Department of Language & Literacy Education
Graduate Student Conference
Pushing the Frontiers of
Language & Literacy
May 24-25, 2013
CONCURRENT SESSION A - 10:05-11:35am
Panel One - Ponderosa F, Room DLC
Discussant: Laura Teichert
Chair: Maureen Kendrick
“i” Babies
Eugene Harrison, University of British Columbia
Children today are growing up in a digital world that is changing and
advancing at an unprecedented rate. While some adults may struggle to
keep up with new technological gadgets, we find our very young completely
at ease with the use of digital technologies before even learning to speak.
This project is a short, but intensive study of one 21-month old child and her
interactions with digital mobile devices (iPhone and iPad) within the family
context. Findings from this study may be able to inform parents and
educators of what, why and how young children interact and learn with
digital devices.
This project builds on a foundation of family literacy studies which
look at literacies that children are exposed to and absorb from their home
environments. Contrary to the common perspective that children only learn
literacy skills from school, these studies often show that literacies learnt from
children’s homes and community is deeply rich and significant. According to
Common Sense Media, half the children in the US now have access to
mobile devices. Given the influx of technology in our children’s lives today
and that most of their access comes from home environments, it is important
to understand their digital literacy developments from a family literacy
perspective. Studying one very young child and her family interacting with
these very new devices provides us a narrow, but deep and detailed look
into how these technologies might be influencing our children. This project
looks at data collected in three ways: observations of the child using the
digital devices; interviews with the parents regarding this topic; and artifacts
that the child produces using the devices (photos).
“How do you draw respect?” Multimodal literacies for social
justice representations by young children
Harini Rajagopal, University of British Columbia
Most children are driven by an interest in making meaning and
gaining agency in their participation in society through interested action
(Kress, 1997). Even young children in their preschool and elementary years
engage with notions of social justice, power relationships, equity, agency
and identity in multiple ways (Stein, 2003; Vasquez, 2004). Also, children
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have sophisticated understandings of various aspects of their lives and
connect with their own experiences and identities in complex patterns
(McCarthey & Moje, 2002). Especially as children grow into “multilayered
lifeworlds” (Cope & Kalantzis, 2000, p. 18), with a multiplicity of
communication channels and increasing cultural and linguistic diversity, their
identities mediate and are mediated by the texts that they read, write, and
talk about (Moje & Luke, 2009).
However, many young children might not be linguistically ready and
equipped to express complex notions of social justice, especially as it relates
to their own lives, with language alone. By engaging in a multimodal literacy
approach (Kress, 1997; Jewitt & Kress, 2003) that treats all modes of
meaning making, like speech, writing, drawing, images, play, video, gesture,
music, etc. as equally significant, children have the capacity and agency to
construct knowledge and represent their perceptions in authentic ways.
Multimodality, extending past the traditional foundations of print literacy,
offers diverse and multilayered literacy pathways for young children to
articulate their lived experiences, imagined narratives, and conceptual
understandings around issues of social justice. This perspective is in line
with the transformative spirit of the multiliteracies agenda (New London
Group, 1996) and permits exploration between multimodal pedagogy,
representation, and learning in young children.
Critical Literacy: Using Picture books to Read the World
Alexis Birner & Lindsay Bromley, University of British Columbia
This paper proposes an educational pedagogy of critical literacy,
facilitated through the use of picturebooks. A critical pedagogy, whereby
skills such as questioning, critiquing, and inquiring into the texts we read, is
necessary in our twenty-first century world. Both changes in access to
information due to technology and changes in the sociocultural diversity of
the classroom due to globalization require a shift in literacy education. To
best teach our students the required skills, teachers must also address
visual literacy needs, as the literary environment of the twenty-first century is
saturated not only with print, but also with visual modes of communication.
The picturebook is an excellent multimodal resource to foster critical literacy
and the inquiry into social justice issues. The use of carefully selected
picturebooks that deal with sophisticated subject matter aids teachers in the
transition to a critical literacy pedagogy. We have addressed such topics as
gender identity (10,000 Dresses, Ewert), xenophobia/discrimination (The
Island, Greder), peer pressure and conformity (The Hueys and the New
Jumper, Jeffers) and colonialism/immigration (The Rabbits, Marsden & Tan)
informed by a critical literacy framework.
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Panel Two - Ponderosa E, Room 121
Discussant: Reginald D’Silva
Chair: George Belliveau
A Critical Review of UBC’s Academic Language Supports for
International Students
Tim Anderson, University of British Columbia
International student populations at Canadian universities have
grown dramatically in recent years. Between 2002 to 2010, international
bachelors, masters, and doctoral students increased by 65% to just over
80,000 nationwide (Statistics Canada, 2012a) and contributed over $8 billion
dollars to the Canadian economy in 2010 alone (Foreign Affairs and
International Trade Canada, 2012). At almost double the national average,
the equivalent population at the University of British Columbia (UBC) grew
by 117% to 6933 students during the same time period (UBC, 2012). These
numbers reflect the growing focus, even urgency, of Canadian universities’
internationalization strategies in order to maintain and ultimately expand
current student populations for a variety of academic, social, cultural, and
economic reasons (Baluja, 2012; Foreign Affairs and International Trade,
2011; Toope, 2009). Amidst the backdrop of Canada’s tertiary-level
internationalization trends (Statistics Canada, 2012b) and the challenges
faced by international students when studying abroad (Andrade, 2006;
Cheng, Myles, & Curtis, 2004), this discussion will present a critical review of
UBC’s current academic language supports for international students and
will discuss the nonfulfillment of the academic and social responsibility of
universities to provide sufficient help and support to international students.
