Summary

Korean graduate students face a difficult job market, and at some universities, the demands of taking graduate courses taught in English. The teaching and learning center at our university decided to create a non-credit professional development program for graduate students, which I undertook; the contents were designed and taught by me. Data were collected, such as data after each session, and upon their completion of the program. This included self-reports of professional readiness, assessment of their professional development and mentoring in their departments, and self-ratings of English skills and efficacy. The results showed a lack of sufficient professional guidance from their departments, especially regarding career options, weaknesses in various professional soft skills, and in their academic English readiness. This shows a need for more attention to academic English and professional development for graduate students in Korea.

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  Methods: Chi-square, correlation analyses, logistic regression in SAS & R (e.g., skills x motivation)
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  Results: Preliminary analysis led to a report for the departmental stakeholders. Three papers were published in 2017-2018 from the full analysis (I did the main work, including literature review and data analysis).
• Professional development program website

Publications

• Lee, K., & Lee, H. (2018). An EAP professional development program for graduate students in Korea. TESOL Quarterly, 52(4), 1097-1107. https://doi.org/10.1002/tesq.447
• Lee, K., & Lee, H. (2018). Korean graduate students’ self-perceptions of English skills and needs in an English-medium instruction context. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 39(8), 715-728. https://doi.org/10.1080/01434632.2018.1438442
• Lee, K., & Lee, H. (2017). Korean graduate students’ perceptions of guidance and professional development. Higher Education, 73(5), 725–740. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-016-9988-9