Thesis (Ed.D.)--Boston University / PLEASE NOTE: Boston University Libraries did not receive an Authorization To Manage form for this thesis or dissertation. It is therefore not openly accessible, though it may be available by request. If you are the author or principal advisor of this work and would like to request open access for it, please contact us at open-help@bu.edu. Thank you. / This observational study investigates the writing processes of young, developing bilinguals from majority- and minority-language backgrounds. The research was situated in two grade 1 classrooms in a Two-Way Bilingual Education (TWBE) program in the Northeastern United States. A TWBE program is an educational model that integrates native English-speakers and speakers of a minority language for all or most of the day and promotes high academic achievement, dual-language and literacy development (i.e., bilingualism and biliteracy), and cross-cultural understanding for all students. The following research questions guided the study: How do first-grade English-dominant and Spanish-dominant students develop as writers in a TWBE program that employs a process writing approach? (a) What are the trends and patterns of bilingual writing processes and skills? (b) Do trends and patterns differ depending on classroom context (English/Spanish Writing Workshop)? Researchers observed and audiotaped 8 focal children as they composed stories in Spanish and English Writing Workshops (WW), collected artifacts from all stages of the writing process, and conducted interviews with focal children at the end of WW sessions. Triangulation of multiple data sources provided a comprehensive view of emergent bilingual writing behaviors, verified themes and patterns, and cross-validated regularities in the data. Cross-case analyses of students' individual profiles of bilingual writing processes revealed similarities and differences in their cross-linguistic skills, as well as patterns of transfer of writing processes and skills. Patterns of bilingual writing related to codeswitching and literacy transfer (both positive and negative) for Spanish-dominant and English-dominant young writers led to the development of a preliminary model of bilingual writing development for English-dominant and Spanish-dominant students. This model presents phenomena unique to bilingual writers, relates these to bilingualism and biliteracy, and proposes anticipated expression of the phenomena for students from linguistic minority and linguistic majority backgrounds. The findings suggest that access to two languages and support for bilingualism affect both the processes of writing and the products children create, leading to the development of biliteracy and metalinguistic awareness of two languages for Spanish-dominant and English-dominant students. / 2031-01-01

Nearly 25,000 graduating high school students across California have earned state recognition for achieving proficiency in multiple languages in 2014. This exploratory, mixed-methods study investigated the early implementation of the State Seal of Biliteracy (SSB) in California. Sixty-two district personnel were surveyed, three SSB directors were interviewed, and a document review was conducted. Overall, the study revealed four themes that influence the implementation of the SSB at the district level: Intentional Creation of an Ecology of Biliteracy, Developing Notions for Biliteracy Scripts and Assessment, Privileging Sequential Biliteracy Development—Scarcity of Biliteracy Pathways, and Individual and Collective Agency for Biliteracy. Hornberger’s (2003) continua of biliteracy was used as a theoretical framework to analyze this study’s findings.

This is a longitudinal study that examines children's perspectives on the development of biliteracy. The theories of children as they learn through two languages reflect a crucial source of knowledge that has received little attention in the research. This study is concerned with the ways in which children learn to read and write in two languages for academic and social purposes as they encounter discourse laden with ideological contradictions.Using a case study design, the study draws on theoretical frameworks from the fields of language socialization, biliteracy, dual language education, and middle school literacy. By showing that children hold sophisticated notions of biliteracy, transforming the ways that language, oral and written become defined and perceived, the research presented here demonstrates that biliteracy is a complex phenomenon that includes meaning-making in two languages and cultures.The study triangulates ethnographic data from interviews with students, families and teachers, participant observation in classrooms, literacy instruction, other school domains, and document and archival analysis. These data indicate that there are multiple paths to biliteracy and that home and school literacy practices can mediate the effects of low income status on literacy development. Additional findings indicate that curriculum and instruction that consistently support minority language literacy promote the development of additive biliteracy in both language majority and language minority students.

No description available.

