The purpose of the research study was the role of Japanese students’ culture and its effects on the rate of acquisition of academic English. Having taught English as a Second Language (ESL) in an international school in Germany for many years, the author had gathered information on language acquisition, the dynamics of language and understanding of teaching and learning ( Tabatabaei, 2016) . It was, therefore, easier to understand why the Japanese students spent a considerable amount of time in ESL class as compared to their peers. The success of this study was guided by various research questions among them being:
Why the Japanese tended to spend a lot of time in ESL classes as compared to their peers from other cultural backgrounds?
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Are there cultural aspects that influence their ESL learning that their successful peers?
When it comes to an ethnographic study, the role of the researcher is very central. In the ethnographic research, the researcher adopted the position of a participant observer. Her researcher began with undertaking a study tour to several kindergartens, elementary, middle and high schools in Japan. It was here that she was able to recognize the differences between the ISX system and the Japanese school system.
According to Mullick et al. (2013) , an ethnographic research problem often starts with choosing a field site which is occasionally where an individual has stayed for a long time. In our ethnographic study, the researcher has worked in a school setting for a long time, particularly the ISX. It is in this setting that she was able to interact with students from different cultural and linguistic backgrounds. After a long interaction, she discovered a pattern when it comes to English language acquisition among the Japanese students. These essential principles played an important role when it came to establishing the research question.
The researcher employed various data collection methods among them participant observation, interviews, and case studies. First, the participant observation provided some insights on some issues. Among the items being the critical differences between a Japanese school system and international school systems when it comes to active learning and teaching. Second, the interviews, as well as the case studies, provided the needed data when it came to the formulation of tentative theories and practical elements of the study.
Ethical issues are essential components of any research ( Tabatabaei, 2016). In any ethnographic study involving participant observation and interviewing, informed consent is very crucial. In the ethnographic study, the researcher did not mention any formal statement documenting the subject's comprehension of the goals of the study, potential risks and the voluntary nature of their participation. Though, such documentation is considered obtrusive in ethnography they play an essential role when it comes to confidentiality.
The ethnographic study has some limitations and biases. First, to prove the hypothesis of the study several measures of quantitative analysis needed to provide. This would help in improving the reliability of the results, of the Japanese students taking more ESL classes as compared to their teen from different cultural backgrounds. Mullick et al. (2013) , asserts that validity and reliability of results also apply even for ethnographic studies. The researcher should also have used a well-defined sample size.
Researcher bias is another limitation. The researcher has worked as a teacher in an international school was likely to have her assumptions, experiences, and views about Japanese students. This was bound to limit how she conducted the research.
By large, the study provided satisfactory reasons as to why Japanese students tend to take longer in language acquisition than other teens from different cultural backgrounds. Among them being the Japanese culture that negatively affects English language acquisition, lack of parental understanding and teachers lacks knowledge and understanding of cultural differences. This study thus reported that understanding the effects of cultural differences is very important when it comes to teaching not only in the English language but also other subjects. The use of other evidence to support the assertions helped in clarifying the issue under study. However, if this study would be repeated in more quantitative design, including well-defined sample size and not profiling samples throughout the study, it would provide more insights.
Narrative Analysis
The purpose of the study by the authors was to obtain a better understanding of interdisciplinarity (ID), a model that is used in knowledge building and innovation. According to the authors, the field of ID had received little attention when it comes to graduate research training. Thus, the research study would further delve into how various factors shape ID research supervision. Furthermore, the study would investigate how established structures in organizations influence the outcomes of supervisory practices and relationships.
The following research questions guided the qualitative narrative analysis:
How does interdisciplinary supervisory relationship unfold in various contexts?
What structures or discourse support / constrain the practice of interdisciplinary supervision?
How are epistemological and paradigmatic borders negotiated?
The role of the researchers in this study was to reveal the “inner life” of interdisciplinarity a model that had been obscured. A critical narrative approach into the perspective of the researcher in various contexts helped in exploring multiple aspects including how they are related to other factors such as sociocultural contexts ( Bignold & Su, 2013).
The authors used narrative analysis, a qualitative methodology to explain the various they wanted. Narrative analysis is model research that focuses on ways human experiences the world around them ( Etherington, 2013). The participants narrate their personal experiences in the form of stories, and the researcher can explore how social, linguistic and cultural are shaped and expressed in their contexts. Narrative analysis in this case study encouraged the exploration and conceptualization of how ID is a useful model for graduate supervision and research training. Besides, utilizing narrative inquiry as the researchers helped in yielding stories that focused on sensitive issues such as supervisory relationships. Stories served as an essential tool through which relevant information about another individual life can be shared, and by which the readers can get in touch with reality ( Yardley, 2008).
The study also used purposive sampling to collect the needed data. Potential participants working in interdisciplinary ways were emailed. The participants who responded to the emails would be in semi-structured interviews to gather more in-depth data about their experiences. Similarly, homogenous focus groups were used in collecting supplementary data as a way of ensuring the validity and reliability of the results.
Various ethical issues emerged in the case study research among them being informed consent and confidentiality. Through the emails sent to the multiple participants, it was important to mention to them the purpose of the study and what was required in the study. Assuring them of confidentiality when it came to data collection would help in acquiring crucial information that was somewhat hidden because of lack of proper data protection measures.
Every research study has limitations. One of the main limitations of the historical analysis case study is the gaps in the metaphor studies. The findings of the research study showed that some of the stories told by the participants did not reflect on some of the stories they had heard before. None of the doctoral students were able to document whether they had friendly, helpful or non-helpful. This raises the most significant concern of the validity of the results and the generalizability of the findings.
Despite the limitations, the study made significant contributions into the field of ID. Through their compelling stories, the participants were able to raise awareness of the various issues’ faculties, students and administrators face when working together. The stories also reflected the complexities and contradictions that are inherent when it comes to supervisory roles. The study was also able to go with various recommendations including the need to develop a culture that supports interdisciplinary work. This approach, therefore, was effective in addressing the research problem.
The setting of the research study was a university setting. In future, conducting the same study in similar but different universities regardless of the size and faculties/student demographics would play an essential role in strengthening the findings as well as an opportunity of confirming or refuting the evidence.
References
Bignold, W., & Su, F. (2013). The role of the narrator in narrative inquiry in education: Construction and co-construction in two case studies. International Journal of Research & Method in Education , 36 (4), 400-414.
Etherington, K. (2013). Narrative approaches to case studies.
Mullick, P. D., Sen, P., Das, K., & Mukherjee, K. (2013). The Basics of Ethnography: An Overview of Designing an Ethnographic Research in Anthropology and Beyond. Journal of the Anthropological Survey of India , 62 (2), 893-902.
Tabatabaei, S. Z. (2016). Ethical issues during ethnographic research in residential homes: A personal experience. Journal of Occupational Health and Epidemiology , 5 (2), 121-128.
Yardley, A. (2008). Living stories: The role of the researcher in the narration of life. In Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung/Forum: Qualitative Social Research (Vol. 9, No. 3).
