Frame analysis in critical ethnography: applications for ELT research

ABSTRACT

Critical English language teaching (ELT) research is expanding in scope, covering topics such as linguistic imperialism, native-speakerism, and the intersections between issues of race, class, and gender. With this expansion comes a requirement for robust and rigorous methods of data collection and analysis for researchers to employ. This article puts forward ‘frame analysis’ as a tool for analysing data in critical ethnography, particularly in ELT. Frame analysis is the systematic investigation of the organisational principles which people draw on in interpreting actions and events. After describing the conception of critical theory in which this discussion is situated, the paper gives a theoretical and overview of the concepts of ‘frames’ and ‘framing’, with a focus on social movement research. A step-by-step discussion is provided explaining how frame analysis can help to identify hidden ideologies in a research setting as a part of critical ethnography, before supplying a concrete example of data analysis using this approach. It is suggested that frame analysis may be a useful part of a critical ethnographer’s toolkit, particularly in terms of identifying hidden ideological assumptions in research setting.

KEYWORDS:

• Frame analysis
• ideology
• critical ethnography
• coding
• critical applied linguistics

Acknowledgments

This paper is an expanded version of an argument which appeared in summary form in Language Teaching, 53(3), 383–386. I would like to thank Dr Will Simpson, Dr Gregory Hadley, Luke Lawrence, and Marc Jones for their helpful and critical comments on early drafts of this paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).