Dissertation Defenses

Doctoral degree candidate: Yi- Tzu Huang
Thesis Title: Interactive Patterns in Paired Discussions Between Chinese Heritage and Chinese Foreign Language Learners
Thesis supervisor: Dr. Chuanren Ke
Date/Time/Location of Exam:  November 27th, 9:30a.m.~ 315 PH

Doctoral degree candidate: Chiemi Hanzawa
Thesis Title: Listening behaviors in Japanese: Aizuchi and head nod use by native speakers and second language learners
Thesis supervisor: Dr. Judith E. Liskin-Gasparro, Dr. Yukiko Hatasa
Date/Time/Location of Exam:  September 25th, 2:30p.m.~ 315 PH

2013 SLA Graduate Student Symposium

[1]Contexts of Learning
Friday, April 19 - Saturday, April 20, 2013
Venue: The UCC Conference Center, the University of Iowa
Co-sponsored by the University of Iowa and University of Wisconsin-Madison

For a full schedule and registration information, visit http://www.uiowa.edu/~flares/symp13/index.html [2].

The Second Language Acquisition Program at the University of Iowa is calling for papers for the 2013 SLA Graduate Student Symposium. The SLA graduate students at the University of Iowa and the University of Wisconsin–Madison have formed a partnership to host an annual SLA Graduate Student Symposium. Organizing and hosting the conference alternates between the universities. Graduate students in SLA and related disciplines present their work and meet distinguished researchers in their fields.

The theme of the 2013 symposium is Contexts of Learning. Submissions may address the conference theme or any area related to current and future trends in SLA research including, but not limited to: generative, psycholinguistic, and social approaches; technology in language teaching and learning; and implications of SLA research for instruction.

We seek proposals, both theoretical and empirical, from graduate student researchers that reflect the differing perspectives and methods currently used in SLA research. The research may be interdisciplinary in nature. Submissions based on pilot studies, predissertation studies, or work-in-progress projects will be considered in addition to completed projects.

News

Anna Kolesnikova (FLARE 2011) is the winner of the 2012 ACTFL-MLJ Birkmaier Dissertation Award in Foreign Language Education for her dissertation "Investigating Effects of Computer-Based Grammar Tutorials."
Yupeng Kou and Yu Li (second-year FLARE students) are the winners of the 2012 Walton Presentation Prize, awarded at the meeting of the Chinese Language Teachers Association/ACTFL Annual Meeting. The Walton Presentation Prize recognizes the best first-time presentation at the CLTA Annual Meeting. Yupeng’s presentation was entitled “Discourse Complexity in Advanced-Level Chinese: Comparing Two Learning Backgrounds.” The topic of Yu Li's presentation was “How Contextual Information and Culture Familiarity Affect Chinese Colloquial Idioms Comprehension.

Past Events

Digital Semiospheres and L2 Development: Cases and Issues

Presented by Professor Steven L. Thorne 
Department of World Languages & Literatures, Portland State University
Department of Applied Linguistics, University of Groningen, the Netherlands
Date: Friday, October 5, at 3:30 pm in 2520D UCC
Event Contact: Sue Otto (sue-otto@uiowa.edu [3] or 319/335-2332) 

2012 SLA Graduate Student Symposium

April 13-14, 2012
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Co-sponsored by the University of Iowa and the University of Wisconsin- Madison
The SLA graduate students at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the University of Iowa have formed a partnership to host an annual SLA Graduate Student Symposium. Organizing and hosting the conference alternates between the universities. Graduate students in SLA and related disciplines present their work and meet distinguished researchers in their field. 
The theme of the 2012 SLA Graduate Student Symposium was Language Choice and Choosing a Language. Presentations addressed the conference theme or areas related to current and future trends in SLA research dealing with language choice, the decision to use a specific form or code during an interaction, and how it is determined by social context.

Role of Play. Game & Computer Assisted Language Learning

Pusack-Otto Lecture
Professor Robert Blake, University of California, Davis
Friday, October 28, 2011
The desire to play is a fundamental characteristic of human behavior, so much so that we often refer to homo sapiens as homo ludens, the person who plays. With respect to second language (L2) learning and computer-assisted language learning (CALL), however, the field has just begun to tap the power of play and gaming as a framework for creating pedagogicalmaterials and CALL applications. Nevertheless, today’s tech-savvy students spend a great deal of time playing games on computers or hand-held devices, or navigating in and out of game-like environments. This presentation explores what the gaming world may offer the foreign language curriculum, keeping in mind the following affordances:

▪ a designed or guided experience with unlimited practice
▪ feedback assisted by online smart tools
▪ a safe, low-stakes environment to try out new L2 identities and behaviors
▪ an engaging way to test hypotheses about language structure and cultural practices

These and other aspects of gaming will be illustrated with CALL examples, along with suggestions for integration into the L2 curriculum. The presentation will emphasize the importance of sound gaming principles, whether implemented in the language classroom or the CALL learning environment.

2011 SLA Graduate Student Symposium: Methodologies in SLA

Friday, April 29 & Saturday, April 30, 2011

Click here to see the symposium website [4], where you may see the conference program, as well as videos of the plenaries and the panels.