Case Study Research

            Case study research excels at bringing us to an understanding of a complex issue or object and can extend experience or add strength to what is already known through previous research.  Case studies emphasizes detailed contextual analysis of a limited number of events or conditions and their relationships.  Hence, particularity is one of the characteristics of such type of study, wherein a single case or nonrandom sample is selected precisely because the researcher wishes to understand the particular in depth, not to find out what is generally true of the many.  Furthermore, a case is a single instance of a class of objects or entities, and a case study is the investigation of that single instance in the context in which it occurs (Nunan, 1992; Dekker, 2003).  Hence, a case is a bounded instance and the phenomenon is studied in context or when the entity being studied in a naturally occurring situation.

            On the other hand, Duff (2008) argued that each human case is complex, operating within a constellation of linguistic, sociolinguistic, sociological and other systems, and the whole may be greater than-or different from-the sum of its parts.  And to study the linguistic part, Diane E. Dekker of Summer Institute of Linguistics conducted a Case Study of the First Language Component Bridging Program in Rural Philippines.  The study was done through experimental implementation of a First Language Component Bridging Program in the early primary grades in selected classes of the public school system of Lubuagan, Kalinga Apayao.  The community perception of the place was that anyone who had been to school for at least four months had acquired literacy skills.  But then, through informal observation, it became clear that some students were not literate even until fourth or fifth grade or later, wherein a lack of reading ability is evident.  In the classroom environment, the teacher uses the prescribed language for the subjects, Filipino and English, and then translate into Lilubuagen in order for his/her students to comprehend.  Because of this, the teacher has the time to go over subject material only, not having the time to develop the cognitive skills of the students.  Unable to develop concepts with the students in a language they understand well, the teacher would not be able to build on the cognitive skills the students could bring to the task.  Hence, the students may be delayed in developing their thinking skills.

            Addressing the problem stated, Gonzales (1996) states that if students do not understand the medium of instruction, a language they understand must be used transitionally until a new medium of instruction (second or third language) can be used with comprehension in the classroom (Dekker 2003).  Hence, the formulation and experimental implementation of a First Language Component (FLC) Bridging Program in the school system.  In using the FLC, students’ mother tongue was used as medium of instruction in the classroom.  By teaching concepts in the mother tongue, the students would be exposed to comprehensible input and would enable them to develop concepts further.  As to the results, the test scores of the Lubuagan students have improved in reading and language, and they are more able to learn to read and write in Filipino and English because of the mother-tongue literacy skills.  And as to the end result, the parents are asking for more FLC classes and teachers are interested in being trained in such approach.

            As to second language teaching and learning, the theory that second language learners are burdened by a language barrier that hinders them from learning a language.  That if a second language learner is not fluent in his/her first language, it is most likely the same in his/her second language.  Hence, the use of the mother tongue for efficient basic and functional literacy skills first then lead to building on and transferring the skills to the second language (Gonzales, 1996; Dekker 2003).  Initial literacy and language development in the mother tongue enables cognitive development that contributes to the mastery of a second and third language.  That is why, as a language teacher, the value of the students’ mother tongue must be realized in initial schooling and also begin the cognitive skill development.  All of these will help a lot for the student to learn another language.  And most of all, language factors must be a primary consideration so that the children to succeed in school.  This small investment in the education of children could change the course of the nation.

References:

Dekker, D.E. (2003). A Case Study of the First Language Component Bridging Program in Rural Philippines. Philippine Journal of Linguistics, Vol. 34, No. 1, 143-149.

Ethnography in Communicative Interaction and Second Language Acquisition

           Fraenkel et.al. (2012) defined ethnography or ethnographic research as the collection of data on many variables over an extended period of time in a naturalistic setting, usually using observation and interviews. They further explicated that the emphasis in ethnographic research is on documenting or portraying the everyday experiences of individuals by observing and interviewing them and relevant others.

            To conclude such definition, the research “Communicative Interaction and Second Language Acquisition: An Inuit Example” by Martha B. Crago of McGill University.  The stated purpose is to study the role of cultural context in the communicative interaction of young Inuit children, their caregivers, and their non-Inuit teachers.  Hence, the study is clearly focused on the Inuit family language socialization and communicative interaction.  But then, unintentionally, and because it is an ethnographic research, information about the differences in the communicative interaction of Inuit families and non-Inuit second language teachers surfaced repeatedly using the course of the study.  And as Frenkel et.al. (2012) stated, that an advantage of ethnographic study is that it is particularly for studying behaviors best understood in their natural setting because some things may happen unintentionally but may help a lot in analyzing the study.

            Videotapes were made every three months of two Inuit boys, two Inuit girls, and their families.  These four children were between 1 and 2 years of age at the time of the study.  Two of them had moms in early 20s, while the other had considerably older moms.  One child lives in a small nuclear, one-generational family, which is a nontraditional structure in northern Quebec.  The other three lived in larger families.  In addition, 20 women out of possible 45 women living in Quaqtaq were interviewed in Inuktikut by the northern Inuk research coordinator, who is a native speaker of Inuktikut.

