The number of English language learners continues to grow in United States' schools and their achievement level continues to lag behind their peers. This developmental study investigated the design and development of a multimedia environment that embedded cognitive strategy instruction to assist ELL students' academic content learning. High school ELL students face the hardship of preparing for various state mandated graduation requirements while learning the English language and learning strategies are believed to help ELL students improve their learning. The multimedia tutorial embedded rehearsal, elaboration, and compensation learning strategies to help the ELL students understand and recall information about state mandated computer competencies. Formative evaluation was used to gather data from five intermediate Hispanic ELL high school students in grades 9 through 11. Lessons learned from embedding rehearsal, elaboration, and compensation learning strategies in multimedia instruction and recommendations for future development are discussed. / Ph. D.

Few classroom measures of English language proficiency have been evaluated for reliability and validity. Researchers have examined the concurrent and predictive validity of an oral language test, titled A Developmental English Language Proficiency Test (ADEPT), and the relationship to the California English Language Development Test (CELDT) in the receptive/listening and expressive/speaking domains. Four years of retroactive data representing 392 student records were obtained from a local urban school district in Los Angeles County with a significant proportion of English language learners. After preparing the data file for analysis, data was analyzed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) system. Cronbach’s alpha was used to analyze the internal consistency of ADEPT. Pearson r analysis was performed to examine concurrent validity and predictive validity. Findings indicated moderate to high correlation coefficients of internal consistency in the first three levels of ADEPT. Concurrent validity results varied depending on the school year. In the most recent school year, 2012–2013, positive moderate to strong correlations were found. This relationship was weaker in each previous year. Overall, correlations increased and remained positive as sample size increased but predictive validity was weak for all three sets of comparative years. These findings support the use of ADEPT as a multiple measure, as a monitoring tool and to inform instruction.

Dual language learners (DLLs) represent a rapidly growing population of students in United States preschools. DLLs increasingly experience social emotional learning (SEL) programs in their early learning environments, which are now widely implemented in Head Start and other publicly funded preschools. However, limited research has explored the extent to which SEL programs support DLL development. Investigating the impact of SEL programs on DLL skills is critical to both enhance the literature on SEL programs and to identify the types of preschool curricula that benefit DLLs. In the present study, I took an ecological systems and sociocultural approach to evaluating the extent to which SEL programs support DLL language and social outcomes and whether these outcomes depend on classroom contextual factors. Using an existing data set that included a large number of DLLs enrolled in Head Start, I fit a series of multilevel models to evaluate whether participating in an SEL program predicted growth in DLLs’ social skills and vocabulary over time compared to participating in a control group. I conducted a multilevel moderation analysis to examine the extent to which DLL outcomes depended on the overall quality of teacher-child interactions in a classroom and having a teacher who could speak DLLs’ home language (i.e., Spanish). Results indicated that DLLs who participated in an SEL program showed greater growth in social skills over time than DLLs in the control group. There was not evidence to suggest that the social skills outcomes depended on classroom-level teacher-child interactions, nor on having a Spanish-speaking teacher. Findings also revealed no significant difference in vocabulary growth over time among DLLs in the SEL program group versus DLLs in the control group. However, results indicated that DLL vocabulary outcomes depended on classroom-level teacher-child interaction quality. There was not evidence to suggest that vocabulary outcomes depended on having a Spanish-speaking teacher. These findings provide support for preschool SEL programs as a tool to enhance DLL social skills. They suggest the need for SEL programs to embed opportunities for quality teacher-child language interactions in curricula to enhance DLL vocabulary skills. Future research should continue to explore the contextual factors that impact DLL outcomes in SEL programs, as well as explore the relative effectiveness of various SEL programs. / School Psychology

In 1999, Texas Legislature mandated the Student Success Initiative to ensure all eighth grade students are on grade level in reading and mathematics. Although progress is evident, the achievement gap for English language learners remains. The purpose of this case study was to explore effective school practices that lead to closing the achievement gap. This qualitative study applies the two core functions of leadership for exercising influence and providing direction to answer the research question: How do the core functions of school leadership practices for implementing the Student Success Initiative requirements vary between English language learners and non-English language learners in high and low-performing middle schools? The comparison between the high-performing school and low-performing school brought forth key findings and identifies school practices for supporting secondary English language learners. The key findings for exercising influence on teachers were: 1) Effective school practices that influence teacher knowledge on how to identify students and their needs include: a) conducts a needs assessment.; b) analyze data; c) create differentiated ESL programs, d) place diverse groups of ELLs in differentiated ESL programs. 2) Effective school practices to influence teachers how to intervene include: a) accept teacher input and follow through on requests when planning interventions, b) target intervention needs; c) create differentiated interventions. 3) Effective school practices to influence teachers how to monitor include: a) analyze multiple types of data, b) measure student reading growth; c) measure student language proficiency, d) conduct walkthroughs to observe students. The key findings for providing direction to teachers established the following practices: 4) Effective school practices to provide direction to identify students and their needs include, a) develop and implement a school wide intervention plan, b) create a master schedule to implement differentiated ESL programs; c) model how to disaggregate data, d) develop and implement an individual plan for ELLs. 5) Effective school practices to provide direction to intervene include: a) assign ESL teacher to intervention groups, b) use data to drive intervention planning, c) measure growth in language and literacy, d) provide daily interventions, e) integrate language and literacy interventions in lessons. 6) Effective school practices to provide direction to teachers for monitoring include: a) measure growth of literacy and language development, b) triangulate multiple types of data, c) review intervention lessons during walkthroughs, e) provide daily interventions specific to student needs. / text

