The passing of No Child Left Behind has reawakened interest in several perennial topics: time-to-reclassification, long-term ELLs, the impact of language policy on student outcomes, and differences in retention patterns. This thesis consists of four studies that, together, addre…
"33" Result
Sort By:
This master's thesis investigated realizations of typologically marked structures (word final stops) in the interlanguages of 15 ESL learners across Arabic, Brazilian-Portuguese and Japanese first languages (L1s). In general, previous theories of markedness (see Eckman's MARKEDN…
This study is an exploration of the English language learning experiences of four Malaysians who were students in the U.S. at the time of the research. They represent the three main ethnic groups in Malaysia, namely the Malays, Chinese, and Indians. The objectives of this study …
The purpose of this project was to create a handbook that would enable teachers of adult Arabic ELLs to teach grammar effectively and efficiently. The goal in providing such a handbook was to help teachers use communicative activities and tasks in their classrooms with the inten…
Many research studies have been conducted in Arab countries to examine the difficulties that Arab students encounter in learning English writing. Unfortunately, not much of that scholarship deals with the challenges that these second language learners face when they pursue degre…
In response to increased focus on English Language Learners (ELLs), districts and schools have attempted to impact the academic performance of this group by engaging in improvement processes intended to increase achievement. The purpose of this study was to examine the responsiv…
Response to Intervention (RTI) has been shown to be an effective process for intervention in the United States. Numerous meta-analyses have been conducted to demonstrate that overall effect sizes are strong with regard to RTI research. Because of the effectiveness in the United …
Mastery of idioms in a second language is an important part of learners' lexical and cultural competence. This study provided insights into the processes that partake in interlanguage idiomatics. It also looked at the role of participants' first language in the comprehension and…
The purpose of this research is to examine the challenges of teaching English in Nigerian public secondary schools with special emphasis on what teachers and teacher educators think about this issue. Primary data was gathered through the administration of questionnaires to teach…
The purpose of this study is to describe the relationship between acculturation and Arabic language skills in Arab American youth in a community center setting. Seventy Arabic speaking students at the age of 13 through 17 in a Midwestern state were selected on a non-random sampl…
This study compares native English, Spanish, Lao, Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, Arabic, and all other ELL students over one, two, three, and four-year spans to determine if certain groups appear to face more difficulties in developing early reading mastery by third grade. This st…
This dissertation delves into some EFL stakeholders' understanding of spiritual identities and power relations associated with these identities as performed in an undergraduate EFL teacher education program at a Christian university in Indonesia. This study is motivated by an on…
This dissertation includes a pilot study on the challenges facing students and teachers in middle school and a follow-up study on the influences of situated learning on pre-service teachers' cultural and linguistic awareness. The first study was conducted in spring 2012 and it f…
This study investigated the extent to which Saudi students were interested in American academic slang terms and expressions. The goal of this study was to examine their knowledge and perceptions of academic slang as L2 learners living in the US. In this study, both qualitative a…
United Arab Emirates (UAE) is currently undergoing massive educational reform, especially in the teaching and assessment methods of all subject-matter areas. In Abu Dhabi, the capital of UAE, the Abu Dhabi Education Council (ADEC) has mandated the revamping of English language t…
The current study tests the use of vowel duration as a cue for the voicing of the following stop by Saudi ESL learners. It is mainly constructed on the Language Transfer Theory (LTT) established by Gass and Selinker (1994), the Ontogeny Phylogeny Model (OPM) formulated by Major …
Technology is advancing in continuous and swift steps, producing many tools that can be utilized in language teaching and learning practice.This study aims to examine the perceptions of 16 male English writing students in a Saudi university towards the utility of using blogging …
Reading comprehension is an essential part in developing any language and literacy program. Many literacy programs have taken care to focus on improving reading comprehension instruction at different grade and ability levels, including English as a Second Language and English as…
My dissertation focuses on ESL writing development of Omani students' writing at college level. More specifically, I am interested in tracing the students' development in college writing across three levels. My research questions are: are 4th year students' essays more complex t…