32 Research Methods – I

Dr. Neeru Tandon

Learning outcome:

The students will learn about the research methodology and research methods as part of English Language Teacher Education. This module discusses three general issues arising out of the local problems of incorporating research methods training in a particular syllabus. The three issues are the suitability of such training for English Language teachers, the choice of topics within such a training module, and the irked question of the observed supremacy and uniqueness of research methods and skills for the expert in the field. The role of research methods training for ELT and about course design parameters for professional higher education will also be discussed. Multiple-choice exercises will help them in assessing their knowledge and understanding of the work. Bibliography, list of websites and You Tube videos will help them in their in-depth study and further reading. Critical quotes and quotes from the book will also help them in understanding various aspects of the Chapter.

Introduction

In India, the language teaching and researching situation has grown and developed in the past decades along with international trends. However, as the field evolved, a greater demand for language courses and teachers emerged. Universities began to offer different teacher preparation programs at the undergraduate and graduate levels, and professional associations and forums were created (Encinas, Busseniers, & Ramirez Romero, 2007). As a result of all this, research was started in the field of language teaching through individual dissertations and by groups of academics that shared common interests. Unfortunately, much of the work was not published or readily available and new researchers could not benefit from past experiences and findings. There was a need for an overall view of the different topics, research methods, and results that these studies were telling us about English language learners and programs. In other words, there was a need to map the territory to see where we stood, how far we had travelled, and how we could help new travelers in their teaching and researching journey.

This module is concerned with the applicability of a section on research methods in a taught course in ELT, appropriate topics on such a component, the expected advantage of the material, and whether such a component should be compulsory and thereby part of the institution’s definition of ELT education at this level, or not. The module is based on teachers who have long been interested in the question of approaches to research among English language teachers (McDonough and McDonough 1990).

While defining research is in itself not a straightforward issue, it is possible to extract from the research methodology literature (e.g. Brown & Rodgers, 2002; Cohen, Manion, & Morrison, 2000; Nunan, 1992; Wiersma, 1991) a number of commonly cited minimal elements—a problem or question, data, analysis, interpretation. Characteristics of the process, such as systematicity and rigour, are often commonly cited. Additionally, it has been argued that to qualify as research, inquiry needs to be made public (e.g. Freeman, 1996; Stenhouse, 1975). All teachers know that a classroom is an active place. In fact, many teachers and students are often doing multiple things at the same time. Our brains are constantly engaged, and it is hard to stop, record our actions, and reflect on them in the midst of teaching. Yet despite the buzz of activity in a classroom, all our For the purposes of this module the primary meaning of ‘research’ is the original investigation undertaken in order to gain knowledge and understanding. However, the term also includes scholarship, for example in forms such as dictionaries, research databases and reviews of the ‘state of the art’ in areas relevant to ELT.

For teachers, a primary reason for doing research is to become more effective teachers. Research contributes to more effective teaching, not by offering definitive answers to pedagogical questions, but rather by providing new insights into the teaching and learning process.- McKay

Below are a few definitions I collected from different sources aiming to explore the definition of research.
Research is:

(a) … simply gathering the information you need to answer and help you solve the problem (Booth, Colomb, & Williams, 1995, p. 6).

(b) … the process of going up alleys to see if they are blind (Marston Bates, 1906-1974).

(d) … what I’m doing when I don’t know what I’m doing (Wernher Magnus Maxmillan Von Braun, 1912-1977).

(e) …the process of arriving at dependable solutions to problems through the planned and systematic collection, analysis, and interpretation of data (Mouly, 1978).

(f) If you steal from one author, it’s plagiarism; if you steal from many, it’s research (Wilson Mizner, 1976-1933).

The above definitions show that the term ‘research’ may take on a range of meanings and can be applied to a variety of contexts. For our purposes, however, I will limit its usage to the use of research in the academic world or, more precisely, in second language teacher education.

ELT Research

‘ELT research’ was defined as referring to any research whose data and/or findings relate directly to the teaching, learning or assessment of English as a Foreign, Second or Additional Language.

Research in ELT includes business English, English for Academic Purposes, different approaches to the learning and teaching of phraseology, lexis and grammar, discourse approaches to academic and second language learning and teaching, cognitive linguistics, the acquisition of metaphor by language learners and applications of amalgamation of linguistics to language teaching. Researcher may have a particularly strong focus on ‘learner corpora and collocation and pronunciation, and the teaching of English for Academic Purposes.

