Thursday 19 May 2011

Research interviewing rocks!

It really does. In so many ways. I've done four of eight interviews so far (in the first round of four over the year), and we're all - I and the people I'm working with - having such fascinating conversations, making so many connections. Because, of course, they ARE conversations, and we are co-constructing, co-theorising. So far my questions, structured chiefly in a 'Can you tell me about..?' format, have generated a lot of thoughtful, insightful, and candid responses; and after I've asked all the questions on my list, each person of their own accord has spent roughly the same amount of time again reflecting on what's been said, making connections between experiences, beliefs and perceptions that they hadn't made before. And we're engaging in these reflections and making these connections together. It's so endlessly interesting...

It's got me thinking in particular about my belief, which I didn't even consciously know I held until today, that linguistic interest or ability 'comes from' somewhere beyond the individual. Almost everyone I've worked with in my past motivation studies had someone or something external they could identify as a stimulus for their interest in language learning - usually their parents' or family members' enthusiasm for them to learn, often due to an awareness of the 'usefulness' of English or a wish for their child to make use of opportunities they never had; or a family ability tantamount to a genetic trait. This stems in part from my own family background: my paternal grandfather was an interpreter during the second world war, fluent in four languages with a good working knowledge of several more, and my own aptitude for languages was always rationalised as 'you get that from your Grandpa'. I had cause to reflect on this during an interview today, and was a little shocked to realise I'd never considered that an interest in and aptitude for languages might just spring from within, without having to be traced back to some external source. I'm sure this must sound very basic - it seemed so basic to me that I was a little thrown by the recognition. Which might be reflected in the comparative incoherence of my explanation. If I manage to express it better, I'll let you know.

I also began to recognise that the people who want to take part in my study are extremely self-directed and highly motivated people, as evidenced by most of their reasons for working with me. This is something I'll have to account for, and would make an interesting topic in itself - how to reach those people whose language learning experiences might have been at best uninspiring, at worst painful? How can their experience be accessed? Perhaps I'm over-generalising here - it may be that after more meetings, with a little more trust and safety in our relationships and more time for exploration, some of the problematic aspects of their experience will become apparent. Time will tell...

Monday 16 May 2011

May-hem, in a good way

Ooops - too long since I did this. Too long. There are excuses (or reasons, depending on your benevolence): I had post-holiday blues for a week or so, for, having spent Easter in beautiful places, I learnt afresh how little Manchester, though it has much to offer in many departments, casts in the way of aesthetic balm. I've also been mired in marking, which I hate, and am crap at - feedback, fine, but numerically categorising and boundarising is not my forte. But it's over now. Just finished. I'm sure there'll be something I've omitted to attach/tick/upload somwhere, but I've a few days before deadline to remember it...

In PhD news, I've started recruiting participants, and found my advert on the University's Research Volunteering page to be quite effective - after two Masters dissertations and various MSc assignments trying desperately to get ANYONE to take part, I've been comparatively inundated with responses. Many asked about reimbursement and didn't get back to me after I told them they'd be paid only in tea and cake and self-exploration, but those who expressed interest nonetheless have been very enthusiastic. And I too have been cranking up the enthusiasm (not that there's not tanks of it already, mind) on account of an insight from the first potential participant I met, who, after yet another ethically-conscious reminder that they were free to withdraw at any time, said to me: 'You keep telling me I can withdraw, but you never tell me I can stay'. I felt slightly ashamed of myself for sacrificing human warmth and welcome to become an ethics-form monkey. Or parrot. Or ass, perhaps. Anyway - twas a good insight.

In other news, I've had a book chapter proposal accepted, which is most exciting. The working title is Social identities and multiple selves in foreign language education, edited by Damian J. Rivers and Stephanie Houghton. The chapter is based on my MA dissertation, and the blurb is as follows:


Lou Harvey (UK)

The social and pragmatic parameters of L2 motivation: Investigating the motivation of three UK ESL learners

An investigation of 3 UK ESL learners motivation in relation to globalizing world, identity, future selves and selective participation in social development. Very much rooted in Gardner and Lambert, and Dornyei.


This is also the subject of the paper I'll be presenting at the 14th Warwick International Postgraduate Conference in Applied Linguistics (28th - 29th June), for which my abstract has just been accepted. So I've got this paper to write, plus my paper for the New Dynamics conference in Jyvaskyla at the beginning of June. I'll also be presenting at two conferences here at the School of Education in Manchester: From Here to There and Back Again: Conference papers by the Language Teacher Education community on 3rd June, at which I'll be presenting my Jyvaskyla paper; and I'm about to start work on an abstract for a paper for the Student Research Conference on 5th July, which will be based on my methodological work on Bakhtin, voice and agency (I'll post a link to the abstract when it's written). So there's plenty to keep me busy in June: four conferences, initial interviews, transcription, two hen weekends (both of them mine, so no escape), and moving house.

Think I'll miss out on July but come up smiling in August.