TSR Wiki > Study Help > Subjects and Revision > Revision Notes > English > How to Construct a Methodology
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- Which language features you will be studying
- What type of data you will collect
- How you will collect it and over what time period (including respondents)
- How will you ensure your data is natural and valid (Evaluate methodology)
- How you would analyse the data
Which language features you will be studying
E.g. nouns/verbs
What type of data you will collect
Primary language data
- Spoken language
- Written language
- Word lists
- Graphological features of texts
- Pronunciation features
Secondary language data
- Attitudes to language
- Uses of languages
- Views about language
Do you need
- Comparative language data
- Contrasting language data
- Longitudinal data
How you will collect it and over what time period
Who are the respondents
- Gender
- Age
- Ethnicity
- Class
- Education
- Social networks
How you will collect it (include what time period)
- Taping
- Photocopying
- Experiments (useful for testing out a theory)
- Questionnaire (useful for finding out about attitudes to language)
- Interviews (useful for collecting conversational data)
- Observation study (collecting natural data by observing and recording what happens)
- Case study
- Formality Level (Reading passage style, word list style)
- Quantitative approaches
- Qualitative approaches
- Self-reported usage
- Social networks analysis
- Replication study
How will you ensure your data is natural and valid (evaluate methodology)
Mention the observer’s paradox and strategies to minimise it e.g. familiarisation, distracters
Mention the problem of demand characteristics
Mention any limitations in the study
Discuss ethical issues such as permission, avoiding deception, anonymity
How you would analyse the data
- Variation studies
- Stylistic approaches
- Social groups
- Avoiding deficit models when studying children’s language
Using theoretical frameworks such as face theory or Grice’s maxims
What do you expect to find? How would the results be interesting
There are essentially two types of investigations/tasks you could be asked for
- A function/use based task
- An attitudes based investigation
Comments
These notes are aimed at A Level English students at A2 level.
Originally written by star18 on TSR Forums.
