Introductory description

What is research and how can we do it? What skills do you need to successfully conduct research? And, which of these skills are also relevant to the professional world? This module addresses questions like these, as it helps you to develop the research, academic and professional skills you need to be successful at university and beyond. You will explore different approaches to research and see how research has been conducted on a range of real life issues and concerns connected to language, culture and communication. The lectures will provide you with knowledge about different research methods and the process of conducting research in general. The seminars, on the other hand, will help you develop your analytical toolkit that will serve you in multiple contexts, including your future workplace. This course also sets the foundation for ET214 and ET215 where you will conduct more extensive language, culture and communication research projects in topics that interest you.

Module web page

Module aims

Outline syllabus

This is an indicative module outline only to give an indication of the sort of topics that may be covered. Actual sessions held may differ.

The syllabus is designed to familiarise students with the landscape of research and to prepare them for more advanced work in Years 2 and 3. It will cover the following topics:

• What counts as evidence? Defining research
• Paradigmatic orientations in research
• Overview of quantitative, qualitative and mixed method research
• Research ethics
• Data collection and analysis procedures
• Culture in the research process
• Formulating a research question
• Academic conventions and procedures (referencing systems, plagiarism, etc.)

Learning outcomes

By the end of the module, students should be able to:

• Subject knowledge and understanding• Specify the minimum criteria for adequate research.• Identify different approaches to research and the paradigmatic orientations underlying these.• State the criteria, considerations and procedures necessary to ensure that ethical requirements are met.• Identify and describe core methods for collecting data in language, culture and communication.• Describe relevant procedures for analysing data quantitatively and qualitatively.• Identify key issues in research on language, culture and communication.• Demonstrate familiarity with and ability to use appropriately generic features of research designs and procedures found in published research articles.

Indicative reading list

Agresti, A. & Finlay, B. (2008). Statistical methods for the social sciences (4th ed.). Upper Saddle River: Pearson Prentice Hall.

Bryman, A. (2008). Social Research Methods (3rd edition). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Carbaugh, D. (2005). Cultures in Conversation. Mahwah NJ: Lawrence Erllbaum.

Creswell, J. W. (1998). Qualitative Inquiry And Research Design: Choosing Among Five Traditions. Sage Publications, London, New Delhi

Heigham, J. and Croker, R. A. (eds) (2009). Qualitative Research in Applied Linguistics: A Practical Introduction. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

Oliver, P. (2003). The Student’s Guide to Research Ethics. Maidenhead: Open University Press.

Silverman, D. (2010). Doing Qualitative Research (3rd edition). London: Sage.

Research element

All assessment includes original research project. This involves the design as well as carrying out projects on core areas of module and programme overall.

Interdisciplinary

This module enables the students to develop skills in designing and carrying out a research project in line with social science traditions and methodological paradigms. As such it is a core module and plays a central role in allowing the students to work across disciplinary boundaries.

International

The assessment is based on students’ original work. The students are encouraged to work on projects and questions that are of interest to them and in line with their life experiences, language biography and geopolitical contexts they have experienced at home or in their studies.

Subject specific skills

• Specify the minimum criteria for adequate research.
• Identify different approaches to research and the paradigmatic orientations underlying these.
• State the criteria, considerations and procedures necessary to ensure that ethical requirements are met.
• Identify and describe core methods for collecting data in language, culture and communication.
• Describe relevant procedures for analysing data quantitatively and qualitatively.
• Identify key issues in research on language, culture and communication.
• Demonstrate familiarity with and ability to use appropriately generic features of research designs and procedures found in published research articles.

Transferable skills

• Read and critically respond to relevant academic articles and books
• Participate in group tasks and discussions
• Communicate effectively in English in mixed cultural groups
• Show understanding of the ethical dimension in research and respond appropriately to ethical challenges
• Plan and manage time effectively
• Formulate precisely focused, answerable questions.
• Identify relationships between questions and procedures designed to provide responses to them.
• Perform basic calculations and follow specifiable analytical procedures in order to develop responses to specific questions.
• Recognise cultural and organisational patterns and signals in written and spoken texts
• Identify and respond to a professional/intercultural issue or situation requiring further investigation.
• Conduct systematic literature reviews by using different search engines and strategies (EBSCO, Google Scholar, Harzing's Publish or Perish, etc.)