About.

Workshop objectives
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This series aims to serve as a platform to instigate dialogues between doctoral students/early career researchers (ECRs) with senior academics in the field of Applied Linguistics on various important topics relevant to professional development in academia. Specifically, through hosting semi-formal online workshops and informal discussion forums for doctoral students and ECRs, and launching a researcher development website, the organiser aims to:
 
  • Demystify areas related to professional development in Applied Linguistics which are often hidden and misconceived through experience sharing by senior academics;
  • Provide opportunities for doctoral students/ECRs to network with each other to share information and their own experiences related to different facets of professional development in Applied Linguistics.
Features of this workshop series

  1. The “In Conversation with…” events of this series provide opportunities for senior academics to share their experiences vis-à-vis the above professional development topics. In these 90-minute events, the focus is on the interactions between the speakers and the participants which was very treasured in the previous series. Ample time will be reserved for Q&A or discussions.

  1. The “Doctoral student and ECR forum” events of this series are held in the same month to accompany the “In Conversation with…” events and address the same themes. The purpose of holding these 60-minute events is to engage doctoral students and ECRs in informal networking and resources/information sharing. The forum will be moderated by the organiser and discussion will evolve around several prompting questions related to the monthly themes; a doctoral student/ECR will be invited to deliver a 15-minute talk on his/her own experiences to start off each forum.   
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  1. A website which accompanies the series will be launched. This website will be developed and updated by the organiser regularly. Features on this website include a discussion forum, a space for information sharing (e.g., an archive of resources and information related to professional development in Applied Linguistics, link to Facebook page for BAAL postgraduate members), regular blog posts/interviews by academics, ECRs, and doctoral students. The recordings of (1) and (2) will also be uploaded to the website after the whole event closes.