Browsing by Author "Chen, Danni"

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    A Collaborative Instructor and TA Approach to Online Teaching and Learning
    (2021-05-05) Delanoy, Nadia; Chen, Danni
    This vignette presents the reflections of Instructor Dr. Nadia Delanoy and Teaching Assistant (TA) Danni Chen on a semester-long collaborative approach to teaching and learning. We hope this reflection provides insight into the attitudes towards collaboration between instructor and TA. In the following, we outline our collaboration in the graduate course, EDER 619.89 Inclusive Education - A Shared Responsibility, the changes implemented with the class, and demonstrate how our collaboration contributed to continuous improvements to the student learning experience.
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    Am I Being Framed to Fit? English as Additional Language Learners’ Critical Perspectives on Western Academic Cultural Representation in Textbooks
    (2024-04-29) Chen, Danni; Hanson, Aubrey J.; Bhowmik, Subrata; Callaghan, Tonya D.
    English for Additional Language (EAL) textbooks have traditionally served as a primary resource for language learners to receive language input. These textbooks help learners become acquainted with the linguistic aspects of the language, as well as the cultural elements inherent in the English language. However, it is important to note that the language used in EAL textbooks to represent cultures is not neutral and is socially constructed within complex power relations. This study critically examines how two EAL textbooks, used in Canadian higher education, use language to represent Western academic cultures. It also explores the extent to which learners' academic community interactions have been addressed. By conducting Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) with EAL learners, this study explores the qualitative manner in which features of Western academic cultures are revered and legitimized in two EAL textbooks used in Canadian higher education. The findings show that the EAL textbooks, rooted in different ideologies such as standard language ideology and linguistic imperialism, promote the values, characteristics, and practices of the dominant Western academic culture as a skill set, while excluding other academic cultures and positioning learners as deficient. This study contributes to promoting critical language awareness in English language education and provides insights for teachers and students to question the ideology, norms, and values that are present in curriculum artifacts, such as language textbooks, in order to build a more inclusive and equal learning environment. Additionally, textbook designers and publishers could use the findings to inform future textbook iterations.
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    How do international students reconstruct their identity as readers when they transition into Canadian post-secondary education?
    (Language & Literacy, 2023-08-19) Chen, Danni; Hanson, Aubrey Jean
    Recognizing the cultural transitions Chinese international students undergo as readers in the Canadian higher education system, this study explores the difficulties encountered by four Chinese students and uncovers how they experienced, responded to, and transformed in a new cultural reading environment. Focusing on the notion of a reader’s identity, this study uses narrative inquiry to show how participants’ readers identities are reconstructed in a new cultural reading environment. It concludes that readers’ identities reflect readers’ different cultural memberships. As international students crossing cultural boundaries, their identities as readers shape how they interpret and understand the meaning of reading materials.
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    How do International Students Reconstruct their Identity as Readers when they Transition into Canadian Post-Secondary Education?
    (2019-01-22) Chen, Danni; Hanson, Aubrey Jean; Lund, Darren E.; Xie, Shaobo
    With increased numbers of Chinese international students in the Canadian higher education system and their growing needs to transition into a new cultural reading environment, this study endeavours to explore the difficulties that four Chinese students encountered, and figure out how they experienced, responded to, and transformed to a new cultural reading environment. With data from semi-structured interviews and journal entries, this study brings each individual participant’s experiences, perceptions, and feelings of reading in English to the fore. I analyzed participants’ unique experiences in order to understand their reading difficulties and readers’ identities. Through these examinations, this study shows that participants’ identities as readers are reconstructed in a new cultural reading environment, based upon their Chinese culture, academic fields, a new English cultural background, and their personalities. Moreover, data analysis reveals that, while reading in English, participants constructed the meaning of different language reading materials through the different lens of their identities as readers. Based on my findings, second language reading is discussed regarding the second language reader’s cultures and identities. The present study highlights the importance of social dimensions in second language reading. It concludes that readers’ identities reflect readers’ different cultural memberships. As Chinese international student cross cultural boundaries, their identities as readers shape how they interpret and understand the meaning of reading materials. When readers apply different reader’s identities while reading, they have the potential to interpret reading materials differently.