This study sought to determine perceptions of former English Language Center (ELC) students of their readiness for university reading tasks after completing their ESL training. Former ELC students who now study or have studied at 10 different American post-secondary institutions provided insights for the study. Through questionnaires and face-to-face interviews, the study collected and analyzed many interesting and revealing comments from participants. Their comments demonstrated that even though the majority of students overall were satisfied with their learning experiences at the ELC, some significant changes still have to be made to be able to fully meet students' educational needs. Participants expressed the need to start rigorous university preparation earlier, beginning with an intermediate level of proficiency, by reading more advanced university-level texts and spending more time on developing and practicing critical reading strategies and test-taking skills.

No description available.

This dissertation is a history of the representations of linguistically diverse international students within composition studies. The project highlights some of the many terms that have been used to represent linguistically diverse writers, such as ESL, EFL, multilingual, and nonnative, tracing the path to the concept of translingualism currently used by composition scholars. This research responds to Paul Matsuda's argument in "Composition Studies and ESL Writing: A Disciplinary Division of Labor" that "[u]ntil fairly recently, discussions of English as a Second Language (ESL) issues in composition studies have been few and far between" (699). This dissertation contends that Matsuda overstates his claim when he argues that composition, as a field, has not been overly concerned with the topic of second language speakers. Indeed, this topic has been emphasized throughout the field's scholarship and has even contributed to the formation of the field itself. Specifically, the dissertation analyzes the journals College English between 1939-1950 and College Composition and Communication between 1950-2013 to examine the conversations about multilingual writers and students in the field of composition. Through an analysis of these journals, it becomes apparent that discussions about international students in U.S. classrooms today have strong antecedents in the conversations of our past. And these conversations about international, linguistically diverse writers have been a continuous force in the creation and evolution of mainstream thinking in the field. By tracing these evolving conversations, the project demonstrates how the field of composition has reached the translingual moment currently researched by composition scholars. The dissertation concludes that translingualism, as a developing theory, still calls for more research that emphasizes pedagogical techniques that use a translingual approach to language. / Ph. D.

Community colleges serve a crucial role in providing higher education access for U.S. English learner (EL) populations. Many ELs are placed in community college academic ESL programs in order to prepare them to transition to taking courses in the wider college. Yet, the success of academic ESL programs has been mixed at best, with these programs appearing to function as barriers to EL student success rather than as pathways to higher education. This case study examines one community college’s Academic ESL program in the northeastern United States to determine what is the intended role of the program and what role does the program actually play in the wider college and in individual student trajectories. To determine which factors impact the Academic ESL program’s role, data collection included state and institutional-level documents, interviews with college administrators, faculty, and staff, and classroom observations. My theoretical framework included a modified version of Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological model in conjunction with raciolinguistic and orientations in language planning lenses. The findings identify that the Academic ESL program did not function as intended, and that factors at each level of the program’s ecological system (exo, outer-meso, inner-meso, and micro) contributed barriers to the Academic ESL program’s success. First, policies regarding tuition, financial aid, and immigration all hindered Academic ESL program enrollment. Second, the program’s structure, curriculum, lack of coordination between levels, and the divergent viewpoints of the faculty who taught in the program all created barriers to the program serving as a pathway for ELs into the wider college. EL students who managed to transition from the Academic ESL program to other college coursework faced additional barriers in the wider college, including a language support as accommodation discourse and a Nursing program which was hesitant to admit many linguistic minority (LM) students from entering due to accreditation concerns regarding whether they could contribute to low pass rates on national exams. An underlying reason for these factors was that administrators at the state and college level did not adequately address the role of language in higher education or prioritize the needs of linguistically diverse populations. This study argues that traditional academic ESL programs are often ill-suited to serve many EL populations. In response, community colleges should not only seek to overhaul ineffective academic ESL programs, but also to create pathways for ELs of varied proficiency levels to better access already existing vocational training programs. Furthermore, community colleges serving diverse populations should create and adopt campus language plans that identify resources as well as the roles and expectations of faculty and staff in supporting student language development. Finally, this study highlights the need for decision makers and researchers to consider the complex ways in which actions at one structural level (state Department of Higher Education, administration, classroom, etc.) reverberate across levels. Creating more equitable ESL programs and support for ELs can only occur when varied factors, many of which are beyond the control of any individual college or faculty member, are fully considered and accounted for.

