Purpose: Converging evidence demonstrates that robust academic vocabulary and morphology instruction improves literacy outcomes of multilingual adolescents. However, few interventions have focused on teaching word analysis using bound Latin roots, the major meaning-carrying constituents of academic words (e.g. voc meaning "speak" in…

Digital math assessments with bilingual accommodations allow multilingual learners to use their entire linguistic repertoire to showcase their knowledge and skills. The bilingual accommodations, which include tools like language translation and audio prompts in both English and Spanish, are designed to be adaptable, giving multilingual learners…

This qualitative phenomenological study explores teachers' and bilingual adolescents' views about heritage language (HL) maintenance and bilingualism. Interviews with twelve teachers and twelve students revealed limited value for bilingualism. English dominance overshadowed the importance of bilingualism and HL maintenance. Findings reveal the…

A vast amount of Latina/o/x students enroll in US public schools with the potential to become bilingual in English and Spanish. However, this potential is often dismissed, ignored, and their Spanish is perceived as a problem to be overcome. Despite this, some Latina/o/x bilingual students decide to become Spanish as a Heritage Language (SHL)…

The purpose of this single case design study was to examine the efficacy of using double-bubble Thinking Maps to improve the reading comprehension of middle school Spanish-English bilingual middle school students with learning disabilities. Participants included three female Spanish-English bilingual middle school students with learning…

The present research examines the effects of a number of factors on crosslinguistic influence (CLI) in bilin' third language (L3) writing. The main focus is on the levels of adapted and non-adapted loan words as illustrative of CLI. A quantitative analysis explores the impact of typology and proficiency in the target and the source-languages.…

Multilingual students should have opportunities to learn and do engineering in learning environments that foreground and sustain their cultural and linguistic practices. However, little is known about how middle school engineering teachers enact these environments. To address this gap in research and practice, this comparative case study describes…

Research suggests that students' personalized digital English language practices beyond the classroom can support subsequent in-school academic language development (Alm, 2021). The purpose of this study was to understand the out-of-school and in-school language experiences that bilingual Mexican students identified as supporting their English…

Recent reform efforts state the importance of providing students with opportunities to persevere with challenging mathematics to make meaning. We posit translanguaging practice as a vital option by which Latinx bilingual students can sustain collective perseverance during problem solving. In this paper, we employ a constant-comparative overlay…

Over the past several decades, neoliberal reformers have had immense success advancing their reforms. While studies have pointed to the negative impact of these reforms on students and literacy instruction, there has been limited work focused on the well-being of teachers and the impact these reforms have on growing teacher shortages, especially…

This curriculum case study describes the design and enactment of the Build a Better Book project with a group of Spanish-English bilingual high school students. Within an enriched literacy project-based learning instructional approach, students collaborated to design and fabricate multimodal 3D printed tactile picture books for children who are…

This report summarizes results from a 2019 spring survey of 8th-grade students in Austin Independent School District's middle school dual language program. Most students indicated they enjoyed the program, realized the academic benefits, and wanted to continue dual language in high school.

Employing a mixed-methods research design, this study examines how a newly designed dual language program in an urban school advances language proficiencies among Spanish-English bilingual 6th graders in relation to content area achievement as measured on NYS standardized tests in English Language Arts and Math. It further investigates how…

In this article, we investigate translanguaging in an English/Spanish dual language, urban, middle school science classroom as the teacher and students employ a scientific argumentation framework to address biodiversity socioscientific issues. Drawing from theories of sociocultural psychology and sociolinguistics, we considered how engaging in…

The School District of Philadelphia (SDP) serves a diverse population of English Learners (ELs) with different ethnic backgrounds, cultural identities, and languages spoken. SDP's population of ELs has grown significantly, from about 12,000 in 2014-15 to nearly 20,000 in 2022-23, an increase of 66%. This community-informed study focuses on English…