Teacher Discussion Forums

I am currently enrolled in a research subject for my masters Ed ESL. I have to do an 8000 word critical review of literature. The problem is I am stumped as to a possible starting point for this critical review of literature. I would appreciate any feedback on possible topic choices.
Thanks
Clayton

Can you be more specific? What kind of literature? Divided how? Do you want recommended texts? Do you want theory? Where do you need to start?

Hi thanks for replying
The details of the assignment are as follows
Students conduct a significant systematic critical review of the literature related to a topic of some educational significance. The review would be a comprehensive one and would normally be expected to involve an analysis and synthesis of concepts,findings, etc., for the purpose of drwing conclusions or implications , or depicting the current status/state of the art of a particular facet of second language education.
Which facets of second language education would suit such a task? And which wouldn't be too difficult a topic to research?
Is this helpful as any help would be greatly appreciated
Thanks
Clayton

Hi Clayton!
I guess if I were you, I'd think about what kinds of classes I wanted to be teaching when I finished and model my research on that. In other words, I'd try to make it useful.
For example, if I had to go back to my studies (God forbid!) I might do the project on the literature around vocabulary acquisition. There is lots of current theory on teaching collocations and helping students build up a repetoire of lexical chunks [ie. pieces of language that go together naturally], and it's actually a topic that can influence how you teach. Plus you can get great ideas for how to teach vocabulary.
However, if you are planning to do academic ESL you might want to do research on collaborative reading. If you want to teach kids, then that's a whole other ball game.
Good luck with it. Let us know what you choose. Maybe we can recommend some reading!

-Sharon