As an initial step toward understanding which features of academic language make science-based expository text difficult for students with different English language proficiency (ELP) designations, this study investigated fifth-grade students' thoughts on text difficulty, their knowledge of the features of academic language, and the relationship between academic language and reading comprehension. Forty-five fifth-grade students participated in the study; 18 students were classified as English language learners (ELLs) and 27 students were fluent-English speakers. Participants read two science passages, answered comprehension questions, and engaged in a retrospective interview which probed their knowledge on the academic language features of vocabulary, grammar, and discourse. Qualitative analysis was used to code students' thoughts about the challenges to reading comprehension and to identify the challenges that were related to academic language. Quantitative analyses were conducted to examine whether students' knowledge of academic language features and reading comprehension differed by students' ELP designations, as well as to investigate the relationship between students' knowledge of academic language features and reading comprehension. Results for the qualitative analysis revealed that students found difficult vocabulary, reading abilities, and prior knowledge as the greatest challenges to comprehending the science passages. Results from the quantitative analyses indicated that ELL students' knowledge of academic vocabulary, grammar, discourse knowledge, and reading comprehension (as measured by multiple-choice questions) were significantly lower than the fluent-English speaking students. The results also indicated that vocabulary, not grammar or discourse features, was significantly related to students' comprehension scores. The results have implications for understanding the features of academic language that influence students' comprehension of expository texts in science.

There are approximately 1.3 million Emergent Bilingual students (EB students) in California's public schools (CDE, 2017). The current study examines the relationship between the language ideologies and academic achievement of 18 Spanish-English EB students at a public elementary school in Los Angeles. Language ideologies are "sets of beliefs (or ideas) about language" (Ajsic & McGroarty, 2015, p. 182). One-on-one interviews with EB students revealed that EB students embraced a bilingual language ideology through their bilingual language practices at home and at school and their preference for bilingual instruction. EB students in bilingual classrooms, on average, performed higher on both English and Spanish assessments than EB students in English-only classrooms and often also performed above the national norm in both English and Spanish. There was a positive relationship between bilingual language ideologies and high academic achievement for students in bilingual classrooms. This relationship was not evident for students in English-only classrooms.

Child development is intricately linked to caregiver interactions, particularly through the use of decontextualized language (DL), a vital component in fostering children’s linguistic and socio-cognitive skills. This dissertation comprises two studies exploring the role of DL in Chinese families during mealtimes and evaluating a DL-focused parental conversational strategy program. DL, involving discussions beyond the immediate context, is considered for its high- quality linguistic input due to its interactive, conceptually challenging, and linguistically complex nature (Snow, 1983; Rowe & Snow, 2020). Study One analyzed the Zhou Dinner corpus (Li & Zhou, 2015), which includes mealtime conversations of 34 Chinese children aged 4-5 years and their families. This study employed a multi-level coding scheme to investigate the variability in DL usage among Chinese families. It found that while mothers frequently utilized a wide range of DL elements, fathers engaged less frequently in DL, though both parents often discussed behavior, other people, and plans. These findings indicate cultural influences on DL use in Chinese families and underscore the importance of both parents’ roles in early language development. The study also identified specific maternal DL strategies that positively correlate with children’s recontextualization, socio-cognitive understanding, and future-oriented thinking. Study Two, involving 48 Chinese parent-child dyads from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds and geographic areas, evaluated feasibility and impact of parent-focused conversational strategies training program. Participating parents displayed increased engagement in DL-rich conversations, utilizing more open-ended questions and causal reasoning after receiving the training. Participant feedback resonated with strong satisfaction and receptiveness towards the program. While the training did not yield immediate significant shifts in children's linguistic and socio-cognitive abilities over this short time, a promising trend toward potential benefits was observed. Taken together, this dissertation reveals cultural patterns of DL use within the Chinese context and illustrates the transformative power of DL-focused parental conversational training. These investigations highlight the intricacies and implications of DL in Chinese familial settings, endorsing a multi-methods approach and emphasizing the necessity for diverse cultural explorations in understanding the multifaceted nature of parental language and its role in child development.

