This article by Dr. Mahmoud M. S. Abdallah provides a comprehensive guide to formulating a research problem in education and language learning, particularly for TESOL/TEFL researchers. It emphasizes the importance of a well-defined research problem as the cornerstone of any research project, guiding the selection of methods, data collection, and…

Interview-based research in multilingual situations can present researchers with specific ethical challenges relating to language-based power play, data handling and presentation. Studies indicate favouring the L1 (first language) as an interviewing language may produce better quality data, but external pressures can favour English as the dominant…

Applied linguists have turned increasingly in recent years to meta-analysis as the preferred means of synthesizing quantitative research. The first step in the meta-analytic process involves defining a domain of interest. Despite its apparent simplicity, this step involves a great deal of subjectivity on the part of the meta-analyst. This article…

Fifteen anecdotes representing technical, conceptual, and political problems experienced by internationally recognized experts in the field of second language learning are presented. The anecdotes provide valuable insight for other researchers, users of research results, and for critical analyses of the second language research process. Author/CB)

Canadian educators, researchers, and politicians gathered for a two-day conference in 1977 on the question of how educational research affects the formation of educational policy. The sixteen speakers analyzed the basic question from the points of view of the provincial politician, the school board chairman, the administrator, and the researcher,…

The problematic nature of research in the teaching of foreign languages discloses fundamental areas of concern, particularly related to secondary school teacher attitudes. Comments of leading researchers concerning the nature of research, purpose and design, responsibility for generation of research, and the use of research are cited extensively.…