The research conducted in this thesis is centered on the ESOL Hispanic student population, in the art classroom in Georgia. The information contained in this paper is meant to serve as a guide and resource for art educators with high populations of ESOL students in their classrooms. A review of current ESOL best practices in several content areas is included. Based on the research, guidelines and suggestions for accommodating these learners in the art room were developed, as well as a sample unit that includes three lesson plans, PowerPoint presentations and assessment rubrics.

The effects of comprehension-strategy based and decoding/fluency-based reading interventions on the reading comprehension skills of upper-elementary English language learners (ELLs) were evaluated in this review. Nine studies assessing the efficacy of ten interventions were systematically reviewed. Findings showed that comprehension strategy-based interventions were associated with positive gains in reading comprehension, while decoding and fluency-based interventions were not. Support was shown for direct instruction with guided and independent practice, large group discussions, and small-group student-led discussions. Support was also shown for the use of the following comprehension strategies: summarizing the text, identifying the main idea, making personal connections to the text, monitoring vocabulary comprehension, making predictions, asking questions, and visualizing. / text

The disproportionate representation of minority students in special education programs has been a problem for over forty years. Factors contributing to minority overrepresentation include the lack of primary prevention, inappropriate language and educational assessment, over-referral of minority students for suspected learning difficulties, duration of enrollment in language support services [i.e. English as a Second Language instruction (ESL)], and lack of cultural and linguistic knowledge by K-12 teachers, specialists, and administrators. The goal of the investigator was to determine pertinent placement factors used by Multidisciplinary Educational Team (MET) members when deciding whether or not to place Latino English Language Learner (ELL) students in special education for a suspected specific learning disability (SLD). Identification of such factors may elucidate why some ELL students are inappropriately placed in special education for a SLD while others who need services are not. The investigator also willdetermine the extent special education eligibility determination was based on standardized achievement test scores, Intelligence Quotient (IQ) test scores, IQ-achievement discrepancy criteria, and qualitative data such as MET report data.

Adult English literacy learners (ELLs) are learners with limited or no formal schooling in their first language who are learning to read and write in English. At present, the limited research surrounding adult ELL instruction does not fully investigate the literacies that learners make use of outside of the classroom in a Canadian context. Through the lens of the New Literacy Studies, this case study examines the variety of print-literacy practices that adult ELLs engage with inside and outside of the classroom, highlights the value of these literacy practices, and emphasizes the importance of connecting out-of-class literacy practices with those occurring in the classroom. Additionally, this study uses learner perspectives to describe out-of-class literacy practices and provides a platform for adult ELLs to discuss their in-class preferences. The findings indicate the necessity of acknowledging prior experiences of ELLs in the classroom and provide implications for in-class instruction and resettlement agencies.

ELLs are a growing community in the United States and their learning needs are significantly different from younger learners, collegiate ELLs or Adult Basic Education students. Additionally, adult female ELLs have their own needs and motives for investing in the English language. This study explores the self-recounted experiences of three adult female English language learners’ (ELLs) motivation for investing in English language learning, their identities and the benefits gained in a nonacademic learning setting in Texas. Data for this study was gathered using a background questionnaire, individual interview, group interview and in-class observation using an instrument that looks for visible markers of investment. First, each participant’s investment and identity are analyzed with regard to how the two intersect and influence each other throughout the language learning experience. Second, investment and benefits are examined and presented to demonstrate before and after pictures of the participants’ experiences learning English, asking, “Have the learners gained what they sought to gain?” and “Is it worth it?” Findings substantiate prior research on the influence that investment and identity have on each other in language learning, while also clearly demonstrating the explicit relationship between investment and benefits. The study concludes with an understanding that adult educators must recognize the individuality of each adult learner and her circumstances.

Adult English literacy learners (ELLs) are learners with limited or no formal schooling in their first language who are learning to read and write in English. At present, the limited research surrounding adult ELL instruction does not fully investigate the literacies that learners make use of outside of the classroom in a Canadian context. Through the lens of the New Literacy Studies, this case study examines the variety of print-literacy practices that adult ELLs engage with inside and outside of the classroom, highlights the value of these literacy practices, and emphasizes the importance of connecting out-of-class literacy practices with those occurring in the classroom. Additionally, this study uses learner perspectives to describe out-of-class literacy practices and provides a platform for adult ELLs to discuss their in-class preferences. The findings indicate the necessity of acknowledging prior experiences of ELLs in the classroom and provide implications for in-class instruction and resettlement agencies.

The research conducted in this thesis is centered on the ESOL Hispanic student population, in the art classroom in Georgia. The information contained in this paper is meant to serve as a guide and resource for art educators with high populations of ESOL students in their classrooms. A review of current ESOL best practices in several content areas is included. Based on the research, guidelines and suggestions for accommodating these learners in the art room were developed, as well as a sample unit that includes three lesson plans, PowerPoint presentations and assessment rubrics.

