Disrupting Academic Publishing: The Story of the BC TEAL Journal
Scott Roy Douglas
The BC TEAL Journal is an open access peer-reviewed publication promoting scholarship related to English as an additional language (EAL) teaching and learning, with articles relevant to a wide range of contexts in British Columbia. Since its inception in 2016, the journal has been disrupting academic publishing and transforming the way English language teaching organizations support their members. Key to this disruption is the variety of topics that find their way into the pages of the journal. An overview of the past nine issues of the journal is provided, with highlights including canine-assisted therapy (Binfet et al., 2016), portfolio-based language assessment (Drew & Mudzingwa, 2018), workplace writing (Hu & Gonzales, 2020), task-based language lessons (Huang, 2022), EAP presentations (Martin, 2023), and care ethics (Baslee, 2024). The free and open dissemination of papers such as these are transforming the building of knowledge, theory, and practice in the field of EAL teaching and learning. The field is further being transformed by opportunities to contribute to the journal as readers, authors, and peer reviewers. Visitors to this poster will become more familiar with the journal and learn how it can support their own continuing professional development. The supports in place for the publication process are described and major steps such as manuscript preparation, peer review, copy editing, proof reading, and layout are outlined in detail. The goal of this poster presentation is to inspire BC TEAL members to continue to engage with local scholarship, volunteer as peer reviewers, and begin to plan their next article for submission.
Arguments: Their Shape, Flow and Use in the SLA Classroom
Michael Herke
In its most basic form, an argument is a claim and a reason to accept the claim. Argumentation is the process of clarifying the question at issue, gathering relevant evidence, and formulating the aforementioned reasons and the claim. Although it is a truism to state that arguments are everywhere and that everyone argues, one forum where arguments have yet to find a permanent place is the SLA classroom in Japan, perhaps because argument is conceived as a confrontational, win or lose interaction. This poster shows cooperative argument activities and their underlying concepts that have been used successfully in SLA classrooms.
Another reason for the hesitation to use argumentation activities may be that arguing well is challenging for students. College and high school students have difficulty judging argument quality but do respond positively to various interventions, including engaging in argument with peers, media tutorials and scaffolding (Kuhn, D., Zillmer, N., Crowell, A., & Zavala, J., 2013; Larson, Britt & Kurby, 2009; Wilson, K., & Devereux, L. 2014).
This poster presentation summarizes just such interventions. Following from the concept-based language instruction claim that learners need to internalize the systematic, scientific principles that underpin linguistic phenomena of interest via working with their materializations, salient features of arguments are shown as flow charts, diagrams, pictures and maps, to form SCOBAs, or schema for the orienting basis of action (Gal’perin, 1989; Hadidi, 2021; Lantolf and Thorne, 2006).
These features include common lines of argument (e.g. cause to effect, effect to cause, sign, generalization), their elements (i.e. evidence, claim, warrant, qualifier, etc.), how the elements interact and, most importantly, a variety of arguments relevant to college-aged learners. What is the best book or movie for someone who wants to understand Japanese culture? What is marriage? Is it marriage good or bad? Should people get married? Should I get married?
Participants can see and learn how arguments are structured, how they function, and how they enrich SLA classrooms of almost any level, background and topic.
