Background
After more than 40 years as the Modern Language Centre, members of the Centre decided to rename ourselves as the Centre for Educational Research on Languages and Literacies (CERLL), to better reflect our current activities and interests. We officially launched the new name for the Centre at a reception on 22 October 2010, and produced a compilation of recent publications by members of the Centre to mark the event. Our interests in research and graduate studies remain fundamentally as they have been for decades, focused on theories and practices in teaching, learning, curriculum, assessment, and policies related to English and French as second or international languages as well as other international, minority, heritage, or indigenous languages. The name change does signal a broadening of perspectives to include research on various forms and types of literacies, though we do not claim to be ‘post-modern’ in doing so.
Research themes
Pedagogy
Dr. Nina Spada continues with her instructed second language acquisition (SLA) research, investigating whether isolated and integrated form-focused instruction (FFI) contribute to different types of second language (L2) knowledge. In a series of quasi-experimental studies with adult ESL learners, Spada and her team are exploring whether language features learned during integrated FFI are more easily retrieved by communicative versus grammar tests, and whether language features learned during isolated FFI are more easily retrieved by grammar versus communicative measures. This research is informed by transfer appropriate processing theory (Lightbown Reference Lightbown and Han2008) within cognitive psychology and discussions of explicit and implicit L2 knowledge from SLA.
Through a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) international networking grant, Dr. Antoinette Gagné is working on several projects examining diversity in teaching: an international seminar series on teacher diversity supported by the Economic and Social Research Council (UK) and Diverse Teachers for Diverse Learners funded by Nordfolsk, in which researchers from Finland, Iceland, Norway, the UK, and Canada carry out comparative projects and publish jointly on the diversification of the teaching force, immigrant student experiences, and leadership for diversity. Finally, in an Ontario-based project, Dr. Gagné is investigating how academic and extracurricular relationships between adolescent English language learners (ELLs) and native speakers influence identity formation and language socialization.
Literacy development
The ALTUR project (Adolescent Literacy in Three Urban Regions: Toronto), led by Professors Alister Cumming and Esther Geva, has culminated in a book, Adolescent literacies in a multicultural context, to be published by Routledge. The two professors and their research team have collaborated on chapters for the book, analyzing results from tutoring and assessing the reading and writing development of 21 adolescents with culturally diverse backgrounds over the school year 2008–2009 at Pathways to Education Canada. Comparative dimensions of the project were presented at AAAL 2011 with researchers who are conducting a parallel study at the University of Amsterdam.
Dr. Shelley Stagg Peterson, with Dr. Jill McClay (University of Alberta), is conducting a three-year ethnographic study, in five grades 4–8 classrooms, examining teachers’ transition to using digital affordances and multimedia to teach writing. In a two-year study in 60 Ontario classrooms, Dr. Stagg Peterson is examining the potential of peer feedback to support writing development in grades 1–8. The Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council fund both studies. In addition, with Dr. Eunice Jang, she is conducting a study funded by the Federation of Ontario Public Libraries examining children's emergent literacy learning while involved in library pre-school programs.
Dr. Jim Cummins is involved in ‘Engaging literacies: Identity texts as catalyst and medium for academic performance’, one of several projects in language and literacy development. Supported by Canada Research Chair funding, this case study documents primary school students’ feelings about literacy engagement and their teachers’ observations of students’ developing self-image and academic self-confidence. Along with Dr. Eunice Jang, Dr. Cummins is also working on ‘Empirical calibration and validation of the STEP Proficiency Descriptor Scales’, a project which is part of a larger ongoing study of the Ministry of Education's new English language development assessment system, Steps to English Proficiency.
Employment
Dr. Julie Kerekes’ SSHRC-funded research, Internationally Educated Professionals Project (IEPro), has thus far produced three studies. The first examines, longitudinally, perceptions of Canadian work culture, and the relationship between the L2 development and employment experiences of two internationally educated engineers. The second analyzes interviews with 40 internationally-educated engineers seeking employment in Toronto; findings highlight contrasting experiences, resultant ideologies, and emergent perspectives on whether Canada is trustworthy. The third examines interviews with 23 Canadian- and internationally-educated teachers to understand the roles of language ability and ideology in their employment prospects.
Assessment
Building on previous research on test-takers’ reported strategic behaviors (Swain et al. Reference Swain, Huang, Barkaoui, Brooks and Lapkin2009), Dr. Merrill Swain is leading a new ETS-funded project comparing test-takers’ performance on TOEFL iBT Speaking tasks with their performance on real-life academic speaking tasks. Data collection involving 30 international graduate students is in progress. In the data analyses, the research team will investigate the strategies that test-takers use as well as the linguistic and discourse characteristics of their performances. Findings will (or will not) provide evidence for the TOEFL iBT validity argument that TOEFL iBT tasks and real-life academic tasks are similar.
Dr. Eunice Jang's most recent field research focuses on the STEP language assessment framework for use in K-12 schools, in support of a policy initiative by the Ontario Ministry of Education to improve the assessment, tracking, and support of ELLs by classroom teachers. Her work on this project helps answer such questions as how school-aged ELLs develop English proficiency, how immigrant ELLs differ in language development from domestic ELLs, how ELLs’ goal orientations relate to their language development, and how STEP promotes a self-regulated learning environment for learners and strengthens teachers’ assessment competency.
Coordinating a four-year international project funded by the Council of Europe, Dr. Enrica Piccardo analyzed multidimensionality of assessment in the Common European Framework for Languages (CEFR) and how key concepts informing the CEFR are changing language teaching and learning in Europe and, potentially, beyond. She specifically investigated the culture of evaluation among teachers in Europe and how the CEFR is affecting language teaching and assessment. The findings support teacher educators’ role as agents of change and innovation in language teaching and assessment. She is also researching how technology is integrated into French-as-a-second-language teacher education and the role of emotions in SLA.
Acknowledgements
We are grateful to Drs. Alister Cumming, Jim Cummins, Antoinette Gagné, Eunice Jung, Julie Kerekes, Enrica Piccardo, Nina Spada, Shelley Stagg Peterson, and Merrill Swain for updating us on their research activities. We would also like to thank Drs. Nina Spada and Alister Cumming for their guidance on this project.
