ESL MiniConference
Top Ten Picks at TESOL
Topic: Bilingual Education
#3274: Signed languages and reading in deaf children
Paper; Reading/literacy
Wednesday,
The relationship of American Sign Language (ASL) knowledge and its effect on learning to read and write English has been reported to be noninfluential. This
presentation examines what linguistic knowledge and metalinguistic skills in ASL are related to reading English in deaf children.
Robert Hoffmeister
#2975: Voices of a struggling ESL first grader
Paper; Second language acquisition; TSR
Wednesday,
This qualitative study unveils the story of a first grader who is encountering difficulties with ESL learning in and out of school in an urban setting. Through the voices
of the child and his family, this study demonstrates a complex interrelationship between home language, culture, and politics of schooling.
Guofang Li
#2923: Learning to
teach multicultural and multilingual curriculum
Paper; Curriculum/materials development
Thursday,
This paper describes a collaborative project to help preservice teachers better understand how to teach multicultural and multilingual curriculum in K-12 schools.
An ESL methods instructor and a Mexican American studies instructor share excerpts from student responses, journals, and portfolio projects to illustrate patterns
of teacher development.
Elizabeth Franklin; Priscilla Falcon
#4775: Supporting elementary limited formal schooling students
Workshop; Reading/literacy
Thursday,
The presenters share literacy and language development practices for upper-elementary English language learners with limited formal schooling in their first
language. Snaphots of an ESL pull-out elementary program designed to meet the needs of these students, student's work samples, strategies, lessons, and materials
are shared.
Margaret Adams; Kellie Jones
#3401: Deaf undergraduates using technology and creating community
Paper; Technology in education
Friday,
This session presents the theoretical underpinnings for American Sign Language/English bilingual-bicultural classrooms that use learning technologies to promote
collaboration among students in an English print-rich environment. The presenter describes specific projects using course management software and Web sites and
other technologies.
Kathleen Wood
#1005: High stakes
testing in
Academic Session
Friday,
This presentation offers findings from a 3-year longitudinal
study on the impact that
discussion on how the population of
L2 learners in
Kathy Escamilla
#4761: Boost literacy and parent involvement with audio books
Demonstration; Reading/literacy
Friday,
The presenter demonstrates the use of audio books in a program designed and implemented at a prek-5 elementary school in response to requests from bilingual
parents of students receiving ESL instruction. Parents asked how they could help improve their children's reading and literacy.
Caryl Komornik
#2646: Immersion students' voices regarding dual language use
Paper; Second language acquisition
Friday,
Based on the perspectives of mostly Spanish-dominant
12th-grade students at a
sociocultural dimensions related to dual language use in this English immersion setting. Explanations are provided for variability in language use and for perceived
comprehensibility of oral English.
Susan Spezzini
#3441: Cognitive strategies and metacognitive awareness of reading
Paper; Reading/literacy
Saturday,
The erroneous perception that reading is a process of decoding or pronunciation hinders the English reading comprehension of many bilingual students. This
presentation describes changes in bilingual high school students' metacognitive awareness of the reading process as a result of cognitive strategy instruction in a
sheltered English American history class.
Patricia Prinz
#2502: Designing and implementing a dual language program
Paper; Second language acquisition
Saturday,
This session describes the process of designing and implementing a dual language program at an elementary school. Teachers learn about the planning process and
specific problems one may encounter with advocacy, curriculum design, and teacher involvement. Different models of dual language instruction that have been tried
out in the process of implementation are discussed.
Maria Angelova