OBJECTIVES OF RESEARCH: Overall, the aim of the research is to understand the conceptions of research held by ELT teachers working in different contexts, the role which both reading and doing research plays in these teachers’ professional lives, and the factors which influence their research engagement.

General Objectives

To familiarize the student with the dimensions and methods of research.
To orient the student to make an informed choice from the large number of alternative methods and experimental designs available.
To enable the student to present a good research proposal.
To familiarize the student with the nature of research and scientific writing
To empower the student with the knowledge and skills they need to undertake a research project, to present a conference paper and to write a scientific article.

TYPES OF RESEARCH: Basically there are two types of research, which can be used to develop a thesis or dissertation:

‘Practical Research: The practical approach consists of the empirical study of the topic under research and chiefly consists of hands on approach. This involves first hand research in the form of questionnaires, surveys, interviews, observations and discussion groups.

Theoretical Research: A non empirical approach to research, this usually involves perusal of mostly published works like researching through archives of public libraries, court rooms and published academic journals.’(wiki)

There are some more terms defining Research like primary and secondary research, basic and applied research and quantitative and qualitative research.

Primary vs. Secondary Research

Brown and Rodgers (2002) explain that primary research is a study based on “original data” (p.10). Original data here mean the researchers collect the data themselves, for example, by using interviews, questionnaires, observations, and students’ journals.

Secondary research, by contrast, is research based on secondary data such as books, articles, and information obtained from the Internet. In other words, you are using the data collected by other people. Secondary research is very common in the field of literature or when you are going to write literature review for your primary research.

Basic vs. Applied Research

For McKay (2006), the purpose of basic research is to “acquire knowledge for the sake of knowledge” (p.4). The main goal of such research is to gain fuller understanding of the world. Examples of basic research are studies that seek to understand the order that second language learners acquire and develop grammatical competence.

Applied research, by contrast, aims to find strategies to overcome real world problems. It deals mainly with human and societal problems. Examples of such research is research that focuses on finding the factors contributing to students’ reluctance in participating in a classroom, the most effective strategies in giving feedback, and the most effective strategies in using group work.

Qualitative vs Quantitaive Research

This type of research methods involves describing in details specific situation using research tools like interviews, surveys, and Observations. Qualitative Research is primarily exploratory research. It is used to gain an understanding of underlying reasons, opinions, and motivations. It provides insights into the problem or helps to develop ideas or hypotheses for potential quantitative research. Qualitative Research is also used to uncover trends in thought and opinions, and dive deeper into the problem. Qualitative data collection methods vary using unstructured or semi-structured techniques. Some common methods include focus groups (group discussions), individual interviews, and participation/observations. The sample size is typically small, and respondents are selected to fulfil a given quota.

Quantitative

This type of research methods requires quantifiable data involving numerical and statistical explanations. Quantitative Research is used to quantify the problem by way of generating numerical data or data that can be transformed into useable statistics. It is used to quantify attitudes, opinions, behaviors, and other defined variables – and generalize results from a larger sample population. Quantitative Research uses measurable data to formulate facts and uncover patterns in research. Quantitative data collection methods are much more structured than Qualitative data collection methods. Quantitative data collection methods include various forms of surveys – online surveys, paper surveys, mobile surveys and kiosk surveys, face-to-face interviews, telephone interviews, longitudinal studies, website interceptors, online polls, and systematic observations.

RESEARCH METHODS VS RESEARCH METHODOLOGY: Research Methods and Research Methodology are two terms that are often wrongly confused as one. One of the primary differences between them is that research methods are the methods by which the research is conducted into a specific subject or a topic. On the other hand, research methodology explains the methods by which you may proceed with your To elaborate ‘Research methods’ can be defined as the various ways and means of conducting a research that involve the conduct of experiments, tests, surveys and the like. It can be said that research methods aim at finding solutions to research problems. There are many types of research methods, for example, exploratory research, which defines and identifies a problem, and empirical research, which uses observed indication to test the probability of a solution. Constructive research aims at testing theories in turn, proposing solutions to a query. Research methods can be further broken down to four categories such as Descriptive research, which involves research vs. analytical data; Applied research, which deals with research vs. basic research; Quantitative research, which involves research vs quantitative; Conceptual research dealing with empirical research.

