Challenging ESL Students to Avoid Plagiarism and Properly Summarize and Cite Articles

Research shows that plagiarism is a problem not only for English language learners but also for students whose first language is English. With the Internet and ease of copying and pasting information into a word document, plagiarism in on the rise (Maslen, 2003). Oftentimes, students are not aware they are doing something wrong. American students come into college with the cultural conditioning of knowing (perhaps not fully grasping) American academic standards (Gu & Brooks, 2007). International students have the additional disadvantage of not knowing the conventions, traditions, and values held in academic discourse (Gu & Brooks, 2007). Within American academic circles, plagiarism is considered “one of the worst crimes” a student can commit (Wheeler, 2008). However, outside the United States, plagiarism is culturally acceptable; in fact a moral transgression would be to not copy and paste the words of an expert (Wheeler, 2008). Most of the students in English for Academic Purposes (EAP) at Miami-Dade College are planning on continuing their education once they finish the EAP program so it is essential that they are exposed to the issue of plagiarism. A number of faculty who teach in subject areas have complained that incoming students do not have the skills needed to succeed; these skills include how to cite sources and reference material. As a result of this, the focus of this action research project was on incorporating and explaining plagiarism and providing a number of writing opportunities throughout the semester.

English Language Learners: A Correlational Study of the Relationship Between A Proficiency Level Assessment and End of Course Test Scores at one Georgia High School

Understanding the language of one’s cultural environment is important for effective communication and function. As such, students entering U.S. schools from foreign countries are given access to English to Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) programs and they are referred to as English Language Learner (ELL) students. This dissertation examined the correlation of ELL ACCESS Composite Performance Level (CPL) score to the End of Course tests (EOCTs) and the Georgia High School Graduation Tests (GHSGTs) in the four content courses (language arts, mathematics, science, and social studies). A premise of this study was that English language proficiency is critical in meeting or exceeding state and county assessment standards. A quantitative descriptive research design was conducted using Cross-sectional archival data from a secondary source. There were 148 participants from school years 2011-2012 to 2013- 2014 from Grades 9-12. A Pearson product moment correlation was run to assess the relationship between the ACCESS CPL (independent variable) and the EOCT scores and the GHSGT scores (dependent variables). The findings showed that there was a positive correlation between ACCESS CPL scores and the EOCT scores where language arts showed a strong positive correlation and mathematics showed a positive weak correlation. Also, there was a positive correlation between ACCESS CPL scores and GHSGT scores where language arts showed a weak positive correlation. The results of this study indicated that that there is a relationship between the stated variables, ACCESS CPL, EOCT and GHSGT. Also, the results of this study showed that there were positive correlations at varying degrees for each grade levels. While the null hypothesis for Research Question 1 and Research Question 2 were rejected, there was a slight relationship between the variables.

Foreign Language Education in Colombia: A Qualitative Study of Escuela Nueva

Since 2004 the Colombian Ministry of Education has been implementing the Programa Nacional de Bilingüismo (PNB) with the goal of having bilingual high school graduates in English and Spanish by 2019. However, implementation of the PNB has been criticized by English Language Teaching (ELT) specialists in the country who say, among other things, that the PNB introduced a discourse associated exclusively with bilingualism in English and Spanish. This study analyzed interviews with 15 participants of a public school of the Colombian Escuela Nueva, a successful model of community-based education that has begun a process of internationalization, regarding the participants’ perceptions of foreign language education and the policies of the PNB. Six students, five teachers, and four administrators were each interviewed twice using semi-structured interviews. To offer a critique of the PNB, this study tried to determine to what extent the school implemented the elements of Responsible ELT, a model developed by the researcher incorporating the concepts of hegemony of English, critical language-policy research, and resistance in ELT. Findings included the following: (a) students and teachers saw English as the universal language whereas most administrators saw English imposed due to political and economic reasons; (b) some teachers misinterpreted the 1994 General Law of Education mandating the teaching of a foreign language as a law mandating English; and (c) some teachers and administrators saw the PNB’s adoption of competence standards based on the Common European Framework of Reference for languages as beneficial whereas others saw it as arbitrary. Conclusions derived from this study of this Escuela Nueva school were: (a) most participants found the goal of the PNB unrealistic; (b) most teachers and administrators saw the policies of the PNB as top-down policies without assessment or continuity; and (c) teachers and administrators mentioned a disarticulation between elementary and high school ELT policies that may be discouraging students in public schools from learning English. Thus, this study suggests that the policies of the PNB may be contributing to English becoming a gatekeeper for higher education and employment thereby becoming a tool for sustaining inequality in Colombia.

