PhD Preparatory Workshop

Proposal writing workshop

Richard Kiely
University of Southampton
Proposal writing

In groups of three or four, look at the one of the three research proposals below, and complete
the following tasks. We will discuss the issues that are important for you in the Workshop on
Day 3.

Task 1

Identify the sections of the text which focus on the following element:

 CARS (Create A Research Space)

 Key literature

 Paradigm positioning

 Research design (Conceptual framework, research questions, data gathering, data

analysis)

 Relevance

Task 2

Look again at the proposal paragraph by paragraph, or section by section, and consider the
contribution to the proposal as argument or case each paragraph. (Try to answer the question:
What is the writer trying to show here?).

Task 3

In small groups, identify the writing styles and features in the research proposals that surprise
you, or are new to you. Prepare a brief list of these for discussion in the workshop on Day 3.

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Research Proposal 1 – Applied Linguistics

The Development of Academic Literacy from a Critical Perspective and the (Re)construction of

Identities

Context of the research

The context of this research is the teaching of English (as a Second/Foreign Language) for

Academic Purposes (EAP) at institutions of higher education in the United Kingdom. English has

become the “leading language for the dissemination of academic knowledge” (Hyland and

Hamp-Lyon, 2002: 1), and EAP plays a central role in facilitating not only the dissemination, but

also the construction and negotiation of knowledge (Canagarajah, 2002). For international

students to become ‘academically literate’ in a [COUNTRY] university, this involves much more

than just linguistic competence and effective study skills, or a certain level of English proficiency

as measured by a test score. Braine (2002: 63) outlines some of the complexities involved in the

acquisition of Academic Literacy for international students, and to fully understand these it is

necessary to draw on a Critical definition of ‘literacy’. This perspective conceptualises literacy as

a social and cultural practice, which is not value or ideology free (Blackledge, 2000;

Canagarajah, 2002). Lea and Street (2006: 369) argue for the “Academic Literacies” model,

which conceives of knowledge as institutionally and culturally defined, embedded in power

relations, and identity is implicit in these “processes” of acquiring what is seen as appropriate

literacy. Identity is “produced and negotiated through discourse”, or language use, and

communities form around the practices and conventions attached to certain discourses

(Hyland, 2000; Pavlenko and Blackledge, 2004: 13). These discourse communities operate at the

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level of academic disciplines, departments, faculties, courses and programmes, and the

institution as a whole (Hyland, 2000). Ivanic (2006: 7) has demonstrated how both individual

and social identity is a central component in the language learning process. How one perceives

and positions oneself in relation to the academic discourse community, and how one is in turn

perceived and positioned by this community can produce great change, conflict and a need for

negotiation (Canagarajah, 2002; Ivanic, 2006). International students have to “negotiate

identities within the range of possibilities for selfhood” with their “already existing identities

which they bring with them into the academy” (Ivanic, 1998: 82). With a large proportion of

international students in the [COUNTRY] at the postgraduate level, it is assumed that academic

literacy is not so much being ‘acquired’, but rather, ‘developed’. Students bring with them their

own literacy practices, study histories and cultural backgrounds, and the challenge is to merge

or build on these existing practices and accompanying identities in such a way as to allow the

person a certain degree of agency in this process, whilst enhancing their participation in the

discourse communities they must attempt to gain membership.

The ‘gap’ in current research

The relationship between language and power in institutions of higher education is not a new

subject, and there has been much published in this decade alone about the potential for

developing and implementing a Critical Pedagogy for English Language Teaching, and also for

EAP specifically (Canagarajah, 2002; Hyland and Hamp-Lyon, 2002). This has many names,

including ‘Critical Thinking’, ‘Criticality’, ‘Critiquing’ (Canagarajah, 2002; Kiely, 2004; Ridley,

2004), and its main focus in practice has tended to be the objective analysis of knowledge,

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without taking into account the ideological and cultural nature of that knowledge, and the

power relations and superior status given to Western culture, language and ideology

(Canagarajah, 2002). In Canagarajah’s work, as well as the collection of papers published by

Norton and Toohey (2004) there is evidence that many English language educators are now

beginning to practice a more critical pedagogy. This involves a “coinvestigation with students of

topics of importance, relevant to students’ backgrounds, histories and daily lives” (Norton and

Toohey, 2004: 12), and a line of enquiry that is “politically engaged”, “socially grounded”, and

“self-reflexive” (Canagarajah, 2002: 98). However, the question of how to implement and

practice a Critical Pedagogy is still largely unexplored, and the issues remain highly theoretical.

