pedagoger som arbetar i förskoleklass. Intervjuerna är inspelade och transkriberade. För att analysera innehållet av datan så har en sociokulturell ansats används. De slutsatser jag dragit är att pedagogerna i förskoleklass som intervjuades har ett liknande arbetssätt vad det gäller de tvåspråkiga barnen. De anser att kommunikation via tal, bilder och kropp är det viktigaste för att barnen ska bli delaktiga i verksamheten och att upprätthålla de rättigheter som finns.

This qualitative research study built on the existing research on young children’s composing. Although many researchers have examined the social nature of young children’s composing, there is little to no research that has focused on the social work of young bilingual children who are learning to write in two languages. This study explored the social activity of bilingual kindergarten writers in a two-way bilingual immersion program. Specifically, it examined (a) the face-to-face interactions of young bilingual writers, (b) the ways in which children’s interactions related to the written/drawn products that were being created at the writing center and during journal time and (c) the oral language that was being used as children engaged in writing activities. Data were collected for five months in a two-way immersion classroom in South Texas school district. Data sources, including expanded field notes, video recordings of students’ interactions, written/drawn artifacts and informal interviews with the students and the teacher were analyzed using the constant comparative method and microethnographic discourse analysis. Analysis revealed that bilingual children’s interactions were varied and complex. As they explored written language alongside their peers, the young writers in this study navigated through multiple peer worlds that were defined in part by the language and/or languages that were being spoken. In order to participate in these worlds the children had to draw on their entire linguistic repertoire, as well as differentiated social understandings that are unique to bilingual individuals. As children attempted to initiate interactions with their peers, they assumed the role of linguist; they made purposeful decisions about how and when they used both of their languages. Factors that influenced children’s oral language use included comfort level, peer culture and the out-of-classroom context. Also noteworthy is that these children drew on both languages to support their biliteracy learning. Both Spanish dominant children and those children who were balanced in their language use drew on their Spanish orally to support their writing in English while English dominant students tapped into their Spanish speaking capabilities to support their writing in English. / text

Results from traditional assessment measures used with Spanish-English bilingual children may not be representative of this population’s morphosyntactic abilities due to their dynamic proficiencies. Short-term learning tasks such as structural priming may provide more comprehensive information on bilingual children’s morphosyntactic abilities. The purpose of this thesis was to analyze items from the experimental version of the Bilingual English Spanish Assessment-Middle Extension (BESA-ME) in order to select appropriate item types to be used on a structural priming task. The Experimental BESA-ME was administered to 137 children with typical development and 37 children with language impairment between the ages of 7;0 to 9;11. Results revealed that appropriate items for a structural priming task were third-person singular, past tense, and possessives in English, and conditionals, subjunctives, and direct object clitics in Spanish. Depending on the purpose of the structural priming tasks, additional items also showed potential for use. / text

The purpose of this study was to investigate English as a second language (ESL) strategies and modify them for use in the art classroom. The goal of this research was to help improve writing skills for English language learners (ELLs). This study utilized collaborative action research to understand teaching practices and develop curriculum for 4th grade students at Texas Elementary School in the Lejana Independent School District. During this study I collaborated with Ana Rivera, the art teacher at Texas Elementary School. Through a semi-structured interview and informal discussions, we developed an art lesson, Creating a Comic Book, which combined writing and drawing activities. Several lesson resources were also created as a result of our collaboration. Data was collected from the semi-structured interview, teacher and student reflections, field notes, and photos of students’ writing and artwork. By identifying academic areas that need support, I was able to draw conclusions and provide suggestions for ESL strategies. The findings of this study indicate that art educators can help improve writing skills for ELLs by utilizing vocabulary development, physical gestures, body language, visuals, and demonstrations. After reviewing a final lesson evaluation and analyzing data, I was able to provide recommendations for other art educators. These recommendations include support for native languages, create connections between home and school, encourage rigorous thinking, and edit student writing. It is my purpose that my research be shared with educators and administrators in the Lejana Independent School District and other professional venues of research dissemination. / text

Research has shown that children categorize words in terms of taxonomic and slot-filler strategies. Monolingual children were thought to shift from a slot-filler to taxonomic strategy between the age of five and eight. The aim of this study is to analyze the way Mandarin-English bilingual children organize their lexical-semantic system through the use of a category-generation task that investigate taxonomic and slot-filler organizational strategies in each language. There were 53 Mandarin-English bilingual participants (between 4 and 7 years of age) included in this study. Participants were asked to name as many items as they could think of in slot-filler and taxonomic conditions in English and Mandarin. The results indicate greater performance in English than Mandarin in children who were five years or older. Four-year-old bilingual children produced comparable number of items in both slot-fill and taxonomic condition, but the five-, six-, and seven-year-old bilingual children showed greater performance in the taxonomic condition. Children performed better for the animal than the clothes category, and better for the clothes than the food category. These findings, while largely consistent with existing literature, suggest that the slot-filler to taxonomic shift may take place at an earlier age compared to monolingual children. / text

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This study investigated the effects of advance organizers on the English reading comprehension of six bilingual learning disabled students. Little research has examined instructional strategies for teaching bilingual learning disabled students, a growing population in our schools. Based on research dealing with the use of advance organizers as an instructional strategy and on research in bilingual education, this study compared the effectiveness of using advance organizers on the English reading comprehension of six learning disabled students whose primary language was Spanish. An alternating treatment design was maintained. Following each treatment, the students read an expository text written in English and answered eight comprehension questions based on five levels of reading taxonomy. The number of correctly answered comprehension questions was recorded on graphs and statistically analyzed to compare the treatment conditions. In addition, the average proportion of correct responses for different levels of questions was computed and analyzed. Analyses of the data suggest that advance organizers were effective particularly when presented in the dominant language of the student. The five students who demonstrated equal or greater language proficiency in English scored higher when the English advance organizer was compared to the Spanish advance organizer. The student who demonstrated greater language proficiency in Spanish scored higher on the Spanish advance organizer. All students scored higher when the English advance organizer was used in comparison to no advance organizer. Three of the students scored higher on reading comprehension when the advance organizer was presented in Spanish as compared to no advance organizer. Students performed highest on questions at the appreciation and evaluation levels of the reading taxonomy. This study supports the body of research which suggests advance organizers are an effective instructional strategy and suggests their effectiveness with bilingual learning disabled students. This study also highlights the importance of considering students' dominant language, particularly their cognitive/academic/language proficiency, when determining the language for presentation of the advance organizer. Further research needs to systematically investigate the interrelationship between advance organizers and students' dominant language when attempting to facilitate English reading comprehension.