Browsing by Author "AMMOUR Kamila"

Now showing 1 - 2 of 2
  • No Thumbnail Available
    Item
    Research Methodology
    (Université Mouloud Mammeri Tizi-Ouzou, 2024) AMMOUR Kamila
    The course “Research Methodology in Social Sciences” is a foundational component of the Master One programme in Foreign Language Didactics at Mouloud Mammeri University. It is designed to develop students’ ability to conceptualise, design, conduct, and report empirical research in applied language studies and the wider social sciences. The course equips future researchers with both theoretical and procedural knowledge required to engage in rigorous and ethically sound academic inquiry. The course begins by introducing students to the nature and purposes of scientific research, with a particular focus on its role in educational and applied linguistics contexts. Students are guided through the philosophical underpinnings of research, notably positivism and interpretivism, enabling them to understand how epistemological assumptions shape research design, data collection, and interpretation. This theoretical grounding prepares learners to differentiate between quantitative, qualitative, and mixed-methods approaches, and to select the most appropriate methodological framework in relation to their research questions. A central emphasis of the course is placed on research design and planning. Students learn how to formulate research problems, define variables, develop research questions and hypotheses, and choose suitable designs such as case studies, surveys, experimental research, and interpretive studies. These skills are essential for conducting systematic investigations in foreign language education and social sciences more broadly (Cohen, Manion & Morrison, 2005;Dörnyei, 2007). The course also develops students’ competence in data collection and analysis. Learners are trained to use key instruments including questionnaires, interviews, classroom observations, and document analysis, and to analyse data through both qualitative techniques (e.g., content analysis, discourse analysis, conversation analysis) and quantitative procedures (e.g., descriptive and inferential statistics, SPSS). This dual focus ensures that students can handle diverse types of data and produce valid and reliable findings (Brown & Rodgers, 2002; Kumar, 2011). Finally, strong attention is given to sampling procedures and ethical issues, highlighting the responsibility of researchers to protect participants, ensure transparency, and maintain academic integrity. The course culminates in the design of a full research proposal, enabling students to integrate all components of the research process into a coherent and credible academic project. By the end of the course, students are not only equipped with methodological tools but are also able to think and act as novice researchers within the field of foreign language didactics and applied linguistics.
  • No Thumbnail Available
    Item
    Writing Academic Research
    (Université Mouloud Mammeri Tizi-Ouzou, 2024) AMMOUR Kamila
    The course Writing Academic Researchis an advancedmethodology module designed for Master’sstudents in ForeignLanguageDidacticswho are preparingtheirMaster’s dissertations. It aims to developbothstudents’ researchcompetence and theiracademicwritingliteracy, enablingthem to produce a coherent, methodologicallysound, and academicallycredible dissertation. The course begins by distinguishingbetweendoingresearch and writingresearch, emphasizingthatcollecting data and reportingit in an academictextrequiredifferent but complementaryskills. The Master’s dissertation istreated as an academic genre, followingSwales’s (1990) theory of genre as a sociallyrecognizedform of communication characterized by a specificcommunicative purpose, schematic structure, content, and style. Studentslearnthattheir dissertation must follow the traditional simple model (Introduction, LiteratureReview, Methodology, Results, Discussion, Conclusion), whichis the standard format required by the Department of English. A core component of the course focuses on research planning, including the selection of a research topic, formulation of a researchproblem, definition of researchaims and objectives, and the choice of an appropriateresearch design (case study, survey, experimental, or interpretive). Following Creswell (2014) and Cohen et al. (2007), students are trained to ensurethattheirresearchissystematic, empiricallygrounded, and theoreticallyinformed. Students are thenguidedthrough the writing of a researchproposal, whichincludes the title, background literature, objectives, methodology, significance of the study, and key references. Special attention isgiven to the rhetorical structure of the dissertation introductionbased on Swales and Feak’s (1994) Create-A-Research-Space (CARS) model, whichteachesstudents how to establish a researchterritory, identify a gap, and position theirownstudy. Finally, the course developsstudents’ ability to write the main chapters of the dissertation, literaturereview, methodology, results, discussion, and conclusion, and to use the APA referencing systemcorrectly, ensuringacademicintegrity, clarity, and scholarlycredibility.