Becoming an ESL Researcher: A Personal Monologue

• Κύριος συγγραφέας: Irfan Ahmed Rind (Συγγραφέας)
• Μορφή: Βιβλίο
• Έκδοση: National Research University Higher School of Economics, 2021-03-01T00:00:00Z.
• Θέματα: article
• Διαθέσιμο Online: Connect to this object online.
• Notes: https://doi.org/10.17323/jle.2021.10298; 2411-7390
• Keywords: reflexivity; self-conversation; qualitative research; philosophical stance; social stance; novice researchers; Education; L; Philology. Linguistics; P1-1091
• Source: Journal of Language and Education, Vol 7, Iss 1, Pp 219-228 (2021)

This reflective paper narrates my research journey from a naïve researcher to a critic and from a behaviorist to a post-structuralist. It highlights the different philosophical, methodological, and theoretical dilemmas I faced in conceptualizing students' experiences in an English as a Second Language program in higher education during my doctoral studies. This journey is divided into three phases: construction, deconstruction, and reconstruction. In the construction phase, I conceptualized students' experiences from my own established knowledge, which was grounded in my presumptions about teaching and learning. During the deconstruction phase, I questioned my understanding of knowledge and social realities. In the reconstruction phase, I interacted with Phenomenography, Activity Theory, Symbolic Interactionism, Communities of Practice, and Bourdieusian Structuralism. This paper narrates these interactions, focusing mainly on the dilemmas I faced as a researcher. These reflections could be highly beneficial for new researchers who may face the same situations at different stages of their research careers.