Colloquium Resources

Fall 2012 Colloquium History and Materials

April 26th

Professor Chantelle: Multilingual Conversationality in Social Network Spaces

Abstract:

The easy accessibility, ubiquity, and plurilingualism of popular social network sites (SNSs) such as Facebook have inspired many scholars and practitioners of Second Language Teaching and Learning to integrate the networked forms of communication into educational contexts such as language classrooms and study abroad programs (e.g., Mills 2011; Mitchell 2012). New media come with new ways of speaking, and the multidimensionality of SNS communications diverges in many important ways from the characteristic patterns and participation structures of face-to-face interaction.  For this reason SNS-mediated communication poses methodological problems for scholars and educators who are at a loss for adequate models to describe and potentially didacticize conversations. Drawing from case studies of German-speaking researchers whose professional lives are largely led in English, this talk considers the complex sociolinguistic situations that emerge among multilingual users of the social networking site Facebook and argues for an ecological approach to understanding SNS-mediated communication.

April 19th

The language of money: How verbal and visual metonymy shapes public opinion about financial events

Abstract:

Much recent work on metonymy has concentrated on its definition, properties and functions (Benczes, Barcelona & Ruiz de Mendoza Ibáñez, 2011) but few studies have examined the combination of verbal and visual metonymy or the benefits of multimodal metonymical critical discourse analysis (CDA) in issues of social justice. In this paper eleven news articles regarding issues in financial discourse such as the financial crisis, fiscal cliff, underwater homeowners and entitlements are examined visually and verbally from a variety of online newspaper sources. Results reveal intricate visual and verbal metonymies such as EFFECT FOR CAUSE, RESULT FOR ACTION, INSTITUTION FOR PERSON, DEFINING PROPERTY FOR CATEGORY and BODY PART FOR ACTION that aid in hiding or highlighting events and act as ideology carriers that are difficult to detect. The unique contribution of this study lies not only in the exposure of linguistic/non-linguistic strategies used to mitigate the role of those responsible for the financial crisis, or to shape public opinion on a particular policy or issue, but also in the attention it gives to metonymy’s role (in text and image) in the positive representation of corporate America which, it will be argued, has resulted in few repercussions for the financial sector.

Based on: an article of the same title, co-authored by Theresa Catalano and Linda R. Waugh, 2013 (April issue), International Journal of Language Studies, 7(2), pp. 31-60.  [we received confirmation of the publication of the article on April 10]

March 29

Professor Richard Ruiz, member of the SLAT faculty: “¿Was Jesus Bilingual? Exploring this and other language planning questions”

Abstract:

Some of us date the development of Language Planning from 1968, others from the Big Bang. Either way, it has been around for a long time. Still, many questions persist: ¿Can language be planned? ¿What is a language policy, and what impact does it have on practice? ¿What is language endangerment, and how do we know how big a problem it is? ¿What language did Adam and Eve speak? ¿Can language planning affect social justice? ¿Is Latin really dead, or just transmogrified? ¿Why do Mexican restaurants in Tucson have “tamale” on their menus? Some of these questions will be explored in this session, and a few answers may be given. The important thing is that we explore together the fascinating universe of discourse that has developed around language planning and policy.

March 22

Pier-Pascale Boulanger from Concordia University: Training and Teaching Translation: A Canadian Perspective

Abstract:

Teaching translation in Canada today should seem like an easy task. Let us recall that translation emancipated itself from linguistics and comparative literature as an independent field of study, creating its own bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees in the 1980s and 1990s. However, new generations of immigrant students, as well as the ever-increasing technological skills expected of students by potential employers, not only complicate the task of training translation professionals, but upset the epistemological foundations of translation curricula. I will address these academic concerns within the broader picture of the Canadian translation job market.

Bio

Pier-Pascale Boulanger is associate professor in the Département d’études françaises at Concordia University, where she teaches commercial, legal and literary translation. Before receiving a Ph.D. in Translation from Université de Montréal in 2003, she worked as a professional translator for 10 years in a large insurance company. Her current research project looks at how American financial news were imported by English and French Canadian newspapers from 2000 up to the financial crisis of 2008. Her research interests include the work of poet-translator-linguist Henri Meschonnic and the translation of erotica as a technical task. She has published her translation of Ethics and Politics of Translating in 2011 (John Benjamins Publishing Company), Meschonnic’s first book-length essay in English. She is currently editing a collective work on translating erotica and in the process of proofreading a translation into French of a novel about a Jewish immigrant who came to Montreal in the 1940s.

