Phenomenology as a research methodology in teaching English as a foreign language

Abstract

Considering the fact there is no single research approach capturing the nature of multi-faceted educational phenomena, phenomenology, as a research method, can be employed in educational settings to explore the essence of a certain phenomenon from the perspective of the one who has experienced it. Advocating positioning this methodology in EFL context, the present paper initially, delineates the basic principles of the approach. Then, it illustrates how a phenomenological approach can be applied in language teaching drawing on one of the author’s own case studies in the field of EFL context entitled as EFL student’s perception on her academic failure. The paper concludes that an appropriate application of phenomenology to EFL issues will help language teaching practitioners to broaden their understanding of pedagogical issues through learning from the experiences of teachers and students making them to re-evaluate their presuppositions on numerous educational issues.