March 2004 — Volume 7, Number 4 Doing Second Language Research James Dean Brown and Theodore S. Rodgers (2002) Oxford: Oxford University Press: Pp. Xiv + 314 ISBN 0-19-437174-3 $23.95 This accessible introductory research methodology book engages the reader through accessible examples and clear explanations, in other words, it takes up where the reader is and initiates the reader into the community of second language researchers. The book includes the novice second language research through activities and discussions which involve thinking about research from at least three perspectives: the subject, the researcher, and the consumer of the research. By doing so, the reader gains awareness of practical, theoretical, and methodological issues of second language research. It is an exemplary second language research introductory text. The book consists of four parts simply titled introduction, qualitative research, quantitative research, and conclusion.
The qualitative research part consists of three chapters: case study research, introspection research, and classroom research. Canon Lens Serial Number Lookup on this page. The quantitative part examines descriptive statistics and survey analysis, correlational research, and quasi-experimental research. The conclusion combines the different research methods in exploring course evaluations.
Second Language Research, Methodology and Design Author: Alison. Hp Elitebook 8460p Usb Controller Driver Download here. Pages ISBN Price Pp xv + 405 0-8058-4249-7 $41.95 Second Language Research is not a pioneer in the field of giving guidelines to conduct research on second language learning and teaching. James Dean Brown did this for me years ago, and for this I am eternally.
The introductory chapter, the nature of research, presents some fundamental elements of research such as defining types of research and discussing the contexts of research. The sorting out of different types of research is done carefully since the authors go on to make the point that often qualitative and quantitative research overlap in the hands on environment. The many exercises in this section engage novice researchers in exploring their understandings of research and how to apply these understandings to second language research. It is in this chapter that a central strength of this book emerges: the discussion and exercises stimulate each reader to develop a personal understanding of research based on current thinking and practice. [-1-] The second part of the book explores three types of qualitative research: case studies, introspective studies, and interaction analyses. Chapter two presents case studies. This is rather a bold move since case study research is very complex requiring a researcher to gain control of several different elements.
However, this very complexity allows the writers to introduce elements of data collection, recording, and reporting through the use of charts that also apply to subsequent research methods. Furthermore, since a case study can be a self-study, the novice researcher has the opportunity to do research almost from the beginning. The case study that provides the structure for this chapter revolves around a study of Helen Keller’s language development. This engagement allows the researcher to develop skills that can be improved upon while gaining an appreciation of the complexity of research involving people. In chapter three, introspective research: verbal protocols, the writers expand upon the self-study analysis of case studies. In verbal protocols, researchers seek to understand how a person is thinking or feeling at different times while doing a task. The chapter discusses the history of this type of research in order to make a point about how fashion influences research techniques as well as to show how a type of research develops through responding to criticism.
In exploring this approach, practical considerations are presented along with a presentation of data compilation and analysis that involves the readers in confronting some of the difficulties of recording data and analyzing them. Consequently, by the end of the chapter, the reader obtains not only an understanding of effective practices and overall design, but also the reader experiences the complexities of gathering and analyzing data, the most difficult part of introspective research. While introspective research presents certain problems of data gathering and analysis, the task becomes much more complex when several people are added in classroom research. Driver Canon Mp237 Windows 7 Download more. Chapter four examines interaction research in the classroom setting. With so many people producing much more data, the researcher must decide which data to examine. In doing so, the researcher makes the task practical but introduces the bias of data selection. The authors clearly present the complexities of this problem as they examine the different challenges and possible solutions for classroom research.