Research methodology is the science of systematically solving a research problem. Often recognized as how a research is to be done scientifically. Research methodology involves the learning of the various techniques we can use in the conduct of research such as the conduct of tests, experiments, surveys and critical studies.

What does TREE mean?

TREE stands for Teacher-Researcher-Educator-Evaluator. ‘Sometimes I think of myself as a teacher who is also a researcher, and sometimes I think of myself as a researcher who is also a teacher (Stewart, 2006). I am also an educator and an evaluator; as an educator I am interested in classroom issues, as an evaluator I want to know what works in my classes. Thus, there is a relationship among being a teacher, a researcher, an educator, and an evaluator.

RESEARCH IDEA

If you are new to research, how can you get a research idea? Some steps may be:

Discuss research areas with your instructor. Give your instructor some idea of what interests you; don’t expect to just be given a research idea. Your instructors probably had to work for their ideas, and they expect you to do the same.
A researcher should be encouraged to attend conferences on a topic area of his interest.
Browse journals and periodicals available in libraries to find interesting and suitable topics for your research. After studying the article see if you can add something in this research by digging it deeper. Then go ahead and investigate further.
Discuss the topic with your instructor and your fellow students as professionals about research.
Another approach to getting started in research is Barkhuizen (2009, p. 116) who asks researcher teachers to try a series of seven open-ended questions. For example, his first question is, “I remember once in my classroom I had a very difficult time trying to ….” All the questions are related, and together the answers might form a helpful narrative to get started.

Taking notes :Problems and Procedure

The notes tend to follow the content of the article or chapter being
Note taking encourages to be influenced by whatever problem is in researcher’s
It is hard to compare and contrast notes in order to arrive at a synthesis.
Another problem encountered by TREEs in their note taking is that some papers are long and problematical; confusing the TREE how much data should be included.

What if nothing has been written on your topic?

With thousands of articles published every year, it is doubtful if absolutely nothing has been researched, written, and published on the topic. However, assume that nothing has, or at least you cannot find anything. It is not enough, however, to simply state that no publications exist for at least two reasons. First, it is not likely that anyone will believe that nothing has been written on a topic, given that so much has been published on so many subjects.

If you wish to make the claim that no publications exist on your topic, you will have to demonstrate clearly that you have searched the literature and come up empty-handed. To do this, your first step would be, as plainly as possible, to define your topic so readers all know what you were looking for. Next, you should list the databases you searched and the descriptors you used. Then, tell us what you found and why those findings do not fit your topic. Then, identify related fields. For example, if you are working in applied linguistics, related fields might be psychology, sociology, literacy, developmental education, and communication studies. Explain why these fields might contain publications that could inform your topic. Then, examine each of these fields in the same why you examined your primary topic area. Demonstrate that you have carefully searched these areas by telling us briefly but exactly what you searched, how you searched, what you found, and why these finding do not apply to your topic. One of two things will probably happen: you will have convinced the gatekeepers and other readers that you have diligently searched several literatures and found nothing, or, and this is to be preferred, you will have found many relevant publications in the process. Either way, you have performed a literature search and have much to write about.

The relationship of Literature Review, Purpose, and Research Questions often only one sentence, often researcher ignores the significance of this critical section. There is no rule as to how many RQs to have, but most papers have two or three. On the other hand, a thesis or dissertation may have five or six since it is typically a book-length work.

The purpose and RQ function as the fulcrum balancing the question (statement of the problem, literature review) and the answer (method, results, discussion). The power of this image is that it illustrates that the purpose and RQ not only balance the question and answer, but they connect them. For example, a literature review is justified by the purpose and RQ in that it is the purpose and RQ that help the researcher decide what in the literature review to include and exclude.

What is research design?

Creswell (2003, p. 13) uses the term strategy to explain design. He also uses the terms tradition, method, approach, procedure, and process. Ary, Jacobs, and Razavieh (1990) say a research design is “a description of the procedures to be followed in testing the hypothesis” (p. 110). For Babbie (2004), research design “involves a set of decisions regarding what topic is to be studied among what populations with what research methods for what purpose” (p. 112) Gay and Airasian (2000) define research design as “a general strategy for conducting a research study” (p. 107), which describes the basic structure of the study. They explain that research design tells the research design is the basis for causal conclusions.

