This annotated bibliography is reformatted and customized by the Center for Positive Practices. Some of the authors featured on this page include Jesper Dammeyer, Valentina S. Gulyaeva, Iva Hrastinski, Gulnara Kh. Aleeva, Laura Ascenzi-Moreno, Claudia G. Cervantes-Soon, Kristina Collins, Kevin Haines, Anje Dijk, and Gulshat R. Safiullina.
(2016). Morphological Awareness and Bilingual Word Learning: A Longitudinal Structural Equation Modeling Study, Reading and Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal. This longitudinal study examined the contribution of morphological awareness to bilingual word learning of Malay-English bilingual children in Singapore where English is the medium of instruction. Participants took morphological awareness and lexical inference tasks in both English and Malay twice with an interval of about half a year, the first time at the end of Grade 3 (Time 1) and the second time at the end of the first semester of Grade 4 (Time 2). Structural equation modeling (SEM) analyses revealed that within both languages, morphological awareness significantly predicted lexical inference at Time 1 as well as Time 2, and the contribution also became strengthened over time. Cross-linguistic SEM analyses showed that concurrently at both Time 1 and Time 2, English morphological awareness only had a significant indirect effect on Malay lexical inference. The exact indirect relationships, however, varied between Time 1 and Time 2. In addition, an indirect effect of Time 1 English morphological awareness on Time 2 Malay lexical inference also surfaced. These findings suggest concurrent as well as longitudinal cross-linguistic transfer of morphological awareness from English to Malay. [More] Descriptors: Foreign Countries, Morphology (Languages), Bilingual Education, Bilingualism
(2016). The Englishisation of Higher Education in Catalonia: A Critical Sociolinguistic Ethnographic Approach to the Students' Perspectives, Language, Culture and Curriculum. This paper investigates the attitudes towards Englishisation displayed by 30 students enrolled in a Combined Languages degree, including English and another language, in a top-ranked bilingual university in Catalonia, where Spanish and Catalan coexist complexly, and where foreign language medium instruction is relatively new. Through a two-year fieldwork project, I report on how the institution implemented this partial English-medium instruction program for the first time in Spain, following its internationalisation mission. I then focus on the students' perspectives towards the officialisation of English as the third language of the Catalan university system. Via a Domain and Emotion Coding analysis of 30 essay-writing assignments, I show that students mobilise a series of predominantly favourable discourses on Englishisation which conflictingly interplay with negative attitudes towards it. They envision English as a post-national "democratising" lingua franca and as an asset for employability and educational excellence, but they also construct it as a politicised threat to linguistic diversity. These perspectives contribute to a nuanced understanding of the students' range of ambivalent stances concerning the established sociolinguistic orders of globalised universities in Barcelona and the neo-liberal linguistic regimes of the European Higher Education Area, which call for policies providing a more balanced ecology of languages. [More] Descriptors: Foreign Countries, Student Attitudes, College Students, English (Second Language)
(2016). Whose Language Is Legit? Intersections of Race, Ethnicity, and Language, Journal of Cases in Educational Leadership. This case describes St. Lucy School, a K-8 elementary school in a mid-sized urban center. St. Lucy has traditionally served African American students. In the past 10 years, the neighborhood has experienced a significant shift in population, such that many Latino/a families are now entering the school. In response to these changes, the school administration made the decision to transition into a fully bilingual school. As the school has begun to treat the Spanish language as an asset, however, tensions have arisen regarding why African American English (AAE) has not been–nor is currently–treated as an asset as well. In addition, there are tensions around the varieties of Spanish used, revealing different attitudes and beliefs about non-standard varieties of Spanish. [More] Descriptors: Race, Ethnicity, African American Students, Elementary School Students
(2016). Sociological Perspectives on Ethnic Minority Teachers in China: A Review of the Research Literature, Diaspora, Indigenous, and Minority Education. Improving the quality of education has been a central goal of the People's Republic of China since its founding in 1949. Particular concern has been focused on ethnic minority areas where educational quality lags behind that of other regions. Since 1986 the State Education Commission has been working toward the implementation of nine years of compulsory education for all Chinese children nationwide. Implementing this policy has been particularly challenging in the less developed areas of western China where many ethnic minorities live. The solution rests in training an adequate number of teachers who are themselves from ethnic minority groups or who are willing to teach ethnic minority children. This article reviews a significant and growing body of English-language literature, drawn from the sociology of education, on minority teachers and teachers of minorities in the People's Republic of China. [More] Descriptors: Foreign Countries, Ethnic Groups, Minority Group Teachers, Teacher Education
