Discussing the Implications and Limitations

Discussing the Implications and Limitations
Unit 13 Discussing the Implications and Limitations 2018/11/22

Contents Implications: Functions and types
Limitations: Purposes and elements Typical expressions for writing Implications and Limitations Chinese students’ common problems in writing Implications and Limitations 2018/11/22

13.1 Implications: Functions and types
Demonstration of the significance of the obtained findings Demonstration of the significance of the obtained findings 2018/11/22

Types ★theoretical implications ★practical implications
Confirmation/refute of a theory Modification of existing theories Applicability to solve certain practical problems ★theoretical implications ★practical implications ★pedagogical implications Clarification of a controversial issue Development of a new model Special in linguistic research papers for language teachers/learners Enrichment of our understanding of a phenomenon 2018/11/22

Eg. Theoretical implication – its support of a view
Despite these limitations, the results of our research corroborate the view that PALS constitutes an effective method of enhancing reading achievements among secondary-level students. Pretest levels of comprehension skills did not moderate the effects the PALS intervention had on measures of skilled reading. Higher performing students took as much benefit from this peer-assisted learning method as lower performing students. Instructor and students shared the view that peer-assisted learning is quite useful to facilitate the acquisition of reading skills in regular language lessons. All of this implies that combining strategy instruction with peer-assisted learning is a promising tool of fostering the reading comprehension of secondary-level students. Practical implication – the value of the study in education 2018/11/22

13.2 Limitations: Purposes and elements 13.3 Typical expressions for writing Implications and Limitations 13.4 Chinese students’ common problems in writing Implications and Limitations 2018/11/22

13.2 Limitations: Purposes and elements
Demonstration of your critical reflections on the research Demonstration of the significance of the obtained findings 2018/11/22

13.2 Limitations: Purposes and elements
The influence of access to people 1) Methodological limitations 2) Possible limitations related to the researcher Organizations The sample size Documents The data used Longitudinal effects Measure(s) used to collect data Conscious/ unconscious bias The ways the data were analyzed Language difficulty for an L2 researcher 2018/11/22

Eg: Although interesting findings were obtained, this study has limitations embedded within it. Having only 40 participants limited the study’s statistical power, and may have contributed to the marginally significant findings described above. It is also possible that the presence of an observer and a tape recorder may have reduced the ecological validity of the parent-child reading session. Efforts were made to make the experience as noninvasive as possible by keeping the sessions informal, with the observer sitting well away from the dyad as they read and having the same observer work with the child each year of the study. Despite this, the mere presence of an outside individual may have altered the behaviors of the child or adult. Future research could partly address this by providing families with tape recorders to self-record their interactions. This would eliminate the influence of an observer, but that of the tape recorder would remain. 2018/11/22

In collecting the data on children’s narratives in interaction with their mothers, the study mirrored naturalistic interactions in which narratives are co-constructed in conversations, with the listener soliciting additional information. Nonetheless, a limitation here is that this methodology does not allow one to determine what the children could have narrated with only the support of pictures. It is likely that under such conditions, without the emotional support of parents, the stories of shy children would have been even more constrained and more pronounced group differences would have been found. 2018/11/22

Finally, the study did not examine the effect of different interactional styles on shy children’s narratives. Past research would suggest that a more high-powered approach in an attempt to solicit the child’s ideas may lead to limited responses in the shy child. A low-power style with more frequent adult comments and contributions may model the co-construction of a more complete narrative. Future research should manipulate parental conversational style and examine the effect on the co-constructed narrative and on the child’s subsequent independent retelling of it. Future research might also employ sequential analyses to investigate the specific types of responses each adult utterance-type elicits from young children in this context. 2018/11/22

13.3 Typical expressions for writing Implications and Limitations
Common expressions in Implications The results/findings of this study suggest that… The evidence from the present study suggests that… The results/findings of this investigation/study indicate(d) that… The data lend support to… An implication of this is the possibility that… The (theoretical/practical/pedagogical) implication of this study is that… 2018/11/22

Common expressions in Limitations The current study was limited in several ways. First… A limitation of this research is that… It would be better to investigate… However, the findings are limited by using a… design. The current study was not able to answer… 2018/11/22

Common expressions in Limitations 6) The main weakness of the present study was… 7) The present study was not specifically designed to analyze… 8) The findings of this study are subject to several limitations. First… 9) Regarding the present study, several caveats need to be acknowledged. First… 2018/11/22

