ALDS Graduate Symposium was held in person for the first time after COVID-19 on Friday March 24, 3-5 p.m. in Saint Patrick’s Room 306.
The theme for this year’s Symposium was “Language in Times of Change” and the event featured more than ten academic posters by students in the ALDS (Applied Linguistics & Discourse Studies) master’s and PhD programs. There was even an undergraduate poster “Language in Times of Change: A Systemic Functional Linguistic Analysis of a Remote Newfoundland Real Estate Listing” by Emily Udle.
Following a welcome message from the ALDs Graduate Supervisor Prof. Jaffer Sheyholislami, Dr. Trudy O’Brien announced the winners of this year’s Lynne Young Graduate Award. They were Mohsen Jazeb and Laura McMillan, both MA students. They were rewarded for their academic excellence.
This was followed by SaLADS Communications and Finances Coordinator Laura McMillan introduction of this year’s keynote speaker Dr. Angel Arias who delivered a talk entitled “Language Assessment in Times of 21st Century Mobility: Migration and Measurement Validity”
“Migration has become a salient feature of our 21st-century globalized society. Language education is increasingly viewed as a critical component that prepares individuals to participate effectively and fully in host societies. However, assessing language proficiency in multilingual contexts requires measurement validity frameworks that account for the complexity of language use in diverse sociocultural settings” (Arias, 2023, SALaDS Symposium).
Students’ posters covered a wide range of topics from second language acquisition and discourse analysis to language policy and planning. Here are some of the titles: “Developing a Diagnostic Vocabulary Profiler for Arabic Learners of English”, “Behind the Scenes: The What, Who, and How of Indigenous Language Policy at Parliament” and “Examining the Use of Animations to Support Young EFL/ESL Learners in Asynchronous Learning Contexts”
The event was well-attended by faculty, students (undergraduate and graduate), and staff.
Congratulations to event organizers from SaLADS (Society for Students of Applied Linguistics and Discourse Studies): Laura McMillan (Communications and Finances Coordinator) and Ann-Sophie Boily (Academic Coordinators).
