Qualitative Research in Applied Linguistics

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Qualitative Research in
Applied Linguistics
A Practical Introduction

Edited by

Juanita Heigham
Sugiyama Jogakuen University

and

Robert A. Croker
Nanzan University
Selection and editorial matter © Juanita Heigham and Robert A. Croker 2009
Chapters © their authors 2009
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2009 978-0-230-21952-6
All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this
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work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
First published 2009 by
PALGRAVE MACMILLAN
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ISBN : 978–0–230–21953–3 paperback
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DOI 10.1057/9780230239517
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Contents

List of Tables vii

List of Figures viii
Acknowledgments ix
Preface xi
Notes on Contributors xiii

Part I Overview
1 An Introduction to Qualitative Research 3
Robert A. Croker
2 What Makes Research ‘Qualitative’? 25
Donald Freeman

Part II Qualitative Research Approaches

3 Narrative Inquiry 45
Garold Murray
4 Case Study 66
Michael Hood
5 Ethnography 91
Juanita Heigham and Keiko Sakui
6 Action Research 112
Anne Burns
7 Mixed Methods 135
Nataliya V. Ivankova and John W. Creswell

Part III Qualitative Data Collection Methods

8 Observation 165
Neil Cowie
9 Interviews 182
Keith Richards
10 Open-Response Items in Questionnaires 200
James Dean Brown

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vi Contents

11 Introspective Techniques 220

Sandra Lee McKay
12 Discourse Analysis 242
Anne Lazaraton

Part IV Practical Issues

13 Ethics and Trustworthiness 263
Sharon F. Rallis and Gretchen B. Rossman
14 Writing Up Your Research 288
Christine Pearson Casanave

Glossary of Qualitative Research Terms 306

Subject Index 325
Tables

1.1 The main characteristics of five qualitative research approaches 16

2.1 Choosing between data collection methods: a small example 32
3.1 From text to themes 55
6.1 Observational and nonobservational methods for action
research 117
6.2 Using journals for action research 119
6.3 Presenting your action research 126
8.1 Key dimensions of observation 172
11.1 Main procedures to conduct verbal reports 225
11.2 Common problems with verbal report procedures 227

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Figures

1.1 Qualitative data collection methods 19

2.1 The research cycle 29
2.2 Disciplines of the research process 35
7.1 Explanatory Design procedures in Saito and Ebsworth’s
(2004) study 140
7.2 Exploratory Design procedures in Daud’s (1995) study 141
7.3 Triangulation Design procedures in Lopez and
Tashakkori’s (2006) study 143
7.4 Embedded Design procedures in Andrews’s (2006) study 144
7.5 Visual diagram of Explanatory Design procedures in
Jie and Xiaoqing’s (2006) study 151

viii
Acknowledgments

We would like to begin these acknowledgments by saying thank you to Sara

Cotterall for the push that night in Kyoto to act on the idea of this book. It
has taken a while, but with the help of many, we finally did it!
We would also like to thank:

● our contributors for their patience and perseverance as this project grew
and changed
● our colleagues who gave us time, space, and help to get this done
● our families and friends who cheered us on from the side lines
● our publishers at Palgrave who gently helped us through the rough spots
● Ueda-san for her delicious food and U2 for his quixotic company
● Shannon Kiyokawa for listening and listening and listening
● Anne Burns, Christine Pearson Casanave, and Keith Richards for helping
us again and again with good advice and humor
● and the outside readers who gave so generously of their time and insight –
thank you one and all!