The Use of a Computer Graphic Organizer for Persuasive Composition Writing by Hispanic Students with Specific Learning Disabilities

Many culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) students with specific learning disabilities (SLD) struggle with the writing process. Particularly, they have difficulties developing and expanding ideas, organizing and elaborating sentences, and revising and editing their compositions (Graham, Harris, & Larsen, 2001; Myles, 2002). Computer graphic organizers offer a possible solution to assist them in their writing. This study investigated the effects of a computer graphic organizer on the persuasive writing compositions of Hispanic middle school students with SLD. A multiple baseline design across subjects was used to examine its effects on six dependent variables: number of arguments and supporting details, number and percentage of transferred arguments and supporting details, planning time, writing fluency, syntactical maturity (measured by T-units, the shortest grammatical sentence without fragments), and overall organization. Data were collected and analyzed throughout baseline and intervention. Participants were taught persuasive writing and the writing process prior to baseline. During baseline, participants were given a prompt and asked to use paper and pencil to plan their compositions. A computer was used for typing and editing. Intervention required participants to use a computer graphic organizer for planning and then a computer for typing and editing. The planning sheets and written composition were printed and analyzed daily along with the time each participant spent on planning. The use of computer graphic organizers had a positive effect on the planning and persuasive writing compositions. Increases were noted in the number of supporting details planned, percentage of supporting details transferred, planning time, writing fluency, syntactical maturity in number of T-units, and overall organization of the composition. Minimal to negligible increases were noted in the mean number of arguments planned and written. Varying effects were noted in the percent of transferred arguments and there was a decrease in the T-unit mean length. This study extends the limited literature on the effects of computer graphic organizers as a prewriting strategy for Hispanic students with SLD. In order to fully gauge the potential of this intervention, future research should investigate the use of different features of computer graphic organizer programs, its effects with other writing genres, and different populations.

Equity policy, educational practice, and limited english proficient (LEP) students in two high schools in Miami

Most studies of language minority students' performance focus on students' characteristics. This study uses qualitative methodology to examine instead how educational policies and practices affect the tracking of language minority students who are classified as limited English proficient (LEP). The placement of LEP students in core courses (English, Math, Social Studies, and Science) is seen as resulting from the interaction between school context and student characteristics. The school context includes factors such as equity policy requirements, overcrowding, attitudes regarding immigrants' academic potential, tracking, and testing practices. Interaction among these factors frequently leads to placement in lower track courses. It was found that the absence of formal tracks could be misleading to immigrant students, particularly those with high aspirations who do not understand the implications of the informal tracking system. Findings are discussed in relation to current theoretical explanations for minority student performance.

Annotated bibliography of Salomon de la Selva's collected poems

The purpose of my project is to provide a compilation of the work of Nicaraguan born poet, Salomon De la Selva, who incidentally was nominated for a Nobel Prize in 1919, and was the first Latin-American poet to publish extensively in English. In order to achieve this goal, my research methods included the substantial use of the Internet, as well as two investigative trips to Mexico and one to Nicaragua, which ultimately led me to uncover a total of 135 unaccounted English-language poems. In addition, De la Selva's uniqueness lies in the fact that he was a truly bilingual writer, who was equally able to create both in English and Spanish, simultaneously. Therefore, my project not only represents an act of reclamation, but the new material also provides new exciting possibilities for his work by facilitating an intertextual analysis of his poems, which will aid in understanding the complexities of bilingualism.