13.4 Chinese students’ common problems in writing Implications and Limitations
No mention of implications and/or limitations Eg: To end the paper, there are 3 major points being the arena of discussion. Firstly, a review to the relevant theories concerning recitation of English words is introduced, among which, referential theory, contextualism, long-term, short-term memory and forgetting are discussed respectively. Referential theory demonstrates the uniqueness and necessity of reciting approaches in the process of word reciting. As for contextualism, the important role and the heuristics have been indicated: to memorize words without the aid of context would be a death end and only makes matter worse. From the perspective of memory theories, i.e., short-term and long-term memory as well as Ebbinhaus’ Curve of Forgetting, which play a guiding role in the choice of reciting strategies, are introduced and commented. 2018/11/22

Secondly, four reciting strategies are summarized and commented as well. They are word list strategy, context strategy, elaborative strategy as well as semantic field strategy. Unconsciously and subconsciously, we may apply one or several of the aforementioned strategies, that’s why they are introduced. Thirdly, an idealized or a revised reciting strategy is designed based on the author’s personal reciting experience and the comparisons between those reciting strategies. 2018/11/22

Thirdly, an idealized or a revised reciting strategy is designed based on the author’s personal reciting experience and the comparisons between those reciting strategies. Such strategy is divided into 3 phases, which are: Phase One – the application of memory rules; Phase Two – the application of SFG; Phase Three – the application of forgetting rules. In Phase One, a conclusion is, we’d better exploit “a-o-e” pattern rather than “A-B-C” ones. Phase Two shares too much with the semantic field strategy since both of them hold that words should be categorized into systems or semantic field, hence efficient word reciting. As for Phase Three, the conclusion will be that, we should rehearse or review what had been memorized. Word reciting itself can never be any problem as long as language learners obtain an efficient reciting method. 2018/11/22

Confusion between theoretical and practical implications
Eg: The theoretical implications of this study lie in the following points. First, it integrates culture testing with large-scale language testing, since culture testing in the Chinese context is a new phenomenon around the world. Second, the practice of culture tests being contained in the students’ final examinations could help building a reasonable culture testing syllabus. Third, the culture testing motivates students greatly in their learning of culture. 2018/11/22

Oversimplified statement of limitations
Eg: The present study is subject to the following limitations. The first is concerned with the number of subjects; this study is conducted with 12 participants within one campus, further studies are needed. Second, the present study includes 19 attitudes/emotions which are the most commonly used in conversations, but not all the attitudes/emotions. The third is concerned with the design of this study, in each kind of attitude/emotion; one or two sentences are chosen to be used in the research. This study only provides a general picture; specific studies are suggested to explore one attitude/emotion at one time with more examples. Although it is subject to the above limitations, the value of this study can not be denied. It is hoped that the result of this study will attract attention to the attitudinal function of English intonation, provide references and guides for English intonation teaching. 2018/11/22

Use of misleading topic sentences
Eg: Since the Chinese phonology accounts for those errors that have been found in the recordings, the role of learners’ mother tongue cannot be ignored in pronunciation teaching. Chinese teachers usually attach more importance to the isolated forms than the prosodic features of English pronunciation. (This is echoed by this particular research too). In the author’s point of view, there should be two major reasons that account for this phenomenon; the long-term emphasis on the segmental sounds in traditional English teaching and the difficulties in teaching sprasegmental features of English pronunciation, in other words, the less teachability (refer to Section 2.3). 2018/11/22

Use of poor cohesion Eg:
The results of this study show that non-understanding can explain some part of the students’ errors. One may speak too low to be heard. Surrounding noise may be distracting. It suggests that more attention has been paid to real-situation communication. The findings that teachers’ negative feedback strategies may be influenced by error types imply that teachers and students can be aware of their interaction. Furthermore, teachers should be more consistent in applying negative feedback strategies. 2018/11/22

Exaggeration of implications
Eg: This study obviously has great instructive and significant implications. It is the first time that this field has been touched. The findings show that preface can provide a new perspective to the question and answer section which is dynamic in nature. This of course can be applied in other conversations such as the question and answer section in English classrooms. However, the study has a limitation. The study focuses on routine press conferences. Other types of press conferences, such as those online are not investigated. Future studies may investigate prefaces in other types of press conferences. 2018/11/22

☞ Check Your Understanding
TRUE or FALSE The section of implications is your explanation of the significance of your findings. In order to behave modestly, it is better not to mention the implications of a study when writing a research paper. The section of limitations reflects your introspective observations on the research problem(s). Omitting the description of limitations will help hide the flaws of a study. Recommendations for future research can be made by considering limitations of the study. 2018/11/22

In-Class Activities 1. Read the Implications from a research paper
2. Read the Implications and Limitations from a Ph.D. dissertation 3. Read the implications from an MA thesis 4. Read the Limitations from a research paper 5. Read the Limitations from a BA thesis 2018/11/22

