FL/ECI 505

YOUR ACTION RESEARCH PROJECT

Your final project for this course is to conduct a modest action research project and write the associated research article. Action research is what teachers do when they ask themselves important questions about the learning that is taking place in their classrooms. In Chapter 7 of the book, Case Studies of Teacher Development by Barbara Levin, she answers the question, “So what? What do these case studies tell us?” As Levin points out, it is this “So what?” question that is crucial to ask during the planning, analysis, interpretation, and dissemination stages of every research study.

Therefore, these are the kinds of questions that you need to ask yourself in formulating your research project: 1) first of all, identify an important question or problem that you would like to address and find an answer to; 2) make sure that your study will have relevance and be able to answer the “So what?” question – in other words, “What is the point of your research?” and “What can we learn from the research?” Your decision will also be controlled by the access to students that you have during this summer session.

Once you have formulated your important question, please tell me what you plan to investigate before you begin your research. In that way we can decide together the direction that you would like to take in working on your project.

When you have identified your question you can prepare the first half of your research paper. Next, conduct your study as you planned, gather your data, conduct your data analysis (that's right, some basic statistics), and then you are ready to write up your results and conclusions. This type of research paper is one type of submission accepted by the Foreign Language Annals. You are therefore asked to abide by the “Guidelines for Manuscript Preparation” used by this scholarly journal. Briefly, here is the general outline of the guidelines for your reference:

General Elements of a Manuscript

Manuscripts submitted to Foreign Language Annals must contain the following elements (unless designated “optional” in the order listed:

  1. Title page
  2. Abstract
  3. Text body (see the APA manual for the typical organization of research reports, theoretical works, etc. or see the Banks Library Page)
    • Topic introduction
    • Literature review
    • Research questions/hypotheses
    • Study steps(subject selection, data collection and analysis, etc.)
    • Results
    • Conclusion
    • Future directions
  4. Acknowledgments (optional)
  5. Notes (optional)
  6. Reference List
  7. Tables and Figures (optional)
  8. Appendices (optional)

Additional Links:

Rubric

  3 2 1 0
Length 10-12 7-9 5-6 < 5
Title page and abstract Very complete, concise, clear description of project. Complete, concise, clear description of project. Somewhat complete, concise, clear description of project. Very incomplete description of project.
Literature review Context is very clear; very concise review of previous research that informs current project. Problem is very clearly stated. Context is clear; concise review of previous research that informs current project. Problem is clearly stated. Context is mostly clear; relatively concise review of previous research that informs current project. Problem is not clearly stated. Research context is incomplete or inadequate; problem is not understandable
Methodology Problem is very clearly stated; proposed steps for data collection and analysis are very clear and complete. Problem is clearly stated, and proposed steps are mostly comprehensive and complete regarding data collection and analysis. Problem is somewhat clearly stated; some steps are not clearly described or included regarding data collection and analysis. Problem and/or data collection is very incomplete or inadequate
Results Very clear and complete explanation and analysis of data. Mostly clear and complete explanation and analysis of data. Somewhat clear/complete explanation and analysis of data. Results are incomplete or poorly reported.
Conclusion Very clear and concise description of findings and implications for further study. Mostly clear and concise description of findings and implications for further study. Description of findings and implications for further study is not clearly nor sufficiently stated. Conclusions are difficult to understand or are not correlated to the data
References Bibliography sources are complete, consistent in style (APA), broad scope Bibliography sources are complete, consistent in style (APA), broad scope Bibliography sources are complete, consistent in style (APA), broad scope Minimal references

 

Due Date: August 6, 12 noon