This presentation will conclude with suggestions for future directions and
potential implications of change on students and the University.
Constraints and Affordances of “College-Prep” EAP: Identity,
Investment, and Desire
Michael Trottier, University of British Columbia
This presentation discusses doctoral-level research involving
constraints and affordances (e.g., developmental, pedagogical) of intensive
post-secondary EAP. Based on a ethnographic, multi-case approach, the 1year study investigated the academic socialization experiences of 6 adult
English language learners (ELLs) transitioning from intensive ‘college-prep’
English for Academic Purposes (EAP) into regular postsecondary programs.
Employing a second language socialization framework (SLS; Duff, 2003;
Zuengler and Cole, 2005), the study aims to expand the scope of language
socialization (LS; Ochs & Schieffelin, 2008) and second language
acquisition (SLA) research by underscoring the situated, contingent nature
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of additional language learning, particularly within multicultural contexts of
higher education. Referring to sample ethnographic data (qualitative
interviews, observational data, classroom artifacts), the presentation
embraces the notion of critical pragmatism and critical praxis (Benesch,
1993, 1996; Pennycook, 1997) in arguing for more nuanced,
ethnographically-oriented EAP research, one which foregrounds the needs,
wants, and desires of transnational learners as they negotiate the shifting
demands and contingencies of intensive EAP.
An examination of Canadian Civil Society Organizations’ role
and contribution to the effort of Global Citizenship Education in
Canada
David Monk, University of Victoria
In an era of increased globalization it is difficult to ignore the growing
divide between the rich and the poor. Based on the theory that we are all
members of a global society and as such have a common responsibility to
all people around the globe, as put forth by Martha Nussbaum and Vaclav
Havel, this paper examines how education about issues of global poverty
and international development are carried out in the public sphere in
Canada.
The research investigates the role of the Canadian International
Development Agency (CIDA) and four Canadian Civil Society Organizations
(CCSOs): CARE, Cuso, the McLeod Group and the Canadian Coalition for
International Cooperation (CCIC) in engaging the public about issues
surrounding international development.
The research relies on information gleaned from the relevant
websites, a range of publications and interviews with the four CCSOs. It
identifies that the role for public engagement primarily falls on the shoulders
of CCSOs, who deem public engagement as an important part of what they
do. It reveals the extent that the CCSOs interviewed do public engagement
as well as some of their key methods and strategies. It concludes that
CCSOs value public engagement however they are severely restricted in
what they can do because of budget restraints and reduced government
funding.
The research opens a new forum for discussion surrounding how to
overcome some of the challenges involved in public engagement and
suggests further research into how education about issues of international
development is conducted in other formal, non-formal and informal learning
contexts.
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Panel Three - Ponderosa E, Room 123
Discussant: Genevieve Brisson
Chair: Bonny Norton
Generation 1.5: From struggling to flourishing
Mariko Takashina, Simon Fraser University & Wan Yu Wendy Chien,
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Globalization has increased the immigration trend. Generation 1.5 youth born in their home countries who immigrated to another country with
their families and received education there - is increasing in population in
many parts of the world. Said generation has been given multiple
ambiguous identities: the young immigrants are neither “newcomers” nor
“host-country born.” As they struggle to adjust their identity, many have
developed a new mindset from living within another culture. Consequently,
Generation 1.5 may become a new force which bonds two different cultures
and generations in aiding the flow of cultural exchange.
Generation 1.5 is a vital social capital. At an institutional level,
respect and trust should be developed by providing academic support and
empowerment through humanizing pedagogy. At the family/community level,
exposure to original languages and cultures of Generation 1.5 might
encourage pride in their own heritage. Based on the researches of an
educator and mother of Generation 1.5 teenagers, when adolescents are
encouraged to have confidence, they will maintain positive and successful
images toward their future. In turn, it may motivate their investment in
academic and social activities, promoting them to pursue their goals and
contribute to a healthy, meaningful multi-society.
As a visual artist, educator, and a cultural hybrid herself, Wan Yu
Wendy Chien has an interest in searching for possibilities that will merge two
cultures into a new whole. She proposes images of a culturally bonded
world which celebrates collaboration, connection, and acceptance. Based
on what Chien has explored and experienced, she presents works that
generate an open conversation for two cultures, their people, and the people
in between. Chien considers herself an agent whose task is to reflect and
respond to the potential and prospect of her generation: Generation 1.5.
Social class, transnational contexts and SLA
Ron Darvin, University of British Columbia
Recognizing how class has been under-examined in SLA research
in recent years compared to categories of race, gender and ethnicity (Block,
2012), this paper asserts how, set against the dynamic and ever-shifting
backdrop of globalization, class is a particularly cogent inscription of identity
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to understand the migrant learner. While it has been more traditionally
viewed as the social location of an individual determined by income and
occupation, class is also understood as a construct in which the possession
or lack of economic, cultural and social capital leads to shared dispositions
that operate in specific fields (Bourdieu,1990). Such differences become
particularly complex in the transnational context, where labor diasporas fill
the needs of industrialized countries, in arrangements that construct new
relationships between structure and agency. In this neoliberal social order,
the decentralization of the flow of capital, people, goods, culture and
information, produces not only new modes of inclusion, but also social
fragmentation and inequality (Crompton, 2008). Immigration categories
determine how migrants can insert themselves in these transnational
spaces, while countries of origin, themselves implicated in a global class
hierarchy, position migrants in ways that refract this world economic order
(Kelly, 2012).
