CROSS-LINGUISTIC TRANSFER OF SPELLING SKILLS IN SPANISH-SPEAKING ADULT ESL LEARNERS

Spelling is an important literacy skill, and learning to spell is an important component of learning to write. Learners with strong spelling skills also exhibit greater reading, vocabulary, and orthographic knowledge than those with poor spelling skills (Ehri & Rosenthal, 2007; Ehri & Wilce, 1987; Rankin, Bruning, Timme, & Katkanant, 1993). English, being a deep orthography, has inconsistent sound-to-letter correspondences (Seymour, 2005; Ziegler & Goswami, 2005). This poses a great challenge for learners in gaining spelling fluency and accuracy. The purpose of the present study is to examine cross-linguistic transfer of English vowel spellings in Spanish-speaking adult ESL learners. The research participants were 129 Spanish-speaking adult ESL learners and 104 native English-speaking GED students enrolled in a community college located in the South Atlantic region of the United States. The adult ESL participants were in classes at three different levels of English proficiency: advanced, intermediate, and beginning. An experimental English spelling test was administered to both the native English-speaking and ESL participants. In addition, the adult ESL participants took the standardized spelling tests to rank their spelling skills in both English and Spanish. The data were analyzed using robust regression and Poisson regression procedures, Mann-Whitney test, and descriptive statistics. The study found that both Spanish spelling skills and English proficiency are strong predictors of English spelling skills. Spanish spelling is also a strong predictor of level of L1-influenced transfer. More proficient Spanish spellers made significantly fewer L1-influenced spelling errors than less proficient Spanish spellers. L1-influenced transfer of spelling knowledge from Spanish to English likely occurred in three vowel targets (/ɑɪ/ spelled as ae, ai, or ay, /ɑʊ/ spelled as au, and /eɪ/ spelled as e). The ESL participants and the native English-speaking participants produced highly similar error patterns of English vowel spellings when the errors did not indicate L1-influenced transfer, which implies that the two groups might follow similar trajectories of developing English spelling skills. The findings may help guide future researchers or practitioners to modify and develop instructional spelling intervention to meet the needs of adult ESL learners and help them gain English spelling competence.

Ready for Transition: Factors that facilitate transfer to undergraduate engineering programs among Black African and American students

This study examines the factors facilitating the transfer admission of students broadly classified as Black from a single community college into a selective engineering college. The work aims to further research on STEM preparation and performance for students of color, as well as scholarship on increasing access to four-year institutions from two-year schools. Factors illuminating Underrepresented Racial and Ethnic Minority (URM) student pathways through Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) degree programs have often been examined through large-scale quantitative studies. However, this qualitative study complements quantitative data through demographic questionnaires, as well as semi-structured individual and group. The backgrounds and voices of diverse Black transfer students in four-year engineering degree programs were captured through these methods. Major findings from this research include evidence that community college faculty, peer networks, and family members facilitated transfer. Other results distinguish Black African from Black American transfers; included in these distinctions are depictions of different K-12 schooling experiences and differences in how participants self-identified. The findings that result from this research build upon the few studies that account for expanded dimensions of student diversity within the Black population. Among other demographic data, participants’ countries of birth and years of migration to the U.S. (if applicable) are included. Interviews reveal participants’ perceptions of factors impacting their educational trajectories in STEM and subsequent ability to transfer into a competitive undergraduate engineering program. This study is inclusive of, and reveals an important shifting demographic within the United States of America, Black Africans, who represent one of the fastest-growing segments of the immigrant population.

Applications of Photoinduced Electron Transfer Chemistry: Photoremovable Protecting Groups and Carbon Dioxide Conversion

Traditional organic chemistry has long been dominated by ground state thermal reactions. The alternative to this is excited state chemistry, which uses light to drive chemical transformations. There is considerable interest in using this clean renewable energy source due to concerns surrounding the combustion byproducts associated with the consumption of fossil fuels. The work presented in this text will focus on the use of light (both ultraviolet and visible) for the following quantitative chemical transformations: (1) the release of compounds containing carboxylic acid and alcohol functional groups and (2) the conversion of carbon dioxide into other useable chemicals. Chapters 1-3 will introduce and explore the use of photoremovable protecting groups (PPGs) for the spatiotemporal control of molecular concentrations. Two new PPGs are discussed, the 2,2,2-tribromoethoxy group for the protection of carboxylic acids and the 9-phenyl-9-tritylone group for the protection of alcohols. Fundamental interest in the factors that affect C–X bond breaking has driven the work presented in this text for the release of carboxylic acid substrates. Product analysis from the UV photolysis of 2,2,2-tribromoethyl-(2′-phenylacetate) in various solvents results in the formation of H–atom abstraction products as well as the release of phenylacetic acid. The deprotection of alcohols is realized through the use of UV or visible light photolysis of 9-phenyl-9-tritylone ethers. Central to this study is the use of photoinduced electron transfer chemistry for the generation of ion diradicals capable of undergoing bond-breaking chemistry leading to the release of the alcohol substrates. Chapters 4 and 5 will explore the use of N-heterocyclic carbenes (NHCs) as a catalyst for the photochemical reduction of carbon dioxide. Previous experiments have demonstrated that NHCs can add to CO2 to form stable zwitterionic species known as N-heterocylic-2-carboxylates (NHC–CO2). Work presented in this text illustrate that the stability of these species is highly dependent on solvent polarity, consistent with a lengthening of the imidazolium to carbon dioxide bond (CNHC–CCO2). Furthermore, these adducts interact with excited state electron donors resulting in the generation of ion diradicals capable of converting carbon dioxide into formic acid.