March 15

NO COLLOQUIUM THIS FRIDAY, HAVE A WONDERFUL SPRING BREAK!!!

March 4

Mariette Marsh, Assistant Director of the Human Subjects Protection Program at UA, will join us to speak about IRB policies and procedures. Ms. Marsh will share some IRB basics but also allow plenty of time for your questions. This is a great opportunity to learn about the IRB process and get answers to all your IRB questions.

February 22

Appropriating and using conceptual tools of literacy: The development of teaching expertise by two future foreign language faculty

Abstract:

Although professional development for foreign language (FL) graduate students has become increasingly relevant given the significant role played by teaching assistants (TAs) in the undergraduate curriculum, little research has investigated the development of their teaching expertise or specific outcomes of professional development. In addition, the effectiveness of professional development is even more salient given recent calls for transforming the undergraduate FL curriculum that may result in future FL faculty needing more sophisticated, flexible teaching expertise.

Guided by a sociocultural theory perspective, this qualitative study explores how conceptual development and teaching practices related to literacy evolved for two novice FL TAs during and after an in-service methods seminar. In particular, this study sought to answer the following questions:

1) What are the conceptual learning outcomes for FL TAs participating in a one-semester seminar on literacy-oriented pedagogy?

2) According to TAs, which activities and tools from the seminar contributed most to their conceptual understandings?           

Data included reflective teaching journal entries, reading reactions, teaching artifacts, teaching evaluations, and interviews.

Findings demonstrate the role of participants' histories and beliefs in shaping how literacy-related concepts and pedagogical tools were appropriated and used. While each TA struggled to reconcile the goals of literacy-based teaching with curricular constraints, textbook materials, and students' diverse motivations, they were able (albeit with differing trajectories) to begin grasping literacy's potential to bridge the “dubious dichotomies” of language versus culture/literature. Further, findings point to the need for expanding required pedagogy coursework beyond the methods seminar and focusing on one framing construct relevant to language and literary/cultural teaching.   

February 15

Stefano's Presentation On Julie Belz and Telecollaboration

REFERENCES FOR TELECOLLABORATION AND INTERCULTURAL COMPETENCE

February 8

A Poster Design Tutorial and Poster Presentation Session

Zach Brooks will be give a brief talk on poster design and will provide numerous tips on design and presentation strategies. In addition, several SLAT students will be presenting their posters, sharing their research, and giving some tips of their own. We hope you will engage with the presenters’ research but also learn about the poster design and production process. Please join us to learn more about poster design and the great research members of the SLAT community are producing.

Mahmoud Azaz: Morpho-Semantic Interface in Arabic Causatives: Investigating Verb Pattern  Frequency

Hope Anderson: A Case Study of Program-Level Factors for Language Socialization in Study Abroad: Binghampton University Students at Leipzig University

Alan Kohler: Expression, Engagement, Flexibility, and Motivation in Adult ESL Education

Poster Design Principles

February 1

M'Balia Thomas presents: Language, power and the foreign language learning body
 

5th year SLAT student, M’Balia Thomas, will present a job talk on her work related to the themes of language, power and the foreign language learning body.  Her talk addresses the manner in which power (and domination) manifests in and through language and through the symbolic and material control of the language learning subject in the field of foreign language education. 

The talk will introduce some of M’Balia’s earlier research that have lead to this topic, as well as a few of the themes she is exploring in her dissertation.  The talk will conclude with M’Balia’s take on how critical approaches to foreign language education address current and emerging topics within SLA and Applied Linguistics.

