This paper reports on the development and piloting of an adaptive, online placement exam that will be administered to L2 and heritage learners of Spanish at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Particular attention is given to the structure of the exam and the linguistic strategies employed to distinguish heritage speakers from L2 learners.…

Introduction: In this study, we examine the case of Japanese-speaking families in Canada and their experiences with teaching a heritage language at home, along with the uses and perceived usefulness of public library resources, collections, and services in the process. Methods: We interviewed fourteen mothers who speak Japanese to their children.…

This article discusses the five-string kantele as an example of the Finnish national heritage, a school instrument and an example of sustainable design. A qualitative case study was made by collecting the data from the Finnish students--prospective teachers--and the sixth form pupils, who had designed and carved their own five-string kanteles. The…

The education development and changes that have taken place either within the country or globally has made Civic and Citizenship Education (CCE) in the school system becomes important. However, often times this subject has been taken lightly by students as well as teachers and deemed as not important because this is a nonexamination subject. This…

This personal reflection explores the role of counter-narratives and courageous conversations in the elementary curriculum. It explores how the intentionality of Black Heritage Day at the Folk Arts-Cultural Treasures Charter School and its curriculum guides students and teachers in exploring issues of race, culture, and history. (Contains 1…

Since AR can display 3D materials and learner motivation is enhanced in a situated learning environment, this study explores the learning effectiveness of learners when combining AR technology and the situation learning theory. Based on the concept of embedding the characteristics of augmented reality and situated learning into a real situation to…

In this dissertation research, I examined the overall educational experiences of Chinese immigrant students, particularly their educational experiences in the United States. Using narrative inquiry methodology in my study, I portrayed the stories of six Chinese immigrant students, including four undergraduates and two graduates in a Midwestern…

Certain dates stand out in history--October 12, 1492; July 4, 1776; and May 8, 1945, to name a few. Will December 21, 2012, become such a date? The popular media have seized on 12/21/12 to make apocalyptical prognostications, some venturing so far as to predict the end of the world. Scholars reject such predictions. But major archeological finds…

The changes in technology that have affected mail delivery are a dynamic way to encourage students to think critically and make meaningful connections across historical eras. In the classroom, personal communication through the mail can become the "thematic glue" used across historical units to highlight the changes in everyday life caused by…

In the past several decades, educational researchers have asserted that multicultural/multilingual education is a phenomenon which certainly has come into prominence in the world of education and most schools are becoming increasingly diverse; a significant role of teacher preparation programs is to prepare its teachers with the knowledge, skills,…

This article explores the linguistic profiles of heritage speakers of Russian and Spanish. Data from the 2009-2013 ACTFL-UCLA NHLRC Heritage Language Project included biographical information as well as speech samples that were elicited using the ACTFL Oral Proficiency Interview-computer and were rated according to the ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines…

This study investigates how five non-heritage language learners manage themselves in a heritage learner dominant classroom. It looks at mainly the interactions among the students from a sociocultural perspective in terms of their attitude, socialization, and using strategies. The results indicate that most of subject students struggle but…

The present study examines and compares the extent to which advanced L2 learners of Spanish and Spanish heritage speakers acquire the syntactic and semantic properties that regulate the grammatical representation of double complementizer questions in Spanish, a CP-related structure not present in English. Results from an aural sentence completion…

This article discusses perceptions of and performance in listening by a group of heritage and non-heritage learners of Portuguese. Our data include a survey containing background information and perceptions about listening, two listening tasks and a post-task self-report on how learners arrived at their answers. Quantitative and qualitative…

This study explores various linguistic strategies that characterize what is commonly referred to as "Spanglish"; namely, code-switching, code-mixing, borrowings and other language contact phenomena commonly employed by Chicana/o bilinguals. The analysis of linguistic features is based on creative pieces of writing produced by Chicana/o…