Purpose: The aim of this study was to investigate the appropriateness of standardized assessments of expressive grammar and vocabulary in a sample of preschool-age dual language learners (DLLs) who use Jamaican Creole (JC) and English. Adult models from the same linguistic community as these children were used to inform culturally and…

Purpose: We compared copula and auxiliary verb BE use by African American English-speaking children with and without a creole heritage, using Gullah/Geechee as the creole criterion, to determine if differences exist, the nature of the differences, and the impact of the differences on interpretations of ability. Method: Data came from 38 children,…

The Focus on the Outcomes of Communication Under Six (FOCUS) is one of a few validated outcome measures related to children's communicative participation. Additional validation of the FOCUS measure could address the paucity of validated outcomes-based measures available for assessing preschool-age children, particularly for those who are…

While the Global North's academic culture is romanced by generalizability, testimonio offers an enticing way to incorporate diverse knowledge sources into the curricular cannon. Testimonio offers a radical, critical, spiritual humanizing pedagogy for ethnic-racial socialization (Menchú, 1983). In this paper, I conduct a semi-structured interview…

In Haiti, 49% of students cannot read a single word in Creole by the time they start grade 3, which is reflective of a broader learning crisis in low-income and fragile contexts. Read to Learn, an early-grade literacy intervention, was implemented and evaluated from fall 2014 through spring 2016 with the aim of improving students' reading skills.…

Multilingualism in European classrooms is the norm, not exception, and while the management of linguistic diversity is increasingly at the fore of language policy debates, policy engagement with the multilingual realities of schools continues to be inadequate, and the linguistic habitus of present-day education systems remains largely monolingual…

This case study explored students' perception about their performance in CSEC English A at three evening schools in Savanna La Mar. While conducting the research I used ethnographic methods, including interviews, observations and document analysis to better understand students' perceptions of their performance in CSEC English A. The central…

The present study examines the tradeoff between the on-line construction of modifier-noun gender agreement and verb-subject person/number agreement vs. the automatization and entrenchment of agreement, through the study of bilingual speakers of Spanish and the Afro-Colombian creole language Palenquero, whose lexicon is highly cognate with Spanish,…

Beyond his contributions to the field of psychology, Vygotsky may be considered as 'one of the first thinkers in complexity' (Jörg, 2011 p. 14). Vygotsky challenged linear causality and defended the idea of the transcendence of individual learning to focus on the generative potential of learning and development through social interactions,…

This article highlights research collected during a year-long critical participatory ethnographic study at a primary school in Trinidad and Tobago. The study presents the experiences of two teacher collaborators who engage in the processes of problem identification, design and implementation of a language-friendly plan, reflective practice and…

This article undertakes a textual analysis of an autobiographically informed novel, "American Street," to analyze the process of identity formation of a Black Haitian immigrant youth in the United States. Black immigrant youth remain an understudied demographic in literacy research compared with their Latinx and Asian immigrant…

In this theoretical article, the authors elaborate a revisited theory of Third Space from a BlackCrit/Afropessimist stance, exploring Black youth ethnic and racial identity formation searching for place and belonging in the context of a raced world. To illustrate their theoretical contributions, the authors draw on empirical research conducted…

The language de jure in Jamaica is Jamaican English (JE); however, the language de facto of most nationals is Jamaican Creole (JC). As such, there are many students who enter the tertiary level without fully acquiring JE. As a CARICOM nation, it is mandatory that foreign languages are taught beginning at the primary level of education. Although…

Narratives drawn from a Fulbright study of immigrant women in Chile communicating with their families at-a-distance through information and communication technologies show that they utilized digital visual literacy practices. Digital visual literacy is a combination of digital literacy and visual literacy and even goes beyond these…

Most research related to communication skills in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) has been obtained from monolingual English-speaking children from high-income countries. Based on questionnaires completed by parents, this pilot study aimed to describe the communication characteristics of six children with ASD living in Jamaica. Parents…