Linguistics and Applied Linguistics

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Open Access
A Qualitative Study of Anti-Feminist Discursive Strategies in Online Comment Sections
(2015-12-16) LaFortune, Gabrielle Louise; Ehrlich, Susan L.
This thesis uses multiple analytic categories drawn from the literature to identify discursive strategies used in online comment sections that function to undermine feminism. The work has two purposes: to provide a qualitative, critical discourse analysis of anti-feminist discourse in asynchronous computer-mediated communication (CMC), and to describe the ways in which the frameworks drawn from the literature complement one another in the analysis. This is done by analyzing comments from several North American websites, and describing occurrences of anti-feminist discursive strategies in terms of individual occurrences, and as they intersect with one another. Previous research has shown that the ability to identify anti-feminist discursive strategies allows feminists to resist silencing. Thus, in addition to adding to the literature on anti-feminist discursive strategies and asynchronous CMC, it is my hope that this work may be useful in denaturalizing and demystifying these strategies.
Open Access
A Theoretically-Informed Approach to Reflective Teaching Practices in an Online EAP Context: A Mixed Methods Action Research Study
(2023-08-04) Johnston, Kris Pierre; Lawrence, Geoff
The sudden transition to online instruction during the COVID-19 pandemic presented novel challenges for English for Academic Purposes (EAP) instructors employing collaborative pedagogies to provide important scaffolding to support academic writing instruction. Using a facilitating framework, such as the Community of Inquiry (CoI) framework, a model of online learning, can assist EAP instructors in course development by supporting EAP instructors' reflective teaching practices. The CoI informs decision-making when designing collaborative writing tasks and pedagogical approaches by providing useful heuristics that measure student learning experiences. This study explores an instructor's experience in implementing a Mixed Methods Action Research approach to reflective practice using the CoI framework and survey instrument to guide course development and collaborative writing task design in a year-long online EAP course. This study aims to understand to what extent the CoI supports reflective practice and to examine pedagogical issues that emerge that inform the use of the CoI for these purposes. Findings reveal that the CoI framework effectively guides reflective teaching practices and fosters meaningful learning experiences by breaking down the three constructs into actionable items, facilitating interactivity, discussion, and collaboration, and providing scaffolding for learners. However, findings also emphasize the need to use the CoI framework with caution and to develop a deeper understanding of pedagogical theory and practice to better address challenges in collaborative writing tasks. Overall, this study contributes to a deeper understanding of effective EAP pedagogy in online settings and has the potential to inform the design and delivery of future online EAP courses using the CoI as a facilitating framework.
Open Access
Aspect and Case in Interlanguage Grammars: The Case of English Learners of Russian
(2016-09-20) Lenchuk, Iryna Vasylivna; Alboiu, Gabriela
This dissertation presents the results of an empirical study on the acquisition of aspect and case by English speaking adult second language learners (L2) of Russian. Richardson (2007) argues that in Russian, structural Accusative case is aspectually relevant and that it is linked to the compositional event structure of the base form of a verb. The base form of a verb is compositionally determined when addition of a lexical or telic prefix changes the grammatical aspect of a verb from imperfective to perfective and lexical aspect from atelic to telic. I refer to these verbs as Condition 1 verbs. Alternatively, the base form of a verb is not compositionally determined when it merges with a superlexical prefix that changes the grammatical aspect of a verb from imperfective to perfective but does not change the telicity of an inherently atelic verb. I refer to these verbs as Condition 2 verbs. Direct objects of Condition 1 verbs are marked with structural Accusative case, whereas direct objects of inherently atelic Condition 2 verbs are assigned lexical case. The question that is investigated in the study is whether the knowledge of Condition 1 and Condition 2 verbs is part of the interlanguage (IL) grammars of L2 learners of Russian. Specifically, whether L2 English learners understand that in Russian, perfectivity is not always equated with telicity, and a base form of verbs whose event structure is (not) compositionally determined has different case assigning mechanisms. Six native speakers of Russian and 29 L1-English L2 learners of Russian performed the following experimental tasks: a Logical Entailment task, a Grammaticality Judgement task, and an Elicited Production task. Each task included sentences with Condition 1 and Condition 2 verbs. A repeated measures ANOVA, where Condition 1 verbs or Condition 2 verbs were used as a within subject factor and the proficiency group as a between subject factor, showed a significant effect for Condition 1 or Condition 2 verbs with the participants performing better on Condition 1 verbs across the three tasks. The superior performance on Condition 1 verbs is explained by the accessibility of the universal semantic feature [telic], the less marked cluster of features [+telic, +perfective] and the availability of structural Accusative case in English. A decline in performance on Condition 2 verbs is explained by the difficulties in acquiring a more marked cluster of features [-telic, +perfective], and the idiosyncrasy of lexical case.
