1. LCD790 – 02/09/09 Developing research topics Classroom research Case studies

2. Announcements Groups on Blackboard –Discussion board –File sharing –E-mails (update your e-mail address on BB Home tab, under Tools > Update Email) Literature search: see slides on Blackboard –How to use CUNY catalog, interlibrary loan, databases (LLBA), google scholar

3. Today Models of reading (see ppt last week) Developing research topics Research in classroom settings Case studies

4. Identifying research questions (or hypotheses) Research questions should be Interesting (address current issues) Sufficiently narrow so they can be answered Research questions need to be answered Hypotheses are expectations, based on what is known

5. Where to start? Where do research questions come from? Research papers –Suggestions for further research –Limitations –Whatever you thought was missing from the paper Identifying gaps in the literature and existing research Your own experience (from teaching, learning, …) Review the literature: Has the question been investigated before? What do we already know, and what don’t we know?

6. Is my idea feasible? Can your question be answered (not too broad?) Can you obtain the data? (e.g., are participants available?) Are there other practical issues (time, money, technology)

7. Replication Results from a study need to be replicable –Verification –Generalizability Replicating instruments, procedures, etc. is fairly easy –Replicating students’ background is more difficult Continuum: virtual – conceptual –Virtual: Everything copied as much as possible –Conceptual: Testing the same ‘concept’ but in a different setting or with a different type of participants (generalizability!) If the replication finds different results: –Findings weren’t generalizable, or –Replication wasn’t good?

8. Example of feedback observation scheme: Source Type Target Uptake

9. Informed consent –Consent from students, parents, teachers, school administration Including permission to view grades, if applicable NNSs must be able to read the consent forms (simple English, L1 or interpreter) Don’t “bribe” with too much compensation –No pressure to participate! –Debriefing Confidentiality IRB approval

10. What is a case study? Usually qualitative research, so: –Research questions tend to be general and open- ended; hypotheses may be generated (instead of confirmed/disconfirmed) –There is less control over variables (less generalizable), but the setting is more natural –Rich description is necessary to describe the background of the subjects, for instance –Cyclical and open-ended process: It’s possible to adjust or add research questions during analysis (or even during data collection, if it’s longitudinal)

11. What is a case study? Detailed descriptions of specific learners/classes within their learning setting Rich contextualization; examine complexities of the second language learning process Usually longitudinal Possible: compare more than one learner / group of learners –Compare and contraste behaviors within particular contexts The researcher must be careful about the generalizations drawn from the study (few participants, not randomly chosen!) –Solution: Combine multiple longitudinal case studies

12. Next class (Feb. 23) Read Jimenez et al. (1995) –Example of case study on bilingual reading development) –Focus on questions in Assignment 1 (not to hand in) Bring to class RQ(s) that are doable and worthwhile E-mail me: partner & topic