Engaging Young Learners in L2 Research

Although educational research and its results can affect the lives of children by impacting on pedagogical decisions, consideration of children’s input in such studies tends to be limited. This paper discusses the different approaches to L2 research into young learners’ participation and compares them with the emergent participatory perspective (Gallacher & Gallacher 2008; Coppock, 2010). It discusses the epistemological, methodological and practical aspects of implementing the participatory approach to research in a language-learning classroom. Using examples drawn from the author’s research, it demonstrates how learners aged 7-11 became involved as active participants in designing a research instrument and closing the power gap between the researcher and the participating children. The results suggest that young language learners are able to enact agency in designing a research instrument. If judiciously deployed, the participatory approach can provide invaluable insights for those wishing to incorporate children’s perspectives into their research. L2 research in young learner contexts is conducted largely from an adult perspective and rarely incorporates the children’s viewpoint. As the results of educational research may impact the lives of young learners (YLs) by shaping educational policy and practices, we should also explore ways of enabling children’s agency in research. This paper looks at how YLs can be actively engaged in practice. It overviews research methods used to collect data from children in L2 studies to date, with a discussion of the four perspectives on child participation in research and examples from the author’s experience of researching Assessment for Learning (AfL) in English to Young Learners (EYL). The aim is not to offer technical advice but rather to develop the idea of negotiating the roles with children in research as discussed by Kuchah and Pinter (2013). The term young learners is used here for children up to the age of twelve. Some of the studies included in the analysis were conducted with learners under twelve as well as older peers. Research methods used solely with over-twelve year olds were excluded from the analysis. All the studies were conducted in contexts of teaching a foreign or a second language (L2), which in the majority of cases was English. For this reason, English to Young Learners (EYL) is consistently used for the contexts included in this paper. The term research methods points to the strategies researchers use to collect and analyse the data they