requirment from the program:submit a written statement expalining the purpose of their application and the focus of their academic interests.
I am a junior student at Hebei University of Technology in China. I major in the teaching of Chinese as a foreign language, and I am very interested in applying for your program of Chinese Linguistics and Language Acquisition.
I am interested in Chinese dialects and eager to deepen my comprehension of some of them, so that I can be a better language teacher. I am also particularly interested in Cantonese and its similarity to ancient Chinese. I believe that Cantonese is the most direct descendant of ancient Chinese.
My main motivation for applying to your university is its outstanding reputation, which I learned of from a post doctoral studying in the Chinese Paleography there. The reason I want to be admitted to the program of Chinese Linguistics and Language Acquisition, are my interests in Chinese and the growing global demand for the learning of Chinese as a foreign language. Besides, studying in Hong Kong may provide me more chances to communicate with many foreigners. Thus I can gain insight into different cultures, and reduce cultural misunderstanding in the cross-cultural communication. The experience will be important and necessary for my major.
In the past three years, I have studied the following courses and achieved excellent academic results: Introduction to Linguistics, Applied Linguistics, Chinese Language Phonetics, Chinese Lexicology, Contemporary Chinese Language and Ancient Chinese.Those courses are closely related to Chinese Linguistics and Language Acquisition, which lay a good foundation for furthering my study in your university. However, I have not aquire all the knowledge I want. Say the acquisition of first language. Even though I learned some simple theory about it in the course of General Theory of Chinese Teaching to Foreigners and the Acquisition of Second Language, I seriously feel that I need to learn more .Your program can help me make up for these shortages. Thus, I need your course of Foundations in Language Acquisition to learn the acquisition of first language specifically.
In addition, I did not get to do as much field work as part of my undergraduate degree as I would have liked. I am particularly interested in mastering the methodologies for research in linguistics. The course in linguistics research will help me do that and help me to evaluate the work of other scholars. I also would like to take the course of Research Project. My research proposal for this course is to collect Cantonese vocabulary that is used in Mandarin, and Mandarin learners in Hong Kong can just speak these words directly only by transforming the pronunciation. Surely, your institution's position in Hong Kong may give me a favor to do it.
I sincerely desire to study at your University because of its prestigious academic atmosphere. Further study of Chinese Linguistics and Language Acquisition in such an advanced educational environment and in such a beautiful city is my dream.
Yours truly,
Yang Na
