Graduate Researcher Series: an Interview with Xiaoxiao Kong

Chenyang Zhang

Xiaoxiao Kong is a doctoral candidate in the School of Languages and Linguistics at the University of Melbourne. She works on language assessments for professional purposes, specifically within the context of teacher education and registration. Her PhD project investigates the language demands of early childhood and secondary school teachers in Australia, and the suitability of a currently approved English proficiency test for teacher registration purposes, under the supervision of Associate Professor Jason Fan and Professor Ute Knoch.

Chenyang interviewed Xiaoxiao about her PhD research and journey.

***

Hi Xiaoxiao, thank you for taking the time to speak with me. To start us off, can you introduce yourself?

My name is Xiaoxiao and I’m a first year PhD student in applied linguistics. I’m originally from Beijing, China and I came to Australia in 2014. Before embarking on a PhD, I completed a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) at the Australian National University and a Master of Teaching (Early Childhood & Primary) from the Melbourne Graduate School of Education. I have since worked as an early childhood teacher and an educational researcher within a range of contexts in Australia.

That’s a unique experience! So, is your previous experience related to your intention to embark on a doctoral degree?

As an early childhood and primary school teacher and someone who has studied language testing, I’m naturally drawn towards language assessment and its implications for the teacher workforce. During my study and work in early childhood and primary education, I met people who would otherwise make wonderful teachers, but were unable to gain registration because they couldn’t pass the required English proficiency tests. This experience has really sparked my interest in investigating language assessment for teacher registration purposes. I feel like I’m doing something in return for the teacher community that I was once a part of.

Can you tell me a bit about your research project?

My research project explores the language and communicative demands of teaching in early childhood education and secondary school settings in Australia, and whether these demands are adequately reflected in the IELTS Academic test, an approved test for teacher registration across all states and territories.

In order to gain teacher registration and work in early childhood centres and schools in Australia, most applicants who speak English as a second language are required to sit an IELTS Academic test and achieve minimum set scores. The stakes are high for teachers from non-native English-speaking backgrounds seeking Australian teacher registration, and it’s important to ensure that the test is valid and appropriate for this purpose.

Sounds very interesting. What’s the significance of your research?

Through this project, my hope is to first find out the language demands of early childhood and secondary teaching in the Australian context and whether they differ. This is an area that hasn’t received much research at all. Secondly, the investigation of the appropriateness of the IELTS Academic test as a measure of teacher language proficiency for registration purposes could be used to assist policy design. We all know about the current nationwide teacher shortage as well as a call for quality education at the school level, so hopefully, findings from my project can shed light on these issues as well.

Your confirmation is coming. How do you prepare for your confirmation?

I find it helpful to make what I call a “backwards timetable”. I would lay out the items I have to submit prior to confirmation and their due dates, and work backwards on the calendar to figure out what I have to do at each stage. The other thing would be to maintain regular communication with my supervisors to make sure I’m making satisfactory progress, and be realistic about my work efficiency considering potential distractors.

Those are great strategies, making a backwards timetable  and regularly communicating with your supervisors. As a first-year PhD student, what’s the biggest challenge for you so far?

For me, it would have to be balancing coursework and working towards the thesis. I’m really enjoying the coursework so far and the discussions I have with all my fellow first-year PhD students on a wide range of topics which may or may not be relevant to my own PhD project. However, the amount of work required for the coursework component could quickly take over, and I find myself two days away from a supervision meeting, having done basically nothing for my thesis!

I totally understand that it is difficult to balance coursework and research project. Finally, did you find a way to cope with it?

I would say that I have found a way – I think the first thing is to actually just come to terms with it, recognising and accepting that coursework is a really important component. The entire first-year cohort is dealing with it, and talking about it with everyone has helped ease the anxiety. And as I mentioned before, another thing I find helpful is being realistic about my progress and communicating all this with my supervisors to make sure I’m on track thesis-wise. Coursework will eventually clear up and that will allow time for thesis writing.

Besides the challenges, what’s been your favourite memory from your PhD so far?

So many things are coming to mind, but the highlight for me was the faculty orientation event held at Old Arts during orientation week. It has been a while since I have been in Melbourne, and all of a sudden, I was speaking with students and academics whom I hadn’t seen in years or had worked with closely but only met on Zoom. It almost felt surreal. I also got to meet the first-year SoLL PhD cohort, which was great.

Very happy to hear that finally, you had a chance to meet your friends and academics in person. Could you tell us how you achieve a balance between your work and personal life?

I think it takes practice to know your limit and when your mind and body cry for a mental health break. I try to take one full day off per week to go somewhere new, walk a lot, and clear my mind. The above picture shows one of my adventures to Hanging Rock, which is in regional Victoria.

I started a YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/@shirlsozsnaps) in 2020, when I was alone working in regional Victoria during the lockdown, to share my weekly journeys and it has since turned into a habit.

That’s a very healthy way to balance work and life. Besides this, do you have any expectations or plans for your future PhD journey?

Some goals for the near future would be to make steady progress in regard to writing and research and pass confirmation. My project involves conducting lots of interviews, which is something I’ve seen and helped many people do but have never done independently. I look forward to learning more interview techniques and getting skilful at it.

I hope you enjoy your PhD journey. Thank you for sharing your experience with us, Xiaoxiao!

Thank you, Chenyang.