Home > Thesis in English Applied Linguistics and Methodology
Department
of English Applied Linguistics
I.
INTRODUCTION
Preparing your
thesis is the final phase of accomplishing your university studies.
You will specialise in one particular area within either Literature,
Linguistics, or Applied Linguistics. Each of the three respective departments
will provide assistance in selecting a topic and your consultant. You
will find general information in this chapter of the Course Catalogue,
under "A szakz�r�s rendje az angol nyelv �s irodalom szakon".
If you choose to write your thesis in English Applied Linguistics, please
follow the basic principles outlined below.
WHAT IS
A THESIS?
A thesis is intended to be a serious academic challenge in the form of an analytical piece of writing (research) as opposed to a purely summative/descriptive one. Research involves planned and systematic investigation of a particular phenomenon, in other words research seeks to describe, identify, and control relationships among phenomena in order to study them.
In your thesis you need to:
* identify a research area you are interested in and formulate one or more specific research questions. The objective of the research question may be to discover or describe patterns of relationships in foreign language learning and teaching. The aim of the research question may also be to test specific hypotheses in the field to be investigated.
* demonstrate your familiarity with the most important literature in the field
* demonstrate your awareness of analytical tools and justify the use of the one(s) you are applying
* collect or select a well-defined and justified set of materials you will base the analysis on (e.g. empirical quantitative data, corpus of texts, set of coursebooks or practical activities)
* conduct an analysis by providing clear and convincing argumentation and presentation of results
* draw well-founded conclusions, which consider possible alternative views and explanations, as well as practical implications
* document
all the sources you used properly and follow the APA format guidelines
(described in Section IV).
NOTE: An
analysis is essential for a successful thesis. If, for example,
your work involves practical materials design, the actual materials/activities
should form the appendix of your work, while the main body should contain
the rationale for designing the materials the way you did, including
the description of the scientific basis and supporting evidence. Your
conclusion does not necessarily have to provide solutions to problems,
but you are expected to demonstrate in it a deeper understanding of
the selected issue.
For more specific topics and a list of potential consultants, see the section "Offers thesis supervision in the following areas" in the biographies of the teachers of the Department of English Applied Linguistics in the autumn edition of the Course Catalogue. You can also express your own interest and propose a topic, which you can then discuss with your supervisor.
THE ROLE OF YOUR CONSULTANT
In preparing
your thesis you will be aided by a consultant. For the procedures to
select him/her and for a description of the ways he/she can help you,
see Section II. Please note, however, that your consultant is not responsible
for doing any part of the work for you; instead, he/she will
make sure that the thesis is your original product.
ASSESSMENT
The thesis
will be read by your consultant and an independent reader, who will
grade it according to the criteria described in Section III.
II.
PROCEDURES FOR SUBMITTING A THESIS
APPLICATION
To get you started on your thesis in a timely fashion, five steps need to be carried out before 1st October (if you want to submit your thesis in March) or before 1st May (if you want to submit your thesis in October):
1. Contact the consultant you want to work with.
2. Decide on your topic, how you intend to investigate the topic, and your title (for now, a general title is sufficient; a colon and subtitle can be added later to more accurately describe your work).
3. Type an approximately two-page proposal (about 300-350 words) following this format:
4. Make and attach to the proposal an annotated bibliography of your preliminary readings consisting of at least four books or eight journal articles.
5. Make three copies of the proposal. One is yours; give the second copy to your consultant and have him/her sign the third copy.
6. Before 1st October (1st May), see the Head of the Applied Linguistics Department (Room 330) to have the Faculty Administration Office's Hungarian thesis form signed. You must present the third copy of your proposal in order to obtain a signature.
6. The consultant should be consulted at least two weeks before the
submission.
NOTE: It is
advisable to see the Head of Department well before the official submission
date so that you have enough time to rewrite the proposal if necessary.
Also, in accordance with our Department's rules, consultants cannot
accept more than five students' proposals. If you do not submit your
proposal early enough, you may not be able to work with the consultant
you would like to.
