As the population of English Language Learners (ELLs) continues to grow in schools, so does the concern for their lack of academic progress and the possible inequitable representation of this culturally and linguistically diverse population in special education (Artiles, Rueda, Salazar, & Higareda, 2005; Guiberson, 2009; Mac Swan & Rolstad, 2006; Rinaldi & Samson, 2008). Of particular concern is the increase of ELLs with an eligibility of Specific Learning Disability (SLD), especially when examined at the local level (Klinger, Artiles, & Barletta, 2006). To understand this phenomenon at the local level, this mixed-method study examined ELLs with SLD in a large California urban school district by targeting English language development (ELD) at the macro and micro level. The researcher accomplished this focus by examining the relationship between English language proficiency levels, grade levels, and type of learning disorder among kindergarten through twelfth grade ELLs with SLD. The researcher analyzed cumulative educational records of three eighth grade ELLs with SLD, including Individualized Educational Programs (IEPs), to examine how ELD needs have been addressed. The results of the quantitative portion of this study revealed greater distribution patterns of ELLs with SLD in sixth through ninth grades. The researcher also found ELLs with SLD to be primarily represented in the early stages of ELD (beginning, early intermediate, and intermediate) and identified with an auditory processing disorder. Results of the case studies also revealed that after nine years of ELD instruction, the students had not reclassified as English proficient and documented evidence of ELD instruction and support was minimal.

This dissertation examines the developing understandings of teacher candidates being prepared to teach ELs in general education PreK-12 classrooms. As the ethnic and linguistic diversity in U.S. classrooms continue to increase, it is crucial that teacher candidates receive high-quality, effective training in teaching culturally and linguistically diverse learners. Relatively few states currently require general education preservice teachers to participate in any formal training related to teaching ELs. The states that do have requirements and the teacher education programs within those states have the potential to provide valuable data on how the training being provided mediates the meaning making of teacher candidates preparing to enter the field of teaching. Conducted during the fall of 2016 and using survey data, class assignments, interviews, and fieldwork observations from 11 preservice teachers (eight early childhood majors; three secondary education majors), this study describes patterns in the ways that the teacher candidates made sense of artifacts (e.g., articles, experiences, interactions) available to them in a state-mandated undergraduate foundational course on teaching ELs and the accompanying fieldwork. The study uses sociocultural theory to explore how the teacher candidates use course and fieldwork artifacts to learn about ELs and about teaching ELs. By gathering data from early in the course through the end of the course, this study is able to describe the perspective transformation experienced by most of the focal participants, providing evidence of increased empathy, more nuanced beliefs, and new strategies for differentiating instruction for ELs. Despite having differing backgrounds (e.g., their race, language(s), hometown, crosscultural and crosslinguistic experiences), differing goals (e.g., their college major, anticipated areas of certification, preferred teaching position, preferred region or school district, perceived likelihood that they would teach ELs in the future), and differing orientations toward ELs at the beginning of the course (e.g., positive, ambivalent), the preservice teachers identified many of the same artifacts as mediating changes in their development. These artifacts fall into the broad categories of ELs’ stories and experiences, repeated interactions with ELs, and opportunities for application. This study suggests, therefore, that the efficacy of such courses may increase with the inclusion of the following artifacts: (a) stories, simulations, and videos from ELs’ perspectives; (b) a fieldwork component in which teacher candidates actively engage with ELs; and (c) opportunities for teacher candidates to put their developing cognition into practice through course assignments and teaching in the field. Finally, this study makes suggestions for studying the long-term study of teacher candidates’ ongoing development. / Applied Linguistics

This study used mixed methods to examine middle school mathematics teachers’ beliefs about English Learners’ ability to participate in rigorous, grade-level math instruction as well as beliefs about their own capacity for teaching English Learners. Additionally, the study investigated the influence of teachers’ beliefs on their instructional practices and identified the types of support teachers need to develop as culturally and linguistically responsive educators. Findings revealed some dissonance between teachers’ explicit beliefs about teaching English Learners and their implicit beliefs illustrated through instructional decisions made, as well as previously unrecognized gaps in teachers’ ability to identify and differentiate the needs of different types of English learners. Finally, the study identified teachers’ pressing needs for additional support at the school and district levels to continue to develop skills and knowledge to improve their teaching for English learners. The study concluded with an action plan for developing a robust professional learning system to develop teachers’ self-efficacy as culturally and linguistically responsive educators while also addressing implicit bias through reflection.

