Welcome from GLASA Vice President Internal, Brittney O’Neill

Session Chair: Hiba Ibrahim, York University

Does personality impact learner experience and response to oral corrective feedback?

Alina Lemak, York University

Overall, corrective feedback (CF) has been shown to be an effective instructional technique (Li, 2010; Lyster & Saito, 2010; Sheen, 2011), and researchers are becoming more aware of the mediating role individual differences play in error correction effectiveness (Ammar & Spada, 2006; Sheen, 2007; 2011). It appears that learners may differ in their ability and preparedness to benefit from CF. Learner personality may be one of possible mediating factors that may influence learning outcomes (Diseth, 2003; Robinson, Gabriel, & Katchan, 1994); yet the impact of students’ personality on their response to CF is virtually neglected. Using a mixed-method approach to data collection and analysis, this study took place in a class of adult ESL learners in a post-secondary context. Data collection included a personality test, pre-test/post test outcome measure, video/audio recordings of classroom activities, observations, and 8 individual interviews/stimulated-recall procedures. Triangulation of participants' experience of CF and its efficacy through quantitative data collection methods as well as student interviews, and stimulated recall procedures allowed for better understanding of the impact of personality on their response to CF. In this talk, I will outline the theoretical framework, study design, data analysis, findings, and discuss emerging pedagogical and research implications.

Engineering stories we live by: Investigating how ecolinguistics can inform engineering education

Ted Nolan, York University

Ecolinguistics is a multi-disciplinary field that uses linguistic analysis to understand, critique and challenge the ways in which we use language and narrative—consciously and not—to create and enforce our relationships to each other and to the natural environment. Aaron Stibbe claims ecolinguistics is a deliberately norm-making field, in which the goals are not just to understand these linguistic phenomena, but also to determine how we might change them for our long term benefit, that being difficult to separate from that of the Earth itself. In this work-in-progress, I draw examples from engineering design, in both professional practice and education. In particular, I will consider how these examples are framed by, flow from and reinforce the language and narratives that provide them with their relevant contexts, and how assumptions about our relationship to the Earth can be releveled when we look at how existing designs interact with the natural environment. I will explore how narratives provide both conscious and unconscious frameworks that inform how we consider these designs. Finally, I will consider how knowledge of ecological narratives can inform engineering education, and the existing barriers to such impacts being meaningful.

Take an eye break! Grab a coffee!

Grammatical variation and change across the centuries: Data collection, negation, and tentative conclusions

Philip Comeau, Université du Québec à Montreal

Acadian French, spoken primarily in Atlantic Canada, is well-known for having retained a large number of linguistic features lost in most other spoken varieties of French. This linguistic conservatism gives us a unique opportunity to observe and study the behaviour of features in actual spoken language. However, this linguistic conservatism is not consistent across the Acadian diaspora. For example, some New Brunswick varieties of Acadian French have lost many linguistic features preserved elsewhere in the diaspora (e.g., Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island). This discrepancy raises a number of questions: Are traditional Acadian features being lost throughout the diaspora (if so, perhaps at different rates)? Why have some Acadian varieties preserved conservative features while others have lost them? How can historical data shed light on earlier stages of Acadian French?

After outlining a number of results relating to the linguistic conservatism of Acadian French, I focus on a case of variation between two postverbal negative markers, pas and point in one of the most conservative varieties of Acadian French, that spoken in the Par-en-Bas region in southwest Nova Scotia. By relying on a range of data sources (contemporary sociolinguistic corpora and 18th-19th century corpus of personal correspondence), I track use of both variants across time. The results obtained point to the relationship between the frequency of lexical items and linguistic constraints operating on variation. Furthermore, the results point to a relationship between collocations and language change.

Speaker Bio

Philip Comeau is an Associate Professor at the Université du Québec à Montréal. He has a Bachelor’s degree in English and Linguistics from Dalhousie University and a Master’s and PhD from York University under the supervision of Ruth King. His main research areas include language variation and change (models of language change), Acadian French, and issues relating to dialect and language contact. While the focus of his research is on varieties of Acadian French, he seeks to answer broader questions relating to models of language change and how variation can be accounted for within formal linguistic theory. The data that he relies on involve contemporary corpora of spoken language as well as historical documents, in efforts to reconstruct earlier stages of the language.

