ENGL642Research Skills Question

ENGL642 Research Skills Assignment Question

Semester Two 2023-2024

There is one assessed assignment for the module ENGL642 Research Skills. The assignment requires you to produce a research proposal (see section ‘the research proposal’ on page 3- 8 for the different sections required in the proposal) in TESOL & Applied Linguistics by using one or more  research  methods  discussed  in  the  module  ENGL642 Research  Skills.  This assignment requires you to plan a research project and justify your choice of the research focus, the research questions, and the methods necessary to collect the data in order to address your research aims. Do not carry out the research for this assignment. This implies that you must not collect and analyse real data in the proposal or draw any conclusions from your research project.

You  should  write  between  3,600  and  4,400  words.  State  the  number  of  words  on  the coversheet (on Canvas – week 10), excluding words in the list of references or words in tables, examples, images or appendices. Please number tables, examples, images and appendices consecutively in the proposal and add a short caption (no more than six words) that briefly summarises what the table/example/image is about. Insert page numbers at the bottom of each page of the proposal and include a reference list in the standard format (APA) at the end. It is expected that you will be able to decide the number of references that are needed to provide a solid theoretical/analytical framework to your proposal; however,a minimum of ten  references  is  expected.  Ensure  that  you  include  suggested  readings  provided  in  this module or any other module of the MA programme within your list of references.

Your proposal needs to be submitted electronically via Canvas using the link provided. The deadline for the assignment is 29 April 2024, 2 pm. Please note that you are not allowed to use  Generative  Artificial  Intelligence  (GAI)  software.  The  use  of  GAI  will  be  considered academic  malpractice  and  will  be  reported  to  the  Academic  Integrity  team  for  further investigation. Do not duplicate material you have used in assessed work in any other module and ensure you properly reference all sources you used. If you are not sure how to refer to sources, please contact your academic advisor well in advance of the assignment submission.

Please  note  that  in  the  selection  of   references,  more  credit  will   be  given  for   primary references  (information  taken  directly  from  the  author  of  the  source  you  read)  to  the literature in more authoritative and well-established sources, such as the following journals:

    English Language Teaching Journal

    Annual Review of Applied Linguistics

    Applied Linguistics

    International Journal of Applied Linguistics

    Language Teaching

    TESOL Quarterly

    Journal of English for Academic Purposes

    English for Specific Purposes

    Studies in Second Language Acquisition

    Journal of Pragmatics

    Language Learning

    Modern Language Journal

    Foreign Language Annals

    European Journal of Applied Linguistics

    System

    Language Learning and Technology

    Computer assisted language learning

    ReCALL

    any other journal recommended by your course tutors

    or journals of similar standing

and books by established publishers such as Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press,  Longmans,  Routledge,  Palgrave  Macmillan,  Bloomsbury,  Multilingual  Matters,  or similar.

If you use secondary sources (information taken from an author of a source who  quotes another source that you have not read) include full details so that it is clear which author you actually read. Do not claim to have read the source if you have only access to the secondary source as you may inadvertently misquote/misrepresent what was mentioned in the primary source and this can affect your final mark. Please also note that less credit will be given for many references to different authors from one secondary source, or references to obscure and/or poor-quality journals.

If you are looking for references, it is strongly recommended to do so via theLibrary search engine. It is strongly advised not to use Google (or similar search engines) for such a type of search. Please also make use of the readings that you have been recommended throughout the  programme.  For  this  assignment,  you  need  to  include  at  least  four  references  (not necessarily readings recommended during this module) that you have been recommended by your course tutors during the MA programme (in class, on Canvas, during tutorials … ). Please check how to refer to them in your reference list in §7 (structure of the proposal).

Please also adhere to the research proposal structure that is presented in the following pages and ensure that you work on all required sections. Please note that if you do not  address all that is required, your mark can be affected.

 

THE STRUCTURE OF THE RESEARCH PROPOSAL

The research proposal should include the following sections:

A title

Give your research proposal a title (no more than 20 words) that states what the project is about, using keywords that are related to your research questions/data collection methods, if possible.

1. Introduction (500-600 words)

In this section

•    Introduce in general/non-technical terms your research focus with some background information.

•   Set out the reasons/justification for your research – why did you select this focus? What is your personal motivation, as a learner or teacher (or both) to conduct the research? Why do you find it worth investigating further? Is there anything that was covered during the modules that triggered the interest in this research focus?

