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This study sets out to answer the call for explicit instruction in critical thinking for ELL. Using action research and qualitative methodology, I examine the effect of implementing the cognitive apprenticeship paradigm with ELL studying in a mainstream secondary English class using the American curriculum. I center instruction on authentic texts and scaffold critical literacy and thinking tasks for instructional interventions. The data generated by the study includes written responses and reflections by the participants. This data is analyzed using research into cognitive theory and critical thinking pedagogy. The results support the cognitive apprenticehip model as one means for improving the higher literacy of ELL, regardless of level and background. The findings of this study contribute to the discussion of how to bridge the achievement gap between ELL and their native speaking peers and provide an avenue to advance their academic success. / English Studies / M.A. (with specialisation in TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of other languages))

Cubans arrive in the U.S. with more formal education than other Latino immigrants, and they arrive to communities with long standing networks of support. Though their baccalaureate degree attainment is better than their non-Cuban Latina counterparts, Cuban women still lag behind White, non-Latina women. The qualitative study aims to explore the principal influences and non-academic factors that 15 adult Cuban non-native English-speaking women in South Florida attribute to the successful attainment of their baccalaureate degree. There are many differences among the various immigrant Latino communities in the U.S., and Cuban women are largely absent from the research. Nearly 75% of Cuban women who start Miami Dade College with English as a second language course-work drop out within one year of matriculation. Understanding the principal influences and non-academic factors related to the baccalaureate attainment rate of this group may assist educators and administrators in providing the support these women need to enhance their degree completion. The literature says that the baccalaureate degree attainment of Latinos is influenced by age-at-the-time-of-immigration, country of origin, and gender, yet little research was found on the degree attainment specifically of female Cubans who entered the U.S. having already completed most of their education in Cuba. My dissertation explores the journey of 15 Cuban women who arrived in the U.S. as teens during the 1990s and had to learn English as a second language at an urban community college prior to completing a baccalaureate degree. The purpose of the research is to describe the principal influences and non-academic factors that these women attribute to their baccalaureate degree attainment.

This study was designed to provide information on the reading instructional practices of 36 first grade teachers in nine schools that serve predominantly Spanish-speaking and ELL students in a southeastern U.S. school district. The purpose of this investigation was to describe teaching practices employed during English language arts instruction and to examine their use in relation to instructional grouping strategies, teacher language use, and student engagement. Participating classrooms were observed three times throughout the 2006-07 school year. Data were collected via the Timed Observations of Student Engagement/Language (TO/SEL) classroom observation instrument (Foorman & Schatchneider, 2003). Paired sample t-tests, multivariate analyses of variance (MANOVA), and multiple regression analyses were employed to investigate the relationship among the following observed variables: allocation of reading instructional time, grouping strategies, teacher language use and student engagement. Several key findings emerged. Participating teachers spent a greater amount of time on meaning-focused reading instruction (i.e., writing, reading texts, reading comprehension) than on code-focused reading instruction (i.e., word work, spelling, reading fluency, phonemic awareness), both during all four observed grouping strategies and after controlling for individual student seat work. In addition, of five key collapsed instructional variables (word work/spelling, oral language, writing, reading texts, and reading comprehension), teachers spent most time on word work/spelling (19%) and writing (18%). Reading texts and reading comprehension instruction together comprised 26% of total instructional time. Whole class instruction was the grouping strategy of choice among teachers (65% of total observed time); in sharp contrast, teachers spent 11% of observed time engaged in small group instruction, despite research findings supporting the effectiveness of sound grouping instruction. In addition, as little as 1% of teachers' total instructional time was spent in oral language/discussion, and 6% of total instructional time was spent in vocabulary instruction. The results also demonstrated little variation in teacher language use. Thus, evidence of "codeswitching" was not significant. Student engagement was high- 91% of total time students were observed; and was highest during writing and word work/spelling instruction. More longitudinal research is warranted that further explores precisely documented teacher reading instructional practices in relation to student outcomes with culturally and linguistically diverse student populations. Implications for practice include teacher training and professional development on managing small group instruction, and incorporating additional oral language/discussion, vocabulary and meaningful tasks into daily classroom activities.

Achieving equitable opportunities to learn has been recognized as an important issue in multilingual content classrooms. However, partially because mathematics is conceptualized as a language-free subject, there is limited research examining linguistic minority students’ opportunities to learn in mathematics classrooms. The purpose of this research is to identify linguistic minority students’ opportunities to learn in mathematics classrooms in a Canadian multilingual urban elementary school, where English was the main instructional language. Drawing on cultural historical activity theory, this study focuses on two aspects of learning: externalization, which emphasizes learners’ creation of new cultural artifacts and new contexts to apply the given artifacts, and internalization, which emphasizes learners’ acquisition of preexisting cultural artifacts. In this ethnographic study, I examined the activity systems of participatory action research (PAR) with the activity system of regular mathematics lessons. Within these activity systems, I focused on newly-arrived English language learners’ (ELLs) participation. Specifically, I examined the range of opportunities to learn afforded to students in the two activity systems and identified how focal ELLs accessed these opportunities to learn. In the activity system of PAR, which emphasized externalization, students conducted research and presented their conclusions in order to implement changes in their school environment. All students, however, did not participate equally. Specifically, the focal ELLs were not able to access these opportunities to learn as a result of group dynamics, marginalized social identities, and other students’ perceptions of their linguistic ability. In the activity system of regular mathematics lessons, which emphasized internalization, the teacher organized lessons in ways that allowed focal ELLs to receive extra support and resources to reach the curriculum expectations. These mathematics lessons allowed focal ELLs to increase their participation through mathematical reasoning, problem solving, and explanations with a variety of resources including visual representations. A critical examination of the interactions revealed that focal ELLs’ opportunities to learn were expanded or limited depending upon classroom configurations. Furthermore, this research suggests that students’ social identities serve as both a medium and a product of learning. These results have valuable implications for developing inclusive classroom practices and curriculum in multilingual content classrooms.