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04 major challenges in approaching research as an early-career/ young researcher
1. Deciding on a Topic
2. Deciding on Research Questions
3. Finding Relevant Theories and Theorists
4. Choosing the best Design and Methods
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CHALLENGE 1: WHAT TO CHOOSE?
DECIDING ON A TOPIC
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Consider:
• Is it of your concern/interest? • Is it of others’ concern/interest? • Are the results/outcomes not so obvious? • Does it help to demonstrate your knowledge and skills? • Is it feasible?
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From critical reading …
• (1) No four go! • (2) M0^ng Hem Tha‘nh th0^y -Danh‘ We^n –Dj• (3) …..vCl]`])iF_µ`/v\µº]\[' ]\[º]‘…….!!!! (º’ ]\[†|µ]\
[(¬? ])]F_µ` †† |Cl† §µ ]<º ††|F_? 3]F_†’ †Pvµº(’ ])(. 3º]~
Gen9X’s language
To this …
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(Version 1.4) http://www.mediafire.com/?ml1oxwjylcn
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Gen 9X (Vietnamese born in the 1990s)
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Gen 9X vis-à-vis the Rising Generation Worldwide
• ‘Millennial Generation’ (Howe & Strauss, 2000, p. 4)
• ‘Generation M’, (Media, Millenials, Mobile, Multitaskers, Multisensory) (Cvetkovic & Lackie, 2009),
• ‘Generation I’ (Internet) (Bill Gates, "The Challenge and Promise of "Generation I"," 1999),
• ‘Generation Z’ (Walliker, 2008)
• ‘beyond Y’ (McGregor, 2010)
both similarities and differences with Vietnamese Gen9X
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English mixed with Vietnamese
Examples
Code-switching ‘comment’ bài; ‘send’ cái ‘file’; ‘Damn’, tao ‘stupid’ quá, ‘sorry’ mày etc.
Spelling mixture làm wen, làm shao, zui zẻ, làm j
Word-by-word translation
Like is afternoon’ (Thích+thì+chiều), ‘No four go’ (Vô+tư+đi)
Abbreviations and homophones
2 (‘hai’ = hi!), 4EV(forever), g9 (goodnight), u (you),
Transliteration măn-ni (money), kiu (cute), hao-a-diu (how are you?) teo-mi (tell me)
Whole speech in English
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Consider:
• Is it of your concern/interest? • Is it of others’ concern/interest? • Are the results/outcomes not so obvious? • Does it help to demonstrate your knowledge and skills? • Is it feasible?
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CHALLENGE 2: NARROWING DOWN!
DECIDING ON RESEARCH QUESTIONS
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Consider
• Narrow it down: No scope is too narrow!• Always justify your choices/narrowing • What is new/what is the expected
contribution? • Choose a nice, catchy title!
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Gen 9X TESOL Trainees as among the most ‘critical’ cases:
• Most exposed to English language and Western values;
• Most likely to extend their language and values to generations as moral guides;
• Most likely to be in sharp values-language conflicts
language-values concern: Across time, space & identities
Gen9X
Gen9X
Gen9X TESOL
Trainees
Gen9X TESOL
Trainees
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1. Rationales of the Study
• Gen9X TESOL trainees as a ‘critical’ group in the language and values concerns of their generation.
• The media reports also need problematizing for its: – Distant positioning; – Essentialist depiction; – Voice, agency & other possibilities failed to be acknowledged.
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Vietnamese Gen9 TESOL Trainees
in the Struggle of Voices for their
Language and Values
cellent :)acerbated :(
aggerated :Oor
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2. Purposes of the Study
Time; Space & Identities
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Research Questions
1. What are Gen9X Vietnamese TESOL trainees’ voice(s) regarding: – The impacts of English language learning and teaching
(inside and outside the language classroom) on their uses of both Vietnamese and English languages; and
– The institutional values they wish to promote in the English language classroom in Vietnam.
2. To what extent and how could they negotiate a space for these voices in the English language classroom discourse?
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CHALLENGE 3: FIND A GIANT’S SHOULDER!
