Lecture 3

ETHNOGRAPHIC RESEARCH
 Compulsory Readings
Nunan. D. 1992. Research Methods in Language Learning. Cambridge: CUP
(P. 52 - 73)
Brown, J.D& Rodgers T.S. Doing Second Language Research. OUP. 2002
(P.53-112)
Mackey, A.. & S.M. Gass, Second Language Research, Methodology and
Design, London: Lawrence Erlbaun Associates Publishers (P.162-185)
Coffey, A. & Atkinson, P. 1996, Making Sense of Qualitative Data,
Complementary Research Strategies, CA: SAGE Publications.
May, T. (ed) 2002, Qualitative Research in Action, London: Sage
Publications.
McMillan, j. & S.Schumacher, Research in Education, A Conceptual
Introduction, Harper Collins College Publishers.
Newman, P. & Ratliff, M. 2001, Linguistics Fieldwork, Cambridge: CUP
Patton, M.Q., 2002., Qualitative research and evaluation methods, 3rd Ed.
London: Sage Publications
Reed, A.J.S. & V.E. Bergermann, 2005, A Guide to Observation, Participation, and
Reflection in the Classroom, Boston: McGraw Hill
Wajnryb, R. 1992, Classroom Observation Tasks, Cambridge: CUP.
 What is ethnography?

Ethnography, which seeks to understand and

represent the points of view of the members of a
particular culture, is a primary approach to data
collection and analysis in anthropology and sociology.
 Ethnographic research
Ethnographic research is one form of
qualitative research which concerns with
studying human behavior within the context
in which that behavior would occur naturally
and in which the role of the researcher would
not affect the normal behavior of the
subjects.
 Ethnographic research
Ethnography research requires:
- much training, skill and dedication
- a great store on the collection and
interpretation of data
- question and hypothesis emerge during
the course of investigation, rather than
beforehand
 What is ethnography research

• Ethnographic research uses naturalistic

observation to record systematically the
behaviour of the subject under study in its
own settings. Its root is in ethnography:
anthropology and sociology and the focus is
on cultural aspects of behaviour
Ethnographic instruments:
•Observation:

•Interview:
• Field-note:

• Audio taping: •Video taping:

 Characteristics of ethnographic
research
• Contextual: carried out in the context in
which the subjects normally live and work
• Unobtrusive: the researcher does not try to
control or handle the phenomenon
• Longitudinal: the research takes a relative
long time
• Collaborative: the research involves the
interaction between participants
• Interpretative: interpretative analysis
of data
• Organic: ethnographers may obtain
data which do not support their
original questions or hypothesis but
are suggestive of others.
 Procedures for conducting
ethnographic research:
•Define the phenomenon to be described.
•Use qualitative methods to gather data.
•Look for patterns in the data.
•Validate initial conclusions by returning to
the data or collecting more data.
•Recycle through the process or the data.
 The Ethnographic Research Cycle
3 Collecting data:
• Interview
2 • Questionnaire
• Observation
Asking question • Audio taping
• Video taping
The group • Field-notes
• …
under study
1

Selecting the site

The researcher

4
6
Analyzing data
Writing up the
ethnographic research

5 Making up the hypothesis

 Principles of ethnography

Two sets of hypotheses about human behaviours:

• naturalistic-ecological

• qualitative – phynomenological
 Naturalistic-ecological

• Context has significant influence on

behaviour

• Investigating natural contexts: field

research, real life situation, real world
 Qualitative-phenomenological

• Belief: there is no objective reality

independent of subjective perceptions
• Human behaviour must be investigated with
subjective perception and belief systems of
researcher
• No objective observer
• Cultural meanings are revealed by the
behaviours of the subject under study
 Principles of ethnography
• The use of participant and non-participant
observation
• A focus on natural settings
• Use of subjective views and belief systems of
the participant in the research process
• Not to manipulate the study variables
• Holism and thick explanation
 Low Inference Descriptors Vs High
Inference Descriptors

• Low Inference Descriptors (LID):

Behaviours easily observed and agreed

• High Inference Descriptors (HID):

Behaviours requires much inference
 Contrasting ethnographic research
and psychometric research
Psychometry Ethnography
Principles:
Formulating a Identifies causal relationships Central importance
research problem: among variables by extracting given to context.
from context.
Nature of goals: Hypothesis then data.. Data then hypothesis.

