While much research on teaching has focused on what teachers know, less attention has been devoted to understanding what they actually do. This empirical absence can be felt in particular in the adult English as a Second Language (ESL) instructional context, despite the continued growth of the U.S. immigrant population. The current study addresses this gap by examining discursive practices employed by experienced teachers as they manage multiple demands in the adult ESL classroom. Data include over 25 hours of video-recordings and transcripts of interaction in four intact classes taught by four instructors at two sites: an academic ESL program, housed at a community college, and a community-based ESL program, housed at a school of education. Microanalysis of teacher-student interaction, conducted within the framework of (multimodal) conversation analysis, uncovered three teacher practices for managing multiple demands. The first, voicing the student perspective, entails the teacher verbalizing how students (may) perceive or experience a pedagogic topic or task; the topic/task is framed in a way that acknowledges its difficulty or problematizes students’ engagement with it. By employing this practice, teachers simultaneously affiliate with the (potential) student perspective while preparing students for explanations of challenging topics or recruiting their participation. The second practice, binding student contributions, entails marking connections, verbally and/or non-verbally, between one student contribution and teacher explanation or the contributions or identities of other students. Through binding, the teacher displays responsiveness to individual contributions while promoting the engagement of (other individuals in) the class. The third practice, resource splitting, entails the use of verbal and embodied resources to simultaneously pursue different courses of action within a single turn, or the use of different embodied resources to do so. By “splitting” semiotic resources, the teacher can accomplish two actions at the same time: align as a recipient and validate one contribution while managing turn-taking or pursuing topic/task shifts. By providing empirically-grounded and fine-grained descriptions of actual teacher practices, this study contributes to explicating how the complex work of teaching is accomplished. Findings bring specificity to the conversation on what constitutes skillful teaching and may benefit teacher educators and novice (ESL) teachers.

A learner of L2 normally attains a certain level of competence which then stagnates, thereby rarely accomplishes native-like competence of the target-language (TL). This bottleneck effect is accounted for through the E-Tether Theory (ETT), which is the main thesis of this dissertation. The ETT argues that the L2 E-grammar of a learner's community exerts a centrifugal force that draws the I-grammar of the learner towards it. This force, christened as the "E-tether", stems from the learner's identification with his speech community and from the linguistic input provided by the local E-grammar. When the local E-grammar is not identical to the TL grammar, the E-tether is a double-edge sword that encourages the development of the L2 I-grammar in the initial stages, but then prevents the I-grammar from progression towards the TL. By considering how social environment affects the I-grammar of individual learners through E-languages, the ETT provides a more comprehensive account to the bottleneck effect.;The validity of the proposed ETT is examined in this dissertation through two empirical studies: (i) the acquisition of English consonant clusters by the native Cantonese speakers in Hong Kong, and (ii) the acquisition of the same structures by the native Cantonese speakers in Guangzhou. In the two studies, the ETT is tested by seeing whether the individuals in the two cities attitudinally incline towards the phonological patterns of Hong Kong English (HKE) and of Guangzhou English (GZE), which are the E-languages of the two communities. The E-grammar in each city is generalized from the productions of consonant clusters by 10 speakers and is analyzed under the framework of Optimality Theory; the attitudes towards the E-grammar are obtained through a language attitude test implemented to 129 participants in Hong Kong and 66 in Guangzhou. Two findings emerge from the results. First, there is a tendency in HKE and in GZE to produce syllabic obstruents and to devoice word-final obstruents. Both patterns are also attitudinally accepted by the participants in the two cities. Second, when there is more than one strategy in the local E-grammar to avoid consonant clusters, the one that better preserves intelligibility is more likely to be accepted. The observed acceptance of the L2 speakers towards the "non-standard" L2 patterns can hardly be explained if one does not acknowledge the role of the local E-grammar. The findings thus lend support to the ETT.;Besides the Hong Kong study and the Guangzhou study, there is evidence showing that the ETT can work in a range of social contexts, and can apply to domains other than phonological acquisition.