(2016). Spanish Instruction in Head Start and Dual Language Learners' Achievement, Society for Research on Educational Effectiveness. Prior research suggests that Spanish-speaking Dual Language Learners (DLLs)–young children who must master two languages simultaneously, their home language and English (Espinosa, 2013)–differentially benefit from quality Early Childhood Education (ECE), and in particular from Head Start, compared with children of other subgroups and monolingual-English children (Buysse, Peisner-Feinberg, Páez, Hammer, & Knowles, 2014; Gormley, 2008; Loeb, Bridges, Bassok, Fuller, & Rumberger, 2007; U.S. DHHS, 2010a). Despite the positive impacts of ECE for Spanish-speaking DLLs, however, the literature has not sufficiently investigated the mechanisms underlying this finding, or what may account for these differential benefits. The purpose of the current study is to determine whether Spanish language instruction is associated with school readiness skills for Head Start-eligible Spanish-speaking DLL children. It examines the relationship between Spanish instruction used by caregivers in Head Start settings and DLL children's subsequent English language academic achievement, as this may prove essential for their kindergarten readiness. Tables and figures are appended. [More] Descriptors: Bilingual Education, Correlation, Spanish Speaking, Bilingualism
(2016). Background and Prospects of Schoolchildren's Polylingual Education in the Context of New Federal State Educational Standards, International Journal of Environmental and Science Education. The rationale of the problem under study is conditioned by the fact that the compulsory study of a second foreign language at school is a new, but by all means positive phenomenon, as the introduction of a second foreign language in the secondary school curriculum has become a practical step on the way to polycultural education, to the formation of a polylingual personality. The introduction of the compulsory study of two foreign languages has aggravated such problems as the absence of the unifying concept of teaching a second foreign language, the absence of requirements for a second foreign language proficiency level in the State Educational Standard, the absence of various and effective teaching resources. This article is aimed at the analysis of the background and prospects of schoolchildren's polylingual education in the context of new Federal State Educational Standards (FSES). The leading approaches in the research of the problem under study are competence-based and contrastive ones as they let us fully consider the phenomenon of polylingualism which gives an opportunity to use several language systems in communication. The article reveals the background of polylingualism, defines the purposes, content and main principles of teaching several foreign languages, justifies the application of competence-based and contrastive approaches in teaching a second foreign language in the modern school, develops the model of the foreign language communicative competence formation for a second foreign language in the context of studying two foreign languages (English and German). The materials of the article can be useful for foreign language teachers in order to upgrade their skills and make the teaching-learning process a learner-centered one. [More] Descriptors: Foreign Countries, Secondary School Students, Multilingualism, Bilingual Education
(2016). Expanding the Horizons for Critical Literacy in a Bilingual Preschool Classroom: Children's Responses in Discussions with Gender-Themed Picture Books, International Journal of Early Childhood. The current study explores how picture books can be used in bilingual classrooms to support more critical understandings of gender stereotypes by preschool children. The research uses a reader-response perspective that stresses the importance of the reader's role in interpreting texts as well as sociocultural theory to analyze the social dynamics of teacher-child interactions. The participants were four-year-old, Korean-English bilingual children attending a Korean Language School in the midwest of the USA. The findings suggested that literary discussions about gender-themed picture books using both Korean and English languages promoted children's critical thinking about gender roles. By sharing empirical examples of children's authentic discussions, the study provides early childhood teachers with insights on how gender-themed picture books can be used as a medium to open up authentic discussions about gender roles in bilingual settings. Through valuing children's responses to the reading of the picture books, the teachers encourage children to become more active learners. Their personal responses were valued in discussions, and they began to see themselves as having the authority to make judgments about what they read. [More] Descriptors: Picture Books, Bilingual Education, Sex Stereotypes, Gender Issues