Grab a snack! Rest your eyes!

Session Chair: Ana-Maria Jerca, York University

Language attitudes towards varied inclusive language use on Twitter

Katie Slemp, York University

Research into gender inclusive language in Spanish has demonstrated that inclusive language generally appears in four forms: doublets, -@, -x, and -e (Slemp 2020). Spanish traditionally is considered a Romance language with binary grammatical gender, generally marked by -o for masculine and -a for feminine (Loporcaro 2017). As our understanding of social gender roles and gender identities has been evolving, the use of -@ and doublets has received criticism for not being inclusive of all gender identities. There is little to no research on language attitudes towards the use of gender-inclusive language in Spanish, although studies exist for other languages (e.g. Jost & Kay 2005; Carney et al. 2008; Sczesny et al. 2015). The present study compiled a corpus of tweets published in November 2020 that contained the markers -@, -x, and -e in common words. Based on this data, hypothetical tweets were constructed that fell into four different categories, indicated by the author of the tweet: business, personal, academic, and political. These hypothetical tweets were built into a language attitudes survey that was distributed on Twitter. Findings indicate that language attitudes for each type of inclusive marker and category of tweet are positive. Statistical analysis indicates a significant relationship between gender identity and language attitudes towards the use of inclusive language in the political category.

He, (s)he/she, and they: Gender-focussed language reform and resistance

Brittney O’Neill, York University

Movements both for and against gender-focussed language reform are underpinned by not only gender but also language ideologies. This study explores the relationship between these ideologies and the implementation and uptake of gender-focussed language reform. Though feminist and queer movements share language ideologies that focus upon impact over intent and harm prevention, feminist reform clusters around weak linguistic relativity, while queer reform efforts emphasize performativity and identity work. These movements also target differing outcomes with feminist reform seeking to enhance opportunities, respect, and standing for an already established and therefore legible category: women, while queer reform, focusses on less established and often socially illegible categories, aiming to reduce gender’s social salience and enable the expression of this greater gender diversity. While resistance to reforms is often attributed to underlying (cis)sexism, resistors explicitly focus on standard language ideology and individual freedoms of speech. These findings highlight the importance of language ideologies, in addition to gender ideologies, for understanding the implementation, uptake, and efficacy of gender-focussed language reform.

Eye break time! Stretch your legs!

Session Chair: Anda Neagu, York University

Meta-discourses of disability among people with Multiple Sclerosis

Ana-Maria Jerca, York University

This study qualitatively analyzes meta-discourses surrounding the term disabled (as well as more recently prescribed terms like person with a disability) by people with Multiple Sclerosis (MS) on the Reddit sub-community r/MultipleSclerosis. It explores medical and social factors influencing whether people with MS identify as disabled, resist the term, or identify in other ways, and discusses how people with MS are reclaiming the discourse of disability. MS, a fluctuating auto-immune disease of the central nervous system with intermittent and unpredictable flare ups (MS Society of Canada; Shakespeare, 2018, p. 58-59) is unique in that it can be “invisible”: it does not always affect the person who has it in immediately noticeable ways. Consequently, the progression of the illness was not the only factor cited when redditors discussed how they identified with the term disabled; social and logistical factors (e.g., from how their peers saw them to struggles with immigration because of the illness), had significant influence as well. In light of this, I suggest that instead of prescribing a specific term that should be used to refer to people with disabilities, it may be better to accept as correct the many ways in which individuals with disabilities refer to themselves.

“You watch TV, you know the drill”: Reinforced ideologies in American police interviews when officers compare Miranda warnings to fictional TV representations

Dakota Wing, York University

[Content warning: This talk contains data related to sexual violence, rape, and murder. Please prioritize your mental wellbeing when considering attending this talk.]

