Research in Applied Linguistics

Becoming a Discerning Consumer

Fred L. Perry, Jr.

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9781315394640
• Edition: 3
• Topic: Lingue e linguistica
• Subtopic: Lingua inglese

Now in its third edition, this popular introduction to the foundations of research methods is designed to enable students and professionals in the field of applied linguistics to become not just casual consumers of research who passively read bits and pieces of a research article, but discerning consumers able to effectively use published research for practical purposes in educational settings. All issues important for understanding and using published research for these purposes are covered. Key principles are illustrated with research studies published in refereed journals across a wide spectrum of applied linguistics. Exercises throughout the text encourage readers to engage interactively with what they are reading at the point when the information is fresh in their minds. Intended for and field-tested in courses in MA-TESOL/TEFL and applied linguistics programs, course instructors will find that this text provides a solid framework in which to promote student interaction and discussion on important issues in research methodology. This book provides an excellent foundation for those who plan to continue in an active research agenda.

Changes in the Third Edition

• 
  
  

• Chapter 2 revised to reflect formatting changes made by ERIC, addition of referencing and citation resources

• 
  
  

• Chapter 8 revised to increase practicality

• 
  
  

• Revision of some embedded exercises

• 
  
  

• The topic of meta-analysis integrated more fully where appropriate

• 
  
  

• Corpora research given more attention

• 
  
  

• Many studies older than 2000 replaced with more recent studies

• 
  
  

• Companion Website (www.routledge.com/cw/Perry) with list of journals related to applied linguistics, annotated resources to aid students and instructors for each chapter, access to screencasts and YouTube demonstrations, and a space for students and/or teachers to interact with the author.

Part I
Fundamentals for Discerning Consumers

Chapter 1
Understanding the Nature of Research

Introduction

The amount of research in applied linguistics pouring off the presses today is staggering. Over 100 journals that publish research related to applied linguistics are currently available (www.routledge.com/cw/perry). Some journals are monthly; others are quarterly. Can you imagine how many research studies have been published in just this last year?

So what is all this research about? Who is it all for? Is it important and, if so, how can we understand it better? Briefly, I will answer these questions, but the main purpose of this book is to answer the last question—how can we comprehend and evaluate it?

What Is All This Research About?

A quick answer is that this research tries to provide answers to massive numbers of research questions that are being generated around the world in the field of applied linguistics. By applied linguistics, I agree with the definition given by the Department of Linguistics and Applied Linguistics at the University of Melbourne, Australia, which stated on its website in 2003:

Applied Linguistics is concerned with practical issues involving language in the life of the community. The most important of these is the learning of second or foreign languages. Others include language policy, multilingualism, language education, the preservation and revival of endangered languages, and the assessment and treatment of language difficulties.

Other areas of interest include professional communication, for example, between doctors and their patients, between lawyers and their clients and in courtrooms, as well as other areas of institutional and cross-cultural communication ranging from the boardroom to the routines on an answer-phone.

(www.linguistics.unimelb.edu.au/about/about.html)

In other words, research in the field of applied linguistics covers a vast domain of topics that deals with just about anything where language relates to society. This is a broad definition, which encompasses anything related to practical language problems (cf. Grabe, 2002).

Who Is All This Research For?

It is for you, the person who, for whatever reason, wants or needs to gain a better understanding about language issues that are important to you. This includes the following:

• students in applied linguistics (discourse analysis, pragmatics, socio-linguistics, etc.), educational linguistics, bilingual teacher education, teaching English as a foreign or second language (TEFL/TESL), etc;
• teachers of second/foreign languages;
• administrators of second/foreign language programs;
• parents of students in language programs;
• politicians who make decisions regarding language issues.

Is All of This Research Really That Important?

To answer a question with a question, “Is language important?” Needless to say, language is the backbone of society. It is one of the major characteristics of being human. Without it we would not know the world as we know it today. Literally everything that humanity has achieved would not have taken place without language. Consequently, to study language and all that it means in society is one of the major challenges that I believe we have before us today. For example, significant strides made in applied linguistic research have aided us in the improvement of teaching and learning of languages throughout the world. Hopefully, this will contribute to humanity's understanding of one another and improve the quality of life in an atmosphere of world peace.

If Applied Linguistics Research Is So Important, How Can We Understand It Better?

This book is specifically designed to answer this question. I have divided it into two parts. The first consists of this chapter and Chapter 2, which provide you with a foundation for working with the remaining chapters. This chapter introduces the concept of the discerning consumer and the meaning of research. The second chapter gives tools for finding research reports based on your own interests. Quickly mastering these simple guidelines will make accessible a wealth of information that can have a major impact on how you view and use research.

The chapters in Part II of the book are structured around the typical format used in published research. In them you are given a set of criteria with which to evaluate each component of a research study. For each criterion, you are given excerpts from published research to illustrate how it is used for evaluation. By the end of the book, you should be able to approach any published study in applied linguistics with confidence to not only understand it but evaluate its value for practical applications.