(2016). Field Practice in La Mixteca: Transnational Teacher Education in the Service of Mexican Indigenous Students in U.S. Schools, Journal of Latinos and Education. Initial research has documented the ill treatment suffered by Mexican indigenous students in U.S. schools. Using a framework of transnational teacher education, we examined the impact of field practice in an indigenous area of Mexico on teacher candidates. Candidates showed growth in new understandings, such as their role as bilingual teachers in terms of validating students' cultures and their sense of global interconnectedness with transnational students and communities. Applied classroom projects several months after field practice showed a similar impact, beginning to make the case that transnational field practice can also positively influence the academic performance of the candidates' future students. [More] Descriptors: Indigenous Populations, Preservice Teachers, Preservice Teacher Education, Field Experience Programs
(2016). Academic Achievement of Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Students in an ASL/English Bilingual Program, Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education. There has been a scarcity of studies exploring the influence of students' American Sign Language (ASL) proficiency on their academic achievement in ASL/English bilingual programs. The aim of this study was to determine the effects of ASL proficiency on reading comprehension skills and academic achievement of 85 deaf or hard-of-hearing signing students. Two subgroups, differing in ASL proficiency, were compared on the Northwest Evaluation Association Measures of Academic Progress and the reading comprehension subtest of the Stanford Achievement Test, 10th edition. Findings suggested that students highly proficient in ASL outperformed their less proficient peers in nationally standardized measures of reading comprehension, English language use, and mathematics. Moreover, a regression model consisting of 5 predictors including variables regarding education, hearing devices, and secondary disabilities as well as ASL proficiency and home language showed that ASL proficiency was the single variable significantly predicting results on all outcome measures. This study calls for a paradigm shift in thinking about deaf education by focusing on characteristics shared among successful deaf signing readers, specifically ASL fluency. [More] Descriptors: Academic Achievement, Deafness, Hearing Impairments, American Sign Language
(2016). Psychometric Properties of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire and Mental Health Problems among Children with Hearing Loss, Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education. More knowledge is needed about the characteristics of mental health problems among deaf or hard of hearing (D/HH) children. This study investigates the factor structure of one of the most widely used screening tools, the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ), and the prevalence of mental health problems among D/HH children. Our data were derived from two independent samples of D/HH children, one from 2007 of children (N = 334) in bilingual/bicultural educational programs and another from 2014 of children (N = 233) in mostly mainstream oral educational programs with cochlear implants. Teacher-SDQs were collected for the 2007 sample and parent-SDQs for the 2014 sample. The factor structure of the SDQ was examined from both Exploratory Factor Analytic (EFA) and Confirmatory Factor Analytic (CFA) perspectives and internal consistency was examined. Mean problem scores were presented. The five-factor structure of the SDQ was overall found for both the 2007 and the 2014 samples using EFA. However, problems with the Conduct scale and the reversed items loading onto the Prosocial scale were observed. The five-factor model was superior to a one- and a two-factor model from a CFA perspective in both samples. Better internal consistency was observed for the 2007 sample rated by teachers. Both samples showed higher mean scores on all SDQ problem subscales compared to a cohort of Danish children without hearing loss. The five-factor structure of the SDQ is recommended to be used among D/HH children. [More] Descriptors: Psychometrics, Questionnaires, Mental Health, Mental Disorders
(2016). Using Dictionaries in Teaching English as a Foreign Language, International Journal of Environmental and Science Education. The article discusses the problem of mastering new vocabulary at the English language classes. The brief review of the bilingual English-Russian printed and electronic Dictionaries used at the practical classes of English for the students of the first and second courses of the Germanic Philology Department of Kazan Federal University. The method of compiling thematic dictionaries, its approbation and results are presented. [More] Descriptors: Dictionaries, English (Second Language), Second Language Instruction, Teaching Methods
