Qualitative Inquiry in TESOL

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Qualitative Inquiry in TESOL

Keith RichardsDirector, Language Studies UnitAston University, Birmingham

© Keith Richards 2003

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Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

Richards, Keith, 1952–Qualitative inquiry in TESOL/Keith Richards.

p. cm. Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index.

1. English language—Study and teaching—Foreign speakers. I. Title.

PE1128.A2R487 2003428′.0071—dc21

2003040548

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 12 11 10 09 08 07 06 05 04 03

ISBN 978-1-4039-0135-4 ISBN 978-0-230-50505-6 (eBook)DOI 10.1057/9780230505056

Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2003 978-1-4039-0134-7

For Marie with love

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vii

Contents

List of Boxes, Extracts, Figures and Tables xiiList of Tasks and Study Strategies xvi Acknowledgements xvii Introduction xix

Research and Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) xix

Structure xxiApproach xxiiThree points of orientation xxivA note on personal pronouns and terminology used xxivAn outline of topics, chapters and levels xxv

1 The Nature of Qualitative Inquiry 1

Preview 1Level 1 The Inquiring Mind 2

What is research? 2Qualitative research 6

Level 2 Working within a Tradition 12Seven core traditions 13Ethnography 14Grounded theory 16Phenomenology 18Case study 20Life history 22Action research 24Conversation analysis 26Conclusion 28

Level 3 Paradigmatic Choices 28Getting below the surface 29Paradigms 32Ontology and epistemology 33Qualitative paradigms 36Different plots 40

Reading Guide 41

viii Contents

2 Interviewing 47

Preview 47Level 1 Learning How to Listen 48

Introduction 48The qualitative interview 50Interview types 51Interview techniques 53Evaluating the interview 58Conclusion 61Case 2.1: the missing dimension 62

Level 2 Issues of Structure 64Structure or straitjacket? 64Setting up and conducting the interview 65Developing an interview guide 69Elicitation techniques 71Conclusion 74Case 2.2: well if you’d told me it was an interview . . . 74

Level 3 Aspects of Analysis 79Interviews and representation 79Analysis in talk 80Analysis of talk: transcription 81Analysis of talk: technique 84Analysis of talk: relationships and accounts 86Outcomes of talk: analysis and interpretation 90Case 2.3: you can tell me . . . (I’m a researcher) 93

Skills Development 97Reading Guide 101

3 Observation 104

Preview 104Level 1 Learning to See 105

Access and ethics 107Just looking 109A sense of place 111The inhabitants 113Note taking 115Case 3.1: whose topic? 117

Level 2 Participant Observation 119Access and entry 120A structure for observations 129

Contents ix

Strategies for observing 133Note taking 135Ethics 139Conclusion 141Case 3.2: adequate description 141

Level 3 Structured Observation 144The hidden dangers of closed observation 145Standard observation schedules 149Deciding whether to use structured observation 150Working up a schedule 150Some practical problems 156Calculating inter-observer agreement 157Case 3.3: describing activities 160

Skills Development 166Reading Guide 169

4 Collecting and Analysing Spoken Interaction 172

Preview 172Level 1 Getting Started 174

How to make successful recordings 175Listening to find a focus 180Basic transcription 181An introduction to analysis 184Case 4.1: giving instructions 188

Level 2 Developing an Analysis 191Approaches to analysis 191Dealing with sequences 192Looking for patterns 195Producing an adequate transcription 198Case 4.2: questions and answers 205

Level 3 Different Approaches to Analysis 208Introduction 208Case 4.3: introducing a complaint 209Conversation analysis 212Interactional sociolinguistics 213Critical discourse analysis 216The discourse palette 220

Transcription Conventions 224Skills Development 224Reading Guide 227

x Contents

5 Planning a Project 231

Preview 231Level 1 The Personal Project 232

Reflecting on practice 232Formulating a question 233Deciding on a response 235Making a plan 235Making it happen 236An action research project 236

