Dissertation Topic and High School Debate

I'm still deciding whether I want to pursue my current dissertation topic idea of investigating iconic gestures as a language learning strategy. My biggest concern is how to decide that the gestures are a learning strategy? How would that be measured? The current plan is to teach using gestures and assess by asking the student to translate into the target language using both the gesture and the word. But, is this sufficient to say that iconic gestures are a possible language learning strategy? I could certainly look at the relationship between the number of words/gestures recalled and the identified learning style, but again, does this answer my question?

Second, is it significant? I'm reminded of my high school debate class and the formulation of a standard debate case. We were taught that to make a succinct argument, we must show significance, harms, inherency, topicality, and solvency.

The significance, in this case, is the need for improved foreign language learning. But, harms? The only thing I could think of in this area is the apathy most students have toward learning foreign languages, the difficulty involved in learning non-germanic or non-latin languages, and the perception that foreign languages are not important to US students. (All of this is making me think that I should direct my dissertation study toward children/adolescents rather than adults, but that's a subject for another blog!) Can I make a case to show that these harms are really that horrible? That could be subjective. The inherency also poses a problem. Inherency would say that something is not already being done. In truth, gestures are being used in foreign language classes. But, they're being used within Total Physical Response (TPR) formats. There are multiple curricula that promote the use of TPR, but none (as far as I know) that look specifically at kinesthetic activities by themselves. While I can find research that shows that kinesthetic instruction is not as prevalent as auditory and visual instruction, I can find even more research that promotes the use of instruction toward all three learning strengths. So, I have to wonder if it's just as harmful, or more harmful, to restrict my instruction to one learning style. Am I no better than those teachers who only use auditory and/or visual instruction? Topicality is the easiest area to address, in my mind. If I propose to investigate learning strategies or the relationship of a learning strategy to a learning style, my goal is to not stray. Solvency isn't as important as the others. Whether I prove or disprove my hypothesis, the important piece is the quality of my research. In other words, if I hit the other components, I should be able to present a quality dissertation.

In March, I attend my final colloquium. It will be my last opportunity to receive feedback from my classmates and faculty members on my proposed dissertation topic. My mentor won't be there, which is disappointing, but there will be faculty members there with whom I've spoken before, and I feel confident I will receive good feedback from them.

Internship or Post-Doctoral Fellowship?

Yesterday, I started contemplating what I will do after graduation, in the event that I am not working in research prior to graduation.

At one point, I thought about pursuing a post-doctoral fellowship. There are certainly multiple opportunities for this lasting from 3 months up to 5 years. A shorter fellowship would be ideal as I could apply for one anywhere in the country, find temporary housing, and then return home at the conclusion of the fellowship. However, upon further investigation, I fear that I wouldn't be qualified for a fellowship. Most, if not all, require a certain amount of prior research experience of which I have none. It's possible that I could impress the selection committee with the work of my dissertation, but I think they want to see more than that. With the work involved in preparing an application for a post-doctoral fellowship, it almost seems that I would be wasting my time.

On the other hand, internships don't necessarily require that the candidate have a wealth of experience in the field. Simply, they're looking for someone with academic preparation and an interest in the field in which he desires to intern. Of course, there has to be a catch: Every single internship I've looked at require that the applicant be a current student. I couldn't pursue an internship while I'm still a student. For one, once I start the comprehensive exam phase, if I stop for any reason, I'm out of the program. Another thing is that I couldn't justify leaving my current position for a short period of time and then returning and looking for a short-time job until graduation. To me, that just doesn't make sense.

So, I'm left with the question, do I pursue a post-doctoral fellowship when I feel I would be one of the last people an organization would accept? Or, do I pursue an internship when while I would qualify with my limited credentials, I might not be eligible?

The good news is that there is still time to make my decision. Life could present its own obstacles and windows to my future career. For now, I think I will contact organizations which offer internships in my area of interest. If I can find a contact, perhaps I could inquire whether he would accept a recent graduate of a doctorate program.

Social Networking

To date, I have joined 9 social networking sites:

LinkedIn
Biznik
Translator's Cafe
Language 1 2 3
Peek You
Facebook
MySpace
Friendster
Tapped In

It would seem I have my bases covered. If anyone could suggest additional networking sites that might be of interest to me, please let me know!

Thinking out loud

Last night, I attended the Seattle chapter of the American Women in Science's (AWIS) monthly meeting, where the vice president of the University of Washington spoke on the differences between men and women when thinking about science.

