‘SMART Goals’ and ‘HR Language’: Technologised Literacy Practices and Counter-Conduct in the Workplace

Dr Alex Luke

University of Sydney

Fri, May 3, 2024, 4:00 PM – 5:00 PM (AEST)

Location: Parramatta South Campus . EB.3.36

Abstract

This presentation will examine the use of discourse and literacy practices in a performance management system to produce reflective practitioners, and how these practices were resisted by a counter-language ideology. The research project will draw on employed linguistic ethnographic methods, using interactional data, interviews, field notes, and documentation to research technologised literacy practices. These practices were a form of technologisation of discourse in the workplace and were usually forms of writing connected to the performance management system that worked to also position reviewees as reflective practitioners. However, running parallel with these was a counter-language ideology that variously portrayed these practices as HR language, KPI language or managese. Implications for workplace discourse, the interplay between institutional and professional discourses, and the relationship between class and discourse practices will be explored.

English As A Meaning-Making Resource Among Young Danes

Ms. Marianne Haugaard Skov

The University of Copenhagen

Fri, May 17, 2024, 4:00 PM – 5:00 PM (AEST)

Location: Parramatta South Campus . EB.3.36

Abstract

This presentation introduces the PhD project English as a meaning-making resource among young Danes. The project is part of the larger research project English and Globalisation in Denmark and investigates how and with what symbolic value English is used among young Danes today. Through a linguistic ethnographic case study among a group of young Danish high school students (15 – 17 years old) the project tries to uncover the role of English in the everyday lives of young Danes. A special focus of the project is given to the role that social media platforms like TikTok play in this. In this presentation, you will be introduced to the study’s methodological approach, theoretical foundation, and some of the preliminary findings. You will hear about the language ideological tensions about English that come with the many different roles English plays for young Danes today. Furthermore, you will hear about how English (or more specifically different styles of English) travel as part and parcel of online genres like vlogging on TikTok and YouTube and become part of the young Danes’ communicative repertoires and can be used for local meaning-making resources in offline interactions.

Implementing Feedback Literacy Practices through Self-Assessment and Peer Feedback: A Language Socialization Perspective

Dr Behnam Soltani

Singapore Institute of Technology

Dr. Behnam Soltani is an Assistant Professor of Applied Linguistics in the Centre for Professional Communication, Singapore Institute of Technology. He received his PhD in Applied Linguistics from Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. He has published articles in several journals including TESOL Quarterly (Wiley), Linguistics and Education (Elsevier), Education and Training, Australian Review of Applied Linguistics (John Benjamins), and Personality and Individual Differences (Elsevier). His co-authored book, Enhancing Student Education Transitions and Employability: From Theory to Practice was published by Routledge.

Fri, May 31, 2024, 4:00 PM – 5:00 PM (AEST)

Online via Zoom

Abstract

In this talk, I will discuss the storied life of an international student named Max, who embarked on undergraduate studies in a New Zealand tertiary institution. I look at the key concepts of feedback literacy, self-assessment, and peer feedback alongside his language socialization process. Drawing on narrative frames and interview data, I discuss how he was socialized and how he socialized himself into feedback literacy practices in an English for Academic Purposes (EAP) classroom. The importance of narrative frames will be highlighted as effective tools for assessment, fostering students’ evaluative judgment, socialization into academic norms, and reflective learning for future action. I will stress the importance of recognizing students’ linguistic, literacy, and cultural practices as assets in their academic community and as forms of capital in supporting their evaluative judgment capability. The implications of the study are significant for TESOL students, linguists, and sociolinguists. It highlights the role of feedback literacy in enhancing student engagement, evaluative judgment, and academic identity formation. It also discusses possible future work considering the evaluative judgment in the era of GenAI. In conclusion, this presentation will provide valuable insights into the implementation of feedback literacy practices and their impact on language socialization, offering fresh perspectives for educators and researchers in the field. It will stimulate further discussion on how to effectively integrate these practices into the EAP classroom to enhance students’ academic performance and socialization.

