After completing three degrees and one certificate at Carleton, Jaffer Sheyholislami now comes on board as an assistant professor in the School of Linguistics and Applied Language Studies.
Sheyholislami began his Carleton career by completing a BA Honours in general linguistics and obtaining a Certificate in the Teaching of English as a Second Language in 1999. While teaching ESL to newcomers to Canada he continued his studies at the master’s level in applied language studies with a focus on critical discourse analysis of news media.
This August Sheyholislami defended his PhD thesis, Identity, Discourse and Media, and began his professorship in SLALS. Although his appointment is now official, he started teaching ESL credit courses at Carleton in 2003 and began teaching undergraduate classes in 2004.
“I love this institution,” says Sheyholislami, and his long history at Carleton is evidence of that.
The professor’s main area of study is critical discourse analysis, language and identity, language and media, and language policy and planning. Currently he looks at blogging and its affordances and constraints in academic context.
One of the subjects Sheyholislami studies is the notion of language and the digital divide. He explains that not only is there a divide in the sense that there are many have and have-not regions (and individuals) when it comes to internet access, but there is also a gap between the “net generation” and their instructors.
“To keep up with technology, instructors would have to go back and relive as teenagers again,” explains Sheyholislami. “Obviously, this isn’t possible. But, what they can do is to try and incorporate some of the technology in their teaching and also allow the students to use the technology they are familiar with.”
Sheyholislami notes that an instructor doesn’t necessarily need to be familiar with a particular technology to use it in their teaching. For example, he could ask his/her language students to examine how “net speak” is used on the popular Facebook social networking website and how such usages might impact the way people use language and writing in other areas of their lives, such as academia.
This type of activity is a typical practice in Sheyholislami’s classes. He strives to facilitate teaching, rather than instructing his students to learn what he tells them: “I can’t for the life of me give a two hour lecture and then tell the students to go and learn what it is I’ve told them.” He encourages group activities and discussion.
Currently, Sheyholislami is wrapping up a third year course on Research and Theory in Academic Writing and a graduate class on Writing/Language and Communication Technologies. He will teach Introduction to Applied Language Studies and a second year course, Language, Ideology and Power, in the winter term.