Música e surdez: o ensino de música numa perspectiva bilíngue na escola regular

The present study focuses on the development of pedagogical activities in Music Teaching, aiming to enhance the accessibility of musical knowledge for both deaf and hearing students, using a bilingual approach in regular schools. Few studies address Music and Deafness, and those that do focus exclusively on the context of special education, and specifically the deaf student, which signals the urgent need for conducting research on this issue in the context of inclusion – empirically and carried out on school grounds. Therefore, we developed our study at a Natal City Public Elementary school, in a class of 6th graders, comprised of 37 students, 3 of whom were deaf. The objective of the study was to develop a proposal for a pedagogical intervention in Music Teaching, using a bilingual approach, with deaf and hearing students, in the context of regular school classes. The research is based on the theoretical framework presented in Penna (2010), Brito (2001) and Fonterrada (2008), with reference to music education, and Haguiara-Cervellini (2003), Finck (2009) and Louro (2006), with reference to inclusion in teaching music. To achieve this objective, we developed a proposal for intervention based on the methodological dictates of intervention research, presented in studies by Jobim and Souza (2011) in light of the theoretical concepts posited by Mikhail Bakhtin, which assert that knowledge is produced through interaction between subjects, dialogically and through alterity. This methodology was carried out in pedagogical workshops, conceived as spaces for the construction of knowledge, mobilizing participants to engage in ludic activities of musical experimentation. Content covered in these workshops focused on Pulse and Rhythm – basic elements in music education – demonstrating that awareness about and sensitivity to these elements is not limited to the auditory sensory perception of the student, once the entire body is used as an agent of acquisition and expression. Thus, we began the trajectory of our research from the starting point of the identification and perception of „Pulse‟, using one‟s own body and the body of classmates, representing it through physical expressions and movement. Subsequently, this Pulse was extended from the body to a percussion instrument, and was then represented graphically as lines of rhythm, constituting a process of reading and writing; ultimately the intervention culminated in the class presentation with the musical group De Pau e Lata (Stick and Can). In our analysis, faced with the challenges and possibilities presented in our study, findings showed satisfactory results with regard to the participation of all of the students: completing the activities proposed in the class, asking questions when they did not understand, positioning themselves when they thought it necessary, expressing opinions about the work completed, evaluating the workshops given, interacting, helping in the activities, constructing knowledge collaterally, experimenting and experiencing musical elements through the body in activities that applied to both groups (deaf and hearing) in the one class. These indications elucidate the viability of teaching music to deaf and hearing students, using a bilingual approach, and based on experiences with the body and communicative and cultural specificities involved, confirming, as well, the role of Sign Language as a mediator in the teaching/learning process.

Educação bilíngue para surdos : um estudo acerca de práticas de letramento crítico com alunos surdos usuários da Língua Brasileira de Sinais

At a time when the issue of the inclusion of hearing-impaired students in regular schools has been discussed, it becomes necessary to reflect upon the relevance of a recurrent educational process in schools specialized in education for the hearing-impaired: the bilingual schools. Such institutions, still scarce in Brazil, offer an oriented and specialized education to hearing-impaired children and adolescents, since they have the Brazilian Sign Language as a language of instruction in all subjects, and the Portuguese written language as an additional language, which gives them the bilingual status. This research aims to investigate how the practices developed in my Portuguese classes in a bilingual school have contributed to the development of student‟s literacy, specifically the Critical Literacy (STREET, 1985, 1990, 1998), in two classes of hearing-impaired students enrolled in the final grades of elementary school. It is a qualitative, ethnographic research, which uses the triangulation system for analyzing data: (i) the pedagogical sequences; (ii) the students‟ activities and (iii) the teacher‟s and students‟ written accounts registered as field notes. Through the intersection of the data, this work evaluates whether students have achieved some level of Critical Literacy, and what kind of collaboration and/or activity is relevant during this process. This research is justified by the need to evaluate practices at bilingual schools that, although supported by current law in Brazil, are still a minority whose work is still not acknowledged or valued. The results show that activities using real texts of different genres can contribute to the development of Critical Literacy, and also to dynamic classes, with discussions about relevant topics to society in Sign Language. Also, activities that encourage students to do research and that provide to the hearing-impaired student, the understanding of the real usefulness of Portuguese as an instrument for the social inclusion of the hearing-impaired providing opportunities for them to change their social position can collaborate to this process.

Using parent report to assess early lexical production in children exposed to more than one language