Level 2 Resources for Project Planning 239Fixing a topic 239From research topic to research question 242Dealing with the literature: getting to know

a tradition 245Design issues 249Forms of writing 251

Level 3 Wider Engagement 255Responding to complexity 255Participatory dimensions 256Providing leadership 258Connecting with theory 259

Reading Guide 260

6 Analysis and Representation 263

Preview 263Level 1 Discovery 264

What counts as evidence? 264General and particular 265Resonance 265Going public 266Evaluating contributions 267

Level 2 Analysis 268Data and analysis 268Categorisation and coding 273Techniques for seeing and representing 277Building a picture 279Assessing claims 282

Level 3 Interpretation 284Reliability and validity 284

Contents xi

Developing the model 285Alternative formulations 286Validity checks 287Generalisability 287Connecting with theory 290Writing and representation 291Judging qualitative inquiry 292

Reading Guide 295

Epilogue Qualitative Inquiry and Teaching 297Recognition of complexity 297Respect for difference 298

References 301Index 317

xii

List of Boxes, Extracts, Figures and Tables

Boxes

1.1 Characteristics of qualitative inquiry 10 1.2 Research terms used in this book 12 1.3 Some qualitative research traditions 13 1.4 A misconceived project 29 1.5 Two positions 36 1.6 Examples of paradigm divisions 37 2.1 Developing interviewing skills 52 2.2 Interview responses: some do’s and don’t’s 54 2.3 Interview question types 57 2.4 A summary of interview prompts 58 2.5 A guide to interview evaluation 59 2.6 Checklist for setting up a formal interview 68 2.7 Interview questions (1): research → interview 70 2.8 Interview questions (2): general → specific 72 2.9 Interview questions (3): direct → oblique 73 2.10 Basic transcription features for interviews 81 2.11 Four essential maxims for interview transcription 83 2.12 An approach to establishing an analytical perspective 90 2.13 Data dominance 92 3.1 Deciding on permission for observing (semi-)

private places 1093.2 Summary: steps in building a description 115 3.3 An order of preference for note taking 116 3.4 Stages in fieldwork 120 3.5 Access and relationships: some considerations 129 3.6 Key features for observation 130 3.7 Different forms of fieldnotes 138 3.8 Approaches to writing up fieldnotes 139 3.9 Perceptions of teacher role in observational studies 146 3.10 Participant and structured observation 148 3.11 FIAC 149 3.12 Practical considerations in approaching

structured observation 151 3.13 Options in structured observation systems 152

List of Boxes, Extracts, Figures and Tables xiii

3.14 Essential characteristics of an effective category system 156 4.1 A note on transcription conventions 173 4.2 Summary: recording devices 176 4.3 Things that can go wrong 179 4.4 A procedure for recording your own teaching 180 4.5 Developing an analysis (A) 192 4.6 Developing an analysis (B) 195 4.7 Pointers to analysis 206 4.8 Key tenets of interactional sociolinguistics 215 4.9 Key tenets of critical discourse analysis 217 4.10 Interactional traditions: fundamental points of agreement 221 5.1 A technique for exploring your own teaching 234 5.2 Five tips for getting the best out of the inquiry process 236 5.3 The Action Research cycle interpreted 237 5.4 Choosing the topic 240 5.5 Making connections 242 5.6 Dangers to avoid 243 5.7 Probing the topic 244 5.8 Some searching techniques 247 5.9 Example of notes on literature 248 5.10 Some useful sampling strategies 250 5.11 Contributions of different data collection methods 251 5.12 Forms of writing at the planning stage 2525.13 A PhD research proposal 252 6.1 Questions to ask about the research process 264 6.2 Essential qualities of qualitative analysis 269 6.3 Aspects of analysis 272 6.4 An example of initial detailed coding 273 6.5 Two approaches to working the data 278 6.6 Example of notes on transcripts 278 6.7 Some features of the written account 281 6.8 Three key validity checks 287 6.9 Idiographic and nomothetic 288 6.10 Proposed generalisation types for QI 288 6.11 Before thinking about generalising 289 6.12 Some areas of weakness in draft papers 294