Vietnamese Passives from the Perspective of Lexical Mapping Theory

Ms. Huong Ho

Western Sydney University

Fri, June 14, 2024, 1:00 PM – 2:00 PM (AEST)

Location: Parramatta South Campus . EA.2.30

Online via Zoom

Abstract

Cross-linguistically, the passive is a discourse-pragmatically driven structure that reduces the prominence of the agent and shifts focus to another participant in the event, enabling the speaker to express their perspective precisely. Second language learners typically cannot process passives at the initial stages of second language acquisition. They must first acquire and automatize the basic lexical and morphological systems of the language before incorporating discourse-pragmatic factors in their speech and writing (Segalowitz, 2003; Pieneman et al., 2005; Bettoni & Di Biase, 2015). In this presentation, I will discuss the cognitively demanding nature of passives across languages and propose the morphosyntactic realization of Vietnamese passives based on Lexical Mapping Theory within Lexical Functional Grammar (Bresnan et al., 2016). This presentation is part of my PhD project, which is among the first studies to analyze the syntax of Vietnamese, an Austroasiatic language, within the theoretical framework of Lexical Functional Grammar (Bresnan et al., 2016).

Bettoni, C., & Di Biase, B. (2015). Processability Theory: Theoretical bases and universal schedules. In C. Bettoni & B. Di Biase (Eds.), Grammatical development in second language: Exploring the boundaries of Processability Theory (pp. 13-59). European Second Language Association.
Bresnan, J., Asudeh, A., Toivonen, I., & Wechsler, S. (2016). Lexical-functional syntax (2nd ed.). Wiley-Blackwell.
Pienemann, M., Di Biase, B., and Kawaguchi, S. (2005). Extending Processability Theory. In M. Pienemann (Ed.), Cross-linguistic aspects of Processability Theory (pp. 199-251). John Benjamins.
Segalowitz, N. (2005). Automaticity and second languages. In C. J. Doughty, & M. H. Long (Eds.), Blackwell handbooks in linguistics: The handbook of second language acquisition (pp. 382-408). Blackwell Publishers.

Dative Constructions and Passivisation in Japanese L1 and Chinese L1 Learners of English

Associate Prof. Satomi Kawaguchi

Western Sydney University

Satomi Kawaguchi, PhD, is adjunct associate professor in linguistics at the School of Humanities & Communication Arts, Western Sydney University. Her research focuses on second/foreign language learning and teaching. She works within the Processability Theory framework and is interested in theory and research-driven practice in language learning. She is the chief editor of Processability and Language Acquisition in the Asia-Pacific Region (2023, John Benjamins).

Fri, July 12, 2024, 1:00 PM – 2:00 PM (AEST)

Online via Zoom

Abstract

This study tests the lexical mapping hypothesis (LMH) within Processability Theory (Pienemann, 1998) with special reference to dative constructions in English L2. The LMH hypothesises that L2 learners develop their mapping of thematic arguments to grammatical functions proceeding from ‘default mapping’ to ‘default mapping plus additional argument’ and then to ‘non-default mapping’. This study incorporates Her’s (2013) modification of Lexical Mapping Theory within LFG (Bresnan, 2001). The study hypothesises that the prepositional dative is acquired at the ‘default mapping + additional argument’ stage while the double-object dative and dative passivisation are at the ‘non-default mapping’ stage. To test the hypothesis, speech productions were collected via a picture description task from 22 Japanese L1 and 15 Chinese L1 learners of English L2. The learners’ L1s were selected because of the typological contrast exhibited by dative constructions: Chinese has the double-object dative, but Japanese does not. Results support the hypothesis since Japanese L1 and Chinese L1 learners mainly produced prepositional datives, with only three of them producing double-object datives. Surprisingly, double-object constructions developed even later than dative passivisation. The late acquisition of the double-object construction is likely due to the cognitive complexity of the construction, such as lexical constraints, rather than mapping complexity.

