This paper draws from a broader research project and reports on a qualitative case study that investigated instructional practices in grades 3-5 Two-Way Immersion (TWI) classrooms where the partner language is Spanish. Using Culturally Relevant Pedagogy (CRP) as the theoretical framework, the purpose of this study was to examine the degree to…

The goal of this toolkit is to shed light on the importance of authorizing nontraditional charter schools and how the challenges of authorizing nontraditional schools manifest in practice, as well as to provide action steps for authorizers and school leaders who are able and eager to lead the field on these complex issues. The toolkit contains the…

The purpose of this multiple-paper dissertation is to design a digital game and stealth assessments within the game to assess young second language learners' Chinese reading proficiency. In Chapter 2 (Paper 1), I describe the game designed for this dissertation and how it was implemented in a dual language immersion classroom. This study found…

This study explored how school administrators understand and plan for French immersion program components in K-12 schools in Louisiana. The theory of effective bilingual schooling and the Guiding Principles for Dual Language Education served as the framework of the study. The research questions that guided the study asked how school principals and…

Research has shown immersion to be effective, yet our understanding about the integration of language and content in Irish-medium immersion (IMI) pedagogy remains incomplete. This article reports on how the teaching of mathematics in the IMI elementary setting, supported pre-service teachers in bridging the language and content gap. The study…

Despite the growing societal demand for multilingual graduates prepared to engage in local and global contexts, programs to meet these demands are scarce, especially in K-8 contexts. When schools do seek to implement programs, stakeholders struggle to choose from the established models because research documenting desired outcomes is lacking.…

Photo-elicitation interviewing (PEI) is a technique in which photographs are used within an interview context. In this paper, I describe the use of PEI as a means to examine the development of bicultural identity and sense of school belongingness of sixth-grade Latinx students in mainstream English-only (EO) and two-way immersion (TWI) elementary…

Bilingual education is on its way back in California. After decisively rejecting bilingual education in 1998, state voters enthusiastically endorsed its return in 2016. Educators are eager to offer more bilingual classes--and not only to recently arrived immigrants. Increasingly, English-speaking parents are also sold on the cognitive benefits of…

The current study examined cognitive effects of two pathways of second language (L2) acquisition longitudinally in Chinese speakers learning English in an L2-dominant environment. Thirty-nine participants who attended an intensive 10-week English course (L2-instruction group) were compared to 38 participants who attended regular university courses…

This paper addresses the interactional dynamics of one bilingual, two-way immersion classroom where children came from diverse linguistic, cultural, racial, and socioeconomic backgrounds. Based on an ethnographic discourse analytic study of one kindergarten TWI classroom, I analyze interactional data using participant frameworks as the unit of…

There is currently much controversy surrounding the cognitive advantages that are often associated with bilingualism, especially regarding the so-called executive control advantage. Recently, it has been suggested that bilingualism emerging from immersion education may not lead to an advantage in executive control, but rather to an improvement…

French immersion (FI) programs in Canada have historically served predominantly Canadian-born, English-speaking students and families in their endeavour to learn both of the country's official languages, French and English. However, FI programs are becoming increasingly culturally and linguistically diverse as a result of increased global…

Conceptualizations of language as translanguaging (Otheguy, García, and Reid 2015) help us to render wholeness out of languages and groups of speakers socially constructed as distinct. Yet in practice teachers are still compelled to identify students by dichotomous institutional labels for discrete proficiencies in named languages: identity labels…

We examined spelling errors patterns, cohesive ties, and syntax features in English and Spanish essays written by Spanish-English emergent bilinguals in Grades 1, 2, and 3 (N = 278; 51% female) enrolled in either English immersion or English-Spanish dual immersion programs. In Study 1, we addressed whether students made consistent spelling errors…

This dissertation draws on both qualitative and quantitative approaches to investigate the linguistic practices of teachers and children who are learning Mandarin Chinese as a Heritage Language (CHL) in two dual immersion preschools in California. CHL children have been interpreted as novice members in local speech communities who actively explore…