Alexander Suyanto is the recipient for this year’s Best Graduate Student Paper Award for for his talk on “Multilingual Trajectories: Learner Investment in German as an Additional Language” at this year’s German Studies Canada Conference / Conférence d’études Allemandes Canada.
Since 1961, German Studies Canada / Études Allemandes Canada (GSC/ÉAC) has been the association for people teaching and researching German Studies within transdisciplinary contexts in Canada. The GSC Conference is held every other year and features papers presenting original, unpublished research on any topic or period of German-language literature, cinema, cultural studies, German language and language pedagogy.
This year’s GSC Conference, held in Edmonton from May 20th to May 22nd, centred around the theme of Imagining a Culture and Discipline of Care and Community, in line with Alexander’s current research project, which explores the language learning processes and experiences of former undergraduate students who learned German after English. Like Alexander, the three individuals who participated in his project grew up speaking one or more languages other than English at home, formally acquired English at school, and then decided to learn German as an additional language. This research can help us understand why students who seem new to the German language and culture would commit themselves to learning German as an additional language and thereby allow us to imagine and make the field of German Studies more relevant, accessible, and equitable for everyone, especially students of colour.
This presentation is a snapshot of Alexander’s ongoing MA thesis, which he plans to defend this summer. Alexander would like to thank his supervisor, Dr. Caroline Rieger (CENES), as well as Drs. Bonny Norton (LLED), Patricia Duff (LLED), David Gramling (CENES), and Thomas Kemple (CENES) for their additional support. In addition, he gratefully acknowledges the three individuals who participated in his study, as well as funding from the CENES department and from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council.
