Verb-particle constructions are one of the most complex components of the English language. Understanding and producing such difficult constructs in a second language (L2) is a challenge for L2 learners of English. This research was based on the study by Blais and Gonnerman (2013). The purpose of the current study was to measure American and Saudi participants' sensitivity to the degree of semantic similarity between verb/verb-particle constructions. The survey of similarity ratings was administered to 107 American native English speakers and 67 Saudi English learners. The participants were asked to rate 78 items based on their knowledge of the semantic similarity between verb/verb-particle pairs. Results revealed two major findings; American native speakers and Saudi English learners did not behave consistently with the similarity rating task, and the results did not support the previous categorizations of 78 items that established by Blais and Gonnerman. Extrapolating from these findings, it appears that similarity judgments of verb/verb-particle pairs may be sample-specific, even among native speakers. Therefore, it is questionable whether Blais and Gonnerman's instrument can be used to reliably compare the judgments of different samples of native and non-native speakers.

This study is a qualitative research of Japanese "chuzai" families (short-term residents) concerning parental perspectives toward children's education in Southern Illinois. The primary data was collected by questionnaires, individual and group interviews, and school observations. The main participants of this study were five mothers of the "chuzai" group in Southern Illinois, in which questionnaires, individual and group interviews were conducted. Furthermore, in order to gain an in-depth understanding of the children's education, school visits were made to the Japanese Saturday School and the ELL (English Language Learner) program of the local school which the children attended, including classroom observations. Additionally, interviews with the principal of the Japanese school and the ELL teacher were conducted, and questionnaires were also distributed to all the parents whose children attended the Japanese Saturday School. The notion of imagined communities (Anderson, 1991; Norton, 2001) was employed as the theoretical framework in order to examine "chuzai" people's current lives in Southern Illinois and their attitudes toward their children's education. The study reveals that "chuzai" families are different in various ways from both "eiju" (permanent residents) and Japanese communities in larger cities. Even though the Japanese community in Southern Illinois is small and features limited access to Japanese products, they maintain their Japanese lifestyle and strong connection with Japanese people in their community remarkably well. Interestingly, they show positive attitudes toward living in Southern Illinois, but they also have concerns due to their transiency as "chuzai." In relation to perspectives on children's education, this study suggests that parents have positive perspectives toward maintaining their Japanese culture, as well as learning the English language and experiencing American culture. Their heritage as Japanese strongly affects their daily practices even on a subconscious level; furthermore, their status of "chuzai" emphasizes the importance of keeping up their children's academic skills with the Japanese standard. At the same time, they also consider this short-term stay in the U.S. as an advantage in terms of providing new experiences and an opportunity for their children to learn English. The findings indicate that parents' imagined communities for their children's future have a great impact on their current investment (Norton Peirce, 2000). "Chuzai" families envision their future lives in Japan because they plan to return eventually, thus affecting their hopes for their children to be successful while readapting to schools in their home country. In this regard, Japanese Saturday school plays a crucial role as support for preparing children for their return to Japan regarding academic and social skills. In addition to the importance of becoming successful in Japan, parents also believe that the experience in the U.S. and English skills broaden their children's future in a global economy. The ELL program at the local school helps children in terms of learning English in order for them to be able to manage school life in the U.S. This study suggests that parental perspectives influence their children's education, and it is important for educators to understand the students' backgrounds and needs in order to provide appropriate education.

xiii, 116 p. : ill. A print copy of this thesis is available through the UO Libraries. Search the library catalog for the location and call number. / Early literacy development and mastery of reading skills are critical goals for all students to accomplish; however, there is not yet a clear answer on how or in which language to teach these skills to English Language Learners (ELL). Until clear evidence on effective interventions is found, the academic achievement gap between mainstream students and ELL students is likely to increase. This study examined the effects of the "Templates" Spanish intervention program on the Spanish early literacy skills of phonemic awareness and the alphabetic principle for 12 kindergarten Hispanic ELL students enrolled in a dual immersion program. To assess the efficacy of the Spanish intervention program, a hierarchical linear model (HLM) design combining elements of multiple baseline across subjects, single-subject design, and a regression discontinuity design was used. Results of the HLM analysis found no significant effects of the intervention in the between subjects analysis. The visual analysis of single subject designs indicated that of the 12 subjects only three appeared to exhibit a positive effect of the intervention when measures of alphabetic principle were used and only two when phonemic awareness measures were used. Students for whom the "Templates" did not appear to have a positive effect were those that were already making adequate progress while receiving the small group curriculum practice. These students' skills continued growing when they received the "Templates" intervention and while some progressed at a slower pace they may have reached a sufficient level of skills that continuing or exceeding baseline levels of growth was unlikely. Our study provides some initial indication that students who are not making adequate progress with the small group curriculum practice may potentially benefit from the use of more structured, direct, and explicit instruction with the use of the "Templates". Limitations of this study included the use of a small sample size, the short duration of the time allowed for the intervention procedures, and the restricted time to conduct phase changes from baseline to intervention would have provided a clearer indication of intervention effects. / Committee in charge: Roland Good, Chairperson, Special Education and Clinical Sciences; Kenneth Merrell, Member, Special Education and Clinical Sciences; Jeffrey Sprague, Member, Special Education and Clinical Sciences; Robert Mauro, Outside Member, Psychology

