Читать книгу Research Methods in Language Teaching and Learning - Группа авторов - Страница 48

The aim of educational research is to contribute to our knowledge of how to improve the effectiveness of education and studies should therefore promote the generation of practical implications that are likely to improve the quality of learning and teaching. However, there are many studies that fail to do so since their findings are limited to describing a situation, diagnosing a problem, and/or revealing relationships between different constructs. This indicates that some researchers ignore actual practical classroom problems.

As discussed in my dissertation (Uztosun, 2013), although teaching speaking was a major issue in ELT in Turkey, to the best of my knowledge no study had been conducted to investigate teaching EFL speaking through a research methodology that could generate practical implications. My study addressed this gap; within Turkey it was the first study based on action research methodology in an EFL speaking class. These preoccupations parallel the main purpose of grounded theory methodology, which is guiding researchers to develop theoretical understanding by focusing on their data rather than relying on existent theories (Perry, 2005). This perceptive was important for this study because theoretical assumptions were limited to the characteristics of effective EFL speaking classes and positive outcomes of student negotiation. For that reason, I needed to draw new theoretical knowledge from my data regarding the implementation of student negotiation in an EFL speaking classes. This knowledge allowed me to achieve my research objective, which was generating practical implications to foster student engagement in EFL speaking activities.