Educators and researchers alike need to pay more attention to EAP teaching methodology at

the level of the classroom in this regard (Watson-Todd, 2003; Kiely, 2004). Another area in EAP

that has received significant attention is that of writing and academic “discourse communities”

(Ivanic, 1998 and 2006; Hyland, 2000), yet the role of spoken discourse is often neglected (Kiely,

2004; Morita, 2000; Ridley, 2004). Oral presentations, tutorials, seminars and meetings with

tutors and study groups are all components of the numerous discourse communities that

students move in and out of, and need to be taken account of. Finally, longitudinal studies into

the acquisition and development of Academic Literacy are rare, and as Braine (2002: 66)

highlights, “data needs to be obtained from multiple sources for a more comprehensive

understanding of the processes by which academic literacy is acquired”. To know whether or

not students’ needs are being fully met by EAP courses in the [COUNTRY] requires a deeper

understanding of how Academic Literacy develops over time. Some small scale research has

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been conducted, tracking students achievement ‘post pre-sessional’, however the focus was

largely on assessment scores (Ridley, 2004; Martala, 2006).

Research Questions:

1. How do international postgraduate students in a [COUNTRY] university acquire and

develop Academic Literacy over time?

a) How do we identify and measure Academic Literacy from a Critical Literacy

perspective?

b) What are the processes these students move through in their development of

Academic Literacy?

c) What factors contribute and provide obstacles to this development?

d) In light of the above analysis, does the Pre-sessional EAP course meet the needs

of international postgraduate students?

2. How does the development of academic literacy contribute to the (re)construction of

international postgraduate students’ individual and social identities?

3. What effects does a Critical Pedagogy approach to EAP have on postgraduate

international students’ Academic Literacy development and identity (re)construction?

Research design

Locating this research in a qualitative paradigm, I specifically want to use the method of Critical

Ethnography. Firstly because it allows for an “emic”, or “participant relevant”, perspective,

placing great importance on participants’ views, opinions and beliefs (Pavlenko and Blackledge,

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2004: 25). Ethnography allows data to be collected from different sources, in different contexts

at different times (Hammersley and Atkinson, 1983). It is based on “extended first hand contact

with the people and settings concerned”, which allows the researcher to check any pre-existing

theories and to reformulate these on the basis of new understandings. It also provides non-

contrived data in naturalistic settings. My aim in this research is not simply to describe and

explain the processes underlying the development of Academic Literacy and identity

(re)construction, but to analyse and critique the practices, conventions and social structures

that are components of this process, with the ultimate goal of bringing about changes in these

areas (Hammersley1998).

I plan to conduct my research in collaboration with the University of [CITY] Language Centre,

where I teach both Pre-sessional and In-sessional EAP. The first phase of the research involves

action research in my Pre-sessional EAP classes in the area of implementing Critical Pedagogy,

beginning this year. This I will do in conjunction with the course co-ordinator and other

teachers on my team, who are willing to work closely with me (Holliday, 2002). Materials,

methodology and approaches could be piloted and refined over the next to two years. The

second phase would be the compilation of a detailed literature review, bringing together work

on Academic Literacy, as well as work in the field of literacy, learning and identity. At the

beginning of the second year of my PhD, I will then begin the ethnographic study, working with

five or six international students on the Pre-sessional EAP course. It is important that these

students be drawn from a variety of cultural and disciplinary backgrounds, so as to make the

sample as representative as possible.

