Annual Grad Student Symposium Moves Online
If you’re wondering what action adventure games, air traffic control, and saying no in customer service have in common, you clearly weren’t at the first virtual grad student symposium held 26 March, 2021 in BrightSpace.
The event opened with a welcome message from School Director, Dr. David Wood, and the presentation of the annual Lynne Young Award to this year鈥檚 recipient, Osama Elbeyaly. Many thanks to Dr. Trudy O鈥橞rien for presenting the award and much heartfelt gratitude to Lynne’s daughter Laura for joining us online to be part of the presentation ceremony.
Initial speeches were then followed a series of insightful and diverse research presentations (with Q&A) by students in our MA and PhD programs. Session titles included:
- 鈥淭he Day after an #AmberAlert Day鈥: An analysis of discursive constructions of the Canadian wireless emergency broadcast system (Kathryn Carreau)
- Uncharted territory: A lexical profile of action-adventure video games (Jean Charlebois)
- Contexts and constructs: Implications for the testing of listening in pilots鈥 communication with air traffic controllers (Angela Carolina de Moraes)
- 鈥淟et鈥檚 Talk about Your Lesson鈥: Genre Analysis of Teacher Trainers鈥 Feedback in an EFL Context (Osama Elbeyaly)
- 鈥淚 can鈥檛 because鈥︹: Strategies in forming the speech act of refusals of native English speakers and non-native English speakers in entry level customer service positions in Canada (Neil Lapierre)
- Losing rage: Cross-cultural critical discourse analysis and archiving desecration of the Quebec flag (Nico Mjones)
- Increasing employability through Essential Skills Online: An evaluation of a workplace literacy tool (Claire Reynolds)
And, of course, kudos to event organizers Alicia Melatti, Ashleigh Feltmate, Tarah Lemours, and Codie Fortin Lalonde, your elected SALaDS (Society of Applied Linguistics and Discourse Studies) representatives for such an engaging and well-run afternoon.