Doing research, in any field, can be a highly rewarding, as well as a highly frustrating experience. Both the novice and the more experienced practitioner will encounter doubts, face methodological conundrums, wonder what on earth is that new methodology just mentioned by a colleague or simply forget things. Thank god (actually, thank Shawn Loewen and Luke Plonsky), help is at hand.
The A-Z Guide of Applied Linguistics Research Methods is a slim, clearly designed, easy-to-use instrument than aims to assist researchers and “consumers” of research (e.g. readers, reviewers, assessors and, of course, students) to quickly get an overview of research methods in applied linguistics, together with the practices and terminology that go with them. One of the features that make this guide well-designed is that its entries are very easy to access and to use. They strike the right balance between being skeletal and being more detailed than those in the glossaries often found as appendices to textbooks, and they are much more synthetic than entries found in encyclopaedias or the lengthy discussions found in textbooks. Within each entry, terms that are discussed elsewhere in the volume are emboldened, thus making the interconnectedness of many issues apparent and easy to follow.
Very usefully, in many of their entries, the authors provide several examples from real applied linguistics research. This is useful because it allows the reader to see immediately how a certain method or principle can be (and has been) applied in their field, thus making the discussion much less abstract. When such studies are presented, the reader will find full references at the end of each entry. And indeed each single entry is followed by references that can be easily followed up.
Another feature that makes this little volume easy to consult and user-friendly is the number of visual aids. Diagrams, tables and various figures are to be found interspersed among the entries in several places.
This A-Z is no substitute for a full text on research methods on applied linguistics. But, its authors do not claim it is. The function it performs very successfully is that of being a companion for researchers conducting different types of work and at different levels of experience. Useful to both qualitative and quantitative researchers, and at a very affordable price and size, it contains numerous examples. It can function as a primer or as a go-back-to type of guide, and its authors are to be commended for this welcome addition to the literature on research methods in applied linguistics.
