For more than half a century, education researchers have strived to understand, accommodate, and promote diversity in primary and secondary classrooms, generating a wealth of insightful research in the process. However, issues of diversity in the adult second language classroom remain under-explored. Given the recent rise in immigration around the world and the accompanying increase in xenophobia and fear, it is crucial that we closely examine how language teachers attend to issues of sociocultural diversity while working with highly diverse immigrant and international student populations. This study addresses the existing research gap by offering a microanalytic explorations of teachers’ practices for working with diversity in adult second language classrooms. Specifically, I examine how remarks that undermine diversity and discussions on issues of diversity are managed in situ. My data consist of 55 hours of video-recorded adult English as a second language (ESL) classes at a community language program in the Northeastern United States. The participants were four ESL teachers and their 39 students from 17 different countries. The data were transcribed and analyzed in minute detail within the conversation analytic and membership categorization analytic (M/CA) frameworks. Findings show that remarks that undermine diversity are both condoned and problematized in these classrooms. Although by condoning improper remarks the teachers might have inadvertently reinforced potentially harmful stereotypes and prejudices, they also helped promote a sense of appreciation, like-mindedness, and solidarity. On the other hand, by problematizing students’ potentially improper remarks, teachers created a space for various sociocultural views and experiences to be voiced, even as they ultimately promoted their own perspectives on issues of sociocultural diversity. Teachers’ practices for managing discussions on diversity were examined in a single case of a teacher initiating, extending, and terminating a discussion on a potentially sensitive topic of gender inclusivity. The analysis shows that the teacher fostered student participation by oscillating between neutral and value-laden statements on the topic at hand, increasingly resting gender inclusivity as he reinforced gender conformity. Findings contribute to research on diversity in education and on managing “socially sensitive” talk in the (language) classroom, as well as to critically “motivated” M/CA research.

While much research on teaching has focused on what teachers know, less attention has been devoted to understanding what they actually do. This empirical absence can be felt in particular in the adult English as a Second Language (ESL) instructional context, despite the continued growth of the U.S. immigrant population. The current study addresses this gap by examining discursive practices employed by experienced teachers as they manage multiple demands in the adult ESL classroom. Data include over 25 hours of video-recordings and transcripts of interaction in four intact classes taught by four instructors at two sites: an academic ESL program, housed at a community college, and a community-based ESL program, housed at a school of education. Microanalysis of teacher-student interaction, conducted within the framework of (multimodal) conversation analysis, uncovered three teacher practices for managing multiple demands. The first, voicing the student perspective, entails the teacher verbalizing how students (may) perceive or experience a pedagogic topic or task; the topic/task is framed in a way that acknowledges its difficulty or problematizes students’ engagement with it. By employing this practice, teachers simultaneously affiliate with the (potential) student perspective while preparing students for explanations of challenging topics or recruiting their participation. The second practice, binding student contributions, entails marking connections, verbally and/or non-verbally, between one student contribution and teacher explanation or the contributions or identities of other students. Through binding, the teacher displays responsiveness to individual contributions while promoting the engagement of (other individuals in) the class. The third practice, resource splitting, entails the use of verbal and embodied resources to simultaneously pursue different courses of action within a single turn, or the use of different embodied resources to do so. By “splitting” semiotic resources, the teacher can accomplish two actions at the same time: align as a recipient and validate one contribution while managing turn-taking or pursuing topic/task shifts. By providing empirically-grounded and fine-grained descriptions of actual teacher practices, this study contributes to explicating how the complex work of teaching is accomplished. Findings bring specificity to the conversation on what constitutes skillful teaching and may benefit teacher educators and novice (ESL) teachers.

