M.Ed. Final Portfolio and Presentation

The final examination is an opportunity for students to reflect upon and synthesize their experiences in the program in reference to their professional goals as scholars and educators.

Process: The final comprehensive examination for the M.Ed. in TESOL and World Language Education consists of (1) a portfolio and (2) a presentation to faculty and students.

Written examination: Portfolio: The development of a portfolio is an on-going process that begins as soon as you enter the program. You are responsible for saving materials such as final papers from coursework and other degree requirements that demonstrate significant learning. Please be mindful that your plan of study sheet that you need to complete and submit for approval before your final defense needs to be in accordance with the TWLE requirements, which stipulates that you need to take at least ten TWLE courses. In your final Master’s portfolio, you need to  demonstrate how your learning in the required TWLE courses and electives has provided you with a deep understanding of the field of second language research and teaching.

As you near the end of your program, you should select the best samples of your work for inclusion in the portfolio. You are responsible for notifying your advisor of your intent to submit your Master’s final portfolio and present it by the first week of your final fall or spring semester in the program. You will then be informed by UGA email of the due date for your portfolio and of your presentation.

You will need a Google account to create your portfolio online in Google sites. Please follow these linked instructions:

Instructions for creating a Google sites TWLE portfolio

Your portfolio will be based upon five to seven projects, written work assignments, or other activities that demonstrate your accomplishments of the following program objectives. Five of these projects must be from TWLE courses. In your synthesis statement you should discuss how the projects demonstrate knowledge of the areas listed above and specific understanding of the following:

• knowledge of the target language linguistic system, differences and similarities among languages, and the principles of language acquisition and multilingualism

• knowledge of sociocultural contexts and cultures associated with the target language and how these shape language learning

• ability to design, implement, and manage content-based language instruction in accordance with local and national standards, and to use materials and technology effectively

• knowledge of premises and issues concerning language assessment, and ability to use and interpret assessments

• conversance with research in and history of the field of applied linguistics, TESOL, or world language education; and ability to engage in professional development and advocacy in TESOL and world language education

(For further elaboration on each of these areas, please see teacher education standards in K-12 World Language Education)

Contents of portfolio (to be generated on Google Sites):

1. Title page with name and date

2. Student’s resume/vita

3. Program of study (Numbers and names of courses taken, semester taken, and final grades if available)

4. A three to five page written statement that:

1. demonstrates your ability to synthesize your experiences in the graduate program as they relate to program objectives and your professional goals as a scholar and educator

2. describes your professional objectives for the future

5. A one page abstract for each of the five to seven projects described above. Each abstract must articulate how the project meets one or more of the program objectives.

Scanned documents, digital photos, or original Word documents can be included in the portfolio. If the project is not easily scanned or photographed (e.g., a poster presentation), the original project should be submitted to your advisor on the same date as your portfolio.

(2) Oral examination: Presentation: Students will prepare a presentation on a project contained in the portfolio (see attached guidelines and rubric). At a designated time in the last half of the semester, an oral examination will be held for examinees that have passed the written portfolio examination. The examination is open to all students and faculty; however, RSVPs are required to insure room is available. Two faculty members from the TWLE program will be present to evaluate oral presentations. Each student presentation will be followed by a discussion in which faculty will ask the presenter to expand on the synthesis and reflection on their experiences in the program that they undertook in their portfolio.

Project presentation description:

Presentations for Oral Defense (see attached rubric)

For the presentation defense, students are encouraged to select any artifact from their portfolio that has been developed as result of a research, curriculum design or creative arts project.  Once you have selected the artifact you will develop a presentation for a team of TWLE faculty and an audience of your peers.  Presentations vary but are approximately 15 minutes in length.

Format for Individual Presentations

When choosing what to present at the final oral Master’s Defense, please choose one of the following strands (informed by the TWLE courses and the electives that you have taken):

Strands

1. Language Acquisition and Language Processing

• First and/ or Second Language Acquisition

• Reading, writing and visual literacy

• Psycholinguistics

2. Language Teaching and Learning

• Second/Foreign Language Teaching and Teacher Development

• Language and Education in Multilingual Settings

• Educational Technology and Language Learning

• Language Evaluation, Assessment and Testing

3. Language in the Arts

• Literary Writing and Second/ Foreign Language Teaching/ Learning

• Theater and Reflective Second Language Teaching/ Learning

4. Language in Society

• Language Policy and Planning

• Bilingualism and Multilingualism

• English as a Lingua Franca and World Englishes

• Language and Technology

5. Analysis of spoken and written discourse

• Language and Social Interaction

• Multimodality

• Corpus Linguistics

• Discourse Analysis

Preparation of Individual Presentations

Presenters can choose among three different types of presentations: 1) Research Study 2) Curriculum Design Project 3) Creative Arts Project. For the defense, all three types of presentations must have the following components:

• Conceptual framework that is grounded in second language theory and research(e.g. Socioculturalism, Sociolinguistics, Critical Pedagogy Second Language Acquisition, Post-structural theory, Applied Linguistics, SFL and many others introduced to you in your coursework)

• Discussion in the findings/ curriculum/ or creative project section of how the work relates to particular studies and/or approaches in second language research

• Reflection on how the project has implications for either future research or teaching.

• Clear data display from creative projects or studies that provide evidence for the claims made in their presentation (e.g. transcripts, excerpts from creative project, video clips).

• A list of references that inform the presentation should be provided at end of the presentation or in a handout.