In this thesis, I present three related papers that collectively investigate the instructional supports on screen and in the media viewing context that influenced English and heritage language vocabulary knowledge in DLLs. In study 1, I examine how specific pedagogical approaches used in educational media might benefit DLLs. In study 2, I…

This book takes the reader through a journey into the practical and theoretical aspects of partner-based learning in bilingual early childhood environments. The authors begin by presenting compelling arguments for the significance of this approach noting the parallels between partner-based collaborative learning and developmentally appropriate…

"Culturally and Linguistically Responsive Education" provides a much-needed blueprint for how school leaders can leverage the power of collaborative learning to create more culturally and linguistically responsive schools. The book describes an innovative network of twenty preK-8 schools located across the United States striving to…

We provide empirical evidence of immigrants' specialization in skill acquisition well before entering the US labor market. Nationally representative datasets enable studying the academic trajectories of immigrant children, with a focus on high-school course-taking patterns and college major choice. Immigrant children accumulate skills in ways that…

Previous studies about ELs have reported data on active English Learners--defined as those students who have not yet reached proficiency on a state English test--at a specific moment in time. This study, for the first time, analyzed the long-term trajectories of 18,000 CPS students who began kindergarten as ELs and followed their progress all the…

Currently, states are moving forward with developing or adopting new English language proficiency (ELP) assessments aligned with the new academic standards in order to meet accountability requirements. In this transition, it is essential to identify areas of improvement for current ELP assessment practices and discuss ways to implement effective…

"Language awareness and language aptitude" often crop up in discussion of various second language acquisition phenomena, including age-related phenomena. There is a troublesome and ongoing definitional and theoretical problem in this connection: Different researchers have different perspectives on what is to be included in the respective…

Based on qualitative analysis of conversational interactions collected over the course of a Spanish language learner's academic year abroad, this article explores the development of interactional resources related to alignment activity in the learner's conversational participation. Alignment activity refers to the means interlocutors use…

This study compares Arabic L1, L2, and heritage speakers' (HS) knowledge of plural formation, which involves concatenative and nonconcatenative modes of derivation. Ninety participants (divided equally among L1, L2, and heritage speakers) completed two oral tasks: a picture naming task (to measure proficiency) and a plural formation task. The…

Studies on students' use of corpora in L2 writing have demonstrated the benefits of corpora not only as a linguistic resource to improve their writing abilities but also as a cognitive tool to develop their learning skills and strategies. Most of the corpus studies, however, adopted either direct use or indirect use of corpora by students, without…

Many age-related second language (L2) studies have confirmed that young children have a better chance to become nativelike in L2 acquisition than adults. The current study investigated whether age effects exist in the L2 acquisition of Japanese and whether nativelike proficiency is guaranteed for early child L2 starters after constant target…

The relationship between Heritage Language (HL) and ethnic identity has gained significant research ground in social psychological and poststructural scholarship, with empirical evidence largely emerging from the North American settings. There is little pertinent sociological work conducted outside North America. To fill this gap, this…

This study investigated Chinese test takers' attitudes towards the Versant English Test (VET), an automated spoken English test developed by Pearson Knowledge Technologies. Based on previous attitudinal studies, 'attitude' in this study was conceptualized as a hypothetical psychological construct which consisted of three components: beliefs,…

Multiple studies propose that English proficiency dictates English language learners' (ELLs) performances on mathematics assessments. The current study investigates the predictive power of English proficiency on mathematics scores, while controlling for gender, socioeconomic status (SES), and grade level among ELLs at a south Florida elementary…

Thanks to natural language processing technologies, computer programs are actively being used not only for holistic scoring, but also for formative evaluation of writing. CyWrite is one such program that is under development. The program is built upon Second Language Acquisition theories and aims to assist ESL learners in higher education by…