The Course Aims to Refresh and Mostly Deepen MA Students Expertise in the Field of Language

BTAN4003MA Research Methods in Applied Linguistics

Instructors: Judit Kiss-Gulyás,Ildikó Csépes, Gyula Dávid, Katalin Mónos, Gyula Sankó

Course type: team taught seminar

Year of training: I and II (MA in English Studies, AppLing track)

Time:Thursday, 12.00-13.40

Venue:Göcs building, Room 201

Office hours: see individual instructor s

E-mail address: , or see individual instructors

The course is aimed at familiarizing students with the main principles of research design (external and internal validity, types of variables, controlling extraneous variables) and data analysis methods used in different areas of applied linguistics. Participants will discuss a selection of papers from different fields of applied linguistics in order to gain insights into how various issues can be studied systematically by using various research methods and tools. Discussion and implications of research findings as well as the format of the research report will also be considered in relation to the selected research papers.

In order to highlight various options in data analysis, basic statistics will be introduced such as calculating descriptive statistics (mean, mode, median, measures of variability), comparing means and frequencies, correlations.

Course assessment will be based on one major written assignment (a detailed research proposal), other smaller written assignments and participation in the seminars.

Course Outline

Weeks / Topics / Readings
Week 1 / Introduction Types of research, research design (Judit Kiss-Gulyás)
Week 2 / Contextualization, of research, components and stages of research (Judit Kiss-Gulyás) / Larsen-Freeman, D. & Long, M. (1991) pp. 10-51.
Week 3 / Basic concepts: internal and external validity, different research designs (intact group, one-shot design, one-group pretest-posttest design, time-series design, experimental study, etc.) (Ildikó Csépes) / Hatch, E., & Lazaraton, A.
(1991). pp. 33-40, 41-44, 51-67, 84-101
Week 4 / Describing and analyzing data. Frequency data, interval and ordinal values (measures of central tendency & measures of variability), choices in data analysis (parametric and non-parametric procedures: e.g. for comparing 2 or three or more groups, correlation)
(Ildikó Csépes) / Hatch, E., & Lazaraton, A. (1991).
pp. 250-253, 274-277, 312-330, 332-336, 425-454
Week 5 / Questionnaires: Construction, Administration, and Processing (Gyula Sankó) / See below
Week 6 / Conducting Research on Computer-Based Second Language Vocabulary Acquisition(Gyula Sankó) / See below
Week 7 / Researching Reading (Katalin Mónos) / See below
Week 8 / Consultation week
Week 9 / Cross-linguistic and cross-cultural comparison (Gyula Dávid) / See below
Week 10 / Discourse Markers as Indicators of Register (Gyula Dávid) / See below
Week 11 / Testing : Research instrument validation (one-way ANOVA comparing group mean scores, Spearman rank order correlation, non-parametric statistical procedures: Kruskal-Wallis test, Friedman test)
(Ildikó Csépes) / Csépes, I. (2002) Is testing speaking in pairs disadvantageous for students? A quantitative study of partner effects on oral test scores. novELTy 9(1),22-45.
Week 12 / Research in SLA (Judit Kiss-Gulyas) / Myles, F. Research Timeline in SLALanguage Teaching 43:3, 320-332., See below
Week 13 / Research in Psycholinguistics (sentence processing) (Judit Kiss-Gulyas) / See below
Week 14 / Closing, conclusion

The reading assignments will be taken from the following sources:

Weeks 1-4

Brown, J.D. (1988). Understanding Research in Second Language Learning. Cambridge: CUP.

Brown, J. D. (2000). Using Surveys in Language Programs. Cambridge: CUP.

Hatch, E., & Lazaraton, A. (1991). The research manual. Designand statistics for applied linguistics. New York: Newbury House Publishers.

Larsen-Freeman, D. and Long, M. 1991. Introduction to Second Language Acquisition Research. London: Longman.

Weeks 5 and 6

Dörnyei, Z. 2003. Questionnaires in Second Language Research. London: Lawrence Erlbaum.

De Ridder, I. 2002. Visible or invisible links: Does the highlighting of hyperlinks affect

incidental vocabulary learning, text comprehension, and the reading process? Language Learning & Technology 6/1: 123-146.