Open Access
Case in Standard Arabic: A Dependent Case Approach
(2016-11-25) Ahmed, Amer M. Th.; Alboiu, Gabriela
This dissertation is concerned with how structural and non-structural cases are assigned in the variety of Arabic known in the literature as Standard Arabic (SA). Taking a Minimalist perspective, this dissertation shows that the available generative accounts of case in SA are problematic either theoretically or empirically. It is argued that these problems can be overcome using the hybrid dependent case theory of Baker (2015). This theory makes a distinction between two types of phases. The first is the hard phase, which disallows the materials inside from being accessed by higher phases. The second is the soft phase, which allows the materials inside it to be accessed by higher phases. The results of this dissertation indicate that in SA (a) the CP is a hard phase in that noun phrases inside this phase are inaccessible to higher phases for the purpose of case assignment. In contrast, vP is argued to be a soft phase in that the noun phrases inside this phase are still accessible to higher phases for the purposes of case assignment (b) the DP, and the PP are also argued to be hard phases in SA, (c) case assignment in SA follows a hierarchy such that lexical case applies before the dependent case, the dependent case applies before the Agree-based case assignment, the Agree-based case assignment applies before the unmarked/default case assignment, (d) case assignment in SA is determined by a parameter, which allows the dependent case assignment to apply to a noun phrase if it is c-commanded by another noun phrase in the same Spell-Out domain (TP or VP), (e) the rules of dependent case assignment require that the NPs involved have distinct referential indices. The major conclusion of the dissertation is that the functional head v in SA is a soft phase head, due to its deficient -specification. That is why it is incapable of establishing an Agree relation with the object and assigning the structural accusative case to it. The structural accusative case on the object is, therefore, always the result of the dependent case mechanism.
Open Access
Cognition and Rhetoric in English Language Learners' Writing: A Developmental Study
(2017-07-27) Hadidi, Ali; Steinman, Linda C.
The present study examined the effectiveness of an instructional method in English language writing. The instruction concerned a cognitive process, i.e., Bereiter and Scardamalias (1987) knowledge-transforming, and a discourse genre, i.e., the Toulmin (1958/2003) model of argument. The instruction in the process is significant since generating discourse content was identified as a problem for novice writers. The instruction in the Toulmin model is significant since lack of attention to genre was identified as a problem in cognitive approaches to writing. To teach and research knowledge-transforming composing and the Toulmin model, the tenets of cognitive strategy instruction in writing and sociocultural theory of mind were adopted. Instruction was adopted after Scardamalia, Bereiter, and Steinbach (1984) and had three components: explicit strategy instruction in the Toulmin model, mediation of the writing process through artefacts, and two types of verbalization: (focused) freewriting and languaging. The study had a mixed-methods design with a quasi-experimental quantitative component and a qualitative component consisting of textual analysis, dynamic assessment (DA), semi-structured interviews, and surveys. The results indicated statistically significant gains for two of the categories of the Toulmin model, i.e., rebuttal and response to rebuttal, in the texts generated by the experimental group (EG) (n = 13) when compared with those of the comparison group (n = 13). Specifically, the gains suggested the rise above conflict criterion (Scardamalia et al., 1984) in knowledge-transforming, indicating the effectiveness of instruction. When four participants texts in EG group were analyzed developmentally, they also demonstrated knowledge-transforming and improved rhetorical structure. In particular, some discourse features which were absent in the posttest essays were indeed present in those texts. Also, the text analysis indicated the participants were able to use the mediational artefacts to generate discourse content. The DA results indicated that, with varying degrees of mediation, the participants were able to name, generate, and/or revise the discourse features, some of which were absent in the participants posttest essays. The interviews and surveys indicated the participants positive perceptions of instruction and its effect on cognitive change and rhetorical structure of argumentative texts. The study has implications for L2 academic writing instruction, assessment, and research.
