Our country, which is today the Dominican Republic, is a Spanish speaking country due to the historical and well known fact that the then Hispaniola Island or Santo Domingo was split into two different colonies by effect of the Aranjuez Treaty (1777), held between the two Colonial Metropolis of Spain and France thus establishing the French…

This report summarizes results from a 2020 spring survey of 8th-grade students in the middle school Dual Language Program. Most students indicated they felt proud to be bilingual, appreciated the opportunities to receive high school and college credit, and wanted to continue Dual Language in high school.

Following WWII, the English language became the global Lingua Franca, meaning that it is the primary language used to communicate between people who speak different languages. With the development of English as the Lingua Franca, Americans are generally less exposed to foreign languages than most other nationalities. Some researchers believe that…

This report examines the beginning-of-year (BOY) reading performance of English learners (ELs) who attended summer school in June 2019. Summer school ELs' performance on the Texas Kindergarten Entry Assessment (TX-KEA) and iStation Indicators of Progress (ISIP) was compared to that of similar ELs who did not attend summer school. Spanish-speaking…

The present work is a historical/linguistic account of an unprecedented fact regarding the existence of two English Speaking Communities [British English and American English], in a country like the Dominican Republic, where Spanish is the official and most used language, to the extent of being considered a monolingual nation or country. It is…

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.

This work aims to analyze the Results of the PISA Tests for the year 2018 in the Dominican Republic as subministered every three year by the OECD presided over by Dr. Andreas Schleicher, and that it is long awaited both for the Ministry of Education-MINERD-, and as well as for the non-governmental society and the opposition parties, among others.…

This report examines Austin Independent School District's fifth-grade native English speaking students' performance on the Spanish language proficiency assessment. Spanish language proficiency was assessed with the STAMP 4Se assessment, which was given in the Spring 2019 semester to fifth-grade native English speaking students enrolled in the…

The ability to communicate in different languages is increasingly essential in today's interconnected world. However, language learning outcomes can often suffer due to low engagement and participation, especially among students from diverse cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds. To address this challenge, it is crucial to create a culturally…

This paper examines the use of technology in the development and assessment of interpersonal communication skills in an online second language (L2) Spanish classroom. The study explores the use of synchronous and asynchronous communication tools and strategies to promote interaction among learners, while also considering the challenges and…

The objective of this investigation is to determine if the "flipped" model can be combined with hybrid learning in order to create the "flipped-hybrid" classroom. The flipped classroom refers to an educational model where the traditional practice of dedicating class time to direct instruction is inverted, so that students…

This report provides eighth-grade students' survey feedback on their experiences in the 2017-2018 middle school dual language program in the Austin Independent School District.

Due to systemic barriers, Spanish-speaking (versus English-speaking) parents of children with disabilities are less likely to participate in educational decision-making. However, little research has directly compared special education experiences between both populations. The purpose of this study was to explore the differences and similarities…

The goal of this study was to elicit greater quantity and quality of output in speaking and writing from L2 Spanish students through Visual Thinking Strategies. Previous studies completed in the L1 classroom demonstrate that students exhibit gains when pairing whole-class discussion with writing, thus inspiring this present study. As such,…

The native language use in the target language classroom has recently gained the attention of second language acquisition research. This study analyzes such issue in the context of Dominican university students, ranging from 18 to 35 years old, studying in an English immersion program, who have been speaking their native language, namely, Spanish…