TESOL Language and Linguistics Speakers Series
Language and Linguistics Speakers Series is a university-wide forum organized and sponsored by the TESOL Program. The series features lectures by internationally renowned scholars and young rising stars who do ground-breaking work on a variety of aspects of language learning, teaching, attrition, and use of two or more languages. Past speakers include Rod Ellis (University of Auckland, New Zealand), Michael McCarthy (University of Nottingham, UK), Bonny Norton (University of British Columbia, Canada), Elana Shohamy (Tel Aviv University, Israel), Monika Schmid (Rijksuniversiteit, the Netherlands), Ronald Schmidt Sr. (California State University, Long Beach), and Richard Young (University of Wisconsin, Madison). The series is funded by Temple's CIBER and by the generous financial contribution of Dr. Koji Shimada.
Spring 2010 Series Calendar
Wednesday, February 17, 3:30 Alter Hall 744
Dr. Emmanuel Bylund, Stockholm University, Sweden
Title: Event construal and grammatical aspect: Insights from bilingualism.
Abstract: Research on crosslinguistic differences in event construal has shown that speakers of languages with grammatical aspect (e.g., English, Russian, Spanish) are inclined to present goal-oriented motion events from an internal viewpoint, leaving out the endpoints, whereas speakers of non-aspect languages (e.g., German, Swedish) are more prone to take holistic event perspectives, mentioning the endpoints (Bylund, 2008; Schmiedtová, Carroll & von Stutterheim, 2007; von Stutterheim & Nüse, 2003). These research findings have lead to the hypothesis that speakers of aspect languages are more sensitized to internal event perspectives than are speakers of non-aspect languages. So far, this line of research has basically concerned monolingual speakers, and the work published on event construal in bilinguals has dealt with the transfer of L1-specific patterns to the L2. Little attention has, however, been given to the methodological advantages afforded by bilingual participant groups. In this talk, I will illustrate how the relationship between grammatical aspect and event construal may be further elucidated by studying bilingual speakers. Specifically, I will report data from a study on Spanish-Swedish bilinguals concerned with examining the relationship between the ability to discriminate aspectual contrasts and the predilection for mentioning endpoints.
Bio: Manne Bylund’s research concern maturational constraints in language acquisition and attrition, and the relationship between language and conceptualization. He is currently working on interacting L1-L2 proficiency levels in prepubescent bilinguals and non-verbal event cognition. He received a doctorate in Bilingualism Research in 2008 (Stockholm University) and a doctorate in Spanish Linguistics in 2009 (Stockholm University), and is currently a postdoctoral researcher in Romance languages at Stockholm University. He will be spending the spring of 2010 at the University of Maryland as a visiting lecturer at the SLA Program. His work has appeared in Applied Linguistics, Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, International Journal of Bilingualism, and Language Learning.
E-mail: manne.bylund@biling.su.se
February 25, 3:30 Alter Hall 744
Dr. Bonny Norton, University of British Columbia, Canada
Title: Imagined identities, digital language learning, and social inclusion
Abstract: The way in which digital practices impact the identities of language learners is of increasing interest to applied linguists and language educators. Drawing on current research with diverse technologies in the African context, I will present findings that enhance our understanding of language learners' imagined identities in an increasingly digitized world.
Bio: Dr. Bonny Norton is Professor and Distinguished University Scholar in the Department of Language and Literacy Education, University of British Columbia, Canada. Her award-winning research addresses identity and language learning, education and international development, and critical literacy. Recent publications include Identity and Language Learning (Longman/Pearson, 2000), Critical Pedagogies and Language Learning (Cambridge University Press, 2004, w. K. Toohey); Gender and English Language Learners (TESOL, 2004, w. A. Pavlenko); and Language and HIV/AIDS (Multilingual Matters, 2010, w. C. Higgins). Her website can be found at http://lerc.educ.ubc.ca/fac/norton/.
E-mail: bonny.norton@ubc.ca
Thursday, March 4, 3:30 Tuttleman 301 AB
Drs. Jasone Cenoz and Durk Gorter, University of the Basque Country, Spain
Title: Multilingualism and minority languages in education in Europe
Abstract: This presentation focuses on the use of different languages in education in a number of European regions where a minority language is spoken with particular attention to multilingualism in Basque education.
The first part of the lecture will focus on provisions for multilingualism and multilingual education in order to highlight the similarities and differences between different regions by looking at the ways in which different languages in education are combined. Education can contribute to the development of proficiency in minority languages by teaching these languages and through these languages, but the schools also reflect the demography and status of minority languages in society. Multilingual education faces important challenges for the maintenance and development of minority languages and the achievement of competence in several languages.
The second part of the lecture focuses on multilingual education in the Basque Country where two or even three languages are used as medium of instruction in education: Basque, Spanish and English. The different types of multilingual education will be discussed as related to the ‘Continua of Multilingual Education’ which highlight the relationship between schools and their sociolinguistic context. The last part of the lecture will focus on the different challenges the Basque educational model faces nowadays. These challenges include the use of the Basque language, teacher education and increasing language diversity resulting from immigration.
Bios:
Jasone Cenoz iz Professor of Research Methods in Education at the University of the Basque Country in San Sebastian/Donostia (Spain). She works on multilingualism and language acquisition in educational contexts. She is editor of the International Journal of Multilingualism. Her recent publications include a monograph Towards Multilingual Education (Multilingual Matters, 2009) and an edited book The Multiple Realities of Multilingualism (with Elka Todeva, Mouton de Gruyter, 2009).