Open Access
Conceptualizing Gestural Representations in ESL Classrooms: Alternative Theoretical Approaches
(2020-11-13) Banerjee, Sadia Nasrin; Morgan, Brian David
This study adopts a transdisciplinary approach (The Douglas Fir Group, 2016) to gesture research to understand how meanings of teachers and students gestures are influenced by broader sociocultural influences and power relations and how the meanings produced in the classroom interact with second language (L2) pedagogies. I incorporate multiple theoretical concepts such as the sociocultural theory (Vygotsky, 1978), multimodality in communication and learning (Jewitt, 2009; Kress, 2010), embodied actions as shaped by discursive knowledge (Foucault, 1979; Kubota, 1999; Luke, 1992; Ramanathan, 2010; Saavedra & Marx, 2016; Toohey, 2000) and performativity (Butler, 1999; Miller, 2012; Pennycook, 2004) as complementary to each other. Each theoretical perspective provides specific meanings to the gestural practices. The teachers and students, for example, used their gestures to scaffold each others learning processes (McCafferty, 2004; Smotrova, 2017) while the gestural signs were made and negotiated in the teaching-learning processes (Jewitt & Kress, 2003; Kress, 2010; Kress & Van Leeuwen, 2001). Furthermore, students gestures were subject to disciplinary regulation (Foucault, 1979) that aimed at normalizing students specific academic behavior (Toohey, 2000) while the teachers gestures both conformed to and challenged normative practices as well as created collaborative power relations (Cummins, 2004). Finally, following the concept of performativity, the ESL (English as a Second Language) pedagogies displayed in each classroom were viewed as emergent products [or outcomes] of the teachers and students repeated transmodal acts of identity (Butler, 1999; Pennycook, 2004). Drawing on the above findings, in the final chapter of this dissertation, I discuss how gesture research may inform classroom pedagogy, research and teacher education in English Language Teaching.
Open Access
Critical Moments: Exploring Critical Pedagogy in an Adult ESL Classroom
(2024-11-07) Wiseman, Christine Anne; Valeo, Antonella
This study explores, through the lens of a teacher-researcher’s experiences and perspectives, the challenges and potentials of implementing critical pedagogical approaches in a community-based adult English as a Second Language (ESL) program with a focus on language learners with low proficiency in English. This study contributes to a deeper understanding of the limitations and possibilities of developing and carrying out a critical pedagogical approach to ESL teaching in a government-funded community-based course. It further delves into how program policies, teacher resources, and classroom dynamics, viewed within the framework of critical pedagogy, are reflected upon by the teacher-researcher. Using an action-oriented case study methodology that embodies elements of critical action research, participatory action research, and practitioner inquiry, the teacher-researcher engaged in implementing critical pedagogy within the classroom of 16 student participants, set within an urban community adult ESL Language Instruction for Newcomers to Canada (LINC) program. The teacher-researcher assumed the role of decision-maker and facilitator of the research, with teaching approaches adopting problem-posing. Student participants were actively involved in determining the content and direction of course content. Data from field notes were collected and analyzed. These included a demographic survey, and documents including the Attendance Policy and attendance records, classroom resources such as texts and teacher guides, questionnaires to determine student needs and interests, researcher-developed materials, and classroom memorabilia. The result of the analysis was the identification of three themes revolving around barriers, potentials and critical possibilities for the implementation of critical pedagogy in the ESL classroom. One of the significant findings of this research study is a lack of critical pedagogical support in adult ESL classrooms. The conclusions from this research study stem from the teacher-researcher’s belief about ways in which ESL teachers can accomplish critical changes at the grassroots level, specifically within the classroom. This conclusion is followed up with idealizations (‘Pedagogies of Hope’) of how stakeholders involved in adult ESL programs can effect change. Within this framework, key factors influencing the implementation of critical pedagogical changes include developing appropriate program policies, training in critical pedagogy, creating suitable curricula and content, and fostering critical mindsets.
