Graduate student writing is finally receiving substantial scholarly attention, but little is known about the characteristics of the unstructured graduate student conference abstract (GSCA). This study seeks to characterize the rhetorical structures of GSCAs, as a basis for identifying potential writing support strategies. 107 French-language GSCAs from language-related fields (e.g., linguistics, second-language teaching) were coded using Hyland’s rhetorical moves (RMs) (Background-Aims-Methods-Results-Conclusion), yielding measures for RM frequency, RM sequencing, and RM recycling. We then use these measures to identify GSCAs that pattern together, via K-Means clustering. We find that the GSCAs studied pattern into three subtypes, two of which (72%) exhibit informational and/or structural shortcomings, most notably (1) missing RMs, (2) cognitively difficult RM sequences, and (3) unbalanced word-to-RM allotment. This study thus confirms that there is a need to implement strategies (e.g., conference submission guidelines) to better support graduate students in mastering this academic genre’s normative content and structure.
{"title":"Graduate students would benefit from guidelines for preparing conference abstracts","authors":"Gabriel Frazer-McKee, Kendall Vogh","doi":"10.25071/2564-2855.19","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.25071/2564-2855.19","url":null,"abstract":"Graduate student writing is finally receiving substantial scholarly attention, but little is known about the characteristics of the unstructured graduate student conference abstract (GSCA). This study seeks to characterize the rhetorical structures of GSCAs, as a basis for identifying potential writing support strategies. 107 French-language GSCAs from language-related fields (e.g., linguistics, second-language teaching) were coded using Hyland’s rhetorical moves (RMs) (Background-Aims-Methods-Results-Conclusion), yielding measures for RM frequency, RM sequencing, and RM recycling. We then use these measures to identify GSCAs that pattern together, via K-Means clustering. We find that the GSCAs studied pattern into three subtypes, two of which (72%) exhibit informational and/or structural shortcomings, most notably (1) missing RMs, (2) cognitively difficult RM sequences, and (3) unbalanced word-to-RM allotment. This study thus confirms that there is a need to implement strategies (e.g., conference submission guidelines) to better support graduate students in mastering this academic genre’s normative content and structure.","PeriodicalId":153997,"journal":{"name":"Working papers in Applied Linguistics and Linguistics at York","volume":"31 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"116436803","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
English language teachers face precarious working conditions affecting their financial security, well-being, and teaching quality. Teachers who are precariously employed are likely to engage in unpaid work, juggle multiple jobs, and are less likely to have paid sick days and extended health benefits. These stressors may affect the amount of enthusiasm teachers display in class, affecting student motivation and emotional well-being. Teachers being paid by the hour are less likely to invest in preparing for classes and supporting their students in and out of the classroom. Contingent employment also means that teachers are more vulnerable to student complaints affecting how hard teachers push or challenge their students in class and during their assessments. Not surprisingly, teachers’ precarious working conditions negatively affect students’ long-term success. With the compounding effects of precarious employment, teachers need to be empowered to challenge the status quo to improve their working conditions and advocate for their students.
{"title":"Part-time language teachers and teaching quality","authors":"Maryam Elshafei","doi":"10.25071/2564-2855.12","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.25071/2564-2855.12","url":null,"abstract":"English language teachers face precarious working conditions affecting their financial security, well-being, and teaching quality. Teachers who are precariously employed are likely to engage in unpaid work, juggle multiple jobs, and are less likely to have paid sick days and extended health benefits. These stressors may affect the amount of enthusiasm teachers display in class, affecting student motivation and emotional well-being. Teachers being paid by the hour are less likely to invest in preparing for classes and supporting their students in and out of the classroom. Contingent employment also means that teachers are more vulnerable to student complaints affecting how hard teachers push or challenge their students in class and during their assessments. Not surprisingly, teachers’ precarious working conditions negatively affect students’ long-term success. With the compounding effects of precarious employment, teachers need to be empowered to challenge the status quo to improve their working conditions and advocate for their students.","PeriodicalId":153997,"journal":{"name":"Working papers in Applied Linguistics and Linguistics at York","volume":"10 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-03-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"114153773","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Commercial content moderation removes harassment, abuse, hate, or any material deemed harmful or offensive from user-generated content platforms. A platform’s content policy and related government regulations are forms of explicit language policy. This kind of policy dictates the classifications of harmful language and aims to change users’ language practices by force. However, the de facto language policy is the actual practice of language moderation by algorithms and humans. Algorithms and human moderators enforce which words (and thereby, content) can be shared, revealing the normative values of hateful, offensive, or free speech and shaping how users adapt and create new language practices. This paper will introduce the process and challenges of commercial content moderation, as well as Canada’s proposed Bill C-36 with its complementary regulatory framework, and briefly discuss the implications for language practices.
