Minority language people are sometimes simplistically viewed as lacking the language of the majority, and Deaf people are simplistically viewed as lacking hearing, thus ignoring the sociocultural realities of both groups. It is only in the last two decades that attempts have been made to articulate a Deaf ideology that considers deafness as a sociocultural characteristic rather than a defect. This dissertation asserts that there are three different types of ideologies that have co-existed since the beginning of time, and that influence deaf education even today: (1) Deafness as a terminal trait: this is defined as the type of ideology that places deaf individuals on a track that leads to a dead end. (2) Deafness as a limiting trait: This ideology views the deaf as handicapped people with limited possibilities for attaining the highest possible intellectual goals; and (3) Deafness as a socio-cultural trait: This ideology views deaf people as having their own language and culture who can fully develop their intellectual capacity through their natural language and culture and the language and culture of the hearing society in which they live, thus becoming bilingual and bicultural. This dissertation will answer the following question: How have these ideologies shaped deaf education in Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Cuba, Ecuador, Guatemala, Mexico, Nicaragua, Puerto Rico, Uruguay, and Venezuela, in the areas of (a) language use; (b) educational trends; and (c) societal aims for the deaf population? The results of this research can help Latin American educators to re-evaluate deaf educational systems in use today, and educators of the deaf around the world. The Deaf in Hispanic America are witnessing the evolution of national paradigms as their languages are recognized as official in Venezuela, Uruguay, Colombia, Ecuador, Nicaragua and Cuba. Governments are taking legal action to recognize and to accept other forms of communication, such as sign language for the Deaf and Braille for the blind in Ecuador. The remaining countries do not recognize their sign language as official. Educators are implementing programs different approaches, such as oralism, Total Communication, and bilingual education, and integrating Deaf students into regular classes.

Most published studies of ESL/EFL vocabulary learning were grounded in the paradigm of L1 English literacy research. This case study, however, emphasized a simultaneous examination of the functions of the dictionary, of the learner's native language, as well as of the context, as one unitary process of ESL/EFL vocabulary learning through reading defined in its own terms. Four Chinese students (three graduates and one undergraduate) participated in the study. Each was assigned to read a passage, to take a vocabulary test based on reading, and to answer questions concerning her approach to vocabulary learning. They were allowed to use a dictionary for reading--but not the test--and to report their thoughts orally in English or Chinese or both. All these were recorded and transcribed. The final report was based on the protocols from two of the four cases. A series of lexical-semantic notions were applied to represent the learners' knowledge statuses in finer terms. Word, the basic unit of analysis, is defined as a lexical item, a combination of a lexical form and its essential meaning aspects. Context is defined as a set of relations--the semantic, the grammatical, and the rhetorical--a lexical item holds to the other items. The analyses thus better reflected the complex aspects of the English vocabulary--denotation, reference, sense, semantic traits, etc. These are potentially useful for designing sophisticated quantitative studies. The implications are manifold: the students should realize the scope of vocabulary learning in estimating their knowledge--whether be able to illustrative meanings, to distinguish synonyms, to perceive the selectional restrictions, etc.; they should train to absorb the contextual information to establish, refine, and substantiate their knowledge, as well as to infer meanings; they should learn to use the dictionary effectively and pay attention to absorbing information on usage; they should form a systemic perspective on translating English words into equivalents of their native language; ESL teachers, need to know a good deal of the students' native language to effectively deal with the issues concerned in teaching and research; and these L2 cases also threw light on the nature of L1 literacy teaching and research.

