This paper presents a case study in which the principles of scholarship were applied to designing an approach to learning suitable for large classes. While this case study describes an Australian first year Business Law unit, the findings presented in this paper would be relevant to a wide range of teachers faced with large enrollments in first…

The aim was to examine achievement and self-efficacy in mathematics and native and foreign language literacy in children with specific mathematic LD (MD-only), children with comorbid mathematic and reading difficulties (MD-RD), and compare them with children without LD (controls), as well as to explore gender differences. Participants were 143…

This study investigates the impact of students' participation in the certificate program offered by the Asian Studies Center (ASC) at the University of Pittsburgh on their perception of global competency and skills development for international careers. Undergraduate and graduate students who were enrolled in the ASC's certificate program as of…

The research in this dissertation describes a Grounded Theory approach to identifying critical knowledge components of Teacher Content Knowledge (TCK) and Teacher Pedagogical Knowledge (TPK) for ESL teachers who must teach reading to young English language learners, often with little literacy training The research explored how professional…

Some have argued in favor of translation in the L2 classroom (Danchev, 1983; Levenston, 1985; Ballester Casado, 1991; Newson, 1998; Malloy, 2001; Bonyadi, 2003; Colina, 2006; Kulwindr, 2005; Petrocchi, 2006; House, 2008), while others have argued against it (Sweet, 1899/1964; Jespersen, 1901/1904; Lado, 1957, 1964; Gatenby, 1967; Sankey, 1991),…

Disparities exist in healthcare related to language barriers and lack of cultural understanding between caregivers and recipients. Increasing the linguistic and cultural diversity of caregivers may decrease the healthcare disparities observed. The research study described in this manuscript was conducted to explore the undergraduate student…

This dissertation is focused on analyzing phonological contact between Slavic and non-Slavic languages in southeastern and northeastern Europe, with the particular goal of describing how the social context of language contact interacts with linguistic factors to shape the outcome of contact-induced change. On the basis of case studies drawn from…

The U.S. is the leading nation for international students to pursue higher education; the majority of whom are from countries with significant differences in culture and language from American students. As such, many international students start higher education in ESL support programs. While on the surface international students supposedly add…

In this study, we describe two studies used to select appropriate assessments to measure phonemic awareness, alphabetic principle, and fluency in the Spanish language for students receiving literacy instruction in Spanish. We first describe two studies in which we use linear regression and correlations to examine the appropriateness of different…

Program evaluation in the fields of second language acquisition (SLA) and teaching English to speakers of other languages (TESOL) has a history dating from the 1960's. The focus of previous program evaluations has been on language achievement at the end of the program of study (Lynch, 1996). However, to improve or maintain program quality, teacher…

Immigration into the U.S. will continue to increase in the coming years, thereby increasing the postsecondary enrollment of ESL students. Yet there is still a limited amount of research designed to evaluate which ESL placement programs are most effective. This study was designed to determine if the use of correct testing instruments would ensure…

In this qualitative study eight international scholars and practitioners of English were interviewed in order to understand their viewpoints about how English language teaching is evolving from a role of English as a Foreign Language to one of English as an International Language in this contemporary world in which there are more nonnative…

The central research question for this dissertation is: "How do overseas Christian ESOL teachers describe putting their religious beliefs into practice in their profession?" Specifically, the focus is on mostly evangelical Christian English language teachers who have earned a TESOL certificate and who at the time of this project were…

The nature of teaching expertise for form-focused instruction (FFI) in secondary schools has received little research attention. FFI research that has been carried out so far has devoted time in exploring the classification of one form of FFI, or the effectiveness of one form of FFI over another. Given that exploring teaching expertise for FFI in…

Confronted with many challenges to improving the quality of U.S. public K-12 education, many policymakers have viewed the study of a second language as a useful but nonessential ingredient of a world-class education system. However, others point out that dual-language education can be a powerful intervention for closing the achievement gap for…