            The present research consisted of a longitudinal study of 4 Inuit children and their families.  Recordings were made from which detailed verbal and nonverbal information was transcribed.  The information in the study were gathered through three sources (triangulation): 1.) 80 hours of transcribed and translated videotapes of 4 children and their families, 2.) 20 ethnographic interviews of Inuit women conducted in Inuktikut by a native speaker, and 3.) several hundred pages of observation and informal interview notes.  Hence, this is a strength of a study because in ethnographic study, researchers use a variety of instruments to collect data and check validity.  And validity is one of the major issues to be addressed is such studies.

            The results are presented in narrative form supported with examples and some answers of the respondents to certain questions.  The reader must trust that these descriptions accurately reflect what was said and observed, as well as how frequently these occurred.  The findings were complete, descriptive, and very encompassing on the context of the ethnographic communicative interaction and second language acquisition of the four Inuit children.  It is also essential that culture is taken into consideration in the study since all cultures do not have the same patterns of communicative interaction.  Teaching strategies for second language acquisition in Native children, then, need to be based on the knowledge of what comprises cultural membership of your students.  Hence, language teaching and learning are intertwined in a fundamental manner with culturally integral ways of communicating.

References:

Crago, M. B. (1992). Communicative Interaction and Second Language Acquisition: An Inuit Example. TESOL quarterly, Vol. 26, No. 3, 487-505.

Fraenkel, J.R. et.al. (Eighth edition). (2012). How to design and evaluate research in education. 1221 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020: McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

Ethnography as a Methodology

          According to Fetterman (1998), ethnography is the art and science of describing a group or culture.  The description may be of a small tribal group in an exotic land or a classroom in middle-class suburbia.  It came from the Greek ethnos = folk/people and graphein = writing.  It identifies its roots in sociology and anthropology.  Hence, ethnography is a social science research method which relies heavily on up-close, personal experience and possible participation, not just observation, by researchers trained in the art of ethnography or what we call the ‘immersion’.  Itlet’ involves a commitment to get close to the subject being observed in its natural setting, to be factual and descriptive in reporting what is observed, and to find out the points of view of participants in the domain observed.

            As an example, let’s have “Measuring Language of Wider Communication (L2) and Local Community Language (L1) Literacy Levels in a Bilingual Community of Indonesia” by Howard Shelden and Kay Ringenberg (2003) of SIL International (Indonesia).  The study intends to measure the reading and writing ability in both the national and local languages.  The instrument design makes use of some locally authored material and local interviews.  And this locally authored material is a constructed modified informal reading inventory called reading proficiency survey.  This material focused on the following to assess the literateness of the respondents of the study:

v  Writing samples

Ø  Ability to write text legibly such as their full name and simple data (fill a form)

Ø  Ability to construct from memory previously leaned words and sentences (dictation)

Ø  Ability to create text using proper language syntax (creative writing)

v  Reading selections which increase in difficulty (an adapted miscue analysis)

Ø  Selections at three or four levels of difficulty (or more for some developed program)

Ø  Record errors

Ø  Comprehension check

§  Retelling (counting the major elements given from the story)

§  Questions (on explicit and implicit information)

The researchers focused more to measure the ability to read a passage with 90% accuracy, to answer comprehension questions on that passage with 60% accuracy and to collect writing samples.  However, sociolinguistic information on the newly researched language was included by the researchers to gather those items which are critical for an evaluation of the level of motivation and literateness for the language group involved.  And to measure the discussed variables, two major approaches was proposed by the researchers for the survey:

a.       Those items that could be collected through survey questions at the time of another baseline study data collection; and

b.      A significant sampling of the level of reading – writing proficiency in both Indonesian (L2) and the local language (L1).

According to Fraenkel et.al. (2012), ethnographic research is relatively needs long time to study a phenomena, most probably six months or more.  But the study above took them only two weeks to finish their work: three days for constructing the instrument; two days for the community discussions; three days for recruiting and training of local interviewers/administrators; and the trip to the four villages took them four days.  So, it’s quite vague for me if it is really six months or more or it can be shorter in ethnographic research because of some researchers that covered only six months less to finish the work.

Also, ethnographic research is collaborative where the research involves the participation of stakeholders other than the researchers.  In the study, some stakeholders from the place of study were recruited and trained as interviewers or administrators most especially those who are fluent in the national language and local language.  This gave a positive effect to those who were able to participate in the study as interviewers or administrators because they have learned skills in data collection and some techniques that they can use for something similar for other purposes.

