The academic achievement of Hispanic students is not increasing as much as the population is in schools across the United States. Although existing research explores the Hispanic achievement gap, none solely compares the relationship between Hispanic multilingual (ML) and Hispanic non-multilingual (non-ML) students. As the Hispanic population…

This three-paper dissertation uses social network analysis to examine the literacy development and small group discourse of multilingual students in Grades 4 and 5. The data come from a randomized-controlled trial testing the effectiveness of homogeneous and heterogeneous small groups for English learners. The first paper tests whether two types…

This dissertation explores the implementation of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) and WIDA frameworks by elementary education teacher candidates during their internships in classrooms characterized by the presence of Multilingual Learners (MLLs). This embedded case study focuses on the Spring and Fall cohorts of 2023, particularly focusing on…

Latinx multilingual learners historically have struggled with meeting academic proficiencies within our educational system. Districts have implemented many strategies to support multilingual learners but have often fallen short of expectations, and therefore perpetuated academic struggles for Latinx multilingual learners. Considering that Latinx…

The number of school-aged students with diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds is increasing across the United States. This survey identifies strategies school nurses use for communicating to families with limited English proficiency and describes recommendations to improve language needs. The online survey was completed by K-12 school nurses…

Writing in school has long been disconnected and inauthentic to multilingual learners due to its monolingual, language-focused, and standardized features. Although more and more researchers have called for and explored newer asset-based writing pedagogies, such as digital multimodal writing, to support diverse learners in response to emerging…

Contrary to prevailing research on willingness to communicate (WTC) which treats spoken second language (L2) as the predominant indicator of WTC, this study examines a young English as a second language (ESL) learner's WTC expressed through multimodal means and her utilization of multimodal and multilingual resources for mediating WTC in…

Employing transnationalism and transnational literacies as theoretical perspectives, this study explores how two focal students from Asian immigrant families construct their transnational and transcultural identities by reflecting on their dynamic border-crossing experiences. The students' creation of artifacts (illustrating self-portraits and…

Drawing on recent literacy research that foregrounds affect and space, we trace the creation of an early literacy learning space as it emerges through a group conversation between a preschool class teacher and five multilingual children at age 5-6. Our analysis is driven by a fascination of the bodily intensity and emotional energies that arose…

In 2024, WestEd partnered with Sobrato Philanthropies to conduct a strategic and economic analysis of English Learner programs in the state of California. The study sought to define the scale of economic challenges and explore underlying conditions impacting the costs of implementing English Learner programs in California in alignment with best…

There has been little quantitative research on the impact of specialized teacher preparation for working with multilingual students. Yet districts, states, and the U.S. Department of Education are investing to increase the number of teachers with this specialized preparation. This article explores challenges in conducting research on this topic…

Twenty-five years ago, Freeman and Johnson positioned language teacher education (LTE) and practice as a socially learned and sociohistorically situated activity. Although this shift substantially broadened and contextualized our understanding of educator learning and practice, further substantive work is needed in LTE to offer an equitable…

Students designated as English learners and the broader group of multilingual learners continue to face restrictive learning environments in secondary classrooms despite existing research that demonstrates how integrating literacy development with authentic and relevant disciplinary learning benefits multilingual learners and all students. To…

This article reports on an empirical study of L3 Mandarin, aiming to shed light on transfer effects and their interaction with other factors throughout the L3 acquisition trajectory. A fill-in-the-blank task was employed to examine L2 and L3 acquisition of three types of Mandarin sentence-final particle clusters. Participants in the study were…

Upon arrival in Sweden, adult migrants are required to learn Swedish at the earliest opportunity. This requirement also extends to deaf migrants, regardless of their linguistic and educational backgrounds. This paper presents findings and experiences derived from a project focused on the multilingual situation of deaf migrants in Sweden. Some deaf…