Today, we are in the midst of a technology panic characterized by a fearful response to the rapid, nearly universal adoption of a new technology by preschool-aged children which did not exist a relatively short time ago: internet-connected touch screens. The focus on screen harms from some voices within child development research, professional organizations, news media, and lay groups effect policy which in turn can impact family life and daily activities that are important to children. I endeavor to contextualize screen use in the daily lives of children and better represent the voice of the young child in the screen use debate. To approach these goals, I conducted a year-long, multi-case ethnography of 15 children aged 3 or 4 at the start of data collection from 13 diverse families across multiple communities in Southern California. I found that young children’s media use may be best understood as an ecologically situated process involving the interplay between the content, the child, their family, community, and societal spheres. Children’s media behaviors are supported or constrained by a range of resource, culture, and policy factors specific to family and community background. I argue that policy makers and technology designers are better served by an ecological perspective if they wish to understand how digital content used by children in sociocultural context.

This longitudinal case study examined middle school students’ (N=102) in-class digital literacy practices using Google Docs and their subsequent learning outcomes and perceptions in a technology-supportive K-8 school. Despite the widespread use of synchronous technology in writing, little research has been conducted on students’ collaboration practices and their impacts on text outcomes and perceived learning, particularly among linguistically diverse students. Using a mixed-methods approach that combines qualitative, quantitative, and text mining methods, I examined multiple aspects of synchronous collaborative writing (e.g., patterns, strategies, phases, textual outcomes, perceptions of group writing) over the course of an academic year. I also discussed the implications of the new digital literacy practices for teaching and learning in K-12 academic settings. In my three-part dissertation, triangulation of multiple sources of data and analytic approaches revealed several major findings regarding the practices (Part 1), outcomes (Part 2), and perceptions (Part 3) of synchronous collaborative writing.

First, the groups’ collaborative writing practices (i.e., balance of written participation, editing amount, the use of collaborative writing strategies) tended to differ across the two key contextual factors: ability-grouping status and task types. Compared to the same ability groups, mixed-ability groups demonstrated patterns of unbalanced participation (e.g., frequent use of main writer strategy) with higher numbers of self-edits. This implies that students in mixed-ability groups may encounter difficulty in dividing work equally due to the writing proficiency gaps among members (i.e., higher imbalance). Regarding task types, groups tended to employ more balanced and cooperative strategies of collaboration in argumentative and informative tasks, whereas a more sustained collaboration typically led by a main writer characterized group work in narrative tasks. The distinct patterns underscore the important role of key contextual factors— grouping arrangement and task type—in the design and implementation of collaborative writing.

Second, qualitative analysis of the focal groups’ writing processes revealed distinct characteristics of collaborative and non-collaborative groups, and how such patterns shape group’s subsequent choice of writing strategies. Of particular importance was the role of leadership in interaction patterns: unlike the non-collaborative groups (authoritarian/passive, dominant/withdrawn) characterized by dominant leadership, the groups with a collaborative stance (collectively contributing/ mutually supportive pattern, expert/novice pattern) involved distributed and fluid leadership that leveraged the opportunities for synchronous interaction.

Third, I examined how multiple indicators of collaborative writing practices (e.g., participation evenness, editing amount, collaborative writing strategy) may relate to the quality of group text outcomes. Results re-confirmed the critical role of task types in collaborative writing. For example, in the narrative task involving a creative open-ended prompt, balanced participation and more number of co-authors tended to weaken the organizational aspect. However, no such effects were found in the argumentative and informative tasks characterized by more formal, closed genre structures. It was also noteworthy that the use of collaborative writing strategies that were found to be effective in each task type was also distinct. In the narrative writing, synchronous hands-on strategy that utilized the simultaneous writing and editing features of Google Docs was found to be effective in the areas of content and organization, whereas a strategy characterized by an explicit division of work (i.e., parallel writing) was effective in the argumentative writing, particularly in the area of content.

Fourth, I examined the phases of focal groups’ community building (i.e., initial, conflict, intimacy and work, and termination phases) during their year-long engagement with collaborative group work. Qualitative analysis of multiple sources of data suggested that there were unique group tasks that needed to be accomplished in each phase, and the degree to which members effectively accomplished these sub-tasks ultimately determined the level of collaboration and perceived learning. The results also suggested that the intimacy and work phase — during which members build trust, negotiate differences, establish membership, and pool resources—was particularly important for novice members’ transition from peripheral to full participation. It was also noteworthy that some struggling English language learners used their advanced technology skills to re-position themselves as meaningful contributors, despite their limited writing ability. This illustrated an expansion of CoP from a unidirectional process (i.e., novice learners being apprenticed into expert practices) to a multidirectional process in which members flexibly negotiate their membership and relationships.

