English Language Status Research Articles

Integrating the plate tectonic and rock genesis systems for secondary school students

This paper describes how plate tectonics and rock genesis, two topics that are typically addressed separately in secondary Earth science classes, can be taught together as an integrated system. We define the TecRocks Reasoning Framework, developed to support student reasoning about rock formation situated in the context of plate tectonics. We also explain how we leveraged the framework in the designs of a new curriculum, interactive computer simulation, and assessment instrument. We show how the instrument was used to evaluate the curriculum, which included the computer simulation. We analyzed pretest and post-test data of 319 students taught by 10 teachers in diverse middle and high schools in the United States. Our analysis allowed us to discern different levels of reasoning in student explanations. On average, students made a significant pretest to post-test gain (p < .001) with a large effect size (Cohen’s d = 1.03) after using the curriculum. All student groups made significant gains regardless of their gender, English language status, race, or school level. However, the amount of gain significantly differed by school level, p < .001. The middle school students as a group made a larger pretest to post-test gain (d = 1.42) than the high school students (d = 0.66).

Linguistic Features of Secondary School Writing: Can Natural Language Processing Shine a Light on Differences by Sex, English Language Status, or Higher Scoring Essays?

This article provides three major contributions to the literature: we provide granular information on the development of student argumentative writing across secondary school; we replicate the MacArthur et al. model of Natural Language Processing (NLP) writing features that predict quality with a younger group of students; and we are able to examine the differences for students across language status. In our study, we sought to find the average levels of text length, cohesion, connectives, syntactic complexity, and word-level complexity in this sample across Grades 7-12 by sex, by English learner status, and for essays scoring above and below the median holistic score. Mean levels of variables by grade suggest a developmental progression with respect to text length, with the text length increasing with grade level, but the other variables in the model were fairly stable. Sex did not seem to affect the model in meaningful ways beyond the increased fluency of women writers. We saw text length and word level differences between initially designated and redesignated bilingual students compared to their English-only peers. Finally, we see that the model works better with our higher scoring essays and is less effective explaining the lower scoring essays.

A Longitudinal Examination of Latinx Students’ Kindergarten Readiness with High School Achievement and Discipline Violations

Understanding achievement and discipline trajectories of Latinx students is critical given disproportionate dropout/pushout rates of Latinx students from schools across the U.S. Using a Critical Race Theory framework, the current study examined longitudinal associations amongst a sample of (N = 1672) Latinx youths’ school readiness at kindergarten entry and their subsequent academic achievement and discipline violation assignments in high school, also examining the associations with gender, socioeconomic status, English language status, and special education status. A moderated mediation analysis found that high school achievement fully mediated the negative association between kindergarten readiness and high school discipline outcomes. Gender, SES, and English language status were all found to have non-significance or poor fit as moderators. The association between kindergarten readiness and high school achievement was significant for students in general education but not in special education. Implications related to these findings, early assessment, intervention, and best school discipline practices are discussed.

The Status and the Future of the English Language in Jordan

This paper explores the English language status in Jordan in the past, present, and future. The predictions for the future depend on the historical performance of both Jordanian learners of English and developments in Jordanian institutions providing English teaching as a foreign language for the previous century. The study discusses the policies which may improve English education at public and private schools and universities. Besides, the research is going to try to provide sophisticated anticipation for the status of the English language in Jordan for the next 30 years or more. The primary finding is that the growth of Departments of English and the number of university students using English for their majors are following the Fibonacci Sequence. The study may benefit teachers, students, researchers, linguists, language planners, and policymakers. The findings are also discussed within Communication Accommodation Theory (Giles, 1980, 2001; Giles &amp; Johnson, 1987; Giles &amp; Harwood, 1997) and social identity theory (Tajfel &amp;Turner, 1986; Turner &amp; Reynolds 2001).