(2016). An Exploration of Elementary Teachers' Views of Informal Reading Inventories in Dual Language Bilingual Programs, Literacy Research and Instruction. This study examines how elementary teachers (grades three through five) in dual-language, bilingual programs (Spanish/English) view informal reading inventories (IRIs) to support their students' reading growth. The research, conducted in an urban district in the Northeastern United States, draws on interviews with 20 teachers in these programs. One significant finding is that although teachers in the sample collected IRIs in the two languages of instruction, they did not examine English and Spanish reading assessment data side by side in order to construct a unified portrait of their students as bilingual readers. This study highlights the finding that IRIs are currently viewed as monolingual assessments rather than as a lens into students' biliteracy, thus bypassing a powerful way to assist teachers in making instructional decisions in support of students' bilingual reading development. [More] Descriptors: Bilingual Education Programs, Elementary School Teachers, Informal Reading Inventories, Interviews
(2016). Toward a Pedagogy of Border Thinking: Building on Latin@ Students' Subaltern Knowledge, High School Journal. Based on Walter Mignolo's (2000) notion of border thinking, that is, the subaltern knowledge generated from the exterior borders of the modern/colonial world system, this article extends current conceptual frameworks for the implementation of a decolonizing border pedagogy with Latin@ students in secondary schools. In particular, Cervantes-Soon and Carrillo draw from their own positionalities as border pedagogues, from Mestiz@ theories of intelligences (Carrillo, 2013) and Chicana feminist thought as exemplary articulations of border thinking, and from ethnographic research at a high school in the Mexico-U.S. borderlands to offer three pedagogical practices with the potential to cultivate border thinking and foster student agency toward social transformation. [More] Descriptors: Secondary Schools, Ethnography, Hispanic Americans, Hispanic American Students
(2016). "'Puro' Spelling and Grammar": Conceptualizations of Language and the Marginalization of Emergent Bilinguals, Penn GSE Perspectives on Urban Education. Conceptualizations of language and language learning underlie language pedagogies (Valdés, Poza, & Brooks, 2015). The present work relies on ethnographic observation and interviews in a dual immersion (DI) bilingual program, as well as a content analysis of the research foundation of the English Language Development intervention curriculum, to show how prevalent conceptualizations reflect US monolingual ideologies and monoglossic perspectives (García, 2009a). The work further shows how such views marginalize students classified as English Language Learners, referred to here as emergent bilinguals, by excluding them from important content instruction, engaging teaching methods, and primary language instruction, all for the sake of expediting their reclassification as proficient in English. [More] Descriptors: Immersion Programs, English (Second Language), Second Language Learning, Intervention
(2016). Translating Language Policy into Practice: Language and Culture Policy at a Dutch University, Language Learning in Higher Education. The CEFR will only achieve its potential in higher education if it is embedded in a meaningful way in the wider processes of the university. One means of embedding the CEFR is through policy, and in this article we report the development of a language policy in the broader context of internationalization at a Dutch university. We describe some the challenges involved in developing and extending this policy to stakeholders across the complex environment of a modern university, particularly from the perspective of one of the key players in this process, the university Language Centre. A growth of English-medium instruction (EMI) programmes has coincided with a greater emphasis on internationalization in the university's strategy, and this has resulted in the establishment of an International Classroom (IC) project and a supporting Language and Culture (L&C) policy. The L&C policy aims to be both top down and bottom up, with a dual language focus on English and Dutch, while also recognizing the inter-relation between linguistic and intercultural skills. We believe that the growth of EMI programmes has acted as a catalyst for the extension of the L&C policy beyond the EMI setting to the university as a whole, and that the CEFR can play a role in providing a bridge from an EMI-focused perspective on internationalization to a discussion of language policy as it affects the entire university community. [More] Descriptors: Second Language Learning, Educational Policy, Language of Instruction, English (Second Language)