Previously accepted and current research has been reviewed regarding the development of English proficiency for English Language Learners. The particular areas of concern deemed crucial for language development are the domains of reading, writing, listening and speaking. The critical components for effective English Language Development instruction as well as the strategies considered the most effective and efficient were also investigated. The review resulted in the creation of an English Language Development unit that includes the essential components and various strategies that are considered effective in developing English proficiency for English Language Learners.

This project aims to help teachers learn how to connect with their students of different cultural backgrounds. It is written to help teachers understand how cultural differences can have an unseen effect on student learning and immediacy. In turn, these effects can lead to a lack of motivation and lower levels of success in college obtainment. This project will also have a handbook to help teachers learn about their students’ backgrounds and understand how culture plays a role in the learning process. The handbook will review understanding the demographics of the school, cultural mismatch, cultural communication, and instructional communication. These topics are geared to help teachers gain an understanding of the challenges their students face. When teachers are engaging in the handbook sections and working to overcome educational obstacles, their students may have greater academic success.

Research in Second Language Acquisition indicates that using English outside of the classroom is an important part of the language learning process. However, studies done on university level ESL and EFL students indicate that students use English minimally when outside of the classroom. This thesis furthers the research on English use outside of the classroom in order to more fully understand all types of language learners and the link between language proficiency and out-of-class English use.

In this two-part study, English spelling errors of Arabic speaking students are investigated. Specifically, an empirical study is done to document and investigate exactly what kinds of English spelling errors Arabic-speaking students actually make. Then these data are analyzed. and spelling error patterns are discovered. Next. a study is done to determine if the presence of spelling errors in written work has a significant negative effect on readers' evaluations of this writing.

The technique of asking questions in the classroom has prevailed in first language classes for many years. This teaching technique has also been widely used in ESL reading classes. Though there has been extensive research about teachers' questions and students' responses in first language classrooms, there is a paucity of studies in second language classrooms. This is a descriptive study of six experienced college level English as a Second Language (ESL) teachers and their discussions of the same reading selection with ninety-eight non-native speakers in each of their classes. Teacher-led discussions were audiotaped and twenty minutes of each class were transcribed and analyzed. Teachers' questions were coded according to Long and Sato's (1983) seven-category taxonomy of functions of teachers' questions. Students' responses were analyzed according to their mean length, syntactic complexity, and the use of connectives.

English articles are perhaps the most difficult grammatical items for Japanese students to master. However, because these are among the most frequently occurring grammatical items in English, Japanese students must concern themselves with them.

This study was based on a study by Joy Reid (1987) on the perceptual learning style preferences of English as a Second Language (ESL) students. The purpose of this study was to identify the perceptual learning style preferences of three groups of students: Japanese students studying in the US, Japanese students studying in Japan, and American students studying in the US. The perceptual styles studied were visual, auditory, kinesthetic, and tactile, with the additional styles of group and individual learning also being studied. The learning style preferences were identified so as to determine the relationship between style and the variables of native language, length of stay in the US, and major field of study.

Japanese ESL students are often evaluated negatively by their teachers because of their quiet verbal behavior in the classroom; yet, this study suggests that such silence may be situation specific. The purpose of this study is to describe characteristics of eight Japanese ESL students' production and interaction by comparing with those of four non-Japanese students, across three settings: teacher-fronted, group work, and NS-NNS conversation.

In the past decade the number of dual language immersion programs in US public schools has grown to more than 2000. The benefits of dual language immersion for emergent bilinguals (EBs) have been confirmed by numerous studies. However, lacking from this literature is research which focuses on leadership within dual immersion schools. Despite an upsurge in the number of immersion schools, few studies examine the characteristics of effective immersion leaders. The aim of this study is to examine the leadership characteristics of principals leading K-5 dual language immersion programs who have increased student achievement among EBs. The purpose of this case study is to identify leadership characteristics of three successful K-5 dual immersion principals and to understand the relationship of such characteristics to the student growth of Emergent Bilinguals (EBs). In the literature review, I present the theoretical framework of Bolman and Deal (2003), historical perspectives of immersion in the United States, learning perspectives in the area of dual language immersion, and leadership and student achievement. The research approach for this study is a case study design. The subjects for this study are experienced principals who are successful in terms of student achievement for EBs as measured by school performance exceeding their district performance average and that of comparison schools. To answer the research question about the characteristics of successful leaders of dual immersion schools, I conducted a qualitative study to include principal interviews, school document review, and teacher focus groups. As schools increase their focus on reducing racial inequities, how to reduce educational inequities among EBs must also be a focus. By understanding the characteristics of leaders who are successful with EBs, we can impact school district hiring practices, principal preparation programs, and district policies.

It is the goal of all reading instructors to use techniques that will enhance reading comprehension. This is certainly no less so in the second language classroom. Studies have shown that readers possess schemata for text structure that is activated during the reading process. It has also been shown that a reader's textual schemata may be culturally influenced and that second language students may possess textual schemata that conflicts or interferes with the structure of the text making comprehension more difficult. For this reason, second language learners may benefit from explicit instruction in text structure and content relationships. Semantic mapping is a text organization strategy which may be used to explicate text structure and content relationships with both expository prose and fiction. The purpose of this study was to use semantic mapping to explicate the structure and content of short fiction and to measure the effect, if any, on comprehension. For the purposes of this study, comprehension was defined two ways: (1) recognition comprehension, which is the ability to retain and recall factual detail from text content, and (2) comprehension as evidenced by the use of certain critical thinking skills, i.e., elaboration and supplementation in forming written responses. Two hypotheses were posed: 1. The use of semantic mapping will result in an increase in recognition comprehension by a treatment group of English as a second language readers using a semantic mapping strategy, as compared to a control group using an advance organizer, based on a combination multiple choice and true/ false quiz. 2. The use of semantic mapping will result in greater use of elaboration and supplementation by a treatment group of English as a second language readers using a semantic mapping strategy, as compared to a control group using an advance organizer, based on an analysis of a quiz requiring written responses. In order to determine the results of this study, .t-tests were used to compare the mean scores between groups. In the case of recognition comprehension, the group receiving the treatment, semantic mapping, did score significantly higher than the control group. In the case of comprehension, as evidenced by the use of elaborations and supplementations in written responses, the group which used semantic mapping showed a higher level of use, but the difference was not statistically significant. A Mann-Whitney U test ranked the subjects' scores individually on an ordinal scale and then compared the means between groups. In the case of elaborations the treatment group showed a significantly higher level of use. However, there was no corresponding significant difference in the case of supplementations.