A Corpus-driven Approach toward Teaching Vocabulary and Reading to English Language Learners in U.S.-based K-12 Context through a Mobile App

In order to decrease teachers’ decisions of which vocabulary the focus of the instruction should be upon, a recent line of research argues that pedagogically-prepared word lists may offer the most efficient order of learning vocabulary with an optimized context for instruction in each of four K-12 content areas (math, science, social studies, and language arts) through providing English Language Learners (ELLs) with the most frequent words in each area. Educators and school experts have acknowledged the need for developing new materials, including computerized enhanced texts and effective strategies aimed at improving ELLs’ mastery of academic and STEM-related lexicon. Not all words in a language are equal in their role in comprehending the language and expressing ideas or thoughts. For this study, I used a corpus-driven approach which is operationalized by applying a text analysis method. For the purpose of this research study, I made two corpora, Teacher’s U.S. Corpus (TUSC) and Science and Math Academic Corpus for Kids (SMACK) with a focus on word lemma rather than inflectional and derivational variants of word families. To create the corpora, I collected and analyzed a total of 122 textbooks used commonly in the states of Florida and California. Recruiting, scanning and converting of textbooks had been carried out over a period of more than two years from October 2014 to March 2017. In total, this school corpus contains 10,519,639 running words and 16,344 lemmas saved in 16,315 word document pages. From the corpora, I developed six word lists, namely three frequency-based word lists (high-, mid-, and low-frequency), academic and STEM-related word lists, and essential word list (EWL). I then applied the word lists as the database and developed a mobile app, Vocabulary in Reading Study – VIRS, (available on App Store, Android and Google Play) alongside a website (www.myvirs.com). Also, I developed a new K-12 dictionary which targets the vocabulary needs of ELLs in K-12 context. This is a frequency-based dictionary which categorizes words into three groups of high, medium and low frequency words as well as two separate sections for academic and STEM words. The dictionary has 16,500 lemmas with derivational and inflectional forms

The institution and the network

This research explores how National Research Centres in Higher Education systems can offer dynamic views of ways network-like organisations emerge and self-organise in institutional environments. My thesis considers the interplay between institutional and more network-like forms of organising by exploring the Australian Research Council’s (ARC) Centres of Excellence (CoE) Programme as a complex system of science. I provide a foundational review of the changing relationship between Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) and Research Centres to highlight the perception that today’s science endeavours form part of a larger global research ecosystem. The thesis applies these perspectives to propose that CoEs can be conceptually viewed as a ‘Janus object’ in this complex space - that is, that CoEs occupy and can take views across both institutional and network-like environments. The research integrates three studies to provide this more detailed ‘view from the CoE.’ The first study mobilises two bodies of literature to provide a foundation for the research approach. The first, from neo-institutional theory, considers how the CoE, as an informal organisation, might relate to the HEI through a form of ‘collective rationality.’ The second, from the field of network science, explores how network-like organisations can emerge with different properties of robustness and information exchange. I also respond to calls from empirical studies of research systems to consider how the ‘self-organisation’ of science might offer wider value to inform an understanding of complex systems of organising. The second study explored how research professionals engaged in Research Centres interact within the HEI environment. This informed the third study which details a qualitative, exploratory study of the Australian CoE Programme. Contributions from 22 Research and Professional Leads, which covered three cohorts of the Programme funded in 2011, 2014 and 2017 also represented an overview of ‘life spans’ of the CoE. CoE participants identified characteristics of emergence consistent with organisation in complex systems. Firstly, shared narratives from a high proportion of participants note a paradoxical environment of ‘odd encounters’, rather than formal interactions, with the HEI. Narratives also revealed highly effective forms of co-leadership roles between Research and Professional Leads which align closely with descriptions of ‘authority’ in network science. This suggests effective CoE leadership is via people acting as shared information exchange hubs. The contributions also allow a view of the CoEs through their lifespan in relation to the HEI. From these I develop a set of ‘network narratives’ which demonstrate the pluriform nature of CoEs as an example of emergence. The narratives also reveal CoEs have potential to become highly autonomous, but return value as an important intermediary between the ‘highly localised’ institutional research environment and the global research system. A strong volunteered narrative on gender and diversity policy also demonstrates an unexpected case of network-like ‘percolation.’ This paradoxical finding suggests policy formed within the CoE may be adopted by the institution which may in turn allow the institution to co-evolve. This suggests a potential for true, if less tangible, ecosystem effects as a result of the CoE Programme. In integrating findings across the three studies I contribute to theory by proposing a new open architecture for institutional theory in response to long standing work by Scott (2004; 2008). This aims to realign network considerations inherent within neo-institutional theory with more recent phenomenological findings in network science. In illustrating examples through network narratives, I also extend the work by Watts (2004) to close the gap in the vocabulary between network science and institutional theory in ways that can support studies which explore institutional perspectives of network-like forms in complex systems