This paper presents a critical assessment of the utility of the orthography of Dagbani (a Gur language of Ghana) in the documentation, linguistic research, and literacy acquisition of Dagbani. While written literature on Dagbani dates to over a century, it was only in 1997 that the only known documented orthographic rules of the language, the…

This chapter employs findings from 6 months of ethnographic observations with four Salvadoran first-generation immigrant women living in a suburban neighborhood in the western United States. We document these women's authentic experiences with navigating everyday linguistic interactions in Spanish and English, showing how the women's participation…

Although research has shown that virtually partnering second language (L2) learners with other L2 learners (Kinginger, Modern Lang J 82: 502-513, 1998; O'Dowd, ReCALL 12(1): 49-61, 2000) can be beneficial for language development, this current study adds to the growing body of knowledge of apprenticeship virtual exchanges by partnering L2 learners…

This chapter argues that "blogging" is a part of social networking that can provide a broader perspective on communication in general and education in particular. Communication becomes possible when blogging, not because this adheres to global or regional norms, but because bloggers are able to bring their communication into alignment by…

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) may result in a wide array of cognitive deficits, including executive functions. A proposal by Ferretti and colleagues (2011 & 2013) has suggested that executive dysfunction caused by traumatic brain injury (TBI) impact navigation and discourse abilities in similar ways, suggesting that these skills may share…

The purpose of this study, secondary data analysis, was to analyze the argumentative and informative essay writing of middle school students with disabilities. Inflectional, derivational, and compound word morphological forms within 360 essays were coded and analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. Results are grouped into categories…

Slaughter and Rhoades (2009) developed the theory of academic capitalism to explain the market-like behaviors of colleges and universities, which has been made more prevalent by the rise in neoliberal ideology and the new knowledge-based economy. Bok (2003), Giroux (2003), and others have warned against these market-like behaviors as a threat to…

This mixed-methods study examined the factors contributing to international student sense of belonging on three U.S. campuses, particularly upon their arrival to their campus and during a global pandemic. This three-article dissertation discusses the major findings that were identified in the data. Article 1 highlights the recurring theme of…

The current study investigated the correlation between English collocation test scores and three independent variables including vocabulary level, informal language exposure, and motivation. The study also examined which independent variable was the most influential in predicting the collocation tests scores. Data was collected using, Gyllstad's…

This chapter explores how students' experiences of their English lessons in the "Qunxi" are framed and negotiated by the discourse of English language education in China. I first elaborate on Hall's theory of representation, through sociocultural views of language and culture and focus on particularly the discursive approach to…

Informed by ecological approaches to second language development (SLD), the current study looked into three adult English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) learners' quests of engaging in lifelong, informal language learning in the digital age. Data from in-depth interviews revealed that popular culture presented in different media forms offered…

This study was part of a larger three-year investigation of the effectiveness of a small-group, content-focused (science, social studies) preschool shared book reading vocabulary intervention implemented with Spanish-speaking emergent bilinguals enrolled in a one-way dual-language bilingual program. A subset of bilingual preschool teachers (N =…

Although visual aids are widely considered a valuable source of scaffolding, the nature and active utilization of these aids in current science classrooms are not well understood. This qualitative study explores interaction in the teaching of concepts related to evolution, with a specific focus on a teacher's use of different visual support…

For many children in Flanders, Belgium, the language of instruction is not their first language. Allowing children to use their heritage languages in the classroom has been argued to have functional and socioemotional benefits. In two exploratory studies, we introduced a multilingual task in four classrooms across three linguistically and socially…

This paper explores how a transnational emergent multilingual (TEM) student established himself in relation to his teacher and peers in a culturally and linguistically diverse, sheltered English Instruction classroom. Specifically, it documents how the student initiated translingual and cross-cultural social interactions positioning himself as a…