Philosophy of Research in Applied Linguistics

Abstract

The term “ philosophy of research in applied linguistics” may be considered to cover a wide range of academically and philosophically important issues that have recently begun to capture the attention of scholars in research programs in their efforts, on the one hand, to reflect upon how they have traditionally approached their scientific practices and, on the other, to reconsider and redefine their research priorities in the light of new findings and revise their methodologies and designs in the very scope of their field. Language researcher’s personal commitments and presumptions and other issues of central importance will, definitely, influence future developments in research programs in applied linguistics and possibly result in fundamental changes in the way researchers in linguistics currently view their own work as well as research priorities in general. The research topics and approaches applied in the field of philosophy of research in applied linguistics, definitely, involve various philosophical and theoretical commitments, as well as methodological preferences and practices. In the present paper, alternative beliefs about the fundamental issues of the philosophy of research in applied linguistics and the central issues in research methodologies have been discussed.

Keywords

• Case Study
• Construct
• Cultural Salience
• Deductivism
• Inductivism
• Methodological Triangulation in Applied Linguistics
• Operational Definitions