Amanda K. Kibler

Oregon State University | OSU · College of Education

In this conceptual feature article, we explore how our language teacher educator (LTE) identities have been shaped through collaboration around practice‐based research as we have engaged in more than a decade of self‐study of teacher education practices (S‐STEP) work. We consider three key aspects of our collaborative identities: (1) we have a shar...

As an international phenomenon, standardization has become increasingly prominent, and language has been curricularized through learning progressions, curricula, and high-stakes assessments. Curricularized systems exist in tension with what we know about how individuals develop language. As scholars have asserted, language development is mediated b...

To explore the ways in which Latinx older siblings support younger siblings during shared reading, researchers investigated the following question with three Latinx families in the U.S.: How are older siblings modeling and intentionally supporting focal children’s cognitive self-regulation in the context of shared reading? Analyses of video recorde...

This edited volume showcases how teacher educators around the world engage with critical and dialogic approaches to prepare TESOL professionals. Language teachers are at the forefront of supporting the academic and social needs of increasingly ethnically and linguistically diverse student populations around the globe, and preparing critical and dia...

This edited volume showcases how teacher educators around the world engage with critical and dialogic approaches to prepare TESOL professionals. Language teachers are at the forefront of supporting the academic and social needs of increasingly ethnically and linguistically diverse student populations around the globe, and preparing critical and dia...

This edited volume showcases how teacher educators around the world engage with critical and dialogic approaches to prepare TESOL professionals. Language teachers are at the forefront of supporting the academic and social needs of increasingly ethnically and linguistically diverse student populations around the globe, and preparing critical and dia...

Collaborative teaching models serving secondary multilingual learners designated as English Learners (ELs) have become increasingly prominent but remain understudied. This study draws upon an ecological framework and uses quantitative and qualitative survey findings from a national sample of school districts in the United States to investigate the...

Children from Latinx families bring rich and varied literacy practices and cultural models to their classrooms. When teachers are able to recognize these assets, they have opportunities to make their teaching more responsive and engaging. One way to learn about these assets is through relationship‐building, assets‐framed home visits. In this articl...

This study examines the Linguistic Landscape (LL) of two streets in Beirut (Foch and Weygand) following a series of protests in October 2019 against the Lebanese government. We analyzed signs of protest on those two streets collected in 2020 and compared them to archival data collected back in 2015 prior to the commencement of the protests. We drew...

In this chapter, the authors focus on research-based strategies that support teachers to learn about the assets and wealth that culturally and linguistically marginalized (CLM) families possess. The authors explore how to support CLM families' agency to engage with their children's schooling in ways that specifically reflect these families' needs a...

An important subgroup of English learner-classified (EL) students immigrate to the U.S., entering U.S. schools upon their arrival. Using growth models and statewide data, this study describes the incoming English proficiency and subsequent English language growth of newcomer students, including the student, program, and school characteristics that...

We examine teachers’ use of everyday objects to elicit families’ stories and teachers’ ability to identify in those stories cultural models that inform assets pedagogies.

As evidence mounts of persistent disparities in academic outcomes by English learner (“EL”) classification status, it is critical that we better understand how to create more equitable classroom learning environments. The present study investigates the role of classroom peer academic collaboration networks within linguistically diverse, “English-me...

Student agency is an important construct for all students, especially those marginalized because of their linguistic, ethnic, racial, religious, or migratory identities. Refugee-background students may experience marginalization according to many and sometimes all of these factors; agency is thus critical to understanding their negotiation of schoo...

Despite research attention to varied and nuanced social processes through which linguistically minoritized multilingual students create texts, writing instruction and assessment in schools continue to be dominated by a focus on students’ written products. Even formative assessment– arguably one of teachers’ most powerful tools in designing responsi...

In this chapter, the authors focus on research-based strategies that support teachers to learn about the assets and wealth that culturally and linguistically marginalized (CLM) families possess. The authors explore how to support CLM families' agency to engage with their children's schooling in ways that specifically reflect these families' needs a...

