Abstract
Research methods in second language acquisition (SLA) are used to address questions about SLA processes, developmental sequences, conditions, contexts, and outcomes, and to identify their linguistic, social, cultural, and cognitive characteristics. Methodology is both eclectic and innovative, with application and adaptation of approaches from the social sciences, most notably, linguistics, psychology, anthropology, and education, and with increasing development and refinement of instruments, procedures, and techniques within the field itself. Emphasis has been more consistent with nomothetic than hermeneutic research. However, questions raised by the complexity of SLA phenomena have required approaches from both traditions. Thus, research design can be theory-driven and hypothesis testing, as well as data-driven, through pattern identification, interpretation, and analysis. Data may be collected longitudinally and cross-sectionally, under instructed and untutored conditions, following experimental intervention, during naturally occurring social interaction, and through elicitation, interview, and observation. Analyses employ quantitative procedures, including descriptive and inferential statistics, and qualitative approaches of triangulation, description, reflection, and interpretation (see reviews in Volume 4).
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Pica, T. (1997). Second Language Acquisition Research Methods. In: Hornberger, N.H., Corson, D. (eds) Encyclopedia of Language and Education. Encyclopedia of Language and Education, vol 8. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-4535-0_9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-4535-0_9
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