Isn't your dissertation supervisor supposed to guide you?

Are you interested in survey methods, interviews, filming/audio recording, computer-assisted learning, experimental teaching...if you want to take this dissertation further plan now and make some money out of it.

1. How about this: Write a book called How Kids Learn English and start interviewing them, their teachers and parents and see if what is reported matches up. You may also use a camera and pick up data about learning methods. For example kids help each other quite a bit.

2. There is quite a bit of interest among teachers as to where exactly children pick up their English words. Kids in the 10 to 12 year old range are learning a lot from computer games. It's an interesting area to study. About 60-70% of my college age students in China are not using the dictionaries on their desks. That sort of thing needs to be quantified and then you can try getting to the root cause. Maybe they are more motivated to use electronic dictionaries.

3. Are you interested in background noise and music and the effect on language learning?

4. Are you interested in learning language during sleep time?

You can write me directly if you like.