Perceived stressors of undergraduate dental students at an Australasian dental school

The purpose of this study was to identify the perceived stressors of Bachelor of Dental Surgery (BDS) students at a prominent Australasian dental school using the Dental Environment Stress (DES) questionnaire. All BDS students were emailed a modified version of the DES questionnaire. The questionnaire consisted of forty questions: seven collecting demographic information, one free text question and thirty-two items related to various sources of stress, grouped into four subscales: 1) Academic 2) Clinical and patient related 3) Environmental and 4) Personal. Students were asked to rate the items on a five-point Likert-type scale ranging from not at all stressful (1) to extremely stressful (5). Of the 314 students emailed, 165 responded to the survey (52.5% response rate). The academic subscale had the highest self-reported mean stress score (3.09 ± 0.68 (SD)); compared with the clinical (2.71 ± 0.77), environmental (2.40 ± 0.77) and personal (2.37 ± 0.68) subscales. There was a statistically significant difference (p&lt;0.05) in self-perceived clinic related stress levels between male and female students, with female students reporting more stress. There was also a statistically significant difference in self-perceived environmental stress between second- and third-year students (p=0.037), and in perceived personal stress between students based on their English language status (p=0.034). These findings can enable identification of students who might be at higher risk of stress to ensure support is provided for them; specifically, female students and students in their third year. Results also indicate the need to develop interventions to help all students with academic stressors.

Longitudinal impact of interactive science activities: Developing, implementing, and validating a graphing integration inventory

AbstractIntegrating sophisticated graphical analysis skills as they learn science is essential for K‐12 students and emphasized in current standards. In this study, we iteratively designed a Graphing Integration Inventory (GII) over a three‐year period, while also supporting students to develop their capabilities to use graphs to learn science content in complex ways through interactive curriculum materials implemented on a novel technology enhanced curriculum platform. We applied the Knowledge Integration framework to design the curriculum, the assessments, and the rubrics for scoring student explanations. The framework delineates ways to promote links among graphs and science ideas. The rubrics award students higher scores on their explanations based on the level of complexity of their connections between science concepts and, in this research, graphs. The GII and the aligned curriculum were implemented by over 300 middle school students (Grades 6–8) across a 3‐year period. We investigated the impact of the designed curriculum on the integration of graphing and science while also studying the psychometric properties of the GII to validate it for use in future studies. Findings suggest both that the curriculum used to support these students improved their Knowledge Integration capabilities significantly and that the GII instrument is suitable for use with populations across gender and native English language status demographics in Grades 6–8. Implications are discussed around using graphs to learn complex science ideas, as well as the affordances of technology enhanced platforms to support this type of learning and assessment.

Evaluating English Learner Progress in Reading: How Much Growth Can We Expect?

The purpose of this study was to explore whether or not English learners (ELs) have the same annual rates of reading progress as non-EL counterparts in Grades 1 through 3 when accounting for beginning-of-the-year reading levels, economic disadvantage, and classroom effects. Though significant differences between ELs and non-ELs were found, regression analyses indicated that large portions of the differences in growth between ELs and non-ELs are attributable to economic disadvantage and classroom effects, suggesting that contextual variables matter more than English language status. Furthermore, a large portion of ELs from across English oral language proficiency levels make typical or well above typical progress. These results suggest that interventionists should use the same goal setting and intervention evaluation procedures for EL students that are used in the general population. Rather than lowering expectations for reading progress, educators should boost intervention potency when ELs are not meeting growth goals.

Association of Early-Life Social and Digital Media Experiences With Development of Autism Spectrum Disorder–Like Symptoms

