<p> In this intervention study, I engaged principles of culturally responsive research to examine the effectiveness of explicit reading comprehension strategy instruction for English Learners (ELs) with specific learning disabilities (SLD). This study replicated and extended previous research (Jitendra, Hoppes, &amp; Xin, 2000) by modifying instruction found to be effective for native English speakers (i.e., explicit reading comprehension strategy instruction with a self-monitoring procedure). Modifications included: (a) integrating culturally relevant text, (b) providing native language support, and (c) melding strategies from the fields of teaching English as a second language and special education. Through a co-teaching model, I provided instruction to four participants during a 135-min literacy block in a fifth-grade general education classroom for 13 weeks. A multiple probe across participants design (Gast &amp; Ledford, 2010) evaluated effects of instruction on two dependent variables: (a) participants&rsquo; sophistication with applying comprehension thinking strategies while reading, as measured by comprehension thinking strategy rubrics (Keene, 2006) and (b) participants&rsquo; comprehension, as measured through percentage accuracy with responding to verbally-posed, researcher-developed literal and inferential comprehension questions. I assessed maintenance of effects for up to 8 weeks after participants exited the intervention. I assessed generalization to on-grade-level text and to a standardized achievement test (<i>Woodcock Johnson Tests of Academic Achievement III-R</i>; Woodcock, McGrew, &amp; Mather, 2001). Additionally, I examined participants&rsquo; self-efficacy as readers at pre- and postintervention by collecting information from the <i> Motivation to Read Profile</i> survey and interview (Gambrell, Palmer, Coddling, &amp; Mazzoni, 1996). Finally, I measured participants&rsquo; perceptions of the social acceptability of intervention procedures and outcomes through a researcher-developed, 9-item, Likert-scale survey. Results of this study show a functional relation for accuracy with answering literal and inferential comprehension questions and for sophistication with applying comprehension thinking strategies to read instructional-level text. All four participants performed within a similar range on on-grade-level probes as compared to instructional-level probes before and after the intervention. Participants improved or maintained scores on a standardized achievement test. Intervention effects maintained at the end of a 2- to 8-week period at a level above respective baseline performance. Moreover, participants&rsquo; attitudes toward reading and their motivation toward reading increased or maintained at high levels. Results from social validation questionnaires showed favorable impressions of the intervention&rsquo;s procedures and outcomes. Findings are discussed with regard to the need for future research and the implications for practice.</p>

<p> English Language Learners (ELLs) is the fastest growing segment of the public school population. Today&rsquo;s schools face unprecedented challenges in preparing ELLs as they lack instructional supports and fair and valid assessments to support academic learning in classroom settings. This study invokes the principles of design-based research, where both qualitative and quantitative data were triangulated and analyzed to further advance the theory of multimodality and assessment within a sociocultural perspective for linguistically diverse students in two sixth grade classrooms during a unit in photosynthesis. The main research question guiding this study: <i> How do multimodal tasks support science learning in linguistically diverse classrooms?</i> This question leads to three main perspectives, first I examine the two teachers&rsquo; perspectives on the use of multimodal tasks, next the students&rsquo; perspectives on the use of multimodal tasks and finally using a science and language learning rubric, which I created, I examine student learning in the classrooms based on students&rsquo; English learner status and proficiencies in English language arts, science, and vocabulary acquisition and usage. The teachers used some multimodal tasks to communicate ideas and the students created visual diagrams and comic strips to represent their understanding of photosynthesis. Results show the specific scaffolding strategies used by the teachers during the tasks, like analogies, contextualization of vocabulary use, re-representation of ideas through different modes and re-representation of modes in every task were also appropriated by the students. Rubric scoring indicated ELLs had the highest gains in the scores in the visual diagrams, redesignated students had the highest scores in the comic strip and those designated as above proficient in language arts and science had the highest scores in final visual diagram, indicating how ELL status, proficiencies in language arts and science influence the integration of science and language learning. With the advent of Next Generation Science Standards and related assessments, the findings illustrate the importance of aligning the multimodal tasks to learning goals, weaving links amongst the multimodal tasks, modeling the use of representational tasks for ELLs to integrate the understanding of science content and language and assessing students&rsquo; learning over time using visual representational tasks.</p>

