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This multilevel, institutional case study used ethnographic methods to explore the intersections of local language policies and emergent bilingual students’ identities in dual language and structured English immersion (SEI) classrooms at one urban elementary school. Using a sociocultural policy approach as means to explore the ways that educational language policies

This multilevel, institutional case study used ethnographic methods to explore the intersections of local language policies and emergent bilingual students’ identities in dual language and structured English immersion (SEI) classrooms at one urban elementary school. Using a sociocultural policy approach as means to explore the ways that educational language policies are appropriated and practiced in schools and classrooms and an intersectional literacy identity framework, I engaged in a multilevel qualitative analysis of one school, two fifth-grade classrooms, and four focal emergent bilingual students. At the school and classroom levels, I sought to understand the ways educators practiced and enacted language policies as well as how they conceptualized (bi)literacy for emergent bilingual students. At the student level, I engaged in identity-text writing sessions designed around student interests yet aligned with the opinion/argumentation writing style the students were working on in class at the time of data collection. Additionally, I conducted one-on-one interviews with the participants at each level of analysis (i.e. school-level, classroom-level, and student-level). The primary data analysis sources included participant interviews, classroom observations, and student identity-text artifacts.

Findings highlight the dynamic in-school and classroom-level realities of emergent bilingual students in an Arizona educational-language policy context. Specifically, at the school level, there was an ongoing tension between compliance and resistance to state-mandated policies for emergent bilingual students. At the school and classroom levels, there were distinct differences in the ways students across the two classrooms were positioned within the larger school environment as well as variation surrounding how language and culture were positioned as a resource in each classroom context. The role of teachers as language policymakers is also explored through the findings. Analysis of student texts revealed the centrality of intersectional student identities throughout the writing processes. The discussion and conclusions more broadly address implications for educational practice, policy, and future research directions.
ContributorsBaca, Evelyn Concepción (Author) / Jimenez-Silva, Margarita (Thesis advisor) / Artiles, Alfredo (Committee member) / Beardsley, Audrey (Committee member) / Casanova, Saskias (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2018
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Description
This thesis examines heritage language learning and loss, and revitalization. It stems from my initial interests in Indigenous language revitalization and sustainment, bilingual education, and specifically dual language education in the United States. In this thesis, I describe my inquiry journey through narratives of the significant experiences and people I

This thesis examines heritage language learning and loss, and revitalization. It stems from my initial interests in Indigenous language revitalization and sustainment, bilingual education, and specifically dual language education in the United States. In this thesis, I describe my inquiry journey through narratives of the significant experiences and people I met and the scholarship I engaged in, particularly through visiting Keres Children’s Learning Center at Cochiti Pueblo, New Mexico, and attending the La Cosecha Dual Language Education conference in Santa Fe, New Mexico. In these narratives, I also reflect on what I have learned, how I was personally impacted by what I was learning and my thoughts and ideas about particular issues. These narratives helped me gain a deeper understanding of and expand my knowledge of heritage learning, bilingual education, dual language education and critical issues of language development and promotion (or non-promotion) in our country’s schools and families. Equally important is the knowledge I gained about dual language pedagogy and its critical importance to language revitalization programs serving Indigenous children, and their families and communities. I begin my thesis with a review of literature followed by a description of my methods and then move on to my narratives of significant learning moments, chronologically, and then summarize my key findings. I end with, ironically yet crucially with the most important lesson I learned through my inquiry journey—an understanding of my linguistic self.

This thesis examines the questions of

1. To become a Dual Language Education expert, researcher, or scholar, what does it take?
2. In what ways can a non-Native help Indigenous communities engaged in indigenous language revitalization and sustainment (ILRS)? What would they need to learn or know?

