DEPARTMENT OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
The illiterate of the 21st
century will not be those
who cannot read and write,
but those who cannot learn,
unlearn and relearn

Alvin Toffler
 ... and,

We shall not cease from exploration

And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
and know the place for the first time

T.S. Eliot
 Course components

1. Generating and conducting research

2. The questionnaire
3. The interview
4. Observation in classroom research
5. Writing up a research paper
 What is research
• Research is the process of going up alleys to
see if they are blind
Marston Bates, American writer
• Research is what I am doing when I don’t
know what I am doing
Von Braun, American engineer
• If you steal from one author, it’s plagiarism;
if you steal from many, it’s research.
Wilson Mizner, American dramatist
 Free associations
• Classmates
• Lecturers
• Family
• Daughter/ SON
• Research
 What is research?
Research is a systematic process of
inquiry consisting of three elements or
components:
– A question, a problem or a hypothesis
– Data
– Analysis and interpretation of data

(Nunan 1992)
 Brown: Primary vs secondary
(p.1,2,3)
• Primary: basing on primary or original sources
of information, e.g. students' test scores,
classroom observation of their language
teaching behaviors, questionnaire responses,
etc.
• Secondary: basing on the secondary sources of
information, especially other researchers’ books
and articles
 Quantitative research
(Numeral research)
• Obtrusive
• Controlled
• Objective
• Generalisable
• Outcome-oriented
• Procedures:
- tests
- interview & self-reports
- closed response questionnaires
- numbers, figures
 Qualitative research
(Non-numeral research)
• All knowledge is relative
• Subjective element to knowledge
• Procedures:
- observation
- interview
- field work
- open response questionnaires
- transcripts
 Research process
A process of formulating questions,
problems, or hypothesis, collecting data or
evidence relevant to these questions,
problems or hypothesis and analyzing or
interpreting data (Nunan 1992).
 The basic process of research

• problem / experience / observation

• hypothesis
• investigation and experimentation to test the
hypothesis
• data gathering
• data analysis and interpretation
• confirmation or disapproval of the hypothesis
(Wisker 2001)
The basic steps in planning and conduct
of research (Isaac and Michael, 1995)
1. Identify the problem areas
2. Survey the literature relating to it
3. Define the actual problem for investigation
in clear, specific terms
4. Formulate testable hypotheses/answerable
questions and define the basic concepts
and variables
5. State the underlying assumptions which
govern the interpretation of results
The basic steps in planning and conduct
of research (Isaac and Michael, 1995)
6. Construct the research design to maximize
internal and external validity
a. Selection of subjects
b. Control and/or manipulation of relevant variables
c. Establishment of criteria to evaluate outcomes
d. Instrumentation- selection or development of the criterion
measures
7. Specify the data collection procedures
8. Select the data analysis methodology
9. Execute the research plan
10. Evaluate the results and draw conclusions
 Identifying a research area
 Determine the general topic area you are
interested in
 This step should be done before formulating a
question
 The general area itself can emerge from your
own particular interests, from your own
experience in the field, from reading widely, or
from a combination of these
 Hatch and Lazaraton (1991) suggest that you
should keep a research journal which can be an
invaluable resource in order to know what really
interests you
Developing a research question
The questions need to be:
 worth asking in the first place (often the
question which are easiest to answer are not
worth asking)
 capable of being answered
 Wiersma (1986) suggests that in developing a
research problem or questions, the problem be
broadly stated in the first instance and then
progressively refined and restricted through a
review of the literature. (p.6)
Deciding on the research design
 These following questions from a research proposal
will help to clarify the research design:
 What data would we want, and from what source?
 How would we collect it?
 How would we analyze it?
 We normally decide on the design of our studies
by matching our data collection methods and
methods of analysis to the questions we are
asking (p.7)
 Reliability
• The consistency of the results obtained
from a piece of research
• Internal reliability: consistency of data
collection, analysis and interpretation
• External reliability: similar results can be
reproduced by independent researcher
 Validity
• The extent to which piece of research
actually investigates what the researcher
purports to investigate
• Internal validity: the interpretability of a
research
• External validity: the extent to which the
results can be generalized from samples
to population