Despite growing evidence that parent-child interactions and time viewing digital media affect child development, these factors have rarely been studied in association with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) symptoms. To determine the association of experiential factors, including social activities and screen viewing in the first 18 months of life, perinatal factors, and demographic factors, with ASD-like symptoms and risk on the Modified Checklist for Autism in Toddlers (M-CHAT) at 2 years. Data for this cohort study were derived from the National Children's Study, a US multicenter epidemiological study of environmental influences on child health and development. A total of 2152 children were enrolled at birth from October 1, 2010, to October 31, 2012. Data were analyzed from December 1, 2017, to December 3, 2019. Caregivers reported whether the child viewed television and/or videos (yes or no) at 12 months of age, hours of viewing at 18 months of age, time spent by the caregiver reading to the child (number of days per week compared with daily) at 12 months of age, and frequency of playing with the child (daily or less than daily) at 12 months of age. Prematurity, maternal age at birth, child sex, household income, race/ethnicity, and caregiver English-language status were included in analysis. Significant association of exposures with ASD risk by M-CHAT and/or ASD-like symptoms assessed by revised M-CHAT (M-CHAT-R) total score in multiple regression models. Among the 2152 children included in the analysis (1099 boys [51.1%]), television and/or video viewing (yes or no) at 12 months of age was significantly associated with greater ASD-like symptoms at 2 years of age (change, 4.2%; 95% CI, 0.1%-8.3%) but not with ASD risk (risk prevalence rates, 8.3% vs 4.4%; adjusted odds ratio [AOR], 1.40; 95% CI, 0.86-2.29). Similarly, parent-child play daily compared with less than daily was significantly associated with fewer ASD-like symptoms at 2 years of age (change, -8.9%; 95% CI, -16.5% to -0.9%) but not with ASD risk (risk prevalence rates, 6.4% vs 14.0%; AOR, 0.58; 95% CI, 0.31-1.08). However, high screen viewing at 18 months of age was not significantly associated with ASD-like symptoms (change, 10.7%; 95% CI, -2.0% to 23.0%) or ASD risk by M-CHAT (AOR, 1.18; 95% CI, 0.56-2.49) at 2 years of age. This cohort study found greater screen exposure and less caregiver-child play early in life to be associated with later ASD-like symptoms. Further research is needed to evaluate experiential factors for potential risk or protective effects in ASD.

Нормотворчество в современном английском языке: ошибки или коммуникативные инновации?

The article discusses the current changing of linguistic norms in English as a lingua franca of global communication nowadays. It aims at both determining the causes of language deviations and analyzing language errors as well as their impact on the effectiveness of the English language communication. Based on the analysis of abundant empirical material, we prove that language innovations are caused by the immanent structural, functional, and pragmatic variability / instability of the English language; they are also associated with cognitive and sociocultural evolution. The research methodology includes: a corpus-based analysis of speech errors; interpretative, context and discourse analyses of the sources of language errors, as well as their distribution, adaptation, habitualization, legitimization, and regulation. We discuss the degree of influence of these processes on native and non-native speakers. Special attention is paid to multilingual interference and the Internet language creation. The findings show that it is impossible to separate language errors from language innovations today. Such conventional governing principles of error normalization as credibility, codification, and approval are still playing an important role while the demographic and geographic principles are losing their significance. The Internet communication often proliferates error normalization processes, which result in evaluating (accepting or rejecting) any innovation according to the principle of “virtual validity”. In conclusion, the English language status as a language of the international communication significantly transforms its norms, rules, and traditions. We think, this will not worsen it, but allow people of different nationalities to communicate in English more effective using their “English variant”, which is the most adapted one to their cognitive, functional and pragmatic needs.

Attitudes to English in the Kaleidoscopic Iranian Context: Second, Foreign or International?

Today’s world seems to be quite overwhelmingly concerned with communication as an incontestable aspect of which is communicating with people lacking a shared linguistic background. A common language (or lingua franca) would, therefore, be needed which can cut across all local, national, and regional linguistic boundaries. This study aimed at exploring the attitudes of 400 bilingual and monolingual college students and EFL learners. It investigated English language status in the linguistically diverse context of Iran. For the purpose of the study, a standardized questionnaire containing 37 Likert-type items was distributed. Descriptive statistics were employed for data analysis revealing that learners from different linguistic backgrounds had significantly different reactions and attitudes to the issues such as: General perception to English, Status of English, text and content matter comprehensibility through English, job prospects, official status, culture learning, integrating with American or British cultures, religion and foreign language learning, English ownership, Adherence to British English, American English or English as an international language.

