This action research study explores the interplay between language acquisition and high school mathematics education, particularly for multilingual learners. The study challenges conventional, segregated approaches to math and language learning that emphasize formulaic memorization and algorithmic methods, contributing to the "math…

The rising emphasis for students to develop global and intercultural competence leads the purpose of this qualitative study to explore United States (U.S.)-based world language (WL) teachers' understandings and integration of intercultural competence (IC) in their language classrooms. The importance of this study was to add to the extant…

This dissertation examines the linguistic behavior of code-switching in three groups of highly proficient Cantonese-English bilinguals. Code-switching refers to alternating between two or more languages within the same sentence or between two sentences. While traditional research on bilingualism often compares bilingual speakers against…

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…

This project is aimed at generating new knowledge and improving our understanding of how Modified for Language Support-Worked Example Pairs (MLS-WEPs) contribute to effective mathematics learning and teaching in an ESOL (English to Speakers of Other Languages) context. The current study investigated a novel instructional approach to help English…

This dissertation builds on existing heritage language research (e.g., Albirini 2014, 2018; Benmamoun & Albirini 2018) and examines the complex and challenging practices of an understudied, marginalized, and stigmatized group of Muslim Arabic heritage-speaking children (MAHSC) and their immigrant families in the US. It argues that the…

Second language (L2) writing teaching and research in China have enjoyed a rich history and have had remarkable achievements. However, the extensive L2 writing literature created in China has not yet been analyzed comprehensively from theoretical, methodological, and philosophical perspectives. This research synthesis provides a metadisciplinary…

This dissertation examines the skills, knowledge, and support needs of novice and experienced Languages for Specific Purposes (LSP) teachers in higher education in the United States. Using a critical ecological approach (CEA) framework, it aims to contribute to the global growing body of research on LSP teacher preparation that has thus far…

This qualitative study utilizes a Chicana/Latina feminist lens and the Latin American tradition of "Testimonio" to explore Spanish-speaking immigrants' experiences of migration, language learning and socialization, paying close attention to the ways in which the multilayered intersections of identity, race, class, gender, nationality,…

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 study examines students' perspectives on learning in a co-curricular language-based program at a large public university in northeastern United States. Specifically, I analyze students' motivations to enroll in the program and their perceptions of learning outcomes. The study uses the interdisciplinary construct of identity as a theoretical…

This descriptive and exploratory case study focused on a specific Content-Based Language Teaching (CBLT) curriculum within the context of higher education in China. The researcher investigated the rationale behind the current design and students' and teachers' perceptions about the curriculum, as well as, their perceived motivations and challenges…

Freire wrote that reading one's world is a necessary precursor to writing it, or conscienzation. The present dissertation, expanding on Kellner's concept of multiple literacies (1998; 2002a; 2005b; 2006a; 2008), explores what it means to read and write one's world in the context of globalization. Given the arrival of a new imaginary, with its…

This study examines how specific experiences of disability (i.e. hearing loss) come into being and how they are articulated within foreign language educational practices. It particularly explores issues of social justice and equity regarding the discursive embracement of power relations and situated contextualization of hard-of-hearing students'…

In this current era of postmodernity, globalization, and new technological and social conditions, new approaches to literacy teaching are being introduced and examined. Studies that explore complexities of language teaching and learning in discourses of postmodernity as they relate to college contexts are significant for educators, researchers,…