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Fairclough’s (1992: 8-9) Critical Language Awareness (CLA) presents a framework for critically

analysing language in educational contexts, both in terms of how it is taught and used

(“practices” and “conventions”). This framework will be used to analyse both written and

spoken data. CLA’s major propositions are fundamentally connected to those of Critical Literacy

and Critical Pedagogy, in that “language use shapes and is shaped by society”, it aids in the

production and reproduction of “knowledge and its objects, social relations, and social

identity”, and ultimately, “discourse is shaped by relations of power, and invested with

ideologies” (Fairclough, 1992: 8+9).

Relevance of the Research

This research has obvious relevance to EAP practitioners, course and materials designers, as

well as for all university departments with international students. It is my hope that I can

include all of these voices in my research. The ultimate goal is to ensure that as educators we

are meeting and addressing the needs of a large proportion of the student population in higher

education in the [COUNTRY].

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Research Proposal 2 – Applied Linguistics

Title: A Descriptive Study of Instruction of English as a Foreign Language to Early-years Learners

in [COUNTRY]

1. Introduction:
This is a descriptive study with qualitative method in the naturalistic paradigm of classroom
instruction of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) to early-years [COUNTRY] learners, considering
the principles related to theories about children learning and second language acquisition.
2. Research Overview:
Learning another language in addition to a native one, either as a second or a foreign
language, seems complicated and requires a lot of support, especially in a non-native context.
Learning English in the Expanding Circle, where English is widely studied as a foreign language
(Kachru 1985: 12 cited in McKay & Bokhorst-Heng 2008: 29), like [COUNTRY], is consequently
tough. This is because learners are not provided with English-speaking contexts all the time as
native-speaking learners learning English in their own countries. There have been many issues
raised about the acquisition of English as a second or a foreign language (ESL or EFL). For
example, McKay & Bokhurst-Heng raised two interesting issues about language learning in this
context, that is, learner motivation and teaching methods (2008: 45-54). However, another
interesting issue that is worth considering is learner’s age. It is controversial when non-native
learners should learn English, in their childhood or adulthood and how the learning should be
arranged, with what kinds of policy and teaching methods, in order to maximize their language
acquisition. It is evident that adults seem to have more advantages in learning languages, like
usually concentrating longer on the lesson (Cameron 2001: 1), being more accurate while
learning English (Ellis 1996: 201), being clear about their own needs (Brumfit 1991: iv). However,
children, especially young children, still have some better characteristics than adults that
facilitate language learning, like their more enthusiasm and liveliness in learning (Cameron 2001:
1; Brumfit 1991: v), more adaptability to learning without ‘self-consciousness’ (Brumfit 1991: vii)
or influences from their native language (L1) (VanPatten and Williams 2007: 20), more devotion

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of time in learning (Brumfit 1991: vii), fewer negative attitudes to foreign languages (p.vii), and
less embarrassment at using the language (Cameron 2001: 1). This agrees with Morrow (1989:
2-3), Hazneda and Gavruseva (2008 cited in Lakshmanan 2009: 644) and Spolky (1989: 96 cited
in Long 2007: 12), who believed that younger learners could learn better. These young learners’
advantages which would have some effects on English acquisition become so fascinating that a
descriptive study of instruction of English to early-years learners in a primary school is set up to
investigate the instruction of English as a Foreign language (EFL) to early-years learners in
[COUNTRY], in details. The focuses of this study are comprised of: English curriculum, classroom
procedures, teachers’ classroom performance and concepts, and learners’ classroom
performance and characteristics. This study is to be conducted with qualitative method in the
naturalistic paradigm to investigate how effective the EFL acquisition is achieved in this particular
context, considering the grounded theories of second language acquisition in young learners.
2.1. Aims and Objectives
This dissertation aims to investigate some possible distinguishing features of the instruction of
English as a second or a foreign language to early-year [COUNTRY] learners in [COUNTRY]. This
study focuses on the four major areas of study: English curriculum; classroom procedures;
teachers’ classroom performance (for example, asking questions, demonstrating or explaining)
and their prevailing concepts about language teaching; and learners’ performance (for example,
listening only, interacting with teachers and peers or expressing feelings and attitudes through
facial expressions and body language) and their characteristics. The main objectives of this study
are to investigate the following aspects of instruction in [COUNTRY]:
2.1.1. the major focus of the English curriculum in [COUNTRY];
2.1.2. the way the classroom procedures build up language acquisition of English
in [COUNTRY];
2.1.3. teachers’ classroom performance and concepts that affect to their
learners’ learning in English classes; and
2.1.4. [COUNTRY] learners’ classroom performance and characteristics that
affect to their learning of English.
2.2. Detailed research questions
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 The detailed research questions (RQ) arising from this topic are listed as follows.
RQ1: What is the focus of the English curriculum in [COUNTRY]?
RQ2: How do the classroom procedures build up English language acquisition for
learners in [COUNTRY]?
RQ3: Do the teachers’ classroom performance and concepts support their learners’
learning of English in [COUNTRY]?
RQ4: Why do learners’ classroom performance and characteristics promote and impede
their learning of English in [COUNTRY]?