Please remember that if you refer to other people, you should refer to them in general terms and without using their real names (e.g. ‘my lecturer’ or ‘one of my lecturers’ instead of ‘Dr Magliacane’)

•    Provide abrief overview of what you intend to do – what are your aims?

•    Provide a justification for your study - what is new in your proposal? Considering what you have read so far, how does your proposal contribute to existing research?

•   Clearly state your research questions at the end of section and number them.

•    Indicate how you structured the proposal.

2. Literature review (1000 -1200 words)

In this section you  need to  discuss and critically analyse existing  literature  (theories  and previous studies) relevant to your research questions and how your own project will build on this existing body of work.

More specifically, in this section you are expected to include:

•   Current issues - a general overview of the relevant field from which your research questions stem

•   Theoretical perspectives or debates

-     What do we know/not know about this specific topic? (research gap/novelty of the research).

 

 

-     How  is  previous  literature  related  to  your  study?   (relevance  of   previous literature for your proposal)

•   Contribution

-     How does your study contribute to what we know about the research focus? (position yourself)

-     What do you expect to find? (hypotheses).

3. Data and methods (1200-1700 words)

In this section you need to discuss the data and the methods you will use to answer your research questions (ensure that it is clear from the discussion what research question the instrument will allow you to address and how).

More specifically, in this section you are expected to discuss:

1.   The data

-     What data will you use to answer each research question?

-     Will your project involve human participants, or will it be text-based research?

-     If you plan  to  work  with  human subjects, can you provide a profile of your prospective participants? Where are they located? How will you recruit them? Please also mention how you plantoreach potential participants and what you will practically  do  in  order  to  advertise  your  study  after  receiving  ethical approval.

-     If text -based, can you provide details on the data you are planning to use?

-     How much  data  will you collect (sample size)?  What criteria  will you use to select/identify your participants/data?

-     How  are  you  planning  to  collect  the  data?  What  practical  issues  can arise during   data   collection?   How   are   you  planning   to   address   such   issues (mitigating risks)?

Please see the document “Thinking about data” (on Canvas – week 10), which provides some tips and suggestions for things to consider regarding data collection.

2.   The methods

-     What      research      methods     (questionnaires,      interviews,      experiments, observations,  existing  corpora,   textbook  evaluation  &  analysis...)  are  you planning to use?

-     Why did you choose these methods?

-     If you are planning to use several methods,  why did you decide  to use more than one method? How do the different methods complement one another?

After identifying the method, please provide a draft of the instrument (see overleaf) you are planning to use and discuss a few items within this proposal. Although a final and refined version of your research tool is not expected at this stage, please discuss your initial idea. The Table below can provide you with some directions about what is expected to be discussed in this section. The discussion does not have to be limited to the points mentioned in the Table  and  can  be  expanded,  if  needed,  depending  on  your   research  focus   (foci)  and instrument(s). Please provide examples of the parts of your instrument(s) you are discussing within the text and put the full draft of your instrument(s) in the appendices.

 

If you plan to use …	Possible foci of the discussion
Questionnaires	Is it an existing questionnaire? When was it used? Are you using it as it is or are you adapting it? Why? Please remember to provide the reference if you are using an existing questionnaire, even if you are adapting/changing it. Are you creating your own questionnaire? What are your questions? Why did you include these questions? Are they theoretically driven? If applicable,  have  these  questions  been  refined?  Can  you  mention something about the process? How are you going to administer the questionnaire? Why?
Interviews	What type of interview are you going to use? Why? Do you have some questions that you plan to ask your participants? Why?  If  applicable,  have  these  questions  been  refined?  Can  you mention something about the process? Where are you planning to conduct the interview? Why? Are these interviews  going  to  be  video  or  audio  recorded?  What  recording device will you use and why? Are there any practical issues you need to be aware of when using this instrument?
Experiments  in the UK	What are you planning to assess with this experiment? What are your variables?Are you planning to control other variables? Why? What is your planned treatment/intervention? How did you design it? Is  this  treatment/intervention  the  same  as  or  similar  to  another study? Please provide references. How is the intervention/treatment going to be administered? How will you measure the effect of your intervention/treatment? Will you use a pre-test post-test design? If yes, will you employ the same tests as another study? If yes, please provide references. If possible, please write examples of a few items. What is your planned sample? How are you planning to reach these participants?   Please remember that you only have 3 months for your dissertation so you need to consider carefully  methods that  may  imply the  investigation of long-term effects.
Observations	What are you planning to observe? How are you planning to observe it? Would this observation require a physical room or permission from