abstract: This qualitative study examines second language (L2) writing teachers’ identities. The study explores L2 writing teachers’ narrated identities (i.e., the teachers’ perceptions of themselves), enaction of these identities (i.e., students’ perceptions of those teachers; those teachers’ classroom behaviors), and identity enaction’s positive impacts on students. In order to investigate these issues, I conducted interviews with three L2 writing teachers of first-year composition in the United States (U.S.), along with student interviews and classroom observations. Findings showed that there were 10 narrated identities of these L2 writing teachers. All of these narrated identities were enacted except for one. The findings also indicated that there were positive impacts on students from enaction of these identities when that enaction involved certain teaching practices. Enaction of L2 writing teacher identity had a positive impact when it involved the teacher paying attention to L2 writers’ needs, showing empathy toward L2 writers, and avoiding overemphasis on L2 writers’ language issues. Enaction of writing teacher identity had a positive impact when it involved the teacher providing an enjoyable writing experience, focusing on content knowledge learning, and focusing on writing issues over language issues. Enaction of language teacher identity had a positive impact when it involved the teacher providing language help. Enaction of freedom teacher identity had a positive impact when it involved the teacher providing guided freedom. Enaction of American teacher identity had a positive impact when it involved the teacher focusing on U.S. academic experience. Enaction of general teacher identity had a positive impact when it involved the teacher displaying positive attitudes towards teaching in general. Enaction of individual coach identity had a positive impact when it involved the teacher providing individualized help. These findings suggest that L2 writing teachers can maintain positive L2 writing teaching practices. L2 writing teachers can make their teaching practices more informed by seeking out teaching resources and insights from various disciplines as pedagogical content experts in L2 writing. They can also teach L2 writers by addressing L2 writers’ needs with positive emotions, providing guided freedom and individualized help, and understanding L2 writers’ educational backgrounds. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation English 2020

Thesis advisor: C. Patrick Proctor / With U.S. classrooms increasingly characterized by linguistic diversity, teacher education has come under heightened scrutiny to respond to these realities. Recent shifts in Massachusetts language policy provide an informative example. Federal oversight prompted the state to implement an ambitious initiative requiring teachers to earn an endorsement in Sheltered English Immersion (SEI). The rollout of this initiative coincided with the final years of the state’s English-only education mandate, and the SEI endorsement remains a requirement for teachers today. As a growing body of research highlights the ideological dynamics of language policy, particularly in English-only educational contexts, this dissertation has two overlapping goals: (1) To develop a theoretical framework for the study of monolingual language ideologies in relation to policy interpretation and (2) to apply this framework within a critical policy analysis of the Massachusetts SEI endorsement initiative. This dissertation consists of three papers. Paper 1 puts forth a theoretical framework for studying monolingual language ideologies. Through a historical analysis of U.S. language policies and previous research on language ideologies, this paper demonstrates how dynamics of race and racism overlap with language policy and teacher education in U.S. contexts. Paper 2 is an empirical study of SEI instructors’ roles as policy interpreters within the SEI endorsement initiative. This study documents how 33 SEI course instructors interpreted the SEI endorsement course in ways that reinforced or augmented the state’s design. Paper 3 highlights these instructors’ discourses around the topics of language policy and race. Drawing on poststructural policy analysis, this paper explores the varying degrees to which participants addressed these topics in relation to the course’s emphasis on language pedagogies. Together, these papers offer a framework for the study of language ideologies with implications for language policy, policy interpretation, and teacher education in multilingual contexts. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2019. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Teacher Education, Special Education, Curriculum and Instruction.

Currently, too many pupils complete meaningless one-way writing tasks, which only their teachers receive, which makes increasing authenticity in the language contexts crucial for learners. The purpose of this study is to investigate: the experiences and opinions of two ESL 7-9 teachers in two schools in southern Sweden regarding their practices of authenticity in learning task instructions, the views of their pupils towards these writing tasks, and the benefits and challenges of integrating an authentic writing task. The Swedish steering documents emphasize that pupils should confidently adapt their languages to various purposes and learn how English is used across cultures and settings; however, authenticity does not feature heavily in the steering documents. This study used a Passion Project that incorporated explicit instructions, a recursive writing process, and a genre-based process for writing to an authentic audience. Against that background, this study seeks to answer the research questions by analyzing two teachers’ experiences and opinions, the pupils’ views toward authenticity in writing tasks, and the possible benefits and challenges. In order to collect empirical data, a mixed methodology method was applied, which included questionnaires and interviews with teachers and pupils. The results indicate that although the authentic audience is a new concept to the L2 learners, introducing it explicitly and providing examples help to reduce pupils’ nervousness. Furthermore, introducing the pupils to a new concept piques their interests and teaches them new ways to write. Therefore, writing strategies that incorporate an authentic audience are important. Despite the change from traditional to modern instructions, the pupils’ attitudes were highly favorable. Last but not least, the benefits are that pupils can relate what they are learning in the classroom to the outside world. However, there are challenges as not all pupils feel comfortable sharing something they write with others, and teachers do not always have the time to plan, organize, and execute tasks that include authentic audiences.