GenBio-MAPS: A Programmatic Assessment to Measure Student Understanding of Vision and Change Core Concepts across General Biology Programs.

The Vision and Change report provides a nationally agreed upon framework of core concepts that undergraduate biology students should master by graduation. While identifying these concepts was an important first step, departments also need ways to measure the extent to which students understand these concepts. Here, we present the General Biology–Measuring Achievement and Progression in Science (GenBio-MAPS) assessment as a tool to measure student understanding of the core concepts at key time points in a biology degree program. Data from more than 5000 students at 20 institutions reveal that this instrument distinguishes students at different stages of the curriculum, with an upward trend of increased performance at later time points. Despite this trend, we identify several concepts that advanced students find challenging. Linear mixed-effects models reveal that gender, race/ethnicity, English-language status, and first-generation status predict overall performance and that different institutions show distinct performance profiles across time points. GenBio-MAPS represents the first programmatic assessment for general biology programs that spans the breadth of biology and aligns with the Vision and Change core concepts. This instrument provides a needed tool to help departments monitor student learning and guide curricular transformation centered on the teaching of core concepts.

Children of parents who have been hospitalised with psychiatric disorders are at risk of poor school readiness.

Children of parents with psychiatric disorders are at risk of poor outcomes. However, there is limited evidence regarding the relationship between parental psychiatric disorders and child school readiness, which is linked to later academic achievement. This study aims to investigate these relationships and broaden the evidence underlying the rationale for family-focused interventions for parental psychiatric disorders. This study used linked administrative data. Children's school readiness in multiple developmental domains (physical, social, emotional, communicative, cognitive) was measured by the Australian Early Development Census (AEDC) for 19 071 Western Australian children (mean age 5.5 years). Children scoring in the bottom 25% on any AEDC domain were considered developmentally vulnerable, or at risk of vulnerability, on that domain. Biological child-parent pairs were identified using birth records. Parents with psychiatric disorders were identified from hospital records, which included information on diagnosis and frequency/duration of psychiatric admissions. Logistic regressions, adjusted for parent age, mother's marital status, child Aboriginality, child English language status, local community remoteness and socioeconomic index, estimated the odds of children being vulnerable/at-risk on each of the AEDC domains. A total of 719 mothers and 417 fathers had a psychiatric hospitalisation during the study period (12 months prior to the child's birth, up to the end of 2009). Children whose parents had psychiatric disorders had increased odds of being classified as vulnerable/at-risk for school readiness. This increase in odds was evident for both maternal (adjusted odds ratio, aOR 1.37- 1.51) and paternal psychiatric disorders (aOR 1.38-1.50); and for a single admission of one day (aOR 1.32-1.59), a single admission of multiple days (aOR 1.30-1.47), and multiple admissions (aOR 1.35-1.63). Some variability in child outcome was found depending on the parents' psychiatric diagnosis (mood, anxiety, substance abuse or comorbid disorder). Children of parents who have been hospitalised with psychiatric disorders are at risk for poor school readiness. These findings add support to recommendations that mental health professionals consider dependent children in discharge and treatment planning for adult psychiatric inpatients. It is also important to ensure that the impact of psychiatric illness in fathers is not overlooked in assessment and intervention. Family-based approaches to adult psychiatric care could meet the dual needs of intervention for parents and preventative measures for children. These findings can inform policy regarding the importance of integrating and coordinating services to meet the needs of families.

Writing MentorTM: Writing Progress Using Self-Regulated Writing Support

The Writing Mentor TM (WM) application is a Google Docs add-on designed to help students improve their writing in a principled manner and to promote their writing success in postsecondary settings. WM provides automated writing evaluation (AWE) feedback using natural language processing (NLP) methods and linguistic resources. AWE features in WM have been informed by research about postsecondary student writers often classified as developmental (Burstein et al., 2016b), and these features address a breadth of writing sub-constructs (including use of sources, claims, and evidence; topic development; coherence; and knowledge of English conventions). Through an optional entry survey, WM collects self-efficacy data about writing and English language status from users. Tool perceptions are collected from users through an optional exit survey. Informed by language arts models consistent with the Common Core State Standards Initiative and valued by the writing studies community, WM takes initial steps to integrate the reading and writing process by offering a range of textual features, including vocabulary support, intended to help users to understand unfamiliar vocabulary in coursework reading texts. This paper describes WM and provides discussion of descriptive evaluations from an Amazon Mechanical Turk (AMT) usability task situated in WM and from users-in-the-wild data. The paper concludes with a framework for developing writing feedback and analytics technology.

