Blog 15: Research Plan

Statement of purpose (what you hope to show/discover)

The this study will analyze the discursive rules  for language negotiating in a multilingual home. Seeing as research on language negotiation within multilingual groups has never been researched in terms of domestic contexts, this research aims to add to the discussion that has been mostly concerned with business situations.

Detailed statement of your research question
What are the features of discursive rules between members of a family in which there are at least two languages being spoken [Portuguese and English primarily]?

List of the information you need to gather
More research needs to be done on the theory others have on how language negotiations generally work. Furthermore, more information about the methodology generally used by others looking into the same topic bearing in mind that it may or may not be appropriate for a domestic discourse analysis project.


A preliminary list of sources
+ Language negotiation in multilingual learning environments
Mariana Bono and Sílvia Melo-Pfeifer

+Multilingual organizations as ‘linguascapes’: Negotiating the position
of English through discursive practices§
Chris Steyaert *, Anja Ostendorp, Claudine Gaibrois

+ Multilingual dynamics among Portuguese-based migrant contexts
in Europe
Maria Clara Keatinga,
*, Olga Solovova b,1

Plan for gathering your information that includes:

• who/what you will be studying (for example:. students in a College Composition class, how they think about the comments teachers write on their papers)

The participants for this study will be members of my own family, which would include a mother, a father, brother, and two sisters. The father speaks Portuguese and has limited English proficiency; the mother is fluent in in Portuguese and proficient in English and Spanish, and speaks some French as well; the eldest sister is fluent in English and Portuguese, proficient in Spanish and French, and have limited proficiency in Japanese; the brother and youngest sister are fluent in English and the youngest sister has better language profienceny in Portuguese than the brother. The household was chosen because they predominantly speak two languages within the household.

• where you will collect your information (for example:. in interviews at Kean University)

The information will be collected in two group recordings. 

• how many subjects you will study (for example:. 3)

5 including myself

• what methods you will use to conduct your study (for example:. interviews, textual analysis, discourse analysis)

Discourse analysis and Textual analysis

Blog 14: Interview Protocol

Draft an interview protocol for your research project. If you are not doing interviews, draft an interview protocol that you could use if you decided to do your project a different way.

For my project, I am not doing an interview. This is what I would do if I were.

Interview Topic: Discursive rules

+ What languages do you speak?

+ How/where did you learn those languages?

+ Tell me about a few situations where you had to switch languages. Why did you do it?

+ What would be your reasons for switching languages?

+ In terms of language switching rules, do you have anything else you'd like to say about it?

Blog 13: Analysis

Blog 13: Choose the transcript you will analyze for your short analysis project.  Name some of the language moves you see as important to what seems to be going on in your transcript.  Identify the cultural discourses (Dominant Discourses - or other personal Discourses the participants might identify with) that seem to be shaping conversations in your transcript . Pose a research question.  Begin listing/describing what you will use as  evidence to support your discussion of your answer.

Blog 12: Gaming Transcript - Primary and Secondary Discourse

Write about some of the interesting "moves" or language features you notice in the Gaming transcript. What Discourses do Ch and B seem to belong to? What evidence do you have that they belong to those Discourses? What research questions might you ask about what is going on in this transcript? (One important criterion for a good question for a set of data is that there is evidence in the data to support an answer.)

Ch is gathering information by asking questions but is also careful to reassure the interviewee about the confidentiality of the interview.
Ch tries to use language that Ch feels will make B comfortable.
S did you tell your mom [Makes a joke]
S Exactly [shows approval]
S/CH set the tone and the language appropriateness level

S oh that's really funny it backfired on both of you
A it was kind of embarassing, we were like eeuuew, we go to church with him, he's old,
S that's really funny, how old were you then
[Here S is using rather informal language]
Ch so you know lots of software [non standard English]

Some elements of secondary discourse are present only for the purposes of having a common language to refer to.

Ch So the internet course helped you to learn how to explore?
M I guess so, how to research on how to use the computer for research
Ch did it help you with exploring programs
M not really programs, no
Ch So how would you learn a program now?
M Ask somebody
Ch You still wouldn't go through the menu bar and see what each of the tools did, and you know because you can hover over it, or you wouldn't open them up and just play with it
M I might, but I would probably ask somebody
Ch Would you read somethihg
M I would read, yeah. I would read the help things

When M was not providing much information, Ch resorted to asking more questions in an informal [secondary discourse-like] manner. Simple sentences were used rather than longer explanations.

