Presented are case studies of two children as they make the transition from Mexican immigrant homes to kindergarten in an English-dominant school in the United States. In the first case, Victor adapts by keeping his attention focused on the teacher, which allows him to avoid disorientation and take on the role of exemplary student. In the second, Natalie adapts to kindergarten through her relationships with peers and the teacher. She often participates in class activities, however, without understanding the narrative or rationale behind them. Cross-case comparisons suggest that each student adapted in a way suited to his or her own needs and resources. The journey from disorientation to adaptation is described through the application of the holistic, systems-oriented, interactionalistic developmental approaches of Werner, Wapner, and Koizumi.

This thesis concerns a study of an elementary school Cree bilingual program. Students’ language proficiency, attitudes and academic performance were analyzed and parent and teacher interviews were conducted to assess the program’s effectiveness and to determine how well it meets community needs and expectations. The study found that students were learning Cree vocabulary but developing only limited communicative ability and they were not able to converse. The study also found that Cree Program students had positive attitudes toward Cree language and culture, and that their performance in other subject areas was not negatively affected by their focus on Cree language learning. Adult interviews demonstrated that parents and teachers had realistic assessments of students’ performance, but that they were strongly committed to the program. Parents demonstrated that they were very engaged in their children’s education. / October 2006

This is a work done within the sociolinguistic field. The objective of this work was to describe Spanglish and Spanenska and how these language varieties arose. Which loanwords, code switching and calques are the most frequently used in Spanglish and in Spanenska. The aim has also been to look if there are any similarities or differences between the usage of Spanglish and Spanenska when the native language is changed into a bilingual language. If the words that are used in Spanglish have an equivalency in the words used in Spanenska.   Futhermore we have described how the usage of gramatical rules, lexical and functional words are practiced, to look if there are any similarities or differences and to find out if these similarities or differences affect the usage of Spanglish or Spanenska. We have also described the three different ways: code-switching, loanwords and calques which are used in Spanglish and Spanenska.

Demographic data show that public schools are faced with meeting the academic demands of a population that is becoming more ethnically and linguistically diverse. Preventative steps can give schools the opportunity to address the needs of its students before systemic inefficiencies can negatively impact student academic outcomes. For this reason, it is important that school psychologists remain vigilant regarding the most efficient and cost effective means to identify problems early. Since Spanish is the most prevalent language of children in the schools other than English, there is a need for school psychologists to find screening instruments that are specifically designed to convey an accurate representation of the abilities of this population. One screening instrument that has been posited as effective in assessing both English and Spanish-speakers is the Developmental Indicators for the Assessment of Learning - Third Edition (DIAL-3). The purpose of this study is to expand the work of the DIAL-3 authors to include more detailed information regarding its reliability and validity for the Spanish speaking sample. This study was conducted using the data from the standardization samples of both the English and the Spanish versions of the DIAL-3. Given the nature of the instrument, the obtained reliability estimates, computed using Cronbach's (alpha), fell within the expected range. Reliability estimate comparisons between English and Spanish-speaking samples were not statistically significant with the exception of the reliability comparisons in two domains of the DIAL-3 in the 3 years 0 months to 3 years 5 months age range. Results from additional statistical analyses conducted for this study support the discriminant validity of the test. However, a moderate linear relationship was found between the Concepts and Language Domains (r = .61, p <.01). In addition, a series of confirmatory factor analyses were conducted in order to determine the invariance of the variance-covariance matrices between the English and Spanish standardization samples. The four fit indices examined (GFI, CFI, NFI, and RMSEA) for the constrained model were within the acceptable limits. These results indicate that the three-factor model originally proposed by the test authors is adequate for both the English and Spanish versions of the DIAL-3.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Indiana University, School of Education, 2007. / Title from dissertation home page (viewed Sept. 25, 2008). Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 69-02, Section: A, page: 0533. Adviser: Nancy Chism.

Thesis (Ed. D.)--University of La Verne, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 278-299).

Thesis--M.A., University of Hong Kong, 1979. / Quebec. Assemblee Nationale. Bill 101: Charter of the French language, 1977 in back pocket.

Thesis (M. Ed.)--University of Hong Kong, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 101-108).

The purpose of this study was to develop and pilot a naming test for Urdu-English bilinguals, a population that is growing quickly in the United States. Eighty-five target items were selected from the International Picture Naming Project Database and arranged in the order of least to most familiar. Familiarity ratings were used as estimates of item difficulty to develop the naming task because word frequency information was not available in the Urdu language. Thirty-one young adult bilinguals named black-and-white drawing of these targets in both Urdu and English. Self-rating of proficiency, examiner rating of proficiency and a standardized English receptive vocabulary test were used to cross-validate the naming test. The participants' current and cumulative language use were measured to investigate the relationships among language use, naming performance, and other measures of proficiency. The results indicate that performance on the naming test was correlated with convergent measures of language proficiency, including self-rating, examiner rating, and standardized test performance. Naming performance was related to cumulative reading experience in participants' first language. Familiarity ratings were related to naming performance in Urdu. These findings suggest that the naming task developed in the current study is a valid measure of language proficiency, and that familiarity ratings can be used as estimation of item difficulty in test development when word frequency data are unavailable. The naming test should be refined and further piloted with participants of various ages and those who are Urdu-dominant or balanced bilingual. / text

Teachers are being asked to engage in ambitious mathematics teaching in order to reform children's mathematics learning, and it has proven to be challenging. Unraveling the challenges requires understanding the in-the-moment decisions that teachers make while teaching mathematics. The focus of this study is to understand teacher noticing, the ways in which teachers identify, reason about and make decisions in the situations that occur when engaging English language learners in problem solving. Specifically, I used the construct of professional noticing of children's mathematical thinking (Jacobs, Lamb, & Philipp, 2010) to investigate what three bilingual teachers notice as they participate in a teacher study group to analyze and reflect on their experiences in weekly problem solving small groups. What teachers noticed reflected attention to situations in which they struggled to understand children's mathematical thinking and attempts to direct students towards correct problem solving. Teachers' decisions and struggles in engaging children in problem solving also revealed a focus on the role of preparing English language learners be successful for standardized testing. However, looking at student's work in the teacher study group began to help teachers focus on children's mathematical thinking. Implications on continued understanding of teacher noticing, effective mathematics professional development and developing understanding of mathematics teaching to English Language learners are discussed. / text