Linguistics and Applied Linguistics

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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
Multiple-Case Studies of the Complexity of EFL Teachers’ Beliefs and Practices of Writing Assessment at a Preparatory Year Program at a Saudi University
(2024-07-18) Altalhi, Wid; Barkaoui, Khaled
The relationship between teachers’ beliefs, practices, and contextual factors has been characterized as complex. Consequently, Complexity Theory (CT) has recently been instrumental in dissecting this nuanced relationship. However, its application to teachers’ beliefs regarding second language (L2) writing assessment remains an underexplored area in the literature. This qualitative study employed CT to explore the interplay of beliefs, practices, and contextual factors influencing teachers’ assessment of second language (L2) writing within a Saudi university’s Preparatory Year Program (PYP). The multiple-case study design involved five Saudi English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers, using interviews, observations, think-aloud protocols, and document analysis to uncover the nuanced interplay between belief systems and actual practices within the ecological systems of the macrosystem, exosystem, and microsystem. Findings indicated that EFL teachers held heterogeneous and interactive beliefs, encompassing beliefs concerning teaching and learning L2 writing, assessment purposes, methods, evaluation criteria, and assessment processes and tools. Teachers’ core beliefs about teaching and learning writing, shaped by their personal learning histories (microsystem), varied significantly among them and influenced their peripheral beliefs and practices. Tensions between beliefs and practices primarily emerged from exosystemic external factors, such as fixed assessment policies, curricular requirements, and teacher autonomy limitations. However, a harmony between beliefs and practices was noted where teachers exercised greater autonomy, especially in providing feedback. Factors from the macrosystem showed no direct influence on beliefs or practices. The study highlights the complexity of teachers’ realities and the need for development programs and policy reforms attuned to teachers’ beliefs and contextual challenges in Saudi higher education.
Open Access
Variability of Retroflex Perception and Production in Heritage Tamil Speakers
(2023-12-08) Muthukumarasamy, Kamala; Narayan, Chandan R.
This thesis investigates how social factors, such as input and identity, affect heritage Tamil perception and production of the alveo-dental and retroflex liquid contrast ([l]-[ɭ]). Heritage Tamil speakers participated in perception discrimination tasks, minimal pair production tasks, heritage language questionnaires, and sociolinguistic interviews. Quantitative results showed a high degree of variation in productive salience, as some speakers clearly produce the contrast while others did not. There was evidence of incomplete heritage language acquisition, dominant language substitution, and incomplete category formation. Perceptual distance was also variable, with some participants clearly showing categorical discrimination while others did not. Qualitative results revealed that a concrete embedding of the heritage language within their culture and a strong linguistic identity can serve as a reliable indicator of accuracy in perception and production. This research addresses whether acoustically fragile contrasts are realized in heritage Tamil, and importantly, how identity and language motivations serve to maintain them.
Open Access
The Effects of Attention and Prior Knowledge on Perception and Misperception of Speech
(2023-12-08) Kuimova, Alina; Narayan, Chandan R.
Misperceptions are common in everyday conversation. Previous work shows that misperception derives from a weak neural representation of sounds that deviate from prior expectations (prediction error). Attention enhances the encoding of prediction error and supports speech perception in challenging listening conditions, suggesting that increased attentional engagement might reduce the rate of misperceptions driven by plausible yet misinformative predictions. We induced frequent misperception in a word discrimination task with degraded spoken words preceded by matching, mismatching, and partially mismatching written text, using monetary incentives to manipulate listeners’ attention. Contrary to our predictions, incentives increased misperception on partial mismatch trials but improved perceptual accuracy on match trials. Pupillometry showed that incentives loaded both proactive and reactive control, suggesting increased involvement of top-down predictive processes. We conclude that higher attentional engagement increases reliance on prior knowledge when sensory detail is insufficient, which only exacerbates prediction-induced mishearing—at least in word discrimination tasks.
