Dissertation Committee: Dr. Samira Farwaneh (Co-Chair), Dr. Diane Ohala (Co-Chair), Dr. Mahmoud Azaz

Abstract: A common practice in the development of curricula and assessment for English as a second or foreign language uses the long-established normative sequence of morphosyntactic acquisition in first language (L1) learners to help structure the teaching of second language (L2) learners. A few studies have looked at L2 Arabic acquisition order, and less than two dozen studies exist regarding the acquisition of Arabic as a first language, mostly in the field of speech language pathology, which is nascent in the Arab countries, and hampered by the dearth of linguistic research establishing norms of Arabic language acquisition. Nothing has been published since the Omar (1973) dissertation on the question:

• In what relative order do toddlers acquiring Levantine colloquial Arabic begin to produce the components (morphemes) of verbs and verb-like structures that account for tense, gender, number and aspect?

This study will record urban and rural Jordanian children aged 24 to 56 months interacting with their caregivers and the investigator approximately every four weeks for eight months, including both spontaneous production and response to audiovisual prompts focused on eliciting verb production. Verbs and verb-like structures (e.g. “to have” is not a verb in Arabic, but functions like a verb in the deep structure) will be identified, and a descriptive quantitative analysis will look for patterns of sequence and correlation to the ages of the children regarding their use of verbs and verb-like structures. Findings will provide an initial direction for research leading eventually to the establishment of a normative order of morpheme acquisition that could form the foundation for more effective Arabic as a Foreign Language curricula and assessment, and also contribute to establishing acquisition norms for the nascent field of Arabic speech language pathology.

Location: Please email Maryah directly at mconverse@arizona.edu for the location information.

This workshop is for SLAT major and minor students to learn about the dissertation proposal process and explore strategies for preparing and drafting a successful proposal. Some of the topics to be discussed are:

• Narrowing focus
• Finding and describing your niche
• Designing your study
• Building a writing and research support system

This workshop will be facilitated by Dr. Hayriye Kayi-Aydar.

Email GIDP-SLAT@arizona.edu for information on how to attend.

Dissertation title: Academic Trajectories and Professional Identities of English Language Teacher Candidates in an MA TESL Program in the United States: An Exploration of Reflections on the Past and Perspectives for the Present and Future

Dissertation Committee: Dr. Hayriye Kayi-Aydar (Chair), Dr. Suzanne Panferov Reese, Dr. Beatrice Dupuy, Dr. Dwight Atkinson

Location: This will be a hybrid defense. To receive location details, please contact Amable directly at amableribeiro@arizona.edu if you would like to attend virtually or in person. Thank you.

Dissertation Abstract: The ways that language teachers construct, enact, and negotiate their identities as part of ttheir professional learning and growth have been largely explored in the literature (see Kayi-Aydar, 2019a, for a review). The processes of identity negotiation and enactment are shaped by a wide range of factors, such as past experiences or dreams about the future. Research has shown that Teaching English as a Second Language (TESL) teacher candidates (TCs) undergo a complex and multilayered process of identity negotiation that not only influences but is also influenced by their perceptions (Canagarajah, 2012; Hamman et al., 2012; Yazan, 2014), agency (Tao & Gao, 2017), and teaching practices (Kanno & Stuart, 2011). My dissertation contributes to the existing literature on the professional identity construction and negotiation of multilingual and multicultural TCs in graduate programs in TESL. Furthermore, it sheds light on the impact of TCs’ past experiences as L2 learners and current experiences as graduate students on their identity construction as teachers. A comprehensive investigation of how TCs construct and negotiate their professional identities based on various personal and professional learning experiences can illustrate the complex ways in which they become who they are, how their beliefs and values evolve, how they perform and make decisions in their classrooms, and what kinds of expectations they hold for the future. Moreover, by analyzing the experiences and perspectives of a diverse group of TCs, and in some cases, longitudinally, this qualitative dissertation study, situated within poststructuralist perspectives of identity (e.g., Norton, 2014; Norton & Morgan, 2013; Pavlenko, 2002), demonstrates how TCs make sense of their institutional learning, how they theorize their practices, and how they understand and establish relationships within their professional contexts.