{"title":"Content moderation as language policy","authors":"Mandy Lau","doi":"10.25071/2564-2855.11","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.25071/2564-2855.11","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000\u0000\u0000Commercial content moderation removes harassment, abuse, hate, or any material deemed harmful or offensive from user-generated content platforms. A platform’s content policy and related government regulations are forms of explicit language policy. This kind of policy dictates the classifications of harmful language and aims to change users’ language practices by force. However, the de facto language policy is the actual practice of language moderation by algorithms and humans. Algorithms and human moderators enforce which words (and thereby, content) can be shared, revealing the normative values of hateful, offensive, or free speech and shaping how users adapt and create new language practices. This paper will introduce the process and challenges of commercial content moderation, as well as Canada’s proposed Bill C-36 with its complementary regulatory framework, and briefly discuss the implications for language practices.\u0000\u0000\u0000","PeriodicalId":153997,"journal":{"name":"Working papers in Applied Linguistics and Linguistics at York","volume":"10 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-01-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"123756067","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
In this work-in-progress, I consider the impacts of generative metaphor, metaphoring, and framing on student engineers’ developing positioning relative to ecological issues in engineering. I consider how engineering, as a symbolic community, is impacted by metaphors and narratives that provide frameworks by which to understand engineering’s relationship to the Earth and ecology. I consider the historical framing of engineering as a “socially captive” practice and consider challenges to that framing. Finally, I consider how knowledge and comprehension of metaphors and metaphoring can inform engineering education, and in particular students’ ongoing interaction with ecologically-related metaphors that frame the agency they have access to in both their education and their future professional practice.
{"title":"Metaphoring back in the climate crisis","authors":"E. Nolan","doi":"10.25071/2564-2855.7","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.25071/2564-2855.7","url":null,"abstract":"In this work-in-progress, I consider the impacts of generative metaphor, metaphoring, and framing on student engineers’ developing positioning relative to ecological issues in engineering. I consider how engineering, as a symbolic community, is impacted by metaphors and narratives that provide frameworks by which to understand engineering’s relationship to the Earth and ecology. I consider the historical framing of engineering as a “socially captive” practice and consider challenges to that framing. Finally, I consider how knowledge and comprehension of metaphors and metaphoring can inform engineering education, and in particular students’ ongoing interaction with ecologically-related metaphors that frame the agency they have access to in both their education and their future professional practice.","PeriodicalId":153997,"journal":{"name":"Working papers in Applied Linguistics and Linguistics at York","volume":"134 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-10-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"127591057","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Artificial intelligence neural language models learn from a corpus of online language data, often drawn directly from user-generated content through crowdsourcing or the gift economy, bypassing traditional keepers of language policy and planning (such as governments and institutions). Here lies the dream that the languages of the digital world can bend towards individual needs and wants, and not the traditional way around. Through the participatory language work of users, linguistic diversity, accessibility, personalization, and inclusion can be increased. However, the promise of a more participatory, just, and emancipatory language policy as a result of neural language models is a false fantasy. I argue that neural language models represent a covert and oppressive form of language policy that benefits the privileged and harms the marginalized. Here, I examine the ideology underpinning neural language models and investigate the harms that result from these emerging subversive regulatory bodies.
{"title":"Artificial intelligence language models and the false fantasy of participatory language policies","authors":"Mandy Lau","doi":"10.25071/2564-2855.5","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.25071/2564-2855.5","url":null,"abstract":"Artificial intelligence neural language models learn from a corpus of online language data, often drawn directly from user-generated content through crowdsourcing or the gift economy, bypassing traditional keepers of language policy and planning (such as governments and institutions). Here lies the dream that the languages of the digital world can bend towards individual needs and wants, and not the traditional way around. Through the participatory language work of users, linguistic diversity, accessibility, personalization, and inclusion can be increased. However, the promise of a more participatory, just, and emancipatory language policy as a result of neural language models is a false fantasy. I argue that neural language models represent a covert and oppressive form of language policy that benefits the privileged and harms the marginalized. Here, I examine the ideology underpinning neural language models and investigate the harms that result from these emerging subversive regulatory bodies.","PeriodicalId":153997,"journal":{"name":"Working papers in Applied Linguistics and Linguistics at York","volume":"10 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-09-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"125411949","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Gender-focussed language reform movements are underpinned by not only gender but also language ideologies. This study explores the relationship between these ideologies across anti-sexist and anti-cis-sexist reform movements. The movements target differing outcomes and align with differing ideologies, but I argue that they share an underlying goal and underlying ideological tenets. While anti-sexist reform seeks to improve the status and render legible the experiences of a subordinate but legible identity, namely women, anti-cis-sexist reform aims to unsettle cis-sexist assumptions of gender and render greater gender diversity legible. In targeting these goals, anti-sexist reformers cluster around forms of linguistic relativity, while anti-cis-sexist reformers focus on linguistic performativity. Both ideological stances, however, share underlying conceptualizations of language as limiting and as acting in the world, while both goals share an underlying commitment to harm avoidance. This paper highlights the role of language ideologies, in addition to gender ideologies, in gender-focussed language reform.