2.3 Conceptual framework/Research design

Considering the grounded theories of children learning (Brumfit 1991) and other related
SLA theories, like task-based language teaching, Vygotsky’s ZPD (cited in Cameron 2001: 5;
Brewster 1991: 3) and other sociocultural theories, together with Long’s suggestion (2007: 19)
that a particular theory or approach does not always work in every situation, this descriptive
study is designed to investigate a particular instruction of English to early-years learners in a
[COUNTRY] primary school in order to find out the language learning policy and language
teaching methodology underlying EFL teaching in this [COUNTRY] primary school. To achieve
this, the curriculum and other documents would be studied and classified into two major areas:
language learning policy; and language teaching methodology, as the principles underlying the
conceptual framework, to investigate what the focus of the English curriculum in [COUNTRY] is;
how the classroom procedures build up English language acquisition for learners in [COUNTRY];
whether the teachers’ classroom performance (for example, asking questions, demonstrating or
explaining) and concepts classroom support their learners’ learning of English in [COUNTRY]; why
the learners’ classroom performance (for example, listening only, interacting with teachers and
peers or expressing feelings and attitudes through facial expressions and body language) and
characteristics promote and impede their learning of English in [COUNTRY].
To accomplish this, a descriptive study is designed with the qualitative method of study in
naturalistic paradigm in order to profoundly study the instruction of EAL in [COUNTRY] with the
qualitative data in terms of language learning policy; and language teaching methodology. The
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investigation in this study design allows new information and insights that cannot be collected
from a positivistic paradigm to emerge (Lynch 1996: 14), in order to reflect the real-life situation
with the ‘“holistic” overview of the context’ (Miles and Huberman 1994: 6-7 cited in Punch 2009:
117).
In order to collect the qualitative data in this study, three kinds of instruments are used:
document reviews; observations; and interviews. In the first period, the data will be collected
through the document reviews of official documents, like curriculum, course syllabus, from this
particular [COUNTRY] school, and some more qualitative data will be collected in the form of field
notes from approaching observations (Foster 1996b cited in Punch 2009: 155) and from
structured interviews (Minichiello et al 1990 cited in Punch 2009: 145 & 147). The document
reviews aim to get ‘necessary background of the situation and insights into the dynamics of
everyday functioning’ (Mertens 1998: 324) of the instruction of EFL in [COUNTRY]. With the
approaching observations in classrooms, the planned data will be collected in terms of classroom
activities, teachers’ performance and concepts and learners’ performance and concepts. The
framework of the observations will be prepared in advance to some extent. The structured
interviews with questions prepared in advance are also used to investigate the teachers’
classroom performance and concepts and learners’ classroom performance and characteristics,
according to the researcher’s plan, in addition to the emergent data collected from the
approaching observations, according to Punch’s framework (2009: 147).

