PhD student members are invited to share their work with the broader ALAA community through our 2024 ALAA 3 minute thesis (3MT®) competition. The 3MT competition was developed by the University of Queensland and challenges students to explain their thesis to a non-specialist audience in no more than 180 seconds, and using only ONE Powerpoint slide. For the ALAA competition, applicants will initially enter a video of their presentation. Finalists will then be invited to present live at a Zoom final open to members of the public on Friday 27 September at 4pm (AEDST).
The winners' presentations will be available on the ALAA YouTube channel and shared across ALAA social media. This competition offers a fantastic opportunity for students to showcase their work to fellow students and researchers of applied linguistics in Australia and beyond.
Eligibility:
In order to enter the competition, students must be:
- ALAA members on 1st July 2024, and
- enrolled in a Higher Degree Research program at an Australian University on 1st July 2024.
HDR degrees typically include PhD and Masters by 100% research. We would expect the thesis to engage with topics in applied linguistics, broadly defined. Students whose thesis sits primarily in another area (e.g. education; descriptive linguistics; sociology), but who can clearly demonstrate the relevance of their work to an applied linguistics audience are also most welcome to enter.
Judging process:
Presentations will be judged by a panel chosen by the ALAA executive according to the criteria outlined here.
Prize:
The top three winners will receive a certificate along with the following prize money:
$300 for the overall winner; $200 for the first runner-up, and $100 for the second runner-up.
Entry process:
Students are to record a video of their presentation and follow the online application form's instruction by 15 September. Finalists will also need to be available to give a live presentation (via videoconference) of their talk on Friday 27 Septermber.
Important Dates:
Video presentation to submit 8 September 2024 - extended until 15 September
Notification of finalist 13 September 2024 - extended until 20 September
Final round of competition 27 September 2024
For any questions, please contact info@alaa.net.au.
Previous winners:
2024:
1st: Ruri Ueda (ANU) 'Does oral repetition help the phonetic acquisition of a foreign language?'
2nd: Edoardo Brunetti (RMIT) 'Empowering the voices of France’s regional language communities'
3rd (tie): Amani Alshomrani (Monash University) 'Development of Teacher Professional Identity & Agency: An Ethnographic Study of a Saudi English Language Institute'
3rd (tie): Fadhilah Fadhilah (University of Newcastle) 'An Analysis of L1 and L2 Interference in Indonesian L3 English Writing'
2022:
1st: Alena Kazmaly (Griffith University) 'Can language really shape your personality?'
2nd: Louisa Field (The University of Sydney) 'Decisions, decisions: How can we get more Australian students to choose languages?'
3rd: Sixuan Wang (UNSW) 'Indigenous Languages: To die, to sleep, is that all?
2021:
1st: Bosheng Jing (UNSW) 'Long-term impacts of a Personalised English Language Enhancement (PELE) Course'
2nd: Putri Gayatri (Newcastle) 'Blended Learning Model for EFL Teaching in Indonesian Higher Education'
3rd: Van Tuyen Nguyen (Newcastle) 'An Exploration of Developing ICT-related Pedagogical Strategies in the Professional Development of EFL Teachers in Vietnam'
2020:
1st: Bianca Mister (University of Wollongong) 'From potential use to actual use: Helping ESL learners activate oral productive vocabulary'
2nd: Boya Zhang (University of Queensland) 'A longitudinal project of collaborative writing: EFL learners’ socioemotional relationships '
3rd: Suzanne Grasso (Monash University) 'Multilingual advocacy at the Maternal and Child Health Service'