The purpose of this study was to predict the third grade English reading TAKS scores while considering the same students' native language, Spanish, reading level as assessed by a state-approved reading assessment, the Evaluacion del desarrollo de la lectura (EDL), from the end of the second grade year. In addition, this study was been designed to…

Native-like pronunciation is necessary for membership into some social groups and to be considered a legitimate speaker of a language. Language immersion education aims to develop bilingual individuals, able to participate in multiple global communities, and while the lexical, syntactic, and sociolinguistic development of immersion learners is…

This study extends what is known about the experience of mid-childhood immigration. Fifteen participants, college students who immigrated to the U.S. from Latin America between the ages of 8 and 16 and who had completed at least a semester of transferable college-level coursework, provided their narratives by way of an open-ended interview…

This dissertation is a study of diverse linguistic resources and contentious identity politics among indigenous Amazonian Kichwas in the city of Tena, Ecuador. Tena is a rapidly developing Amazonian provincial capital city with a long history of interethnic and interlinguistic contact. In recent decades, the course of indigenous Kichwa identity…

Informed by research studies that demonstrate a positive relationship between parent engagement and student academic attainment, state and national parent outreach initiatives have aimed to bridge the gap between Latina/o parents and schools. Such was the case with the Latina/o Family, School and Community "Avanzando" Project, which…

This dissertation study describes and interprets the dialogue between Latino parents and their children during home literature conversations. The participating students were enrolled in my first and second grade classroom in East Los Angeles, California. I was guided by the following research questions in this qualitative teacher research study:…

Two-way immersion (TWI) programs teach English Learners (ELs) and native English speakers in the same classroom using both languages in an immersion approach. Studies suggest that TWI programs result in greater student integration, thus providing a promising alternative for Spanish speaking ELs, who are frequently concentrated in high poverty,…

This dissertation presents a research study of the perceived level of parent involvement in primarily Hispanic secondary schools within Chicago Public Schools (CPS) with relationship to the type of leadership practices self-identified by that school's principal. Data was collected via a questionnaire which was administered to parents of secondary…

There is an ever-increasing trend in the world today to adopt English as the language of instruction in higher education. The increase is in part due to the views that such adoption constitutes the key to competitiveness in a globalized higher education market. Thus, a growing number of universities in non-English-speaking countries switch to…

Bilingual education has been a focus in Taiwan especially alter the educational reform in 2002 (Ministry of Education, 2003). With the educational reform, many teaching methods and approaches had been explored and implemented recently to enhance English as a Foreign Language (EFL) education. The traditional teaching approaches focused on the…

This action research study examined the role of the Migrant Graduation Specialists in public middle schools, junior high schools, and high schools participating in a special project called HOPE (Honing in On Post-secondary Education); and analyzed the viewpoint of migrant students participating in this project in order to determine their…

The study started as a critical response to a new sheltered science content course introduced by the school district where I teach ESOL students. Although the course was a bold and timely initiative, it was not supported by a well-built curriculum, realistic educational goals, and appropriate instructional materials. As I was unsatisfied with what…

This dissertation study employed quantitative methods to investigate the impact of adult questioning styles on children's novel vocabulary acquisition during shared storybook reading. In an effort to examine adult qualitative variations in shared storybook readings, two experiments were conducted to assess the effect of noneliciting questions…

The purpose of this study was to determine whether a dual language immersion program had a significant effect on the reading literacy achievement of Spanish and English speaking seventh and eighth graders who were in the program for three years. The research design was a quasi-experimental, nonrandom quantitative research using ex-post facto data.…

Public educational institutions are facing the problem of a shortage of experienced, certified, skilled teachers in the areas of special education, English as a Second Language, mathematics, biology or life science, bilingual education, and music. This shortage compounds difficulties in serving students in these areas. Reasons for this shortage…