A yeah, and he was bout 20, and he was like our older brother, too, and we were like, so now we know how you pick us girls, all these girls you met were from the chat room
S that's really funny
A that was a weird story
S that's a funny story, and it's funny, it's like a reprise of the story when you were little, and you gave, but it's um
A well this time it's someone I know and I think we lied about our age, too, so we said, every time we were 14 we'd at 3 or 4 extra years, we wanted to sound older (small laugh) and we would change our screen name so many times, cause we're like 'ahh, we want to have a new personality today'
S laughing
A we're like "pinkgirlloves whatever" or there, like our new boyfriends name, like Angelalovewhateverhisnameis - we changed it every week. What can you do?


Comfort level dictates how much of Primary discourse comes through. Otherwise, secondary discourse is used.

Blog 11: Research Outline

1. What you are studying and why; Purpose; what you will want them to do and why
2. Participants - who will be in it
3. That it will be anonymous; how long it will take/ how many times
4. Who will see/ read your project

 

The this study will analyze the discursive rules  for language negotiating in a multilingual home. Seeing as research on language negotiation within multilingual groups has never been researched in terms of domestic contexts, this research aims to add to the discussion that has been mostly concerned with business situations.

 

The participants for this study will be members of my own family, which would include a mother, a father, brother, and two sisters. The father speaks Portuguese and has limited English proficiency; the mother is fluent in in Portuguese and proficient in English and Spanish, and speaks some French as well; the eldest sister is fluent in English and Portuguese, proficient in Spanish and French, and have limited proficiency in Japanese; the brother and youngest sister are fluent in English and the youngest sister has better language profienceny in Portuguese than the brother. The household was chosen because they predominantly speak two languages within the household.

 

The results of this study will be kept confidential; none of the participants will have information that will identify them. The information will be collected in two group interviews. With the permission of the participants, the interview will be recorded, although if the participant is not comfortable with that, notes will be taken to gather the information as best as possible.

 

Only the members of my ENG 3029 research course will see the results of this study. The results of this study may be published in a research journal.

Blog 10: Data Sets

Name and classify some of the important features of the comments in Data Sets 4.1, 4.2, 4.3 & 4.4 (look through all for essays with comments). What patterns do you see? What research questions might you ask of this data set?

Comment Bubbles 

• Provide more specific criticism
• Positive and negative criticism as they occur.
• Shorter sentences and phrases
• Many questions
• Authoritative Voice
• Repetitive

Intro and ending comments 

• Provided synthesized criticism; holistic
• Emphasis on either positive or negative
• Narrative form
• Lists
• Personal Voice

Research Questions

• Which form of commenting provides the student with the most helpful, constructive feedback?
• How does the teacher's notions about students' most important needs influence the kind and the frequency of comments?
• How does students' confidence in their writing influence how they perceive criticism?

Blog 9: Paper Topic

1. Identify your focus.  This is a general statement of what you are interested in.

Discourse Analysis - Language Negotiations in a Multilingual Home

2. Identify your research question:  What in particular do you want to find out?  State your question in as specific terms as you can: the age/identity of your subjects, the location of your study, the particular activities/features you will focus on. 

Your research question is really a group of related questions, stated in specific terms, where you narrow in on what in particular you want to learn about in your study.

How do members of a family in which there are at least two languages being spoken [Portuguese and English primarily] negotiate language appropriateness?

What factors influence the language appropriateness?

What are the rules for this kind of negotiating?


3. Who has studied this question and what do they say.  For this prompt - mention any article that you have read where researchers have explored answers to your question.  If you can't find any articles - tell me something about what you searched for and what you found (even if it wasn't right).

+ Language negotiation in multilingual learning environments

Mariana Bono and Sílvia Melo-Pfeifer

+Multilingual organizations as ‘linguascapes’: Negotiating the position

of English through discursive practices§

Chris Steyaert *, Anja Ostendorp, Claudine Gaibrois

+ Multilingual dynamics among Portuguese-based migrant contexts

in Europe

Maria Clara Keatinga,

*, Olga Solovova b,1

 4.What do I need to find out to answer this question?  This prompt is to help you clarify and deepen your research question.

More research needs to be done on the theory others have on how language negotiations generally work. Furthermore, more information about the methodology generally used by others looking into the same topic bearing in mind that it may or may not be appropriate for a domestic discourse analysis project.

 5.  What do I need to do to gather information that will answer my question?
 This prompt is to help you think about how to design your study.  Who will you work with?  Where?  what will you do together?