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
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
So You Think You Speak Canadian English: A Study of Language Regard and Lexical Variation of English-Speaking Canadians
(2023-03-28) Freake, Yvette Marie; Hoffman, Michol
To date there has been limited research into the language regard of Canadians towards the varieties of English spoken across this vast country. This thesis provides a comprehensive investigation of the language regard of English-speaking Canadians towards varieties of Canadian English, alongside a variationist study of 13 previously studied lexical variables and 10 new lexical variables. This research on perception complements previous work on production, to build a better understanding of sociolinguistic variation (see Kretzschmar, 2000 and Preston, 2018). The methodology provides insights into the use of an online map task with the current available tools, while addressing the strength and weaknesses of these tools. An online survey allowed for data to be gathered from all areas of Canada and for simultaneous collection and analysis of lexical and perceptual data. This study includes a content analysis using GIS technology; an analysis of rating tasks for regions on three characteristics: correctness, pleasantness, and similarity; an experimental rating task focusing on stereotypes of provinces; supplementary perceptual data; and a lexical variation component. Data from 192 completed lexical surveys were analyzed using total variation, net variation, and major isoglosses to help further develop the understanding of the sociolinguistic landscape of Canadian English. Findings suggest that Canadians from different regions harbour perceptions towards Canadian English based on their region of origin, with some areas (e.g., Newfoundland and Labrador, and Québec) appearing more salient to participants than others. The findings from the analysis of the lexical data echo previous findings (e.g., Boberg, 2010, 2016; Gallinger & Motskin, 2018) while also highlighting regional variation in some variables that have not previously been studied, suggesting further research is needed focusing on these variables. Overall, the results demonstrate the advantages and disadvantages of an online study to survey a large number of participants across a large geographical area.
Open Access
Silence that matters: HIV Nondisclosure and the limits of Consent
(2023-03-28) Gee, Seran; Ehrlich, Susan L.
This dissertation explores the legal and sociocultural linguistic implications of the Supreme Court of Canada’s decision in R. v. Cuerrier (1998) where it was ruled that the nondisclosure of HIV-positive status could vitiate otherwise freely given consent, resulting in the sexual act being deemed aggravated assault or aggravated sexual assault. Specifically, I am interested in how the logic of HIV nondisclosure law is deeply interwoven with heteronormative assumptions about sexuality and how consent is negotiated in practice. To interrogate the often-unstated assumptions underlying the Court’s decision, I examine how the legal imperative to speak about one’s HIV status is resolved within gay sexual spaces (where consent is customarily negotiated wordlessly). My goal, in doing this, is to identify how these competing imperatives (i.e., the legal obligation to speak and a custom of staying silent) are resolved within cultural and linguistic practice. In this study, I use autoethnography, semi-structured interviews, and legal analysis to examine the legal and political implications of the criminalization of HIV nondisclosure. My findings suggest that existing approaches to HIV nondisclosure in criminal law are insufficiently attentive to how regulatory apparatuses, including social norms, shape the interpretation of sexual practices. This often results in courts confounding sexual diversity with sexual violence, which continues a long-held tradition of criminalizing sexual minorities. Guided by these insights, my legal analysis challenges the logic of HIV nondisclosure law more directly. Specifically, I argue that privileging putatively “rational” faculties, like autonomy, in the regulation of sexualities fails to adequately capture the complexities embodied in sex and negotiations of sexual consent. As an alternative, I offer a new model—what I call bodily subjectivity—to more fully capture the visceral harm enacted by acts of sexual assault.
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
The Effects of Context, Voice, and Vowelization on the Word Recognition Speed, Accuracy, and Comprehension of L2 Arabic Readers at Different
(2022-08-08) Aljohani, Yahya; Barkaoui, Khaled
The present study focuses on the effects of context, grammatical voice (hereafter, voice), and vowelization on the word recognition of L2 Arabic readers at different proficiency levels. It examined the role of different context and voice conditions and different types (amounts) of vowelization usage in Arabic word recognition and their effects on L2 Arabic learners word decoding speed, accuracy, and comprehension at different stages of L2 Arabic acquisition. The study used Arabic verbs whose active and passive forms are heterophonic homographs, that is, forms that differ in their pronunciation, while their letter orthography in the Arabic writing system remains identical. The use of different contexts and voice conditions and different types of vowelization with such verbs provides important insights about the role of context, voice, and vowelization in L2 Arabic reading. Forty-eight English-speaking L2 learners of Arabic were recruited to perform two tasks: 1) reading aloud Arabic verbs that are differently vowelized (fully, partially, and non-vowelized) with and without context, and 2) selecting their correct meaning. Participants were also interviewed to answer a few questions about their thoughts and preferences regarding the use of vowelization in Arabic. The findings of this study showed that while context had no effect on the reading speed and accuracy of all proficiency groups, it enhanced their reading comprehension. The study also showed that voice greatly affected the reading speed, accuracy, and comprehension of all groups of L2 Arabic readers. Partially vowelized and unvowelized active verbs were read faster and more accurately and were understood better than were passive verbs. Lastly, the study findings showed that vowelization improved the reading speed, accuracy, and comprehension of all groups of L2 Arabic readers. Particularly, partial vowelization was found very beneficial for the accuracy and comprehension of L2 Arabic readers. The theoretical and practical implications of the studys findings are discussed in light of recent research on L2 Arabic word recognition.