Knowing how class plays a significant role in the ways by which
agency is exercised in the domains and scales of transnational contexts, this
paper examines how class identities impinge on the educational trajectories
and language acquisition of adult and young migrant learners at institutional,
family and personal levels. It explores how they can navigate through these
spaces, as they position themselves and are positioned by others.
Recognizing how these transnational relations are implicated in unequal
relations of power, this paper advocates for a critical pedagogy that fosters a
greater understanding of how class operates in these contexts and that
enables a language learning that is more inclusive and empowering for
migrant learners.
Old ‘I’ standing on the way forming new ‘I’: The imagined
identity realizing process of three Asian students in imagined
community
Jiannan Hoa, Tong Huang, & Sumi Kwon; Simon Fraser University
This paper aims to explore that the process of learning and using
language provides an arena for negotiation and construction of identities:
with the seemly command of English in expanding circle country (China and
Korea), they might claim a higher position among peers and recognized by
teachers, and thus claim a superior and advantageous identity, or vice
versa. Data was collected on the basis of three International graduate
students’ autobiographical reflections on their different experiences of using
English in their home country and in Canada, and in daily communication
discourse and academic discourse. By analyzing their English using
experiences, struggles created by transitional period and strategies they
used to progress their English proficiency imagined community, this paper
mainly argues that ESL students’ histories and experiences can enhance or
constrain the identity negotiations and constructions of imagined and new
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identities in an imagined community. These three students are currently
enrolled in the graduate program, Teaching English as Second/Foreign
Language, in Faculty of Education in a Canadian university. As student
teachers, those three students conclude this paper by sharing their
understanding of pedagogical implication in ESL/EFL teaching based their
self-reflection of English learning and identity negotiation: ESL teachers in
multilingual classrooms of contact zone should be aware of how will their
students past experiences and identities affect formation of new identities,
not only on students themselves but also between different students.
Panel Four- Ponderosa E, Room 127
Discussant: Sara Schroeter
Chair: Carl Leggo
Letting go of perfect: One Qallunaat teacher’s journey of
positionality using narrative inquiry in Nunavik
William Balfe, University of British Columbia
White teachers have been traveling to the Canadian North to teach
in Indigenous communities for decades. There is a growing body of scholarly
writing by teachers who have made this journey. (Taylor, 1995) (Mueller,
2006) (Tompkins, 1998) (Desautels, 2008). Many have questioned the EuroCentric curriculums and hidden curriculums these Southern teachers bring
with them. Teacher role confusion and cultural difference is often sited,
among others, as contributing to a systemic educational malaise. Recent
scholarship by Dion (2007) and Strong-Wilson (2008) have pointed towards
Non-Indigenous Teachers examining their own positionality as an entry point
into preparing teachers for teaching Indigenous students. I have expanded
on this foundation by examining the complexities around place, notions of
identity, and intercultural conflict as a way of stratifying the discussion.
Instead of positioning one as unproblematic teachers may benefit
from examining the cracks in their own lives as an intersection where mutual
dialogue and respect for each other may begin. Using narrative inquiry,
personal journal entries, artwork, scholarship, and memory excavation one
teacher, having returned to the South, examines his own and families, four
year story of living and teaching in an Inuit community in Nunavik (Northern
Quebec).
Rather than explain the “other” an effort is made to refocus the lens
of enquiry back on the self. Through this dialogic of self-reflexivity issues
around Decolonization, Identity, and place are explored in a post-structural
paradigm. Commonly asked “deficiency” questions about Inuit and
Indigenous education have obscured issues related to teacher
competencies. “Why are Inuit students not succeeding in schools” shifts to:
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“Why are Southern Teachers not succeeding with Inuit students.” What are
the reasons why this teacher ventured North? What are the reasons why he
stayed so long? And what can be learned and passed on to other teachers
who may be considering or engaged in a similar experience.
Parents-only? The view of a family literacy program through the
lens of ‘Activity Theory’
Nicola Friedrich, University of British Columbia
Family literacy educators have responded to critics who characterize
family literacy programs as reflecting the practices and values of white,
middle-class families (Auerbach, 1989; Reyes & Torres, 2007) by creating
programs that respect and value the knowledge and practices of immigrant
and refugee families. Family literacy programs such as Literacy for Life
(Anderson, Purcell-Gates, Jang, & Gagné, 2010), the Intergenerational
Literacy Project (Paratore, Krol-Sinclair, David, & Schick, 2011), Raising
Early Achievement in Literacy project (Hirst, Hannon, & Nutbrown, 2010),
and the Welcome Centre (Iddings, 2009) are examples of family literacy
programs that reflect the sociocultural realities of the participating immigrant
and refugee families.
How are facilitators within these programs able to introduce families
to school-like literacy practices while still respecting the cultural knowledge
and learning traditions the parents bring with them to the program? The
purpose of this paper is to describe the learning environment observed
within the parent-only segment of a family literacy program for immigrant
and refugee families. Drawing from activity theory (Vygotsky, 1978; Wertsch,
1998), I will discuss how facilitators engaged with families in target activities
during the parent-only segment in an attempt to mediate their understanding
of the significance of childhood rhymes and songs to early literacy.
In this paper, I draw on fieldnotes from the session called Rhythm,
Raps and Rhymes, one of ten sessions in the family literacy program.