Research questions Source of Data Data for Collection Research Procedures

RQ1: Official documents Qualitative data related Document Reviews

What is the focus of the from school : to curriculum focus
English curriculum in - English
[COUNTRY]? curriculum
- Course syllabus
- Course outline

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 RQ2: How do the classroom Classroom Classroom activities with Approaching
tasks build up English the focus on: Observations
language acquisition for - Classroom
learners in [COUNTRY]? interactions with the
focus on learning
development
- Teaching methods
with the focus on
learning development
RQ3: Do the teachers’ Classroom Classroom activities with Observations &
classroom performance and Teachers the focus on: interviews with
concepts support their - Teachers’ teachers
learners’ learning of English in performance (for
[COUNTRY]? example, asking
questions,
demonstrating or
explaining)
- Teachers’ concepts of
teaching
RQ4: Why do the learners’ Learners Classroom activities with Observations &
classroom performance and the focus on: interviews with
characteristics promote - Learners’ performance learners, teachers
and impede their learning of (for example, listening and learners’ parents
English in [COUNTRY]? only, interacting with and
teachers and peers or
expressing feelings
and attitudes through
facial expressions and
body language)
- Learners’
characteristics
Table 1: Collection of data
3. Significance of research in terms of
3.1. Theoretical knowledge
This study aims to investigate the practical applications of some ideas in the areas of
language learning, like children learning, with the major focus on the second language
acquisition. Moreover, some concepts from language teaching approaches and sociocultural
theories, like TBLT, interactions in learning and Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development are also
investigated here. This investigation aims to gain some particular information related to the
practices of the ideas in a real situation in order to find out some more opportunities to develop
instruction of EFL to young learners later.
3.2. Professional knowledge

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 In terms of professional knowledge, this study is hoped to be useful to most people in the
professions of English teaching, language teaching and education, because it shows another
possible framework that can be applied to improve instruction of EFL, especially to young
learners, in a non-native context. Useful information possibly collected from the real situation
of EFL instruction will be reviewed for the benefits of EFL instruction and relevant people and
organizations further.
3.3. Personal knowledge
With an opportunity to conduct this research, I am confident that my academic knowledge
as a teacher of English to non-native speakers and as a researcher must be improved to a much
higher degree. This will add some more academic values to me as an educated person who can
bring some innovation to my students, my community and my institutes, as well as the
community I stay in.

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Research Proposal 3 – English Literature

Research Proposal

Shakespeare’s writing “lives along the line”1 but in the allegedly overstuffed Shakespearian
literature, there are only five book-length attempts at a Shakespearian metrics. One of these
studies perpetuates the notion of an uncomplicated blank verse.2 Another looks only at
Macbeth.3 Marlina Tarlinskaja’s work is enumerative and statistical;4 Abigail Rokison’s (and
practitioner criticism like Peter Hall’s Shakespeare’s Advice to the Players) focuses on verse
speaking.5 George Wright’s Shakespeare’s Metrical Art is excellent but it is often brisk: there
are only four pages on feminine endings, for example, and only one page on catalectic lines.6
None of these volumes is dedicated to the development of Shakespeare’s metrical style, even
though work in this area inevitably proliferates from a sense of that development.

I would like to contribute to the recent upswing in metrical study of Shakespeare – epitomised
by the forthcoming Oxford Companion to Shakespeare’s Verse – by proposing four-parted
research on how Shakespeare’s blank verse comes into being through the 1590s. In each of
those parts the 1590s would form the informing centre, as the decade through which we can
explain where Shakespeare’s blank verse comes from, how it develops, what it develops into,
and how accretions on that blank verse are indebted to his first decade of writing.

The first section of the research would have to provide a sense of what we can call
Shakespeare’s blank verse. What distinguishes his blank verse (where the word ‘distinguishes’
does not imply a repertoire of unique features)? His verse lines can be jagged, abrupt, loose,
long. They can fall short of, or fall beyond, pentameter even as they often fall into it. They
accord with and deviate from rhythms, with ‘deviate’ taking on its etymological meaning of “a
turning out of the way” (OED), incurring the possibility and indeed likelihood of return. My
research would analyse the ways in which this is the case – Shakespeare’s talent for variation
on a metrical base through foot inversion, through line lengths, through the fracturing or
sharing of lines, through the interplay between phrase and line, through the uncertain metrical
centres of lines, through the arrival of rhyme – and how Shakespeare aligns these techniques to
the movements of speech, action and thought in his characters.

