We are delighted to announce that NILE's MA graduate Garry Hobbs is the joint winner of the prestigious British Council Master's Dissertation Award 2022 with his dissertation An Investigation into the Impact of Using Take-home Tests as an Assessment for Learning Strategy on Young Learners' English Language Learning Motivation in a Private Thai Language School.

The Master's Dissertation Awards is awarded every year by British Council in partnership with UK universities to promote achievements of students on UK Master's programmes for work with the best potential for impact on ELT.

We are proud to deliver a comprehensive MA with such high calibre students and staff. The NILE MA has been running for over 20 years and normally averages a cohort of 240 students from 30+ countries. Garry’s award is testament not only to the quality of his hard work and skill, but also to the effect of NILE’s post-graduate programme in the world of ELT.

Garry said

"I am delighted and proud to receive this award. It really is a dream come true. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the students who participated in my research, the principal at the language school where I am employed, my dissertation supervisor, Sandie Mourão, for her invaluable insight and guidance, and all the NILE Team for their support during my MA journey."

  Feedback from the judges included

‘[…] a very original study, motivated by the author’s desire to solve a practical problem in her/his teaching context […]'

'The dissertation was contextualised with a clear real-world rationale and is of real value to practicing teachers not only in Thailand but in similar contexts where summative assessments are used in the ELT classroom and motivation remains an issue.'

The full dissertation is now available to download from the Teaching English website, along with other dissertations receiving special commendations in this year's round.

 

June 2024: This month, Garry and Sandie have had their co-authored article "Take-home tests as an assessment for learning strategy", based on Garry's MA research, published in The ELT Journal.
This and other subscription journals and ELT ebooks are available for free to all NILE participants through the NILE eLibrary.

 

NILE's MA in Professional Development for Language Education is a highly flexible Master's degree where modules are available both face to face and online. New modules start in September, January, April and July.

Contact us to apply

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