This dissertation investigates how L2 speakers’ assessment of their own pronunciation compares to the assessment of these speakers’ pronunciation by different types of listeners. Study 1 investigated the associations between L2 speakers’ pronunciation self-assessment and the assessment by L1 listeners. Eighty-two L2 English speakers performed a picture narrative task and rated their own speech. These speech samples were also rated by eight inexperienced L1 English listeners. Pearson correlation and paired t-test analyses revealed that the speakers’ self-assessment was significantly different from L1 English listeners’ assessment, and that poor performers overestimated their performance while top performers underestimated it. Study 2 investigated the associations between L2 speakers’ pronunciation self-assessment and the assessment by L1 listeners, L2 listeners who shared an L1 with the speakers, and L2 listeners who did not share an L1 with the speakers. Forty-one L1 Mandarin speakers performed a picture narrative task in English and rated their own pronunciation. These speech samples were also rated by L1 English listeners, L1 Mandarin listeners, and L1 mixed listeners. Pearson correlation and paired t-test analyses revealed that the alignment between self- and other-assessment varied according to the L1 background of the listeners and the construct under evaluation. Study 3 investigated if L2 listeners had an advantage over L1 listeners at comprehending L2 speech, and if the L1 background and proficiency level of the L2 speakers and listeners affected this potential advantage. Forty-one Mandarin-accented English speech samples from a picture narrative task were rated for comprehensibility by three groups of listeners – L1 English listeners, L1 Mandarin listeners, and L1 mixed listeners. Paired t-test analyses revealed that L1 Mandarin listeners perceived the Mandarin-accented speech to be more comprehensible than the L1 English listeners did, and this benefit was observed with three different proficiency combinations when proficiency was taken into consideration. Although overall the L1 mixed listeners did not perceive the Mandarin-accented speech to be more comprehensible than the L1 English listeners did, when proficiency was taken into consideration, the picture was more complex – while a comprehensibility benefit was observed with one specific proficiency combination, a comprehensibility detriment was observed with a different proficiency pairing.

An American school overseas is concerned with offering equal academic opportunities for the non-native English language learners (ELLs) on campus. It has not been determined if the in-class teaching method or the out-of-class teaching method is more effective. The purpose of this study is to determine if there is a difference in end-of-year achievement between these 2 different methods. Guided by Vygotsky`s theory of cognitive social development and Krashen`s theory of exposure to language, the research question addressed the difference in 3rd through 5th grade students' achievement test scores between the in-class teaching method and the out-of-class teaching method. The causal comparative study compared the standardized Stanford and Northwest Evaluation Association Measures of Academic Proficiency achievement test data from 244 students for 1 year of out-of-class teaching with 3 subsequent years of in-class teaching. The Kruskal-Wallis test indicated a significant difference between the 2 methods (H = 7.88, df = 3, p = .049) only in the 1st year of in-class teaching. As the results are inconclusive, the results of this study were shared with teachers and administrators and a discussion was facilitated about alternatives to the in-class teaching method in order to develop a research-based curriculum that will help ELLs to succeed in the local school.

The associations between Latin American immigrants' use of a community social support center and perceived discrimination and language acquisition were investigated. All variables were measured by respondents' self-reports on a questionnaire designed to obtain demographic data as well as describe the needs of the Latin American community in rural Northern Utah . Chi-square analyses indicated a statistically significant association between use of the center and acquisition ofEnglish as a second language. No relationship was found between use of the center and perceived discrimination. The results of this study provide valuable demographic data as well as describe some of the experiences Latin American immigrants face upon immigrating to the United States.

abstract: This study aims at exploring whether English Language Learners (ELL) who are enrolled in a music education program have higher standardized test scores compared to those who are not engaged in a music education program. A West Phoenix, inner city school was studied were the majority of students are Hispanic and qualify for free and reduced lunch. The main purpose of this dissertation was to analyze the effects of instrumental music courses on the AZmerit assessment scores. AZMerit is a standardized assessment used to measure student growth during the given timeframe of one school year (AIMS A Science, n.d.). In this study, I compared a cohort of instrumental music students who studied performance against a cohort of comparable students who did not volunteer to participate in an instrumental music program. Many of these students are bilingual in English and Spanish. As such, students were divided into subcategories based on their level of language acquisition in sixth grade. The secondary purpose of this study was to determine if being a part of an instrumental music program affected students at different languages levels in different manners. Over a two-year period, the English Language Learners (ELL) students were examined to determine the effects of music education by focusing a large part of this research on ELL students’ success within music education programs and academic content areas. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Educational Leadership and Policy Studies 2019

