The U.S. population is rapidly diversifying, with the expectation that culturally diverse groups---including students---will outnumber European Americans by the year 2050. In contrast, public school teachers are expected to remain largely middle class, female, and Caucasian. Most multicultural education research has focused on cultural diversity in urban education settings. However, a gap in the literature has existed regarding student diversity and teachers' culturally responsive teaching in predominantly rural areas. In this study, Appalachian elementary school teachers shared their perspectives and experiences on effective multicultural teaching. An important gap has been bridged by using a 3-part theoretical framework, based on critical reflection, scaffolding, and perspective taking, related to the main research questions regarding (a) the qualities and experiences that in-service public school teachers possess that allow them to effectively teach students from a variety of backgrounds, and (b) what in-service teachers suggest for improving teacher preparation to meet the challenges of cultural diversity in schools. A qualitative, phenomenological approach anchored in a constructivist paradigm was used to gather voice data via a digital voice recorder from 8 participants. Semi structured, open-ended interviews were conducted to collect the data, followed by transcription and analysis. Data analysis resulted in the discovery of 5 themes related to the research questions and revealed mapping onto the conceptual framework. Social change implications can result in improved teacher education programs in rural areas and can enhance collaboration with professional development schools to improve pre-service teacher preparation for teaching diverse students.

Studies by the National Association for Educational Progress found that English Language Learner (ELL) students perform poorly compared to other students on standardized mathematics exams. The research problem addressed how Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol (SIOP) affected the instructional practices of high school mathematics teachers. The purpose of this evaluative case study approach was to explore the extent to which the implementation of SIOP influenced mathematics instruction in a mid-sized rural high school. The conceptual framework for this study was formed by combining Krashen's i+1 nativist theory for language acquisition through comprehensible input, Long's interactionist theory for acquisition of knowledge and Bandura's teacher efficacy theory. A concurrent mixed method design was selected to draw together inferences from both qualitative and quantitative data. NVivo software was used to combine a line by line analysis of interviews with an analysis of the components on the SIOP observation checklist. Interview findings suggest that teachers expressed a favorable response to SIOP since implementation. Classroom observations confirmed the efficacy of SIOP implementation. An analysis of covariance was used to evaluate mathematics achievement data from the Measurement of Academic Progress. Quantitative findings indicated no significant increase in mean scores after the first year of SIOP implementation. The results of this study could enhance the capacity of mathematics teachers to adjust instruction appropriate for their second-language development needs. Implications for positive social change include removing language barriers so that more ELL students may continue taking advanced mathematics courses and enter rewarding math-related careers.

<p>This thesis investigates the use of word order variation, in particular the variable use of subject-verb inversion and non-inversion in main declarative clauses, among adolescents in contemporary multilingual settings in Sweden. The use of non-inversion in contexts that in standard Swedish require inversion is sometimes claimed to be characteristic of varieties of Swedish spoken among adolescents in multilingual urban areas. The present study includes a wide range of data, both spontaneous and elicited, and explores how common the use of non-inversion is among a relatively large group of participants in different contexts, and how the use of non-inversion is influenced by different demographic, linguistic and socio-pragmatic factors.</p><p>The results show that non-inversions are used to a limited extent in all types of data in the studied population. Only certain individuals frequently employ non-inversions in some contexts. Further, no direct link is found between second language acquisition and the use of non-inversion in this study. Factors related to the issue of nativeness, for example participants’ reported age of onset of Swedish acquisition, only marginally explain the results. In general, examples of non-inversion are employed more extensively, and by more participants, in peer-peer interaction than with adults. The use of non-inversion appears to be part of some adolescents’ spontaneous language use in certain contexts. More importantly, however, the results suggest that some adolescents employ non-inversions as an active linguistic resource to express their identification with the multilingual environment and the different varieties of Swedish spoken there, to show solidarity with peers, to contest official school discourses, and to play around with linguistic stereotypes.</p>

This thesis investigates the use of word order variation, in particular the variable use of subject-verb inversion and non-inversion in main declarative clauses, among adolescents in contemporary multilingual settings in Sweden. The use of non-inversion in contexts that in standard Swedish require inversion is sometimes claimed to be characteristic of varieties of Swedish spoken among adolescents in multilingual urban areas. The present study includes a wide range of data, both spontaneous and elicited, and explores how common the use of non-inversion is among a relatively large group of participants in different contexts, and how the use of non-inversion is influenced by different demographic, linguistic and socio-pragmatic factors. The results show that non-inversions are used to a limited extent in all types of data in the studied population. Only certain individuals frequently employ non-inversions in some contexts. Further, no direct link is found between second language acquisition and the use of non-inversion in this study. Factors related to the issue of nativeness, for example participants’ reported age of onset of Swedish acquisition, only marginally explain the results. In general, examples of non-inversion are employed more extensively, and by more participants, in peer-peer interaction than with adults. The use of non-inversion appears to be part of some adolescents’ spontaneous language use in certain contexts. More importantly, however, the results suggest that some adolescents employ non-inversions as an active linguistic resource to express their identification with the multilingual environment and the different varieties of Swedish spoken there, to show solidarity with peers, to contest official school discourses, and to play around with linguistic stereotypes.