This multiple-case study examines the Literacy Assistance Project, an early intervention reading program for "at-risk" students in the Tucson Unified School District. First, this study seeks to thoroughly describe the programmatic, administrative, theoretical and pedagogical framework of LAP and document how these concerns are reflected in the context of LAP lessons. The LAP program claims to be a holistic, or constructivist, reading program. Cambourne's (1988) eight conditions of learning are descriptors of literacy events and activities that are consistent with a constructivist perspective of learning. As a second goal, the study determines the extent to which LAP meets Cambourne's eight conditions of learning, and thirdly, the ways that two LAP teachers' beliefs and practices are consistent with those eight conditions. Whole language proponents are often concerned with aspects of Reading Recovery and other reading intervention programs. In Chapter 1 whole language concerns with reading intervention programs such as Reading Recovery and LAP are addressed and responses to those concerns by Reading Recovery and LAP follow. Data for the study was collected in two elementary schools over a five-month period. They include researcher field notes of lesson observations, interviews with two LAP teachers, eight LAP students, one principal, the LAP designer, and current director. They also include audiotaped transcriptions of lessons and children's writing samples. Analysis of the data was conducted by observing Glaser and Strauss's (1967) grounded theory technique. The data indicate that, notwithstanding the constructivist nature of the reading intervention program, teachers themselves determine how holistic, or constructivist, LAP lessons are. Both teachers reported constructivist teaching and learning beliefs about literacy, but only one teacher practiced those beliefs consonant with Cambourne's (1988) eight constructivist conditions. This finding evidences the critical importance of understanding how teacher beliefs shape teachers' classroom practice. Because teacher beliefs about language, learning, and literacy in great part determine the nature of teachers' practices, and because teachers' reported claims about teaching, reading, and writing strategies may not actually be what they practice due to the influence of those beliefs, it is recommended that pre-service and continuing teacher education programs and in-services carefully examine the foundation and efficacy of teacher beliefs. It is further recommended that educators who instruct pre-service and continuing teacher education coursework make the examination and understanding of teacher beliefs a major curricular emphasis.

This dissertation examined the relationship between Hispanic population proportion (HPROP) and an index variable indicating the provision of library services to the Spanish-speaking in the State of Arizona (PLSS). Mailed in the summer of 1999 to 169 public library facilities, a survey collected information on libraries' provision of Spanish-speaking personnel, Spanish-language materials, and Spanish-format library services. Regression analysis indicated that HPROP has a significant effect upon PLSS (B = .600, p < .0001). An analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) procedure indicated that libraries in metropolitan areas were more likely than non-metropolitan libraries to provide service to Spanish-speakers (F = 106.72, p < .0001). Another ANCOVA found that libraries closer to the Mexican border were not significantly more likely to provide PLSS than libraries farther away from the border (F = 68.33, p > .0001); and a t-test revealed that libraries which maintained interaction with bilingual or ESL teachers were more likely to provide PLSS for Spanish-speaking children than libraries that did not interact with bilingual or ESL teachers ( t = -4.6351, p < .0001). Conclusions reached in this dissertation are that libraries plan their services and collections based on local demographics and community needs; that rural libraries are often unable to provide PLSS, possibly due to financial constraints; and that proximity to a political boundary does not always influence libraries on one side of that boundary.

This study examined the acculturation level of 88 Chinese-American students at UCLA, and whether there was any relationship between their acculturation level and academic performance of the same persons. The Cultural Life Style Inventory developed by Mendoza for Mexican-Americans was adapted as the primary measurement for this research. The difference of cultural shift score between the U.S. born group and the immigrant group was not significant. However, a repeated measures t test on the difference between cultural resistance and cultural shift in the U.S. born group showed significance. In addition, a t test on two sample independent groups showed the differences between cultural resistance and cultural shift were not the same in the U.S. born group and the immigrant group. No dominant cultural life style tendency was found in these subjects. The differences of acculturation level between being in the U.S. for 6-10 year group and 16-20 year group, between 11-15 year group and 16-20 year group were significant. This indicated that acculturation takes a considerable amount of time. There were no significant differences between acculturation level and college grade point average among these subjects. Nor did neighborhood or work environment affect their acculturation level. Since the versions of the Cultural Life Style Inventory are now available in English, Spanish, and Chinese, cross-cultural comparisons between the Hispanic and the Asian could be designed in a single study in the future.

The purpose of this dissertation is to explore the processes fourth grade bilinguals use as they read in Spanish and English. Through miscue analysis, eye movement analysis and the integration of the two, EMMA, this study contributes to the field of biliteracy by expanding on what is already known about the reading processes of young bilinguals who are developing literacy in two languages. There are no known eye movement miscue analysis studies of bilingual elementary students. Four fourth grade bilingual participants read and retold the first two chapters of a short novel. The participants read the first chapter from the English version of the story and the second chapter from the Spanish version. The participants' oral readings and eye movements were recorded and analyzed for each reading. The analysis tools used were miscue analysis, eye movement analysis, and the integration of the two, Eye Movement Miscue Analysis (EMMA). Differences and similarities between the two languages and among the four readers were explored in order to answer the research question: What do miscue analysis, eye movement analysis, and Eye Movement Miscue Analysis (EMMA) reveal about differences and similarities of the reading in Spanish and English of fourth grade biliterate readers? The findings of this dissertation show that the four bilingual readers use similar strategies in each language to make sense of text. They make miscues in both languages which show that the readers integrate their knowledge of syntax, semantics and graphophonics in both their English and Spanish reading. The data from the reader's eye movements reveal that the readers sample text selectively as they read each language. The miscues, eye movements, and the patterns of eye movements around miscued words for each reader reveal that they are somewhat more efficient and effective reading their primary language, Spanish. The research also shows that the strategies these biliterate readers use to make sense of text in their primary language influences the reading of their second language, English. Thus, this dissertation provides further support for a universal, transactional socio-psycholinguistic model of the reading process.