<p dir="ltr">Over the past decades, language and language learning research heavily relied on an individual’s innate ability or level of proficiency rather than social aspects that influence the individual’s ability to use language. Consequently, scholars of language learning research narrowly dealt with linguistic features and/or grammar within an isolated manner like the model of universal grammar (UG) proposed by Chomsky (Chomsky, 1972; Lantolf, 1994). However, socially oriented scholars have lately criticized this limited view on language learning (Garcia & Li Wei, 2014; Norton, 1995; Pennycook, 2010). From a sociocultural perspective, language becomes meaningful within the social realm because it is deeply interconnected with the social environment. This perspective calls for a new approach to research, teach, and understand bilingualism and language learning, especially the role of a bilinguals’ home language (thereafter Heritage Language) and its use in the second language (usually English) learning process (August & Shanahan, 2010; Boyle, et, al, 2015; Garcia, 2011). In the past, bilinguals’ hybrid language practices have been considered a sign of language deficiency and/or problem attributed to the HL (Creese & Blackledge, 2010, Heller, 2006, & Wei, 2011) and overlook its contribution to learning the English language and to bilingualism. Recent scholarship in language education has deviated from the form-focused approach to the critical approach. The critical approach examines bilinguals’ hybrid language practices, translanguaging, as bilinguals’ discursive and dynamic communication to make sense of the world by drawing their full linguistic and cultural repertoires (Grosjean, 2010; Otheguy, García, & Reid, 2015).</p><p dir="ltr">This dissertation specifically examines in what ways a student’s use of two languages contributes to advancing their academic and social goals throughout their education. I analyze Korean emergent bilinguals’ language and literacy use across different contexts: public elementary school, the Korean heritage language school, home, and local churches, to understand how emergent bilingual 1st graders engage in their learning process. Drawing on a qualitative case study with four Korean emergent bilinguals, the data include over 106 hours of participant observation and transcripts of audio recordings across four contexts and interviews with students, parents, and teachers. Using thematic analysis, I code in what ways various social contexts influence bilinguals’ translanguaging practices and in what ways individual children reveal their linguistic and cultural identities in their oral and written communication. This dissertation demonstrates that bilinguals utilize a myriad of translanguaging practices to achieve various social and linguistic goals and to accommodate different social contexts.</p><p dir="ltr">In conclusion, this dissertation provides substantial contributions to language literacy education in two ways: to use translanguaging practices for communicative and linguistic purposes, and to maintain HL for English language development. First, this study supports the reconciliation of the two premises of language learning. Emergent bilinguals’ flexible use of linguistic and cultural resources demonstrates that “linguistic and cultural knowledge are constructed through each other and language-acquiring children are active and selective agents in both process” (Watson-Gegeo & Nielsen, 2003, p. 165). As discussed, translanguaging not only offers new insight into bilingual education in different learning contexts but also reveals bilinguals’ hidden language repertoires and the diverse cultural knowledge that bilinguals possess. Second, this study adds to our understanding of language maintenance in a larger society by exploring a small community of Korean emergent bilinguals in the Midwestern United States.</p>