Open Access
EFL Teachers' Beliefs and Practices about Classroom Assessment: A Multiple Case Study in the Context of Kuwait
(2019-11-22) Dashti, Shaima Mahmood; Barkaoui, Khaled
Classroom language assessment is a recent topic of interest in education research. Yet, few studies have examined teachers beliefs concerning language classroom assessment or the relationship between teachers assessment practices and their beliefs. In addition, little research has situated classroom assessment in a specific theoretical approach, especially in the postsecondary English as a foreign language (EFL) context. In this study I investigated the beliefs and practices of EFL teachers regarding classroom assessment, using a social constructivist approach to examine the way contextual factors influence those teachers assessment beliefs and practices (Shepard, 2000). I also investigated how teachers assessment practices and beliefs differ between general English (GE) and English-for-specific-purposes (ESP) courses. This study adopted a multiple-case design using qualitative methods conducted in three data collection stages: I started by exploring teachers assessment beliefs and practices through initial interviews. I then investigated teachers assessment practices through classroom observations and document collection. Finally, I conducted post-observation interviews about the teachers assessment beliefs and practices. Participants included seven EFL teachers teaching GE and ESP courses at a post-secondary institution in Kuwait. I analyzed the data using an inductive approach by analyzing each case individually as well as identifying themes emerging from the analyses. Results showed that although teachers believed in the effectiveness of classroom assessment and implemented a variety of assessments in the classroom, they only considered summative assessment as a valid means for student evaluation. Most teachers did not identify their practices as formative assessments but considered them part of their teaching practices. The findings also revealed that various contextual factors influence teachers assessment beliefs and practices. Those factors include the teachers educational background and teaching experience, their beliefs about students L2 proficiency level, the local culture, the classroom physical setting, and the assessment policies. Results also showed that teachers assessment practices did not appear to differ greatly between GE and ESP courses. This study has implications for teachers and policy makers on how to improve assessment practices by encouraging teachers to join, and policy makers to offer, professional development programs that focus on classroom assessment. Recommendations for future research are also discussed.
Open Access
Examining the Potential of Technology-Enhanced Language Learning and Teaching in English for Academic Purposes: Learner Voices
(2019-07-02) Ahmed, Farhana; Lawrence, Geoffrey
The growth of post-secondary English for Academic purposes (EAP) programs along with researchers awareness and interest in leveraging technological tools in support of student-centered learning (Prensky, 2012) fueled this research. This study examines learners beliefs towards technology use in a Canadian EAP university program. Using a multi-phased, grounded-theoretical exploratory case study approach, the research uses complementary data sources including two online surveys conducted at the beginning and at the end of the program, class observations, individual students digital diaries, stimulated recall interviews, and focus group interviews. The study examines 16 student participants beliefs toward technology use and the factors that influence and constrain students use of technology. The research was informed by a constructivist view of language learning and explores EAP students interactions with technological tools to gauge their beliefs towards tech use in learning English. Furthermore, Bensons (2011) learner autonomy framework was used to investigate the development of learner autonomy. This framework is believed to provide an additional research lens in understanding EAP students interaction with technology, impacting their evolved belief systems. Comparisons between the surveys show that overall students beliefs toward technology use became more positive from the beginning to the end of the course when students became more competent with increased technology exposure and use. Students realized the benefits of using technological tools and adopted some 21st century skills in learning English (Dede, 2010). A heightened critical awareness among students towards tech use and some emerging individual language learning behaviors were reported in their digital diary posts and stimulated recall interviews. This specific finding transpired as one of the pedagogical factors- participating in the research study. Data from embedded case studies revealed contextual and pedagogical factors that influenced students attitudes towards and subsequent use of technology in EAP. Factors constraining students technology use included students previous experience with educational technologies, characterized by limited support, poor infrastructure, and inadequate digital literacies. Recommendations for teacher education in tech-enhanced pedagogy and teacher-intervention in educating students about the rationale for tech use are made. Implications for leveraging students digital resources and ongoing critical and reflective teaching practices are also suggested.
Open Access
Feature-Geometric Harmonic Serialism and the RUKI Sound Law
(2024-11-07) Shaftoe, John Nathanael; Elfner, Emily
The RUKI Sound Law, wherein the reflex of Indo-European *s comes down as [ʂ] in Sanskrit after [r u k i], has remained an open question in linguistics for over a century. The problem with this change is that [r u k i] do not form a natural class: there is no way to define them as a set according to articulatory features which both include all of them, and exclude every other segment. This project aims to provide a solid answer to the RUKI problem using current analytical techniques. Specifically, it proposes a constraint-based analysis using a modified version of Harmonic Serialism (McCarthy 2016) which has integrated the Clements & Hume (1995) version of feature geometry. It expands on the interpretation that feature changes constitute a single operation in HS GEN. We must explicitly attach a feature theory to the model so that we know which features are available in the derivation. This dissertation proposes Feature-Geometric Harmonic Serialism (FGHS) to address this issue. This dissertation also addresses concerns about constraint-based diachronic phonology, examining and challenging many of the criticisms levied against it. While FGHS is not itself capable of solving all the concerns, it has the potential to develop into a model which does solve the problems. The formal analysis of the RUKI Sound Law argues that it is a telescoping of at least two changes: the first was a general place-assimilation of *s to the place if the preceding segment, with the assimilated allophones later being phonemicized into the singular [ʂ]. This analysis is backed by a statistical analysis of a large sample of Sanskrit tokens of [s ʂ] which show that the RUKI set should not be defined as a natural class, but is instead as an “accidental class” shaped by distributional patterns rather than featural characteristics. *s only appeared after a subset of segments, and The RUKI Set were the only ones which would be able to assimilate /s/ to anything other than its organic dental place. Through this analysis, this dissertation shows that derivational-serial constraint-based models are entirely viable for historical research.
