Revisiting Local Governments and Social Networking

This chapter argues that Web 2.0, a valuable tool used to expand government-citizen communication opportunities and bring citizens as a group closer to government, widens a communication opportunity divide between local government and its citizens. Web 2.0 access is almost exclusively English-language based, benefiting that segment of the population and leaving others behind, especially the fastest growing language minority, Spanish speakers. While local governments continue to take advantage of the ability to interact with citizens through social networking (Aikins, 2009; Vogel, 2009), McDonald, Merwin, Merwin, Morris, & Brannen (2010) found a majority of counties with significant populations of citizens with Limited English Proficiency (LEP) did not provide for the translation needs of these citizens on their Websites. The chapter finds that Web 2.0-based communication is almost exclusively in English and that cities are missing opportunities to communicate. It concludes with recommendations based on observations of communities employing Web 2.0 to engage non-English speaking populations.

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Revisiting Local Governments and Social Networking

Open Government ◽

10.4018/978-1-5225-9860-2.ch048 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 1020-1036

Author(s):

Gerald A. Merwin Jr. ◽

J. Scott McDonald ◽

Keith A. Merwin ◽

Maureen McDonald ◽

John R. Bennett Jr.

Keyword(s):

Local Government ◽

Web 2.0 ◽

Social Networking ◽

Local Governments ◽

Limited English Proficiency ◽

English Language ◽

English Proficiency ◽

Language Minority ◽

Spanish Speakers ◽

English Speaking

This chapter argues that Web 2.0, a valuable tool used to expand government-citizen communication opportunities and bring citizens as a group closer to government, widens a communication opportunity divide between local government and its citizens. Web 2.0 access is almost exclusively English-language based, benefiting that segment of the population and leaving behind others, especially the fastest growing language minority of Spanish speakers. While local governments are increasingly taking advantage of the trend toward interacting with citizens through social networking (Aikins, 2009; Vogel, 2009), McDonald, Merwin, Merwin, Morris, & Brannen (2010) found a majority of counties with significant populations of citizens with Limited English Proficiency (LEP) do not provide for the translation needs of these citizens on their Websites. The chapter finds that Web 2.0-based communication is almost exclusively in English and that cities are missing opportunities to communicate. It concludes with recommendations based on observations of communities employing Web 2.0 to engage non-English speaking populations.

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Local Government Use of Web 2.0

Digital Democracy ◽

10.4018/978-1-4666-1740-7.ch088 ◽

2012 ◽

pp. 1774-1791

Author(s):

Raoul J. Freeman ◽

Peter Loo

Keyword(s):

Los Angeles ◽

Local Government ◽

Social Responsibility ◽

Web 2.0 ◽

Social Networking ◽

Local Governments ◽

Los Angeles County ◽

The Government ◽

Operational Issues ◽

Technological Opportunities

Web 2.0 refers to various networked applications utilizing technologies such as application mashups, content syndication, videocasts, wikis, blogs, social networking, user tagging, social bookmarks and content and service rating. Such technologies are designed to reach, attract, and interact with a greater electronic user audience. The potential of these technologies for e-government applications at Los Angeles County is analyzed. The government model for leveraging Internet technologies is different from that of commercial enterprises or academia. Thus immediate utilization of seemingly attractive technological opportunities must be tempered by organizational, implementation, and social responsibility constraints. Appropriate attention needs to be paid to legal and operational issues. The main conclusion drawn is that Web 2.0 presents an opportunity for local governments such as Los Angeles County, but that there should not be a headlong rush to implementation without consideration of a variety of other issues.

