The TESOL Research Training Journey

Research training is challenging, and the attrition rate of doctoral students has been increasing in Canada, the UK, the USA and Australia. In their book, Chen and Le examine the reasons for these students becoming demotivated, particularly in the context of TESOL. There has been much investigation into research training issues in multiple contexts and multiple disciplines. Yet, the research training process in TESOL for international students has not been explored sufficiently, and their voices have not been heard. This book gives voice to the research trainees, allowing their experiences to be reflected and the implications discussed in order to help create more effective supervision models.
By employing the qualitative approach and adopting critical incident as a new technique for data collection, Chen and Le attempt to gain insights into the research training process to reveal different research stages of research trainees-those undertaking PhD degrees-and to put forward a model of supervision to improve the innovation and quality of research. This book tackles the complex nature of research training. It is hoped that findings of this study can provide research supervisors and trainees with theoretical insights and practical references.

Shen Chen is a multilingual teacher educator in School of Education at University of Newcastle, Australia. He had taught at Melbourne University and Deakin University in Australia before he moved to University of Newcastle in 1993. Since then, he has been a research fellow and a visiting professor at Cambridge University and Warwick University, UK; the University of California, Berkeley, USA; the University of British Columbia, Canada; and the University of Hong Kong. His contribution has been in the teaching of and research in language and culture and second language teacher education. He was the recipient of the Australian National Teaching Award in 2014 for his contribution to international PhD supervision. Thi Thuy Le awarded a PhD (Education) degree at the University of Newcastle, Australia, in 2017. She worked as TESOL lecturer at the University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University of Hanoi, Vietnam, from 2007 to 2018. Her research interests and publications lie in the areas such as teaching culture, English as an international language (EIL), intercultural communication, EFL teacher education, curriculum development and research training. She was awarded a Solidarity Award at the 18th AILA Conference in 2017.

1. Introduction 2. Doctoral Research Training 3. International PhD Students 4. Research Design and Method 5. Cultural Adaptation 6. Academic Transformation 7. Emotional Challenges 8. Personal Wellbeing 9. Conclusion Epilogue