2023 Linguistics Student Conference

April 19, 2023
4:00-9:30 pm
Gruening 409
 
Keynote Speaker: Dr. Anna Mendoza
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Postmethod language teaching: An alternative organizing principle for heritage language education

In this presentation, I attempt to apply Kumaravadivelu’s construct of “postmethod” language teaching (see 2001 paper in TESOL Quarterly) to heritage language education. I begin by arguing that other “authentic” approaches to language teaching like Communicative Language Teaching (CLT), Task-Based Language Teaching (TBLT), and Content Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) do not align with the needs analysis of heritage language (HL) learners and communities. Then, I propose that applying Kumaravadivelu’s pedagogical principles of Particularity, Practicality, and Possibility can meet these needs while also raising teachers’ and students’ critical awareness about language ideologies. To illustrate with concrete practices and strategies, I propose three types of ethnographic exercise as postmethod pedagogy in the HL classroom: physical linguistic landscapes, online linguistic landscapes, and interactional analyses of family and friends’ conversations and literacy practices. I explain why these activities meet the needs and learning outcomes that research has shown to be central to HL teaching, such as expanding students’ range of registers, facilitating textual literacy development, and equitably benefiting all members of a class with diverse proficiencies and profiles.

 

2023 Schedule of Events

Welcome  4:00 - 4:15pm
Session 1  4:15 - 5:30pm
Raquel Ream
Applied Linguistics (MA)

Outsider/Insider Collaboration: Working with a Maya community in developing an English course for tour guides
Alexandra Caccavo
Applied Linguistics (MA)

Providing adult English language learners with written tasks in a self-study CALL environment—what happens?
Sooyoung Kang
Applied Linguistics (MA)

Staying Grounded: Challenges and insights from a Teacher Action Research
Wetherleigh Griffin
Linguistics (BA)

Majoring in Minecraft: Engaging ESL student in authentic interactions through virtual escape rooms

Keynote  5:40-6:40pm

Dr. Anna Mendoza

Postmethod language teaching: An alternative organizing principle for heritage language education

Session 2  6:45 - 8:00pm
John Ayodeji Odudele
Applied Linguistics (MA)

Overcoming racisim as a racialized ESL Teacher: A study towards critical anti-racist pedagogy
Matt Ford
Applied Linguistics (MA)

Investigating Teacher Emotions in a University ESL Writing Class
Dulce Villasenor
Linguistics (BA)

Mirror Images? Exploring bilingual identity of a Mexican-American father and American-Mexican daughter
Bryce Tasso
Linguistics (BA)

First-Person pronouns in Japanese: Pragmatics and Personality

Session 3  8:15 - 9:30pm
Mollie Messick
INDS (PhD)

Sustainability and Language Education: Toward Climate-Responsive Language Curriculum in the Circumpolar North
Nicole Dufour
Anthropology (PhD)

Communities of Practice and Discourses of ‘Dog Care’ in Arctic Distance Mushing
Morgan Reynolds
Applied Linguistics (MA)

“I don’t listen to foreigner rap” Discourse Analysis of Japanese Rap Disses Against Mixed-Race Rappers
Brook Barton
Applied Linguistics (MA)

When the Shelf Breaks: Narratives of Deconversion in r/exmormon Posts