The current study quantitatively and qualitatively investigated Spanish maintenance among 45 Spanish heritage language (SHL) speakers in Utah who completed a survey about their linguistic background, their attitudes toward Spanish, their self-rated Spanish proficiency, and their current Spanish usage. Nine participants were also interviewed to expound on their linguistic experience. Previous studies on language maintenance (Alba et al., 2002; Carreira & Kagan, 2011; Lanier, 2014; Lynch, 2000; Mejías et al., 2002; Potowski, 2004; Silva-Corvalán, 1994; Zentella, 1997) have analyzed different sociolinguistics factors that relate to Spanish maintenance and usage in areas with high Hispanic populations. Nevertheless, little research has been done in locations with lower Hispanic concentrations such as in Indiana (Barbosa, 2015), Washington (Fernández-Mallat & Carey, 2017) and Kansas (Showstack & Guzman, 2020). Due to the limited research in these areas, the current study examined Spanish language maintenance of second-generation (G2) and generation 1.5 (G1.5) SHL speakers. Findings suggest that although participants have positive attitudes toward Spanish, they feel more confident communicating in English and have limited contact with the Spanish-speaking community and limited use of Spanish. However, results show that participants have a higher use of Spanish and greater connection with the Hispanic community due to their participation in Spanish-speaking religious congregations. Thus, the unique bilingual atmosphere that exists in Utah due to the cultural influence that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has and Utah’s government objective to bring about a multilingual workforce through bilingual education may aid in Spanish maintenance in this state among future SHL speakers.

Literacy in the 21st century is not confined to communication based on reading and writing only print texts. New literacies include multimedia projects and multimodal texts, which include visual, audio, and technological elements to produce all types of products. The writing classroom, in particular, should reflect these social and technological changes in communication. It is critical for writing teachers to understand that literacies are historically, socially, culturally, and developmentally situated and to adapt as they change. By teaching multimodal composition, they may help students learn about effective writing that can appeal to various audiences and serve specific practical purposes and specific real-world contexts. The theoretical background of the study is a social semiotic theory that concerns how people communicate using semiotic resources in a particular setting. The semiotic resources, which are actions, artifacts, and materials, are not fixed but are transformed by the sign-makers' choices. Aligned with this social semiotic theory, multimodal composition draws on diverse semiotic resources such as image, music, actions, and so forth. The use of these resources is always influenced not only by personal interests but also by interpersonal and institutional power relations. Teaching multimodal composition is a response to needs in an age of digital communication and to changing semiotic environments. The purpose of the dissertation is to determine how Korean secondary English teachers understand and assess multimodal composition in the era of new communication. Framing the study are questions that ask teachers what they think and say about teaching and assessing multimodal compostion in their writing classrooms, and about barriers or challenges to their doing so. Korean secondary English teachers working for public schools in metropolitan areas were recruited for this multiple case study to examine their attitudes toward and understanding of multimodal composition in the test-oriented culture of Korea. Semi-structured interviews and classroom observations were conducted, and documents were collected to triangulate interview findings. South Korea is chosen as the research site because schools most prioritize high-stakes standardized tests, and teachers (also students and parents) gauge success by test scores. As a result, teachers primarily rely on direct instructions via lecture to provide skills and knowledge to ensure that students will succeed in the high-stakes tests. However, ongoing technology outside of school has transformed ways young people generate, communicate, and negotiate meanings via diverse texts. If the primary goal of education is to teach students life-long skills needed in society, it is a responsibility that the schools and teachers recognize social changes and promote individual learning needs. Therefore, this study explores teaching and assessing practices in the context of Korean English classrooms and suggests a new direction reflecting social changes and changing student needs for the era of new communications. / A Dissertation submitted to the School of Teacher Education in partial fulfillment of the Doctor of Philosophy. / Spring Semester, 2015. / April 14, 2015. / literacies, multimodal composition, teacher perception, writing / Includes bibliographical references. / George Boggs, Professor Co-Directing Dissertation; Pamela Sissi Carroll, Professor Co-Directing Dissertation; Alysia Roehrig, University Representative; Barbara Foorman, Committee Member; Kathy Froelich, Committee Member; Shelbie Witte, Committee Member.

