Schedule and Abstracts

It is widely accepted that when teachers provide written feedback on second language (L2) student writing, it can improve both the quality of their revised texts and their writing abilities more broadly. However, much of the existing L2 writing research focuses on written corrective feedback in student academic writing, which only targets sentence-level issues (e.g., grammatical accuracy), while neglecting discourse-level issues (e.g., content and ideas, rhetorical structure, coherence). What, then, constitutes effective teacher written feedback on discourse-level issues and what conditions mediate its delivery and potential benefits for L2 student writers? Using sociocultural theory as a lens to understand the relationship between teacher response and student writing development, this capstone reviews the research on teacher written feedback on L2 writing, with a focus on studies on discourse-level commentary. I conclude with key principles for teachers to consider when giving written feedback, along with potential systemic, institutional changes that can be made to improve the teacher-student feedback environment.

There is little research on adult Mam speakers in the ESL classroom, even though there are increasing numbers of Mam speakers in need of second language education. Frequently these learners are mis-labeled as Spanish speakers when they may not actually speak Spanish proficiently. Furthermore, few teachers speak Mam. Teachers and program staff in the field have firsthand knowledge of this growing phenomenon that hasn’t been documented. This research explores the perceptions and experiences of teachers and program staff who work with Mam speakers in the second language classroom. Insights from interviews fill in a pedagogical gap to help better inform teachers.

Students are growing up in a world where being a Fan(atic) is a good thing, something to be proud of, a world where Fans are the subject of the sentence and not the object. Fandoms can be a bridge into the Academy for students. English Teachers can use Fandoms to empower students, to help them draw connections to themselves, critical literacy, and academia. In this article, I explain how the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) can be used to teach learning and literacy. I explore how the MCU is not a widely accepted text in classrooms and how other genres have made the leap into canonization. We analyze the importance of being not only a Fan but a Critical Fan and how it can teach students to be critical thinkers as well as engage in critical social issues. We examine how Fandom’s “secondary texts” are pivotal to the use of Fandoms in the classroom and how they parallel academic critical analysis. Lastly, we cover one teaching method/model that bridges the MCU Fandom and The Iliad, where I present a model for incorporating Fandoms into the writing classroom through showcasing how Spider-Man: No Way Home and The Iliad can be used as texts to teach literary analysis and enhance research skills.

Role play activities in ESL classes often have little structure beyond a basic prompt guiding student interaction and language production while providing little to motivate students besides the desire to reach the end of the interaction or resolve its guiding conflict. Tabletop role playing games (TTRPGs) are built around rule sets and frameworks that drive narratives and give participants opportunities for context-rich role playing through language production. The presenter will discuss the features, concepts, and learning benefits of tabletop role playing games and introduce ways to incorporate elements of TTRPGs into role playing activities in ESL classes.

There is considerable scholarship on the explicit teaching of reading strategies for college students. However, what is often missing from the conversation is how to nurture an enjoyment for reading in an age where many students avoid reading for school or only do it for the sake of a grade. This paper will explore how an aesthetic reading stance, which foregrounds the reader’s lived experiences and reactions during the act of reading, can drive students to become deeply engaged readers in and out of the classroom. I will then discuss how teachers can leverage various types of reading pleasures to promote more active and critical reading among their students.

This research paper presents an insight to the question of pedagogical use of L1 use in English language classrooms. There are difficulties in teaching diverse classrooms of language learners, but what can be done when a majority of the class, and teacher, speak a common language? Discussion of translanguaging and adding to the linguistic repertoire of students will be included. The data I will use is based on readings, observations and journal entries from personal internships from a Beginning level course at a non-profit organization in the Bay Area in California. Teacher use of L1 in classrooms is purposefully done to aid instructions, understanding, as well as build community among learners. The strategic use of L1 by teachers supports translanguaging theory. I end the paper by suggesting pedagogical implications in English language teaching.

The focus of my research will center on teacher decision-making and strategies for supporting L1 integration and activation of linguistic repertoires in the classroom. Through this perspective, I hope to answer: what do teachers need to know to fully embrace L1 use in the classroom? My discussion will consider sociolinguistic varieties, as well as language learning theory, and beliefs, perceptions, and the teacher’s own language knowledge; my product will include materials selection and task design.

Using an autoethnographic approach, I reflect on how the COVID 19 pandemic forced a shift from classroom instruction to one-on-one instruction in a carceral setting that revealed several opportunities for a more holistic pedagogy. One-on-one instruction gave me a chance to get to know my students much better, learn about their backgrounds and future goals to build trusting relationships, and support them as they envision themselves and their futures beyond the carceral space. This setting also afforded me the time to interrogate and define my identity as a teacher in a place where the Discourses of Andragogy, Care, and Punishment are intersecting and producing conflicting identities that must constantly be negotiated. I hope this presentation will illuminate the resourcefulness of the students in these settings, and the growth, learning, and teaching that happens despite the restrictions.

