Workshop Overview
Within a month of being advertised on the EUROCALL Conference website, the workshop was oversubscribed with over 40 participants having secured a place, and 15 names put on the waiting list, making it the most sought after pre-conference event. Many researchers worldwide expressed their disappointment for not securing a place.
Prior to the workshop, a questionnaire was sent to all registered participants in order to assess their CALL research expertise and expectations (see attached documentation). The results of this survey guided the decisions made in relation to the proposed content and activities. Twenty seven responses were received before the stipulated deadline. While only 19% of the respondents saw themselves as experienced researchers, 33% and 48% declared themselves as novice and intermediate researchers respectively. Integration into the curriculum, evaluation, course and task design appeared to be the participants' primary interest in CALL. In relation to their expectations, 74% of the respondents expressed their wish to learn more about research methodologies appropriate for CALL. The next two most significant expectations were current applicable theoretical frameworks (48%) and formulating and assessing research questions (45%).
Consequently, it was decided that the proposed activities would essentially focus on these three areas and that they would primarily target novice and intermediate researchers. It was felt that, given the imbalance between junior and senior researchers, activities aiming at enabling collaboration between researchers would be difficult to orchestrate. Furthermore, the strong demand for guidance in research methodologies led us to concentrate on the CALL research process in general and on new data collections methods in particular.
Forty-two participants from sixteen countries, including Japan, USA and Taiwan, attended the workshop. During the workshop, these participants had the opportunity to reflect on and to discuss issues related to CALL research, and in particular a) process and outcomes in elaborating appropriate theoretical frameworks; b) formulation and assessment of critical research questions for CALL; c) identification and exploration of effective research methods for CALL, including new and innovative approaches to data collection and analysis (you can view the programme of the workshop in PDF) .
Discussions during and after the workshop and the small number of evaluation questionnaires returned to the workshop convenors revealed the importance of holding such events. In particular, the issue of formulating and critically appraising research questions relevant to CALL proved to be a milestone for many participants, whether they were novice or more experience researchers. The demonstration of new data collection methods, involving the use of screen capture software, was well received by the participants, with many of them indicating their intention to integrate such methods in their own research design.