Developing Research Questions; APA
Style Tips
VALERIE WUST,
NORTH CAROLINA STATE UNIVERSITY
Curiosity Killed the Cat
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Curiosity is part of human nature
Innate human curiosity drives research
 Research (defn)
 the organized, systematic search for answers to the questions
we ask
 Reactions to research
 I don’t believe it;
 Oh, I knew that already;
 Why should I care?
The Search for Answers
 Research as a mechanism for convincing
 WHERE to search for answers
 WHAT counts as evidence
 Standards for determining VALIDITY of evidence
 Interesting research questions
 apply to theory or theory formation
 apply to practice (e.g., curriculum design, materials
development, test development etc)
 apply to both theory and practice
Defining the Research Question
 In groups of 2-3, brainstorm some questions to
which L2 teachers might like to know the answer.
Rule 1: Ask Interesting Questions
 Ask questions that are your own, ones that you truly
want to investigate
 Ask questions that are shaped by your own
experiences
 Ask questions about ‘hot’ topics
Rule 2: Turn to the Field for Questions
 Look at the TOC of the journal you have been given
 Report back to the group
 Name of journal
 Topics of articles in the issue
 Topics include, but are not limited to:
 classroom research
 skills-based research
 learner characteristics
 teacher characteristics
 language analysis
 language use outside the classroom
 Interlanguage analysis,
 L2 testing/evaluation
 theory testing.
 ‘Directions for Future Research’ section of articles
Jumping on Board with your Advisor
 Dovetail on his/her work
 Motivation from being part of a research team
Characteristics of RQs
 RQs generate new information OR confirm old
information
 Confirmation?

Conduct a literature review
Conducting a Literature Review
 http://www.lib.ncsu.edu/databases/ LLBA
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(Linguistics and Language Behavior Abstracts)
Keywords, Key authors
E.g., research on oral corrective feedback
Keywords: feedback, oral language, error analysis,
prompt, recast, repair
Key researchers: Lyster, Roy; Sheen, YoungHee
Narrowing the Scope of a RQ
 WIDE SCOPE
 Investigate how L2 learners respond to oral corrective
feedback
 NARROW SCOPE
 ?????
Operationalizing Key Terms
 No theoretical definitions
 Operational definition
 clear statement of how you judge or identify a term in your
research; Makes your research replicable
 Tried and true definition of corrective feedback
 ‘responses to learner utterances containing an error’ (Ellis,
2006, p. 28).
Keeping Your Research on Track
 RQS need to:
 Interest us
 Provide new information or confirm old information in new
ways
 Have reasonable scope
 Have key terms that are clearly defined and operationalized
Stating Research Questions and Hypotheses
 Poor start
 Can I describe X?
 Good start
 ‘Why do I want to describe X?’
 ‘What do I expect to find?’
 Hunches help us refine RQs
Formulating Hypotheses
 Hypotheses
 ‘hunches’ about answers to our RQs written in a formal way
 Conducting research: potential support for
hypotheses
 We are not looking for PROOF, but SUPPORT either
way
 Hypothesis (defn)

a statement of possible outcomes of research
Null Hypothesis vs. Alternative Hypothesis
 Ho: There is no relationship between X and Y.
 H1: There is a relationship between X and Y.
Directional Hypotheses
 Directional Positive H1: There is a positive
relationship between X and Y.
 Directional Negative H1: There is a negative
relationship between X and Y.
Getting Started Using the 10 Cardinal Questions
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
What is the research question?
What has already been done to answer this
question (literature review)?
What evidence do you expect to gather in order to
answer the question?
What are the variables in the study and how are
they defined?
Where or from what sources (e.g., texts, speaker
populations) do you expect to gather the evidence?
Getting Started Using the 10 Cardinal Questions
6. How do you expect to collect the data (e.g.,
7.
8.
9.
10.
experiment, observations, survey, test analysis,
introspection)?
How will you analyze the data you collect?
What do you expect your results to be?
Exactly how will the results you obtain address the
question?
What wider relevance does the study have (i.e.,
ramification. ‘for further study’, etc.)?
NCSU Library Resources for APA Style
 APA UNC Guide
http://www.lib.unc.edu/instruct/citations/apa/
APA Citations: Identifying Errors
 Citation 1: (book)
Caldwell, Martin, & Briggs, Emily S. (1993).
Appreciating the importance of proper articulation
in Pig Latin multimedia materials. Ajo, AZ: Ajo
University Press.
 Citation 2: (journal article)
Duckworth, V. L. (1978). A series of checklists for
evaluating Pig Latin performance. Logical Form in
Education, 9, 110-115.
 Citation 3: (book)
Pig Latin pronunciation in North and South Korea.
By Hong, J., & Leung, M. X. Seoul, Korea: Korean
Association of Language Educators, 1994.
 Citation 4: (journal article)
Eisenstein, Y., Shomking, L., & Hennys, L. E. (1992).
Schema-building in the Pig Latin classroom: Recreating the world. Pig ped: Pig Latin teaching, 26
(2), 34-56.
 Citation 5: (book)
Grendel, B. W. (1905). A Brief Introduction to Pig
Latin Philology. New York: Hrothgar House.
 Citation 6: (journal article)
Gruber, J. M. (1983). "Understanding the Pig
Latin/Pig Pidgin continuum." Language learning, 2,
244-306.
APA Citations Answer Key
 Citation 1: (book)
Caldwell, Martin, & Briggs, Emily S. (1993). Appreciating the
importance of proper articulation in Pig Latin multimedia materials.
Ajo, AZ: Ajo University Press.
 Incorrect Citation: The problem here is with the
author information. To cite authors, provide the last
name in full and only the initials of the first name
and any additional names.
 The author slot for this citation should be:

Caldwell, M., & Briggs, E. S.
 Citation 2: (journal article)
Duckworth, V. L. (1978). A series of checklists for evaluating Pig Latin
performance. Logical Form in Education, 9, 110-115.
 Incorrect Citation: In APA style, capitalize only
the first word and any other words (such as names of
people, places, and languages) which are necessarily
capitalized.
 The journal title in this citation should be written in
the following way:

Logical form in education,
 Citation 3: (book)
Pig Latin pronunciation in North and South Korea. By Hong, J., &
Leung, M. X. Seoul, Korea: Korean Association of Language Educators,
1994.
 Incorrect Citation: Elements in this citation are out of order. The
authors, "Hong, J., & Leung, M. X.", should go first (without the "By");
the date should come next; the book title would be the third element.
 This citation should be:

Hong, J., & Leung, M. X. (1994). Pig Latin pronunciation
in North and South Korea. Seoul, Korea: Korean Association
of Language Educators.
 Citation 4: (journal article)
Eisenstein, Y., Shomking, L., & Hennys, L. E. (1992). Schema-building
in the Pig Latin classroom: Re-creating the world. Pig ped: Pig Latin
teaching, 26 (2), 34-56.
 Incorrect Citation: For journal articles, italicizing
begins with the title of the journal and ends with the
volume number.
 The title/volume/issue number slot for this citation
should be done in the following way:
 Pig ped: Pig Latin teaching, 26 (2),
 Citation 5: (book)
Grendel, B. W. (1905). A Brief Introduction to Pig Latin Philology.
New York: Hrothgar House.
 Incorrect Citation: It is not necessary to capitalize
all words in any title in APA style. Capitalize only the
first word of title, along with any other obligatory
capitalizations (such as for names of people, places,
and languages).
 The article title for this citation should be:
 A brief introduction to Pig Latin philology.
 Citation 6: (journal article)
Gruber, J. M. (1983). "Understanding the Pig Latin/Pig Pidgin
continuum." Language learning, 2, 244-306.
 Incorrect Citation: The title of this article is
enclosed in quotation marks. Though this is standard
procedure with certain stylesheets, it is not necessary
in APA style. The quotation marks should be deleted
from the citation.
 The article title for this citation should be:
 Understanding the Pig Latin/Pig Pidgin continuum.

Exercise adapted from: (2011, September 6). website: http://linguistics.byu.edu/faculty/henrichsenl/apa/APA12.html
NCSU Libraries Citation Builder (APA or MLA)
 http://www.lib.ncsu.edu/citationbuilder/
COMPLETE BOOK
 Author: John Austin
 Publication Year: 1962
 Book Title: How to Do Things with Words.
 Publisher: Oxford University Press.
 City of Publication: Oxford, UK.
JOURNAL ARTICLE
 Author: Suzanne Carroll
 Publication Year: 1989
 Journal Title: Language Learning
 Volume (successive pagination): 39
 Article Title: Second-language Acquisition and the
Computational Paradigm.
 Page numbers: 535-594.
CHAPTER FROM AN EDITED BOOK
 Chapter Author: Rod Ellis
 Chapter Title: The differential effects of corrective


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feedback on two grammatical structures.
Publication Year: 2007
Book Title: Conversational Interaction in Second
Language Acquisition: A Collection of Empirical
Studies.
Book Editor: A. Mackey
Page Numbers: 339-360
Publisher: Oxford University Press.
City of Publication: Oxford, UK.