An Exploratory Analysis of Differential Item Functioning and Its Possible Sources in a Higher Education Admissions Context

ABSTRACTWe analyzed a pool of items from an admissions test for differential item functioning (DIF) for groups based on age, socioeconomic status, citizenship, or English language status using Mantel-Haenszel and item response theory. DIF items were systematically examined to identify its possible sources by item type, content, and wording. DIF was primarily found in the citizenship group. As suggested by expert reviewers, possible sources of DIF in the direction of U.S. citizens was often in Quantitative Reasoning in items containing figures, charts, tables depicting real-world (as opposed to abstract) contexts. DIF items in the direction of non-U.S. citizens included “mathematical” items containing few words. DIF for the Verbal Reasoning items included geocultural references and proper names that may be differentially familiar for non-U.S. citizens. This study is responsive to foundational changes in the fairness section of the Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing, which now consider additional groups in sensitivity analyses, given the increasing demographic diversity in test-taker populations.

Development and Validation of the Homeostasis Concept Inventory.

We present the Homeostasis Concept Inventory (HCI), a 20-item multiple-choice instrument that assesses how well undergraduates understand this critical physiological concept. We used an iterative process to develop a set of questions based on elements in the Homeostasis Concept Framework. This process involved faculty experts and undergraduate students from associate's colleges, primarily undergraduate institutions, regional and research-intensive universities, and professional schools. Statistical results provided strong evidence for the validity and reliability of the HCI. We found that graduate students performed better than undergraduates, biology majors performed better than nonmajors, and students performed better after receiving instruction about homeostasis. We used differential item analysis to assess whether students from different genders, races/ethnicities, and English language status performed differently on individual items of the HCI. We found no evidence of differential item functioning, suggesting that the items do not incorporate cultural or gender biases that would impact students' performance on the test. Instructors can use the HCI to guide their teaching and student learning of homeostasis, a core concept of physiology.

The Effect of High School Socioeconomic, Racial, and Linguistic Segregation on Academic Performance and School Behaviors

Background/Context The 1954 U.S. Supreme Court decision on Brown v. Board of Education concluded that segregated schools were inherently unequal and therefore unlawful. That decision was not based solely upon the notion that segregated black schools were inferior in terms of academic instruction, curricular rigor, resources, etc., but also on research that showed segregating black children had negative social-emotional and behavioral consequences. However, the vast majority of the research on school segregation over the past 50 years, has focused on its effects on academic achievement and opportunity to learn. As a result, little is known about the effects of school segregation on social-emotional and behavioral outcomes. This is a critical gap in the literature because other research indicates that school behaviors are as strong or stronger predictors of long-term educational, social, and employment outcomes as academic achievement. Objectives The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of three forms of school segregation—socioeconomic, ethnic/racial, and linguistic—on school behaviors (i.e., attendance, grade retention, and suspension) and academic performance (reading and math achievement test scores and GPA) in high school. The study also examines the degree to which each of three school mechanisms (school inputs, peer influences, and school practices) mediates the effects of segregation on student outcomes. Research Design The study uses survey data from the Educational Longitudinal Study of 2002 (ELS:02). A sequence of multilevel models are fit to the data to address the research objectives. Conclusions American high schools are highly segregated by race/ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and English language status. Racial/ethnic and socioeconomic segregation are strongly associated with school behaviors and academic performance. The negative effects of racial/ethnic and socioeconomic segregation on school behaviors and academic performance inordinately effect black, Hispanic, and low SES adolescents because they are far more likely to attend segregated schools. School practices that reduce disorder and disruption and emphasize academics strongly mediate of the effects of segregation as does having friends at school with an academic focus. Adopting positive behavioral practices to reduce behaviors that interfere with learning without increasing suspension and expulsion are likely most critical for ameliorating the effects of segregation. Reducing academic tracking is also recommended, given that it likely contributes to negative within-school peer influences among low SES and minority adolescents. However, greater integration is likely necessary to fully address the consequences of segregation.

