abstract: This project offers an exploration of the constitution of English language learners (ELLs) in the state of Arizona as subjects of government through the discursive rationalities of rule that unfolded alongside the Flores v. Arizona case. The artifacts under consideration span the 22 years (1992-2014) of Flores' existence so far. These artifacts include published academic scholarship; Arizona's legislative documents and floor debate audio and video; court summaries, hearings, and decisions; and public opinion texts found in newspapers and online, all of which were produced in response to Flores. These artifacts lay bare but some of the discursive rationalities that have coagulated to form governable elements of the ELL student population--ways of knowing them, measuring them, regarding them, constituting them, and intervening upon them. Somehow, some way, students who do not speak English as their first language have become a social problem to be solved. ELLs are therein governed by rationalities of English language normalization, of enterprise, of entrepreneurship, of competition, of empowerment, and of success. In narrating rationalities of rule that appear alongside the Flores case, I locate some governmental strategies in how subjects conduct themselves and govern the conduct of others with the hope that seeing subject constitution as a work of thought and not a necessary reality will create a space for potentially unknown alternatives. Through this work, I'd like to make possible the hope of thinking data differently, rejecting superimposition of meaning onto artifact, being uncomfortable, uncertain, undefinitive, and surprised. With that, this work encourages potential paths to trod in the field of curriculum studies. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Curriculum and Instruction 2014

abstract: This qualitative study explores the literacy development of adolescent ELLs in three middle school, Structured English Immersion (SEI) classrooms that implemented the four-hour, English Language Development (ELD), curriculum mandated by Arizona. The context of the study is set in two elementary school districts. Participants, three middle school teachers, were observed during four hours of ELD instruction within their English-only classrooms to examine literacy practices. Data were recorded using field note observations, semi-structured interviews, and artifact collection. During the year-long study, three main questions guided the design and implementation of the study: a) what kinds of literacy practices can be documented in Arizona SEI classrooms and what do they look like; b) how do junior high teachers implement mandated language policies; and c)what perceptions do junior high teachers have toward the mandated SEI, four-hour block? A descriptive qualitative approach informed data collection and analysis; data were collected during 76 hours of observed instruction in the classroom, in-depth interviews, and collection of classroom artifacts to document the preparation provided by Arizona Department of Education (ADE) for ELD instruction. A framework of Erickson's (1986) analytic induction and content analysis served as an analytical tool to observe literacy practices and events in the classroom. Observations of instruction within the four-hour language models in the classroom offer unique insight to the literacy development of adolescent ELLs. Findings show how State language policy mandates and teachers' policy implementation have impacted learning experiences and language development of adolescent ELLs. Findings are discussed through narrative-based vignettes, which illustrate the experiences occurring within middle school classrooms with students learning English. Data reveal skill-based approaches to the literacy development of adolescent ELLs and a lack of student-centered learning in the classroom. Teachers supported ELLs with prescriptive lessons that focused on decontextualized vocabulary development. Language policy in practice reveals a detrimental experience to second language acquisition (SLA) for adolescent ELLs in the four-hour language block. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Curriculum and Instruction 2012

The level of fluency in the genre specific language of schooling, also known as Academic English (AE), determines students’ success in school. Government agencies that legislate school policies therefore give teachers the directive to conduct education in ways that promote communicative abilities in academic English across all curricula. While the acquisition of an AE register entails hard work for native English-speaking students it presents an enormous challenge for English language learners (ELLs) who are faced with the triple burden of leaning basic interpersonal communicative skills (BICS) in addition to content knowledge and academic English. Classroom practices, teachers’ training, and students’ cognitive abilities are predictive factors in the successful acquisition of academic English by ELLs. This literature review, which draws on cognitive theory in addition to systemic functional linguistics theory, contributes to the topic of how to most effectively teach AE to ELLs in English speaking classrooms. The results from seven peer reviewed research sources indicate that teaching practices differ depending on the nature of the subject, but that systemic learning theory, scaffolding, and contextual awareness are reoccurring elements. Furthermore, the results imply that there are challenges including that ELLs constitute a very heterogeneous student body with varying cognitive abilities that require a variety of teaching approaches. In addition educators’ attitudes, competences and training in teaching AE across all curricula pose a challenge to the quality of instruction. Further research on the topic could involve making actual classroom observations in addition to conducting teacher interviews in schools that have content and language integrated learning in Sweden to explore what instructional methods are used to teach AE in CLIL- education.

