Dr. Trini Lewis Presents at CABE with Graduate Students Dorinda Peterson & Ashley Harrell
Professor Trini Lewis, Dual Language Development (DLD) Master’s Degree Coordinator presented with two DLD graduate candidates, Dorinda Peterson and Ashley Harrell at the California Association for Bilingual Education on March 21, 2019. The presentation, Improving Dual Language Learners Linguistic Repertoire: Lessons from Conducting Classroom Action Research included an audience of dual language teachers and principals from northern and southern California. Dorinda Peterson’s study focused on how native English-speaking students used Spanish outside of their structured Spanish language instructional time. Dorinda’s study revealed that students displayed high interest in speaking Spanish during English language arts and STEAM classes. However, less interest in speaking Spanish was exhibited in social situations with classmates and other native Spanish-speaking peers. Ashley Harrel examined teacher’s beliefs about the California English Language Proficiency Assessment (ELPAC). Ashley’s results suggested teachers found the writing domain of the ELPAC very challenging for English learners, the ELPAC was primarily used for English learners placement in English language development classes, and had very limited use for instructional purposes. Interactive roundtable discussions followed with high participation and engagement with 65 audience members.
