This research looks at the use of PowerPoint as an instructional tool for teaching English language learners (ELL) who studied in a language program at a state university in the Pacific Northwest. The purpose of the research was to discover and to explore the perceptions of PowerPoint supported teaching and learning that were held by the students, the instructors, and the student researcher. PowerPoint is one of the most commonly used technologies in classrooms, and its projection on screens has become a fundamental part of many students' daily routine. The basic design of this research study is based on Stringer's (2004) action research model, which operates on a repeated circle of reflecting, planning, acting and observing. This action research was generated by all participants, guided by instructors, and monitored by the planned objectives of the study's outcomes. A constructivist approach was used to understand the process of teaching and learning with PowerPoint, and feedback (questionnaires, interviews, and personal communications) was collected from the students in order to help instructors and the student researcher to determine the students' needs. There are four main sets of data in this study—data from students' questionnaires, from students' interviews, from instructors' interviews, and from the student researcher's classroom observations. Students were given questionnaires at the ends of weeks two to ten, and two students from each class were selected to be interviewed. Instructors were interviewed both at the beginning and at the end of the term. The student researcher observed all classes starting week two, and wrote notes which were included as part of the data. / Graduation date: 2012

This thesis engages in the language acquistion of the mother tongue (czech) and the second language (English) in preschool age and discribes the development of child language competence in both languages based on available theories, results of illustrative research and one-year observation in kindergarten with bilingual education program. In the beginning, there are defined theories which engaged in past and engage today (from 20th century till the present day) in study of language acquisition. In addition of these theories we focus factors which influence on the language development of children and consideration even theory of children's linguistic picture of the world. We compare the development of language competence (phonetic-phonological, semantic, grammatical, communication, pragmatic and vocabulary) in first language (czech) which are defined in agreement with available theories with empirical discoveries which indicate the development of those competence in second language (English) and we discribe partial methodological processes.

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