Despite growing numbers of English Learners (ELs) in United States science classrooms and recent science education reforms calling for language and literacy integrated science instruction, research is just beginning to address how to prepare preservice teachers (PSTs) to teach science to ELs. Using a framework highlighting key structural and task‐r...

This chapter considers the complexities of conceptualizing and introducing translanguaging to pre-service teachers by analyzing the first author’s experiences as a teacher educator in her initial effort at discussing translanguaging and its pedagogical implications in a second language learning course. Discussions about translanguaging were marked...

Wordless picturebooks provide opportunities for both families and teachers to engage with narrative texts beyond the confines of a particular language. In this ethnographic study, the researchers examined how one multilingual family interacted with a wordless picturebook across time. They observed shifts in who engaged with the reading; evidence of...

Theoretically framed in artifactual literacies, this study examined a refugee‐background family’s visit to a group of university students enrolled in a teaching English to speakers of other languages (TESOL) methods class. One of the authors requested they give this presentation and collaborated with them in writing it. Participants included Maria...

In this study, we examine how adolescents in a dual-language program negotiate intersectional identities through interaction, while engaged in small-group exploratory talk around the task of a collaborative-writing project. We recognize that while dual-language settings can help adolescents build relationships with ethnolinguistically different pee...

Through in-home ethnographic observations of three multilingual immigrant families’ shared book reading, we identified recurring literacy practices in the home in which mothers, older siblings, and younger children participated during the reading. We found that families engaged in context-sensitive and cooperative shared reading practices, wherein...

In order to identify culturally adaptive approaches to socialization of school readiness skills involving siblings in Latinx families, researchers investigated how Latinx older siblings interact with younger siblings in the context of shared reading to support social emotional skills in three Latinx immigrant families. Analyses revealed that older...

Employing a social capital framework, this study investigates teachers’ role in influencing the peer dynamics between English learners (ELs) and their non-EL peers. Participants include 713 students (211 EL students). Observed teacher-student interaction quality and teacher self-reports of their peer network management were used to operationalize t...

As immigration becomes an ever-more divisive topic in the US, immigrants – particularly undocumented youth – experience unique pressures in classroom settings associated with their statuses. With approximately one million undocumented children in America, it is important for educators and researchers to understand how this population navigates such...

Framed by critical literacy theory, this study examines representations of Sudanese children resettled as refugees in three works of children's literature for the middle grades.

This study aims at better understanding how an Iraqi refugee-background English learner (Fawzi) is positioned by his teacher and his peers, and how he positions himself as a member of a culturally and linguistically diverse American classroom. For that purpose, we adopt a mixed-methods approach to analyze qualitative field notes and interview data...

This article synthesizes multiple studies that we have conducted on language and literacy practices among Latinx siblings at home, and identifies implications for teaching. Examples from micro-ethnographic discourse analyses provide rich vignettes of sibling interactions within Mexican and Central American immigrant households to illustrate how sib...

This chapter analyzes the journey of Diego, an immigrant-origin youth with interrupted education whose classroom-based experiences with language and literacy built toward a turning point in which he left high school with a GPA and other academic accomplishments and identities that marked him as a confident English user and competent writer. Diego’s...

This chapter describes important elements of the longitudinal case study approach used in this book, including the selection and definition of cases, attention to depth and complexity, use of breadth to connect macro/meso/micro contexts, and the incorporation of an ethnographic perspective. Data collection procedures are described, with attention t...

This chapter explores the journey of Jaime, who self-identified as a skilled bilingual communicator, and his experiences navigating tracking practices and immigration policies. His increasingly tracked high school experiences that relabeled him an “English learner”—and increasingly limited opportunities to engage in meaningful classroom-based liter...

This chapter describes Ana, whose reluctance to engage in school-related literacy events during her early years of high school changed at the turning point of her story—her meeting Ms. Torres, a bilingual and biliterate Mexican-origin Latina student-teacher in Ana’s 12th-grade humanities class. Ms. Torres’ inspiration led to consistent investment i...

