The purpose of this study was to understand the nature of Korean bilingual children’s out-of-school literacy practices. Four Korean-English speaking bilingual children and their parents were participants in this qualitative multi-case study. The children were between seven and nine years old and attended public schools. The families lived in and around a large city in the Southwestern of the United States. In the city, there was a well-established Korean community. Data collection was conducted through multiple methods. The duration of the study was approximately four and a half months per child, staggered across eight months of data collection. Parents were interviewed twice regarding literacy activities with their child, the focal child’s experience of schooling, their perspectives of family’s language use, and their expectations for the child. Participant observation was also conducted at each child’s home to examine her/his literacy activities and interactions with family members. The children and parents were also informally interviewed throughout the data collection. Children’s writing, drawing, and crafts were collected. The children and family members were also invited to participate in a video project in which they video-recorded and took pictures of their activities for two months. Data were analyzed through constant comparative approach, activitysetting analyses, and grounded theory approach. The findings suggest that the focal children engaged in parent-guided literacy activities and self-chosen literacy activities. The parents provided extensive support for children’s academic achievement and learning to read and write in Korean. These activities were derived from parents’ experiences, beliefs, parenting practices familiar to Korean parents, and expectations for their children’s future. Children’s self-chosen literacy activities varied widely. The children drew on various resources from their social and cultural worlds to participate in an imaginative world and imagined future. Therefore, Korean bilingual children’s literacy activities situated in the current moment and space were always globally connected to other times and spaces. / text

Narrative measures derived from English and Russian tell and retell narrative language samples of 20 L1-Russian, L2-English bilingual adults were correlated with their overall, speaking and verbal proficiency self-ratings to verify the validity of the selfrating scale for both languages. In English, measures of fluency, productivity and grammaticality were moderately correlated with speaking proficiency self-ratings. Strength of correlations with tell versus retell narratives varied by category of narrative measure. For Russian, correlations were not significant due to ceiling effects in proficiency. The effects of modifications to narrative measures were considered, showing that correlations with temporal fluency and productivity increased as mazes and fillers were excluded, while correlations with grammaticality increased as article omission errors were excluded. Sources of variation in self-ratings and narrative measures are described, and recommendations are presented for an alternative narrative elicitation method. / text

This was a qualitative case study focusing on one fourth-grade bilingual teacher and her students. Using theoretical and methodological tools from Communities of Practice and Sociocultural Learning research, I discuss how the teacher and her students co-constructed a community of practice during science. Additionally, this study provides first hand accounts of students' various oral, written, and visually represented stances related to complex issues in science, to describe how the teacher developed her students' linguistic and cultural resources through science. I used participant observation, video and audio recordings, and student classroom artifacts to document social interactions to understand what practices assisted in the co-construction of a community of practice in this particular fourth-grade bilingual classroom. Data analyses revealed that the teacher and her students engaged in practices that fostered the science identity of the bilingual fourth-graders. Further analyses revealed that through the integration of literacy practices with science, the students acquired ways to write, talk, and read, adopting scientific discourse. Important connections between home and school were present as a component of this community of practice. Finally, I found that the work of doing science within this particular classroom was accomplished by drawing upon linguistic resources in both English and Spanish. Engaging in the work of doing science bilingually became an essential characteristic of the co-construction of the community of practice. Implications for bilingual education and elementary science education include acknowledging the importance of utilizing all available linguistic resources to gain content-area knowledge and develop academic biliteracies. Implications for elementary teacher preparation call for training that focuses on the integration of content-area literacies, bilingualism, and home-school connections that value knowledge from home as a starting point for the study of science. / text

This study explores the manifestation patterns of speech revisions in monolingual English and Spanish-English bilingual children. All speakers exhibit speech revisions to some degree and some researchers have indicated that they may manifest due to linguistic uncertainty (Bedore et al., 2006; Loban, 1976). In the current study, speech revisions were documented in the context of two narrative conditions manipulated to elicit revisions. In one context, a high uncertainty condition, the narrative picture sequence depicted a vague or unclear ending to a story, therefore increasing the speaker’s linguistic uncertainty. In the second condition, the low uncertainty condition, the narrative picture sequence had a logical ending reducing linguistic uncertainty. These tasks were designed to elicit speech revisions in children ranging in age from 3;5 to 5;11. Participants included 33 Spanish-English bilingual Kindergarten-age children, 32 language-matched monolingual English-speaking pre-K children, and 37 age-matched monolingual English- speaking children. All children exhibited typical language abilities based on a language screening measure. The first research question was whether there was a difference in the rate of speech revisions in English between the narratives with high and low uncertainty across the 3 groups of children. The second question pertained to whether the rate of speech revisions in their narrative samples was influenced by task (high vs low uncertainty condition) when language productivity as measured by lexical diversity (NDW), mean length of utterance (MLU) and grammaticality. Results indicated that all of the children across the three groups exhibited fewer speech revisions in the low uncertainty condition than in the high uncertainty condition. There were no differences observed by group for frequency of revisions across task condition. Further, NDW accounted for a significant amount of the variance in frequency of revisions across all three groups. Again, there were no group differences observed in frequency of speech revisions when measures of language productivity were controlled. These results indicate that in an experimental condition, bilinguals were no more susceptible to exhibit revisions than their monolingual peers. Implications for these results and further considerations regarding revisions and the speech production process for monolinguals and bilinguals are discussed. / text

