Chapter 3: Selecting, Refining, and Proposing a Topic for Research

1. Chapter 3: Selecting, Refining, and Proposing a Topic for Research Charles and Mertler, 2002

2. Why is the following research question less-than- appealing? 7 Criteria for topic selection (1st criterion) Is there a correlation between a non-native English speaker’s accurate use of the future perfect and his/her ability to use the past perfect conditional accurately? Perhaps you find it a bit boring…. Choose a topic that interests you!

3. 7 Criteria for topic selection (2nd criterion) • And what is wrong with this research topic? (Hint- we’ve covered this one before.) Is there a significant difference between the number of FLED 104 students at Boğaziçi who wear blue jeans to class more than three days a week and the number of people who wear other types of pants to class more than three days a week? Do we really care about such research? Choose a topic that is important.

4. 7 Criteria for topic selection (3rd criterion) Its context, theme, or perspective should seem relatively new and/or timely… Why should we care about this issue today???? “International migration has become an all-important issue for the world as a whole, and for Europe and its neighbourhood in particular, and it will remain so for decades to come.” -from the website of the migration research center in Florence, Italy Think about your own topic of research. Talk to your partner. Explain why it is important for you to study your topic in today’s world.

5. 7 Criteria for topic selection (4th, 5th, and 6th criteria) • Name 3 elements that are wrong with this topic. The following study will assess the pace of 20 children’s first language development in five different countries. It will compare it to the pace of the same children’s second language development when they begin English classes at ten years old. During the interval between first and second language acquisition, interviews will be conducted with the children’s parents and teachers. In addition, correlation studies will compare the child’s achievement in language classes vs. math and science classes. 4. Make sure you can carry out your research within the given amount of time 5. Keep the research method relatively simple 6. It must satisfy financial constraints.

6. 7 Criteria for topic selection (7th Criteria) • And, finally, one that you should all know easily… What’s wrong with the following study? The following study investigates whether or not four-year-old children have a natural ability to swim. Fifty four-year-old children will participate. Twenty-five will receive swimming lessons before they are thrown into the water. The other twenty-five will be thrown into the water without any swimming lessons. The study will look for a significant difference between the number of four-year-old children that have drowned in the two groups. 7. Make sure your study is ETHICAL!!!

7. Some Necessary Terminology • Topic (generally in the form of a sentence fragment) • Examples: • Successful teaching practices for multiethnic students • School success and age of entry into kindergarten • Using computers in the classroom to increase student achievement

8. Some Necessary Terminology • Avoid BROAD topics like • Global warming... • Which regions are we referring to? • Are we focusing on its effects on water supplies? • How about its influence on polar ice caps and the impact on polar bears, sea levels, and islands near the equator? • It’s necssary to narrow the topic...

9. Some Necessary Terminology • The following research topics are too broad. How would you narrow them? • L2 and Universal Grammar • English language teaching in Turkey • Foreign language students’ perceptions of the classroom • The effects of different types of approaches on foreign language teaching

10. Some Necessary Terminology • Avoid amorphous topics. What does amorphous mean? • The following are amorphous topics. How would you improve them? • Daily family routines and students’ involvement in the school setting • Etiler High School and problems in the classroom • The Benefits of learning a foreign language in academic contexts vague, unspecific ; hard to understand without additional description

11. Some Necessary Terminology: The problem statement revisited... • From the research problem, a ____________ emerges • Example: Is a content-based approach an effective way to teach Spanish at Galatasaray High School? • What does this question do? • Below, are examples of _______________ of the research question. • Do teachers see improvements in these students’ overall comprehension of Spanish? • How do these improvements compare to students in previous classes who were not exposed to this approach? • In Spanish-language interviews with students, which topics do they address most frequently? research question It guides the overall research process. subquestions

12. Some Necessary Terminology: Hypotheses What is the difference between the two hypotheses below? 1.)Teachers that have undergone cultural sensitivity training will have classrooms in which more students from minority backgrounds participate than the classrooms of teachers who have not participated in the training. 2.) Teachers that have undergone cultural sensitivity training will have classrooms in which a different number of students from minority backgrounds participate than the classrooms of teachers who have not participated in the training.

13. Two types of Hypotheses: 1.) is a __________________ hypothesis: it predicts change and states which way this change will occur. 2.) is a_________________ hypothesis:it predicts change, but does not state how this change will occur. directional non-directional

14. Some Necessary Terminology: The null hypothesis • The following example is a null hypothesis. How is it different from the other two forms? • There will be no difference between the amount of participation by minority students in classrooms with teachers who have undergone cultural sensitivity training vs. classrooms with teachers who have not gone through this training.  Why do researchers use the null hypothesis? It is easier to find insufficient evidence for something than sufficient evidence for it...

15. Some Necessary Terminology • What is the difference between a theory and a hypothesis?  Exercise 3.3 on page 63 A theory is broader than a hypothesis; it explains how or why a phenomenon is a certain way. A hypothesis is more specific than a theory, but often comes from a theory. It predicts a given outcome. Based on the theory of gravity, I predict that an egg will break onto someone’s head if I drop it above that person’s head from a height of twenty meters.

16. Some Necessary Terminology • Create a 1.)directional, 2.)nondirectional, and 3.)null hypothesis for the following research question: Do former YADYOK students who lived on the Kilyos campus react in a significantly more traumatic way than former YADYOK students who lived near main campus when they are presented with images of the Black Sea and sounds of waves crashing against the beach?