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This reflection is related to my journey through understanding the -ogies and paradigms. I had created a way to manage my reading for this unit as follows. While reading through Cohen et al., (2018) book and course reading articles, I decided to stick to articles that are more of classifying nature and simple in explaining the paradigms and -ogies. I have also creating a PPT to organize -ogies and paradigms in a way that makes sense to me. Some of the language used by authors overlap especially when it comes to the type of research versus paradigm and methodology. Therefore, I participated in Skype meetings with cohort members to discuss and clarify these concepts. During these meeting, I realized that the terminology is confusing and sometimes is overlapping and used interchangeably by different scholars.

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A better understanding of the terminology and concepts walked me through situating my research beliefs and preferences. In other words, I got to disseminate the differences between the paradigms and understand my own ontology, and epistemology, and methodology. I do lean towards naturalism (ontology), interpretivism/ constructivism (paradigm) and qualitative research (methodology).

As I think of my potential research topic, in the process of understanding the paradigms, and taking a stance, I came to believe that social constructivism as language learning paradigm would best fit my research topic/area. I bought and read 3 books. One of them is related to the paradigm social constructivism and the other the language learning and teaching theory which is SLA

The first book entitled Sociocultural Theory in Second Language Education ( Swain, M. & Kinnear, P. & Steinman, L. , 2015)  would be the grounded theory for my research (most likely).

The second book I read is entitled Teaching Language Online. ( Meskill & Anthony, 2015). This book was recommended by one of my previous MA professors who is an applied linguist and a researcher in Multi-model Web Conferencing Environment (MWCE). The book enlightened me and had me excited about the idea of instructional conversations as a mediating tool. This is a broad topic that has the potential for my thesis dissertation, should I be able to narrow it down! The authors also grounded their views to teaching language online through the socio-cultural theory.

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More reading exploring paradigms and research methodology: Wednesday, February 06, 2019: 

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More reading exploring paradigms and research methodology: Wednesday, February 06, 2019: 

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I read Dr. Palalas Dissertation. It was insightful and very resourceful as she tackled the listening skill using mobile learning and DBR. She grounded her research in ecological constructivism, SLA and CALL. And she used Designed Based Research as a research method. Therefore, I collected multiple resources to consider for language learning and teaching. This great read urged me to think of learning the speaking skills as opposed to listening ( the skill she investigated in her dissertation) and mainly, the process through which instructional conversation ( from the instructor and among learners) that mediate language learning, specifically learning speaking ( through production of oral language or chat box in multimodal channels ( discourse).

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Reflecting on ethics, I realized that it is way more important that I initially thought. I was aware of participants’ consent including their rights to know about the purpose of the research and their free will to participate or not in the research, but many other aspects of ethical issues are new to me. The reading then was very rich and informative. The power that the International Review Board of ethics has got is quite striking. Proving and convincing IRB about the importance of the research is quite interesting. I believe any research question is quite worth exploring and valuable. I see a lot of subjectivity of the way decisions would be made. For example, what might be valuable to me would not necessarily be for others. Thus, I agree with Cohen et al, (2018) discussing ethical issues in research and pointing out this issue as they state that “whilst codes, guidelines and committees may be useful in raising issues and orienting researchers, they cannot decide what should and should not be done in a specific situation” (p. 120, Kindle Edition).

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Methods or Methodology, that is the question!

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Methods or Methodology, that is the question!

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I really enjoyed learning about research methods, and I find the way they intertwine appealing and thought provocative. It feels like a game where you need to know your players, needs, steps needed, when and where to make moves. I am still struggling with my prior understanding of what a methodology and method are and what our reading is suggesting. I had to dig into case studies and action research as possible approaches to my research topic. My understanding is that they are research methodologies but while reading they are being referred to as methods. One of the main things that stroke me is a sentence in Cohen et al., chapter 22 on Action research as follows: “One method that is used in action research is case study. A difference between action research and case study is whether it includes intervention”(p. 450).

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The question here is that is case study a method or methodology and is it different from action research or is it a method used as part of conducting action research? The idea of method and methodology is getting fuzzier in my brain! I know that case study is eclectic and open to mixed methods and could be applied across the different types of research to fit the purpose of the research. However, I thought that action research is a stand- alone methodology that is based on a cyclical process of identifying a need/problem, in the language context, with a consultation with stakeholders (instructors and learners), prepare a plan of action, act, evaluate and so on. The purpose is to make relevant changes as remedies of the need/problem. How could we use a case study as a method to conduct action research method? Or do we mean here action research as a type of research not method? or is it a methodology? What I love about learning is that it raises more questions than answers and digging into these questions in a reflective way constitutes authentic learning. Thus, for now, I will make things simpler and think that action research requires action/intervention while case study requires a thick description/exploration of a case to provide a thorough understanding of that case/context with not necessarily making any intervention, some suggestions could be made at most. Therefore, for the moment I will treat case study and action research as 2 stand -alone research methods that have different purposes and follow different procedures.