The purpose of this study was to explore the content of children's responses to culturally relevant literature in Hawai'i and how their individual understandings and responses evolved over time. This study utilized qualitative research methods and ethnographic techniques. A case study group of six students, three girls and three boys of differing ethnicity, was selected from a fifth grade class in Hawai'i. Children participated in four different literature discussions, a short story, novel study, text set study, and class read-aloud. Data collection included transcripts from literature discussions, interviews, observational field notes, and collections of written artifacts. Categories were constructed through inductive analysis of data. The findings showed that through literature discussions of culturally relevant literature the children defined what it means to belong to their local culture in Hawai'i, refined their beliefs about the concept of culture, used their knowledge about history to build understandings, and shared how they connected with the literature. As a result of the literature discussions, individual children were able to identify with the literature and came to new understandings about themselves and their cultural lives. Children should be encouraged to read books that show representations of their cultural lives. However, merely reading literature is not enough. Children need instructional and teacher support so that they may engage in thoughtful discussions about the literature and find issues that are meaningful to them. Providing opportunities for children to find and discuss personal and cultural issues, establishing a supportive environment to talk about literature, and using powerful selections of literature are ways teachers help children engage in discussions about culturally relevant literature.

This study outlines relationships between ideological construction and conversational performances, or utterances during casual conversation whose aesthetic quality is highlighted. I identify a distinction between native and nonnative English speakers that is imagined in predictable ways and expressed in regularized discourse patterns. The ideology of nativeness is rooted in a monolingualist view of the world--an association of one language with one nation--and intersects with ideologies of race and education. The regularity of patterns associated with this ideology provides resources for performances by white, middle-class U.S. university students about incomprehensible accents, bad teachers, lazy or angry foreigners, and rude code-switching or uses of non-English languages. Speakers use performative strategies such as rhythm, dialogue, and emphatic stress, to frame performances as worthy of special attention. Utterances are interpreted as more or less performative depending on the density and intensity of those strategies. The notion of the discourse frame accounts for speakers' desire to complete performances and for listeners' understanding that they are expected to respond positively. Performance and ideology are reciprocally related, such that performances index and depend on the stability of ideological models while providing opportunities for sudden shifts in ideological position as well as for transformations of those models. As speakers frame performances, they simultaneously create social truths, such as exaggerated hierarchical relationships between linguistic in-groups and out-groups, in ways that become memorable and at least momentarily acceptable. Because performances are bounded and memorable, they are decontextualizable, which enables them to be re-performed by the same speakers or by their listeners in other contexts. Performances thus contribute to the pervasiveness of the ideological discourse patterns that form the basis of those performances. Because of many speakers' drive to establish social solidarity with their listeners, performances can coincide with a dramatic shift in ideological position. Such shifts are also understandable if we recognize that dominant ideologies are embedded in highly regularized discursive patterns, readily available to any speaker who wishes to employ them.

This study was undertaken as a means of describing the language of high school students as they responded to a Cultural Identity course. The purpose of this course was to increase cultural sensitivity and understanding among high school freshmen, and therefore, to reduce violence and cultural misunderstandings on campus. This course made use of the published curriculum, Building Cultural Bridges, in part, and the remaining course design was developed by the teacher-researcher. Specific aspects of the problem studied are included in the following questions that guided the methodology: (1) In what ways are students' attitudes reflected in their written language in response to specific assignments in the course, Cultural Identity? (2) In what ways are perceptions of conflict and conflict resolution reflected in students' written language? (3) In what ways does students' written language indicate an awareness of cultural sensitivity? (4) What language is used in students' oral language during classroom interactions that indicates an awareness of cultural sensitivity? These questions were answered while taking into consideration: (a) the context of the classroom activities, and (b) the social context that students carried with them into the classroom which, therefore, became a presence in the classroom. This study involved a theoretical and pragmatic view of teaching multicultural, anti-racist, and conflict resolution curricula. After a review of the literature and the establishment of the problem, a descriptive design was employed for guiding data collection and analysis. Participants' written language was analyzed which included: (a) students' journal writing in response to teacher prompts, (b) student-generated multicultural conflict and resolution plays, (c) conflict resolution questionnaires, and (d) student-generated informational brochures on relevant topics. Participants' oral language was also analyzed and recorded in field notes. This was taken from conversation and behavior demonstrated by participants during classroom activities. Participants' written language in the prompted response journals indicated a developing awareness of cultural sensitivity. The written language in the multicultural conflict and resolution plays indicated a developing sense of cultural sensitivity and the usefulness of conflict resolution strategies. Written language found in the conflict resolution questionnaires over time indicated an increased awareness of the usefulness of conflict resolution strategies and indicated their understanding of how conflicts are resolved, rather than avoided. The informational brochures demonstrated students' awareness of the effects of stereotyping, shifts in their stereotypical behavior, and demonstrated their use of conflict resolution strategies in classroom interactions.

