This linguistic landscape (LL) study investigates signs in rural border town of Farmington, New Mexico. It includes neighboring communities and towns: Waterflow, Fruitland, and Kirtland. The study is applied linguistics, more specifically linguistic landscape of rural town in Southwest United States. This field work was conducted during COVID-19 pandemic. The analysis has five sections: billboards, anchor mall retail hub, graffiti along Red Apple transit route, the historic downtown, and the COVID-19 and Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women signs. This LL study fills the gap of border town that neighbors Native American reservation. The purpose of this LL study is (1) demonstrate the presence and use of Native American language on signs, (2) capture a board environmental print and artifacts of pragmatic and functional language and semiotic usage, (3) demonstrate the mapping the context surrounding the gestalt to interpret data. The bulk of the fieldwork was complete in one semester. This LL study adopted a number of methods and strategies from LL research literature, particularly De Klerk and Wiley (2010). The significant finding include the bilingual Sweetmeat billboard (Tse’ yaa’ ak’ ahi), monolingual produce vender sign (neeshjizhii), bilingual signs (Tááshoodí slow down and Askii’s Navajo Grill), handwritten COVID-19 sign on drive-through restaurant, Japanese sign with Romanize alphabets, the Yé’ii Bicheii semiotic billboard, and the emoji billboard.

This study explores the relationship between restrictive language policies and dropout influences for language minority students. It furthers understanding of factors related to school attachment and restrictive language policies through an analysis of student's attitudes towards their imposed curriculum. Few studies to date have addressed English language learners' (ELLs') attitudes toward school, especially when schools enforce highly restrictive language policies, and the implications of these student perceptions as related to students' level of attachment to school in general. This study addresses this gap. It investigated middle and high school ELLs' and reclassified (RC) students' attitudes toward school, their aspirations for the future, and the language program in which they are or were recently enrolled within the state of Arizona. Using Erickson's analytic induction method and employing descriptive statistics, t tests, and hierarchical multiple regression, 2,264 students were polled from urban school districts in Arizona. The 85-question survey was comprised of demographic questions and attitude items as measured on a 5-point Likert scale. Results indicate some students are not satisfied with the four-hour block and that many students are aware of the negative implications involvement in the four-hour block can incur. Findings also show that language minority students are not receiving an equal education in regards to their curriculum. More importantly, considering policies and practices of schools as a factor, especially those which are restrictive language policies, is important in better understanding ELL and RC students' attachment to school and the potential impact of these policies on the likelihood of language minority students dropping out of school in the future. Policy implications are discussed.

The purpose of this practitioner inquiry was to explore the use of Guided Critical Reflection (GCR) in preparing preservice teachers for English learners (ELs). As a teacher researcher, I documented, analyzed, and discussed the ways in which students in my course used the process of GCR to transform their passively held understandings about ELs. Specifically, the research questions were: 1) What are preservice teachers' common sense about teaching and learning related to ELs? 2) How does GCR transform preservice teachers' common sense about ELs? 3) What is my role as an educator in creating opportunities for GCR? I utilized methods for data collection that fit my teaching practices. Data sources included three types of observations (self-reflective field notes, audio recordings of each class, and notes documented by an outside observer), student-work artifacts, and my audio reflection journal. I analyzed data inductively and deductively using a modified analytic induction approach. Building on previous research concerning the use of reflection in teacher preparation, I define GCR as the process in which I guided preservice teachers to acknowledge and examine their common sense about ELs, reframe what they know in light of course learning, and transform their understandings. Five major findings emerged from this study. First, preservice teachers entered the course with common sense notions about ELs rooted in their educational and life experiences. Students felt comfortable sharing what they knew about ELs, but needed to be scaffolded to examine how their life experiences shaped their common sense. Within the course, preservice teachers framed and reframed their common sense in different ways. Through the process of GCR, students evidenced a renewed sense about ELs. Finally, my role as a teacher involved establishing a comfortable learning environment, valuing my students' common sense as the catalyst for course learning, and guiding students through their reflective work. Ultimately, I was able to create opportunities for GCR because I too was reflecting on my practices, just as I was asking my students to reflect on their common sense about ELs.