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10 Analysing learner language
ANALYSING LEARNER LANGUAGE
Oxford University Press www.oup.com/elt
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Introduction 11
ANALYSING LEARNER LANGUAGE
Oxford University Press www.oup.com/elt
qualitative methods of data collection (for example, recording conversa-
tions). However, in studies where researchers are testing hypotheses (as in
Crookes and Picas studies), there is often a need to reduce the qualitative
data to some form of numerical measure to allow for statistical analysis. In
effect, this is what most of the data analysis methods of the book do
(Chapter 9 on conversation analysis and Chapter 10 on sociocultural
methods of analysis being exceptions). The methods outlined in Chapters 3
to 8 typically gure in research that can be characterized as normative-
qualitative-quantitative. In contrast, the data analysis methods discussed in
Chapters 11, 12, and 13 are all qualitative in nature. That is, they are directed
at identifying themes in learner language treated as content. However, it
should be noted that these methods do not preclude quantication as it is
always possible to count the frequency of the themes that have been identi-
ed. Indeed, Rod Elliss (2002) metaphor analysis attempted just this.
What this suggests, then, is that in sla the ties between research design
on the one hand and data collection methods and methods of analysis on the
other are relatively loose. Qualitative methods of data collection and of data
analysis can accompany a normative research design while, conversely,
quantitative methods of data analysis can be found in interpretive designs
and (potentially, although we know of no examples) in critical research too.
Thus, although, data analysis is clearly to be seen as a step in the research
process, it is partially independent of the research design that shapes a study.
In the chapters that follow we will see that particular methods of data
analysis are linked to particular research questions and thus to particular
bodies of ndings about sla but these links are often driven less by the
researchers commitment to a particular research design than by the need to
collect and analyse data in ways relevant to their over theoretical orientation
and research purpose. One of the main aims of this book is to explore
these links.
Conclusion
In this chapter we have endeavoured to explain why we have chosen to focus
on methods for analysing learner language and how we have approached
our presentation of the different methods. We see the study of learner lan-
guage and of its methods of analysis as an ideal way to gain an under-
standing of what the sla eld has discovered about L2 acquisition. We aim
to introduce readers to an account of how sla is done and to provide
opportunities for actually doing sla through data analysis tasks. Also, by
examining the historical and theoretical background of research that has
employed the different methods we present an overview of sla itself. The
methods divide quite clearly into those that treat learner language as
expression (linguistic form) and those that view it as content affording
information about learners attitudes and learning behaviours. The former set
12 Analysing learner language
ANALYSING LEARNER LANGUAGE
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has been primarily directed at the universal aspects of L2 acquisition, focusing
in particular at identifying the nature of learners implicit knowledge of the
L2 and the processes responsible for its development, while the latter set has
been primarily concerned with the social and psychological factors that
account for individual differences in rate of learning and ultimate achieve-
ment. sla, as a eld, is concerned with both.
This is not a book about research methodology in sla. (For such a book,
see Brown and Rodgers 2002.) However, the analysis of learner language
needs to be understood in relation to the theoretical orientations and
research purposes that guide how data are analysed. We seek to achieve this
by providing a historical and theoretical background to the research that has
utilized the different methods.
In the next chapter, we describe the various options available to the sla
researcher for collecting data, especially data consisting of learner language,
as a necessary preliminary to investigating how learner language can be
analysed.
Notes
1 The main areas of disagreement regarding the denition of competence
concern (1) whether the construct should include ability to use ones
linguistic knowledge as well as the linguistic knowledge itself and (2)
whether it should be broadly dened to include sociolinguistic, discourse
and strategic knowledge, or be restricted narrowly to linguistic know-
ledge (i.e. knowledge of phonological, lexical and grammatical systems).
Introduction 13
ANALYSING LEARNER LANGUAGE
Oxford University Press www.oup.com/elt