A research design can be defined as an operating model or blueprint for a research project, which accounts for internal reasoning (causality) and external reasoning (generalizability). If the introduction in a research paper raises the question to be investigated, the research design contains directions to determine the answer. As a blueprint is to building a house, a research design is to conducting a research project. The research design stipulates the parts of the research project, how they are arranged, and how they function. However, the research design does not determine the type of data, how the data are collected, or how they are analyzed any more than a blueprint tells a house builder the color of the walls or what furniture will occupy its various rooms.

–PRIMARY DATA VS SECONDARY DATA

PRIMARY DATA : Are those which are collected afresh and for the first time and thus happen to be original in character and known as Primary data. through personal interviews.
These are already available i.e. they refer to the data which have already been collected and analyzed by someone else. Secondary data may either be published or unpublished data. Researcher must be very careful in using secondary data, because the data available may be sometimes unsuitable.
In the most profound sense ‘research’ simply means trying to find answers to questions, an activity every one of us does all the time to learn more about the world around us. Following Brown (1988), we can identify two basic ways of finding answers to questions:
By looking at what other people have said about a particular issue; this is usually called ‘secondary’, ‘conceptual’, or ‘library’ research and it is an essential form of inquiry.

Appropriate Research Methods

It is worth pondering how important the research literature actually is for English language teachers. Many language teachers studying for Masters in Applied linguistics and finally in ELT or TEFL have expressed their dissatisfaction on the value or consequence of experimental research on language acquisition over the years; and while ‘it is characteristic of the ‘Applied Science’ (Wallace 1991:55) view of the subject that teacher education transmits the new knowledge established by experimental research to experts who go and apply it in their classrooms.’

A greater justification for English language teachers to have a good foundation in appropriate research methods is that many candidates view research skills as an extension of their professional profile in terms of their own teaching contexts. On the other hand there is an element of some uncertainty about these objectives, since the openings for research available are believed to be relatively inadequate. Research skills may only be significant for those targeting at University posts, overseas Development posts and typically involving programme evaluation. No doubt in India and other countries as well the enthusiasm for teacher-research and action research may be strong but the prospects in many ELT contexts is low in terms of benefits.

• Narrative research focuses on studying one or two individuals, gathering data by collecting their stories, reporting individual experiences, and chronologically ordering the meaning of those experiences (a life history, for example).

• Phenomenological research focuses on the meaning of an experience for a number of individuals, i.e., what all participants have in common as they experience a certain phenomenon. Using in-depth interviews, it develops descriptions (not explanations or analyses) of the essences and underlying structures of these experiences.

• Grounded theory research moves beyond description to generate or discover a theory.

The researcher generates a general explanation of a process, action or interaction shaped by the views of a large number of participants (=grounded in data from the field).

• Ethnographic research uses a qualitative design in which the researcher describes and interprets the shared and learned patterns of values, behaviors, beliefs, and issues such as power, resistance and dominance of a culture-sharing group.

Case-study research involves the study of an issue explored in one or more cases, bound by time and place, by detailed, in-depth data collection involving multiple sources of information (observations, interviews, documents, audiovisual material). The case is selected to illustrate the issue.

SOME USEFUL TIPS

Make sure your grammar, punctuation and spelling is perfect. Have someone else read and proofread your paper for you. We often do not see our own mistakes.
Make sure you answer your thesis, stay organized and make sense!
Never use “I” or write in the first person. Always write in the third person.
Never begin a sentence with “because,” “and,” “however,” or other linking words.
Do not wait for the last minute. Your research will be shoddy and your presentation poor.
Use a computer word processor. The enable you to be neat and to make changes. If you don’t have one start early so you can use the computers available at school.
Keep your paper on disk so that you can make changes and store the disk in a safe You may even want to have a copy of the disk for security.
Make sure you organize yourself when writing the paper. Keep your notes together with the bibliographic information you will need. You don’t want to forget where you found your information.
Do not throw anything away until after your paper has been returned, you may need to defend yourself against plagiarism.

Putting together a research paper is like a puzzle. You have to fit together all of your research, quotes and paraphrases into a well-organized document.

Conclusion

This module has dealt with one aspect of how English language teachers’ professional aspirations may be represented in the design of appropriate higher education courses. The discussion explored issues of appropriateness of topics, transfer of skills internally to learning and externally to professional activities, and the significance of the (fairly routine) core/option distinction among components. It makes it clear that action research is the one and only way of bridging the traditional gap between educational theory and professional practice.