Fifth, I examined the perceived affordances and challenges of integrating synchronous technology in teaching and learning writing, as well as the contextual factors that shaped students’ year-long engagement with the digital literacy practices. Several themes have emerged regarding the affordances (e.g., multiple entry points for participation, apprenticeship for 21st century literacy skills, support system for struggling writers), as well as the challenges (i.e., efficiency over quality, tension between collective vs. individual ownership) of engaging with the newly emerging digital literacy practices. The critical role of implementation contexts (e.g., technology-supportive instructional context, school’s emphasis on collaboration and diversity, curricular integration and teacher’s role) was also highlighted.

Lastly, I discussed the theoretical, pedagogical, and methodological implications of the multiple findings. Theoretically, this study helps us explore the value of synchronous collaborative writing as a new literacies practice and also as a community practice, both of which may effectively bridge the gap between traditional in-class literacy practices and increasingly multimodal, out-of-school literacy practices. Pedagogically, the results provided strong implications for task design and implementation by investigating the under-examined impact of multiple factors (e.g., task types, ability grouping, interaction patterns) on students’ collaboration practices and learning outcomes. Methodologically, this study demonstrated how the integration of a text mining approach may enhance the research capacity for understanding the multiple aspects of the emerging digital literacy practices, particularly when combined with qualitative investigations. Overall, the findings help us better understand how to integrate collaborative digital literacy in K-12 settings and how to maximize the educational affordances of synchronous technology to equip students with the essential writing skills for the 21st century.

Sentence processing skills contribute to successful L2 reading, and require understanding and manipulation of the order and interdependence of words within a sentence. Acknowledging that this syntactic awareness is significant but challenging in language development, a small number of researchers have explored whether modified text format increases reading abilities by raising syntactic awareness. This mixed within- and between-subjects study aims to examine whether phrase-segmented format, supported by visual-syntactic text formatting technology, scaffolds rapid and accurate L2 reading. Three groups of college students from the U.S. (NES and ESL) and Korea (EFL) read eight passages (4 block-formatted vs. 4 phrase-segmented) and answered four types of comprehension questions (topic, vocabulary, information, and inference-making). This study also investigates whether the format effect on rapid and accurate reading varies depending on L2 students’ working memory capacity.

This study revealed three main findings. First, text format type did not generally affect reading speed in any language group, but the group difference between ESL and NES students narrowed in the phrase-segmented versus the block condition. Second, the positive impact of the phrase-segmented format on comprehension was found among the L2 groups but not the NES group. Group differences in comprehension were mostly associated with the block condition rather than the phrase-segmented format, except for the persistent difference between EFL and NES groups across format. The third finding was that the phrase-segmented format did not influence the reading speed of L2 students with low working memory; however, it assisted them in making inferences and possibly expanding vocabulary.

Although syntactic cues are only part of a multifaceted L2 reading process, these findings provide support for the phrase-segmented format as a helpful resource to promote L2 reading comprehension without hindering reading speed. This study additionally demonstrated that reading phrase-segmented text may scaffold inference by alleviating working memory overload.

This dissertation consists of four studies that reveal how children learn from, respond to, interact with, and perceive conversational agent as their learning companion during shared storybook reading. The first study focuses on how children learn from the agent. I found that contingent, structured dialogue with the conversational agent led to children’s enhanced story comprehension. Such benefit was largely driven by children’s heightened level of vocalizations related to the story narratives and reduced off-topic vocalizations. The second study primarily focuses on how children respond to the conversational agent. I found that conversational agents promoted children’s response intelligibility, while adults elicited longer, more lexically diverse, and more relevant responses. The differences in language productivity were amplified among the questions requiring high cognitive demand. The third study focuses on how children interact with the agent verbally and non-verbally. I found that children generally participated in the conversation with the agent smoothly: they generated on-topic responses and answered within the proper time frame. The result also confirmed the advantage of using a combination of open-ended questions as initial prompts to encourage children’s free expression and multiple-choice questions as follow-up prompts to help ease the potential cognitive obstacles. Such scaffolding mechanisms appeared to benefit younger children more so than older ones. The fourth study focuses how children perceive the agent. I found that children in general held positive perceptions in terms of conversational agents’ cognitive and psychological capabilities. Children’s such perceptions establish the feasibility of developing agents to socially engage children in learning activities. Overall, the four studies provide converging evidence on the promise of leveraging AI-powered conversational technologies to support young children’s language development. The findings are intended to be generalized to designing socially interactive environments for different learning domains (e.g., science) and learning scenarios (e.g., television watching), with a goal of promoting children’s long-term development.

