Bursary Reports
Each year in its annual budget the ATESL Board dedicates $2000 to be awarded in bursaries that year. Up to $1000 of this is awarded following the March 15th deadline and the remainder is awarded following the September 15th deadline. The bursary committee may award up to $500 per bursary and any remaining funds are carried forward. If you would like to apply for a bursary for a professional development activity, please consult the ATESL website.
In this newsletter, we are pleased to provide you with the reports of two recent bursary winners, Jane Humen and Amanda Nielsen. Jane attended a train the trainer workshop organized by Lisa Bjerke, the author of Accent on Canadian English, and Amanda registered in the course Critical Perspectives in Cultural Studies.
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MAIS 625 Critical Perspectives in Cultural Studies Patricia Hughes Fuller Sept 2010
Submitted by Amanda Nielsen
This is an excellent course for those new to Cultural Studies or those wanting a more in depth knowledge of Cultural Studies Theory. Unit One of the course was dedicated to understanding what “culture” and “cultural studies” means within this academic discipline. I had initially begun this course with one idea as to what “cultural studies” was and found out very quickly that the academic discipline was different than my understanding. The development of cultural studies as a discipline is relatively new and there were specific “conditions of possibility” that brought this multidisciplinary area of study into being.
Unit Two of the course covered the differences between a number of specific terms used within Cultural Studies as a discipline, including “mass” vs. “popular” culture, “culturalism” vs. “structuralism” and “text-centered” vs. “reader/audience-centered” critical approaches.
Unit Three encompassed a broad overview of the “field” of cultural studies including Rosenzweig’s "Rise of the Saloon" and Williams’ "Dream World of Mass Consumption" focusing on mass and popular culture to Lorde's “Age, Race, Class” and McRobbie’s “ More! New Sexualities in Girls' and Women's Magazines” providing a feminist perspective on cultural studies. Within this unit it became very clear that cultural studies blurs disciplinary boundaries, links culture with notions of identity and that the cultural texts examined and cultural studies practices are inherently political.
The final unit for the course, Unit Four, reflected upon the approaches of the Birmingham School and “cultural studies” emergence as a discipline to the cultural studies of today. The emergence of a focus on ethnicity and gender studies showcased the morphing nature of cultural studies and its ability to assimilate and synthesize new ideas within the discipline.
Though I did do very well in the course I believe that I still have much to learn. There is much more study to be done in the area of cultural studies and English as a Second Language and was excited to see this as a focus for the next TESL Canada Journal focusing on Popular Culture in TESOL: Identity, Performance, and Reflection. My final paper focused on this topic and only touched the surface of the complexity of the relationship global Englishes have with cultural studies and popular culture.
I would like to thank the board for providing $500 towards the cost of this course. The content and theory gained provided valuable insight into an area that impacts English as a Second Language instruction on a day to day basis.
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"Train the Trainer" workshop with Lisa Bjerke (the author of Accent on Canadian English)
Submitted by Jane Humen
This individual session was held on Friday, December 3. Lisa is a speech-language pathologist with expertise in working with Canadian English accent acquisition for speakers of English as a second language. Her book and CD's are the basis of this pronunciation program; the seminar focused on her application of her techniques of assessment, setting up an effective class curriculum, the importance of the IPA, key consonants and vowels as well as common stress patterns.
We began with the basic premises of ACE:
• that communication is the key component to successful interactions
• to help the individual to become a more confident speaker of English
• that there are variables that affect pronunciation change
age of learning
imitation skills
exposure to English
use of first language
motivation level
training
• that here are sequential training steps: listening, sound, words, sentences, reading aloud then conversation
The following discussion topics ensued:
1. Making speech sounds
• How sound is initiated
• Consonants versus vowels
• Continuous versus stopped sounds
• Voiced versus voiceless sounds
2. The International Phonetic Alphabet
• Since the IPA is the written representation of all sounds in ACE, it is paramount
that the trainer become familiar with the symbols.
• During the assessment and in eventual course interactions, the learners become
familiar with these graphic characters and are then able to connect them to the
target sounds.
3. Assessment
• We examined the ACE assessment kit that enables the trainers to perform a very
objective evaluation of the ESL learner's initial and final levels of pronunciation. This
includes:
A stimulus manual
Word analysis response form
Response booklet for consonant and vowel/stress and intonation analysis
Comprehensibility rating scale
Client pre and post questionnaire
Pronunciation goals summary form
• I was able to begin to apply some of these techniques by doing a mock assessment,
. using a digital video recording of one of Lisa’s ESL students.
4. Effective instruction
• designing useful activities to teach various concepts
i. stress and intonation patterns
ii. pitch and intonation
iii. the schwa vowel
iv. noun-verb stress
v. syllable reductions
vi. content and function words
I would like to gratefully thank the Board for their generous approval of my application for the $500 bursary, which allowed me to attend this workshop. The ACE program is very well organized and provides a structured, sequential method to pronunciation instruction and development.