Limited expressive vocabulary skills in young children are considered to be the first warning signs of a potential Specific Language Impairment (SLI) (Ellis & Thal, 2008). In bilingual language learning environments, the expressive vocabulary size in each of the child’s developing languages is usually smaller compared to the number of words produced by monolingual peers (e.g. De Houwer, 2009). Nonetheless, evidence shows children’s total productive lexicon size across both languages to be comparable to monolingual peers’ vocabularies (e.g. Pearson et al., 1993; Pearson & Fernandez, 1994). Since there is limited knowledge as to which level of bilingual vocabulary size should be considered as a risk factor for SLI, the effects of bilingualism and language-learning difficulties on early lexical production are often confounded. The compilation of profiles for early vocabulary production in children exposed to more than one language, and their comparison across language pairs, should enable more accurate identification of vocabulary delays that signal a risk for SLI in bilingual populations. These considerations prompted the design of a methodology for assessing early expressive vocabulary in children exposed to more than one language, which is described in the present chapter. The implementation of this methodological framework is then outlined by presenting the design of a study that measured the productive lexicons of children aged 24-36 months who were exposed to different language pairs, namely Maltese and English, Irish and English, Polish and English, French and Portuguese, Turkish and German as well as English and Hebrew. These studies were designed and coordinated in COST Action IS0804 Working Group 3 (WG3) and will be described in detail in a series of subsequent publications. Expressive vocabulary size was measured through parental report, by employing the vocabulary checklist of the MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventory: Words and Sentences (CDI: WS) (Fenson et al., 1993, 2007) and its adaptations to the participants’ languages. Here we describe the novelty of the study’s methodological design, which lies in its attempt to harmonize the use of vocabulary checklist adaptations, together with parental questionnaires addressing language exposure and developmental history, across participant groups characterized by different language exposure variables. This chapter outlines the various methodological considerations that paved the way for meaningful cross-linguistic comparison of the participants’ expressive lexicon sizes. In so doing, it hopes to provide a template for and encourage further research directed at establishing a threshold for SLI risk in children exposed to more than one language.

Curriculum development in a heritage language community-based school: A Qualitative inquiry regarding a Brazilian-Portuguese program in South Florida

This research aimed to describe, understand, and discuss the curriculum development process of a Brazilian-Portuguese heritage language community-based school in South Florida. This study was guided by the following research questions: (a) What roles does this HL community-based school aim to play for its students? This investigation was also related to the subsidiary question: (b) How does this HL community-based school organize its curriculum development process? In order to explore these research questions, I observed and interviewed teachers and coordinators based on a qualitative research approach. I analyzed the interviews’ transcripts, and the program’s website with a central focus of describing and understanding their curriculum development process. Hopefully, the findings will help Brazilian and other HL community schools toward discussing and elaborating their own curriculum development, as well as to look for specific teacher training courses.

The Response to an ESL Population Boom in the Beaufort County, South Carolina School System: A Case Study

The purpose of this case study was to examine the why the English language learners (ELLs) in the Beaufort County, South Carolina school system have been so successful. This school system has recently experienced a boom in its ESL student population, and this population has performed very well on standardized tests. This study used critical theory as its theoretical framework and examined why the students have been successful rather than marginalized in Beaufort County schools. This phenomenon was investigated using semi-structured interviews with the ESOL Coordinator for Beaufort County, 4 ESL-lead teachers, and 6 mainstream teachers. Data were collected using semi-structured interviews with Sarah Owen, the Beaufort County ESOL, Gifted and Talented, and World Languages coordinator. Based on the results of her interview, 4 themes emerged that were used for the semi-structured interviews with ESOL and mainstream teachers. The interviews centered on the themes of ESL policy, ESL leadership, and teacher training. The ESL and mainstream teacher interviews also revealed several subthemes that included teacher attitude, why Beaufort County has been successful with the ELLs, and the teachers’ recommendations for other schools systems trying to successfully accommodate a large ESL student population in mainstream classrooms. The findings from the teachers’ interviews revealed that additional training for the teachers without ESL experience helped them become comfortable instructing ELLs. This training should be conducted by the ESOL teachers for those without ESOL certification or endorsement. As the teachers had more training, they had better attitudes about teaching ESOL students in their classes. Finally, those who utilized the additional ESOL training and ESOL accommodations saw better student achievement in their classes. Based on the finding of this study, the researcher proposed a model for other school systems to follow in order to replicate the success of Beaufort County’s ELLs. The implications of this study focus on other schools systems and why ELLs are not obtaining the same level of success as those in Beaufort County’s schools. Finally, recommendations for further research are provided.

A Historical Overview of the Challenges for African Americans K12 through College Education in America

The early American education system developed around the segregation of White and African American students. These differences in learning environment have led to inferior education for African Americans and can be linked to challenges still facing minorities in the current American education system.

Exploring Seventh Graders’ Perceptions of the Picture-word Inductive Model to their English Narrative Writing in China

In this exploratory study, the researcher interviewed 30 seventh graders in China about their perceptions of the newly tried method, Picture-word Inductive Model (PWIM), to their English narrative writing. Many student participants listed and exemplified positive influence of PWIM on their narrative writing in and from the PWIM trial.