Abstract
University-Industry collaborations have been increasingly recognized as an approach to crossing the boundary between academia and the industry. Much research has been exploring the issues and challenges generated from collaboration from the perspective of the organization (either academia or the workplace). Scant research has investigated the impact of such collaboration from the learners’ perspective. To address the research gap, this collaborative project aimed to (1) understand the emergent factors contributing to the boundaries faced in the academia-industry multimodal branding process and to (2) investigate how the students respond to the boundaries as the result of the collaboration. A total of 37 advanced English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) learners, two literacy instructors, nine collaborating target brand owners, and five workplace professionals were the stakeholders participating in the joint academic-industry project. Individual in-progress reflection papers, in-depth focus group interviews, and learners’ multimodal branding materials were collected and analyzed. Results show that (1) the conflicting priorities, needs, requirements, and demands between and across different stakeholders involved in the project, (2) learners’ lack of multimodal, digital, marketing, and collaborating skills, and (3) the gap between their imagined and experienced curricula were the factors contributing to the boundaries for their learning. To respond, the learners view meeting the needs of the workplace as their priority while also feeling torn by the obligations of fulfilling the course requirements. The discussion is further illuminated by boundary crossing theory and multiliteracies theory and pedagogy. Both theoretical and practical implications are be provided.
Presenters
Y. Gloria LoProfessor, Applied Foreign Languages, National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, Taipei, Taiwan Michelle Liu
PhD student, National Taiwan Normal University, Taiwan Ying Wannie Wang
Associate Professor , General Education and Applied Foreign Languages , National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, Taipei, Taiwan Sy Ying Lee
Professor, Department of Applied Foreign Languages, National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, Taiwan
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
KEYWORDS
Boundary-Crossing, Multiliteracies, Academia-Industry Collaboration, Language Learners
