Methodology of Research in
Language Teaching and Learning
a.a. 2022/2023
Planning your research
Planning your research
Let’s imagine you want to carry out some empirical research for your tesi di laurea
(here: in field of educational linguistics)
Where do you begin?
Pre-empirical stage (see lesson 1)
You begin with an area of interest > trim it down to a topic > ask ‘why this topic?
What do I want to achieve investigating this topic
= purpose/objective for the study
e.g., I want to show that …
I want to understand the influence of …
I want to demonstrate that …
Planning for ‘fitness of purpose’
Empirical stage
There are steps to take to ensure fitness of purpose
= each step is linked to the previous one
In this way all decisions will fit together
Your planning will be influenced by:
- Resources (instruments, etc.,): what is available/what you might need/what will
NOT be available.
- Costs: are there any? Any financing?
- Time scale/time available: how long will the research take to complete and what
time is available?
- Ownership: who do the collected data belong to? Could there be a problem
here?
- Ethics: when dealing with human beings, must assure that they are fully informed
and have given their consent to participate. NB minors (read chapter in Cohen and
Manion)
= PLAN ACCORDINGLY
Fitness of PURPOSE
Importance: Purpose of the research (everything linked to this)
I want to show that …
I want to understand the influence of …
I want to demonstrate that …
Examples
Choose: main methodological paradigm and
methodology
Quantitative
Experiment
Questionnaire (and language testing)
Qualitative (see next week)
Ethnographic
Case study
Classroom-based
Action research
Mixed methods (mixture of data collection instruments used in
the two main paradigms, e.g., interview, tests)
Research questions
• A research question sets the research going. It represents the finely-
tuned focus of the whole research and, as questions require answers,
your research will be designed in such a way that answers can be
provided
• As you read and took notes, you might have jotted down questions
that came to your mind about your topic. Now it is time to elaborate
your final choice(s) in sync with the purpose of the research.
• The questions must be worded in such manner that the variables
that are going to be investigated are clearly indicated. In other
words, the questions have to be concrete enough for you to
understand what you are going to measure/test/observe.
Hypotheses
• An alternative way to set the research going is to provide a series of
hypotheses about the outcomes of the research. These are statements
based on the existing literature on the topic in general or on a specific
theory. So, if the literature available on collaborative learning indicates
positive learning effects for young learners, the research study above on
writing (ii) might make the prediction that young learners will be able to
produce better writing in terms of more complex syntax as a result of
collaborative learning.
• In a study you can provide either questions or hypotheses (or both if you
wish) but in research which intends to apply inferential statistics to measure
its results - such as in experimental or quasi-experimental quantitative
research designs - hypotheses are necessary.
What kinds of data needed to answer the questions?
Data are what you analyse and interpret and so represent the backbone of your research. In order to
make sure you collect the ‘right’ data (you don’t want to end up with data which is useless!), you must
ask yourself what you need in order to answer the research questions.
Examples.
In order to answer RQ: What aspects of university on-line FL courses appear to negatively impact
university students’ foreign language learning motivation? you need data on the opinions and
attitudes of the students.
In order to answer RQ: What kinds of communication strategies do primary school children use to
solve lexical communication problems during oral communication tasks? you need language data -
language produced by the children so that it can be analysed in terms of the chosen taxonomy of
communication strategies
Instruments to use to collect the data
The ‘Instrument’ is what we use to collect the data needed to be able to answer
the research question(s). The choice of instrument therefore is linked directly to the
type of data to be collected. Thus, no research study can start from the instrument
as sometimes students think (e.g., a student saying he wants to do a questionnaire
on the topic of bilingual education). The choice of instrument must be preceded by
an explanation of the purpose of the research and the elaboration of the research
questions.
• for data on attitudes, opinions, facts, feelings > questionnaires, interviews, focus
groups, diaries, … ;
• for data on behaviour > observation protocols, field notes, ad hoc schemes,
systems, check lists, sociograms, … ;
• for data on language > tests, language elicitation techniques, judgement
activities, … ;
Other issues to think about
• Who (or what, e.g., text books, documents) to get the data
from? See lesson 2 (sampling, e.g, random, convenience,
purposive, snowballing)
• Who collects the data? You? Another person?
Method of data analysis
How will the data be analysed?
Hard data (numerical, countable)?:
• Descriptive (percentages, means…)
• Inferential
Soft data (texts)?
• Content analysis
We will deal with this aspect in later lessons
Timeline: example Gantt
Identify:
- Area of research
- Topic
Identify constraints:
- Resources
- Costs
- Time scale/time available
- Ownership
- Ethics (cfr. chapter in Cohen and Manion)
Planning for Plan (in consideration of constraints):
fitness of - Purpose & significance of the research (direction and impact;
contribution to furthering knowledge in the field)
purpose: - Main methodology (paradigm)
- Research questions
Synthesis of - Kinds of data required (to answer the questions)
- Instruments to use to collect data (to answer the questions)
steps - Sampling (who/where to get the data from)
- Data collector
- Data analysis (method)
- Timeline