Bresnan, J. (2001). Lexical-functional syntax. Blackwell Publishers.
Her, O.-S. (2013). Lexical Mapping Theory Revised. In T. H. King & V. d. Paiva (Eds.), From Q\quirky to case to representing space: Papers in Honors of Annie Zaenen (pp. 47-59). CSLI Publications.
Pienemann, M. (1998). Language processing and second language development: Processability Theory. John Benjamins.

PERSPECTIVIZING EXPERIENCES OF DEMENTIA

Dr Ang Pei Soo

The University of Malaya

Fri, July 26, 2024, 1:00 PM – 2:00 PM (AEST)

Online - via Zoom

Abstract

This presentation highlights how images of dementia published in the Malaysian public domain communicate about experiences of dementia. The study employed the Visual Discourses of Disability framework (ViDD) - a visual framework that combines perspectives of critical social semiotics and disability studies. Findings from the visual analysis of 432 images were also corroborated in a group interview with representatives of Alzheimer’s Disease Foundation Malaysia. Generally, it was found that there is a prevalence of generic representations of people through stock images, somatized images of the hands, and abstract representations of brain degeneration. These stigmatized images construct dementia as a loss and deficit, thus depicting individuals in distanced suffering, evoking a social exclusion. Despite this, the interview data interestingly confirmed images that perspectivize experiences of dementia may be necessary to educate the public on what dementia entails. While personizing images that depict personhood are ideal, images that exude negative emotion are equally important to reflect reality and inculcate empathy. The study also offers a guideline for organizations to deliberate on the different visual elements which invoke empowerment, advocacy, handicapping and othering effects when publishing images of dementia.

Ang, P.S., Yeo, S.L. & Koran, L. (2023). Advocating for a dementia-inclusive visual communication, Dementia - International Journal of Social Research and Practice, 23(3), 628-645. doi:10.1177/14713012231155979

Ang, P. S., & Knox, J. S. (2023). Visualization of disability in news photographs: An analytical framework. Visual Communication, 22(4), 600-622. doi:10.1177/1470357220957051

Responding to conversational humour in intercultural initial interaction: The role of epistemics and affiliation

Dr Amir Sheikhan

The University of Queensland

Fri, Aug 09, 2024, 1:00 PM –2:00 PM (AEST)

Online - via Zoom

Abstract

Conversational humour, which broadly encompasses (sequences of) utterances that are designed to ‘amuse’ participants or are treated as ‘amusing’ by participants across various different kinds of social interaction (Bell, 2015), has been the object of study in pragmatics and other related fields for a number of decades. Scholars have explored various facets of humour, including its social functions, linguistic mechanisms, and psychological impacts. However, a relatively less explored aspect is humour responses – that is, how individuals react to humour in their interactional environments. In this talk, I present an framework for studying humour in its interactive context, a model that focuses on the sequential trajectory of humour in interaction. The data draws from the Corpus of Video-Mediated English as a Lingua Franca Conversations (ViMEF) and a further collection of video-recordings of intercultural initial interaction in English (IIIE). Using the framework of interactional pragmatics, an approach to the analysis of pragmatic phenomena informed by research and methods in ethno-methodological conversation analysis (Arundale, 2010; Haugh, 2015), the analysis focuses on the design of humour episodes and the sequential environment in which conversational humour accomplishes. Within this model, humour can be responded to in five distinct sequential environments, and the choice of response to humour is, in part, motivated by the epistemics, i.e. negotiated or claimed knowledge and affiliation in interaction.

Arundale, R. B. (2010). Constituting face in conversation: Face, facework, and interactional achievement. Journal of Pragmatics, 42(8), 2078-2105.

Bell, N. (2015). We are not amused: Failed humor in interaction. Walter de Gruyter.

Haugh, M. (2015). Impoliteness and taking offence in initial interactions. Journal of Pragmatics, 86, 36-42.

