Ava Becker, PhD, MA, BA (hons)

Contact

Assistant Professor, Faculty of Education - Secondary Education Dept

Email: abecker@ualberta.ca

Overview

Area of Study / Keywords

The lived experience of language language and trauma multimodality plurilingualism language ideology qualitative methods language socialization discourse analysis

About

PhD (University of British Columbia)

BA, MA (University of Alberta)

My name is Ava Becker and I’m an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Education at the University of Alberta. My research interests and collaborations have revolved largely around my abiding interest in the intersections of language, migration, and trauma. My graduate research focused on the intergenerational socialization of difficult cultural knowledge as an aspect of Spanish heritage language socialization in the Chilean-Canadian diaspora. In my current projects, I’ve been exploring the use of visual and aural modes in researching people’s lived experiences of language with particular attention to intergenerational trauma, memory, embodiment, and language ideology.

It is my privilege to serve as the elected Secretary for the Canadian Association of Applied linguistics, and as the Secretariat Team Lead for AILA. At the U of A, I am the Coordinator of Second Language Education and the course coordinator for EDSE 307: Language, Literacy and Society in Educational Contexts.

Research

Recent funded projects include:

2025 "Who Cares?": (Teaching) writing through the lens of care ethics in secondary ELA classes (SSHRC Exchange)
2023-2024 From language portraits to language playlists: Charting methodological possibilities with multilingual youth in crisis (SSHRC Explore)
2023-2024 An exploration of music-talk interviews in Spracherleben research with adult heritage speakers (SAS)
2022-2024 A multimodal exploration of care ethics and care writing (Kias-ATA)

Teaching

I am currently the instructor and course coordinator of EDSE 307: Language, Literacy, and Society in Educational Contexts. It is a required course for all students in the secondary education program. EDSE 307 seeks to raise preservice teachers' critical awareness of language as it is used and learned both in and out of schools, with particular attention to supporting emergent bilingual and multilingual students.

Announcements

I am not currently accepting any new doctoral students.

I welcome expressions of interest from graduate students seeking to research topics related to multi- and plurilingualism, language socialization, multimodality, mental health, and (language) education for those hoping to begin their programs in Fall 2027 or later.

Courses

EDSE 307 - Language, Literacy and Society in Educational Contexts

This course examines approaches to developing English language and literacy abilities in learners in secondary school settings. Students will apply concepts and develop teaching strategies to support the literacy practices of all students, including diverse and minority learners. Prerequisites: 9 units in the Major subject area, EDPY 302, EDFX 200, EDU 210, and EDU 211. Successful completion of the on-campus portion of the IPT is required prior to being granted permission to continue into EDFX 350.

Fall Term 2025 Winter Term 2026

EDSE 511 - Research Design in Secondary Education

Designed to enable students to conceptualize and design a thesis proposal for their Master's degree. Prerequisite: EDSE 510 or consent of the program.

Winter Term 2026

EDSE 900 - Research/Capping Exercise

The required capping exercise for the course-based MEd program consists of an in-depth exploration of a particular issue or topic related to students' professional lives. Prerequisite: EDSE 510 or consent of the program.

Winter Term 2026

Browse more courses taught by Ava Becker

“Too Much Earthquakes!”: Imagined Transnationalism and Heritage Language Development Trajectories Two Generations After Exile

Ava Becker

Journal of Language, Identity & Education. 2023 August; 10.1080/15348458.2023.2245028

Review of Guardado, M. (2018). Discourse, ideology and heritage language socialization: Micro and macro perspectives. Walter de Gruyter, pp. 283.

Ava Becker-Zayas

Canadian Journal of Applied Linguistics. 2022 March; 10.37213/cjal.2022.31339

Closing the HIV and AIDS “Information Gap” Between Children and Parents: An Exploration of Makerspaces in a Ugandan Primary School

Maureen Kendrick, Elizabeth Namazzi, Ava Becker-Zayas, Esther Nancy Tibwamulala

Education Sciences. 2020 July; 10.3390/educsci10080193

Book Review: Heritage Language Policies around the World. (2018). Corinne A. Seals and Sheena Shah (Eds.) New York, NY: Routledge

Ava Becker

Heritage Language Journal. 2019 April; 10.46538/hlj.16.1.6

Children’s images of HIV/AIDS in Uganda: What visual methodologies can tell us about their knowledge and life circumstances

Ava Becker-Zayas, Maureen Kendrick, Elizabeth Namazzi

Applied Linguistics Review. 2018 May; 10.1515/applirev-2016-1059

Demographics and Heritage Languages in Canada

Patricia A. Duff, Becker-Zayas Ava

The Routledge Handbook of Heritage Language Education. 2017 March; 10.4324/9781315727974-6

A sociolinguistics of diaspora: Latino practices, identities, and ideologies, edited by R. Márquez Reiter and L. Martín Rojo

Ava Becker-Zayas

Language and Education. 2015 November; 10.1080/09500782.2015.1102276

4. Fostering Heritage Languages and Diasporic Identities: The Role of Grassroots Initiatives in Alberta and British Columbia

Martin Guardado, Ava Becker

Minority Populations in Canadian Second Language Education. 2013 December; 10.21832/9781783090310-006

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