English language learners (ELLs) face many linguistic and cultural challenges in their attempts to succeed academically. They encounter complex academic text, which is increasingly presented online. Although some research has addressed the challenges that university-level ELLs face when reading online texts, almost all of this prior work has focused on undergraduates. The purpose of the current study was to investigate the reading strategies employed by graduate-level ELLs when reading an academic English text online. Participating in the study were four foreign-born doctoral students from different first-language backgrounds—Arabic, Korean, Urdu, and Vietnamese—and the focus was on commonalities as well as differences among them. All four were enrolled in the same doctoral-level course, which included the reading of a specific online academic article as a course requirement. When reading this text individually, each student participated in a think-aloud procedure, followed by post-reading and discourse-based interviews. Analyses included unitizing data from the think-aloud protocols, coding units for strategies employed, and considering related interview commentary and classroom contributions. In their reading, these students made major use of problem-solving strategies, especially reading segments aloud and questioning. They also employed evaluative strategies as well as metacognitive strategies, which included affirming their understanding or indicating lack of understanding. With respect to global strategies, all made use of the article’s abstract and used the cursor to scroll forward to preview the article. In contrast to previous research with undergraduates, these students made little use of support strategies that involved translation websites. Instead, their major support strategies were navigating to web-based tools, particularly online encyclopedias in English. Despite prior theory and research suggesting the importance of sociorhetorical strategies in academic reading, only one student directed much attention to the authors of the article and to authorial intent. Although all four participants were students in the same doctoral course and were reading the same contextualized article, their strategy use differed in ways that seemed to be related to their educational and cultural backgrounds. Through its detailed analyses of these acts of academic reading, the study contributes to research into the sociocultural nature of ELL students’ reading process.

Studies carried out by different scholars have shown that the social roles society assigns to women and men create differences in how the genders use language. However, there is little previous research in the domain of gender and topic shift or initiation. This essay aims to investigate possible gender differences in topic shift and initiation in multiparty conversation among second language learners of English in upper secondary school. The three group discussions were recorded in a classroom setting and the data collected was transcribed. The topical shifts in the transcripts were coded using the Topical Episode Analysis (TEA) and the episode shifts in each conversation were analyzed on the basis of gender distribution and type of shift. In addition, the findings of the three groups were compared and discussed. The main result of this study was that the boys initiated 100 percent more shifts than the girls. The boys took up more linguistic space and dominated the topical shifts in the conversation which indicates that gender differences in topic shift and initiation exists, a finding that is consistent with previous research within the field of gender and language. In conclusion, gender differences were found between how the girls and the boys participating in this study shifted and initiated topics. The boys initiated more shifts than the girls in the multiparty conversations.

The purpose of the survey was to identify which methods primary teachers are using and see as success factors in the language development. To study which factors came from a sociocultural approach to learning, in order to develop and create discussions and improvements so that second language learners reach their targets. The study is based on three teachers' teaching of second language students in the primary grades, using qualitative interviews and observations of their work. The results revealed that the organization and support resources are significant and can vary between schools in the same municipality. Furthermore it showed that two of the teachers interviewed, felt that it was difficult to teach second language students. They felt that they had insufficient knowledge, a heavy workload, a lack of time and they expressed both powerlessness and frustration. The conclusion of the study is that teachers, teaching second language students in the primary grades, did not believe in the use of just one method in their teaching, but used combined various methods. Several of these methods are based on a sociocultural approach, which reflected their vision and attitude to the learning process.

This longitudinal study examined the role maternal responsiveness had on shaping Spanish and English language development in bilingual two year-old children. Because children who are bilingual language learners are oftentimes coming from low socioeconomic families it is essential that we investigate the ways in which they develop language in order to better serve this population. Maternal responsiveness is one source in which we can examine early language development of young bilingual children. Eight Latino mother-child dyads were observed and assessed at three time points. Each observation was coded for maternal responsive behaviors. Regression and multilevel modeling was used in order to assess which maternal responsive behaviors impacted Spanish and English language outcomes. Results indicated joint topic focus as being overwhelmingly impactful across Times 2 and Times 3 in both languages. Additionally, prohibition was found to be negatively influencing English language outcomes at Times 2 and Times 3. Interestingly, focus shift was found to have a positive impact on English language outcomes at Time 2. Given the findings, this work sheds light on the similarities and differences between cultures and the need for further research surrounding this population.

