August 30
Starting off on the Right Foot: Advising Session for New MA Students
Presenter: Christina Higgins, Professor & Graduate Chair, Second Language Studies, UH-Mānoa
1. Navigating your MA progress
We will examine the MA advising form together and talk about optional tracks, core courses, seminar courses, and electives. Students will better understand what it takes to complete their degrees in a timely manner.
2. The relationship between language teaching and research
New students sometimes struggle to see connections between their interest in classroom teaching and research projects that they design and analyze in their courses; we will explore this and look at examples of research that are connected to teaching, as well as research on other topics in SLS that are not directly linked to classrooms.
3. Resources for academic and personal support
We will discuss the resources on campus that offer academic support (such as The Writing Center) as well as offices that offer counseling and other forms of support to students.
September 6
Effects of Oral Rehearsal on Second Language Speaking Improvement
Presenter: Mutsuko Nagasaki, Associate Professor, English Education Center, Ehime University
This presentation summarizes three studies that investigated the effects of oral rehearsals in first-year Japanese university classes (155 participants in total). The impetus for the research was to increase the English output opportunities in an EFL setting by combining a speech in class and oral rehearsals at home.
Professor Nagasaki’s research interests include L2 output and interaction and assessment in the L2 classroom.
September 13
Reproducible Quantitative and Qualitative Data Analysis in R and RStudio
Presenter: Geoffrey LaFlair, Assistant Professor, Second Language Studies, UH-Mānoa
Do you have or are you planning on collecting data this semester? If so, you probably intend to analyze that data at some point. You may be wondering how you can analyze your data using reproducible methods—processes that make it easier to re-analyze your data using the same procedures. If so, one answer is to use R and RStudio. This brown bag session will demonstrate how to use R and RStudio both quantitative (e.g., descriptive statistics) and qualitative (e.g., hand-coding interactions) data analyses.
September 20
Latent Classes of Smartphone Dictionary Users among Chinese EFL Learners: A Mixed-method Inquiry into Motivation for Mobile Assisted Language Learning
Presenter: Xiqin Liu, Associate Professor, School of Foreign Languages, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, China
Co-Authors: Dongping Zheng, Associate Professor, Second Language Studies, UH-Mānoa; Yushuai Chen, Department of Applied Psychology, Guangdong University of Foreign Studies, Guangzhou, China
This mixed-method study explored types of motivation for smartphone dictionary use among Chinese university EFL learners. Twenty-two semi-structured interviews were conducted, followed by a confirmatory survey (N=577). Using a latent class analytical tool, Mplus, we identified from the survey a model with three user classes: Customisation, Learning and Utility. They respectively imply individuating use of dictionary features, authentic English language learning, and utilitarian purposes. Multinomial logistic regressions showed these tendencies: male users or non-key university students were more likely to fall into the Customisation class; high-proficiency learners or key university students, Learning; and female users or low-proficiency learners, Utility. The research offers insights into e-dictionary customisation and education in e-dictionary use.
September 27
Fostering Critical Thinking Discussion for Student’s Choice and Voice in Class
Presenter: Linda Wong and Moeko Norota, MA Students, Second Language Studies, UH-Mānoa
The presentation discusses creating, developing, analyzing, teaching, and evaluating an EFL class based on critical language pedagogy. The course was designed for a short-term, five-day English language program tailored for Japanese high school students visiting Hawaiʻi. Following an action research methodology, the project consisted of materials production, implementation of these materials within a classroom setting, and collection of student feedback concerning their perspectives on student enjoyment and their perceived value of the course curriculum and implementation of that curriculum. The overarching aim of this study is to analyze the participants’ opinions and responses towards critical language pedagogy.
October 4
Thailand Practicum Debrief
Presenters: Hayley Cannizzo, Precious Arao, Lin Wang, Linda Wong, Moeko Norota, & Leeseul Park, SLS Graduate Students, UH-Mānoa
Sawasdee kha! Are you interested in teaching English for academic purposes for university students? What about teaching English where you don’t share an L1? Have you tried to conduct action research, but you don’t know where, when, and how? Here is the perfect opportunity for you to explore action research in your own classroom and teaching in Thailand. Hayley Cannizzo, Precious Arao, Lin Wang, Linda Wong, Moeko Norota, and Leeseul Park will share their experience in 2018 ESL Teaching Practicum in Thailand, including their classes and living environment. Please do not miss the real happenings in Thailand, including lovely students and running brown water!
Kob kun kha!
