Schedule and Abstracts

There has been an increased demand for ESL/EFL learners to develop critical thinking, the core of twenty-first century skills in this globalized information society. Under this growing pedagogical trend, many TESOL educators and researchers have argued that Japanese English learners are regarded as uncritical thinkers and pointed out the difficulty of teaching them critical thinking skills. In this presentation, I will explore the difference between Japanese and Western definitions of critical thinking and why, from a sociocultural perspective, Japanese students are perceived as uncritical English learners. I focus on currently used and suggested pedagogical approaches to develop critical thinking in Japanese English education. In addition, I discuss Japanese assessment methods invented for critical thinking in English curriculum development. 

This Capstone explores the benefits of incorporating poetry lessons into the noncredit English as a Second Language (ESL) class at City College of San Francisco (CCSF). Poetry enables teachers to integrate authentic materials to complement the course textbook. Poetry deepens students’ knowledge of English, and motivates them to write and speak. Much existing research examines poetry in an English as a Foreign Language university-level context; however, there are many unique characteristics of the CCSF ESL class that must be considered. During one semester, I piloted poetry lessons at CCSF. I discuss lesson design, including creating lessons with a conceptual framework of building linguistic and cultural knowledge, as well as increasing engagement, motivation, and creative expression. Lesson plans and handouts are included in the appendices for reference.

This capstone project outlines the design and pedagogical reasoning behind an Advanced Reading and Writing course specifically for Spanish Heritage Speakers. Spanish heritage speakers are an underserved student population whose bilingual capabilities are often overlooked or ignored in English writing curricula. Most English writing courses assume a monolingual approach that ignores the students’ specific L1 capacity for bilingualism and biliteracy. In this project, I describe a 12-week university-level English course designed for advanced-level students. The course is built on two core theories: process writing and genre-focused pedagogy. It addresses the distinct linguistic profiles, transfer patterns, and identity negotiations of these students. The curriculum combines scaffolded writing activities, explicit genre instruction, and culturally relevant texts by Latinx authors to enhance discourse-level writing, metalinguistic awareness, and academic voice.

In this talk, I will walk through the benefits and drawbacks of Labor-Based Contract Grading, an equitable grading alternative that emphasizes the time and effort students contribute to writing assignments by decoupling assessment from grades. I will draw on my experience using Labor-Based Contract Grading in First-Year Composition at SFSU to think about how this style of assessment can best support students and how instructors can anticipate students’ needs. In general, students enjoy contract grading and find that it reduces common barriers to writing courses. However, there are some caveats to think about. This talk will outline some of the key ideas instructors may want to think about before switching to a Labor-Based Grading Contract.

When GTM became shunned as a teaching method for modern languages due to its narrow focus on explicit grammar rules and memorization, its primary tool it made use of, translation, also saw itself being shunned. This presentation argues that the faults of the GTM approach were unfairly leveled towards the use of translation in the classroom. Additionally, students are now actively making use of translation tools as well, meaning they are using a language learning tool completely unguided. By making use of translation as a tool to teach something students struggle to learn: pragmatics, teachers can enhance students' pragmatic competence while indirectly teaching them how to properly view and make use of translation tools.

This presentation argues that literary narrative can serve as the generative center of first-year composition rather than as supplemental reading. Drawing on scholarship in rhetorical agency, reader-response theory, cultural rhetorics, and linguistic justice, the project proposes a voice-to-craft heuristic that helps students move from interpretation to rhetorical analysis to their own writing practice. Through close readings of Gloria Anzaldúa, Ocean Vuong, Michelle Zauner, and Amy Tan, I identify transferable narrative strategies such as code-meshing, focalization, fragmentation, sensory detail, and audience awareness. I then show how these strategies can be translated into a repeatable classroom unit that supports voice, ethical responsibility, and critical literacy. This project offers a practical model for reading-writing integration in composition pedagogy.

Translingualism is a pedagogical approach based on the idea that language diversity is an asset to the mainstream composition classroom, encouraging students to draw upon their full linguistic repertoires within their written assignments. Translingualism practices include code-meshing, metacognitive and reflective practices, language negotiation, and reimagining the standards that privilege Standardized English. In this presentation, I will offer practical pedagogical suggestions for instructors that invite and support language differences in mainstream composition through assignments, feedback, assessment, and classroom practices. 

In addition to being enjoyable for students and teachers alike, the use of music in the classroom has been shown to have positive impacts on students’ second language learning outcomes. In my presentation, I will make the case for music as a feature of second language teaching, exploring  theories behind why music is a particularly impactful pedagogical tool. Further, I will provide actionable advice for incorporating music into the ESL classroom, including a database for finding songs, suggestions for pre-, during-, and post-listening activities, and a sample lesson plan that I used in my own beginner-level ESL course.

This study examines the cultural and metaphorical conceptualizations of family structure in Chicano narratives using Conceptual Metaphor Theory (CMT) and socio-cultural analysis. This study positions CMT as a useful tool to culturally inform sociolinguistic research as it illustrates abstract concepts as cognitively structured through social and embodied experiences. The dominant metaphor found in this study frames family as a type of social organization, linguistically described as a physical structure. Other relevant conceptualizations found include life as a journey, family members as a team, and relationships as physical proximity. While the conceptual metaphors found in this study are not singularly definitive of Chicano culture, my analysis proposes that the metaphorical conceptualizations are entangled with the unique cultural values of familism, placing family relationships above the self.

It is no secret that students are using AI, many claiming to have graduated from “ChatGPT University.” AI technology is still fairly new, and numerous writing teachers are trying to figure out the best ways to teach writing in an age where “writing” can be done for you in less than a minute. In this presentation, I argue that although it may seem tempting for teachers to outright banish AI, equipping students with critical AI literacy will lead students to become more informed users. By honestly informing students about the undeniable harm and risks of AI and intentionally integrating AI into the writing classroom, students will access AI as a helpful tool rather than a mindless shortcut.

