abstract: This multilevel, institutional case study used ethnographic methods to explore the intersections of local language policies and emergent bilingual students’ identities in dual language and structured English immersion (SEI) classrooms at one urban elementary school. Using a sociocultural policy approach as means to explore the ways that educational language policies are appropriated and practiced in schools and classrooms and an intersectional literacy identity framework, I engaged in a multilevel qualitative analysis of one school, two fifth-grade classrooms, and four focal emergent bilingual students. At the school and classroom levels, I sought to understand the ways educators practiced and enacted language policies as well as how they conceptualized (bi)literacy for emergent bilingual students. At the student level, I engaged in identity-text writing sessions designed around student interests yet aligned with the opinion/argumentation writing style the students were working on in class at the time of data collection. Additionally, I conducted one-on-one interviews with the participants at each level of analysis (i.e. school-level, classroom-level, and student-level). The primary data analysis sources included participant interviews, classroom observations, and student identity-text artifacts. Findings highlight the dynamic in-school and classroom-level realities of emergent bilingual students in an Arizona educational-language policy context. Specifically, at the school level, there was an ongoing tension between compliance and resistance to state-mandated policies for emergent bilingual students. At the school and classroom levels, there were distinct differences in the ways students across the two classrooms were positioned within the larger school environment as well as variation surrounding how language and culture were positioned as a resource in each classroom context. The role of teachers as language policymakers is also explored through the findings. Analysis of student texts revealed the centrality of intersectional student identities throughout the writing processes. The discussion and conclusions more broadly address implications for educational practice, policy, and future research directions. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Educational Leadership and Policy Studies 2018

abstract: Arizona's English Language Development Model (ELD Model) is intended to increase and accelerate the learning of English by English Language Learners (ELLs), so that the students can then be ready, when they know the English language, to learn the other academic subjects together with their English speaking peers. This model is part of a response to comply with the Flores Consent Order to improve services for ELLs in Arizona public schools. Whether or not it actually has improved instruction for ELLs has been the subject of much debate and, in 2012, after four years of the requirement to use Arizona's ELD Model, the ELL students who were identified as reclassified for the six districts in the study did not pass the Arizona's Instrument to Measure Standards (AIMS) test. The model's requirement to separate students who are not proficient from students who are proficient, the assessment used for identification of ELLs, and the Structured English Immersion four hours of English only instruction are at the nexus of the controversy, as the courts accepted the separate four hour SEI portion of the model for instruction as sufficient to meet the needs of ELLs in Arizona (Garcia, 2011, Martinez, 2012, Lawton, 2012, Lillie, 2012). This study examines student achievement in Reading and Math as measured by AIMS standards-based tests in six urban K-8 public school districts between 2007-2012. This period was selected to cover two years before and four years after the ELD model was required. Although the numbers of ELLs have decreased for the State and for the six urban elementary districts since the advent of the Arizona ELD Model, the reclassified ELL subgroup in the studied districts did not pass the AIMS for all the years in the study. Based on those results, this study concludes with the following recommendations. First, to study the coming changes in the language assessments and their impact on ELLs' student achievement in broad and comprehensive ways; second, to implement a model change allowing school districts to support their ELLs in their first language; and, finally, to establish programs that will allow ELLs full access to study with their English speaking peers. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ed.D. Educational Administration and Supervision 2012