The purpose of the study was to determine the effects of normal instruction supplemented by the computer-assisted instruction English program Grammar Game on achievement and attitude scores of vocational-technical students in Thailand. The experimental design was a 2 x 2 factorial ANOVA design. One hundred seventy-eight students at the Lanna Polytechnical College in Thailand were randomly selected from the population of 10 classrooms. Four classes were intact groups, with two classes randomly assigned to the experimental groups which received Lecture/CAI and the other two as control groups which received Lecture. The 89 students in each group were divided into high- and low- ability, based on their previous English scores. Subjects received treatment for nine weeks. Pre-test and post-test instruments on achievement and attitude were administered to both groups. The Statistical Analysis System (SAS), and the General Linear Model (GLM) package computer program yielded the MANOVA results. Based on data analysis, the findings were as follows: (1) There was a significant difference between the students in a Lecture/CAI English program and the students in a Lecture English program when they were compared simultaneously on the achievement and attitude scores, F(l, 176) = 18.97, p < .05. (2) There was no significant interaction between the types of teaching methods and levels of ability when achievement was used as the dependent variable, F(l, 174) = .48, p > .05. (3) There was no significant interaction between the types of teaching methods and levels of ability when attitude was used as the dependent variable, F(l, 174) = .06, p > .05. The conclusion was that normal instruction supplemented by CAI improved achievement and attitude scores. On the other hand, the effect of two types of methods on achievement remained the same for high- and low-ability students and so did the effect of two types of methods on attitude. Future research should examine different CAI software packages, CAI within a full year, the effects of ability on achievement and attitude, background knowledge, more levels of independent variables, characteristics of an effective CAI program, and a case study with larger population in Thailand.

This thesis investigates the intertextuality of language policy, K-12 TESL pedagogies, and EL identity construction in the perpetuation of unjust TESL practices in these contexts. By examining the power structures of English language ideology through critical discourse analysis of recent California language policy, this thesis demonstrates English language teaching’s intrinsically political nature in K-12 education through negotiations and exchanges of power. Currently, sociolinguistic approaches to TESL and second language acquisition acknowledge the value of language socialization teaching methods. This requires the acceptance of cognition, not as an individual pursuit of knowledge containment and memorization, but cognition as a collaborative and sociohistorically situated practice. Thus, this project also examines the power structures in place that negotiate and enforce these ideologies and how these practices influence pedagogy and EL identity construction. Many English users are second language (L2) users of English yet authorities of English use tend to consist of homogenous, monolingual English users, or English-sacred communities, not L2 users of English. Often, this instigates native speaker (NS) vs. non-native speaker (NNS) dichotomies such as correct vs. in-correct use, and us vs. them dichotomies. These are the same ideologies that permeate the discourse of California’s Proposition 227 and some pedagogies discussed in the data of this research perpetuating culture wars between monolingual and multilingual advocates and users.

This project’s goal is to promote and improve the mathematical literacy of fourth-grade Hispanic/Latino and English learners through the use of a graphic mathematical mediated structure. Current California Common Core data finds fourth-grade Hispanic/Latino and English learners significantly behind White and Asian students in mathematics, especially in understanding written word problems. Research supports the assumption that as a tool, a graphic mathematical mediated structure could: 1) foster conceptual understanding; 2) build content terminology; 3) allow students opportunities to justify their solutions; 4) integrate writing in math; and 5) provide a platform for discourse. This innovative pedagogical project specifically focused on how fourth-grade Hispanic/Latino and English learners could navigate through a graphic math organizer in order to understand how to add and subtract fractions in word problems. The work presents six teacher models of graphic mathematical mediated structures. Each model provides a fourth-grade word problem related to fractions. Respectively, teacher and student templates, lists of content vocabulary, and suggestions to teach each problem-solving exercise using the graphic mathematical mediated structures that were created and developed are included. Struggling Hispanic/Latino and English learners’ need a pedagogical structure and process to succeed in solving math word problems. Hence, the need for a graphic mathematical mediated structure to diminish the groups’ prevalent mathematical achievement gap and to increase their achievement in mathematics.