Open Access
Going Beyond the Text: The Inferencing Processes of Skilled Readers in L1 and L2 Across Reading Tasks
(2018-03-01) Meyer Sterzik, Angela Jean; Barkaoui, Khaled
This small exploratory study investigated the inferencing processes of skilled first language (L1) and second language (L2) readers for two academic tasks. The goal was to examine possible effects of language and task, or reading purpose, on the frequency and distribution of inferences. Participants (n = 10) were native speakers of German enrolled at a large university in Hessen, Germany in a B.Ed. program. Participants read two expository texts (one written in German and the other written in English) in two task conditions: summary and position-paper. Think-aloud protocols while reading and stimulated recall immediately after reading were recorded, transcribed, coded, and the results were compared quantitatively and qualitatively across tasks and languages. The statistical analyses indicated that there were task effects on inferencing processes, and that they were stronger in L2. When reading for a summary purpose, inferencing processes differed across languages which was not the case for the position-paper task. Readers inferencing processes differed significantly across tasks in L2, but not in L1. The results suggest that skilled readers strategically inference based on academic task demands, but that transfer of strategic inferencing skills from L1 to L2 is not complete even with advanced L2 readers. Findings raise questions about the explicit instruction of strategic inferencing for academic tasks in L2 reading classrooms.
Open Access
Grammatical Variation and Change in Spoken Ontario French: The Subjunctive Mood and the Expression of Future Temporal Reference
(2016-09-20) Grimm, David Ricky Leigh; King, Ruth E.
This dissertation examines grammatical variation and change in spoken Ontario French, a minority language in a largely English-speaking province of Canada. The data are drawn from two sociolinguistic corpora for French spoken in four francophone communities Hawkesbury, Cornwall, North Bay and Pembroke. The first corpus was constructed in 1978 and the second in 2005; both comprise interviews with speakers residing in the same four communities. The 28-year period separating the corpora provides an opportunity to trace the trajectory of variation and change. The empirical chapters provide a detailed investigation of two aspects of French grammar: the variable use of the subjunctive mood and the expression of future temporal reference. The analyses of both morphosyntactic variables are carried out within the variationist sociolinguistic framework introduced by William Labov. In terms of conditioning factors, particular emphasis is placed on the influence that varying degrees of restriction in the use of French has on variable usage. The findings for mood choice show that as language restriction intensifies, use of the subjunctive mood decreases. This is in large part due to a gradual reduction in use of the verb falloir, the most important conditioning context for the subjunctive, to the benefit of devoir, a more formal semantic equivalent. The rise of the latter at the expense of the former suggests a change in certain communities. A second variable showing evidence of change concerns the expression of future temporal reference. Use of the inflected future decreases over time, but only for speakers exhibiting mid to high levels of language restriction. Loss of this variant results from a rise in use of the periphrastic future in negative contexts, the privileged domain of the inflected variant in many spoken French varieties. For both variables examined here, reduction in verbal morphology can be ascribed to the progressive loss of or breakdown in the conditioning contexts most favourable to its maintenance. The present study contributes not only to our understanding of grammatical variation and change in Canadian varieties of French, but also to the growth of research on language variation and change in minority languages.
