The Thursday "Brown Bag" Lecture Series takes place on Thursdays from 12:00pm to 1:15pm.
Presentation slots for Spring 2026 are still available: those interested in presenting should contact Brown Bag Coordinator Betsy Gilliland at egillila(at)hawaii(dot)edu.
Unless otherwise noted, all talks will be held in person in Moore 258 (from April 9); a Zoom option is available for all in-person talks, with links sent to mailing lists the Monday of the week of the talk. If you did not receive a link to register, please email sls(at)hawaii(dot)edu.
Starred (*) talks are internal to SLS faculty, staff, and students.
The following dates and talks are tentative, and are updated regularly.
Thursday, January 15
Writing for Publication and Managing Your Writing Process
Dr. Betsy Gilliland, Professor and Department Chair, UH: Mānoa
This workshop-format session is intended for both new and continuing graduate students. I will share ideas and help you develop a plan for managing your writing process, whether you are working on course papers, a dissertation, or a journal article. I will then provide an overview of the publication process and offer some tips for getting started with writing an article for publication and how to carry the project through to final published form. Spoiler alert: there's no silver bullet, but anyone can succeed with some discipline!
Thursday, January 22
Language and Young People in Conflict with the Law
Dr. Jeannette Schaeffer, Professor and Former Visiting Colleague, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Evidence suggests that unmet language needs may be associated with broader life challenges, including poor literacy, school drop-out, and challenging behavior (Cross 2007; Gross 2011; Hartshorne 2011; ATLAS 2024). Building on this, this talk’s central premises and claim are as follows:
- Complex language presents challenges for young people with language needs
- Young people with language needs are over-represented in the criminal justice system
- Effective participation in criminal justice requires complex language skills
→ Unrecognized and unmet language needs threaten the right to a fair trial.
While the prevalence of language needs worldwide is around 10% (Norbury et al. 2016), this figure exceeds 65% in young people in conflict with the law (YPCL) (Bryan et al. 2007; 2015). These needs include Developmental Language Disorder, but may also arise from deafness, multilingualism, varied educational backgrounds, or neurodevelopmental disorders. When unrecognized and unsupported, such language needs increase the risk of re-offending (Winstanley et al. 2021).
Given that children with language difficulties struggle with complex linguistic structures, we discuss two ongoing studies on the syntactic complexity of language in criminal justice proceedings, which YPCL are expected to understand. These studies are conducted within the European COST Action 22139 “Justice to Youth Language needs”, which brings together researchers working across 20+ languages, including many under-researched eastern European languages.
Preliminary findings indicate that complex syntactic structures such as wh- questions, relatives, conditionals, passives and recursive clausal embeddings frequently occur in police interviews and legal texts conveying youth suspects’ rights, as illustrated in (1) and (2).
(1) Tell the police if you want to consult with a solicitor wherever you are to be interviewed.
(Home Office England & Wales 2018)
(2) En wat vind je ervan dat X nu aangifte heeft gedaan waar ook jouw naam in wordt genoemd?
and what find you there-from that X now declaration has done where also your name in gets called
“And what do you think of the fact that X has now filed a report in which your name is being mentioned as well?”
(Fleetwood-Bird 2025)
These findings raise concerns about YPCL’s ability to fully participate in criminal justice proceedings, and ultimately, about their right to a fair trial.
Wednesday, January 28
Corpus Research: Intersections across SLS & Industry
Dr. Susanne DeVore, Lecturer, College of Education, UH: Mānoa
This presentation discusses learner corpus research on Mandarin learner writing and its intersections with industry research. It highlights key findings from research on the relationship between syntactic complexity and sophistication measures and their relationship to writing proficiency. It then turns to processes of development, specifically focusing on testing Network Science and its ability to capture and quantify L2 writing development in a holistic way. Throughout, it discusses how learner corpus research methods have been applied in a variety of industry settings and in turn how work in industry has influenced learner corpus research.