Laufer, B. and M.M. Hill. 2000. What lexical information do L2 learners select in a CALL

dictionaryand how does it affect word retention?Language Learning and Technology3/2: 58-76

Week 7

Davis, J. N. & Bistodeau. L. 1993. How do LI and L2 differ? Evidence from think aloud protocols. The Modern Language Journal, Vol. 77, No. 4 pp. 459-472

Nassaji, H. 2003. Higher-Level and Lower-Level Text Processing Skills in Advanced ESL Reading Comprehension. The Modern Language Journal, Vol. 87, No. 2 pp. 261-276

Weeks 9 and 10

Blum-Kulka Shoshana Falsgraf, C. and Majors, D. 1995. Implicit Culture in Japanese Immersion Classroom Discourse.The Journal of the Association of Teachers of Japanese, Vol. 29, No.2,pp. 1-21.

Ervin-Tripp, Susan, Jiansheng Guo, and Martin Lampert. 1990. Politeness and Persuasion in Children’s Control Acts.” Journal of Pragmatics 14: 307-331.

Schwenter, Scott. 1996. „Some Reflections on O Sea: a Discourse Marker in Spanish.” Journal of Pragmatics 25: 855-74.

Week 11

Csépes, I. (2002) Is testing speaking in pairs disadvantageous for students? A quantitative study of partner effects on oral test scores. novELTy 9(1),22-45.

Week 12

Myles, F. 2010. Research Timeline in SLALanguage Teaching 43:3, 320-332.

Kiss-Gulyas, J. 2004. The acquisition of Restrictive Relative Clauses by L1 Hungarian Learners of L2 English. Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó.

Week 13

The Effects of L1 Parsing and Processing Preferences on L2 Acquisition: The Case of L1 Hungarian Learners of L2 English. In Sheorey, R. and Kiss-Gulyás, J. (szerk.) Studies in Applied and Theoretical Lingustics 2007:155-174. Debrecen: Kossuth Egyetemi Kiadó.

The Applicability of Linguistic Theory in Second Language Acquisition Research. In Kiss-Gulyás, J. & Furkóné Banka, I. (szerk.) Studies in English Language Teaching and Learning. 2005: 7-23.Debrecen: Institute of English and American Studies.

Grammaticality Judgement Tests in Language Acquisition Research. In Hollósy, B. &

Kiss-Gulyás J. (szerk.)Studies in Linguistics Volume VI, PartI. 2002: 69-85. Debrecen: Institute of English and American Studies.

Further recommended readings:

Brown, J.D. (1988). Understanding Research in Second Language Learning. Cambridge: CUP.

Brown, J. D. (2000). Using Surveys in Language Programs. Cambridge: CUP.

Dörnyei, Z.,2010.Questionnaires in Second Language Research: Construction, Administration,

and Processing. 2nd ed.New York: Routledge.

Givon, T. 1990. Syntax: A Functional-Typological Introduction: Volume II. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

Grabe, W. & Stoller, F. L. 2002. Teaching and Researching Reading. Harlow: Pearson Education. Chapters 8-9.

Hatch, E. and Farhady, H. 1982. Research Design and Statistics for Applied Linguistics. Rowley, MA: Newbury.

Hatch, E., & Lazaraton, A. (1991). The research manual. Design and statistics for applied linguistics. New York: Newbury House Publishers.

Hill, B., Ide, S., Kawasaki, A., and Ogino, T. 1986. Universals of linguistic politeness: Quantitative Evidence from Japanese and American English. Journal of Pragmatics. 10, 347-371.

Mackey, A and Gass, S. 2005. Second Language Acquisition Research: Methodology and Design. New Jersey: Erlbaum Associates.

Lazaroton, A. 2000. Current Trends in Research Methodology and Statistics in Applied linguistics. TESOL Quarterly 34, 174-181.

Seliger, H.W. and Shohamy, E. 1989. Second language research methods. Oxford: OUP.

Scholfield, P. 1995. Quantifying Language. Clerendon: Multilingual Matters.