The content area of social studies has not been given as much attention as its counterparts despite its inclusion in the state wide TAKS exam in Texas. All students in grades 8, 10, and 11 are required to take the social studies portion, and must pass it in order to graduate. The consequences of such a test and the importance of social studies in the everyday lives of students make this content area important. In addition, since ESL students constitute a considerable segment of the student population in our schools nowadays, it is essential that educators understand the challenges these students face and the experiences they go through in such content areas and tests; thus, their performance in the TAKS exam is examined in this study. The purpose of this study was to analyze the performance of ESL students in the social studies TAKS exams in grades 8 and 11 in relation to content (represented by the five objectives of the test), and question item format (limited to two text-enriched question types: excerpt-based, and bullet-point questions). The study also sought to find the effects of demographic variables on student performance. The results of the study can further familiarize educators with the challenges ESL students face in social studies to be able to assist them succeed in their classrooms and on standardized tests. This study utilized secondary data analysis with a set of data provided from the Texas Education Agency. The data included information of the students who took the Spring 2003, 2006, and 2009 social studies TAKS exams, which allowed the researcher to conduct longitudinal analysis to further support the results. Overall, the study was non-experimental and descriptive in nature. A statistical significant difference was found between the percentages of correct answers by objective. ESL students performed better on objectives 3 (economics) and 5 (social studies skills), while lagging behind in objective 1 (history). The results were also confirmed in the longitudinal study that showed that although ESL students’ performance increased in all five objectives, there was statistically significant difference in the performance of ESL students among the objectives. In relation to question type, ESL students chose more correct answers for the bullet-point questions than they did for the excerpt-based questions with statistical significance. Longitudinal analysis of excerpt-based questions only showed that ESL students who took the exam in 11th grade three years after taking it in 8th grade, achieved higher. Finally, the results of the study show that the three demographic variables of gender, ethnicity, and socio-economic status had an effect on the performance of ESL students. Overall, males scored higher than females, economically non-disadvantaged students outperformed disadvantaged students, and Hispanic ESL students had the lowest scores of all the ethnic groups.

The current longitudinal study examined the development of morphological awareness (MA) in the writing of 59 (27 EL1, 32 ELL) participants in grade 3 and grade 5, using an experimental morphological error type scoring (METS) guide. The researcher -developed METS guide provided an in-depth analysis of inflectional and derivational morphological usage across five categories: omissions (MO), morphological spelling errors (Msp), morphological attempts (Mat), wrong word (WW) and wrong homophones (WH). Standardized literacy measures evaluated spelling, oral vocabulary and oral syntax. For all grade 3 to grade 5 participants the total morphological errors (TME) and morphological omissions (MO) decreased and the morphological attempts (Mat) increased. Increases in oral syntax and vocabulary correlated to increased writing performance and decreased total morphological errors (TME). Differences were observed in the correlation analysis across all morphological measures between language groups (EL1, ELL). Using a detailed morphological error analysis in children’s writing may provide an accurate measure of the development of morphological awareness and patterns of usage for morphological structures in the writing samples of diverse language groups. / Graduate

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-12T15:59:41Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 arquivo5500_1.pdf: 3962680 bytes, checksum: 4dba3d9b94bbd26eb1eec27b1083b622 (MD5) license.txt: 1748 bytes, checksum: 8a4605be74aa9ea9d79846c1fba20a33 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2006 / Tradicionalmente, linguagens funcionais fornecem um grau de abstração superior ao encontrado em outros paradigmas (imperativo, orientado a objetos), o que se manifesta por meio de construções de alto nível como funções de alta ordem, aplicações parciais, polimorfismo paramétrico e, em algumas linguagens, avaliação sob demanda. Entretanto, a utilização do paradigma funcional tem-se restringido basicamente a aplicações acadêmicas. Essa restrição é em parte explicada pela ausência de ambientes de desenvolvimento e APIs que melhorem a produtividade do desenvolvedor na construção de aplicações que fazem uso das tecnologias mais recentes de desenvolvimento Web, computação distribuída, arquitetura orientada a serviços, entre outras. Por outro lado, plataformas como a Java Virtual Machine e, mais recentemente, a Plataforma .NET, disponibilizam uma amplagama de serviços e bibliotecas que satisfazem aos tipos de aplicações supracitados. O ambiente .NET, em particular, destaca-se por suportar múltiplas linguagens, apesar do suporte ser mais amplo a linguagens orientadas a objeto. Dentro desse contexto, surge a oportunidade de portar linguagens funcionais para essa plataforma, permitindo não apenas o acesso aos serviços por ela fornecidos como também uma interoperabilidade natural com outras linguagens. O objetivo deste trabalho é o desenvolvimento de uma implementação da linguagem funcional Hask ell para a Plataforma .NET. Tal implementaçãonão é trivial devido ao g a p semântico que existe entre uma linguagem funcional com avaliação sob demanda e um ambiente como o .NET. F oi desenvolvido um gerador de código capaz de gerar, a partir de um programa Hask ell, código em IL - linguagem assembly suportada pela máquina virtual. Paralelamente, foram conduzidas medições de desempenho do código gerado. Tais medições demonstraram performance razoável para váriosprogramas. Entretanto, a principal contribuição deste trabalho está na disponibilizaçãode uma implementação Hask ell que serve como principal passo rumo µa interoperabilidade com a Plataforma .NET. Além disso, a solução desenvolvida serve como um ambiente de teste e validação de diferentes alternativas de tradução de uma linguagem funcional para as construções encontradas em uma plataforma como .NET