This ethnographic case study describes the patterns of language socialization and literacy/biliteracy practices and the patterns of language choice and language use of a Spanish heritage bilingual family of Mexican origin from the participant perspective, the emic view, and the research perspective, an etic view. This analysis attempts to broaden the knowledge of how Mexican origin families use language at home by demonstrating how literacy/biliteracy practices (i.e., reading, writing and talk/conversation), language choice (i.e., Spanish, English, code-switching (CS)) and language use (i.e., domains) contribute to reinforce, develop or hinder the use of Spanish as a heritage language. Using ethnographic methodology, this study analyzes the participants' naturally occurring language interactions. Socialization and language learning are seen as intricately interwoven processes in which language learners participate actively.The analysis and discussion is presented in two sections: 1) language socialization in conjunction with literacy practices, and 2) language socialization in conjunction with language choice and CS. Language choice and CS are analyzed by means of conversation analysis theory (CA): the analysis of language sequences of the participants' conversation. The description of the domains (i.e., what participants do with each language and the way they use language) constitutes the basis for the analysis.The findings of this study show that language shift to English is imminent in an environment of reduced contact with parents, siblings, and the community of the heritage language group. Understanding which literacy practices are part of the everyday life of Hispanic households is relevant to the implementation of classroom literacy practices.

This study uses ethnographic tools to document the multiple literacy practices of two Mayan families living in a rural community in Yucatan, Mexico. It explores how young emergent bilingual children make sense of written language through their everyday practices. Data includes field notes from participants observations, video and audio recordings and literacy samples collected during fieldwork. The literacy events extracted from the data were analyzed in terms of the communicative function written language serves, the use of linguistic resources, and particular ways of socialization within literacy events. The findings of this study challenge public discourses which define marginalized children and their families as deficient. Literacy is part of the everyday life activities of minoritiezed families and these experiences provide their children with vast amounts of literacy knowledge. Through the two case studies presented, we document how different language and literacy practices shape children's different pathways to bilingualism and biliteracy.

This thesis explores the experiences of Chinese children acquiring literacy in both Chinese and English in Scotland. A three-dimensional research design is adopted in order to take into account the influential domains where children are exposed to literacy learning. First, it investigates the attitudes and approaches to literacy learning in fourteen Chinese homes, with evidence gathered from semi-structured interviews with parents. Second, observations of and conversations with children and Chinese teachers in a Chinese complementary school in the central belt of Scotland provide insights into the approaches to teaching and learning Chinese literacy. Third, miscue analysis of reading and thinking aloud protocols are conducted in mainstream schools with six Chinese boys, aged eight to nine years, in order to analyse in depth the reading strategies deployed by children in their attempts to gain meaning from both Chinese and English texts. The findings reveal that Chinese parents provide a rich learning environment where children consolidate and in some cases extend the literacy learning experiences gained in the complementary Chinese school. What also emerges from the research is that while the children in the study have a great deal of metalinguistic and metacognitive knowledge gained from learning diverse writing systems, this knowledge is not recognised within policy or practice in mainstream schools. Finally, Hornberger’s Continua of Biliteracy are used as a model both in order to analyse the mosaic of qualitative data generated during the research process and to provide a framework for a discussion of educational policy and practice in multilingual Scotland.

