English for Academic Purposes
My current research is focused on the teaching of English for Academic Purposes. As a EAP instructor, I am especially intrigued by the development of the set of skills that allow academic writers to engage the ideas of others within their own discourse. My goal is finding ways to support the novice academic writers I teach to develop these skills, so that they can appropriately use academic sources to inform their writing.
As part of this interest, I have collaborated in projects that focus on enhancing the learning experience of first-year students in applied science and science; particularly among those who speak English as an additional language. In recent years, these collaborations have led me to work with engineering instructors and computer science education specialists. These experiences have taught me that applied education research may be more impactful and relevant when approached from a multidisciplinay perspective.
At present, I am working with one of my colleagues at Vantage College (Fatimah Mahmood) on a study that looks at how instruction impacts on first-year undergraduate students' to recognize appropriate and inappropriate source use. I am also collaborating with a colleague in the Forestry Department at UBC (Neil Leveridge) on a project that focuses on the effect of different feedback modalities on the language used by writing instructors when they provide constructive feedback.
Teachers' identities
In Mexico, I worked as a teacher educator for over 10 years.This experience led me to realize the multiple struggles that young foreign language teachers need to face to legitimize their position during their formative years and beyond. In my study of teachers' identity, I have taken a poststructuralist stance, understanding identity as a construct intimately related to the forces of social practice. As such, I regard people's identities as fluid, with individuals constantly striving to negotiate the relationship of their own selves with others, in ways that often imply power struggles. This negotiation has a saying in the way teachers approach their work and develop their careers. I believe that understanding how teachers define and develop their professional identities can lead researchers and teachers to co-construct a bottom-up theory of second language teaching and a more sustainable teaching practice.
Narrative discourse
As a qualitative researcher, I collect data in the form of interviews and conversations of my research participants. As an Applied Linguist, I am also interested in the configuration of narrative discourse and how people interactively use it to index their identities, frame their experience, and engage their audience.
Second language learners' beliefs
I am interested in the study of beliefs as context-bound social constructions. My approach is interpretative; thus I do not aim to derive generalizations from my findings. Instead, I focus on describing the perceived reality as it is collaboratively constructed by specific learners and teachers. I believe this type of research is relevant to understand how the inner world of perceptions is interactively connected to teaching and learning practices in specific settings.
One of the aspects of learners' beliefs that particularly intrigues me is their evolution throughout people's learning histories. As individuals interact with different social networks during their lives, their expectations about learning and teaching may change. I hold that we need to develop our understanding of this evolution in order to make foreign/second language pedagogy more relevant.
Publications:
Moder, C.L., Avalos-Rivera, A.D., Horton, H.N., Kinfe, M., Sims P., French, S., & Zhao, Y. (2020). University Academic Writing for International Students: A Usage-based Approach.[Open access texbook]: https://open.library.okstate.edu/internationalcomposition/#main
Avalos-Rivera, A. D. (2020). The role of students in the professional identity negotiations of a Mexican EFL teacher. Journal of Language, Identity & Education, 19(5), 312–326. https://doi.org/10.1080/15348458.2019.1673754
Abelló, J., Avalos-Rivera, A., Montavas, S., Prodanovic, V., & Zappa-Hollman, S. (2018). Use of a roleplaying exercise to illustrate design stakeholder roles in a first-year design course. In 2018 Canadian Engineering Education Association (CEEA-ACEG18) Conf. USE. (1–5).
Avalos-Rivera, A.D. (2018). Professional identity negotiations: Making sense of a first teaching experience. In A.M.E., Díaz de la Garza, & M.L. Gutiérrez Aceves (Eds.), Second Language Teachers’ Identity (pp. 104-122). Tuxtla-Gutiérrez, Mexico: Universidad Autónoma de Chiapas. Online Access
Avalos-Rivera, A. D., & Corcoran, J. (2017). Ser o no ser un hablante nativo del inglés: Creencias ambivalentes e ideología en el imaginario de los profesores de inglés en Brasil y México. Revista mexicana de investigación educativa, 22(75). Available at: http://www.comie.org.mx/documentos/rmie/v22/n075/pdf/75005.pdf
Avalos-Rivera, A.D. (2015). Generating beliefs about the target language and its culture: A study-abroad experience. MEXTESOL Journal, 33(2), 1-20. Available at: http://www.mextesol.net/journal/index.php?page=journal&id_article=726
Herrera-Corona, L., Mendoza-Zaragoza, N., & Avalos-Rivera A.D. (2011). E and b-learning in a developing country: A transdisciplinary perspective. In M. Bhattacharya, N. Mach, & M. Moallem (Eds.), Emerging technologies in learning: Impact on cognition and culture (pp. 269-298). Available at: http://www.aace.org/pubs/
English for Academic Purposes
My current research is focused on the teaching of English for Academic Purposes. As a EAP instructor, I am especially intrigued by the development of the set of skills that allow academic writers to engage the ideas of others within their own discourse. My goal is finding ways to support the novice academic writers I teach to develop these skills, so that they can appropriately use academic sources to inform their writing.