Application of results: To generalise from samples to Comparability

population.
and translatability
Characteristics: Experimental Contextual
Manipulated/ High control Unobtrusive/ Low control
Deductive Inductive or heuristic
Analytic Synthetic
 External reliability

• To what extent can the findings from

a study carried out in a particular site
be generalized to other sites?
• Threat:
Based on detailed description of a particular
context/ situation  difficult for outsiders
to conduct another research
To overcome this:

Explicit about 5 key aspects

• Status of researcher
• Choice of informants
• Social situation & conditions
• Constructs & premises
• Method of data collection & analysis
Questions to be asked:
• Is the status of the researcher made explicit?
• Does the researcher provide a detailed description of
subjects?
• Does the research provide a detailed description of
the context and conditions under which the research
was carried out?
• Are constructs and premises explicitly defined?
• Are data collection and analysis methods presented
in detail?
 Internal reliability
• Can an independent researcher come to the
same conclusion as the original investigators
when he/ she analyzes the same primary
data?
• Threat
Ethnographer rarely uses standardized
instruments  difficult for independent
researcher to reanalyze data themselves
 To overcome this:

• Use low inference descriptors

• Multiple researchers/ participant
researchers
• Peer examination
• Use mechanically recorded data
Questions to be asked:
• Does the research use low inference
descriptors?
• Does it employ more than one researcher/
collaborator?
• Does the researcher invite peer examination
or cross-site corroboration?
• Are data mechanically recorded?
 Internal validity

To what extent the research is measuring what

it purports to measure?
 To overcome this:
Employ data collection and analysis
techniques:
+ ethnographer as a participant
+ informants interviewing
+ participant observation
+ ethnographic analysis
 Questions to be asked:
• Is it likely that maturational changes
occurring during the course of the research
will affect outcomes?
• Is there bias in the selection of informants?
• Is the growth or attrition of informants over
time likely to affect outcomes?
• Have alternative explanations for the
phenomena been rigorously examined and
excluded?
 External validity

To what extent can research outcomes be

extended to other groups?
 To overcome this:

Describe phenomena explicitly so that they

can be compared with other studies/ carry out
multiple-site investigation
 Questions to be asked:
• Are some phenomena unique to a particular
group or site and therefore non-comparable?
• Are outcomes due in part to the presence of
the research?
• Are cross-group comparisons invalidated by
unique historical experiences of particular
groups?
• To what extent are abstract terms and
constructs shared across different groups and
research sites?
 Criteria for assessing ethnographic reports

1. What are the goals of ethnography? What is the

research problem?
2. In what contexts was the research conducted?
3. What is the group or case under study?
4. What conceptual and theoretical frame works
inform the study?
5. What field techniques are used? For how much
time? In what contexts? What was the role of the
ethnographer?
6. What analysis strategies were developed and
used? What levels and types of context
attended to in interpretation?
7. What recurrent patterns are described?
8. What cultural interpretation is provided?
9. What is the contribution of the study to our
knowledge of socio-cultural factors involved
in schooling in second language and culture?
10. What are the stated implications for
teaching?
 Questions for Tutorial 3
1. What is ethnographic research? State the difference between
an ethnographic research and a psychometric research and
give example from applied linguistic studies.

2. Find a report of an ethnographic research in applied

linguistics and give your comments on the following points:
- The research question
- The contexts the research was conducted
- What is group or case under study?
- What conceptual and theoretical frame works inform the
study?
- What field techniques were used? For how much time? In
what contexts? What were the roles of the ethnographer?
3. Find a report of a ethnographic research in applied
linguistics and give your comments on:
- What field techniques were used? For how much time? In
what contexts? What were the roles of the ethnographer?
- What analysis strategies were developed and used? what
levels and types of context were attended to in
interpretation?
- What recurrent patterns are described?
- What cultural interpretation is provided?
- What are the stated implications for teaching?