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Student and Research Topics

PhD and Professional Doctorates

Britt Larsson

TOPIC: Writing apprehension and assertiveness training in the Public Relations industry.

Britt is a journalist and a trainer interested in addressing the conditions, relationships and identoties involved in producing writing apprehension, and in evaluating methods of addressing the issue.

David Rear

TOPIC: The challenge of higher education in Japan: To what extent are companies operating in Japan satisfied with the attributes, skills and competencies of graduates from Japanese universities?

Dave is an English teacher and university lecturer based at Kanda in Japan, and has already published on conflicting atttudes to critical thinking in present-day Japan.

Heather Jackson (MQRES)

TOPIC: Negotiating Trust in Business Discourse

Heather is undertaking research in business discourse, focusing on discourse features and strategies used in situations where trust needs to be established. She will examine different ways in which trust is defined, and how the discourse of trust varies according to the organizational/institutional context. She is particularly interested in the areas of sustainable development and Corporate Social Responsibility.

Samantha Sin

TOPIC: A phenomenological investigation of conceptions of accounting practice held by students and practitioners.

Samantha is a Senior Lecturer in Accounting & Finance and has published extensively on generic skills development for accountants and the integration of content and language in teaching materials. Her other supervisor is Ass. Prof. Anna Reid.

Ally Xu

TOPIC: The Acquisition of Tense by Adanced Chinese Learners of English:
Tense, Tenselessness and the Experience of Time.

Ahmad Alhaq:

TOPIC: Arabic for Academic Purposes

Master of Communication in Professions and Organisations

Eric Healey (completed 2006)

TOPIC: Negotiating Trust Along the Supply-Chain

Eric's dissertation investigated how people and businesses work together along supply chains where there are significant risks unique to such enterprises. The research revealed that the participants engaged in an obligation ritual, through which they constructed acceptable story lines which filled in enough of the missing information to allow them to trust each other. An important part of the ritual involves negotiating the content of a story until the language consists of sufficiently familiar industry jargon.

Karin Bernhard (Completed 2008)

TOPIC: Just words? An investigation into the role and relevance of communication in SAP projects.