To be honest, I expected a more academic speech on the given topic, but given the time constraints (and I think the interests of the audience), Phyllis Wise spoke anecdotally about how factors in her life contributed to where she is now. She emphasized a need for quality mentoring and said given the chance to do it over again, she would still pursue a career in science.

Before and after the speech, we had opportunities to network with the people around us. I felt like I stood out like a sore thumb. Yes, I am a member of AWIS, and I feel I belong there with my interests in the social sciences, but all of the women present at this meeting worked in some type of biological science or engineering field. Nevertheless, I heard one woman talk about her work on brain malformations in children. Remembering that the study of language acquisition gets its best information where there are speech problems, I took my cue to introduce myself and probe her for details. We didn't talk long, but it was enough for her to mention that I should make some contacts with those who work with autistic individuals. There is such a place about three blocks from my work called ASTAR, Autism Spectrum Treatment and Research Center. My hope is that I can schedule a lunch meeting with one of the individuals who works there and pick his/her brain. I have taken at least one step to contact an individual through LinkedIn who lists herself as an autism advocate.

The overall experience last night, though, left me feeling unsettled: This is what I do know: My entire adult life, I have flip-flopped between working in sales or higher education administration. Each job has been something I fell into, not necessarily what I loved -- but what I could do well. But, my passion has always remained wanting to learn more about learning. Now, that's a broad statement, I realize, but what I mean is I want to know how people learn; I want to help people learn better; I want to find ways to help struggling learners find strategies they can use to be and feel successful in the classroom. I'm also interested in language learning. While I'd like to say is I'm mostly interested in second language learning, I'm realizing more and more what interests me is how people learn language (whether that be a first or second language).

What I don't know is how to take all of these ideas that are swirling in my brain and formulate a career plan. In the broadest terms, I want to be involved in research.

It is my hope that in talking to more people, something will resonate and sound just perfect to me. Networking is key, and right now, it's the only path I know to take.

Asked to write a review

At the end of last week, amid all the fun with the primary caucuses, I received an email from the research chair of the Western Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators. I am on the research committee, but thus far, I haven't done anything aside from listen to a conference call. In the email, the chair was asking if I'd consider writing a review of a research project looking at the relationship of default to school quality.

It was a nice break from the homework for my current class, ethics and multicultural issues in counseling, so I said yes.

I finished the article last night, and it's been approved. Now, I'm just waiting to see it in publication. When the newsletter is posted, the link will be WASFAA Spring Newsletter. You'll have to do a search for my name.

It's nice to see my talents recognized!

Project Glad

Today I attended a seminar entitled, "Best Practices in Language and Content Instruction". It was a free presentation held in Seattle, sponsored by Seattle Public Schools and John Stanford International School, funded by the State Innovations grant to the Washington State Coalition for International Education.

The goal of the presentation was to give teachers an idea of Project GLAD (Guided Language Acquisition Design). I was probably the only one there who wasn't a teacher! But, I still enjoyed the presentation. My initial purpose for attending was to network. I do desperately need to get to know educational professionals in the second language acquisition field. I'm sure it must look strange, though, for a financial aid director to want to break into a teaching field but not want to teach!

This workshop was set up such that two teachers each at John Stanford International School gave a presentation on how they used one piece of the Project GLAD in their classroom. Each model appeared to incorporate all three learning styles (visual, auditory, kinesthetic), and I felt that each lesson plan was very engaging. We moved from classroom to classroom after each 40-minute demonstration.

At the end of the 3-hour workshop, I was left to ponder my research idea. Yes, it is good to look at a connection of actions and language, but how do I separate that in an instructional environment? Or rather, how can I say that learning took place solely because of the gestures when I will obviously need, at the very least, an auditory component in my instruction. I will need to talk some more with my friends who are certainly more adept at research than I. Perhaps they will have some suggestions that I have not yet considered.

Contemplating my dissertation

I can't believe it's only been a little over a year since I started my doctorate program. In April, I will take my comprehensive exams, and in July, I start the dissertation process which should take a year's time.

When I started my doctorate program, I was set on a research study that involved massage and critical thinking skills. My thinking was a bit skewed, but I had hoped to look at whether kinesthetic learners could improve their critical thinking skills by receiving massage. After much contemplation and input from friends such as Shelly Loewen, I came to the realization that these kinesthetic learners would be receiving a kinesthetic activity (massage), and if anything, I could measure how the massage practitioners may benefit from performing the activity. This is not to say that learners wouldn't benefit, but it might be more related to the fact that their stress levels are reduced and have no tie to their learning style, whatsoever.

