The battle of the testers

I am back from AAAL and still am a little in shock with the confrontational nature of the conference. It is so different from CALICO. The highlight of the conference was the plenary talk by Lyle Bachman which sparked much controversy, discussion, and emotions. It was entertaining to watch all the big names in the field go up and comment/ask questions/express their disagreement/etc. The following few colloquia and plenary talks appeared to all have implicit and explicit commentary in response to Lyle Bachman's talk. It was entertaining. The basic issue was the question of whether or not what we do has real-world impact and whether or not it is needed. Bachman's position was we need it and we do not have it. Those that do a lot of activitist work were offended by his general statement that applied linguists ignore the impact they could have. And I bet some of the people who do more laboratory or theory-building research were frustrated with the devalueing and disrepsecting of their research. Others were frustrated by his general call for activism since not all fields within applied linguistics lend themselves equally for such work, and furthermore such work does not have an adequate support structure in the profession.
Personally, I thought it was timely to say that all people in all kinds of professions need to think about how they can make a difference in their communities. It's just a matter of defining what community means and how big difference has to be before it can be considered difference. I have three big ideas that could have an impact on the community, but I am not sure how my insititutional structure and my status at the institution goes with my crazy ideas.

Cultural Differences

One of my CALICO-friends and I were just talking about the different cultures at AAAL and CALICO. We notice this every year. CALICO is so intimate and friendly, and AAAL often seems so huge and because of that probably more a place to show off what you know rather than working together to further research. Still inspiring, but the tone is very different. But at the end of the day AAAL is still way way friendlier than some of the other conferences I have attended in other places and in other fields, so I think as applied linguists we are a friendly bunch, just the bigger the venue, the more formal things get. But I am happy to report that so far I have seen good presentation at AAAL. I actually got really lucky at CALICO and only saw one mediocre presentation and all others were really great. So, AAAL has a lot to live up to. But now I am going to the Keynote by Bialystok so that should be great - I just saw her present two weeks ago in Tucson, AZ.
On a completely different note, I am also pleased about how many presenters brought their families along. It's great to see researchers who are also involved family members. I am with out family this time.

SLS Symposium

Come join us for the SLS Symposium.

Midterm Review - oops....

Some of my friends are currently going through the waiting period of either tenure or midterm review. It looks like a very unfun process - even when it goes well. Since I had a baby in my first semester, I requested that my tenure clock be stopped for a year, which was approved in 2007. According to the revised schedule I did not have to turn in my midterm portfolio in October 2008 but rather October 2009. But somewhere in the process of reviewing the midterm portfolios this year someone noticed that mine was missing. The logical conclusion would be that I have found work elsewhere and will be leaving the university or that I should be terminated. In times of tough budgets, that would actually be good news for the university. But I neither wish to leave nor wish for my contract to be terminated. I simply have another six months before I have to turn in my portfolio due to the extension. Somehow the records for this disappeared. This would all be fairly easily clear-up-able if I had actually taken parental leave or medical leave at which point the extension would have been automatic. But since I did not, I had to get special permission. It seems to me that when you are dumb enough to not take parental and medical leave, you should get the extra year for sure. But oh well.... In any case, the absence of the approval form caused quite the panic. It was eventually found and we can now all stay calm until October when I actually have to turn in my Midterm Portfolio. And then the waiting can begin.... The waiting is what gets to me. I am a control-freak and when I cannot control the situation, I go insane. So, next year and then the year when my tenure portfolio is being reviewed should be an interesting emotional roller-coaster. My grand master plan is to be the Resident Director for the Freiburg Program during the year my tenure portfolio is being reviewed, so that I am simply not here to watch the silence. It would also allow my son to complete first grade in Germany, which would be really cool and it would keep my mom busy who would be at the beginning of her retirement. It just would be an overall great plan. Except for the fact that I don't have seniority for the position. Oops, again....

CALICO

I have been learning lots of great things at CALICO. It is always a lot of fun to see what's new and catch up with people. The most inspiring was probably a session conducted on the intersect of SLA Theoery and CALL by Scott Payne, Bryan Smith, Steve Thorne, and Leo Van Lier. The presentation and the discussion were very interesting, once again showed how much more we have to learn. There have also been some great practical session such as he one conducted by Nike Arnold, Lara Ducate, and Gillian Lord, because it gave a great list of links. Unfortunately I missed seeing more details about the projects by Jonathan Reinhard, Julie Sykes, and Steve Thorne. There work on gaming is very innovative. In addition to the presentations, I also found a cool program at the Showcase that helps CALL students to evaluate software by Claire Bradin Siskin. As always I appreciated hearing the ICALL work by Mat Schulze and Trude Heift, even though it is way above my head. But I think it is very important work and I am gald to see that this year's winner of the Outstanding Graduate Student Award was a ICALLer, Peter Wood. Of course I was also super excited that Paula Winke and I received the Outstanding Article of the Year Award. The workshops, the board meeting, the conference, and the venue were excellent. It was nice to be in the sun and with great people.

PPT about doing research

This is from the editors of Language Learning and Teaching about conducting and publishing research. This might be helpful. Click here for the PPT.

Massaging data

I am in a workshop on CMC data massaging lead by Bryan Smith and Scott Payne. Julie Sykes is sitting next to me and she is twittering her students, so I thought I would blog for mine. We are learning how to use FileMaker Pro to create relational databases. Of course as always in technology classes/presentations/courses, we have had our share of technology problems. Nonetheless it will be great, because it will safe tons of time. This might help me finally deal with my huge pool of data from my dissertation.

Stopping Time and Getting Funding

So, I figured out how to stop time and get funding for travel. Since our travel support doesn't even cover one conference, let alone the two or three I attend per year, we are always looking for additional funding sources. And of course everyone is always looking for a way to stop time to catch up on all the things that never make it past the bottom of the to-d0-list because of all the normal fires and urgencies. Today, I figured out how to both.
When I checked in for my flight yesterday, the computer told me that it was overbooked and I could put in a bid to get a voucher in exchange for the seat. I could even set the amount. So, I figured I take the amount that I paid for the ticket (that's what I did for AAAL and it is getting me to AAAL this year). I also flew out of DTW instead of LAN because it was a lot cheaper. And then I decided to take the bus - which is awesome because it has wireless internet. So I caught up with all the grading in one course by the time I got to the airport. Then I did some more data processing, reviewed some proposals and went to the gate. At the gate I found out that I was first on the list and could fly out 7 hours later first class. So, that's the plan now. CALICO flight next year is now co-sponsored. I have graded everything for my other course. Now I started course preparation for when I get back. I have 3 more hours left and then 4 hours on the plane. Thanks for the nice warning at check-in, I packed accordingly (extra food, extra clothes, lots of things to work on).
I like this new genius plan. I just don't want that on my red eye back, because I am already flying into my birthday.... But it's the end of Spring break and a popular destination that I am coming from......Now I must eat.