This study, employing qualitative methods, examined high school English as a foreign language (EFL) learners' English learning trajectories and their out-of-class English learning practices. The main goal of this study was to understand, from a student perspective, the influence of social factors on English learning trajectories and out-of-class English learning practices. In Phase 1, students (N = 45) documented their out-of-class English activities in the forms of activity logs and photos. Then in-depth interviews were conducted focusing on students' learning trajectories and out-of-class learning practices. Phase 2 involved home observations of selected students from Phase 1 (n = 4). In general, students described their learning trajectories based on what they considered as critical events of their English learning experiences. These critical events typically either dramatically improved or stunted English learning trajectories. Three types of critical events were found: interactions with English speakers, formal instruction, and engagement in informal out-of-school activities. Unexpectedly, despite the study's focus on external factors, two internal factors (self-concept and attitudes) were found to be highly connected to social factors: learning trajectories and out-of-class learning practices, which indicates complicated interrelated relationships among external factors, internal factors, and out-of-class learning. The findings indicate the critical role of social interactions and social structure on both overall English learning trajectories and out-of-class English learning practices. Out-of-class English learning practices found in this study consist of informal in-school activities, formal out-of-school instruction, informal out-of-school instruction, and self-sponsored study. The latter three were found to be highly influential to English learning of this group of students. Out-of-class learning practices were perceived to be helpful in several ways: helping with in-class learning, changing learning trajectories, increasing English exposure, making learning enjoyable, and helping with learning sociocultural aspects of the English language. This study provides practical suggestions to support students' English language development: (1) promote students' self-concept, (2) create quality home English language environment and (3) involve people in students' social network in school interventions.

The ability for a child to explain what he or she is thinking is crucial for their language development. This study focused on children in pre-kindergarten and kindergarten at a university-affiliated elementary school in Southern California and the relationship between their explanatory discourse abilities and their scores on topic vocabulary and picture identification tasks. This study also explored how home discourse practices influence children’s explanatory discourse abilities. The aims of this study were to evaluate the relationship between vocabulary knowledge and their performance on one oral explanation task around the topic of teeth cleaning. The quality of a child’s oral explanation skills is scored on three features: the sophistication of their topic vocabulary, the sophistication of their sentence structure, and the coherence and cohesion of their discourse. Findings suggest that uncommon words knowledge and general vocabulary knowledge positively influence children’s sentence structure skills. We also find that the more frequently parents talk with their children about things they have done together positively influences children’s vocabulary and cohesion/coherence skills. This study adds to previous literature on oral language development by examining a unique genre of oral language, explanatory discourse.

This study sought to identify what language and literacy activities take place between school- aged children and their parents outside the classroom, as well as parents' motivations behind these activities. This investigation found that parents are aware of their children's abilities in language and literacy, are individualizing attention based on children's needs, and are fostering literacy and language development through both routine and special activities outside of school. However, parents could more effectively integrate literacy and language development into their busy lives with a better understanding of what is important for and expected of children in this age group.

This three-study dissertation investigates the impact sociopolitical and school contexts have on teachers' and students' multilingual and psychosocial development.Study 1 explores what motivated Union Community School bilingual teachers to pursue a bilingual teaching career and teach in a Spanish maintenance bilingual program. Utilizing developmental theories and an intersectional perspective, this phenomenological study examined teachers’ semi-structured interview transcripts (N = 13). Inductive and deductive coding techniques were applied to the data. Findings reveal teachers’ experiences of ethnic-racial prejudice had long-term impacts on their well-being. However, developmental assets, such as ethnic-racial identity, critical consciousness, and bilingual acquisition, provided teachers with tools to process prejudice as adolescents and adults. These assets coupled with opportunities to engage with their ethnic-racial social group in positive ways cultivated teachers identity-based motivation for transformative justice. Study 2 employs an embedded sequential mixed-methods design, such that a qualitative strand is embedded within a quantitative design. Quantitative, longitudinal descriptive analysis and calculations of proportions of students exceeding certain benchmark values were examined to identify overall patterns of English and Spanish reading change for different bi/multilingual student groups of predominantly Latinx and Indigenous heritage (N = 393). Additionally, using a smaller sample size (n = 230), student psychosocial covariates (i.e., motivation, socioemotional self-concept) were examined using descriptive analysis across two time points (fourth and fifth grade) to explain overall reading patterns. Qualitatively, portraiture analysis was utilized to further explore two students' perspectives about their reading growth over a two-year span (fourth to fifth grade). Findings suggest that strong Spanish reading competence in the first-grade (spring) supports modest Spanish-reading growth, and greater English-reading growth by the end-of-the fifth grade, even though most students, as kindergarteners, began reading below grade level proficiency in Spanish. Furthermore, the school was effective at supporting English and Spanish reading development: The proportion of students reading at or above grade level in Spanish and English at fifth grade (spring) increased across student cohorts, and students’ motivation to learn Spanish and English increased between the fourth (spring) and fifth (spring) grades. The qualitative findings found that students’ investment in developing their home/heritage languages depends on the language modality (e.g., reading versus speaking). By the end of the fifth grade, students described having a more complex understanding about their bilingualism that goes beyond language preference and performance. Study 3 utilizes phenomenological epistemology, and perspectives on language teaching and learning, to examine the adaptations bi/multilingual teachers made to their practice and knowledge base to meet diverse students’ needs and leverage their assets. Inductive and deductive codes were applied to teachers’ semi-structured interview transcripts (N =13). Findings reveal that teacher-led professional development and student feedback were central to teachers' adaptation process. Furthermore, teacher adaptation did not end in the moment. Teachers reflected on the adaptive experience afterwards, which often led them to further modify instruction and/or curriculum.