1. Read the implications from a research paper
Two implications are discussed. First, based on the finding that in L1 reading and L2 listening, multiple-choice formats are easier than open-ended formats, a test developer might prefer using the former if the intention is to make the test easier. The option of multiple-choice or open-ended formats would produce a small to large degree of score difference in L1 reading and medium to large degree of score difference in L2 listening. For example, in a test with and SD of 10, these would be a 6.5 point difference in L1 reading with a 95% confidence interval of 2.4 and 10.6 points, and an 11.1 point difference with a 95% confidence interval of 5.7 and 16.6 points. Using Dunlap’s (1999) conversion program, effect sizes can be converted into probabilities based on normal curve z probability values; in percentile terms, the probability that the multiple-choice format is easier than the open-ended format is approximately 68% in L1 reading and 78% in L2 listening. These differences may be of little importance in a low-stakes test but of great significance in a high-stakes test, especially if an examinee’s score is located around the cut-off point. 2018/11/22

What are the two implications conveyed in this passage?
Second, the inconsistent relative difficulty of multiple-choice and open-ended formats in L1 and L2 reading found in the narrative review was clarified in the current meta-analysis, which also showed the prevalent effects of three moderator variables (between-subject designs, random assignment, and stem-equivalent items) in investigating multiple-choice and open-ended format effects across L1 reading, L2 reading, and L2 listening. Thus, these results provide evidence that quantitative data synthesis plays an important role in explaining inconsistencies in test format effects. What are the two implications conveyed in this passage? What are the topic sentences in this Implications? 2018/11/22

2. Read the Implications and Limitations from a Ph.D. dissertation
Implications for L2 Teaching Despite the caveats touched upon by rivals of explicit learning throughout this paper about the inability of explicit learning/teaching to produce long-term effects for learning complex L2 structures, the theoretical orientation of the approach taken in this study has robust implications for second language teaching. The pedagogical implications from the approach entail increasing learners’ perception of linguistic features in the input through careful integration of explicit negative evidence/feedback into authentic input/task which could be designed pedagogically and could be taught through negotiation of meaning and form activities. This input is negotiated with students and injected with healthy doses of overt corrective feedback in such a way that it promotes perception, and thus restructuring of the learners’ mental representations. 2018/11/22

The results of the present study warrant a wider application of EFF instruction for two main reasons. First, the provision of explicit negative evidence/feedback in the context of meaning focused activities seems to facilitate the acquisition of grammar. Second, it seems to promote the learners’ production ability. To the extent that the definitive goal of second language teaching is to enable learners to use language accurately and fluently in real-life situations, EFF instruction offers a legitimate and practical means for addressing one of the most formidable problems encountering L2 learners, namely the imbalance between their linguistic knowledge and their ability to use this knowledge accurately in various communicative situation. 2018/11/22

Limitations and Suggestions
While the overall instructional approach was effective in this study, it is necessary that the findings of the present study be interpreted in the light of its limitations. The first limitation may be related to the amount of the input to which the participants were exposed. The findings of the present study are based on cross-sectional investigation, in which exposure to the target structures during treatment is limited. This is particularly important in view of the acquisition-learning issue raised by advocates of the noninterface position (Krashen, 1981, 1982, 1985, 1994; Krashen & Terrell, 1983) that language acquisition, as opposed to language learning, takes longer periods of time to develop and that speech production emerges automatically after prolonged periods of exposure to comprehensible input. 2018/11/22

Given that FonF instruction caters to incidental learning, it is possible that more noticing, and hence more learning would have occurred had students in the comparison group been exposed to larger amounts of input for longer periods of time. Consequently, a study based on longitudinal research may produce potentially different results in learning effects. 2018/11/22

The second limitation, following on the effect of the amount of exposure, has to do with the choice of the target structures and the participants’ native languages (NLs). Given that the target structures chosen in this study are semantically opaque in that they are language-specific, and that these structures are non-existent or treated differently in the participants’ L1s (for review, see, Bermel, 1997; Comrie, 1991; D’Alquen, 1997; Sohn, 1995; Yoshimoto, 1998), it is possible that different results for FonF learning would be achieved if different structures had been chosen. Therefore, further research is needed to confirm the generalizability of the findings of the present study to different L2 structures and to larger and more heterogeneous numbers of participants. 2018/11/22

The third limitation may be related to the selection of the on-line strategies used to promote noticing. In this study, the comparison group received input flood with an artificial increase of the target structures in the input together with input enhancement using underlining. It is possible that these strategies are of themselves not sufficient to promote noticing. However, it is equally possible that more noticing would occur if different on-line strategies (e.g., input enhancement using different colors or bold print, or implicit negative evidence in the form of recasts) had been utilized. 2018/11/22

