Thesis
Are you already working on your thesis? What is your topic? Does it meet your needs and expectations? Does it reflect your interests? Is your thesis being written in English or in Spanish? What is the purpose of a thesis work? Is it better to work alone or in group? What are the difficulties of working on a thesis? How much of your time should be devoted to it?
Let me tell you that my thesis was written in English, I had to work with four other people, and it was on American literature. It took us one year and it was fairly easy to compile the info, but it was hard to put it together on paper, given that we were five. I would have preferred to have worked on Phonology or Linguistics, but Mr. Sandoval was the only teacher left available that semester, and I didn't want to wait a whole year to find available teachers to work with. Needless to say that American literature was not my cup of tea, so I didn't feel like I was giving the best of myself. The experience was OK, but next time I have to write a thesis, I will do it alone and on a linguistic topic. I'm looking forward to taking that second chance.
Waiting for your posts. Best regards, Marcela.
Very interesting your experience teacher. thanks for share it with us. I've been thinking in the thesis and I don't know what to do but you alrady have given to me a wonderful idea, to do it over literature. I like reading and maybe could be easier to me.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure it's better to do it alone. that is my idea too. Aniway, I have all this year and the next to do it.
thanks
René.
Certainly, this is a curious topic.
ReplyDeleteWell, this university has a subject known as "Seminario de Título", in which we have certain help of our "lead-teacher", during our last semester.
Anyway, according the information I have from my professor in Methodology 2, Mr. Juan Avalos; all the thesis you think should be based on Methodology or Linguistic topics.
In my personal opinion, I don't care how many people would want working with me; hence, I'll work if everybody work in a trustworthy manner. On the otherhand, I feel that is a lack of respect to us, as students of English Pedagogy of a university, to create a thesis taught in Spanish, and in that way, if thesis is the main work of all pedagogical subject, the harder the thesis is, the better the teacher becomes.
I want to defend my thesis in English, no matter if I know at the professor who shall evaluate me, and about the topic, well...
Ending with my long comment, if I can work with my classmate and my friend Carlos Betancourt, we'll work on something referred to methodology and practice. I won't write the idea, because is not mine and you can copy it(I mean, I prefer grammar, because is as Math on Language. Unique and COMPLEX)
Hey palls,
ReplyDeleteThank you Miss for sharing a little bit of your experience... it has opened my eyes a little bit more about details I hadn't considered.
In my personal case, I love Phonetics and I got mad about Methodology since the very first class in Viña... I also enjoy Literature since I am a good reader, so probably I'll do my thesis based on one of those three topics... Nowadays, english teachers haven't got good tools to teach, and schools demand a lot of time from teachers, so sometimes is very difficult NOT to work with books and filling-the-gaps-guides; and I guess thesis would be a good chance to go deep into the field and build my own knowledge considering my future career.
I agree with Miss Marcela in terms of individual or pair work during the thesis. it's true that a bigger group makes your work a bit more easygoing, but it requires a terrific organization, and sometimes there are more problems in terms of time schedule, distribution of tasks, etc. "more heads, more ideas" true, more development true,but more strict organization, more complications, etc etc...
I think of my thesis as my personal challenge to show what I am made of, and to demonstrate that my years studying and acquiring new experiences have been worthy. It will be a struggle between the old Daniela and the new one... the teacher... it sounds odd but now I realize of the evolution of my skills and the development of my hopes and dreams as person and proffessional... in that way the thesis is going to be the golden brooch.
Regards,
I have just thought abour it, but I haven't started any compilation of material or stuff like that. I was thinking of doing it against stipulated fonetics, I mean, its a complex idea, but it is about "why we should learn an explicit accent and not have our own?". the other topic I thought it was something about Literature (sorry miss Marcela, but I am good at it and I love ready old-fashioned text LOL)I'm not pretty sure if I would do it about American or British, but anyway I like both.
ReplyDeleteAnd about doing it by myself or in group, I obviously preffer to do it alone, because it like...the instance where you have to show "of what you are made from", you have to show that you are good enough to be a teacher of english, and not just a little rascal that is always behind a curtain of people.
Patricio Castro E.
Hi!
ReplyDeleteWell I have just thought a lot about this issue. I think it is important to have more or less clear, about what we are going to prepare our thesis.
I really have many topics and ideas in my mind that is the reason I need to make a summary and decide what I am going to centre my efforts.
I have really enjoyed of many subjects during those years of university, and I really enjoy methodology and I would like to invest about the different ways to make easier the way in which students acquire the knowledge.
I am quite sure that as Chilean teachers, we are not doing a good job, since most of the student that egress from the schools declare that they didn’t learn enough English during their years in school.