Instructors of English as Second Language (ESL) at a private community college had raised concerns regarding Hispanic ESL students not developing sufficient English proficiency. The purpose of this single exploratory case study was to explore the phenomenon brought forward by ESL instructors and share the results with the ESL program and the college. The conceptual framework for this qualitative study was based on the classroom learning motivation theory suggesting that the environment in which a student is learning a new language also plays a major role in second language learning. Data collection was conducted through 3 ESL classroom observations and interviews with 15 community college students. A focus group with 7 different students was used to understand Hispanic ESL students' perspectives about their experience in the college-wide ESL program and issues students face in the ESL program. Data analysis consisted of thematic content analysis, constant comparison, and concurrent data collection and analysis until concept saturation occurred. The findings were that Hispanic ESL students were satisfied with the ESL program. Data triangulation formed 4 themes: students would like to use technology in the classroom, more instances for in-class conversation, to be corrected when they mispronounce a word, and have instructors who spoke Spanish. The recommendations include the creation of a policy to institutionalize professional development to help ESL teachers become aware of the issues that Hispanic ESL students face in the classroom in order to help students achieve English proficiency. This case study served as an example for other institutions to take the initiative learn how Hispanic ESL students perceive ESL instruction and filled the gap in research regarding Hispanic ESL students' perception of ESL programs.

Läroplanen i engelska beskriver hur undervisningen ska anknyta till elevnära och vardagliga situationer. Studien utgår därför ifrån de vardagliga situationer där eleverna möter engelska. Flertalet av dagens elever är bekanta med och har deltagit i online-spel, det är därför intressant att undersöka användandet av online-spels inverkan på elevernas engelska språkutveckling. Målgruppen för undersökningen är elever som studerar engelska som andraspråk. Syftet med studien är att undersöka ‘Massive Multiplayer Online’-spels påverkan på elevers språkutveckling i engelska som andraspråk och är en litteraturöversikt på forskning inom området. Materialet består av vetenskapliga artiklar samt en forskningsrapport. Kommunikationsmiljöerna i spelen ses som mer autentiska än de i klassrummet, vilket i sin tur anses leda till ökad språkinlärning och ett stort intresse för att kommunicera hos eleverna. Elever som aktivt spelar ‘Massive Multiplayer Online’-spel på fritiden visar även enligt studierna en högre kommunikativ och vokabulär förmåga inom engelska som andraspråk. Användandet av spelen lämpar sig inte för elever med begränsade engelskkunskaper och används främst av pojkar. Slutsatsen av studien är att MMO-spel i sin nuvarande form inte bör föras in i klassrummet som en allmängiltig undervisningsmetod, utan att spelen ska ses som ett komplement till engelsk språkutveckling.

The purpose of this study was to investigate English as a second language (ESL) strategies and modify them for use in the art classroom. The goal of this research was to help improve writing skills for English language learners (ELLs). This study utilized collaborative action research to understand teaching practices and develop curriculum for 4th grade students at Texas Elementary School in the Lejana Independent School District. During this study I collaborated with Ana Rivera, the art teacher at Texas Elementary School. Through a semi-structured interview and informal discussions, we developed an art lesson, Creating a Comic Book, which combined writing and drawing activities. Several lesson resources were also created as a result of our collaboration. Data was collected from the semi-structured interview, teacher and student reflections, field notes, and photos of students’ writing and artwork. By identifying academic areas that need support, I was able to draw conclusions and provide suggestions for ESL strategies. The findings of this study indicate that art educators can help improve writing skills for ELLs by utilizing vocabulary development, physical gestures, body language, visuals, and demonstrations. After reviewing a final lesson evaluation and analyzing data, I was able to provide recommendations for other art educators. These recommendations include support for native languages, create connections between home and school, encourage rigorous thinking, and edit student writing. It is my purpose that my research be shared with educators and administrators in the Lejana Independent School District and other professional venues of research dissemination. / text

No description available.