Supporting data were drawn from a larger study that assessed the children’s
growth in literacy development over the course of the program (Author,
2011). The findings challenge assertions that literacy programs are based
on a model that promotes the transmission of school practices into family
contexts (e.g., Reyes & Torres, 2007) and document the diverse ways the
facilitators and cultural support workers were able to mediate the parents
understanding of the use of the cultural practice of singing nursery rhymes
and songs for the purpose of developing children’s early literacy skills.
Evoking Desire: Poetry as Spiritual Practice and Contemplative
Pedagogy
Anar Rajabali, University of British Columbia
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Poet Audre Lorde wrote that “poetry is not a luxury. It is a vital
necessity of our existence. It forms the light within which we predicate our
hopes and dreams towards survival.” Poetry is also a strong educational
force (Koch, 1999) in that it is not only a means of expression of identity and
agency, but a way in which to know our collective human experience. In this
paper, I contextualize poetic discourse as “the articulation of contemplative
perception” (Laude & McDonald, 2004, p.12) in which the poet speaks from
“the threshold of his/her being” (Bachelard, 1969, Intro xvi). The intimate
relationship between spiritual practice and the process of writing poetry will
be explored in the context of multicultural poetic voices from Rumi to Louise
Halfe to Leonard Cohen, who through their diverse spiritual beliefs is
intricately connected in a dialogue with desire, that is, a yearning to write
poetry as a pathway to esoteric knowing. The poetry is analyzed as driven
by the pursuit of spiritual understanding, allowing for the seeking, negotiating
and reclaiming of identity. The transactional and reader response theories of
Louise Rosenblatt (1978) are built upon in which the poetic experience is not
only one that is “evoked” through our personal histories in this revelatory
meaning making process, but one in which we also “emerge” through the
resonances and reverberations of the poem ( Bachelard, 1969). As a
methodology, poetic inquiry brings insight into the authors own deeply
steeped spiritual beliefs and furthers the notion of poetic engagement as
contemplative practice with self and language heighted. Student poetic
voices will also be presented in that pedagogical events that foster a poetic
and spiritual consciousness allows for holistic education, learning that
endures and is timeless (Miller, 2006).
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CONCURRENT SESSION B - 12:35-2:05pm
Panel Five - Ponderosa E, Room 121
Discussant: Joel Heng Hartse
Chair: Patsy Duff
From ‘contaminated’ to multilayered: An exploration of “tape
affected speech” in classroom interaction data
Ryan Deschambault & Won Kim, University of British Columbia
The notion that “tape affected speech” (Wilson, 1987) detracts from
the ‘naturalness’ of participant talk – and thus is less valuable as data –
remains largely unchallenged among qualitative researchers working with
audio-recordings obtained in non-interview settings (Gordon, 2012). This is
especially true for instances of talk in which participants speak explicitly to or
about a recording device, or evidently ‘perform’ for it in some way. Although
some qualitative researchers have disputed these notions by arguing that
talk about, to, or for recording devices can be utilized as an important
resource for understanding participants’ positioning and identity work in
research contexts (e.g., Gordon, 2012; Monahan & Fisher, 2010; Speer,
2002; Speer & Hutchby, 2003; Stokoe, 2009), the studies outlined in this
literature originate outside the field of (language) education and crucially,
have yet to consider the implications of ‘tape affected speech’ for classroombased interaction data or studies relying on them (though see Talmy, 2005).
In this presentation, then, we examine ‘tape affected speech’ in
classroom-based interaction data generated in two separate research sites:
a drama-based adult ESL class and a secondary school ESL writing class.
Taking an discourse analytic approach (e.g., Speer, 2002; Speer & Hutchby,
2003) to data extracts in which students demonstrably speak to/speak
about/perform for the devices being used to record them, our aim is
threefold: (1) to topicalize these data as important objects of and for
analysis, (2) to draw attention to how, in and through their interactions with
the recording devices, students recruit and mobilize various identity
positions relevant the classroom and research contexts, and (3) to consider
the ways in which these data might be made use of in the ‘writing up’ of our
respective studies. We conclude by highlighting some of the methodological
insights made possible through our analyses of these data.
“English Grades Depend on Parents’ Income”: A critical
discourse analysis of a Korean newspaper article
Junghyun Hwag, University of British Columbia
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This paper examines a Korean newspaper article that reports a
study on English education in Korea. Critical discourse analysis is adopted
to investigate construction of English language in the article. The rationale
for approaching a news article using critical discourse analysis is provided
based on the notion of the “preferred mental model” (van Dijk, 2001, p.358).
To analyze the text, linguistic features are investigated in term of social
actors, intertextuality, and semantic relations that are represented in the
news article. The investigation of social actors includes different groups of
people that are categorized in economic terms, institutions, and a “study”
that is reported in the news article. Intertextuality is looked into with regard to
indirect reporting and recontextualization of a scientific discourse. Semantic
relations within sentences and among paragraphs, as well as higher-level
relations that signal a problem-solution relation are examined. The results
indicate two themes regarding construction of English in the article:
commodification of English language and English as an instrument for
economic gain. It is discussed that the two themes are interconnected in a
way to discursively construct and reinforce cultural and linguistic hegemony
of English language in Korean society while being closely related to
reproduction of class differences and the government and major companies’
discourse of “globalization.” Suggestions include opening up a realm for
counter-discourse for those who question and resist the “preferred mental
model” and raising critical awareness on how the idea of English as a lingua
franca of the global economy has been reified and signified in the context of
English education in Korea.
