Informing research (practices) through pedagogical theory: focus groups with adolescents

ABSTRACT

The focus of this article is how pedagogical theory and applied linguistic research informed the development of a multifaceted methodology designed to elicit middle school students’ perspectives on bilingualism and their language identities within the context of a one-way French Immersion programme in New Brunswick, Canada. The theoretical context of our research is language socialization theory which emphasizes how learners actively construct new identities for themselves, consciously or unconsciously, as they acquire and use language. This language socialization is embedded in particular socio-political and historical contexts, bringing fluidity to the meanings of bilingualism and to identity. Our discussion is about our methodological journey, how we drew upon the broader principles of constructivist learning, and specifically Universal Design for learning and Multiple Intelligences, within focus group research to access these perspectives and identities. Our methodology involved multiple opportunities to present, express and engage in the construction of knowledge, and to engage students in identifying and expressing meaning related to their identities and perspectives as learners of French. Our research demonstrated that, by drawing on pedagogical theory, focus groups can be transformative for participants, and they provide ways to circumvent challenges in conducting qualitative research with adolescents.

KEYWORDS:

• Bilingualism
• focus groups
• multiple intelligences
• adolescents
• pedagogy
• language socialization
• constructivism
• universal design for learning

Acknowledgments

We thank the school district and school administrators for their support in giving us access to their schools and students for our research, and the students involved in our project for their candour and enthusiasm. We also thank the three anonymous reviewers for feedback.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

Wendy Bokhorst-Heng http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1773-7514

Notes

1 In September 2017, the entry point for EFI moved to Grade 1.

2 This original setup was a semicircle, but with groups of nine and 10 students, modifications were required to optimize our recording quality while at the same time support group discussion.

3 French linguists have long described the notion Standard French as problematic, given global variation in the language (Klinkenberg 2001). Teachers and principals in this school district described Standard French as the variety spoken and taught in NB’s immersion programs. While the Office québécoise de la langue française establishes a norm for Québécois French and related varieties, there is thus far no professionally-defined Acadian Standard (Boudreau 2001). However, during informal classroom observations which we conducted for another study, teachers appeared to be mostly speaking a standardized form of Acadian French.

Additional information

Funding

The research for this paper was financially supported in part by the Stephen & Ella Steeves Research Scholarship Fund at Crandall University, the Seaver Research Council Grant at Pepperdine University, and ACTFL/MLJ Research Priorities Grant, 2015.