POSTPONED – Join us at the 15th Annual Graduate Student Symposium

Assessment can significantly impact students’ experiences and success in post-secondary education (e.g. Cordiner & Kift, 2008), and students form expectations about assessment based on their experiences in high school (Crisp, Sweiry, Ahmed, & Pollitt, 2008). Students’ assessment literacy is defined as their understanding of rules about course assessments, ways in which assessment can further their learning, and their ability to produce work that meets grading expectations (Smith, Worsfold, Davies, Fisher, & McPhail, 2013). Developing students’ assessment literacy has been found to increase their autonomy, self-efficacy (their belief in their ability to succeed), and self-regulation (Nicol, 2009). However, while there have been some efforts documented in the literature to improve instructor assessment literacy, little attention has been paid to students’ assessment literacy (Smith et al, 2013). This poster describes an attempt to develop first-year university students’ assessment literacy in an introductory ALDS course with an assessment journal, which is one piece of qualitative data in a larger research project. Students were provided with the rationale for the assignment, worth 5% of their final grade, along with detailed guidelines and suggestions for initial and subsequent posts throughout the term. Students were also provided with a marking guide and periodic feedback. Aggregate results are presented, including ways in which students benefited, how they demonstrated assessment literacy, and implementation successes and challenges. The findings may help provide insight into how instructors can help to facilitate students’ assessment literacy, particularly in the context of the transition from high school into university.

Imposter syndrome, or imposter phenomenon, is often imagined as an individual ‘imposter’ and their feelings of insecurity, phoniness, failure, and fraudulence (Bernard, Dollinger, and Ramaniah 2002; Clance and Imes 1978; Seritan and Mehta 2015). In this view imposter feelings are private—‘owned’ by the individual—which has implications for the kinds of interventions that are offered. Some researchers (Breeze 2018; Cisco 2019; Cohen and McConnell 2019; Edwards 2019) have begun to question this focus, suggesting that imposter feelings can be seen through a sociocultural lens. This lens opens up ‘individual’ imposter feelings to see how they might be related to or provoked by space, place, and culture. For the past year, I have been working on two projects that consider imposter syndrome from this angle. This presentation shares some of the insights that have arisen using a pedagogical tool I developed for the purposes of research dissemination. My aim is to pilot the tool, which I’m tentatively referring to as the ‘Imposter Feelings: Conversation Starter Pack,’ and observe how others interact with it.

In 2017, it was mandated that Canadian emergency alerts—including Amber alerts, which solicit the public’s assistance in locating abducted children—be distributed to all wireless devices (i.e., cellphones and tablets) (CRTC, 2016). Amber alerts have been met with particularly negative feedback since this system’s implementation, prompting civilian complaints to the emergency phone-line 911 which strains police resources at the most pivotal moments of child abduction cases (Shum, 2019). Moreover, researchers have criticized the use of Amber alerts for locating abductees due to ethical and practical concerns (e.g., Griffin, 2010; Sicafuse and Miller, 2010; Creel, 2015). This mixed-methods study addresses these issues by posing the following questions, which examine Amber alerts as rhetorical discourse: What are the constraints of the rhetorical situation of Amber alerts? How do individual members of the Canadian public discursively construct the aims, intentions, and effectiveness of Amber alerts? A corpus of Amber alert texts is considered in the frame of rhetorical situation (Bitzer, 1968). Further, a corpus of internet posts is examined using qualitative thematic analysis. The findings of these initial analyses were foundational in the development of a questionnaire probing Canadian civilians’ experiences with the newly implemented Amber alert system. Overall findings indicate that rhetorical constraints may negatively influence the effectiveness of Amber alerts; for instance, the use of police jargon may make the texts inaccessible to the intended audience. Recommendations for further development of the emergency alerting system are provided with the aim of improving public safety outcomes.

Acquisition of [verb]+gerund/infinitive-complement constructions (e.g., “John likes to play football” vs. “John likes playing football”) can be problematic even for advanced learners (Celce-Murcia & Larsen-Freeman, 1999; Robinson, 2011; Schwartz & Causarano, 2007; Shirahata, 1991). This study compared the usage of gerund and infinitive complements as found in English corpus data as opposed to how they are prescriptively presented in some commonly-used ESL/EFL textbooks and grammar references. We first identified multiple conflicts between published textbooks regarding their presentation of gerunds/infinitive complementation rules for certain verbs. We then sought to resolve some of these conflicts using a corpus study. While previous corpus-based research has looked at verb-complementation of certain high-frequency verbs (Duffley, 2004; Morita, 2012), these studies did not include ‘mean’, one of the most frequent verbs in the English language. We compiled frequency data of verb compliments of all inflections of the verb-lemma ‘mean’ from the Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA) and also from a corpus of TV captions. Findings revealed that ‘mean’ can accept both types of complements, but the type used depends on which of the 11 senses of the word ‘mean’ is being used. An additional finding was that complementation of ‘mean’ also varies between different registers (i.e., TV vs. COCA). As textbooks are often the primary sources of grammar information in ESL/EFL classroom syllabi, we will highlight the benefits of using corpus data as a supplementary source to inform students, teachers, and materials developers about the use of the gerunds and infinitives complements.

