Prototypical research

[Richard]

If you had to choose a single article as a model for how to conduct and report applied linguistics research, what article would you choose and why?

[stevelouw]

Tough question. I'm assuming that it's most likely inappropriate to simply point to one of my own studies.

I think the decision to choose an article needs to be based on a series of principles: a study that demonstrates a (at least one) purpose of Applied Linguistics research. This in itself is difficult because AL is so broad in its scope. I'm interested in language learning and teaching, but AL studies also include analyses of power relationships, and such esoteric investigations as the use of 'r' in 'fourth floor' in New York shopping centers to show social status. For each of these different purposes, the methods and approaches for conducting a study differ. However, one fairly consistent element is the collection of data from participants who are actually using the language. So classroom studies that collect data from classrooms, or power studies which collect newspaper reports which marginalize a particular group, or recordings of people saying 'fourth floor' in New York shopping centers are going to be useful examples of AL research.

I think if I can choose just one, I'll go for Fiona Copland's study on face in feedback conferences. It covers aspect of face and politeness, and power between trainers and trainees in a language teacher training context. It even discusses a communicative purpose of laughter. The perfect example of an AL study.

https://publications.aston.ac.uk/id/epr ... isions.pdf

[Amme Bantawan]

I would choose the field of professional development. The topic is Positive feedback in the English language classroom by Claire Fielder.
Since I am also interested in classroom discouse to see how the teacher and student interaction. There are other reasons why I chose this study;
the objective of this observation study is to observe the verbal(positive and negative) and nonverbal communition namely shaking head, smiling, sad face, nodding, shaking head, raising eyebrowns. The instrument uses Flander’s Interaction Analysis Category System (FIACS) in order to encode and decode a pattern of interaction between the communicator and the receiver. In data collection, the researcher use observation sheet, follow up email and post observation discussion. For the analysis of the data, the feedback types and frequencies discussed in the pyschological awarness aspects and impacts of the feedback together with the statistical analysis and hypotheses. In professional development area, I would rather futhur this work in reinforcement topic as the teacher interaction usually impacts to students'learning by giving instruction, asking question, lecturing. We could see the effective and meaningful interation through the observation study like this one.

[Jatupon P.]

If I had to choose an article as a model, I would choose ‘The interplay of complexity and subjectivity in opinionated discourse’. My reason is simply that this article involves the area of my interest (discourse analysis) and includes important characteristics of AL. Namely, this article is linguistics-focused, as it explore linguistic complexity and subjectivity. Second, the employed theoretical framework shows the link between linguistic constrcutions in online news comments and the concept of discourse, which is also another discipline in AL. The results suggests how linguistic complexity and subjectivity can be a powerful guideline (e.g. how to express stance) for writing online news comments. This thus gives the 'Applied' value of how the linguistic knowledge drawn from this study can contribute to people who are involved in journalistic society.

[donpar]

I would choose the research done by Kress et.al. 'English in Urban Classrooms'. This work is quite similar to what I am doing with my dissertation. They studied how English is taught and learned in the classroom by using meaning-making resources that are available. Though the scope is wide, I consider this as an ideal approach to study multimodality.

[Richard]

I would choose the field of professional development as an EFL teacher and researcher.
The title of the article is Mentoring with(in) care-A co-constructed autoethnography of mutual learning.
The reasons are: 1) this is a closely-related reference paper I read for an ongoing research I am doing at this moment; 2) I truly want to review and envision how I can be developed better in my professional career.

[justthedave]

Horwitz, E., Horwitz, M., & Cope, J. (1986). Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety. The Modern Language Journal, 70(2), 125-132. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/327317

I am looking at the lasting detrimental effects of Foreign Language Anxiety on a learner’s acquisition and production of a foreign or second language. I am also looking at the variations of FLA with respect to culture and language proficiency.

Where better to base the definition that the seminal paper of Foreign Language Anxiety.

[Hari]

I would choose an article by Katarzyna Hryniuk (2015) entitled Linguistics research articles written in English: comparing native English speakers and Polish writers. Her research paper addressing the issue of the difference of writing styles of Polish and Anglo American scholars. This paper interest me and I believe it would help me to do my own study on the writing style of Indonesian scholars in writing research articles.