Since the United States has become an ethnically and culturally diverse country and has become a microcosm of the world, multicultural children's literature has attracted more and more attention and raised questions about its quality. The purpose of this study was to determine what images of Chinese people, Chinese-Americans, and Chinese culture were attributed in children's and adolescents' fiction. The study was achieved by examining 57 fictional books written by Chinese-American authors and other-American authors for readers from kindergarten through junior high school published in the United States from 1980 to 1997. This study was an example of the descriptive method of research using content analysis, a technique for evaluating the descriptions and information from the selected books in a systematic and objective manner, to achieve "systematic examination" by analyzing the information identified in the books under the study. The content of the books was analyzed to discover the ways Chinese people were portrayed and the ways Chinese cultures were represented, and to examine whether or not they were stereotyped. This study used two instruments, including a total of thirteen categories, to examine the images and representations from different perspectives. The results of the study indicated that the images of Chinese people were attributed both realistically and in a stereotypic manner, and the representations of Chinese culture in many books were inaccurate and unauthentic. It was also found that most of the inaccurate information and misrepresentations were made by non-Chinese-American authors and illustrators, though a few inaccurate pieces of information were made by Chinese-American authors and illustrators. The present study may be helpful to authors, illustrators, book reviewers, curriculum specialists, and others working with written materials about China, Chinese and Chinese-Americans, and also to scholars of children's literature who wish to analyze other cultures well. Directed toward the elimination of the stereotypes of Chinese and Chinese-Americans in Children's and adolescents' literature, the study promotes the realization of intercultural understanding, a necessary concomitant to the further development of cultural pluralism in this country.

Students with difficulties learning foreign languages typically come to the university with a history of foreign language failure and native language problems. Often, a foreign language requirement is difficult to complete and is the cause of great anxiety for the learner with linguistic difficulties. The Department of Spanish and Portuguese at the participating university established a one-credit modified add-on course that at-risk students could take to receive extra support in Spanish. Selection of participants was made according to Ganschow and Sparks' (1991) Foreign Language Screening Instrument. “At-risk” students were asked to participate in the study or were recommended for enrollment into a learning assistance paired course. In this class, students were exposed to a variety of techniques that attempted to accommodate a diversity of learner needs. Results from quantitative measures of change in perceptions of Spanish language tasks over time were inconclusive; on pre- and post-instruction similarities ratings, subjects weighted tasks in a uniform fashion along four interpretable dimensions. To further explore the effectiveness of a modified support course, additional qualitative data were collected on student satisfaction questionnaires and on learner reflection essays throughout the course. Final semester grades and grades on in-class performance measures in the foreign language were also examined to support the notion of inclusion in the foreign language classroom. Findings from this study revealed that such a course had positive effects on the learners, and that the learners benefited from adjustments to the foreign language pedagogy. However, it may not take an extra, learning assistance paired course to achieve these effects. Results from a survey of 27 instructors of Spanish and Portuguese revealed that the teachers are both willing and able to implement such teaching strategies so as to create an inclusive atmosphere that appeals to the needs of all learners. This study showed that incorporating such teaching strategies into the regular Spanish classroom as a part of the course design can effectively provide an alternative to the course waiver and substitution model of accommodation, and that triangulation in the research methodology provides a more complete portrait of the at-risk learner's foreign language learning experience.

This study is an inquiry into the second language learning process of non-native English speaking adults who are preparing to enter graduate business programs in the U.S. or other English speaking countries. Specifically, I examine the process of negotiation of authenticity in communication by learners and the instructor. I begin with an initial understanding that authenticity does not reside in materials or tasks, but in how learners and instructors negotiate it (Gee, 1990). I explore and develop a broad definition of authenticity as being a perception structured and influenced by learner's needs, the instructor's perception of the target skills and needs of the participants, and the learners' own construction or negotiation of what they perceive to be appropriate in the target discourse. The site of this study was the ESL Business Case Discussion Class offered at Harvard Summer School. Using ethnography of communication research as a guide for research methodology, I used participant observation, note-taking, videotaping, and interviewing as sources of gathering data over three years (1990–1992). There were seven conclusions of this study: Authenticity manifests itself and is negotiated over phases, there is a gradual process or development of communication skills, development of language skills seems to reach a plateau, reflection time enhances learning and acquisition, learners construct and accept multiple identities, tensions stimulate negotiation of learning and conceptualization of authenticity, and scaffolding generally facilitates, but can hinder the carrying out of authentic communication. Implications of the conclusions are that understanding the process of negotiating authenticity will allow teacher educators to inform teachers on ways to improve teaching and increase learning and acquisition by structuring the learning environment to facilitate it. The ‘preparation’ case study class gives students the opportunity to create an authentic learning environment in which they explore all of the things that might assist them or get in the way of their success in the ‘real event’. This kind of scaffolded or sheltered content class is important, but it does not take away the responsibility of the ‘real case study instructors’ to scaffold second language learners.