FINDING RELEVANT THEORSISTS AND THEORIES
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Consider
• Major theorists and major theories associated with these names
• Read them first, and other successors• How far could it be applied in Vietnamese
contexts and your topic? • Critical reading, problematizing, take side
and build up the theoretical framework as you go.
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Typical education theorists • John Dewey • Karl Marx • Ferdinand de Saussure • Mikhail Bakhtin • Pierre Bourdieu• Michel Foucault • Paulo Freire• Stuart Hall • Edward Said • Lev Vigostky
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John Dewey
• Instrumentalism • Pragmatic epistemology/ metaphysics/
ethics/ aesthetics• Education and experience • Reflection
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Saussure
• Structuralism • Structural linguistics • Language and parole • Sign, signifier, and signified
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Bakhtin
• Utterance • Dialogism • Heteroglossia • Voice • Genre • Social language
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Pierre Bourdieu
• Practice • Field • Habitus • Taste • Cultural Capital
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Michel Foucault
• Discourse • Genealogy• Power • Ethics of self
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Paulo Freire
• Critical pedagogy • Conscientization • Dialogue
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Stuart Hall
• Ideology • Culture • Popular culture
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Edward Said
• Orientalism • Imperialism
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Vigotsky
• Learning and development • Internalization • Thought-language relations • Zone of proximal development• Constructivism
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Overview 1. Rationale of the Study
2. Purposes of the Study
3. Literature Review: Theoretical and Conceptual Framework - English language classroom discourse and its
trainers/trainees in Vietnam - Voice in the English language classroom in Vietnam
4. Methodology & Methods
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3.1. The English language classroom in Vietnam
• As a rendezvous of Western and traditional values– Institutional values (Rokeach, 1979)
– Traditional (educational) values > hierarchy and respect (Phan, 2008; Valentin, 2007)
> knowledge (Trần, 1996)
> affection and humanity (Trần, 1996; Phan, 2008)
– Western values (Phillipson (1992), Pennycook (1994), Canagarajah (2003) & Holliday (2005))
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The English language classroom in Vietnam and its trainers & trainees
• As non-neutral in the language – values concern – Vietnamese ‘contaminated’ by English language
learning – The loss of cultural identities (Hitchcock, 1994; Marr & Rosen,
1998; Valentin, 2007; Pennycook, 1994; Tsui & Tollefson, 2007a)
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Problematizing …
• The Concerns about the Englishization of the Mother Tongue: – L2 not necessary a threat to L1 (Tsui & Tollefson, 2007b;
Canagarajah, 2003)
– Englishization could assist the young generation in their adaptation to a changing world (McGregor, 2010; Canagarajah, 2003)
– Gen9Xers’ actively resisting and negotiating with it (Kramer-Dahl, 2009)
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Problematizing (cont.)
• the Concerns about the Westernization of Traditional Values– Values as an essentialist (D'Andrade, 2008) vs. non-
essentialist concept (Raths, Harmin, & Simon, 1966) or both (Rokeach, 1979)
– The possibility of value changes (Rokeach, 1979)
– The continuity rather than sudden fragmentation (Rokeach, 1979; Hitchcock,1994)
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3.2. Voice • In critical pedagogy: as a means of participation
(Kamler, 2001,)
• In this study: – With both representational and discursive senses
– As a means of: > Struggle> Engagement
– As silence (Pennycook, 1994)
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Voice (cont.)
