This dissertation examined the ways in which African American Language (AAL) speakers utilized AAL in various discursive contexts in an elementary two-way immersion (TWI) Spanish/English dual-language program. In this study, I problematize the notion of TWI programs as an additive program for AAL speakers by investigating the phenomenon from three…

This article reports on a cross-institutional, mixed-methods research study designed to gather data on first year writers' language backgrounds at three North American universities. Researchers administered a language survey to 1,870 first year writing students and led follow-up focus groups with 32 participants. Researchers utilized three methods…

Drawing upon tenets of Critical Multilingual Language Awareness (CMLA), we analyzed multimodal compositions created by preservice teachers (PSTs) from two institutions to investigate their meaning-making at the nexus of language, identity, and power. Through analysis of PSTs' multimodal compositions, reflective writing about their coursework, and…

Up until 2020, National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) reading scores had increased only slightly since the early 1990s with large achievement gaps for students of color and students living in poverty. Modest gains in fourth grade reading proficiency since 1992 were erased during the pandemic. The insufficient progress in reading even…

This article examines a graduate language education course that was taught as part of an afterschool 'club' activity located in a majority-minority middle school (Latiné and Black) in the US southeast. Pre-service teachers were apprenticed as researchers and educators in developing a culturally sustaining pedagogy for multilingual and…

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between oral language, literacy skills, age, and dialect density (DD) of African American children residing in two different geographical regions of the United States (East Coast and Midwest). Method: Data were obtained from 64 African American school-age children between the…

This study investigates the learning of linguistic structures associated with African American English (AAE) among four non-AAE-speaking teachers of AAE-speaking students. It considers implicit and explicit learning/development of a second dialect in two novel ways. First, it focuses on the understanding of a socially-stigmatized dialect by…

This study examined the use of non-standard English features in 16-year-old students' writing in the UK. Adopting a diachronic approach to the investigation of students' written production, the study sought to identify changes in students' use of non-standard English over the course of a decade, specifically from 2004 to 2014. It involved an…

Purpose: The goal of the current study was to examine the impact of dialect density on the growth of oral language and reading skills in a sample of African American English (AAE)-speaking children reared in urban communities. Method: Eight hundred thirty-five African American children in first through fifth grades participated. Using an…

Short-term linguistic accommodation has been observed in a number of spoken language studies. The first of its kind in sign language research, this study aims to investigate the effects of regional varieties in contact and lexical accommodation in British Sign Language (BSL). Twenty-five participants were recruited from Belfast, Glasgow,…

What resources do students draw on to produce literary theory in the contemporary high school English classroom? This interactional sociolinguistic study traces the production and distribution of Lexical, Structural, and Thematic resources across genre chains in reading, writing, and discussing literary theory during an intensive 3-week short…

We explore the disconnect between education policy and culturally sustaining instruction, curriculum, discipline, and assessment for African American Language (AAL) Learners. Framing the omission of language policies as linguistic violence and anti-Black linguistic racism, we discuss antecedent and contemporary educational language policies and…

Purpose: Unlike formalist and functional approaches to literacy and teaching writing, a languaging theory approach centers on the dynamic and interpersonal nature of writing. The purpose of this study was to determine students' ability to engage in explicit reflection about their languaging actions in response to their personal narrative writing…

Background: The casual, abbreviated writing style sometimes known as "textese" (e.g., sorry im late ?) has become widespread with the rise of digital communication. We explored Australian university students' views on, and use of, textese across three modalities (text message, Facebook post, email) and three recipient types (friends,…

Nonmainstream American English, or dialect, among children may have important implications for reading research and practice. However, much of the research involving relations between dialect and literacy has analyzed dialect use in only one context and has omitted students with speech, language, and learning disabilities. Consequently, we…