Mis- and disinformation are rampant issues in our world today which has led to a huge increase in the number of studies researching the topic and its potential solutions. One area that has received attention is how to evaluate media sources and often times, how to evaluate bias in media. Despite past research largely not deciding a joint understanding of this phrase, it has persisted in the research field and in teaching practices. This dissertation had two primary goals: 1) better understand the power that perceptions of bias have on our ability to evaluate information 2) utilize three different methodologies that could replace the term bias in favor of more concrete and identifiable practices and criteria. Study 1 examines the power that perceptions have and specifically the relationship between source perceptions and epistemology. Studies 2 and 3 utilize agenda setting, framing and sentiment analyses to compare various media types to online partisan media. Findings from these studies have strong implications on the research field and how to better teach evaluation of media in today’s highly dynamic informational spaces.

This dissertation investigated second graders’ oral discourse production regarding three aspects: 1) oral discourse production by discourse context, 2) dimensionality of oral discourse production, and 3) contributions of language and cognitive skills to oral discourse production. Data came from 330 second grade students (53% boys) from the Southeastern part of the United States, and oral discourse production was measured through picture description task which was transcribed verbatim and coded for linguistic (e.g., adverb, conjunction, pronominal, elaborated noun phrase, mental state talk) and discourse features (e.g., proper character introduction, degree of decontextualization, perspective taking). Study 1 examined how second graders vary linguistic and discourse features depending on discourse conditions: contextualized condition—describing the picture to an examiner while looking at it together—and decontextualized condition—pretending to describe the picture to a friend while sitting in front of the examiner. Results of multilevel regression showed that type-token ratio, higher degrees of decontextualization, and complex perspective taking were higher in the contextualized condition whereas some elaborated noun phrases, coordinating conjunctions, non-clauses, and proper character introduction occurred more frequently in the decontextualized condition, controlling for total productivity and student demographics. The findings illustrated the extent to which children used their discourse knowledge in oral discourse production. Study 2 looked at the factor structure of oral discourse production using a total of nine linguistic and discourse features identified from the same picture description task in Study 1. Results from confirmatory factor analysis showed that a bi-factor structure consisting of a general oral discourse production factor and two specific linguistic features and discourse features factors provided the best fit to the data. The only reliable factor was the general factor reflecting the common variance among the linguistic and discourse features. Study 3 investigated the structural relations of children’s domain-general cognitive skills (working memory, attentional control), foundational language skills (vocabulary, grammatical knowledge), and higher-order cognitive skills (knowledge-based inference, perspective taking, and comprehension monitoring) to oral discourse production. Oral discourse production was measured by the same picture description task as in Study 1. The results from structural equation models showed that domain-general cognitive skills and foundational language skills had indirect contributions to oral discourse production through the higher-order cognitive skill of inference, highlighting the supporting role of language and cognitive skills and their direct and indirect relations to oral discourse production.

The purpose of this dissertation was to investigate how the quality and quantity of literacy instruction are related to children's language and reading achievement at the elementary level. To this end, I conducted three studies: Study 1 used a meta-analytic approach to synthesize extant research findings regarding the correlational coefficients reported between the observed classroom practices (including both quality and quantity of teaching behaviors) and students’ language and literacy achievement from Pre-K to 6th grade; Study 2 employed multilevel multivariate models to examine the how the instructional quantity (i.e., amount of code-based or meaning-based instruction) is related to Grade 1 to Grade 3 students’ reading outcomes while accounting for the relation of students’ initial reading skills to teachers’ instruction as well as a variety of student-and teacher-level characteristics such as students’ race, gender and teachers’ teaching experience; Study 3 employed multilevel multivariate models to examine the how the instructional quality (i.e., teacher warmth and responsiveness, and organization for instruction) is related to student language (listening comprehension) and reading achievement while accounting for the relation of students’ initial reading skills to teachers’ instruction in Grade 1 to Grade 3.

Study 1 obtained a significant but weak association between the observed classroom practices and students’ language and literacy achievement from 108 studies: the average zero-order correlation is .12 and the partial correlation is .04. The relation was slightly weaker in upper than in lower grade levels and stronger for observations capturing macro quality and an instructional dimension than those capturing micro quantitative measurement and an emotional or structural dimension, respectively. Study 2 used data from 800 students and their teachers from Grade 1 to Grade 3, and detected a positive relation of a greater amount of meaning-based instruction to Grade 1 and Grade 2 students’ reading comprehension and a negative relation of the increasing amount of code-based instruction to Grade 2 and Grade 3 students’ reading comprehension. Study 3 used data from 372 students and their teachers in Grade 1 to Grade 3 (part of the sample in Study 2), and found a positive relation of teacher warmth and responsiveness to students’ word reading in Grade 2 and a positive relation of organization for instruction to listening comprehension in Grade 3. These results collectively suggest a weak relation of the observed quantity and quality of literacy instruction to students’ language and reading development at the elementary level. In addition, this dissertation shed light on the complexity and multidimensionality of classroom instruction and advocated more deliberated consideration in developing and applying observational tools in informing teaching and monitoring students’ language and literacy development.

