Book Review: Second language research: methodology and design
Within the field of applied linguistics, and language learning and teaching, research studies continue to proliferate, ranging from small scale classroom research to national surveys. Also increasing are the numbers of students who must be taught to conduct this kind of research, or at least to be able to read the research articles and reports that emerge. In my experience, it is difficult to find a textbook that has a sufficiently broad scope to be used in research methodology courses for students of applied linguistics. In the social sciences in general, the choice of textbooks is much larger, but we usually would prefer examples other than research about neuroticism or the effects of mathematics instruction. However, in our field, the choice of textbooks is limited, and the few textbooks on offer often have a specific focus (e.g. language assessment (Bachman, 2004) teacher training (Brown and Rodgers, 2002) or reading research reports (Porte, 2002) With their new textbook, Mackey and Gass have successfully enlarged the available choices. Of course, Mackey and Gass had to focus as well, in this case on research methodology and design as main topics, and on a novice researcher as readership. Thus, the book is meant 'for introductory courses on research methodology and design, as well as for general courses in second language studies in which there is an emphasis on research' (p. xiii) Although the book also contains a chapter on statistics, Mackey and Gass do not consider this topic as falling within their main focus. The book is divided into 10 chapters (and contains 10 appendices, a glossary, references and an author/subject index) Each chapter ends with a number of 'Follow up questions and activities' that refer back to the content of the chapter as well as invite the reader to discuss issues beyond those directly covered in the text. Chapter 1 provides an introduction and overview of (second language) research, mainly based on the typical headings of a research article. It also deals with different types of research, formulating Language Teaching Research 10,3 (2006) pp. 351 355