Foreign Language Education: Research Methodology and Reporting

Foreign language education has not been established as an independent academic discipline since the theoretical framework and the corresponding research methodology had not been adequately studied so that the concept was misinterpreted as part of applied linguistics. The reason for this misinterpretation is that relevant knowledge background in terms of curriculum and instruction, educational research methodology, research approaches and theories in applied linguistics was not fully developed to nurture such an independent academic discipline as foreign language education. Many years of persistent learning and teaching endeavor as well as substantial help from professors worldwide result in this methodology book, as one of the two books to establish foreign language education as one academic discipline, the other being Content-based Language Instruction: Principles and Practices, providing the theoretical framework for the discipline.

Lianhong Gao got her PhD degree in TESOLCurriculum and Instruction at Florida InternationalUniversity. Now she is Associate Professor at ForeignLanguage School, China University of Political Scienceand Law, Beijing, China.