Open Access
Higher Education Policy, English Language Learning and Language Policy: An Ethnography of Brazilian Stem Scholarship Students in Canada
(2018-03-01) Luke, Jonathan Ronald; Haque, Eve
This ethnographic case study explores the language learning experiences of several student members of one cohort of Brazils Cincia sem Fronteiras scholarship mobility programme in Canada, in order to gain a deeper understanding of language policy processes in higher education and the subjectivities that they (aim to) produce. It draws on a wide selection of empirical materials including: national and institutional policy documents; media reports and social media commentary; regularly scheduled and impromptu interviews and observations in the language classroom of the focal group of participants; and also interviews with several language instructors and other key stakeholders and administrators. Using Foucaults concepts of governmentality and technologies of the self (1988, 2007), this study considers not only the ways in which these participants were conducted by the language policies embedded within a larger higher education policy assemblage, but also the ways in which these students conducted themselves. A key finding reveals pervasive instrumentalist perspectives and views of language as a conduit for other knowledge playing a dominant role in the programme design and implementation for this particular cohort. However, while these students appeared to be largely sympathetic to skills-based and market-oriented discourses of English language learning, some rejected an exclusively instrumentalist approach and also cultivated more personal or social and/or intercultural perspectives on the relevance of their language learning and flourishing bilingualism, forging their own paths and coming to value the programme on their own terms, within the scant wiggle room permitted by the larger transnational education policy assemblage and its gatekeeping measures.
Open Access
Identity and Pragmatic Transfer: The Role of Omani EFL Learners' Identities in Their Pragmatics Choices in English
(2016-11-25) Rubai'ey, Fatema Sulaiman Al; Barkaoui, Khaled
Several researchers contend that learners identities influence their understanding and use of L2 pragmatics (e.g., Blum-Kulka, 1991; Kasper & Schmidt, 1996). They observe that L2 learners might be aware of L2 sociopragmatic variables (i.e., cultural and social rules that govern the use of L2 speech acts) and might possess the pragmalinguistic ability to realize a certain speech act as NSs would, yet learners choose to respond in a way consistent with their L1, which reflects their identity. However, the role of learner identity in L2 pragmatic use has received little attention in current research on L2 pragmatics. This study aims to address this gap by examining the oral production of refusals in English by EFL learners and the role of learner identity in their pragmatic choices and transfer. Each of 10 Omani EFL learners responded to 12 Oral DCT scenarios, four in Omani Arabic and eight in English, and then responded to interviews about why they made certain pragmalinguistic and sociopragmatic choices when responding to the scenarios in English. The findings revealed that the participants pragmatic choices when refusing in English were influenced by their perceptions of various sociopragmatic and contextual variables. Furthermore, their perceptions of these variables were greatly influenced by the way they see themselves as EFL learners and as Omanis. Therefore, this study argues that the participants' pragmatic transfer seems to be an enactment of their identity. The focus on the influence of learner identity in this study is unique and responds to recent calls in SLA to redefine language learning as a social rather than a purely cognitive process (e.g., Firth & Wagner, 2007). By combining cognitive and sociocultural approaches to studying L2 pragmatics, this study reveals a complex interaction between pragmatic behavior and identity. One of the main implications of the study is a call for re-conceptualizing pragmatic transfer in SLA to better reflect L2 learners sociolinguistic reality. In addition, L2 teachers should be made aware that L2 learners pragmatic transfer is influenced by learners identity, and, as a result, should not be treated simply as a pragmatic error or failure to be corrected and criticized.
Open Access
International Students in Higher Education: Language, Identity and Experience from a Holistic Perspective
(2020-08-11) Tavares, Vander; Valeo, Antonella
Over the last decade, international student enrollment in Canadian universities has increased significantly (Statistics Canada, 2018). This rapid growth in enrollment has often led us to view and discuss international students as static numerical figures rather than as whole individuals with unique needs and diverse experiences. In response to this and other concerns, this study constructs and adopts a holistic framework in order to better understand the lived experiences of four multilingual international students at a university in Canada. This study is informed by a multidisciplinary theoretical framework. Language and second language acquisition are viewed through the lens of multilingualism and socio-cognitive theory, respectively, while identity is understood through insights stemming from post-structuralist theory as well as social and cultural psychology. To explore experience in detail, this study draws on case study and portraiture for its methodological design, and on interviews, photographs, newspapers, and observations as its instruments of data collection. In addition to the four students whose experiences are the focus of this study, the voices of 38 other participantsdomestic students, faculty, and support staffare also included in this investigation to better understand the context of the institution to which the students belong. Findings highlight some of the complexity in and uniqueness of individual multilingual international student experience. The students experiences are generally characterised by challenge, but also success, as the students navigate life in another language and culture while attempting to both meet the expectations of their academic studies, and enact new identities which they progressively construct for themselves. In terms of community, the students experiences reveal a social distance between multilingual international students and their domestic peers, despite the importance placed by the international students on developing meaningful connections with domestic students. Recommendations and implications for theory and practice are presented in light of these findings.