Umidahon Ashurova
David Barker
Michael Carroll
Christine Pearson Casanave
Steve Cornwell
Heidi Evans
Greg Hadley
Louise Haynes
Paul Hays
Harumi Kimura
David Kluge
Yukihiro Kunisada
Alan Mackenzie
Fumiko Murase
Mike Nix
Midori Shikano
Kazuyoshi Sato
Mathew White

Thanks are also due to the group who assisted us in a myriad of different
ways: Jane Koerner, Dexter Da Silva, Damian Fitzpatrick, Carol Grbich, Joy
Higgs, Tim Murphey, Michael Patton, Ronald Schaefer, and Connie Vivrett.

ix
x Acknowledgments

We and Palgrave Macmillan wish to thank Sage Publications for their per-
mission to adapt Rossman, G. B., & Rallis, S. F. (2003). Learning in the field
(2nd ed., pp. 61–88).
We also owe a debt to qualitative researchers who have gone before us,
taught us much, and cleared the path for all to follow.
And finally, we say thank you to Yuki. We are humbled by your patience
and tireless support. Plain and simple, without your help this book could
not have come into being.
Preface

Research is a quest, an attempt to better understand the complex worlds

we live in. It is an endeavor that can have the highest possible purpose – to
help others. In applied linguistics, this means helping language learners,
teachers, researchers, materials writers, and program administrators gain a
deeper understanding of the multifarious worlds of learning and teaching
languages.
Qualitative research has evolved over the past three decades into
a broad body of knowledge. Within its domain is a wide range of
approaches and methods that reflect not only the multiplicity of its root
disciplines but also the diversity of contexts and purposes to which it
is applied. You, like most people approaching qualitative research for
the first time, may find this breadth overwhelming. We know this well
because we have experienced it ourselves. As a result of that experience,
we decided to create a practical book that might help reduce the anxi-
ety novice researchers often feel as they begin their qualitative research
journey.
Qualitative research is not just a body of knowledge, it is also a craft
(Richards, 2003). It demands concentrated engagement with the partici-
pants in your study, and that engagement calls for an array of research skills.
These skills are not necessarily difficult, but understanding, practice, reflec-
tion – and thoughtfulness – are required to develop them fully.
This book is designed to help you build your qualitative research knowl-
edge and skills. Each main research approach and methods chapter opens
with an illustrative example to give you a snapshot of its entire research
cycle. That example is then woven throughout the chapter to show you
how each element of the research process is realized in a qualitative
research study in applied linguistics. Pre-reading and post-reading ques-
tions ensure that you have grasped the main concepts in each chapter,
and tasks give you a chance to work with and reflect on your new knowl-
edge. The chapters are written in a conversational tone to help you engage
with the ideas offered within them, and accessible additional readings
are suggested to encourage you to take your qualitative research journey
further.
Doing qualitative research can be extremely fulfilling and has the
capacity to transform not only your understanding of what you are
studying but potentially, and more profoundly, of who you are in
this world. So whether you are a graduate student being introduced
to research approaches and methods in preparation for writing your

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xii Preface

thesis, or a practicing teacher whose curiosity has been ignited and who
has decided to find out what qualitative research is all about, this book
is written for you. May it give you the confidence you need to begin
your quest.

ROBERT A. CROKER
JUANITA HEIGHAM
Contributors

James Dean (‘JD’) Brown is Professor of Second Language Studies at the

University of Hawai’i at Manoa. He has spoken and taught in places ranging
from Brazil to Venezuela. He has published numerous articles on language
testing, curriculum design, research methods and connected speech, as
well as a number of books on reading statistical language studies, language
curriculum, language testing, testing pragmatics, performance testing,
criterion-referenced language testing, using surveys in language programs,
doing applied linguistics research and connected speech, as well as various
edited collections and translations of his books.
Anne Burns is a Chair Professor in the Department of Linguistics and
the former Dean of Linguistics and Psychology at Macquarie University,
Sydney. She has worked with many language teachers interested in action
research in Australia, Colombia, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Korea,
Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Thailand, and the UK and has pub-
lished extensively on this topic. She is the author of Collaborative action
research for English language teachers (CUP, 1999) and is currently pre-
paring an introductory book on action research for Routledge. Her latest
co- edited book (with Jill Burton) is Language teacher research in Australia
and New Zealand (TESOL, 2008). A co-edited book (with Jack Richards)
The Cambridge guide to second language teacher education will be published
in early 2009.
Christine Pearson Casanave was an ESL teacher for many years. Then,
after finishing her doctoral work, she went to Japan and became an EFL
teacher. More recently, she has been advising students on qualitative dis-
sertation projects at Temple University’s Graduate Collage of Education in
Japan and reviewing manuscripts for various journals. She never expected
to maintain such an active interest in her speciality of first and second lan-
guage writing for her whole career, but this is in fact what happened. The
act of putting ideas into lines of words seems to her to be nothing short of
a miracle.
Neil Cowie has been an English teacher in the Foreign Language Education
Center of Okayama University in Japan since 2004. Prior to that he taught
in various universities, language schools and businesses in Japan and the
UK. His research interests include collaborative teacher development, stu-
dent resistance, and exploring the connections between emotion and lan-
guage learning and teaching. His favorite form of observation is to look at
the sports field from his office window.