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between English language proficiency scores as measured by the ACCESS for ELLs and achievement and growth scores on the reading subtest of the Measures of Academic Progress (MAP). The sample consisted of 2,006 3rd-5th grade English language learners (ELLs) from a large Midwestern school district. Results confirmed that an increase in English proficiency is associated with higher reading achievement scores. The unique variance explained by each of the domain scores (reading, writing, speaking, and listening) on the ACCESS for ELLs supports the use of a weighted composite score for decision making purposes. When considering within-year MAP growth by differing levels of proficiency, a curvilinear trend emerged. The two lowest proficiency groups demonstrated significantly lower reading growth than the two moderate and two highest proficiency groups. The greatest growth was seen by the two groups in the middle of the proficiency spectrum. Given the increased demands on measuring the achievement and progress of all students, including ELLs, and the use of standardized achievement scores for program and teacher evaluation, the results of this study suggest that a dichotomous classification of ELL/non-ELL might not accurately reflect the variability in growth at various levels of English proficiency. Implications for interpreting and using scores by ELLs are discussed.

The study examined Latino/Hispanic mother-child interactions and shared book reading behaviors before and after participation in a random-assignment Spanish web-based responsive parenting intervention called Play and Learning Strategies (ePALS), as compared with a Spanish web-based developmental assessment intervention (DAS). The efficacy of PALS was previously demonstrated for improving mother and child behaviors within play contexts, everyday activities, and standardized measures of child language. We did not observe statistical changes in mother-child interactions as measured by the Bilingual Child-Mother Coder Impression; but changes were observed in shared reading interactions as measured by the Adult-Child Interactive Reading Inventory. Mothers enrolled in ePALS slightly increased some reading interactive behaviors, while mothers enrolled in DAS decreased on the use of interactive reading skills. Children enrolled in ePALS significantly increased in their use of interactive reading behaviors, while children’s interactive reading skills in the DAS conditions decreased. These results add to the dual language learners’ literature base, but also add to the supporting importance of targeting responsive behaviors in everyday activities such as shared-reading to facilitate children’s development. Limitations and future directions are discussed.

abstract: Purpose: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of the EMBRACE Spanish support intervention for at-risk dual language learners and to determine which verbal and nonverbal characteristics of students were related to benefit from the intervention. The first study examined oral language and reading characteristics and the second study examined motor characteristics in predicting the children's outcomes on a reading comprehension intervention. Method: Fifty-six participants in 2nd-5th grade were randomly assigned to one of two groups: 1) Spanish-support intervention, or 2) Spanish-support control. Outcome measures included performance on comprehension questions related to intervention texts, questions on the final narrative and expository text without strategy instruction, and difference scores on alternate forms of the Gates-MacGinitie (GMRT-4, MacGinitie, MacGinitie, Maria, & Dreyer, 2002) reading comprehension subtest administered pre- post-intervention. Multi-level hierarchical linear models were used to account for nesting of question within child within classroom. Regression models were used to examine the power of motor predictors in predicting Spanish and English language performance. Results: Results from study 1 indicated that the intervention was most effective for narrative (vs. expository) texts and easy (vs. more difficult) texts. Dual language learners (DLLs) with lower initial English reading comprehension abilities benefitted more from the intervention than those with stronger reading skills. Results from Study 2 indicated that oral fine motor abilities predicted Spanish (but not English) oral language abilities in the expected direction (i.e. faster performance associated with higher language scores). The speed of /pata/ productions predicted reading comprehension during the intervention, but not in the expected direction (i.e. slower speeds associated with higher accuracy). Manual fine motor performance on tapping tasks was not related to language or reading. Conclusions: The EMBRACE intervention has promise for use with at-risk DLLs. Future research should take care to match text difficulty with child skills so as to maximize benefit from the intervention. Oral fine motor abilities were related to language abilities in DLLs, but only for the native language. Slower oral fine motor performance predicted higher accuracy on intervention questions, suggesting that EMBRACE may be particularly effective for children with weak fine motor skills. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Speech and Hearing Science 2017

abstract: The primary purpose of this study is to examine the effect of knowledge for teaching mathematics and teaching practice on student mathematics achievement growth. Thirty two teachers and 299 fourth grade students in three elementary schools from one school district in urban area participated in the study. Most of them are Hispanic in origin and about forty percent is English Language Learners (ELLs). The two level Hierarchical Linear Model (HLM) was used to investigate repeated measures of teaching practice measured by Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS) instrument. Also, linear regression and a multiple regression to examine the relationship between teacher knowledge measured by Learning for Mathematics Teaching (LMT) and Developing Mathematical Ideas (DMI) items and teaching practice were employed. In addition, a three level HLM was employed to analyze repeated measures of student mathematics achievement measured by Arizona Assessment Consortium (AzAC) instruments. Results showed that overall teaching practice did not change weekly although teachers' emotional support for their students improved by week. Furthermore, a statistically significant relationship between teacher knowledge and teaching practice was not found. In terms of student learning, ELLs have significantly lower initial status in mathematics achievement than non-ELLs, as were growth rates for these two groups. Lastly, teaching practice significantly predicted students' monthly mathematics achievement growth but teacher knowledge did not. The findings suggest that school systems and education policy makers need to provide teachers with the chance to reflect on their teaching and change it within themselves in order to better support student mathematics learning. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Curriculum and Instruction 2012