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Local Government Use of Web 2.0

E-Governance and Civic Engagement ◽

10.4018/978-1-61350-083-5.ch025 ◽

2012 ◽

pp. 505-523

Author(s):

Raoul J. Freeman ◽

Peter Loo

Keyword(s):

Los Angeles ◽

Local Government ◽

Social Responsibility ◽

Web 2.0 ◽

Social Networking ◽

Local Governments ◽

Los Angeles County ◽

The Government ◽

Operational Issues ◽

Technological Opportunities

Web 2.0 refers to various networked applications utilizing technologies such as application mashups, content syndication, videocasts, wikis, blogs, social networking, user tagging, social bookmarks and content and service rating. Such technologies are designed to reach, attract, and interact with a greater electronic user audience. The potential of these technologies for e-government applications at Los Angeles County is analyzed. The government model for leveraging Internet technologies is different from that of commercial enterprises or academia. Thus immediate utilization of seemingly attractive technological opportunities must be tempered by organizational, implementation, and social responsibility constraints. Appropriate attention needs to be paid to legal and operational issues. The main conclusion drawn is that Web 2.0 presents an opportunity for local governments such as Los Angeles County, but that there should not be a headlong rush to implementation without consideration of a variety of other issues.

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Language proficiency, home-language status, and English vocabulary development: A longitudinal follow-up of the Word Generation program

Bilingualism Language and Cognition ◽

10.1017/s1366728911000393 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 15 (3) ◽

pp. 437-451 ◽

Cited By ~ 35

Author(s):

JOSHUA F. LAWRENCE ◽

LAUREN CAPOTOSTO ◽

LEE BRANUM-MARTIN ◽

CLAIRE WHITE ◽

CATHERINE E. SNOW

Keyword(s):

Limited English Proficiency ◽

English Proficiency ◽

Intervention Group ◽

Language Minority ◽

Home Language ◽

Individual Growth ◽

Word Generation ◽

Language Status ◽

English Speaking

This longitudinal quasi-experimental study examines the effects of Word Generation, a middle-school vocabulary intervention, on the learning, maintenance, and consolidation of academic vocabulary for students from English-speaking homes, proficient English speakers from language-minority homes, and limited English-proficiency students. Using individual growth modeling, we found that students receiving Word Generation improved more on target word knowledge during the instructional period than students in comparison schools did, on average. We found an interaction between instruction and home-language status such that English-proficient students from language-minority homes improved more than English-proficient students from English-speaking homes. Limited English-proficiency students, however, did not realize gains equivalent to those of more proficient students from language-minority homes during the instructional period. We administered follow-up assessments in the fall after the instructional period ended and in the spring of the following year to determine how well students maintained and consolidated target academic words. Students in the intervention group maintained their relative improvements at both follow-up assessments.

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Serving Constituents with Limited English Proficiency (LEP) in the U.S.

E-Government Website Development ◽

10.4018/978-1-61692-018-0.ch003 ◽

2010 ◽

pp. 35-53 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

J. Scott McDonald ◽

Gerald A. Merwin ◽

Keith A. Merwin ◽

Regina K. Morris ◽

Edris L. Brannen

Keyword(s):

Local Governments ◽

Limited English Proficiency ◽

English Language ◽

Service Providers ◽

English Proficiency ◽

Web Pages ◽

Executive Order ◽

Service Areas ◽

Government Websites ◽

The U.S

This chapter evaluates the implementation by local government websites of President William Jefferson Clinton’s Executive Order 13166, Improving Access to Services for Persons with Limited English Proficiency (LEP) (Clinton, 2000). The purpose of Executive Order 13166 is to facilitate access to federally funded services. In the U.S., local governments are the most important basic service providers. This assessment is fundamentally important in light of the growing number of non-English speakers who reside in the country. The chapter looks at a diverse set of local governments and focuses on availability of information in Spanish, by far the predominant non-English language, spoken in about 12 percent of households in the U.S. in 2006. Government Web pages are assessed in terms of the degree to which 10 key government service areas are accessible in Spanish. The chapter identifies best practices for governments to make sites accessible to individuals with limited English proficiency.

