Chapter 2. Experimental research studies

The purpose of experimental research is to determine cause-and-effect relationship between independent and dependent variables by empirically observing and measuring the effect of the former on the latter. Experimental researchers in the field of L2 writing, as demonstrated by a summarized description of sample studies in the chart in page 16-17, pose narrowly focused research questions and, in order to address them, create settings in which the research would be carried out. Reliance on quantitative or statistical methods to analyze data collected from a large number of participants is a norm. From this flows one of the most obvious advantages of experimental research, namely that the research findings are relatively easier to transfer to other settings. Also, experimental research is assumed to generate more objective findings.

Experimental research, however, is not without detraction. Criticisms leveled against experimental research are mostly grounded in what Polio and Friedman call ecological validity. Ecological validity refers to “the extent to which they study is related to real-life situations (p. 26)”. The resemblance of a research study to real-life situations, at least in L2 writing studies, requires both the context and treatments to be relevant to the teaching and learning practices in the actual classroom. Some researchers, mostly subscribing to sociocultural perspectives, have raised questions as to the soundness of the philosophical and ontological assumptions that undergird the use of experimental research: a reductionist approach. Their argument is that cognitive factors cannot be de-coupled from social factors that affect the performance of L2 writers. Thus, considering a few cognitive variables in a research study only constitutes a partial representation of the complex landscape of L2 writing when it actually encompasses both cognitive and social factors.

With both strengths and weaknesses of experimental research considered, I am still attracted to its use, believing in the values and merits that if affords. I am interested in knowing about cognitive factors that go into the process of integrated (reading-to-write) writing tasks of L2 writers, and experimental settings will help me focus on, and explicate, several variables that may have effect on their performance.