Patricia A. Duff

Narrative Research in TESOL: Narrative Inquiry: More Than Just Telling Stories

TESOL Quarterly publishes brief commentaries on aspects of qualitative and quantitative research. For this issue, we asked two researchers to discuss narrative research in TESOL.

Language Socialization into Academic Discourse Communities

Although much has been written about academic discourse from diverse theoretical perspectives over the past two decades, and especially about English academic discourse, research on socialization into academic discourse or literacies in ones first or subsequently learned languages or into new discourse communities has received far less attention. Academic discourse socialization is a dynamic, socially situated process that in contemporary contexts is often multimodal, multilingual, and highly intertextual as well. The process is characterized by variable amounts of modeling, feedback, and uptake; different levels of investment and agency on the part of learners; by the negotiation of power and identities; and, often, important personal transformations for at least some participants. However, the consequences and outcomes of academic discourse socialization are also quite unpredictable, both in the shorter term and longer term. In this review I provide a brief historical overview of research on language socialization into academic communities and describe, in turn, developments in research on socialization into oral, written, and online discourse and the social practices associated with each mode. I highlight issues of conformity or reproduction to local norms and practices versus resistance and contestation of these. Next, studies of socialization into academic publication and into particular textual identities are reviewed. I conclude with a short discussion of race, culture, gender, and academic discourse socialization, pointing out how social positioning by oneself and others can affect participants’ engagement and performance in their various learning communities.

An Ethnography of Communication in Immersion Classrooms in Hungary

This study investigates the interface of recent macro- and microlevel changes in Hungary by examining transformations in educational discourse in the context of history lessons at secondary schools with English immersion (dual-language, or DL) programs. The macrolevel changes are linked to sociopolitical transformations in the late 1980s and the rejection of Soviet-oriented policies and the discourse of authoritarianism. Parallel microlevel changes have also surfaced in the innovative English-medium sections of some experimental DL schools. These changes have come about with the breakdown of a traditional, very demanding genre of oral assessment known as the feleles (recitation) and its replacement by short student lectures and other, more open-ended discussion activities. This ethnographic study explores the discursive constitution of English-medium classrooms and the socialization of students attending one progressive Eastern European secondary school into the use of a foreign language to discuss historical material. The research provides a contextualized analysis of classroom discourse practices by examining some of the sociocultural, linguistic, and academic knowledge structures that are integral to and instilled within one curricular area and school system in the wake of political and educational reform.

Some Guidelines for Conducting Quantitative and Qualitative Research in TESOL

0 Research practices evolve as new issues and questions emerge and as new methods and tools are developed to address them. In view of the changing landscape of research in the TESOL profession, TESOL Quarterlys Editorial Advisory Board regularly reexamines the guidelines for research provided for contributors to keep the guidelines up-to-date and reflective of the agreed-on conventions for undertaking and reporting research. Since 1992 TESOL Quarterly has included guidelines for statistical research at the back of each issue to guide the growing number of contributors conducting such research. In 1994, the increase in qualitative studies submitted to TESOL Quarterly prompted the Editorial Advisory Board to include a set of qualitative research guidelines for contributors as well.

Transnationalism, Multilingualism, and Identity

ABSTRACT Applied linguistics is a field concerned with issues pertaining to language(s) and literacies in the real world and with the people who learn, speak, write, process, translate, test, teach, use, and lose them in myriad ways. It is also fundamentally concerned with transnationalism, mobility, and multilingualism—the movement across cultural, linguistic, and (often) geopolitical or regional borders and boundaries. The field is, furthermore, increasingly concerned with identity construction and expression through particular language and literacy practices across the life span, at home, in diaspora settings, in short-term and long-term sojourns abroad for study or work, and in other contexts and circumstances. In this article, I discuss some recent areas in which applied linguists have investigated the intersections of language (multilingualism), identity, and transnationalism. I then present illustrative studies and some recurring themes and issues.