Negotiating Authority in World Englishes Usage
Klara Abdi, University of British Columbia
Bamgbose (1998) proposed five measures, namely 'demographic',
'geographical', 'authoritative', 'codification' and 'acceptability', to assess the
status of a local usage of English as an error or an innovation. In this paper,
I will draw on this framework to analyze a lesson planning interaction
between a native and a non-native teacher of English, extending the
application of this frame to the analysis of discourse.
This paper is based on a larger multiple case study which I
undertook for the purpose of analyzing how English teachers in China
undertake professional development using a “lesson study” approach
(Johnson, 2009), in which groups of teachers cyclically plan, teach and
revise lessons. The purpose of this study was to document the lesson study
process and to analyze the teachers' negotiations around revisions. The
study took place at two sites: during weekly teacher planning meetings at a
high school over a three month period and during a one-week-long high
school teacher professional development workshop organized by a teacher
training university.
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The data for this presentation comes from the professional
development workshop. Using Critical Discourse Analysis (Blommaert,
2005), I will analyze how the two lesson planning participants drew on
intuition, reference books, and demographics to present arguments for the
acceptability of a particular usage of English. The analysis will make clear
the power dynamics between the participants which privileged the native
speaker as the ultimate authority on English usage, in spite of the
participants' eventual orientation to Chinese usages of English as the basis
for their decision.
Panel Six - Ponderosa E, Room 127
Discussant: Nicola Friedrich
Chair: Harini Rajagopal
Local production of linguistic hierarchy in the globalized era:
Negotiation between mainstream language, English, and
heritage language
Bonggi Sohn, University of British Columbia
This presentation aims to critically investigate how linguistic
hierarchy is formed within mainstream language, English, and heritage
language in the context of globalization in Korea. To do so, I examined
complex interplay between Korean government’s language policy and
culturally and ethnolinguistically diverse, yet, socially and economically
marginalized transnational families’ language practices in Korea. From
globalization, industrialization, and urbanization, international marriages
between foreign women and Korean men have occured over the last ten
years, constituting about 10-13% of total recent marriages in Korea. Such a
demographic shift challenges Korea’s long-standing belief in a
homogeneous ethnicity, language, and culture. In such a climate, the
Korean government actively promotes multiculturalism and designs
multicultural policy specifically for married migrant women and their children.
One of the government’s central interests is the transnational families’
acquisition and use of multiple languages. Nevertheless, little is known how
these government initiatives play into these transnational families
negotiation between the acquisition and use of multiple languages, namely,
Korean, English, and their heritage language(s). Using discourse analytic
and globalization-sensitive sociolinguistic approaches (Blommaert, 2005,
2010; Coupland, 2010; Park & Lo, 2012; Talmy & Richards, 2011), I
examined government policy documents and analyzed interviews from eight
transnational mothers, married to Korean men, and their children. I
investigated how government policy maneuvers into families’ language
learning and use and consequently shapes particular values, identities, and
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worldviews associated with that language. While there are pressures and
encouragement to use Korean language, the mothers’ and children’s
learning and use of globally powerful language(s), such as English, Chinese,
or Japanese, is selectively encouraged. In contrast, Vietnamese and
Tagalog are extremely marginalized due to their lack of economic and
political marketability on a global scale. These findings illustrate the way in
which transnational migrants’ linguistic heritage resources become
commodified, while maintaining Korea’s existing language ideology.
So you like to eat rice: The construction of Chinese heritage
identity in a Chinese foreign language classroom
Rachel Tianxuan Wang, University of British Columbia
With Canada’s ongoing immigration patterns and large Chinese
diaspora, China’s growing economic power, and an increasing interest in
Chinese among non-heritage students, there is a demand of teaching and
learning Chinese either as a heritage or a foreign/second language (Wang,
2010). Due to the diverse backgrounds of Chinese learners, many Chinese
language teachers are challenged to accommodate both Chinese heritage
language (CHL) students and Chinese foreign language (CFL) students in
the same classroom. Current research in Chinese as an additional language
has begun to investigate heritage learners at the post-secondary level,
including their identity, motivation, linguistic knowledge and abilities as well
as literacy development (Comanaru & Noels, 2009; Duff & Li, 2008; He &
Xiao, 2008; Li & Duff, 2008; Weger-Guntharp, 2006) Some research focuses
on community-based Chinese heritage language schools (He, 2004, 2006),
but little examines heterogeneous settings in K-12 language classrooms
(Wang & Green, 2001).
This paper aims to investigate how such K-12 Chinese language
classrooms accommodate students of diverse cultural, ethnic and linguistic
backgrounds, focusing specifically on comparing and contrasting the
experiences of Chinese heritage students (i.e. those of Chinese ethnic
descent) and non-heritage students. In this presentation, I will conduct
discourse analysis on a ten-minute Youtube teaching demo to showcase the
imposition and construction of students’ ethnic identities in an elementary
CFL classroom. The discussion will focus on how CHL and CFL students
are positioned as Chinese and American respectively and how the teacher
relates students’ linguistic ability and cultural practices to their ethnicity,
which in turn either facilitates or impedes learning. CHL students’ unique
linguistic learning needs will also be examined. In the end of the
presentation, I will provide some pedagogical recommendations on how to
accommodate individual learners in such heterogeneous language classes.
