UoL MA student wins award for ”meticulous” dissertation
MA Applied Linguistics & TESOL student Samira Niazi has received a Commendation in this year’s British Council Master’s in English Language Teaching Dissertation Awards for her Dissertation “Translanguaging Pedagogy; Teachers' views, Challenges, and Strategies.” Her research explores English teachers’ attitudes towards bilingualism and the challenges they face when teaching emergent bilinguals. Her work draws on research on “Dynamic Bilingualism” (Garcia & Li Wei, 2014) to explore teachers’ language mindsets, their views around translanguaging pedagogy, and their challenges and strategies in implementing translanguaging practices. Reviewers praised her research for its “quite meticulious” execution and applauded her research focus as “timely .. as most UK schools are far from ideal for those learners whose home language differs from English”. They also noted that her dissertation “strengthens the call for teachers to incorporate translanguaging pedagogy into their practice to better meet the needs of this very large group of learners.”
Samira’s dissertation was in competition with MA dissertations from other UK HEI institutions and clearly was found to have the potential for impact on English language teaching policy and practice. This is the seventh year in a row where an MA Applied Linguistics and TESOL dissertation by a Liverpool student has received a commendation or special commendation. The dissertation requires students to conduct independent research where they collect and analyse their own primary data in relation to research questions developed from detailed reviews of secondary literature.
Dr David Oakey, Senior Lecturer in the Department of English at the University of Liverpool and leader of the Applied Linguistics and TESOL MA programmes, said: “We’re delighted to see Samira’s work recognised by this award. Her success demonstrates that our Applied Linguistics and TESOL students are encouraged to conduct high-quality research which has potential for impact on English language teaching both in their home teaching contexts and further afield. Congratulations to Samira and her supervisor, Dr Nektaria Kourtali!”