Qualitative Research in Applied Linguistics: A Progress Report

This article describes the status of qualitative research in applied linguistics and ESOL. It identifies trends by reporting on an informal survey of published journal articles, highlighting relevant published qualitative studies and research methods texts, and relating the views of research methodologists working within and outside the qualitative tradition. Several of the unresolved, persistent issues raised are progress toward a definition of qualitative research, the role of quantification in qualitative research, and the generalizability of qualitative research.