Literacy in the 21st century is not confined to communication based on reading and writing only print texts. New literacies include multimedia projects and multimodal texts, which include visual, audio, and technological elements to produce all types of products. The writing classroom, in particular, should reflect these social and technological changes in communication. It is critical for writing teachers to understand that literacies are historically, socially, culturally, and developmentally situated and to adapt as they change. By teaching multimodal composition, they may help students learn about effective writing that can appeal to various audiences and serve specific practical purposes and specific real-world contexts. The theoretical background of the study is a social semiotic theory that concerns how people communicate using semiotic resources in a particular setting. The semiotic resources, which are actions, artifacts, and materials, are not fixed but are transformed by the sign-makers' choices. Aligned with this social semiotic theory, multimodal composition draws on diverse semiotic resources such as image, music, actions, and so forth. The use of these resources is always influenced not only by personal interests but also by interpersonal and institutional power relations. Teaching multimodal composition is a response to needs in an age of digital communication and to changing semiotic environments. The purpose of the dissertation is to determine how Korean secondary English teachers understand and assess multimodal composition in the era of new communication. Framing the study are questions that ask teachers what they think and say about teaching and assessing multimodal compostion in their writing classrooms, and about barriers or challenges to their doing so. Korean secondary English teachers working for public schools in metropolitan areas were recruited for this multiple case study to examine their attitudes toward and understanding of multimodal composition in the test-oriented culture of Korea. Semi-structured interviews and classroom observations were conducted, and documents were collected to triangulate interview findings. South Korea is chosen as the research site because schools most prioritize high-stakes standardized tests, and teachers (also students and parents) gauge success by test scores. As a result, teachers primarily rely on direct instructions via lecture to provide skills and knowledge to ensure that students will succeed in the high-stakes tests. However, ongoing technology outside of school has transformed ways young people generate, communicate, and negotiate meanings via diverse texts. If the primary goal of education is to teach students life-long skills needed in society, it is a responsibility that the schools and teachers recognize social changes and promote individual learning needs. Therefore, this study explores teaching and assessing practices in the context of Korean English classrooms and suggests a new direction reflecting social changes and changing student needs for the era of new communications. / A Dissertation submitted to the School of Teacher Education in partial fulfillment of the Doctor of Philosophy. / Spring Semester, 2015. / April 14, 2015. / literacies, multimodal composition, teacher perception, writing / Includes bibliographical references. / George Boggs, Professor Co-Directing Dissertation; Pamela Sissi Carroll, Professor Co-Directing Dissertation; Alysia Roehrig, University Representative; Barbara Foorman, Committee Member; Kathy Froelich, Committee Member; Shelbie Witte, Committee Member.

It is essential that the citizen of today be well-informed about the world in which he lives, in order to share in its civilization and to contribute to it. Wide general reading is the only thing which can keep him so informed. It is, therefore, the imperative duty of teachers, especially in the secondary schools, to arouse in their students a desire to read. It is the peculiar responsibility of the English teachers to motivate, guide, and direct such reading. This paper will attempt to set forth the values to be derived from extensive reading, the objectives in a reading program, and some techniques and devices for the motivation and guidance of students' individual reading in high school. / "A Paper." / Typescript. / "Submitted to the Graduate Council of Florida State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts." / Advisor: Griffith T. Pugh, Professor Directing Paper. / Includes bibliographical references.

This study examines Spanish gender assignment among mixed bilingual children with 121 English Language Learners and 17 Spanish Language Leaners from North and South Florida through the results of a receptive gender marking task. Two groups of younger (ages 4 to 6) and older (7 to 10) students participated and were tested on their accuracy of gender markers (el and la) on picture naming task of overtly and non-overtly marked feminine and masculine nouns. All participants demonstrated greater accuracy with overtly marked versus non-overtly marked nouns and with feminine versus masculine marked nouns. Greater overall gender assignment accuracy and the accuracy of marked markers was seen with older bilinguals compared to younger bilinguals. Comparisons regarding overall accuracy of gender assignment were made according to location. The results showed greater accuracy for overall gender assignment and marked nouns (overtly, non-overtly, masculine and feminine) for the participants from the South Florida compared to North Florida. For South Florida, years studying Spanish was significantly related to overall gender assignment accuracy. Equivalently, for North Florida, the number of years of exposure to Spanish was significantly related to overall gender assignment accuracy. / A Thesis submitted to the Department of Communication Science and Disorders in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science. / Spring Semester 2015. / March 27, 2015. / bilingual, gender assignment, language, non-overtly, overtly, Spanish / Includes bibliographical references. / Carla Wood, Professor Directing Thesis; RaMonda Horton, Committee Member; Gretchen Sunderman, Committee Member.