As part of this interest, I have collaborated in projects that focus on enhancing the learning experience of first-year students in applied science and science; particularly among those who speak English as an additional language. In recent years, these collaborations have led me to work with engineering instructors and computer science education specialists. These experiences have taught me that applied education research may be more impactful and relevant when approached from a multidisciplinay perspective.
At present, I am working with one of my colleagues at Vantage College (Fatimah Mahmood) on a study that looks at how instruction impacts on first-year undergraduate students' to recognize appropriate and inappropriate source use. I am also collaborating with a colleague in the Forestry Department at UBC (Neil Leveridge) on a project that focuses on the effect of different feedback modalities on the language used by writing instructors when they provide constructive feedback.
Teachers' identities
In Mexico, I worked as a teacher educator for over 10 years.This experience led me to realize the multiple struggles that young foreign language teachers need to face to legitimize their position during their formative years and beyond. In my study of teachers' identity, I have taken a poststructuralist stance, understanding identity as a construct intimately related to the forces of social practice. As such, I regard people's identities as fluid, with individuals constantly striving to negotiate the relationship of their own selves with others, in ways that often imply power struggles. This negotiation has a saying in the way teachers approach their work and develop their careers. I believe that understanding how teachers define and develop their professional identities can lead researchers and teachers to co-construct a bottom-up theory of second language teaching and a more sustainable teaching practice.
Narrative discourse
As a qualitative researcher, I collect data in the form of interviews and conversations of my research participants. As an Applied Linguist, I am also interested in the configuration of narrative discourse and how people interactively use it to index their identities, frame their experience, and engage their audience.
Second language learners' beliefs
I am interested in the study of beliefs as context-bound social constructions. My approach is interpretative; thus I do not aim to derive generalizations from my findings. Instead, I focus on describing the perceived reality as it is collaboratively constructed by specific learners and teachers. I believe this type of research is relevant to understand how the inner world of perceptions is interactively connected to teaching and learning practices in specific settings.
One of the aspects of learners' beliefs that particularly intrigues me is their evolution throughout people's learning histories. As individuals interact with different social networks during their lives, their expectations about learning and teaching may change. I hold that we need to develop our understanding of this evolution in order to make foreign/second language pedagogy more relevant.
Publications:
Moder, C.L., Avalos-Rivera, A.D., Horton, H.N., Kinfe, M., Sims P., French, S., & Zhao, Y. (2020). University Academic Writing for International Students: A Usage-based Approach.[Open access texbook]: https://open.library.okstate.edu/internationalcomposition/#main
Avalos-Rivera, A. D. (2020). The role of students in the professional identity negotiations of a Mexican EFL teacher. Journal of Language, Identity & Education, 19(5), 312–326. https://doi.org/10.1080/15348458.2019.1673754
Abelló, J., Avalos-Rivera, A., Montavas, S., Prodanovic, V., & Zappa-Hollman, S. (2018). Use of a roleplaying exercise to illustrate design stakeholder roles in a first-year design course. In 2018 Canadian Engineering Education Association (CEEA-ACEG18) Conf. USE. (1–5).
Avalos-Rivera, A.D. (2018). Professional identity negotiations: Making sense of a first teaching experience. In A.M.E., Díaz de la Garza, & M.L. Gutiérrez Aceves (Eds.), Second Language Teachers’ Identity (pp. 104-122). Tuxtla-Gutiérrez, Mexico: Universidad Autónoma de Chiapas. Online Access
Avalos-Rivera, A. D., & Corcoran, J. (2017). Ser o no ser un hablante nativo del inglés: Creencias ambivalentes e ideología en el imaginario de los profesores de inglés en Brasil y México. Revista mexicana de investigación educativa, 22(75). Available at: http://www.comie.org.mx/documentos/rmie/v22/n075/pdf/75005.pdf
Avalos-Rivera, A.D. (2015). Generating beliefs about the target language and its culture: A study-abroad experience. MEXTESOL Journal, 33(2), 1-20. Available at: http://www.mextesol.net/journal/index.php?page=journal&id_article=726
Herrera-Corona, L., Mendoza-Zaragoza, N., & Avalos-Rivera A.D. (2011). E and b-learning in a developing country: A transdisciplinary perspective. In M. Bhattacharya, N. Mach, & M. Moallem (Eds.), Emerging technologies in learning: Impact on cognition and culture (pp. 269-298). Available at: http://www.aace.org/pubs/