Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1964. / Typescript. Vita. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 65-67).

Thesis advisor: Gustavo Morello / This qualitative study of female English language learners living in the greater Boston area investigates the relationship which exists between social networks, English language learning, and immigrant assimilation. Understanding that social networks are important for immigrant assimilation because of the social capital they provide (Portes and Zhou, 1993), this study aims to understand how immigrant women with limited English proficiency build social networks in the United States, both with immigrants and native-born citizens of the United States. Data analysis shows that English language learning plays an pivotal role in the formation of social networks both with other immigrants and with native-born citizens, and that immigrant networks are ultimately more beneficial because they are more accessible. As immigration policies in the United States continue to change, it is important to study the changing needs and experiences of immigrants. There is a need for the greater Boston area to provide more spaces for interaction between immigrants and Americans to facilitate the formation of social networks and exchange of social capital between the two groups. / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2015. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Departmental Honors. / Discipline: Sociology.

Thesis advisor: María Estela Brisk / This study was conducted to understand student identities of five Japanese children (the second through sixth grade) and the processes of identity negotiation within their sojourning experiences between Japan and the United States. An increasing number of Japanese elementary students internationally sojourn in today's globalized societies, and consequently shape their identities in multiple school contexts. Previous research has suggested the reciprocal relations between linguistic minority learners' identities and their diverse school experiences, and reported a wide variation of bilinguals' self-perceptions. However, few studies have focused on elementary sojourners to holistically theorize the internal and external processes of their identity negotiation. In this interpretive multiple case study, children's own perspectives were inductively gathered by following the constructivist grounded theory guidelines. Data collection methods included child in-depth interviews enhanced with drawing activities, classroom observations, and teacher and parent interviews. The cross-case analysis was facilitated by interpretive focus group interview with Japanese former sojourners. The results indicated that the children across varied stages of sojourning integrated their consistent self-relevant attributes (ordinary student status and familiar personal traits) and their changing attributes (oral English proficiency) together as the fuel for pursuing their identity standard--their own interpretation of positive student identities--which fundamentally represented their social adaptive and socioemotional competences. Their experiences with Japanese language and culture, bilingual/bicultural competences, and international transitions, appeared potentially influential for their student identities. Through the multi-layered complex negotiation processes, they successfully verified, improved, balanced, and imagined their self-relevant attributes salient for their identity standard. By proposing a competence-based identity negotiation model, this study recommends all educators to support their sojourning students by attending to two types of school competences: (a) the Identity-Relevant Competence which contributes to identity standard and (b) the Identity-Negotiation Competence to practice the holistic processes of identity negotiation for sustaining the identity standard. The findings add a new theoretical scope to the evolving field of child identity research, and suggest further interdisciplinary explorations of sojourners' student identities. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2009. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Teacher Education, Special Education, Curriculum and Instruction.

This study investigated eight and nine year old children’s capabilities to develop skills in the intrapersonal intelligence domain as defined by Howard Gardner. A group of twenty-seven, seven to nine year olds were introduced to a program specifically designed to foster their self-knowledge as learners and their self-management skills in the English learning environment. The students were introduced to activities that would help them to identify their own relative strengths and limitations and use this knowledge to negotiate a learning environment that would best suit their own learning needs. This program included developing skills in goal setting and identification of personal learning strategies. It also sought to improve work habits and student on- task behaviours and encourage self-monitoring, self-evaluation and self-reflection. The results obtained evidenced a considerable improvement in the students’ self knowledge and how this impacted on their perceptions of themselves as learners. The students grew increasingly aware of their own relative strengths and used this information to negotiate their learning environment, to identify strategies that worked for them and to take increasingly more responsibility for their own learning. As a result of the findings of this study, there are clear implications that if students are provided with opportunities to develop accurate intrapersonal intelligence, this improved awareness of ‘self’ can have an impact on successful learning. This study indicates that if teachers provide students with opportunities to investigate and learn about themselves as learners, to build skills in goal setting and to identify personal learning strategies, then an increase in self-knowledge and self-management will impact positively on the students’ capacity to learn successfully. Consequently, programs and strategies designed to promote students’ intrapersonal intelligence may become a valuable part of school practice and curricula.

Diss. Göteborg : Göteborgs universitet, 2009.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2006. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hong Kong, 2008. / Title proper from title frame. Also available in printed format.

Thesis (Ph. D. (Education))--Rhodes University, 2004.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2006. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

A number of studies seem to indicate that Extensive Reading (ER) enhances language proficiency in general and vocabulary knowledge in particular. However none of those surveyed focused on poorly motivated lower level language learners in a normal course of study that incorporated ER of unsimplified material, and few addressed partial vocabulary gain and the other factors that could have affected this. In this study the participants were young adult male Saudi Arabians, who were elementary English language learners and who were not used to reading for pleasure even in Arabic. Tests were used to gauge their partial vocabulary acquisition when they engaged in ER involving an open choice of simplified and unsimplified English material during a regular English preparatory course of just one semester. If ER could be linked to improved vocabulary acquisition in such difficult but natural conditions, the case for ER‘s wider implementation could be strengthened. The study also used diaries, surveys and interviews to delve into the reading habits, academic background and cultural context that could also explain any observed vocabulary gain. The results showed there were few statistically significant partial vocabulary gains after the ER programme, and although the experimental cohort that received the ER programme showed greater gains than the control in most of these cases, the difference was not large in terms of the absolute number of words. The diaries, surveys and interviews gave a rich profile of the participants with a level of detail that surpassed that of any other surveyed study, offering several possible reasons for their modest vocabulary gains and yielding unanticipated findings, such as an exposition of their motivations for academic study. It is concluded that a greater awareness of the learners‘ context is essential when applying ER, which in this particular context leads to the view that pure ER may not be suitable for vocabulary learning, and instead a significantly modified version could be more appropriate. These modifications include selecting appropriate books for the students and adding explicit vocabulary learning activities, and they even include linking the reading to the students‘ final grade. Further research is needed to gauge the effectiveness of such modifications, while a more inductive approach is also important when investigating ER and vocabulary acquisition to give the opportunity for unforeseen results to emerge.