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Master's Research Project

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Table of Contents

Course description

This course aims at preparing and accompanying the students in the conceptualization, design, realization, analysis of their graduation research project, and the writing of their master’s thesis. It will present practical and applied research processes and techniques in the field of foreign language learning and teaching, as well as critical academic tools and resources. The students are expected to apply these principles, skills and strategies in the preparation of their personal research project, that should reach an advanced draft state at the end of the module.

What you will learn

  • Identify, find, categorize, read and summarize scientific literature in applied linguistics and second language acquisition.
  • Write a literature review on a specific research topic.
  • Design, validate and pilot qualitative and quantitative data collection instruments (overview).
  • Analyze qualitative and quantitative results (overview).
  • Present and discuss results in your master’s thesis.

Units

  • 1. Scientific literature

    Understanding the field — Finding scientific literature — Taking notes for writing

  • 2. Literature review

    Summarizing the literature — Writing a literature review — Academic formats and styles

  • 3. Collecting data

    Quantitative & qualitative techniques and instruments — Validation — Ethics and practicalities

  • 4. Analyzing data

    Coding language data — Analyzing performance — Interpreting qualitative data — Analyzing quantitative data

  • 5. Presenting results

    Presenting results — Discussing — Writing aids — Concluding

  • Appendices

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