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چکیده
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As regards the definitions and viewpoints toward the field of Applied Linguistics, one might conclude that diversity of definitions mean diversity of research trends and methodologies of research. Pica (2005) believes that such an implication is natural. Research on different issues of the field has expanded over the years and this expansion has attracted a good deal of attention among researchers. Additionally, Applied Linguistics as an interdisciplinary field of study is associated with different disciplines. This multi-disciplinary nature creates a context for the use of different research methods. The appearance of new methods and even the old ones were not considered comprehensively in the current research methodology books (Duff, 2002). Though research methodology has been the subject of many books and research papers, Duff (2002) believes that no textbook has ever provided a comprehensive list of qualitative and quantitative research methods. In addition, the emergence of mixed-methods, action research, and content analysis research approaches have further complicated the matter. It can also be added that no comprehensive report has ever specified to the actual practice of research methods in Applied Linguistics. Therefore, the second aim of this study is to categorize the existing research methods used in Applied Linguistics research articles (RAs). This study aims at investigating trends of research methods in Applied Linguistics research articles in recent three decades (1986 to 2015). To do so, a corpus of 7525 articles published in 10 applied linguistics journals were collected and analyzed by the current writers and four Ph.D. students. In this study, the focus was on the journals and published RAs since (1) they are widely accessible through personal or university library subscription (2) they are academically rigor papers peer-reviewed by referees (3) they cover a range of topics currently practiced in the field and (4) they reflect the research interest of wide range of researchers.
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