xiii
xiv Contributors

John W. Creswell is a Professor of Educational Psychology, co-directs the

Office of Qualitative and Mixed Methods Research, and is the Co-Founding
Editor of the Journal of Mixed Methods Research at the University of Nebraska-
Lincoln, Lincoln, Nebraska, USA. He specializes in mixed methods research,
qualitative research, and research designs. He has authored several research
methods books for Sage Publication and Merrill Education that are used
throughout the world and are translated into many languages. In addition,
he serves as an international consultant on mixed methods research and
has worked extensively in the health services research area. Recently he was
appointed to be a Senior Fulbright Scholar to South Africa.
Robert A. Croker is Associate Professor in the Faculty of Policy Studies, Nanzan
University, in Nagoya, Japan, and teaches qualitative research methods in the
Graduate School of Linguistics. He is also the Coordinator of the World Plaza,
a resource-light, interactive-oriented self-access center that is a fascinating
prism of language culture. His research interests include qualitative research
methodology, learner development through learner autonomy, and teacher
development through peer observation.
Donald Freeman is Director of Teacher Education and Associate Professor
of Education at the School of Education, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor,
USA. His research interests focus on teacher learning, in the contexts of
organizational and systemic reform, and its influence on student learn-
ing. His books include Doing Teacher-Research: From Inquiry to Understanding
(Heinle-Thomson, 1998) and Teacher Learning in Language Teaching (co-edited
with Jack C. Richards; Cambridge University Press, 1996); he was also series
editor of the TeacherSource professional development series published by
Heinle-Thomson. He presently serves on the Editorial Board of the Modern
Language Journal.
Juanita Heigham is Associate Professor and the Director of the
Communicative English Program within the School of Cross-Cultural
Studies at Sugiyama Jogakuen University in Nagoya, Japan. She also over-
sees the university’s self-access center. Her interest in participating in the
creation of this practical book stems from a desire to demystify the research
process for novice researchers so that more people are empowered to search
and discover. Her research interests include teacher education, learner
autonomy and curriculum design.
Michael Hood is an Assistant Professor at Nihon University, College of
Commerce, in Tokyo. He has taught literature and writing at universities
in both Japan and the US for over ten years. He served for four years as
Editor of OnCUE Journal, a publication for college and university educators
in Japan. He has also written textbooks on EFL writing, reading and pres-
entation skills as well as several articles on the Irish writer James Joyce.
He is currently conducting qualitative case studies of Japanese learners in
 Contributors xv

American universities. His research interests include modern literature,

second language writing, academic literacy, and motivation.

Nataliya V. Ivankova is Associate Professor in the Department of Human

Studies at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Previously, she worked
as Research Associate and Projects Coordinator in the Office of Qualitative
and Mixed Methods Research in the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. During
the first 20 years of her professional career she taught ESL and contrastive
linguistics at the Izmail State Pedagogical Institute in Ukraine. Her exper-
tise is in research design, qualitative inquiry and mixed methods research
and their applications in social and health sciences. She also develops
and teaches online applied courses in research design and methodology,
including mixed methods research.

