Research Methods in Applied Linguistics
Chapter 5
Review of Literature
Introduction
1. What does the review of literature mean?
The process of documenting related materials is referred to as the review of literature.
2. The review of the literature is the process of documenting related materials. What does” related materials”
mean?
It refers to the reports and documents related to the topic. For examples, previous researchers in the field.
3. What questions come to someone’s mind when reviewing the literature?
Some questions are frequently posed by students at elementary research courses regarding the literature review:
1. How comprehensive should the review be?
2. How many sources are sufficient?
3. What kind of materials qualify for the task?
4. Where should one get relevant materials?
5. How should the materials be read and covered?
4. What is the answers to these questions?
There is no clear answer to any of the above-mentioned questions. However, some guidelines on the advantages
and goals of literature review and the procedures to be followed in referring to the source materials may alleviate
some of the students’ burden.
Goals of Literature Review
5. What are the goals of literature review? Name and talk about them completely.
The first goal is to help researchers put the topic within a scientific perspective. Sometimes review of the literature
helps researchers reformulate their research questions, even delete a particular factor from their research because
that factor has been overdone by previous researchers, or add a particular factor to their research because that
factor has been ignored by other researchers.
The second goal is to avoid mere duplication of previous research. Although replicability is one of the characteristics
of research, mere duplication is not its purpose. Thus, literature review can help researchers just to avoid such a
duplication.
The third goal is to avoid inadequacies of previous research. By reviewing the literature, the researcher would not
make the mistakes others have made, would not get trapped within the limitations and delimitations of previous
research, and would find new ideas to be explored or new problems to be solved.
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6. How can we reformulate the research question?
By deleting a particular factor from their research because that factor has been overdone by previous researchers,
or adding a particular factor to their research because that factor has been ignored by other researchers.
7. What are the three boxes that we have to read when reviewing the literature? Name and explain briefly.
Most researchers agree that the focus of literature review should be on three areas of theory, method, and data
analysis of the previous research.
The first area of relevant information regards the theory. An understanding of the theoretical principles of the
phenomenon under investigation would help researchers to ask valuable questions or to modify their already
formulated questions.
The second area of relevant information a researcher should seek is the method sections of the previous research.
The method section often includes information about the subjects or participants who participated in the study, the
instruments used to collect the data, the procedures employed in data collection, the kind, method, and the design
of research, and the statistical analyses utilized in the research.
Last but not least are the utilization of statistical analyses, the presentation of the results, and the interpretation of
the findings in previous research. The information about these steps helps the new researcher employ the most
efficient method of research, utilize the most appropriate statistical techniques, and interpret the results as
accurately as possible.
Finding the sources of information
8. Based on your familiarity with the topic you choose a source of information. What are the sources?
Depending on the familiarity of the researcher with the topic, various procedures can be followed.
If the researcher is not familiar with the topic, probably an appropriate technique to start literature review is to
refer to an encyclopedia. Encyclopedias are used to check for factual information or to get an overview of the topic.
Furthermore, encyclopedias provide a reasonably acceptable bibliographical information from which the researcher
can start an in-depth search.
However, if the researcher is familiar with the topic, he might go straight to more specialized references. In such
cases, probably the most informative source of information is the citation of abstracts. Abstracts give the
summaries of the articles, MA theses, PhD dissertations, and sometimes the published books. Since abstracts are
short, about 150-200 words, they can be read quickly.
Another source of information for the researchers who are familiar with the topic of investigation is reference books
and articles. Due to the abundance of materials, the researcher should concentrate on some key authors, topics,
and studies. The term key is used here to mean the most appropriate and the most relevant. Apart from the
valuable information the reference books and articles may provide, the references given in such sources may be
helpful as well.
Another sources to which researchers can refer is periodicals. Periodicals are the most valuable and informative
source of information. They provide the most up-to-date information about different topics in each field.
One more source of information is online data bases. ERIC, the Educational Resource Information Center, is one of
these online data bases.
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Reading and Organizing the Materials
9. What are the steps to reading and organizing the Materials?
First step: locating the sources of relevant materials is the beginning of reading the materials and extracting
information
Second step: reading and organizing the material
Recording Bibliographical Information
10. What are the pieces of information which should be included in recording bibliographical information?
It is essential that the researcher take careful notes which include the following pieces of information:
1. Full name of the author
2. Full title of the document
3. Place, publisher, and the date of publication
4. The page number from which the information is extracted.
Taking Notes from the Materials
11. What should a researcher do when taking notes from materials?
When the information regarding the book or the article is documented, the researcher takes notes from the
materials. This is the most important stage:
First, the researcher should read the materials and paraphrase the author’s words – copying exact words of the
author, unless on extremely important issues, is not recommended.
Second, seemingly unimportant points may prove useful at later stages. Therefore, the researcher should not
ignore such pieces of information.
Third, the notes should be kept in a file and organized based on a favorite system. Organizing the notes around the
key concepts seems more efficient because at the time of writing the literature review, they would be easily
accessible.
Last, the notes must be comprehensive. All aspects of the phenomenon should be taken into account quite
impartially.
12. What are the points a researcher should take into consideration in the process of taking notes from the
materials?
The following points should be taken into consideration in the process of note taking:
1. Write the notes legibly in ink.
2. Write only on one side of the card for easy organization later.
3. Use the abbreviation of frequently-used terms in order to save space.
4. Label the cards for easy reference later.
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