The purpose of this inquiry was to investigate the development, implementation, and sustainability of collaborative educational practices among special educators, general educators, and members of a university community. Defining characteristics of collaboration in schools, sustained practices, and a rubric developed from features of Vygotsky's (1978) zone of proximal development (ZPD), create an integrated framework that informs the study. The ultimate outcome goals of the study were to determine: (a) how collaboration functioned during the time of initial intensive support, (b) how collaboration was sustained after initial intensive supports were removed and (c) ways in which the ZPD informed and sustained collaboration throughout the study. A two-phase case study design was utilized for this study. In Phase I educators participated in a four-month long collaboration project with the goal of integrating students from a Kindergarten--1st grade bilingual cross-categorical special education classroom into a bilingual 1st grade classroom. During this period, the teachers, specialists, paraprofessionals, administrators, and university collaborators provided collaboration and support to one another. Phase II consisted of a three year follow-up period investigating the classroom, in which intensive formal support from the original collaborators was no longer directly provided Research methodology utilized for this study was qualitative. Data sources used to obtain information for the analyses included: Phase I, focus group interviews, teacher journal entries, observations, and teacher lesson plans; Phase II: follow-up interviews, classroom observations, and supporting documents. Analysis of the data revealed that during the implementation phase novice teachers were provided with a support network, there were cross-training opportunities for all participants, focus group interviews fostered participant collaboration, teacher resources were reallocated, and power differentials among participants were redistributed. Findings for the second phase of the study indicate that although collaboration was sustained after the initial four-month intervention for more than three years, it varied from the onset of the original intervention. Formal and informal partnerships among the participants sustained collaboration, especially those linking the university to the classroom. Based upon the ZPD rubric developed, there are implications for integrating sociocultural theory into future research studies that involve special and general educators and learners in culturally and linguistically diverse learning environments.

Deaf children often lack signed language competence due to a lack of a rich linguistic environment in their homes during the critical language acquisition period. In order to facilitate language development in deaf children, signed language development programs should be staffed with appropriate personnel with a background in ASL acquisition. The American Sign Language (ASL) Specialist model has been proposed to meet the linguistic needs of deaf children. Results of the survey indicate that there are some positions in American deaf education that partially meet the proposed model. The objectives and responsibilities of those positions need to be refined so that the focus of the position is to facilitate linguistic, cognitive, social, and emotional development in deaf children prior to their learning English as a second language. This thesis also explores the possibility of establishing standards for a new profession of ASL Specialist.

The dismal national statistics of academic achievement by Native American students in the Anglo-American educational system has long been a source of federal and academic concern. Studies and literature suggest that Native American culture and language highly influence academic achievement. This thesis investigates this influence by analyzing Hopi Indian experiences within the Anglo-American educational system to understand the larger processes of how federal Indian policy has impacted Indian people. Parents and teachers in Hopi Reservation schools were interviewed about their personal educational experiences and perceptions of present Hopi education. The interviews focused on the unique educational situation Hopi students are placed in as a result of their culture and language. The findings confirm the influential role of culture, yet it continues to be tragically undermined and overshadowed by how the bureaucratic processes of the educational system and institutions continue to operate in educating Hopi and other Indian children.

<p> This study is aimed at analyzing how contemporary urban Aymara youth hip hoppers and bloggers are creating their identities and are producing discourses in texts and lyrics to contest racist and colonial discourses. The research is situated in Bolivia, which is currently engaged in a cultural and political revolution supported by Indigenous movements. Theoretically the study is framed by a multi-perspective conceptual framework based on subaltern studies, coloniality of power, coloniality of knowledge, interculturality and decolonial theory. Aymara young people illustrate the possibility of preserving Indigenous identities, language, and knowledge while maximizing the benefits of urban society. This challenges the colonial ideology that has essentialized the rural origin of Indigenous identities. Moreover, this research argues that the health of Indigenous languages is interconnected with the health of the self-esteem of Indigenous people. Additionally, this study provides information about the relation of youth to the power of oral tradition, language policies, and the use of technology.</p>