The concept of service-learning combines academic studies with real-world community issues. It aims to help students develop themselves through reflection and critical thinking while also making a positive impact on the community. Integrating service-learning into foreign language and culture education can fulfill the need for practical language…

Critical thinking (CT) is a 21st-century skill critical in education and learning. Second language teaching has focused on language form, and there needs to be a shift from form-focused instruction to a function-focused paradigm, where students simultaneously practice language learning and deal with real-world issues in authentic contexts…

This poststructural narrative study examined how white in-service educators describe their experiences with counternarrative, critical positionality, and community inquiry in the gateway courses of graduate-level TESOL teacher preparation; these experiences were designed with the intention of disrupting white, English-speaking hegemony in schools…

This dissertation considers how English for Academic Purposes (EAP) instructors can reimagine notions of academic writing by exploiting multimodal texts in ways that invite students' fuller language repertoires into the classroom. Using ethnographic data collected during the Spring 2022 semester of a college EAP class, this study argues that a…

This research is about investigating authentic learning experiences for elementary-age English learners' (ELs) engagement and attitudes toward learning. Oftentimes, EL instruction is siloed in its approach and is interdependent on what students are learning in the classroom. Moreover, due to potential limitations in language acquisition skills…

Middle Eastern students represent the fastest-growing international student population in the United States, with the majority coming from Saudi Arabia. While some studies have examined the academic challenges faced by international students, few have examined the academic writing difficulties encountered by Saudi international graduate students.…

Purpose: Situated within a complex social-political and developmental context marked by racialization and identity formation, this research aims to illuminate the nuanced ways Latinx youth navigate their bilingual experience amidst varying educational models and linguistic environments. The overarching goal of this dissertation is to investigate…

Adult learners often have difficulty reaching high proficiency levels in a foreign language, and curriculum experts are on a constant quest for innovative practices in foreign language learning. The problem addressed by this study was that even with the implementation of different pedagogical approaches, including immersion and technology…

The field of world language education is one that has historically been dominated by traditional pedagogical practices and perspectives that limit the opportunity for rich, critical examination of course content. This often leaves much to be desired in students' learning experiences for many students, and frequently causes students of color to…

This dissertation explores seven second language (L2) undergraduates' learning experiences in a First-Year Writing (FYW) course at an American university. While the FYW course is designed from the perspective of first-language (L1) composition scholarship and focuses, broadly speaking, on analytical writing and the related development of critical…

Language learners need to understand and apply appropriate discourse as part of the process of attaining "communicative competence" (Canale, 1983) needed to fulfill academic and social-adaptive functions. Students who are able to apply discourse strategies within the classroom demonstrate higher levels of metacognition and critical…

This action research study examines what common perceptions and constructs currently exist in educating adult immigrants in Arizona and considers how might the integration of citizen science with the current English curriculum promote higher order thinking and educational equity in this population. A citizen science project called the Mastodon…

This research study examines the role of digital media, more specifically online forums, in the development of academic literacy and language learning in English as a Second Language (ESL) college writing. Studies in Second Language Acquisition suggest that participation in online forum discussions can potentially foster collaboration,…

Recently, the number of English as a second language (ESL) students who study in the United States has rapidly increased. This increase poses serious challenges for the U.S. universities in which the students are enrolled as well as for the students themselves. One of the challenges the students face is a lack of training in one type of writing…

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…