I think that Grounded Theory is used rarely in EFL research because it is harder to do. Rather than employ someone else's model and show how your date fits in, you create your own model, based on what your data shows.

I said it is harder, because it requires a lot of critical thinking. But I also think that it can help find new elements or constructs, depending on the quality of your data.

Dear Professors Marek, Jawaid, and Gaisch,                                   Thank you very much for sharing your insights and works.   They definitely help guide me and my project. Thank you again.     Cameen

I have never used it in this field. However, as a general methodology in theory you can use it. Ontologically talking the GT bedrock could be the Social Constructionism, that´s means making sense of language (i.e. symbols, body signs, etc), but in the interactions of people. I think that following the Classical GT methodology, step by step, you can find a way to research in any social realm, because there is always a problem that people try to solve, and a pattern to tackling it.

Dear Dr. Jawaid,

Thank you very much. It'd be of great help for me if I can have more information and advice; methodology is always a difficult part for me in my work. Thank you again for your kind help.

Cameen

Cameen, 

What constitutes well-constructed grounded theory research has been the subject of some debate by competing schools of GT. GT has in fact taken slightly divergent paths of development since it was first proposed in 1967 by Glaser, a statistician, and Strauss, a sociologist of the symbolic interactionist tradition. 

My biggest critique of studies published under the GT banner in our field is that GT is a continuous package of theoretical sampling, data collection, and analysis methods, and should not be used in piece-meal fashion. Each component is an integral part which cannot be omitted. Many studies in our field ignore this general principle. 

Let's think of sampling as just one example: the required theoretical sampling that should progress until saturation is reached in the emerging categories of the concepts being explored rarely does. GT favors maximum variation sampling over focused sampling methods in order to ensure that the data set is composed of extensive data that will lead to the fullest understanding possible of the issue under investigation. 

Here is why this is important: the quality of the data collected is in part a function of selecting an adequate and appropriate sample who have a wealth of firsthand experience of the phenomena being examined. Without this prerequisite knowledge and experience of the topic of interest the individuals sampled are unlikely to contribute to its study.

I recommend recent work by Kathy Charmaz such as Constructing Grounded Theory (SAGE) or The SAGE Handbook of Grounded Theory (with Antony Bryant).

Howdy, Cameen,

My understanding of Grounded Theory is that, as sometimes happens, an independent "discovery" of a method/approach is made in different disciplines, the workers in each of which are typically unaware of work in other fields. There are many similarities in the work of Dell Hymes in anthropology, whose "Ethnography of Communication" was perhaps best operationally exemplified in the book by Muriel Saville-Troike, The Ethnography of Communication: An Introduction (2nd edition, Blackwell, 1989), which is expressly oriented toward educational contexts, and should be very helpful particularly because of its cross-cultural perspective. Another parallel development was the Case Study approach developed by Robert Stake in education, which is not as widely known, but does not take into account the possible cross-cultural limitations of the observer. Grounded Theory was developed in the context of the field of sociology, which is for the most part not cognizant of cultural and linguistic differences, but rather developed in the study of western (mostly urban) society, with a great deal of emphasis on statistical analysis. (This is not to say that there are not strands of research traditions within sociology which are empirically oriented, such as community studies, but these have a minor place within the larger discipline.)

    There has been very good work going on in what has come to be called Educational Anthropology, at the University of Pennsylvania, following on in the footsteps of Dell Hymes, who was Dean of Education there, and in the field more generally of Anthropological Linguistics, which often includes the examination of educational contexts. I am sure that an online search under these topics, and a check of the University of Pennsylvania web site, will turn up useful sources (they publish an online student-run journal Working Papers in Educational Linguistics).

   --Rudy

 Dear Professors Jawaid and Hiver,

Thank you very much for your kind sharing of insights and sources.  I now feel better equipped to take on this research adventure.  Again, thank you very much.

Cameen

Dear Professor Troike,

Thank you very much sir for your kind suggestions of useful sources. I remember reading some parts of The Ethnography of Communication when I was a student.  I'll go check out all suggested sources, and will see what was left unread in that Ethnography book again.  Thank you very much again sir.

Cameen

I used grounded theory in researching reading in modern foreign languages (L2) but the same would apply to EFL. Interviewees were asked to read a text and then to grade it 1-5 for difficulty. A discussion followed on what made it difficult. From the recordings, a number of categories began to emerge, e.g. vocabulary, illustration, font, layout, lack of background knowledge, lack of interest. The most prominent category that emerged was the interviewees' lack of vocabulary but the most interesting category was their emotional reaction when confronted with a difficult text - usually fear or worry. The grounded theory approach allowed totally unexpected results to emerge. - Dr. Ian Maun

Dear Dr. Maun,

Thank you very much for sharing results of your work, which I can use in my project. Thank you again for your help. 

Cameen

I don't think that an answer given in a few lines is meant to outline the basis of grounded theory. Presumably the questioner knows what it is and is asking how it might be applied.  There is no space to go into Glaser, Strauss, Corbin, Chamaz, etc. They can be consulted for guidance. Nor can such an answer convey the time and rigour required. My answer was just a helpful (I hope) guideline.

Grounded theory in EFL research makes a big difference because it takes into account the logics of practice behind the learning process and does not start form a prefixed model. This gives a suitable platform for an action implying interacting  practitioners and researchers on an equal level.