Luan Pham

Journey to PhD study

"I was born in a poor family in the North of Vietnam. My parents’ schooling ended when they completed year 4. Despite our financial hardship and my parent’s limited education, I came to understand the advantages that a good education could bring, not just to myself but to my family and wider society. I obtained a BA in Language Teaching and taught English to university students for five years. In 2013, I gained funding from the Australia Award Scholarships and went on to study an MA in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages in Australia. Then, in Spring 2016, I was offered two doctoral scholarships: one from the University of New South Wales and the other from the University of Auckland. I chose to continue my studies at the University of Auckland."

Passion for research

"My research proposes to ‘humanize’ English language course books. It involves adapting English language course books to make them more emotionally engaging, which makes language learning more of an emotional experience – one that connects classroom events to learners’ lives. The research focuses on examining the potential effects of this approach on learners' language performance, language interest and self-esteem. The aim is to raise awareness of the importance of the emotional domain, and to make English language education more humanistic, that is, more balanced, learner-oriented, and more effective in meeting students’ individual needs."

Life as a doctoral researcher

"Completing a PhD means working towards being a independent researcher. For this reason, I mostly work alone on my topic, but I have great support from my supervisors when I need it. Working this way - and having access to the huge collection of resources that are available - has helped me develop my independence and identity as a PhD candidate.

"My research activities everyday are not very much different from what I have been doing as a language teacher. After building up my approach, I examine English course books and evaluate them based on my criteria and the target learners’ needs. And then, drawing on my own experience, available resources and what the literature suggests, I re-design the lessons. It is quite an interesting and rewarding experience. I’m just like an architect!

"In the next stage of my research, I will conduct an experiment with these ‘humanistic’ lessons in the context of Vietnam."

Opportunities during the PhD

"As part of academic life at the University of Auckland, I have attended and presented papers at several language teaching conferences in Vietnam and New Zealand, most recently at The Applied Linguistics Conference in November 2017. I have engaged in publication and submitted papers to several journals; I have one book chapter printed and one journal article in revision process. A PhD thesis is not the only mission to complete!"