UNIVERSIDADE FEDERAL DE MINAS GERAIS

CURSO DE ESPECIALIZAÇÃO EM INGLÊS-ENSINO

ACADEMIC SKILLS – PROFESSOR RICARDO DE SOUZA

GROUP 3 – Task 2

Analysis of Research Articles

Quoting what was said by Professor Ricardo de Souza in our Academic

Skills course website, “the research article is likely to be one of the most
common written genres that researchers employ to engage in professional
communication with other members of their communities.” Therefore, it is
important for us, as academic students and researchers, to deepen our
comprehension of the structure of this kind of article. In order to achieve such
comprehension, we have examined two research articles from the options given
to us by our professor (Article 1: A case study on foreign English teachers’
challenges in Taiwanese elementary schools by Cheryl Wei-yu Chen and Yuh-
show Cheng and Article 3: From principles to practice: Teachers’ uptake of
principles from instructed language learning to plan a focus on language form in
content lessons by Susan Gray). By taking a closer look at these research
article’s structure, it was possible for us to identify some features that seem to
be common to all good research articles, and some principles that appear to
guide researchers throughout their research work, since the process of
collecting data until finally writing their texts.

One of the features that we perceived by our analysis was the

importance of theory to support research work. Our analysis of the first article
showed that the role played by theory in its case was to serve as basis for its
construction, in addition to lend credibility for the study presented by it.
Something similar happens with the second article, which also has theory and
past studies as an important foundation for its construction and for increasing its
validity. In fact, authors of both articles, rely on theory and knowledge produced
by previous works to provide basis for the building of their own articles. This is
very significant because it shows that academic research is never a result of
mere thought, but it is always backed up by previous works that other
researchers have accomplished before. In fact, even when a researcher
ventures through some new area or tries to study something that has not yet
been exceedingly explored, he will always try to find evidence in previous
studies and research works so he can support his own study. We can even say
that, in order to be considered a research article, articles need to present
references and mentions to previous works that can support and lend credibility
to the author’s views.
Another important point that was noticed through our examination of the
articles was that authors always try to justify their work by explaining their
purposes to readers. The second article, for example, provides a very detailed
introduction to explain what were the motivations and reasons that lead its
author to produce the research article. Besides, the author makes her
objectives clear to readers by presenting a short description of her goals and a
research question: “In what ways do secondary content teachers draw on
principles from instructed language learning to design content lessons with a
focus on language form?”

One last point to mention, but not the least important, is the description of
procedures. The description of the study’s procedures is a significant aspect of
research articles that help readers to understand the study being presented. As
a matter of fact, the descriptions of procedures adopted in the articles we have
analyzed, help us understand how the authors have accomplished their job and
also allow us to better understand how they have gotten to their conclusions
about their research topic. Besides, bearing in mind that the articles we have
analyzed are related to foreign language teaching and learning, the description
of procedures can help us have a better idea of how the studies presented by
them could have an impact on foreign language teachers’ professional lives.
Finally, description of procedures is important, also, because the studies
involved in the building of a research article demand handling a great amount of
information and, as information is a key feature for the accomplishment of any
research work, describing the procedures adopted in the research can be vital.

Article 1 (Article #3)

From principles to practice: Teachers’ uptake of
principles from instructed language learning to
plan a focus on language form in content lessons
Susan Gray *

1- What is the role of theory and previous studies in the article?

The role of theory and previous studies in the article is to serve as basis to the one being
presented, in addition to lend credibility for the present study. In fact, the article uses
theories and knowledge produced by previous works to provide basis for the building of
the new article, as well as to reinforce validity of the author’s ideas. If some kind of
academic research is made without a background (in this case, with correlated theory
and previous studies about the subject), the work tends to have many gaps in its content
and will certainly not be as well regarded as it would be if good basis had been
provided. In fact, to be considered a research work, articles need to present references
and mentions to previous works that can lend credibility to the author’s views.

2- Do the article writers provide readers with some sort of justification for their work?
Yes, the author provides a very detailed introduction to explain what were the
motivations and reasons that lead her to produce her research article. Besides, The
author justifies her work by clearly presenting her interests and by telling us exactly
what was it that she wanted to find out with her study, by presenting a short description
of her goals and a research question.

“As co-ordinator of one such programme and a former secondary content teacher, I wanted to
examine the ways in which teachers used the theoretical input and conceptual tools from the
course to plan, implement and evaluate language form in their teaching. In particular, I was
interested in the relevance of the input for the secondary content teachers. I set up an action
research project where same subject pairs of mathematics, science and social studies teachers
used the input to plan, teach and evaluate a sequence of lessons (Gray, 2006). This paper
reports on an aspect of that study – one pair’s use of principles to guide planning of a lesson
sequence – and answers the research question: (1) In what ways do secondary content teachers
draw on principles from instructed language learning to design content lessons with a focus on
language form?”

