Advanced Skills Portfolio (IPhD Applied Linguistics/English Language Teaching)

Learning Outcomes

Knowledge and Understanding

Having successfully completed this module, you will be able to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of:

• Standards, conventions and practice relating to the dissemination of research findings to academic and (where relevant) non-academic audiences.
• The advanced skills and professional/personal attributes that are developed during doctoral research, their importance to successful achievement of a doctoral programme and their value to academic and non-academic employers.
• The culture surrounding university research, academic achievement and employment.

Transferable and Generic Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• reflect critically on the importance of training and development activities in the context of your career plans and your employability
• communicate applied linguistics/ ELT research in a variety of written formats
• document a range of generic and specific research skills developed through your training activities, evaluating their usefulness and relevance to your doctoral programme

Subject Specific Intellectual and Research Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• Manage research, including collecting and managing data and conducting and disseminating research in ways consistent with professional practice and research ethics;
• use information technology appropriately to support and present your research
• Design, implement and evaluate independent research investigations in applied linguistics and/ or English language teaching, including leading to a major individual project (the research thesis).

There is no taught syllabus as such, rather an ongoing programme of development activities that must be undertaken, evidenced, and reflected upon in the Advanced Skills Portfolio. These activities could include conference attendance, presentations of your research, training events, publication, or outreach activities, among other things. The Portfolio itself will comprise records of these activities and a detailed written commentary reflecting critically and in detail on the skills and knowledge developed and relating your own research programme to your continued professional training, personal development and career ambitions.

You will plan the development activities and portfolio in discussion with your supervisor in light of self-assessment of your skills development needs using the Research Activities Record. In preparation for the Advanced Skills Portfolio you will be expected:

• to attend an appropriate selection of research training activities offered by the Faculty of Arts & Humanities and beyond (www.gradbook.soton.ac.uk).
• to play an active part in the relevant research centre activities in Modern Languages and Linguistics.
• to participate actively in PGR student discussion groups and annual student conferences and other PGR teamwork activities within the University.
• to attend relevant invited guest lecture series hosted by research centres in Modern Languages and Linguistics (or in other departments, where relevant).
• to consider how your work can be disseminated to an academic audience (e.g. by submitting abstracts to conferences or preparing written work for publication), and where relevant, to potential non-academic beneficiaries.
• to attend relevant conferences or other academic network events in your subject area, wherever this is practical.

This list is not exhaustive and you are encouraged to seek as broad a range of relevant experiences as possible in order to develop your attributes, skills and knowledge.

Teaching and learning methods

You will discuss a programme of research skills training and development activities under the guidance of your Personal Academic Tutor (in the first year) and your supervisory team (from the second year, during the normal schedule of PhD supervisions). This plan will develop as you progress through the IPhD programme. You will undertake a range of different training and development activities to achieve the relevant skills objectives, and you will evidence and critically evaluate them in the Advanced Skills Portfolio. You will prepare the portfolio with guidance from your doctoral supervisor.

The module requires 600 hours of independent study, carried out over the first three years of the IPhD programme.

Assessment strategy

The Advanced Skills Portfolio will be completed by the end of Part III of the IPhD. It should be submitted with the first submission of the PhD confirmation (in accordance with the timeframe for preparation of the PhD confirmation under the present doctoral regulations), although it is not part of the PhD confirmation assessment itself.

The portfolio is assessed by two members of staff and will be double-blind marked. The threshold for progression is 60%. You will receive a written feedback report.

Summative

This is how we’ll formally assess what you have learned in this module.