Personal Statement

Intended Program: TESOL

As China becomes an increasingly open society, marked by its accession into the WTO and XX’s hosting of the 2008 Summer Olympic Games, a nationwide wave of English learning is surging on. As the most widely used language in the present-day world, English has become an indispensable bridge linking China with the rest of the world, playing a growing role politically, socially, economically and culturally. The extent to which English language is popularized in China is vitally related to the international image that China poses to the outside world. My several-year experience of being a teacher of English has allowed me to understand the virtually unlimited demand for English teaching and learning. Yet, the scale and the standard of English teaching in my country are insufficient to meet this growing demand. How can Chinese students learn and use English effectively in China, without the privilege of a natural native environment? What teaching strategies and educational system would be most applicable to the Chinese context? Those have been the questions to which I have tried hard to seek an answer.

Fortunately, the TESOL program offered by the School of Education of XX University promises to give me the solutions I have been seeking. It can furnish me with a perfect platform whereby I, a teacher of English in a country where English is not a native language, can perform in-depth study into the successful methodologies, experiences, and theories of English teaching developed by educationists of an English-speaking country. My solid command of English language, ample practical experience in English teaching, and my unswerving interest in pursuing education as a lifelong career, those factors constitute my three major advantages for pursing your program. They also give me great confidence in making fruitful achievements in my chosen career.

Academically, my undergraduate program at the Foreign Languages Department of XX University and my Master’s program in Linguistics and Applied Linguistics at XX University have given me a necessary foundation for pursuing the advanced TESOL program. My knowledge encompasses British and American literature, English lexicology, English teaching methodology, multimedia-assisted language teaching, applied linguistics, psycholinguistics, and Internet application for teaching. This is a relatively complete knowledge structure. My GPA for the undergraduate program and for the graduate program reached 3.8and 3.3 respectively, making me a top-ranking student and the winner of the top-level scholarships.

Apart from constructing a solid academic foundation, I have tried to develop my capacity for academic research, embodied in the publication of two papers. In XX, I resorted to computer technology of Visual Basic and the statistical software SPSS，combined with the Chi-Square testing, conducted a contrastive analysis among different genres of English writings, e.g. modern English fiction，English for science and technology T4，and English for journalism BROWNA and LOBA.  Through this comprehensive study, I uncovered the characteristics of the distribution of words from Greco-Roman mythology in those different genres, with special emphasis on their categories, and the basis, reasons, ways, processes, and the results of those words’ evolution in terms of their pronunciation, form, and meaning. Another paper, entitled XX, studied the present conditions of Chinese sailors’ command of navigation English and proposed ways to improve and intensify English trainings for this special group of English users. The paper was published in XX.

Throughout my Master’s program from Sept. 1998 to March 2001, I acquired English teaching experience by acting as teaching assistant and I was awarded the university’s Outstanding TA honor for my rigorous but refreshing teachings. However, I have been most proud of my English teaching experience at XX University since April 2001, during which I applied theories of linguistics to my pedagogical practices. The courses I have taught range from Intensive Reading, Spoken English, English Composition, and Listening Comprehension for undergraduates. Last year, I participated in Dr. XX ’s International Professors Project in our university which exposed me to important teaching experiences under an international environment. Off campus, I have taught English part-time at XX, where my classes have become the most welcomed ones in this private school.

My pedagogical practices have significantly deepened my understanding of English teaching as an art. As early as the turn of last century, American educator John Dewey advocated that school education should be students-centered and closely integrated with the interests of the students, and that the teacher should be a guide and co-worker with the students rather than a taskmaster assigning a fixed set of lessons and recitations. This holds especially true with English teaching. Therefore, I consciously applied different teaching methods to organize my teaching activities, such as involving students in the performance of short English plays, English speech contests, and classroom presentations. In this way, students assume the major role of classroom activities and their initiative was tapped. In this age of information, I also take advantage of the rich educational resources such as multimedia courseware and Internet to make my classes as lively as they are instructive.

I believe that English teaching is also a science; it is about effective strategies and motivations. Unfortunately, most English teachers in China are still practicing the teacher-oriented methodology criticized by John Dewey a century ago. This has led to the Chinese students’ failure in their subjective tasks to express and to communicate, even though they relatively excel in objective tasks of listening and reading. But English as a language is first and foremost a tool of communication. Therefore, it is high time that this predominance of the objective over the subjective be reversed. Although I have been making efforts toward this end, I feel my efforts unsystematic, unscientific, and unguided. I am convinced your TESOL program, with advanced concepts and effective methodologies, is the only solution to my dilemma.

Founded in 1908, the School of Education of XX University boasts a well-established reputation in TESOL. Your research-intensive program attaches great importance to the mechanisms of both English teaching and learning. In my proposed program, I would like to concentrate on Second Language Acquisition, Assessment and Evaluation on Language Education, Research on Language Education, Discourse Analysis and Study. I would like to identify Prof. XX as my potential advisor as this professor’s interest in English as a second language and discourse analysis match perfectly with those of mine. I believe that computer-aided English teaching and learning through multimedia, computer software and the network represent the trend of the future. In this regard, I have a unique advantage as I am well versed in such computer software as Frontpage, powerpoint and authorware.

Through your program, I would like to reinforce my career in English teaching, but with a changed outlook and improved strategies. To become a leading specialist on English teaching in China, armed with advanced theories and methodologies, will be an immense personal fulfillment for me. Therefore, I will pursue this objective with passion and commitment.