EDU5SLA

Support for your case study

Preliminary information

AGE of PARTICIPANT ______

If you want to work with a person under 18 years of age, you MUST have a valid ‘Working with Children Check’ and have had it approved by the Lecturer.

Valid WCC? Not applicable ( ) Yes ( ) No ( )

How did you find the participant?

Have all the required ethics processes be completed?

Participant Information Sheet (with translation if necessary):
Yes ( ) No ( )
All participant questions answered?: Yes ( ) No ( )
Consent form signed: Yes ( ) No ( )
Copies of completed Consent Form and blank Withdrawal Form left with participant or parent (with translation if necessary): Yes ( ) No ( )

Possible content for the interviews:

Remember to talk with your participant in a way that is appropriate to their age and experience. Remember to build a relationship. Get to know the participant and
help them to feel relaxed talking to you.

In that conversation you can cover the following topics but do not read these questions. Instead, build them into a natural conversation. For children, you will have
to focus on the things that they do and remember doing, e.g., games that they play, people they play with, life at school. Use concrete materials as a basis for
talking (their toys or books). Be prepared to play games and talk while playing rather than trying to set up a formal interview.

Some of the topics that you might consider addressing in one way or another:

Preliminary discussion:
When did you start learning this language?
Where did you start learning it?
Where and when do you use this language?
Please tell me about some of your experiences using the language.
What do you want to be able to do in this language?

An example of an ‘activity’ if ‘past tense’ has been identified as a feature for investigation in the preliminary discussion:
Can you tell me about something that you did over the weekend?

Reflective discussion:
What examples of people saying/writing “this feature” do you remember?
What do you remember about other times when you have tried to use “X”?
What do you find interesting/difficult about using “X”?
What would you like to change about how you use “X”?
How did it feel to know that I was recording us when we talked? Did it change the way that you talked or wrote?

Some of the topics that you could consider probing more deeply include:
1. When did you start to learn your second language? [ask adults whether their age of acquisition had an effect of their learning, and if so, how; ask children about
who they speak with]

2. Tell me about how your second language learning opportunities and experiences? Was your learning in a classroom setting?
[If in a classroom context, ask about years of study, type of instruction [e.g. immersion], teachers’ backgrounds, level of motivation to learn, etc.] [If outside of a classroom context, ask about where and when the second language was spoken, motivation and reasons for learning, level of communication required,
whether there was a need for literacy, etc.]

3. How often did you use your second language in the past and how often do you use it now? [ask about with whom, where and about what types of topics]

4. How would you rate your speaking in your second language on a can-do scale?
I can
… argue with friends,
… engage in heated ethical debates or debates about the rules of a game,
… discuss work issues with my boss and/or colleagues or school issues with my teacher,
… have a conversation with my children/spouse/siblings/parents etc. about their daily activities,
… perform basic communicative functions such as talking to someone for the first time.

[Ask if there is anything that they think they couldn’t possibly do in their second language for either social or linguistic reasons (e.g. swear, pray, start an
argument, write a formal letter, write their homework)]

4. How happy are you with your level of competence in your second language? What aspects of your second language would you like to improve and why? [are there any
grammar, vocabulary, or pronunciation issues in your second language that give you particular difficulties? If so, ask for elaboration – did they learn these things
at school?]

5. Do you think you are a different type of person when you speak your first and second language? [do you think you put on a different persona, act in a different way,
use the second language to express certain emotions and not others, etc.?] POTENTIAL ACTIVITIES FOR LANGUAGE SAMPLES WHEN ANALYSING ENGLISH AS A SECOND LANGUAGE

Create a relaxed atmosphere. Spend some time talking about pointless things to help both yourself and the participant to adjust to being with one another. Check
informally that they know that they are being recorded and that they agree to being recorded (e.g. Is it ok for me to leave the recorder on?).

You should encourage the participant to talk extensively. Inform them that the content of what they say is irrelevant for this task. If they can talk more about
fictitious events, they should do so. When participants find the task enjoyable, they focus less on their speech and the data are often of better quality.

EXAMPLES

For eliciting present progressives
Engage in a game of charades where you “act” and the participant “guesses”

For eliciting past tense
Tell me about where you have lived and what you saw and did there [e.g., I once lived in….] Imagine you were a famous character in history. Describe what you saw and did.

For eliciting the present tense
Tell me about your best friend.
Describe the kinds of housework you, your partner and your children do in a typical day.
Tell me how to prepare your favourite food.

For eliciting questions
If you could go back in time, who would you like to interview and what you would like to ask?
What are good questions for teachers who want to get their students to talk?
Provide some examples of questions parents should never ask their children.

For a range of other topics [definite articles, sounds, etc] Tell me your children’s favourite bed-time story.
What is your favourite TV program and tell me about the last episode you watched.
What is your favourite movie? Why did you enjoy it and what was it about?

For pragmatic issues
Role plays in which participants imagine themselves in different situations either initiating or responding to speech acts, e.g. apologies and compliments – make sure
that you include different combinations of participants (age, social status, friendship with one another, gender, more or less formal settings (party, formal meeting,
power relationships)
STRUCTURE OF THE CASE STUDY REPORT
Your 5,000 word report should use the following headings.

A. Introduction: This section introduces your research and outlines the main points in your report.
B. Ethics: This section provides basic factual information about the ethics processes that you went through and reports on any ethical issues that arose (as well
as how you responded to them)
C. Case: This section introduces your participant and their language learning experiences.
D. Language Feature: This section outlines the grammatical, phonological, pragmatic or lexical issue under study.
E. Theoretical Framework: This section can
EITHER: outline the theoretical framework of your study and explain why you have chosen this particular framework for your analysis
OR: it can outline different theoretical approaches which have considered your language feature.
F. Methodology: This section describes the methodology that you used to identify, collect and analyse the data.
G. Findings: This section outlines your findings based on data contained in the interview and language sample.
H. Discussion: This section evaluates the available literature discussed in (4) in light of your findings.
I. Conclusion: This section succinctly summarises the main point/s in your report.
J. List of References (APA 6 format)
K. Appendixes (Handouts, Interview transcripts, Consent forms etc.)
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