Graduation Research - Students Page

Graduation Research Papers

To align with the best practices of academic institutions and in accordance with the requirement of the Tishk International University, fourth year ELT students need to undertake a research project either alone or in pairs. The project comprises two main stages: producing an original, academic text on a specific text of ELT concern, and attending a viva to defend it. This document provides necessary guidelines, requirements, and procedures to assist students and supervisors to plan ahead and coordinate to conduct the projects successfully, and to be well-informed about the expectations.

Definitions

Graduation Research Project: The first, and major component of the graduation project is a scholarly paper of considerable length and detail on a specific topic of ELT interest. The paper needs to show the student’s ability to write in academic English, and prove his/her critical thinking, analyzing and synthesizing of scholarly sources and data, and deep understanding of the topic under study.

Graduation Viva: Upon submission of their research papers, students need to attend a defense session, or viva, to discuss their paper face to face and in the presence of at least two examiners. Student supervisors may or may not attend the viva. The viva starts with a presentation followed by questions on the details of the texts.

Objectives

The graduation project is aimed at strengthening students’ academic skills in general; and more specifically:

Encouraging students to be familiar with the practice of scholarly research as it is conducted in academic;
Promoting research skills such as developing a research paper topic, narrowing a paper’s focus, locating credible resources on an academic research area, summarizing ideas, paraphrasing and quoting, and drawing conclusions from the scientific evidence;
Presenting own work and findings minding academic standards;
Gaining necessary research skills to encounter weaknesses in own teaching practices in the future.

Trainings and Preparations

In order to prepare students to take on their graduation research papers, students will be given adequate trainings in the form of a Research Methods course and working closely with assigned supervisors.

Research Methods in TEFL Course

In the first semester of the year, fourth year students take Research Methods in TEFL. The course covers the principal sections of a research project in academia through introducing the prerequisites and later main steps an undergraduate student needs to take to conduct a satisfactory research project. It introduces the rationale for scientific inquiry and the fundamental questions that one needs to answer prior to any study project. The major part of this course will focus on skills that undergrad students need to acquire to meet the requirement of a research project on the completion of their studies.

The course aims to introduce the fundamental terms and concepts related to scientific inquiry and academic writing. It covers the major steps required to produce an effective research outline from developing a research hypothesis to data collection and data analysis. Through presenting theoretical underpinnings for established scientific research practices and in-class discussions, the course intends to expose students to authentic research materials so that, by the end of the course, they are not only familiar with the what it entails to conduct research, but can embark on their own research projects.

Research Supervisors

By the end of the first semester, students – or pairs of students who work on one project – will be assigned research supervisors. Supervisors are faculty members of the ELT department. Assignment of supervisors is a topic-based process in which instructors choose titles among students’ proposed topics based on their specialty and research interest. Afterwards, supervisors engage in supervision sessions with students on a regular basis until the completion of projects. Throughout these in-person sessions, supervisors ensure that students are clear about expectations, requirements and, most importantly, the quality of the produced work.

Student Requirements in Semester One

Prior to working with assigned supervisors, students, whether working on a topic alone or with another peer, need to ensure that they meet the following prerequisites:

They have chosen a specific topic that is Researchable (Narrow, Interesting, and Significant)
They have formed clear and academically-significant research questions about their topics
They have explained why their research papers will be of interest within the ELT readership.
They have put forth a tentative outline indicating the main headings and subheadings.
They have a list of annotated bibliography that includes at least 3 reliable scholarly resources
Importantly, they have produced a preliminary literature review paper of no less than 5 pages (excluding any titles or references) on their selected topics.

Research Supervisors

Student Requirements During Supervision

Throughout their research work and for each supervision sessions, students need to observe the following requirements:

