What Hyland does
with this week’s readings – both at the end of their respective texts – is
provide a call-to-action to his audience, which includes L2 teachers as well as
researchers. In SLW he offers a special invitation to “teacher-researchers” to
view their classroom centers as research laboratories, arenas that offer up
observable and measurable, collectible, relevant data that others may
(definitely would) be interested in. And, instead of overwhelming
teacher-researchers with a chapter that includes everything one would learn in
a university research course, he touches on practical applications of
relatively simple research methods and interpretation for teacher-researchers
to consider. In this way, Hyland does what few others are willing to do: bridge
the gap between research and application.
In his Genre text,
Hyland calls L2 teacher-researchers to consider researching genres in order to
assist their L2 students with writing tasks. I love how he admits that
“teachers may believe they have enough to do already without adding text
analysis as well, and they may even feel apprehensive at the prospect of it”
(194) but then goes on to encourage teacher-researchers with the promise that
they will produce informative results and will prove “a practical activity”
(194). While reading this chapter, I had in the back of my mind that, this
week, I was going to read critically. And so, as I did, the little question in
my head kept saying, “Yes, but can we really do this with students who are
struggling with learning a second language?” I thought I had Dr. Hyland here.
But, of course, on page 211, he addresses this question of practicality: “But
to ask L2 writers to learn genres in this way is perhaps asking a lot as they
are simultaneously grappling with a second language and using that language in
real contexts.”
However, in
thinking of my research with my student, there is much to apply with both of
these chapters, and researching/analyzing genres is a key part:
1.
“Estevan” is writing scientific research papers
and must include abstracts, discussion sections, analysis, etc. I need to know
what a scientific abstract looks like (the main linguistic features) so that I
can show him and we can compare his with what is expected with the genre. That
includes examining how his scientific abstract is a contributing voice in the
social conversation of his discourse area.
2.
My own research of him as an exchange student
studying for a year here at ISU requires me to figure out which data-collecting
methods would work best. Right now, I’m developing interview questions,
conducting a linguistic analysis of his writing, and developing my own
narrative of diary information I’ve informally gathered. Hyland’s chapter gave
me many practical ideas as well as encouragement.
3.
The reminder of ethical considerations is a good
one. Where do we stand on an IRB for our class and what comes after if we wish
to pursue these projects further?
However, I found several parts of
Hyland’s chapters overwhelmed me, and I imagine that was not his intent. For
example, he lost me with his explanation of corpus analysis. How important is
it that I incorporate some of this in my research? Or can this be done on a
much smaller scale? What if L2 teachers are intimidated by the technicalities
of corpus analysis? I’m very interested in discussing these topics in class on
Thursday.
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