This dissertation aims to understand and further explore the effects of corpus use on second language (L2) vocabulary learning in classroom contexts using new methodologies and theoretical perspectives. Corpora (the singular is corpus), which are rich collections of authentic language data, have been widely used for language learning purposes because they provide an ample size of authentic L2 exposures to learners, usually hard to attain in real life. Along with the development of the concordance program, which displays multiple example contexts of selected target vocabulary items in a visually salient way, researchers in the field of L2 studies have demonstrated a continuous empirical effort to prove the positive effect of corpus use. However, given the short history of corpus linguistics, little is known about the overall effect of corpus use across different learning contexts. To address the paucity, I conducted four studies as following. In Chapter 1, I systemically reviewed the overall effect of corpus use on L2 vocabulary learning using a multilevel meta-analysis approach. In Chapter 2, by conducting an experiment I examined the effect of the confirmation process for corpus use as glossary information using a linear regression analysis. In Chapter 3, I re-analyzed the data collected to unearth hidden groups of learners based on their vocabulary learning across different learning conditions using a data mining approach. In Chapter 4, I conducted another experiment to investigate the role of learner factors in corpus-based L2 vocabulary learning by using a mixed-method approach and examined if the collected data fit the hypothesized model of Data-Driven Learning (DDL; Johns, 1991). I expect that my dissertation will lead to a deeper understanding of corpus use in L2 vocabulary learning. Considering that the use of technology in an L2 classroom has become a norm, the findings of the dissertation provide researchers and teachers with a few guidelines they should consider when they adopt technologies in L2 vocabulary learning contexts.

Background. Students with disabilities, particularly those from marginalized backgrounds, remain one of the last groups not fully included in K-12 education in the United States. Concurrently, digital technologies provide a powerful means for amplifying the agency and inclusion of diverse children with disabilities, thus enhancing their educational engagement. Yet little research exists examining inclusive uses of technology among diverse students with disabilities in schools.

Accordingly, as schools begin shifting toward inclusive models of education, understanding technology’s role in this process will be critical to the success of inclusion efforts aimed at creating educational access and equity. Within this context, examining digital technology use to support learners' inclusion and engagement with language and literacy practices is becoming more salient. However, this research has not been conducted in inclusive classroom environments fully integrating students with and without disabilities.

This dissertation adds to this developing field by examining the ways digital technologies support inclusion and language and literacy practices at Future Visions Academy, a full-inclusion public charter school in the Western United States. This dissertation centers on marginalized voices of families of color – a departure from prior research on disability, literacy, and technology centering on majority white, higher-resourced, families. Analyses focus on how these families’ experiences – in relation to language, literacy, and technology practices at school and home – shaped students’ inclusion.

Method. An embedded case-study design incorporating qualitative approaches was used to analyze interview, focus group, and classroom observation data. Data sources included 49 weekly classroom observations, 26 family interviews, 14 staff interviews, and fieldnotes collected during the 2019-2020 and 2020-2021 school years. Data was analyzed using first and second cycle coding to identify themes and categories pertaining to inclusive practices, literacy activities, and digital technology use. Results were then used to conduct a directed content analysis of the data. Participant validation and triangulation were used to minimize researcher bias and support data reliability, truthfulness, and validity.

Findings. Three themes were illuminated: (1) FVA’s social organization allowed a fully inclusive environment for diverse children with disabilities to thrive, (2) digital technologies were used at FVA to help students express their agency and voice, while developing language and literacy skills, and (3) digital technologies were used at FVA to foster stronger networks and connections among all school stakeholders.

Findings reveal that, through their digital technology use, students were able to give voice to their thoughts and perspectives and share a fuller picture of themselves as creators. Moreover, students’ experiences with digital technologies have a profound mediating impact on teachers’ understanding of students’ voices and competencies. Examples – such as students’ use of Chromebook laptop speech-to-text functions for writing and iPad AAC devices for linguistic expression during classroom discussions – demonstrated digital technology affordances to amplify, empower, and include student voice.

Significance. Reform minded proponents of inclusion have moved towards school-wide models of inclusion in which all students are seen as permanent members of the general education classroom. This has resulted in the inception of schools like Future Visions Academy. A commitment to this view of inclusion positions students with disabilities as normative, valued, and included members of the school community. This vision of inclusion requires a substantive paradigm shift by policy makers and school leadership, and teachers and parents, in how principles of inclusion have historically played out in public schools. Using Future Visions Academy as a case study, this dissertation sheds light on inclusive best practices that enable this vision of inclusion to be materialized at the intersection of language, literacy, and technology.

Over the last decade, there has been an explosion of national interest in computer science (CS) education. In response to this, several organizations and initiatives have emerged in recent years to expand the CS pipeline. However, within these broad and laudable efforts, one important area has been largely overlooked—the instruction of CS to multilingual students, including the large and growing number of students designated as English learners in K-12 schools. These are one of the most underserved and understudied groups in CS education. In this article, we draw on existing research, as well as our own and others’ theoretical and empirical work to date, to put forth both a framework and curriculum for teaching CS to multilingual students.