The Cambridge Introduction to Applied Linguistics

When you hear the word “research,” what do you think of? In the media, we often see examples of laboratory research that uses statistical analyses of measurements collected through experiments using high-tech equipment. While some applied linguists work in similar kinds of labs and many use statistical analyses, applied linguists are often interested in questions that require different kinds of data and analysis. If you’re new to the field, it might be hard to imagine what kinds of data an applied linguist would collect. Throughout the chapters in Part B of this book, you’ll see examples of many different kinds of data, and these examples can be understood in part in terms of their focus on features of spoken or written language, communication more broadly, or the context in which language is used.