Data for this study were collected through semi-structured interviews, journal entries, documents, and classroom observations. The primary approaches for data analysis involved both thematic (Braun & Clarke, 2006) and discourse analysis (Gee, 2011). This dissertation aims to answer the following research questions: 1. How do personal experiences of L2 learning influence MA TESL teacher candidates’ professional identity enactment and negotiation? 2. How do TCs’ learning experiences in an MA TESL program contribute to or shape the construction of their professional and imagined identities? How do those experiences impact the enactment of their TESL teacher agency and sense of becoming a TESL practitioner?

Findings indicate that biographic experiences at the personal and institutional levels shaped TCs construction of invested, agentive, and legitimate teacher identities. Specifically, TCs were influenced by the relationships they established with their L2s in the past and the qualities of teaching they observed as L2 learners. Findings also indicate that as the participant-TCs engaged in the coursework and gained pedagogical and content knowledge in the MA TESL program, they struggled to construct a “disciplinary identity” (Pennington, 2015) due to dual (e.g., student-teacher) and conflicting identities (e.g., the native/nonnative speaker). Finally, the formal education that TCs experienced and developed in the MA program seemed to nurture their critical awareness about linguistic diversity and multilingualism and promoted the enactment of agency toward meaningful changes in their classroom practice, curriculum, and adopted methodologies.

Dear SLAT major and minor students,

Would you like to be a more productive writer? If you are working on an intensive writing project like a dissertation, journal article, course paper, or grant proposal, and you would like to increase your writing productivity in a safe and friendly space, consider joining the SLAT Writing Room this Fall 2024!

Each focused one and a half hour session is set up to have unstructured writing time with short breaks, followed by a short discussion aimed at helping you improve your writing productivity. This is an informal way to create accountability, meet a few SLAT friends, and get some writing done. 

The sessions will be on Zoom every Tuesday morning, from 9:30 am – 11:00 am (Arizona time). The first session will take place on Tuesday, September 3, and the sessions will continue until December 10. The recurring Zoom link for the sessions is: https://arizona.zoom.us/j/86592859836 

No advance registration necessary – just show up and work on your writing goals! 

Please reach out to Kate (kateshea@arizona.edu) or Angus (leydic@arizona.edu) with any questions.

Dear SLAT major and minor students,

Would you like to be a more productive writer? If you are working on an intensive writing project like a dissertation, journal article, course paper, or grant proposal, and you would like to increase your writing productivity in a safe and friendly space, consider joining the SLAT Writing Room this Fall 2024!

Each focused one and a half hour session is set up to have unstructured writing time with short breaks, followed by a short discussion aimed at helping you improve your writing productivity. This is an informal way to create accountability, meet a few SLAT friends, and get some writing done. 

The sessions will be on Zoom every Tuesday morning, from 9:30 am – 11:00 am (Arizona time). The first session will take place on Tuesday, September 3, and the sessions will continue until December 10. The recurring Zoom link for the sessions is: https://arizona.zoom.us/j/86592859836 

No advance registration necessary – just show up and work on your writing goals! 

Please reach out to Kate (kateshea@arizona.edu) or Angus (leydic@arizona.edu) with any questions.

Dear SLAT major and minor students,

Would you like to be a more productive writer? If you are working on an intensive writing project like a dissertation, journal article, course paper, or grant proposal, and you would like to increase your writing productivity in a safe and friendly space, consider joining the SLAT Writing Room this Fall 2024!

Each focused one and a half hour session is set up to have unstructured writing time with short breaks, followed by a short discussion aimed at helping you improve your writing productivity. This is an informal way to create accountability, meet a few SLAT friends, and get some writing done. 