<p> Focusing on a Vygotskian theory of cultural historical psychology, this dissertation features a narrative analysis to examine the role of subjectivity and the generative potential and agency manifested in Non Native English Speaking Teachers&rsquo; (NNESTs) successful development of L2 (English) fluency. My research creates another view of a Vygotskian theory by means of the imagination. Building on a cultural-historical approach, I conducted a qualitative analysis of how these teachers&rsquo; pathway to fluency evolved from their Imagined Destinations. This term is defined as a goal or objective in the mind of the learner that mediates, and is mediated by, his or her lived experiences. </p><p> The concept I coin as Imagined Destinations surfaced in my three initial pilot cases and took shape while working with NNES Panam&aacute;nian teachers, from the analysis of online survey data with 27 of these experienced teachers, and detailed case study analyses of the language learning of eight of these teachers. These data revealed how participants dynamically create and recreate their environments through agentive roles that support the transformation of their environments to advance their goals. </p><p> These transformations have implications for how subjectivity, agency, and acquisition of the target language intertwine throughout the participants&rsquo; lived experiences or pathways to learning, thus providing an additional way to look at subjects and subjectivities within a Vygotskian theoretical frame. The findings also indicate that teachers&rsquo; language trajectories are continuous, emergent, and the result of taking on very deliberate ecological roles in their bilingual success despite recurring salient and limiting circumstances. These findings about the centrality of Imagined Destinations in learning &ldquo;smudges&rdquo; the perception that societal power outweighs the dynamic and agentive roles of individuals as active molders of their lives. </p><p> Finally, this dissertation also seeks to enrich scholarship by demonstrating how NNESTs use their bilingual identities built from their trajectories to bilingualism as ways to influence and inspire their own students&rsquo; second language learning.</p>

<p> As a result of the expanding interest in the cognitive and social dimensions of language use beyond single sentences, a great number of research studies have been conducted in order to examine nonnative speakers&rsquo; ability to use language appropriately in a social context. Recently, with a growing understanding of the key role pragmatic competence plays in second language development, researchers have also investigated the benefits of direct instruction in helping language learners become aware of the pragmatic conditions governing the uses of grammatical structures. This thesis reports on the design and administration of a study that investigated language learners&rsquo; knowledge of pragmatics and how instruction can help them develop this knowledge in an environment where English is taught as a second language. Specifically, this project had two aims: (1) to observe the relationship between language proficiency and pragmatic competence of learners of English as a Second Language (ESL), and (2) to examine whether instruction was effective in improving those learners&rsquo; pragmatic knowledge. Pragmatic competence was measured quantitatively, through discourse judgment tasks, multiple-choice discourse completion tasks (MDCTs) and written discourse completion tasks (WDCTs) in a pre-, post-, and delayed post-test, designed specifically for this study. The participants in this research, thirty-nine adult ESL learners with a range of proficiency studying in the Intensive English Program (IEP) and in a university-level English course at West Virginia University, first took a language proficiency test and a pre-test on pragmatic knowledge. The participants were then assigned into two groups, experimental and comparison. The experimental group received four hours of direct instruction in five types of speech acts (requests, refusals, apologies, compliments, suggestions) and other aspects of pragmatic knowledge over a period of two weeks, while the comparison group was taught lessons on other topics without intervention during the same amount of time. An immediate post-test on pragmatic knowledge and a delayed post-test were given to both groups. The results showed that language proficiency and pragmatic knowledge were positively correlated with a moderate strength (<i>r</i> = .71, <i>p</i> &lt; .001). Analysis of covariance and further analysis showed that the experimental group significantly outperformed the comparison group in both the post-test and delayed post-test. The experimental group benefited from the instruction, which used a blended methodological approach, and the instructional effect was retained after a one-week delay. The results of this research helped understand the communicative skills and intercultural competence of ESL learners and demonstrated that instruction in the area of pragmatics is not only important but it can be beneficial at all levels of language proficiency. It is hoped that the topics reported and discussed here and the findings may help both English as a Foreign Language (EFL) and ESL teachers gain a better understanding of second language learners&rsquo; pragmatic competence and development through instruction, so that when they incorporate pragmatics instruction into their teaching, they will be in a better position to adapt their practices to facilitate pragmatic development.</p>

<p> In spite of growing numbers in high schools and colleges, US-resident adolescent bilingual learners, sometimes termed "English as a second language" (ESL) or "Generation 1.5," are not succeeding academically in proportion to their monolingual English-speaking peers. This achievement gap is evident in their writing as they enter college. Depending on the elementary and secondary schools they have attended, bilingual learners may have received no extra English learning support (often termed "immersion"), ESL support classes, or bilingual education. In addition, depending on school and community resources, bilingual learners have varying knowledge of their first language (L1): some may only speak it, others may have basic L1 literacy, others may have studied their L1 as a school subject, while others may have studied in the medium of their L1, either in their family's home country or in a bilingual education program in the US. The purpose of this study is to determine which kind of English learning support and which kind of L1 education are more likely to prepare bilingual learners to write English successfully at college. </p><p> This study uses three sources of data: a survey on language background, a writing sample, and an optional interview. Twenty-nine college undergraduate bilingual learners participated. Their survey responses develop a profile of the varied kinds of English and L1 education they received. Each participant's communication course placement composition, written as she was applying to college, is analyzed with 12 different measures: six for surface features, four for discourse/rhetorical features, and two for coherence. The writing analysis scores are correlated with the survey data and enriched with interview excerpts to discover which forms of English and L1 education correlate with high or low writing analysis scores. </p><p> The results for this group of participants show that bilingual education and ESL support correlate most often with highly-rated communication placement compositions. Moreover, formal education in the L1 explains the writing analysis scores more accurately than the kind of language learning education the participants received. Interview data suggests that bilingual education and formal L1 education may assist students' English composition skills by helping them develop metalinguistic awareness.</p>