October 11
SLRF Practice Talks (Part I), Two Talks
Word Association Task Revisited: Exploring Multidimensional Links with Vocabulary Size, Depth, Speed, and Use
Presenter: Masaki Eguchi, PhD Student, Second Language Studies, UH-Mānoa
Over the past decades of L2 vocabulary research, various attempts have been made to utilize word association task (WAT) as a measure of L2 lexicon due to its potential to capture various interlexical links (e.g., synonyms, collocations; Fitzpatrick, 2012). Meanwhile, studies agree that the lexical links elicited through WAT are difficult to relate to L2 general proficiency (e.g., Higginbotham, 2010). However, considering the multidimensional nature of lexicon (Daller et al., 2007), the potential should be revisited by finer-grained measures of lexical proficiency. In particular, few studies have tested theoretical compatibility between WA and free lexical production (see Dózci & Kormos, 2015). Taken together, this study examines the extent to which WA behaviors tap into a) size, depth, and speed of vocabulary knowledge and b) aspects of spoken lexical sophistication (Kyle & Crossley, 2015).
The effects of task-based interaction on second language acquisition: A replication meta-analysis
Presenter: Kristen Urada, MA Student, Second Language Studies, UH-Mānoa
This study is a replication of Keck, Iberri-Shea, Tracy-Ventura, and Wa-Mbaleka’s (2006) meta-analysis on the effectiveness of task-based interaction on second language acquisition. This meta-analysis is based on an updated collection of primary studies published from 2004 to 2017 in which the substantive and methodological features from these studies are examined following the procedure from the Keck et al.’s (2006) meta-analysis. Initial results support the original findings of Keck et al. (2006), demonstrate the efficacy of task-based interaction, and show the important role of moderating variables for second language development.
October 18
SLRF Practice Talks (Part II), Two Talks
Lexical Sophistication of L2 Spanish in a Longitudinal Learner Corpus
Presenter: Mery Diez, PhD Student, Second Language Studies, UH-Mānoa
Lexical sophistication, or the production of low-frequency words or advanced words, is one of the main areas investigated in learner corpus research (LCR). This study analyzes learners’ lexical sophistication during a study abroad program using a Spanish longitudinal learner corpus, LANGSNAP (Mitchell, Tracy-Ventura, & McManus, 2017). Indices of lexical sophistication were measured by task type (oral narrative, interview, and argumentative essay) and mode at each collection point: pre-departure, three collection points abroad, and two post-tests. This project adds to the emerging field of Spanish LCR and shows how the lexical sophistication of learners develop over time in a study abroad setting.
Motivation to Learn Languages Other Than English: A Critical Research Synthesis
Presenter: Anna Mendoza, PhD Student, Second Language Studies, UH-Mānoa
This research synthesizes studies on motivation to learn languages other than English (LOTEs) published from 2005-2018 and using Dörnyei’s L2 Motivational Self-System as a framework. The authors applied a method called critical research synthesis—a qualitative alternative to quantitative meta-analysis in SLA. Taking a critical, postcolonial approach to applied linguistics, they examine the most commonly investigated target languages, educational contexts, and research questions in three world regions: the EU, North America, and East Asia, concluding not only with a call for more studies on LOTEs, especially from other regions, but a broadening of the research agenda in each world region.
October 25
BULD Conference Practice Talks, Two Talks
Testing for adjunct island effects using topic structures in L1 Chinese and L1/L2 English
Presenter: Fred Zenker, PhD Student, Second Language Studies, UH-Mānoa
Co-Author: Bonnie Schwartz, Professor, Second Language Studies, UH-Mānoa
This study provides evidence that L1-Chinese L2ers can become sensitive to adjunct island effects (Huang, 1982) for English topic structures with object gaps despite showing no such sensitivity in Chinese. Advanced L1-Chinese L2ers completed closely-translated English and Chinese acceptability judgment tasks; L1-English speakers also completed the English task. While both groups evinced island effects in English, L1-Chinese speakers exhibited no parallel effect in Chinese. These results suggest that Chinese topic structures with object gaps in adjuncts are base-generated but that L1-Chinese L2ers can nevertheless come to have obligatory movement in English topicalization.
Processing of Remention Biases in Korean Learners of English
Presenter: Hyunwoo Kim, PhD Student, Second Language Studies, UH-Mānoa
Co-Author: Theres Grüter, Associate Professor, Second Language Studies, UH-Mānoa
This study investigates how L2 learners use remention (or implicit causality) bias (Garvey & Caramazza, 1974; Hartshorne, 2014) for referential processing in real time. Some interpersonal verbs create biases to remention either its subject or object in causal dependent clauses (“Tom surprised Bill because he___” vs “Tom hated Bill because he___”). Here we present evidence from a visual-world eye-tracking experiment investigating how L2 learners with varying English proficiency use remention bias in reference processing while listening to English sentences in real time. Analyses of participants’ eye-movement showed that L2 learners were able to use remention bias information for referential processing during online comprehension, but the effect of this information was delayed compared to L1 processing. This delay may be associated with learners’ reduced ability to access and retrieve lexical representations in their use of remention bias information during real-time sentence processing. When L2 learners were split into higher- and lower-proficiency groups based on their proficiency scores, the higher-proficiency group showed some trend toward fixating on the bias-consistent referent more often than the bias-inconsistent referent during a certain time interval, whereas such a trend was not found among the lower-proficiency group, suggesting a weak role of proficiency in the L2 processing of remention biases.
