The purpose of the study was to determine the impact of rhetorical reading interventions on ELL and dominant English speaking college students' perceptions of reading-writing connections, reading performances as measured by the Accuplacer Reading Test, and writing performances as measured by a holistic rubric. ELL, as defined here, refers to a student who is in the process of acquiring English and has knowledge of a first language other than English. The researcher applied a quasi-experimental comparison and treatment group post test design that included four composition classes. The independent variable was the rhetorical reading intervention. The dependent variables included: student reading- writing connection surveys, the Accuplacer Reading Test, and student generated essays. The rhetorical reading intervention applied focused on constructing awareness of an author?s purpose, context, and effect on audience (reader. Reading performance scores for the comparison group indicated an observed change in the mean score from pre-test to post-test of 0 .17. The observed change in the mean score from pre to post test performance for treatment group participants was 9.16. Repeated measures ANOVA test yielded a main effect for pre-post reading performance scores across groups, F (1,70)=16.153, p<.05. Results indicated that comparison group participants displayed minimal change between the pre and post Accuplacer Reading scores; while, treatment group participants reading scores increased significantly. Writing performance scores for the comparison group indicated an observed change from pre-post scores of .74. An observed change was indicated from pre-post scores of 1.02 for treatment group subjects. A repeated measures (ANOVA) test within groups yielded a main effect for pre-post writing performance scores across all groups, F(1,70)= 60.327, p<.05. The greater increase for the treatment group suggests that rhetorical reading interventions had an enhanced positive influence on writing performance scores. The analyses reported suggest varying degrees of the effects, on both reading and writing, the integration of reading with specific rhetorical guidelines appeared to maximize not only the connections between reading and writing, but also provide students opportunities to apply critical thinking skills when reading like a writer. The study provides noteworthy insights for educators in the areas of ELL instruction at the college level and provides information that facilitates bridging the achievement gap between dominant English speakers and ELL students.

This dissertation features a curriculum development project on redesigning a piloted multicultural reader which serves to cultivate intercultural competence in diverse domestic and international students in first year writing courses. My redesign process was guided by pedagogical implications from the preliminary results of the implemented multicultural reader and from composition scholarship on multicultural readers. Specifically, my redesigned multicultural reader must(i) achieve pedagogical alignment among learning objectives, assessment practices, and instructional materials and (ii) overcome the commonplaces in multicultural reader design regarding cultural and linguistic inclusivity of authorship, content and student audience, genre diversity, text sequencing vigor, and intervention authenticity. I adopted Wiggins and McTighe’s (2005) Backward Design framework to the (re)design of the Multicultural Reader and illustrate my material development principles in one Sample Section that moves students from the Minimization of difference orientation to the Acceptance of difference orientation.<div><br></div><div>First, I converted the definition and indicators of intercultural competence emerged from Deardorff’s (2006) study as well as the pedagogical implications from Bennett’s (1986) DMIS into learning outcomes for the Reader to aligning learning outcomes and assessment. Second, I integrated the DMIS into the Reader to align assessment practices and instructional materials. I divided the Reader into four sections correspondent to the five stages of intercultural development on the DMIS, namely(i) from Denial to Defense, (ii) from Defense to Minimization, (iii) from Minimization to Acceptance, and (iv) from Acceptance to Adaptation. I selected, designed, adapted, and sequenced the readings and intervention tasks based on stages and strategies of intercultural progression as highlighted in the DMIS scholarship. In my Sample Section, I also provided guidelines on how instructors can map students’ reflective writings onto the DMIS for both formative and summative evaluation. Finally, my redesign of the Multicultural Reader addresses the limitations in previous multicultural readers. To improve the social representativeness of authorship and content, my Reader showcases exemplary texts written by a diverse author group which foreground contemporary issues in different multicultural societies. Reading instructions do not forward any assumptions about the potential student audience, overcoming the issue of audience misrepresentation. The selected readings also exhibit genre diversity in terms of rhetorical modes and types of sources. Readings and interventions are sequenced based on the DMIS guidelines and projects a progressively complex trajectory of affective, cognitive, and behavioral practices for students’ intellectual growth. Each multicultural reading is augmented with intervention tasks adapted from composition studies and intercultural training scholarship to sharpen students’ academic writing and research skills. My interactive tasks also require students to move past passive reading by activating their reading knowledge into real world cross-cultural encounters and purposefully reflecting on their experiential learning in writing assignments.<br></div>

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