ABSTRACT
Learning to conduct a simple research project is a part of the undergraduate degrees, and definitely something encouraged when studying linguistics. For different research questions, there are different methods that are appropriate, and mixed methods are not always the best way to conduct a piece of research. Data can take many different formats, such as numbers, tables and graphs. This chapter talks about a few typical methods of data collection used in linguistics. Some of these, such as interviews, are most typically used with qualitative studies. Others, such as experiments and questionnaires, are typically quantitative. There are also other types of qualitative data collection, for example the use of picture stories to collect language materials. Questionnaires provide straightforward ways to gain information, without the need to use long recording processes. Because questionnaires are so easy to use, people can hand them out to large numbers of participants and conduct a large-scale quantitative study.