Extracts

1.1 ‘Experiment’ (1) 7 1.2 ‘Experiment’ (2) 7

xiv List of Boxes, Extracts, Figures and Tables

2.1 Careful where you breathe 49 2.2 What’s your morning routine? 55 2.3 A personal experience? (A) 60 2.4 A personal experience? (B) 60 2.5 Fundamental beliefs 63 2.6 A placement interview 75 2.7 Format for interview transcript 82 2.8 Comments on interviewer’s turns 86 2.9 Part of an interview 94 3.1 A lesson 107 3.2 A published version 117 3.3 Narita Airport 10:00 21/2/02 118 3.4 The Pen School 1: next door via Mexico 121 3.5 The Pen School 2: first meetings 122 3.6 The Pen School 3: ground rules 123 3.7 The Pen School 4: a shift of perspective 127 3.8 The Pen School 5: representing the

researcher 129 3.9 The Pen School 142 3.10 The Centre 142 3.11 The meeting room 143 3.12 Four minutes of coding on a 10-category

system 153 3.13 Example of non-rating system (interval

sampling) 154 3.14 Example of rating system (event sampling) 154 3.15 A confusion matrix 158 3.16 Sample codings 159 3.17 Mistaken assumptions 161 3.18 Observation sheet 162 3.19 My email in response to Extract 3.18 163 4.1 Question and answer 186 4.2 Giving instructions (1) 189 4.3 Giving instructions (2) 190 4.4 Arrival 1934.5 Transcription A 200 4.6 Transcription B 200 4.7 Two transcripts of the same talk 203 4.8 The same or not the same? 206 4.9 The complaint 210 5.1 Summary of an action research project 238

List of Boxes, Extracts, Figures and Tables xv

Figures

3.1 Contribution of an observation schedule 150 5.1 A focusing circle 234 5.2 Orienting your research topic 246 6.1 Aspects of analysis 271 6.2 Essential features of an adequate category 276 6.3 Bringing together different data sources 280 6.4 An approach to disconfirming evidence 283

Tables

5.1 An overview of the levels presented in Chapter 5 232 6.1 An overview of the levels presented in Chapter 6 263

xvi

List of Tasks and Study Strategies

Tasks

2.1 Opening up a topic 98 2.2 Designing interview questions 99 2.3 Refining technique 100 4.1 Comparing 224 4.2 Transcribing 225 4.3 Analysing 226

Study strategies

1.1 Compare and contrast 42 1.2 Reading around a subject 45 1.3 A hierarchical approach to reading 46 2.1 The importance of interview practice 102 2.2 Examining your research tradition 1033.1 Possible categories for observation tasks 167 3.2 Some simple observation rules 169 3.3 Getting to know fieldwork 170 3.4 Structured observation 171

xvii

Acknowledgements

This book arose from my work with postgraduate students on AstonUniversity’s MSc in TESOL/TESP and PhD programmes and I should liketo extend my thanks to them for all their enthusiasm, encouragementand insights. Over the years I have enjoyed rediscovering through theirwork the wonders that qualitative inquiry can reveal. I should also liketo express a particular thank you to the British Council team in Mexicoand to teachers and teacher trainers in universities there. Their enthusi-asm for research and their positive response to my talks and workshopsover the years contributed significantly to my decision to write thisbook. My particular gratitude extends to those novice researchers in allof the above groups who have kindly allowed me to include examplesfrom their work in the text, where they are acknowledged by name.

It would be impossible to summarise here the many ways in whichmy colleagues in the Language Studies Unit have helped me over theyears, but I would like to thank them here for all their help, support andencouragement. They are a wonderful team. Particular thanks must goto Heather Phillips for bailing me out on numerous occasions and toSue Garton for her helpful comments on Chapter 2. Outside the Unit,I’d like to thank my boss, Anne Stevens, for her unstinting support andLourdes Ortega for valuable comments on my original ideas for thebook.

