Hello guys!
I wrote the following sop in order to get accepted in a PhD program.
I've tried to be as honest as I could: I summed up my background and I tried to put together my ideas and main topics of research for the next few years, please try to read it and give me a feedback, that's all I'm asking!
Thank you!
"Language is common to all human beings and the ability to communicate with each other is what differ us from animals.
We use language to express inner thoughts and emotions, make sense of complex and abstract thoughts, and communicate with others in order to build relationships, as well to establish rules and maintain our culture.
Language is essential in our world, and now has become even more essential to understand how language acquisition works, in a world that is becoming more international and language barriers are being broken.
In lieu of a formal introduction of my research interests and aspiration, I offer a brief summary of my background, and the core reasons that push me to pursue my studies in the Second Language Acquisition and Teaching field.
When I received my scholarship for a MA in TESOL at West Virginia University, I got in touch with different people from all over the world with a real passion for languages, applied linguistics, and teaching methods. Working close to people that shared the same passion, challenged me and gave me enough confidence to assert and contest my thoughts and opinions about the second language acquisition process.
Furthermore, studying and being a graduate teaching assistant at the same time, allowed me to put directly into practice what I was learning, and apply new teaching methods to my class.
Thanks to the classes I attended I got a general knowledge about linguistics, teaching methods, and literacy, and I was able, thanks to my professors' help, to explore different fields of language acquisition and applied linguistics.
By doing this, I've done research about bilingual kids, different reading and oral skills in L2 students, and the big role teachers cover in our bilingual and multiracial society.
Though I remain very wary about committing myself prematurely to a specific topic of research, I am highly interested in the way of learning and apprehend a language of bilingual kids.
More specifically, the way kids develop and perceive their L2, and the role family and society might play in the acquisition process. Is only language learning process involved, or we should talk about not only language learning, but also try to find a way to fit in a new society?
I'd also like to stress that I know how important a PhD is, and that I am the first one to be convinced I want to pursue a PhD and I have a real, tangible goal. I am perfectly aware that my ideas and my interests can be already used in a classroom setting (I can keep on being a teacher, and just research on my own, I already have a MA after all).
My goal, then will not be to detail another example of how important it is to have a bilingual teacher in a classroom setting in order to improve kids' learning of English (or whatever their L2 might be), rather to investigate in the process of learning, knowing that every student comes to class with a different background, and their learning does not stop at school, but continues at home, in their household, and when they play sports with other kids, being aware that language learning is not only what we do in class, but is something more broad, that involves society altogether.
Furthermore, it is my personal interest to investigate different aspect of language learning as a matter of oral proficiency, composition, and reading.
I decided to take a year off from school to get extra time for myself, put into a more practical use what I've studied in the past two years, and get sufficient time to search and research for graduate programs that best suit my needs.
This year I found myself in a transitional period: the confusing yet thrilling post-graduation period, and the challenging and sometimes hard "first time teaching".
I teach Italian to adults and kids (beginners) as well as Italian L2 for those kids (first grade) that already speak Italian, and attend a bilingual school.
I am finding my job very demanding and challenging, and every time I go to class I find a new issue and I am always second guessing my teaching methods and the way my kids learn and use the language.
All the kids in my class speak fluently Italian and English and you wouldn't know which is their first language.
Growing up in an English speaking country, they rely on English 90% of the time: even though they all speak Italian, they prefer speaking English among them, and when doing homework and exercises in Italian they would make mistakes coming from English (they sometimes directly translate words from English that make little to no sense when used in an Italian sentence).
Also of crucial importance to a professional career in the language acquisition field is my understanding of how school work goes, preparing lesson plan, and planning final goals for my students, helped me to understand that learning a language is a process that goes step by step, and for future teachers and curriculum developer it is important to know how and when teach certain topics to students in order to help them better understand the language and learn in a more fluent and logic way.
UMD provides an ideal climate for me to develop my cross-disciplinary interests because of its outstanding faculty and interdisciplinary approach to teaching and language acquisition.
Furthermore the university is in a city that offers a lot of places where to pursue research. There are plenty of bilingual schools, with great teachers, and full of people that may help you develop and narrow down my research.
The different opportunities that both the university and the city offer in the research field made me decide to apply for your PhD program, knowing for sure that it will broad and enrich my research as well as my general understand of second language acquisition and teaching."
Crfrig, you do not need to waste so much time on your introduction. You have wasted a lot of space and word count just by introducing your topic when you should have gone directly to the point of your essay. Immediately state the reason for your interest in acquiring a PhD diploma in relation to your current career and future aspirations. Don't dwell so much on your past experiences and achievements. These should only be mentioned in passing as you discuss your more important goal and task before you, that of writing an academic paper during the course of your study that will somehow change the landscape of linguistics and language studies. Your goal here is to impress the admissions officer with your future aspirations in line with your previous work, not necessarily academic, experience. Since you are already at the Phd level of studies, it is understood that you have mastered and done well in your previous academic endeavors ranging from your college to masters experiences. Now you are looking towards a PhD education for the highest possible education that will help you with the next phase of your career growth. That is where your essay should center. Discuss the future with as little as possible looking back references. Only discuss your past achievements if it will help highlight your future goals and potential achievements. Keep the essay short yet informative. After all, you have already submitted documentation with it that can give the admissions officer another source of information regarding your academic and professional achievements. Our goal now is to present you in the most positive light possible using your future plans for your academic career. Right now, you have spent too much time living in your past achievements for it to make an impression about your future goals as a holder of a PhD degree. You should build up the future you instead in order to show the career path you are planning to take and give the admissions officer an idea of where you plan to take your career next, how you plan to achieve that, and why the PhD is very important in attaining that goal.
Thank you!
As I said, it was my very first draft, and looking on other websites, there were very long essays and very short ones...and I got a little bit confused.
I divided it in paragraphs, so when I'll review it it will be easier to decide which part to cut off!
Thank you very much for your reply, I really appreciate that :)