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
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
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
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.
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
'She Chose to Get Rid of Him by Murder, Not by Leaving Him': Discursive Constructions of a Battered Woman Who Killed in R v Craig
(2019-03-05) Slinkard, Sibley Eden; Ehrlich, Susan L.
This dissertation uses linguistic/discourse analysis to critically examine a Canadian murder trial in which a battered woman who killed her husband was unsuccessful in securing a self-defence finding—R v Teresa Craig, (2011 ONCA 142). The defendants self-defence plea relied upon testimony on Battered Woman Syndrome (BWS) and theory of coercive control in order to highlight the ways in which her actions (in killing her husband) were reasonable reactions to the abuse she and her son experienced. Feminist legal scholars argue that securing self-defence findings for battered women who kill is made difficult by the androcentric nature of the legal system, including the standards by which courts determine the legitimacy of self-defence claims, and the general lack of knowledge about intimate partner violence exhibited by many legal actors. This project attempts to locate these barriers to self-defence for these women in the language/discourse of R v Craig. Because the defendant was unsuccessful in securing an acquittal or a conditional sentence, particular attention is devoted to the various ways participants within the case (and the news media) used discursive means to construct the defendants identity as a woman undeserving of either a self-defence plea or leniency in sentencing. The data for this study comes from two separate sources—institutionally produced transcripts from the case file and a corpus of newspaper reports of the trial. The study utilizes feminist critical discourse analysis, incorporating tools from discourse, conversation, and intertextual analysis. The findings indicate that discriminatory ideologies about battered women informed the way in which the defendant was represented in both the legal system and the media. The study considers the consequences of such representations for not only this trial, but also for how society comes to define battered women and those who kill. Although studies of battered women who kill occupy a significant position within feminist jurisprudence, analysis of these kinds of cases has as of yet been unexplored in linguistic scholarship. Through critical examination of the linguistic details of this case, my work provides empirical support for claims that battered women who kill may be unduly disadvantaged in the legal system.
Open Access
Native English-Speaking Teachers Using Korean to Teach EFL in South Korea: A Sociocultural Analysis of Teachers' Beliefs and Practices
(2018-08-27) McGaughey, John Edward; Morgan, Brian David
The use of learners first languages (L1) in second and foreign language teaching is a practice that is empirically supported and its inclusion is increasingly recommended by researchers (e.g. Cook, 2001; Corcoran, 2015; Cummins, 2007; Garca & Lin, 2017a; Turnbull & Dailey-OCain, 2009). Yet, native English-speaking teachers (NESTs) who deploy their learners first languages in their classes tend to be overlooked in the research, and the Korean context is no exception. Framed through the lens of Vygotkys sociocultural theory (1978, 1986) and Engestrms conceptualization of activity theory (1987, 1999, 2001), this study investigates how three NESTs use Korean to teach EFL to university students in South Korea. The study uncovers how the participants practices shape and are shaped by their beliefs toward the use of Korean, their past language learning and teaching experiences, English-only medium of instruction (MOI) policies and associated ideologies at the societal (macro) and institutional (micro) levels. The data for this study were obtained through 34 hours of classroom observations as well as background, stimulated recall and follow-up interviews. The analysis reveals that the participants used Korean as a mediating tool serving three broad functions based on Ferguson (2003), namely, to ensure that their students learned the course content, to manage the classroom and to improve the affective climate of the classroom. Additionally, two of the participants used the negotiation of their emergent bilingual identities (Garcia, 2017) as a pedagogical tool (Morgan, 2004). However, the analysis also revealed that the use of Korean is a potential source of tension. Two of the participants perceived an English-only MOI policy. The de facto policy served to create tensions and feelings of guilt and wrongdoing. Additionally, one of the instructors feared making linguistic errors and potentially confusing her students. These fears conflicted with her expert NEST identity and led to her rarely speaking Korean in class. Yet, the tensions surrounding the use of Korean and the de facto MOI also served as the genesis for agentive actions that enabled the participants to use Korean in a modality and manner that minimized or even negated these tensions.
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
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.