The goal of this paper is to investigate how the various emotional factors that adults with dyslexia have influence each other, how those interactions affect their education and related experiences, ability to learn a foreign language, and what solutions can make adult students with dyslexia a success in acquiring a second language in higher education. The roadblocks that students with dyslexia face are not easy and are not limited to just their struggles with reading and writing. Some emotional characteristics that people with dyslexia face in their lives and in school are motivation, attitude, low self-esteem, anxiety, and poor self-perception. Other disorders that frequently exist co-morbidly with dyslexia are ADD/ADHD, Bipolar disorder, depression, PTSD, and other mood disorders. These conditions influence each other and push the student with dyslexia from one emotion to the next, running in an ongoing cycle where the beginning is also the end. This cycle must be broken for the student with dyslexia to achieve in learning a foreign language and school in general. For this to happen teachers must be educated about learning disabilities (LDs), dyslexia, emotional problems of students with dyslexia and LDs, and alternative ways to teach in the classroom that will make their students thrive. Having ESL/EFL educators who are empowered with knowledge about dyslexia and other LDs would make it possible for these students to be in a school setting where the curriculum would be modified and conducive specifically to their academic success. By having teacher trainings prior to the start of a “school term”, teachers could make a huge difference in how well their dyslexic students perform in their classes. If the emotional component of dyslexia in addition to an understanding of basic issues like reading and writing are taught to teachers, students with dyslexia will be given the opportunity to be at the same level as students without dyslexia.

The language classroom has immense opportunity for creativity, and interactive and communicative approaches are essential to language acquisition. A student or teacher putting themselves in front of the classroom, performing on this stage, is the dramatic element of language acquisition. Although an integral part of every classroom, and especially a language classroom, this drama approach is often left playing second fiddle to traditional instruction. Working within the context of a college level, noncredit, ESL communications class, this paper will detail a drama-focused curriculum with the goal of creating a more engaging, collaborative, and effective course.

Inquiry Based Learning (IBL) is an instructional approach that requires students’ active involvement in constructing knowledge and in learning. Students construct new understandings, meanings, and knowledge through meaning making, critical thinking, and questioning. A number of strategies are available to the teacher in implementing IBL in First Year Composition (FYC). The teacher can create essential questions to engage students in the inquiry process. The teacher can also develop students to create their essential and quality questions. Finally, the teacher must establish a culture of inquiry in the classroom.

This paper provides a qualitative analysis of the metaphorical structure of depression found in pictorial advertisements of pharmaceutical antidepressants. Conceptual Metaphor Theory (CMT) suggests that metaphors are pervasive in our lives and appear not just in language but in thought and action. If it is the case that speakers think in metaphors, then it can be expected to see them appear in other modes of communication beyond speaking. In CMT, metaphors are used to understand an unfamiliar concept by way of a familiar one. In this paper, I use Conceptual Metaphor Theory as a framework to analyze eight pharmaceutical advertisements from the drug brands Lexapro, Prozac, Abilify, Pristiq, and Zoloft. Findings show three dominant conceptual metaphors, HAPPY IS UP; SAD IS DOWN, HAPPINESS IS LIGHT; SADNESS IS DARK, and EMOTIONS ARE WEATHER CONDITIONS. My findings support Conceptual Metaphor Theory by showcasing pictorial metaphors which underpins the idea that we think in metaphors. Additionally, my findings show the role that metaphors can play in the genre of advertising.

The pandemic has affected teachers and students in ways that have exposed some of the larger inequities in our educational systems. Students already grappling with personal trauma, have had to cope with social, physical, emotional, and economic problems in addition to starting or continuing their education. Teachers have had to adjust and accommodate to the reality of life during COVID-19 and continue providing instruction and support to their students. This capstone paper attempts to synthesize current literature on trauma informed teaching and writing pedagogy for first year Composition students through an equity lens while arguing for more awareness and articulation of teacher preparedness and capacity for facilitating student learning.

Online learning, as we have reiterated during the pandemic, has its advantages and disadvantages. Students have more flexibility to join classes, but sometimes they might lack the motivation to follow through. Young adults who plan to move to the United States for university usually take an online preparatory TOEFL test, but they are not prepared for the demands and expectations they will face once they make the move. This project is a curriculum for online, asynchronous EFL learning. The curriculum is organized as a  course focused on low-intermediate European EFL  young adult students who want to move to a primarily English-speaking country, temporarily or permanently for university studies. The course focuses on TOEFL preparation as well as general English for students moving to the United States for college, to aid students to understand how the academic American life is and how to navigate the first few months in the U.S. This course will have a variety of authentic materials, which is something that most existing materials and courses seem to be missing. Also, unlike many test preparation courses, to ensure learners’ success, the curriculum focuses on the learner as an individual, developing their autonomy and motivation for completing the course. It will be a "self-paced and self-service course", which means that students will have a certain freedom to choose where to start and where to go next, within modules, which will be organized as thematic units. 

