Ava Becker, PhD, MA, BA (hons)
Pronouns: she/her
Contact
Assistant Professor, Faculty of Education - Secondary Education Dept
- 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 course coordinator for EDSE 307: Language, Literacy and Society in Educational Contexts. I am also serving as the Secretariat Team Lead for the A
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.
Featured Publications
Ava Becker
Applied Linguistics Review. 2025 February; 10.1515/applirev-2023-0244
Ava Becker
Transcultural Pedagogies for Multilingual Classrooms. 2024 December; 10.21832/9781800414419-014
Ava Becker-Zayas
Journal of Early Childhood Literacy. 2024 December; 10.1177/14687984221098351
Ava Becker
Journal of Language, Identity & Education. 2023 August; 10.1080/15348458.2023.2245028
Ava Becker-Zayas
Canadian Journal of Applied Linguistics. 2022 March; 10.37213/cjal.2022.31339
Maureen Kendrick, Elizabeth Namazzi, Ava Becker-Zayas, Esther Nancy Tibwamulala
Education Sciences. 2020 July; 10.3390/educsci10080193
Ava Becker
Heritage Language Journal. 2019 April; 10.46538/hlj.16.1.6
Ava Becker-Zayas, Maureen Kendrick, Elizabeth Namazzi
Applied Linguistics Review. 2018 May; 10.1515/applirev-2016-1059
Patricia A. Duff, Becker-Zayas Ava
The Routledge Handbook of Heritage Language Education. 2017 March; 10.4324/9781315727974-6
Ava Becker-Zayas
Language and Education. 2015 November; 10.1080/09500782.2015.1102276
Ava Becker
Education and Culture. 2015 January; 10.1353/eac.2015.0004
Martin Guardado, Ava Becker
Language, Culture and Curriculum. 2014 May; 10.1080/07908318.2014.912658
Ava Becker
Language and Education. 2014 January; 10.1080/09500782.2013.875713
Martin Guardado, Ava Becker
Minority Populations in Canadian Second Language Education. 2013 December; 10.21832/9781783090310-006
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