Open Access
Intersections Between the Life Stories of Internationally-Trained Immigrant Women and Institutional Narratives of Immigrant Success in Ontario
(2017-07-27) King, Jessica Sarah; Haque, Eve
The following dissertation compares the life stories (Linde, 1993) of six internationally trained immigrant women, successful in finding employment in their fields of post-secondary teaching, with video success stories available on a government webpage for bridge training in Ontario and with national and provincial immigration and integration policy. Using Lindes (2009) institutional narrative to conceptualize how these video stories of successful bridge training graduates can serve as templates and tools of socialization for skilled immigrants who are seeking to re-enter their fields in Ontario, the analysis focusses on the representations of the integration process, the role of language learning and teaching in these narratives, and the ways that the six participants life stories (Linde, 1993) may take up the same discourses circulated in the institutional narrative. In order to understand the impact these institutional narratives of integration have on the life stories of individual immigrant women, the analysis makes use of Foucaults (1991; 1994) theoretical frameworks of technology of the self and governmentality. Seen through this lens, narrative becomes a tool for the construction of a self that is both in line with dominant discourses of self-responsibility and a self that is morally acceptable to the individual. The analysis finds that both the video success stories and the life stories of the six participants incorporate neoliberal discourses of self-sufficiency and lifelong learning that emphasize economic over social integration and allow for acceptance of the need for further training, in this case bridge training. Both the participants and the video success story protagonists accept the need to learn higher level professional communication skills and behaviour that places the burden for successful communication solely on the immigrant. In addition, both institutional and personal narratives make use of discourses of diversity and multiculturalism, accomplishing an alignment with established Canadian values on one hand, but also a separation of immigrant groups from the dominant white settler class (Bannerji, 2000; Thobani, 2007), relegating them to a peripheral position long after they have attained citizenship. Recommendations are made to include critical multicultural education (Kubota 2004a, 2004b) into the bridge training classroom.
Open Access
Issues in Spanish Verbal Inflection: A Distributed Morphology Approach
(2022-12-14) Bembridge, Gavin; Alboiu, Gabriela
This dissertation analyzes various issues in the morphology of Spanish’s seven simple verb forms in a syntax-centric morphological framework known as Distributed Morphology (DM). In the extant DM literature, scholars have primarily analyzed verbal inflection as a linear arrangement of morphemes (e.g., Madrid Servín, 2005; Oltra-Massuet and Arregi, 2005). However, failing to account for the interpretation of a given verbal form is problematic. A focus on the semantics of each verbal form is required to understand how several seemingly disparate forms, such as the future and the subjunctive or the conditional and the imperfect subjunctive, are related to each other and what this relationship reveals about their structure. Thus, a major claim made in this dissertation is that a fairly robust understanding of the semantics of each of the seven verbal forms considered is required to (i) link the structure of these verbal forms to their meanings, (ii) to account for contrasts that are not currently accounted for in the literature, and (iii) to make connections between forms that would not otherwise be obvious. Additionally, for the future and conditional forms, in particular, it is argued that the historical analysis, which consists of an infinitive followed by a form of the verb haber ’have’, is superior to proposed reanalysis-based approaches. This historically informed approach demonstrates that we cannot dismiss historical analyses wholesale. Throughout the dissertation, I also demonstrate that the morphosyntax of these seven simple Spanish verbal forms can be accounted for with less conceptual machinery than previously argued for in several DM analyses while covering more empirical ground. Specifically, it is argued that the employment of lexical diacritics and morphological readjustment rules, among other analytical devices, are unnecessary for the analysis of Spanish verbs. In addition to these broad concerns, the dissertation proposes several novel solutions to data that have proven recalcitrant in prior analyses thus making an important contribution to the theoretical literature on Spanish verbal morphology.