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I had a chat with Dr. Cynthia. Her conversation filled me with positive vibes and confidence. This speaks to the power of the instructor’s presence and synchronous video conferencing, at academic and interpersonal levels. I think it is magical for learners’ affective domain. During this conversation, we discussed my research topic, discussed Assignment1 for guidance and clarification, a few concepts: research paradigms- in a simple and clear way. Also, Dr, Cynthia generously shared these very helpful resources:

John W. Creswell. Qualitative Inquiry and Research Design

John W. Creswell and Viki L. Plano Clark (2017). Designing and Conducting Mixed Method Research. Sage Publications

Dr. Cheryl Lentz: Chapter3: Research Methodology: Dissertation Writing Tips

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OR3q9GNzdtQ

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This entry speaks to Unit 4 but also relates to Unit3 as it includes approaches to research and data collection. In a conversation with Dr. Cynthia, I learnt that method and methodology terminology depend on two emergent schools: old and new. As she explained the old school views methodology as relating to a specific paradigm such as under positivist paradigm falls quantitative methodology while qualitative methodology falls under the constructivist/interpretivist paradigm. Under paradigm and methodology comes methods such phenomenology, grounded theory, case study, ect. (as aligned with the interpretivist/constructivist paradigm).  She also shared a website that clearly states the new school view which depicts methodology as the approach of research while method as the data collection tool. https://uxdesign.cc/method-vs-methodology-whats-the-difference-9cc755c2e69d.As we discussed, it is important that “current researchers use the new school terminology for publication purposes” (Dr. Blodgett-Griffin), or at least be aware of both schools and the way the terminology is used to avoid confusion and inconsistency in using them.

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Another worth mentioning observation made today is the consistency of using terminology, paradigm, research design, methodology, method and data collection instruments. For instance, when it comes to case study, it is crucial to reference Yin, Stake, and Merriam and have a clear understanding of the way they define case studies and their relevant paradigmatic orientations, design, data collection and instruments. A close attention to this needs to be followed while writing assignment4.

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Surveys as research method VS data collection tool

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Surveys as research method VS data collection tool

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I have read the course reading as well as a few external resources related to data collection tools and I learned that surveys could be used as a research method with defined procedures and elements to that. Surveys design includes defining objectives, deciding on information, data collection, analysis and reporting (Cohen et al., 2018). While digging more into data collection tools and instruments, I also found it interesting that surveys such as online surveys could be used as data collection tools. They could even be used or even instruments. For example, in the case of using questionnaires as a data collection tool, surveys could be used as an instrument to questionnaires. Moreover, I learned a lot about the particularities of different qualitative research data collections tools such as observation and interviews, to name a few. One example that helped me keep a clear understanding of data collection tools is a conversation with Dr. Cynthia Blodgett-Griffin and her analogy of building a house and using tools for construction or decoration. In this sense, observations, questionnaires, surveys, ect are tools to collect data that are used to build up a research method such as action research or case study in qualitative approach that is based on interpretivist/constructivist paradigm.

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Action Research in Language Learning: Dialectic Action Research Spiral

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Action Research in Language Learning: Dialectic Action Research Spiral

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Nasrollahi, M. A., Krish, P., & Noor, N. M. (2012). Action research in language learning. (47), 1874 – 1879.

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Reflection Paper on my OveralL Learning Experience in the 802 Course

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Reflection Paper on my OveralL Learning Experience in the 802 Course

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CMANSOURFinal Reflection on my Learning in this Course

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Here is my contribution to dissertations/articles

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Here is my contribution to dissertations/articles

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1- Publication: Hoven, Debra

" Improving the management of flow of control in computer-assisted listening comprehension tasks for second and foreign language learners"

Paradigm: Constructivism

Theoretical Framework(s):

·         Socio-cultural theory (SCT)

·         Computer -Assisted Language Learning (CALL)

·         Task-Based Language Learning (TBLL)

URI: http://hdl.handle.net/2149/2294

2- Publication: Bainbridge, Susan (2013)

"An example of multiple case study research:

Development and evaluation of a pedagogical model for an open university in Nepal based on geographical, regional, and linguistic factors"

Paradigm: constructivist/interpretive paradigm

Theoretical Framework(s): Grounded Theory

URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10791/33

3- Publication:

Kozlova, I. (2013). Online pedagogy: Development of the communicative skills in Russian online courses, Vol. 5,(2013 57–70).

Paradigm: Social Constructivism,

Theoretical Framework:

·         Socio-Cultural Theory (SCT),

·         Second Language Acquisition (SLA),

·         Task Based- Language Learning and Teaching(TBLT)