English Learners experience challenges related to comprehension of science text particularly at the high school level. The language of science differs significantly from that of conversation and expository text. Students benefit from collaborative interpretation of readings. Additionally, there appears to be a need to train adolescents in the oral language skills requisite for academic discourse. This study employed a sample of high school physical science students (N = 75) whose first language was Spanish and who were currently developing English language proficiency. It used quasi-experimental methodology with treatment and comparison groups, during the normal operations of the public school classroom. It tested the effect of training with a textbook summarization method and with an academic conversation strategy on the comprehension of state-adopted science textbook readings. Posttest scores of both groups were analyzed using an ANOVA. Posttest scores of treatment group members were analyzed in relation to prior science knowledge, reading level, gender, and level of English proficiency using a factorial ANOVA. Findings suggest that the treatment had a positive impact on the achievement of students who had a low level of English language proficiency. In light of the at-risk nature of this population, given low socioeconomic status and that a high percentage of families are migrant workers, this in encouraging. The basic premise of the treatment appears promising. Evidence collected pertaining to its effect relative to students’ general ESOL level, science background knowledge, literacy skills, and gender neither confirmed nor denied the viability of the strategy. The further significance of this study is that it adds to the body of research on strategies to support English Learners.

This quasi-experimental Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) study explored whether the vocabulary and reading comprehension mean scores of Hispanic Kindergarten ELs whose teachers were trained to utilize Dialogic Reading (DR) discourse were higher than the mean scores of Hispanic ELs in kindergarten whose teachers were not trained to utilize DR discourse strategies. Sixty-three self-identified Hispanic, English Language Kindergarten students and four teachers participated in the study. The teachers were randomly assigned to either the experimental group (DR trained) or control group by drawing names from a hat. Student assignment to experimental versus comparison group was based on the teacher’s assignment to either the experimental or comparison group. Thirty-one were assigned to the control group and 32 to the experimental group. The teachers were instructed to read the story to a group of six students (maximum) at a time, utilizing the DR discourse strategies they had been trained to implement. Subjects were read a story each week during the 8-week duration of the study. Teachers in the experimental group collaboratively selected 10 words each week from the Read Together Talk Together (RTTT) instructional stories that were utilized for vocabulary instruction. A test of homogeneity was conducted to evaluate whether the variance among the dependent variables was the same across the groups. An Analyses of Covariance (ANCOVA) was applied to analyze students’ vocabulary and comprehension mean scores in the experimental group and the comparison group. The results of the study demonstrated a significant increase in the vocabulary and reading comprehension mean scores for the students whose teachers had been trained in DR discourse strategies. When comparing the two groups, the results revealed a statistically significant difference (p < 0.05). In conclusion, this study was conducted to explore how DR discourse may be an effective technique to teach literacy skills. The findings of this study showed that vocabulary knowledge and reading comprehension of Hispanic ELs were positively affected by the teachers’ inclusion of dialogue during storybook reading. Its outcomes accentuated the need for teachers to provide assistance to ELs as they develop vocabulary knowledge and reading comprehension skills.

This study investigates spelling errors among Swedish students of English. The purpose of this research is to develop a better understanding of the causes of spelling errors and to investigate whether there are any differences between program orientation and gender. The participants are English A students from Swedish high schools in year 1. The data analysed in this study consists of essays written by the participants which have been gathered into the Uppsala Learner English Corpus (ULEC). The results showed that the academic program has a lower error rate when compared to the vocational program and that female students display a lower error frequency than male students. These results reflect the same pattern found by previous studies on achievement between the programs and across gender. However, when comparing all variables, both gender and program, the results demonstrate that academic male students had the lowest error rate of all groups, which could partially be explained by the fact that the academic male students have a higher level of engagement with video- and online games when compared to the other groups. The language processes that the participants found the most challenging were letter omission, letter insertion and letter substitution. These results follow the same pattern highlighted in previous studies on spelling among both native speakers and learners. Finally, the exchange between the vowels &lt;a&gt;, &lt;e&gt; and &lt;i&gt; was found to be a frequent error among the students. Experiencing difficulties with the correct usage of vowels can be explained as a transfer error.