Socio-Cultural Factors Influencing Persian Speakers’ English Learning Experiences in Australia

Ms. Mahasta Zare

Western Sydney University

Fri, Aug 23, 2024, 1:00 PM – 2:00 PM (AEST)

Online - via Zoom

Abstract

With the increase in immigration to Australia, particularly from non-English-speaking countries, the significance of English-language proficiency in various aspects of immigrants' lives has gained considerable attention. Studies have consistently demonstrated a correlation between immigrants' English proficiency and their successful integration into the host society. Consequently, examining the factors that influence English learning among immigrants is crucial. This study presents key findings on the impact of socio-cultural factors on Iranian immigrants' English as a Second Language (ESL) learning experiences in Australia. Specifically, it explores how gender, age, and educational background from Iran shape their perceptions and experiences of learning English. The study, a qualitative investigation involving 24 adult Persian speakers in Australia (both females and males), utilised semi-structured interviews to gather in-depth insights. The aim is to provide a comprehensive understanding of these influences, contributing valuable knowledge into the broader discourse on immigrant integration and language acquisition.

TBA

Professor Sender Dovchin

Curtin University

Professor Sender Dovchin is a Senior Principal Research Fellow and a former Director of Research at the School of Education, Curtin University. She is a Discovery Early Career Research Fellow of an Australian Research Council (ARC). Her ARC project focuses on empowering vulnerable youth in Australia by combatting linguistic racism. The project aims to investigate how culturally and linguistically diverse young Australians experience discrimination in their daily lives because of how they speak. Previously, she was an Associate Professor at the Centre for Language Research, The University of Aizu, Japan. She has also been awarded Young Scientist (Kakenhi) by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science. She completed her PhD and MA degrees in language education at the University of Technology, Sydney, Australia.

Professor Dovchin was an Editor-in-Chief of the Australian Review of Applied Linguistics. She was identified as “Top Researcher in the field of Language & Linguistics” under The Humanities, Arts & Literature of The Australian's 2021 Research Magazine and Top 250 Researchers in Australia in 2021.

Her research pragmatically contributes to the second language education of young generation living in the peripheries, providing a pedagogical view to accommodate the multiple co-existences of linguistic diversity in a globalized world. She has authored articles in top-tier international peer-reviewed journals, such as Applied Linguistics, Journal of Sociolinguistics, System, TESOL Quarterly, International Journal of Multilingualism, World Englishes, Asian Englishes, English Today, International Journal Bilingualism and Bilingual Education, International Journal of Multilingual Research, Journal of Multicultural Discourses, International Journal Bilingualism, Ethnicities, Multilingua, Linguistics and Education, among others. She has authored seven books with international publishers such as Cambridge University Press, Routledge, Springer, Palgrave Macmillan and Multilingual Matters. Professor Dovchin has had notable research funding success, including five international and national research grants as the lead and co-investigator.

Fri, Sep 06, 2024, 1:00 PM – 2:00 PM (AEST)

Online - via Zoom

Abstract

Recent debates in bi/multilingual studies have problematised some paradigms, such as codeswitching for reifying static language boundaries and for their inability to account for creative communicative practices. Instead, translanguaging has been re-introduced to capture the critical ‘languaging’ practices, which reflects the fluid movement between and across languages. Yet, this emerging tradition still tends to celebrate and thus exoticize the presumed linguistic creativity, although it is indeed ‘quite normal’ and ‘ordinary’ and by no means a new phenomenon. In so doing, scholarship inadvertently constructs a linguistic Other whose translanguaging is expected to be made legible according to normative epistemologies of diversity. This presentation is based on the premise that the analytic potential of bi/multilingual studies can be enhanced through a stronger focus on translanguaging as a reflective of everyday, mundane, and ordinary occurrences rather than of exotic, eccentric or unconventional ones. Translanguaging is neither to celebrate nor to deplore but something to observe and examine with interest like anything else. I conclude, following Higgins and Coen (2000, pp. 14-15), ‘we accept that as Homo sapiens, we are all the same in terms of genetic structure and cognitive potentiality … Beyond that, we do not think that as humans we have anything in common but our differences …’ Translanguaging is rather ordinary – a necessary condition of linguistic ordinariness is its creativity. We, as TESOL educators, therefore, need to consider two critical ELT implications: (1) how English language learning students use different linguistic repertoires outside the classroom, what they talk about, and which agencies they prefer to express in which forms of their linguistic repertoire; and their multiple activities and practices embedded within their multiple ways of learning, being, and speaking.

