I am sure that It is not only a great personal pleasure and honor but also a great responsibility and commitment to be a graduate student at the department of English Language Education at Seoul National University. 

The graduate program, in fact, has served for more than 20 years and try to do our best to continue to be a place where students can enjoy intellectual rigor and challenges.

My philosophy on our graduate program of English Language Education

I want to introduce my philosophy on our graduate program. First, the graduate program has two parts: one is theory and the other is practice/pedagogy/reality. Even if the graduate program of English education has not neglected practical/pedagogical aspects, it has also pursues theoretical aspects which are different from other graduate programs in Korea. Personally I believe that without theory, practice is thoughtless. Without practice, however, theory is lifeless. Thus, I think it is very important to try to integrate theory with practice/pedagogy. Theory is ideas which can sometimes make the practices  possible. Thus, different theories might have different practices/pedagogies/realties so that it is important to be aware of where you are located and what theory you wan to pursue. Thus, to change the reality/pedagogy/practices, you need to have commitment to your theory. Commitment is service, responsibility, dedication, and seriousness toward what you stand for. Second, I want you to explore, challenge, and even adventure new and different things that you have never explored nor studied, it is important just not to limit yourself within what you are, what the faculty are talking about, or even what other great scholars and practitioners are talking about. Third, I don't think that your classmates are not your competitors nor enemies, but they should be your coworkers, colleagues and helpers always within the community of intellect, conscience, commitment, supports, friendship, discussion, and interrelation. Thus, I hope that you will always share whatever you think of with your classmates and enjoy the relationship and the intellectual community. Finally, you don't limit yourself to the current conditions or what you have done. You are the most excellent group of graduate students not only in Korea, but also in the United States or any other foreign countries. Thus, I think you can do whatever you can dream of and I and other faculty will be with you any time. In order to do that, I hope you need to explore not only applied linguistics, but also other human and social sciences and many new aspects of theories, ideas, and practices. The science of applied linguistics is interdisciplinary so that it is almost nothing and meaningless not to look at other disciplines. You need to look at such diverse disciplines as linguistics, psychology, English literature, education, sociology, anthropology, communication, even technology to resolve related issues in language learning/teaching and other areas of interest in the field of English language education and applied linguistics.

To be a thesis student of me

Before going into in more details of my interests to help you make a sound decision, here are some lists of fundamental questions that I am interested in and pursuing. What is the role of English in our society? Why do we need to teach and learn English in Korean society? Does learning English have something to do with global, social, economic development of Korean society? What should be done in order to answer some of the questions related to the former issues? What should be different or what should be done to enhance our English language education in Korea or to adapt to the changing environments? Finally, how can we integrate technology into language learning and why should technology be included in the list of our consideration and discussion of English education?

To be a thesis student of me, you need to meet the following three requirements. First, you should be interested in such issues as L2 literacy (reading & writing), L2 curriculum/policy, Interface of L1 and L2 Literacy skills from social and cognitive perspectives, Personal aspects of language learning from socio-cognitive aspects (cognition and strategies), Technology (Internet or Multimedia)-enhanced language learning. Second, before you approach me to be your thesis advisor, you should take at least two courses offered by me. Third, you should prepare a 10-page proposal before you decide to write a thesis or dissertation. The 10-page proposal should include your topic and your rationale in terms of what the topic is and why the issue should be examined in your thesis; the topics should be briefly examined in terms of theoretical and pedagogical aspects and come up with the remaining research questions that you need to pursue. Finally, the proposal should include some information on how you pursue the plan to answer the questions so that research methodologies and expected results and implications should be also part of the proposal. I guess that it would be too late if you have already finished writing a 10-page proposal when you contact me with no prior contact and consultation with me, because you need to spend a lot of time before make your interests and ideas crystal and concrete so that they are researchable and plausible as a thesis or dissertation topic.