The purpose of this research was to determine whether participation in a dual-language program by English-language learners (ELLs) contributed to the literacy development of this student population. This qualitative research spanned 5 months and was conducted within an elementary school located in central Florida. It is important to note that the researcher was also a teacher within the dual-language program under study, hence possessed an inside perspective of the program and the progression of several participating students. The study was guided by the following research questions: 1. What factors contribute to the improved literacy development for ELLs through participation in a two-way, dual-language program? 2. What factors contribute to the failure to improve the literacy development for ELLs participating in two-way, dual-language programs? As an ethnographic study, the qualitative methods of observation, interviewing, and examination of artifacts (i.e., work samples) were employed. ELLs attending the 1st through the 5th grades were observed during their Literacy Block and interviewed regarding their feelings about learning two languages. Parents and teachers were also interviewed to determine their beliefs surrounding the contribution of the dual-language program to the literacy development of the participating ELLS. Work samples, including reading scores and journal samples, were also examined. The four processes of the W. P. Thomas and V. P. Collier (1997) prism model--sociocultural processes, linguistic processes, academic development, and cognitive development--served as the theoretical framework for the data analysis. The prism model facilitated elaboration of how all processes involved in the development of the ELLs' literacy skills are related and intertwined. After triangulation of the data from the observations, interviews and work samples, ten factors affecting second-language acquisition for ELLs participating in a dual-language program were discovered in this study. Nine appeared to contribute to successful literacy development and one factor appeared to contribute to failure in the acquisition of second-language literacy skills. Based upon the findings, it appears that participation in a dual-language program indeed contributes to literacy development in ELLs. Contributions to the field and recommendations for related future research are presented.

Families from all over the world come to the United States for a new beginning. More often than not, these families speak little or no English. A challenge that teachers face every day is trying to communicate with children and their families who speak little or no English. Following a review of the various forms of communication and types of parental involvement, a survey was created. This survey was completed by elementary teachers in a local lower socioeconomic area elementary school with a high mobility rates and high levels of English Language Learner (ELL) students. The results of this study will offer the most effective ways teachers can openly communicate with families who speak little or no English. The results suggest that although vital, communication between the parents of ELL students and the teacher varies from teacher to teacher. Additionally, having resources available to teachers at the school and using the resources available allows parents and teachers to communicate effectively.

The intent of this thesis is to study the diverse experiences of 13 University of Central Florida students who participated in the Bilingual Study Abroad Teaching Experience in Spain. The group included nine education students and four in other majors. The experiences of study abroad participants can help to better understand what future participants can look to gain from the program, and what the organizers of the program can potentially look to improve. The research involved was a qualitative study which sought to record the experiences of participants, and then interpret those experiences. The participants were asked to determine the benefits of the program across three dimensions: academic, professional, and personal. This was accomplished through Likert scale questions which gauged their opinions, and by reflecting on their experiences in a more open-ended way, writing broadly about the impact of the program. In analyzing the responses, connections were drawn between the quantitative data in the Likert scale questions, and the qualitative data in the open responses. It was found that as a whole, participants considered the study abroad experience to be overwhelmingly positive across all surveyed dimensions. In addition, a number of connections were found that could be drawn between the broad experiences of the participants, and specific benefits which they noted in the survey. A number of unique experiences and circumstances will be considered, both positive and negative. Finally, the conclusions and implications of the study will be discussed. Recommendations are included in regard to future participants can expect to gain, potential areas of improvement in the program, and things which should be included in the orientation for future participants in the bilingual teaching experience.

Willingness to Communicate (WTC) in the second language (L2) is the "readiness to enter into discourse" which is considered to be the direct precursor of students' communication in L2 (MacIntyre et al., 1998). Oral language is thought to precede written language which creates an assumption that ongoing refining of oral skills may impact writing fluency. In respect to WTC model, there have been several versions that describe the construct (MacIntyre et al., 1998; Wen & Clement, 2003; Matsuoka, 2006). This study references self-efficacy, a cognitive variable in Matsuoka's (2006) proposed model, when analyzing writing as a phenomenon in relation to WTC. Two sequential writing samples collected from 12 international students are closely examined for key themes, which are informed by the responses to the WTC and Language History questionnaire. The results show a moderate correlation (rs=.646) between self-efficacy and willingness to communicate among the surveyed participants as well as a moderate correlation between the error frequencies and WTC scores (rs=.536).