Thesis (M.A. (Translation Studies)) --University of Limpopo, 2013 / The research reported in this mini-dissertation is an ethnographic case study which sought to investigate the development of biliteracy in one of the rural primary schools in the Limpopo province. Its focus is on how Grade 3 learners engage with texts and the strategies that teachers use to promote biliteracy (in English and Sepedi). Data collection methods included classroom observation, semi-structured teacher interviews and analysis of teaching and learning materials and the print environment. A brief analysis of the school’s language policy was also completed. The research revealed that the learners are hardly being taught to read and write whether in Sepedi, (their home language) or in English. While the school language policy states that English should be introduced in Grade 2, it is actually taught only in Grade 3. Additionally, as the learners do not understand English, the teachers frequently code-switch into Sepedi and therefore the learners hardly get any exposure to English. Many other negative aspects were uncovered. Out of the 28 lessons scheduled to be observed only 20 lessons actually took place. The learners are therefore not actually spending the allocated time on literacy development. The teaching is highly routinised with teachers, by and large, using an approach that emphasises repetition and rote-learning. The learners hardly ever get a chance to engage with texts independently. Even the textbooks available are not used but are stored away in the cupboards. Teachers painstakingly copy material from the textbooks on to the chalkboard and learners then copy this into their exercise books. The classroom environment is uninspiring, as there are hardly any learning materials on display. The interviews showed that the teachers had not been adequately trained to teach literacy and were in fact unaware of more effective ways of getting learners to engage with texts. They saw themselves as victims of frequent policy and curricular changes and blamed Government for poor training and lack of resources. The study in fact confirms findings of earlier research that the acquisition of literacy is simply not taking place in the poor, rural schools of South Africa and there is indeed a crisis in education in these schools

Individual differences in early literacy skills can be attributed to children’s previous history of emergent literacy experiences during their preschool years. The purpose of this qualitative study was to learn about the emergent literacy experiences of one Libyan American preschooler and one Syrian American preschooler and how their families support these experiences in their bilingual homes. Through the lens of social theory of learning (Lave & Wenger, 1991; Wenger, 1998) and sociocultural theory (Rogoff, 1990; Vygotsky, 1978), this multi-case study was designed to explore family literacy practices with a preschooler in a naturalistic setting. The questions guiding this study were: (1) How did the texts, tools, and technologies available in two bilingual home settings impact the emergent literacy practices of a Libyan American child and a Syrian American child? (2) What support did family members provide for these two children as they developed emergent literacy practices in their bilingual home settings? Data sources included a demographic questionnaire, digital-recordings of family literacy practices with a preschooler, audio-recorded in-depth interviews with the parents, home visits, the preschoolers’ writing samples, and photographs of literacy activities, materials, and the home environment. The recorded family literacy practices and interviews were transcribed and analyzed to identify emerging themes. Both within-case analysis and cross-case analysis were conducted. Findings revealed that the preschoolers in both families use a multimodal process such as talking, drawing, singing, chanting, recitation, technologies, and sociodramatic play in their daily literacy experiences. The parents are not concerned with teaching their children specific literacy skills; but they naturally use techniques for keeping them on task and questioning skills to enhance oral language and comprehension development. These families’ home literacy practices are Americanized by living in the mainstream social group, and English is frequently used among the family members. However, their bilingualism and religious literacy practices enrich and vary their children’s emergent literacy experiences and their family literacy practices. The significance of this study resides in the importance of getting to know individual families’ backgrounds to better understand and respect the cultural practices of family literacy.

This research examines the bilingual and biliterate trajectories of graduates of a K-5 dual language immersion program who are now young adults. Their experiences as emergent bilinguals within the setting of their elementary school was foundational for their long-term academic outcomes and their deep metapragmatic awareness of simultaneous linguistic experiences. This study explores where these students are now, what happened since they left this particular dual language program, and how their language practices and ideologies have shifted over time and shaped their current practices and ideologies surrounding language and literacy across time and space. Using qualitative methodology, this study draws on frameworks of New Literacy Studies, communities of practice, language ideologies, capital, and language-as-resource to highlight how bilingualism and biliteracy are complex phenomena, and how the multiple, complex, and competing forces at play ultimately shape language and literacy. This study examines the fluidity of how resources for learning are transformed across multiple landscapes and how important insights arise concerning how retrospective analysis of previous learning environments have shaped students' current lived experiences. Findings illustrate the dynamic nature of bilingualism not through discreet domains of language use in bounded contexts, but fluidly moving across fields in remarkable ways. Additional findings underscore the mobilities of language and literacy and how ideologies are neither static nor fixed, but continuously evolving in fluid and dynamic processes.