TESOL topics

Well, I have to state, I'm not necessarily all that interested in the usual TESOL topics. Quite frankly, I find many of them boring and thus, unsustainable for an actual thesis. That's not to say they're boring to everyone. . . :-)

Reading through some of the Google Scholar abstracts and also through bibliographies from some books / papers, I find my interest tending towards the social sciences end of TESOL; topics having more to do with student and/or teacher behavior and experiences rather than classroom activities that work or don't work, using various technologies in the classroom, etc.

I've had an interest in toddler TESOL for a couple years now--wondering about the efficacy of actually teaching a second language at the pre-kindergarten level. This seems to be a trend in ROK--at least for the past couple years--with more and more hagwons opening that specialize in English for toddlers (to get a jump on those kindergarten kids. . .), when lots of the literature doesn't seem to support the idea of structured language learning at such an early age. I've had friends who have bi-lingual children, because of two parents who have different native languages, and their children have spoken in a combination or pidgeon language that uses grammar elements from both as well as vocabulary from both. It's all done interchangeably though when the kids are toddlers. Their language learning at that level (before about age 4-5) allows for no distinction between individual languages--it's all just mixed up.

The other main topic in which I'm interested is needs analyses (or the lack thereof) within the framework of EFL classrooms in South Korea. As far as I can tell from what is, admittedly, anecdotal evidence, needs analyses are more of a concept or a neat-o idea than an actual requirement for an EFL class. Not that South Korea is alot different than other countries, but the norm here--at all educational levels--seems to be 'less is more' when it comes to background information about students.