Congratulations to Matt Gunton, one of our MA Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (Distance Learning) students.
Matt's dissertation was entered by the School of Education into the British Council Masters Dissertation Awards, which promote achievements of students on UK Master's programmes for work with the best potential for impact on English Language Teaching policy and practice.
Entitled “Going against the grain: an autoethnography of a one-teacher private English language teaching institution in Taiwan”, Matt's dissertation received a commendation.
The strength of this dissertation is, in no small part, due to the success of the supervisor-student partnership between Dr Xin Gao and Matt. Xin saw the potential of Matt’s research and supported him to engage with what was a very unfamiliar methodology. With Matt, Xin produced a strong statement of the dissertation’s impact, novelty, credibility and applicability, which was read by the judges alongside the dissertation itself.
The full dissertation will be published on the British Council website soon.
Matt’s achievements should also be understood in the context of the timing of his studies. When he applied for the course, he was living in Taiwan but he returned to the UK with his family, just as the pandemic started. He continued his studies despite the upheavals and, despite semi-retirement, has remained active in language teaching and is currently teaching Ukrainian refugees.
Posted on Monday 17th July 2023