Halliday’s Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) has been used to study the linguistic features of Obama’s and Trump’s inaugural speeches. Little research has used SFL to compare how ideologies of two presidents are reflected in their linguistic choices. The linguistic differences between the two have been noted in the media (Kimmel, 2019). This paper investigates how the political differences of the two presidents are reflected in their language use. It uses SFL tools (Halliday, 2014; Eggins, 2004) to compare the ideational, textual and interpersonal metafunctions of three similar ideas that are present in Obama’s statement on the death of Osama Bin Laden, and in Trump’s on the death of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. Transitivity, clause complex, theme, and Mood analyses were conducted. Despite the similarities in the contexts of culture and situation, the above analyses reflect more careful planning in Obama’s statement. While Obama uses clause complexes and marked themes to focus on the collective efforts of the American government, Trump’s linguistic choices focus on details of the death of al-Baghdadi. The same pattern is evident in the transitivity analysis. Obama’s statement discursively unites the American people in their war against terrorism. Trump’s focuses on making an example of an enemy which is consistent with his effort to ‘make America great again’. Further investigation of additional statements can provide more evidence on how both presidents construct(ed) their reality, prioritize(d) their objectives and engage(d) their audience. Investigating presidential speeches can illuminate the ideological drives that guide their policies.

Twitter has allowed a ‘talking back to the power’ digital activism to surface. Marginalized groups, who in the past had limited access to public media and little opportunity to ‘talk back’ to the powerful, have quickly exploited Twitter’s potential to ‘take the floor’ (Bonilla & Rosa, 2015). A prominent example of this is  the discourse surrounding the community-based incident of sexual harassment attributed to North American voice actor Vic Mignogna. My research investigates how Twitter users negotiate alignment and stance through their discourse to understand how calls for action that protest and shame instances of sexual harassment manifest with the help of social media (SM). More specifically: How do #KickVic and #IStandWithVic construct individual and group identity and action, how are they different from larger calls for action and what purposes do these opposing hashtags signal? I analyze how SM communication provides new opportunities for Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) while challenging some of its core notions (KhosraviNik, 2017). Following a CDA approach, I am analyzing news articles and tweets from #KickVic and #IStandWithVic for their meaning-making potential through Systemic Functional Linguistics (Halliday, 2014) while also coding for features like face-work (Goffman, 1967), politeness strategies (Brown & Levinson, 1987), and dialogically expansive and contractive formulations (Martin & White, 2005). Preliminary analysis suggests that studying the effects of ‘talk back’ in specific instances helps clarify the role of SM in creating interactive spaces and allowing new participants into important social debates.

The question at the core of my doctoral research is: In a world facing a seemingly unprecedented number of social issues, what does it mean for public education to facilitate active citizenship—particularly amongst a culturally-rich population? In other words, how might educators and education systems prepare students from diverse and intersecting social groups to engage meaningfully with and solve such issues? Rooted in a social justice oriented Critical Discourse Studies framework and using corpus tools (Mautner, 2016), this study investigates the discursive construction of citizenship, students, and teachers in a collected corpus of policy-level education discourse (PLED) from each province and territory in Canada. Although education policy is widely studied (Fenwick & Edwards, 2010; Steiner-Khamsi & Waldow, 2012), little research looks at the relationships within and across PLED both holistically and critically, and even less research does so for purposes outside of standardisation or evaluation. While it is commonplace for PLED in this corpus to emphasize the need for ‘actively engaged citizens’, the discursive construction of citizenship is fraught with a sense of urgency which is connected to an uncertain and rapidly changing future, while focusing mainly on individualist aspects, “personally responsible citizenship” (Westheimer, 2015). There is also a disconnect between students and citizens—that is, students are not considered full-fledged citizens until they graduate and begin contributing (economically) to society. While findings are still being interpreted, addressing social issues requires sustained and collective effort (Brown, et al., 2010; Westheimer, 2015; Janks, 2014), any mention of which is largely absent from this corpus.