Thursday, February 5
Leveraging LLMs in Learner Corpus Research
Dr. Hakyung Sung, Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology, Rochester Institute of Technology
Second language (L2) learner corpus research examines how L2 learners use language by analyzing representative samples of spoken and/or written texts. Natural language processing (NLP) focuses on computational methods to process and analyze linguistic data at scale. These two domains naturally intersect in their shared goal of empirically modeling L2 use. Recent advances in NLP, particularly large language models (LLMs), enable researchers to extract linguistic features that have been difficult to capture and to extend analyses to under-explored learner corpora. In this talk, I illustrate this potential through two applications: (1) modeling usage patterns of argument structure constructions in an L2-English corpus and (2) developing NLP pipelines for L2-Korean research. More broadly, I suggest that meaningful progress in learner corpus research depends not on technology alone, but on its integration with linguistic theory, analytical frameworks, and long-term investment in high-quality annotated data.
Tuesday, February 10
Second Language Corpus Linguistics in Practice: Analysis, Annotation, Compilation, and Pedagogical Applications
Dr. Minjin Kim, Instructor, Department of Modern Languages, University of Mississippi
How can learner language data be transformed into robust linguistic evidence and actionable pedagogical insight? This talk presents an integrated approach to second language corpus linguistics that addresses this question by connecting corpus analysis, annotation, compilation, and pedagogical application. Drawing on my research, I show how quantitative and linguistic analyses of learner corpus capture variation in learner language across time, tasks, learner populations, and linguistic features. I address methodological issues across the corpus analysis pipeline, including rule-based preprocessing and large language models as structured, interpretable tools for linguistic tagging. I also articulate principles for compiling learner corpora with standardized tasks, rich metadata, and designs aligned with analytical goals. Finally, I demonstrate how corpus data can directly inform pedagogical design through AI-mediated instructional tools. I conclude by outlining future directions that extend this work across learner populations and instructional contexts, positioning corpus linguistics as a bridge between theory, methodology, and pedagogy.
Thursday, February 12*
Developing a Sustainable Exchange Program Between UHM and Ehime University, Japan
Dr. Dongping Zheng, Associate Professor, Dept. of Second Language Studies, UH: Mānoa; Dr. Chika Takahashi, Professor and Azuki Miyoshi, Yuria Sakai, Haruka Toshishige, Yuta Yamane, Haruki Yamashita, Students, Ehime University
This presentation focuses on the past, present, and future academic exchanges between the Department of Second Language Studies, UHM, and Ehime University, Japan—one of UHM’s partner universities. Since 2019, various types of exchanges have been developed including Ehime University students’ visit to SLS in 2019, regular online exchanges since 2021, a shared online class between SLS250 (instructors: Dr. Dongping Zheng) and an Ehime University’s upper-level course open to all faculties in 2025, and a summer English-teaching internship program at Ehime University for UHM students in 2025. Furthermore, currently an agreement allowing for an official student exchange program between the two universities are being discussed. In this talk, the presenters will discuss some keys to successful academic exchanges as well as future opportunities for UHM students. Ehime student presenters will introduce Ehime University, reflect on their exchange experiences, and encourage UHM students to participate in future programs.
*Zoom only
Thursday, February 19
Developmental trends of lexico-grammatical complexity in L2-English writing
Taehyeong (Terry) Kim, PhD Candidate in Applied Linguistics, Department of English, Northern Arizona University
In this talk, I introduce corpus linguistics as an empirical approach to investigating language use. As an illustration of how corpus linguistics can be applied to answer questions of relevance to Applied Linguistics, I present my dissertation project on lexico-grammatical complexity in L2-English writing and propose directions for future research. Despite growing evidence that lexis and grammar are deeply interconnected in actual language use, studies on the development of grammatical (or syntactic) complexity in L2-English writing have largely disregarded lexis. Thus, it may be the case that we only have a partial understanding of L2-English writing development. The present study explores this possibility empirically by investigating the developmental trends of L2-English lexico- grammatical complexity in a large multi-level, multi-register corpus that spans L2-English from the beginner level all the way to the professional level. The findings show distinctive and functionally motivated developmental patterns where lexis interacts with grammar.
