DOI
https://doi.org/10.25772/C1VM-Y049
Author ORCID Identifier
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5476-1495
Defense Date
2023
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy
Department
Education
First Advisor
Luciana C. de Oliveira
Second Advisor
Hillary Parkhouse
Third Advisor
Lisa Abrams
Fourth Advisor
Alissa Blair
Abstract
This study aimed to investigate how LACI's Six Cs of support can be integrated into existing civics lesson plans and accompanied texts, which is part of the Civics for All curriculum in NYC, to enhance the content and language learning for multilingual learners.
A qualitative discourse analysis design was conducted to explore the teaching of civics texts using LACI and the integration of LACI's Six Cs of support for scaffolding into existing civics lesson plans. Texts and lesson plan data were purposely selected from the Civics for All curriculum. Systemic-functional linguistic discourse analytical framework and LACI framework were employed to analyze civics texts to identify the academic language demands of civics and how the demands could be addressed. LACI's 6Cs of Support and LACI's Teaching and Learning Cycle were employed to examine the integration of LACI in existing civics lesson plans.
The results showed that the academic language demands of civics include complex content-specific vocabularies, complex sentence structures, the use of the modal verb "shall" for obligation and declarative mood to make statements, the use of negation functions in defining the scope of government power and promoting individual freedom and autonomy. To address the academic language demands of civics texts, recommended planning instruction were provided. The findings of integrating the LACI framework indicated that the existing lesson plans could be enhanced by adding all the Cs to ensure full support for multilingual learners.
This study has made major contributions to the field of teaching civics by introducing an approach to identifying academic language demands and providing SFL-based and LACI-based instruction to address these demands. In addition, the study provided teachers with methods to integrate the LACI framework into existing civics lesson plans for scaffolding multilingual learners' content and language learning.
This study suggests that future research implements all the LACI practices proposed in the study in real classrooms to test the LACI framework further. In addition, more research should be done with a focus on approaches to teaching primary source documents to support civics teachers. Finally, teacher training workshops for K-12 teachers on how to use LACI to plan instruction and integrate LACI into their lesson plans should be conducted to help bridge the gap between theory and practice and enhance the implementation of LACI in the classroom.
Rights
© JIA GUI
Is Part Of
VCU University Archives
Is Part Of
VCU Theses and Dissertations
Date of Submission
5-8-2023
Included in
Bilingual, Multilingual, and Multicultural Education Commons, Language and Literacy Education Commons