Reflexivity in Applied Linguistics: Opportunities, Challenges, and Suggestions

Description

This edited collection provides research-informed guidance on how reflexivity may be practised in applied linguistics research. Specifically, we promote reflexivity as an essential hallmark of quality research and argue that doing reflexivity confers greater transparency, methodological rigour, depth, and trustworthiness to our scholarly inquiries. The collection features perspectives from different sub-fields of applied linguistics, including intercultural communication, language education, and multilingualism, and draws on data from a range of settings, including language cafés, classrooms, workplaces, and migration and displacement contexts. Each chapter follows a unified structure: theoretical background, context of the empirical study used as a backdrop for the chapter, an analysis of how reflexivity played out throughout the study, and conclusions which include takeaway points for other researchers. This approach allows readers to gain a sound understanding of the challenges and affordances of doing reflexivity in concrete examples of applied linguistics research whilst also gaining guidance on how to nurture and report on researcher reflexivity as this unfolds throughout the lifetime of a project. This book will appeal to students and scholars in applied linguistics, particularly those with an interest in research methods in the areas of language education, multilingualism, and intercultural communication. Cover Half Title Series Title Copyright Contents List of contributors Foreword 1 Navigating the waters of reflexivity in applied linguistics 2 Emotional reflexivity during a global health crisis: emotion ‘work’ in online health communication research 3 ‘Making the familiar strange’: reflexivity in linguistic ethnography within a context of former legal professional practice 4 Journeying through languages and voices: A reflexive account of researching teachers’ language practices in the multilingual and multicultural context of Mauritius 5 “There would be no project if I were to disregard my own self!”: An autoethnography of becoming reflexive as a doctoral student in applied linguistics 6 Critical reflexive phenomenography in a study abroad context: navigating Arab sojourners’ international academic experiences in Britain 7 Researching language cafés: engaging the researcher’s authentic multilingual self 8 Collaborative reflexivity through feedback dialogues: developing the research and the doctoral researcher 9 Reflexivity, emerging expertise, and Mi[S-STEP]s: A collaborative self-study of two TESOL teacher educators 10 Reflexivity and the production of shared meanings in language and sexuality research 11 Learning from the messiness of research: Reflexivity in sharing sessions with domestic migrant workers Afterword. Journey into applied linguistics: reflecting on reflexivity and positionality Index