Real World Research Combining Qualitative andLESLLA现实世界研究相结合定性和leslla.doc

PAGE PAGE 1 Real World Research: Combining Qualitative and Quantitative Research for Adult ESL Real World Research: Combining Qualitative and Quantitative Research for Adult ESL This paper was presented at the National Research and Development Centre (NRDC) Second International Conference for Adult Literacy and Numeracy, This paper was presented at the National Research and Development Centre (NRDC) Second International Conference for Adult Literacy and Numeracy, Loughborough, England, March 25-27, 2004. Larry Condelli American Institutes for Research, Washington, Heide Spruck Wrigley LiteracyWork, San Mateo As in other fields of education, adult education and literacy faces great pressure to conduct more scientifically based research to identify effective instructional practices to guide teaching and inform policy. Educational research, especially in adult literacy, has been criticized for employing weak methodologies that do not allow for valid and reliable conclusions. To address this issue in the U.S., the Department of Education began an ambitious agenda to improve the quality of research, in part by establishing strict methodology guidelines for educational research that accepts only studies with experimental or quasi-experimental designs. At the same time, adult educational researchers face increasing demands to be more responsive to the field by designing studies and presenting findings that are more accessible to teachers and other practitioners, who need to know research-based practices that will improve the literacy and language skills of adult learners. To this end, several research to practice initiatives have arisen, including those led by the NRDC in England and NCSALL in the U.S, the major adult literacy research organizations in their respective countries. False Dichotomies Due to the nature of the research process, it has been difficult for researchers and practitioners to communicate. Researchers are expected to stay aloof from practice