Overview

This chapter attempts to lay a foundation in building a framework for understanding a typical research study. I begin by defining the term discerning consumer and then argue for the importance of becoming one. This is followed by an attempt to demythologize how research is perceived by many people and then describe what it typically means to the applied linguistics community. In this description, a schematic understanding of the driving force behind research, the research question, is provided. With this perspective, you will be ready for the following chapters.

Who Is a Discerning Consumer of Research?

The term consumer in the business world means a customer—someone who buys and uses a product. In a similar fashion, readers of research are consumers in that they use research for specific purposes. To some degree, the readers of research might buy into the research product, if not actually pay money to obtain access to the research study.

There are two basic types of consumers: casual and discerning. Casual consumers are ones who passively read selective pieces of a research article out of curiosity. In the business world, they are the window-shoppers who look but do not buy. However, discerning consumers do more than window-shop. They want to use research for practical purposes; they want to read research reports from beginning to end with a level of understanding that can be used to address both theoretical and practical issues. I use the word discerning in two senses: penetrating and discriminating. In the first sense, discerning consumers are given the necessary tools to penetrate beyond the surface of the text to analyze the rationale behind the procedures used and the interpretations made. In the second sense, discerning consumers are able to discriminate between strong and weak research studies by applying the criteria that they will study in this book to make value judgments.

However, by discerning consumers, I do not mean hypercritical consumers. The key word here is discernment, not fault finding. I do not want readers to become cynics who delight in slamming researchers on every little perceived weakness and group all research as worthless. Rather, discerning consumers are ones who have self-confidence in their own ability to gauge research so that they can evaluate the influence that a study should have on practical issues of concern. When this objective is reached, research journals will no longer be looked upon as forbidding, boring documents that only university professors dare to read. Rather, they will be regarded as important sources of evidence or counterevidence that can be used in arguing the pros and/or cons of implementing new ideas and methodologies in the classroom.

Why Be a Consumer of Research?

Many students, teachers, and administrators are looking for practical information that will help them in their studies, teaching, or program development, respectively. They typically do not want to get overburdened with hypothetical theories. They want immediate and practical information that they can use. They want to know how to teach a foreign (or second) language such as English. They want to know what materials to use, what method works best.

However, there is no single way to teach. There is no single set of materials that can be used in every situation. We must make decisions, and these decisions must have some rationale for support. We must decide what, how, and when to teach based on the needs of the learner. We need to know how the learner thinks and feels, and what the best time is for teaching certain material via a certain methodology. To make these decisions, we must gather information, and this information is obtained through reading and doing research.

Unfortunately, I have seen many people in language teaching over the years jump on various bandwagons regarding what to teach, how to teach, and how the learner acquires a language. I have seen various charismatic experts sway audiences to accept their viewpoint as if it were the absolute truth. However, when the content of what was said was examined, little solid evidence was provided to back up the conjectures. Yet the audience pours out of the conference doors, back to their institutions, heralding the latest jargon, thinking that they have come across the most revolutionary thing they have ever heard. Programs are changed, new curricula are developed, and training sessions in new methodologies are imposed on the faculty. Yet have we really advanced in our discipline? The answer is often in the negative.

To avoid wasting time, money, and human energy, and to prevent being led down the garden path, I argue that we must attend to what is happening in research. Yes, this will slow things down. People will become frustrated that they must wait for answers. They want quick solutions to their problems. They do not want to delay until the verdict comes in through research. Maybe an answer might never be forthcoming. What then? My response is that if we are unable to see some results based on careful research to guide us, we had better not take this route anyway. Money in education is too limited to go out on wild-goose chases to find out five years down the road that the latest fad was a waste of time.

Or maybe one wants to prepare a summary of research on a given topic in order to get a better picture of what the state of affairs is. One cannot include everything and anything one finds. Decisions must be made as to which set of research studies best fit the purposes of one's endeavor.

In either of the above scenarios, we must learn to read research in applied linguistics with a discerning eye. The purpose of this book is to help do exactly this: guide you in becoming a discerning consumer.

The Motivation Behind Research

To become a discerning consumer, we need to have a clear understanding of the driving force behind the research process. However, we require a working definition of the meaning of research first. Today it has many meanings, but much of what is called research would not be considered so by the scientific community. The purpose of this section is to explain how most professional researchers understand research by making contrasts with more commonly used definitions of research.

Demythologizing Research

Research Does Not Mean Searching for Articles to Write Papers

Probably the most common misconception about research is confusing it with papers we were asked to write back in secondary school or during our undergraduate days at university—projects often referred to as research papers. Typically, such assignments mean that students go to the library and (re)search for a number of articles from a variety of sources. Then, they integrate the gathered information from these articles through summarizing and paraphrasing into papers addressing issues of importance with correct footnoting and referencing. However, the skills used in writing such papers, although important to research, should not be regarded as research.

The fact is that consumers of research will spend much of their time in this searching activity. Even researchers have to spend a lot of time on the Internet and/or in the library looking up research articles. Both consumer and researcher have to summarize and paraphrase research articles and then integrate them into logical arguments. Both have to document everything and take care in referencing. However, these skills are especially needed at the preliminary stage of information gathering. After this, research begins in earnest.

Working Only in Laboratories with Artificial Experiments

A second com...