Anne Lazaraton is an Associate Professor of English as a Second Language at

the University of Minnesota, USA, where she teaches courses in ESL Methods,
Language Analysis, Language Assessment, and Discourse Analysis. She also
supervises the required graduate-level ESL practicum course. She has pub-
lished in TESOL Quarterly, Modern Language Journal, Language Learning, and
Language Testing, and is the author of A Qualitative Approach to the Validation
of Oral Language Tests (Cambridge University Press, 2002). Her research
interests include oral assessment, language use in political blogs and the
classroom discourse of pre-service language teachers.

Sandra Lee McKay is Professor of English at San Francisco State University

where she teaches courses in sociolinguistics and research methodology, as
well as methods and materials for graduate students in TESOL. Her books
include Teaching English as an International Language: Rethinking Goals and
Approaches (2002, Oxford University Press) and Researching Second Language
Classrooms (2006, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates). Her interest in introspec-
tive techniques developed from her work with the Centre for Research in
Pedagogy and Practice, National Institute for Education, Singapore, where
she served as an External Collaborator for a Research Grant (2001–2004) on
the topic of English Language Use and Learning in Singapore. The study
she conducted there, cited in her chapter, depended heavily on the use of
verbal reports.

Garold Murray teaches English at Okayama University in Japan. His research

employs narrative inquiry to explore learner autonomy in language learn-
ing in classroom, out-of-class, and self-access learning contexts. Dr. Murray
is also interested in the development of self-access centers and programs. He
has recently developed two self-access centes in Japan, one of which is open
to the general public.

Sharon F. Rallis is the Allen Distinguished Professor of Education Policy

and Reform at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where she teaches
xvi Contributors

inquiry, program evaluation, qualitative methods, and organizational the-

ory. A past president of the American Evaluation Association, Rallis has
co-authored nine books, including Learning in the field (2nd ed., 2003), with
Gretchen B. Rossman, and Principals of Dynamic Schools: Taking Charge of
Change (2nd ed., 2000), with Ellen B. Goldring. She has published more
than 30 edited volumes, journal articles, and book chapters on methodo-
logical issues in evaluation, qualitative research, ethical research practice,
and educational reform efforts. She is currently program co-chair for the
qualitative research section of AERA’s Division on Methodology.
Keith Richards is an Associate Professor at the Centre for Applied Linguistics
at the University of Warwick, UK, where he is Director of Graduate Studies
and teachers on the Spoken English and Applied Linguistics courses on the
M.A. program. He has worked in a number of countries in Europe and the
Middle East and has been involved in teacher development around the world.
His main research interests lie in the area of professional interaction and
his recent publications include Qualitative inquiry in TESOL (2003), Applying
conversation analysis (2007, edited with Paul Seedhouse), and Language and
professional identity (2009).
Gretchen B. Rossman is a Professor of Education at the University of
Massachusetts Amherst, with expertise in qualitative research methodology
and mixed methods monitoring and evaluation. She has co-authored nine
books, two of which are major qualitative research texts (Learning in the
field, (2nd ed., 2003), with Sharon F. Rallis, and Designing qualitative research,
(4th ed., 2006, with Catherine Marshall). She has also published over 20
articles and book chapters focused on methodological issues in qualitative
research, mixed methods evaluation, ethical research practice, and the eval-
uation of educational reform efforts both domestically and internationally.
She is currently serving as program chair for the qualitative research section
of AERA’s Division on Methodology.
Keiko Sakui is Associate Professor at Kobe Shoin Women’s University, Japan.
She teaches EFL classes as well as teacher education courses, and is Director
of the Foreign Language Education Center in which a lot of her time is con-
sumed doing administrative work. She enjoys and perseveres with these dif-
ferent roles, adopting an ethnographer’s eyes. She has several publications
in journals such as System, ELT Journal, and JALT Journal. Her most recent
publication is on student resistance in Japanese universities in Narratives
of learning and teaching EFL (2008), published by Palgrave Macmillan. Her
research interests are teacher and learner beliefs, classroom management,
and critical pedagogy.