Adolescent literacy learning centered in processes of imagination is marginalized and neglected within the saturated climate of standardized assessment. This arts-based qualitative study uncovers imagination as an active presence central to making meaning in a middle school language arts class involved in a writing experience inspired by the history of jazz. Learning filtered through the creative processes of writing reveals imagination as an interiorized action in adolescent literacy development. I ground this research in sociocultural perspectives of literacy (Vygotsky, 1978, 1986) engaged in aesthetic paradigms of learning. From this perspective, I investigate how middle school student writers participating in individual and collaborative activities internalize the experience to create new understandings of the world in which they live. Through the lens of theory, I explore the imagination as a higher psychological and cultural function involved in the mediated development of language. This study describes the powerful ways in which students craft writing and concurrently develop strong, critical and creative thinking capacities. I discard false perspectives that assume the inefficacy of learning in expressive modes and endorse pedagogies that place imagination at the center of processes of literacy teaching and learning.

The purpose of this study was to show that ESL students without native-like control of English could be encouraged to write to a real reader by being engaged in pen pal writing activity. Additionally, this study was to determine the effects of the activity of writing to a real reader on the writing skills of ESL students. It was the goal to increase the sensitivity of ESL teachers to realize that their beliefs, role of others, encouragement and positive responses to ESL students' writing affected ESL students' writing development. Also, the importance of creating a social context where ESL students could use writing to communicate and have opportunities to explore uses of print and the complexity of natural communication was discussed. The literature search was centered on two major sections. The first section was the studies of the development of second language writing approaches that established the groundwork for studying ESL writing. The second was about the studies of the perspectives on ESL writing. The review focused on three perspectives from which ESL writing had been examined The study was conducted with fourteen ESL students in an elementary school, age six to twelve. Each of them wrote eight letters in total to their pen pals in a six-month period and received responses for each letter they wrote. A pre-test and a post-test were given to the participants for assessing their development of ESL writing ability (quality of writing and mechanic of writing), the tests were scored by the ESL teachers with the holistic scoring method. To determine the effect of activity of writing to a real reader, the interviews and questionnaires were designed to get information and opinions from the ESL students, pen pals and ESL teachers about this letter-writing activity. Analysis of the data revealed significant differences between the results of the pre-test and post-test. The scores showed that ESL students did much better in quality of writing and mechanic of writing. The data also showed ESL students' improvement in the other areas, which greatly supported the belief that second language learning processes in reading, writing, speaking and listening are developed simultaneously. The results indicated that when ESL students wrote to a real reader with encouragement, their willingness to write was enhanced and their ESL writing abilities improved. ESL students indicated their preference of writing to a real reader and demonstrated their enjoyment of this writing experience during the entire course of this study. This study validates the idea that the students' writing skills develop best when they interact with others and learn from their environment.

The research and the study focus on the problem of dissociated learning. Why do students fail to connect with knowledge? The purposes of the study are: to summarize research pertaining to brain growth; to describe educational approaches and tactics consistent with this research; to test a brain research-based program designed to connect children to knowledge. The study rests on two research-based assumptions: strategies that connect dysfunctional or developmentally delayed students with thinking and learning will connect children in general with thinking and learning; educational activities integrating spatial information processing with linguistic processing will develop thinking skills more effectively than programs that do not. The apparent reason for the success of a spatial/linguistic program is that cross-modal activities mirror, or model, the integrated processes of the brain, impacting attention, emotion and logical operations. Increasing numbers of students fail to connect with writing. Many of these students can draw. Can drawing be used to connect these students to writing as thinking? The hypothesis is that a cross-modal activity combining drawing (a spatial activity) with writing (a linguistic activity) will develop descriptive, analytical and inferential thinking skills more effectively than a writing program that does not. The study targets children who receive special services, including those with language- and attention-related problems. To test the hypothesis, a quasi-experimental/control study was designed, involving 200 students in grades K, 3, 4, 5 and 6 in intact classrooms in two elementary schools. Approximately 2,000 pieces of data revealed a significant effect for the treatment, Drawing/Writing, on writing and thinking skills in the experimental group, including students who receive special services. The conclusions of the research are that brain research has relevance for education and that cross-modal activities provide antidotes to dissociated learning. The conclusion of the study is that, as a writing program, Drawing/Writing has broad usefulness and appeal.