November 1
A linguistic analysis of the communication demands in typical technology-mediated learning environments
Presenters: Kristopher Kyle, Assistant Professor, Geoffrey LaFlair, Assistant Professor & Nicole Ziegler, Associate Professor, Second Language Studies, UH-Mānoa
An important aspect of a validity argument for a language assessment tool is a demonstrated alignment between the linguistic demands of the target language use domain and the assessment tasks (Chapelle, Enright, & Jamieson, 2011). Corpus linguistic analyses are well suited to generate such evidence (Biber et al., 2004), provided appropriate corpora exist. A number of corpora exist that represent various types of language that university students encounter and/or produce in traditional academic settings (e.g., Alsop & Nesi, 2009; Biber et al., 2004; Römer & O’Donnell, 2011). Increasingly, however, a typical university experience may be supported with technology mediated learning environments (TMLEs) (Jacoby, 2014; Means, Toyama, Murphy, & Baki, 2013), which are not represented in extant academic corpora. The proposed project seeks to address this gap in three stages. First, a survey will be conducted to determine the types of texts that are typically encountered and produced in TMLE. Second, a corpus of the typical texts that are encountered and produced in TMLEs will be collected. Finally, linguistic analyses will be conducted to explore the linguistic features of TMLE, both across registers within the corpus and in relation to extant academic corpora comprised of more traditional registers. The main outcomes of the project include the addition of a large, balanced corpus of TMLE texts to existing resources and an in-depth report of the linguistic demands of typical TMLEs, including how these demands compare with more traditional university learning environments.
November 8
Multicultural Multilingual Strategic Initiative
Presenters: Graham Crookes, Professor & Department Chair, and Kapua Adams, MA Student, Second Language Studies, UH-Mānoa
November 15 (Cancelled, will be rescheduled to a later date)
Discourse itineraries of sea turtle tourism and conservation at Laniākea Beach, Hawai‘i
Presenter: Gavin Lamb, PhD Candidate, Second Language Studies, UH-Mānoa
In this talk, I present dissertation research on the sociolinguistic practices of sea turtle conservation and tourism in Hawai‘i. At Laniākea Beach, on the North Shore of O‘ahu, thousands of international tourists come to this beach everyday to encounter honu, or Hawaiian green sea turtles, in the wild. The species is currently listed as ‘threatened’ in Hawai‘i under the Endangered Species Act. Since 2003, a sea turtle volunteer organization has been active at this beach in an effort to protect sea turtles from being disturbed or harmed by visitors. But a core motivation of this volunteer organization is also to educate tourists from a range of linguistic backgrounds about green sea turtles. Drawing on multimodal discourse data from a two year ethnographic ‘nexus analysis’ (Scollon and Scollon 2004) at this beach, I trace the circulation of sea turtle tourism and conservation discourse across different moments of communicative production and reception: in mediatized representations, face-to-face interaction, the semiotic landscape and online. The study investigates the strategic efforts of tourists and volunteers to cultivate and extend sociomaterial networks (Latour 2005; Scollon 2008) of sea turtle discourse for different – and often conflicting – communicative purposes. The findings shed light on how, as divergent sea turtle discourses are made to travel across multimodal channels of discursive movement – now linguistic, now material, now interactional, now virtual – sociolinguistic practices are transformed, and new ‘ecocultural’ practices emerge along the way. I conclude by suggesting possibilities for future research and interdisciplinary engagement between practice-based applied linguistics and emerging research in the social sciences investigating the local dynamics and sociocultural specificity of human interactions with animals and the natural environment (Bucholtz 2015; Lorimer 2015; Pennycook 2017).
November 29
CELTA Forces Unite
Presenters: Dre Childs, Special Projects Manager and Community Outreach, & Betty Compton, CELTA Instructor, Intercultural Communications College Hawaiʻi; and Joel Weaver, Director, University of Hawaiʻi English Language Program, Kendi Ho, CELTA Course Trainer & PhD Student, Department of Second Language Studies
The University of Hawaiʻi English Language Program (HELP) and Intercultural Communications College (ICC) Hawaiʻi both offer the Certificate in English Language Teaching to Adults (CELTA).
CELTA is the most widely recognized basic certification in English language teaching. It is great for recent graduates, career changers, and teachers who seek to earn a formal, internationally recognized qualification. Trainees in CELTA gain foundational knowledge, hands-on teaching experience, and classroom confidence as teachers of English as an additional language (ESL and EFL).
At this Brown Bag, both HELP and ICC will share course details and information on how to apply. Learn about opportunities to gain SLS credit for the CELTA as well as the discount for SLS students when taking CELTA at HELP.