我為什麼要念PhD（一）：SOP

 

寫在前面：這是我請我的美國學生司馬杰同學幫我稍稍修改過的SOP第一稿，由於申請截止日期是二月一號，我在這期間，還會把這篇文章拿給Writing Center的Tutor Sam修改（他是Cultural & Literacy的PhD學生），我也已經把這篇SOP連同推薦信的材料交給兩個老闆，老闆們寒假期間也會把他們的想法與建議告訴我。

除了文章寫到的東西以外，有一些枝枝節節的想法，我之後會在Blog中寫出來。

Statement of Purpose     (Yi-Tzu Huang)

What are you going to do when you encounter great changes in your life? Three years ago, I resigned from my job as a reporter in San Francisco, returned to Taiwan and was diagnosed with lupus. When I stayed in the hospital, helpless and lonely, I desperately missed the hugs and smiles of the students whom I taught at UCSD. I will always remember the sunny afternoon in San Diego when one student whom I taught in the previous year saw me on campus and came to give me a hug.  She told me she missed my class very much and my class changed her image of China. She cheerfully told me that she was going to take an intensive summer program in Beijing and wanted to find a job related to China in the future. I was deeply moved by her strong motivation and amazing progress in the Chinese language; the whole conversation between us was in Chinese. It was the first time I realized the enormous impact that language instruction can have. 

In my mind, teaching a foreign language is a special kind of diplomacy. Compared to International Relations and Diplomacy, which I studied for the previous six years, teaching is much more influential and closer to people’s hearts and needs. It was then that I realized what I really wanted to do in the future. I told myself if I could recover and leave the hospital, I wanted to return to the United States, one of the biggest markets for teaching Chinese as a foreign language in the world. I would reinforce my professional training in the field by studying in a graduate program with outstanding faculties focusing on Chinese linguistics and pedagogy. 

Fortunately, and with thanks to God, I have a chance to study at the University of Iowa and change my life again. In the two years of pursuing my M.A. degree on Chinese pedagogy and working as a teaching assistant at the University of Iowa, I feel like I have been living on a treasure island where my thirst for knowledge is fully satisfied by the many knowledgeable professors and abundant resources in foreign language acquisition. I have deeply immersed myself in the delight of obtaining every piece of knowledge related to foreign language acquisition and taken various courses offered by Chinese program, Department of Linguistics, College of Education and Department of Psychology. At the University of Iowa, studying becomes more interesting and rewarding since I can try to utilize the theories of foreign language acquisition and cognition I have learned in my classes to make the process of foreign language learning more effective and meaningful in practice. 

        Among the basic four language skills in learning a language, I am particularly interested in reading and speaking. I am driven by the thrill of knowing how the brain processes information when acquiring a new language. Unlike Western languages, which are alphabetic languages, Chinese writing is represented by “characters”. Chinese character recognition and reading comprehension are often the most challenging tasks for beginning learners. How to effectively identify a character plays an important role in furthering learners’ reading comprehension; I am eager to understand how Westerners internalize the Chinese characters when they learn Chinese. I also hope to obtain Professor Helen Shen, Professor Chuanren Ke and Professor Michael Everson’s guidance to develop appropriate Chinese character instruction to facilitate foreign learners’ Chinese reading comprehension. 

        In my mind, language is not merely a language; language is life. In addition to teaching students correct pronunciation and grammatical rules, teaching a foreign language involves teaching students how to use the target language appropriately in the real world. Taking Professor Chuanren Ke’s Test and Assessment class not only makes me more familiar with proficiency tests such as SOPI and OPI, but also gives me an opportunity to think about how to effectively enhance students’ Chinese speaking proficiencies. Hence, I hope to continue my study with Professor Ke and strengthen my knowledge on teaching Chinese speech and on speaking proficiency evaluation.

        Having taught in different language programs, including the regular academic programs, Confucius Institute and Beloit summer intensive immersion program, I have been highly interested in finding out how to develop curriculums for different language programs and successfully manage a language program. As a result, I know FLARE’s program direction track is exactly what I am looking for, and hope to get the opportunity to equip myself with the training and knowledge related to language program administration. 

Two years ago, a lot of people were curious about the reason why I left California, where it is warm and highly populated, and chose to go to Iowa, where the winters are cold and the cities are small. I told them that the Chinese program at the University of Iowa can teach me how to become a good language teacher and I believe the solid training can make my dreams come true.  Two years later, people are interested in knowing why I desire to stay in Iowa for another four years; I tell them the FLARE PhD program can teach me how to become an outstanding foreign language educator. I also tell them that the program provides me with an opportunity to discover how to make a language program truly successful in every way.