January 25

Chantelle Warner presents: Whose Game are We Playing? Foreign Language Literacy as Play

Abstract:

The so-called “social turn” in SLA over the past couple of decades has enabled an increased interest in the role of various kinds of play in language use and learning, as witnessed recently by work on gaming and game theory (e.g., Reinhardt and Sykes 2012; forthcoming special issue of LLT), identity play (e.g., Belz 2002, Warner 2004), and multilingual language play (e.g., Belz 2002, Rampton 1995). This work have contributed to an awareness in the field of SLA that play is integral to a model of the language learner as a multiliterate, multicompetent participant user of a second or foreign language. In this talk I will bring this body of work on play and L2 teaching and learning to bear on another growing body of research in the field, namely that related to multiliteracies. Specifically I will turn to work that I have done in a couple of different venues—including the use of classroom-based CMC, students’ work with literary texts, and learner self reflections—in order to pose questions about how we define advanced literacy and what it means to read, write, and respond to texts in foreign and second language pedagogical contexts.

Works Cited:

Belz, J. A. (2002). "Second Language Play as a Representation of the Multicompetent Self in Foreign Language Study". Journal for Language, Identity, and Education, 1(1), 13-39.

Rampton, B. 1995. Crossing: Language and Ethnicity Among Adolescents. London: Longman.

Reinhardt, J. & Sykes, J. (2012). Conceptualizing digital game-mediated L2 learning and pedagogy: Bame-enhanced and game-based research and practice. In H. Reinders (Ed.), Digital Games in Language Learning and Teaching, 32-49. Palgrave Macmillan.

Warner, C. (2004). It's just a game, right? Types of play in foreign language CMC. Language Learning & Technology, 8 (2), 69-87.

January 18

Natasha Warner with Lynnika Butler and Quirina Luna

The Mutsun Language:  Pedagogical Problems of Dormant Language Revitalization, and a Variety of Pedagogical Approaches

Abstract:

The Mutsun language of coastal California (Costanoan family) lost its last native speaker in 1930, but has extensive written documentation from early linguists, and a surviving community that is highly motivated to revitalize the language.  The Mutsun people are now integrated into modern California society and scattered among several distant locations, and there is no reservation or land base belonging to the Tribe.  Thus, this is a dormant language, with original fieldnotes rather than published textbooks readily available as learning materials, and with no  institution such as a school that would teach the language.  Since 1997, I have been working with the Mutsun people to enter the written documentation into a database, analyze it to create a dictionary and text collection, create language teaching materials, learn the language, and spread knowledge of it in the community.

In this talk, I will focus first on the special case that dormant language revitalization presents for Second Language Teaching. This includes issues such as teaching materials, lack of fluent speakers as teachers, group composition at language classes or workshops, and logistics of holding language learning events.  Second, I will discuss some of the several methods the Mutsun community has tried for Second Language Acquisition, including online learning, formation of a language committee, self-directed learning with or without a linguist as facilitator, periodic workshops and classes, development of materials from a textbook to movies, and brute force creation of a semi-immersion environment.  Overall, the project has taken a somewhat haphazard approach to trying almost any method, which may help us learn what methods can be useful in dormant language situations.

November 30

Phone Interviews

A panel of SLAT faculty will discuss phone (or Skype) interviews, strategies for success and dos and don'ts.Come to this colloquium.  It promises to be an interesting one.

November 16

Dr. Robert Ariew: Teaching Portfolios

Teaching portfolios are now often requested along with job applications.  What should you include in these electronic documents? What information do they add to your CV and letter of application?  How is that information used?  How can you create a teaching portfolio?  Come to the colloquium to find out.

Please follow the link to see of Dr. Ariew's teaching portfolio power point presentation. 

November 9

"Processes Day"

Processes Day is a chance for all faculty interested in L2 Processes to meet the new students, the continuing students, and SLAT minors.  There are 18 new students and 3 new SLATminors.  All of them are potential students in the various Applied Linguistics classes offered in our interdisciplinary program.  

The colloquium will have the following format: all Processes faculty in attendance will introduce themselves and their teaching/research. Students will then have a chance to meet the faculty by going around the room and talking with them either singly or in small groups.  

The Colloquium is a wonderful informal opportunity for SLAT students to meet faculty and to talk about their interests.  We urge all Processes faculty to attend.  

November 2

Job Interviews

October 26

"Analysis Day"

Analysis Day is a chance for all faculty interested in Analysis to meet the new students, the continuing students, and SLAT minors.  There are 18 new students and 3 new SLATminors.  All of them are potential students in the various Applied Linguistics classes offered in our interdisciplinary program.  

The colloquium will have the following format: all Analysis faculty in attendance will introduce themselves and their teaching/research. Students will then have a chance to meet the faculty by going around the room and talking with them either singly or in small groups.  

