Research in English Language

Teaching
ACHMAD FARID

Our Syllabus
2
Meeting 1
Meeting 2
Meeting 3
Meeting 4
Meeting 5
Meeting 6
Meeting 7
Meeting 8
Meeting 9
Meeting 10
Meeting 11
Meeting 12
Meeting 13
Meeting 14
Meeting 15
Meeting 16

Introduction to Research in ELT

AF & NF
Research Designs AF
Qualitative Research and Quantitative Research AF
Experimental and Classroom Action ResearchNF
Researching Learners Phonetics and Phonology AF
Researching Language Learners Syntax & Morphology AF
Researching Language / Pedagogy 1
NF
Mid-exam: Assignment 1 submission
Researching Language / Pedagogy 2
NF
Formulating Reseach Problem NF
Literature Review NF
Research variables and Hypothesis. NF
Data collection Techniques/Data Instrument NF
Students Presentations AF & NF
Students Presentations AF &f NF
Final Exam: Assignment 2 submission

Class rules
3

You cannot be late for more than 15 minutes

For 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

Today
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What is research?
Situating the Field
Begin to think about research in ELT
How can we conduct research in ELT?

What do you define research?

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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.

Therefore..
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Research in ELT is..

A scientific investigation in the field of English
Language Teaching

English Language Teaching

English Language Teaching

Researching ELT
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Situating the Field

The Education/Pedagogy Side of ELT
v.
The Linguistics/Language Side of ELT

Focus of Research in ELT

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1.

Teaching / Education / Pedagogy / Teaching and

Learning Process

2. Learners Language

The Education/Pedagogy Side of ELT

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Implementation of teaching method

Constructing teaching syllabus/material (Needs

Analysis
The effectiveness of certain activity to teach a skill
Testing whether a particular method can increase
students competence
etc.
aim:
To investigate the teaching-learning processes

The Linguistics/Language Side of ELT

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

phonology
L1 to L2 interference
Phonological interference, syntactic interference
Etc.

aim:
To investigate processes of language development

Examples
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No. The Education/Pedagogy The Linguistics/Language Side

Side of EL

of E

LT

The Implementation of
Spelling Bee in Teaching
English Narrative Texts

The Acquisition of English nonexisting sounds in Indonesian

Designing TOEFL Reading

Teaching Materials for nonEnglish Department
Students

L1 interference in the Acquisition of

Past Tense by L1-Indonesian
Learning English

The Effectiveness of Pairing

Method in Teaching
Speaking

Factors influencing fluency

development

2 main approaches
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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

15

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

Different Types of Research

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quantitative
vs.
qualitative

Quantitative Research
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generally starts with an experimental design

a hypothesis is followed by the quantification of data
some sort of numerical analysis is carried out

(e.g., a study comparing student test results before and

after an instructional treatment).

Qualitative Research
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generally are not set up as experiments

the data cannot be easily quantified (e.g. students

attitude throughout an English class)

the analysis is interpretive rather than statistical.

The Research
Process

What is the aim of

the research?

To
To describe?
describe?
To explore?
To
explore?
To
To explain?
explain?

What approach is
adopted?

Experimental
Experimental research?
research?
Observation?
Observation?
Ethnography?
Ethnography?

What methods are

used?

Interview?
Interview?
Observation?
Observation?
Analysis of
of language
language data?
Analysis
data?

What paradigm
does this reflect?

Qualitative
Qualitative research?
research?
Quantitative research?
Quantitative
research?
Mixed
methods?
Mixed methods?

What other issues

need to be
considered?

Ethics?
Ethics?
Sampling?
Sampling?
Observer's Paradox?
Paradox?
Observer's
Validity?
Validity?

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What is the aim of the research?

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Explore?

Explain?

Describe?

What approach is adopted?

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Experimental?

Observational?

Ethnographic?

What methods are used?

22

Interview?

Observation?

Analysis of
language
data?

What paradigm does this reflect?

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Qualitative?

Quantitative?

Mixed
methods?

Characteristics of Quantitative and Qualitative

Research
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Reichardt & Cook (1979)

Quantitative

Qualitative

Obtrusive, involving controlled

measurement

Naturalistic and controlled

observation

Objective

Subjective

Verification oriented, Confirmatory

Discovery oriented

To test a theory

Might generate a new theory

Outcome-oriented

Process oriented

Reliable, involving "hard" and

replicable data

"Soft" data

Generalizable

Ungeneralizable, single case studies

Assuming a stable reality

Assuming a dynamic reality

Example
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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.

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Example
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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
Krashens 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.

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