Thursday, February 26
Addressing Global Englishes in the English Language Classroom: Activities, Techniques and Resources from SLS 730
Dr. Dustin Crowther, Associate Professor and SLS 730 Instructor; Lazzat Anefiya, Robert Cunningham, Ces Jocson, Matthew Kakimi, Ayano Kawasaki, Seungeun Lee, Emma Mason, Anne McCarrey, Alex Tang, and Annabelle Walters, SLS 730 Students
The increased global usage of English has understandably led to greater emphasis on how English is addressed in both second (e.g., U.K., U.S.) and foreign (e.g., China, Brazil) language learning contexts. Traditional models of English language teaching draw upon native English speaking (NES) norms, such as those characteristic of ‘American’ or ‘British’ English. However, pedagogical conceptualizations framed within English as an international language (EIL) or English as a lingua franca (ELF) have questioned a primary reliance on NES norms, and instead have emphasized exposing learners to English varieties, teaching communicative strategies, raising cultural awareness, and understanding the politics of global English usage. This presentation, provided by the students of SLS 730: Global Englishes Pedagogies, offers a variety of ways in which Global Englishes might be implemented through various classroom activities, teaching techniques, and teacher resources.
Thursday, March 5
Improvisation for Spontaneous Speaking in the EAP Classroom (TESOL Practice Talk)
Gabriella Sosnowski, MA Student, Dept. of Second Language Studies, UH: Mānoa
This session explores how improvisational activities may support EAP learners’ self-efficacy in spontaneous speaking. Based on classroom research, the presenter shares emerging findings, student reflections, and sample tasks that illustrate how improv-based speaking work can reduce hesitation, encourage risk taking, and strengthen real-time communicative ability.
Thursday, March 12
AAAL Practice Talks
Seungeun Lee, PhD Student, Dept. of Second Language Studies, UH: Mānoa
Jia Kang, PhD Student, Dept. of Second Language Studies, UH: Mānoa
Comprehensibility and speech modification in L1-L2 and L2-L2 communication
Seungeun Lee
The interactionist approach in applied linguistics suggests that speakers may adjust their speech when communication breakdowns occur, aiming to resolve misunderstandings (Gass & Mackey, 2020). Drawing on this framework, the present study explores how the perceived comprehensibility (ease of understanding) of an interlocutor influences speakers’ speech modifications, with consideration of speaker proficiency. While L1 speakers’ adjustments for low-proficiency interlocutors are well-documented (e.g., Gass & Varonis, 1985), little is known about how L2 speakers adjust their speech when engaging with interlocutors of varying proficiency. To address this gap, the present study investigates how comprehensibility relates to speech modifications made by speakers of different proficiency levels in both same- and mixed-proficiency dyads. 128 speech samples were collected from 32 English speakers affiliated with a U.S. university, including L1 and L2 speakers enrolled in undergraduate, academic English, or intensive English programs. Participants completed four information gap tasks with a same-proficiency partner and three partners of different proficiency levels, then rated their partners’ speech for comprehensibility. After the transcribed speech was coded for complexity, accuracy, and fluency (CAF) (Crowther et al., 2023; Peltonen, 2017), mixed-effects regressions and visualizations were conducted to examine the effects of speaker proficiency and partner comprehensibility. Regression analysis revealed a significant interaction between speaker proficiency and partner comprehensibility on the CAF feature of speakers’ speech. Specifically, low-proficiency speakers showed lower lexical diversity when their partners seemed more comprehensible, whereas high-proficiency speakers exhibited the opposite pattern. Additional regression and exploratory visualization showed that partner comprehensibility affects other CAF features, such as speech rate, differently across proficiency levels. These findings underscore the role of comprehensibility in how speakers of different proficiency levels modify their speech for successful interaction. Furthermore, they contribute to the deeper understanding of the dynamic natures of real-life communication, warranting further research on comprehensibility and speech in dialogic settings.
Instruction Delivery in Online Psycholinguistic Experiments
Jia Kang
Gabriele Kasper, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa
Psycholinguistic experiments contribute significantly to disciplinary knowledge in SLA (Roberts, 2012). An extensive methodological literature describes experimental technologies, design options, and data treatments, and considers their suitability to address a wide range of research questions on L2 processing and knowledge (Phakiti, 2014; Schmid, 2016). At the same time, the activity structures of laboratory experiments differ markedly from participants’ everyday experience and therefore require specific instruction and training (Deschambault, 2018). The participants’ practical grasp of the experimental protocol is critical for the production of data that counts as valid and reliable in the research tradition, yet little is known about how pre-experimental instruction is delivered in situ.