CONSULTANTS
Students are
given the academic freedom of selecting their consultant. However, if
you are not sure who you would like to work with, or if you have any
problems, the Department Head will assist you in finding a consultant
according to your thesis topic. For information on the suggested topics
and the Applied Linguistics staff members' field of expertise see the
biographical data of the staff of the Department in the Academic Guide
(Owl Book). Written appeals for changing the consultant will be considered.
Consultants can offer the following support:
The consultant
will not be expected to edit language, punctuation and spelling. The
dissertation is supposed to demonstrate your academic abilities; therefore
the quality of your thesis is exclusively your responsibility.
SUBMISSION AND MARKING
Two copies (one bound in black) of the final draft are to be submitted to the Faculty Student Consultation Office (Di�ktan�csad�) not later than 30th March, or 30th October (for details, see "A szakz�r�s rendje"). The Head of Department will appoint the readers for all dissertations submitted in time. Readers and consultants will each receive a copy for marking.
Markers are required to assign a mark and submit a report of justification. The final mark of your thesis will be decided on at a formal Thesis Markers' Meeting chaired by the Head of the Applied Linguistics Department. The date of this meeting will be posted each term. Conflicting marks will be negotiated and reconciled. If necessary, a third reader will be appointed by the Head. You will be informed about the final mark and receive a copy of the reviews in the Administration Office (Room 330) after the meeting.
The readers'
reports are normally 1-2 typed pages and include a detailed evaluation
of the main aspects of the thesis following the marking criteria outlined
in Section III. The mark approved by the Department is not subject to
appeal.
III.
THESIS MARKING CRITERIA
I. FORM (10 points - 40%)
Format (5 points)
Language (5 points)
II. CONTENT (15 points - 60%)
Review of the literature (5 points)
Analysis (10 points)
IV. GUIDELINES ON THE CONTENT, structure
AND FORM
OF THE THESIS
CONTENT
Thesis papers may be of two types: theoretical or empirical. A theoretical paper usually focuses on an ambiguous problem. In this case, the main aim of the thesis is to show various treatments of the particular problem in the field and provide a synthesis of literature and original solution of the problem. The paper starts with the comparison of what different authors say about the same topic, that is, a survey of the relevant literature arranged into some logical framework invented by the writer. The overview should be critical, and should be followed by an argumentative proposal of the writer’s own opinion and solution of the problem.
Writing
an empirical thesis paper in applied linguistics and language pedagogy
is more common than theoretical papers. A research paper should also
investigate a problem and is argumentative in nature, but unlike in
the theoretical paper, the writer uses empirical data to support his/her
hypotheses. Empirical research has two types: qualitative and quantitative.
Qualitative research studies an individual case or a limited number
of cases closely with the purpose of understanding the particular phenomenon/phenomena
from the perspective of the participants. Quantitative studies usually
take an outsider's perspective and involve a sufficient number of participants
so that the findings could be generalizable for the behaviour of the
population investigated.
The topic of empirical thesis papers in this field can be the following:
An empirical thesis paper can apply various research tools, preferably a combination of the following:
STRUCTURE
The structure
of a theoretical thesis paper
Theoretical
thesis papers usually follow an argumentative pattern and are organised
around the solution of a problem. Questions that are normally addressed
in such papers include:
Depending on
the nature of the problem, such papers may be structured in different
ways. A typical pattern of organisation is presented below:
Preliminary
pages: These will normally include a title page (according to the
format specified in "A szakz�r�s rendje"), and a
table of contents, which includes the chapters of the paper and also
the materials in the Appendices.
Abstract:
A short summary
of the topic and the main findings (100-150 words).
Introduction:
The introduction
normally starts by introducing the subject of the paper and its relevance,
that is, the reason why it is considered as an interesting issue to
explore. This is followed by the statement of the problem related to
the issue (i.e. the situation presented) and the author’s position
regarding the solution of this problem. The exact aim of the paper and
the main research question(s) should be clearly formulated.
(In theoretical papers, research questions relate to finding possible
solutions to the problem.) The introduction generally ends with a brief
overview of the analytical approach/strategy to be pursued and the outline
of the thesis.