This chapter provides an introduction to Longitudinal Interactional Histories: Bilingual and Biliterate Journeys of Mexican Immigrant-Origin Youth, a book that aims to provide insight into patterns of language and literacy development as they occur in and across multiple and diverse settings during linguistically minoritized youth’s adolescence and...

This chapter explores the experiences of Fabiola, who began English-medium schooling in ninth grade and went on to complete a Gender and Women’s Studies undergraduate major. Her selection of this major—through which she came to self-identify as a Mexican feminist—is the turning point in her language and literacy journey. Literacy events preceding t...

This chapter describes Maria and her experiences navigating formal and informal bilingual resources as she participated in distinct literacy events across different settings over time. A social and academically successful young woman, Maria’s turning point was her decision to undertake religious training in a Latin-American-origin Catholic institut...

This chapter begins with a discussion of the conceptualizations of languages and literacies that are relevant to understanding the stories of youth in this study. Next, an overview of current empirical findings regarding immigrant-origin multilingual youth’s language and literacy practices is presented, with a particular focus on adolescents from S...

This final chapter presents a brief overview of ways that policies and institutions changed during the study and in the years since its conclusion before turning to updates on youth themselves. A synthesis of youth’s cases is then presented to provide insights into the nature of language and literacy development over time for Mexican and other ling...

This book explores the lives of five Mexican immigrant-origin youths in the United States, documenting their language and literacy journeys over an eight-year period from adolescence to young adulthood. In these qualitative case studies, the author uses a “longitudinal interactional histories approach” (LIHA) to explore literacy events in which the...

Adolescents’ peer networks tend to segregate by relative language proficiency, but students from all linguistic backgrounds benefit academically from classroom peer relationships both within and across English learner (EL) and non-EL classified groups. We drew upon social network analysis of student survey data in 46 English and math middle school...

After the end of the civil war in 1990, a major reconstruction effort was underway in Beirut, the capital of Lebanon. With reconstruction came significant changes to the city’s landscape and identity. Adopting a linguistic landscape (LL) lens, this study aims at better understanding these changes by asking what languages are used on the store front...

In the context of recent debates for and against the reality of ‘long-term English learners (LTELs)’ in US secondary schools, the diversity of these students’ classroom experiences and opportunities to develop academically valued forms of English is often overlooked. This analysis draws upon a data from middle school classrooms in the South Atlanti...

Background/Context Figured worlds have been conceptualized as spaces, or “realms,” where individuals assign meaning and significance to actors and characters or come to understand what they take as “typical or normal.” This study applies a lens of figured worlds to descriptions that pre-service teachers (PSTs) give of themselves and their relations...

This eight-year longitudinal study explores the roles writing played in the disciplinary “becoming” (Stevens et al., 2008) of Fabiola, a Spanish-English bilingual who began her schooling in English (and the US) in ninth grade and went on to complete a Gender and Women's Studies (GWS) major at a U.S. university. I use a longitudinal interactional hi...

Reflecting on contributions to this special issue along with my own research, I suggest ways in which sociocultural understandings of peer interactions in multilingual contexts are and should be evolving to encompass the increasingly complex settings that research has come to document. I argue that in order to realize the potential of research in t...

Framed within model of investment, this study examined a group of Syrian refugee teachers' ideologies and challenges regarding teaching English as a foreign language (EFL) to Syrian refugee students with interrupted or no prior formal education in three non-formal education (NFE) centers in Lebanon. A qualitative approach using interview data along...

This qualitative study examines language and literacy practices in nine Latin@ immigrant families, focusing on young children (ages 4–6) and their older siblings (ages 7–10). Audio, video, and fieldnote data were collected during a series of in-home observations. We use a multifaceted theoretical framework integrating sociocultural notions of learn...