Students question whether college is worth it. Readings and essays remain constant when they take higher education courses. Students realize that future employers will likely not require five-paragraph essays or academic style written pieces. As such, these are valid concerns instructors must deal with. To make college worth it, teachers must incorporate real world applications in their teaching practices. Curriculum must reflect real-life issues and current events affecting students’ lives. One way to accomplish these objectives is for teachers to incorporate problem-based learning (PrBL) in their respective classrooms.

Student voice and expression in the composition classroom have too long been overshadowed and undermined by the upholding of standard English practices. The latter tends to uphold antiquated and damaging tendencies that can leave students feeling inadequate and unsure of their abilities. Amplifying student voice galvanizes engagement, curiosity, and critical analysis skills that will help dismantle prior standards that uphold hierarchical notions of a one size fits all model of composition pedagogy. In this paper I will argue for the necessity of fostering and empowering student voice so students can see the value of their own perspective side-by-side with the curriculum, as well as introduce methods for achieving this with the implementation of multimodal assignments, neutral positivity in the feedback process, and teacher subversion when leading classroom discussion.

In your language classes, are there students who stay quiet or try to speak as little as possible? When you are studying a new language in a classroom setting, have you experienced being unwilling to speak during a lesson? Speaking a target language to your teacher or classmates in a classroom can sometimes be intimidating. Many teachers may assume some students are too shy to communicate using their L2. However, students’ willingness to communicate (WTC) can be affected by various factors. These factors can be divided into 2 categories: enduring influences and situational influences. Enduring influences are considered individual characteristics that are not affected by a situation such as their personalities, self-perceived communicative competence, and language anxiety. Situational influences can vary depending on the particular situation and social context. For example, based on how well you know the person you are speaking to, your willingness to communicate in a target language can increase or decrease. In order to promote students’ willingness to communicate, this capstone project provides specially designed teaching modules using teaching strategies that are effective for raising students’ WTC. The modules include several strategies such as communication strategies, role-play, and game-based learning. Each module has activities that can be effective for encouraging students to communicate more willingly in class. I hope this project contributes to a deeper understanding of WTC as well as the L2 development of ESL students who are struggling to speak their target language in a classroom.

For pre-service teachers, figuring out what to teach in an FYC class is confusing at best, and given how much theory is out there, a one size fits all answer for deciding what to teach in FYC should not be the goal. In this capstone work, I explore the importance of adapting a community building focus for pre-service instructors as they navigate the struggles of building their curriculum without the experience to back the theory. In building this case, I challenge existing discourse on what community means in FYC, and offer up the idea that a writing community can be dedicated and decided not solely by those who have gained influence in the field, but also by the very members of any given classroom.

This capstone showcases a health literacy curriculum and assessment tools Io designed for students in an adult English literacy class in the Bay Area. Inspired by Gail Weinstein’s (2004) Learners’ Lives as Curriculum framework and Patsy Egan’s (2010) principles of balanced literacy instruction, I have developed a curriculum that incorporates what my students see as important in cultivating their health literacy skills. My curriculum is based on scholarship (cf. Auerbach, 1992; Pleasant, 2016; Weinstein, 2004) that encourages teachers to look beyond the confines of the classroom and take students’ strengths and knowledge to drive the direction of the course. I have developed a process-oriented and participatory curriculum incorporating what students feel is relevant to their own health. The curriculum includes units about talking about personal information, body parts and ailments, emotions, food, as well as daily activities and living. I have predominantly approached constructing each unit by utilizing learner-generated texts. This curriculum will also explore how to teach a multi-level classroom in both a virtual and in-person setting where students are from different cultures and nationalities. This curriculum will serve as an example for future instructors of literacy and pre-literacy English language learners and provide further insight and guidance for future instructors working with these populations on how to create a participatory and agentive curriculum and assessment process.

Your writing should have your unique voice, but don’t use I, don’t use slang, or other informal language (which means language outside my view of what academia is, even though it may represent you and your culture). Be sure to conform to genre and style choices that are important to me and mostly implied while using your true and very unique voice. Voice can move from a vague and intimidating prescription to a framework that helps students embrace their agency as writers. In the following writing we explore maintaining a regular class routine that examines choices writers make, consciously and not, by naming them, analyzing what they do, and how audiences respond to them. The goal is to make writing lessons concrete and their objectives clear. In the process teachers can also release control of student writing to students (where it belongs), and support the real hope: students will recognize themselves as writers and be intrinsically motivated to practice writing and develop their own voices.

In the 21st century digital age, an increasing number of composition instructors are including multimodal assignments in their curriculum to take advantage of growing technological resources that students can utilize to make meaning. Some educators may believe they can simply use their mono-modal text-based rubrics and criteria to assess multimodal writing. However, this does not allow for recognition of students’ experiential and semiotic resources. In this paper, I will argue that teachers should take on a semiotic approach to assess digital multimodal compositions by focusing on formative assessment of the student writing process rather than emphasizing the teacher’s summative assessment.