Museum communication in the 21st century: transforming practice

Professor Louise Ravelli

University of New South Wales

Fri, Sep 20, 2024, 1:00 PM – 2:00 PM (AEST)

Location: Parramatta South Campus . EB.3.18

Online via Zoom

Abstract

Museums are fundamentally meaning-making entities which communicate through a diverse range of modes and resources, from the nature of what is collected and displayed, to the labels in exhibitions, to the very design of museums themselves. Such communication is a way of recontextualising the social practices with which museums as institutions are engaged. Over time, these practices have changed, from the colonial plunders of the past to 21st century concerns with more inclusive, equitable and sustainable agendas. This paper examines how the design of an exhibition can manifest positive changes in the social practices of museums, drawing on examples from culturally-diverse museums. It builds on the social semiotic work of Halliday (1978, 2014) in relation to language, Kress and van Leeuwen (2021) in relation to images, and Ravelli and McMurtrie (2016) in relation to the built environment, to provide a social semiotic perspective on meaning-making in a museum context. Importantly, this is aligned with the concerns of organizational studies, in a novel framework of organizational semiotics (Ravelli et al, 2023) which merges organizational theory and social semiotics, in a new research agenda.

Halliday, M.A.K. 1978. Language as Social Semiotic. London: Edward Arnold

Halliday, M.A.K. 2014. An Introduction to Functional Grammar, 2nd Edition. London: Edward Arnold.

Kress, G. and van Leeuwen, T. 2021. Reading Images: the Grammar of Visual Design. London: Routledge.

Ravelli, L. and McMurtrie, R. 2016. Multimodality in the built environment: Spatial Discourse Analysis, London: Routledge.

Ravelli, L.; van Leeuwen, T.; Hoellerer, M., and Jancsary, D. (2023) Organizational Semiotics: Multimodal perspectives on organization studies. London: Routledge.

Conceptual Disruption Within Creativity

Mr Josh Honeyman

Western Sydney University

Fri, Oct 4, 2024, 1:00 PM – 2:00 PM (AEST)

Location: TBA

Abstract

This presentation will examine how technology disrupts image making and visual communication. It will touch on the concepts of disruptive technologies, innovative disruption, social disruption, and conceptual disruption. These concepts will be explored through existing literature and by examining AI image generators as a disruptive technology impacting handmade paintings. The disruption will be analysed across the creative process, the final product, and how others perceive both. Through this analysis, an understanding of creativity in the context of artificial intelligence and human imagination will emerge.

Intercultural and professional communication in migration law education

Dr Laura Smith-Khan

University of New England

Fri, Oct 18, 2024, 1:00 PM – 2:00 PM (AEST)

Online - via Zoom

Abstract

Intercultural communication is an integral part of migration law practice. Not only do those providing immigration advice and assistance often have very different linguistic repertoires and social identities to their clients; they must also assist them to navigate the unfamiliar cultural and linguistic norms of the relevant institutions. Moreover, the complexity of the law and strict procedural requirements make it crucial that practitioners successfully obtain complete and accurate information from their clients to best advise them and prepare compliant visa applications. However, little is known about how migration law practitioners develop the specialized communication skills needed to successfully conduct consultations and advise their clients. This presentation shares findings from a digital ethnography of the Graduate Diploma in Migration Law and Practice, the qualification required for non-lawyers to be authorized to offer professional migration advice and assistance in Australia. It explores the production and navigation of (mis)understanding through an examination of simulated migration law consultations, situated within the larger context of the learning environment. The presentation demonstrates how misunderstandings are produced through the interaction of multiple participants and are affected by both linguistic and extra-linguistic factors. It finishes by offering some suggestions about using such research to further improve communication-related education.

