Description

Author

Pei Zhang (Tianjin University of Finance and Economics, Tianjin, China)

Nianyi Liu (Tianjin University of Finance and Economics, Tianjin, China)

Abstract

This study investigates the application of longitudinal mixed methods designs in language teaching research using empirical studies published between 2003 and 2018 in Applied Linguistics, The Modern Language Journal, Language Teaching Research, and TESOL Quarterly. As suggested by previous studies conducted within 2 other fields (i.e., clinical biomedical and health sciences research) and supported in the current study, the design dimensions in longitudinal studies vary from those in cross-sectional studies, primarily with respect to correspondence of the qualitative and quantitative time points. The usual mixed methods timing options (i.e., as seen in cross-sectional mixed methods research) are insufficient to describe the variations in how the qualitative and quantitative strands relate to each other in longitudinal mixed methods research. There might be some use in classifying the various longitudinal mixed methods research options adopted in the language teaching research field. This study captures these variations and classifies design approaches as follows: (a) Retrospective Longitudinal Mixed Methods Design, (b) Fully Longitudinal Mixed Methods Design, (c) Multiquestion Longitudinal Mixed Methods Design, (d) Fully plus Retrospective Longitudinal Mixed Methods Design, and (e) Single Data Source Longitudinal Mixed Methods Design.