Blog 10 - Hall chapter 7

This chapter focuses on research and how to conduct "good research." One important distinction that Hall points out in the introduction is that research is not based on "one's professional position" but rather on "an individual's degree of expertise..." (p. 127). Research covers a whole different area than a professor. Research is based more on finding facts and information to verify a hypothesis or question. In this chapter, Hall tackles the difficult task of defining how proper research should take place and some of the implications that research has.

Hall points out the different views expressed by traditional linguists and the sociocultural perspective in relation to several premises that are embedded in the sociocultural perspective. These premises are the nature of knowledge, how we gain knowledge, and the nature of inquiry. In these three premises, Hall's main point is to say that society impacts our knowledge and how we gain knowledge. Through observing society, we are able to see how people interact, how we make our way in the world. Research is, in part, looking and observing people: how they interact within society. If you really study a person in society, you are able to learn a lot about them.

I, for one, love to people watch. I find it so interesting to observe people around me. Everyone has different mannerisms, temperaments, and ways of interacting with others, and it is so fascinating to me. Through just observing a person I am able to see a part of them that is intimate, in a way. For example, the other day I was on campus and was just sitting and watching people walk by. There was a young gentleman who was handicapped, but he had a huge smile on his face and was humming to himself. While others look at him and see a person who is unable to care for himself properly, I saw a person who was happy; who would be able to lift up someone's spirit through relating to them on a deeper level. Research, through observing society, is able to reveal things about people that cuts to who they really are.

Next, Hall talks about the difference between quantitative versus qualitative. The former deals with figures and amounts while the latter deals with more interactive methods. Hall addresses these two methods because it is important to know how to gather research. Some research involves numbers and graphs, while other research involves observation and interaction. Yet, Hall maintains that a proper use of combining the two methods is what makes research successful.

One thing that Hall mentions that really made me think was the part on transcription issues. I had never thought about the way grammar changed the intonation of a sentence. Hall maintains that it is important that we choose the correct transcription in order for our research to be as accurate as possible. Even though non-verbal cues are not seen on paper, the grammar that we choose (periods, underlining, colons, etc.) do convey a certain intonation.

The last thing that Hall writes about in this chapter is ethics. When I think of ethics in research, the only thing that I think about is not being biased, yet Hall points out other important issues to consider as well. Hall talks about being as clear as possible when writing/asking questions, identifying the data needed, being clear about the sources, being fair to the participants, and the confidentiality issue. I have seen some research questionnaires where the questions where very vague or to broad so that the person answering the questions did not know what to put down. This can skew the results so much that the research can not be called accurate. Research involves many aspects and considerations.

At first I did not understand how research was involved in teaching language, but Hall explains in the summary that research also involves writing and reading professional journals, collaborating with other teachers, and just exploring unfamiliar areas. This is all part of becoming a good teacher. We need to know what all is out there. We need to explore new methods and techniques. We need to realize that we will not become good, effective teachers without researching how to become a good teacher. We must master the appropriate methods and techniques, but we can only do that through learning about them and researching what is available to us.