The Colloquium is a wonderful informal opportunity for SLAT students to meet faculty and to talk about their interests.  We urge all Analysis faculty to attend.  

For your information, Processes Day will be Nov. 9.  Faculty who teach or are interested in more than one area are encouraged to attend all the appropriate Area Days.  We hope to see you at one or more these colloquia.

October 19

Kristin Helland, 4th year SLAT student

The secret to writing an effective conference abstract and proposal

Abstract:  

Is there a secret to writing a winning conference abstract? Why are some proposals accepted and others not? This workshop is designed to increase your odds of having your proposal accepted for conference presentations – in other words, how to “sell” your presentation.  We will compare the requirements of the “Calls for Proposals” from various conferences of interest to SLAT students and discuss how to tailor an abstract to particular conferences. We will consider what makes an effective abstract by considering tips from experts on academic writing such as Swales and Feak (2009a, 2009b), criteria from conference sponsors, and the collective experience of fellow SLAT faculty and students.  Here are some of the questions we will consider:      

· What are some common problems with conference abstracts?

· What should the basic structure of an abstract include?

· What makes an effective title and opening sentence?  

· How do abstracts vary in the different subfields of SLA?   

· When and to what extent is it important to refer to prior research in the abstract?  Should you include references in your abstract?

This will be an interactive workshop with students being asked to evaluate effective and less effective abstracts based on criteria cited by experts and rubrics posted by sponsoring organizations.  Participants will be asked to take a look at examples of both successful and unsuccessful proposals and analyze the elements of effective proposals.   Please feel free to send Kristin “Calls for Proposals” from conferences at which you are interested in presenting and also examples of abstracts of sessions you have chosen to attend at previous conferences (khelland@email.arizona.edu)

Kristen kindly has made her Powerpoint presentation available for anyone interested.

October 12

"Use Day"

Use Day is a chance for all faculty interested in Use to meet the new students, the continuing students, and SLAT minors.  There are 18 new students and 3 new SLAT minors.  All of them are potential students in the various Applied Linguistics classes offered in our interdisciplinary program.  

The colloquium will have the following format:

-  All use faculty in attendance will introduce themselves and their teaching/research.

-  Students will then have a chance to meet the faculty by going around the room and talking with     them either singly or in small groups.  

-  The colloquium is a wonderful informal opportunity for SLAT students to meet faculty and to talk about their interests.

We urge all use faculty to attend.  

For your information, Analysis day will be Oct. 26 and Processes Day will be Nov. 9.  Faculty who teach or are interested in more than one area are encouraged to attend all the Area Days.  We hope to see you at one or more of those Area Days.

October 5

Professor David Gramling 

Laughing at the Dark: Tactics of Autonomy in End-of-Life Clinical Decision-Making Conversations

Abstract:

“Based on audio-recordings of patient-physician-family conversations, this presentation identifies and describes some tactical responses of patients and family-members in hospital settings during situations of life-threatening or life-limiting illness, specifically in a palliative care environment. Oftentimes, patients' and family members' tactics implicitly critique or reframe the conversational strategies that trained clinicians routinely rely on for promoting communication about prognosis. Based in recent work on humor and humiliation (Billig 2006, Besnier 2010), this talk highlights how patients and families, use unexpected, unpredictable means to establish autonomy and make communal decisions amid suffering and serious illness. When faced with profoundly face-threatening end-of-life prognostic utterances—which seem to contradict the interventionist, curative vigors of a large research hospital—patients and families find ways to subvert the procedural footing of clinical negotiation, in order to establish a vernacular space within hypermodern surroundings. This talk will appeal particularly to "Use" students interested in discourse analysis, pragmatics, praxeology, and intercultural communication."

September 28

Two SLAT “Veterans” Discuss Jobs and Research at CESL and Beyond!

Robert Cote and Steven Randall, both “mature” SLAT students, will discuss a wide range of topics including:

-          What they look for as administrators in CVs and cover letters from prospective employees

-          Opportunities for extra work at CESL while in SLAT

-          Research opportunities at CESL

-          Work and research abroad after SLAT

-          The pros and cons of getting a good full-time job before you’re done with SLAT (maybe in between other topics)

Please bring questions you have about any of these topics, as well as any other questions you might have for a couple of SLAT students who have, let’s say, ‘advanced’ experience in the SLAT program.

