Crow Spotlight: Recent Wins!

The Crowbirds have had a very busy Spring with many celebrations in store for all their hard work. As the 2023-24 academic year comes to a close, we here at Crow would like to celebrate the recent accomplishments from all across our organization!

CCCC Research Initiative Funded!

The Conference on College Composition and Communication Research Initiative has funded “Understanding Community College Instructors’ Perceptions of Corpus-informed Writing Instruction.” The grant will provide $5,250 in funding to allow Crow researchers to support our Cascadia College partner Robyn Ferret in expanding the role of corpus-informed instruction in classes at Cascadia. Shelley Staples led this effort for Crow, with Randi Reppen and Bradley Dilger.

Anh Dang, University of Arizona

Anh Dang, Second language Acquisition and Teaching Program, received a Social and Behavioral Sciences Research Institute (SBSRI) Dissertation Research Grant.

Anh’s research focuses on understanding the experiences and perspectives of writing instructors in creating and implementing corpus-based materials for their writing classrooms. Through a series of workshops, surveys, and classroom observations, Anh examines 1) how instructors learn, design, and implement corpus-based instruction in a collaborative environment; 2) how to better inform future models of corpus-based training based on the needs of instructors; and 3) how to promote future applications of culturally and linguistically responsive practices in writing classrooms.

Hui Wang, University of Arizona

Hui Wang, Second Language Acquisition and Teaching Program, received a Tilly Warnock Fellowship for summer dissertation funding.

Hui’s work aims to analyze the non-specialist instructors’ understanding of corpus-based pedagogy before, during, and after they implement corpus-based materials in L2 writing classes. The corpus-based materials in this study were developed using our learning corpus, Crow. Data from surveys, semi-structure interviews, final reflection, and journal logs will be collected before, during, and after instructors’ implementation in Spring 2024. The coding results will be compared to investigate the evolution and trajectory of non-specialist instructors’ understanding of corpus-based pedagogy. The study can also provide insight into future corpus-based material design and implementation in various teaching contexts.

Wei Xu, University of Arizona

Wei, fourth from the right, hands clasped, receiving her award

Wei Xu, Second Language Acquisition and Teaching Doctoral Program, received the 2024 CCCC Scholars for the Dream Travel Award.

Wei’s work explores how Second Language Writing (SLW) teachers perceive the use of AI tools, featured by ChatGPT, in their classrooms. The result from the analyses of survey and interview data suggests that SLW teachers hold mixed attitudes towards the incorporation of ChatGPT in their classrooms. The SLW teachers’ perceived affordances, risks, ethical concerns, and positioning of ChatGPT in pedagogy are presented. Based on the study results, pedagogical implications and future research avenues are also discussed.

Along with the CCCC award, Wei has also received the Difference and Inequality Teaching Award from the University of Arizona Writing Program.

Bernard B. Cassie, University of Arizona

Bernard B. Cassie has received the University of Arizona Fellowship, which is granted to the highest-ranking incoming graduate students at UA through the University Fellows Award.

Bernard has received the award upon his acceptance to pursue a doctoral degree in Second Language Acquisition and Teaching at UA.