Emergent bilingual (EB) students enter classrooms with rich, diverse language repertoires. Too often, students’ linguistic assets are not meaningfully integrated to foster or support opportunities of academic languaging in which students can engage their full range of semiotic resources. This is particularly problematic in middle school during which literacy demands increase, academic genres need to be reproduced rather than solely comprehended, and explicit literacy instruction typically decreases (Humphrey, 2017; Rose, 2010). Through a design-based research (DBR) approach, this study showcases how Culturally Sustaining Systemic Functional Linguistics (CSSFL), a theoretical and pedagogical approach, can support middle school students’ engagement in explicit and equitable literacy practices within the unique context of an intensive reading English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) classroom. Throughout the DBR phases, qualitative data from observations, student artifacts, lesson plans, and researcher notes were collected and analyzed to address the following research questions: (RQ1) What are the cultural, linguistic, and literacy practices of EB students within a culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) intensive reading middle school classroom? (RQ2) What do CSSFL-informed lessons comprise when created in response to the EB middle school students’ needs and practices through a DBR approach? (RQ3) How do the students engage in the practices of the CSSFL-informed lessons? Designing, implementing, and evaluating the CSSFL-informed lessons demonstrated how the use of multimodal resources eased students’ hesitancy and facilitated meaning-making opportunities, how students used translanguaging for multiple purposes, and how students became conscientious about language use while establishing connections to their existing linguistic knowledge. Results of this study offer insights into how theory-practice bridges can be established in middle school classrooms to develop spaces where students have opportunities to expand on their cultural and linguistic assets as they understand, manipulate, and remix for academic purposes (Harman & Khote, 2018). Moreover, the findings illuminate the feasibility of implementing culturally sustaining, language focused practices that can push boundaries of restrictive curricular structures while forefronting students’ language backgrounds in their learning. / Includes bibliography. / Dissertation (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2020. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

"As the writer is going to teach English to the Thai students who do not speak a word of English, it is essential for her to be intimately acquainted with the development of reading vocabulary in order to teach Thai students to read English effectively in various fields of interests. The purpose of this paper is to review some of the professional literature concerning developing reading vocabulary in order to identify methods which can be used with Thai students"--Introduction. / "May, 1955." / Typescript. / "Submitted to the Graduate Council of Florida State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts." / Advisor: Dwight L. Burton, Professor Directing Paper. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 38-39).

This study examines Spanish gender assignment among mixed bilingual children with 121 English Language Learners and 17 Spanish Language Leaners from North and South Florida through the results of a receptive gender marking task. Two groups of younger (ages 4 to 6) and older (7 to 10) students participated and were tested on their accuracy of gender markers (el and la) on picture naming task of overtly and non-overtly marked feminine and masculine nouns. All participants demonstrated greater accuracy with overtly marked versus non-overtly marked nouns and with feminine versus masculine marked nouns. Greater overall gender assignment accuracy and the accuracy of marked markers was seen with older bilinguals compared to younger bilinguals. Comparisons regarding overall accuracy of gender assignment were made according to location. The results showed greater accuracy for overall gender assignment and marked nouns (overtly, non-overtly, masculine and feminine) for the participants from the South Florida compared to North Florida. For South Florida, years studying Spanish was significantly related to overall gender assignment accuracy. Equivalently, for North Florida, the number of years of exposure to Spanish was significantly related to overall gender assignment accuracy. / A Thesis submitted to the Department of Communication Science and Disorders in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science. / Spring Semester 2015. / March 27, 2015. / bilingual, gender assignment, language, non-overtly, overtly, Spanish / Includes bibliographical references. / Carla Wood, Professor Directing Thesis; RaMonda Horton, Committee Member; Gretchen Sunderman, Committee Member.

