Book Review: Gary Barkhuizen, Phil Benson, Alice Chik, Narrative Inquiry in Language Teaching and Learning Research, New York and London: Routledge, 2014

Abstract

Since the beginning of the twenty-first century, research methodology in the field of language learning and teaching has taken a narrative turn and, consequently, a growing number of empirical studies have employed narrative inquiry methods to investigate different facets of second language acquisition. Narrative inquiry in language teaching and learning research, a volume authored by Gary Barkhuizen, Phil Benson and Alice Chik, aims to provide a concise and practical introduction to different approaches to designing, implementing, analysing and reporting oral, written and multimodal narrative data in studies on second language learners and teachers. In this review I discuss the general relevance of narrative studies in the field and, after a brief summary of the six chapters, I offer a critical analysis of the book’s content.