I need to record and document my family talking among themselves. Afterwards, I will transcribe those recordings and analyze my data to see whether or not there are any patterns that will aid in formulating my own conclusion.

Professor:

So far, I think I really just need to work on finding the research and collecting data. I can't think of anything that I need help with, but I'll keep you posted! [pun intended]

Blog 8: Group Discussion on MA Program Survey

Post your group's analysis of the data from the MA program surveys.  The focus of your analysis is to identify whether the program achieved its objectives.  Use specific references to/analysis of the data to support your conclusions.

Liz Jones

Dina Rodrigues

Megan Lovelace

Group discussion:
 1.      The year the students entered the program could reflect the improvement or changes on the program over the course of five years between 2008 and 2012. Changes in administration, technology, and other factors, could create a difference in the experience people have when going through the program.
2.       Before going through the program, students used a more informal sentence structure and context. Also, students were pretty vague with what they actually wanted to do. For example, “I am not sure yet. I am open to options”, “Teach at a community college” and “teach and go for my doctorate”, were all responses from various students entering the program. Although students showed interest in the education field, (for the ones that knew they wanted to teach), they were still unclear about what they actually wanted to teach. The program helped crystalize what they wanted to do. They became aware of their future career paths and narrowed in on certain job positions within the field they wanted to work in, such as a “high school English” or “sports journalist”.
3.      Going through the program, students understood the importance of the coursework in relation to their future careers and were very specific on what classes would help and why. One student leaving the program wrote, “The thesis coursework was the most beneficial because I plan to implement the program I studied during the thesis work.” This example tells us not only that the thesis coursework was most important, but also why it was most important, because the person plans on implementing it during the thesis work.
4.      After the program, students provided more relevant and thorough descriptions about what courses they wish they could have studied in relation to the writing field. When entering the program, students didn’t know what programs to take because they hadn’t taken them yet and might not have been aware what was offered. Students leaving the program wanted to take classes in creative writing to develop writing curriculum and journalistic writing to blend personal research and storytelling skills. The ability to determine which classes students would have liked to take indicates progress in the program and exposure to multiple classes that give students a feel for what they want to study. For students just entering the program, they should be made aware of what all their options are class wise. Since communicating information is a problem, this would be something to change, so students can take the classes they want to take instead of wishing they took them but didn’t get to.
5.      After completing the program, students felt more confident in their writing abilities, including page length, research, using technology, and using writing in their future professions. Students entering the program felt weaker in all of the categories listed on the survey than students who completed the program. Overall the program needs to improve upon preparing students to write in the teaching profession, networking, and connecting with organizations. This is strongly evident in the 9th question, “I have strong writing networks with my colleagues”, where 4 out of 5 people said they disagree with this question, and only 1 person put strongly agree.
6.      The results differed in the theorists students were familiar with entering verse graduating the program. After completing the program, students were familiar with a wider range of theorists. When entering the program, students were familiar with 5 theorists and when students left the program they were familiar with 9 theorists. Also, students who completed the program realized that they didn’t actually know who John Dewey was. This shows improvement in exposure to different theorists with writing studies. Someone reading the survey results would have to question the validity of the responses when taking into account what to change in regards to what theorists in writing to teach.
7.      When students entered the program, no one was familiar with research paradigms. When leaving the program, students were much more familiar with different research paradigms, in particular with social constructivism and pragmatics. It’s interesting to find that in general, not many students were familiar with positivists and liberatories. This data reflects the need to improve upon these areas in the future.
8.      When entering the program, students were familiar with using interviews, surveys, observations, sample work, and rubrics to conduct research. When students left the program, they were familiar with  many more ways to conduct research, including: Case studies, focus groups, textual analysis, action research, ethnographic research, grounded theory, statistical research and coding, video and audio recordings, and periodical data. Clearly, the program is helping students learn new ways of conducting research and has been very helpful.
9.  At the beginning of the program, students had no idea what the pedagogical approaches for teaching writing were. The only responses listed on the survey were: “Don’t know” and “I don’t know”. After completing the program, students were familiar with numerous pedagogical approaches for teaching writing, including writing as a process, collaborative writing, Inquiry based writing, using models, expressivist, and social constructivists. The reason that the data differs so drastically in this question is that before going through the program, students most likely had little to no exposure to these approaches. However after completing the program and participating in the writing approaches themselves, students became familiar with these techniques. The length and description to each piece of the response shows the clarity in understanding what each approach actually is. This shows strength in the program.