Children who are native Spanish-speaking Language Minority Youth (LMY) comprise the fastest growing population of students in the United States. In addition, these children lag significantly behind their non-LMY peers in academic achievement. To aid in their development of academic skills, it is necessary to evaluate individual factors that are related to later reading and math achievement. One such individual factor is executive function (EF). EF is defined as the set of cognitive skills that underlie children’s ability to regulate their thoughts and actions. Among the skills encompassed by executive function are inhibitory control (i.e., the ability to suppress a dominant response in favor of a subdominant response), working memory (i.e., the ability to maintain and manipulate information in short-term memory), and shifting (i.e., the ability to switch flexibly between tasks). Children who speak more than one language are theorized to have what is called a “bilingual advantage” in their executive function ability such that they outperform their non-LMY peers on tasks of inhibitory control. It is theorized that the bilingual advantage originates from the simultaneous activation of both languages and the constant need to select the relevant language while ignoring their other language. This conflict between languages and the need to select just one language in which to respond confers cognitive advantages that are said to generalize to inhibitory control. However, findings are mixed regarding whether the bilingual advantage exists. A closer examination of these findings suggests that the bilingual advantage is dependent upon the type of inhibitory control task administered. Specifically, the bilingual advantage is said to exist on tasks of interference suppression (IS; defined as the ability to ignore or suppress irrelevant salient perceptual information in a bivalent task and selectively attend to relevant conflicting information), but not on tasks of response inhibition (RI; defined as suppressing a dominant response in favor of a less dominant response). The goal of this study was to evaluate the different types of inhibitory control among children with some degree of exposure to both Spanish and English and to understand better whether there is a bilingual advantage conferred on tasks of interference suppression (but not on tasks of response inhibition) for children with a greater degree of bilingualism. In the current study, 100 Spanish-speaking LMY preschool students were administered an English and Spanish language measure to determine their degree of bilingualism as well as seven computerized tasks of inhibitory control. Four of the computerized tasks evaluated IS (two required verbal responses, two did not) and three of the computerized tasks evaluated RI (one required a verbal response, two did not). Consistent with the first hypothesis, the verbal and nonverbal computerized tasks measured a unitary inhibitory control construct. Consistent with the second hypothesis, results indicated that IS and RI were distinct domains within the broader construct of inhibitory control. Consistent with the third hypothesis, results indicated that a higher degree of bilingualism was associated with stronger inhibitory control, and that children’s degree of bilingualism was relatively more associated with IS than with RI. These findings support the presence of a bilingual advantage conferred to children’s inhibitory control, as well as a specific advantage conferred to inhibitory control tasks that require IS. However, degree of bilingualism was strongly related to children’s English language skills. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Psychology in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Summer Semester 2016. / June 14, 2016. / Bilingual Advantage, English Language Learners, Executive Function, Inhibitory Control, Self-Regulation / Includes bibliographical references. / Christopher J. Lonigan, Professor Directing Dissertation; Carla Wood, University Representative; Arielle Borovsky, Committee Member; Jesse Cougle, Committee Member; Michael Kaschak, Committee Member.

The purpose of this study was to measure the impact of ARCS-based motivational email messages (MVEMs) on student participation in a free online English for Speakers of other Languages (ESOL) course. The course consisted of 10 communicative tasks and learners were to complete two tasks per week for five weeks. Each task involved pre-task activities with model language before students completed the communicative task by posting on the class message board. Students received task instructions via email. The independent variable (IV) for the study was type of email students received. The IV had three levels. The control group received task instructions via email. The experimental groups received the same task instructions with added ARCS-based motivational messages related to relevance, confidence, and volition. One experimental group received non-personalized relevance messages while the second experimental group received personalized relevance messages. Students received two emails per week for five weeks during the course. The emails were sent regardless of participation or performance so even students who did not complete any communicative tasks were sent 10 emails with instructions and, depending on group assignment, motivational messages. I measured participation based on number of students who completed at least one task, number of tasks completed, number of words written, number of visits to pre-task webpages, and time logged in to the class message board. Results suggest that ARCS-based MVEMs may encourage students to participate in free online language classes as both experimental groups outperformed the control group. No clear difference was found between the personalized and non-personalized MVEM groups. I also asked students for their thoughts about participation in the class. A qualitative content analysis revealed that students blamed commitments such as work, school, and family for lack of participation in the free ESOL class. Students credited the communicative tasks when they participated in the class. Students who received MVEMs appreciated the confidence and volitional messages. Implications for increasing student participation in free, online language courses are provided. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Educational Psychology and Learning Systems in partial fulfillment of the Doctor of Philosophy. / Spring Semester 2017. / April 3, 2017. / ARCS, Email, English, Experiment, Motivation, Participation / Includes bibliographical references. / James Klein, Professor Directing Dissertation; Stephen McDowell, University Representative; Aubteen Darabi, Committee Member; Russell Almond, Committee Member.

Smart speakers are a category of smart devices with a built-in voice assistant and a variety of specialized sensors. Introducing these devices into our homes has proven to be a potential privacy threat to the unaware user because of its “microphone always on” nature. The smart speaker provides convenience at the cost of personal information being shared with the company who built the product. In this paper we introduce our readers to smart speaking devices, their management of personal information and its privacy implications. Firstly, with our literature review, we dig deeper into the current understanding of smart speakers, data management, general opinions and awareness. Secondly, we conclude a survey by means of a questionnaire where we discover the opinions of residents in Blekinge county, southern Sweden, towards smart speakers management of personal data in order to evaluate the general position of said residents towards these devices with the hopes to bring added value and understanding to the current research and to give additional information that can be useful by smart speakers manufacturers in terms of the user experience. We find that there is low demand for the product in Blekinge, that sensitive information is unlikely to be shared knowingly by the user and that an IT background doesn’t have a large impact on the opinion or interest of the user.