Developing a reasonable research plan with tasks for each week to ensure that students can deliver their final projects before the deadline
Keeping record of all supervision sessions and documenting all points discussed and actions to be taken
Filling out a Supervision Form for each supervision session.
Doing all the tasks assigned by the supervisor
Responding positively to skill development courses and programs of action suggested by the supervisor
Respecting the intellectuality rights and avoiding plagiarism in all its forms
Enduring that submitted work is of his/her genuine production
Familiarizing themselves with the practice of quality research and putting in necessary effort to produce quality writing
Maintaining communication with supervisor to ensure that both the student and supervisor are on the same page in terms of progress
Raising difficulties and challenges well ahead and reporting issues to the supervisor
Protecting the confidentiality of supervision sessions
Not seeking any support from outsiders for considerable amount of work that needs to be undertaken by the student
Documenting all feedback given by the supervisor and incorporating it into their work
Working on drafts with considerable care so that the supervisor does not need to spend time and energy on trivial errors such as grammar, spelling or punctuation issues
Ensuring that the final draft meets the requirements set for research papers such as format, length, referencing style, etc.
Submitting all paperwork and written work before the deadlines
Preparing for the viva such as making an academic presentation and responding to questions in an appropriately and scholarly manner.

Final Research Paper Requirements

The final Graduation Research Paper needs to meet the following requirements:

It must be in English
It must be the result of genuine work conducted by the student himself/herself
The entire manuscript needs to be plagiarism-free (no tolerance can be shown to plagiarized texts)
Although others can proofread the manuscript, the text needs to be written/produced by the student, leaving no room for suspicions of plagiarism
Students can submit a stand-alone literature review paper or an empirical paper
Manuscript has been ‘spell checked’ and ‘grammar checked’
Permission has been obtained for use of copyrighted material from other sources (including the Internet)
Every reference cited in the text is also present in the reference list
All references mentioned in the Reference List are cited in the text
The total length of the manuscript should be no less than 8,000 words and no more than 12,000 words
The manuscript needs to be submitted as both an MS Word soft copy and a hard copy
The entire manuscript needs to be double spaced
Headings should be bold and size 14, subheadings should be bold and size 12. The rest of the text should be regular and size 12. The font needs to be Times New Roman
Page number needs to start from the first page after the title page and placed at the bottom right of the pages
All the paragraphs are to be aligned justified except the chapter titles that should be centered.
If tables used, they should be centered with a label below it, indicating the chapter number and the table’s order in the tables in the same chapter. Example: Table (2-10) is the tenth table in Chapter 2. The same applies to figures, pictures, and diagrams.
25 inches margins are left from the left side of the page, where the rest margins should be 1 inch, and the report should be bind from left.
New paragraphs need to indented 5 spaces except the first paragraph after a heading or subheading which will be indented as the rest of the text.
All citations and referencing must be according to the American Psychological Association’s (APA) format. For more on APA citation visit the Purdue Owl website.
Example of APA referencing:

Books:

Author, A. A. (Year of publication). Title of work: Capital letter also for subtitle. Location: Publisher.

Example:

Calfee, R. C., & Valencia, R. R. (1991). APA guide to preparing manuscripts for journal publication. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

Journal Articles

Author, A. A., Author, B. B., & Author, C. C. (Year). Title of article. Title of Periodical, volume number(issue number), pages.

Example:

Littlewood, W. (2007). Communicative and task-based language teaching in East Asian classrooms. Language teaching, 40(03), 243-249.

Chapter in Edited Books:

Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (Year of publication). Title of chapter. In A. A. Editor & B. B. Editor (Eds.), Title of book (pages of chapter). Location: Publisher.

Example:

O’Neil, J. M., & Egan, J. (1992). Men’s and women’s gender role journeys: A metaphor for healing, transition, and transformation. In B. R. Wainrib (Ed.), Gender issues across the life cycle (pp. 107-123). New York, NY: Springer.

The Viva

Upon the submission of their research papers, students will undergo a viva to present and defend their research. Schedules will be announced from the ELT department indicating each paper’s viva dates. The defence committee will consist of at least two members from the ELT faculty and external examiners might be invited. Supervisors of the research papers might attend the viva; however, they do not have the chance to intervene in the viva (i.e. they stay quiet throughout the viva), nor they make any decisions on the outcome of the viva.

The student(s) will need to prepare and present their research topic and findings in an academic presentation to be between 10-15 minutes, followed by questions from the defense panel. The panel ensures that the produced work is the result of the effort invested by the student, not anyone else. 100% of the total mark will be decided by the examiners divided into two allocations: 50% on the quality of the research papers, and 50% on the quality of the presentations and the student’s ability to defend his/her work.

See templates in the next pages

Templates (downloadable)

Click here to see the template of a Cover Page

Supervisor’s Approval for Submission and Authorization

Viva Committee Final Project Certification

The content of each research paper

The content of each research paper