Global Links (Asynchronous Session)
Unheard Voices: International Student Experiences View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Leila Kajee
South African universities host an increasing number of international students every year, given that it is one of the few African countries where tertiary institutions have been ranked along international lines (Dominguez-Whitehead and Sing, 2015). The trend for studying abroad is not new, and international students add to the quality and cultural composition of the student body (Altbach and Knight, 2007). While the number of international students in South Africa is growing, few studies bear testimony to the experiences encountered by these students in the country. As Noreen Garman (1994: 6) suggests, we need to create academic space for the “unheard voices and human positions in human inquiry”. To address the voices of international students, this study is underpinned by concerns surrounding experiences and challenges they encounter in the university, and how these experiences shape their identities.
Simulated Computer Adaptive Testing Methodology Choices for Ability Estimation with Empirical Evidence View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Jumoke Oladele, Erica D. Spangenberg, Mdutshekelwa Ndlovu
Computer Adaptive Testing (CAT) is a technological advancement for educational assessments which requires thorough feasibility studies through computer simulations in a bid to have strong foundations for a testing programme. This is especially germane in Africa trying to catch up with technology in the digital age and this should not be done blindly without empirical evidence. The quasi-experimental design was adopted for this study with the aim of establishing methodological choices for CAT ability estimation being the most important aspect of CAT performance evaluation of a testing program. 5000 examinees were simulated with 100 items simulate through the 3-parameter logistic model. The simulation design stipulated a fixed-length test of thirty (30) items while examinee characteristics were drawn from a normal distribution with a mean of 1 and Standard Deviation of 0. Also, controls for the simulation was were set not to either control for item exposure or to using the progressive restricted method. Data gathered were analysed using descriptive statistics (mean and standard deviation) and inferential statistics (Two-way Multivariate Analysis of Variance: MANOVA) for testing the generated hypotheses. Findings of this study will provide empirical evidence for choosing methods with respect to ability estimation for CAT as part of the efforts geared towards designing a testing programme.
Global Identity Development in Teacher Education with Modifications during COVID-19 View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Meg Milligan, Paige Paquette
Education systems face pressures from globalization. Thinking more globally, developing a more global identity, and demonstrating intercultural competence are valued in teacher education as reflected in accreditation standards. These anticipate the requirements of future students’ more diverse generations who must function in an increasingly interconnected intercultural globalized world. This paper describes a course that fits into an undergraduate or graduate teacher education program, and that fosters intercultural competence and global identity through online course delivery combined with experiential learning in a destination country. This course won the 2019 College-Level Course Award from the Association of Distance Education and Independent Learning. Travel restrictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic pressured us to find alternatives to the study abroad component of this course. These online solutions are described, and can be used in a variety of contexts.
Acquisition of English Syntax in L2 by Japanese L1 and Chinese L1 Speakers Using ESL Corpora View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Yumiko Yamaguchi, Satomi Kawaguchi
This paper presents part of the results of a learner corpus study of the syntactic acquisition of English as a second language (L2) by Japanese and Chinese native speakers. Learner corpus research with different first language (L1) backgrounds would enable immediate crosslinguistic triangulations and greater generalizability of findings regarding interlanguage systems. In this study, two cross-sectional English L2 corpora are used in order to investigate the acquisition of English syntax by L2 learners. While one of the learner corpora consists of 946 files of Japanese L1-English L2 spoken and written narratives by 473 Japanese L1 speakers, the other corpus contains speech production by Japanese L1 and Chinese L1 speakers who performed various speaking tasks. For the present study, the English oral and written narratives by 88 Japanese L1 speakers as well as the oral picture description tasks by 22 Japanese L1 and 30 Chinese L1 speakers were examined based on Processability Theory (PT; Pienemann, 1998, Bettoni & Di Biase, 2015). Results show that different data-collection tasks did not affect the developmental sequence as predicted in PT and that all the informants followed the developmental sequence regardless of language background. This study contributes to the further understanding of systematic and variable aspects in L2 acquisition. It also suggests that different L2 learner corpora could be used to investigate the crucial effects of language background on L2 learning.
Racist and anti-racist Discourse in Greek Migrant/Refugee Jokes: Critical Analysis of Liquid Racism and a Multiliteracies Teaching Proposal View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Eirini Skoura, Vasia Tsami
This study investigates the (re)production of racist and anti-racist discourses in Greek jokes concerning migrant/refugee issues. We argue that racist discourse against “foreigners” is not only overtly promoted via hate speech, but it also appears indirectly in jokes that (superficially) seem to reinforce anti-racist discourse. Through the critical analysis of such humorous texts, we detect a modern and more subtle kind of racism, i.e. liquid racism, which emerges from the (seemingly) anti-racist jokes either through the deprecation of the “Other” or through his/her assimilation. Given the above, we suggest that humorous texts, where anti-racist and racist discourses often coexist, could be useful in language teaching. Following the multiliteracies model, we explore the designing of a critical teaching proposal focusing on migrant/refugee jokes. This proposal is intended to raise students’ critical awareness, by bringing to the surface the ambiguities caused by both humor and liquid racism. The critical discussion of these issues in class could firstly highlight the potential function of humor to covertly project views and attitudes of discrimination through an amusing and seemingly innocuous way. Secondly, it could enable students to realize and identify how and why the “anti-racist” jokes can implicitly (re)produce racist interpretations, such as the assimilation and deprecation of immigrants and refugees.
Political Participation, Perceived Stress, and Academic Performance of University Students in Hong Kong under the Anti-Extradition Law Amendment Bill Movement View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Tsz Yeung Fung, Jiamin Xie
In 2019-2020, Hong Kong was in the limelight of the world due to the Anti-Extradition Law Amendment Bill (Anti-ELAB) Movement. Along with the accelerated tensions between the Hong Kong Government and protesters, several universities were seized by the radical protesters and later turned into battlefields. Under such unfavourable socio-political context, universities in Hong Kong abruptly suspended all on-campus activities and moved lectures into online space, which seriously disrupted the normal social ecology of university students. This study aimed to investigate the perceived stress, political participation, and academic performance of university students under the socio-political turmoil. Through conducting a mixed-methods study at a public university in Hong Kong, it was found that students had a moderate level of perceived stress and their political participation was relatively high. A negative correlation between students’ academic performance and their perceived stress was also found. Students who experienced lower stress levels achieved higher GPA under the social movement. However, students’ political participation was not correlated with their academic performance, and there was no correlation between the students’ perceived stress and their political participation. It is hoped that this study can give a wake-up call for educators and counsellors to pay attention to the mental well-being of students who are politically active and to provide appropriate assistance to reduce their stressors.
