Learning Learning 17 (1) Spring 2010
Review: Alison Stewart
Qualitative Research in Applied
Linguistics: A Practical Introduction(2009), edited by Juanita Heigham andRobert Croker, published by Palgrave
Macmillan（4567089:;<=>?#@AB
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Reviewed by Alison Stewart, Gakushuin
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Qualitative Research in Applied
Linguistics: A Practical Introduction （応用言語学における質的調査：実践入門）
は、初心者にも親切である、既に経験のある研究者にとっても有益なアドバイスや示唆に富んだ実践的ガイド本となっている。
本書はナラティブ調査、ケーススタディ、エスノグラフィー、混合法など質的調査法を網羅し、観察・インタビュー・記述式アンケートなどのデータ収集方法、質的アプローチ、口述データや日記の分析、会話分析などの分析方法についての章を含んでいる。最終章は研究倫理と質的調査論文の書き方が論じられている。調査方法の一般的枠組みと体験談の絶妙なバランスは実際に調査を行っている研究者による共著ならではである。質的調査実践者及び、始めたいと考えている人に是非読んでもらいたい一冊である。
Learning Learning 17 (1) Spring 2010

For many practicing teachers, the idea of
research can conjure up a whole host ofnegative associations. Doing it takes time andenergy, both of which are often limited in ourbusy lives. It may involve disrupting or
imposing on our students or our colleagues, orrisk the disapproval of our bosses or others.
Worst of all, the way into academic research isguarded by fearsome gatekeepers, such as
publishers and supervisors, who dictate therules, the specialized knowledge and knowhow about conducting research and the highflown language in which it is written up, andwho determine who shall pass and who shallnot. But research is increasingly a part of ourprofessional lives, and the rewards of doing it
include personal as well as professional
development and growth. One of the best
books I have come across to provide guidance
and inspiration to newcomers and practicing
researchers alike is Qualitative Research in
Applied Linguistics: A Practical Introduction,edited by Juanita Heigham and Robert Croker.
This is a hands-on, user-friendly guide toqualitative research, with chapters by bothsome of the major figures in qualitative
research and teacher-researchers living andworking here in Japan.
The book is arranged and written in away that is intended directly to appeal to andengage novice researchers. An overview withchapters by Robert Croker and Donald
Freeman provides very simple explanations ofwhat qualitative research is, and what makes
research ‘qualitative’. Very simply, qualitative
research is an attempt to “create a full and richunderstanding of the researchcontext.” (Croker, p.3-4). Unlike quantitative
research, which relies on numbers andstatistics to support claims about the worldthat are generally true, qualitative researchers
34

Alison Stewart

base their claims on their interpretation of thefinely detailed but often messy detail that isgenerated in an exhaustive investigation of asmall number of people or contexts, or even ofindividual cases.
The ‘meat’ of the book is the two middle
sections, Qualitative Research Approaches
and Qualitative Data Collection Methods. Eachof the chapters in these two sections isarranged according to a common, readercentered scheme. Starting with pre-reading
questions, the chapters provide illustrative
examples - some real, some fictional - of an
approach or method in action, an overview, a“What is…?” section, a “Why use…?” section,and sections on how to collect, organize, andinterpret data, how to present findings andhow to improve the quality of your research.
Each chapter ends with a summary of themain ideas, post-reading comprehension anddiscussion questions, tasks that give hands-on
practice, and further readings, as well as adetailed bibliography. A final section deals withpractical issues concerning ethics and thebusiness of writing up the finished research.
The book ends with a comprehensive
glossary, which lists and defines all the terms
covered.
Since one of the main aims of this book
is to encourage teachers new to research tojump in and try it for themselves, the chaptersbegin with those approaches that are most‘do-able’ and these are illustrated withresearch inquiries that are probably quite
similar to those we might ask in our own work
situations. Garold Murray’s chapter on
Narrative Inquiry is illustrated with his own
experiences of collecting learners’ life
histories. Michael Hood’s on Case Study
draws on a hypothetical example of a teacher
who wants to understand why so many ESL
students drop out of university despite

Learning Learning 17 (1) Spring 2010

completing a preparatory Intensive English
Program. Juanita Heigham and Keiko Sakuibase their chapter on Ethnography around aquestion about why student dynamics in a SelfAccess Center vary from year to year. Anne
Burns on Action Research offers a vignette ofa teacher in Indonesia looking to gain a better
understanding of student interaction in her
communicative English class. The final chapter
in this section, Mixed Methods by Natalia
Ivankova and John Creswell, draws on a
published study in which researchers firstcollected quantitative data from a large
number of students, and then focused on threehigh-level learners and three low-level learners
in order to gain a more nuanced understandingof the difference in their employment oflearning strategies. Interestingly, in a chapter
which deals with a quantitative approach, I feltthat the encouraging and friendly tone
established in the previous chapters was not
as apparent, and that the authors were making
a case for specialized expertise in this dual
approach that some novice researchers mightfind off-putting. I also wondered about theirclaim that the “’mixed methods approach’ isstill a relatively new phenomenon but will be
used more in the future”. When I started mydoctoral studies twelve years ago, it was theidea of doing a qualitative study alone without
quantitative triangulation that was regarded as
daring and new.
Moving onto the section on Qualitative
Data Collection Methods, the first two chapterstake us right back into the qualitative
paradigm. Neil Cowie’s chapter on
Observation, illustrated by a participant
observation study of an English class ofdisaffected high school girls in Japan, andKeith Richard’s on Interviews, enlivened by his
description of a study of the problems
experienced by ESL students adjusting to a35