Review of literature:
The aim of the
literature review is to provide theoretical background to the solution
of the problem anticipated in the introduction. It offers a critical
review of the various treatments of the problem under investigation,
enumerating arguments representing the body of literature both opposing
and supporting the author’s position. The survey should be organized
into a logical framework invented by the writer.
Analysis (Solution):
The analysis
(i.e. solution) section offers a thorough and disciplined presentation
of the possible solution(s) as envisaged by the writer. It should build
upon the work of other researchers in the field, but authors are expected
to come up with an original solution. All arguments/claims put forward
by the author must be accompanied by some form of supporting evidence
(e.g., examples, figures, facts, views of other researchers). This section
ends with an evaluation of the proposed solution(s), showing that it
is (or these are) exempt from the weaknesses identified in the opposing
view(s).
Conclusion:
Theoretical
papers normally end by a restatement of the problem under investigation
and a brief summary of the proposed solution(s) discussed. In the conclusion
section, authors may indicate in what ways the study contributes to
current achievements in the field, refer to the limitations of the paper,
and point to possible areas for further investigation.
References:
See empirical research papers.
Appendices:
See empirical research papers.
(based on Swales,
J.M. & Feak, C.B. (1994). Academic Writing for Graduate Students.
Ann Arbour: The University of Michigan Press.)
The structure
of an empirical research paper
Preliminary
pages: These will normally include a title page (according to the
format specified in "A szakz�r�s rendje"), and a
table of contents, which includes the chapters of the paper and also
the materials in the Appendices.
Abstract:
A short summary of the topic and the main findings (100-150 words).
Introduction:
This should introduce the reader to the specific issue under analysis
and describe the research approach/strategy. Questions that are normally
addressed include:
Review of
the literature: This section can either be part of the Introduction
or can come under a separate heading (or headings) which specify the
main aspects of the review (e.g. "The history of motivation research").
The purpose of the review is to develop the background, that is, to
discuss the relevant literature in order to give the reader knowledge
of the field (specifically relating to the research question) which
the writer is researching.
A literature
review should be a very thorough and well-structured overview, presented
on the basis of an original organising principle. That is, the writer
has to make a unique presentation of the existing literature on the
topic. This means, for instance, that simply presenting a summary on
what D�rnyei said about learner motivation, and then elaborating what
Gardner said about the same topic, does not qualify for a proper review
of the literature. A good overview is relevant, looks at all the aspects
of the given topic, uses a minimum of 15 serious sources, and presents
the topic in a new light. As regards materials downloaded from the Internet,
only sources that have an author and can be traced even after the submission
of the thesis can be accepted.
Research
design and method: The Introduction and the Review of
the literature are typically followed by a section in which the
writer describes in detail how the analysis was conducted, that is,
the technical aspects of the study. Depending on the type of analysis,
this may involve the explicit description of the participants (if data
were collected), the instruments (tests, questionnaires), the data collecting
and processing procedures, the set of coursebooks or activities examined,
the corpus analysed, the list of sources with a rationale for selecting
them (when preparing a synthesis of some sort), or any other subheading
appropriate for the topic. The use of the particular method must be
justified.
A good method
section describes the procedures in such a detailed way that anyone
wishing to replicate the study would be able to do so. All the data
collection materials (e.g. questionnaires, interview protocols, tasks,
observation sheets) need to be exemplified in the appendix. The method
section should also describe the procedures used for the quantitative
or qualitative analysis of the data.
Results
and discussion: The Results section will normally contain
the results of the analysis, which will detail and justify the conclusion.
This section is often merged together with the discussion section, which
includes the writer's discussion of the results with respect to the
original questions/hypotheses and the consequence of the results.
Conclusion: This section briefly summarizes the main findings of the analysis, discusses possible alternative interpretations and views, examines the practical implications (where appropriate), mentions the limitations of the research and proposes directions for future investigations. All the conclusions have to be drawn on the basis of the data, and not subjective speculations.
References:
In this section the writer lists all the references that were cited
in the texts (and only those!). See Section V for details.
Appendices:
The following materials are appropriate for an appendix: scales, tests,
questionnaires, handouts, teaching materials used or designed, raw data,
visual aids, less important tables or figures, practical examples of
classroom activities, or other kinds of illustrative materials. The
appendix needs to contain a short sample of the data (e.g. filled in
questionnaires, parts of texts produced by the participants). If it
is in Hungarian, it also has to be translated into English. All the
other data has to be made available to anybody interested.