{"title":"He, (s)he/she, and they","authors":"Brittney O'Neill","doi":"10.25071/2564-2855.4","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.25071/2564-2855.4","url":null,"abstract":"Gender-focussed language reform movements are underpinned by not only gender but also language ideologies. This study explores the relationship between these ideologies across anti-sexist and anti-cis-sexist reform movements. The movements target differing outcomes and align with differing ideologies, but I argue that they share an underlying goal and underlying ideological tenets. While anti-sexist reform seeks to improve the status and render legible the experiences of a subordinate but legible identity, namely women, anti-cis-sexist reform aims to unsettle cis-sexist assumptions of gender and render greater gender diversity legible. In targeting these goals, anti-sexist reformers cluster around forms of linguistic relativity, while anti-cis-sexist reformers focus on linguistic performativity. Both ideological stances, however, share underlying conceptualizations of language as limiting and as acting in the world, while both goals share an underlying commitment to harm avoidance. This paper highlights the role of language ideologies, in addition to gender ideologies, in gender-focussed language reform.","PeriodicalId":153997,"journal":{"name":"Working papers in Applied Linguistics and Linguistics at York","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-09-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"131047296","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Research into gender-inclusive language in Spanish has demonstrated that inclusive language generally appears in four forms: doublets, -@, -x, and -e. There is little research on language attitudes towards the use of gender-inclusive language in Spanish, although studies exist for other languages. The present study compiled a corpus of published tweets that contained the markers -@, -x, and -e. Based on this data, hypothetical tweets were constructed that fell into four different categories, corresponding to the author of the tweet: business, personal, academic, and political. These hypothetical tweets were built into an attitudes survey that was distributed on Twitter. Findings indicate that language attitudes for each type of inclusive marker and category of tweet are generally positive. Statistical analysis indicates a significant relationship between gender identity and attitudes towards the use of inclusive language in the political category.
{"title":"Attitudes towards varied inclusive language use in Spanish on Twitter","authors":"Kathleen N. Slemp","doi":"10.25071/2564-2855.6","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.25071/2564-2855.6","url":null,"abstract":"Research into gender-inclusive language in Spanish has demonstrated that inclusive language generally appears in four forms: doublets, -@, -x, and -e. There is little research on language attitudes towards the use of gender-inclusive language in Spanish, although studies exist for other languages. The present study compiled a corpus of published tweets that contained the markers -@, -x, and -e. Based on this data, hypothetical tweets were constructed that fell into four different categories, corresponding to the author of the tweet: business, personal, academic, and political. These hypothetical tweets were built into an attitudes survey that was distributed on Twitter. Findings indicate that language attitudes for each type of inclusive marker and category of tweet are generally positive. Statistical analysis indicates a significant relationship between gender identity and attitudes towards the use of inclusive language in the political category.","PeriodicalId":153997,"journal":{"name":"Working papers in Applied Linguistics and Linguistics at York","volume":"10 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-09-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"116978382","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This study qualitatively analyzes meta-discourses surrounding the term disabled by people with Multiple Sclerosis (MS) on the Reddit sub-community r/MultipleSclerosis. It explores medical and social factors influencing whether people with MS identify as disabled, resist the term, or identify in other ways, and discusses how people with MS are reclaiming the discourse of disability. MS, an auto-immune disease targeting the central nervous system, is unique in that it can be “invisible”: it does not always affect the person who has it in noticeable ways. Consequently, the progression of the illness is only one factor cited when users discuss how they identify with the term disabled—social and logistical factors have an influence as well. Therefore, I suggest that instead of prescribing a term to refer to people with disabilities, it may be better to accept the many ways in which individuals with disabilities refer to themselves.