Open Access
Language Ecology and Shift at Baawating, 1600-1971
(2021-11-15) Meades, Sean Brookfield; Martin, Ian
Research focused on the macro-trends in Canadian language policy (LP) has largely focused on two broad trajectories: (a) the processes of accommodation of Anglophone and Francophone communities (including the limitations of Canada's policy of bilingualism for French-speaking or official-language minority communities) (Martel & Pquet, 2010; Morris, 2010; Cardinal, 2015); and (b) the ongoing exclusion of The Other (i.e. "immigrant" and Indigenous communities) within Canadas existing LP framework (Haque, 2012; Haque & Patrick, 2015; Patrick, 2018). This research turns its focus to the place of language in the state formation processes of Canada that preceded its "Bilingualism within a multicultural framework," and its place in settler/Indigenous relations and processes of colonization. Building on the paradigm of the Anishinaabe Seven Fires prophecies and a framework that emphasizes the interplay of language practices, beliefs and management in a social ecology, this work offers a case study of the specific experiences of Indigenous peoples in the communities surrounding Baawating (at the junction of Lake Superior and Lake Huron) to exemplify: (a) how Indigenous individuals adjusted their language choices in response to institutional language policy? (b) How Canadian Indian Policy more generally affected those language choices? (c) How these choices impacted relations between Indigenous and settler peoples? And (d) how local language practice, belief, and management processes have been impacted by the surrounding socio-economic, physical, political, and cultural environments? The study uses a mixed-methods approach that combines content analysis of language policy documents, historical records, demographic data and interviews of local Indigenous residents on their experiences of language choice and use to triangulate the interplay between macro-level LP, ideologies of language, and language shift. The research demonstrates the interconnection of LP with social, economic, political and technological domains and their corresponding influence on the linguistic choices available to Indigenous peoples, which precipitated large-scale language shift. Furthermore, it illuminates how language has been used to stand-in for race in the construction of idealized national subjects within a liberal order since at least the early twentieth century in Canada.
Open Access
Learner Personality And Oral Corrective Feedback In An Adult Language Classroom
(2023-03-28) Lemak, Alina; Valeo, Antonella
A great deal of the variation in language learning outcomes is attributable, either directly or indirectly, to various learner characteristics. One of these characteristics are personality traits, which have been shown to influence learning outcomes. Moreover, teachers have an intuitive belief that personality has substantial importance for learning and make pedagogical decisions, such as choosing an oral corrective feedback (CF) approach, based on their assumptions about student personality. Whereas research has established that CF effectiveness is mediated by several individual differences, research on the influence of learners’ personality traits on CF effectiveness is virtually neglected. This classroom study aimed to fill this gap. It investigated a relationship (if any) between student personality traits and the effectiveness of oral CF, and how students with different personalities respond to and experience oral CF. Using a mixed-methods approach to data collection and analysis, this study took place in a class of adult language-learners in an academic context. Personality was measured using a personality test, the effectiveness of CF was measured using a pretest/posttest measure of past tense use accuracy using audio/video recordings of classroom activities. Qualitative data were collected through semi-structured interviews and stimulated recall (SR) sessions to explore students’ response to and experience of CF. Findings showed that personality differences emerged in student response to (and perceived effectiveness of) different CF techniques. Personality traits appeared to play a role in how students experienced CF and responded to it.
Open Access
Living Language Policy Through Stratified Space: A Linguistic Ethnography in the United Arab Emirates
(2020-08-11) Cook, William Robert Amilan; Haque, Eve
This project explores the lived language policy experiences of a group of foreign residents (noncitizens with fixed-term visas) who live in Ras Al Khaimah, a small city in the United Arab Emirates. The primary set of participants are staff and students recruited from a private language school in the city but the project expands well beyond the school premises, following these individuals as they make their way through the complex policies and interactions that shape their everyday lives. As a critical ethnographic project, it draws on a range of empirical data including: monthly interviews with primary informants; single interviews with other residents of the city; observations of city spaces discussed in these interviews; national and institutional policy documents; physical documents for city spaces; and media reports and commentary. It also uses a broad set of theoretical tools to analyse this data, such as: Foucaults (1988; 2007; 2008) discussions of neoliberalism, governmentality and technologies of the self; sociospatial conceptualizations of scale; and conviviality. This analysis focuses on how subjectivities are produced or claimed within language policy apparatuses as well as how city space is constructed in ethnolinguistic terms. The project offers a discussion of language policy and practice from the perspectives of the under-researched foreign resident population of the UAE. These perspectives allowed for a rich picture of the ethnolinguistic and socioeconomic boundaries that define everyday interactions in Ras Al Khaimah and the country as a whole. The project also demonstrates the importance of sites of such as Ras Al Khaimah for language policy research. In this space of both high mobility and structured immobility, individuals from all over the world find themselves in regular contact with one another while at the same time often being spatially segregated along lines of race, class and/or gender. This is a city in which the flows of global capitalism are made visible and their implications for language policy can be explored.