A Case Study of Hispanic Middle School Students In An ESL Classroom: Discourses In Academic Reading Instruction

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Andrews, H. (2010). A Case Study of Hispanic Middle School Students In An ESL Classroom: Discourses In Academic Reading Instruction. Unc Charlotte Electronic Theses And Dissertations.
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Abstract

This case study examined student teacher interaction that took place in one ESL middle school classroom with 29 Latino/a students learning to read in English. Observations in classrooms and interviews with teachers were conducted over a ten month period, one complete school year. Students were also tested in their reading comprehension in Spanish at the beginning of the school year. These results were compared with results on English entrance exams and with the results on English reading tests at the end of the school year. The important and main themes were those of the ESL teachers' preparation of the students in reading and writing throughout the school year for the spring term project and a juried poster presentation, and the students' self-reflection contained in responses to teacher initiated prompts. The principal artifact mediating learning was the interactive computer software programs provided by the school. The qualitative results suggest that students' strong identification with family and the immigrant circumstances may provide discourse dissonances that interfere with motivation and the development of self-directed learning. The results of testing showed that a student's year-end results in English reading were predicted by the beginning level of English reading skills. A lesser, but still significant finding, was that L1 Spanish reading performance was a predictor of L2 English reading performance.

Details
Author

Andrews, Horace

Title

A Case Study of Hispanic Middle School Students In An ESL Classroom: Discourses In Academic Reading Instruction

Physical Description

1 online resource (137 pages) : PDF

Date

2010

Degree Granting Institution

University of North Carolina at Charlotte

Abstract

This case study examined student teacher interaction that took place in one ESL middle school classroom with 29 Latino/a students learning to read in English. Observations in classrooms and interviews with teachers were conducted over a ten month period, one complete school year. Students were also tested in their reading comprehension in Spanish at the beginning of the school year. These results were compared with results on English entrance exams and with the results on English reading tests at the end of the school year. The important and main themes were those of the ESL teachers' preparation of the students in reading and writing throughout the school year for the spring term project and a juried poster presentation, and the students' self-reflection contained in responses to teacher initiated prompts. The principal artifact mediating learning was the interactive computer software programs provided by the school. The qualitative results suggest that students' strong identification with family and the immigrant circumstances may provide discourse dissonances that interfere with motivation and the development of self-directed learning. The results of testing showed that a student's year-end results in English reading were predicted by the beginning level of English reading skills. A lesser, but still significant finding, was that L1 Spanish reading performance was a predictor of L2 English reading performance.

Genre

doctoral dissertations

Subjects--Topics

English language--Study and teaching--Foreign speakers
Ethnicity--Study and teaching
Hispanic Americans--Study and teaching

Degree

Ph.D.

Keywords

ESL
Hispanic
Testing

Subject Area

Curriculum & Instruction

Advisor(s)

Pugalee, David

Committee Members

Wang, Chuang
Miller, Elizabeth
Flint, Karen

Degree Note

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of North Carolina at Charlotte, 2010.

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Rights Holder Information

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Identifier

Andrews_uncc_0694D_10157

Permalink

http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.13093/etd:1133