Finally, the substantial achievement of learners in the EFF condition at the time of retention testing, particularly their significant performance on the oral production measure, must be interpreted considering the time constraints imposed on the design of the present study. Retention testing took place only three weeks after the immediate posttesting. Therefore, it is possible that these results would not be maintained at the same higher level of achievement had the retention testing occurred after longer periods of time. This is particularly important in the face of the short-term learning effects in explicit learning for complex L2 rules discussed throughout this paper (see, for example, DeKeyse, 1995; Doughty & Williams, 1998; Robinson, 1996; Schmidt, 1993, 1994, 1995; Trahey, 1996). Given that the perception-explicit negative evidence learning condition in this study is different from the learning conditions of those studies, further empirical evidence is needed to confirm the duration of learning effects for complex L2 structures under different learning conditions over longer periods of time. 2018/11/22

What expressions are used to introduce the implications of the study?
What cohesive devices are used in organizing the Limitations part? 2018/11/22

3. Read the Implications from an MA thesis
The present study confirms the view that a native-like English intonation is extremely difficult to acquire for EFL learners. It is necessary for language teachers to know the characteristics and shortcomings of the students in their intonation performance in order to improve their use of English intonation. Although it is extremely difficult to achieve a native-like use of English intonation, we can at least narrow the gap between the EFL learners and the native speakers. Our goal should first be to reduce misunderstandings and to make the oral communication comfortable for both speakers. In intonation teaching, in order to improve the efficiency in conveying information with oral English, it is necessary to stress the importance of intonation; the learners should know the basic intonation patterns ant the corresponding attitudes and emotions that these intonation patterns are usually used for. 2018/11/22

How do the topic sentences work in this part?
Besides, the waveforms and intonation contours as well as Praat are suggested to be applied in the process of intonation teaching, which might be a good way for the teachers to show the students how intonation works and of the students to learn English intonation with a better understanding of it. In addition, the present study demonstrates that it is necessary to enhance the intonation awareness of the Chinese EFL learners. They must be aware of the difference between Chinese and English and pay attention to how the native speakers use English intonation. What significance does the study has according to this part of Implications? How do the topic sentences work in this part? What do you think of the cohesion in this part? 2018/11/22

4. Read the Limitations from a research paper
In conclusion, some limitations to this study should be acknowledged. First, each treatment group was limited to only one intact class, thus creating a possible teacher effect above and beyond CF type. An increased number of classes with comparable participants and teachers would yield more reliable and more robust results in future studies. Second, a practice effect might have been shown in the written test, because it included only a limited number of target items. In future studies, increasing the number of test items in both oral and written tests would certainly yield more robust results. 2018/11/22

What expressions are used in this part for describing the limitations?
Third, only recasts and prompts were compared without exploring the specific effects of different types of recasts (e.g., implicit vs. explicit) or the differential effects of specific prompts that range broadly from simple clarification requests to meta-linguistic clues. Future research should compare the differential effects of the various moves that comprise prompts, relative to each other and to different types of recasts, on a range of linguistic features and on classroom learners distinguished by individual differences such as proficiency level (Ammar & Spada, 2006), language analytic ability and aptitude (Sheen, 2007), and working memory (Trofimovich et al., 2007). These are all worthwhile areas for further investigation. What methodological problems are acknowledged by the author according to this excerpt? What expressions are used in this part for describing the limitations? 2018/11/22

5. Read the Limitations from a BA thesis
Several inevitable limitations of the research influence the validity or the generalizability of the research findings. Firstly, there are thirty participants in the sample. Furthermore, this research only examines Mandarin Chinese speakers. It is assumed that all students speak Mandarin Chinese. Secondly, all the participants are students who have been in the university for almost one year. Generally speaking, their pronunciation proficiency is not low. Thirdly, there are certain methodological limitations. First of all, the task of reading rather than speaking makes the data not ideally natural and original. The other problem of methodology is there should have been an interview of the opinions of both teachers and learners on the English pronunciation teaching and learning, which may provide more reflections on the ultimate question that the research aims to answer. This research stresses the negative aspect much more than the positive one. 2018/11/22

What problems are considered by the author in this Limitations part?
What problems are there in the writing of this part? What suggestions would you offer for its improvement? 2018/11/22

Assignments P. XX No. 2, No.6 2018/11/22

Project Work Randomly collect 2 theses written for Master’s Degree by students from a top university in China and 2 theses written for Doctor’s Degree by students from the same university. Compare how the authors discuss the implications of their research to see if the former student writers do the same as the latter ones. 2018/11/22

Discussing the Implications and Limitations

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