Case Study Research on Language Learning and Use

Case study research has played a very important role in applied linguistics since the field was established, particularly in studies of language teaching, learning, and use. The case in such studies generally has been a person (e.g., a teacher, learner, speaker, writer, or interlocutor) or a small number of individuals on their own or in a group (e.g., a family, a class, a work team, or a community of practice). The cases are normally studied in depth in order to provide an understanding of individuals’ experiences, issues, insights, developmental pathways, or performance within a particular linguistic, social, or educational context. Rather than discuss constructs, hypotheses, and findings in terms of statistical patterns or trends derived from a larger sample or survey of a population of language learners, as in some quantitative research, a qualitative case study of a person presents a contextualized human profile. Case study has contributed substantially to theory development, generating new perspectives or offering a refutation or refinement of earlier theories in applied linguistics by analyzing linguistic, cultural, and social phenomena associated with children, adolescents, young adults, and older adults. In recent years, the purview of case studies in applied linguistics has expanded to include many previously underrepresented topics, linguistic situations, theoretical perspectives, and populations. This article provides an overview of some traditional areas of coverage and then newer foci in terms of methodology, thematic areas, and findings pertaining to language learners in transnational, multilingual, and diaspora contexts especially.

Qualitative Approaches to Classroom Research with English Language Learners

This chapter provides an overview of recent qualitative research in classrooms examining English language learners (ELLs). I first present common features of qualitative research and review debates regarding research paradigms in the social sciences and humanities. I also discuss the role of triangulation and capturing participants’ insider or emic perspectives in qualitative research and highlight various data collection methods and ways of combining macrolevel and microlevel analyses, particularly in ethnographic research. Ethical issues, difficulties obtaining informed consent in classroom research, and criteria for evaluating qualitative research are then considered. Three qualitative studies that have been deemed exemplary and meritorious by scholars in English language education are then presented, and some common themes in current qualitative classroom research with ELLs are identified. The chapter concludes with some directions for future qualitative research.

Research Guidelines in TESOL: Alternative Perspectives

TESOL Quarterly publishes brief commentaries on aspects of qualitative and quantitative research. For this issue, three researchers were asked to respond to “Some Guidelines for Conducting Quantitative and Qualitative Research in TESOL,” published in TESOL Quarterly (2003, vol. 37, pp. 157–178). The guidelines are also available on the TESOL Web site at http:www.tesol.orgs_tesolseccss.aspCID476&DID2150. Though not comprehensive, the guidelines address methods for quantitative research and three types of qualitative research: case study, conversation analysis, and (critical) ethnography.

Syntax, Semantics, and SLA

This paper examines the intersection of syntax and semantics in second language acquisition (SLA), a perspective on language learning that has received relatively little attention in the past, in ordertoanswer the following question: Why do English-as-a-second-language (ESL) learners tend to use the same morpheme (e.g., HAVE) for Possessives (P) and Existentials (E), when English has separate forms (HAVE, THERE BE) for these two functions? Working within a functionalist framework, data are analyzed from the longitudinal case study of a Cambodian adult who, despite formal ESL instruction and residence in an English-speaking community, persistently uses the form has for both P and E. Although first language transfer can be invoked as a partial explanation forthis, it alone cannot account for the systematic conflation of P and E in interlanguage. Rather, it is argued that the shared semanticproperties of P/E, together with syntactic, pragmatic, and perceptual characteristics of native language, interlanguage, and second language constructions, make this overlap imminently transferable, especially in untutored or low-level instructed SLA.

Innovations in foreign language education: An evaluation of three Hungarian‐English dual‐language schools

Abstract This paper presents the results of the first year of an ongoing evaluation of Hungarian‐English dual‐language programmes in Hungary. The results of pre‐ and post‐test measures of foreign language proficiency are presented for students in three secondary schools in different areas of the country. In addition, parents’ and students’ attitudes and motivation regarding participation in the programmes are discussed, based on questionnaire results. Finally, problems encountered in the implementation of the immersion model in Hungary are discussed and recommendations are made.