A social realist approach to research in applied linguistics
We have outlined the contribution of a social scientific approach to a range of areas of the applied linguistic enterprise. We will bring together the key ideas we have discussed in an exploration of their potential role in the design of research studies in the discipline.
We suggested that research in the most 'well populated' region of applied linguistics - the teaching and learning of additional languages - has been dominated by an approach which draws on traditional concepts such as falsifiable hypotheses, the identification of dependent, independent and confounding variables, and the measurement and quantification of salient phenomena. We also noted developments in theoretical and methodological debates in applied linguistics which challenge this tradition, and advocate alternatives, including relativist perspectives, qualitative and ethnographic methods and social contructionist assumptions. These two broad alternatives are often presented in open opposition to each other (Block of researchers who are not wholly convinced by either. We would locate ourselves amongst them, and will set out in what follows some suggestions for an approach to research which is consistent with the social theory we have been elaborating.
We would like to have illustrated the approach we advocate with references to specific research studies in applied linguistics, but we know of very few as yet which have been developed in accordance with the most contemporary versions of realist social theory (one exception being Belz 2002). Where we are able to do so, we cite studies of direct interest to applied linguistics which seem to us to have elements in common with our own approach, and which have responded in innovative ways to the challenges posed by the two broad traditions. At other points, we cite examples of how researchers in a range of different social science disciplines have sought to adopt a realist approach, and here we identify as far as we are able the concepts and themes which may be at least partially transferable to applied linguistics. In other cases, we simply suggest how the kinds of studies often undertaken within applied linguistics and sociolinguistics might be modified if account were to be taken methodologically of the theoretical position.
