ABSTRACT
Verbal reports can be collected from learners either concurrently with language production (think-alouds; Bowles, 2010) or after a language event. This book deals extensively with one specific introspective method, known as stimulated recall. This covers a subset of introspective methods representing a means of eliciting data about the thought processes that take place while a learner is doing a task or an activity. The assumption underlying introspection, in general, is that it is possible to tap into and document a learner’s internal processes in much the same way as one can observe external real-world events. This is predicated on an additional assumption, namely that humans have access at some level to their internal thought processes and can verbalize those processes.
