Second languages and cultures - Ph.D.
The Ph.D. track in Second Languages and Cultures (SLC) Education is one of ten tracks in the Ph.D. program in Education, Curriculum and Instruction. It focuses on the study of language use, teaching, learning, and policy across a range of educational and community settings, including programs that serve language minority and language majority learners: ESL/EFL, foreign language education, and bilingual and immersion education. The Ph.D. program is designed to prepare scholars to engage in thoughtful research in the field of language education in order to assume roles as university faculty members, researchers, policy makers, and educational leaders and to make significant and meaningful contributions to the field. Independent scholarship is the cornerstone of our Ph.D. program.
SLC Ph.D. Curricular Strands
The SLC Ph.D. track has four specializations or strands that correspond to our primary focus areas and faculty expertise. Students plan coursework within these strands in consultation with their adviser. Prospective students are encouraged to identify one of these strands as an emphasis during application and to discuss in their statements of purpose how their interests intersect with one or possibly more of these areas. They are also encouraged to read faculty members’ research publications prior to application to have a better sense of work in these areas.
Second Language Acquisition and Classroom Discourse research examines language learning processes and the way language is used by learners and their interlocutors in or out of school. Research in this area might address individual learner factors in language acquisition; or how classroom language use mediates acquisition of language or academic content; how individuals negotiate for meaning in a second language; how teachers and learners provide and understand corrective feedback; or how learners code-switch or code-mix for a variety of purposes.
Sample faculty projects related to this strand:
Literacy and second language oral language processing
This project examines the role of literacy (L1 or L2) among Somali adolescents and
young adults in their oral language processing of English. The methodological approach
for this project is largely quantitative and includes analyses of one-on-one interactions
involving recasts, oral narratives, and elicited imitation tasks. (Martha Bigelow
with Elaine Tarone and Kit Hansen)
Oral proficiency development of K-8 Spanish immersion students
This study involves four early, total Spanish immersion programs and is designed
to examine Spanish oral language proficiency levels for native English-speaking Kindergarten, Gr. 2, Gr. 5, and
Gr. 8 students. Using CAL’s SOPA (Student Oral Proficiency Assessment) and COPE
(CAL Oral Proficiency Exam), this quantitative study evaluates oral proficiency
test results in the areas of fluency, grammar, vocabulary and listening comprehension
across the four programs. (Diane Tedick with Tara Fortune)
Sample dissertations related to this strand:
Tara W. Fortune (2001) Understanding Immersion Students’ Oral Language Use as Mediator of Social Interaction in the Classroom.
Noriko Ishihara (2006) Pragmatics in Second/foreign Language Education: Subjectivity and Pragmatics Instruction.
Pamela M. Wesely (2009) The Language Learning Motivation of Early Adolescent French and Spanish Elementary Immersion Program Graduates.
Second Language Pedagogy and Teacher Development research examines teachers’ classroom practices and strategies as well as professional identities, experiences and attitudes. Broadly speaking, this work seeks to better understand how best to promote effective preparation and professional development for language teachers or content teachers who work with language minority and/or language majority learners.
Sample faculty projects related to this strand:
Immersion teachers’ lived experience of balancing content
and language
This phenomenological study taps into the experience of veteran immersion teachers
representing one-way and two-way programs to explore their attempts to attend to
both content and language in their instruction. Data sources include phenomenological
interviews and written “Lived Experience Descriptions.” (Diane Tedick with Laurent
marata)
How effective staff development is determined by school cultures
Supported by the US Department of Education, this project examines how individual
school cultures influence the likelihood of change being made in the instructional
workings of elementary and middle schools serving English language learners. Working
with small teams at eight different elementary schools and four middle schools provides
unique insight into the workings of leadership, personalities, attitudes, and predispositions
to addressing the language and academic content needs of English language learners.
(Constance Walker with Tina Edstam and Karla Stone)
Collaboration with Edison High School’s English as a second
language department
Supported by a President’s Educational Discrepancies Award, this project aims to
develop a mutually-beneficial collaboration between Edison Senior High School’s
ESL Department and the SLC program. Funds support activities that help Edison’s
ESL Department to reach its goals for better serving language minority youth and
to establish a strong relationship with the University that would bring students
and staff into this dynamic urban high school for learning, professional development,
and research. (Martha Bigelow with Adam Rambow)
Sample dissertations related to this strand:
Kasia Brzosko-Barratt (2007) Experiences of Student Teachers and Cooperating Teachers in ESL: A Phenomenological Study .
