Research in ELT part 2

ACHMAD FARID

Research in English Language Teaching

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Our Syllabus

Meeting 1 Introduction to Research in ELT AF & NFMeeting 2 Research Designs AFMeeting 3 Qualitative Research and Quantitative Research AFMeeting 4 Experimental and Classroom Action Research NFMeeting 5 Researching Learners’ Phonetics and Phonology AFMeeting 6 Researching Language Learners’ Syntax & Morphology AFMeeting 7 Researching Language / Pedagogy 1 NF Meeting 8 Mid-exam: Assignment 1 submissionMeeting 9 Researching Language / Pedagogy 2 NFMeeting 10 Formulating Reseach Problem NFMeeting 11 Literature Review NFMeeting 12 Research variables and Hypothesis. NFMeeting 13 Data collection Techniques/Data Instrument NFMeeting 14 Students’ Presentations AF & NFMeeting 15 Students’ Presentations AF &f NFMeeting 16 Final Exam: Assignment 2 submission

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Class rules

You cannot be late for more than 15 minutesFor male students, you are not allowed to have long

untidy hairs, wear t-shirts, jackets, shorts, and hats.For female students, you should wear muslimah

dresses and loose hijab. You cannot wear tight and transparent dresses. ‘pencil’ jeans is strictly prohibited.

Please wear your shoes.Males and females are not allowed to sit side by side.Males sit in the front rows.Any audible devices must be put into silent mode

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Today

What is ‘research’?

Situating the Field

Begin to think about research in ELT

How can we conduct research in ELT?

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What do you define ‘research’?

The American Heritage College Dictionary defined research as research (n) "scholarly or scientific

investigation or inquiry“ research (v) "to study (something)

thoroughly"

Thus, in its most basic and simplest form, research is

“a way of finding out answers to questions.”

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Therefore..

Research in ELT is..

A scientific investigation in the field of English Language Teaching

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LanguageTeachingEnglish

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LanguageTeachingEnglish

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Situating the Field

The Education/Pedagogy Side of ELTv.

The Linguistics/Language Side of ELT

Researching ELT

Focus of Research in ELT

1. Teaching / Education / Pedagogy / Teaching and Learning Process

2. Learners’ Language

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The Education/Pedagogy Side of ELTImplementation of teaching methodConstructing teaching syllabus/material (Needs

AnalysisThe effectiveness of certain activity to teach a skillTesting whether a particular method can increase

students’ competenceetc.

aim: To investigate the teaching-learning processes

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The acquisition of a language aspect, e.g. grammar, phonology

L1 to L2 interferencePhonological interference, syntactic interferenceEtc.

aim: To investigate processes of language development

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Examples

No. The Education/Pedagogy Side of ELT


1 The Implementation of Spelling Bee in Teaching English Narrative Texts

The Acquisition of English non-existing sounds in Indonesian

2 Designing TOEFL Reading Teaching Materials for non-English Department Students

L1 interference in the Acquisition of Past Tense by L1-Indonesian Learning English

3 The Effectiveness of Pairing Method in Teaching Speaking

Factors influencing fluency development

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2 main approaches

1. Experimental research: Researcher controls the process in some way –

perhaps in a lab, or through a structured interview

Questionnaire; interview; language tests; focus groups

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2. Non-experimental research: researcher observes naturalistic data – perhaps

classroom observation the data is already there – it just needs to be accessed

by the researcher language in use, texts that already exist, corpora

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Different Types of Research

quantitative

vs.

qualitative

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Quantitative Research

generally starts with an experimental design a hypothesis is followed by the quantification

of datasome sort of numerical analysis is carried out

(e.g., a study comparing student test results before and after an instructional treatment).

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Qualitative Research

generally are not set up as experimentsthe data cannot be easily quantified (e.g.

students’ attitude throughout an English class)

the analysis is interpretive rather than statistical.

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The Research Process

What is the aim of the

research?

To describe?To explore?To explain?

What approach is adopted?

Experimental research?Observation?Ethnography?

What methods are used?

Interview?Observation?

Analysis of language data?

What paradigm does this reflect?

Qualitative research?Quantitative research?

Mixed methods?

What other issues need to be considered?

Ethics?Sampling?

Observer's Paradox?Validity?

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What is the aim of the research?

Explore?

Explain?

Describe?

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What approach is adopted?

Experimental?

Observational?

Ethnographic?

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What methods are used?

Interview?

Observation?

Analysis of

language data?

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What paradigm does this reflect?

Qualitative?

Quantitative?

Mixed methods?

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Characteristics of Quantitative and Qualitative Research

Reichardt & Cook (1979)Quantitative QualitativeObtrusive, involving controlledmeasurement

Naturalistic and controlledobservation

Objective SubjectiveVerification oriented, Confirmatory

Discovery oriented

To test a theory Might generate a new theoryOutcome-oriented Process orientedReliable, involving "hard" andreplicable data

"Soft" data

Generalizable Ungeneralizable, single case studies

Assuming a stable reality Assuming a dynamic reality

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Example

This study is to describe the students’ common problems in constructing simple present sentences as an L1 interference and L2 overgeneralization perspective made by the seventh grade students of SMP Darul Ulum 1. The analysis focuses on how the students are influenced by their mother tongue and how the students overgeneralize the L2 structures sentences.

The objects of study were40 students of the seventh grade students of SMP Darul Ulum 1 Jombang, and the data were taken from the result of the students writing tasks and the result of interview with the respondents. The result of this study just focused to show the use of to be related errors and verb form related errors as the result of L1 interference and the L2 overgeneralization. Based on the analysis, the most common errors in constructing Simple Present sentences is the that students failed to use the correct verb form because they are still influenced by their L1 and those problem occurs because of two linguistic factors: markedness and language distance. The students construced of the sentence according to the L1 structure that it is not present in L2 sentence structures as in the case of the use of copula verb in nominal sentences and the addition of ‘–s’ / ‘-es’ in a verb for third person singular subjects (he, she, and it). Language distance is when the students got difficulties in acquired new language because the language system in both two languages (L1 & L2) is fundamentally different.

QUALITATI

VE

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Example

This study investigates the acquisition of 8 English morphemes for L1 Arabic and L1 Indonesian learners speaking English as a second language. The 8 morphemes are: pronoun case, articles (the/a), progressive -ing, copula, plural, auxiliary, past regular, and past irregular. The hypothesis were made in accordance with Krashen’s Natural Order Hypothesis (1982), predicting that speakers from different L1 backgrounds learning L2 English would show similar acquisition orders for grammatical morphemes as suggested by the NOH. Speech data were gathered from participants from two different language backgrounds, Arabic and Indonesian, through recorded informal interviews.

The data analysis reveals that the participants performed virtually similarly within the groups. Regardless of some variations in the acquisition sequence of the morphemes, the Mann-Whitney statistical tests proved that there was no significant different in the performance of the two language groups. However, the sequence yielded from the two groups was only partially similar to that of NOH proposal. The deviations then provide strong support for the existence of L1 transfer. This finding leads us to a proposal of a weaker form of the NOH, which suggests that the Natural Order only affects particular morphemes. This also further indicates that L1 transfer in L2 acquisition is inevitable.

QUANTITAT

IVE

Research in ELT part 2

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