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Panel Seven - Ponderosa E, Room 123
Discussant: Tim Anderson
Chair: Theresa Rogers
The Role of Educational and Cultural Background in IELTS
Writing Performance
Madjid Mohammadzadeh, University of British Columbia
Administered in 120 countries across the world, IELTS (International
English Language Testing System) is one of the most widely used largescale ESL tests that offers a direct writing test component. While different
aspects of essay writing (IELTS task 2) have been widely debated by a
considerable number of scholars in the field (Cook & Bassetti, 2005;
Majdeddin, 2010; Coffin, 2004; Moore & Morton, 2007; Uysal, 2010), little
research has been done on IELTS Task 1, in which candidates are asked to
describe a graph, table, diagram or object (www.ielts.org).
As an IELTS instructor, I have constantly noticed that many IELTS
students struggle with writing task 1, and the writing they produce does not
usually meet the task requirements satisfactorily. This presentation will first
examine this issue from different angles, in particular with respect to the
educational and cultural backgrounds of students and then will offer some
pedagogical suggestions for teachers and researchers.
Internationalized Tests in Localized Settings: IELTS as a
Gatekeeper
Nasirn Kowkabi & Ismaeil Fazel, University of British Columbia
Although standardized English proficiency tests claim to be
appropriate across different contexts, the results from these tests have
raised questions about the fairness of such tests as gatekeepers (Camilli,
2003; He & Shi, 2012; O’Loughlin, 2004). The researchers will present the
summary of their ongoing study on the perceptions and attitudes of Iranian
IELTS test takers and instructors towards the fairness of this test. This study
strives to examine whether Iranian IELTS candidates encounter barriers in
presenting their L2 competence due to unfamiliarity with some cultural
aspects of test topics. We collected data using questionnaires and
interviews. Participants commented on the topics of the speaking and writing
sections, specifically their perceptions of the IELTS fairness in those
sections. To analyze the data we draw upon Kunnan’s (2004) Test Fairness
Framework investigating five qualities of a fair test including validity,
absence of bias, access, administration, and educational or social
consequences. The findings of this study contribute to the scholarship on
fairness of large-scale standardized English proficiency testing, specifically
15
IELTS fairness and should help test designers in making fair and bias-free
tests.
Use of Personal Bilingual Corpora for Analysis of Fluency and
Improvement of Productive Skills
Liam Doherty, University of British Columbia
Corpora have long been recognized as a valuable tool for foreign
language education (Hidalgo, 2007). However the notion of a “personal
corpus” as a tool for capturing and analyzing the production of a single
learner has been rarely explored; studies of corpora applications have
tended to focus on finding and using exisiting corpus material collected from
sources external to the learner, such as the use of large corpora of nativespeaker texts to find high-frequency or representative usage, or using
learner corpora as a concordance to compare to “correct” usage (O'Keefe,
McCarthy, Carter, 2007; Papp 2007); this applies equally to spoken corpora
as a way for language learners to “check their intuition” about a certain
formulation or way of speaking (Mauranen, 2004). Some researchers have
focused on creating smaller-scale corpora specifically for classroom use, but
invariably these corpora are also concerned with learner-external data such
as magazines, newspapers and television shows (e.g. Romer, 2004; Xie,
2004 and others).
The present study examines the creation of a personal bilingual
corpus for the purpose of analyzing and improving learner fluency in a given
target language (Chinese, Japanese, English among others) by both
frequency analysis and comparison with features of L1. Issues raised by this
process include methods used to capture “natural” fluent speech in both the
learner's L1 and L2, comparative analysis of fluency rates and discourse
markers, and potential applications for error self-correction and fluency
improvement. Emphasis will be placed on the highly targetted and purposedriven nature of such corpora as potentially remedying issues of relevance
in traditional pedagogical models and language materials.
Panel Eight - Ponderosa E, Room 117
Multimodality, literacy, and dramatic embodiment in Vancouver
Youth Theatre’s Kids’ Writes project
Heather Duff, University of British Columbia
CANCELLED
The Kids Writes project is a complex, collaborative process involving
elementary school student authors and an ensemble of young actors in a writingacting collaboration. Selected stories and poems from schools are dramatized in
simple, story theatre style using characterization, tableaux, mime, and voice, while
drawing upon Vancouver Youth Theatre’s symbolic resources such as its
underpinning of playbuilding, which includes improvisational techniques.
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CONCURRENT SESSION C - 2:05-3:05pm
Panel Nine - Ponderosa E, Room 121
Discussant: Laura Nimmon
Chair: Theresa Rogers
Everyday Solutions for an Everyday Dilemma: NNEST Prejudices
in Vancouver
Tomoyo Okuda & Elisabeth Williams, University of British Columbia
Despite that English is used more as an additional language than a first
language (Leung, 2005/2011; Llurda, 2004/2011), biases against English
teachers’ linguistic backgrounds persist, as seen in the idealization of native
English-speaking teachers (NEST) and prejudice against nonnative Englishspeaking teachers (NNEST). For example, this hierarchy affects both the
hiring practices of language teachers and school marketing strategies (Clark
& Paran, 2007; Liu, 1999). It also leads to students’ disrespectful attitudes
towards NNESTs (Amin, 1997). In English language institutes in Vancouver
too, native speaker privilege persists in hiring teaching staff, administrators
and other personnel. Through a critical lens employed in literature on
NNESTs, this paper will propose necessary steps for reducing prejudice
against NNESTs.