With the rising importance of Mandarin Chinese since the 80s, researchers have paid more attention to the Mandarin learners of heritage backgrounds who can understand or speak Mandarin Chinese before entering Chinese as a Foreign Language (CFL) programs. However, the study of Fangyan-speaking learners of Mandarin Chinese has been long neglected and still remains scarce. This interview study was conducted with twelve Fangyan-speaking learners of Mandarin in U.S. universities with an aim of investigating the linguistic knowledge and ethno-cultural identities that Fangyan-speaking students bring to college-level CFL classrooms. Another focus of this study is to investigate the perception Fangyan-speaking students have about their linguistic abilities and what Fangyan-speaking students are perceived to be the expectations of their instructors and peers. This study was conducted in two CFL programs: a long-established dual-track program in a research university and a newly-established mixed track program in a teaching university. Both Fangyan-speaking students and their instructors were recruited for interviews and document data were collected from both students and their instructors. A modification of Krashen’s Input Hypothesis (1981) was employed in categorizing four types of Mandarin input, in which Cantonese pronunciation for reading purposes and media consumption were found to play important roles in Fangyan-speaking students’ Mandarin learning. Analysis of the data also revealed that Fangyan-speaking participants’ ethno-cultural identities may exhibit a nature of “hybridity” (Young, 1995) owing to their family immigration histories. Implications derived from the findings are offered for researchers, practitioners, and administrators of programs that serve tertiary CFL learners. / text

Engelskundervisningen idag i årskurserna 1-3 är enligt min åsikt och erfarenhet, inte tillräckligt prioriterat. Många av eleverna kan redan vid skolstarten ha engelskkunskaper med sig och de måste nationellt ges möjligheten till att utveckla dessa. Läraren kan ha stor betydelse i barnens andraspråks- och språkinlärning. Det är av vikt att läraren har kompetens, skapar en trygg miljö och har en varierad undervisning. Andra aspekter som är avgörande för elevernas förståelse är som tidigare sagt miljö och även engagemang från eleverna. Detta examensarbete är en litteraturstudie och innebär att sökningar har gjorts och litteratur har sammanställts inom ett valt område. Syftet med den här litteraturstudien är att undersöka om arbetsmetoder mot yngre barn samt vad tidigare forskning säger om andraspråks- och språkinlärning för barn. I resultatet upptäcktes att det är många faktorer som spelar in vid barns språkinlärning i de valda studierna. Det som gemensamt hittades bland studierna var vikten av repetition, imitation och kommunikation vid undervisning. Att börja med språkundervisning i årskurs 1 och att ta vara på elevernas egna inlärningsstrategier skapar de bästa förutsättningarna för språkinlärning. Ett förslag till vidare forskning är att undersöka hur lärare idag arbetar med engelska språkinlärning mot yngre barn.

Engelskan har en stor påverkan i det svenska språket och i det svenska samhället idag. Många elever kan därför redan ha ett ordförråd i engelska när de börjar skolan, från till exempel film eller spel. När man undervisar barn i årskurserna 1-3 är det viktigt att eleverna blir exponerade till det engelska språket, för att utveckla ett eventuellt redan befintligt ordförråd. Detta examensarbete är en empirisk studie och innebär att egen datainsamling har gjorts, i detta fall observationer och enkäter. Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka hur mycket engelska används och i vilken form i årskurserna 2 och 3. I resultatet upptäcktes det från observationerna att engelska används i olika mängder, huvudsakligen genom läromedel, lärarna pratar svenska och engelska i undervisningen och eleverna är i största grad delaktiga. Det som gemensamt hittades i enkäten var att lärarna tycker om att undervisa engelska, det är svårt/utmanande att få eleverna att våga prata, lärarna försöker prata mycket engelska och eleverna tycker om att lära sig engelska. Ett förslag till vidare forskning är att fortsätta forska om olika fenomen inom engelska för unga åldrar. / <p>Engelska</p>

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Idag är en stor andel av eleverna i svensk skola flerspråkiga. Lärarna måste alltså räkna med att eleverna i klassen behärskar svenska språket i varierande grad. Forskning visar att för att andraspråkselever ska få samma chans som förstaspråkselever att mötas utifrån sina förutsättningar och behov, krävs att alla lärare har kunskaper om hur andraspråksutveckling går till och hur man kan planera och genomföra undervisning som är samtidigt språkutvecklande och kunskapsutvecklande. Men lärarutbildningen prioriterar inte dessa ämnen. Inte heller finns det några formella krav på att grundlärare ska ha dessa kunskaper.   Genom intervjuer med två lärare i årskurs tre undersöks i föreliggande studie hur stor betydelse lärarnas eget driv har för att skapa förutsättningar för en framgångsrik språk- och kunskapsutveckling för andraspråkselever. Resultatet visar att lärarnas eget intresse och engagemang har en nyckelroll i detta. / A large percentage of students in Swedish schools today are multilingual. Consequently teachers must expect varying degrees of Swedish language proficiency of the students in the classroom. Research shows that in order to give second language students the same chance of being met on the basis of their capacities and needs as students with Swedish as their first language have, it is important that all teachers have knowledge of second language development as well as of educational planning and implementation that is developing both language and subject-matter knowledge. Regardless of this finding the teacher education programme does not prioritize these subjects; nor are there any formal requirements that primary school teachers should have these skill sets.   In this study interviews were conducted with two third grade teachers to probe the significance of the teacher's own enthusiasm in creating optimal conditions for the development of the student's language skills and learning. The results show that the teachers' own interest and commitment play a key role in this matter.