SECOND LANGUAGE

CLASSROOM RESEARCH

Andrea Baquero Lesmes

Classroom-centered research can

provide a great deal of useful

information about how foreign

language instruction is actually

carried out in contrast to what

people imagine happens in the

classroom. Long (1983)

1. What are the similarities and differences between the psychometric tradition, naturalistic inquiry and action research?

Psychometric Tradition

Naturalistic Inquiry Action Research

What are they about…?

About measuring psychological properties

such as attitude. It has been also called as Experimental and Quantitative Research.

About analyzing the purposes of teaching and

learning instead of the purposes of investigating

behaviors. It has also known as Qualitative Research.

About changing and improving teaching and

learning . It includes systematic procedures for

collecting data and understanding their meaning

in a local context.

Similarities Psychometric Tradition and Naturalistic Inquiry can be part of the Empirical Research where

research is based on the collection and analysis of data. All of them value students’ view and accomplish the same stages during the Research: Design, Data Collection and Analysis.

Differences It values objectivity.

The data are typically numeric.

It values subjectivity. Its main concern is capturing

qualities and attributes.

It has a more immediate and practical focus. Its results

may contribute to emerging theory and understanding

phenomena.

2. Identify a research question that would be most appropriately studied in the psychometric tradition and one that would be best

investigated using naturalistic inquiry.

• Psychometric Tradition:

How much do results in the English class improve when students use a text book?

• Naturalistic Inquiry:

Should teachers create their own students book if their school does not have enough resources?

Would it help to improve students learning process?

3. Identify and discuss 3 – 5 key issues that you’d like to see addressed by classroom researchers or that you yourself would

like to investigate in your classroom.

• Is the “lack of resources” in public schools an excuse for teachers not to propose new strategies in order to facilitate learning?

• Should parents have also access to English Language Training in order to support their children at home?

• Many teachers complain about the few hours to work in English at school, how to extend this time by taking advantage of students interest in the use of technology?

• How effective would be to work collaboratively with other subjects and teachers to create a bilingual environment at school?

4. What is your view about objectivity and subjectivity in research? Can you see a place for subjective data and

interpretations or should all research be objective in nature?

In the real daily life, human beings are exposed all the time to decision making and before doing it, we are evaluating pros and

cons and we face an internal fight between what we must do (objective) and what we want to do (subjective), but finally, what comes to be the best option for any field, is to find a

balance between both and always have in mind that the core principle must be to have a clear goal in everything we say and

do, to establish specific parameters and being coherent.

When we talk about Research, many people could say that Objectivity fits more, but we, teachers, understand that our

research processes are aiming in a 100% the benefit and success of our students and that includes to act regarding their

needs, interests, motives, attitudes, personalities because when it is about humans, we cannot be simply objective.

REFERENCES

• Nunan, D. & Bailey, K. (2008) Exploring Second Language Classroom Research. Boston, Heinle/Cengage