FORM
The text of
your thesis must be type-written double spaced on one side only of A4
paper. The left-hand margin should be 1.5 inches wide and the other
three margins 1 inch wide. The body of the thesis (without the notes,
references and appendices) should be at least 40 pages long and should
normally not exceed 55-60 pages. Your thesis should follow the APA format.
V. CITATION
In-text citation
The APA format documents a paper's sources by both citing them in the text and describing them bibliographically in the paper's References list.
E.g. Alderson (1991) pointed out that TEST is a four-letter word. However, Alderson also...
There
are those who believe that second language acquisition research is still
at such a preliminary stage that it is premature to base any proposals
for language teaching upon it yet. There are others, among whom I count
myself, who believe that it is the task of the applied linguist to make
practical use of whatever knowledge is available at the time. We cannot
constantly be waiting to see what is round the corner. We must be prepared
to stick our necks out. (Corder, 1984, p. 58)
When to quote?
Beginner researchers typically overuse direct quotations. Only use direct quotation if
In all other
cases summarise the author's ideas in your own words and indicate your
source very clearly by including the author's name and the publication
date in parentheses.
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
is using another person's language or ideas without acknowledgement.
This also applies to unpublished materials (e.g. student theses, lectures,
lecture handouts, internet pages). If you want to quote from such materials,
document the source explicitly. Intentional or not, all plagiarism is
theft; therefore, it will result in the immediate rejection of your
thesis.
References
References
should be placed at the end of the paper, in the References section,
listing each source cited in the text alphabetically by the author's
name (or by a work's title when no author is given). For details, see
the examples below. All the works or authors listed in the Reference
section must be referred to in the text.
EXAMPLES
OF ITEMS IN THE REFERENCES SECTION
Book/single author |
|
Book/single author/2nd edition |
|
Book/joint authors |
|
Edited book |
|
Journal article/single author |
|
Journal article/joint authors |
|
Journal
article/multiple
authors |
|
Magazine
article (each issue
starts with Page 1) |
|
Chapter/article
in
an edited book |
|
Paper
presented at
a conference |
|
Unpublished
doctoral
dissertation |
|
Unpublished thesis |
|
With multiple
works by the same author, arrange the items in the order of their publication.
If the year of publication happens to be the same, use small letters
(a, b, c,...) to distinguish between the works. If the References contain
a work written by a particular author and another work co-authored by
the same author, the single-author's work should come first regardless
of the publication dates.
Referring to electronically available materials:
APA - style
of documenting WWW (World Wide Web) resources
Reference to on-line information
Author/editor, I. (date). Title of the article. [On-line]. Available: Specify path
Example:
Pritzker, T. J. (1995). An Early fragment from central Nepal [Online]. Available:
http://www.ingress.com/~astanart/pritzker/pritzker.html
Author/editor, I., & Author/editor, I. (date). Title of chapter. In Title of full work [On-line]. Available: Specify path
Example:
Daniel, R. T. (1995). The history of Western music. In Britannica online: Macropaedia [Online].
bin/g:DocF=macro/5004/45/0.html
Author, I. (date). Title of the article. Name of the periodical [On-line serial] Volume Number. Available: Specify path
Example:
Funder,
D.C. (1994).Judgemental process and content. Psychology [online serial]
, 5. Avalaible: http: www.cup.com/~psychology.html
Reference
to information on CD-ROM
Author, I. (date). Title of the article [CD-ROM]. Title of the journal, Volume number, page numbers, Abstract from: Source and retrieval number
Example:
Meyer,
S. S., & Bock, K. (1992). The tip of the tongue phenomenon [CD-ROM].
Memory & Cognition, 20, 715-726. Abstract from: Silver Platter
File: PsychLit Item: 80-16531
Reference
to computer program
Author, I. (date). Name of the program [Computer software]. Place of publication: Publisher.
Example: Miller, M. E. (1993). The interactive tester [Computer software]. Westminster, CA: Psytek Services.
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