Blog reflection 1

 What I feel I need to know about research

Hmmm...everything? I have not had much chance to conduct any formal research so I am curious about:

• How should I choose the research method?
• Is the quantitative one preferable for language learning (my professional context) or is the qualitative one the better one? Why?
• What is the choice of a method influenced by?
• How can I decide? 
• How do I decide what to do research on?
• How do I know it is achieveable?
• How do I conduct a research? What tools do I need?
• How do I find the focus group? (Now that I''ve started reading, I think this is the right word)
• How do I convince them to take part in my research?
• What issues do I have to consider before conducting the research?
• Will my organisation have to be involved?

I'm only starting to think about it... Lots and lots to learn!

Notes on some research that has influenced your own professional work or your learning

 I have conducted some formal research for my work - this was mainly for my teaching qualification and it was a course requirement. On every day basis however I feel I conduct lots of informal research, for example while trying out new activities or teaching ideas, by observing my students' reactions and gauging from these whether something worked well or not. I also talk a lot to my participants to see what they enjoy doing and what they find less effective in learning English.

Activities within your workplace which you consider to be research and what and who they infuence

I'm currently looking into effective ways of using smartphones to learn English. I have encouraged my students to use certain apps and am myself exploring some! I do hope to be able to expand this into the project which is part of this course - it all looks pretty daunting to me but I want to give it a go!