Fri, Mar 07, 2025

Prof. Felicity Meakins

University of Queensland

Title: Micro to macro: Modelling language variation across time

Time: 1 pm - 2 pm ( Sydney Time )

Venue: Via Zoom

Fri, Mar 21, 2025

Dr Howard Manns, Prof. Kate Burridge, Dr. Simon Musgrave

Monash University

Title: TBA

Time: 1 pm - 2 pm ( Sydney Time )

Venue: Via Zoom

Thu, Apr 04, 2025

Dr Andrew Ross

University of Canberra

Title: Innovations and Challenges in Social Media Discourse Analysis

Time: 1 pm - 2 pm ( Sydney Time )

Venue: Via Zoom

Thu, Apr 24, 2025

Dr Andy Jocuns

Wenzhou-Kean University, Wenzhou, China

Title: Geographies of Discourse revisited: Mapping trajectories of multilingualism in the Kurdish region of Iraq and at an EMI Sino-Foreign joint venture University in China

Time: 1 pm - 2 pm ( Sydney Time )

Venue: Via Zoom

Fri, May 02, 2025

A/P Fei Victor Lim

Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

Title: Generative AI for Digital Multimodal Composing: Implications for Literacy

Time: 1 pm - 2 pm ( Sydney Time )

Venue: Via Zoom

Fri, May 16, 2025

A/P Anne Ambler Schluter

The Hong Kong Polytechnic University

Title: Communicating inclusion through affective practice at a Hong Kong gay bar

Time: 1 pm - 2 pm ( Sydney Time )

Venue: Via Zoom

Fri, May 30, 2025

Prof. Stephen May

University of Auckland

Title: Linguistic racism today: New expressions, same old story…

Time: 1 pm - 2 pm ( Sydney Time )

Venue: Via Zoom

Fri, Jul 25, 2025

A/P Scott Barnes

Macquarie University

Title: Conversation repair and communication disability

Time: 1 pm - 2 pm ( Sydney Time )

Venue: Via Zoom

Fri, Aug 08, 2025

A/P Amanda Baker

University of Wollongong

Title: Cri&cal Reflec&on, Teacher Cogni&on and Inclusive Pedagogy in SLTE: Designing Courses for L2 Oral Communica&on and Pronuncia&on Pedagogy

Time: 1 pm - 2 pm ( Sydney Time )

Venue: Via Zoom

Fri, Aug 22, 2025

Professor Monika Bednarek

University of Sydney

Professor Barbra Meek

University of Arizona

Title: Colour terms and Whiteness-marking in contemporary television series

Time: 1 pm - 2 pm ( Sydney Time )

Venue: Via Zoom

Fri, Sep 05, 2025

Dr Gerald Roche , Dr Jess Kruk

University of La Trobe , University of Western Australia

Title: The Sociolinguistics of Deglobalization: Where to Now?

Time: 1 pm - 2 pm ( Sydney Time )

Venue: Via Zoom

Fri, Sep 12, 2025

Dr Valeria Sinkeviciute

School of Languages and Cultures
The University of Queensland

Title: A pragmatic and categorial analysis of a sibling dispute

Time: 1 pm - 2 pm ( Sydney Time )

Venue: Via Zoom

Fri, Sep 19, 2025

Dr Alexandra Grey

UTS

Title: Indigenous languages in Australia’s parliaments

Time: 1 pm - 2 pm ( Sydney Time )

Venue: Via Zoom

Fri, Oct 17, 2025

Dr. Rongle Tan

Macquarie University

Title: English Learning Apps for Young Children in China: A Critical Multimodal Case Study

Time: 1 pm - 2 pm ( Sydney Time )

Venue: Via Zoom