The studies of this phase fell within the confines of classroom research. As Lightbown (2000) formulates, the various classroom research projects share the unifying desire to “identify and better understand the roles of the different participants in classroom interaction, the impact that certain type of instruction may have on FL/SL learning, and the factors which promote or inhibit learning” (p. 438). In order “to understand the intricate tapestry of classroom events” (Dörnyei, 2007, p. 176), they very often involve the mixing of methods such as classroom observations, interviews, and surveys (Dörnyei, 2007; Mackey & Gass, 2005; Nunan, 2005), which in the case of my research project were conducted in Studies 3, 4, and 5, respectively.

While each study sought to answer two specific sub-questions (RQs 3.1–3.6), their main findings were ultimately merged and analysed to answer the overarching RQ 3. In what follows, I first describe the focal participants and settings of the classroom research project, followed by a presentation of the data collection and analysis procedures for each study. Finally, I outline how the outcomes of the three studies were synthesised to answer RQ 3.