In previous research, several solutions have been suggested to
reduce discrimination against NNESTs. Braine (2010) emphasizes the
importance of increasing the presence of non-native English speaking
researchers, educators, and members in professional organizations as well
as publications written by them. Furthermore, Brutt-Griffler and Samimy
(1999) stress the importance of support and empowerment of NNESTs in
teacher education and teaching practices. Referring to this line of research,
this paper will further explore practical and everyday strategies to transform
the prejudicial structures in the English teaching field. In particular, we will
propose practical strategies for illuminating the misconception of the
superiority of native speakers in communicating with directors of language
institutes and personnel of student recruitment agencies.
Enhancing Learning by Being a Legitimate Speaker in an
International M.Ed Program
Naishuo Tong & Rafael de Medeiros, Simon Fraser University
While many studies and researches have been done about the
relationship between teachers and students, the relationship among
students of different positions in class has not received enough attention. In
17
this case study, we, as two of the leading students in an international M.Ed
program at Simon Fraser University, discuss how we managed to negotiate
the position as legitimate speakers in class, and how that led to the
formation of a discussion group outside the classroom environment. And, we
also discuss how that position contributes to enhancing our investment in
learning while trying to help other classmates with their learning. We first
review Bourdieu’s notion of legitimate speaker and social capital and relate it
to our negotiation of the identity as students who are considered to be
knowledgeable and more experienced by the rest of the class. Then,
drawing from a sociocultural perspective, by applying Norton’s terms of
identity and investment, we contend that by getting access to a respectively
more powerful identity, we are motivated to invest more on the learning
process, and therefore both our language and academic competences are
improved. By bring exposed to such interactions with our classmates within
our classroom and group discussions, there is a formation of a dialogical
and bidirectional knowledge exchange, which is, by nature, constitutive of a
gain in both sides, thus, allowing all of the participants to gain and be
challenged by different perspectives and new understandings. Based upon
the case and theories aforementioned, we argue that this co-construction of
knowledge should and can be initiated by teachers/instructors, and we also
argue for the benefit created by legitimatizing code-switching at least in the
discussion group outside the classroom.
Panel Ten - Ponderosa E, Room 127
Discussant: Rachel Wang
Chair: Ling Shi
Teacher’s Dialogical Written Feedback Preserves International
Students’ Ownership of Their Academic Writing
Chris Zhang, Crystal Li, & Sissi Su, Simon Fraser University
Within an international TESOL program, many students are
struggling with academic writing development. Given inadequate
constructive feedback, many students tend to (1) imitate academic writing
formats from available academic journal articles, instead of building their
own academic writing styles (2) completely ignore the suggestions or
comments in the feedback, and (3) cater to teachers' preferences rather
than raising their own perspectives. On the other hand, some teachers
cannot help but impose their own thoughts onto students' written products.
In our presentation, based on the notion of identity construction and
investment (Norton & Toohey, 2011), we advocate for teachers adopting
multiple approaches to empower students to maintain their authorities in
academic writing (hooks, 1994, 2010; Wang, 2006), further to invest in
18
students' identity construction and second language learning. One of the
possible approaches could be dialogical written feedback between the
student and the instructor which enables the students to enhance their
ownership of the written products (Freire, 2006a,b). Thereby, they can
negotiate a channel in which their authentic voices can be heard, recognized
and legitimated by academia.
Language Ideologies and Teaching English Writing for Global
Communication: A Conversation Analysis Approach
Rae-Ping Lin, University of British Columbia
As English spreads as a global language, critiques in applied
linguistics have been raised against the hegemony of English language that
results in unequal power relations between English language and other
English varieties/languages and their respective speakers. For example,
Phillipson (1992) argued that through material and institutional structure,
English and its native speakers are promoted as a superior language and
speakers. Voluminous works on World Englishes influenced by Kachru
(1990) are documented to legitimatize local-based English varieties,
claiming agency for their speakers to use the language for the local
interests. Similarly, advocates of English as lingua franca call for needs to
use English as a contact language. That is, what English forms should be
used for communication depend on interlocutors’ cultural/linguistic
backgrounds and purposes (e.g., Mauranen & Ranta). Align with Park
(2009), I adopt language ideology as a framework of inquiry (see Woolard,
1998) to understand how English is used and taught as a global language in
Taiwanese universities. Through conversation analysis of interview data, I
explore two EFL English writing teachers’ language ideologies – a set of
beliefs and values about what and how English language should be used
(Woolard, 1998), and how the emergent ideologies map onto the teachers’
identity orientation and teaching beliefs. Through the micro-level analysis, I
hope to understand how power of English as a global language is
constructed by practice in the local teaching context (Park 2009).
Pedagogical implications for teaching English writing in EFL context will be
provided at the end of presentation.
Panel Eleven - Ponderosa E, Room 123
Discussant: Meike Wenicke
Chair: Maureen Kendrick
On the Way Constructing ESL Teacher Identity: Transition from
Identity-in-Practice to Identity-in-discourse
Cici Mao & Yolanda Weng, Simon Fraser University
19
In response to the increasing demand for English-language
education, there has been a significant growth of TESL programs in recent
years. These programs could act as an arena for the pre-service Englishlanguage teachers with respect to the construction and negotiation of their
professional identity, which is fundamentally recognized as a dynamic and
contextualized process. How non-native English speaking teachers
(NNESTs) develop their identities through involvement a teacher preparatory
program has aroused considerable interest in the relevant literature
(Cummins, Jim; Kosnik & Beck, 2011). We trace the trajectory during which
one non-native pre-service teacher constructs and negotiates her identity
through two different TESL program strands in order to investigate how her
identity shifts and re-shapes itself in the transition between these program
strands. One program draws from the post-structuralism framework of the
“identity-in-practice” (Varghese, Morgan, Johnston B. & Johnson K., 2005, p.
