Purpose: What are the best strategies for teaching Generation 1.5 community college students in transfer-level English courses? Why are some students successful and others not? The purpose of this study was to determine through a phenomenological design how Generation 1.5 students describe the experience of receiving validation or invalidation…

Community colleges serve a crucial role in providing higher education access for U.S. English learner (EL) populations. Many ELs are placed in community college academic ESL programs in order to prepare them to transition to taking courses in the wider college. Yet, the success of academic ESL programs has been mixed at best, with these programs…

This dissertation consists of three empirical studies that explore the educational experiences and trajectories of English learners (ELs) and students with disabilities. The first study uses longitudinal data from four large California school districts to examine the characteristics of long-term ELs (LTELs) and former ELs--those reclassified as…

In 2019, the United States hosted the largest number of international higher education students worldwide, and many chose to begin their education at a community college. As a result, community college ESL programs face a critical task. This quantitative study explored the effectiveness of ESL coursework on the academic success of international…

The present study sought to examine institutional and personal factors that affect the sense of belonging of adult immigrant English-learners in a community college. Specifically, this qualitative study analyzed the lived experiences of twenty-one adult English-learners currently enrolled in a large California community college. Language and…

Most of international students who migrate to the U.S. or to other parts of the world to pursue their education go through many challenges that hinder their academic performance. U.S. HEIs might not achieve international student access and completion goals without identifying the "challenges that face minority and international students"…

Understanding the way humans communicate linguistically helps to define what proficiency in a particular language is. The general problem is scholars' assumption that the implementation of technology in the language learning environment acts a substitute for the human dynamic in achieving language proficiency. The purpose of this quantitative…

This dissertation presents the findings of an on-line survey completed by 222 FYC (First Year Composition) instructors at universities and community colleges across the United States along with supplemental information derived from multiple open-ended interviews with seven FYC instructors in Arizona. Both survey and interview questions were…

This study had a three-fold purpose: first, to assess the attitudes of student affairs administrators working in the Florida College System (FCS) about globalization, internationalization, and their strategies for effecting internationalization efforts at their community/state colleges. This study also investigated the relationship between student…

This quantitative study conducted in the ESL program at a large community college investigated the symbiotic relationship between reading and second-language learning from the perspective of the class of post-secondary functional bilinguals sometimes referred to as Generation 1.5. These students are long-term, resident second-language (L2) English…

With the open door enrollment polices that community colleges have, diversity is increasingly present in community colleges. This diversity includes ability levels, ethnicity, and English as a Second Language learners (ESL). This raises a big issue of having a big gap in academic preparation among students within the same classroom. To solve this…

Learner-centered methodology like peer review is problematic in the pluralism of the ESL classroom when teaching academic English composition. A distinct complication is the form writing instruction should take given the interaction and variations between ESL students' L1 background, experiences, schema, and the meaning of academic literacy in…

Developing literacy and language proficiency in English is essential to thrive in school and in the workforce in American society. Research on cross-linguistic influences on text-level skills is scant, especially studies investigating reading comprehension among language-minority adults. The present study investigated the effects of…