Visiting scholar Dr. Jia Li will give a talk titled “Multiculturalism, Critical Culture Awareness, Open Educational Resources (OER) and English Instruction: Connecting Canadian and Hong Kong University Students through Teleconferencing and Online Discussion Platforms” for the Applied Linguistics Spring Colloquium. This free, public talk is on Friday, April 26 from 3:30 – 5 p.m. in Education Room 3209 on the UC Santa Barbara Campus.
Facing an increasingly diverse student population, the surge of cultural information via mass and social media, and the ability to connect globally, how can educators help learners develop critical cultural awareness and information literacy, and specifically culturally relevant curriculum for second language (L2) learners? In a broader framework, this talk discusses the research literature using teleconferencing to support instruction for learners across linguistic and cultural backgrounds. It reports on a research project between Canadian and Hong Kong university students engaged in tasks in developing authentic English teaching materials using multimedia OERs through synchronous and asynchronous online platforms.
Dr. Jia Li is a John A. Sproul Research Fellow at Berkeley Language Center and Canadian Studies Program in 2018-2019. She was a Canada-US. Fulbright Research Scholar in Harvard Graduate School of Education in 2011-2012 and is presently an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Education of the University of Ontario Institute of Technology. As an applied linguist and researcher in language and literacy education, Dr. Li’s research focuses on bridging culturally and linguistically students’ academic language, literacy and academic achievement gaps in urban school boards in Canada and US, such as Boston Public Schools, the Toronto District School Board, Indigenous communities as well as in North American universities.