More than anything else, though, I am grateful to my friends andcolleagues Julian Edge and Steve Mann, who read the manuscript andmade detailed and illuminating comments on every section. After a hardspell of writing, it was hugely refreshing to take advantage of theirgenerosity in order to share time with them and see my work in newways. Any remaining errors are, of course, my own, but the book hasbenefited immensely from their wisdom and insight – as have I, in somany ways.

Finally, my thanks and love to Francesca and Louisa for remindingme every single day why it is worth trying to understand.

KEITH RICHARDS

Stratford upon Avon

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xix

Introduction

Research and Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL)

I have been accused – unfairly I think – of being a researcher. It was aSaturday afternoon at the end of the second conference in the TeachersDevelop Teachers Research series and participants had gathered toreflect on the events of the previous couple of days in the context of therelationship between teaching, research and professional development.I forget what I said now, or even if I was the person who sparked theresponse, but one of the participants laid down a very blunt challengeto the legitimacy of any claims made by those of us who worked inuniversities. ‘You’, she said, ‘are not teachers, you’re researchers’. At thetime I think I embarked – in fact, all the ‘researchers’ embarked – on ahuge salvage operation based on administering massive and repeateddoses of Understanding. But since then I’ve had time to think.

My instinctive response was that the accusation was unfair, partlybecause I thought of myself as primarily a teacher, albeit no longer ofESOL, and partly because I could think of plenty of people who weremuch more deserving of the charge, people who had spent the best partof their days researching and writing. At a deeper level, though, it seemedto me that the accusation arose from an assumption that teaching andresearch are mutually exclusive, when for me they seem naturally to gotogether. That’s what I tried to articulate at the time. From where I standnow, though, the relationship seems more complicated.

The complications have arisen from a tension that seems to havedeveloped between the perceived value of research in TESOL and theways in which this is used. The integration of research into teachereducation programmes at all levels is an encouraging endorsement ofthe extent to which teaching is an exploratory activity, drawingstrength from an understanding of the educational and social world itinhabits. The growing recognition that qualitative inquiry (QI) has animportant part to play in deepening that understanding as part of abroader research agenda is also very encouraging. However, the ways inwhich QI has been embraced give cause for concern in at least tworespects.

xx Introduction

The first of these, and the one addressed directly by this book, is thequality of the research that is produced. There is a common misconcep-tion that QI is soft, that it can make do with a few interviews andperhaps a dash of transcribed talk, which can then be worked up intoan attractively speculative piece nodding vaguely in the direction of‘ethnography’. I exaggerate – but only slightly. It would be easy enoughto trace the sources of this misconception in TESOL, but it’s much moreimportant to respond to it. This book, which represents my contributionto that response, is based on the belief that QI is essentially a craft andthat fundamental to it is the development of appropriate skills, somethingthat appears to have been badly, though not universally, neglected inTESOL to date. The next section describes how the structure of the bookis designed to develop these important skills at all levels.

The second problem is not one that this book can address directly,though it might have a small contribution to make. There seems to be agrowing feeling among some teachers that they’re expected to beresearchers as well as teachers – as if TESOL wasn’t demanding enough.Comfortable assumptions about the value of teacher research andreflective practice translate for them into unreasonable demands ontheir already pressurised time. To respond by pointing out that researchis rarely obligatory is to miss the point: explicit coercion may be rare,but the luxury of refusal is expensive if career development depends onevidence of research activity.

The only evidence we have of where such demands might lead interms of career satisfaction are disturbing:

Teachers who steered clear of reforms or other multiple-classroominnovations, but who invested consistently in classroom-level experi-ments – what they called ‘tinkering’ with new materials, differentpupil grouping, small changes in grading systems – were more likelyto be satisfied later on in their career than most others, and far morelikely to be satisfied than their peers who had been heavily involvedin school-wide or district-wide projects. (Huberman 1992:131)

This suggests that as a profession we need to work towards a propersense of perspective, something that lies beyond the scope of this book.But it also indicates that small-scale research can be career-enhancing,which is where the book can help because it is founded on the assump-tion that, provided it is done well, small-scale individual research isevery bit as respectable as large funded projects and that therefore alllevels of research must be treated equally seriously. If you are a novice

