Narrative Inquiry

Abstract

Narrative inquiry has made significant contributions to contemporary research in applied linguistics for its versatility in accounting for the multiple voices of participants and offering contextually embedded insights into social phenomena. As narratives represent the accumulation of knowledge and experience within and across time, space and social relationships, this line of inquiry provides rich understandings of participants' lifeworld and their constructions of personal meaning. This chapter discusses the epistemology and ontology underpinning narrative research, the role of narrative inquirers and the ethical dilemmas they encounter. It then presents narrative frames, visually mediated narratives, and critical incident narratives as three prominent tools for data gathering, and recent empirical research to illuminate how they have been utilized for particular research purposes and in different contexts. The final section concerns three analytical approaches frequently adopted in narrative research including thematic analysis, discourse analysis, and narrative writing.