2 Approaches to qualitative research

DAVID NUNAN

Contrasting quantitative and qualitative research

 

How many contrasting items can you add to these lists?

 

Qualitative research Quantitative research

Subjective TrustworthyInsider perspective……

Objective ValidOutsider perspective……

Qualitative classroom dataWhat types of qualitative data might be collected in classroom research?

Examples of qualitative data from classroom research

Narrative accounts of a typical school day

Observer’s notes

Maps and SCORE charts

Lesson transcripts

Lesson plans and teachers’ notes

Open-ended questionnaire responses

Video/audio recordings of classroom interaction

Stimulated recall responses

Interview protocols (transcripts)

Diary entries

Copies of students’ work

‘Case study’ defined. “A case study is what you call a case, in case, in case you don’t have anything else to call it.”

(Response from a student who was asked to define ‘case study’)

“A detailed, often longitudinal investigation of a single individual or entity (or a few individuals or entities)”

(Nunan & Bailey, 2009: 158)

Case study characteristicsa detailed, often longitudinal investigation

of a single individual or entity (or a few individuals or entities)

naturalistic – no manipulation of subjects; no treatment

the researcher sets out to find out what’s happening

not merely pre-experimental

the investigation of a ‘bounded instance’

an “instance in action”

DiscussionWhat are some of the ‘instances’ that

could be investigated in second language teaching and learning?

Selecting the case: examples

Halliday: The first language acquisition of a single child

Brown: The first language acquisition of three children

Schumann: the acquisition and acculturation of two adults, two teenagers and two children over a ten-month period

Peck: The role of language play in the English development of two Mexican children 

Selecting the case: examples

Celce-Murcia: Daughter’s bilingual acquisition of English and French in California and France over several years

Allwright: Turns, topics and tasks in two lower level ESL classes over 10 weeks.

Block: The perceptions of six adult English learners and their teacher in Spain.

Chuk: Autonomous student teachers in a TE program

Longitudinality

A longitudinal case study examines development and performance over time.

(Duff, 2008)

Multiple perspectives and

triangulation

By concentrating on the behavior of one individual or a small number of individuals (or sites) it is possible to conduct a very thorough analysis (“thick” or “rich’ description) of the case and to include triangulated perspectives from other participants or observers.

(Duff 2008: 4)

The value of case studies

Strong in reality

You can generalize from an instance to a class

It can represent multiple viewpoints and support alternative interpretations

Can provide a database that can be reinterpreted in the future

Insights can be put to immediate use

Case study reports usually more accessible than reports of psychometric studies

Selecting the case

“The individual case is usually selected for study on the basis of specific psychological, biological, sociocultural, institutional or linguistic attributes, representing a particular age group, a combination of first and second language ability level (e.g. basic or advanced), or a skill area such as writing, a linguistic domain such as morphology and syntax, or mode or medium of learning, such as an on-line, computer-mediated environment.” (Duff, 2008:32-33)

DiscussionDiscuss the following statement:

“As ‘rules of the game’, reliability and validity are irrelevant to case study research.”

Discu

ssion

What are Adelman et al.1976:140) trying to say below? Do you find their argument convincing?

It is tempting to argue that the accumulation of case studies allows theory building via tentative hypotheses culled from the accumulation of single instances. But the generalizations produced in a case study are no less legitimate when about the instance, rather than the class from which the instance is drawn (i.e. generalizations about the case rather than from it).

 

“If you study grains of sand, you will find each is different. Even by handling one, it becomes different. But through studying it and ones like it, you begin to learn about a beach. “

(Larsen-Freeman, 1996: 165)

Alternative rules of the game

a) credibility (in preference to internal validity)

b) transferability (in preference to external validity/generalisability)

c) dependability (in preference to reliability)

d) confirmability (in preference to objectivity)

Defining ethnography

“the study of people’s behavior in naturally occurring, ongoing settings, with a focus on the cultural interpretation of that behavior.” (Watson-Gegeo, 1988).

Principles of ethnography

Focus on cultural patterns in groups

Holistic

Theoretical framework

Comparative

Defining introspection

 The process of observing and reporting on one’s own thoughts, feelings, motives, reasoning process and mental states.

The term also covers retrospection, in which there is a gap between an event and the reporting of the event.

 Concurrent introspection: Occurs simultaneously with the event being reported.

 Immediate retrospection: Occurs right after the event.

 Delayed retrospection: Occurs some time after the event.

Introspection, Immediate retrospection, delayed retrospection

 

1. What are you doing and thinking right now?

 

2. What were you doing and thinking immediately prior to the class?

 

3. What are you doing and thinking last Monday morning?

Introspection: reliability and validity

What do you see as the threats to the reliability and validity of introspection?

How might reliability and validity be improved?

Stimulated recall

Use of data collected during an event (e.g. audiotape, videotape, field notes, SCORE charts, classroom transcripts) to stimulate the recollections of the people who took part in the event.

Diary / journal studies

A diary study in second language learning, acquisition, or teaching is an account of a second language experience as recorded in a first person journal.

Experiences are “documented through regular, candid entries in a personal journal and then and analyzed for recurring patterns or salient events. (Bailey 1990: 215)

(Auto)biographical research

a broad narrative approach that focuses on the analysis and description of social phenomena as they are experienced within the context of individual lives. … It offers a longitudinal portrait of the phenomenon under investigation. (Benson and Nunan, 2005)

Elicitation

Complete this statement

Elicitation refers to …………………..

ElicitationWhich of the following

collection methods could be used for elicitation?

Standardized tests

Classroom observation

Interviews

Classroom tasks

Questionnaires

Stimulated recall

Focus group discussion

Diary keeping

Surveys

Defining elicitation

Elicitation refers to a range of procedures for obtaining speech samples and other data from subjects. Such procedures may range from the administration of standardized tests through to questionnaires and interviews.

(Nunan, 1992: 230)

To what extent does this definition accord with the one that you produced?

Discu

ssion

Which paradigm?

As a data collection device, to which paradigm does elicitation belong – the psychometric or naturalistic?

Elicitation versus observation

1.What are the pros and cons of elicitation as opposed to naturalistic observation?

2.Why might SLA researchers use elicitation rather than observation?

Picture description tasks and SLA

Consider the following elicited language.

R: Look at him, he’s working. …

I: Working in the … er … park

R: And her?

I: And same, change flowers or pot. Fresh one. (Hmm) Or watering. I think so.

R: Yeah. And them?

I: And them working together. (Nunan, 1992: 139)

What grammatical feature is the task trying to elicit? Is it successful?

Analyzing qualitative data

Finding patterns

Meaning condensation

A ‘grounded’ approach

Developing themes