This study provides an analysis of the historical events that shaped the public school education of Mexican American children in Arizona in the first half of the twentieth century. This study also examines how segregation was established in two cities in northern Arizona and how schooling affected the feelings and emotions of former students. From about 1900 to 1950 Mexican American children were required to attend segregated schools or were segregated in different classrooms even though there were no laws that mandated segregation. Segregation was established under the guise of providing special accommodations for Spanish-speakers. However, it was clear that the education policies of Arizona in the 1930s and 1940s were to prepare Mexican children for "Mexican" occupations. These educational programs had their roots in Americanization policies implemented earlier in the twentieth century. At the root of the Americanization policies in the Southwest was the notion that the Mexican immigrant was culturally inferior and could not be assimilated into the American mainstream until the Mexican culture and language were eradicated. Included in these policies were Mexican Americans, although they were United States citizens. Mexican children in school were publicly humiliated, physically and verbally abused for speaking Spanish on school grounds. The high school dropout rates for Mexican Americans in those years were very high. Mexican students were not encouraged to go to college by educators because they felt that the students did not have the mental skills to achieve academic success and because they did not need a higher education for the "Mexican" jobs they would be working. Most people are unaware of the extent of public school segregation of Mexican Americans in the state of Arizona. The public is generally aware of the segregation of African Americans in public schools and to some degree of the segregation of Native Americans in boarding schools. Segregation of Mexican Americans in the public schools is an important chapter in Arizona history that must be told to illustrate the struggle in the daily lives of past generations of Mexican Americans to overcome the numerous racial and discriminatory practices they experienced.

The Functional Head Constraint (Belazi, Rubin and Toribio, 1994) states that codeswitching is not allowed between a functional head and its complement. This predicts that switches between determiners and noun phrase complements, complementizers and inflected clausal (IP) complements, and auxiliaries and verb phrase complements should be ungrammatical. Conversely, the proposed constraint predicts that verb-complement and preposition-complement switches should be grammatical. This study tested four of these five predictions, using codeswitched Spanish/English sentences which met or violated the Functional Head Constraint. The subjects were Spanish-English bilinguals who had learned both languages before the age of six and who use both languages in their daily lives. Data were collected using the Response-Contingent Matching Task (Stevenson, 1992). Subjects read a sentence displayed on a computer screen and press a button when the reading is completed. They then read a second sentence aligned below the first one and press one of two buttons to indicate whether the two sentences on the screen are the SAME or DIFFERENT. Grammaticality of the codeswitch was established by comparing reading times on all SAME sentences. The sentences that violated the Functional Head Constraint were expected to receive significantly longer reading times than the sentences which comply with the constraint. The results obtained do not support the predictions made by the Functional Head Constraint, but do confirm the validity of the task procedure. The findings are compared with naturalistic data and are interpreted using the Minimalist Theory of Chomsky (1991 and 1992).

A significant number of American Indian women have taught and still teach children in both public and government Indian schools. Yet there is very little written about these Native American women teachers, how they view themselves, and their relationship to their professional teaching careers throughout history. In addition, historical accounts on Native education are often inaccurate, disrespectful, and biased. To address issues about Native American women teachers, a qualitative study was conducted to determine the elements in their lives that influenced them to select elementary school teaching as a career choice, and to identify and examine the common patterns and similarities within those elements. The research documented the key elements for success of Native American female teacher including (a) a supportive family, (b) mentoring and positive role models for young Native American girls in elementary and secondary school is vital to their continuing onto higher education, and (c) a strong sense of cultural identity. Five Native American women elementary public school teachers in a large southwestern city, representing four different tribes, participated in individual in-depth interviews to gather information regarding what elements in their lives lead them to educational success. Two had taught in the public school system for more then 20 years, the other three had been in the classroom for less then five years. The research revealed that Native American mothers today are the most influential family members in terms of their daughters educational success in elementary and secondary school, along with being the primary factor in providing moral support during their college years. Mentors and positive role models for young Native American girls in elementary and secondary school are vital to their continuing on the road to higher education. All participants felt that their strong sense of cultural identity helped them as adults to deal with cultural conflict in the workplace. Recommendations for further study, based on participant comments include: increase the number of teachers involved in the study, and interview these same teachers five years from now to see if their reflections changed.