The American Miranda warnings are considered an “icon of constitutional law” that have been made “famous” by television (Covey, 2007). Similarly, the US Supreme Court has also expressed the recognizability and prevalence of the Miranda warnings in American society, stating “Miranda has become embedded in routine police practice to the point where the warnings have become part of our national culture” (Dickerson v. United States 530 US at 443 (2000)). Perhaps unsurprisingly then, excerpts from American police interviews demonstrate officers referencing TV’s representations of Miranda warnings in communicating the rights to suspects (see also Leo & White, 1999). Thus, interviewing officers’ references to popular culture’s representation of the Miranda warnings warrants an investigation into how the Mirandizing process is actually presented on TV. This talk presents a preliminary review of fictional arrests and custodial interviews in a popular American legal drama, Law & Order: SVU, which indicate that suspects are rarely adequately Mirandized on TV. That is, often, fictional police officers present a reduced version of the warnings, do not Mirandize suspects, or do not respect the suspect’s invocation. These findings suggest that officers’ comparisons of the Mirandizing process to TV during real interviews may reinforce problematic popular and ideological assumptions of the mirandizing process.

Step away for dinner or bring your dinner to the Zoom room and chat with the speakers and other attendees

Session Chair: Dakota Wing, York University

On the acceptability of multiple interrogatives in Italian

Anda Neagu, York University

Multiple interrogatives (MIs) exhibit cross-linguistic variation from the point of view of their acceptability. Italian is considered a non-multiple wh-language (Rizzi 1997; Stoyanova 2008; Richards 2014), an analysis based on the interaction between whPs and contrastive focus. I argue that previous analyses on multiple whPs in Italian need to be integrated with new data, and that these structures are at least marginally acceptable. In particular, I illustrate data from a preliminary experiment involving acceptability judgements on a 5-point Likert scale that tested whether native Italian speakers consider MIs acceptable, and if so, which are the preferred strategies in the formation of these structures. I suggest that the presence of two whPs within the same clause in Italian can be analyzed as a language contact phenomenon (cf. Berruto 2017), thus allowing a syntactic analysis that does not contradict previous accounts.

The Use of Iconicity in Sign Language Acquisition and Processing

Jennice Hinds, Carleton University

A standard view of language features and language processing holds that lexical forms are arbitrary. This analysis of the link between form and meaning has been researched in different languages and has found that in some languages arbitrariness is complemented by iconicity (Dingemanse et al., 2015). Sign language, due to its modality, has many iconic lexical items that have a strong relationship between meaning and form (Vinson et al., 2015). Our understanding of language as being a separate system of cognition that is integrated and dependent on other cognitive systems requires an analysis of the way we learn and process language (Thompson, 2011). It has been debated whether or not iconicity in sign language is a helpful tool in the acquisition process for L2 learners and children (Thompson, 2011; Baus et al., 2013). The most recent research suggests that while the high amount of iconicity in sign language is due to its evolutionary process along with its visual modality, there is evidence that iconicity can be an aid in language acquisition and processing.

Disagreement in Agreement: The Inherent Contradiction of Singular –ste

Gavin Bembridge, York University

This paper examines the second-person agreement facts for the simple past in Spanish. While there have been several analyses of the simple past, none of these analyses can resolve a puzzle concerning the meaning of –ste. The extant morphological analyses treat –ste as a second singular marker in forms like hablaste `you (sg.) spoke’. However, these analyses fail to (adequately) consider second plural forms in the simple past; the morpheme –ste is also found in forms like hablasteis ‘you (pl.) spoke’. Since identities in morphological forms should be treated as systematic (absent evidence to the contrary), any analysis that posits that –ste is sensitive to number is untenable. Instead, I argue that the syntax of second singulars in the simple past must contain an agreement node that is responsible for the singular interpretation. Support for this analysis comes from varieties of Spanish in which –ste occurs with the canonical second singular marker –s as in hablastes ‘you (sg.) spoke’. I account for the absence of –s, in varieties where it is not realized, with an impoverishment rule that deletes the second person features in the morphological component. Since impoverishment only happens in the morphological component, semantic interpretation is not affected.

This is your chance to ask that question you didn't think of until after the session ended! Grab some snack and a beverage and get to know the YorkU LAL community!