Durk Gorter is Ikerbasque Research Professor at the Faculty of Education of the University of the Basque Country in San Sebastian/Donostia (Spain), where he carries out work on multilingualism and minority languages in Europe. His two most recent edited books are Linguistic Landscape: Expanding the Scenery (with Elana Shohamy, Routledge, 2009) and Multilingual Europe: Facts and Policies (with Guus Extra, Mouton de Gruyter, 2008).
e-mail: Jasone Cenoz <jasone.cenoz@ehu.es>
Wednesday, March 24, 3:30 Kiva Auditorium
Dr. Adam Jaworski, Cardiff University, Wales, UK
Title: Language as Spectacle: The Linguistic Landscape of Tourism
Abstract: Multilingual signage is an indispensable part of the tourist landscape consumed as part of the visitors’ quest for cultural distinction and local authenticity, and motivated by tourist destinations’ attempts to position themselves as globalized, responding to and accommodating their visitors’ assumed linguistic repertoires. In the process, language becomes a cultural commodity; it is recontextualized and put on display as part of the performance of place and identity; its mundane forms (e.g. greetings) are turned into multimodal welcoming spectacles combining elaborate font design, iconic imagery, national and regional symbols, and intertextual play. In these instances of mediated, fleeting contact between tourists and hosts, language is represented rather than lived (Debord 1995 [1967]), symbolic and celebratory rather than instrumental. In this talk, I will consider the ‘meaning’ of different language codes, genres and styles ‘on the move’, i.e. when they appear to have shifted from one context to another as part of the global flows of people and signifiers, in relation to the political economy of tourism and the ideologies of language and nation-state. A wide range of illustrative examples will be drawn from tourist destinations in the global ‘core’ and ‘periphery’, highlighting persisting regional inequalities and access to resources fostered by global capitalism.
Bio: Adam Jaworski is Professor and Chair at the Centre for Language and Communication Research, Cardiff University. His research interests include multimodal approaches to the study of tourism, media discourse, linguistic landscapes and space, as well as discursive production of elitism and social privilege. His recent books include Discourse, Communication and Tourism (Channel View, 2005; with Annette Pritchard); Semiotic Landscapes (Continuum, 2010; with Crispin Thurlow) and Tourism Discourse (Palgrave Macmillan, 2010; with Crispin Thurlow). Adam co-edits the book series Oxford Studies in Sociolinguistics (OUP; with Nik Coupland) and is member of the editorial board of several journals including Discourse & Society, Visual Communication, and Journal of Tourism and Cultural Change.
E-mail: Adam Jaworski <jaworski@cardiff.ac.uk>
Thursday, March 25, 3:30 Kiva Auditorium
Dr. David Ian Hanauer, Indiana University of Pennsylvania
Title: Political Graffiti and the Discourse of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: The Discursive Construction of the Separation Wall at Abu Dis
Abstract: This paper explores the role of graffiti as micro-level, political discourse designed to influence national and international actions concerning the Palestinian-Israeli conflict over national territorial boundaries, self determination and human rights. Specifically, in this lecture I will analyze the discursive function of graffiti on the separation wall in the contested space of Abu Dis. This 20 foot concrete wall with graffiti markings running through the center of the town Abu Dis, on the outer eastern border of Jerusalem, is situated at the heart of both Israeli and Palestinian national, territorial aspirations and as such is at the nexus of competing nationalizing and historicizing discourses. The data for this study consists of photographic documentation of the graffiti at a specific area of the wall that crosses through a central road in the town of Abu-Dis. This data was collected as a part of a tour arranged by a joint Israeli and Palestinian women’s organization called Bat Shalom (Hebrew for Daughter of Peace) and can be seen as part of a process of political tourism. This study addressed the following questions: What are the linguistic and informational characteristics of the graffiti at Abu Dis? What is the social function of this graffiti? And what is the nature of the discursive construction of the wall at Abu Dis through this graffiti? The results of the study reveal that the separation wall is constructed in five different ways that directly interact with the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. The graffiti on the wall at Abu Dis is a microcosm of the broader conflict and offers an insight into the different chains of political discourse in action in the discussion of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. The ramifications of considering graffiti as ‘bottom-up’ political discourse interjecting within the arena of public literacy will be discussed.
Bio: David Ian Hanauer’s research employs artistic, theoretical, qualitative and quantitative methods and focuses on the connections between reading and writing authentic texts and their social functions in first and second languages. Among other issues, his research has investigated the genre specific aspects of poetry reading in L1 and L2, scientific discourse, graffiti research, cognitive aspects of literary education, cross-cultural understandings of fable reading and academic literacy across disciplines. His articles have been published in Science, Applied Linguistics, Discourse Processes, TESOL Quarterly, Canadian Modern Language Review, Research in the Teaching of English, Teaching and Teacher Education, Language Awareness, Cognitive Linguistics, The Arts in Psychotherapy, Poetics, and Poetics Today. He is the author of five books Scientific Discourse: Multiliteracy in the Classroom, Active Assessment: Assessing Scientific Inquiry; The Balanced Approach to Reading Instruction and Poetry and the Meaning of Life. His most recent book deals with using poetry writing as a research method within applied linguistics and will be published in 2010.Dr. Hanauer was the recipient of a National Science Foundation Grant for 2003-2005 for the study of science-literacy connections in the elementary school classroom and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute grant for 2005-2009 for work on representation and assessment in the field of microbiology. Dr. Hanauer is Professor of English at Indiana University of Pennsylvania and the Assessment Coordinator and educational researcher in the PHIRE (Phage Hunting Integrating Research and Education) Program in the Hatfull Laboratory, Pittsburgh Bacteriophage Institute at the University of Pittsburgh.
E-mail: hanauer@iup.edu
Archive -- Fall 2009 Series Calendar
Archive -- Spring 2009 Series Calendar