What's a Study Plan? Is this what it should look like? Graduate School in Korea application

scholarship in Korea and graduation

So I'm applying for a scholarship to go to Graduate School in Korea. I've never heard of a study plan before, but this format is how my friend suggested I write it. Is this what a study plan is supposed to look like? If yes, is this ok? If no, what is it supposed to be?

Thanks!

Goal of Study:

At Seoul National University, I want to learn more about the Korean Educational System in order to be a better English teacher.
When I first started working as an EFL teacher in Korea, I had no idea what to do. I had no books to teach from, and the students' English level was a mystery to me. It took a whole semester for me to figure out what level they were at, and because of this, my students didn't gain much in their classes with me that semester. Learning where students should be in each grade will help me be better prepared to make lessons for my students. By studying EFL education in Korea, I can learn where my students' English levels should be.

I desperately want to improve making clear, fun, and interactive lesson plans. In my city, I have a lot of EPIK teachers who can give me games and activities, but at Seoul National University, I can learn how to make activities that better suit my students. Also, I will learn how to make better lesson plans that will be more enjoyable to my students.

Below is a list of classes that I believe will help me achieve my goals to be a better teacher. In the event that a course is not offered, or is unavailable, I listed a backup course as well.

Course List:

701.990 Seminar in Curriculum Development.
706.707 English Teaching Materials and Curriculum
706.704A Studies in Applied Linguistics
706.736 Studies in English Morphology
707.516 Sociolinguistics and TEFL
707.513 Studies in Contrastive Analysis of English and Korean
706.708 History of Teaching Foreign Languages
707.803 Reading and Research
701.803 Dissertation Research

Study Plan:

In order to achieve my goal of matching my lesson plans to my students' English levels, I want to take 701.990 "Seminar in Curriculum Development". Currently, I only use the Presentation Practice and Production design to my curriculum, but changing the way I approach my curriculum may yield better results from my students. This class will help me make various types of curricula in an organized manner.

A class that I believe will complement the "Seminar in Curriculum Development" is 706.707 "English Teaching Materials and Curriculum". As of yet, I have never taught from a book. Therefore, if the situation arises where I am required to teach from a book, I will need to be prepared. By taking class, I will be able to learn about how to use materials and develop them to better suit my students' needs.

As an undergraduate student, I majored in Linguistics and focused on Second Language Acquisition. Because Linguistics is the science behind learning a language, taking classes that show me how to apply that knowledge to teaching is crucial. Therefore, I plan to take 706.704A "Studies in Applied Linguistics". This will help me utilize what I have already learned in the classroom.

While doing my undergrad, I also was able to take a morphology course. This class was not language specific, but it showed me the potential morphology could have if used to teach a language. Taking 706.736 "Studies in English Morphology" would be incredibly applicable towards future classes. For example, if I teach basic morphology to my students, they could possibly learn how to break down a word in order to guess its meaning.

Classes that my students always love are "English Slang", "Text Talk", and "Konglish". However, as soon as they take these classes, they start using the words they learn. I love that they want to use these words, but they use them with everyone. Learning how to explain when they can use certain words would be incredibly useful, which I why I want to take 707.516 "Sociolinguistics and TEFL". I also want to take 707.513 "Studies in Contrastive Analysis of English and Korean" in order to better understand how certain words come to be. For example, my students take the word "손맛" and say "hand-taste", rather than "home-made". They made a direct translation rather than getting the actual English word. Understanding how this works can help me teach them how to avoid making these mistranslations.

Learning the history and politics of the education environment I am teaching in is extremely beneficial. Recently, in South Korea there was the students' rights movement, and I believe knowing what all that entails would be useful information to know as a teacher in the country. Also, as each country has its own view of how a teacher should be teaching, knowing what is expected of me as a teacher in Korea will help in how I approach lectures. Due to this, I want to take class 706.708 History of Teaching Foreign Languages.

As for the last two courses on my list, 707.803 "Reading and Research" and 701.803 "Dissertation Research", I believe they will help in terms of coming up with ideas for my thesis, and in making sure it is well written.

I think it's better for you to delete those course list part from this study plan because it made ur study plan seems too long and actually not really useful for the content itself.

Study plan should contain your tittle research, goals, method, and expected result (hypothesis) if I'm not mistaken.

Hi Nadia, a study plan for a Korean scholarship is usually very specific. It requires you to think about the masters course you are going to be taking, how you hope to apply your knowledge and training upon return to your country, and how you can build upon that information as a part of your study plan. The study plan normally goes this way, think about what problem you hope to resolve in your professional field upon your return. Now, you already know that the course you will be taking will help you address the theoretical aspect of the problem. But what about the practical aspects and other concerns not taken up in the classroom? What about your specific academic and professional goals that may not be met by simple academic learning improvement? That is where the study plan comes in.

The study plan will address a section of learning not covered in the classroom and other training courses included in the course curriculum. So you have to present the following information in the study plan:

1. The title of the problem you wish to address
2. The abstract
3. The method of study
4. Length of study
5. Study or research, workplace experience / internship requirements the university can help you with
6. Study expectations
7. Future application in the workplace.

The study plan can be up to 2 pages long depending upon the writing instructions. The most common requirements of a Korean study plan is indicated in my list. It should help you address the study plan requirements.

Hi! Thank you for your response, I just have a couple follow up questions because my circumstance is different from what you described.

I am currently an EFL teacher in Korea, and after I graduate, I don't plan on going back to my home country after graduating. The goal of my studying at university in Korea is to become a better EFL teacher in Korea.

Should my study plan have more concrete examples of problems I have now as a teacher, and how what I learn can resolve those problem?

In my *tentative* essay above, I believe I answered questions 1, 6, and 7, but is how I wrote it unclear or confusing?

With your answers, I can rewrite the essay, I just needed a good starting point. Thank you!

You should write a totally new essay so that you can focus more on representing the study plan requirements in a clear manner. Since your original essay is not in line with a proper study plan presentation, you should not take parts of it and try to make it suit the new essay. It must be rewritten in totality. That is the best way to approach the study plan problems that you have.

Since you will not be leaving Korea once you complete your studies, you need to focus on the EFL teaching problem that you have now. Do not use a series of problems. Pick the most serious problem that you have and build your study plan around that. This is a research paper that will require a methodology study so keep the problem presentation focused on related issues so that you won't have a difficult time doing the research for it.