Laurent Cammarata (2006) Understanding and Implementing Content-Based Instruction: An Exploration of Foreign Language Teachers' Lived Experience.
Anne Dahlman (2005) Exploration of Second Language Preservice Teachers’ Cognition and Learning.
Kimberly Johnson (2006) The Language of Attitudes: Technical College Faculty and Talk about Diversity.
Language Policy research involves analysis of the formation, implementation, and negotiation of language policy in national, school, community, and private spheres. Research in this area might address topics such as how federal policies are interpreted and enacted by ESL, FL or bilingual teachers or how language policy formation is shaped by language ideologies, political developments and demographic changes in a variety of contexts.
Sample faculty projects related to this strand:
Language policy in bilingual families
This project investigates how parents explain, frame and defend their particular
family language policies. We focus here on 24 families who are attempting to achieve
additive Spanish/English bilingualism for their children and explore how parents
make these decisions; how parents position themselves relative to ‘expert’ advice
and other members of their extended families; and how these decisions are linked
to their identities as ‘good’ parents. (Kendall King with Lyn Fogle)
Limited formal schooling and the Equal Educational Opportunity
Act
This project explores how language and education policies and practices contribute
to structural barriers to education for immigrant and refugee youth with limited
formal schooling (ELL-LFS). Structural barriers may also be the result of seeing
ELL-LFS youth through lenses of discrimination and deficit. This qualitative research
uses discourse analysis to uncover how youth and their families are characterized
in ways that lead to denying them access to educational opportunities. (Martha Bigelow)
Sample dissertations related to this strand:
Diana Dudzik (2008) English Policies, Curricular Reforms, and Teacher Development in Multilingual, Postcolonial Djibouti.
Paul Magnuson (2003) The Interplay Between Minnesota’s Accountability System and Adolescent English Language Learners with Limited Formal Schooling.
Karla Stone (2008) Making Sense of Testing: English Language Learners and Statewide Assessment.
Languages and Cultures Across Schools and Communities research examines connections across homes, schools and communities with an emphasis on the experiences of language learning communities in the U.S. and abroad. Students active in this area explore how ethnicity, identity, ideology, power, programmatic issues, language use, and the dynamic of cross-cultural communication intersect with language learning, academic achievement and the home-school connection.
Sample faculty projects related to this strand:
The production and experience of (il)legality, language learning,
and academic engagement among adolescent transmigrants
This project examines how (il)legality is experienced and (re)produced by adolescents
who are simultaneously learning English and attending U.S. schools. Using ethnographic
methods, this study aims to analyze how immigration law structures and shapes the
language learning and academic experiences of Ecuadorian adolescents in Minneapolis.
(Kendall King)
The construction of racialized identities of Somali youth
This project, supported by a President’s Multicultural Research Award, explores
how the construct of race frames many inter- and intra-ethnic relationships for
Somali youth in school, at home and in the community. Data from observations and
interviews with teens and adults are both part of this qualitative research. (Martha
Bigelow)
One-way Spanish immersion and English learners: Match or mismatch?
This mixed methods study is designed to explore how Latino, Spanish-dominant children
designated as English learners are faring in a one-way, elementary Spanish immersion
program originally designed to serve native English-speaking students. Data include
analysis of standardized achievement test scores (reading and math) as well as classroom
observations, focus groups with teachers and parents, and interviews with program
administrators. (Diane Tedick with Tara Fortune)
Sample dissertations related to this strand:
Letitia Basford (2008) From Mainstream to East African Charter: East African Muslim Students’ Experiences in U.S. Schools.
Maria Jesus Plaza Chapa (1999) Language and Cultural Identity in Catalonia: Evidence from Students Having Different Language Backgrounds in Vocational and Secondary Public Schools.
Chui Kian Smidt (2007) Race, Class, and Gender: Immigrant Identity in an ESL College Writing Class.
Faculty
Martha Bigelow
My primary research focus is on the language learning, academic progress, and cultural
adaptation of adolescent immigrant/refugee youth, including the education policies
and pedagogical practices that serve as barriers to their success.
Tara Fortune
(affiliate member)
My research, teaching and professional outreach targets the program design and implementation
needs of dual language and immersion educators. Current interests include struggling
learners and character-based literacy development in immersion classrooms.
Kendall King
My research encompasses ideological, interactional and policy perspectives on second
language learning and bilingualism, with particular attention to educational practices
impacting language use among minority populations in Latin America and Spanish speakers
in the U.S.
