Language diversity in the United States has always been part of its history, yet policy and funding have not always promoted bilingualism or multiculturalism. Throughout the history of bilingual education, administrators, politicians, and policymakers have changed their preferences and practices in response to trends and ideological shifts…

We present findings across three randomized trials of "Descubriendo la Lectura" (DLL), an intervention designed to improve literacy skills of Spanish-speaking first graders struggling with reading. DLL is a one-to-one Spanish-language literacy program lasting 12-20 weeks offered to a school's lowest performing emerging bilingual first…

As the population of emergent bilingual students in the United States continues to grow, it has become increasingly important to ensure that content area instruction is linguistically and culturally inclusive and accessible. Longitudinal survey and state mathematics assessment data were used to examine how the use of students' home language in the…

Emergent bilingual 1 (EB) students are students who are not proficient in English and who must be provided the option of either a bilingual or an ESL program. EBs who are in the district's two main bilingual programs (transitional and dual language) are instructed in both English and Spanish. The relative amount of instruction in each language…

The U.S. population has become more racially and ethnically diverse over time. The Latinx population growth makes Spanish the most common language encountered in non-native English-speaking populations such as Texas. The research objective of this study was to examine if implementing a One-Way Dual Language Education (DLE) Program could result in…

Minority groups in the U.S. typically internalize language ideologies that associate English to social and upward mobility at the expense of learning their home language, let alone other languages. This chapter examines the role that the language ideologies of Syrian refugees in Southern Texas play in a dynamic of navigating a community where…

This study explores working business professionals' perspectives towards the implementation of two-way language immersion programs in Texas public schools. Participants were selected for participation by means of a pre-selection survey that assessed various aspects of the cultural, educational, linguistic, familial, and business background of the…

Purpose: This study examined the frequency, direction, and structural characteristics of code-switching (CS) during narratives by Spanish-English bilingual children with and without developmental language disorder (DLD) to determine whether children with DLD exhibit unique features in their CS that may inform clinical decision-making. Method:…

This is an ethnographic case study that explores and examines the translanguaging practices of three bilingual teachers in a rural elementary school in deep south Texas. Translanguaging guides this analysis. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without…

This study aimed to compare the performance on the state assessment STAAR Reading between BLs in a one-way dual language program compared to the average scale scores of ELs in the state of Texas. The results of these data points taken in three different grade levels from the same group of bilingual learners demonstrate the beginning of positive…

This study investigated the dimensionality of bilingual phonological awareness (PA) in English and Spanish by replicating a kindergarten model in Grade 1, and presents alternatives to modeling clustered data. English and Spanish tasks were analyzed from previously collected samples totaling 1,586 first grade Spanish-speaking English learners. Four…

This is a qualitative case study framed by a sociosemiotic theoretical framework to explore science and language instruction with three Emergent Bilinguals (EBs) in sixth grade. The study details the modeling and explanatory processes used by EBs to mediate science learning through evidence-based argumentation. A thematic analysis of students'…

Few studies have considered bilingualism's impact on cognitive development within the sociolinguistic and cultural context of the immigrant communities where bilingualism is commonly practiced. In the United States, many Mexican-origin bilingual youth practice their bilingual skills by "brokering" (i.e. translating/interpreting between…

This study examined the biliterate writing abilities and development of 25 Spanish-English Latinx children over the course of their first-grade year. As part of their regular classroom instruction, each student created 16 writing compositions over the year, once a month, eight entries each in Spanish and English. Using embedded mixed methods and a…

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to find morphological markers with good diagnostic accuracy to identify developmental language disorders (DLD) in Spanish-English bilingual children. Method: The participants in this study included 66 Spanish-English bilingual children between the ages of 4;0 and 6;11 (years; months) with (n = 33) and without…