Prepared by Kim, Sun-hui (EMD), Kwak, Cholong (ELT), Lee, Jungmin(ELT)

Definition of Research “Trying to find answers to questions” ‘the organized, systematic search for answers to the questions we ask’ - Hatch and Lazaraton  What is research?

Definition of Research  Who’s doing research? “ Teacher-researchers”  What do we research? “ questions about teaching, teaching materials, students, or techniques”

Research Procedures 1)Finding your topic 2)Reading around your topic 3)Research questions – what do you want to know? 4)Research Methods – ways of finding out what you want to know 5)Details – possibilities & pitfalls 6)Data collection – doing the research 7)Data analysis & interpretation 8)Writing up your project 9)Looking back & ahead

1. Primary Research 2. Secondary Research & Types of Research

Primary Research Case Studies Statistical Studies Survey Studies Experimental Studies Primary Research Individuals, Longitudinal Group of people Cross-sectional Attitudes, Opinions Characteristics Different Possible studies

Types of Research 1)Qualitative research no experiments non-numerical data analysis by non-statistical methods e.g. interview research 2)Quantitative research experiments numerical data Analysis by statistical methods e.g. survey research using a questionnaire, analyzed by statistical software like SPSS

Sources of Research Questions ? Within ourselves JournalsFaculty Something you know Critical friends

Scope of Research “Too broad??”  Narrow it down

Scope of Research For example, “How well SL learners perform speech acts” “Korean ESL students’ ability to recognize complaint behavior appropriate in an academic university setting.”

Scope of Research  Sub-categorization of the Concepts Putting operational definitions (tried and true definition of a term) for terms in your research  Benefits 1) to make definition consistent 2) to prevent any misinterpretation of your findings 3) to show that your study is replicable

Feasibility of Research

Factors in Feasibility 1) Time – longitudinal / cross-sectional studies 2) Access 3) Quality & Quantity of Access 4) Reasonable Budget

interesting Stating research question and hypotheses feasible Can I describe the bilingual language development of Insung? Can I describe the first 50 Korean and first 50 English words acquired by Insung?

Stating research question and hypotheses “Can I describe X?” “Why do I want to describe X?” - to think about possible outcomes ahead of time - meaningful contribution to the field

Stating research question and hypotheses Hypothesis: Reviewing the literature on the topic Talking with colleagues Observing classrooms ? ? A statement of possible outcome of research

Hypothesis Null hypothesis Alternative hypothesis Alternative hypothesis Directional(Positive, Negative) hypothesis Directional(Positive, Negative) hypothesis Stating research question and hypotheses

=there is no relationship between items under investigation Null hypothesis[H 0 ] Alternative hypothesis [H 1 ] = there is a relationship between items under investigation H 0H 0 There is no relationship between L2 proficiency There is no relationship between L2 proficiency and placement on the spelling continuum. and placement on the spelling continuum. H 1H 1 There is a relationship between L2 proficiency There is a relationship between L2 proficiency and placement on the spelling continuum. and placement on the spelling continuum.

Stating research question and hypotheses Interaction There is no interaction between first language and proficiency and spelling test scores. =there is a positive/negative relationship between items under investigation Directional(Positive, Negative) hypothesis [H 2, H 3 ] H 2 There is a positive relationship between L2 proficiency and placement on the spelling continuum.H 2 There is a positive relationship between L2 proficiency and placement on the spelling continuum. H 3H 3 There is a negative relationship between L2 proficiency and placement on the spelling continuum. There is a negative relationship between L2 proficiency and placement on the spelling continuum.

Collecting Research Evidence Data banks Motivate Ss and even raters to Participate Ss best performance Literature Review

Validity  Internal Validity-interpreting findings of research within the study itself  External Validity-interpreting findings and generalizing them beyond the study Campbell and Stanley (1963)

Threats to internal validity  Subject selection  Maturation  History  Instrumentation  Task directions  Adequate data base  Test effect

Subject selection  carefully identify the subject characteristics  the subjects match that description —operational defini tion e.g. monoligual vs bilingual  selection bias, if preexisting differences the two groups are not really equivalent at the start.  Differential attrition :morality participants dropping out of research can have important consequences to the outcomes in the research All relevant subject characteristics All relevant subject characteristics must be listed and checked

Maturation  Getting older, getting tired, and getting bored. e.g. relation between much input and improvement in listening skills

History  Concurrent activities  Self-study  gatherings e.g. our university evaluate a new set of material

Instrumentation  The test instrument or observations used in research are both valid and consistent. the validity of your operational definitions  The type of evidence that you collect to support or reject your hypotheses will depend on the validity of your operational definitions of the key terms in your research. e.g. acquisition—accurate performance (80% level or higher on a written test) of Ss on 10 grammar points

Construct Validity  : a set of items = a construct Whether or not the pieces of data collected to represent a particular construct really succeed in capturing the construct e.g. language proficiency = grammar+vocab+speaking+listening+…

Measurement Validity  a measure must truly represent what it represents.  eg)multiple-choice grammar test for Speaking skills ?

Task directions  Instructions clear! carefully planned and piloted length of instruction  For language learners.  For the person(s) collecting the data.  large project assistants in the data collection process periodically check and retrain assistants  test instrument itself and the collection procedures remain constant

Adequate data base  form a set response.  Break the response pattern eg) give filler items in between the test items.  Tap the true abilities of learners Too difficult tasks  Ss could give up Easy tasks  Ss get bored.  Demographic info.: at the end  full participation

Test effect  A pretest can influence the performance and future tests. The test : students’ expectation  The actual form of items decays very rapidly The content of items remains.  create parallel test forms  Make sure the test forms are equivalent. PretestPosttest HalfForm AForm B HalfForm BForm A

External validity  How representative the data are for generalization

Sample selection  Generalize the results to other circumstances a detailed description to which we hope to generalize  Convenience sampling => No generalization is possible  Sample Selection is central to generalize the result

Random selection  every candidate (whether a S, a piece of text, or an o bject) has as equal and independent chance of being chosen.  Problems with this method eg) male/female, immigrants/foreigners, and so forth.

Stratified random sample  decide ahead of time: all candidates are tagged for the characteristics and are then randomly selected by category.

Is this random sampling?  Volunteers are not representative of total population! Large random sample Final sample Random selection