Case Studies, Ethnographic studies, Grounded theory studies Week 6 Research Methodology NJ Kang

How drama activity affect on writing skill improvement of one high school learner with low level and low interest in English? How do trainees in SMU TESOL perceive of the programme in improving their teaching skills. How do middle school teachers implement new curriculum in coping with traditional school norms and needs of the learners. What would be an alternative approach if either CLT or GTM make low impact on high school learners’ English proficiency improvement

5. How would paraphrasing and summarising instructional strategy used by SMU professors affect trainees of the programme on improving their speaking skills? 6. How do children with high and low level in flexibility and openness to novelty respond differently toward creativity enhanced activities? 7. How does a movie viewing with shadowing, which was used by Lee Bo young work with other ELT learners in Korea. 8. What make Korean middle school teachers’ lives in the schools difficult and how they cope with these?

Case studies Can be done on a group, on an institution, on a neighbourhood, on an innovation, on a decision, on a service, on a programme and on many other things. Individual case study, Set of individual case studies Community studies. Social group studies, studies of organizations and institutions Studies of events, roles and relationships. Read the introduction of articles and select which study?

Holistic Case Studies: This would typically be how the study of an individual would be viewed but would also apply to the study of an institution which remained at the level of the whole rather than seeking to look at and analyse the different functioning of separate sub-units within the institution.

The critical Case : this occurs when your theoretical understanding is such that there is a clear, unambiguous and nontrivial set of circumstances where predicted outcomes will be found. put an investigation of a certain phenomenon under a certain theoretical hypothesis. Use of experiment is to clarify the theory and hypothesis not to make change on something. E.g. verification of Einstein’s theory of relativity. Application in TESOL?

The extreme case It investigate how one sample of person or situation works in a certain situation. (a person’s recovery of a trauma) It include the ‘if it can work here it will work anywhere’ scenario, a new approach is tried under ideal circumstances, perhaps to obtain understanding of how it works before its wider implementation

Multiple case studies Gathering a sample of cases Doing multiple experiments Replication of an initial experiment Seek to complement the first study by focusing on an area not originally covered. Build upon the first experiment, Like multiple surveys for that matter; Or even for multiple studies involving a range of different research strategies.

Ethnographic Studies 1) a Written description 2)the implicit rules and traditions of a 3) group. 4)involvement with, 5)a rich, or thick description 6)interprets 7)their own perspective.

Ethnographic Studies Is differentiated by some from the case study approach. This approach seeks to provide a 1)Written description of 2)the implicit rules and traditions of a 3) group. Through 4)involvement with the group, tries to work out these rules The intention is to provide 5)a rich, or thick description which 6)interprets the experiences of people in the group from 7)their own perspective.

Ethnographic studies need The questions that the study is asking, The data that are collected, and The conclusions drawn.

Exploratory and confirmatory Exploratory: Pre-structured or emergent,  tight pre-structuring is just not possible  trying to get some feeling as to what is going on in a novel situation. Confirmatory: a detailed pre-structured case study . need to have explanation of some phenomenon, Case study don’t need limit itself to confirmation of suggested relationships.

Mid term. Set up your RQ and Identify what research design paradime would work compared to other research paradigm. How this will be carried out and analysed What would be the benefit of using this specific paradigm. Read chapter 7 & 8.