Introduction xxi

researcher and decide to limit yourself to the Level 1 elements in thisbook, you will develop skills that will enable you to better understandyour professional world and to ‘tinker’ more effectively in your class-rooms. You will also come to see how this can be naturally integratedinto your development as a teacher. TESOL attracts all sorts of peoplefor all sorts of reasons, but as initial motivations fall away the sustainingforce for most who remain is the desire to make a difference. This is whereQI finds itself able to make its most natural and important contribution.

Structure

What is unusual about this book is its focus on the development ofresearch skills at three different levels. These correspond roughly to nov-ice, intermediate and advanced levels and might be very roughly mappedonto a typical suite of teacher education and research programmes asfollows:

• Level 1: Introductory to Intermediate: Certificate and Diploma; • Level 2: Intermediate to Advanced: Masters and Doctoral; • Level 3: Advanced: Doctoral and Post-Doctoral.

However, because the subject of the book is research skills, such mappingis fairly arbitrary; for example, someone beginning an introductoryteacher preparation programme may already have research experiencegained from their undergraduate or postgraduate studies, but it may bethat this experience relates to only one method of data collection. Thebook is therefore designed so that each element at each level will standalone while also linking naturally to each other level. This means, forexample, that one reader might decide to work through the book at theintroductory level, returning to it later to tackle more advanced levels;another might decide to concentrate on one method at a time, workingthrough the levels; while a third might design an individual route throughthe book based on personal needs.

However, these decisions are best made after reading through thebook as a whole because what counts as difficult will be determined byour natural strengths and weaknesses as much as by our experience andfamiliarity. In addition, some research techniques are much moredemanding than their simple description might suggest, while others callfor rather detailed elaboration but are straightforward once mastered.My decisions as a writer, therefore, have not always been straightforward.For example, I originally placed structured observation at Level 2 butdecided to move it to the highest level because of the technical nature

xxii Introduction

of its content, though some researchers might argue that this mistakenlygives the impression that it is more demanding than other forms ofobservation.

To facilitate ease of access, the book is structured on the basis of threeparts:

• Part I: orients the reader to the subject of the book; • Part II: focuses on data collection; • Part III: deals with the practicalities of the research project.

In addition, each chapter begins with a preview and ends with a readingguide to facilitate further study and development. In Part II, all levelsinclude a case study and each chapter also has a skills development sec-tion. An outline of parts, chapters and levels can be found at the end ofthis introduction.

To my knowledge, all introductions to qualitative research addressissues of design at an early stage and certainly before they deal with thepracticalities of data collection. This is understandable and perfectlydefensible in terms of the chronology of a research project, but in peda-gogic terms I think it gets things the wrong way round. If you start byplanning a project before you’ve developed appropriate data collectionskills, it’s hard to get a proper perspective on just what’s involved, andthe drive to complete the project encourages a utilitarian standpointthat can all too easily lead to an unbalanced and insufficiently rigorousapproach to skills development. Working on skills does not preclude anelement of project planning, but settling down to serious planningneeds to be informed by experience. For this reason, having shown whatresearch involves in Part I, the book then moves on to data collectionskills, returning to project planning and execution only at the end.

Approach

The approach in this book arises from my own experience of doing andteaching QI, and my belief that QI is a craft that has to be learnedthrough guided practice and exposure to good models. This positioncan be represented in three core statements: skills matter, understandingresearch takes time, and exposure to research is essential.

Skills matter

Craft skills can be developed only through practice and the book isdesigned with this in mind. However, such skills are not reducible toa collection of recipes or developed through the completion of tasks

Introduction xxiii

without a necessary understanding of what lies behind them, so theapproach needs to reflect this. My aim has therefore been to rely onexplanation supported by integrated tasks where necessary. It is perfectlypossible to read the text without responding to the (relatively few)invitations embedded within it, but this would assume understandingwithout testing it.