Requiem for the Last Kaiser by the Cameroonian playwright Bate Besong, is a play characterised by singular translational challenges. These challenges range from the presence of many different languages in the text to the use of humour and intratextual references taken from a various range of sources such as the Bible, world history and politics, etc. In our 21st century world, where translation has been described as the language of Europe by Umberto Eco, Africa’s literary treasures should be given a wider readership by means of translation, starting with French, to introduce the writer’s work to French-speaking Cameroonians and from there to other Francophones. The aim of this research was to determine in what way multilingualism in the play could affect its translation and, secondly, how to translate the various multilingual utterances. The focus was put on the rendition of the play’s multilingual elements in a language or languages understandable to a French-speaking readership while keeping the author’s initial intention in mind. This was done firstly by gathering relevant knowledge on theatre as well as literary and theatrical translation, and on the other hand on literary multilingualism and multilingual translation. Subsequently, 28 text segments including multilingual utterances were extracted from the source text, analysed using a combination of the functionalist approach and hermeneutics, and translated. Several translation strategies and procedures were used, among which literalism was particularly successful. It was found that these could not be generalised and that translation choices should be made for each individual utterance. The play impacts on the literary, sociolinguistic, political, and sociological domains, as it dates from the 1990s, a period of Cameroonian history marked by popular uprisings and the struggle for democracy. Attempting a partial translation of Requiem for the Last Kaiser was a means of contributing to the field of multilingual theatre translation, sharing the richness of Bate Besong’s literary work and giving Cameroonian literature in English the port of access it needs since it has not yet attained the recognition it surely deserves. / Dissertation (MA)--University of Pretoria, 2013. / gm2014 / Modern European Languages / unrestricted

Utifrån ett sociokulturellt perspektiv lär och utvecklas människan i en social samvaro där interaktion sker mellan deltagarna. Syftet med denna studie är därmed att utifrån ett sociokulturellt perspektiv undersöka verksamma lärares uppfattningar om grupparbete som syftar till att skapa utrymme för muntlig interaktion i det flerspråkiga klassrummet och genom observationer analysera hur detta kommer till uttryck i klassrumspraktiken. För att besvara detta syfte används följande frågeställningar Hur beskriver verksamma lärare att de organiserar grupparbeten som syftar till att skapa utrymme för muntlig interaktion i det flerspråkiga klassrummet? Hur kommer lärarnas intentioner om grupparbete till uttryck i klassrumspraktiken? Forskningsdesignen utgörs av en flerfallstudie där två olika fall ingår. I undersökningen ingår åtta elever från två olika parallellklasser i årskurs 3 och deras fyra undervisande lärare. Insamlandet av data har skett genom intervjuer med lärarna och observationer i respektive fall.   Resultatet visar att lärarna har som avsikt att vid organisering av grupparbete skapa utrymme för muntlig interaktion i det flerspråkiga klassrummet. Vid observationerna är muntlig interaktion dock frånvarande och framkommer vid fåtal sekvenser. Lärarna beskriver att deras uppgift är att stötta eleverna under arbetets gång samt ge eleverna tydliga instruktioner innan arbetet påbörjas. Resultatet visar att i de fall som lärarna gav eleverna tydliga instruktioner om hur arbetsuppgifter kan fördelas i gruppen var samtliga elever delaktiga. I de fall som läraren inte gav eleverna instruktioner om hur arbetsuppgifterna kan fördelas var inte alla elever delaktiga. Studiens resultat visar även att om eleverna ska ges optimala förutsättningar för muntlig interaktion ska läraren gruppera eleverna i grupper om tre till fyra elever där elevernas språkliga bakgrunder varierar. / From a socio-cultural perspective, learn and evolve human when they being in a social interaction where the interaction takes place between the participants. The purpose of this study is therefore from a socio-cultural perspective examine active teachers ' perceptions about group work intended to create space for oral interaction in the multilingual classroom and through observations analyze how this is reflected in classroom practice. To respond to this purpose, the following questions are How do active teachers describe the organizing of group work which aimed to create space for oral interaction in the multilingual classroom?  How will teacher’s intentions about group work reflect in classroom practice? The research design consists of a multi- case study where two different cases are included. The survey includes eight pupils from two different parallel classes in grade 3 and their four teaching teachers. The collection of data has been done through interviews with the teachers and the observations in each case.   The results show that the teachers intend to group work to create space for oral interaction in the multilingual classroom. However, in the observations, oral interaction is absent and appears in few sequences. The Teachers describe their mission is to support the students during the course of work as well as provide students with clear instructions before starting work. The results show that in the case that teachers gave students clear instructions about how tasks can be distributed in the group, were all students involved. In the case that the teacher did not give the students instructions on how the tasks can be distributed was not all students involved. The results of the study also show that if students are to be given optimal conditions for oral interaction, the teacher will group students into groups of three to four students where students’ linguistic backgrounds vary.