Employment Oppurtunities Abroad

Research and work at CESL

A Few Useful Web Sites for the Academic Job Search

[prepared by Chantelle Warner for the SLAT Colloquium, 16. September 2011]

Career Center at the University of California, Berkeley https://career.berkeley.edu/phds/PhDAcademic.stm

Career Academic Handbook NYU http://scholarsatrisk.nyu.edu/cmsfiles/File/Career_Academic_Handout_11-04.pdf

Purdue Owl http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/639/01/

Academic Job Search Handbook, UC San Diego http://career.ucsd.edu/_files/GAcadJobSearchHandbook.pdf

How to prepare a CV, from UA Career Services: http://gpsc.arizona.edu/system/files/GEP-CVResume-110802.pdf

September 21

Professor Sonia Shiri of Middle East and North African Studies (MENAS)

Subversive Multimodal Discourses in Multilingual Contexts: Slogans, Protest 
Signs and Facebook Posts from the Tunisian Revolution

Abstract:

Leaderless and decentralized, the revolution with which Tunisia surprised the world in January of 2011 managed to act harmoniously and express itself with a single voice that toppled its president of 23 years as well as the newly formed interim government dominated by members of his party. As the Tunisian people's goals shifted throughout the different stages of the revolution, the essence of those changing goals was formulated and expressed collaboratively through verbal and non-verbal means. In the absence of an established tradition of dissent, however, what socio-linguistic choices would the freedom-seeking youth movement in this diglossic, bilingual-multilingual society select to express its aspirations? What genres will it adopt/develop in order to counter the long-time government dominated media? This talk will offer a look into the multimodal language of the rallying cries for freedom, solidarity and self-sacrifice that were collaboratively formulated and performed by the Tunisian people. It will particularly focus on two different but interconnected spaces and the discourses that they generated: street protests in the form of slogans, chants and graffiti, and cyber space protests on YouTube and Facebook pages.

September 7

Professors Emeriti Ken and Yetta Goodman of the Department of Language, Reading and Culture 
 
Inaugural Lecture: Reading in Asian Languages
 

Abstract:

The Goodmans will discuss their coauthored book: Reading in Asian Languages which is rich with information about how literacy works in the non-alphabetic writing systems (Chinese, Japanese, Korean) used by hundreds of millions of people and refutes the common Western belief that such systems are hard to learn or to use. The contributors share a comprehensive view of reading as construction of meaning which they show is fully applicable to character-based reading.
The book explains how and why non-alphabetic writing works well for its users; provides explanations for why it is no more difficult for children to learn than are alphabetic writing systems where they are used; and demonstrates in a number of ways that there is a single process of making sense of written language regardless of the orthography.

Several of the contributors are former SLAT students.
 

Yetta Goodman is Regents Professor Emerita.
 

The research on Reading in Asian Languages was sponsored in part by CERCLL.

August 31

Abstract:

The August 31 colloquium will treat TWO subjects:

1. Nancy Lindsay, Program Coordinator in the Graduate Degree Certification office will present the new Grad Path System that will be made available on October 1.  She will give an overview of Grad Path and its features.

Nancy kindly made her handouts available for anyone who would like to have access to additional copies:

A) Detailed overview of GradPath

B) Screenshot of the page to access and view the status of forms.

2. Kristen Michelson, Third Year Student, Second Language Acquisition and Teaching Program will present "Resources for Successful Research and Scholarship."

This colloquium is designed for students in all stages of graduate studies. The presentation will be geared primarily toward current graduate students in SLAT and EL/L and the kinds of scholarly resources needed within these fields; however, students and faculty from any program are invited to attend. The presentation will include an overview of both University-based and external resources, including UA Library resources such as electronic databases, interlibrary loan, study carrels, and computer equipment; UITS resources such as free and discounted software; and non campus-based resources such as bibliographic management systems. Following an overview of resources, we will take a more detailed look at some frequently used electronic resources, such as commonly used databases (Academic Search Complete, ERIC, MLA International, LLBA, etc.); using Proquest to find dissertations by topic, committee chair, university; and using WorldCat to locate titles and/or bibliographic information.

Student GradPath Presentation