This thesis identifies the English Language Learners (ELL) policies according to federal, state, and districts and compares these policies to what is currently implemented in Orange County Public Schools in the state of Florida. The introduction includes vocabulary for ELL and personal rational. They are followed by the history of the court cases and policies pertaining to the state of Florida that create a timeline. Immediately after, a literature review compares policies to what is being implemented in various states across the United States. Next, interviews with two former or retired Orange County Public Schools (OCPS) were conducted with findings supporting the information in the literature review. Results suggest there are inconsistencies in implementation across states. Two factors include vagueness of the wording of policies, and the power of implementing policies rests with the state and local districts. Furthermore, teachers report not being adequately trained to teach ELL students. In conclusion, the researcher proposes finding ways to elicit more consistency from federal, state, and local districts to advocate for the educational success of English Language Learners.

This thesis investigates changes in Chinese undergraduate students’ language learning motivation during the transition from their home cultural setting to the host cultural setting, while studying on a China-UK 2+1 collaborative programme at the University of Bedfordshire. Since the 1990s, there has been growing attention to research on L2 motivation in classroom or other educational settings. To bridge the gap between general and L2 motivational theories, a number of theoretical frameworks have been developed. The most comprehensive of these is Dörnyei’s (1994a) three-level motivational framework. However, there is as yet little empirical evidence to verify this. The study employed mixed methods. Firstly, in order to identify whether these students’ language learning motivation changed over time, a two stage questionnaire survey was carried out with 158 students. Questionnaires were first administered in October shortly after students arrived in the UK to begin their courses and again in May when they were close to completing their degrees. Factor analysis was used to verify the structure of the questionnaire. Paired t-tests were used to evaluate whether significant changes had occurred in each of the motivational dimensions addressed. Secondly, in-depth face-to-face interviews were conducted with 14 of the questionnaire respondents. The interviews explored motivational change in more open-ended fashion and in greater depth. Students’ comments were transcribed, translated and categorised on the basis of Dörnyei’s (1994a) framework. The conclusions, triangulated by both the key findings and the interview results, indicate that Chinese students have strong instrumental orientations and that their language learning motivation changes significantly at the Learner Level and Language Learning Situation Level of the framework. Some patterns underlying these changes were also discovered. The research findings additionally served to support the applicability of the Dörnyei (1994a) framework. Based on the empirical research findings, some practical recommendations are offered respectively for Chinese students and academic staff. These include: 1) The university should provide more information, or relevant training, about the British academic system and culture. 2) Academic staff need to understand Chinese students more fully and might adjust their teaching style to accommodate them. 3) There is a need for the university to redesign the academic English module to help students efficiently cope with their studies in the UK.

It was the goal of this study to examine teacher perceptions of the effectiveness of the English to Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) Sheltered program model for 9th to 12th grade students as it relates to passing scores on the Assessing Comprehension and Communication in English State-to-State (ACCESS) for English Language Learners Test. This study also measured teacher perceptions of the ESOL Sheltered Program as it relates to academic improvement. The research focused on the possible relationships that may exist between ACCESS scores and ESOL teacher demographics, ESOL teacher training, ESOL teacher attitudes, ESOL teacher challenges, ESOL teacher efficacy in the use of general strategies, and ESOL teacher efficacy in the use of specific verbal and nonverbal strategies. The research design required the use of the correlation, ANOVA, and regression statistical models to test the research questions. The Cronbach Alpha statistical model was used to test the survey for reliability while item-to-scale correlations were used to the test the survey for construct validity. The researcher found that there was a significant relationship between student performance as measured by ACCESS scores and the independent variable, School Culture for ESOL students. The dependent variable—effectiveness—revealed significant relationships with teacher attitudes, school culture for ESOL students, and teachers’ self-efficacy with the use of specific verbal strategies literacy, vocabulary, and questioning. Recommendations were suggested for policy makers, district educational leaders, school educational leaders, ESOL teachers, and future researchers.

With the growing English for speakers of other languages (ESOL) population in the United States, English instruction is becoming vitally important in schools. Despite this growing need, many schools are eliminating ESOL support services that promote English learning, and some schools are eliminating ESOL support services in primary grades. The purpose of this quantitative study was to determine whether providing ESOL support in kindergarten improved students' reading level, vocabulary, and reading comprehension. Vygotsky's social learning theory and theory of proximal development provided the theoretical framework of the study. The research questions concerned differences in comprehension scores, vocabulary scores, and reading levels between students who were provided ESOL support services (n = 55) and those who were not (n = 51). A quasi-experimental pre/posttest control group design was used. Due to violations in homogeneity of variance and normality, the Kruskall-Wallis test, the nonparametric equivalent of the 1-way ANOVA, was conducted. Results indicated no statistically significant differences between the groups. Recommendations include replicating the study with a larger sample size to increase statistical power. This study may promote positive social change, as leaders in the local school district may use the findings and recommendations to make decisions on future services and continued evaluations to contribute toward ESOL student achievement.