Amid the dearth of implementation of South Africa’s post-apartheid Language-in-education policy which encourages multilingualism and recognizes the value of instruction in the home language of learners, internal change agents initiating language change in their schools were identified in a Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) project on multilingual education. With limited policy support these change agents had sought ways of transforming language policy and practices at their schools to address the linguistic diversity of their learners. The initiative taken by these change agents to transform language policy and practice in their schools was the point of departure for the study. While the HSRC project focused broadly on the factors enabling and disabling multilingual education with a view to exploring strategies to encourage greater implementation of multilingual education, the study interrogated the work of the change agents with particular focus on the sustainability of their language change initiatives. The change agents were two school principals, a Level 1 educator (classroom practitioner) and a School Governing Body chairperson, operating in four public primary schools (one in each school) in KwaZulu-Natal. The experiences of sustaining school language change of these change agents were interrogated to elicit how and why they were able to sustain or not sustain the school language change that they had initiated in their schools. The insights drawn from this interrogation were used to deepen understanding of the process of school language change that encourages multilingual education. The data used in this study was gathered from in-depth interviews with the change agents and significant others (educators/school managers) in their schools, documentation (school language policies and notices to parents) and a Focus Group Discussion in which the change agents engaged in reflecting on their experiences of driving school language change and commenting on the process of sustaining school language change. The findings from the study revealed that all but two of the change agents were marginally successful in sustaining language change in their schools. The study revealed that school language change was a complex process involving the interplay of various factors and the existence of such factors enabled but did not guarantee the sustainability of school language change. The non-existence of some or any of the factors necessary for school language change thwarted the attempts of the change agents to sustain language change in their schools. Using the experiences of each of the change agents and the collective experience of all four change agents contextualized in qualitatively-oriented case study research and using features of grounded theory research to develop theory from case studies, the study developed a theoretical framework explicating the process of school language change led by internal agents of language change. It is suggested that the framework which seeks to deepen understanding of the complexities of the school language change process can be used as a guide to planning language change but cautions against using it as a blue print for school language change. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2009.

It was as Head of Department of Languages in a rural high school in Southern KwaZulu-Natal, and as an L1 English educator in a primarily Zulu-speaking environment that I first realised the extent to which language is not neutral, and became curious about learners’ language choices in their community. My observation of rural parents sending learners to English multicultural schools made me similarly realise the extent to which language carries power. Language also carries ideologies and values, and can empower or disempower learners. At the same time, language is contextually and culturally embedded; and any attempt to explain language choice and language usage has to take a multiplicity of factors into account. This thesis addresses the topic of emerging bilingualism in three rural schools and school communities in Southern KwaZulu-Natal. In these primarily Zuluspeaking communities, an increasing dominance of English is resulting in bilingualism in what were formerly primarily monolingual communities. In particular it would appear that the bilingual education prescribed by education authorities is causally implicated in this emerging bilingualism. As a result, rural communities, like urban communities, are becoming melting pots where different languages, cultures and value systems are interwoven to satisfy economic, political, social and cultural needs. The South African Constitution speaks of multiculturalism and multilingualism as a defining characteristic of being South African. These principles are entrenched in broad national, provincial and local (school) educational policies. One such educational policy is the National Language in Education Policy (LIEP), which has considerable implications for schools in rural communities. While the LIEP postulates the eleven official languages as equal in bilingual education, in practice English is given an elevated position as the primary Language of Learning and Teaching (LOLT). This paradox inherent in the iv LIEP appears to be having considerable impact on language usage and choices in both urban and rural communities. This investigation traces a group of rural communities which are currently experiencing a gradual transition from Zulu monolingualism towards increasing English and Zulu bilingualism. This study investigates this transition in the school and home context, as well as in its impact on the broader community. It considers whether additive or subtractive bilingualism may be emerging and the extent to which the educational policies of Outcomes-Based Education and LOLT may be causally implicated. The data collection methods employed include participant observation, questionnaires and interviews, which allow me to construct a detailed description of language usage, both in the school context, at home and in the community. In examining the patterns of the language choices of Grade 11 learners in the three selected high schools, I seek to allow the impact of the new educational policies on these learners and on their rural communities to become visible. I then consider a number of explanations for the types of bilingualism emerging in these three communities, in terms of varying contextual factors, the educational environment and the social and cultural identities favoured by speakers. / Theses (Ph.D.) - University of KwaZulu Natal, Durban, 2010.

