Are you an early-career doctoral student who would appreciate some guidance as you develop your ideas for a research proposal? Do you have a topic in mind but are unsure about how to phrase your research questions? Have you drafted your research questions but need some help determining the best ways to collect and analyze your data? Perhaps you have recently submitted a TIRF Doctoral Dissertation Grant proposal which was not funded. If so, are you from one of the countries listed below?
Are you a faculty member responsible for supervising doctoral students doing research on English language teaching and/or learning? Do your research students have good ideas but are unsure about how to pose and address effective research questions? Do they need help with research methods that may not be within your areas of expertise? Do they have difficulty expressing those ideas in the formal genre of a research proposal?
We ask these questions because in partnership with the British Council, TIRF is offering a pilot program that should be helpful to doctoral candidates and their research supervisors: TIRF-British Council Research Mentoring Awards.
Goals: The main goals of the Research Mentoring Awards are (1) to elevate the research capabilities of the mentees, thereby increasing the mentees’ ability to improve their skills as researchers, and (2) to support doctoral research supervisors in guiding their students’ research design and development.
Eligibility: Promising doctoral students who will have opportunities to influence pedagogy and research in the future in their home countries are encouraged to apply. Early-career doctoral students are welcome to apply, as are those who have applied for TIRF Doctoral Dissertation Grants (DDGs) in the past but have not been selected as DDG grant recipients. We welcome applications from admitted doctoral candidates in selected nations in Africa, East Asia, Southeast Asia, and Latin America who are planning to do research on any of the topics listed below. The list of focal countries can be found by clicking here and selecting the “Eligibility” tab.
Topics: (1) Content-Based Instruction; (2) Digital Technology in Language Education; (3) English as a Medium of Instruction; (4) Language Assessment; (5) Language Planning and Policy; (6) Language Teacher Education; (7) Migrants and Refugees; (8) Plurilingualism in Business, Industry, the Professions, and Educational Contexts; (9) Research on Revitalization of Endangered Indigenous Languages; (10) Students’ Age and Effective English Language Education in Schools; and (11) Teaching English to Young Learners.
Mentoring: The mentoring sessions will be delivered online. They will include focused, small-group webinars, mentor-mentee pairing to facilitate tailored training, and feedback on research proposal drafts.
Participants: Four or five doctoral students and their research supervisors will be selected for the first cycle of mentoring. TIRF mentors will be identified for this pilot project, based on the research students’ interests and needs.
Timeline: Applications will be accepted through August 31, 2023. Participants will be selected in September 2023. Online meetings of TIRF mentors, the selected research students, and their university-based research supervisors will take place in October, November, and December of 2023, and in January and February 2024.
Funding: Selected applicants will receive a modest stipend of $500, delivered in installments upon successful completion of program benchmarks.
Application Process: Application forms can be found by clicking here. Submit the application form, including a current copy of the doctoral candidate’s two-page curriculum and the university research supervisor’s signed statement form by August 31, 2023 by clicking here.
All questions should be sent to [email protected].