Children who are native Spanish-speaking Language Minority Youth (LMY) comprise the fastest growing population of students in the United States. In addition, these children lag significantly behind their non-LMY peers in academic achievement. To aid in their development of academic skills, it is necessary to evaluate individual factors that are related to later reading and math achievement. One such individual factor is executive function (EF). EF is defined as the set of cognitive skills that underlie children’s ability to regulate their thoughts and actions. Among the skills encompassed by executive function are inhibitory control (i.e., the ability to suppress a dominant response in favor of a subdominant response), working memory (i.e., the ability to maintain and manipulate information in short-term memory), and shifting (i.e., the ability to switch flexibly between tasks). Children who speak more than one language are theorized to have what is called a “bilingual advantage” in their executive function ability such that they outperform their non-LMY peers on tasks of inhibitory control. It is theorized that the bilingual advantage originates from the simultaneous activation of both languages and the constant need to select the relevant language while ignoring their other language. This conflict between languages and the need to select just one language in which to respond confers cognitive advantages that are said to generalize to inhibitory control. However, findings are mixed regarding whether the bilingual advantage exists. A closer examination of these findings suggests that the bilingual advantage is dependent upon the type of inhibitory control task administered. Specifically, the bilingual advantage is said to exist on tasks of interference suppression (IS; defined as the ability to ignore or suppress irrelevant salient perceptual information in a bivalent task and selectively attend to relevant conflicting information), but not on tasks of response inhibition (RI; defined as suppressing a dominant response in favor of a less dominant response). The goal of this study was to evaluate the different types of inhibitory control among children with some degree of exposure to both Spanish and English and to understand better whether there is a bilingual advantage conferred on tasks of interference suppression (but not on tasks of response inhibition) for children with a greater degree of bilingualism. In the current study, 100 Spanish-speaking LMY preschool students were administered an English and Spanish language measure to determine their degree of bilingualism as well as seven computerized tasks of inhibitory control. Four of the computerized tasks evaluated IS (two required verbal responses, two did not) and three of the computerized tasks evaluated RI (one required a verbal response, two did not). Consistent with the first hypothesis, the verbal and nonverbal computerized tasks measured a unitary inhibitory control construct. Consistent with the second hypothesis, results indicated that IS and RI were distinct domains within the broader construct of inhibitory control. Consistent with the third hypothesis, results indicated that a higher degree of bilingualism was associated with stronger inhibitory control, and that children’s degree of bilingualism was relatively more associated with IS than with RI. These findings support the presence of a bilingual advantage conferred to children’s inhibitory control, as well as a specific advantage conferred to inhibitory control tasks that require IS. However, degree of bilingualism was strongly related to children’s English language skills. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Psychology in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Summer Semester 2016. / June 14, 2016. / Bilingual Advantage, English Language Learners, Executive Function, Inhibitory Control, Self-Regulation / Includes bibliographical references. / Christopher J. Lonigan, Professor Directing Dissertation; Carla Wood, University Representative; Arielle Borovsky, Committee Member; Jesse Cougle, Committee Member; Michael Kaschak, Committee Member.

The purpose of this study was to measure the impact of ARCS-based motivational email messages (MVEMs) on student participation in a free online English for Speakers of other Languages (ESOL) course. The course consisted of 10 communicative tasks and learners were to complete two tasks per week for five weeks. Each task involved pre-task activities with model language before students completed the communicative task by posting on the class message board. Students received task instructions via email. The independent variable (IV) for the study was type of email students received. The IV had three levels. The control group received task instructions via email. The experimental groups received the same task instructions with added ARCS-based motivational messages related to relevance, confidence, and volition. One experimental group received non-personalized relevance messages while the second experimental group received personalized relevance messages. Students received two emails per week for five weeks during the course. The emails were sent regardless of participation or performance so even students who did not complete any communicative tasks were sent 10 emails with instructions and, depending on group assignment, motivational messages. I measured participation based on number of students who completed at least one task, number of tasks completed, number of words written, number of visits to pre-task webpages, and time logged in to the class message board. Results suggest that ARCS-based MVEMs may encourage students to participate in free online language classes as both experimental groups outperformed the control group. No clear difference was found between the personalized and non-personalized MVEM groups. I also asked students for their thoughts about participation in the class. A qualitative content analysis revealed that students blamed commitments such as work, school, and family for lack of participation in the free ESOL class. Students credited the communicative tasks when they participated in the class. Students who received MVEMs appreciated the confidence and volitional messages. Implications for increasing student participation in free, online language courses are provided. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Educational Psychology and Learning Systems in partial fulfillment of the Doctor of Philosophy. / Spring Semester 2017. / April 3, 2017. / ARCS, Email, English, Experiment, Motivation, Participation / Includes bibliographical references. / James Klein, Professor Directing Dissertation; Stephen McDowell, University Representative; Aubteen Darabi, Committee Member; Russell Almond, Committee Member.

The purpose of the research was to develop a test of oral communicative competence for English as a Second Language (ESL) students at the college level. This research first reviewed the current literature on the topic of communicative competence from the perspectives of linguistics and sociolinguistics, discourse analysis, and speech communication. The 1iterature on testing for communicative competence within the ESL and foreign language teaching fields was also reviewed. A 7-minute oral semi-direct taped test was then developed and administered to a trial group of 5 ESL students and a final group of 25 ESL students at Portland State University. The test consisted of 5 short information questions and 10 social situations to which the subject was requested to respond. The test was rated for three separate criteria: intelligibility, grammatical correctness, and appropriateness. Two different raters were used for each criterion; another rater rated for all criteria. A reliability study was conducted on the raters wherein the reliability of the raters was shown to be significantly high. The validity of the test was established by conducting face-to-face interviews with the trial and final subjects prior to their taking the taped tests. The results showed that the degree of association between the overall ratings on the taped test and the overall ratings on the interview was significant, though not significant for individual criteria. A correlation with the CELT listening comprehension test was not significant.

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