This document presents the proceedings of the 21st Annual Research Forum held June 30, 2016, at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Included are the following 11 action research papers: The Use of Mexican Folk Art to Develop Oral and Written Language Ability and Cultural Awareness in the Secondary Spanish Classroom (Antonio…

This report examines dual language program implementation in three Texas public school districts similar to Austin Independent School District. The school districts are compared in terms of demographic composition, program implementation, and English language learner (ELL) students' academic performance in 2014 on the state's academic test, STAAR.

ELT (English language teaching) in Spain is witnessing the arrival of content and language integrated learning (CLIL) and English is changing from a goal-oriented school subject to a medium of instruction for content subjects. What is taking place in our system is influenced by what has previously happened elsewhere. Two research episodes have…

This document presents the proceedings of the 22nd Annual Research Forum held June 29, 2017, at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Included are the following 12 action research papers: (1) Using Captioned Video to Teach Listening Comprehension in a Spanish Classroom (Michelle Allen); (2) Multimodal Instruction: How Film…

In 2012-2013, AISD pre-K students demonstrated growth in receptive vocabulary on a nationally-normed test. Students enrolled in multiple programs showed greater growth in receptive vocabulary in their native language than did other pre-K students. [Funding for this report was provided by Title I funds.]

Including speaking tasks in the foreign language paper of the Spanish University Entrance Examination (PAU) has been inexistent in the last 15 years. However, the implications can be seen in shape of pressure on teachers to get students ready for such tasks in just three years (2009-2012). Because of the high stakes consequences attached to this…

Although pre-K students' average gains on the 2010-2011 Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT in English, TVIP in Spanish) significantly differed by vertical team, these differences were attributed more to the students' school or classroom rather than to the vertical team in which a school resided. [For "Prekindergarten Evaluation Series,…

AISD staff's top three suggested priorities for the Dual Language (DL) program in 2013-2014 were: professional development opportunities, program alignment, and increased availability of materials and resources.

Foreign language teachers experience difficulties in teaching students with learning disabilities. The challenge is to teach students with and without disabilities in the same classroom while having no background knowledge of how to teach towards all these students. Through observations and interviews with two foreign language teachers, the use of…

This research study tries to understand the information processing model and social learning theory in regards to teaching English as a Second Language (ESL) to Spanish speakers by using peer teaching methods. This study will examine each theory's concepts and frameworks to better comprehend what teaching methods support English language learning.…

In 2011-2012, AISD provided a tuition-supported pre-K program to 4-year-old students who were not eligible to enroll in the state-mandated program. Overall, pre-K students in the tuition-supported program demonstrated meaningful growth on the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test. [Funding for this report was provided by Title I funds. For…

This study explores teachers' academic expectations of students from low socioeconomic status (SES) in Costa Rica for the purpose of cross-cultural comparison. A group of 17 teachers from two different elementary schools located in a small town in Costa Rica were questioned about their expectations of low SES students enrolled in their classes.…

On average, Austin Independent School District kindergarten English learner students (ELs) had lower scores on two types of early reading assessments (English, Spanish) at the end of the 2009-2010 school year than did non-ELs. For first graders, no significant difference was found between Spanish-speaking ELs and non-ELs on the test.

Although there is an increasing number of online tests in the world, little research is currently known in Spain today. Assessment has become an integral part of education and the implications of the various uses of language testing go beyond the educational settings (Douglas, 2010; Fulcher, 2010). This study describes the PAULEX project. This…

The present study was undertaken to find ways to help bilingual preservice teachers become more aware of diversity and more questioning of methods for literacy development in order to address issues of critical literacy. Twenty-five bilingual preservice teachers, enrolled in a Spanish Reading Methods at the university tutored 25 kindergarten…