The general purpose of this study was to obtain information about foreign language teachers' instructional practices, evaluation procedures, and attitudes. The specific purposes were: (1) To obtain relevant demographic and attitudinal data pertaining to the in-service training needs of selected foreign language teachers. (2) To apply data obtained to in-service training program planning initiatives. (3) To study the relationships between demographic and attitudinal data obtained and in-service training program planning. The study outcomes present a demographic profile which suggests a generally healthy climate for foreign language education in the state as evidenced by teachers' professional involvement, awareness of current practices, concern about issues, and agreement with a proficiency-oriented approach to foreign language education. The data suggest areas of concern and future direction for officials of the state department of education and the state foreign language association as they do long-range planning to meet global and student needs in foreign language education, and to meet the specific needs of the foreign language teachers in Massachusetts. Officials of other state departments of education and foreign language associations might look to the results of this study to assess the professional growth and development needs of foreign language teachers.

This dissertation argues for a novel methodological approach to the investigation of phenomena of second language acquisition (SLA). The field of second language acquisition arose in a historical academic context which traditionally linked it to primarily quantitative research methodologies. Introspective verbalized articulations of learners had been devalued in favor of observational examination of behavioral characteristics, an approach which, despite massive investments of research energies, failed to yield a coherent theoretical understanding of the SLA process, especially in adults. An individually conducted, dialogically oriented, open-ended or phenomenological interview enables the exploration of the concerns, interests, experiences, and meanings developed by a second-language learner during the course of the process of second-language acquisition. Approximately two dozen such interviews were carried out with international speakers of English as a Second Language (ESL) studying in a community college in the United States. Analysis of these interviews permitted the demonstration of distinctive interests and focuses of attention and awareness by learners both individually, and collectively, as emergent themes came to be delineated from the group data. In sum, the argument is made that it is ultimately the recognition and the revelation of the individual learner's awareness, through the dialogically articulated learner voice, that proves more significant to an understanding of the phenomenon of SLA within learners from a theoretical research perspective, as well as to a potential enabling of enhanced pedagogical efficiency.

The representation of Mexican American migrant farmworkers in children's literature has increased over the past 15 years, making visible a group that previously was rendered invisible in the U.S. landscape. Classifying stories about migrant agricultural laborers under the literary category of multicultural children's literature further marginalizes this population by portraying their social circumstances as private, personal, and cultural. While these stories bring the reader up close to the poverty that families endure as migrant farmworkers, they leave the socioeconomic circumstances with the families, in many ways, unlinked to power relations. In this study, I theorize a critical multicultural analysis of children's literature, which creates a space for adult and young readers alike to rethink power (i.e., inserting class into the critical dialogue on race and gender) and recognize their own social construction. Reading class, race, and gender together in children's literature about migrant farmworkers leads to reading how power is exercised in U.S. society as well as how we are implicated in its circulation: It's a waking up from the American Dream. My text collection functions as evidence of U.S. power relations of class, race, and gender—children's literature as social transcripts because a large part of U.S. ethnography is in literature (Ortner, 1991). I read these books against the history and scholarship of multicultural children's literature and the historical and sociopolitical context of migrant work in the United States. I historicize these current representations of Mexican American migrant workers within the developments of the Mexican American experience as it is rendered in children's literature. Since many of these titles fall under the genres of nonfiction and realistic fiction, I consider how these genres textually reconstruct reality by examining the discursive construction of characters and the ideological implications of how the stories close. The theoretical constructs of discourse, ideology, subjectivity, and power function as analytical tools for examining how power is exercised among the characters to locate how class, race, and gender are enacted in text, while revealing how story characters dominate, collude, resist, and take action collectively. A critical multicultural analysis of children's literature about Mexican American migrant farmworkers is a microanalysis of U.S. power relations, an examination of how power is exercised, circulated, negotiated, and transformed.

A research report submitted to the Faculty of Humanities, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Fine Arts, 2015 / This research explores the dialogical in arts pedagogy. This form of pedagogy is understood to allow for both the learner and educator to participate by exchanging experiences without the one being more superior to the other (Freire 1968, p. 169). In this thesis I use the Zulu term Inkulumo-Mpendulwano, which, rudimentarily, means dialogue. Broken down, Inkulumo means to talk or to have a conversation and Mpendulwano means to respond. However, I also use the term Ukufundisa, which means “to teach” but also “to instruct” and “to school” which is an authoritarian way of teaching. What is emphasised in this research is not only the potentiality of InkulumoMpendulwano interactions which can be adapted in the classroom as well as curated spaces, but by introducing different terminologies I attempt to reimagine the language and practices associated with arts education. This further engages with the possibility of changes in terminology and vocabularies, how the written and spoken is understood differently and how visual and spatial modes become central to changing the learner/teacher dynamic. This dissertation exemplifies two cases of the dialogical arts pedagogy. The first is a case study of Keleketla! Library and the second is a participatory action research approach where I work as an artist-educator for the practical component of this research entitled Artucation Programme. The outcome of this research is a written dissertation and a creative project that investigates InkulumoMpendulwano interactions in arts education. / XL2018