abstract: This project emphasizes a complex, holistic, and additive view of content knowledge in the Discipline of Writing, advocating for balanced and affirming scholarship and pedagogy rather than a competitive approach that leads to an epistemology of erasure. As a composite project, the introduction contextualizes three articles linked by their articulation of holistically and additively thinking for students and scholars in the discipline of writing, preparing the reader to see the rhetorical steps that I attempt to take in each article along these lines. Article 1, “The Collaborative Work of Composition,” uses Marxian language of production to highlight the complexities of collaborative writing in a social microcosm drawing focus to the difficulties some students have collaborating, particularly those of linguistic and cultural minority groups, because they or their collaborators struggle to adopt an additive valuing system to position themselves and one another as part of a team with varying strengths. In Article 2, “An Integrative Translingual Pedagogy of Affirmation,” I build on this valuing of writers by advocating for an affirming pedagogy that allows teachers to help students see the complexity and value of their shared languages and their individual (L)anguage as well as the identity connected to these. Article 3, “Familia Académica: Translingual History and the Epistemology of Erasure,” draws on a deep and overlooked history that provides a more complex holistic lens for the current socio-politics of the discipline of Writing’s interaction with the translingual approach, re-orienting to a more additive blend of the extreme perspectives that key scholars have taken between second language writing and translingual writing. Finally, the last section of the dissertation acts as a metaconstruction of the discipline of Writing, pointing to moments within the previous three articles that indicate a sustained effort to complicate binaries and then provide an alternate symbiosis of scholarly perspectives for disciplinary discourse and identity in Writing. Most importantly though, the final section of the dissertation synthesizes the partial approaches introduced in the previous three articles which inform my understanding of disciplinarity. Further, this final section attempts to find equity in the variety of partial approaches developed in the previous articles and which I have since matured into what I call the 8 Aspects of Writing. The 8 aspects and their components move beyond individual issues presented in each article and synthesize a more holistic, additive, and systematic model of defining the content knowledge for the discipline of Writing. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation English 2019

Even though vocabulary skills are the essential key to achieving proficiency in a target language, there are some students who do not like reading. Thus, the purpose of this study is the potential use of digital technology for facilitating and motivating reading and vocabulary building in English. Thanks to technological innovations, children and young people are reading and writing in many ways and digital tools have become a part of everyday life for children and adults. Since 2018, the schools in Sweden have been preparing for the first digital national tests that will be taken in the year 2023. The Swedish National Agency for Education (Skolverket) has highlighted the importance of digital tools and the competence that is needed for teachers so that the students will be able to pass and succeed in their education. Digital tools in schools all around the world have become an essential tool in the classroom, especially in Sweden.    Ultimately, this critical literature review investigates whether the use of digital texts in the ESL (English as a Second Language) and EFL (English as a Foreign Language) classroom can help students improve and build their vocabulary as well as motivate children to read. It also examines the advantages, disadvantages, and effectiveness of using vocabulary learning in the classroom to motivate students to read more. The goal is to motivate students to read more so that they will be able to practice reading independently and, thus, become fluent readers. The results indicate that it is crucial that teachers improve their competence in digital technology.    Key terms: Digital, reading, books, motivation, English as a second language (ESL), English as a foreign language (EFL).

Reclassification is a process that changes the language proficiency status of an English learner (EL) to that of a fluent English proficient (FEP) student. School districts in California are allowed to set their own reclassification criteria, based on guidelines from the State Board of Education. Various reclassification policies may present problems, such as inappropriate placement and provision of services which would widen the academic deficit of English learners and place them at greater risk for long-term academic problems. The purposes of this study were to analyze the reclassification criteria among districts in the Northern San Joaquin Valley and Foothill area of California, to learn how districts arrive at their current criteria, and to know what modifications and recommendations district leaders who are in charge of English learner services would suggest regarding reclassification. Policies from 23 K-12 school districts in the studied area were collected and analyzed. Interviews with 12 district leaders who are in charge of English learner programs and services were conducted to find out how districts developed their criteria and their suggestions for modifications and recommendations regarding reclassification. Data collected from school districts' policies revealed a diverse set of practices in the establishment of the reclassification criteria although the majority of the school districts studied met the SBE guidelines to reclassify EL students. There is a range of selected cut points for English language proficiency and the California Standardized Tests. There is also a wide variety of measures and their specific requisites that are being used as part of the teachers' evaluation of students' curriculum mastery requirements. Parental opinion and consultation were presented in 22 out of 23 policies collected. Furthermore, an array of miscellaneous requirements was found in the majority of districts' criteria. The differences in districts' reclassification criteria prompted concerns regarding reclassified students' proficiency levels and performance. Recommendations include a more uniform and specific set of reclassification guidelines statewide, an explicit operational definition of English proficiency, and frequent review of EL students' progress to prevent and identify Long Term English Learners, LTELs, so that appropriate intervention can be provided to enable their success.