The National Research Foundation has directed research to obtain information about learners who are entering the FET phase of education and have completed nine years of Outcomes Based Education. This study aims to ascertain whether learners (in the micro-context of English Home Language - Grade 10) are performing according to the Assessment Standards stipulated in the NCS 2003 and whether they are demonstrating control of the recognition and realisation rules as discussed by Bernstein that apply to poetic analysis. The learners' personal dispositions toward teaching and learning at a city school in Pietermaritzburg have been analysed to find out if there is any correlation between their personal dispositions and their control of the recognition and realisation rules. The project is a case study and the approach is interpretive. Bernstein's theory forms the framework from which the model was structured and analysed. Instruments were developed to measure the degree of control of recognition and realisation demonstrated by ten, Grade 10 English Home Language learners. These learners also completed questionnaires and in-depth interviews were conducted to explore the dispositions of the learners. Results from the recognition and realisation tasks (mainly qualitative with some quantitative support) were analysed and correlated with the interpretation of the findings from the interviews and questionnaires. It is hoped that the conclusions from this research will provide insight into how these specific learners, who have only experienced Outcomes Based Education, will perform in the FET phase of education. It is further hoped that the findings may shed some light into the process of social transformation in South Africa and how, if given the opportunity to do so, learners develop mastery of the elaborated code that enables them to function successfully in society. In the words of Zonke (a learner in the study), how a learner must 'get that light that shows them the way'. / Thesis (M.Ed.) - University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, [2007].

This study investigates the perceptions of Zulu speaking parents of the new language-in-education policy. The context for the study, which is explained in Chapter one, is an ex-Model C senior primary school in KwaZulu-Natal. Chapter two consists of a review of the literature and examines South African language policy before 1989 as well as early ANC language policy up to the present language-in -education policy of additive multilingualism. The research entails a critical examination of the popularity of English as a language of learning (hereafter referred to as LOL), weighed against the need to maintain and sustain indigenous languages. There is also a focus on the current debate surrounding language policy and the notion that, historically, language policy has never been a neutral issue. Chapter three describes the research methodology. A qualitative approach was used, drawing on the interpretive paradigm. Some quantitative data, however, was necessary to support the research. Data was drawn from a sample comprising 30 Grade 4 Zulu speaking parents at a former Model C school, who completed a questionnaire. Interviews were conducted to probe and clarify the responses to the questionnaire. Three main issues were addressed: parents' reasons for choosing an English school; any concerns they might have over the neglect of culture; and their knowledge of the new language-in-education policy. Chapter four describes how these three broad issues were tested against the perceptions of two other participants, namely the Principal of the school (Mr B) and an outside educator (Dr L). Conclusions are discussed in Chapter 5. A key finding that emerges from the study is that parents do not favour an English only policy; they want both unfetted access to English and the assurance that their indigenous language and culture will be safeguarded. However, these findings need to be discussed in the context of rapid social change and it was concluded that parents were not well informed about the new language-in-education policy of additive multilingualism, and the options that this affords them. The government needs to disseminate information more efficiently if the new language-in-education policy is to impact on the decisions that parents make regarding their children's education. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2002.

I have been fortunate in my teaching career to have taught young learners from Grade 1 to Grade 12 in English home language. This has led me to the realisation that English home language learners have a considerable advantage over their second language counterparts in acquiring education in general. Language proficiency in the language of learning and teaching is essential for academic success. Many secondary school learners lack the required academic proficiency in English, the language of learning and teaching. The English language proficiency of isiZulu-speaking Grade 8 learners at a Durban secondary school was evaluated in order to suggest ways in which these learners could be helped to maximise their academic success. This school was chosen on the basis of poor matric results. The study used a mixed-method research methodology. A sample of Grade 8 learners was selected, and their language proficiency levels were determined. The data collection techniques used were the focus group interview to generate pupils’ response to problems and barriers to learning, as well as document analysis of school documents. The findings indicated that the learners were generally not capable of handling the requirements of the Grade 8 curriculum. The language issue is complex and cannot be explained as an isolated variable as there are a variety of other mediating factors that interact to impact on the academic performance of learners with limited English language proficiency. It was recommended that the learners be guided to make optimal use of facilities, such as libraries. This could enhance the learner’s language development. / Thesis (M.Ed.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2009.