Voices from the Language Classroom : Qualitative Research in Second Language Education (Cambridge Language Teaching Library)

Rating:
Summary: Identifies and voices complexities involved in SL studies.
Review: Voices From The Classroom is a collection of international stories written and presented in a naturalistic inquiry paradigm and are examples of qualitative research. The editors, Kathleen Bailey and David Nunan, are language professors and researchers from the Monterey Institute of International Studies in California and ESADE Idiomas in Barcelona, Spain respectively. Bailey and Nunan write two of nineteen articles that comprise the book's chapters. Seventeen other educators and researchers were invited to contribute to the book; however, only unpublished stories were accepted. The articles are grouped according to thematic sections which include: 1.) Teaching as thinking, doing, and interpreting, 2.) Classroom dynamics and interaction, 3.) The classroom and beyond, 4.) Curricular issues, and 5.) Sociopolitical perspectives. At the end of each section the reader is provided with 'questions and tasks' that seek to highlight or consider issues and concerns that surfaced in each section. Sections one and two consider issues and concerns voiced by teachers in the field. Section three addresses language experiences outside of the classroom and, and what effect, if any, do these experiences have on learning a language. Section four looks specifically at the complexities of developing, implementing, and evaluating a language curriculum. Section five considers a more global aspect of teaching and learning and situates these studies within certain geographical, political, and social parameters. Perhaps the greatest strength of Voices From The Classroom is that it introduces the reader to various types of qualitative research such as the use of metaphors, action research, ethnography, case study and narrative dairy. The reader is presented with a rich selection of data samplings which include, but are not limited to, field notes, lesson plans and transcripts, video/audio tapings, teachers' and learners' journals, teacher and student interviews, teacher/researcher narratives, and stimulated recall protocols. The editors explain that these samplings provide the data necessary for conducting qualitative research, and for permitting data triangulation, or the notion that two or more perspectives of a given phenomena are essential to accurately capture and present any type of discourse identifying or explaining a particular phenomenon. Early on, the reader recognizes how qualitative research seems to lend itself to research conducted and situated within a foreign or second language context. Just as individual languages are salient and fluid so too must be the methodologies used to investigate their realities. As with any publication, authors and editors are frequently asked to make revisions to materials submitted for publication. Unfortunately, these revisions, more often that not, require that authors and editors take serious steps to reduce the number of pages, sentences or words used to recount an experience or event. Consequently, certain studies in Voices From the Classroom seem to be more developed than others. Nonetheless, the goals and objectives set forth by the editors are achieved. To paraphrase Bailey and Nunan, the book is about learning and teaching languages as the are experienced and understood by language teachers and students, and it provides opportunities for investigating and revisiting many aspects particular to language instruction and learning. Voices From The Classroom would be suitable for teacher educators, teachers in training, researchers of foreign or second language education, and certainly anyone interested in learning a foreign or second language. Additionally, it would be a good textbook for a seminar course in foreign or second language education. It would certainly provide an ideal forum to discuss and consider individual issues and concerns as presented in each story. Likewise, it would also provide an interesting forum to examine and consider issues that have not been fully developed, perhaps even omitted, or simply not addressed at all in the stories. Sometimes the most essential information of a story is the portion that is not told, or the voice that is not heard.