ENG 839: Research in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages

General

Level Readers

• Free Kids Books 

  Free kids books for K-YA level.

• Global Digital Library 

  The GDL collects existing high quality open educational reading resources, and makes them available on the web, mobile, and print. The GDL currently offers resources in 43 languages, and by year-end 2020 the goal is to provide 100 languages.

• The Spanish Experiment 

  Well-known children's stories translated into Spanish and spoken by a native Spanish speaker. Read along in Spanish or English.

Education resources located in the library (2nd floor) include:

• Education, curriculum and children's book collections, shelved in Library of Congress order. 

• 29,000 books shelved as a unit in the second floor Education Resource Area.  Each of these items has Educ Res preceding its Library of Congress classification in the catalog.

• SELECT books, big books, kits, test books and leveled readers, shelved in the second floor Education Resource Area.

• ERA Print periodicals: alphabetically listed by title with the ERA periodical collection.

• ERA Reference books, shelved on the 1st ERA shelf.

See more information about books and other materials in the Education Resource Area (ERA) of the library.

A scholarly article is basically a formal presentation of original research.

Scholarly articles have many features which distinguish them from popular or secondary sources. In evaluating whether an article is scholarly, you should look for:

• The publication source is usually a periodical (journal). 

• The article is highly structured, usually with an abstract, introduction, methods, results and conclusion. 

• Specific, technical or scientific language is used.

• Original research is being presented for the first time. 

• The authors have their affiliations noted (university, organization...).

• There are citations within the text and a set of references at the end

"Peer-reviewed" describes the process an article has to go through before it can be published in a specific journal. 

When a piece of research is submitted for publication in a peer-reviewed journal, a panel of researchers with a similar focus judge the research by various criteria. 

The article must be reporting original research that adds to the body of knowledge for the subject. The research must be reproducible, ethical and unbiased. Methods must be properly controlled and the conclusion must be reflective of the results. 

Some journals are a lot harder to get published in than others and this adds to their prestige. 

Sections of a scholarly/peer-reviewed article

The introduction leads the reader from a general subject area to a particular field of research. It establishes the context and significance of the research being conducted by summarizing current understanding and background information about the topic, stating the purpose of the work in the form of the research problem supported by a hypothesis or a set of questions, briefly explaining the methodological approach used to examine the research problem, highlighting the potential outcomes your study can reveal, and outlining the remaining structure of the paper.

• A research problem is a statement about an area of concern, a condition to be improved upon, a difficulty to be eliminated, or a troubling question that exists in scholarly literature, in theory, or in practice that points to the need for meaningful understanding and deliberate investigation. In some social science disciplines the research problem is typically posed in the form of one or more questions. A research problem does not state how to do something, offer a vague or broad proposition, or present a value question.

A literature review surveys books, scholarly articles, and any other sources relevant to a particular issue, area of research, or theory, and by so doing, provides a description, summary, and critical evaluation of these works in relation to the research problem being investigated. Literature reviews are designed to provide an overview of sources you have explored while researching a particular topic and to demonstrate to the readers how the research fits within a larger field of study.

The methods section describes the rationale for the application of specific procedures or techniques used to identify, select, and analyze information applied to understanding the research problem, thereby, allowing the reader to critically evaluate a study’s overall validity and reliability. The methodology section of a research paper answers two main questions: How was the data collected or generated? And, how was it analyzed?

• Qualitative Research implies an emphasis on the qualities of entities and on processes and meanings that are not experimentally examined or measured [if measured at all] in terms of quantity, amount, intensity, or frequency. Qualitative researchers stress the socially constructed nature of reality, the intimate relationship between the researcher and what is studied, and the situational constraints that shape inquiry. Such researchers emphasize the value-laden nature of inquiry. They seek answers to questions that stress how social experience is created and given meaning. In contrast, quantitative studies emphasize the measurement and analysis of causal relationships between variables, not processes. Qualitative forms of inquiry are considered by many social and behavioral scientists to be as much a perspective on how to approach investigating a research problem as it is a method.

• Quantitative Research emphasize objective measurements and the statistical, mathematical, or numerical analysis of data collected through polls, questionnaires, and surveys, or by manipulating pre-existing statistical data using computational techniques. Quantitative research focuses on gathering numerical data and generalizing it across groups of people or to explain a particular phenomenon.

The results section of the research paper is where the findings of the study are based upon the methodology [or methodologies] applied to gather information. The results section should simply state the findings of the research arranged in a logical sequence without bias or interpretation.