By the other hand, the only ones who really learn English, is because they study in an English school, I think it’s not fair.
That is the reason I would like to investigate about methods to teach good English.
About the question of working with someone else, I don’t have any problem working with people.
About if it is in English or Spanish, y haven’t decided yet, I don’t have problems doing it in English, but that is something that we have to discuss as a group, but if I do it alone, I would like to present it in English.
See u!
Paula.
Hello everybody!!
ReplyDeleteWell, this is a totally important topic for us now. I have been thinking about it lately and I already have a topic but, of course, it is not only my desicion because I am not going to work alone(I have heard that the thesis MUST be done in groups). Regarding my topic I am very concerned about "How students feel in class" Are they comfortable? Do they dare to ask questions? Are they ashamed of participating in classes? Well, I think afection is a relly significant issue during the learning of a second language( in this case english), and I also think that most of the teachers don't pay attention to this. So my topic will be something like "What is the connection between affection and learning a second language?" or "How does affection influence the motivation of the students in a ESL class?. I know these are not easy topics and we only have one semester to do it but, this is my general idea until now.
Best regards,
Fernanda Donaire
I haven't decided yet what will be my thesis next term :P, Also I have to finish my courses before to start thinking in what I'll do (or as a group).
ReplyDeleteI would like to prepare something related with "why english teachers don't speak in english in their clases", or something like that, or also "why students don't speak english at the age of 17". These are topics that I CONSIDER interesting, but it's a decision that I can't take as a single person, because i won't do it alone. The difficults could be the time that we will have (3~4 months??) and if the group is a dedicated one or a lazy one.
I suppose that should be in spanish the thesis because that is what I've listened, but It won't be a problem if is in English ;). Nowadays, I just enjoy my "free time", nest term I will think about it, jajaaj.
Regards
/Juan
mmmmmmmmm
ReplyDeleteSeriously...I'm really scared of the thesis!!!...because I haven't thought the topic of the thesis yet and it is supposed that we should be already thinking about it in order to search information because we will have A LOT to read and to investigate and we will have just a FEW months to do it. Honestly, I'd like to do my thesis about Phonetics, because I really like this topic, but it has to be a decision that the GROUP has to make. The thesis will be of groups of three and it will be in spanish, according to what the teacher of methodology has told us. I'd prefer to do it in group, because "two heads think better than one", and to do it alone would be a really hard job. But, it is also really important to consider the people that will work with us, as Johnny said above, if the group is a dedicated one or a lazy one.
That is my personal opinion about it...
Thanks!!!
Best Regards!!
Daniela Villanueva
Thanks teacher for sharing this experiences with us,it was very interesting.
ReplyDeleteNow ,in relation to the topic of my thesis; with my group have though in something,it would be related with: which would be the better way to learn when you have large group of students in a classroom?,now I haven´t though alreary if it will be in english or spanish, and in relation to prepare the thesis, I`m going this with two more partners till the moments.
Finally , I have to say that the time to prepare the thesis is little.
Regards.
Lau.
Hi everyone!
ReplyDeleteFisrt of all thank you very much teacher for sharing your experience with us.
Well, this topic is really interesting because we have not much time to think about a topic for our thesis. I mean, we have only one semester, and I think working in groups is a difficulty, because we all have different thoughts and believes and sometimes is complicated to get an agreement. Anyway I think the group I will work with it such an appropriate one, because we share a lot of things and we are used to work together.
Durin this year we have given ideas fot the topic and we finally agreed on Fernanda's topic, because we (the three of us => Macarena, feña and me)think it is a really important topic nowadays, because with the constructivism came out many considerations to the students and affection is actualy an important one.
Sometimes we as teachers do not know why our students do not participate in classes, or do not do their homeworks, or exercises, and so on and we do not consider that maybe is because they do not feel comfortable, perhaps they are affraid of learning something new, so I believe we must consider our students feelings and how those affect their learning process.
Also we have thought of doing it in English I hope we can, and obviously we hope to do a very good research to make a contribution to Education with this topic, that has not been explored as it should be (in our country) given its importance.
Best Regards.
Katherine Morales.
Hi Everyone!
ReplyDeleteThis is one of those moments in which your whole university’s memories come to your head and make you feel a weird sensation; maybe of sadness, melancholy, or satisfaction, for finishing a significant stage. Besides, thank you teacher for sharing your significant moment with us.
Well, in my case I do not have clear yet about, what topic I am going to work in my thesis, but I would like to try something of Phonology. On the other hand, I am a little bit afraid, because I think the time is too short to do it (in theory: the whole thesis in just one semester), and I know that I should be working now. About working in group, or alone, I would like to work in group in this moment, because I think this is a huge challenge that I would not experience it alone. Maybe after this experience, I could draw a conclusion about what is better.