Elaine
Tarone (affiliate member)
My variationist research on second language acquisition focuses on the description
of the forms and functions of learner language, and the way learner language forms
shift in relationship to social contextual factors such as interlocutor role and
identity, task and topic.
Diane Tedick
My research interests focus on student language development and the pedagogy required
for the successful integration of language and content instruction, particularly
in dual language and immersion contexts.
Constance Walker
I have a longstanding interest in the schooling experiences of second language learners.
My research interests include the identification of collaborative practices among
school personnel that can best enhance students’ language development and academic
content learning.
Course requirements
Required coursework for the Ph.D. in education, curriculum and instruction.
Track: second languages and cultures education
Major requirements: A minimum of 24 credits as specified below.
- Curriculum and instruction
core courses
- CI 8131—Critical Examination of Curriculum in Context (3 cr)
- CI 8132—Teaching Theory and Research (3 cr)
- CI 8133—Research Methods in Curriculum and Instruction (3 cr)
- Track-specific requirements
(consult adviser for additional requirements
corresponding to identified strand of interest)
The following two courses provide for a year-long
research experience that is pivotal to the Ph.D.
program. The sequence is offered every other year
beginning in even years (e.g., 08-09, 10-11, 12-13,
etc.) and is typically taken in the student’s third
year of coursework (prior to or concurrently with
the preliminary examination).
- CI 8161—Research I: Design & Planning (3 cr)
- CI 8162—Research II: Analysis & Manuscript Preparation (3 cr)
Research methodology: minimum of 12 credits as specified below.
- Required courses in quantitative
methodology (minimum of 6 credits)
- EPSY 5261 & 5262 or EPSY 8261 & 8262 (consult adviser)
- Required courses in qualitative
methodology (minimum of 6 credits)
- List of other research methods courses (to be selected in consultation with adviser)
Educational foundations: minimum of 6 credits.
- In consultation with adviser(s), students choose courses in at least two of five areas: cultural, historical, philosophical, psychological, or sociological foundations.
- List of educational foundations courses
Minor or supporting program: minimum of 12 credits.
- All coursework in the minor or supporting program is to be selected in consultation with adviser(s).
Pre-thesis and thesis credits: A minimum of 24 semester thesis credits.
Total: A minimum of 78 semester credits.
See also: Ph.D. student resources.
Alumni in action
Laurent
Cammarata, Ph.D.
Assistant professor
College of Education
Department of Language and Literacy Education
The University of Georgia
My experience in the SLC program has well exceeded my original expectations and has stimulated my intellectual growth in ways that such a short description would not allow me to truly do justice to. Suffice it to say that I am incredibly grateful for the relentless dedication of its faculty members whose support and visions have constantly inspired me to excel and reach beyond my original expectations. At this point of my student life, I can honestly say that being enrolled in this program has been a transformative experience that has given me the strength and confidence to move forward and make my educational dreams a reality.
Tara
Fortune, Ph.D.
Immersion projects coordinator
Center for Advanced Research
on Language Acquisition
University of Minnesota
As an individual with a longstanding passion for language and culture learning, pursuing graduate studies in the SLC program was life-changing. The professionalism and mentoring of faculty, flexible albeit rigorous course program, and sustained financial support through teaching and research assistantships, fellowships, scholarship opportunities all contributed to making the Ph.D. experience very rewarding. My education also opened the door to the exciting professional career in the field that I now enjoy.
Noriko
Ishihara, Ph.D.
Associate professor of EFL
Faculty of Business Administration
Hosei University, Tokyo, Japan
During the five years I was enrolled as a student, the SLC doctoral program provided me with various opportunities that were pivotal in helping me succeed in my future career as a researcher, teacher, and teacher educator. I particularly appreciated the dedication and the mentorship of the faculty, the opportunities I was given to teach in the program, and the financial support for writing my doctoral dissertation and attending professional conferences, which was provided by the university’s Graduate School and C&I. The cultural diversity among my fellow students was also a wonderful feature of the program that I always valued.
Pamela
M. Wesely, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor Foreign Language
and ESL Education
Department of Teaching and Learning
University of Iowa
The opportunities provided to me during my graduate studies in the SLC program enriched me and prepared me infinitely well for a career in academe. Not only did my coursework help me to become familiar with influential concepts and research procedures in foreign language and ESL education scholarship, but my assistantships and service work opportunities helped me to become a well-rounded novice scholar and academic. The exceptional faculty guided, educated, and supported me in my pursuit of grants, fellowships, and jobs as I proceeded through the program. I am proud to be a graduate of the University of Minnesota’s SLC doctoral program.
Revised September 2009
