Introducing Yourself as a Researcher

What is a Bio Statement?A bio statement is short for biographical

statement and is also called a bio-data statement.

A bio statement introduces you as a researcher.A bio statement often includes:

(a) Your academic credentials.(b) Your research interests.(c) Your current position (or notable past

positions).(d) Your recent or notable publications.

Sample Bio Statement 1Kota Ohata earned his B.A. degree from

Kyoto University of Foreign Studies in 1994, a M.A. in TESOL from West Virginia University in 1996. After a few years of EFL teaching back in Japan, he returned to the U.S. for the pursuit of doctoral degree in the area of applied linguistics. Recently Kota Ohata completed his dissertation and received a Ph.D. in Composition & from Indiana University of Pennsylvania.

Where Are Bio Statements Used?Bio statements are used when submitting

papers to journals, when applying for grants, and when proposing conference papers to name a few of the important places where you find bio statements.

Here is a call for paper proposals:

Please send the abstract without author(s) names. On a separate sheet, include each author's name, affiliation, mailing address, e-mail address, telephone and fax numbers, and 50-word biographical statement.

Here is another call for papers:Notes to ContributorsAll materials submitted become the

property of TESOL Arabia. The editors reserve the right to make editorial changes to better suit the format and readership. If substantial changes are required, the editors will consult the author(s). Please remember to include a brief biographical statement (50-75 words maximum) with your submission.

Some More Bio StatementsJoanne Bennett Doeman was born October 25, 1952

in Salisbury, North Carolina. She did her undergraduate work at Hollins College in Hollins, Virginia. She received her Bachelor of Arts with Honors in English in 1974. After college she moved to Winston-Salem and began working for the Social Security Administration, where she worked until the birth of her first child in 1980. She has been a volunteer at the Methodist Home and is a member of the North Carolina Council on Aging. She began work on her Master of Arts in Liberal Studies in 1990 with the purpose of combining her interests in English literature and the problems of aging.

Part I: Dr. LustProf. Barbara Lust studied Developmental Psychology, Linguistics and Philosophy, as well as English literature.  She received her Ph.d. in Developmental Psychology from City University of New York Graduate Center after earlier studies at L'Institut des Sciences de l"Education, at the University of Geneva, Switzerland. She followed this with postdoctoral study in linguistics and philosophy at MIT before coming to Cornell.  Her teaching at Cornell involves Developmental Psychology and Linguistics, within an interdisciplinary perspective of Cognitive Science.

Part II: Dr. LustDr. Lust's research is framed in an interdisciplinary and cross-linguistic framework, involving the study of first, second and multilingual language acquisition, especially in the child, and links theoretical paradigms to experimental methods of research.  Recently she is involved in building a virtual internet-based  international center for the study of language acquisition and the related science of information integration which it involves.  She is also developing comparative study of language in normal healthy aging in contrast to that in early Alzheimer's Disease.

Part I: Dr. Gebhard Dr. Gebhard is a recently retired IUP professor where he taught in the English Department Composition & TESOL Program.  Throughout his career, he has been an international speaker and advocate for ESL/EFL students and teachers, and he has taught English to a variety of different students, including Buddhist monks in Northeast Thailand, Vietnamese and Laotian refugees in Hawaii, immigrants in New York City, intensive language institute students in New York City and Indiana, Pennsylvania, university English majors and non-English majors in Thailand, businessmen in Japan, and undergraduates at IUP.

Part II: Dr. Gebhard He has also taught English teachers and developing scholars enrolled in the Ph.D. Program in Composition & TESOL and in the MA TESOL Program at IUP, as well as teachers in China, Japan and Hungary where he taught as a visiting professor. After earning his doctorate from Teachers College, Columbia University, he focused on developing principles & practices teachers can use to make their on informed teaching decisions, rather than to depend on the prescriptions of others.

Part III: Dr. Gebhard Dr. Gebhard is the author of Teaching English as a Foreign or Second Language (University of Michigan Press, second edition, 2006) and Language Teaching Awareness: A Guide to Exploring Beliefs and Practices (Cambridge University Press, 1999, with Robert Oprandy). He has also published scores of book chapters and journal articles. His most recent book chapter is The TESOL Practicum (In A. Burns and J.C. Richards, eds. The Cambridge Guide to Second Language Teacher Education, Cambridge University Press, in press).

Bio Statement AssignmentAssignment

Working with a partner, write a 50 word bio statement introducing yourself. You partner will also write 50 word bio statement. Exchange statements and off suggestions. Use your partners bio statement to introduce your partner.