Another important thing is, the language used in our theses. This is clear: if we are studying English, we have to write our theses in English. We can not do it in Spanish; it could be shameful, and contradictory.
Anyway, I have something very clear; the time is flying, and the thesis’ deadline is getting close, so let us go to work in it!
Best wishes!
J.R
Hi !!
ReplyDeleteWell honestly this topic make me nervous !!!
There a lot of topics that we can do in our thesis, but I was thinking we need to do a very new and interesting topic because it would be very boring repeat the same thesis every year.
I don't have any topic yet but I know that we have to do the thesis in groups because of the money that we have to pay.
well that's my personal opinion
Regards
Elizabeth Tello
I think that a thesis requires lot of work, and it is important to know to choose a good group to work, because 3 or more heads work better than only one. But if someone feels better work alone, it is an option. Other important thing is the topic. The topic has to be a something interesting, new, or a contribution for us like teachers.
ReplyDeleteThe truth is that I don´t know so much about how we have to do our thesis, maybe it is spanish or in english, I only know we have to do it and with that event, we realize that we get one of our aims.
JIMENA SAA
Hello everyone…
ReplyDeleteWell, first of all I have to say that I would’ve worked alone or in pairs, I don’t know if you have heard about a kind of study that says that in group of two people in the average of working per person is 60% / 40%, in a group of three 2 persons work a 30% and the third person works a 40% and stuff like that. I’m not a hermit you know but if I could choose I’d choose that. But as I know that is not an option I’ll work in group…
I would like working on something related to Linguistics, being more specific for example the affective filter when you are learning a second language and those things..
Ok guys see you on Monday
Bye.
Maca O.
Hello Everyone:
ReplyDeleteUff!! this is my Aquiles'heel. Everytime that I think about the thesis, My stomach becomes a knot. It's like to risk the whole major, all these years, full of sacrifice, all my dreams, illusions. In addition, I have to mention that I don't want to be a mediocre teacher, so, to achieve this I want good grades, to finish my major with a high score.
According to the topic of my thesis, it's really hard to explain, because I have a brain storm in my head, I want to talk about of many things, but I have to chose only one.
Regards!!
Im not going to do my thesis this year so I have some extra time to think about it I mean I have a great idea but I need to elaborate it more, it's related to phonetics and some other things that I ' ve learned. I don't want to comment it yet because is a work in progress.
ReplyDeleteIt's difficult to say if I want to do it alone or with someonelse because it's depends when time arrive I will think about it. But anyway is a very difficult decision so it will takes time !.
Hi!!
ReplyDeleteWell I am thinking about this, I have the title is about the formation of English in ex students of Universidad de Las Americas, clearly reflect my interests because I want to know where I am going. I think my thesis will be written in spanish because my ex classmates made in spanish but really I do not yet. The purpose of a thesis work is know the experience of my classmate for when I finish my career it will be easier understand where I am and if the college will come true my expectations. I believe that is better to work in group for the reason that it could be easier, I know that I need a lot time for work in my thesis, and if I do with more people it will be better and each member of the group could give more opinion and more ideas for investigate. The difficulties of working on a thesis are the time for write and group’s work because we are going with are final practicum and other work in the college so it will be hard to work and join together. In the college will give us 4 moths for finish the thesis, for that reason it important to have the some ideas for it now, because when we will begin the thesis it will be easier to make.
Hello Everybody
ReplyDeleteThanks Miss to share your experience with us.
Honestly, I´ve been waiting for that moment since first year in the university, and this is it, this is the year to do the thesis. Before, I was scared because I´ll have a lot of work to do, but now I trust in my Knowledge and I´ve been thinking in the topic a lot, I love Linguistic, specially the process to acquire a second language, maybe I´ll investigate something related to Linguistic, but I have to discuss this with my classmates first.
I think that it´s important to do the thesis with other people because you have to investigate a lot, it´s too much work to do alone, I feel very lucky to have good classmates (my friends) because they are very responsible like me and we are going to do it together. Unfortunately the thesis is in Spanish, this is very curious because we´re going to do english teachers!!!Cuac!
María Teresa
well, I have to do my thesis this year and I`m concerned about what means to do a thesis, I think it`s very difficult to find a good topic and also it`s a hard work because you have to research a lot however I feel good because I have my working group so I`m ok . Let`s work!!
ReplyDeleteI have heard a rumor that thesis could be divided into Spanish (those people who talk about education) and English (those who prefer talking about Methodology and linguistics matters)
ReplyDeleteIf it is true I prefer to be in the second group rather the first one.