English CLIL-instruction in Sweden is supposed to be beneficial to students who want to improve their academic English vocabulary proficiency in preparation for studies or employment abroad. However, recent research shows that there is no difference in academic English proficiency between students in upper secondary school CLIL-programs and students in regular upper secondary schools in Sweden. Furthermore, educational researchers question if CLIL-programs in Sweden qualify to be defined as CLIL-instruction since Swedish translanguaging is extensively used which does not make the programs 100% Englishmedium instruction. Through teacher observations and questionnaires, this study investigates the classroom practices at a CLIL-program in Sweden in addition to ask the CLIL-teachers about their teaching strategies in regards to promoting students’ acquisition, development, and use of academic English. The findings include that the classroom practices are in accordance with practices considered beneficial to students’ proficiency in academi c English by numerous previous studies. In addition, all the teachers questioned in this study purposely work to support and develop students’ academic language proficiency in their respective subject areas and across the curriculum. The study also found four possible factors that perhaps can undermine the acquisition, development and use of academic English vocabulary and those include the following: First, the teachers believe that the students are already sufficiently fluent in academic English, and thus concentrate more on content than on language in their instruction. Secondly, extensive translanguaging in the classroom is common in addition to the students’ habit of speaking Swedish to each other in stude nt-tostudent communication. Thirdly, the students do not receive the corresponding level of education in their native language of Swedish as they do in English, which can have detrimental effects on their abilities to develop their English past their Swedish language abilities. Finally, classroom practices that are not inclusive of all students can work to undermine the acquisition and use of academic English vocabulary.

This inquiry focussed on a single unit of analysis: TeleTuks Schools, a community outreach initiative of the University of Pretoria, South Africa and is classified as a case study. It sought to explain why despite technology that permits bi-directional oral communication during televised instruction, learner participation was poor. The exploration of literature related to instructional television (ITV) and social communication, ensured a richer understanding of ITV as delivery mode as well as potential reasons for low responsivity during telelessons. It also raised awareness of the particular challenges of utilising ITV in a developing country context. This inquiry was informed by an interpretivist paradigm and the theoretical stance related to a synthesis of several communication models designed for mass media while the concept interaction as a key element of instructional communication was also dissected. Initially, a small-scale quantitative approach, established how prevalent poor participation was while rich experiential interview and video data identified why learners refrained from participating overtly. The use of Atlas.tiTM to systematically analyse the volume of unstructured data as a single unit, not only facilitated analysis but also enhanced the validity of the inquiry. An inductive analysis of the research data generated three significant and interrelated themes: Paradoxical perceptions, Presenter nescience, and Problematic practicalities and partnerships. These accounted for why learners did not respond as expected during televised instructional episodes. Key findings suggested that the rate of learner participation during telelessons was not influenced by an isolated factor as initially anticipated, but by a combination of variables. Technical and methodological design limitations were complicated by ineffective communication skills on the part of both presenters and viewers. Incongruence between the findings and initial suppositions added to an overarching sense of mismatch and led to the proposal of a theory linked to instructional dissonance i.e. the ignorance or denial of distortions that negatively affect communication between the instructor and student. Instructional communication is successful but not meaningful as a mismatch of sense or utility occurs. Recommendations for theory and practice are deemed applicable to mediated instructional contexts. Research avenues for further exploration relating to interaction in blended learning environments have been suggested. / Thesis (PhD (Curriculum Studies))--University of Pretoria, 2005. / Curriculum Studies / unrestricted

The storyline approach is a group centred and cross-curricular teaching method focusing on the creation of a story and a fictive world in the classroom. The story develops by the pupils’ answers to different key questions, which represent tasks and activities. One of these questions often concerns the making of characters, which then are used throughout the story. The storyline approach has become a quite well-used method in first language contexts, but is less used in foreign language teaching, especially when it comes to the younger learners. This study will therefore discuss if the method could encourage pupils’ motivation for English language learning and if the creative aspects of the storyline approach may enhance the pupils’ English learning. The essay is a literature study, using scholarly studies of the storyline approach, young language learners, motivation in language learning and creativity related to language learning. By relating and comparing these studies, I find that the storyline approach may be used in English teaching for younger learners, that it may indeed be used to motivate pupils and that the creativity that the approach encourages may affect pupils in a positive way.