Alison Stewart

new school, both provide excellent andengaging discussions on the methodology
and also, in my view more interestingly, onproblematic issues regarding theinterpretation of this kind of data. Making
sense of what we see and what we hear isn’t
necessarily as straightforward as it seems.
Richards, in particular, refers to work done bysocial psychologists (e.g. Wooffitt &Widdicombe, 2006) which points to theimportance of how we and our interviewees
position ourselves and what difference thatmakes to what we say and how it might beinterpreted.
The next two chapters, OpenResponse Items in Questionnaires by James
Dean Brown, and Introspective Techniques bySandra Lee McKay deal with data collection
methods that are perhaps more commonly
associated with quantitative traditions ofSecond Language Acquisition. Brown
illustrates his overview and discussion withthe story of Kazuko who decides to survey
fellow teachers in order to “understand what
her colleagues are thinking in their ownterms” (p.201). McKay includes in her chapter
the now somewhat unfashionable method ofverbal reports, or verbal protocols, with themore popular method of diary studies, both ofwhich could provide evidence of thoughtprocesses and mental states of teachers andlearners. The final chapter in this section,
Discourse Analysis by Anne Lazaraton,
provides an example of a study which
focuses on repair episodes by learners, inwhich precise transcription is essential tosupport claims about what the learner and theteacher actually say and do. Credit is due toLazaraton for condensing this method into a

Learning Learning 17 (1) Spring 2010

chapter of similar length and scope as theothers in this book. I would argue, however,that discourse analysis is an approach as
much as it is a method of data collection.
Perhaps, it is for this reason that this chapter
is located at the end and the edge of thiscollection of qualitative studies.
The final section of the book deals withethical issues, in a chapter by Sharon Rallis
and Gretchen Rossman, and writing up, in a
final chapter by Christine Casanave. It is quite
typical to find chapters on these matters atthe end, but they are both vitally important foranyone doing research, and need to beconsidered fully from the outset, not as anafterthought. On the other hand, following theprinciple of leaving best to last, Casanave’s
chapter is the ideal way to finish the book.
One of the things that many new researchers
find most daunting about qualitative researchis that it seems to depend much more than
the quantitative paradigm on an ability to write
well. Casanave does not exactly argue thecontrary; good writing is important toqualitative research and she offers sensible
advice on how to develop your writing. But
good writing is not an end in itself; the reason
for it is so that we can “represent research inways that are rich, persuasive, and (…) dojustice to our topics and our research
participants” (p. 302). This, I believe, could
very well sum up the aspirations of all theauthors in this book.
This is a book that has obvious
application as a textbook on Applied
Linguistics and TESOL MA courses on
methodology, and as such, it is probable thatmost readers will pick and choose from it36

Alison Stewart

according to their research interests. Readingfrom cover to cover, however, there is aconsiderable amount of duplication, orperhaps, more charitably, recycling ofconcepts, terms and key references. One
instance that bothered me a little was thecitation of Shirley Brice Heath’s (1983) famous
book-length study, Way with Words, as aprime example of a case study, only to read in
the following chapter that the same study
constituted an exemplary model of theethnographic approach. Niggling aside, someoverlapping of chapters in a review ofqualitative research is probably inevitable andexcusable.
A few years ago, I found myself
embroiled in a debate with a colleague overwhich was better, quantitative or qualitative.
Neither of us would concede to the other, andin the end, we concluded that our preference
must be mainly aesthetic: he liked numbers, I
liked words. Reading Qualitative Research in

Learning Learning 17 (1) Spring 2010

Applied Linguistics, I can see more clearly that
it is more than aesthetic; it is ethical too, basedon a desire to treat individuals as individuals,
to celebrate diversity and exceptionality. This
principle comes through strongly and clearly ineach of these chapters. This book is more thanjust a practical introduction, though it is thattoo. It is also a model and an inspiration.
References
Heath, S. B. (1983) Ways with words:
language, life, and work in communities andclassrooms. New York: Cambridge
University Press.
Wooffit, R. & Widdicombe, S. (2006).
Interaction in interviews. In P. Drew, G.
Raymond, & D. Weinberg (Eds.), Talk andinteraction in social science researchmethods (pp.28-49). London: Sage
Publications

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