"MISSED" COMMUNICATION IN ONLINE COMMUNICATION: TENSIONS IN A GERMAN-AMERICAN TELECOLLABORATION

This qualitative study explores the factors that contributed to limited interactional involvement in a telecollaborative project linking two groups of participants: 12 advanced-level students of English in northeastern Germany and 9 advanced-level students of German in the southwestern United States. Drawing on data from online transcripts, interviews, and questionnaires, I examine the tensions that arise when students' attempts at communicating online result in missed opportunities for engaging with their online partners. I report on the results of a discourse analysis of the online transcripts and rely on extensive interview and survey data to examine which factors made it difficult for students to maintain sustained interpersonal involvement in the online discourse. I document three main contextual tensions that arose from the different socially and culturally situated attitudes, beliefs, and expectations that informed students' communicative choices in the online discourse. I address the pedagogical implications of each of these three tensions. The findings suggest that research needs to focus not only on how students jointly construct online discourse, but how they co-construe the context for their participation. The paper concludes by addressing the implications of these findings for future research promoting language and culture learning online

Peer feedback on language form in telecollaboration

We performed a two-phase, year-long research project that explored the impact of peer feedback on language development. We investigated specifically how and when post-secondary learners of English and Spanish provide corrective feedback on their partners' use of the target language in weekly asynchronous discussions by assigning them to one of two conditions: e-tutoring, in which students were asked to provide peer feedback on any linguistic form they perceived as incorrect; and e-partnering, in which students were not required to provide peer feedback but could do so on their own initiative. We examined the frequency and type of language use by coding the feedback for language-related episodes (Swain & Lapkin, 1998) and for feedback strategies (Ros i Solé & Truman, 2005). The findings indicate that students in both conditions preferred an inclusion of feedback on form as part of their exchange, but such feedback only occurred when explicitly required in the e-tutoring condition. Pedagogical implications include the need to situate peer feedback on form within current models of telecollaboration and to assist students in using feedback strategies such as reformulations, which do not rely on a deep understanding of the target or native language grammar

Recruitment Strategies for Cognitively Impaired Older Adults in Assisted Living Communities

It is well documented that recruiting persons with dementia for research in long term care settings is challenging (Lam, et. al. 2018). The purpose of this study is to explore recruitment techniques suggested by the National Institute on Aging (2018), including the use of brochures, community contact introductions (CCI), presentations, event tables, 1:1 interactions and activity events. We examined the success of each method of recruitment in two recruitment waves based on the number recruited in relation to the number of hours spent on that recruitment method. Of the 119 people that were screened, 47% were enrolled in the study. The top three recruitment methods found to be successful included activities [4 hours per person (HPP)], CCI (5.6 HPP), and 1:1 interaction (7.5 HPP). Additionally, there was a decrease in the hours per person for 1:1 interaction which we propose was related to relationships forming between the facility and recruiters

2016 Research & Innovation Day Program

A one day showcase of applied research, social innovation, scholarship projects and activities.https://first.fanshawec.ca/cri_cripublications/1003/thumbnail.jp

Language Teaching Research 10,2 (2006); pp. 1–24 Automated writing evaluation: defining

With the advent of English as a global language, the ability to write well in English across diverse settings and for different audiences has become an imperative in second language education programmes throughout the world. Yet the teaching of second language writing is often hindered by the great amount of time and skill needed to evaluate repeated drafts of student writing. Online Automated Writing Evaluation programmes have been developed as a way to meet this challenge, and the scoring engines driving such programmes have been analysed in a considerable array of psychometric studies. However, relatively little research has been conducted on how AWE is used in the classroom and the results achieved with such use. In this article, we analyse recent developments in automated writing evaluation, explain the bases on which AWE systems operate, synthesize research with these systems, and propose a multifaceted process/product research programme on the instructional use of AWE. We explore this emerging area of inquiry by proposing a range of potential questions, methodologies and analytical tools that can define such a research agenda. I Writing: the neglected R The backdrop to the development of Automated Writing Evaluation (AWE; also referred to as Automated Essay Scoring 1) is the changing role and importance of English language writing. Approaches to teaching English arise from the broader social, economic, cultural, and political contexts that shape the needs for using the language (Warschauer, 2000). Thus prior to the second world war, much foreign language instruction in English focused on reading, as this represented a principal use of foreign languages in many countries (Brown, 2001). In the postwa

Until we are Free : Reflections on Black Lives Matter in Canada

"The killing of Trayvon Martin in 2012 by a white assailant inspired the Black Lives Matter movement, which quickly spread outside the borders of the United States. The movement’s message found fertile ground in Canada, where Black activists speak of generations of injustice and continue the work of the Black liberators who have come before them. Until We Are Free contains some of the very best writing on the hottest issues facing the Black community in Canada. It describes the latest developments in Canadian Black activism, organizing efforts through the use of social media, Black-Indigenous alliances, and more." -- Publisher's website