Theses and Dissertations

Date of Award

5-2024

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

English

First Advisor

Beatrice Newman

Second Advisor

Randall Monty

Third Advisor

Alejandra Ramirez

Abstract

As many students who graduate from high school transition into applying for college or university, they are not aware of the drastic changes that come with it. For bilingual students, this transition can be much more challenging due to their language barrier and the lack of support they may receive. The intersection of demographics, pedagogy, and linguistic agency led to the research question for this study: how can pedagogies in first-year writing classes be adjusted or developed to justly educate and assess bilingual students who are still working toward competence in English? The history of bilingual education includes restrictive national policies aimed at excluding immigrants as well as education acts that aim at equalizing the educational field. With all these acts in place and the requirements that fall underneath them, you may ask yourself “where do educators go wrong?” or “how is there an issue when these are federal and state implemented acts?” The gap that most bilingual students fall through is between the transition from high school to college. The main issues in bilingual education are the shortage of training for instructors and the lack of teaching materials, especially at the college level. This research explores strategies, activities, assignments, classroom practices, and instructor mindsets aimed at creating a classroom ecology of linguistically and culturally inclusive space.

Comments

Copyright 2024 Sumantha Nikole Zapata.

https://go.openathens.net/redirector/utrgv.edu?url=https://www.proquest.com/pqdtglobal1/dissertations-theses/ecologies-teaching-with-bilingual-students/docview/3085312001/sem-2?accountid=7119

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