Do Group Exams Support English as an Additional Language Student Learning?

Abstract Team-based learning (TBL) has been shown to improve many aspects of student learning, but no previous research has systematically examined the effects of group exams on English as an Additional Language (EAL) students in university classrooms. This study is a small-scale action research examining the role of students’ English language status in their perceptions of and performance in group exams within TBL. The data were collected from 29 students – (13 EAL) and 16 English as a first language (EL1) – attending a third-year university linguistics class in Vancouver, Canada. Qualitative and quantitative methods were used for the data analysis. Results of the study revealed no statistically significant differences between the two groups in terms of perceptions or performance. Both groups had positive perceptions about group exams and the increase in their performance over the course of the semester was statistically significant. Qualitative results showed that students found group exams helpful for learning and reducing exam anxiety. Students also enjoyed the experience of taking group exams and stated that their attitudes toward the group exams were more positive at the end of the semester.

English as Lingua Franca

The article highlights English as Lingua Franca and emphasizes the importance of teaching Language for Special Purposes (LSP). The content of the notion “lingua-franca” is analysed on the basis of a number of linguistic works devoted to the English language status. English as Lingua Franca refers to the use of English as a medium of communication between speakers of different languages. Nowadays, contacts between people with different cultural backgrounds are becoming more frequent and much closer. Highly developed skills in intercultural communication have a significant bearing on the quality of relationships between people of various nationalities and cultures. In recent years ELF has been studied by many linguists interested in how its pronunciation, vocabulary and grammar are different from other varieties of English. ELF has now established itself as a major and expanding field of academic research. Its interconnections with teaching and other disciplines are being currently discussed, acknowledged and investigated.

Persisters and nonpersisters: Identifying the characteristics of who stays and who leaves from adult literacy interventions

Adult literacy programs are characterized by high attrition rates. Rigorous exploration of student persistence in adult reading classes is lacking. This study was an attempt to understand the profiles of adults who completed reading classes compared to a group of adults who made it to the midpoint and a group of adults who did not make it to the midpoint. Students were offered 100 hours of instruction. Of the 395 students who attended the first day of class, only 198 completed the program. Results indicated that English language status, age, some reading related skills, class assignment, avoidance of reading, previous adult education experience, and Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) benefit receipt variables significantly predicted persistence. The significance of some of these predictors varied based on analyzing midpoint completion or full completion. To further explore the characteristics of the sample, the most representative participants were selected from the group that did not make it to midpoint and from the group that completed the program. Results indicated that the most representative members of these two groups differed in English language status, gender, age, some reading related skills, and information access.

Differential Performance by English Language Learners on an Inquiry-Based Science Assessment

The performance of English language learners (ELLs) has been a concern given the rapidly changing demographics in US K-12 education. This study aimed to examine whether students' English language status has an impact on their inquiry science performance. Differential item functioning (DIF) analysis was conducted with regard to ELL status on an inquiry-based science assessment, using a multifaceted Rasch DIF model. A total of 1,396 seventh- and eighth-grade students took the science test, including 313 ELL students. The results showed that, overall, non-ELLs significantly outperformed ELLs. Of the four items that showed DIF, three favored non-ELLs while one favored ELLs. The item that favored ELLs provided a graphic representation of a science concept within a family context. There is some evidence that constructed-response items may help ELLs articulate scientific reasoning using their own words. Assessment developers and teachers should pay attention to the possible interaction between linguistic challenges and science content when designing assessment for and providing instruction to ELLs.