Across Academics
Making Writing Relevant for Students beyond Academia: A Pedagogical Exploration in Spanish Composition Classes
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Lisa Kuriscak
Second language (L2) writing classes bring together learners from many majors and minors, traditionally leading to a lack of real-world application for students’ careers (given instructors’ lack of expertise is these fields). This aggravates an already pervasive view of writing as an inoculation and L2 writing classes as grammatical-accuracy boot camp. This paper reports on an alternative pedagogical approach to L2 writing in Spanish, embracing the multifaceted (and imperfect) writing process and exploring how various forms of technology (both inside and outside the classroom) affect students’ agency, motivation, and development in that process. Pre- and post-test surveys were distributed to participants, who were students in Advanced Spanish Composition classes in different classroom contexts (to determine the effect of class configuration and student- vs. instructor-controlled technology on outcomes) at a large, public, U.S. university. Data were also collected from focus groups and samples of student writing. Tasks were designed to make the writing relevant for students’ careers and personal lives post-college (including the exploration of social problems), to give them practice generating and receiving feedback to/from peers, and to help them learn to tailor their writing to specific audiences and thus more effectively communicate their ideas beyond the scope of academia.
Combining Social and Educational Literacies in the United Arab Emirates
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Sameera Tahira Ahmed
The UAE has one of the highest levels of Internet penetration and social media usage in the world. A combination of various factors, including a young population and a rapidly developing telecommunications infrastructure means that almost all the population has access to the Internet and use of social media is widespread. This paper introduces data collected in the UAE to examine social and educational uses of modern information and communication technologies, including e-learning, and examines the relationship between both types of literacies on individuals, the socio-cultural landscape and the economy. It uses both quantitative and qualitative data, including focus group interviews with males and females, to explore how channels and competencies are affecting learning and communication experiences. The UAE University (UAEU) is used as a case study to illustrate the patterns of consumption and usage within higher education and these are presented within the broader national context.
The Link Between Language Proficiency and Creativity Among Business Management Students
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Mercedes Mareque, Elena De Prada Creo, Margarita Pino-Juste
Taking into account the existing discrepancies between company requirements regarding internationalization and innovation and the limited training on these areas of expertise received in most management schools, the main objective of this paper is to delve into the relationship between language knowledge and creativity in order to propose specific courses of action for the improvement of these skills. The methodology used is based on a survey given to 303 management degree students during the academic year 2016-17. The results obtained reveal that the level of creativity and language proficiency among the population analysed is low and clearly needs improvement. Regarding training in foreign languages, the results indicate that language learning that solely takes place in the classroom is insufficient for either attaining the required proficiency demanded by the market or for fostering creativity. Hence, designing programmes for management studies that combine and integrate creativity and language learning are essential for the successful future incorporation of the students into the work market.
Bad Advice: Graduate Students and Their Advisors
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Michael Hood
At the graduate level, the advisee-advisor relationship plays a significant role in determining students’ academic success or failure. This relationship is perhaps even more significant for graduate students pursuing their degrees in their second language, as they may face linguistic and cultural challenges that their L1 classmates do not as they socialize into new academic communities. Using communities of practice, legitimate peripheral participation, and activity theory as a theoretical framework, I conducted a series of case studies examining the relationships between L2 graduate students in U.S. universities and their advisors, from the genesis of those relationships through graduation or withdrawal from the university. Data comprise interviews, institutional policy statements, course syllabi and assignments, and on-site observations. These data are used to co-construct narrative accounts of the participants’ relationships with their advisors as a means of shedding light on the sources of dysfunction and how the participants overcame (or did not overcome) dysfunctional relationships. Findings indicate that L2 graduate students with a strong professional identity and strong socio-academic support networks were able to strategically confront, compensate for, or work around a dysfunctional relationship with their advisors, guide their own learning trajectories, and achieve their academic goals. Those who lacked such a sense of professional identity or access to such support networks tended to defer to their advisors, even in the face of indifferent, neglectful, or incompetent advising. Findings also indicate that the dysfunction runs deep, from policies at the institutional level, through lack of awareness, training, and competence at the advisor level.