Research has shown that the construct of pilot/air traffic controller (ATCO) language proficiency, which is tested in accordance with the International Civil Aviation Organization’s (ICAO’s) Language Proficiency Requirements (LPRs), is underrepresented (Douglas, 2014; Emery, 2014; Kim & Elder, 2014; Moder & Halleck, 2009; Monteiro, 2012; Read & Knoch, 2009). The present study contributes additional evidence of construct underrepresentation by investigating pilots’ and aviation English experts’ accounts of listening in the context of radiotelephony communications. This explanatory sequential mixed-methods study (Creswell, 2015) elicited questionnaire responses from pilots, who are not native speakers of English (quantitative/Phase 1), and, subsequently, interviewed aviation English experts (qualitative/Phase 2) to investigate the role of listening in pilot/ATCO communication. Qualitative and quantitative findings were merged in the discussion, and provide evidence of the current disconnect between listening in radiotelephony communications and the tests that are designed to measure it. This research will inform language test developers in designing tests and tasks that better represent the listening construct and, potentially, contribute to increased safety.

The aim of the proposed study is to examine the different types of discourse used in a provincial local constituency office (the public office of an elected provincial official). While existing studies (Canel & Sanders, 2013; Ionescu, 2016; Marvel & Resh, 2015) have clearly established the functions of both bureaucratic and political discourse, they have not addressed the purpose of the discourse used in a constituency office. Considering that the constituency office is a direct mode of communication between the public and government at a local level, it is crucial to understand how this office utilizes discourse and most importantly the purpose of their discourse. Examining the types of discourse used within a provincial constituency office may shed light on how their discourse functions. This paper intends to answer the following questions: 1) What features of form and function distinguish the discourse used in the constituency office? 2) To what extent are other discourses, such as bureaucratic and political discourses, present in Constituency discourse? The present study aims to address the lack of research on the discourses used in constituency offices and their functions and the findings may open up new areas for and guide future research.

The popularity of online tutorials (OT) as a web-based method of instruction, which includes interactive features, is on the rise. In 2015, 34% of the US graduate students were taking online courses (Werler et al., 2019, p. 826). Understanding principles of research ethics (RE) is important for graduate students, and, as a cost-effective way of instruction (Williams et al., 2014), OTs are convenient tools for the graduate RE education. Different learning theories and interactive features have been used in OTs (Ratliff et al., 2012), which are designed to be self-paced and accessible to students at any time (Tarquini & McDorman, 2019). And yet, Kalichman (2005; 2014) argues that OTs often deny students critical thinking, discussion, and reasoning—skills deemed essential in learning how to conduct research ethically. To that end, as the first stage of an ongoing study, this project aims to analyze how multiple ways of conveying meaning, or modes (Kress, 2010), interact with each other in OTs. Multimodal interaction analysis (Norris, 2004; 2011) as a research methodology has been successful in the study of interactions between people and objects (Pirini et al., 2018) in various disciplines; however, research treating OTs as multimodal documents has been scarce. The study includes a multimodal analysis of the Canadian Tri-Council Policy Statement Course on Research Ethics (TCPS 2: CORE) (Panel on Research Ethics, 2019). Preliminary results suggest that the absence of interaction with an instructor does not appear to be fully compensated for in the OT design.

Being able to refuse – decline requests, offers, or suggestions – is necessary in the workplace. Native English speakers (NES) and non-native English speakers (NNES) often use different strategies to form the speech act of refusals (e.g. Riddiford & Holmes, 2015); these differences, often rooted in the learners’ L1, may lead to unintentional misunderstandings or confusion. Because these mix-ups are common in the workplace, teaching face-threatening acts such as refusals is advised as pragmatic errors are often perceived more negatively than other language-related errors (Neilson, et al., 2002). Language instruction focused on refusals in specific context is rare but is needed considering Canada’s growing NNES population (IRCC, 2017). The present study investigated the refusal strategies used by Canadian NESs (n = 5) with customer service experience and NNESs (n = 5) working in customer service, as a sizeable part of NNESs in Canada work in customer service. Six role-plays were conducted to determine the refusal strategies used by both groups. Follow-up stimulated recall interviews provided insights into the participants’ use of the strategies. The role-play analysis showed that, unlike the NESs, the NNESs appeared confused when dealing with refusals, often choosing context-inappropriate strategies or avoiding particular situations altogether. The learners’ cited reliance on their L1 and the need for instruction in L2 pragmatic norms as the reasons for their choices they made in the role-plays. Pedagogical implications for language learners working in customer service in an English based environment are given based on the results of the role-plays and the stimulated recall interviews.