Keywords: classroom observation, language and literacy development, meta-analysis, elementary education

Spelling development is a foundational component of literacy, yet the combined contributions of cognitive, linguistic, and contextual factors remain underexplored, particularly in longitudinal contexts. This dissertation investigates spelling development from three perspectives: (1) the role of children's cognitive and linguistic skills and word characteristics in English spelling development, (2) the longitudinal relation between English spelling and word reading and the use of a more fine-grained scoring method for spelling, and (3) the cross-linguistic influences on spelling development in Spanish-English bilingual children.Study 1 aimed to explore how child level factors (e.g., word reading, vocabulary, attentional control, and working memory) and word level factors (e.g., orthographic transparency, number of morphemes, word length, word frequency, word concreteness, and age of acquisition) shape spelling development. Data were collected from 165 English-speaking children assessed longitudinally from Grades 2 to 4. Using longitudinal explanatory item response modeling, results showed that word reading had the strongest positive effect on spelling while attentional control also predicted spelling with its influence strengthening over time. Vocabulary had a positive relation to spelling when word reading was not included but showed a suppression effect when word reading was accounted for. Working memory only showed a significant relation when other child level factors were not included. Morphological complexity and word concreteness also had a significant relation with children's spelling performance. Study 2 examined the longitudinal relation between word reading and spelling, using correctness scores and text distance scoring methods. Using the same data set as Study 1, cross-lagged panel models were used. Results showed bidirectional relations between word reading and spelling from Grades 2 to 3 and a unidirectional relation from word reading to spelling from Grades 3 to 4 with correctness scores, while text distance scores revealed unidirectional relations, with spelling consistently predicting word reading over time. Study 3 investigated the spelling development of 209 Spanish-English bilingual children assessed in Grades 1 and 3, with a focus on scoring methods and instructional programs. Using correctness scores, Spanish spelling positively predicted later English spelling, while English spelling negatively predicted Spanish spelling. This negative effect was not observed with text distance scores, which provided a more nuanced understanding of bilingual spelling development. Instructional program differences also influenced cross-linguistic relations when nonbinary scoring was used. Overall, this dissertation advances the understanding of spelling development by highlighting the roles of cognitive and linguistic factors, nonbinary scoring methods, and cross-linguistic influences, providing valuable insights for instructional practices and assessment for spelling.

This dissertation outlines three studies investigating linguistically diverse students’ (including bilingual and monolingual students) language use and self-efficacy in writing. Bilingual students are those who speak a language other than English, including students with various levels of English proficiency and language experience. The first two studies (Study 1 and Study 2) examine the relations of language use features to writing performance, while the third study examines which dimensions of writing self-efficacy are more crucial for educators to target. The Direct and Indirect Effects Model of Writing (DIEW; Kim & Graham, 2022) and the Writer(s)-Within-Community serve as the guiding theoretical frameworks for this dissertation. According to DIEW and WWC, many linguistic, socioemotional, and cognitive skills and knowledge are needed to write proficiently. The present dissertation focuses on language skills and self-efficacy in writing. Study 1 is a meta-analysis that aims to investigate the relations between syntactic features and writing performance systematically. Previous studies have inconsistent results regarding the relation between syntactic complexity and writing quality and the moderating roles of measurement (e.g., genre, syntactic complexity measures) and writers’ (i.e., language proficiency, age) in the relation. The results show a weak relation between syntactic features and writing performance, and the relation can be moderated by measurement and writers’ characteristics. Study 2 examines the predictive accuracy of machine learning in predicting multiple dimensions of writing quality (structure, evidence use, historical thinking, and language use) in secondary history source-based argument writing. In addition, based on linguistic features that contribute to the prediction of writing quality, the study further examines language use patterns in bilingual and monolingual writers with different EL designations. Results indicated that machine learning models can explain a higher variance in writing quality scores. English Learners (EL) performed lower on lexical sophistication and global cohesion, but bilingual students designated as proficient in English performed equivalently with their monolingual peers. Using the same data as in Study 2, Study 3 examines secondary students’ writing self-efficacy. The study examines (1) in which dimension(s) students feel less efficacious in writing, (2) which dimension(s) is more predictive of students’ writing quality, and (3) to what extent students of different EL designations perform differently. Results showed that students had the lowest writing self-efficacy in self-regulation, which was the dimension that was significantly associated with writing quality. In addition, EL students and students designated as Reclassified Fluent English Proficient (RFEP) had lower writing self-efficacy in ideation and revision, whereas their writing self-efficacy in self-regulation was equivalent to students who were initially fluent in English since they entered school. These findings suggest that the text-based linguistic features can provide information about students’ language skills and areas of improvement in an authentic writing context. Students, in general, had lower writing self-efficacy in self-regulation, which is a critical skill to navigate through the writing process. Students who had the experience of being an EL may have lower writing self-efficacy in certain aspects but had equivalent writing self-efficacy in self-regulation.