This paper draws on one of Pierre Bourdieu's core dimensions of social theory: the notion of capital. Bourdieu's work has percolated various academic domains and transcended disciplinary boundaries, thereby leading to new vistas and questions. It is in the spirit of generating "new vistas" that this paper offers considerations which may…

The issue of representation has polarised public discourse and in recent years the decolonisation of research methodologies has entered the field of interculturality. However, universalistic discourses of dialogue and tolerance can be harnessed to silence certain voices by construing them as 'other'. With this paper I confront this conceptual knot…

Although alternative perspectives continue to be part of TESOL research methodology, there are approaches to social science inquiry that are still not widely known to researchers in the field. More specifically, it may be argued that language education research needs further qualitative approaches that can interweave research and life, language…

The field of second language studies is using increasingly sophisticated methodological approaches to address a growing number of urgent, real-world problems. These methodological developments bring both new challenges and opportunities. This article briefly reviews recent ontological and methodological debates in the field, then builds on these…

The purpose of this article is to justify the value of Indigenous research paradigms, specifically in the context of research on language acquisition. This argument has implications not only for research on language acquisition and the practice of language instruction but also for qualitative research, more broadly. Specifically, depending on the…

Q methodology, an approach to inquiry on the subjective views about a complex phenomenon/issue which has been increasingly employed in a wide range of social science fields has not yet been applied in language learning and teaching research. It is a unique approach that has characteristics of both qualitative and quantitative research methods. The…

This paper explores the philosophical underpinnings of three major educational research paradigms: scientific, interpretive, and critical. The aim was to outline and explore the interrelationships between each paradigm's ontology, epistemology, methodology and methods. This paper reveals and then discusses some of the underlying assumptions of…

This article iterates the results of integrating literacy into SLA (Second Language Acquisition) from a constructivist's perspective in preparing syllabi, pedagogical activities and testing. The observation of Mandarin-learning students' performance and conversations with them suggest that introducing certain vocabulary, expressions and…

Although every research method has its challenges, there are some specific challenges to the reporting and publishing of narrative inquiry that seem to differ from those encountered in other methods. Some of these arise out of the epistemology of narrative, with its focus on individual experience and interpretive storying, and some arise from the…

Two approaches to English for Academic Purposes (EAP) research and teaching which have arisen in recent years are systemic functional linguistics (SFL) approaches in Australia and elsewhere (e.g. Hood, 2006; Lee, 2010; Woodward-Kron, 2009) and Academic Literacies approaches in the UK and elsewhere (e.g. Lillis & Scott, 2008; Thesen &…

In this article I explore epistemological diversity in the field of second language acquisition (SLA) from the perspective that obtains if we examine the moral ends of research, and we ask: In what ways does epistemological diversity relate to enhancing the social value and educational relevance of the research generated by the instructed SLA…

With the dominance of the Web in education and English language learning, new literacies have emerged. This thesis is motivated by the assumption that these literacies need to be integrated into the Egyptian pre-service EFL teacher education programmes so that EFL student teachers can cope with the new reality of language teaching/learning.…

Latina/o critical race theory (LatCrit) is used as an overarching framework that examines the intersectionality of race, class, and gender while also acknowledging the unique forms of subordination within the Latina/o community based on immigration status, language, phenotype, and ethnicity. LatCrit allows for the specific examination of race and…

Argues that the concept of subjective theory and the corresponding methodology have considerable potential for second-language research in terms of building adequate models of second-language learning, teaching, and production; developing adequate methodology to analyze the mental processes underlying second-language learning, teaching, and…

In this article, I argue for adopting an ethical lens that interrogates our ends and purposes when generating research on second language learning and teaching, in light of concerns surrounding questions about the uses and users of our work. Such an ethical lens would help us transform our methodological and epistemological debates and would also…