{"title":"Meta-discourses of disability among people with Multiple Sclerosis","authors":"Ana-Maria Jerca","doi":"10.25071/2564-2855.3","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.25071/2564-2855.3","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000\u0000\u0000This study qualitatively analyzes meta-discourses surrounding the term disabled by people with Multiple Sclerosis (MS) on the Reddit sub-community r/MultipleSclerosis. It explores medical and social factors influencing whether people with MS identify as disabled, resist the term, or identify in other ways, and discusses how people with MS are reclaiming the discourse of disability. MS, an auto-immune disease targeting the central nervous system, is unique in that it can be “invisible”: it does not always affect the person who has it in noticeable ways. Consequently, the progression of the illness is only one factor cited when users discuss how they identify with the term disabled—social and logistical factors have an influence as well. Therefore, I suggest that instead of prescribing a term to refer to people with disabilities, it may be better to accept the many ways in which individuals with disabilities refer to themselves.\u0000\u0000\u0000","PeriodicalId":153997,"journal":{"name":"Working papers in Applied Linguistics and Linguistics at York","volume":"60 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-09-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"129498495","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The border is a contested space. It is a site where physical and discursive violence act to enforce hegemonic understandings of nation, citizenship and belonging. However, the spaces at the border also create sites where resistance to border discourses is possible. Using interviews conducted by the El Paso Food Voices project in 2018 and 2019, I examine the construction of identity through foodways in the US border town of El Paso, Texas. I view these interviews, called “food stories,” as entextualizations of the semiotic food system. Through critical discourse analysis of these food stories, I identify discourse strategies that construct identity in opposition to border discourses. In the borderlands, people have multiplex identities. Through foodways, residents of El Paso construct identities that do not conform to the dichotomizing and hierarchizing discourses of the border and create counter discourses that build possibility outside of border discourses.
{"title":"Language, food and identity in the borderlands of El Paso","authors":"Rudi Barwin","doi":"10.25071/2564-2855.2","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.25071/2564-2855.2","url":null,"abstract":"The border is a contested space. It is a site where physical and discursive violence act to enforce hegemonic understandings of nation, citizenship and belonging. However, the spaces at the border also create sites where resistance to border discourses is possible. Using interviews conducted by the El Paso Food Voices project in 2018 and 2019, I examine the construction of identity through foodways in the US border town of El Paso, Texas. I view these interviews, called “food stories,” as entextualizations of the semiotic food system. Through critical discourse analysis of these food stories, I identify discourse strategies that construct identity in opposition to border discourses. In the borderlands, people have multiplex identities. Through foodways, residents of El Paso construct identities that do not conform to the dichotomizing and hierarchizing discourses of the border and create counter discourses that build possibility outside of border discourses.","PeriodicalId":153997,"journal":{"name":"Working papers in Applied Linguistics and Linguistics at York","volume":"13 8 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-09-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"117045046","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Multiple interrogatives exhibit cross-linguistic variation from a typological point of view. Standard Italian, in particular, is considered to be a language disallowing these constructions, an analysis based on the interaction between whPs and focused constituents in this language. I argue that previous analyses of multiple wh-questions in Italian need to be integrated with novel data, and that these structures are at least marginally acceptable. Specifically, I illustrate data from a preliminary experiment involving acceptability judgements on a 5-point Likert scale that tested whether native Italian speakers consider multiple interrogatives acceptable. While this is still a preliminary investigation, the results indicate that younger native Italian speakers tend to accept these constructions. I suggest that the presence of two whPs within the same clause in Italian can be analyzed as a language contact phenomenon, with English being the source language, in line with the sociolinguistic literature on this topic.
{"title":"On the acceptability of multiple interrogatives in Italian","authors":"Anda Neagu","doi":"10.25071/2564-2855.8","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.25071/2564-2855.8","url":null,"abstract":"Multiple interrogatives exhibit cross-linguistic variation from a typological point of view. Standard Italian, in particular, is considered to be a language disallowing these constructions, an analysis based on the interaction between whPs and focused constituents in this language. I argue that previous analyses of multiple wh-questions in Italian need to be integrated with novel data, and that these structures are at least marginally acceptable. Specifically, I illustrate data from a preliminary experiment involving acceptability judgements on a 5-point Likert scale that tested whether native Italian speakers consider multiple interrogatives acceptable. While this is still a preliminary investigation, the results indicate that younger native Italian speakers tend to accept these constructions. I suggest that the presence of two whPs within the same clause in Italian can be analyzed as a language contact phenomenon, with English being the source language, in line with the sociolinguistic literature on this topic.","PeriodicalId":153997,"journal":{"name":"Working papers in Applied Linguistics and Linguistics at York","volume":"34 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-09-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"125859356","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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