Introductory concepts and

definitions
Dr. Codruta Gosa
codrutagosa@yahoo.co.uk
codruta.gosa@e-uvt.ro
Our course
• Introductory concepts
• Ethics in research
• The research proposal
• Quantitative research: logic, methodology,
methods, analysis
• Qualitative research: logic, methodology,
methods
• Data analysis in qualitative research
• The research report
Still, what is research?
In the most profound sense, research simply
means trying to find answers to questions…to
learn more about the world around us. …Or in
short, research is disciplined inquiry. (Dörnyei,
2007)
Key words
• Rigorous
• Systematic
▫ Through appropriate
 Research question(s)
 Research method(s)
Research is Question(s) driven

•Think of your BA paper

▫ Try to formulate a
question that drives it
Two ways to find answers to questions
• By looking at what other people have said
(labelled as ‘secondary’, ‘conceptual’, ‘library’
research)
• By conducting your own data-based
investigation (labelled as ‘primary’, ‘empirical’
research)
Classification of research
• According to the purpose of research
• According to the basic location of
research
• According to the research strategies
Types of research: purpose

• Explanatory: seeks an explanation of

a situation or problem (causal
relationships), quantitative and/or
qualitative
 Experiments are seen as most
appropriate for explanatory work
• Descriptive: seeks to elicit the characteristics
of a particular social phenomenon from a certain
group of people, i.e. present a certain social
status quo

▫ Surveys are seen as most appropriate for

descriptive work
• Exploratory: to find out what is happening,
seek new insights, to assess phenomena in a new
light, usually qualitative
▫ Case studies are seen as most appropriate for
exploratory work
Types of research: location
• Library
• Natural environment: associated with
ethnography (the researcher becomes part of the
group under study)
• Fieldwork: used to refer to the collection of
data using observational methods
• Laboratory
Types of research: strategy
Two research paradigms both ontologically and
epistemologically grounded

They are:
• Positivism versus interpretivism
• Quantitative versus qualitative
Quantitative vs. qualitative
Survey Case study
Bird’s eye view Worm’s eye view
Large amount of data Small amount of data
Numerical and statistical Word-based analyses
analyses
Generalisable Non-genearalisable
Test hypotheses Exploratory
Deductive Inductive
Etic Emic
 Think…
• Re-visit your overarching research question
• What will be your corpus?
▫ Respondents-based?
▫ Document/texts-based?
▫ A combination?
• What approach will you use:
▫ Quantitative?
▫ Qualitative?
▫ Both?
• What methods will you employ?
▫ Survey?
▫ (Quasi) Experiment?
▫ Case study?
References
Dörnyei, Z, 2007: Research Methods in Applied
Linguistics, Oxford: Oxford University Press
Robson, C. 2002.: Real World Research; A Resource
for Social Scientists and Practitioner-Researchers,
(2nd ed)Oxford: Blackwell