RLM Slinn-Funabashi

A lot has happened in 2024 and it was a year of firsts. I’d like to take this opportunity to reflect on the year.

First writing in the social sciences:
At the beginning of the year I was writing my first full, essay length assignments for my Master’s programme. A 3,000-word essay for the ‘Principles and Practice of English language teaching’ module and a 3,500-word essay for ‘Linguistic Analysis’. It was a stressful time as it was my first time writing an assignment in the social sciences after almost a 15-year break from academic study.

I found this experience very tough because I had a lack of confidence at first. I spent over 70 hours in a week working on one of the assignments leading to a short period of burnout and stress. I achieved top marks in these assignments but it taught me that I needed to learn about balance and how much reading and work was necessary to produce a good assignment.

Overall, I achieved high distinctions in every module and achieved the award of the highest grade among the three MA language programmes at KCL which is a huge achievement.

First research project:
I applied for the position of research assistant for my professors, Ursula Wingate and Chris Tribble on a project about generative AI and academic writing. We held our focus groups in January and prepared the workshops for March and collected data. I presented with Ursula twice, once at the Centre for Multilingualism with English and once for an internal KCL meeting.

First university-level teaching position:
I taught at university for the first time over the summer on a pre-sessional course. It was a unique experience, supporting students to improve their academic English through a project creating art in response to the climate crisis, and the students were amazing.

It was a big achievement to put into practice what I’d learned over the year in my Digital ELT module and English for Academic Purposes module as part of the MA at KCL and for this to be recognised by achieving a top observation and wonderful feedback from my manager.

First dissertation project:
During my teaching over the summer, I was also working on analysing the data I had collected for my MA dissertation project in probably the busiest 7-weeks of my life. I wrote up the project and submitted it to complete my Master’s programme.

First kendo tournament prize:
Part of balancing academic study is also making time for hobbies and friends. I started kendo in October 2023 and continued practicing twice a week all academic year. I competed for the first time in a university tournament between KCL and UCL. In the end I achieved the ‘Fighting Spirit’ award. I didn’t win any matches but I scored a point with a well-executed move which showed I had been practicing hard and trying my best to implement what I’d learned.

First international ELT conference:
I attended the Japan Association of Language Teachers international conference in Shizuoka. It was my first time to hear researchers present their findings and it was inspiring. I got to meet and talk with some of the professors whose papers I had read as part of my MA studies which was a highlight for me.

First conference presentation:
I presented my research findings from the two research projects in the Tohoku ELT Expo in Sendai. It was a great opportunity to visit somewhere new and to share what I’ve been working on at KCL this year with professionals I would never have otherwise met.