Welcome from GLASA President, Hiba Ibrahim

A Journey from Applied Linguistics Student to Researcher

Angela Meyer-Sterzik, Fanshawe College

This presentation begins with a discussion of the experiences and influences during my graduate studies in York’s LAL program that led (rather unexpectedly) to my transition from ‘L2 Teacher’ to ‘Teacher-Researcher’. Following this, I will detail three research projects informed by my graduate coursework, their findings, and their direct applications to my TESL and EAP classrooms and curricula:

1. RC-MAPS: Bridging the Comprehension Gap in EAP Reading (Meyer Sterzik & Fraser, 2012) An original, pedagogical tool theoretically framed by current reading and cognitive psychology research to explicitly teach critical reading skills.

2. How Do We Teach Them All? A Needs Analysis for a Pre-Sessional EGAP Curricular Review (Meyer Sterzik, 2018) Making EAP course outcomes congruent with post-secondary demands requires a needs analysis, in which a target situation analysis is imperative (Bocanegra-Valle, 2016; Hyland, 2016; Cabinda, 2013; Rosenfeld, Leung, & Oltman, 2001; Upton, 2012). This article details the theoretical considerations for a needs analysis, and reports the quantitative findings of a target situation analysis.

3. Student Perceptions of the Efficacy of Literature-Based Drama in an EAP Program (Muller, Meyer Sterzik & Walmsley – manuscript in process). Recent research has reported benefits from drama in EAP programs, including decreasing affective barriers and improving perceptions of overall language proficiency (Carson, 2012), improving oral proficiency for Graduate-level oral exams (Gray, 2015), and increasing learner motivation (Reid, 2016). This paper describes the drama component in an EAP course and reports the findings of a study exploring students’ perceptions of drama’s effects.

The presentation will conclude with a brief discussion of how my applied research has positively impacted my praxis (I’m a teacher first!) and career.

Speaker Bio

Angela has a PhD and MA in Applied Linguistics from York University. She is a Professor of EAP, Writing, and TESOL at Fanshawe College and coordinates the TESOL Graduate Certificate program. She regularly presents at local, provincial, and international conferences.

Take an eye break! Grab a coffee or tea!

Session Chair: Hiba Ibrahim, York University

Artificially intelligent language models and the false fantasy of participatory language policies

Mandy Lau, York University

Artificially intelligent neural language models learn from a corpus of online language data, often directly from user-generated content through crowdsourcing or the gift economy, bypassing traditional keepers of language policy and planning. Here lies the dream that the languages of the digital world can bend towards individual needs and wants, and not the traditional way around. Through the participatory language work of users, linguistic diversity, accessibility, personalization, and inclusion can be increased. However, the promise of a more participatory, just, and emancipatory language policy as a result of neural language models is a false fantasy. I argue that neural language models represent a covert and oppressive form of language policy that benefits the privileged and harms the marginalized. I will examine the ideology underpinning neural language models and investigate the harms as a result of this emerging subversive regulatory body.

Is IELTS a Gate-keeping Tool Used by Canadian Language and Immigration Policy Planners?

Fatemeh Hasiri, York University

One of the major pre-requisites of immigration to Canada is gaining the required score in language proficiency tests such as IELTS (International English Language Testing System). Only through gaining high scores can one be eligible to be admitted as a permanent resident. Although candidates can gain points for age, occupation and educational level, for immigration purposes, getting a high score in IELTS accounts for a large number of points, and therefore, is crucial in terms of acceptance and rejection. This article examines the role of IELTS test in language policy, stating that while IELTS acts as a gate-keeping tool to monitor the flow of immigrants, there are certain ideological agenda such as language hierarchy, social equality, fairness and justice in workplace, better communication and impartiality which justify its implementation for immigration purposes. Also, the paper examines the implications of IELTS on stakeholders, especially teachers and students, stating that despite the fact that there are several studies investigating its effects from this angle, test-takers’ perception on the test still deserves further research.

