"Give a man a fish and he eats for a day. Teach him how to fish and heeats for a lifetime. "
Doing research is a mystery to many graduate students and secondlanguage teachers in China. This book aims to demystify the process ofcarrying out research in the field of applied linguistics, particularly inthe area of second language acquisition and teaching. This book iswritten for those who have no previous research experience at all orthose who have done some research without formal training. It i

Preface
Part I Introduction
1. What is research?
Definition of research
Visualizing the research process
Classifications of research
Summary
Discussion questions
2. Fundamental concepts
Hypothesis, theory and model
Population and sample
Variables
Levels of measurement
Operationalization
Summary
Discussion questions
Part II Researching
3. Developing research questions
Procedures
Problems in question formation
Summary
Discussion questions
4. Reading the literature
Sources of literature
Procedures for reviewing the literature
Deciding the scope
Summarizing the information
Summary
Discussion questions
5. Selecting research designs
Quantitative and qualitative
Links between question and design
A mono-design or a mixed design?
Complexities in classifying designs
Summary
Discussion questions
6. A survey study
A brief description
Instrument designing, questionnaire
Scaling techniques
Selecting subjects
Administering the questionnaire
Summary
Discussion questions
7. An experimental study
What is an experimental study?
Causality
Validity in experimentation
Types of experimental studies
Procedures for an experimental study
Summary
Discussion questions
8. A ease study
What is a case study?
Selecting the subjects
Collecting data
Summary
Discussion questions
9. Basic statistics
A brief description of statistics
Descriptive statistics
Inferential statistics
Summary
Discussion questions
10. The analysis of quantitative data
Overview of SPSS for windows
Questionnaire data analysis
Analyzing data from an experiment
Summary
Discussion questions
11. The analysis of qualitative data
Choices in analyzing qualitative data
Data preparation
Qualitative analysis
Validity and reliability
Summary
Discussion questions
Part III Thesis Writing
12. An overview of thesis writing
Definitions
The structure of a thesis
Summary
Discussion questions
13. Writing up a thesis/dissertation
Writing an introduction
Writing a literature review
Describing methodology
Reporting results and discussion
Writing the conclusion chapter
Summary
Discussion questions
14. Writing style
Academic writing style
APA writing format
Summary
Discussion questions
References
Appendixes
Appendix one:A Survey Study
Appendix two:An Experimental Study.
Appendix three: A Case Study
Appendix four: Questionnaire Description
Appendix five: Random Numbers
Subject index
Author index
……

1. What is research?
If someone asks you to make a cake, you should know what kindof cakes/he wants. To look for a key, you must know what a key lookslike. Without a good understanding of the outcome you intend toobtain, you will experience a lot of frustrations and even failures. Theextreme case is that you might have spent your lifelong time and effortsdoing a piece of work but the eventual results you have obtained are notwhat you desired at all. Similarly, once you make up your mind tomake a commitment to research, the first legitimate question youshould ask is:"What is research?" The importance of such a question iswell illustrated in the following parable:
A MAN LOOKING FOR FRUITS
There was once a man who lived in a country that had nofruit trees. This man was a scholar and spent a great deal of timereading. In his readings he often came across references to fruit.The descriptions of fruit were so enticing that he decided toundertake a journey to experience fruit for himself. He went to the market and asked everyone he met if theyknew where he could find fruit. After much searching he locateda man who knew the directions to the country and place where hecould find fruit. The man drew out elaborate directions for thescholar to follow. With his map in hand, the scholar carefully followed all ofthe directions. He was very careful to make all of the right turnsand to check out all of the landmarks that he was supposed toobserve. Finally, he came to the end of the directions and foundhimself at the entrance to a large apple orchard. It was springtimeand the apple trees were in blossom.