Public speaking is taking on new modalities in our digital age, but public speaking courses don’t account for how emergent mediums should reshape public speaking pedagogy. Additionally, scholarship on teaching Public Speaking for multilingual learners (MLLs) is sparse. This paper examines integrating digital modalities into Public Speaking instruction for MLLs by revising the curriculum of ENG 210, a Public Speaking course designed for MLLs at San Francisco State University. Research shows that incorporating digital literacy into Public Speaking classrooms is logistically and pedagogically challenging but also increases student engagement and confidence. Observations from 210 corroborate these findings, demonstrating that participation increased and digital modalities significantly reduced language-related anxiety. This research was done to create a usable textbook for MLL Public Speaking classes in the future. 

My presentation explores how participation in Project SHINE shapes the identity of preservice ESL teachers in the MA TESOL program at SF State. SHINE is a national university-based service-learning program that places graduate and undergraduate students from SFSU in non-credit ESL, citizenship, and literacy classes at CCSF. This study conceptualizes identity through a sociocultural lens as a relational, enacted, dynamic, negotiated, and context-dependent construct. The data collected was drawn from SHINE coaches’ reflection logs. The findings obtained through a thematic analysis reveal that identity is constructed through the recognition of personal and professional assets, critical self-reflection, and engagement with multilingual adult learners. Ultimately, the research highlights the value of the service-learning program SHINE in supporting both teacher development and the formation of professional identity. 

This presentation explores the ways in which instructors of adult English as a Second Language (ESL) classes can foster trauma-informed classrooms to address the educational needs of diverse learners. ESL teachers are not counselors, case workers, or therapists, and don’t have the relevant training to fill these roles; however, they often must provide support to students whose learning is more likely to be impacted by trauma than mainstream students. This presentation seeks to equip ESL teachers with the knowledge and skills needed to anticipate and respond to student trauma and the ways it shows up in the classroom, and reviews recommendations from the literature on identifying trauma responses among learners and appropriate pedagogical practices that can mitigate these impacts.

In first-year writing classrooms, the relationship between the student, the teacher, and “the machine” was once understood as a collaborative process. With the public release of generative AI, this relationship is now being reshaped, and at times, AI is taking over the role of student and teacher. The shift in classroom dynamics has led instructors to take positions, and for myself, it has revealed how AI, when used responsibly, can support students and help maintain a collaborative process. In this project, I examine how instructors integrate generative AI into their classrooms while supporting students' development as writers. Drawing on the existing literature, I offer practical models and assignments in which AI is used as a tool, embedded in writing assignments, and as an object of study.

Literacy Narratives in a First-Year Writing Class for Multilingual Students: Examining Agency, Self-Reflection, and Belonging

My research considers how a literacy narrative assignment can cultivate rhetorical agency, self-reflection, and social justice awareness in multilingual first-year student writers. Based on a literacy narrative that I assigned in a Composition for Multilingual Students (CMS) course, as well as interviews and surveys conducted with former students, this presentation offers pedagogical recommendations for implementing literacy narratives in CMS classes according to a critical language awareness framework. From speaking with students, I learned that writing literacy narratives can help them foster a sense of belonging in academic settings and to develop rhetorical strategies for navigating coursework in a second language. I will discuss these findings and my reflections on using a literacy narrative assignment in class, in order to offer suggestions for reading materials, classroom activities, and writing process scaffolding, each of which can have a major effect on students’ acquisition of these learning goals.

Viral Femininity: A Cognitive Semantic Analysis of Emergent Girl Talk Online

In recent years, hyperfeminine aesthetics have come to dominate social and cultural trends aimed at young women, extending beyond fashion into wellness, behavior, relationship expectations, and language. Across social media there is a renewed embrace of binary gender ideology that repackages traditional belief systems and often frames them as empowerment or self-improvement. Using theoretical approaches from cognitive semantics, I will analyze emergent phrases from social media trends, such as girl math and high-value woman, to explain the cognitive processes involved in understanding new language, and to show how antifeminist or conservative ideologies can be naturalized by the lexicon of popular culture.

Creativity in Action: Encouraging Fluency and Authenticity in ESL Composition

College ESL composition classes often follow a similar structure to First Year Composition classes, including instruction in writing 5-paragraph essays and research papers. While these skills are important, this paper argues that creativity and authenticity should be emphasized over strict essay forms, in order to increase fluency and build confidence. To that end, this paper defines creativity from scientific and cultural perspectives, reviews articles in which creative assignments have been used, and describes the application of similar assignments to ESL composition classes at San Joaquin Delta College in Stockton, California. Inspired by contemporary research and the work of educators such as Paulo Freire and bell hooks, the course incorporates creative exercises, freewriting and haiku writing, as well as multiple low-stakes assignments.

Ryan Rogers-Bean

Fostering Belonging: Institutional Support for Multilingual Students at Two CSU Writing Centers

I use Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) to examine how writing center websites at San Francisco State and San Jose State University construct belonging for multilingual students. While institutional messaging often fluctuates between surface-level welcome and pressures toward standardized English, this study identifies a shift toward authentic belonging through practices like translanguaging. Drawing on theories of identity and investment, my research expands the "international" label to include generation 1.5 residents often marginalized by deficit frameworks. Findings highlight how multilingual tutoring allows students to leverage first languages as academic resources. The project concludes by proposing an "Authentic Belonging" framework, offering practical recommendations for writing centers to reframe tutoring interactions and validate diverse linguistic identities.