The United States has witnessed a rise in dual language immersion (DLI) programs in recent years, with instruction delivered both in English, the majority language spoken in the wider society, and in another language, often referred to as the partner or minority language. But while accountability mandates have focused on students’ performance in core subjects (language arts, math and science), scant attention has been paid to the development of both languages of instruction. The present dissertation seeks to fill this gap by focusing on the French and English lexical trajectories of early elementary school children attending a DLI program (N = 39), with special attention paid to the impact of linguistic support in French, or lack thereof, outside of school itself. Based on parental responses on surveys, information was gathered on the amount and nature of the French language experience received outside of school. Next, using a multilevel model for change, the lexical trajectories of K-1 students in the DLI program is analyzed over one calendar year. Finally, relationships between French and English lexical outcomes are examined. Results suggest that participants’ experiences with the French language remain limited outside of school, even for students coming from French-speaking households. In terms of French lexical trajectories, students from French-speaking households (N = 15) score higher at baseline compared to their peers from non-French-speaking households (N = 24), but they do not display growth over the calendar year; whereas students from non-French-speaking households display progress in their expressive French vocabulary (but not in their receptive vocabulary). In terms of English lexical trajectories, no differences emerged based on students’ home language backgrounds. Participants displayed growth in their receptive English vocabulary, but not their expressive English vocabulary. Finally, results from correlations suggest that the relationship between French and English outcomes is stronger for students from French-speaking households than their peers from non-French-speaking households. This dissertation more fully elucidates the heretofore understudied relationship between out-of-school language experience and vocabulary development for students enrolled in a dual language program. Implications for research and practice with bilingual education are discussed, including the need to examine students’ language development in other domains and to focus on vocabulary instruction.

The goal of this study is to compare classroom discourse in Thai 9th grade science lessons with English or Thai as a medium of instruction. This is a cross-sectional study of video recordings from five lessons in an English-medium instruction class and five lessons in a Thai- medium instruction class from a Thai secondary school. The study involved two teachers and two groups of students. The findings show the use of both English and Thai in English-medium lessons. Students tend to be more responsive to teacher questions in Thai than in English. The findings suggest the use of students' native language during English-medium lessons to help facilitate learning in certain situations. Additionally, the study provides implications for research, practice and policy for using English as a medium of instruction.

Past research has found that bilingual children exhibit an advantage on metalinguistic awareness, the metacognitive ability to reflect on language. However, studies of executive functioning and bilingualism have yielded conflicting results. Given bilinguals need to concentrate on the relevant linguistic system and suppress interference from a second linguistic system simultaneously during processing, they have demonstrated better performance on nonverbal executive tasks involving the choice of two competing perceptual stimuli (interference suppression). However, bilinguals performed no differently on verbal executive tasks that required inhibition of habitual or prepotent responses (response inhibition) than monolinguals. Furthermore, bilinguals have shown weaker vocabulary knowledge in both languages than monolinguals. Thus, the current study hypothesizes that bilingual performance varies in metalinguistic tasks according to task demands on types of executive functioning (interference suppression or response inhibition) and the involvement of linguistic knowledge.

This research aims to analyze the roles of executive control and vocabulary knowledge in metalinguistic tasks in an effort to assess how these two components independently and jointly contribute to metalinguistic development in bilingual and monolingual children. Sixteen English-monolingual 2nd graders and sixteen English-Spanish emerging bilinguals were recruited from a university demonstration school. All students completed four subtests, including Expressive One-Word Picture Vocabulary Test, Color-Shape Task, Zoo Game, and Auditory-visual Selective Attention Task. As expected, this study found bilingual advantage appears differently according to the types of executive control engaged in the metalinguistic tasks. Specifically, emerging bilingual had significantly higher accuracy and less reaction time on the nonverbal metalinguistic tasks involved with response inhibition in relative to monolinguals; meanwhile, there was a bilingual advantage in the number of total responses in the nonverbal interference suppression task. However, emerging bilinguals performed the same as monolinguals did in the verbal interference suppression task. These findings provide new evidences for the diverse effects of bilingualism in the cognitive processing underlying metalinguistic competence.