The sessions will be on Zoom every Tuesday morning, from 9:30 am – 11:00 am (Arizona time). The first session will take place on Tuesday, September 3, and the sessions will continue until December 10. The recurring Zoom link for the sessions is: https://arizona.zoom.us/j/86592859836 

No advance registration necessary – just show up and work on your writing goals! 

Please reach out to Kate (kateshea@arizona.edu) or Angus (leydic@arizona.edu) with any questions.

Dear SLAT major and minor students,

Would you like to be a more productive writer? If you are working on an intensive writing project like a dissertation, journal article, course paper, or grant proposal, and you would like to increase your writing productivity in a safe and friendly space, consider joining the SLAT Writing Room this Fall 2024!

Each focused one and a half hour session is set up to have unstructured writing time with short breaks, followed by a short discussion aimed at helping you improve your writing productivity. This is an informal way to create accountability, meet a few SLAT friends, and get some writing done. 

The sessions will be on Zoom every Tuesday morning, from 9:30 am – 11:00 am (Arizona time). The first session will take place on Tuesday, September 3, and the sessions will continue until December 10. The recurring Zoom link for the sessions is: https://arizona.zoom.us/j/86592859836 

No advance registration necessary – just show up and work on your writing goals! 

Please reach out to Kate (kateshea@arizona.edu) or Angus (leydic@arizona.edu) with any questions.

Dear SLAT major and minor students,

Would you like to be a more productive writer? If you are working on an intensive writing project like a dissertation, journal article, course paper, or grant proposal, and you would like to increase your writing productivity in a safe and friendly space, consider joining the SLAT Writing Room this Fall 2024!

Each focused one and a half hour session is set up to have unstructured writing time with short breaks, followed by a short discussion aimed at helping you improve your writing productivity. This is an informal way to create accountability, meet a few SLAT friends, and get some writing done. 

The sessions will be on Zoom every Tuesday morning, from 9:30 am – 11:00 am (Arizona time). The first session will take place on Tuesday, September 3, and the sessions will continue until December 10. The recurring Zoom link for the sessions is: https://arizona.zoom.us/j/86592859836 

No advance registration necessary – just show up and work on your writing goals! 

Please reach out to Kate (kateshea@arizona.edu) or Angus (leydic@arizona.edu) with any questions.

Dear SLAT major and minor students,

Would you like to be a more productive writer? If you are working on an intensive writing project like a dissertation, journal article, course paper, or grant proposal, and you would like to increase your writing productivity in a safe and friendly space, consider joining the SLAT Writing Room this Fall 2024!

Each focused one and a half hour session is set up to have unstructured writing time with short breaks, followed by a short discussion aimed at helping you improve your writing productivity. This is an informal way to create accountability, meet a few SLAT friends, and get some writing done. 

The sessions will be on Zoom every Tuesday morning, from 9:30 am – 11:00 am (Arizona time). The first session will take place on Tuesday, September 3, and the sessions will continue until December 10. The recurring Zoom link for the sessions is: https://arizona.zoom.us/j/86592859836 

No advance registration necessary – just show up and work on your writing goals! 

Please reach out to Kate (kateshea@arizona.edu) or Angus (leydic@arizona.edu) with any questions.

Dear SLAT major and minor students,

Would you like to be a more productive writer? If you are working on an intensive writing project like a dissertation, journal article, course paper, or grant proposal, and you would like to increase your writing productivity in a safe and friendly space, consider joining the SLAT Writing Room this Fall 2024!

Each focused one and a half hour session is set up to have unstructured writing time with short breaks, followed by a short discussion aimed at helping you improve your writing productivity. This is an informal way to create accountability, meet a few SLAT friends, and get some writing done. 

The sessions will be on Zoom every Tuesday morning, from 9:30 am – 11:00 am (Arizona time), until December 10, 2024. The recurring Zoom link for the sessions is: https://arizona.zoom.us/j/86592859836 

No advance registration necessary – just show up and work on your writing goals! 

Please reach out to Kate (kateshea@arizona.edu) or Angus (leydic@arizona.edu) with any questions.