Acknowledge the past, face the present, change the future: Implementing Call to Action 93 in LINC classrooms

Stephanie Kinzie, York University

The history of Canada has been told almost exclusively from the perspective of European settlers. Newcomers to Canada are often taught using government-created citizenship materials; Discover Canada (2012), the only sanctioned study guide for the Canadian citizenship test, is widely available and used in LINC classrooms. The guide, however, diminishes the importance of Indigenous peoples in Canada’s history and downplays the atrocities committed against them by European settlers. In response to the TRC’s Call to Action 93, and based on work by Gulliver (2018), a two-day workshop has been created to draw the attention of LINC teachers to the ways in which language in the citizenship materials is used to promote the image of Canada as a fair and welcoming country, while excusing and ignoring injustices visited upon its Indigenous peoples. Simplified discourse analysis of selected texts illustrates how various techniques are used to create a sanitized version of Canadian history. After completing the workshop, participants will be able to critically analyze teaching materials and create their own classroom activities to provide a more balanced view of the history of Canada and acknowledge the realities faced by Indigenous groups in Canada’s past and present.

[TO BE SHARED AS A RECORDING AFTER THE SYMPOSIUM]
Special Education Accommodation for Adult English Language Learners in Ontario Colleges

Julie Dawson, York University

I will present a research proposal that investigates how adult English language learners (ELL’s) with learning disabilities experience language learning in an Ontario college program. Many of our ELL’s enter the college system with unidentified or undocumented learning differences. If one of these students attempts to acquire academic supports through the college’s accessibility services department, that student is counselled as to how to acquire a Psycho-educational Assessment Report from a registered Psychotherapist. Funding is available for some students to offset the cost of this assessment, but not all students fit the profile required for this funding. What happens to ELL’s who do not have appropriate documentation for their learning disability, who do not fit the funding profile and who are unable to pay the fee for the assessment? How do they find academic support? In light of this glaring question, I propose the creation of a study to investigate the experiences of ELL’s with learning disabilities who cannot acquire academic support from the college. The data collected in this study will reveal opportunities that warrant further research in order to address the gaps in Applied Linguistic literature and in our teaching practices when accommodating adult ELL’s with cognitive learning disabilities.

Stretch your legs and give your eyes a rest!

Session Chair: Mandy Lau, York University

Complementing intercultural learning in ESL/EFL textbook-based education: A case study from Jordan

Hiba Ibrahim, York University

Culture has long been seen as a fundamental component of second language learning. However, a wide range of international English as a Second Language (ESL) textbooks continue to promote stereotyping about other cultures (e.g. Nazari, 2007), construct power relations by naturalizing the dominance of the target culture’s principles (Shin et al., 2011), and limit the integration of learners’ cultural experiences in curricula (e.g. Ndura, 2004).Byram’s intercultural communicative competence (ICC) model is widely accepted among the frameworks that help language learners develop their critical intercultural awareness and ability to mediate between different cultural perspectives and be conscious of their evaluation of difference. However, research has avoided engagement in critical discussion of the complexity of ICC development, when employing this model in task design. Since textbooks are the main artifacts used in Jordan’s ESL classrooms, this study investigates Byram’s (1997) model as an approach to developing ICC by designing and implementing supplementary intercultural materials in an ESL classroom in Jordan. The study findings suggest that the participants demonstrated a development in knowledge, interpreting and relating skills, and curiosity. Some participants’ openness to suspending disbelief about the target culture, however, seemed to be challenged when addressing sensitive topics, such as religious practices.

Language, Food and Identity in the Borderlands of El Paso

Rudi Barwin, York University

The border is a contested space. It is a site where physical and discursive violence acts to enforce hegemonic understandings of the nation, citizenship and belonging (Walia, 2013, p. 25). However, the spaces at the border also create sites where resistance of border discourse is possible (Téllez, 2008, p. 545). Using interviews conducted by the El Paso Food Voices project in 2018 and 2019, I examine the construction of identity through foodways in the US border town of El Paso, Texas (El Paso Food Voices, 2019). I view these interviews, called “food stories,” as entextualizations of the semiotic food system. Through Critical Discourse Analysis of these food stories, I identify discourse strategies that construct identity in opposition to border discourse. In the borderlands, people have multiplex identities (Bottero, 2005, p. 100). Through foodways, residents of El Paso construct identities that do not conform to the dichotomizing and hierarchizing discourses of the border and create counter discourses that build possibility outside of border discourses.

A few final words from the GLASA Executive.

Celebrate our wonderful speakers with a BYO-food-and-beverage after party on Zoom.