Today's interview is devoted to our graduate Min Seok Choi, who majored in a Master of Arts in TESOL at IGSE and has recently been appointed as a professor at Francis Marion University in South Carolina, US. After all the hard work of getting a doctorate, you've made it. Congratulations!


Q1. We heard that you have been appointed as a professor at Francis Marion and will start working from this August. Congratulations! We would like to share this news with our graduates and students. First of all, please tell us a bit about yourself.

A) Thank you. My name is Min Seok Choi, and I’m an 8th-year graduate of IGSE’s English Education program. After graduating from IGSE, I prepared to study abroad while teaching English at an elementary school for two years and a high school for one year. In August 2014, I pursued a doctoral course in Language, Education & Society offered by the Department of Teaching and Learning at Ohio State University. With the influence of my academic advisor during my doctorate, I became interested in language socialization. Most of the professors in the department were conducting studies on literacy education so I also decided to study literacy learning in the context of language socialization. Through course work and projects, I learned qualitative research methods, including ethnography, discourse analysis, and narrative analysis, and used these methods for analyzing the process of learning under various circumstances. Specifically, my study focused on how second-language learners become familiarized with written content or disciplinary knowledge (e.g. biology, fine arts, and architecture) through interaction and how they learn communicative competence and repertoires during this process. Because many non-linguistic/verbal elements such as paralinguistic features, gestures, and the manipulation of objects are involved in learning, I became more interested in multimodal interaction. I also started to become more interested in ‘translanguaging’ as I observed learners naturally mix their mother languages with English.

When it comes to teaching, I taught academic writing for international students for four years as a part of an ESL composition program. After that, I taught ‘linguistic diversity in education’ for pre-service teachers for a year and supervised TESOL students' teaching practice. Then, thankfully, I became a writing tutor at the Writing Center for writers from various backgrounds for the next three years. At the same time, I was organizing programs and workshops for various writing instructors while working for a program called Writing Across the Curriculum.

Whether I was engaged in research or work, I did not stick to one specific theme or subject, so my interests and circumstances were constantly changing. Because I was trying to connect the dots among these various experiences to a single point, a researcher or teacher, my doctoral course took many more years to finish than average.

Q2. Which course will you be teaching at Francis Marion?

I am planning to teach basic courses (e.g. Foundations of Education and Curriculum Planning) related to literacy teaching for pre-service teachers.

In addition, I am thinking about organizing a course for pre-service teachers to help them better understand how to teach culturally diverse students. This course would be similar to the aforementioned ‘Linguistic Diversity in Education’ course I taught at Ohio State University. Lastly, I was told that I will also be supervising students' teaching practice.

Q3. Do you have certain subjects in mind that you plan to study further? If so, please also tell us why you became interested in those subjects.

You might have guessed this from my answer to the first question. I have been studying with a focus on language learning as a part of school education and the non-linguistic elements in relation to that. I will study this learning process as a longitudinal study emphasizing language socialization.

In my doctoral years, I conducted research on various age groups, but now I am planning to narrow it down to lower-elementary schoolers. I intend to study more in depth about their use of second languages; how these youngsters communicate in various learning circumstances, such as schools, museums, at home, and the local community; and which communication strategies they use through ethnography and discourse analysis.

In regard to education for teachers, I am interested in testing how discourse analysis could be used as a tool for teaching and not just a method of research. If I have the opportunity, I would like to teach pre-service teachers about discourse analysis and later find out how their learning processes change as teachers. I would like to observe and analyze their understanding of which language leads to which form of interaction and how they apply this knowledge to their teaching.

Q4. I assume that the road to becoming appointed as a professor after finishing a doctoral course in the US was not an easy one. Which part would you say was the most difficult?

Yes, there were some difficulties, but I would say reading and writing were the most difficult parts. The one common piece of advice given to me by all the professors I met during my doctoral course was to read and write often. And as time went on, I started to realize how difficult that was. Through my lengthy doctoral years, I realized that being a scholar means getting involved in scholarly conversation and that this requires reading and understanding scholars’ works in addition to writing responses to them. The writing part was particularly hard as it involves getting used to the socio-cultural use of language linked to certain genres. I still find this aspect the most challenging.

Q5. What would you say is the best part of studying in the US so far?

As you may know, it took eight years for me to finish my doctoral program. The reason why this time was enjoyable, albeit long, was because I could learn all kinds of things whenever I wanted. There were many workshops offered free of charge, and I could easily reach out to a lot of people when I needed guidance and advice. They read my insufficient writings repeatedly and gave me feedback on them. I had many mentors who gave consistent help and guided me through further progress. Whenever I achieved something, they would just tell me "You're the one who did it. We are just glad to have given you a little bit of help." I was really lucky to have met such people, and my eight-year-long learning journey was delightful because of them. So, having met various teachers who always made learning enjoyable would definitely be the best part of my doctoral years.

Q6. What is your goal or dream as a scholar?

One thing that concerns me as I leave the school is finding new learning paths and how I will provide my students with opportunities for learning. If possible, I wish I could establish a community where members could learn from each other for a long time. Also, I hope I can provide opportunities for learning for my students through such a community or group. Since last August, I have been organizing a study group on ethnographic discourse analysis together with current students and graduates of Ohio State University. As a scholar, I want to learn and grow with them. Also, at Francis Marion, I want to discuss and study qualitative research methods with students who are interested in this subject both in terms of theory and trials based on their field experience.


Q7. Is there anything you want to tell IGSE students who are planning to study in the US?

It is helpful to review your mindset and the effort you give to reading and writing. I am still not so sure what my writing is, how I write, what strategies I use, how I read, and how I should make my voice heard in conversation with fellow scholars. However, thinking about which books to read and which types of writing to focus on can certainly help us navigate our studies. So, it would be better to not spend too much energy on the entrance stage of studying abroad; rather, I recommend strengthening your mind muscles to better enjoy studying later.

Thank you very much for giving such kind and thorough answers to all these questions. Once again, big congrats on your professor appointment, and we look forward to hearing from you next time about your achievements in English language education.