39) in a practice-oriented Diploma program, and the other program draws
from the “identity-in-discourse” ( Varghese et al., 2005, p. 38) framework in a
discursive-reflexive-oriented M.Ed. TEFSL program. We also employ
situated learning theory (Lave & Wenger, 1991), which conceptualizes
learning as a situated social practice in a particular community. We will
clearly illustrate some of the NNEST’s experience during her training in the
two programs. We argue that it is important to analyze the individual’s
distinct, unfolding participation to clarify the on-going identity transition
between the two different communities of practice. Our observations lead us
to advocate that in designing teacher preparatory programs, there should be
a concern about to facilitate pre-service teachers’ dynamic and
contextualized identity formation in terms of the transition from one
discourse to another. We recommend the incorporation of the two strands of
identity work within a more comprehensive language teacher education
program.
Are your textbooks smiling? The role of humour in second
language acquisition
Leyla Tekul, University of British Columbia
It is widely recognised that mental and physical relaxation might
reduce stress significantly and facilitate learning process. Hence, educators,
who are concerned with creating a comfortable learning environment, apply
various methods (Jon Struthers, 2011) to improve students' learning
abilities. In fact, some scholars argue that “Classrooms in which laughter is
welcome help bring learning to life “(Dee Dickinson, 2001, para.1). Using
humour in English-as-a-Second/Foreign-Language (ESL/EFL) classes is
believed to be one of the most powerful approaches to create a fun and
fruitful language learning experience. Research also suggests that humour
can generate a positive atmosphere and reduce anxiety in learners (P.
Kristmanson, 2000). This presentation will discuss the function of humour in
20
second language teaching and provide an important framework to answer
the following questions: What guidelines should be used to integrate humour
in our classrooms? (Paul-Emile Chiasson, 2002), (Nancy D. Bell, 2009).
Does an educator have to be gifted with comedic skills or just motivated to
use humour? (Struthers, 2011). And also, how much humour is too much
and where should we draw the line? Schmitz (2002) suggests that translated
jokes might not work well, therefore, not perceived accurately. Also, in an
international classroom setting there will surely be cultural differences, even
restrictions in perception of humour (Rima Aboudan, 2009). Is there a
universal way to “enter-teach” * the adult language learners ? In light of the
works of many other researchers, this presentation aims to bring new
perspectives to the role of humour in second language acquisition.
*A term that is used in an informal classroom discussion
21
For their help, hard work and support in organizing and
running this conference, the Chairs wish to extend their
gratitude and thanks to:
Reginald D'Silva
Ernesto Pena
Sam Andema
Keeley Ryan
Dean Jorgensen
Nasrin Kowkabi
Hiroko Yoshii
Bong-gi Sonh
Penny Moanakwena
Klara Abdi
Harini Rajagopal
Pei En Chia
Kathie Shoemaker
Genevieve Brisson
Sara Schroeter
Joel Heng Hartse
Nicola Friedrich
Tim Anderson
Laura Nimmon
Rachel Wang
Meike Wenicke
Dr. Ling Shi
Dr. Maureen Kendrick
Dr. Theresa Rogers
Dr. Carl Leggo
Dr. George Belliveau
Dr. Patsy Duff
Dr. Bonny Norton
Lia Cosco
Angela MacDonald
Laurie Reynolds
Fatemeh Mohammadian Haghighi
Conference Venues
Ponderosa E - rooms 105,
117, 121, 123, 127
Ponderosa F - DLC (room 103)
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Conference Schedule
8:00 - 8:30
REGISTRATION & Coffee/Tea
Ponderosa F, room 103/DLC
WELCOME Ponderosa F, DLC
Acting Department Head, Dr. Theresa Rogers
Co-Chairs, Laura Teichert & Ismaeil Fazel
8:30 - 8:55
8:55 - 9:55
MORNING PLENARY ADDRESS DLC
Performing Literacy in Multi-Sited International
Ethnographic Research
Dr. Kathleen Gallagher
Ontario Institute for Studies in Education
University of Toronto
9:55 - 10:05
10:05 - 11:35
1.
2.
3.
4.
BREAK Ponderosa E, Room 105
CONCURRENT SESSION A
Ponderosa F – Room, DLC
Ponderosa E – Room 121
Ponderosa E – Room 123
Ponderosa E – Room 127
11:35 - 12:35 LUNCH Ponderosa E, Room 105
12:35 - 2:05
CONCURRENT SESSION B
5.
6.
7.
8.
2:05 - 3:05
Ponderosa E – Room 121
Ponderosa E – Room 127
Ponderosa E – Room 123
Ponderosa E – Room 117
CONCURRENT SESSION C
9. Ponderosa E – Room 127
10. Ponderosa E – Room 123
11. Ponderosa E – Room 117
3:05 - 3:15
BREAK Ponderosa E, Room 105
3:15 - 4:15
AFTERNOON PLENARY ADDRESS DLC
Methodological issues in research on multiliteracies: Tales from my
fieldwork experiences
Dr. Diane Dagenais
Simon Fraser University
23
4:15 - 4:30
4:30 - 6:00
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CLOSING REMARKS
RECEPTION DLC