Case Study Research on Language Learning and Use

Abstract

Case study research has played a very important role in applied linguistics since the field was established, particularly in studies of language teaching, learning, and use. The case in such studies generally has been a person (e.g., a teacher, learner, speaker, writer, or interlocutor) or a small number of individuals on their own or in a group (e.g., a family, a class, a work team, or a community of practice). The cases are normally studied in depth in order to provide an understanding of individuals’ experiences, issues, insights, developmental pathways, or performance within a particular linguistic, social, or educational context. Rather than discuss constructs, hypotheses, and findings in terms of statistical patterns or trends derived from a larger sample or survey of a population of language learners, as in some quantitative research, a qualitative case study of a person presents a contextualized human profile. Case study has contributed substantially to theory development, generating new perspectives or offering a refutation or refinement of earlier theories in applied linguistics by analyzing linguistic, cultural, and social phenomena associated with children, adolescents, young adults, and older adults.In recent years, the purview of case studies in applied linguistics has expanded to include many previously underrepresented topics, linguistic situations, theoretical perspectives, and populations. This article provides an overview of some traditional areas of coverage and then newer foci in terms of methodology, thematic areas, and findings pertaining to language learners in transnational, multilingual, and diaspora contexts especially.

Gender socialization: From L1 to L2 languacultures

“…As such, bootstrap resampling analysis enables us to assume the normality of the sampling distribution of the mediation effect, having much greater statistical power in comparison with traditional mediation approaches such as Sobel's test () and Baron and Kenny's approach () (for a comprehensive review, see Hayes, ). In light of such significance, the present study considers multiple mediation analysis using the PROCESS macro as the most applicable technique to bridge current methodological gaps in previous research on language socialization, which has largely focused on qualitative investigation, i.e., case study (for a review of methodological issues on language socialization, see Duff, ).…”

“…Interviews were mainly conducted in English according to participants' inclinations. Based on open coding (Strauss & Corbin, ), the data were initially analyzed according to the chronological sequences in each participant's life, identifying “the interplay of linguistic, social, cultural, political, and affective dimensions of experience and performance” (Duff, : 237). Subsequently, we revisited the data and specifically mapped it out corresponding to the objectives of the present study.…”

A study of implementation of national language policies in a local higher institution: a case study from China

“…Text-based artifacts refer to already existing documents, archives, or any text-based materials produced in research process (Yang et al 2013). They are commonly used as sources of evidence in qualitative data collection concerning policy studies and text studies (Duff 2014). In this research, text-based artifacts included the documents of the CECR of 2004 and 2007, the English syllabi and course notices of BMU, and the archives of work plans and work reports by the dean of Teaching Affairs and the leader of College English office at BMU.…”

Plagiarism Defined?

“…In order to obtain answers to the research questions in this multiple case study (Duff, 2008), a total of seven documents from four universities in four countries -Australia (three documents from the University of Queensland), China (one document from Henan University), Finland (two documents from the University of Jyväskylä) and Germany (one document from the University of Freiburg)were selected for analysis (see Table 1 in Appendix 1). Given that the outcomes of case study research are often influential in the development of educational policies and practices (Duff, 2014), a case study approach is well -suited to examining institutional definitions of plagiarism, and has been previously utilised in different educational contexts (e.g., Adam, Anderson & Spronken -Smith, 2017;Hu & Sun, 2017;Sutherland-Smith, 2011). Though the data in the present study consists of a small number of documents, combined, th ese multiple cases further the understanding of how plagiarism is defined in higher education, and can contribute to the development of theory in future analyses of a larger collection of cases.…”