The author also thinks her work can help other professionals to improve their practice
by comparing their own realities with the one demonstrated in the research article. In
other words, one of the goals of the research article is sharing some good experiences
with other people involved in similar situations.
3- How do the article writers validate their own thoughts and conclusions?

She validates her thoughts and conclusions by demonstrating the relevance of her study
and by presenting reference to several previous studies and to several authors that have
studied the topic before. Besides, at the end of the article, the author presents a long list
of references to increase and demonstrate the validity or her studies. Finally, the fact
that the article describes some type of field research it provides the author with enough
background to validate her point of view.
4- How important is the description of procedures adopted in the study being reported.

The description of the procedures adopted in the study helps us understand how the
author did her job. It also allows us to better understand how the author got to her
conclusions, and how these conclusions can reflect on and impact other teachers’
professional lives. Besides, such description is important because the study involves
handling a great amount of information, and information is a key feature for the
accomplishment of any research work. Finally, this kind of step by step description of
procedures makes it easier for readers to make sense of what the author wants to convey
with her studies.

Article 2 (Article #2)

A case study on foreign English teachers’

challenges
in Taiwanese elementary schools
Cheryl Wei-yu Chen a,*, Yuh-show Cheng b

1- What is the role of theory and previous studies in the article?

The role of theory and previous studies in the article is to serve as basis to the one being
presented, in addition to lend credibility for the present study. However, the authors
explain that there is a gap in theory because, according to them, the object of their study
(Intercultural Team Teaching) had not been deeply studied from the angle she
approached in their research. It is useful do remember that any research article has to be
preceded by a research work. Therefore, theory also plays an important role in the
conduction of this research process. In fact, the authors make it clear in their article that
they based on previous studies of other researchers so they could conduct and be
successful in their own study.

2- Do the article writers provide readers with some sort of justification for their work?

Yes, the authors provide a very detailed introduction to explain what were the
motivations and reasons that lead them to produce their research article. Besides, the
authors justify their work by clearly presenting their interests and by telling us exactly
what was it that they wanted to find out with their study, by presenting a short
description of their goals and a literature review of previous studies. They also explain
that their study is qualitative, and that it is part of a larger research project, which
explains the relevance of their work:

“The current study is a qualitative case study which focuses on the challenges that foreign
English teachers encounter in Taiwanese elementary schools. It is part of a larger study which
examines local and foreign English teachers’ collaboration and professional development in
intercultural team teaching.”
The author also thinks her work can help other professionals to improve their practice
by comparing their own realities with the one demonstrated in the research article. In
other words, one of the goals of the research article is sharing some good experiences
with other people involved in similar situations.
3- How do the article writers validate their own thoughts and conclusions?

They validate their thoughts and conclusions by demonstrating the relevance of their
study and by presenting reference to several previous studies and to several authors that
have studied the topic before. Besides, at the end of the article, the authors present a
long list of references to increase and demonstrate the validity or their studies. Finally,
the fact that the article describes some type of field research provides the authors with
enough background to validate their point of view. They also mention that their study is
part of a larger research project, which increases the validity of their work, since this
demonstrates the relevance and seriousness of their study.

4- How important is the description of procedures adopted in the study being reported.

The description of the procedures adopted in the study helps us understand how the
authors did their job. It also allows us to better understand how the authors got to their
conclusions, and how these conclusions can reflect on and impact other teachers’
professional lives. Besides, such description is important because the study involves
handling a great amount of information, and information is a key feature for the
accomplishment of any research work. Finally, this kind of step by step description of
procedures makes it easier for readers to make sense of what the authors wants to
convey with their studies.

A case study on foreign English teachers’ challenges

in Taiwanese elementary schools

The previuos study and existing theories were important for this research because them
became a critical support to the authors write their article based on voices that were
rarely heard: team teachers' voices. Much was known about Intercultural team teaching,
but it was rare the documentation of foreign English teachers’ experiences in the local
context. So, the present article works on this new subject.

While many issues were discussed on Non-Native-English-Speaking Teachers, the

author got great efforts focus on the voices of these teachers that have been better heard
and their needs in this article. So, by a wise explanation during the introdution Chen and
Cheng provide a large motivation for their study.

In order to validate their own thoughts and conclusions, they did a qualitative case study
(using interviews) which focuses on the challenges that foreign English teachers
encounter in Taiwanese elementary schools. Three foreign teachers from South Africa,
agreed to participate in this study. So, all the interviews were recorded and transcribed
verbatim for further analysis.

In this process of analysis, the interviews were good elements for the research. Through
them the readers could have a detailed description about the procedures adopted in the
study, that helped us to see how important was the case study. By the descriptions of the
procedures we could have more consciousness about the reality foreign English
teachers’ challenges, mainly about the benefits or not of intercultural team teaching
face in an unfamiliar educational system.