Browsing by Subject "Bilingual"

Now showing 1 - 6 of 6
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    A case study of a first-grade teacher team collaboratively planning literacy instruction for English learners
    (2013-06) Frederick, Amy Rae
    Teachers, researchers and policy-makers in the areas of literacy and language development have recently touted teacher collaboration as an innovative approach to better serving elementary English learners. Collaborative planning and instructional approaches are becoming widespread in educational practice. And though research seems promising in terms of benefits for teachers and students, there is scant information about the collaborative meaning-making practices of teacher teams and the instructional decisions that result. In the current study I explore the practices and perceptions of one first-grade team as they collaborate to plan instruction for their English-learning students. My study is situated within a sociocultural framework (Vygotsky, 1978; Johnson, 2009) and uses case study methodology to provide an in-depth exploration of the actions and perceptions of teachers within a unique context (Merriam, 2009). I highlight three major findings: the team's planning practices were significantly influenced by multi-layered policies in both supportive and restrictive ways; the team's collaborative planning promoted practices that may improve the teachers' understandings of English learners and support improved classroom practice; and the participants, though dissatisfied with aspects of their collaborative practices, felt that overall they were better teachers because of them. Findings from this project add to the fields of professional development and literacy instruction for English learners by identifying the influences and tensions embedded in the teachers' work and exposing the everyday negotiations of complicated issues that teachers undertake.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    The cognitive effects of bilingualism: does knowing two languages impact children’s ability to reason about mental states?
    (2010-04) Millett, Katherine Ruth Gordon
    In a number of studies, bilingual children have been shown to outperform monolingual children in false belief tasks, thus providing evidence that bilingualism affects children's ability to reason about the mental states of others. However, there are two limitations to this past work. The first limitation is that false belief tasks only measure a limited aspect of children's mental state reasoning abilities. Thus, performance in false belief tasks cannot be assumed to reflect a general ability to reason about the mental states of others. Secondly, the language skills of the bilingual groups included in this past work were only reliably measured in one language. Thus, we do not have a good understanding of how language proficiency across both languages impacts mental state reasoning abilities. In order to address these limitations, 3- to 5-year-old Spanish-English bilingual children and English monolingual children were tested using Wellman and Liu's (2004) scale which assesses a variety of aspects of mental state reasoning. The scale includes the following tasks: a Diverse Desires task, a Diverse Beliefs task, a Knowledge Access task, a Contents False Belief task, an Explicit False Belief task, a Belief-Emotion task, and a Real-Apparent Emotion task. Additionally, the language proficiency of the bilingual group was measured in both English and Spanish using standardized measures of vocabulary comprehension (the PPVT and the TVIP). Results indicate that when English vocabulary level was controlled, the bilingual children outperformed the monolingual children in the Diverse Desires task. Furthermore, effect sizes suggest that the bilingual children also outperformed the monolingual children in the Knowledge Access, Belief-Emotion, and Real-Apparent Emotion tasks when English vocabulary level was controlled. Overall, these findings provide evidence that bilingualism contributes to a broader effect on mental state reasoning than has been previously found.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    A comparison between nonlinguistic cognitive processing treatment and traditional language treatment for bilingual children with primary language impairment
    (2011-07) Ebert, Kerry Danahy
    Background: Children with Primary Language Impairment (PLI) show subtle weaknesses in nonlinguistic cognitive processing (NCP) skills such as attention, memory, and speed of processing. It is possible that these weaknesses contribute causally to the language delays that characterize PLI. For bilingual children with PLI, NCP weaknesses would underlie language learning ability for both languages. The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between NCP skills and language skills in bilingual children with PLI by treating processing speed and attention. Methods: A total of 24 participants in three groups (NCP treatment, English language treatment, and delayed treatment control) completed the study protocol. All participants were Spanish-English bilingual children with PLI between the ages of 6 and 10 years. All participants completed an extensive battery of assessments indexing NCP, English language, and Spanish language skills both before and after a treatment cycle. Analyses examined change for individuals, for each group separately, and for the three groups in comparison to one another. Results: Children who completed the NCP treatment showed significant change in processing speed and in overall English language skills. However, children who completed the English language treatment tended to make greater gains, both in English and in NCP skills. Few comparisons between the three groups reached significance, in part because the delayed treatment control group tended to make positive change and in part because of the small sample size. Individual variability was apparent across all three groups, but particularly pronounced for Spanish. Conclusions: The results support a connection between NCP and language skills in children with PLI. Language-based treatment programs may effectively alter NCP skills, and NCP treatment programs may alter language skills.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Review of El Coyotito Y La Viejita (Baby Coyote And The Old Woman) by Carmen Tafolla
    (Voices from the Gaps, 2005) McNally, Amy; Chadwick, Grace
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    The Role of Ambulatory Care Pharmacists in an HIV Multidisciplinary Team within a Free and Bilingual Clinic
    (University of Minnesota, College of Pharmacy, 2013) Vanmali, Radha S; Mayer, Sallie D; Fugit, Ann M
    Objective: Describe the role and integration of ambulatory care pharmacists in a Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) clinic within a free and bilingual clinic with regards to types of interventions made during the patient-pharmacist visit. Design: Retrospective, single-centered, chart review. Setting: Free, bilingual clinic in Richmond, VA. Participants: Thirty-two adult patients with diagnosed HIV receiving care in the clinic between June 30, 2010 and January 26, 2011. Main Outcome Measure: Types of interventions documented during the patient-pharmacist visit, categorized as medication review, patient education, or adherence monitoring. Results: Total of 32 patients accounted for 55 patient-pharmacist visits and 296 interventions. The most common interventions were medication review (66.9%), patient education (23.3%), and adherence monitoring (9.8%). Post-hoc analysis suggests Hispanic patients are more likely to be diagnosed with Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) (P = 0.01), have current or history of opportunistic infection (OI) (P=0.01), and have current or history of OI prophylaxis (P = 0.03). Adherence monitoring was less common amongst the non-Hispanics (7.1%) compared to the Hispanic sub-population (16.5%), (P = 0.04). Conclusion: The role of ambulatory care pharmacists in a free and bilingual clinic goes beyond adherence monitoring. Pharmacists can be a valuable part of the patient care team by providing medication review and patient education for HIV and other co-morbidities within free clinics. Further research is warranted to assess outcomes and to further explore the underlying barriers to early HIV diagnosis and adherence within the Hispanic population.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Social Communication Across Language Environments in Nonverbal Children with ASD from English and non-English Speaking Families
    (2015-10) Monn, Emily
    The purpose of this study was to examine the use of social communication acts exhibited by non-verbal preschool-aged children across different language environments. Children from English and non-English speaking backgrounds were exposed to social interactions with a bilingual interventionist who interacted with the children in a home and world language. Results of this study indicated that there were differences in social communication acts across participants, but not within participants across language environments. In this study, the children did not appear to discriminate between language environments, which supports previous research suggesting that there are no harmful effects in exposing children to more than one language. Implications of the findings, limitations, and future research directions are discussed.