Doing Research in Applied Linguistics Realities, dilemmas, and solutions

Doing Research in Applied Linguistics: Realities, dilemmas, and solutions provides insight and guidance for those undertaking research, and shows the reader how to deal with the challenges of this research involving real people in real settings. Featuring over twenty chapters by experienced and up-and-coming researchers from around the world, this book:

• outlines the steps involved in solving the problem and completing a successful, and publishable, project;
• provides case studies of obstacles faced at each stage of research, from preliminary planning to report writing;
• addresses issues of validity and reliability during data collection and analysis;
• discusses ethical issues in research dealing with vulnerable groups including children, refugees, and students;
• includes examples from longitudinal studies, and both qualitative and quantitative research.

Doing Research in Applied Linguistics is essential reading for students studying research methods, or for those embarking on their first research project in applied linguistics or language education.

Foreword

1. Realities of doing research in applied linguistics

Part I Responding to problems in the research planning stage

2. Studying down versus studying up: Selecting whom to research
3. Responding to theoretical shifts in research design
4. Overcoming problematic positionality and researcher objectivity
5. Doing collaborative research: Challenges and opportunities

Part II Responding to problems during data collection

6. Dealing with data collection setbacks and reframing research questions
7. Dealing with participant attrition in longitudinal studies
8. Dealing with low response rates in quantitative studies
9. Dealing with multilingualism in quantitative research

Part III Researching vulnerable groups

10. It isn’t child’s play: Conducting research with children as participants
11. Conducting longitudinal fieldwork among adult refugees
12. Researching people with disabilities and illnesses: ethical dimensions
13. Conducting research with deaf sign language users
14. Researching your own students: Negotiating the dual teacher-researcher role

Part IV Responding to problems during data analysis

15. Dealing with longitudinal quantitative designs and data analysis
16. Managing the uncomfortable side of narrative data and analysis
17. Grappling with originality and grounding in qualitative data analysis
18. Negotiating the relationship between theory and practice in the fields of literacy and language

Part V Responding to problems in the reporting of research

19. Dealing with controversial findings
20. Reporting on politically sensitive issues: The case of telling the truth about early L2 instruction
21. Dealing with criticism when publishing qualitative research
22. Representing the self honestly in published research
23. Publishing from a dissertation: One book, or many articles?

Afterword: Strategies for getting the study published

Jim McKinley is a Lecturer in Applied Linguistics at the University of Bath, UK.

Heath Rose is an Associate Professor of Applied Linguistics at the University of Oxford, UK.