To address this question, our study builds on ethnomethodological and conversation-analytic investigations of methodography (Greiffenhagen et al., 2011; Kasper & Ross, 2018), instruction delivery (e.g., Lindwall et al., 2015; Olbertz-Siitonen & Piirainen-Marsh, 2023), and video-mediated interaction (e.g., Luff et al., 2003; Nielsen, 2019). Data are drawn from a larger corpus of video-mediated dyadic pre-experimental instructions for psycholinguistic experiments in Korean and English. The selected experiment, conducted by three experimenters and 51 participants, examines priming effects of case markers in Korean sentence planning. Multimodal conversation analysis (Mondada, 2019) reveals that instruction delivery and understanding displays are accomplished as ensembles of bodily conduct, digital resources, and linguistic action formats. Instruction delivery is calibrated to the ongoing activity phase, from generalized instruction based on on screen written prompts in the initial task explanation to correction and elaboration in response to the participants’ performance in the practice phase. Even after participants successfully complete the practice run, experimenters provide model responses, contrastive examples, and further task explanations. In this way they treat the progressivity of the experiment as secondary to participants’ compliance with the experimental procedure and the goal to generate data consistent with the logic of the experiment.
Thursday, March 19
NO TALK SCHEDULED
Spring Break
Thursday, March 26
NO TALK SCHEDULED
Kuhio Day
Thursday, April 2 (held in conjunction with Multi‘ōlelo)
Introducing a web-based resource for Global Englishes
Kenny Harsch, Retired ELI Director and Undergraduate Coordinator, Dept. of Second Language Studies
This talk introduces “Teaching and Materials with a Global Englishes Focus,” a website designed as a resource for teachers of English who want to learn about Global Englishes (GE) and infuse it into their classes. GE brings together and adds to the ideas studied by World Englishes (WE), English as a Lingua Franca (ELF), and English as an International Language (EIL), focusing on developing effective multilingual communicators in global contexts. It serves as an antithesis to native speakerism and standard language ideology, which have dominated English language teaching and learning for decades.
Thursday, April 9
Web Presence for Academics
Dr. Daniel Isbell, Associate Professor, Dept. of Second Language Studies, UH: Mānoa
Researcher identifiers, bibliometric profiles, personal websites, social media... there are lots of ways for an academic to be on the web! Where do you actually need to be, and how should you present yourself as an academic online? This professional development session focuses on establishing an appropriate web presence for academics in second language studies, applied linguistics, and related fields. Bring a laptop to interact with example platforms/profiles and get started on building (or growing) your own web presence.
Thursday, April 16
Open for Presentations
Thursday, April 23
“Don’t You Come to Me with This” : Constructing and Resisting Patrilineal Jewish Narratives
Caroline Zuckerman, AGC Graduate and Whitten Award Winner, Dept. of Second Language Studies, UH: Mānoa
This paper analyzes how young adults with a Jewish father co-construct stories about intermarriage and Jewish identity during two in-person focus group sessions. Although 62% of Jewish married adults are currently married to someone outside the community (Pew Research Center, 2020), intermarriage remains stigmatized within many American Jewish communities. Early research suggests that those with a Jewish father, also known as patrilineal Jews, may face additional challenges, given that their surnames mark them as Jewish and they may experience antisemitism, yet they may also face exclusion from Jewish communities that adhere to the matrilineal principle, which stipulates that only children born to Jewish mothers are Jewish. This project seeks to understand how young adult patrilineal Jews, who came of age amidst evolving institutional intermarriage policies and discourses, narratively construct their identities in relation to those who share their background, including the researcher. Drawing on the “small stories” paradigm and positioning theory, this paper presents a typology of stories that emerged during focus group sessions, and analyzes select stories that contain significant co-tellership or led to a second story, indicating shared stance and allowing for the theorization of what makes a story “Jewish” and/or “patrilineal.” This paper ultimately argues that the focus group offers a dynamic space for individuals with a contested identity to build solidarity, intervene in master narratives about intermarriage, and position themselves, and their stories, as both Jewish and patrilineal.