In ethnographic research, the samples of persons studied by ethnographers are typically small (often only a few individuals, or a single class) and do not permit generalization to a larger population.  In the study, four villages were surveyed with 120 reading samples collected and over 150 head of households interviewed which is quite a big population.  One more thing, according to the researchers, survey is used as data collection procedure other than interview.  And I’m quite not sure if survey is one of the data collection procedures for ethnographic research.  Because according to Fraenkel et.al. (2012), the two major means of data collection in ethnographic research are participant observation and detailed interviewing.

However, ethical concerns are carefully addressed by the researchers.  They discussed to the community what is all about the study, hence, informed consent was attained.  Also, the privacy of each individual was also carefully guarded through turning all the forms to the researchers in waterproof bags.  Hence, confidentiality of the information was addressed.  And because the interviewers and some administrators were from the community where the study is done, the respondents are surely away from harm.

Thus, the study found that using modified informal reading inventory has proven valuable to motivate local leadership towards action plans for literacy in both L1 and L2.  Furthermore, using reading proficiency survey give reliable data for use with funding agencies to obtain the needed resources for improving the current situation.  Although the instrument is not a standardized one, it has a useful function for community development workers by providing them with an accurate picture of local community’s ability to obtain new information through the printed page.  And that’s the operation of an ethnographic research, to develop a picture of the social or cultural whole of that which an ethnographer is studying.

References:

Fraenkel, J.R. et.al. (Eighth edition). (2012). How to design and evaluate research in education. 1221 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020: McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

Shelden, H. & Ringenberg, K. (2003). Measuring Language of Wider Communication (L2) and Local Community Language (L1) Literacy Levels in a Bilingual Community of Indonesia. Philippine Journal of Linguistics, Vol. 34, No. 1, 151-163.

Control ‘Em, Study ‘Em

          Experimental research is one of the most powerful research methodologies that researchers can use.  It is the best way to establish cause-and-effect relationships among variables.  Experimental research, according to Fraenkel et.al. (2012), is a research that is quantitative in nature and in which at least one independent variable is manipulated, other relevant variables are controlled, and the effect on one or more dependent variable is observed. According to them, it is unique in two important respects: it is the only type of research that directly attempts to influence a particular behavior, and when properly applied, it is the best type for testing hypothesis for a cause-and-effect relationship.

         To better understand the research methodology, I read an experimental study entitled “Improving Students’ Spelling, Grammar and Academic Performance through Teacher’s SMS Feedback and Correction” (please spare me for not mentioning the name of the author – for confidentiality sake).  It aims to determine the effect of teacher’s SMS feedback and correction on grammar, spelling and academic performance of Grade 8 students.  As regard to the problem, the following hypotheses were presented: (1) there is no significant effect; (2) there is no significant effect; (3) there is no significant effect and; (4) there is no significant effect.

            As I mentioned earlier, the research methodology used is experimental research.  Specifically, the researcher utilized a Quasi-Experimental Design of Quantitative Research. Since Quasi-experimental design do not include the use of random assignment, the researcher used purposive sampling to select the desired respondents to at least reduce the threats to internal validity (Fraenkel et.al 2012).  Under such design, the Matching-Only Pretest-Posttest Control Group Design was used wherein the researcher matched the subjects in the experimental and control groups on certain variables.

It has always been an issue to Quasi-Experimental Design of Quantitative Research the threats to internal validity.  But in the study, it has been carefully handled through matching the individuals receiving one treatment with the individuals receiving the other treatments with respect on certain variables.  And it is highly commendable for a study having two matched groups knowing the absence of randomization.

Another, it is stated in the methodology that the study is a combination of quantitative and qualitative type of research.  Since the study used Quasi-Experimental Design, it is surely a quantitative type of research.  However, it is also a qualitative type of research due to the use of interview as one of the methods of gathering information.  But, I do not know if I’m mistaken because I can’t see any results presented regarding the interviews done.  I just think so (not so sure of that thing).

The Data Gathering Procedure was quite bloody but worthy.  The researcher began the study by letting the respondents, both in experimental and control groups, write a pre-composition writing answering the first question.  Next, the teacher-researcher sent questions to the respondents through SMS, once a day for 6 weeks during their English class period with the teacher-in-charge in each school.  The teacher-researcher feedbacked and corrected the responses of the respondents in the experimental group and sent them back to the respondents while the control group received no treatment or intervention.  This is the most significant part of the methodology, wherein the researcher manipulates the experimental group only, leaving the control group alone, and later on study the effect of the treatment or intervention.  After 6 weeks, all the respondents wrote a post-composition writing answering the second question administered by the teacher-researcher.  Then a survey questionnaire was floated to the respondents in the experimental group and a follow-up interview after that was administered to the respondents.  The pre-composition writings, answers sent through SMS, post-composition writings, and interview data were all vital for the findings of the study.  These are the essential part of the study wherein the findings will be used as a guide for all language educators on how to help their language students more effectively.  Anyway, that is the use of researches or studies in education, to create knowledge regarding the field of education, most especially on how to improve the teachers’ pedagogy. 

*(Thank you and kudos to the researcher.)