We utilize a within-group framework to understand the association between childcare type and the language-use and vocabulary of second-generation Latino immigrant children. The sample was drawn from a study of a suburban/rural immigrant community to study the role of home experiences on the early language and literacy of young Latino preschoolers (...

This study attempts to understand how achievement gap Discourse might be present in preservice teachers' (PSTs) Discourse about students they found challenging to teach. Using a Discourse analytic approach, the project considers: How do PSTs describe challenging students in their written reflections? Do PSTs draw on students' multiple identities? F...

Siblings play a critical role in the socialization experiences of their younger siblings. Societal values, standards and customs are transmitted and created through the process of modeling and the construction of shared meaning. It follows, therefore, that the process of socialization may be culturally dependent. Using multiple case studies of 5 si...

This 8-year longitudinal case study of Fabiola, a Spanish-English bilingual, investigated her argumentative writing development, focusing on her use of evidence to support and develop arguments over time from high school through university. Data sources included 36 writing samples. Texts across grade levels and course types were analyzed to determi...

As writing has assumed increasing importance in discussions of pedagogy for diverse classrooms, attention to the contexts in which secondary teachers develop and implement writing instruction for adolescent English language learners (ELLs) is of great importance. Drawing on ecological language learning theories and situated teacher learning theory...

This study examined young emergent bilinguals’ cognate and false cognate knowledge and vocabulary outcomes on four early-language assessments in English and Spanish. Findings revealed that children were able to use shared phonology of words—before they had developed extensive knowledge about their orthography—to recognize and produce cognates. In a...

Using the systematic search and coding procedures of a meta-synthesis, this paper reviews the extant literature on English language learners (ELLs) in the social studies classroom. The 15 studies making up the corpus adhere to both topical and methodological criteria. The Language-Content-Task (LCT) Framework informed the coding and analysis of the...

Through examination of one recently manufactured term for language learners (Long-term English Learners) and review of a century of MLJ articles, we examine varying ‘socioinstitutional’ conceptualizations of second/foreign/heritage language learners as shaped by educational institutions and related stakeholders over time, given evolving understandi...

The analysis of 21,409 participants of the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study–Kindergarten cohort focused on home and school factors sought to understand the level of reading mastery that children experienced throughout elementary school and Grade 8 by relating home language use, timing of oral English language proficiency, and the provision of sch...

Two-way dual-language programs have become an increasingly popular educational model in the United States for language minority and majority speakers, with a small but growing number of programs at the high school level. Little is known, however, about how adolescents’ social networks develop in the contexts of these programs. This study examines h...

Background/Context Two-way dual-language programs have become an increasingly popular educational model in the United States for language minority and majority speakers, with a small but growing number of programs at the high school level. Little is known, however, about how adolescents’ social networks develop in the contexts of these programs. P...

We examined the language practices of five mother-child dyads during a structured play activity, particularly in relation to maternal question use. The study includes second-generation, four year-old children of Mexican immigrants who demonstrate either high vocabulary levels in English and Spanish or low-levels of vocabulary in both languages. Exa...

Our study of pre-service teachers’ (PSTs) inquiry projects includes two levels of practitioner-research: on one level, we examine the research questions PSTs pose about their classrooms; and on the second, the study is an action-research investigation of our own practice in teaching PSTs both pedagogical and inquiry practices. We study PSTs’ inquir...

This article argues for the importance of integrating a focus on language, literacy, and academic development for United States-educated language minority (US-LM) students, sometimes called Generation 1.5. It describes four initiatives at community colleges in California that aim to do so. US-LM students have completed some K–12 schooling in the Un...

While teacher education literature views teachers’ stances toward teaching inquiry as important to teachers’ commitment to classroom improvement, little research has analyzed teachers’ use of stance markers. This project builds on Biber's (2006) framework to study stances taken by three high school English pre-service teachers (PSTs) in oral teachi...

