ABSTRACT
This chapter examines some of the problematic features of conducting classroom-based research in the field of applied linguistics. To illustrate the complexity of implementing projects, two long-term studies conducted in Canada and Hungary are presented. The Canadian research was concerned with the education of immigrant and minority children in one large urban center, and with methods of integrating language and content instruction in particular. Both elementary and secondary schools have been involved in this study from 1987 to the present. The Hungarian research was situated in dual-language (late immersion) secondary schools in three Hungarian cities from 1989 to 1992. Its objectives were to document learners’ progress in English as a foreign language (EFL) as well as in their academic subjects, and to investigate changing language socialization practices in content classrooms. Remarkably similar, and yet, unforeseen dilemmas encountered in these two distinct socioeducational research contexts are discussed in terms of institutional, methodological, and ethical issues, along with the compromises and insights that they engendered. We explore the underpinnings of some of these issues and the notion that in school-based research of the type undertaken here, modifications in research agendas may be inevitable. Furthermore, we claim that as more qualitative research is undertaken in classrooms with limited English-proficient students during times of rapid social change, many of our assumptions about the need to maintain the integrity of predetermined, static research designs and methods, perspectives derived from experimental, quantitative research paradigms, must be critically examined.