Learner participation in language learning opportunities has been configured differently by different learning theories. In the domain of Second Language Acquisition (SLA), the cognitive view of learning has been dominant in explaining learner participation. It has been widely accepted that it should be in the form of participation in oral activities which leads to gains in linguistic competence. The aim of this thesis is to understand the issue of learner participation from the social perspective, where a broader understanding of learning will be employed informed by the work of Lave and Wenger (1991) and others. To do so, this study investigates the forms of participation of six ESL learners in suburban Malaysia in two contexts: in-class and out-of-class. In order to understand the issue of learner participation from a social view point, data were collected using classroom observations, learners’ interviews, learner diaries, and photographs taken by them. All the data were transcribed and analysed qualitatively. In order to handle the large amount of data, the Nvivo software package was used for organisation and retrieval purposes. The findings reveal several insights about learner participation. First, learners are active agents where they constantly make decisions on what to engage with and how, and act on the norms and expectations that are imposed on them in a particular sociocultural context. Second, the six learners are members of or aspired to become members of several communities: academically successful learners; successful ESL learners; proficient speakers of the target language; the classroom; and youth. Thus, they aligned their forms of participation with these various communities. Third, learners in this study tended to distinguish between learning and other kinds of engagement. They tended to equate certain forms of participation as actions that one needed to take to learn the language; thus other forms of participation accorded less value. In this study, some insights from Communities of Practice (CoP) theory- learning as a process of gaining membership in a particular community and that learners move from peripheral to core membership- were used to understand the issue of learner participation. However, upon understanding and interpreting the data, it was found that CoP theory is limited in several ways. First, CoP focuses only on one type of community (e.g. the classroom) in one temporal dimension. Yet, findings indicate that there are several other communities that exist in the classroom at one time. Due to this shortcoming, this study has turned to the concept of ‘figured worlds’ (Holland et al, 2001). Secondly, CoP theory argues for a group dynamic. Less recognition is given to the fact that individual learners are also dynamic and agentive. Akkerman and Meijer (2011) suggest dialogical views on identity; in which a framework is provided that acknowledges the multiple, discontinuous and social nature of identity (a postmodern view), while at the same time assumes identity as being unitary, continuous and individual (a modern view). Thirdly, CoP tends to focus on a singular “identity-in-practice (Tan and Barton (2008)). Tan and Barton (ibid: 50) argue for the plurality of identities-in-practice (IdPs); rather than a singular “identity-in-practice (IdP) as suggested by Lave and Wenger (1991). The view of learning as boundary crossing seems to better describe the kinds of participation and learning that have been suggested by the findings generated in the study. Instead of looking at learning as participation in a particular community, learning as boundary crossing better captures the dynamic of learner participation in language learning opportunities, of learners as whole persons (rather than fragmented identities), and of learners as agentive beings.

The accrediting and nursing organizations are promoting patient safety and well-being by emphasizing clinical language proficiency. This presents a challenge for English as second language (ESL) nursing students in learning language skills for the clinical environment. This study explicates the experiences and reflections from nursing students, who are not native English speakers that used a virtual simulation program called vSim in relation to clinical language skills. Five students participated in this study. A qualitative study utilizing hermeneutic phenomenological methodology was used to collect experiential data and then was interpreted according to Van Manen’s (1990) data analysis method. Themes of confidence, patient safety, knowledge transfer from classroom to clinical, communication within the clinical environment, and acquisition of language skills emerged from the interviews and reflective journals. This research study shows that the use of a non -immersive virtual simulation provides a positive contribution to ESL nursing students’ experiences with clinical language skills and can provide nursing educators another teaching strategy to assist ESL nursing students achieve clinical language competency. / Graduate / 0569 / sh_samwel@rogers.com