T he standards movement has become omnipresent in contemporary education, impacting English teaching and learning in second and foreign language contexts around the world. A particular set of issues, however, is relevant to primary and secondary school settings for learners of English in which English is used as the predominant means of educating t...

T he standards movement has become omnipresent in contemporary education, impacting English teaching and learning in second and foreign language contexts around the world. A particular set of issues, however, is relevant to primary and secondary school settings for learners of English in which English is used as the predominant means of educating t...

This article presents findings from a qualitative study of newly arrived immigrant students attending mainstream vocational courses through a high school newcomer program in the southern United States. As educators turn to vocational options for instructing linguistically diverse students, this project carefully considers how students experience pa...

This multiple case study examines patterns in the oral second language use of three Spanish-speaking English language learners in rehearsed presentations produced annually over 4 years (Grades 9–12) in a U.S. high school. Analysis focuses on students' changing use of transitional devices called frame markers (Hyland, 2005) as a lens for understandi...

This five-year longitudinal case study explores a linguistic minority student's experiences learning to write during high school and in a postsecondary noviciado (novitiate) program in a bilingual Catholic institute to understand how features of an English-medium high school experience supported and/or hindered writing development and transitions t...

This case study examines one Honduran immigrant family’s community of practice during home literacy events. Data include field notes and audio and video recordings from six weeks of in-home observations. Coding and discourse analysis are used to analyse talk-in-interaction in order to understand how the family engages in literacy events. Family dis...

Much of the debate regarding outcomes of various types of dual-language programs has focused on linguistic and academic results, and with good reason: improving the educational outcomes of language minorities and supporting societal multilingualism are vital goals. More rarely explored, however, are these programs’ ethnolinguistic outcomes: the way...

New demands of the Common Core State Standards imply instructional transformations for all classrooms in the United States, but teachers of students designated as English language learners (ELLs) are among those most likely to feel the impact in their daily professional lives. Language is an integral part of classroom learning in all subject areas,...

This study examines factors impacting teacher learning during and after an online professional development program focused on teaching English language learners in U.S. schools. Research focused on nonbilingual K–12 teachers' changing perspectives on the role of students' native languages in classroom teaching and learning during and after the prof...

The term heritage language has come to be used widely by those concerned about the study, maintenance, and revitalization of non-majority languages around the world. Keywords: bilingualism; language maintenance; language revitalization; language teaching; heritage languages

Adolescent writers in second language settings often spend the majority of their school days in content area courses, such as math, science, and social studies, where they must negotiate challenging literacy tasks in their second languages with little explicit writing instruction. While genre scholars have built an extensive body of knowledge about...

Dyadic teacher–student interactions represent a potentially valuable opportunity for adolescent emergent bilingual students to access academic knowledge, develop language proficiency, and acquire literacy skills in secondary school contexts. But to what extent are these conversations actually an affordance for students? Drawing upon insights in int...

Community colleges are critical points of access for language-minority students and others historically underrepresented in U.S. higher education. Yet there is evidence that community colleges are far from reaching their potential as a stepping-stone to 4-year colleges and universities for underrepresented minorities, especially in states with the...

To explore the challenges that can arise in teacher-student interactions in linguistically diverse mainstream classrooms, this case study analyzes the ways in which a native Spanish speaker of high-beginning English proficiency and his teacher negotiated an extended writing task in a tenth-grade mainstream humanities course. An “interactional histo...

Language minority students’ writing is often measured solely in terms of its distance from native speaker norms, yet doing so may ignore the process through which these texts are realized and the role that the first language plays in their creation. This study analyzes oral interactions among adolescent second language writers during an extended wr...

The term “language minority student” encompasses a wide range of individuals who span ethnicities, ages, cultures, social and economic backgrounds, immigration histories, and levels of first and second language proficiency.

Background/Context As a case study in minority language restriction, the German example provides a useful historical counterpoint to more recent debates regarding the place of non-English languages in American schools. Focus of Study and Research Design This historical analysis examines the role of education in the changing discourse of minority l...