The process of migration has resulted in population growth and contributed to the transformation of New Zealand. Migrant and refugee children face many adjustment factors and their ease in resettling in New Zealand is largely dependent on their ability to learn English. Migration stress, change, trauma and loss may result in psychological difficulties which in turn may affect their resettling and learning. The Ministry of Education and other professionals work together to enhance the quality of their service provision to facilitate easier adjustment, resettlement and effective learning for these children. An adequate assessment battery for speech language therapists to assess migrant and refugee children, is presently lacking in New Zealand. Therapists currently use various assessments, with the assistance of interpreters. The New Zealand Speech Therapists’ Association (NZSTA), in accordance with speech therapists in Group Special Education (GSE), strongly supports the need for research with these groups and the development of an appropriate assessment battery. This exploratory study aimed to determine an assessment battery for use in examining English language acquisition in refugee and migrant children and to highlight the benefit of using measurement tools that determine incremental change over time in contrast to the use of monolingual psychometric tests. The study explored a selected assessment battery and gathered data in five main focus areas, namely: cognition, language, trauma, classroom behaviour, developmental and birth information. Eligible children were those who did not have physiologically - impaired cognitive abilities. Eight cases, four refugee and four migrant students, were selected by convenience sampling. All participants were children selected from primary school 1 (three refugees and three migrants) and primary school 2 (one refugee and one migrant) primary schools, aged approximately (5-8 years). Participants included four male and four females, refugee and migrant children, and those with both high and low English ability. Based on the study’s results, recommendations were made to refine the test battery, which included test modification. For example, the use of the trauma measurement tool only if there is prior evidence of trauma, the inclusion of a larger test population who have a common primary language to allow for cost effective interpreter use and to also allow for generalisations to be made, the inclusion of an assessment of the children’s primary language in order to determine the relationship, development and acquisition of the child’s second language with reference to his/her development and skills in his native language. All of the refugee children and 3 migrant children displayed slower processing time during the administration of the tests. Migrant parents were quicker in test completion as compared to refugee parents. They displayed differences in family size, contact with extended family, socioeconomic status and educational level. Migrant children produced sentences that included correct word order and sequence whilst refugee children produced sentences that lacked adequate word order or lacked articles and determiners. The study found the proposed test battery was an effective choice for use in the assessment of both migrant and refugee children, as the battery allows for dynamic assessment of children from diverse groups and this proved to be an unbiased means of assessing their English language and cognitive skills. Recommendations are made for future, more-extensive research. These findings provide information about appropriate and reliable language acquisition tests that measure incremental change with time. This study will contribute to a developing knowledge base for speech-language therapists who work with migrant or refugee children. Effective assessment on which to base tailored language programmes will assist them to optimise their experience in New Zealand schools and enhance their English language skills.

This study examined the features of the classroom discourse in eight Algebra I classes from two urban high schools with diverse student populations. In particular, by using the discursive analysis perspective, the type of communication between teachers and students was examined. The study investigated to what extent teachers' patterns of discourse change as a result of the number of ELLs present or their particular teaching experiences and ESOL endorsement. Furthermore, the impact of teachers' cultural and linguistic backgrounds upon ELLs' mathematics experiences was explored, particularly the teachers' patterns of discourse and adjustments to their teacher talk, or modifications of instructions that contributed to ELLs' engagement in the mathematics classroom. Data analysis from various sources (observations, video-recordings, frequency counts, interviews, the teachers' self-evaluations, and the researcher's and the ELLs' evaluations) indicated that to some extent all teachers changed their patterns of discourse simply due to the presence of ELLs, regardless of the total number in the class. Teachers with more teaching experience and with ESOL training had a smaller number of ELLs in their classes, whereas in both schools the novice teachers were assigned to teach classes with the highest number of ELLs. The novice teachers frequently used almost the same strategies as their more experienced colleagues did. Yet the qualitative analysis of the type of modifications to their speech they made, the type of questions they asked, and the provision of information of higher cognitive demand according to Bloom's Taxonomy indicated that even though all teachers needed improvement in using these strategies, the more experienced teachers with ESOL training applied those strategies to a fuller extent. They more often used slower and simpler speech and different questioning techniques sensitive to the ELLs' level of English language acquisition (i.e., pre-production, early-production, and speech emergence) and provided the students with content specific, enriched information. However, they still did not ask enough questions that could provide the ELLs with opportunities to justify and explain their opinions, and rarely led the discussions to a point which could move the ELLs to the highest level of the subject-specific literacy - intermediate speech and fluency in mathematics in English.