Want to make creations as awesome as this one?

Transcript

Introduction to Dissertation

Anja Stumpf

be aware of self- plagiarism

Your Dissertation
  • the most extensive writing within your MA
  • final piece of work
  • 12000 words (+/- 10%)
  • an opportunity to research a topic that is of interest to you personally
  • may be connected to a previous course/ assignment

introduction

  • keep supervisor/ admin informed about about any issues or problems that might affect your work
  • suggest and schedule meetings
  • maintain contact
  • send documents in time (about 2-3 days before a meeting)

Your responsibilities

what to expect

Supervisor responsibilities

  • mark dissertations
  • arrange meetings
  • be in touch with administration
  • find approprate methods
  • suggest readings
  • to read work that you send
  • provide feedback

Meeting report form

  • Dissertation Proposal Form
  • Ethical Clearance
  • Dissertation Handbook
  • Research Ethics Guidelines

Important Documents

Upload proposal form on to Minervasubmit dissertation by: 3rd SeptemberAll students must apply and be granted ethical clearance before collecting dataIt needs to be signed by your supervisor and an additiona member of staff

allow for reading time

file names need your name , date and capter

all documents with feedback will be there

stay organized

  • You are all entitled to six hours of supervision, which includes the time it takes to read and comment on your draft work.
  • We will have around six meetings of half an hour each, where we will discuss your draft work sent in advance and my comments on it. We will agree in advance what you are going to send me.
  • Typically we will arrange the next appointment at the end of each supervision, and agree on the work to be submitted before the meeting.
  • The final month of study is a Dissertation writing-up period when supervision will not be available. You must seek any final supervision at least one month before submission.
  • You are responsible for taking notes of the meeting and completing a meeting report form within 24 hours after the meeting

Supervision Meetings

send in good time

upload on Padlet

Things to include:
  • Topic
  • Motivation- why did you choose this topic?
  • Theoretical Framework- what theory are you going to employ?
  • Research questions- must be specific & based on your theoretical framework
  • Research design
  • Ethical considerations

Proposal

Self-efficacy beliefs and achievement in L2 reading in Chinese secondary schools

In-service teachers’ ideal L2 selves and professional development choices: A Chinese perspective

  • Whoes motivation?
  • In which context?
  • What approach?
Be specific

L2 Motivation in the ELT classroom

Topic

  • Overview – qualitative, quantitative or mixed-method
  • Quality – how are you going to ensure validity & reliability, trustworthiness (this is different for qual & quan)
  • Data generation – participants, data collection tools, data collection process
  • Data analysis – how the data will be analysed (e.g. SPSS, thematic analysis etc.)
  • Timeframe
From Topic to Execution

Research Design

You need to descide

Research Questions(typically 3)

What method you are going to employ

What exactly you are going to focus on and why (rationale)

What theory you are going to use (theoretical context)

Read around your topic (take notes) Pay attention to the research methodology while reading

For the next Meeting

Send me the modified version of your proposal at least 2 days before our meeting.

Work on part 1 and 2 of your proposal – make sure they are detailed and specific.

Woodrow (2019)
Bell (2014)
Bitchener (2009)
Nunan (1992)

OASISOASIS is a publicly available database (oasis-database.org) of accessible summaries of research articles in the fields of language learning, language teaching, and multilingualism.

IRISIt is a collection of instruments, materials, stimuli, data, and data coding and analysis tools used for research into languages

Resource suggestions