The discussion is to interpret and describe the significance of the findings in light of what was already known about the research problem being investigated, and to explain any new understanding or fresh insights about the problem after taken the findings into consideration. The discussion will always connect to the introduction by way of the research questions or hypotheses posed and the literature reviewed, but it does not simply repeat or rearrange the introduction; the discussion should always explain how the study has moved the reader's understanding of the research problem forward.

• The limitations of the study are those characteristics of design or methodology that impacted or influenced the interpretation of the findings from the research. They are the constraints on generalizability, applications to practice, and/or utility of findings that are the result of the ways in which the study and/or the method used to establish internal and external validity.

The conclusion is intended to help the reader understand why the research should matter to them after they have finished reading the paper. A conclusion is not merely a summary of the main topics covered or a re-statement of the research problem but a synthesis of key points and, if applicable, recommended new areas for future research. For most essays, one well-developed paragraph is sufficient for a conclusion, although in some cases, a two or three paragraph conclusion may be required.

Applied Research refers to scientific study and research that seeks to solve practical problems.  Applied research is used to find solutions to everyday problems, cure illness, and develp innovative technologies, rather than to acquire knowledge for knowledge's sake. 

Correlational Research refers to the systematic investigation or statistical study of relationships among two or more variables, without necessarily determining cause and effect.  This research establishes a relation or association between two or more variables that do not readily lend themselves to experimental manipulation.

Descriptive Research refers to research that provides an accurate protrayal of characteristics of a particular individual, situation, or group.  This research is a way to discover new meaning, describing what exists, determining the frequency with which something occurs, and categorizing information. 

Experimental Research is an objective, systematic, controlled investigation for the purpose of predicting and controlling phenomena and examining probability and causality among selected variables.

Historical Research is research involving analysis of events that occurred in the remote or recent past. 

Go to Browse Alphabetical List for a full list of library databases. 

EndNote is a citation management tool.  EndNote can help you keep track of your research articles, create bibliographies, view your articles, and even share information with colleagues. 

Step 1) Setup an EndNote Account

To set up an EndNote account, go to the EndNote website and click on LOGIN.  But, here is the direct link to access the login/signup page to Legacy EndNote Web (not the new EndNote Web or EndNote 21) to continue with the setup process.  Use a non-SSU email.

Step 2) Managing Your Folder

You can create folders to organize your resources for different classes and projects.  To create a folder, click on Organize then Manage My Groups.  Click on New Group to create a folder.

Share a folder - Go to Organize and Manage My Groups.  Click on Manage Sharing and enter the email addresses you want to share your folder. 

Step 3) Exporting Articles from a Database. Importing and Viewing Articles from EndNote

Now you need to put articles into your EndNote account.  To export an article from a library database to EndNote, locate the button for exporting citations - this may be variously labeled Cite, Export, Save or something similar.  Then follow the instructions to export your article(s) from library databases:  

1) Click on Export/Save as a RIS format.  This RIS format will be downloaded and saved to the Downloads Folder on your computer. 

2) To import an RIS format to EndNote, go to your EndNote account. 

3) Click on Collect and Import References. 

4) Click on Choose File and a box will appear.  Select the Downloads Folder from your computer and locate your RIS file (the name of this file could be "Citations" / "Delivery" / "Savedrecs" / "ProQuest Document."  This depends on which database you are importing from) and click Open. 

5) Then under the Import Option dropdown box in EndNote, select RefMan RIS. 

6) Choose your folder to save and click on Import.  

Manually insert a citation - Click on Collect and New Reference.  Under the Reference Type dropdown box, select the source type (book, journal article, webpage, etc.), type in the appropriate fields, and click Save.  

Citations not in a folder - Go to My References and select the citations you want.  Under the Add to Group dropdown box, select your folder.

View your articles - Mouse over the green circle icon (Full-text options) of the article and click on it.  It will direct you to the appropriate library database to view your article (if available in full-text).  

Step 4) Creating Bibliographies

To create a bibliography of your citations, click on Format and Bibliography.  Under the References dropdown box, select your folder.  Under Bibliographic Style dropdown box, select a citation style (APA, MLA, etc.). Under File Format dropdown box, select RTF (rich text file) and Save.  This will be saved to your Downloads Folder on your computer.  Locate the RTF file (the name of this file will be "exportlist").  This will be opened as a Word Document.