For my proposed study, I wish to examine a new methodology for second language acquisition of Arabic at the DLI. In my study I wish to perform qualitative studies on the ease by which the students taking these language courses learn the language, and how the overall education experience is received by them, positive or negative. In this way, I will be learning how new stimuli affect the participants in this extremely specific setting (Arabic language learning in a defense language context).
Qualitative science and understanding seems to be the primary theoretical framework by which I plan on performing my study. I wish to understand what techniques and methods would make a better, easier, and more productive classroom experience for learning defense languages such as Arabic. My theory is that the particular interventions I want to try will yield greater classroom experiences for the students taking the course; these would control the empirical process of classroom performance and second language acquisition. By testing the moods and reactions of students toward this intervention, I can figure out what would work to create better courses. My primary goal is not to look for a particular cultural lens, but simply to test effectiveness of a new intervention. That is the one variable that I wish to consider; as a result, I wish to chiefly focus on simple qualitative study, in order to understand what makes a better DLI classroom.
Also, I wish to maintain a qualitative inquiry framework for my study. Phenomenology studies the experiences of its participants given different stimuli. In this instance, the students would be evaluated to gain their experience of the world of language learning and education prior to the intervention. This would permit a baseline understanding to be reached regarding how the participants feel about education and learning Arabic. Throughout the intervention course, these conceptions would (hopefully) be challenged and changed; the qualitative data gleaned from the study will ideally reveal a change in the conceptions of both education and second language acquisition.
In terms of critical awareness, critical theory is a major component of the study as well. This theoretical framework primary deals with critical theory and challenging ideologies, to a small extent. If the existing ideology is that the current method of teaching Arabic in DLI courses is the best way, that ideology will be challenged by the introduction of the new intervention. This is meant to challenge the false consciousness of the existing teachers and faculty, and create a new action to take that may yield better results in this classroom environment. The ideology challenged in this study is simple, and likely not one that is ardently held onto; this makes it potentially very easy to avoid resistance to acknowledging or attempting the new intervention as a replacement ideology.
My study, overall, is a simple qualitative inquiry into the effectiveness of a specific education-related intervention. The goal, however, is to challenge the ideology of an existing way to teach second language acquisition; ideally, if this new intervention turns out to be effective, the preexisting notion of how to perform an Arabic language course would be sufficiently challenged.
References
Patton, M. Q. (2002). Qualitative research & evaluation methods Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage
Publications.
Shank, G. D. (2006). Qualitative research: A personal skills approach Upper Saddle River, NJ:
Pearson Merrill Prentice Hall.
Schram, T. H. (2006). Conceptualizing and proposing qualitative research. Upper Saddle River,
N.J.: Pearson Merrill Prentice Hall
