Almost 20 English department graduate students presented work at the recent Graduate Student Showcase. This event is a one-day conference showcasing Colorado State University’s graduate student research and creative work. We are so proud of the students who presented their work, (read more about their projects here: http://english.colostate.edu/2015/02/graduate-student-showcase/). Two projects won awards:
CEDAR BRANT (Undergraduate Choice Award, Creative, 2nd Place)
Department: English, MFA Creative Writing
The Hidden Hinge: Mapping Memory and Myth through Poetry: Both science and poetry are organizational nets that I place over the erratic natural and emotional worlds and begin to track patterns, growth, and unlikely relationships. I explore the movement between external and internal experience of place, using landscape as a lens to the more difficult-to-access inner emotional world. I’m compelled by poems as a manifestation of memory and myth unearthed from the body, and as a subconscious compass that informs our actions. Using the tools of language and imagery of landscape, I seek to navigate the process of symbolic transformation through poetic storytelling.
JOHN WHALEN, ALHASSANE ALI DROUHAMANE, and NATE WILL (Undergraduate Choice Award, Research, 3rd place)
(John Whalen) Department: English, MA English/TEFL/TESL
(Alhassane Ali Drouhamane) Department: English, MA English/TEFL/TESL
(Nate Will) Department: English and Foreign Languages, MA English/TEFL/TESL and MA Languages, Literatures, and Culture/Spanish
The Utilization of Web-based Resources for Computer Assisted Vocabulary Learning: Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL) plays an important role in the field of teaching English as a second language. However, increasing specialization within the field means that CALL resources are sometimes perceived as accessible only to specialized researchers. This presentation will outline a recent migration of CALL technologies into accessible, web-based platforms and discuss how three CALL websites in particular, Vocab Sushi, Storybird, and ESLVideo.com, can be incorporated into an existing ESL classroom with minimal teacher training. An example syllabus will be modified for illustration, and the benefits to teachers and students will be discussed.