Diary Studies

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Introspective methods
Introspection
The process of observing and reflecting
on ones thoughts, feelings, motives,
reasoning processes, and mental states
with a view to determining the ways in
which these processes and states
determine our behaviour (Nunan, 1994)

Introspective techniques
Techniques in which data collection is
simultaneous with the mental
events/tasks being investigated

Some introspective
methods
Think-aloud techniques/protocols
The respondents are asked to complete
a task or solve a problem and verbalise
their thought processes as they do so
They are recorded on tape

Diary studies

1. Defining Diary Studies

A diary study is a first-person account of
a previously identified personal
experience, documented through regular,
candid entries in a personal journal and
then analysed for recurring patterns or
salient events.
Bailey, K. M., 1991: 'Diary Studies of classroom language
learning: the doubting game and the believing game', in
Sadtono, E. (ed.) Language Acquisition and the
Second/Foreign Language Classroom, Singapore: SEAMEO
Regional Language Centre (Anthology Series 28): 60-102

 Other labels used:

Logs
Journals

Useful to distinguish between:

diaries 'as an open-ended narrative genre'
in which 'any kind of information - factual,
feelings, attitudes, reactions - may in
principle be included'
diaries in diary studies 'commissioned for
research purposes'. In this last case
'although the diary remains a personal
account, the domain is quite tightly
specified by the researcher ...'.
McDonough, J. and McDonough, S., 1997: Research Methods
for English Language Teachers, London, New York: Arnold

Ethical issues
The distinction is quite useful because it
mitigates one of the major ethical
problems posed by diary studies: namely
how ethical it is to intrude on people's
thoughts recorded in their diaries. If the
diarist is aware that the diary is kept for
research purposes, the question of
intrusion is brought in the open.

2. Development of Diary
Studies
First proposed by Progoff (1975), as a
research instrument to develop selfawareness in psychotherapy.
Schumann and Schumann (1977) - first
researchers to use diaries as a language
learning research instrument
Baileys (1980) diary study where she
retrospected upon her experience as a
language learner of French - one of the
most quoted in applied linguistics research

3. Types of Diary
Studies
Diary studies with introspective (firstperson) analysis - diary studies in which
the diarist and the analyst are one and the
same
Diary studies with non-introspective
analysis diary studies in which the
researcher does the analysis of the
diary/ies kept by (a) different person/s

4. Diary Studies
Procedures
1) Gathering background details (account of
diarists personal histories), if the case
2) Keeping a daily record (systematic
retrospective account of perceived experiences)
3) Primary editing (diaries revised for public
consumption by diarist)
4) Preliminary analysis (preliminary reading of
data and identification of issues)
5) Selection of issues to focus on (design a
category system)
6) Final analysis
7) Preparation of the final report

Criticism
Validity of results problematic:
cannot be extrapolated to other cases,
so they are not reliable and valid
methods for conducting research
the subjectivity of the researcher

Strengths
These kinds of data cannot be collected in any
other way
They provide rich insights into some of the
psychological, social and cultural factors
They allow the researcher to have a look inside
the black box (Long, 1980) It gives access to
otherwise unobservable aspects of the
researched topic
Almost complete open-endedness
Very useful for exploratory, hypothesis seeking
processes
The subjectivity of the researcher

Task 1
Try to solve the following anagram:
NHPEHP
and verbalise orally what goes on in
your heads while doing it

Task 2
For five minutes try to verbalise in
writing what goes on in your heads
about diary studies at this moment

Assignment
Keep a diary for a week
Keep a daily record of anything you
consider important connected to your
learning experiences, both curricular and
extracurricular. Some possible issues to
focus on:

what you have learnt

under what circumstances
where you were
why you think you have learnt that particular thing
whether you think it will be useful
how you feel about keeping a diary