• In this study (cont.) – As situated, resisted, negotiated,
appropriated, changing (hooks, 1989; Canagarajah, 2003)
– As individual and collective (Giroux, 1997)
– As a cultural concept (Trần, 1996)
> Language of love > Possibilities for the language of critique,
(when appropriated)
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Language of Love & Conformity(Willett & Jeannot, 1993)
(Possibilities for) Language of Critique (Willett & Jeannot, 1993)
“Một sự nhịn, chín sự lành”(A little silence brings a lot of peace)
“Cá không ăn muối cá uơn – Con cãi cha mẹ trăm đường con hư”
((Like) fish without salt is stale; a child without obedience to his parents is surely
spoiled)
“Chim khôn hót tiếng rảnh rang - Người khôn nói tiếng dịu dàng dễ nghe”
(The clever bird twitters in a leisurely manner, The wise person talks with a
gentle pleasing voice)
“Lời nói chẳng mất tiền mua - Lựa lời mà nói cho vừa lòng nhau”
(it doesn’t cost to be polite; choose the words that please each other)
Voice (cont.): In Vietnamese traditional proverbs
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Voice in the English language classroom
Giroux (1997)
Canagarajah (2003)
Pennycook (1994)
03 discourses of educational practices
The Periphery English language classroom discourse
03 forms of students’ voice regarding the cultural politics of English
-Discourse of production -Discourse of text analysis -Discourse of lived culture
- the participants in the discourse of production and of lived culture- the Periphery and the Center
- discursive actions - linguistic actions - subjective actions
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Conceptual framework
CENTERCENTER
PERIPHERY (Vietnam)PERIPHERY (Vietnam)
English Language Classroom
English Language Classroom
Gen9X TESOL Trainees
Gen9X TESOL Trainees
The discourse of lived cultureThe discourse
of lived culture
The discourse of productionThe discourse of production
The discourse of text analysisThe discourse
of text analysis
Voice (*)Voice (*)
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CHALLENGE 4: DO IT NOW, BUT HOW?
METHODS AND METHODOLOGY
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Consider
• Research paradigm: Epistemology & ontology
• Research design • Research methods • Again! Always justify your choices.
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Level 2 inferences:
Case Study
(Tentative) Design and Methodology: A case study with mixed methods
Vietnamese 9X TESOL Trainees in the research site
Participants
Vietnamese 9X TESOL Trainees
Level 1 inferences: Mixed Methods
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(Tentative) Design and Methodology (cont.)
• Case Study as necessary and suitable (Yin (1994, p. 1)
• Mixed Methods: quan QUAL – Mixed methods as feasible (Johnson & Christensen, 2008; Yin,
1994) and facilitating – The sequence as feasible (Creswell, 2005; Johnson &
Christensen, 2008) and useful (Johnson & Christensen, 2008)
– Dominant status for practical and ontological reasons (Freire, 1985)
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Problems with Learning about Silenced Voices: Liberation or Neo-oppression?
• Paradigm: Constructivism• Positioning: ‘ideological shifts’ (Canagarajah 2003)
• Methods: Qualitative as dominant; survey questionnaires
• Techniques: – valuing and validating their contributions; reading
the subtexts; indirect data collection (O'Toole & Beckett, 2010)
– generate themes (Freire, 2009)
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Methods and Procedure
• Stage 1: Case Study Pilot• Stage 2: Preliminary Analysis & Study
Design Refined • Stage 3: Primary Data Collection • Stage 4: Data Analysis
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Methods and Procedure (cont.): Focusing on Stage 3
Individual Interviews (selected by the survey respondent) or Focused Groups (selected by the survey respondent
and homogeneity (Johnson & Christensen, 2008) )≥20 interviews
Realia/Documents(as allowed by the participants)
Survey Questionnaires (stratified and cluster random sampling) ≥250 TESOL trainees
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Research Site: Department of English Language Teacher Training, University of Languages and International Studies, Hanoi (Vietnam)
• as a ‘typical’ case, ‘meeting the criteria typical of the phenomenon’ (Johnson & Christensen 2008)– the principal TESOL training institution in Vietnam
– a frequented rendezvous of traditional and Western values (training objectives, historical background etc.)
– a site of growing cultural concerns (fostered use of Internet, CLT, separate & minor courses on two cultures, lived culture of Gen9X)
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Methods and Procedure (cont.): Focusing on Stage 4 (Data Analysis)
• Quantitative analysis to identify (possible) trends, extremes, and (possible) new themes: – Using factors in the survey questionnaires as a
typology (Caracelli & Greene, 1993, cited in Creswell, 2005).
– Following up on outliers or Extreme Cases (Caracelli & Greene, 1993, cited in Creswell, 2005)
• Qualitative analysis to develop categories system (Johnson & Christensen, 2008)
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THANK YOU FOR YOUR KIND ATTENTION