Doctor of Philosophy / Curriculum and Instruction Programs / Charles Heerman / The purpose of the study was to determine the reading methods New Mexico teachers considered important to use in their classrooms and schools. Design of the study was based on a fixed goals COBRA (content-based reading approach) model, which is in development by Heerman (2002). The New Mexico COBRA model was revised to fit the socio-cultural context of the diverse student population served by middle schools in the state. Teachers in New Mexico were asked to respond to a reading survey built around 44 reading methods distributed among seven goals of the COBRA model. The researcher surveyed 153 New Mexico middle school educators in 110 middle school building in order to determine the relative emphasis placed on various reading methods. A revision of the original survey used by Al-Fadda was conducted, which included drafting ELL survey items used at the middle schools with reference to culturally and linguistically diverse students or ELLs. Five research questions were used to build the rationale for the COBRA framework, develop the survey, conduct the survey research, and analyze the results. Middle schools included in this survey research were characterized as middle schools with a student population of 200 and above. The pool of educators asked to participate in the survey taught or were involved with the reading program at their respective schools. These included reading teachers, English language arts teachers, Bilingual/ESL/TESOL teachers, and instructional and school improvement leaders familiar with the building’s reading program. These middle level teachers perceive as important a first line conventional framework for middle level reading, which includes skills instruction, narrative literature instruction, and writing. These teachers give first emphases to reading instruction and communicative competence while content reading instruction is a secondary emphasis.

As recent immigrants seek a productive and dignified life in “new immigrant destinations” that have little historical experience with immigration, public education systems serve a key function in immigrant integration efforts. In a federal system increasingly focused on accountability, a crucial sub-set of education policy and local responsiveness to immigration is English language instruction and services for Limited English Proficient (LEP) students and parents. In such contexts, the role that local bureaucrats play, and whether they actively represent the interests of the newfound diversity of community members, are crucial questions if strongly held American ideals of social equity and equal opportunity are to be upheld. This research asks broad questions at the intersection of bureaucratic power, representative bureaucracy and educational policy toward English language learners at the local level. Variations in how school systems in the political bellwether of Virginia responded to a recent policy shock - federal guidance released in January 2015 that reiterated local school system responsibility for providing equal educational access to LEP students and parents – form a unique window into local policy-making. Using a concurrent triangulation mixed methodology that consists of a state-wide survey and interviews with a sub-set of the Title III coordinators who supervise programs for English Language Learners, this research shows Title III coordinators to be unrepresentative in passive terms of the foreign born population but nevertheless to have a strong sense of advocating for English Language Learners. Findings suggest that public service motivation is the key explanatory factor in driving a sense of role advocacy and this in turn drives a greater range of action taking by the coordinator to benefit ELLs. Despite this link between role advocacy and coordinator action, role advocacy is not found to be significant in driving the likelihood or range of system level responsiveness to the letter. Instead, political and demographic factors increase the likelihood of system action but, counter to existing literature, more conservative localities are found to be more likely to have responded to the Dear Colleague Letter. This suggests that a previous reluctance to act in these places may have been dislodged by the letter and points to the importance of change over time in conceptualizing local responsiveness to immigrants.

This study investigates the role of the Internet in teaching and learning French as a second language. In facilitating communication with francophones and access to topical information in French, the use of the Internet addresses many of the criticisms identified in prior research of the static nature of traditional computer-assisted language learning (CALL). The Internet potentially plays an important role in realizing the goals of the communicative approach in the British Columbia Core French curriculum. This study documents a variety of language learning activities that make use of the Internet's many facets, such as electronic mail, listservs, gophers, Usenet newsgroups, and World-Wide Web. Questionnaires were distributed to French teachers who either registered for an electronically-distributed course or attended a workshop on using the Internet in the French as a second language classroom. Follow-up interviews were conducted with a selection of teachers who completed and returned the questionnaire. The present study found that French teachers continue to value the Internet most for the exchange of electronic mail with francophone students. While expressing interest in other Internetbased activities, the teachers identified overriding concerns about keeping their students on-task, and about the poor quality and quantity of computing facilities at their schools. Further research should involve case studies with teachers who are implementing a variety of Internet activities over an extended term. / Education, Faculty of / Language and Literacy Education (LLED), Department of / Graduate