In October, I reconnected with a friend I with whom I went to college.
Claire Vallotton has been recognized by the National Institutes of Health for her work with infant language. As we talked, she impressed upon me the connection of actions and language. As my initial passions were tied to language learning, she had me well engaged. At her suggestion, I changed my research idea all together, departing from massage but not from cognition. I now wanted to look at how actions, or rather iconic gestures, are tied to language learning.

Also, in October, I was enrolled in advanced research methods. This course helped me to solidify my ideas to the point that I felt confident in a bare-bones proposal:

One area that is receiving much attention in the field of educational psychology is learning strategies. This term encompasses learning styles and multiple intelligences. It is particularly of importance to the area of second language acquisition as researchers seek to better understand how a second language is learned, and in the United States, to best assist those students whose first language is not English.

One such learning strategy could be iconic gestures. Iconic gestures are defined by Pika, Nicoladis, and Marentette (2006) as those "which are related to their referent by virture of some actual physical resemblance between the two, for instance, drawing a circle in the air to signal the sun" (p. 320). Donovan, McDevitt, and Kelly (2006) performed a study to look at whether iconic gestures aided in the semantic learning of Japanese. Within their study, they observed whether movement in general (termed mismatched gestures), iconic gestures (matched gestures), speech, or repeated speech had the the most positive relationship with written recall of the foreign language. They discovered in their short term study that foreign language learning was aided with the instruction via iconic gestures. There were some limitations to their study, however. Donovan, McDevitt, and Kelly (2006) reported only "twenty-seven adults" as participants taking part in "a 30-minute instructional session on 12 novel Japanese verbs". Further Kelly, McDevitt, and Esch (2007) reported that recall was measured through writing the English translation for each spoken Japanese word (p. 9). While this study does appear to indicate that instruction with iconic gestures is helpful, there is no indication that the students used gestures as a learning strategy for recall.

As gestures have been shown to be tied to spoken language (Pika, Nicoladis, and Marentette, 2006), it may be useful to observe whether there is a relationship between iconic gestures and second language learning when considering for learning styles and strategies.

The proposed study would involve fifty adults who have previously taken the TIPP™ learning styles and temperaments assessment. The TIPP™ Learning Styles assessment has been normed for “ adult men and women, ages 18-72, with face validity results of 98.9%” (Adams, 2001). After obtaining consent to access the results of the assessment for the individuals, they will be randomly assigned to two groups, making sure that there is an equal number of kinesthetic, auditory, and visual students in each group. One group will be taught vocabulary from either the Japanese or Chinese language through auditory and visual instruction. The second group will be taught the same words using iconic gestures. The instruction will take place over two weeks. It is not known at this time how many words will be taught. Nor is it known the exact details of the instruction. At the end of the instruction, the participants will be tested for recall immediately and then after a delay of one week and then two weeks to determine retention. Students will be asked for the English translation verbally and/or the iconic gesture for the learned vocabulary. Data will be gathered from each individual on how many gestures, words, and words plus gestures were made in response to the foreign word.

Two repeated measures ANOVA's will be calculated with the results of this study. The first will determine if and what kind of relationship exists between the ability to recall and the use of iconic gestures. A second will include the participant's learning style as a covariate. The hypothesis is that, in general, the facilitation of iconic gestures has a positive relationship with semantic language learning. A second hypothesis is that the facilitation of iconic gestures has a positive relationship with semantic language learning by those learners who have kinesthetic learning strengths.

Adams, W. (2001). TIPP™ Assessment: Scale and sub-scale blind-test retest reliability study. George Fox University, Portland, OR.

Donovan, K., McDevitt, T., & Kelly, S. D. (May, 2006). Iconic gestures help children and adults learn and remember foreign verbs. Poster presented at the Association for Psychological Science (APS) conference, New York, New York.

Kelly, S. D., McDevitt, T., & Esch, M. (2007). Brief training with iconic gestures lends a hand to word learning in a foreign language. Manuscript submitted for publication.

Pika, S., Nicoladis, E., & Marentette, P. F. (2006). A cross-cultural study on the use of gestures: Evidence for cross-linguistic transfer. Bilingualism: Language and cognition, 9(3), 319-327.