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Examining Variability in Language Minority Students’ Reading Achievement: The Influence of School and Ethnic Background Macro Contexts

Journal of Education ◽

10.1177/0022057418800945 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 198 (1) ◽

pp. 78-94

Author(s):

Tingting Reid ◽

Ronald H. Heck

Keyword(s):

Reading Achievement ◽

English Learners ◽

English Language ◽

The United States ◽

Language Minority ◽

Steady Increase ◽

Cultural Backgrounds ◽

Language Minority Students ◽

Diverse Backgrounds ◽

English Speaking

The steady increase in immigration in the United States over the past few decades has focused attention on the necessity for school districts to provide English language services in order for children with diverse language backgrounds to participate fully in public education. In this study, we utilize a large state-representative sample of elementary-aged students from culturally diverse backgrounds to examine gaps in the reading achievement of English learners versus their native English-speaking peers. Our inquiry examines the theoretical importance of micro–macro linkages to assess the relative impacts of school contexts and ethnic/cultural backgrounds on students’ reading achievement.

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Assessing English language skills in education: Implications for students with limited English proficiency.

High-stakes testing in education: Science and practice in K–12 settings. ◽

10.1037/12330-004 ◽

2011 ◽

pp. 59-75

Author(s):

Anja Römhild ◽

James A. Bovaird

Keyword(s):

Limited English Proficiency ◽

English Language ◽

English Proficiency ◽

Language Skills ◽

English Language Skills

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Learning Strategies in Alleviating English Writing Anxiety for English Language Learners (ELLs) with Limited English Proficiency (LEP)

English Language Teaching ◽

10.5539/elt.v9n9p52 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 9 (9) ◽

pp. 52

Author(s):

Chia-Pei Wu ◽

Huey-Ju Lin

Keyword(s):

English Language Learners ◽

Language Learning ◽

Learning Strategies ◽

Language Learners ◽

Limited English Proficiency ◽

English Language ◽

Learning Strategy ◽

English Proficiency ◽

Writing Anxiety ◽

English Writing

<p>This study utilized the Oxford Strategy Inventory for Language Learning (SILL) and an English writing anxiety scale to examine the relationship between learning strategies and English writing anxiety in 102 university-level English language learners (ELLs) with Limited English Proficiency (LEP) in a university in Taiwan. Kruskal Wallis Test results revealed no significant association between learning strategies and English writing anxiety. The common learning strategies utilized by participants were compensation, social, memory and mixed strategies. The interview data indicated that ELLs suffered considerably from writing anxiety. Coping strategies of highly anxious ELL of each learning strategy group is also reported. However, further studies of larger populations and comparison of different ethnic groups as well as quantitative statistics analyses are needed.</p>

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Entrepreneurs’ Attitude toward English Proficiency of Interns of Rajamangala University of Technology Thanyaburi

Psychology and Education Journal ◽

10.17762/pae.v58i1.932 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 58 (1) ◽

pp. 1478-1483

Author(s):

Montchatry Ketmuni, Piyanuch Sawatyothin

Keyword(s):

Liberal Arts ◽

English Language ◽

English Proficiency ◽

Reading Practice ◽

Multi Stage ◽

University Of Technology ◽

Significant Difference ◽

Language Courses ◽

English Speaking ◽

Academic Year

This research was funded by Faculty of Liberal Arts, Rajamangala University of Technology Thanyaburi (RMUTT). The purposes of this research were to 1) determine entrepreneurs’ attitude toward English proficiency of RMUTT interns in the second semester in academic year 2016, and 2) to study the entrepreneurs’ opinions for improving the content of English language courses. The 400 entrepreneurs participating RMUTT internship were selected by multi-stage sampling. The research instrument was a questionnaire (α = 0.94). The statistics used for data analysis were frequency, percentage, mean, standard deviation, and f-test. Findings of the research revealed that the organizations moderately used English language in workplace and using English in a workplace had no significant difference among types of the organizations. Most organizations did not require English language on recruitment process. According to the entrepreneurs’ opinions, all English skills of RMUTT interns were at a moderate level. The highest of each skill was listening to the supervisors’ instructions with technical terms, speaking English for everyday use, reading emails or business letters, and filling in forms. The entrepreneurs recommended writing email correspondence, filling in forms, and note-taking in English. Speaking with confidence was also suggested as well as more listening and reading practice.

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