Editorial

Using conference submission data to uncover broad trends in language teaching: A case study of one conference over 30 years

“…For example, Magnan (2005), editor of The Modern Language Journal, noted that from 1996 to 2005, research articles comprised 82% of the published papers in that journal, while only 18% were essays. Similarly, both the frequency and increase in counts of the word 'qualitative' mirror the rise in the use of qualitative methods in the language teaching field noted by others (Benson et al, 2009;Ellis, 2006;Gao et al, 2001;Lazaraton, 2005;Stapleton & Collett, 2010). Another indicator, albeit somewhat unconventional, comes from Hinkel (2011), whose handbook of second language teaching and learning lists four chapters under the 'Research Methodology' theme, three of which are qualitative against one quantitative.…”

Research in language teaching over two decades: A retrospective of the first 20 volumes of Language Teaching Research

“…In his review of 90 articles, Lindstromberg (2016) highlights a number of shortcomings and describes various tests and tools that should be used when analysing numerical data for inferential purposes. In another survey of LTR, Ellis (2006, p. 240) examined the research methods used in the 25 empirical articles published under his editorship and found that ‘six (24%) were confirmatory (correlational or experimental) and the remaining 19 (76%) interpretative (descriptive or ethnographic).’ He concluded there was a growing preference for interpretive research among classroom researchers.…”

Home Perspectives: JALT Journal Turns 30: A Retrospective Look at the First Three Decades Perspectives: JALT Journal Turns 30: A Retrospective Look at the First Three Decades

“…However, Gao, Li, and Lu (2001), in a comparison of Chinese and Western language learning journals, noted that in the four Western journals they surveyed from 1985 to 1997, the number of studies using quantitative research methods went from over four times that of qualitative approaches at the outset to roughly equal numbers by 1997. More recently, Ellis (2006) noted the increasing number of qualitative articles being published in the journal he edits, Language Teaching Research. In his own small-scale survey of 25 empirical articles in the journal under his watch, he found that only 24% of the studies were quantitative while 76% were "interpretive," although some of the latter included descriptive statistics.…”