The purpose of this study is to see how second-language learners uses noun phrases in their written texts and oral speech as well as how they differ from each other. In order to answer this, the following questions have been formulated: What congruent errors are found in the noun phrases in the students' texts and oral speeches? Are there any differences in the use of noun phrases in the students' texts and oral speeches? The study is based on performance analysis, where student texts and transcribed recordings of students' oral speeches are analyzed. The result shows that congruence errors in the students' noun phrases are mostly due to the misuse of gender, definite form and numerus. The result also shows that the students had more congruence errors in the written texts, but there were similar, but fewer, mistakes in the oral speeches. This means that you cannot draw general conclusions about any differences between the written texts and the oral speeches.

abstract: ABSTRACT Closing the achievement gap between low-income, marginalized, racially, and linguistically diverse students has proven difficult. Research has outlined the effects of funding on student achievement in a manner that focuses the attention on dollars expended, in order overcome barriers to learning. Arizona has long been recognized for its education funding disparity, and its inability to balance fiscal capacity in a manner that serves to improve educational outcomes. This dissertation examines how Arizona funds its education system. It measures horizontal inequity in a robust manner by examining those fiscal capacity resources directly related to learning and poverty. Recognizing districts with higher concentrations of special needs students will impact fiscal capacity at the district level, this dissertation applies a non-linear analysis to measure how English language learners/ limited English proficient (ELL/ LEP) student proportionality impacts federal and state revenue per pupil, ELL expenditures per pupil, and total expenditures per pupil. Using the Gini Ratio, McCloone Index, Coefficient of Variation, and Theil inequality index, this dissertation confirms that significant education funding disparity exists across Arizona’s school districts. This dissertation also shows the proportion of English language learners is negatively related to local revenue per pupil, and ELL expenditures per ELL pupil. Arizona has characteristically funded the public education system inequitably and positioned its students in a manner that stratifies achievement gaps based on wealth. Targeted funding toward ELLs is in no way meaningfully related to the proportion of ELLs in a district. Conceptually the way in which equity is defined, and measured, may require re-evaluation, beyond correlated inputs and outputs. This conceptual re-evaluation of equity must include the decision making process of administrative leaders which influence the quality of those resources related to student learning. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Educational Policy and Evaluation 2018

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Reading failure in elementary school is highly correlated with future academic and social problems. Schools commonly use Tier 2 reading interventions in Response to Intervention (RtI) frameworks to help close the gap between at-risk readers and their peers who read on grade-level. This dissertation presents the findings of a quasi-experimental research study of the effects of three Tier 2 reading interventions in an urban Title I elementary school's RtI framework. A regression discontinuity design (RDD) with two cutoff points was used to assign 320 students in grades 1-6 to two types of Tier 2 reading interventions administered by paraeducators: direct instruction (DI) and computer-assisted instruction (CAI). Students were assigned using normal curve equivalent reading composite scores on the Kaufman Test of Educational Achievement II, Brief Form (KTEA-II BFR). Students scoring below a lower cutoff were assigned to a DI reading intervention, while students scoring at or below an upper cutoff and above the lower cutoff were assigned to CAI reading interventions. January and May posttest iterations of the KTEA-II BFR served as outcome measures for all students. Results of the analysis indicated that the DI intervention was more effective than the CAI interventions at the lower cutoff (p < .01). Participation in CAI interventions was not any more or less effective than business-as-usual reading activities (p > .10). These findings suggest that that CAI programs may not be as helpful in closing the achievement gap between struggling students and their peers as DI interventions, and should be implemented with deliberation.

Syftet med studien är att undersöka vad svensk och internationell forskning visar om hur transspråkande används för att stötta språk-, kunskaps- och identitetsutveckling i det flerspråkiga klassrummet. Studien är en systematisk litteraturstudie som diskuteras i förhållande till sociokulturell teori och transspråkande som pedagogisk strategi. Resultatet av studien visar att transspråkande dels kan ske på övergripande nivå där hela skolan kännetecknas av en positiv inställning, dels genom att lärare använder transspråkande genom digitala verktyg, språkgrupper, modersmål- och studiehandledare, men också genom samarbete med hem och vårdnadshavare. Detta svarar också på studiens frågeställning om hur transspråkande kan stötta flerspråkiga elever i grundskolans tidigare år. Resultatet visar att transspråkande stärker elevens kunskapsinhämtning, språkutveckling och identitet.