abstract: In 2007, Arizona voters passed House Bill (HB) 2064, a law that fundamentally restructured the Structured English Immersion (SEI) program, putting into place a 4-hour English language development (ELD) block for educating English language learners (ELLs). Under this new language policy, ELL students are segregated from their English-speaking peers to receive a minimum of four hours of instruction in discrete language skills with no contextual or native language support. Furthermore, ELD is separate from content-area instruction, meaning that language and mathematics are taught as two separate entities. While educators and researchers have begun to examine the organizational structure of the 4-hour block curriculum and implications for student learning, there is much to be understood about the extent to which this policy impacts ELLs opportunities to learn mathematics. Using ethnographic methods, this dissertation documents the beliefs and practices of four Arizona teachers in an effort to understand the relationship between language policy and teacher beliefs and practice and how together they coalesce to form learning environments for their ELL students, particularly in mathematics. The findings suggest that the 4-hour block created disparities in opportunities to learn mathematics for students in one Arizona district, depending on teachers' beliefs and the manner in which the policy was enacted, which was, in part, influenced by the State, district, and school. The contrast in cases exemplified the ways in which policy, which was enacted differently in the various classes, restricted teachers' practices, and in some cases resulted in inequitable opportunities to learn mathematics for ELLs. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Curriculum and Instruction 2013

abstract: This study reports on research that explores local manifestations of Arizona's English-only language education policy by investigating the experiences of selected English language learners (ELLs) with reclassification into mainstream classrooms and four of their classroom teachers. In this study, I employed ethnographic methods (participant observation, document collection, interviewing, and focus groups) to investigate what practices emerge after ELLs are reclassified as "Fluent English Proficient" (FEP) students and moved from "the four-hour English Language Development (ELD) block" into mainstream classrooms. With a focus on the perspectives and experiences of twelve 5th and 6th grade elementary school students and four of their teachers, I examined how students and teachers viewed and responded to restrictive language policies and the practices that accompany them. One finding from this study is that students and teachers believed that the four-hour ELD block helped prepare students to learn English, but "proficiency" in English as determined by the Arizona English Language Learner Assessment (AZELLA) did not always indicate a solid understanding of the language used in the mainstream classrooms. A second finding from this study is that ideologies of language that position English over multilingualism are robust and further strengthened by language policies that prohibit the use of languages other than English in ELD and mainstream classrooms. A third finding from this study is that, in part because of the language restrictive policies in place, particular groups of students continued to engage in practices that enact ideologies of language that devalue multilingualism (e.g., "language policing"). At the same time, however, a close examination of student-to-student interaction indicates that these same students use their multiple linguistic and communicative resources in a variety of creative and purposeful ways (e.g., through language crossing and language sharing). The close examination of policy as practice in a restrictive educational language policy context conducted here has implications for debates about English-only as a method and medium of instruction, about how the ideologies of language operate in situated interactional contexts, and about how youth might use existing resources to challenge restrictive ideologies and policies. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. English 2013

Sverige är ett mångkulturellt samhälle med många flerspråkiga klassrum. Eleverna i dessa klassrum har olika förhållanden till och erfarenheter av det språk som undervisningen, inklusive matematikundervisningen, sker på. Syftet med denna systematiska litteraturstudie är att synliggöra och sammanställa tidigare forskningsresultat om huruvida språket påverkar andraspråkselevers lärande i matematik. Elever i grundskolan (6-16 år) är av intresse för denna studie. Frågan som undersöks är Vad säger forskning om språkets påverkan för andraspråkselevers lärande i matematik? I resultatet synliggörs även vilka språkliga faktorer som gynnar, respektive missgynnar andraspråkselevers lärande i matematik. Studiens resultat är baserat på internationella artiklar. Resultatet visar på att språket påverkar andraspråkselevers lärande i matematik. De språkliga faktorerna som påverkar lärandet ligger hos eleven eller i undervisningen. / Sweden is a multicultural society with many multilingual classrooms. The pupils in these classrooms have different relationships with and experiences of the language of instruction, including mathematics teaching. The aim of this systematic literature study is to visualize and compile previous research findings about whether the language affects second language learners, learning in mathematics. Students in elementary school (6-16 years) are of interested in this study. The question under investigation is What does research say about the influence of language on language learning in mathematics? The result also shows which linguistic factors are beneficial and disadvantageous to the second language learners learning in mathematics. The results of the study are based on international articles. The result shows that language affect second language learners learning in mathematic. The linguistic factors that affect pupils learning exists either within the pupil or within the teaching.