The heart of the book, where these tasks are particularly important, isto be found in the three central chapters which cover the core datacollection methods: observation, interviews, and the analysis of spokeninteraction. The ‘application’ chapters in Part III are approachedslightly differently, being advisory in nature and based around a collec-tion of key resources that can be drawn on for the purposes of planningand exploitation.

Understanding takes time

In my experience, the most dangerous trap lying in wait for noviceresearchers is baited with categories. The temptation to assign categoriesand count them seems to be almost irresistible to some, but superficialdescription is no substitute for hard-won understanding. I have thereforeheld categorisation back until the benefits of immersion in the data andattention to detail have been demonstrated. This means that all work atLevel 1 in Part II is based on learning to look hard and look deep, sothat when categories are introduced the value of these in the broadercontext of QI will be appreciated and they will be used properly andappropriately. And because the most demanding aspect of QI is learningto live with the richness of its possibilities, higher levels aim to developgreater sensitivity to the options available.

Exposure to research is essential

As someone who is trying to pass on skills they have learnt, I feel that itis essential to use my own work for the purposes of illustration. I havetherefore deliberately included, with very few exceptions, original andpreviously unpublished data in order to expose more clearly the processof analysis, so that the reader can orient to me as a fellow researcher andcompare my efforts with their own (all extracts are from my own dataunless otherwise specified). In keeping with the pedagogic orientationappropriate to the passing on of craft skills, the book is therefore a(research) product in creation. This is certainly not to say that the smallextracts here should stand as models: for these the reader must follow mydirections to research and researchers whose outstanding contributionto the field repays close study.

xxiv Introduction

Three points of orientation

Rather than attempt to articulate a personal philosophy of qualitativeinquiry, I offer three quotations that triangulate my standpoint in thefield of QI:

There is no part of the social world that will remain boring after theapplication of a little curiosity. (Rock 2001:32)

Research is in large part a craft skill, learned through personal experi-ence of doing research and from an appreciation of what is good inother people’s research studies. (Seale 1999:31)

Serious reflection on the nature and purpose of interpretive inquiryraises questions of our being; it requires each of us to come to termswith a union of moral and cognitive concerns in our own and others’lived experience. (Schwandt 1996:84)

What follows should enable you to assess this stance from a position ofyour own choosing.

A note on personal pronouns and terminology used

Qualitative inquirers must learn to live with the unresolved, so althoughI have strong feelings on the need to avoid gendered pronouns, I findthe continuing debate on alternative forms fascinating rather thanirritating. I’ve opted here to use ‘they’, ‘their’ and ‘themself’ in prefer-ence to ‘he or she’, ‘his or her’ and ‘himself or herself’ and hope thatnot too many readers will choke over their cornflakes or add exclama-tion marks in the margin. I’ve also decided to restrict the use of sic tocases where it is necessary to confirm accuracy in quotation, whichmeans that where gendered pronouns appear in quotations they remainunmarked.

In line with the book’s title, I use (T)ESOL throughout but take this toembrace a whole range of alternative acronyms (for example, TEFL, ESL,ELT, ESP), not all of them coterminous. In research terms, I see no prob-lem with this, or with extending what I have to say here to the field ofeducation generally. Much of what I have to say applies to this widerfield and often to QI in general, but TESOL has been my guiding referencethroughout.

Introduction xxv

An outline of topics, chapters and levels

Parts Chapters Level 1 Level 2 Level 3

I Orientation 1 The nature of qualitative inquiry

The inquiring mind

Working within a tradition

Paradigmatic choices

II Investigation 2 Interviewing Learning how to listen

Issues of structure

Aspects of analysis

3 Observation Learning to see

Participant observation

Structured observation

4 Collecting and analysingspoken interaction

Getting started

Developingan analysis

Different approaches to analysis

III Application 5 Planning a project

The personal project

Resources for project planning

Wider engagement

6 Analysis and representation

Discovery Analysis Interpretation

Epilogue Qualitative inquiry and teaching