Having provided a definition of Shakespeare’s blank verse at its ‘mature’ or ‘accomplished’

stage, the research would focus on the late 1580s and early 1590s to explore the range of initial
influences upon Shakespeare’s practice of blank verse: from early modern prosodic theory to
the experiments in blank verse at the turn of the decade (especially the experiments of
Marlowe, Greene, Peele and much Senecan tragedy). My research would also consider extra
textual influences where they can be clearly established. As one example of these influences, I
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could consider Shakespeare’s interest in “those bars which stop the hourly dial” in The Rape of
Lucrece (l.327) – thinking about the ways in which the jerky movements of the “bars” on early
modern clocks correspond to Shakespeare’s metrical markings of time in his blank verse.

The third, most substantial section of the research would look at Shakespeare’s emergent blank
verse in the 1590s – examining the first usages of characteristic Shakespearian techniques in
blank verse (as identified in the first section), reading them in the light of their influences (as
identified in the second section) and then noticing how Shakespeare shades and complicates,
and sometimes straitens and simplifies, those influences prosodically. I would place special
focus on Shakespeare’s bathetic crooking of Marlovian innovations in blank verse, and on his
adaptation of the popular 1590s dramatic metre ‘Poulter’s Measure’ (the fourteener) into blank
verse. In his 1590s work, Shakespeare uses many self-consciously prosodical terms – ‘feet’,
‘numbers’, ‘lines’ –(particularly in As You Like It) and I want to examine them to see the ways in
which they mark out and/or work against his metrical development. I would also study the role
the narrative poems of 1593-4 play in Shakespeare’s prosodic evolution (in terms of their
enacting of thought and movement by verse rather than by actor). Such practical criticism
would involve reading across variant texts, the metrical differences between Q and F
sometimes revealing the ways in which Shakespeare’s blank verse has changed or how
compositors and printers thought it had changed. The destination of this section, as of this
research, will be 1600-1 and the characteristically Shakespearian blank verse of Hamlet, a
poem unlimited in which we can see the versatility of Shakespeare’s verse and the scope of its
development over the 1590s.

My research would conclude with a coda on the ‘late’ plays and the manner in which
Shakespeare offers a form of blank verse which we do not initially associate with him, one
which has been regarded as an annex to his typical prosody. I hope to show that Shakespeare’s
late blank verse owes much to his development in the 1590s, the decade he now wishes to
transcend. The mid-line to mid-line transitions (in tone and/or subject) of The Tempest, for
example, offer a visual effect which is difficult if not impossible to act without relaying the line
in a linear, end-stopped fashion; although we see Shakespeare’s blank verse arising from its
theatrical context in the late 1580s and 1590s, Shakespeare eventually pulls up those roots. The
ratio between the study of Shakespeare’s verse and its significance is out of joint but there are
signs of improvement. I hope that I can play a part in reviving Shakespearian metrics, and that
this thesis might become a monograph: the first work with a thoroughgoing argument about
the development of Shakespeare’s blank verse. Taking the 1590s as (figuratively) the start,
centre and end of Shakespeare’s prosodic development should ensure that the research does
not sprawl, that it has a grip to accompany its reach. Elucidating the ways in which the 1590s

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are the essential decade for understanding the changes in and definition of Shakespeare’s blank
verse could provide a valuable addition to the Shakespearian literature.

1 Alexander Pope, An Essay on Man, I.218.

2 Dorothy Sipe, Shakespeare’s Metrics (New Haven, 1968).

3 David Chambers, The Metre of Macbeth (Princeton, 1903).

4 Marlina Tarlinskaja, Shakespeare’s Verse: Iambic Pentameter and the Poet’s Idiosyncrasies
(New York, 1987).

5 Abigail Rokison, Shakespearean Verse Speaking: Text and Theatre Practice (Cambridge, 2009).

6 George Wright, Shakespeare’s Metrical Art (London, 1988).

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