Understanding the nature of

research
Are these sentences true or false?
• A research paper ought to be long.
• Paraphrasing can be accomplished by
simply changing a word from the source text.
• Only scholars can write excellent papers.
• Using one or two references is enough.
• There is only one general type of research
paper.
• A research paper must look like a thesis.
• Only written sources are acceptable
references.
• A research paper is all about library work.
• Students can skip the drafts and simply
submit the final paper.
• The source of information in a summary
does not have to be acknowledged.
• What is Research?
- Research is about an inquiry with 2
components: process (about an area of
inquiry & how it is pursued) & product
(knowledge generated from the process).
- A systematic process of inquiry consisting
of 3 elements: (1) a question, problem, or
hypothesis; (2) data; & (3) analysis and
interpretation of data (Nunan, 1992).
- Research is the act of discovering more of
what you want to know. It is also the
process of systematizing available
information on your favorite topic or on a
topic you are curious about. Through the
process of research, you are able to
contribute new knowledge and discoveries
to the existing body of knowledge on a
subject. And you make this public in your
research paper (Veit, 1990).
 Approaches to research
• Qualitative research
- advocates use of qualitative
methods
- concerned with understanding
human behavior from the
actor’s own frame of
reference
- naturalistic and uncontrolled
observation
- subjective
- close to the data: the “insider”
perspective
• Quantitative research
- advocates use of quantitative
methods
- seeks facts or causes of social
phenomena without regard to
the subjective states of the
individuals
- obtrusive and controlled
measurement
- objective
- removed from the data: the
“outsider” perspective
- grounded, discovery-
oriented, explanatory,
expansionist, descriptive,
and inductive
- process-oriented
- valid: “real”, “rich”, &
“deep” data
- ungeneralisable: single
case studies
- assumes a dynamic reality
- ungrounded, verification-
oriented, confirmatory,
reductionist, inferential, &
hypothetical-deductive
- outcome-oriented
- reliable: “hard” & replicable
data
- generalisable: multiple
case studies
- assumes a stable reality
 Key concepts in research
• Deductive research: begins with a
hypothesis or theory & then searches for
evidence to support/refute that
• Inductive research: seeks to derive
general principles, theories, or truths from
an investigation & documentation of single
instances
• Reliability: the consistency (& replicability)
of the results obtained from a piece of
research
- internal: consistency of data collection,
analysis, & interpretation
- external: extent to which independent
researchers can reproduce a study &
obtain results similar to those obtained in
the original study
• Validity: the extent to which a piece of research
actually investigates what the researcher
purports to investigate
- internal: interpretability of research
- external: extent to which the results can be
generalised from samples to populations
- construct: a psychological quality (eg.
intelligence, motivation, or aptitude) that we can’t
directly observe but that we assume to exist in
order to explain behavior we can observe
 Types of research
• Primary: derived from primary sources of
information (eg. a group of ss who are
learning a language), rather than from
secondary sources (eg. books about ss
who are learning a language)
• Secondary: consisting of reviewing the
literature in a given area and synthesising
the research carried out by others
 Primary research
• Case studies: center on a single individual or
limited number of individuals, documenting some
aspect of their (lang.) development, usually over
a period of time
• Statistical studies: cross-sectional, considering a
group of people as a cross section of possible
behaviors at a point or at several distinct points
in time; used to estimate the probability that the
results did not occur by chance alone
 Statistical studies

• Surveys: investigating a group’s attitudes,

opinions, or characteristics, often through
some form of questionnaire
• Experimental studies: controlling the
conditions under which the behavior under
investigation is observed
 Characteristics of good experimental
research:
• Systematic (clear procedural rules for the design
of the study)
• Logical (proceeding in a clear step-by-step
fashion)
• Tangible (data collected from real world)
• Replicable (able to be reproduced by others)
• Reductive (establishing patterns & relationships
among individual variables, facts, & observable
phenomena)
Second Language Research Types
• Basic (eg. universals of relative clauses)
• Applied (eg. order of acquisition)
• Practical (eg. materials development)
 Practice
• As a parent, you have the opportunity to
choose bilingual or monolingual education
for your child. What kind of research –
basic, applied, or practical – would be
most useful in helping you reach your
decision?