Some significant findings of my thesis work include

1. The strength, versatility, and challenges of the dual language education model in a national context
2. Culturally-sustaining pedagogy and strategies for adapting lessons to local culture
3. The centrality of tribal sovereignty and tribal control over the Indigenous language in order to grow and maintain an IRLS effort
4. Ways in which a non-Native can help an ILRS initiative
5. Respect for native communities’ right to say no to research
ContributorsWelsh, Jacqueline Rose (Author) / Romero-Little, Eunice (Thesis director) / Tidwell, Jacqueline Hettel (Committee member) / School of International Letters and Cultures (Contributor) / W. P. Carey School of Business (Contributor) / Department of English (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2017-05
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Description
This dissertation study investigated how Somali refugee families living in Nairobi, Kenya experience and negotiate their religious and secular identities through literacies. This study provided detailed experiences and reflections of individuals––children and parents about their literacies. The children in this study learned to read in English and Kiswahili in school,

This dissertation study investigated how Somali refugee families living in Nairobi, Kenya experience and negotiate their religious and secular identities through literacies. This study provided detailed experiences and reflections of individuals––children and parents about their literacies. The children in this study learned to read in English and Kiswahili in school, and they learned to read in classical Arabic—three languages they do not speak at home. The study explored Qur’anic schools which literacy researchers have long overlooked, yet these are spaces that shape many children’s rich multilingual, multiliterate, and multiscriptual repertoires while, at the same time, shaping and negotiating their fluid identities. Three themes, literacy as social practice, liturgical literacy, and funds of knowledge offered a complimentary lens through which this community was studied. Literacy, as a social practice, demonstrates how certain social groups use specific socially constructed literacies within specific contexts to achieve various goals. The concept of liturgical literacy foregrounds how minority languages, such as Classical Arabic, have great symbolic value for communities, including those who neither speak nor understand the language, while funds of knowledge conceptualize the knowledge and related activities present in homes that have the potential for contributing positively to children’s learning. Using the ethnographic methodology, this inquiry spanned six sites and focused on participants during their interactions with literacy, orality, and text for eight months. The study occurred in three homes, two Dugsis, and one school site. A rich description of the community was achieved by presenting language and literacy practices in a multi-sited ethnography. This dissertation ultimately also offers contemporary relevance: investigating a community whose literacies are invisible, minoritized, and marginalized, and aimed to inform educational researchers, policymakers, and teachers who are devoted to rethinking what counts as literacy, for whom, in what contexts, and with what kinds of consequences. In a time of increased movement of people across borders, this research has important implications for teacher preparation, theories of language learning, and literacy education.
ContributorsMohamed, Saida Hussein (Author) / Bernstein, Katie (Thesis advisor) / Warriner, Doris (Thesis advisor) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2023
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Description
Currently, there are few quality tools available to screen for developmental language disorder (DLD) in Spanish-speaking children despite the continued increase of this population in the United States. The lack of valid and reliable screening tools may be a factor leading to difficulties with the identification of and delivery of

Currently, there are few quality tools available to screen for developmental language disorder (DLD) in Spanish-speaking children despite the continued increase of this population in the United States. The lack of valid and reliable screening tools may be a factor leading to difficulties with the identification of and delivery of services to these children. This study plans to improve upon the screening of Spanish-English bilingual children.The Spanish Screener for Language Impairment in Children (SSLIC) tests Spanish oral language skills in Spanish-speaking children. It measures language skills through morphology elicitation of Spanish clitics, prepositions, derivational morphemes, subjunctive verb tenses, and articles and repetition of nonwords and sentences, which have all been shown to be affected in Spanish-speaking children with DLD. The purpose of the study is to provide preliminary validity evidence of the SSLIC. Children's results on the SSLIC were compared to other validated measures. Fourteen Spanish-English bilingual students were recruited: 11 children with typical language development (TD) and 3 with DLD. The Bilingual English-Spanish Assessment and the Dynamic Measure of Oral Narrative Discourse were used to establish preliminary validity evidence. Pearson correlations were run to determine if SSLIC scores correlated with other validated measures. Significant correlations were found between the SSLIC’s scores and scores on the BESA. One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to determine mean differences between groups. No significant mean differences for SSLIC scores were found between children with typical and atypical language. Yet, effect sizes suggested group differences. Point to point analysis revealed that the SSLIC has excellent inter-rater reliability. Despite a small sample size, this study serves as preliminary evidence that the SSLIC is both valid and reliable and supports that the SSLIC has the potential to be used as a screening tool for DLD for Spanish-speaking kindergarten and 1st grade students with further validation, which should continue.
ContributorsSmith, Brandon Earl (Author) / Restrepo, María A (Thesis advisor) / Gray, Shelley (Committee member) / Brown, Jean C (Committee member) / Moen, Theresa C (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2023