Support and Success
Asynchronous Session
Immigrant Students from the Middle East in U.S. Public Schools: A Critical Analysis of the Contributing Factors to Their Academic Success View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Terrence McCain
This study focuses on the current immigration situation in the U.S.A. and its impact on the education of immigrant students who speak languages from Middle Eastern countries. Recent events have intensified the immigration of families from Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, and other Middle Eastern countries to the U.S.A. This population of students presents particular challenges to educators and administrators who are not familiar with the cultures and languages of this region of the world. In order for this population of students to receive an equitable education, the negative stereotypes, prejudices, and biases that exist in the schools must be addressed. The purpose of this study is to hear the voices of the students, to get their perspectives on their educational experience, and to thoughtfully consider their recommendations for improving the education of future immigrant students. In order to get this information I interviewed ten (10) former and present public school students from Afghanistan, Iran, Syria, and Turkey. The interviews focused of their background information, immigration experiences, and the quality of their education. Their perspectives on ways to improve teacher attitudes, curriculum changes that reflect their languages and cultures, and advice for future immigrant students were also part of the interviews. In addition, this study addresses how to improve cultural and language misunderstandings between educators and students and provides recommendations for improving their overall educational experience. This study can assist teachers and administrators of immigrant students to develop an understanding of how to address the challenges faced by this population of students.
Ethnic Minority Students Learning Chinese as a Second or Foreign Language: Obstacles and Opportunities View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Iris Yim, Nicole Tavares
This paper reports on a case study that examines the challenges ethnic minority (EM) students face when learning Chinese, a compulsory subject in Hong Kong mainstream schools, as their second or foreign language. Previous studies have identified five main factors limiting EM students’ scholastic attainment: linguistic issues, government policies, school practices, their own psychological barrier, and parental involvement. However, do EM students in Hong Kong face similar challenges? To what extent are they and their parents given enough support in their language development? Data is collected through questionnaires and semi-structured interviews with the EM student-participants and their parents and is coded using thematic analysis with inter-rater reliability ensured. Findings suggest three major interrelated challenges, namely (1) difference in the language system between Chinese and EMs’ mother tongue, (2) lack of flexibility in the assessment system, and (3) parents’ perceived helplessness. Results indicate that EM parents with more established social networks and easier access to educational technologies have a more positive impact on their children’s Chinese learning. The study also sheds light on possible modifications to existing policies and practices advocated by the government, education department, assessment authority, schools, and teacher education institutions. Pedagogical implications on ways of enhancing equitable learning opportunities to EM students globally are also discussed.
Romance Language Intercomprehension: Analysis of European Teaching Projects and a Look towards Future Educational Applications View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Raquel Serrano
At the turn of the century, several types of research in additional language education have been carried out to investigate the effectiveness of pluralistic approaches such as intercomprehension (IC). At this moment, it is possible to count twenty projects in IC that have been published on websites or made available for use through printed work. Despite the number of accessible projects, the research on the viability of these teaching materials is scarce. Therefore, this work has the need to seek further implementation of these projects in plurilingual educational approaches. For this reason, this study has explored both the nature and the practical educational possibilities of four European Romance-IC projects: EuroComRom, EuRom5, Euromania, and Romanica Intercom. In order to analyze them from a qualitative-descriptive methodology, an observation guide based on Bloom’s taxonomy and a SWOT chart were used. The study concluded that all reviewed projects presented an exploitation of written texts. Upon analysis it was revealed that they would not be considered satisfactory as to work with them transversely in classroom practice, making IC a limited methodology in the long run. This work attempts to guide the IC approach towards an integration and application in the curricular frameworks for additional language education. Moreover, we endeavor to promote plurilingual and intercultural competences as fundamental pieces in the education process as well as to form a citizenry that acknowledges, respects, and values the languages spoken in society.
The Use of Picture Books to Promote Intercultural Understanding in Pre-primary Plurilingual Classrooms View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Ana Virginia López Fuentes, Raquel Fernández Fernández
Intercultural competence is more necessary than ever in a society in which pluricultural encounters constantly occur in everyday life. The Common European Framework promotes the creation of pluricultural spaces which favour the development of intercultural competent human beings; however, there is a lack of specific guidelines for making this happen in a classroom. The present work reveals the possibilities of using literature to promote the intercultural competence. In particular, it approaches the use of picture books to create pluricultural spaces in pre-primary plurilingual classrooms. To do this, the authors first provide a theoretical perspective based on an analysis of previous research on the topic, and then give a practical perspective proposing some specific pedagogical guidelines to work with picture books. Our principle statement supports the idea that the pedagogical frameworks needed to make stories part of the intercultural approach need to be harnessed to didactic principles that guide students’ language and cultural awareness, respect students’ voices and choices, and help them discover and develop their identities.
Early Intervention and Teletherapy During the COVID-19 Pandemic View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Stephen J Hernandez
COVID-19 emerged as a worldwide pandemic at the beginning of 2020. The pandemic and its impact reached the United States by early March. Once infection rates started to increase, early intervention programs, including those providing home-based services, recognized that to reduce the spread of the virus, many traditional in-person services were going to be impossible due to social distancing and self-quarantine requirements. Initially, infants, toddlers, and their families were left without any services, but within a few weeks of the emergency, various states, including New York, approved the use of virtual visits or teletherapy for Early Intervention (EI) service provision. This paper details the results of a survey of over 400 service providers regarding the use of teletherapy to deliver services to children in EI. The survey focused on how COVID-19 stay-at-home orders impacted EI services for young children with special needs. Sub-questions included topics such as availability of the parents, the amount of time that babies remained engaged, as well as the perceived success of teletherapy as a viable option to provide service by both parent and professional. The results indicate that service providers found teletherapy to be a viable manner of providing services and could be effective on a case-by-case basis.