Thesis(M. A. (Language Education)) -- University of Limpopo, 2021 / Majority of South African learners come from diverse linguistic, social and cultural backgrounds. Therefore, their diversities in classroom require learning and teaching approaches that are capable of ensuring that classroom interactions fulfil learners’ multilingual needs and also help to improve the learning conditions–and thus the educational system of the country. Learners in South African rural and township schools have limited exposure to English. They come from impoverished backgrounds in which English does not form part of their daily communication, except that they are only exposed to the language at school. Translanguaging seems to be an approach that can be implemented to overcome language barriers in classrooms and resolve the challenges pertaining to the educational system of South Africa. This study aims to disclose how Translanguaging can be implemented to disrupt power imbalances of languages and how its implementation can create an inclusive classroom. The aim of this study is to investigate the benefits of using Translanguaging in a Grade 4 during Life Skills lessons. The study used a qualitative research methodology and adopted a comparative research design. The study has found that learners learn better in a language that they are proficient in. The implication to this finding is that policy makers must be advised to either add Translanguaging as a learning model to the existing models or redesign the existing models to bring transformation as well as to promote African languages as media of instruction

This study explores teacher student and in-service teacher beliefs about using code-switching in the English language classroom. Language classrooms have long adopted amonolingual approach. However, nowadays many classrooms are multilingual and a shifttowards using multilingual strategies to accommodate multilingual pupils can be seen inboth research and steering documents. Plurilingualism is promoted by the EuropeanCouncil and the Swedish syllabus for English, and research shows that code-switchingcan be one method for pupils to draw from all their language skills. Although amonolingual approach is still considered ideal, in research about teacher and teacherstudent beliefs about code-switching most participants use code-switching. This papertherefore investigates teacher student and in-service teacher beliefs in order to explorehow teachers use code-switching. Using the qualitative method of semi-structuredinterviews and analysing our data with the help of a coding scheme, we found that thoughall participants agree that a monolingual standard is ideal, they believe that it is importantto acknowledge pupils’ multilingual backgrounds and that code-switching can be one wayof doing that while still facilitating learning. We also found that the participants’ use ofcode-switching depends on their pupils’ proficiency, that they mainly use code-switchingfor communicative purposes, and that the participants’ own lingual backgrounds affectedtheir beliefs about code-switching. The result of this paper shows that in-service teachersneed to reflect on how and why they use code-switching while teacher educationprogrammes need to acknowledge multilingual strategies and make students aware ofwhen such strategies are beneficial to learning, and when they are not.

No description available.

I dagens klassrum finns en allt större andel flerspråkiga elever och hur detta kan bemötas för att en likvärdig undervisning ska kunna skapas kan av lärare upplevas utmanande. Syftet med studien är därför att bidra med kunskap om hur lärare i grundskolans årskurs 1–3 upplever att de arbetar med att inkludera flerspråkiga resurser i svenskundervisningen, för att förbättra lärandet i det flerspråkiga klassrummet. Frågeställningarna som besvaras är: I vilken utsträckning och på vilka sätt upplever lärarna att de inkluderar flerspråkiga resurser i svenskundervisningen? Vilka möjligheter och utmaningar upplever lärarna att det finns med att inkludera flerspråkiga resurser i svenskundervisningen? Det teoretiska ramverket för studien grundar sig i Vygotskijs sociokulturella teori och dess fokus på språkutveckling och socialt samspel. Materialet samlades in genom semistrukturerade intervjuer med lärare och analyserades genom tematisk analys. Resultatet visar att lärarna ser på flerspråkiga resurser på olika sätt och att dessa verkar vara avhängiga vilken skola lärarna undervisar på. Det visar även att lärarna ser möjligheterna och de goda effekterna av att nyttja elevers flerspråkiga resurser, men även utmaningar i form av brist på bland annat resurser och tid. / In today's classrooms, there is an increasing number of multilingual students, and how this can be dealt with to create equal teaching can be experienced by teachers as challenging. The aim is therefore to contribute with knowledge about how teachers in primary school grades 1–3 perceive that they are working to include multilingual resources in Swedish teaching, to improve learning in the multilingual classroom. The research questions that were answered are: To what extent and how do the teachers feel that they include multilingual resources in the Swedish teaching? What opportunities and challenges do teachers perceive with including multilingual resources in Swedish teaching? The theoretical framework for the study is based on Vygotsky's sociocultural theory and its focus on language development and social interaction. The material was collected through semi-structured interviews and analyzed through thematic analysis. The results show that the teachers look at multilingual resources in different ways and that these seem to depend on which school the teachers teach at. It also shows that the teachers see the opportunities and the good effects of using students' multilingual resources, but also challenges in form of a lack of resources and time, among other things.