The reasons, efforts and behaviours language learners apply to their learning are factors that influence their motivation (Ellis, 2005). Teacher beliefs about learner motivation (Borg, 2003) and teachers’ use of motivational strategies (Guilloteaux, 2013) have been shown to impact their students’ learning. However, little is known about how teachers view learner motivation (Lou & Noels, 2019) and its sources (Oga-Baldwin, 2019), suggesting a need for greater understanding of what teachers consider motivating to their students. Few studies on motivation have ventured beyond EFL and EAP contexts (Plonsky, 2016), calling for exploration of other instructional settings (Ortega, 2019). To that end, this study investigates teacher beliefs about student motivation in the setting of refugee and newcomer to Canada second language training. Educators (n=48) with experience across various teaching contexts (workplace language training, general ESL, and EAP) were asked to complete a questionnaire (adapted from Midgely et al., 2000; Garcia et al., 2005; and Taguchi et al., 2009) exploring their beliefs about student motivation and its sources.  Questionnaire responses were compared across the two teaching contexts. Follow-up interviews conducted with a smaller sample of educators (n=10) sought elaboration on questionnaire responses and explored the extent to which teachers apply their beliefs about learner motivation to their teaching. While teachers viewed learner motivation as the catalyst in sustained L2 practice and were able to recognize sources of motivation for their learners, they reported struggling to act on these in their practice, citing individual learner, curricular, institutional, and societal constraints. Pedagogical implications are discussed.

Global Economic systems have instantiated neoliberal practices which enforce capitalist values onto the individual (McNally, 2009). The epicenter of this crisis is the concept of human capital, which tasks individuals with negotiating the value of self, where all elements of their behaviour expand their market potential, and therefore their life potential (Feher, 2008). Advertising, as a form of strategic and persuasive communication, forms an ideal carrier for naturalizing neoliberal practices through language (Fairclough, 1990). This study focuses on the multimodal construction of a Nike Ad campaign to demonstrate the text’s communicative purpose, commodification of individual behaviour, and its overall construction of meaning. A Systemic Functional Linguistics framework is used to deconstruct Nike’s system of semiotic choices developed within the advertisement. An analysis of transitivity, and the clause complex suggest the ways in which consumers identify themselves with the characterizations of athletes, as potential behavioural models. While representing the subjects textually as collective, the ad uses images that are structured to isolate the participants as individuals. Repetition and placement of Nike iconography further establishes its importance as a tool to achieve athletic excellence. Overall, the findings suggest that Nike’s brand synchronizes athletic potential with investment and the consumption of their product. This demonstrates the ways in which Nike capitalizes off representing behavioural potential to increase market value of their product, as an extension of human capital.

The Inuktitut language is facing many challenges in the present day. Despite maintaining a relatively large number of speakers concentrated in Inuit Nunangat, the traditional Inuit homeland, intergenerational transmission is slowly eroding (StatsCan, 2017), putting the future of the language in question. Many language revitalisation initiatives are underway in Inuit Nunagnat; however, one factor that is not often discussed is the role of Qallunaat (non-Inuit) in language vitality. While there are many studies on how Inuit acquire Inuktitut as a first language or a heritage language (see Allen, 2000; Sherkina-Lieber, 2011), there are few studies on how and why Qallunaat acquire Inuktitut as a second language (L2). In this qualitative case study, the researcher interviews L2 speakers of Inuktitut and analyses their specific language learning context with the aim of identifying common elements. The data collected from the interviews is analysed with a modified version of Dörnyei’s L2 motivational self system (Dörnyei, Csizér & Németh, 2006). Using the L2 motivational self-system, this study provides an analysis on a wide range of factors which can influence how learners acquire Inuktitut as an L2 in various contexts. These factors include, but are not limited to, motivation to learn Inuktitut, attitudes towards the target language and accessibility of language resources. The information gathered in this study may help language planners identify factors in successful acquisition of Inuktitut in L2 speakers as well as inform their decisions regarding language revitalisation initiatives.

Indigenous language courses that teach the languages First Nations, Métis, and Inuit are expanding in post-secondary institutions in Canada. A possible strategy to bolster the confidence and abilities of new speakers who have limited exposure to such minority languages is translanguaging (Huaman & Stokes, 2011; O’Rourke et al., 2015; Tulloch, et al., 2017). This approach originated in Wales and involved the “purposeful concurrent uses of two languages in a bilingual classroom” (Lewis, Jones & Baker, 2012, p. 644). More recently, translanguaging refers more broadly to an approach that encourages multilingual learners to draw on all their linguistic resources to further learning of a new language or new content. Although translanguaging has been championed as an approach that empowers minority language learners (Cenoz & Gorter, 2017), there is little scholarship regarding this method in the context of Canadian Indigenous languages, particularly in post-secondary learning environments. This study reviews the literature on translanguaging and gains additional insight through interviews with a teacher and students of an Indigenous language course in a post-secondary institution. These interviews explore attitudes towards the use of English (the typical first language of students) in an Indigenous language class (the target language) to better assess whether translanguaging is an appropriate approach in the context of postsecondary Indigenous language instruction.