According to Diane August (2002), at the Center for Applied Linguistics, Multilingual Learners (MLs) spend less than two percent of their school day in oral language development. Echevarria and Goldenberg (2017) support that creating numerous opportunities for ML students to speak will accelerate their vocabulary and oral language development to…

School administrators utilize varied leadership styles when providing professional support for their teachers. Although no leadership style is perfect, it is clear that administrative support or lack thereof affects teacher retention and attrition (Allen, 2005). Administrative support can be more difficult to provide in an area such as English for…

The purpose of this qualitative, interpretive study was to investigate general education K-12 teachers' perceptions of instructional practices and professional development for teaching Spanish as a first language English Language Learners. Specifically, I investigated the instructional practices and professional development experiences of K-12…

As the number of immigrant students continues to grow nationwide, so does the population in Lindenwold Public Schools. As an elementary school in the district, School Five is no exception to the experience of the ELL student boom. With the population growing, at the various grade levels, it is essential that instructional practices meet the needs…

Oral language is foundational to literacy. Because their language is under construction, emergent bilingual students have unique needs related to literacy development regardless of the language of instruction. Knowledge teachers gain through formative assessment of student oral language can guide decisions about literacy instruction. The purpose…

Schools across the United States are seeing an increase in culturally and linguistically diverse students. While there is recognition of the need for culturally and linguistically responsive teaching practices in K-12 settings, many teachers encounter challenges in effectively implementing these practices, particularly in science classrooms. There…

California's K-12 student population is one of the most linguistically diverse in the nation, with nearly 40% of students who speak a language other than English. Despite federal and landmark K-12 policies supporting inclusion for multilingual learners (MLs), as revealed by the literature, MLs are often viewed through a white normative…

Instructional technology in courses of K-12 level for English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners demonstrates numerous benefits for their learning, including increased engagement and improved academic outcomes. However, integrating technology into teaching practices heavily relies on teachers' competence in technology. Even though teacher…

English learner (EL) children (i.e., children learning English as a second language) constitute one of the fastest growing, yet disproportionately underachieving, segments of the U.S. public-school population. A main difficulty that ELs face at school is learning English and content-area knowledge in tandem. Low levels of English proficiency may…

The purpose of this study was to analyze the use of reading strategies being implemented in an urban school district in the Southeast. This study was framed on the SIOP (Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol) Model (Echevarria et al., 2017). SIOP is an instructional framework that has been used in K-12 schools since the 1980s. It is a…

This dissertation is a single-case study and employs a poststructural approach to discourse analysis to investigate how language ideologies of a world language (WL) preservice teacher develop. Prominent discourses about language teaching and learning in U.S. K-12 schools support monolingual ideologies (e.g., Rivers & Robinson, 2012). While…

Given the increasing concern about the scarcity of Dual Language Bilingual Education (DLBE) teachers, it is crucial to understand the trends in teacher retention and attrition from the perspective of DLBE teachers themselves. DLBE teachers departing from their jobs imposes a significant burden on schools and students and affects the implementation…

Purpose: The purpose of this quantitative, causal-comparative study was to determine whether English learners who participated in transitional kindergarten perform equally or better than English learners who did not participate in transitional kindergarten in the areas of oral language, written language, and overall language as measured by the…

The purpose of this descriptive case study was to review practices aimed at improving literacy outcomes for multilingual language learners (MLLs). This was done by studying the internal coherence practices of a superintendent in Community School District 100 (a pseudonym), an urban school district in the northeast region of the United States.…

The purpose of this study was to investigate Spanish-speaking multilingual learner (MLL) students' long-term academic outcomes after participation in an early childhood education (ECE) program with English instruction. The study included 359 Spanish-speaking MLLs who qualified for Free and Reduced Lunch from Grade 1 to Grade 6. Participants…