ABSTRACT
Research is a systematic approach to finding answers to questions. This chapter examines that how the SLA field has come to deal with four aspects of research design: the methodology, the setting, the instrumentation and measurement. Since SLA was a new, uncharted field, it was by no means obvious how such investigation ought to be conducted. Many of its original research methodologies were consequently borrowed from first language acquisition research. The prototypical qualitative methodology is an ethnographic study in observe what is present with their focus, and consequently the data, free to vary during the course of the observation. A longitudinal approach typically involves observing the development of linguistic performance, usually the spontaneous speech of one subject, when the speech data are collected at periodic intervals over a span of time. In a cross-sectional approach, the linguistic performance of a larger number of subjects is studied, and the performance data are usually collected at only one session.
